Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/152

 the various nationalities, and you will find that the Russian language influences very deeply the present-day languages of nearly all the nationalities of the Empire, just as English strongly influences present-day Welsh. Then again, most of the nationalities of the Empire are very largely led by Russian civilisation. They get their knowledge of modern European civilisation through Russian channels. The civilised values that they handle are derived very largely from Russian sources, are very often direct translations from the Russian. And this powerful combination of physical and moral factors in a very curious and subtle way binds these nationalities together in spite of their great divergencies, and in spite of features of Russian administration that very often arouse irritation, indignation, and protest. On the one hand, you have Russian administration, a very complex organisation, a very deep-rooted organisation, which is now undergoing a change, is very slowly and with great pain adapting itself to new economic and social conditions, is being loosened so as to allow greater space and room for economic and national development. This administrative organisation does, as a matter of fact, hold to a large extent the nationalities together. On the other hand, partly aided by this administrative organisation, partly thwarted by it, you have the extraordinary energy of Russian civilisation, which has very quickly outrun the political organisation, which has developed by leaps and bounds, which by an innate vigour of its own does most constantly affect every inhabitant of the Empire, and catches all the nationalities in the sweep of one great historical tendency.