Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/236

 World. This can be done only in the great whole or collective being named mankind. This union is impossible "outside God," and can be attained in God only, that is in the universal Church, incorporating the principle of this unity, already manifested once in the person of the Christ. In this sense Solovyev spoke of the "God-Man" actually "existing on earth " and gradually advancing to perfection; of "the Kingdom of God" and its manifestation in organized states; of nations, each of which has its own importance and participates in the common life of the whole, contributing thus to its progress.

Most Russian sociologists, however, conceived the idea of progress in a more positive way; many of them discussed evolution in regard to human personality. In his well-known paper on progress Mihailovsky formulated, for instance, such a conception; he arrived at the conclusion that progress is "a gradual approximation to the wholeness of individuals, to a possibly most complete and various division of labour between man's organs and most limited division of labour between men." From this unifying point of view Mihailovsky considered the progressive evolution of mankind.

This general idea of progress included an appreciation of evolution and its results; but in concrete history it was to be considered in its individual aspect. Karyeev applied this conception to the history of European states, and this was done by other Russian historians in respect to the history of their own nation. Besides the "Slavophiles," such as Aksakov and others who considered it rather as an evolution of pre-established