Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/62

 should not find it difficult to demonstrate how greatly even distant Russia is obliged to the work of your Cambridge men. But, personally, I feel just now especially urged to recall and to honour with you one name, the name of J. R. Seeley, that great teacher of historical insight and political wisdom. To this Regius professor of Cambridge University I myself owe very much, and that of great importance. And this led me a good many years ago to have his Expansion of England published in Russia, and every year I recommend my students at the beginning of their course to read this masterpiece, which makes it possible for every thinking man to enter into the spirit of English history, and to realise the political genius of the English people.

Now let me pass on to my special subject.

In the whole field of Russian economic history perhaps the most interesting subject of study is the relation between the native and the extraneous elements in the process of economic and social development. Russia is a connecting link between the Western and the Eastern worlds. This statement of Russia's position is vague enough to be incontrovertible, but, when applied to different historical periods, it means very different things. In the early days of the Russian State, the military intruders from Scandinavia, who are usually looked upon as its founders, were never more than a thin layer on the surface of the general population. Yet the Eastern-Slavonic elements which formed the bulk of that population stood far closer to the western world of culture than to the eastern barbarian periphery of Europe. Kiev and Novgorod were