Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/66

 The economic and political evolution of Russia, as indeed in no less measure the general cultural development of the land, is marked by one original distinguishing trait. In order clearly to understand this originality, one fundamental all-determining peculiarity of Russian history, and above all of her economic evolution, must be steadily kept in mind. Russia has never ceased to be a land which continues to colonize and be colonized within its own bounds. The word "bounds" must here be taken in the sense not of political but of geographical or sociological boundaries. In this connection the Tartar invasion is of little moment.

I have here pointed out the fundamental fact in Russian economic history. Russia is building up her culture not in a confined space already occupied and settled, but in a free colonial area which is continually expanding, and at the same time is constantly connected territorially with the centre from which it expands. When the Russian State was being formed, the Moscow region was such a centre. The process we have outlined was in the making of Russia as fundamental and as decisive for her destinies, as were for Great Britain the growth of her maritime power and her overseas colonial expansion, as was for France the creation of political and cultural unity out of the diverse forms and relations of the Middle Ages. For all other European countries the process of colonization either came to an end long ago, or has assumed the form of the foundation of overseas colonies. For Russia, on the other hand, colonization is still going on within her own bounds, somewhat after the fashion of the German