Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/88

 its history. The peasant of Northern Central Russia is, one might say, a trader and industrialist (manufacturer) to his finger tips. His history and his own nature have made him what he is. No one who travels and is in the least observant can help noticing that not only in the Baltic Provinces, but even in Finland, certain branches of trade (namely, small retail trade in all kinds of food products) are to a considerable extent in the hands of Russians, who have made their way hither from Yaroslav, Tver and other "trading" provinces of Old Russia.

None the less it cannot be denied that at present the Russian is on the average inferior to the Western European in respect of "economic qualities." His labour is less intensive, the economic virtues (power of constant application, thrift, and a sharp sense of the distinction between meum and tuum) are less developed than among Western peoples. What is the explanation of this fact? The sole explanation which most people are inclined to give is that the national defects in this respect are due to the insufficient spread of education (i.e. of schools and other forms of educational instruction) in Russia. I will not attempt to deny the importance of this circumstance, but the cause we are seeking lies deeper, and at present our understanding of the historical process goes far enough to enable us to determine the historical causation of the phenomenon in question. The qualities which impart to the modern European his special economic strength are the products of a complicated historical process. The changes which produced these qualities were somewhat as follows. The Reformation and the so-called counter-reformation,