Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/93

 the eighteenth century, Lomonossov, of whom you have heard from my colleague, Dr Lappo-Danilevsky, with marvellous sagacity predicted that "Russian power will receive its plenitude from Siberia and the Arctic Ocean." That the expansion of Russia would also attain to Central Asia (Turkestan), our great scholar of the eighteenth century did not anticipate.

All this means that Russia, taken economically, is an empire which may become self-sufficient within its own borders on the largest scale. But this self-sufficiency or does not in the least exclude the most animated exchange with other countries. It must be borne in mind that various countries stand at any given moment on various planes of economic evolution. And these differences, which are historical but daily perpetuated through all changes, make it inevitable that various countries should be in need of one another at any moment. Thus, a certain international division of labour has a tendency to strike deep roots and to establish firmly certain special functions. Even Russia has such specialities in the field of industry. All countries can manufacture rubber galoshes, but in Russia an enormous number of people use galoshes, and Russians are so accustomed to wear them, that Russia, having created a large production of this article, has also been able to develop a considerable export of galoshes. Before the war the only sight in the streets of Berlin that gave some encouragement to our pride in our national industry was the display in the shop windows of Russian galoshes, which occupied a place of equal honour with Russian caviare, a natural speciality of Russia.