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108, and the stoical and heroic struggle with Nature is more characteristic of the West than of the East. If, on the other hand, the saying means that the Russian peasant is at heart a Tartar and a heathen, that his Christianity is only skin-deep, then it entirely misrepresents his character. As a matter of fact, the Russian moujik moves and lives and has his bearing in Christianity.

To anyone who, like the writer of these lines, has lived with Russian pilgrims at Kiev or Jerusalem, it would almost seem as if Russia and Siberia were the only Christian countries left in the world. In Tolstoy's marvellous and gruesome drama, "The Powers of Darkness," Christianity is the one light which illumines the moujik sunk in vice and degradation. On the other hand, if popular Christianity remains the great civilizing force, it is almost equally true to say that official Christianity has itself become "a power of darkness." And it is one of the most difficult tasks for the student of modern Russia to dissociate popular Christianity from official Christianity. In Russia religion and humanity are to-day working at cross-purposes. The intellectual minority who believe in reform do not believe in Christianity. The