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 CHAPTER XVII

RUSSIAN POLITICAL EVILS AND THEIR REMEDIES

ANATICS, extremists, political metaphysicians and doctrinaires of all sects may try to obscure the Russian issues. But the issues are perfectly clear, and the principles themselves are amazingly simple, although their patient and consistent practice may tax all the resources of statesmanship. Both the evils from which the Russian body politic has suffered in the past, and the remedies which will cure the evils are equally obvious to a dispassionate student of politics.

The evil is a false philosophy of Imperialism. The remedy is the new political philosophy of federation.

The evil is a tortuous Russian statecraft based on intrigue and dissension, a policy inherited from Frederick the Great. The remedy is a wise and straightforward statesmanship.

The evil is a mystical belief in an unnatural political unity, in an artificial uniformity. The remedy is the recognition of the complex