Page:Sarolea - Great Russia.djvu/99

Rh A peaceful policy is in conformity with the Russian character. The most typical Russian writer is also the most uncompromising apostle of peace. There is nothing aggressive in the Russian temperament. Its strength lies in patience and stoical endurance, in passive resistance. Even the military history of Russia illustrates that character. The French and the Germans are strong in the offensive, the Russians are mainly strong on the defensive. The war of 1812, the retreat to Moscow, the dramatic duel between Napoleon and Kutusov, are striking illustrations of that characteristic in the national temperament. To-day more than ever peace is a Russian necessity. Russia is only at the beginning of her industrial expansion, and she has still to pass through the ordeal of a profound political transformation. She needs peace to exploit her immense resources. She needs peace even more urgently to carry her political experiments to a successful issue. At the beginning of his reign, Nicholas II, in issuing his famous peace rescript, took the initiative of the modern peace movement and of the Hague Conference. It is not the fault of Russia, but of Prussia, that the Hague Conferences should have failed in