Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume VI).djvu/20

Rh you believe in liberty of speech and of the conscience, in a free press and the education of the peasants, if you would reform the peculation and corruption of the official world, if you wish to circulate European literature without hindrance, if you detest the persecution of the Jews and the Stundists,─then you must keep silent, or be prepared at any moment for bureaucratic warnings, deprivations, detentions, and possible exile. If you are a Slavophil you will acquiesce in every possible action of the bureaucracy, as 'necessary.' It is simply a struggle between a very strongly organised bureaucracy, armed with the modern weapons of centralised power, and the public opinion of a large body of educated subjects with advanced views. Though enormous power is in the hands of the Government, and the gross credulity and ignorance of the peasants, and the self-interest of the officials, all work to preserve the status quo, nevertheless there is in the Russian mind, side by side with its natural Slavophilism, a great susceptibility to European example, and therefore the work of the Nihilists of yesterday and the liberals of to-day was, and is, to awaken the public mind. It does not matter very much