Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/48

22 of culture and economic development the Tatars were by no means in advance of the Russians. It was therefore impossible for them to exercise a strong positive influence upon the Russians, and it may rather be considered probable that Russia exercised a civilising influence upon the Tatars. We must not forget that the Tatars, at the time when they first came into conflict with the Russians, were not as yet Mohammedans, but were pagans who showed no disinclination to accept Christianity. Their Mohammedanisation came later. It is probable that the racial and national influence of the Russians upon the Tatars was considerable, and among the Tatars there were more Tatarised Slavs than there were Tatars living among the Russians of that day.

None the less, Tatar influence is undeniable. We trace it in court ceremonial, as in prostration before the tsars; in administrative life, for in territories taken from the Tatars slaves were not freed; in the conduct of warfare; in many barbarous manners and customs (Tatar punishments, such as the branding of criminals); and in the adoption of Tatar words into the Russian language. The general effect of Tatar rule was to arrest or to retard Russian development. In my opinion, Polish and Lithuanian influence and Swedish and German influence were of greater importance than Tatar. The pressure upon Russia from the north and the north-west was no less severe than the pressure from the east and the south-east. Apart from the strategic reasons rendering unification against these enemies advisable, civilising influences came into play. In respect of military and administrative concerns there was far more to learn from the Teutonic Knights, from the Swedes, and from the Poles, than from the Tatars.

When this pressure from the north was superadded to the pressure from the south and the south-east, the political attention of the Russians was directed towards the north, towards the sea. Colonisation moved northwards from Kieir, and to-day Russian colonisation continues to move towards the north and the north-east (Siberia). Frequently conquest and colonisation have moved from north to south, the north-lander being attracted towards the wealthier and warmer southern territories. In Russia, too, this rule was exemplified but with modifications. Norsemen founded Kiev, or at least participated in its foundation; but Kiev was subse-