Page:Tolstoy - Christianity and Patriotism.djvu/66

 Thus, for instance, in Russia, where patriotism in the form of love and devotion to religion, the Tsar, and the Fatherland, is fostered in the people with extraordinary intensity of effort by every means in the hands of the Government—church, school, the press, and every sort of ceremony—the Russian working-class—the hundred millions of the Russian people—is the most free from the deception of patriotism and from devotion to religion, Tsar, and Fatherland, in spite of the undeserved reputation for the opposite bestowed upon it. His religion—the orthodox state religion to which he is supposed to be devoted—the peasant generally knows nothing about, and as soon as he does understand it he casts it off and becomes a rationalist-that is, adopts a religion which cannot be attacked and cannot be defended; his Tsar he regards as he does all authorities imposed upon him-either with censure or with complete indifference, in spite of the incessant and vigorous efforts to instil a different feeling; his native land—unless one understands by the word his village, his district—he either knows not at all, or if he knows it, makes no distinction between it and other states. Just as in old days Russian emigrants went to Austria and to Turkey, so now they settle quite indiscriminately in Russia, or outside Russia, in Turkey or in China.