In one sense it may be asserted that the Russian people are inarticulate, as the great mass of the people are illiterate peasants. But the instincts and aspirations of those inarticulate peasants have been voiced by some of the greatest creative artists of world literature. No modern literature certainly can boast of producing in one and the same generation such a triumvirate as Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky. To outward view there seems very little in common between them: yet all three writers are pre-eminently representative men. Turgenev is an agnostic and a Liberal, a cynic and a sceptic, enamoured of Western habits and ideas, and he spent the greater part of his life outside of Russia. Tolstoy is a believer, an enthusiast and a passionate reformer, and he spent all his life between Moscow and his paternal estate. Dostoevsky's life is a pathetic tale of hardship and suffering. An epileptic on the verge of insanity, he spent part of his life in prison and in exile. Yet those three great writers, so different in their personal characteristics, are bound by a unity of ideals. They are all characterized by the same Russian depth, the same love of reality and veracity. They have all the same hatred of
