Page:Sarolea - Great Russia.djvu/214

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198
GREAT RUSSIA

same way in every country. Blasting and blowing up are universal processes, dynamite is cosmopolitan; it is only when a building rises above ground that the characteristics of national architecture begin to appear.

And, therefore, it is only when we begin to think of the possibilities of a constructive revolution in Russia that differences arise which are far more important than any analogies and which must entirely change our forecast of events.

(a) The Russian autocracy have not lost their prestige in the eyes of the peasantry. Whilst in France the peasants, oppressed and exploited by the Crown and the Church and the absentee landlords, joined the ranks of the revolutionists in almost every province except Brittany and the Vendée, in Russia the peasantry seem to have remained loyal to the existing régime. Now, if this fact be true, it is decisive—for the peasantry still form 85 per cent. of the population, and whatever preliminary success might be achieved by the revolutionists, the ultimate success would depend on the support of the moujik.

I have just stated that the peasantry seem to be loyal, for it is almost impossible to know the