V. The Essential and the Accidental in Russian History
And the second condition which any fair and judicious student of Russian history will have to take into account is a judicious discrimination between what is essential and what is merely accidental. The insensate murder of Alexander II, the emancipator of 40,000,000 serfs, the liberator of Bulgaria and Serbia, a crime which took place on the very eve of the proclamation of a new Russian Constitution, and which deflected the whole course of contemporary Russian history, was an accident and a catastrophe. On the contrary, the near Eastern and Far Eastern policy of Russia has been throughout the ages one of the dominating forces of Russian history. To the philosophical historian it is the general law, it is the normal development, it is the dominating forces and not the accidents and catastrophies which matter. It is the traditional policy, it is the popular aspirations and ideals which alone provide a firm and safe foundation for historical judgment.
Unfortunately it is the sensational accidents and not the unsensational developments of Rus-
