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Imperial Russia at the Turn of the Century: the Cultural Slope and the Revolution from Without

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Theodore H. Von Laue
Theodore H. Von Laue
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside
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Extract

The expansion of Europe has been a much-discussed process. Unfortunately the publicists' and historians' interest has commonly been limited to surface aspects of power, to political, economic, and intellectual penetration. Yet a closer acquaintance reveals the existence of a yet deeper layer of hostile infiltration, a subtler and more subversive onslaught on native values and traditions. The “underground” portions of western expansion have hitherto rather escaped notice, let alone analysis, although among their victims their force was felt deeply if confusedly. Thus an anonymous journalist writing in Russia late in 1896 pointed to that melting away of native guideposts under the western impact when he lamented that “under the influence of historical conditions and progress many phenomena which distinguished Russian nationality are now changing and therefore prove no longer to be genuine and unchangeable…” No hallowed custom, no authority remained unimpaired, even though the surface structure of society and government was preserved and the sovereignty of the state untouched. The termites of western influence were eating away the substance and left only facades. And the invisible portion of western power, its ability to serve as a universal model, proved in the long run even more devastating than armies, battleships, or stocks and bonds.

Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , July 1961 , pp. 353 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1961

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References

1 Moskovskiia vedomosti, No. 3 (1897), 3rd January, in the column “dnevnik pechati” (Italics my own).

2 Clifton R. Breckinridge to Secretary of State Olney, 22 June 1896. National Archives, Washington, D. C.

3 For the following see A. Kotelnikov, Istoriia proizvodstva i razrabotki vseobshchei perepisi naseleniia 28-go ianvaria (St. Petersburg, 1901), and Kadomtsev, V. P., Professionalnyi i sotsialnyi sostav naseleniia evropeiskoi Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1909), p. 11 ff.Google Scholar

4 Obshchii svod po imperii rezultatov razrabotki dannykh po vseobshchei perepisi naseleniia proizvedennoi 28 ianvaria 1897 goda, I (St. Petersburg, 1905), p. iii.

5 These from Warren Eason's, W. paper “Population Changes” in The Transformation of Russian Society since 1861 (Cambridge, Mass., 1960).Google Scholar

6 Ibid.

7 See pp. xvi-xix in Obshchii svod po imperii rezultatov cited above.

8 See the excellent charts for the following in Kartogrammy i diagrammy k iubileinomu sborniku tsentralnago statisticheskago komiteta ministerstva vnutrykh del (St. Petersburg, 1913).

9 Gulishambarov, S. O., Sravnitelnaia statistika Rossii v mirovom khoziaistve i v riadu velikikh derzhav v tsarstvovanii imperatora Aleksandra III, 1881–1894 (St. Petersburg, 1905), passim.Google Scholar

10 From Svedeniia o vneshnei torgovle po evropeiskoi granitse za lanvaria 1897 goda in Vneshnaia torgovlia Rossii v 1897 godu (St. Petersburg, 1898).

11 Ibid.

12 S-Peterburgskiia vedomosti.

13 Russkiia vedomosti.

14 Moskovskiia vedomosti.

15 Nauchnoe obozrenie.

16 Vestnik evropy.

17 Mir bozhii.

18 Gornyi zhurnal.

19 Inzhener.

20 Tekhnicheskoe obrazovanie.

21 Obrazovanie.

22 Russkoe bogatstvo, Russkii vestnik, Russkaia mysl, Vestnik vospitaniia.

23 Moskovskiia vedomosti, No. 3 (1897), 3rd January, in the column “dnevnik pechati”.

24 Cited here from Pobedonostsev, K. P., Reflections of a Russian Statesman (London, 1898).Google Scholar

26 Ibid., p. 30.

26 Ibid., p. 90.

27 Ibid., p. 94.

28 Ibid., p. 139.

29 The Journal of Leo Tolstoy (1895–1899) (New York, 1917), entry for 2 May 1896 (Italics my own).Google Scholar