The history of the development of national music—like that of every other popular movement in Russia—presents a continuous conflict. On the one hand we see a strong natural impulse moving irresistibly towards fulfilment; on the other, a policy of repression, and, at times, even of active persecution. That the close of this century has witnessed the triumph of Russian music proves how strong must have been the innate capacity for this art, and how deep the love of it, which could overcome every obstacle to its development.