BOOKS.
RUSSIA AS I KNOW IT.*
MR. DE WINDT draws upon his memories of Russia as he saw it a few years ago to describe the daily life of the Russians of all classes. We heard it remarked the other day by some one who had been read- ing various books about Russia that we had been told enough and to spare about the soul of Russia, and that it was time to read something about Russia's body. He was thinking of the material- • Rasta a I Know it. By Barry de Windt, P.R.O.S. With numerous
B.Mus. London : Chapman and 110e. Od. net.J the commercial—side of Russia ; and there, indeed, is a subject of vast interest that can only grow in importance as time passes. The undeveloped wealth of Russia is enormous. She is anxious to shake off the financial and intellectual control over her industries which Germany has enjoyed for many years, and if Britain does not enter into a highly profitable trading partnership with Russia after the war—a partnership of mutual advantage with no pre- dominant partner keeping one eye turned all the time on sinister political opportunities—it will be the fault of the British boys who ought to be learning Russian instead of German. It is not of the commercial aspect of Russian life, however, that Mr. de Windt writes, but of the social, and he has called to our mind the remark just quoted because he certainly deals with the body rather than with the soul in his noticeable concern with Russian habits of eating and drinking. His feats of memory in recalling the menus of particular Jamie must be almost unique. When he tolls how he arrived at a certain town, or a certain private house, he can appar- ently alwaye.remember each course lie ate for dinner. Possibly, however, this may be only Mr. do Windt's dramatic may of convey- ing appropriate information about the diets characteristic of various districts and classes. If so, it is a symptom of his merits and his defects ; he is always readable, but sometimes at the expense of seeming to sacrifice precision to the dramatic form.
In his Preface Mr. de Windt undertakes to write about Russia as a " playground " for future travellers. We could wish that there had been loss about Russia as a playground and more about her political, artistic, and intellectual qualities; but only one who knows Russia as a man of the world could have written this book, and it can therefore be safely recommended as valuable of its kind. Mr. de Windt takes us first to Petrograd, and apparently conducts U3 away from it with sense satisfaction, as lie has a much greater liking for Moscow than for the capital on its unhealthy swamps. He traces German influence in Russia back to the time when Peter the Great introduced German adventurers to build him a capital like the capital of any other European country. The building of Petrograd " entailed almost as great a lose of life as the erection of the Egyptian pyramids." But Moscow with its exquisite Byzantine architecture is " purely typical of the great Slav Empire which it represents." Society in Moscow, in Mr. do Windt's opinion, regards the people of Petrograd as something like provincials, and yet the people of Petrograd have adopted some of the fashions of other capitals which have not yet found their way to Moscow. The people of all Russian towns are alike, how- ever, in their habits of dining early and sitting up late—the earlier the dinner, the longer the evening for enjoyment ; in avoiding physical exercise ; and in keeping their houses (as we should think) over-heated. It is a very curious fact that Russian men, who never walk if they can possibly drive, and who play indoor games at the same age at which Englishmen are playing cricket and football, have a wonderful power of endurance as soldiers. The Russian peasant has an insensibility to pain which is probably unmatched among other races at the same stage of civilization. Perhaps in this there is a special residuum of the Oriental character which is still fairly obvious in many Russian peasants. In keeping with this Oriental character is the almost universal habit of procrastination. Mr. de Windt, in writing of his host on one occasion, says :-
" My host was, as I have said, of Scotch origin, and therefore of less erratic temperament than a thoroughbred Russian, but it has always been a mystery to me how the latter ever make money by their own exertions, for, judged by ordinary standards, they aro the worst business men in the world. And if ` marina ! ' characterizes indolent Spain, the word zavtre ' (which means the same thing) is equally applicable to Russian commercial methods, for every one here has a dilatory way of transacting the most important affairs, which to a stranger is incomprehensilde. Having once been inter- ested in a Siberian gold proposition, I travelled expressly to Petrograd in order to confer with the holder of the concession, whom I found a charming man, and so hospitably inclined that three days elapsed before I could persuade him even to listen to a scheme by which we both might, if successful, have made a considerable sum of money. But nothing would induce my casual friend to stick to business, the discussion of which he invariably postponed, even on the most trivial pretext, until a fortnight had elapsed, when, having lost all patience and accomplished nothing, I returned to England ! " The intellectual defect of many educated Russians, and par- ticularly of the somewhat modern class blown as the intelligentsia, we imagine, is that their extraordinary quickness of apprehension is not commonly balanced by a corresponding power of applying knowledge to the practice of affairs. Precocity in well-educated boys is familiar ; common-sense is not so common as it might be. Mr. de Windt 'writes " Mr. R. Reynolds [the author of My Russian Pearl, for instance, mentions the ease of a boy of fourteen from Petrograd, whom ho met at a French watering-place, and who was about to write a play dealing with the Paris of Louie XIV., the characters of which were all either reprobates or courtesans. The three of us supped' (writes Mr. Reynolds) in a restaurant, and " Shure. " (the lad in question) laid down the law on politica, religion and the problems of life with amazing assurance. Ho told us he was not called upon to take an active part in politica, but that he should, when invited to do so, " support the Socialists." ' " Mr. de Windt describes a conversation with a Russian youth who
interlarded his conversation with revolutionary jargon, but who seemed to have but the vaguest of ideas how mankind was to be regenerated in reality by the creed he had so glibly at his command. Another youth expressed his views on the freedom of the people, education, and the liberty of the Press in a parrot-like manner " which suggested that he had learned his phrases from some fluent orator. When 110 was coaxed away from the set lessOn he was almost inarticulate and devoid of ideas. On another occasion Mr. do Windt spent an evening with two Nihilists (who called themselves Socialists) and was again impressed by the curious detachment of them persons from all the practical things of life. " We want a wider horizon," one kept repeating. " We must have education for the people, and absolute freedom for all." These were phrases which the speaker had learned by rote, and even his awkward gestures as he repeated them had evidently been borrowed from some public exponent of Socialistic doctrine..
It is probable that in the present state of revolutionary fervour in Russia mental characteristics become more pronounced, and we should expect precisely what we see in some directions—illogicality, irrelevance, and unpractical doctrines repeated with a kind of superstitious reverence. To overcome this tendency will be Russia's groat internal struggle. But there are many signs that she will succeed. Loyalty and generosity are very common Russian traits, and these may be evoked by the needs of the Allies. Moreover, there has been much training, after all, in the concrete business of self. government in Russia. The Revolution did not come upon an unprepared community of doctrinaires. The Mire (Village Councils) and 7.emstvos (County Councils) have been schools in autonomy. The recognition that freedom is bound up with the cause of the Allies is usual rather than rare, and Mr. de Windt tells us that even his Nihilist wills the stiff gestures and mechanical phrases is fighting for his country. The Cossacks, with their peculiar associations with the Romsnoff dynasty, and their special pledge of service to the Heir-Apparent, might not unnaturally have become a rallying-point for Royalist reaction, but as a matter of fact they are foremost in demanding a continuance of the war in the Republican interest, and we take that omen to be of great significance.
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