The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

204 RUSSIA IX EUBOPE.before the Russian armies of Turkestan can reach the Hindu-Kush passes. Butthe disorganization of the intermediate states hastens the inevitable shock, andsooner or later Russia, already bordering on Germany, will reach the frontier ofBritish India. "While the general movement of civilisation is from east to west,the development of Russia is from west to east.At the same time the nation itself is still far from having occupied the vastspaces politically annexed to the empire, and before all the fertde tracts andcommercial or industrial positions are settled many social changes and internalrevolutions may take place. But whatever be the vicissitudes of their nationallife, the various Slav groups must still remain the civilising element in theseregions. Although the assimilating influence of the Russian nationality has notkept pace with its political growth, the expansion of the Slavs in the annexedlands is none the less extraordinary. On the European side they cannot displaceor absorb the Finns, Swedes, Germans, equally or more civilised than themselveson the east and south-east also religion has drawn a line of demarcation betweenthe riding race and the Tatars, Kalmucks, Kurds, and Turkomans. Still it isthrough the Russians that these peoples slowly take part in the evolution ofmodem times, and a rapid " Russification " has already been observed in manyparts of the empire. But emigration is the chief means by which the very heartof Asia is becoming Russian. Little Russia has colonised vast tracts, though stillfar less extensive than those settled by the Great Russians, who are the chiefcolonising element. With them the migratory movement is hereditary. Theirforefathers migrated in the Muscovite forests from clearance to clearance, fromsteppe to steppe, and their descendants have already invaded Siberia, crossed theslopes of the Caucasus and Altai, followed the course of the Amur to the Pacificseaboard.Even beyond the frontiers of the empire travellers are often surprised to meetGreat Russian colonies lost amidst peoples of alien blood. For wby shoidd theRussian peasant regret the land he forsakes ? And does he not everywhere findstill a home in his onward movement across the boundless steppe ?The land and itsproducts have little changed ; the same skies encompass him, the same winds soughthrough the woodlands surrounding his new abodes. In a few days he can puttogether an izba such as that he has abandoned ; the fresh clearances will yield thesame harvests as of old, and there will at least be a slight hope of enjoying themin greater freedom. But even where everything differs—climate, soil, vegetationhe can still adapt himself perfectly to the new surroundings. He can adopt theways of those with whom he is thrown, and become a Finlander with theKarelians,a Yakut with the Turkic tribes of the Lena basin.No military operation can strike the heart of so vast a domain, with relativelyso few towns, and such thin and scattered communities.Its inert power of resistancewas shown by the almost nameless disaster that overwhelmed the formidableFrench invasion of 1812. The empire has no centre, for even Moscow cannot beregarded as such. Doubtless the frontier has its weak points, and especiallyPoland, where the enemy might inflict serious wounds ; but beyond those points