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variable and the use of Russian as the sole language wasstill a burning question. There was no greater taskfor the Soviet regime to cope with than education,and perhaps in no other field has it displayed moreenergy and achieved greater results, notably among thenon-Russian peoples. Compulsory primary educationhas been made a reality, illiteracy reduced to under twentyper cent, of those over nine, and great expenditure devotedto higher education.Literacy in itself is no infallible test, and illiteracy initself no badge of inferiority in character or manyskills. But it was broadly speaking true of Russia thatEurope impinged on the great bulk of the illiteratemasses primarily in the form of blind economic forces andin the form of war. On the other hand, since Peterthe Great's day the influence of Europe, which he sovehemently furthered, had led to the creation at the topof a minority European civilization of a distinct Russiantype. By 1917, as has already been emphasized (seepp. 72-74 and 323-325), this minority was so acutelydivided between its three sections that the disasters andblunders of the First World War resulted in the collapseof the government section of the minority.The influence of Europe had been immensely extendedduring the hundred years following Peter's death.During that century (1725-1825) foreigners of all descriptionsplayed an outstanding part in the army and navy,in the administration and diplomacy, in learning andeducation, in medicine, in mining and industry, in foreigntrade, in the arts, and as purveyors of the luxuries ofaristocratic life. After half a century of raw and frequentlysuperficial adoption of the externals of Westernculture, the Russian upper class began to absorb the maindevelopments of European literature and thought.While in literature, the arts, and fashion France became,until the close of the eighteenth century, the predominantinfluence or the main intermediary, in other fields Germaninfluence was, and remained, more important. This wasdue to four reasons: the proximity of the German lands,the original partiality of Peter to German ways, the longseries of Romanov marriages with the German courts,340