Author : Arthur Reade
Publisher : Forgotten Books
Page : 22 pages
File Size : 22,36 MB
Release : 2016-10-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781333816100
Excerpt from Russia Under Nicholas II Meanwhile, however, Western ideas of progress had been making vigorous headway among educated people and found increasing expression in literature. Turgeniev directed the attention of Russian society to peasant life and revealed to the satin-clad beauties of Russian society that the moujik could experience the emotions of love and hate as keenly as those who lived in the world of wealth and fashion. Much talent that would otherwise have found its best scope in politics was de ected, for reasons of personal security, into literature and journalism, but the books so produced were tinged with the new spirit. In the security of exile Herzen and others were preaching the gospels of socialism or communism, and their teaching had a consider able effect on Russian thought. During the lifetime of Nicholas I. These tendencies were kept in check, but with the shock of the Crimean War and the accession of Alexander II., they came to the surface and for a while dominated Russian policy. They produced two epoch-making reforms, the abolition of serfdom and the foundation of the Zemstvo. This is not the place in which to speak of the promise with which the reign of Alexander II. Opened, the great achievements of its early years, the disillusion, the gloom and the anarchy in which it closed. West European ideas had been applied too crudely to Russia, too spasmodically perhaps to give them a fair chance, and the country, like the Emperor, was in two minds and required pulling together again at all costs. This task was achieved by Alexander III., who combated the doctrinaire philosophy of the extreme revolutionaries by raising against them the philosophy of Russian nationalism and emphasising the points of difference between Russia and Western Europe. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."