Chapter IX: Asiatic Possessions

For many years the people of the United States thought well of Russia. In a critical hour Russia sent her fleet over, and certainly placed the American people under no small obligation, as the American historians and writers of the Civil War period concede. In 1893, during the World’s Fair at Chicago, Russia still was one of our most favored nations. This state of affairs did not exactly please England. She could not forgive Russia’s aggressive policy in Central and Asia Minor and connived against her at every turn. It is no credit to that great nation that through her intrigues in Afghanistan the Emir not only turned out all Russian business men, but actually executed the natives in Bokhara who traded with them. When in the early nineties the Russian Ambassador at Kabul committed suicide, because he was continually harassed by hired assassins who were spending English money, Russia gave up the struggle.

Up to about ten years ago the English press never lost an opportunity to abuse her enemy, and as English sentiment is naturally reflected in our press, the American people gradually began to think less of Russia. But since the English people have come to understand Russia better, they have indeed regretted their former attitude. Public sentiment has changed in England since she has learned that it is to her advantage to work together with Russia (the same holds true of Russia), lest some day Kaiser Wilhelm’s prophecy, made some twenty years ago, come true, and the Asiatics, now ruled more or less through bluff by England and Russia, wake up and drive the intruders into the Atlantic Ocean, unless, as a saucy Mongol remarked to me, “the Christians in time will embrace the Mohammedan faith and amalgamate with us.”

The United States have an all-powerful class of citizens of Semitic origin who felt they were justified in weaning our people away from Russia, and, controlling as they do a large portion of the press of the United States, they took advantage of the events of the Japanese-Russian war to turn public sentiment in this country against the Russians. This same class showed its strength and hostility when our treaty with Russia was abrogated, and caused some of our Congressmen to make speeches which were anything but justified, and nearly brought about a rupture with that country.

Deserters taken at Kosan, Bokhara. They made me pay them $6 for singing one Afghan song, “Sultan Djan”]

Photographed at Kerki on the border of Afghanistan]

That we have not entirely sacrificed our Russian trade, amounting to millions annually, is entirely due to such able representatives as Mr. Guild, of Boston, whom we had in St. Petersburg, and who had to deal individually with every single proposition. The able _chargé d’affaires_, Mr. Wilson, who is still in St. Petersburg, has also proven himself the right man for the difficult task. Such a state of affairs puts us in a ridiculous position, considering the fact that Russia is the buyer of our products, and that, with the exception of cotton, she can do very nicely without any of our goods. Where in 1911 we sold her the value of $83,000,000, Russia sold us less than $7,000,000 worth of goods. It is not my intention to criticise those Americans who feel that Russia is dealing unfairly with their co-religionists, but it does seem that it should be apparent by this time that we cannot force Russia to run her country to suit us. In the eyes of the leading German, French and English newspapers at the time of the abrogation of the treaty, our government certainly deserved the severe criticism it received. During the Japanese-Russian war, the fact that we lent our moral support to Japan, and made it possible for that country to place its bonds over here, and thus pursue the war (to-day she is our dreaded rival), left a sore that we will find no easy task to heal.

The present situation seemed to me to have been well summed up by a business man of Tashkent, who said, “Once the time comes when we are not only able to do without your cotton, but can compete with you in the markets of the world, then your people will not be so anxious to abrogate treaties with us or seek to meddle with the internal administration of our country.” After discussing the matter with people of all classes in nearly every section of European and Asiatic Russia, I have come to the conclusion that we will sacrifice millions annually in trade unless we try in every tactful way possible to improve our relations with Russia.

Photographed on Dr. Young’s ranch near El Paso, Texas.]

The Tzar rules over one-seventh of the world, and it is his Asiatic possessions that have made up his enormous empire. For lack of time, much cannot be said about the conquering of vast Siberia, but a vital point to us is that the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway through the entire length of Asia has opened up a country fabulously rich in resources. What the chernoziem of central and southern Russia used to be to the world from the standpoint of wheat-raising, Siberia is becoming now, as immense tracts of wheat land are being opened up. What happened in Dakota and in Nebraska twenty years ago, from the point of view of colonization and general development, is taking place to-day in Siberia, no longer a country isolated from everything and used for penal settlers only, but a country as fit for habitation as any of our northwestern States, where one finds the latest agricultural machinery and people up-to-date in every respect. Just as settlers in the West have progressed more rapidly than those of the East, so have the Russians who settle in Siberia left their less fortunate brethren in European Russia far behind.

Siberia is the coming country of Russia, and if we use any judgment, we can develop a market for our goods that will bring us millions annually. But another blunder such as the abrogation of the treaty, and we will have lost forever our chances of doing business with Russia, and Germany, by rattling her saber, will get it all.

The section of Asia that will interest us the most is Turkestan, Central Asia, as it is from here that the beautiful Persian lamb and Astrakhan furs are imported. The country known as West Turkestan, where immense areas of cotton are now planted, lies immediately west of Chinese Turkestan, is bounded on the west by the Caspian Sea, on the south by Persia, and by Afghanistan and Chinese Turkestan on the east. On the north it graduates into the plains of Siberia. This country is one-fourth the size of all Europe. The longitude is the same as that of South France, Italy and the Balkan Peninsula, but the climate is different from that of those countries. Owing to the distances from large bodies of water, the summers are extremely hot and the winters intensely cold.

The murderous Tartar conqueror, in the city of Old Samarkand]

Turkestan can be divided into two parts, the low northwestern part, which comprises two-thirds of the area, and the southeastern section, which is mountainous and takes up one-third of the desert. Occasionally one finds large hollows below the level of the ocean, such as the Sari Kamish, ten thousand square miles in area, and one hundred and thirty-five feet below the sea level. Between Merv and Khiva is a hollow with an area of eighteen thousand square miles, two hundred and thirty feet below the level of the Caspian Sea. In the lower portion of Turkestan are some of the worst deserts in the world, such as the Kara Kum, Kizil Kum, Minunistrum, Sari Tishk, Otran and the Hunger steppe. For thousands of years the storms have blown a fine white sand from the exposed mountains, and together with that carried down by the rivers, enormous piles of sand are formed in these awful deserts, considered by some to be worse than the Sahara.

When traveling on the Transcaspian Railroad from Krasnovodsk east toward Bokhara and Samarkand, one beholds for miles and miles in every direction nothing but the shifting sands, in dunes and hillocks, very much like the choppy waves of the Black Sea. Wave on wave of sand drifts back and forth. Sometimes the wind will sift a mound against the Sacksaul, the only plant of the desert. It resembles the mesquite bushes of Texas, excepting that it has no thorns and furnishes nourishment for camels and for fatrump and Karakul sheep.

Just as in the Dakotas and in north Russia the railroad tracks are protected by high snow fences, so here we find dry bushes arranged for miles in fencelike fashion. In spite of this precaution, traffic is at times tied up for weeks, and the people at stations, dependent upon the trains for their water supply, are left to perish. Where water reaches the clayey soil from the Zaravshan, Sir Daria or Amu Daria rivers, such crops as cotton, corn, alfalfa, wheat, barley, and fruit such as pears, peaches, apricots and plums, will grow. The Bokhara melon is much more delicious than our Rockeford canteloupe and keeps through the entire year. In Turkestan too, are the Pamirs, which constitute the so-called roof of the world, where the average elevation is 14,000 to 16,000 feet. In these mountains are wonderful glaciers, higher than those of the Alps, and one there is thirty miles in length. There are absolutely no trees in the Pamirs, excepting in the Aktsh Valley, near the fort of Shah-Djan, where the brother of the Chief of Andijan, Mr. Bjezitsky, was stationed for three years. He boasts of having planted three trees, the only trees in the Pamirs. Mr. Bjezitsky is the only Russian who has traveled through the entire Pamirs. He has gone as far south as Djilala, the most northern railway station in India, near the River Indus.

Note beautiful tight black curls of lamb at birth. After maturity, curls open and the black pigment oxidizes into gray]

The principal rivers in Transcaspia are the Murgab and Tedjent, and they furnish considerable water for irrigation purposes. The very ancient kingdoms of Sodigian, Baktria, and Khorezm occupied the rather unprotected sections of Central Asia, and were entirely dependent upon a few rivers for their existence. It was but necessary for a hostile people to interfere with these rivers, and immediate submission followed. It was in this way that Assyria and Babylonia imposed their rule over the people of southwest Turkestan. Persia then occupied this country until the conquest by Alexander of Macedonia, and it is an easy matter now to collect coins here made at the time the Greeks held that country. When the Greeks lost their power, all of Central Asia came under the control of China, and Jian Kian, who one hundred and twenty-six years before Christ, traveled through Khiva, speaks of the grapes, rice, wheat and fruit which grew where the land was watered, and of the vast amount of territory under irrigation. The Chinese began first to trade with Central Asia, then went west as far as Rome, and eventually they made the Aryans of South Turkestan their dependents.

In going from the railway station of Bairam Ali to Merv in Transcaspia, one sees about forty square miles of ruins of the old city of Merv, built by Shachrock, son of Timur, in 1409, after the awful Mongolian invasion. To-day the Russian Emperor irrigates at his own expense an immense area of land at this place, and is having modern methods of agriculture taught to the natives. From time immemorial the Aryan population of Turkestan was subjected to forced hybridization with the Turkish-Mongolians, and has resulted in a people called the Sarts, who occupy Central Turkestan. In the same way were formed the Taranchi, who occupy Chinese and Eastern Turkestan. In the mountains of the districts of Samarkand and Fergana are still found remnants of the old Aryan race.

The driver always mounts the horse; the driver here is a Sart]

From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, Turkestan was invaded by Russia, and caravans from Bokhara and Khiva came to Russia. In 1717, Peter the Great tried to get into Khiva, but every man of his was slaughtered. Failure after failure taught the Russians where their weakness lay. Finally Perovsky, Chrutcheiev, Tshernaev, Skobelief, Kauffman and others conquered the country for Russia. The oldest town in West Turkestan is Samarkand, which was founded by Persian kings four thousand years ago. This place has had an interesting history under the various peoples and dynasties that have ruled it. It was taken for Russia by the celebrated Kauffman.

The Khanate of Bokhara is of great interest to Americans, as we spend millions in that country annually. It is from there that we obtain Persian lamb, Astrakhan and Krimmer furs, also beautiful rugs and silks. (See Altman’s collection in New York.)

In 1912, 1913, and some five months this year, I traveled in Bokhara in quest of Karakul sheep, and made three importations to the United States and Canada. Up to September 1, 1914, no one else had ever imported any of these animals. Numerous tests have been made by various breeders and my own associates, and the Department of Agriculture, proving that we can produce the so-called Persian lamb skins and broadtail in America, at no small profit to the breeder, by crossing Karakul rams to our lustrous coarse-wooled long wools, such as Lincolns, Cotswolds, Leicesters, Black Faced Highlands, etc. But to obtain satisfactory results only such Karakul rams as are free from fine wool admixture must be employed, and American breeders are here warned against the purchasing of worthless animals from unscrupulous breeders, to whom some inferior stock has been sold by us with the understanding that none of it must be offered for sale until properly bred up, which they failed to do.

Summer and winter, they wear fur caps about half a foot in height, which is modest compared to the outrageously high caps of the Turcoman and Tekintzi, which often are twice that length]

Even as recently as the reign of Alexander II it was still impossible to penetrate into Bokhara. To cross the Caspian Sea meant certain death, and the Russians had a proverb, “If you don’t wish to die, don’t cross the Caspian.” In the early sixties England sent a representative to Bokhara with a view to making a commercial treaty, but the fanatical natives could not tolerate a non-believer among them, and after frightful torture they killed him. This was the fate of every European who ventured into the forbidden country, and often Russians living on the border were attacked. After cutting women and children into pieces and destroying everything by fire, the wild Turcomans would return to their homes and prepare for other raids. At one time an Italian ventured into the country of the bloodthirsty Sarts in quest of the larva of silkworms. He was imprisoned and tortured and a frightful death awaited him. Frantic efforts were made by the Italian Government to liberate him, and the kind-hearted Alexander II was appealed to. At this time several influential Uzbecks from the capital of Bokhara were in Orenburg trading. The Russian Emperor ordered their detention. Word was sent to the Emir that unless the Italian was released he would order the execution of some five hundred Bokharans, including Karavan Bashi Azis, son of one of the great favorites of the Emir. This resulted in the liberation of the Italian.

When last in Bokhara I enjoyed the hospitality of this very same Azis, the oldest and largest dealer in raw Persian and Astrakhan skins in Bokhara. He is eighty years old and a millionaire. He lives in a house that has no windows on the outside and looks like any common Mexican adobe hut, but in the interior is a veritable oriental palace, whose decorations are most beautiful. Only in the summer palace of the Emir could one see the same character of decorations and rugs. I could not help feeling that American money paid for many of these luxuries, because the States and Canada buy the greater part of the entire output of Karakul skins, known under the trade name of Persian lamb and Astrakhan furs.

Here is shown His Majesty’s bed, and chair used by him when receiving foreign guests. The decorations are gorgeous inside the house and outside, and the rugs are among the costliest in the world. The Atachadja Mirachur stated that this was the only photograph ever permitted to be taken of the interior of the palace]

I enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Azis and will never forget the “ploff” on which we feasted. We were all seated on rugs, there being no furniture of any kind. A little “taburetka,” a small, low, square table, was placed over a hole in the floor, into which hot charcoal had been poured. The table was then covered with a quilt. This positively constitutes the only furniture in the reception-room of any native, rich or poor, and while it is thus possible to warm one’s feet, the rest of the body freezes, as the quilt seldom reaches farther than the hips, and it certainly does get very cold at times in Bokhara. Green tea was first served in Chinese cups, and then came the “ploff,” consisting of mutton, raisins and rice, and served for all in one dish. No guest ever gets a chance to leave the palace of the Kushbegi (Minister of Interior) or any of the beks (governors) before he has thoroughly stuffed himself with “ploff” and fruit, and he is expected to drink from five to ten cups of green tea.

Though the inhabitants of Transcaspia, who for years were the most dreaded of desert robbers, have become a peaceful people, they are still closely guarded by Cossacks. But civilization does not seem to have affected them in the least in other ways, and they live in their iurtas (felt tents) and mud houses just like the wildest tribes of the North American Indians. They are ideal horsemen, and the Tekin horse is said by some to surpass even Arabian breeds.

The Turcoman women do not always cover their faces as do the Sart, Tadjick, Uzbeck, and Jewish women. When girls are seven to eight years old, they have already been sold for wives, and, provided they are paid for, are delivered by the parents or nearest male relative when twelve to fifteen years old. If only partially paid for, the girl may live a while with her betrothed, but must again return home until the balance is paid. The price now paid for a wife is fixed by the Russian Government at twenty-five hundred rubles, although secretly much higher prices sometimes obtain.

There is less polygamy in Turkestan now than in former days. This is no doubt due to the influence of Russians and others who trade among the natives, and never miss an opportunity to tell them of the financial advantages of monogamy.

Old Bokhara City and Old Samarkand are indescribably filthy. The water holes, known as “gowsy,” are never cleaned, and it seems incredible that a people who perform their daily gluteal ablutions (a religious rite practiced by every Bokharan, from the Emir down to the shepherd in the desert) in these mud holes would also drink out of them! But they do, and as a result about thirty per cent. of them suffer from the dread disease known as “reshta.” Infection due to filth causes the death of many. Is it any wonder that cholera, plague, fatal dysenteries, and the dread “pendinka” are always prevalent?

Transcaspia, West Turkestan]

A European must not touch a morsel of food that has not been boiled for at least fifteen minutes. In spite of the greatest care, in some districts few Europeans escape “pendinka,” which causes wounds to appear all over the body that cannot be healed up with any known medicine. They leave frightful scars; but fortunately after nine months this awful disease cures itself, usually leaving no bad effects, though it sometimes predisposes one to rheumatism, as can be testified to by my own experience.

In her treaty with Bokhara, Russia agreed not to interfere with the Emir in the internal management of affairs, but it seems that His Highness is unable to bring about any reforms whatsoever, and for that reason has refused to reside in Old Bokhara City, preferring to live on his estate, about one hundred miles east of the capital. Only a few years ago, when the old Emir still lived, criminals were hurled from the tower minaret, which is about three hundred feet high; others were chopped to pieces on the square in front of the palace, while the public looked on, apparently enjoying the awful sight. Still others were thrown into a noisome stink hole and there left to die. This hole has never been cleaned and proves the method of punishment most feared by the natives.

It has taken the Russian Government and the Emir several years to do away with some of these awful penalties, but as the Russian Ambassador stated, to bring about other reforms now would mean a bloody war, so by educating the children of the better Sarts in the Russian schools, which have been established in the principal towns, it is hoped that in time the natives may learn to live like human beings.

Russia’s problems with her fifty millions of Asiatic polygamists are of a most serious nature, and she must take every precaution to prevent the Mongol from asserting himself again and ruling the white race, as he has done before. We may thank God that we have no race problems to solve quite as serious as Russia’s.

A Russian prince said to me, “Admit our Asiatics and we will admit all Jews.”

I do not think we want to trade with Russia.

Only a few years ago, a woman found guilty of prostitution was put into a sack and hurled head downward on the Registan Square]

NOTE

The last pages of this book were written on the northern border of Afghanistan, and when I parted with the camels in Old Bokhara City, I was already apprised of the possibility of trouble between Russia and Austria. I was not in the least disturbed, but scarcely had I reached my birthplace, one of the German colonies in Bessarabia, when certain events occurred which made war a stern reality. I left Libau three days before the town was bombarded by the Germans, and en route to St. Petersburg came face to face with mobilization. I witnessed the mob which broke up the German Embassy, and saw numerous processions of many nationalities, and it became evident that the Russian people were together in this war. I saw a demonstration by the Hebrews, who carried a picture of the Emperor through the streets, and numerous flags and emblems placarded “Down with the Kaiser,” and I learned subsequently that a handful of Jews in St. Petersburg raised in two days one hundred and forty thousand rubles for the war fund. The leading Russian newspapers stated that all over Russia the Hebrews were collecting money and offering their services to the government. I prophesy that after the termination of this terrible war, whether it ends satisfactorily to the Russians or not, the Jews will win by their loyalty what they most covet--namely, the right to live in any section of the empire, a right to which they were entitled long ago. That the demands of the Polish and Finnish people will be satisfied in every respect is a foregone conclusion.

The great demoralizing effect which vodka has produced among the peasants has already been removed by the Emperor, and I am sure laws will be passed which will make it extremely difficult for the peasants to obtain this life-wrecking poison, responsible for ninety per cent. of all of Russia’s ailments. Until the early fall of 1914, Russians were perishing with drink. Drink was the real obstacle to progress, and more than anything else retarded the manifestations of the many talents of this gifted nation. Yet lo and behold! when people saw that the exigencies of the present war were demanding the utmost self-possession, the coolest brain and the clearest eye, there came a word from the Imperial Throne, half stern command, half earnest supplication: Stop drinking, close the drinking shops, devote sober heads and calm hearts to your country! And drink was stopped. Saloons and houses trading in vodka were closed. People obeyed because they believed the Emperor was right.

It was here I was received by His Highness the Kushbegi, Vice Emir of Bokhara in 1912, 1913 and 1914]

The Anglican Bishop of London said in a recent address that what especially won his heart to the Russian people (“Our Eastern ally”) was exactly this wonderful, tremendous, self-sacrifice involving an annual revenue to the state of ninety-three millions sterling, let alone the sacrifice of personal habits, which at first, at least to many people, meant sickness and in few cases even death, and the loss of their habitual though factitious psychic equilibrium. The eminent British ecclesiastic added: “When we in England hear of our public houses (saloons) being crowded sometimes even in the early mornings now, I hope that we shall follow the example of our Russian ally.”

The following despatches on this subject are most interesting:

LONDON, January 25, 1915.--A despatch from Petrograd says that Kharitonoff, Secretary of the Russian Treasury, speaking before the Douma Budget Committee to-day, declared that, owing to the great increase in the national savings due to prohibition, the extraordinary outlay occasioned by the war has as yet caused no great suffering in Russia.

As proof of this, Kharitonoff said the national savings in December, 1913, which had amounted to 700,000 rubles, had increased to 29,100,000 rubles in December, 1914. He added that the total savings for 1913 amounted to 34,000,000, as compared with 84,000,000 rubles for 1914.

About vodka, a Petrograd despatch says:

With war and without vodka, Russia is more prosperous than with vodka and without the war.

That the Tzar and all the people are together to-day as they have never been before in the history of the empire is a well-known fact. What is especially gratifying is the knowledge that this war will break the backs of the last remaining bureaucrats, who owe their existence to the old, haughty, aristocratic German barons of the Baltic provinces, who have always been under the influence of Berlin.

The teaching of the Russian language in all of the public schools has been made compulsory. This is a measure which I had been advocating for years, but which had always been met with opposition on the part of my friends, who told me that the Americans must have queer ideas of liberty when they forced the English language upon all their people regardless of nationality. All arguments to the effect that one language and one system of teaching in all public schools in the entire land meant the creation of a homogeneous unit and the obliteration of the spirit of nationality--often a block to the concerted action of a people--were met with ridicule and derision. In view of all nationalities seeming only too eager to support Russia to-day in her terrible war, and seeming ready to sacrifice the last drop of blood for their country, one might be led to believe that the opposition with which I met whenever in the past I discussed the necessity of Russification of all the empire’s people along the same lines as practiced by us in this country, was justified. Yet prior to the war I was confronted with a picture of the various conflicting elements of Russia’s vast domain expending most of their time and efforts to exterminate each other, due mostly to strong feeling entertained by certain nationalities. Every one knows of the great animosity which exists between the Russians and the Jews, the Tartars and the Armenians, the Poles and the Russians, the Sarts and the Persians, the Uzbecks and the Tadjicks, the Osetins and the Liazgins, and known, too, is the attitude of the Teutons of the Russian Empire, who hold their heads high above every other nationality, to give the impression that they are conferring a favor on all the others by condescending to live among them, and who are ever anxious to impose their language and their iron discipline on all of them, feeling that because they educated the Russians along practically every line imaginable, that that entitled them to be the only rulers of the land.

They are the only Mohammedans who never did veil. Like the Mongolians, and their relatives the Burats, Kalmicks and Jakutsi, they were originally Buddhists]

The Douma should discountenance every proposed unreasonable restrictive measure resulting from the war against those Germans who have been Russian citizens for a long time. In this way they will avoid adding to Russia’s already full measure of race problems. I fear that the very recent compulsory introduction of the Russian language into all German schools and throughout the empire has been more the result of revenge upon the millions of Germans living in Russia than the desire to Russianize the hundreds of different nationalities of the empire, but no matter what the motive may have been, I predict that in this case the end will justify the means. With one national ideal, united on all national problems--as she is to-day on the one great question of the war--and ever ready to make sacrifices for a still greater Russia, upholding the motto, “One People, One Country and One Flag,” Russia would become invincible.

Those of Russia’s great men who are doing the thinking for the empire should remember that in order to accomplish what we have in this country--namely, the practical obliteration of all nationalities and subsequent general amalgamation, they must ever bear before them the fact that there should be equal privileges for all and special favors for none. While we in the States have not been entirely successful in carrying out this maxim, the bulk of our people and many of our greatest reformers are working earnestly in that direction.

The great moment has arrived for Russia. All caste distinction and special privileges to the nobility should be eliminated and every nationality put on an equal footing. All people born in Russia, regardless of their nationality, should be honored with the political term “Russians” in the same sense as we in America use the term “Americans,” and religion should not be the only means of classification, for every sane man knows that no child is responsible for a religion which the Russian Government, as has been the case until recently, and Russian parents force upon it. I have never contented myself with the fact that because I am of Teutonic origin and because my parents determined upon my being a Stundist, that I had not the right to consider myself a full-fledged Russian until I saw fit to accept the anointment imposed by the Russian Church, at my request, I must admit, or that because of my German origin I could not consider myself an American when the Constitution of the United States granted me that right.

Every fair-minded Russian must acknowledge that it is an injustice to say that only those of Slavic origin or those having become members of the Greek Orthodox Church are true Russians. Have few people not of Slavic origin and not members of the Greek Orthodox Church helped to make Russia the great empire she is?

In Old Tashkent, the capital of Sir Daria Province, West Turkestan, Central Asia, where the Russian Governor General of Turkestan resides. The architecture of the house and the introduction of windows indicate the dawn of civilization]

Most Russians resent the idea of Hebrews born in Russia calling themselves Russians--which, biologically speaking, they are not--yet if they are born in Russia and are Russian citizens, I cannot see why they may not apply to themselves the political term “Russians.”

The peasantry should be compelled to remain sober forever, and the necessary protective laws made for the peasants who desire to sell their land, and if the most stringent laws governing the rate of interest are enforced, the laws now on the statutes affecting Hebrews could be repealed, and the same rights granted to them as are accorded to all other nationalities without doing the peasants the slightest injustice.

That the nationalization of all those Russians who are styled foreigners by the true Slavic Russians is most imperative, I am firmly convinced.

I think the Emperor voiced the proper sentiment in this matter when, in appealing to all his people after the declaration of war, he stated, “Let us forget all internal dissension, and let us all be Russians.”

Transcriber's Notes:

Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.

Perceived typographical errors have been changed.