Chapter III: The Russian Temperament

The Russian presents what would seem to an American peculiarly diverse traits. Generally, he is peaceable, malleable and docile, has great capacity for assimilation and imitation, but lacks initiative and will power. A Russian is very sympathetic, and often finds it hard to control his tears. Sometimes a whole group of men will be found together crying over the troubles that might have befallen one of their number, such as the death of a friend or the loss of an animal by theft or death, a crop failure, or some similar misfortune. Russians dearly love music and dancing. The most popular folk song is “Down on Mother Volga.” The most popular folk dance is the Cossack Dance, where men and women whirl about by themselves, and it is a most wild and inspiring sight indeed.

Though on the whole peasants are very dirty, yet every village has its public bath house, frequented every week even during the winter time, and in the summer bathing is the great sport of the peasant.

In no country in the world are the women more carefully brought up than in Russia. Of course, I refer to the intelligent classes. As for the peasants, they grow up exactly as the peasants of the European countries, excepting that they are probably better Christians. And it is the fear of God that makes the percentage of virtuous women among them exceptionally high. Weddings and Easters are the chief fiestas in the life of the peasant. A wedding often lasts for two weeks, every participant consuming a great deal of vodka. It is considered a shame to leave a wedding sober. In fact, a peasant drinks when he has sorrow, and he drinks when he has joy; he drinks when he has a good crop, and drinks when he has a poor crop to drown his sorrow; he drinks when there is a death or a birth in the family; he drinks at a wedding, a baptism, an engagement; at the closing of a trade, and if he can find no other reason, he will drink to the saints and to the health of our Saviour Himself. I am not a teetotaler, but here say that the ruination of the Russian peasant does not lie in his not enjoying the liberties of a republican form of government, for which he is at present not ready, nor in the bleeding to which he has been subjected for years by a certain class of Hebrews, but vodka is his ruin, and poor as the peasant is, about $1,000,000,000 are paid annually for this poison. While it is realized that under the present system the Russian budget would be wiped out if the government stopped the manufacture and sale of vodka, it seems that some other way could be found for the government to support its huge army, so necessary to hold the conflicting elements of that vast empire together, and to protect life and property. Great efforts are now being made in Russia to abolish the drink evil, thanks to the personal interest of the Emperor in the matter. We know how difficult is the solution of the problem in this country, and we must give Russia time for the abolition of alcohol.

She carries all her belongings with her and brings fresh milk from the country to the people in Kiev]

The Russians are the most hospitable people in the world. They never refuse a beggar alms. It is no more possible to escape the beggars of Russia than death itself. When entering churches, business places, or walking in the streets, you are trailed by a score of beggars. When you reproach Russian officials for permitting this, they tell you Russia is a free country, and any one may beg who wishes.

The Russian is essentially a democrat, but with a very loose plan on how to maintain his democracy. He has a perverted conception of what comprises personal liberty, and a queer idea of what constitutes decency, although his family relations are doubtless on firmer grounds than the American. A hotel in Russia where one cannot live for months or years with a woman who is not his wife is unknown, notwithstanding the fact that the passport is always certain proof to the proprietor of a couple’s living together illegally. I have often wondered why the government permits such indecency, but it seems to be a custom. Of course, a large percentage of Russian women disapprove of this. A certain class in Russian society, pretending to be progressives, was incensed at the time the Russian writer, Maxim Gorki, was ousted from one of New York’s respectable hotels, since the proprietor did not fancy Gorki’s living there with his soul mate.

Smoking a cigarette; his friend, and barefooted wife, all “taking it easy,” as is generally the case with the peasants. Those of South and Central Russia are far more active than the peasants of North Russia]

That we Americans should enforce prohibition, clean out our red-light districts, arrest drunken men and women, see to it that the motion pictures are not demoralizing, make it an offense for a man to live with a woman unless he is married to her, punish people trafficking in white slavery, stop the betting on horse races, and fine Sabbath breakers, causes some educated Russians who have traveled in the United States to return and speak of us as tyrannical disciplinarians. Few Russians understand that political liberty cannot exist without discipline, even if it should involve what some consider to be a sacrifice of individual liberty. Until Russians come to understand the wisdom of self-restraint, they can never be governed otherwise than by the hand of a military autocrat. In my opinion, this must continue for some years to come; otherwise Russia may suffer not unlike Mexico, although I do not intend to convey the impression that the open-hearted, faithful Russian has any of the despicable, treacherous characteristics of the Mexican.

When a section of the United States demanded autonomy, the government put down the rebellion by a long, bloody war. In Russia to-day some of the Finns, Tartars, Armenians, Gruzins, Sarts, Kalmicks and Khirgis, and even a few Little Russians think they can govern themselves and establish a nation for themselves, and they resent the idea of the government interfering with the carrying on of their propaganda. If the Douma in Russia were independent of a certain conservative class, and of the Tzar, and of the army, it would likely vote the disintegration of Russia to-morrow. Until the Russians have some idea of what self-government means, they need a Diaz as much as Mexico does, instead of a too kind-hearted man like the Tzar. It is astonishing to note the ignorance of a certain race which has in the past years represented the Emperor as a tyrant.

The pious Sheit Mohammedans beat their heads and backs with chains until all sensation is gone and the flesh looks like black-and-blue pulp. They then stick knives into the mutilated parts of their bodies until they fall exhausted from hemorrhages ensuing, when they are picked up and carried into the Sacred Bath Houses. (This photograph was taken at Baku, Caucasus.)]