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54 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA
ing a policy of oppression. This campaign of unceasing
insidious insinuation and slander, playing off one race
against the other, and crushing under a domineering heel
everything not belonging to the Great Russian race and
Orthodoxy, did much harm to the consolidation of the
Empire, and induced even well-intentioned elements to
overthrow State and Society when otherwise they would
have been ready to give their support to the existing law
and order. Any attempt at pointing out the disintegrating
nature of this movement, and the danger it created for
the very existence of the Empire, was systematically
suppressed. Russians of the ancien regime did not want to
be convinced of the reality of things. They preferred to
live in an atmosphere of self-deception where they suggested
to themselves that all was harmony, crying " peace when
there is no peace."
In the domain of foreign politics, Slavophilism brought
about the war of 1877-78 against Turkey. The proposal to
unite the Slavonic nations of the Balkan Peninsula by
liberating them from Turkish oppression and Austrian
interference necessarily involved war. If a Government decides
for war, its least duty, it seems, would be to be sufficiently
prepared for such a contingency in order to be able to carry it
through to a successful end. Although the campaign of 1877
was successful from a military point of view, it brought Russia
the disadvantage of diplomatic failures, new political friction
in the Balkan Peninsula, and the birth of a nation who,
unfortunately, soon proved to be a dangerous enemy not
only to Russia, but also to the whole Slavonic cause—
Bulgaria. The present war has further frustrated Russia’s
aims and brought disaster in its train to Serbia as well,
who, relying upon Russia’s aid, took up the gauntlet flung
down by Austria.
If thus the material outcome of the war has proved that
the Government of Nicholas II was wanting in practical
statesmanship, it yet remains to be seen whether it had
any justification from the point of view of ideals and
principle. It has been stated that Russia as the most
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