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THE BALTIC PROBLEM
97
whole, lamentably and hopelessly failed. The power of the
Great Russians—forming 48 per cent, of the total population
—as the State-building and governing race, was, to a certain
extent, neutralised by the forcible methods of Russification
adopted by the bureaucracy. Brutality, intolerance, and
persecution merely provoke an intensified strife for the
preservation of ethnographical and religious individuality.
The more the local administration, the system of education,
and the Protestant religion were subjected to interference,
the more tenaciously the people clung to them to defend
them against aggression. The educated classes of Teutonic
and other descent, the proletariat and peasantry of Lettish
and Esthnish origin, were all unanimous in their dislike of
the forcible bureaucratic measures imposed upon them.
Russification in the Baltic Provinces bore no better results
than the Germanisation of Posen and Gnesen, besides which
it had special difficulties with which to contend. It would
have facilitated matters if the people thus tyrannised had
gained by the changes brought upon them. Unfortunately,
however, just the contrary was the case. The population of
the Baltic Provinces was, in every respect, more advanced
than the rest of the Empire, for instance, in their
agricultural methods, their standard of education, their economic
prosperity, mode of living, ethical culture, and organisation.
What incentive, therefore, could there be for the Baltic
people to exchange these advantages for the state of affairs
existing in the interior of the country ?
The chief and fatal error of " Tsarish " Russia which
impeded its progress in all directions, and also in its effort
at Russification, was the neglect of national education. If
the enormous sums of money provided for in the budget for
military purposes had been spent on educating the masses,
Russia would, to be sure, have avoided the present disaster
which has befallen her. Russian bureaucracy suffered from
the ridiculous and fatal fear of diffusing knowledge and
instruction among the people, much as the Bourbon kings
of the Two Sicilies encouraged ignorance and superstition
among their subjects, under the supposition that it is easier
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