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102 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA
retarded ethical progress by accentuating too much the
meritorious nature of church ceremonies, the Russian has
up to the present remained the well-intentioned but
inexperienced child of nature. That state of immaturity
explains his inconsistence, vagaries, and aberrations. He
has simply not had the possibility of forming a well-defined,
self-conscious, and determined character.
But he is endowed with idealism carried to the height of
mysticism, and reaching out to the infinite, a generosity
inclined to go to extremes, and an Oriental fatalism prone
to laziness, and ignoring the complexity of gradual growth
and development in human affairs. When considering the
shortcomings of the Russian character from an historical
point of view, one realises that it is unjust to cast upon it
the slur of hopeless moral turpitude. Particularly so at a
moment when the fetters which have been paralysing the
Russian mind, marring it with deep and disfiguring traces,
have been broken and cast off never to be worn again,
thereby amply justifying a hopeful prospect for the future.
There is every reason to believe that the Revolution will
be the point de depart for the seasoning of the Russian
character, and maturing its good-nature, sympathy, and
charity.
Why revert to a pessimistic, unsympathetic, and
altogether uncompromising interpretation of the Russian
character when its defects and shortcomings are manifestly
of a much simpler and rudimentary nature. The lack of
constructive capacity and of tenacity of purpose is chiefly
and mainly the result of the Oriental passivity which
hitherto has hampered not only political progress, but
also rational economic exploitation of the riches of the
soil and of the mineral wealth in Russia. The all-Russian
indolence, a product of lack of education, is likewise a
key to the exploitation of the Russians by foreigners,
be they Germans, English, Armenians, Hebrews, Belgians,
etc. It is therefore of primary importance for the Russian
people to be conscious of the social and ethical value of
physical and intellectual exertions. As soon as education
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