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58 Why America Must Take the Leadership
can of Swedish blood. Our acquaintance with the Eastern Giant dates
back a thousand years. Our forefathers roamed as vikings, "vaeringar"
they called themselves, through Russia on their way to Constantinople
and back in the fifth century. Our forefathers, some of these vikings,
founded on the rivers of Russia great colonies, such as Novgorod, the
very names of which to this day preserve their memory. It was a
former chieftain, a sea king by the name of Rurik from the Swedish
province of Uppland who founded the first dynasty in Russia proper.
And the very name Russia is derived from the name given to the part
of Uppland from which he came.
Soon, however, Russia grew to become a real menace to the culture
of Northwestern Europe, the one enemy to be feared in the east. For
hundreds of years, Russia became the nightmare of Europe and espe-
cially of Sweden. Every war of Sweden, wherever and whenever and
whysoever begun, was a war against Russia or some plans of Russia.
Sweden had for centuries the upper hand in this fight. At the time of
Gustavus Adolphus, early in the seventeenth century, a Swedish general,
Jacob de la Gardie, lifted by his victorious sword a Swedish prince, a
brother of Gustavus, on the throne of Western Russia, with New Nov-
gorod, of Swedish name and fame, as his capital. The prince never came
there. He begged to be spared the honor, and de la Gardie’s ambition
to see a Swedish prince rule an empire east of the Baltic was lost.
Gustavus Adolphus himself lived almost wholly for the idea of a safe
eastern front by the erection of a Scandinavian empire including all
the shores of the Baltic, so as to exclude the Russian bear from ever
wetting his feet in the Baltic, as the king said. He was far on his way
to reach that goal, when he fell on the battlefield of Liitzen, not more
than thirty-eight years of age. A century later the fight for supremacy
in the north between Sweden and Russia came to a climax in the excit-
ing heroism of Charles XII, the Madman of the North, who found more
than his match in the shrewd Czar Peter I and his truly Russian
genius for turning crushing defeats into ultimate victory. The fight
ended in the catastrophe which wrenched the scepter from Sweden and
gave to Russia the great start towards world dominion.
Germany and Russia
While Sweden stepped back, Germany stepped forward and became
from that time the heir to the anti-Russian statesmanship of Europe.
When I thus link German politics to Swedish, I simply state an his-
torical fact, without any attempt at a comparison. I dare say that
the world has never seen a more humane rule over conquered provinces
than the long rule of Sweden over Finland and the Baltic provinces.
And I dare say that had Germany accepted this policy and adhered to
it, we should not now have to fight German militarism and autocracy
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