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THE INSPIRING VISION OF A
REGENERATED RUSSIA
By REV. A. B. WINCHESTER
WHAT about the vision of Russia? Is it a very inspiring thing
in this hour of the twentieth century? What think ye?
I am afraid that many of you are equally culpable with my-
self in the extent of the ignorance that I have had of this great country
until comparatively recently, when I reduced the ignorance a very
little bit, but I am trying to reduce it a little more day by day. It was
not that I had not read about Russia. It was not that we had not
studied something of its history, both in the books that are permanent
as history and also in more recent and ephemeral literature, that is, to
say, current history, day by day; but we forgot to ask questions as to
who they were that supplied us with the facts, and we forgot to ask
other questions we should have asked. We forgot to ask through what
glasses they were looking, when they saw certain things that they
thought they saw, and some of them did not exist at all. I think that
a large part of what we have read has passed for history, at least with
some of us.
To begin with, the land is geographically far distant from us. Their
very alphabet so diverse from our own, and their language and their
literature and their habits, and altogether they seem to be so remote
from us that we have been willing to take almost anybody’s estimate
of this great people. Of course, we are glad that we have always had
a little saving remnant of knowledge that we were reasonably sure
about and that concerning some of the great names in the history of
Russia we had no doubt; for it has been so that some of the leaders
in every department of human thought and human action have been
men who claimed Russia as their home. There is not a single depart-
ment in art or literature but has had great names that can well stand
beside the best we have had. Today probably the leading physicist of
the world is a Russian, a man who took the first prize in that line.
Russia Much Misunderstood
If you read that little book by J. W. MacKail, "Russia’s Gift to the
World," you will be surprised and gratified to learn of some of the
really great men that Russia has and has had. It is a little book,
but it will give you a knowledge of these facts, if you want them. Then
I would advise any of you, if you have not already done so, to consult
a number of the London Times of September 30, 1916, a special Russian
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