CHAPTER XX RUSSIA AND ENGLAND

A New Era—The Russian Ideal—The Trick of Double Nationality—Lord Kitchener's Legacy—The Armenian Inventor—The Kaiser and Double Nationality—The Future of Prussia—Russia's Hope of Victory—Germany's Influence on Anglo-Russian Friendship—Days of Suspicion—Lord Clarendon's Opinion—An ex-Cabinet Minister's Boast—Russian Memories of England—A Glorious Future


At the time I left England in May, 1914, there was, of course, no thought of the coming calamity. I wished to return in the autumn of that year to follow my usual habit of spending the winter in London; but the declaration of this unexpected war changed all my plans, and I remained in Russia, returning in the late autumn of 1915.

It has been a great happiness to me to see how the friendship between England and Russia has become realised, and how with all the sufferings and mutual anxieties it becomes stronger day by day. The idea of an Anglo-Russian alliance has inspired me a good portion of my life. It is what I have worked for—my dream, my ideal.

The war takes an intolerably long time and is a great strain. The sacrifice of men is terrible; the cost unprecedented. We have undergone much and lost much. Our Russian soldiers are equal in {287} bravery to the British, the French, the Belgians and the noble Serbs. We are inspired by the same high ideal, and therefore we must win. The new conditions of warfare have horrified the world—the suffocating gases, the atrocities, the diabolical machinery. Our task is not easy, but I do not think anyone in Russia doubts the final result. In spite of the new German weapons, the terrible cost, the German intrigue and corruption, and the tremendous sums that must have been secretly economised by Germany for the purpose of bribery, we shall win.

Then there is the German trick of double nationality—the becoming naturalised in Russia or England and yet retaining allegiance to the Emperor Wilhelm. I rejoice to notice that Great Britain is dealing with that so wisely and energetically, not, I believe, recognising nationality obtained within the last ten years.

Perhaps one of Lord Kitchener's most valuable legacies to his country may be his advice that no Germans should be given naturalisation papers in England for the next twenty-one years. The whole system of naturalisation in general is never a good or praiseworthy one. It kills real patriotism. Why can one not abolish it entirely in the whole world? We cannot at will take a new father or mother and break all the ties God and nature have given us—why then a new nationality? The habit of becoming a naturalised subject of some adopted country is most common among Germans, their Government rather encouraging the practice than otherwise, but not allowing naturalisation abroad to interfere in {288} any sense with the full rights of citizenship at home. This, of course, creates the great evil of double nationality that has done so much harm, among others to countless Russian subjects of German birth or parentage. The legalisation of the practice was accomplished soon after the Franco-German war of 1871, but it was kept quiet and very little was heard of it. I should like to quote an example of the harm done by this pernicious system.

A talented Armenian had invented some important novelty in connection with naval matters. For some reason no one took any interest in him in Russia, and his life's work seemed unlikely to achieve any result. In despair, he turned his steps to Berlin. There he was immediately appreciated, but as, by the German law, the Government cannot finance the enterprises of any but its own subjects, my poor Armenian, after much hesitation and grief, and with the permission of the Russian Government, became a German subject. Thereupon the German Government bought his invention, largely rewarding and providing for the inventor—only, however, after his official naturalisation as a German subject.

Some time after, this same Armenian, having lost all his means, and having suffered much from illness ana other troubles, set to work and tried his luck in London. Here, however, his double nationality brought him nothing but trouble. Germans, in spite of his naturalisation, regarded him as a Russian, and Russians, since he had chosen to become a German subject, considered him a German. Neither the one nor the other would help him, and he was driven to despair and starvation.

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The German Emperor has caught at the system of double nationality, and has done all in his power to create confusion in this connection. It is as though he had wished above all things to revenge himself on those of his former subjects who have adopted Russia as their country, and have become naturalised there. He has, by legalising the practice, sown discord and mistrust between the German Russians and the people among whom they might have continued to live peaceably and happily. Is not this the action of a wicked foe?

One of my friends, an experienced and clever judge, recently returned from the front, expressed himself to the effect that Wilhelm had dragged his hapless country into a state of Satanism and had everywhere sown dissension and bribery and evil and sorrow. This is indeed a fact and a danger of which by now not only Russia, but also France and England are convinced, and this very conviction has drawn the Allies more closely together, uniting them by an indissoluble bond, as they fight side by side in this war of liberation and self-defence.

Prussianism deserves merciless punishment, and a radical cure for its mad and boundless greed and ambition. Prussia must be forced back to its former modest dangerless limits. All the mischief done by and since '71 must be undone, and their military system destroyed once and for all.

Some people pretend that Prussia should be returned to the limits not only of the year '71, but to those of the Paris Treaty. I hardly think that so drastic a measure could be carried through. But of course we may remember that Berlin has {290} been once invaded by Napoleon, and that the same victories could be repeated in our time.

This is par excellence a war of good against evil. The good must always triumph—we must only be patient, stand loyally side by side, and struggle, struggle, struggle on to the end!

In spite of all, we shall win. On our side are—(1) Belief in the cause; (2) Faith in God; (3) Faith in the Emperor; (4) Faith in our Allies; or, to put it shorter, in the words of the motto of our Army, "Snami Bog" ("God is with us").

We sympathise deeply, too deeply for words, with England, and appreciate all she is doing. Our enemies, of course, have done their best to shake our confidence in each other. That is only natural, but we know that, but for the British Fleet, the Germans would have passed through the English Channel and invaded the coasts of France; that our Baltic shores would have been in greater danger; and that the German trade would have continued. We know what the British Army is doing, and we view with deep compassion and fellow-suffering the losses which it has suffered in Gallipoli, chiefly for our sake. We follow with deep sympathy Britain's Roll of Honour.

My personal belief is that our friendship will survive all strains, and will persist into the coming time when, with God's help, peace in Europe will be restored for many, many years.

MYSELF WITH MY FAITHFUL MAX AT BRUNSWICK PLACE, N.W.
MYSELF WITH MY FAITHFUL MAX AT BRUNSWICK PLACE, N.W.

It is now very interesting to look back and trace the growth of the understanding between Russia and England that developed into an Alliance. Symptoms of Russophobia began to disappear {291} about the middle nineties. Once the Indian north-west-frontier bogy disappeared, my mind became easier. Anglo-Indian suspicion has been not a little responsible for the breach.

The change was largely due to the rise of Germany. In the old days there was only one continent where the shadow of a European Power fell across the English doorstep. As Russia was that Power she monopolised alike the attention and suspicion. What puzzles me most is, how it has been possible for a nation that has shown itself almost uncannily suspicious of Russia, to permit Germany to make all the preparations she has made, and which for years it has been known she was making, without suspicion. British ministers became quite cross at the mere suggestion that Germany's aims were not entirely pacific, as if a man builds a Dreadnought for Cowes, or a submarine for Henley. Sometimes politicians seem to me very silly.

I remember Charles Villiers once writing to me that "in England there is a disposition to believe that Russia is an enemy of Liberty and a sort of ogre that goes about looking for sickly people to swallow them up."

This is exactly what England did believe for very many years. Nothing Russia did could be right. If she appeared to be actuated by high principles, people sought for some hidden motive; if, on the other hand, they could trace self-interest, then they contented themselves with saying that it was just what was to be expected from Russia.

There were, of course, exceptions to this rule. Charles Villiers himself, in that same letter, added {292} that he was not a party to so ridiculous a belief. Later, Lord Clarendon wrote to me expressing disbelief that Russia would go to war with Turkey; but in his mind there was the same suspicion of her actions. "That she should," he said, "see with the utmost confidence and resignation troubles excited in the East by others I think very likely indeed, and I cannot believe that the Prince of Serbia would make these preparations for exciting war unless he had the sanction of Russia. Russia may perhaps say with a safe conscience that she did not advise such measures, but can she declare that she ever said one word to disapprove or check them?" If she had done so, or would even now exert her authority, the Prince would become as tame as a mouse.

"I am not one of your category who 'cares not a straw for Russia,' for I know what vast elements of greatness she has, and that if she gives herself to develop her resources and consolidate her power, and does not yield to the lust of conquest, she must be the greatest nation of the world."

I quote these words because Lord Clarendon was in every sense a man who thought carefully before expressing an opinion, and it is easy to see even in his words some suspicion of Russia.

Another cause for the gradual change of public opinion that for some years past has been manifesting itself in England, is that Africa has displaced Asia in the international arena, and that over British Africa Russia casts, and can cast, no shadow, whereas other nations have been treading with heavy foot upon England's colonial toes.

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No nation can be on bad terms with all its neighbours, as Germany will have good reason to know in the very near future, and the rising menace of German ambition synchronised with the lessening of the tension between Russia and England. The national danger for England had shifted to another zone.

Twenty years ago I wrote:

"It appears as if, at last, Englishmen were really beginning to understand that Russia is a sister nation, which is as great by land as England is by sea."

As I write I call to mind a dinner-party, at which an ex-Cabinet Minister, obviously wishing to frighten a foreigner, somewhat pompously remarked:

"You have no idea of the great power which England represents by her fleet. No other nation is a match for us."

He may have been right, but the tone amused me, and I said in reply:

"So much the better. It is a new argument in favour of my beloved scheme—the Anglo-Russian Alliance. Our army stands to us in the same relation as your fleet to you, and in case of need might supply your military deficiency. On the other hand, your fleet might perhaps work in union with ours. But even putting aside an offensive or defensive alliance of this kind, there is one fact which is clear—left to themselves, England and Russia, having such different weapons, cannot fight each other."

If I had ventured this as a prophecy instead of an ideal how I should have been laughed at; yet it has been realised, and the British Navy and the Russian {294} Army have been united at last. No matchmaker ever had more trouble in bringing together a self-conscious youth and coy maiden than those who have fought so long and so hard to bring England and Russia together.

Again, there was always that tendency on the part of England to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia. To this I have referred elsewhere. If we had started in Russia a society called "The Friends of Irish Freedom," with the names of Russian Cabinet Ministers upon the title-page, what an uproar there would have been. I have, time after time, striven to emphasise the evil done in the past to the growth of a proper understanding between the two countries by such societies as "The Friends of Russian Freedom."

Anyone who is cold to Russia may be said at this moment to be rather a pro-German. Also any Russian who is cold to England is also rather pro-German. Such people no doubt do exist. Every good cause has its enemies, and the cause of our friendship has had enemies all along.

But our friendship is founded on a genuine mutual admiration of Russians and English for one another. And when one says admiration, does not one mean in reality love? We like one another. We do not really distrust one another. Knowledge is this case always breeds affection. Against that fact all hostility from German and pro-German intriguers must fail.

The Anglo-Russian alliance is first of all one of hearts. My heart is with England. I feel that I now have two countries, Russia and my foster-country {295} England. The hearts of many English are with Russia. There are now many friendships.

It is also an alliance of minds. You read our literature with profit, we yours. You are interested in our arts and institutions, we in yours. It is also an alliance of economic interests, of pockets, may I say? We both stand to help one another in commerce. After the war this will increase with the passage of each year.

It is also an alliance of arms. We are both in the field against the common enemy, and the ideals for which we are fighting are one and the same, the motives similar.

Everything is helping forward the cause of Anglo-Russian friendship.

As far as my own experience of England goes she is not only unselfish, but really enthusiastic and full of generosity. Her patriotic self-sacrifice is displayed every day during this monstrous war. Young or old, experienced or inexperienced, everybody is anxious to fight or die for the glory of his country. As to her generosity, can anybody doubt that? In these two fundamental feelings Russians and English are very dear to each other. They only need to know each other better.

I have said this in Russia, and have described it many times. Let us remember, for instance, the splendid generosity of England during the famine of 1891 in Russia. That was a terrible time, especially in the province of Tamboff as I have explained, and we all remember how England helped.

Last summer, when I was at Alexandrofka, one of the old porters began talking to me about the {296} "English bread, which was sent by England." At first I did not quite grasp what he meant. Little by little I understood that he spoke of the English subscriptions which had allowed my son to sell bread at very cheap prices when everywhere else in our neighbourhood the cost was monstrously high. People came from the remotest districts to buy our bread. More than 100,000 people were thus saved from starvation. The philanthropic Grand Duchess Elizabeth, sister of our Empress Alexandra, also hurried to help us. The magnificent part played in Russia by the Society of Friends, represented by Mr. Burke and Mr. W. Fox, is well remembered by all of us Russians.

Somebody has said there are no small things. Everything may have great and important results, but nevertheless real.

At this moment, to my great satisfaction, my room is crammed with pamphlets and books about Russia, all kindly disposed and insisting upon the Anglo-Russian alliance. One regrets not to be able to grasp gratefully every hand that wrote such useful and excellent books. But there is no time to be lost. We must strive as much as we can to work harmoniously together. Even when this war is over and when written treaties are definitely signed, we must go forward hand in hand. Friendship lies not so much in the letter and the word as in the spirit.

As to the future, with Great Britain, France, Russia, and Italy working hand in hand, what has Europe to fear? In July, 1914, the Prussian War Party saw a "decadent" England, a still more {297} "decadent" France, and a Russia not yet recovered from her last war. In July, 1916, Germany has to face a New England, a New France, and a New Russia, and the time is not far distant when we shall have something like pity in our heart for Germany, the pity that one feels for alienated criminals.

It would be most unfair (not to say stupid) to forget the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of men with foreign names, who at this very moment are bravely fighting and sacrificing their lives for Russia and Russia's glory.

Every Russian—even those with scanty and superficial education—should always remember certain names with gratitude.

Let me take a few names at random. The best friend of the Slavonic cause was Hilferding. The great Academician, A. Behr, has opened Russia's eyes to our fishing riches, a great branch of our commerce.

Ostaken, who took the Russian name of Vostokoff, was the author of Slavonic Philology.

Dr. Haas—whom the people always call "our Saintly Doctor."

Then there were Barklay de Tolly, Todleben, and many others—who will always live in our history, and ought to be remembered with admiration and gratitude.

Thackeray said that three generations were needed to make a gentleman. But, surely, three centuries of honest allegiance to a country are required to make a trustworthy subject.

The present war will undoubtedly bring in its {298} train many reforms and changes in the most varied directions. Among these, it is imperative to look very seriously into the question of necessary and unnecessary expenses, and of luxury in both its good and its bad sense. That there is a clearly-defined dividing line between the two, is an obvious truth, an indisputable truism. Russia, as well as other countries, will, for a long time after the war, be obliged to exercise economy of the severest order. Self-defence will be necessary even when the clash of arms and the thunder of the guns have ceased. Great and inevitable problems face us wherever we turn. We need more churches, general education, new roads, and the development of all the latent natural wealth of our country.

All this is as important as our daily bread, without which there can be no life.

Yes, it is indeed a fact that well organised economy spells great and mighty results. Unfortunately, we cannot hide from ourselves the truth that large sums of money are constantly being spent on needless and foolish vanities. There comes to my mind a conversation that took place many years ago, during one of my visits to Moscow. The subject under discussion was connected with the buttons and gold braid on our military uniforms. Their arrangement was to be altered, and something added or taken away, I forget which. I listened for some time in silence, and then remarked with a smile that the whole thing reminded me of some typical discussion among Gogol's "fair ladies." "But you are mistaken," answered one of the Moscow experts seriously, "this is a matter that {299} has to be examined very carefully. Do you realise that the simplest change, the taking away or adding of one button or one inch of braid represents an enormous sum of money? When one is dealing with an army and a navy numbering millions, every extra thread deserves consideration. One must keep most careful accounts and weigh every detail conscientiously!"

Unfortunately, this is all too often left undone. Gogol's ladies disputed about "frocks and frills"; in our case the matter under discussion concerns our national income, of which we need every penny, and which it is incumbent on us not to waste. I repeat, we need, for instance, more churches. Have you ever been to the St. Isaac's Cathedral in Petrograd at Easter? Even such huge places of worship as this, or as the Kazan Cathedral, cannot accommodate half of the throngs waiting and thirsting for prayer.

I myself have often stood waiting for two hours among the crowd in the street unable to force my way through into the church.

But in addition to churches, we need general education. We must have more schools and universities, more roads, more libraries, more books. All this is anything but on a line with the "frocks and frills" of Gogol's ladies—no, we are discussing the welfare of Russia, and that is for us no trifling matter. Every insignificant change in connection with buttons or trimming affects the budget of our Empire—how much more then could be saved by giving up all the needless splendour and extravagance of our magnificent uniforms?

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At the time of the discussion to which I have referred, there was no thought of war, but happily, even in days of unclouded peace and prosperity, there are people who occupy themselves with the good of our country, and their passing remarks sometimes remain deeply engraved on the memories of their hearers.

If some good fairy were to appear before me at this moment and ask me to pronounce a wish, I would, without a moment's hesitation, repeat the words of my Moscow friend, and would add on my own account the wish that luxury might be done away with, that we might after the war never again see the old gorgeous military attire, but that it might give place for good to the modest war-time uniforms of the moment. These simple uniforms, indeed, will always bring back soul-stirring memories, for they are connected with the brilliant victories of our heroes, whose glorious deeds have astonished the whole world. These glorious deeds, this magnificent self-sacrifice is one of Russia's trophies. Let our children understand the meaning of these simple uniforms, and never forget them. Such economy and simplicity would be of immense benefit not only to our pockets, but to our ethical and moral education.

Wise remarks should be remembered. Of course, the great men of the day are not always those of the century.

On the other hand, simple, unpretentious, humble people make sometimes remarks of deep importance. We all ought to learn how to listen and understand what we hear.

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Ah, yes! we have much, much to learn in every way!

One sometimes hears strange theories advanced in favour of magnificent uniforms. It is said, for instance, that they attract young people to the service. I cannot understand how one can even repeat such an ignoble argument. People who wish to serve their country are not guided by such thoughts as this. They have far higher moral requirements and ideals—ideals indeed that are far more likely to destroy than to encourage mean and petty vanities that sometimes show themselves in such varied forms among men and women alike.

Money can be a great power for good, when it is applied to the development of latent but deep-rooted national possibilities. This war has awakened all our activities and will guide our energies in the right direction. Russia, with God's help, will grow stronger than ever, will free herself from foreign elements and dangerous help, and will become a greater power than ever before.




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CONCLUSION

And now I have finished. I have told of some of the things I have seen, heard, and felt. I have drawn upon my recollections just as one might draw tickets at a raffle.

From my earliest childhood I have always been greatly attracted by people much older than myself. They taught me things that I wanted to know but was too lazy to learn through books and from governesses, who generally appeared to me stiff, cold, and unsympathetic.

Ugly and whimsical child as I was, outsiders generally took a fancy to me, and, through their conversation, my mind unconsciously obtained the habit of meddling with serious questions which I very often felt to be beyond me. This habit of meddling with things beyond my depth has never left me, with the natural consequence (Heaven knows!) of frequent disillusionments.

Now I have to reverse the order of my youth, and find interest in the younger generation more than I did when I was a contemporary.

However, my raffle is closed. I hope that some words of mine have not been in vain. It remains for Russians and Englishmen to get to know each other. When they do, their friendship will be indissoluble—I know both.

The End