CHAPTER I THE SOCIAL-POLITICAL BACKGROUND OF RUSSIAN SOCIOLOGY RUSSIAN Sociology is truly Russian since most of it has been called into existence by the problems confronting the social-political life of that nation. To understand Russian sociology and to appreciate it, one must necessarily study it in the light of the history of Russia's social and political movements. Russia has been called the land of extremes. Here a despotic and autocratic bureaucracy has been continually opposed by groups which championed the cause of the common people, but in their demands were just as uncompromising and rigid as the dominant autocracy they opposed. Is autocracy inevitable to Russia? Or is it an outgrown institution which maintains itself artificially by the use of brute force? These questions have been variously answered. The bulk of opinion, however, is quite unanimous that Russian autocracy has established itself under peculiar historical conditions and that it will pass away when these conditions shall have changed. There are others who consider Russian autocracy the resultant of ethnic composition, and of the psychology of the Slav as well as a product of geographical location and topographical peculiarities. There are some sixty-five different racial and linguistic groups within the boundaries of the Russian Empire. Fortysix of these ethnic groups are found within European Russia and the Caucasus alone. Some of these peoples are still in the savage state and most of them are just emerging out of barbarism. In spite of this apparent ethnic hetero 19] 19 geneity the bulk of the population is Slavic,' and of these the Great Russians are the most numerous, representing in themselves, a highly homogeneous mass, about two-thirds of the whole population of Russia. The Russian Slav who inhabits the great plains of European Russia reflects in his psychology the geographic and climatic environment in which he lives. A certain apathy, plasticity and pacific quality are the characteristics of his nature. He is long suffering and forgiving, much rather bearing wrong than inflicting it. Being mystically inclined, he is non-political and sentimentally communistic.2 The principal Slavic peoples of Russia besides the Great Russians are the Little Russians of the South, the White Russians of the West and the Poles. The Little Russians and White Russians, although speaking separate dialects are in religion and sympathy one with the Great Russians. * Brückner in his Geschichte der Russischen Literatur, p. 1, calls the Russian Slav a born anarchist. Masaryk, in his Sociologische Skizzen, thinks that the Russians are not more anarchistic than other races but that their democracy is negative and preferably non-political. Our own observation favors in general Masaryk's view, with the difference that we believe that the passive non-political man may be aroused and become extremely active and dangerous. The occasional Jewish persecutions (pogroms), the vandalisms of the Russian revolution, and the deeds of the nihilists and terrorists may be cited as examples of this direct action. The sentimental communism of the Russian, whatever its cause, shows itself everywhere. The peasant has a tenacious hold upon the institution called the land commune or community ownership which, although by law (1906) now allowed to be broken up, nevertheless survives in a large degree. Recent statistics show that after the enactment of the law permitting withdrawal of land from the commune, out of 90,099,000 communal members 17,874,000, or only about 19 per cent, withdrew by May 1, 1906. The area of land held by the communes was, in 1906, 997,242,000 desyatines; by 1913, of this land was withdrawn 127,698,000 desyatines, or only about II per cent. These figures show that the communes which have little land are compelled to break up, whereas those which have more land prefer the communal way of life. This communal interest shows itself also among the many religious sects as the Dukhobors in Canada, the Tolstovsy and many others. |