Essays on Russian Novelists | Page 8

me to observe, that
we are not sleeping at present, but rather preventing others from
sleeping. We are straining our throats like the cocks--listen! there is one
crowing for the third time." To which Mihalevich smilingly rejoins,
"Good-bye till to-morrow." Then follows, "But the friends talked for
more than an hour longer." In Chirikov's powerful drama, "The Jews,"
the scene of animated discussion that takes place on the stage is a
perfect picture of what is happening in hundreds of Russian towns
every night. An admirable description of a typical Russian conversation
is given by Turgenev, in "Virgin Soil":--
"Like the first flakes of snow, swiftly whirling, crossing and recrossing
in the still mild air of autumn, words began flying, tumbling, jostling
against one another in the heated atmosphere of Golushkin's
dining-room--words of all sorts--progress, government, literature; the
taxation question, the church question, the Roman question, the
law-court question; classicism, realism, nihilism, communism;
international, clerical, liberal, capital; administration, organisation,
association, and even crystallisation! It was just this uproar which
seemed to arouse Golushkin to enthusiasm; the real gist of the matter
seemed to consist in this, for him."*
*All citations from Turgenev's novels are from Constance Garnett's
translations.
The Anglo-Saxon is content to allow ideas that are inconsistent and
irreconcilable to get along together as best they may in his mind, in
order that he may somehow get something done. Not so the Russian. Dr.
Johnson, who settled Berkeleian idealism by kicking a stone, and the
problem of free will by stoutly declaring, "I know I'm free and there's
an end on't," would have had an interesting time among the Slavs.
It is rather fortunate that the Russian love of theory is so often
accompanied by the paralysis of will power, otherwise political crimes
would be much commoner in Russia than they are. The Russian is

tremendously impulsive, but not at all practical. Many hold the most
extreme views, views that would shock a typical Anglo-Saxon out of
his complacency; but they remain harmless and gentle theorists. Many
Russians do not believe in God, or Law, or Civil Government, or
Marriage, or any of the fundamental Institutions of Society; but their
daily life is as regular and conventional as a New Englander's. Others,
however, attempt to live up to their theories, not so much for their
personal enjoyment, as for the satisfaction that comes from intellectual
consistency. In general, it may be said that the Russian is far more of an
extremist, far more influenced by theory, than people of the West. This
is particularly true of the youth of Russia, always hot-headed and
impulsive, and who are constantly attempting to put into practice the
latest popular theories of life. American undergraduates are the most
conservative folk in the world; if any strange theory in morals or
politics becomes noised abroad, the American student opposes to it the
one time-honoured weapon of the conservative from Aristophanes
down,--burlesque. Mock processions and absurd travesties of "the latest
thing" in politics are a feature of every academic year at an American
university. Indeed, an American student leading a radical political mob
is simply unthinkable. It is common enough in Russia, where in
political disturbances students are very often prominent. If a young
Russian gives his intellectual assent to a theory, his first thought is to
illustrate it in his life. One of the most terrible results of the publication
of Artsybashev's novel "Sanin"--where the hero's theory of life is
simply to enjoy it, and where the Christian system of morals is
ridiculed--was the organisation, in various high schools, among the
boys and girls, of societies zum ungehinderten Geschechtsgenuss. They
were simply doing what Sanin told them they ought to do; and having
decided that he was right, they immediately put his theories into
practice. Again, when Tolstoi finally made up his mind that the
Christian system of ethics was correct, he had no peace until he had
attempted to live in every respect in accordance with those doctrines.
And he persuaded thousands of Russians to attempt the same thing.
Now in England and in America, every minister knows that it is
perfectly safe to preach the Sermon on the Mount every day in the year.
There is no occasion for alarm. Nobody will do anything rash.
The fact that the French language, culture, and manners have been

superimposed upon Russian society should never be forgotten in a
discussion of the Russian national character. For many years, and until
very recently, French was the language constantly used by educated
and aristocratic native Russians, just as it is by the Poles and by the
Roumanians. It will never cease seeming strange to an American to
hear a Russian mother and son talk intimately together in a language
not their own. Even Pushkin, the founder of Russian literature,