WHAT RUSSIA IS FIGHTING FOR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11332, 9 March 1915, Page 3

WHAT RUSSIA IS FIGHTING FOR.

THE CASTING OUT OF THE GERMAN SPIRIT. (By STEPHEN G RAH AM in •' Collier's.) Britain is lighting for disarmament and universal peace- Franco is tightiug to save herself from the monster who has already devoured a portion of her side, Alsace-Lorraine. Germany is lighting to impose hot' order on the rest of the world—to make us all, hs it j were, wear German uniforms. Germany has had great dreams; one of I them was of a German and Austrian belt from Heligoland to Constantinople; another was of a linally subiug- ' ated Franco and, possibly, ot a Bel- ; gium absorbed into the German Em- | pire. Germany, taking her,sell serii ously as the standard bearer of western 1 civilisation, considers that she has Mr ried order, cleanliness, education and ' national efficiency to a point, oi perfecj lion unattainable by the people of other countries. Russia- is fighting to preserve her national iite and re- ; ligion. i Or all nations, the most abhorrent to 1 the Germans must be the Russians. The Russian ehaaaoter, temperament, , and mind are all opposed to the Ger- | man soul. The Russian subtlety and' ! contradictoriness, the Russian mysticism and utipraotioahioss, above all things Russian national untidiness, are - intolerable to the German. The Ger- ' man is tilled with loathing directly he passes the Russian frontier; the difference between the well-built- towns, ; storehouses, and firm highways of Esusti ern Prussia, and the wildernesses Russian Poland is almost, incredible. To ; enter Russia is to step down into an inj fetior world—a, world that needs, set- ! tinsx right. '' Russia. otfers wonderful j material for the making oi' history," said Bismarck; "let but its feminine • type of population be interbred with our strong masculine Germans." " Tho Slavonic peoples are not a. nation. I wrote Emperor William, "but rather ' soil on which a nation with a historic I'is-iion might be grown." •• The S.-avH are impossible,'' says Francis Joseph: 1 had rather bo a sentry outside a- tent- in our army than monarch of a- Slav nation." In this it is impossible not to see a considerable amount- of German stupidity. The Germans are going to : suffer terribly through their ignorance of the strength of Russia, through 1 their inability to realise to what an ex- ' tent the Russians are national. It is because of tho national individuality and of their vast population of ; like faith, like tongue, and like point ! of view that the Russians go to the j front in confidence. When the Ger- [ mans attack the Russians they are at- ' taeking a nation that has a- background i of eight- thonsnd miles.

CASTING OUT THE GERM AX ! SPIRIT. This was has come as a relief to Rusi\sia, uniting all parties under one idea. ! For a long wl ile, ,Russia has been .subjected to a strong German influence. Germany has long felt that *•' something might be done" with Russia. and it : has done all it could to giA'e a, German- < ising tint to Russian Government. Jt | is not without signiiie-auce, that story i in Dostoieff-sky's -'Adult," of the Ger--1 man at ho shot himself through vexation ! at the idea that Russia might come to , nothing. i The brutality with which the Russian' 1 revolutionary movement was put down i was not onlv approved Ik the Germans ! but received a considerable amount of ! inspiration from them. Prince Troubetskoi, in a recent article. is even ready tc say that there lies a German hidden under many Russian breasts. If that is so, it may account for a brutal act and much cf the I feeling of oppression in Russia. When j war was declared, Russia suddenly ! grew lighter, as it an evil spirit had jumped off her back. German subjects were put under arrest and sent to remote places. German shops wore olosed, German goods tabooed. Berlinskaya Street became Loncionskaya, S*. Petersburg became Petrograd,' Schlusselburg became Oreshof. Kronstadt something else; in many sheools the Gorman language was given up and English taken instead; the Hotel Vienna, three doors from me, became the Hotel of Holy Victory. But not only that. A bttln German devil of harshness and iion-heeled-ness jumped out.and disappeared, and ; the Grand Duke Commander in Chief i proclaimed reconciliation to the Poles, and everyone became kinder to one another. People in Russia are naturally kind; they have become even gentler since the Avar began. The Avhole of Russian popular feeling is of tenderness rather than rapacity, and though, of course, there lurks in the Russian soul, not only the brutal German, but the more brutal Tartar, yet it is love to one another, fellow sympathy in suffering, and gentle sociability that keep the great nation to- ' gether.' It is these sentiments that j unite them round the sacred ark of the i race.

The Germans, sneering at the weak and at the victims of their lust for power, with their brutal materialism and their cruelty, represent that which is most foreign to the Russian heart, and, consequently, that which is most abhorrent to all the people.

A HOLY AVAR. One of the commonest headings in Russian papers is " Holy War." A war, if it is going to have any success in Russia, must be a holy war. The Crimean War was a holy war to protect Russian pilgrims from the persecutions of the Turks. Tho Japanese War never succeeded in getting thought holy—that was Avhv it failed so disastrously. This war is holy to eA*ervorie, and its motto is: getting rid of tho German spirit in life, getting of the sheer materialistic point of view, getting rid of brutality and the lack of understanding of others. The great spiritual power of the war has worked miracles m the social life of the people.