The Origins of the Russian Land

“The Beginning of Russian Land”—a historical study by Sergei Mikhailovich Solovyov (1820–1879). First published in 1877.

“…Three conditions have a special influence on the life of a people: the nature of the country where it lives; the nature of the tribe it belongs to; and the course of external events and influences coming from the peoples that surround it. Russia is the most vast state in the world—we learn that phrase from early childhood; in the years of maturity we try to understand the meaning of those words. The extraordinary size of the organic body forces us to assume special conditions for maintaining its structure and the balance of its parts; it makes us fear for the existence of those conditions in sufficient measure, for the strength of the body; it makes us fear the possibility of its early disintegration.

If a vast state comes about through the conquest of different peoples by one—then its fragility is obvious; if it comes about through the spreading of one people across a vast country—of a people that gradually strengthened within its state system—then this phenomenon implies an extraordinary slowness of movement, backwardness compared to other states occupying smaller areas, because all state functions in an extensive region must be carried out slowly, especially when the state represents a vast country with a relatively small population scattered across it.

With such a situation, in the un-united ranks of the population, alien and indigestible elements can conveniently penetrate the social body. In addition, the un-united parts of the population must be brought into connection and into a common movement by an external force, which means that governmental activity must reach extreme strain, finding no support in a tightly united mass of the population…”