Modern Russia (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Modern Russia

The fundamental function of human activity - the production of materials to satisfy the needs of the masses - has assumed an international form. Capital, the organizing force of production and exchange, passes rapidly from one country to another, uniting them by indestructible material ties. International organizations of capitalists are coming into being, which are held in check by labour organizations of an equally international type. Every invention, every improvement in the technique of production, every scientific discovery, is at once transmitted to every portion of the globe. Besides the exchange of products we Observe a mutual interchange of ideas, and the two form a common founda tion, a foundation both material and spiritual, for the future development of human culture. The separate members of the great family of the peoples and States Of the modern world are like the various portions of a single gigantic organism, or the links of a single chain. When one of these links is moved all the others promptly feel the movement. Every event that occurs in any country of the modern world is to-day an international event.

The good old days are gone, when humanity lived in groups; when the individual might live all his life in his native town or village without knowing what was happening at a few miles' distance. The modern man is a citizen of the world.

The telegraph cables which enmesh the globe force him to keep an eye upon all the countries Of the world. It is obvious that to the modern man a closer knowledge of the life of other peoples appears not only desirable, but necessary. The older nations - the French, Germans, and English - which have attained the highest degree of civilization, are in this respect in a favourable situation. Their way of life and their material and Spiritual activities serve as examples to other nations, and are the object of attentive study. But a knowledge of the younger and more backward nations is far less widespread. This ignorance is most perceptible in the case of those nations which are divided from Western Europe not only by geographical distance, but also by linguistic remoteness. All will remember how Europe was surprised by the apparition of Japan in the guise of a first-class Power, equipped with the technical methods of the Occident. NO one has yet forgotten the astonishment evoked by her army, so powerful and so highly trained, her Press, and her subtle and capable diplomacy.

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