to be completely forgotten. The critics returned to their old
theory that art and literature should be cultivated for their own sake
and not used as a vehicle for the propagation of ideas foreign to their
nature. It seemed, in short, as if all the prolific ideas which had for
a time occupied the public attention had been merely "writ in water,"
and had now disappeared without leaving a trace behind them.

In reality the new movement was destined to reappear very soon with
tenfold force; but the account of its reappearance and development
belongs to a future chapter. Meanwhile I may formulate the general
conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing pages. Ever since the time of
Peter the Great there has been such a close connection between Russia
and Western Europe that every intellectual movement which has appeared
in France and Germany has been reflected--albeit in an exaggerated,
distorted form--in the educated society of St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Thus the window which Peter opened in order to enable his subjects to
look into Europe has well served its purpose.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE CRIMEAN WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

The Emperor Nicholas and his System--The Men with Aspirations and the
Apathetically Contented--National Humiliation--Popular Discontent
and the Manuscript Literature--Death of Nicholas--Alexander II.--New
Spirit--Reform Enthusiasm--Change in the Periodical Literature--The
Kolokol--The Conservatives--The Tchinovniks--First Specific
Proposals--Joint-Stock Companies--The Serf Question Comes to the Front.

The Russians frankly admit that they were beaten in the Crimean War, but
they regard the heroic defence of Sebastopol as one of the most glorious
events in the military annals of their country. Nor do they altogether
regret the result of the struggle. Often in a half-jocular, half-serious
tone they say that they had reason to be grateful to the Allies. And
there is much truth in this paradoxical statement. The Crimean War
inaugurated a new epoch in the national history. It gave the death-blow
to the repressive system of the Emperor Nicholas, and produced an
intellectual movement and a moral revival which led to gigantic results.

"The affair of December," 1825--I mean the abortive attempt at a
military insurrection in St. Petersburg, to which I have alluded in
the foregoing chapter--gave the key-note to Nicholas's reign. The armed
attempt to overthrow the Imperial power, ending in the execution or