ject of the Government in inviting them to settle in the country
was that they should till the unoccupied land and thereby increase
the national wealth, and that they should at the same time exercise a
civilising influence on the Russian peasantry in their vicinity. In
this latter respect they have totally failed to fulfil their mission.
A Russian village, situated in the midst of German colonies, shows
generally, so far as I could observe, no signs of German influence. Each
nationality lives more majorum, and holds as little communication as
possible with the other. The muzhik observes carefully--for he is very
curious--the mode of life of his more advanced neighbours, but he never
thinks of adopting it. He looks upon Germans almost as beings of a
different world--as a wonderfully cunning and ingenious people, who
have been endowed by Providence with peculiar qualities not possessed by
ordinary Orthodox humanity. To him it seems in the nature of things that
Germans should live in large, clean, well-built houses, in the same way
as it is in the nature of things that birds should build nests; and
as it has probably never occurred to a human being to build a nest for
himself and his family, so it never occurs to a Russian peasant to
build a house on the German model. Germans are Germans, and Russians are
Russians--and there is nothing more to be said on the subject.

This stubbornly conservative spirit of the peasantry who live in
the neighbourhood of Germans seems to give the lie direct to the
oft-repeated and universally believed assertion that Russians are an
imitative people strongly disposed to adopt the manners and customs of
any foreigners with whom they may come in contact. The Russian, it is
said, changes his nationality as easily as he changes his coat, and
derives great satisfaction from wearing some nationality that does not
belong to him; but here we have an important fact which appears to prove
the contrary.

The truth is that in this matter we must distinguish between the
Noblesse and the peasantry. The nobles are singularly prone to adopt
foreign manners, customs, and institutions; the peasants, on the
contrary, are as a rule decidedly conservative. It must not, however, be
supposed that this proceeds from a difference of race; the difference is
to be explained by the past history of the two classes. Like all other
peoples, the Russians are strongly conservative so long as they remain
in what may be terme