RUSSIAN LIFE TO-DAY
RUSSIAN LIFE TO-DAY
BY THE
Right Rev. HERBERT BURY, D.D.
Bishop for Northern and Central Europe
Author of “A Bishop among Bananas”
A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. Ltd.
London: 28 Margaret Street, Oxford Circus, W.
Oxford: 9 High Street
Milwaukee, U.S.A.: The Young Churchman Co.
TO MY FELLOW COUNTRYMENAT WORK IN SIBERIA
First impression, March, 1915
New impressions, April, July, December, 1915
INTRODUCTION
My first inclination, when the entirely unexpectedproposal of the Publishers cameto me to write this book, was immediately todecline. There are so many well-known writerson Russia, whose books are an unfailing pleasureand source of information, that it seemed to meto be nothing less than presumption to add totheir number. But when I was assured thatthere seems to be a great desire just now for abook which, as the Publishers expressed it,“should not attempt an elaborate sketch of thecountry, nor any detailed description of itssystem of government and administration, or anyexhaustive study of the Russian Church, andyet should give the impressions of a sympatheticobserver of some of the chief aspects of RussianLife which are likely to appeal to an EnglishChurchman,” I felt that I might venture toattempt it.
It has been given to me to get to understandthoroughly from close and intimate knowledgethe commercial development of Siberia by our[Pg vi]countrymen; and yet everywhere, both there andin Russia proper, I have to go to every placespecially and primarily to give the ministrationsof religion. It can be permitted to few, if any,to see those two sides of the life of a greatand growing Empire at the same time. Thishas been my reason, therefore, for undertakingthis small effort, and my object is to give, as thePublishers expressed it, “personal impressions.”I hope my readers will accept this book, therefore,as an impressionist description of Russianlife of to-day, of which it would have been quiteimpossible to keep personal experiences fromforming an important part. And though I writeas an English Churchman, yet I wish to speak,and I trust in no narrow spirit, to the wholereligious public, that I may draw them moreclosely into intelligent sympathy with this greatnation which has seemed to come so suddenly,unexpectedly, and intimately into our ownnational life and destiny—and I believe as afriend.
HERBERT BURY,
Bishop.