Title | Russia's gift to the world |
Creator (LCNAF) |
|
Publisher | Hodder and Stoughton |
Place of Creation (TGN) |
|
Date | 1915 |
Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
|
Genre (AAT) |
|
Language | English |
Type (DCMI) |
|
Original Item Extent | 48 pages; 22 cm. |
Original Item Location | DK32.7.M3 1915 |
Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b8304497~S11 |
Original Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
Digital Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/scpamp |
Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
Repository URL | http://libraries.uh.edu/branches/special-collections |
Use and Reproduction | This item is in the public domain and may be used freely. |
File Name | index.cpd |
Title | Image 47 |
Format (IMT) |
|
File Name | uhlib_1315132_046.jpg |
Transcript | Russia's Gift to the World 45 now a fact like this is very significant. In the year 1912 a firm of publishers in Moscow sold no less than 6,000,000 of little books or tracts for working men and women in town and country. They were sold at a price which brought them within the reach of the poorest classes. Most of them cost a farthing ; the more expensive ran up to as high a figure as twopence halfpenny. Besides being extremely cheap, they were extremely simple ; their matter consisted on the one hand of Bible stories, tales, and tracts inculcating the love of children and of animals; on the other hand of practical advice on matters of daily life, on manuring, fruit growing, household management, and the like. And among these little books many were translations from the English. This, too, shows how the two nations can give and do give mutual help to one another ; for Tolstoy's beautiful short stories and tracts are also widely read, though not so widely as they deserve to be, in our own country. English books are great favourites in Russia, and they are becoming more so now that they can be more freely read since the relaxation of the censorship with its many absurdities in working. Russians seem to understand the English way of looking at things more easily and more completely than any other Continental nation does. Dickens is a special favourite with them. Tolstoy cites Dickens as an example of what he considers the highest art, " flowing from love to God and man." They find in him what they want, and also he gives what, on the whole, they themselves lack in two matters. They find in him the abounding sense of fun which is rare in the more dreamy and resigned Russian temperament, and they find in him also the force of will, the driving power, which made him not only fight against injustice but bring about actual reforms. It is interesting to compare Pomyalovsky's descriptions of the misery of his school life with those |