INTRODUCTION 
13 
dous abilities for self-government and is capable of building a 
powerful organization along broad and democratic lines. The moral 
forces of the Russian people seek admittance to take part in the 
building of the state, they await their free expansion. 
The history of the zemstvos gives firm ground for the belief that 
the Russian people will overcome all obstacles which have been 
forced upon them from the outside and from the inside and against 
which they are still struggling. They will free themselves from all 
fetters and will join the family of the nations of the world as a great 
organizing power stronger than they have ever been before, and free 
in the exercise of their creative national genius.