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.