From the Other Shore

In essence, there is nothing unprecedented here. In all countries, at the beginning of an upheaval, when thought is still weak and material power is unrestrained, devoted and active people have departed. Their free speech rang out from afar, and this very distance lent their words strength and authority, because behind the words, one could see actions and sacrifices. The power of their speeches grew with the distance, just as the force of momentum grows in a stone dropped from a high tower. Emigration is the first sign of an approaching upheaval.

For Russians abroad, there is another task. It is time to truly acquaint Europe with Rus' historical term for Russia. Europe does not know us; it knows our government, our facade, and nothing more. For this acquaintance, the circumstances are excellent. It somehow no longer suits Europe to be proud and majestically wrap itself in the mantle of disdainful ignorance. It does not suit Europe to display das vornehme Ignorieren haughty indifference toward Russia, not since it experienced bourgeois autocracy and Algerian Cossacks, not since it lived under a state of siege from the Danube to the Atlantic Ocean, and not since its prisons and galleys have been full of those persecuted for their convictions. Let it get to know the people more closely, whose adolescent strength it has already evaluated in battle, where it remained the victor. Let us tell it about this powerful and enigmatic people, who quietly formed a state of