#21: Russian students and shadows (1910)
From the time of our first voyage on the Black Sea, in 1890,
we felt the shadowy influence of Czarist Russia lying along
those coasts, often quite intangible and cold but always
powerful. And one who knew them could not help liking the
Russian people, characteristically kind-hearted, good-natured
and winning. If they were superstitious, they were also
reverend; if ignorant, they were thirsty for information;
if poor, belated and oppressed, there was the more reason
for friendly cooperation on the part of us Americans. The
Caucasus provinces were next door to Anatolia. Many of the
people of the two neighbor regions were of the same blood,
Turks or Tatars, Armenians, Georgians, Circassians, Greeks.
And the Crimea was just beyond the Caucasus. The process of
Russification was going steadily forward. Some settlers in
Russia had relatives in Turkey. So it was not strange when
a student or two of non-Russian race slipped over to study
in our College. Following the Constitution, two students
became six, Russian or non-Russian citizens from Muscovy,
then rapidly increased to a dozen, a score, and with the
academic year, 1910, our students from Russia numbered 31,
10 or more coming from truly Russian homes, but with Cossack,
Polish, Georgian, Greek and Jewish representatives in the
growing quota. Students completing our course would lay the
foundation for an education, while those leaving after a
shorter period could acquire an adequate use of English,
French and accounting, not forgetting Russian, and could
find employment on leaving school at salaries as good as
were received by their college professors and better than
their fathers ever earned. Young Russians were keen to get
what we Americans offered.
The Russian students were well liked individually and as
a group. They did not "grind" as scholars, but they got
the English language rapidly and well, and that was
primarily their object in coming to us. With their tall
figures, blue eyes, tight jackets, and belts with brass
buckles, they presented a Northern appearance quite
different from some students of more southern areas,
Arabs and others, whom we knew, often with loose robes
and relaxed muscles. One might expect the Russians to be
difficult students to control, but such did not prove to
be the case. When student and teacher faced each other,
the characteristic Slav in our experience was fully
amenable to authority and was exceedingly courteous.
Working as Dean with the students who sought us, and
visiting their homes and communities when the right time
came, gave me the key as I felt to the Russian character:
it was essentially youthful, boyish, sometimes seeming
almost childish. Russia was the youth among the nations.
Peter the Great grabbed the Russian coat collar and
yanked the awkward, bashful boy forward to a place in
the refined society of Europe. Russians suggested the
remark of Abraham Lincoln that the Lord must love common
people, or he wouldn't have made so many of them.
NEXT: Turkish students (1914)
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