I should like to set the reader’s mind at rest at once. I am not going to ask him to read a historical treatise on the origins of the Russian people, nor am I going to lead him into the obscure pathways and dim shadows of the remote past. Firstly, even if I wished to do so, I have not the necessary erudition, nor the requisite powers of learned exposition. Secondly, the origin of the Russian people is a debatable question; the theories with regard to it are constantly changing, and vary with the fickle fashion of the day; the orthodox views of forty, of thirty, of twenty years ago are now said to be old-fashioned; and the orthodox views of to-day will probably be considered old-fashioned be…
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