Changing Russia. By Stephen Graham. (John Lane. Is. Gd. net.)—Though
this book is superficially an account of a tramp along the Black Sea coast to Batum, it is written, to use Mr. Graham's words, "with an eye to the ways and thoughts of the Intelligentia," and is intended as a study "of the miscellaneous literary, artistic, and social issues which show the present state and direction of Russian culture." Certainly he succeeds in pre- senting a vivid enough picture, even though it is at times an unpleasant one. Here, for instance, are some very bitter observations upon the "lower Intelligentia "The curse of Russia, and, as the years go on, the increasing curse, is the bourgeoisie, the lower middle class, aware of itself articulately as the lower intelligentia. It is forming everywhere in the towns as a result of the commercial development of the nation. . . . In politics they call themselves Liberals, though they have no notion of true Liberalism ; they are seldom Socialists or Radicals, but are abusive of those in authority. They are unwill- ing, however, to sacrifice anything, or take any risks, for political ends. Through them the revolution failed ; they would have liked the revolution to have succeeded, but as they had not the faith of the true revolutionaries, they waited to see who would win. Selfish as it is possible to be, crass, heavy, ugly, unfaithful in marriage, unclean, impure, incapable apparently of understanding the good and the true in their neighbours and in life—such is the Russian bourgeois."
Mr. Graham has such facility in shaping his sentences so as to make them arresting and memorable that he sometimes falls into the error of over-statement and over-emphasis. None the less, his book is so much easier to read than the average book of travel that we cannot hesitate to recommend it.
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