peoples
inhabiting Russia have manifested has shown how unjust is the
preaching of hatred and of narrow nationalism. The peoples who bear
the same burdens of our state as the Russians do, who defend our
common fatherland just as faithfully as the Russians, thereby assert
that our fatherland is for all, that Russia is for every one who is
considered a Russian subject and meets his duties toward the state.
Russia is not only for those who are Russians by language and birth,
she is for all who live under her sovereign dominion. No one in Russia
is benefited by the unequal rights of her various peoples; this
inequality does not add to our political power, it only supports our
internal disorder. Its abolition by no means contradicts the
fundamental conceptions of Russian statehood.

You will say that Russia has been created by the Russian race. Well,
then, her policy must be determined by the qualities of the Russian
popular spirit,--but animosity and exclusiveness are things strange
and repulsive to it. The soul of the Russian people is trusting and
open to all influences. And this is only natural: only that nation can
become the basis of a great state which is able with ease and joy to
unite with all the races it meets on its historic road. The history of
Russia illustrates this. Besides, who has ever asserted that people
born unto the Russian tongue are racially pure Slavs?

You will say that Russia is a Christian state. Agreed. But do not
Christ's commandments teach us to see a friend and a brother and one's
equal in every man? The more we are Christians, the less of animosity
and exclusiveness can be in our hearts. What difference does it make
that two men speak different languages and pray in different ways?
When it is a question of paying duties and taxes, and bearing arms in
defence of the fatherland, religious and race peculiarities do not
matter.

The fatherland is for all of us, because we are all for the
fatherland. The fatherland is our common home, and this home we build,
keep in good order, and defend. We build our common home not like
hirelings, to whom, after they get their pay, the building becomes
alien. In rearing, decorating and defending it we bargain with no one,
we give everything that is necessary for its upbuilding and
defence,--we give our property, our labour, our very life. Even when
our labour appears selfish, even then--provided it is not criminal--it
is for the good of our common home: for