Book: Undiscovered Russia

Matthew Raphael Johnson's description:

Undiscovered Russia a free (public domain) book in .pdf format written by Steven Graham in 1912. It is an account of Mr. Graham's months of travels through 1912 Russia, explaining her holiness, prosperity and general sense of justice. This is a very rare book where Mr. Graham clearly shows how traditional economic and social patterns are superior to mechanized and modern ones. Graham also argues that the Russian peasant is a deeply moral person, happy, and truly the center of the nation.

My favorite quote in the book so far, in the foreward, describing the difference between Russia and England:

Someone has said, "It is the folly of democracy that it wishes to make all lower orders upper orders" -- that may turn out to to be in international folly.

Very prescient. We all know how that democratic experiment turned out just a few years later, don't we? And the international democratic experiment (workers of the world, reduce your carbon footprint!) is going swimmingly well, don't you think?