MATERIALS FOR THE STUDY OF THE WORK AND THOUGHT
OF ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE
by Teodoro Tagliaferri (University of Naples Federico II)
No. 11
(April 27, 2022)
WRITINGS ON THE EMPIRES IN WORLD HISTORY, VIII
Arnold Joseph Toynbee, The Place of Ukraine within a Reformed Tsarist Empire, from A.J.
Toynbee, Nationality and the War , with many coloured map, London, Dent, 1915, Chapter
VIII, The Russian Empire and National Self-Government, D. Devolution, pp. 308-324.
“We have now dealt with the whole fringe of alien nationalities within the Western frontier of the Russian Empire. A fringe is all that they are: their territories are insignificant slices carved from the Empire’s enormous bulk, and their populations weigh light in the balance against the Russian-speaking masses that lie away to their East. The Russians have far less excuse than the Magyars for the oppression by force or fraud of their fellow-nationalities, because the most quixotic generosity could not endanger the Russian element’s preponderance. The mere weight of the Russian population is sufficient to assure for ever the Russian character of the Empire, and the balance of numbers is continually shifting further in its favour year by year, as colonial areas fill up in the Great North-East. The only really difficult problem of devolution within the Empire concerns the relations between the different branches of the Russian Nation itself.”
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Arnold Joseph Toynbee, The Place of Ukraine within a Reformed Tsarist Empire