Beginning with a rather impressionistic but distinctly readable sketch of the rise and advance of Russia from the earliest times, Mr. Pares, with the emancipation of the serfs, enters into a detailed study which is really worthy of comparison with Mackenzie Wallace's great book. Like Wallace, Mr. Pares evidently knows his Russia thoroughly, and his Russian in every walk of life. The geographical and economic aspects of the country, the governmental system, the educational facilities, the home life of the noble and the peasant, the literature that has been produced and the men who have produced it -- all this and much more is expounded by him in a way that is equally interesting and authoritative. He gives a brief sketch of the history of Russian institutions up to the late 19th century and of the social conditions in the country generally from 1904 down to the assembling of the second Duma. He brings out more clearly than most writers have done the contrast between the ideals of the educated class and the great mass of the people. He is hopeful for the steady progress of reform, though he thinks it may be slow, and notes that the Government is missing many opportunities that will not recur, and that day by day the intelligence of the individual is outstripping more and more the measure of responsibility allowed to him by the authorities, whose prestige, he says, is being recklessly squandered.