ABSTRACT
‘The Russian Battle of Dorking’ was the title of an article published in a British journal in 1902; it described the surprise and anger of a Russian citizen who had fallen asleep in 1897, and awoke only after thirty years, when he found that in the meantime his country had been taken over by the Germans. Schloezer and Mueller, two German historians who had removed to Russia, were, in contrast to Biron, exemplary citizens. Russian aristocratic contempt for the German meshchanin’s lack of elegance and savoir vivre remained constant throughout the nineteenth century, as was regretfully noted by a German ambassador. Up to the eighteen-sixties the presence of so many Germans in Russia had been considered a domestic problem. The rapid progress of industrial development in both Russia and Germany seemed irresistible, but there were grave forebodings in certain circles, both high and low, that felt excluded from its benefits, about its social and political effects.
