"A change had indeed been brought by the emancipation of the serfs, but there was little outward sign of it. The muzhik remained, to all appearance, what he was before: in fact, as our train drew into St. Petersburg, the peasants, with their sheepskin caftans, cropped hair, and stupid faces, brought back the old impressions so vividly that I seemed not to have been absent a week. The old atmosphere of repression was evident everywhere. I had begun my experience of it under Nicholas I, had seen a more liberal policy under Alexander II, but now found a recurrence of reaction, and everywhere a pressure which deadened all efforts at initiating a better condition of things."
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Activists from the United StatesEducators from the United StatesHistorians from the United StatesUnited States Ambassadors to Russia and the Soviet UnionUnited States Ambassadors to Prussia and Germany
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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrew_Dickson_White
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Andrew Dickson White
Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American diplomat, author, and educator who was the co-founder and first president of Cornell University.
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