Mary Platt Parmele was a historian who wrote short histories of various European nations during the late 19th century. From the preface: "If this book seems to have departed from the proper ideal of historic narrative-if it is the history of a Power, and not of a People-it is because the Russian people have had no history yet. There has been no evolution of a Russian nation, but only of a vast governing system; and the words "Russian Empire" stand for a majestic world-power in which the mass of its people have no part. A splendidly embroidered robe of Europeanism is worn over a chaotic, undeveloped mass of semi-barbarism. The reasons for this incongruity-the natural obstacles with which Russia has had to contend; the strange ethnic problems with which it has had to deal; its triumphant entry into the family of great nations; and the circumstances leading to the disastrous conflict recently concluded, and the changed conditions resulting from it-such is the story this book has tried to tell."