Germans are Germans, and Russians are Russians--and there is nothing more to be said on the subject.
This stubbornly conservative spirit of the peasantry who live in the neighbourhood of Germans seems to give the lie direct to the oft-repeated and universally believed assertion that Russians are an imitative people strongly disposed to adopt the manners and customs of any foreigners with whom they may come in contact.

The Russian, it is said, changes his nationality as easily as he changes his coat, and derives great satisfaction from wearing some nationality that does not belong to him; but here we have an important fact which appears to prove the contrary.
The truth is that in this matter we must distinguish between the Noblesse and the peasantry.

The nobles are singularly prone to adopt foreign manners, customs, and institutions; the peasants, on the contrary, are as a rule decidedly conservative.

It must not, however, be supposed that this proceeds from a difference of race; the difference is to be explained by the past history of the two classes.

Like all other peoples, the Russians are strongly conservative so long as they remain in what may be termed their primitive moral habitat--that is to say, so long as external circumstances do not force them out of their accustomed traditional groove.