It has been hard for outsiders to realize that Russian national feeling is a spiritual emotion largely detached from the mundane things of life, that for centuries past Russia has meant for her people much more than just a country to be loved and defended: ‘Russia’ was more a state of mind, a secular ideal, a sacred idea, an object of almost religious belief – unfathomable by the mind, unmeasurable by the yardstick of rationality. Tibor Szamuely: The Russian Tradition.Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means. Ronald Reagan.