Russia is a country of eternal changes and completely non-conservative, it
is country beyond conservative customs, where historical times live, and do
not part with rituals and ideas. The Russians are not a young people, but
the old ones - like the Chinese. They are very old, ancient, conservatively
preserved all the oldest and do not refuse it. In their language, their
superstition, their disposition, etc., one can study the most ancient times.
Victor von Hyun. 1870.