Michael S. Farbman

“ The Military Party went to war, not only to conquer the enemy, but to conquer Russia itself. Even victory over Germany was, for them, only a means of establishing more firmly their own power in Russia. The Military Party, the Grand Dukes, the War Office, the General Staff, and the Court camarilla refused to accept the change which had come over Russia. Their mentality prevented them from understanding the people's loyalty and from believing in it. They could only believe in loyalty achieved by military means; they could only trust enforced loyalty. ”

“ There was indeed treason enough in many places, but the soldiers began to see it everywhere. Each man suspected his neighbour. The army was overwrought. It lived, as it were, in a nightmare from which there was no escape. While the advance was still going on this did not matter so much, but after the great and disastrous retreat from Galicia in 1915, the army began to fall to pieces.
I made up my mind to avoid in my account of the war and of the Revolution any reference to the psychology of the Russian people. ”

“ But even the facts about treason in the army, real and serious as they were, would not have had such a terrible effect on the psychology and the morale of the army if it had not been prepared to believe that treason was everywhere. ”

“ The soldiers, encouraged by the High Command, looked upon the unfortunate population of Western and Southwestern Russia and of the occupied territory of Austria as legitimate booty; they looted the shops and violated the people. The facts shocked Russia. Russian society was disgusted and filled with shame. All the high ideals which Russian progressives had associated with the war were brutally violated. ”

“ It certainly is more convenient for them to represent the "army of the Tsar" as a well-disciplined model army which chivalrously and gallantly fought the enemy, whereas the army of the Revolution degenerated into an undisciplined mob, looting and destroying everything that came its way. ”

“ This sympathy of the people was in striking contradiction to the legend about the "internal enemy," and it opened the eyes of the soldiers. It is quite possible that from this time the fermentation in the army actually began. At any rate, the soldiers went to the front with this rare experience of popular sympathy and love fresh in their memory. Later on the soldiers were to receive many more tokens of the people's sympathies; their distrust of the officers, who always tried to alienate them from the people, must have grown rapidly. ”

“ And yet the relations between the Government and the people, and between the many races, nationalities, classes and creeds of Russia, were never more cordial and friendly. The people fraternised with the soldiers; progressive newspapers and leaders of the political opposition parties praised and blessed the Government. Inveterate anti-Semites fraternised with the Jews, and Jews marched in procession, singing the Russian National Anthem and bearing Russian National flags. The "Novoie Vremia" praised the loyalty of the Finns, and the Finns fraternised with the Russian soldiers. ”

“ Explanation by reference to the national psychology is always a very dubious and hazardous process. But perhaps I may be allowed the one exception of pointing out the extraordinary impulsiveness of the Russian people. ”

“ The short régime of Count Bobrinski, who was appointed Military Governor of Galicia, was a terrible object lesson to the peoples of Austria, and indeed of Europe in general. Bobrinski brought over the very worst elements from Russia, the political blackguards recommended by the "Black Hundred." ”