Michael S. Farbman

“ The war was too closely identified with the Tsardom and the old régime to inspire enthusiasm. On the other hand, the upheaval had been too great; people were no longer able to concentrate their minds on the war. They were too busy about other and, to them, more important things. Finally, there was a widespread and sincere belief that the Tsardom has fallen, not only for Russia, but for all Europe, and that the Revolution could not be without effect upon the German people, which was regarded as being under a yoke similar to the Tsardom. ”

“ The indefinite prolongation of the war means a vista of internal collapse and catastrophe. Yet hope of a speedy ending of the war diminishes every day.
The Russian democracy is extending its hands with passionate yearning to its Allies' democracies. But its outstretched hands remain hanging in the air. Democratic Russia calls upon the Western democracies: "Try to understand the tragic position of Revolutionary Russia. Try to understand the great mission of the Russian Revolution. Do not drive Russia to despair by your cold scepticism. Do not isolate Russia. ”

“ In two and a half years of war the State debt of Russia, which was the highest the world before the war, increased fourfold. Instead of a finance policy the Government flooded the country with paper money, issued in contravention of the law, and this mad dance of paper millions led to an incredible Bacchanalia of profits. The soldiers being half serfs, received nothing, a mere few pence a month. Their wives, mothers and children actually died of hunger on the poor separation allowances made to soldiers' dependents. Workers got beggarly wages. ”

“ For the cadets and their supporters the Revolution is still but a means; their ideal is still the fight to a finish, the "knock-out blow." Without intending reproach or blame the Russian people has again and again appealed to the West to abandon this illusion. It has done so through its Government, which has sent its successive Notes to the Allies, through organisations and congresses of the army and the workers and the peasants. ”

“ But the Tsardom has fallen, and this inter-racial hatred is dead in Russia. Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Jews and Armenians; they are all to-day, to use Kerensky's words, "a friendly family of fraternal peoples." They trust each other without cavil or distinction or arrière-pensée. Not the most virulent or insidious anti-Semite poison is capable of bringing discord into the ranks of the Revolution. To-day anti-Semitism in Russia is but a poor, shameful remnant of the old régime, impotent and execrated. ”

“ Now this formula sounds very differently to Russian ears than in countries of a highly-developed Imperialism. In such countries it is the watchword only of the most advanced Socialist Minorities. In Russia it is the expression of the vague but general instinct of the broad masses of the Russian nation, which has not yet grown up into a real and active Imperialism. Whatever may be the result of the world-struggle between the Imperialistic Powers, it is certain that unless the war brings about the complete shipwreck of modern Imperialism the Russian Revolution is in peril. ”

“ At the other political pole are the Extremists or Ultra-Revolutionaries, whose watchword is "Deepen the Revolution." Just as the Cadets wish to arrest the Revolution by an artificial dam, so the Maximalists desire by artificial means to add impetus to its flow and bring about the full regeneration of Society at a stroke. These people, of whom Lenin is the most conspicuous leader, constitute the Extreme Left, and their activities are just as dangerous to the safe evolution of the new régime, as are the counter-revolutionaries of the Right. ”

“ IT must be left to the future historian to paint the complete picture of Russia before the Revolution. Russia at this moment is too engrossed with actualities, too interested in the present to turn her eyes back to the past. But for any clear understanding of how the Revolution came about, and what were the reasons that created the Revolution and why Russia took this course, it is necessary to point out, even if only in a general way, the main features of Russian public life at the moment of the fall of the Monarchy. ”

“ That Western Imperialism existed too, and might prove an obstacle to peace, was well understood, but it was not regarded as an insuperable obstacle. There was faith in the democracy of the West. It was believed that the West would be kindled by the Russian Revolution—at least to sympathy. The Russian democracy would never allow France or England to be crushed by Germany with Russia standing idly by. Russia was prepared and willing to fight for them. ”

“ Between these forces of counter-revolution and ultra-revolution, the Cadets and Maximalists, stands the great mass of Russian opinion, represented by the C.W.S.D., which seeks neither to arrest nor to exploit, to dam or to deepen the Revolution, but to allow it to develop normally and safely to the full extent of its potentialities, political and social, without endangering the stability of national life or compromising the gains that the Revolution has won. ”

“ At the recent all-Russian Congress of the C.W.S.D. he put it even more forcibly: "Russia must have a strong army to enforce the respect of friends and foes alike." We now see that the thing has been done. Kerensky and the new Government have done their work well. But let not the offensive be misinterpreted. Let there be no mistake. The offensive is in no way an antithesis to the Russian democracy's struggle for peace. ”

“ As a non-Imperialistic Power Russia stands to become the victim of Imperialistic Powers. She would never be partner in sharing the Imperialistic booty, she would rather be the victim. It was because this was at once instinctively perceived by Russians that the formula of "no annexations, no indemnities" was accepted so rapidly and completely by the great masses of the people. ”

“ Let me quote the Petrograd correspondent of the Daily News, the most clear-sighted and understanding correspondent of any foreign newspaper in Russia. He says: "It is clear that the Coalition Government now recognises that the source of its powers is the C.W.S.D., and reciprocally the Council, as at present constituted, is determined to support the Government by all possible means and, further, to support the Government's policy of hastening peace by activity in the field as well as by diplomacy. It supports the offensive because it believes that it will help its diplomacy. ”

“ A strong army was needed by the Russians to reinforce and dignify its peace programme. Chernov, the leader of the Social Revolutionaries and Minister for Agriculture in the new Government, declared at a Cabinet Council: "Russia must no longer speak to her Allies in the tone of a poor relative, and to enemies with the mien and language of a pauper." ”

“ This element of faith gives a specific and passionate seriousness to every manifestation of public spirit. It is what most European students of Russia have regarded as its specific religiosity. Yet it is not ecclesiastical or theological; this spirit of religiosity or faith permeates all Russian life. For centuries Russia has been seeking the truth, believing that a time would come when the conscience would be delivered. The Revolution was the deliverance of the Russian conscience. It is now free to work for its ideals. ”

“ Generally they stand for maintaining the unity of the State and are opposed to centrifugal and separatist ideas. Of the Jews as a body we may expect that they will play a large part in the future reconstruction of Russia, but it cannot be said of them that they played a great and active part in the Revolution. The only Jews that took an active part in the Revolution were the small but energetic Socialist minority of Jewish idealists. If the millions of Jews of Russia have gained their freedom to-day they owe it to that minority of Jewish idealists. ”

“ They know very well that they have insufficient culture, that they are in the main a nation of illiterates, that in general they are behind Europe. But in Russia there is a deep faith in ideals. It is genuinely believed that life is not worth living save for an ideal. You must have something high to live for. So of Russia herself it is genuinely believed that she too must have something high in the world to live and work for. ”

“ If the Allied Governments and Press welcomed the Russian Revolution in the hope that it would prove the great stimulus for war to a victorious end, much the same ideas prevailed in the minds of the Russian Liberal bourgeoisie. ”

“ It seems to be the popular idea that the Revolution was caused by the pro-Germanism of die Court and Government. According to this notion the army and the people, full of anger at the shameless betrayal of the national cause, arose and swept the Monarchy away from the path to national victory. ”

“ Had they been swayed even to the slightest degree by racial considerations they would have held their hand if only out of pity for their own race. But to them the ideal was above all, and to-day they may be proud of Russia's freedom, which they helped to achieve in co-operation with the best men and women of all Russia. The old régime fostered mutual hatred between the races. It turned Russians against Ukrainians, Poles against Jews, Tartars against Armenians ”

“ The peasants, who in the first year of war had benefited from the great Government orders and had begun for the first time in their lives to have a surplus for saving, discovered by and by that in spite of the plentifulness of money they were no better off ”

“ In any case, the mere fact of war and its demands would have created a serious shortage of rolling-stock and confusion in railway transport. But there can be no doubt that the principal factor in creating the utter collapse of the railway system was the crazy mismanagement of the authorities. There was almost wholesale destruction of rolling-stock through sheer incompetence. I well remember a story which shocked Petrograd early in 1915 during the struggles for Warsaw. The War Office had to despatch strong reinforcements to the front at maximum speed. ”

“ They would have been suppressed but for the worship the soldiers had for them after experience of the good they had done. But the most grotesque instance was the hostility of the Government towards the popular movement embodied in the War Industries Committees, which was started to mobilise and organise the production of munitions all over the country—a most necessary task in view of the failure of the Government. ”

“ Harold Williams in one of his latest despatches.
"It must be remembered," he says, "that the clearer the aims of the war, the more distinct and positive the utterances of the Allies, the more certain the soldiers are that the whole Coalition is fighting sincerely for the pure ideal of liberty, the more powerful will be the offensive impulse of the Russian army."
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Russia's danger to-day is nervousness. The whole national life is in a state of nerves. ”

“ The Government was afraid of any popular organisations, and particularly of any popular demonstration of the national ability to do better than the Government. The Committees were put under suspicion of having revolutionary tendencies, and every effort was made to diminish their importance. ”

“ The stories revealed in the evidence would be quite incredible were they not official facts, and would give the impression of a diseased imagination at work rather than of real happenings of contemporary history. But the bankers and industrials, thus systematically plundered by Government officials, compensated themselves in their turn by exploiting the population. ”

“ There are further extremes both of the Right and Left, the Black Hundreds on the one hand and the Anarchists on the other, but neither of these ultra-extremists need be taken into serious account at this stage of affairs. ”