The first months were spent in merely marking time. This tried the
patience both of the army and of the Allied Governments, and prompted
the drive of June 18, which was demanded by the Allies, who insisted
upon the fulfillment of the old Czarist obligations. Scared by their own
helplessness and by the growing impatience of the masses, the leaders of
the middle class complied with this demand. They actually began to think
that, in order to obtain peace, it was only necessary for the Russian
army to make a drive. Such a drive seemed to offer a way out of the
difficult situation, a real solution of the problem--salvation. It is
hard to imagine a more amazing and more criminal delusion. They spoke of
the drive in those days in the same terms that were used by the
social-patriots of all countries in the first days and weeks of the war,
when speaking of the necessity of supporting the cause of national
defence, of strengthening the holy alliance of nations, etc., etc. All
their Zimmerwald internationalistic infatuations had vanished as if by
magic.
To us, who were in uncompromising opposition, it was clear that the
drive was beset with terrible danger, threatening perhaps the ruin of
the revolution itself. We sounded the warning that the army, which had
been awakened and deeply stirred by the tumultuous events which it was
still far from comprehending, could not be sent into battle without
giving it new ideas which it could recognize as its own.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25