von Kuehlmann as a parody on the
Russian revolution--a chasm which was revealed so strikingly a few days
later. Such audacity we had never expected.
Kuehlmann's reply made a tremendous impression upon the working masses
of Russia. It was interpreted as a result of the fear felt by the
dominant classes of the Central Empires because of the discontent and
the growing impatience of the working masses of Germany. On the 28th of
December there took place in Petrograd a joint demonstration of workmen
and soldiers for a democratic peace. The next morning our delegation
came back from Brest-Litovsk and brought those brigand demands which Mr.
von Kuehlmann made to us in the name of the Central Empires as an
interpretation of his "democratic" formulae.
At the first glance it may seem incomprehensible why the German
diplomacy should have presented its democratic formulae if it intended
within two or three days to disclose its wolfish appetite. What was it
that the German diplomacy expected to bring about? At least, the
theoretic discussions which developed around the democratic formulae,
owing largely to the initiative of Kuehlmann himself, were not without
their danger. That the diplomacy of the Central Empires could not reap
many laurels in that way must have been clear beforehand to that
diplomacy itself. But the secret of the conduct of the diplomacy of
Kuehlmann consisted in that that gentleman was sincerely convinced of
our readiness to play a four-handed game with him.
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