This circumstance intensified the panic in the
army which was already in state of chronic dissolution. Resistance was
almost unthinkable. The soldiers could not believe that the Germans
would advance after we had declared the state of war at an end. The
panicky retreat paralyzed the will even of such individual detachments
as were ready to make a stand. In the workingmen's quarters of Petrograd
and Moscow, the indignation against the treacherous and truly murderous
German invasion reached a pitch of greatest intensity. In these alarming
days and nights, the workers were ready to enlist in the army by the ten
thousand. But the matter of organizing lagged far behind. Isolated
tenacious detachments full of enthusiasm became convinced themselves of
their instability in their first serious clashes with German regulars.
This still further lowered the country's spirits. The old army had long
ago been hopelessly defeated and was going to pieces, blocking all the
roads and byways. The new army, owing to the country's general
exhaustion, the fearful disorganization of industries and the means of
transportation, was being got together too slowly. Distance was the only
serious obstacle in the way of the German invasion.
The chief attention of the Austro-Hungarian government was centered on
the Ukraine. The Rada, through its delegation, had appealed to the
governments of the Central Empires for direct military aid against the
Soviets, which had by that time completely defeated the Ukrainians.
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