Page:Albert Beaumont - Heroic Story of the Czecho-Slovak Legions - 1919.djvu/49

 entered Russia I already heard Bolshevik speakers. They came in May to confound the Mensheviks who had been sent out by Kerensky.

The first Bolshevik speech I heard was from a wild, crazy-looking emissary who had come from Moscow or Petrograd, and who had a sharp, piercing voice that suited his frantic gestures. He said: “Who wanted the war? Was it you or I? Was it any of us workmen? No, it was the Tsar, the rich, the millionaires! Who is fighting the war? Is it the Tsar, the rich, the millionaires? No, it is the workmen. It is for the rich you are made to fight. It is for the millionaires you are shedding your blood and pouring out your sweat. Stop bleeding, stop sweating, and put down the rich! They are hiding in the country. They are glad it you are killed. It will make your numbers smaller and theirs bigger. Is there anyone here who wants to go on with the war for the rich?“ Of course, all the workmen challenged in that tone shouted they did not.

The Bolshevik continued: “Russia is a great country. It is the greatest country on earth. It is ours. The land is ours. The rich have no right to it. You and I have a right to it. No one else. The banks, the railways, the fine houses and palaces are going to be ours. The money of the rich is yours. You have a right to ask it from them. If they don’t give it you have a right to take it. Take it all from them wherever you find it. This is the government the Bolsheviks will give you. If you accept our programme you will have everything. Now you have nothing. We will take the factories and give them to you. We will make the directors work and give them your pay, and you will be the directors and take their pay.“ By the end of May the men had given up all work and the factories were about to close.

It was time for us to leave. A sad disappointment for us, it was. In three short months the Russian Revolution, which had raised hopes to the skies, had dashed them all to the ground. We already had come into conflict with the revolutionary elements, the workmen and the soldiers. First, they wanted our place in the factories. Then they wanted us out of the way altogether. Had we then had a distinct vision of the future we might have foreseen from the past what was in store for us. It was not for us to ask to go back to the prisoner camps, [sic] The revolution was for suppressing them. We could not stay where we were, because we began to be a burden. Our only path lay to join our volunteer armies. Our men had already begun to flock to them. It was no longer for mere patriotic motives. Reasons of self-defence soon dictated it. Many of us began to feel the necessity, as it were, by instinct. Our ex-prisoners in all the stations of Siberia began to feel the need of a closer bond. Joining together and forming an army was the closest 4