Page:Albert Rhys Williams - Through the Russian Revolution (1921).djvu/340

282 "Why did you come to Russia, Allied Soldiers?" "Why should workmen of France and England murder their fellowworkers of Russia?" "Do you want to destroy our Workmen's Republic?" "Do you want to restore the Czar?" "You are fighting for the bond holders of France, the land grabbers of England, the imperialists of America. Why shed blood for them?" "Why don't you go home?"

Red soldiers rose up to shout these questions across the trenches. Red sentries with hands uplifted rushed forward crying them out. Red aeroplanes dropped them circling down from the skies.

The allied troops pondered over these queries and were shaken. Their morale broke down. They fought half heartedly. They mutinied. The Whites in tens of thousands—whole battalions and ambulance corps—came over to the Revolution. One after another the armies of the Counter-Revolution crumpled up or melted away like snow in a Russian spring. The great steel cordon tightening around the Revolution was smashed to bits.

The Revolution was triumphant. The Soviets were saved. But with what appalling sacrifices!

"For three years," says Lenin, "our whole energy was devoted to the tasks of war." The wealth of the nation was poured into the army. Fields were untilled, machines untended. Lack of fuel shut down the factories. Green wood under the boilers