Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/253

 The sudden fall of the throne of the Czar created a deep impression. If the greatest autocrat in the world can be brushed to one side by a short revolution lasting only a few hours, what throne rested upon sound foundations? If social democracy has obtained control in Russia, why should this party deny its hope in a place where its roots lay deeper? Consequently, all hope and all expectation turned from day to day more towards social democracy. Law and order began to wane; the revolutionaries became more bold; they were ready for everything and dared everything because they felt that the times were in their favour. After the German Reichstag and the military command became involved in an acute struggle (July, 1917) on account of peace conditions, and since Czernin conducted a fearless battle against the leading German circles, which could not be concealed, also on account of the peace (April, 1917), the feeling increased more and more here that we were the prisoners of our ally. The feeling spread that a knot had been tied about our necks by the aid of which Prussian militarism would cast us into the abyss if this Gordian knot was not cut by the sword of the revolution. Pessimism was at work for a long time to undermine our will-power. This pessimism now spread from above, and it was only from above that this pessimism could have been defeated. Czernin had as little hope of victory as he had of peace—a fact which exercised a demoralizing influence upon him and upon the whole machine of the State. After the failure of the submarine war, the only