Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/141

 foresee. Certainly the Russians showed during the first weeks of the revolutionary era a credulity all the more admirable in that it comes less from their profound ignorance of everything foreign than from a temperament which, after all, is very sympathetic. There is something touching in the almost mystic ardour with which the Russians cling to the idea of the fraternity of all humanity, and the naïve and hospitable confidence with which they greet any one who comes from other lands with manifestations of friendship. But there is, unfortunately for those who try to exploit his credulity in an unscrupulous manner, another side to the picture as soon as the inevitable and final disillusion manifests itself. The disillusioned moujik feels against the person who has abused his good faith a resentment all the keener the greater his belief has been.

It is said even that towards the end of the era of fraternization certain so-called enemy parliamentarians have been aware of this to their cost. At the time of our visit to the south-western and southern fronts every one of them had begun to