Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/153

 instance of depredation. On the contrary, at every step we had fresh instances of the extreme respect of the Russians for the rights of the population in the occupied country. And this is not only because of their affinity of race and language. The peasant, for instance, has not made a very good impression upon the Russian soldier, who accuses the native of exploiting him and making him pay very much too dear for food.

It would be an exaggeration to state that the population manifests anything that would remotely resemble enthusiasm for Russia. The Ruthuanians, properly speaking, are the only ones who look upon the Russians as their liberators. The greater part of the peasant population obviously take no interest in the war as a political event; they think of it only with regard to its effect upon their immediate material interests. They submit with indifference to the flux and reflux of the occupations, alternately Russian and Austrian, and only try to get what profit they can out of both armies, while a minority, composed of a part of the