Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/161

 nothing but the mechanical impassibility of the disciplined soldiers; but in the mass crowded around us we could read intense curiosity.

But as soon as our interpreter, who translated each sentence, had said in Russian the first words, "This red flag under which you are fighting is also our own, …" there broke forth an amazing deafening burst of delirious applause. Frantic hurrahs drowned the music of the "Marseillaise" and the "Brabançonne" which the military bands began playing at full blast. And so it was after each sentence, after every allusion to the sufferings of Belgium, to the solidarity between the Allies, to the responsibility of the Russian Revolution with regard to international socialism, and the necessity of safeguarding our honour by breaking by a determined offensive the inactivity on the eastern front.

The advice of friends who understood the psychology of the Russian people, and a certain amount of experience gained from the audiences at Petrograd, Moscow, and Kieff, had taught us to be on our guard against the sometimes fleeting and childish