Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/193

 that is the second part of the problem of the moral reconstruction of the Russian front. It is, we must admit, the more delicate and difficult, and it is, moreover, not easy for observers, more or less superficial, to give a definite opinion.

We need not deny that the first effect of Revolution on the army was purely destructive. The Russian armies were certainly reduced even before the Revolution to lamentable impotence, because of the disorganization and the demoralization of the nation, for which the Czar's rule was to blame, and which was, moreover, the cause of its downfall. In this point of view the Revolution only brought to light a deplorable situation, which, had it been prolonged, would have led Russia inevitably to a separate peace.

But at least the army held together. It kept its outward appearance, thanks to the discipline, to the blind obedience that reigned in it. The Revolution put an end to this discipline completely, upsetting the hierarchy on which it was based. Now it is quite true that the Russian army may have gained enormously by replacing this