Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/206



We have already stated that no one in Russia seemed to consider a separate peace seriously. The Extremists themselves recognized that if Russia deserted the Allied cause she would be constrained to take up arms against them with Germany, in which conditions their desire for peace would not be gratified. But we were bound to observe, on the other hand, that German propaganda was active, that many Socialists were ultra-Pacifists, that after three years of war there is a consider- able feeling of war weariness among a large part of the population. Zimmerwald's theories have still, even now, a considerable influence on the Soviet, and even on certain members of the Provisional Government, who were, before accepting their present responsibilities, militant Zimmerwaldiens.

Still, during our short stay in Russia, it was possible already to notice the change which has since become more apparent in the feeling of the masses as among their Socialist leaders.

In the early days of the Revolution,