Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/43

 city life that they are leading. They are peasants who have only recently left the country. This situation has been still further aggravated by the war, contrary to what has taken place elsewhere; indeed, most of the skilled workmen of long standing have been taken away from their usual work and requisitioned for artillery regiments or other special army work, of which they form the élite, as remarkable for their technical ability as for their splendid moral. But their place has been filled in the works by fresh contingents of peasants, who are now in an overwhelming majority. They arrive from all parts of the country, and especially from the villages near the big towns. They are of all races and of all civilizations. Next to a Finn we find a Tartar. They have been taken out of their proper environment, and there we see them uprooted, with no common traditions, without that restraint that custom brings. They have no sense of political liberty, since absolutism has prevented their acquiring it. They have but a rudimentary knowledge of political organization, their Trades Unions having before the war