Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/126

 114 crisis they no doubt constituted a new argument for the German war party. But it is equally true that this revolutionary excitement stimulated the war-spirit at Tsarskoe Selo and strengthened the Russian war party no less. And from their point of view they were making no mistake. No sooner had the war-fever begun, than the threatening spirit of revolution subsided. All currents of thought melted into one boundless enthusiasm.

The war enthusiasm which has been manifested throughout the world during the last four years is a deeply interesting social phenomenon. The most striking thing is the fact that this war enthusiasm was universal, and appeared in the same form and to the same degree in the different countries. The war enthusiasm in Belgium and in this country is easy to understand. It was in one case the enthusiasm of a violated nation which was out in defence of its very life; in the other case a noble feeling for the defence of a small and heroic nation. But how is one to explain the war enthusiasm in a country like Roumania, which entered the war after two years of haggling and bartering with both camps? How is one to explain the war enthusiasm in Bulgaria which, in alliance with Turkey, was going to fight against Russia, its traditional liberator from the oppression of the Turks? Yet all observers are agreed that the enthusiasm was tremendous, even in Roumania and Bulgaria, and that it was of the same kind as in the other belligerent countries.

What then was this enthusiasm? Whence did it come? No doubt the chief element in this universal enthusiasm for war is to be explained by purely elementary fighting instincts and crowd psychology. But, apart from this general human or rather animal element, it had a great cause in the discontent of the world. The years before the war were a critical epoch not only in Russia but everywhere. Something was ripening, as it were; something, had to happen in the world. We were approaching a point of transition.