Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/134

 122 the disaster in East Prussia, was never investigated. People had a fixed idea that Rennenkampf was in collusion with the Germans, and yet nothing was done by the Government. Rennenkampf's name was simply dropped from the official reports, and no more was heard of him. This naturally gave rise to the suspicion that some high personage might be shielding him.

The Court and the militarists, who had started out on a victorious war as a means of preventing revolution, began to see that the war, if unsuccessful, might have just the opposite effect. And from that moment they lived in a perpetual dread of revolution, and their one thought was of how to prevent it. Their anxiety increased as the war went on, for they saw that the war was spending their best and most trusted forces. The enormous casualties in the Imperial Guards and other ultra-loyal units during the heroic offensive in East Prussia were realised as a severe blow to the potential strength of the Government in case of a rebellion. Those who were not killed in that offensive became inspired with a more real patriotism and permeated with hatred and indignation against the corrupt and inefficient Government. The Court began to look about for new sources of strength. Then began the game which became known in Russia as "political leap-frog": I refer to the feverish and repeated changes of Ministers, notably of Ministers of the Interior. Every adventurer who came to the Tsar with an elaborate scheme for checkmating the forces of revolution was received with open arms. The idea of crushing the coming Revolution by efficient police forces is generally attributed to Protopopov. It is true that Protopopov specially trained the police for the coming Revolution and equipped it with machine guns. But as a matter of fact all his predecessors during the war paid great attention to the police forces, and foresaw that in case of Revolution the police would have to take the place of the depleted Guards.

There is a very remarkable parallelism between the