Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/184

 172 Allied Press, which had never been very friendly since the Revolution, began to adopt an arrogant and contemptuous tone. During the Miliukov crisis, Chernov reproached the Provisional Government with speaking to the Allies in the tone of a poor relation. This reproach could be applied with equal justice to the Coalition Government of which Chernov himself was a member. But the real cause of this lack of self-respect was the attitude of the Allies, who began by degrees to treat Russia really as a "poor relation." The Allies began to remonstrate with Russia. The Allied Ambassadors made a démarche and reproached the Government for the lack of discipline in the Russian army. The Allies put forward demands: Russia should "fulfil her duty as an ally." At last the question of the revision of the treaties was made to depend on the military activities of Russia. The Allies brought pressure to bear on the Russian Government, and demanded that the Russian army should begin an immediate offensive.

To-day it is a matter of common knowledge that the July offensive of the Russian army was the gravest and most fatal blunder of Kerenski and the Russian high command. It was more than a blunder. It was the heaviest crime any statesman could have committed. It was equivalent to staking the whole fate of the Revolution and the very existence of Russia as an independent State on one very doubtful move.

History will never forgive Kerenski and his associates for this crime. But its judgment of him will be mitigated by the fact that he was acting under an appalling pressure from the Allies.