Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/197

 Rh 'Bravo the armies of the Revolution,' 'Down with politics,' and one which summed up all the rest in the words 'Unity and victory.' For many hours cheering' crowds of the better class of people—with hardly any uniforms visible except, here and there, those of stray officers of the Allies, one of whom made a speech in Russian—remained before the Mariansky Palace listening to the speakers. Other crowds proceeded to visit the Allied Embassies. Before the British Embassy, where M. Miliukov spoke, an unpleasant incident was caused by an attempt at a hostile demonstration on the part of soldiers of the regiment whose barracks are near the Embassy across the Champ de Mars. …" It was indeed a holiday in "the imperialistic street." For them the renaissance had begun.

The democracy were faced with the accomplished fact. There was deep anxiety for the immediate future. They knew that active hostilities would now inevitably break out on all fronts, and that the condition of the army would not enable it to bear the strain. They were very angry, for they realised that this small success in Galicia was bought at the price of the loss of all their great hopes for a general democratic peace. They knew that the German militarists would be only too glad to interpret this Russian offensive as a provocation and to have a pretext for carrying into effect the long-cherished desire to aim a blow at revolutionary Russia. But they had now no choice. They had to support the war policy, which they had rejected all the time as being unable to lead to a democratic peace. They sent greetings to the Galician front and appeals to the army inspiring them to fight with all their courage for the Revolution. The Bolsheviks alone remained aloof, and from this moment the hostility between them and the moderates became more implacable.

Meanwhile the Germans and Austrians, who had been taken by surprise, recovered and made a strong thrust, and in proportion as their attack increased in intensity the morale of the artificially conglomerated Russian