Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/22

 10 tried to overthrow the Revolution and promised to induce or to compel Russia to fight again. Only think of the British public and Press exalting and acclaiming Counter-Revolution in Russia! Anything more monstrous it was difficult to imagine.

And after all that has happened there are still people in this country who are sincerely astonished, and ask how it has come about that Russia's great affection towards this country has after the Revolution so suddenly been replaced by suspicion and mistrust? And the very newspapers which are chiefly responsible for the deplorable change rush in with an easy explanation of "German intrigue."

Not for the first or last time in the course of the war they have used "German intrigue" as a cover for their own ignorance or blunders. But in this instance the interdependence between the vilification of the Revolution in British and French newspapers and on the platform and the change in Russia's attitude towards the Allies is too clear. The part of "German intrigue" in destroying Anglo-Russian friendship we do not know. It may be great or small. But with the sinister rôle of a section of the British Press and politicians we are unfortunately only too well acquainted.

But whatever was the origin of the "intrigue" which led to the attempt to pervert the causes and the meaning of the Revolution, to-day there can be not the least doubt that:

(1) The Revolution was not caused by the treachery of the Court, the immorality of the Empress or the foul influence of Rasputin. On the contrary, the treachery of the Court was a desperate attempt to save the Tsardom from the coming Revolution.

(2) The Revolution was neither bellicose nor pacifist. It came not for the sake of a better prosecution of the war nor to end the war. The only aim of the Revolution was to save Russia from ruin and destruction. But, in view of Russia's exhaustion and the process of disintegration, the Revolution had only one way out—i.e.,