Page:Michael Farbman - The Russian Revolution & The War (1917).djvu/19

 most call it the prevailing sport, in the vast army of profiteers, contractors, and the nouveaux riches to pay fabulous prices for champagne and foreign liquors, simply because their sale and consumption were prohibited by law.

This Bacchanalia of millions spread even to the newspaper world too. The newspapers of Russia hitherto had been in the best sense of the word non-capitalistic undertakings, but on the eve of the Revolution a sensation was made in Russia by the news of the foundation by Protopopoff of a new great daily that reeked of millions. It was recognised as a challenge to the good traditions of the Russian Press.

The peasants, who in the first year of war had benefited from the great Government orders and had begun for the first time in their lives to have a surplus for saving, discovered by and by that in spite of the plentifulness of money they were no better off; on the contrary, they found that their condition was becoming worse, that it was becoming more