Page:Michael Farbman - The Russian Revolution & The War (1917).djvu/21

 by three factors: actual diminution of yield, the depreciation of the currency and the breakdown of transport.

The story of the breakdown of transport, which did the greatest possible injury to the conduct of the war, is worth telling because it is extraordinarily instructive. In any case, the mere fact of war and its demands would have created a serious shortage of rolling-stock and confusion in railway transport. But there can be no doubt that the principal factor in creating the utter collapse of the railway system was the crazy mismanagement of the authorities. There was almost wholesale destruction of rolling-stock through sheer incompetence. I well remember a story which shocked Petrograd early in 1915 during the struggles for Warsaw. The War Office had to despatch strong reinforcements to the front at maximum speed. All traffic was stopped on the Petrograd-Warsaw Railway, and to double the carrying capacity the military authorities used both lines for traffic in the one direction. The consequence