Page:Michael Farbman - The Russian Revolution & The War (1917).djvu/26

 Liberal bourgeoisie. For the cadets and their supporters the Revolution is still but a means; their ideal is still the fight to a finish, the "knock-out blow." Without intending reproach or blame the Russian people has again and again appealed to the West to abandon this illusion. It has done so through its Government, which has sent its successive Notes to the Allies, through organisations and congresses of the army and the workers and the peasants. In every possible form of manifestation the Russian democracy has endeavoured to make clear the real meaning of the Revolution. It has sought to make the West realise that to Russia the Revolution is not a means to victory, or a means at all, but the very end in itself, and itself the sole and highest victory that European democracy has achieved in the war.

Let us try to realise what the Revolution means. For Russia the Revolution is a coming into existence. Russia had no civilisation; Russia was not a nation; she was not even a State. That sounds rather like a paradox, but it describes a genuine re-