Page:Michael Farbman - The Russian Revolution & The War (1917).djvu/27

 ality. You in England can hardly imagine what it is to be Fatherlandless. Every Englishman has had his Fatherland for centuries before his birth. In Russia, generation after generation has been born and has lived and died without knowing or feeling the full happiness and joy of having a country of its very own—a Fatherland. It is very hard to describe the complex attitude of mind of the Russians who, while having a passionate love for their country, have had that love starved and made sterile. Russia was always a harsh foster-mother to the vast mass of her people. As a consequence all that appertained to the State was thought strange and alien and tainted. Anyone in the employ or service of the State was, as it were, morally degraded by the fact of such employment. There was no respect even for State property. On the contrary, if anything belonged to the State it was marked down; and there was actually encouragement to damage or destroy it. A universal saying in Russia expresses this striking attitude: "It's the Government's, smash