Page:Michael Farbman - The Russian Revolution & The War (1917).djvu/38

 Meanwhile, during this episode two months had been wasted, and those two months in time of Revolution, when everything is unsettled, changing, in a state of flux, is a very long period. During that period the situation had grown much worse. Disorganisationhad spread rapidly in the army. The financial crisis had become still more acute. The economic situation, food supply and transport, had almost reached the point of catastrophe. Russia emerged from this political crisis with a new Coalition Government representing more truly Revolutionary Russia, but weaker, less organised, less stable. In these two months Russia had been seriously robbed of her strength and her unity. It was now realised for the first time that it was not so easy after all to obtain peace. Then came a series of disappointments from outside.

The first was the cynical speech of Bethmann-Hollweg, in which he made it clear that Imperialistic Germany was not prepared to make any concessions, but that all she thought of was either