Page:René Marchand - Why I Side with the Social Revolution (1920).pdf/13

 into a policy of „national dignity“ and „firmness“. Let us not forget that had it not been for the considerable moral support rendered to M. Sasonoff by the „liberal opposition“ such a policy might very well have horrified the latter, who was a man of very mild character, very religions and of an essentially pacific nature.

Finally notwithstanding the warm and profoundly sincere sympathies of several of its members towards France and French culture, the Cadet Party had never been a Francophile Party. Of Germanic temperament and turn of mind, no less than its Finnish friends, Svinhufvud & Co, the Cadet Party, since the commencement of the war, had been induced to throw itself heart and soul into an admiration, which was in some respects an exclusive admiration, of the English monarchy, the Parliamentarism, Constitution and the traditions of Great Britain. In this admiration which was often intentionally exaggerated I was often able to remark traces of an antipathy, if not disdain for France, as well as a complete and willful misunderstanding of the prodigious effort made by France during the war; a flagrant injustice towards the French army, that is to say towards the French people. It is not my intention to mention any names in these notes. It will suffice if I restrict myself to pointing out that, having my own experiences of Russian life and having been able to penetrate intimately into its interior, I had often the occasion to overhear edifying remarks on this point, which, as far as we were concerned, had no more real justification than the famous cry of indignation uttered by the President of the Duma, Rodzianko: „What are