Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/150



After the outbreak of the war, there was a wonderful scene in the Russian Duma. One after another, deputies representing various nationalities of the Empire arose to declare the devotion of their peoples to the great cause for which Russia had gone to war and their determination to make every effort and every sacrifice in order that Russia with the allies should secure the victory over Germany and Austria. It was an amazing scene. To me it was a revelation. Through study I had come to the conclusion, the fixed conviction, that underlying all the divergent interests of the nationalities there was a sense of unity. For years we had heard of suffering and oppression, for years we had heard of protests from all sides of the Empire against police and government measures of all kinds, and it appeared on a superficial view that there was no general interest at all, that the various nationalities were simply waiting for an opportunity to break away from Russia, that Russia at the first shock might fall asunder. That I could not believe, but these declarations in the Duma showed me as I had never realised before that Russia with all her variety was one, and that in a great moment of history, when she realised her purpose and her