Page:Sarolea - Great Russia.djvu/217

Rh (3) So far, the peasants have given no unmistakable indication that their loyalty is shaken. No doubt the war has left a very deep impression, and I have myself witnessed in many parts of Russia heartrending scenes. In 1905 I saw thousands of families bidding farewell to young soldiers leaving for the Far East. But these disasters in the Far East have not been brought home to the Tsar himself. Such sporadic outbursts of discontent as have occurred in the army can be traced to the work of agitators, and have only affected those soldiers who have been bred or who have lived in large towns, and who therefore were already disloyal. Such agrarian riots as have taken place can be explained by the prevailing anarchy and by the temporary withdrawing of the strong hand of government. Such popular insurrections and wholesale massacres as have occurred have been directed not against the representatives of government, but against the Jews suspected of fomenting the revolution. I do not wish to enter into the very complicated question of settling the responsibility of these massacres; but the very fact of the accusation that the "black hundreds," the "tchornia sotnia," alone are made responsible, and that they have been able to