Page:Sarolea - Great Russia.djvu/56

40 the Jews, the Tatar insurrectionists, as I saw myself in Tiflis, murdered the Armenians. I know full well that these massacres have been attributed to the Government itself, which wanted to create a diversion, carrying out the old device: Divide ut imperes. The massacres have been imputed to agents of the secret police, to the famous "black gang" or "tchornia sotnia." But I must frankly confess that I would rather believe in the most absurd legends of the Middle Ages, in the ritual murders, in the crimes of witches, than believe in the monstrous folly of a Government which would have organized those very riots and disorders which it was its vital interest to suppress. No doubt subordinate agents may have taken advantage of the prevailing anarchy to achieve their wicked ends; but they only obeyed their own evil instincts, not any order of the Government. How could the Government have organized massacres, when it had practically ceased to exist"? And let it not be said that such a design would be worthy of a "diabolical" Russian Government! For such a policy would not even deserve to be called "diabolical," it would be simply idiotic and imbecile, because any disorder would ultimately