Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/462

 doned by Russia, they have created the Ukraine, to the great benefit of Austria and Germany; they have pushed with all their might the separatist tendencies of Finland, Poland, Lithuania and the Caucasus, and with a Rumanian army they have fought the Russian army. These states as soon as created, have fallen into the arms of our enemies, as it was easy for me to predict, while the Russian government, although weakened, lost in the conferences of Brest, a great part of its authority and prestige. In the Interior where the Allies have played the game of counter-revolution, they have aggravated the general disorder and precipitated the disorganization of this unfortunate country.

Before Brest, their indifference made Russia defenceless against the ignoble appetites of the Pan-Germans. After Brest, the hostility of the Allies is bound to push this nation, which does not want to die, into the camp of the enemy of yesterday who knows admirably well how to take advantage of our numerous errors. The Conservatives approached with enthusiasm the Austro-German governments from which they rightly expect the restoration of the old regime. The parties of the extreme Left, with a heavy heart, have to consent to this provisional reconciliation which necessarily must bring about their destruction, but which, prolonging their agony, maintains their hope for existence.

In spite of the modifications imposed by the censor you will find in the pages which I send you, abundant proof of what I say here.

These notes have been sent from Petrograd and from Moscow. Given to the care of the official Courier who left for France weekly, they have been addressed regularly to Albert Thomas, Jean Longuet, Ernest Laffont. Many of them have also been sent to other friends, to the Deputy Pressemane, to Pierre Hamp, Henri Barbusse, etc. Some of them must have been intercepted or gone astray. The majority reached their destination. I can see this from their answers dated as late as March. Since then communication by mail with the West has become extremely precarious.

Among these notes you will not find a single line which could form an official reproach as an indiscretion against an officer and member of the French Military Mission in Russia. As a matter of fact they contain nothing but the personal observations of a French citizen interested in observing the facts only as an impartial, open-minded witness. They are extracts of my conversations with leaders of Bolshevism and of the Opposition, which I could not pass by in silence.

I have a deep conviction that in giving you these documents, I am strictly doing my duty as a Socialist and a Frenchman. In doing this I have faith that you will not abuse my confidence.

I pray you to run through these notes and to communicate them to political men, to the philosophers and to the thinkers of France who in your opinion will be interested in reading them. Men such as Aulard, Gabriel Seailles, Maeterlinck and many others who after they know the truth, will be capable of enlightening our dear country. They will know how to prevent the sons of the great French Revolution from staining their names forever with such a crime as suppressing the great Russian Revolution, which in spite of many blunders, is still an admirable force of idealism and progress.