Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/230

204

Prince Lvov is the head of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union, the splendid organization that carries on the work of mercy in Russia to-day, the results of whose activities were set forth in the March issue of The Russian Review. The following article was written by Prince Lvov for the Moscow "Russkiya Viedomosti."—Ed.

The War's conflagration shows no signs of abatement. The flames of ferocity are burning brighter and redder, covering larger and larger portions of the sky, throwing its sparks farther and farther around, kindling new conflagrations on every side...

The end of the War is not in sight.

Millions of the strongest and the best of men have been swept away. Such energy and strength have been expended as might have lasted for decades, or perhaps even whole centuries of peaceful life. Colossal wealth of nature, priceless achievements of human genius, great enough to have lasted for many generations, have been destroyed. And still there is no end in sight. This ruthless destruction, this merciless demolition, have, naturally, given grounds for considering this cruel War as likely to last until utter exhaustion, and the measure of this exhaustion is the only gauge of its probable duration.

But is this so? Is it possible that men are fighting simply for the sake of fighting, for the sake of destruction, demolition, with complete prostration as the end? Is it possible that this incredible exertion of all the powers of the civilized Western world, that all these incalculable sacrifices are nothing but an act of suicide on the part of humanity? Is it possible that the world is straining its utmost powers merely in order to become exhausted and desolate? Is it possible that there is no supreme creative power behind this dreadful tension?

The end of the War is not in sight because only now its real causes are beginning to be visible from beyond the clouds of dense smoke. Only now is it becoming clear that the War may last as long as it has already lasted; that it may stop, and begin again, but it cannot end with the mere victory of one set of destructive forces over another, or with their exhaustion. It