Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/265

Rh against Russia (page 44). Now the moment appeared to have arrived, which the German Social Democracy had already had, not infrequently, under consideration, and which (as even the most international of its members unequivocally declared) made it imperative on them to turn against Russia, and, if Russia were supported by France, also against the latter.

About the year 1900 Bebel declared that if it came to war with Russia, “the enemy of all culture and of all the oppressed, not only in her own country, but also the most dangerous enemy of Europe, and especially for us Germans,” he would “shoulder his gun.” He quoted and confirmed this declaration in 1907 at the Party Congress in Essen (Protocol, page 255).

Long before this Frederick Engels had given his views on this question when, in 1891, “the champagne orgy of Kronstadt had gone to the heads of the French bourgeoisie” the Franco-Russian Alliance was initiated, and France appeared to him “ripe for rather excessive follies in Russia's service.” At that time he considered it necessary lest, in case of a war, “any misunderstanding should arise at the last moment between the French and German Socialists,” to make clear to the former “what, according to my conviction, would be the necessary attitude of the latter in face of such a war.”

An article which he published in the “Almanach du parti ouvrier pour 1892” served this purpose.

It was based on the view that neither Germany nor France would provoke the war, for it would devastate both, without any gain whatsoever.

“Russia, on the other hand, protected by her geographical and economic position against the annihilating consequences of a defeat, Russia, official