Russia's agony

Preface

To MY Readees:

In the following pages I speak of Russian affairs with the experience of an observer who has lived from early boyhood among the Russian people and has shared with them their joys and their sorrows.

"Russia's Agony" was written in compliance with a personal call and with the discharge of a public duty; it combines a human document with a historical treatise. Men, events and conditions have, I believe, been dealt with in a spirit of fairness, for although the original edition of this book was begun and completed a year ago, the storm and stress of later developments call for no substantial changes. That a comprehensive account of Russia from the inside was in demand has been shown by the rapid exhaustion of several impressions of this work, and indicated by the publication of an American edition.

Serious study of Russian affairs is more than ever important, and even necessary, for every thinking man and woman, not only because of the ignorance that prevails on the subject — a great handicap to us in the War — ^but because of the great social drama that has been staged in that country. Since her collapse, Russia has become the focus of social unrest throughout the world. Bolshevism — a foe more deadly to our civilization than German Militarism — cannot be effectively combated unless we understand the circumstances of its origin and working, indissolubly connected with the so-called Russian Revolution — a Revolution that has still to justify its name.

The questions that have been put to me so often will rise to the reader's lips: "What is Bolshevism.?" and "Why did

vii viii PREFACE

the Russians succumb to its influences?" This book answers them in full. Here I give a few preliminary outlines:

Bolshevism demands an immediate application of Socialistic ideals. Its protagonists care not by what methods or with whose help they carry out their experiment. Bolshevism recognizes no nationality, no society, no family — nothing but a conglomeration of manual workers governed bj "idealists" with the help of a Red Army. It is essentially un-democratic ; it involves the forcible subversion of all the laws and covenants upon which human society has been established.

Why then has it obsessed the Russian people? There were predisposing conditions, some permanent, others accidental. A mystic idealism combined with singular proneness to mass action have long characterized the Russians; the suiferings and perplexities of the war have affected with peculiar intensity an ignorant and illiterate people in an ill-governed State. Planted in such favorable soil, the seeds of Bolshevism induced a veritable psychic disorder which defeated — temporarily at least — the fair promise of the Revolution and has spread its contagion to other lands.

The Bolshevist experiment has been applied. Russia to-day is a desolate land; millions of its inhabitants are unclothed and dying of hunger ; all the sufPer^'ngs of the war are as nothing in comparison with the first-fruits of Bolshevism; and, naturally, the workers have suffered most, as they must invariably suffer from any assault upon the social fabric. In Russia to-day the masses, deprived of remunerative toil, despoiled of their savings and even of their bread to feed a ravening horde of mercenaries, are closing their account with Bolshevism. The reaction has already come, sweeping and intense as was the collapse. The Bolshevist garrison in and around Moscow feels the mutterings of the coming storm. Like Ludendorff, it is preparing a final assault. The plundered billion of Russia's gold reserve, the co-operation of the "Blond Beast" and the sentimental ignorance of cranks or enthusiasts in other lands provide for-

PREFACE ix

midable weapons of offense. Like their friends in Berlin the Bolsheviki dispose of a vast propaganda fund, which even now makes its insidious power felt in all countries, beclouding the public conscience.

Germany's ruthless attempt to dominate the world will not have failed until Bolshevism is overthrown. The lists are still open, Germany, bleeding and distraught, has an unconquered ally in Bolshevism. By sapping the bases of our national life, Berlin still hopes to destroy the fruits of our Victory. Until the evil has been reached in its present stronghold, Moscow, and Russia has revived to new nationhood the German conspiracy will not have been crushed — there can be no real peace in the world.

Bolshevism is not Russian — it is essentially non-national ; its leaders belong almost entirely to the race that lost its country and its nationhood long ago. In April, 1918, the Bolshevist "Government," including 384 "Peoples' Commissaries," was represented by 2 negroes, 13 Russians, 15 Chinamen, 22 Armenians and Georgians, and more than 300 Jews. Of the last 264 had come to Russia from the United States during the "Revolution."

Let us awaken to the full significance of this phenomenon. Let us, before all, make reparation to the race that gave us our religion, the very basis of our civilization ; let us restore the Jews to their country and to their nationhood. It will be but an act of sacred Justice; it will also be a means of social salvation. The liberation of Palestine from Turkish thralldom and its promised return to the Chosen Race have been rightly heralded and acclaimed by Jew and Gentile alike.

We have fought in order to assure the unfettered progress of nations towards universal brotherhood by placing national life on the sure foundations of peace, ordered liberty and social justice. At a great price we have won this boon for ourselves and for other nations, cementing with our blood a comradeship that eschews class privileges and distinctions. Is this great step in human progress — with all its inevitable

X PREFACE

sacrifices — ^to be imperiled by a mere handful of madmen, seeking to destroy the very existence of nations ? The people of the United Kingdom have given their response in the electoral consultation which has just been concluded. Who can doubt that France and the United States will be equally emphatic?

Russia has to voice her sentiment otherwise. The time for peaceful expression will come when the hostile garrison of Bolshevism and its German supporters have been driven out. What form of government may then be adopted by the free decision of the Russian people concerns only themselves. Three centuriei^ ago they elected a Tsar of the Romanovs. The elements of a true democracy were embodied in the Zemsky Sobor, or Assembly of the Land. But Russia then was dominated by Byzantine tradition, and later by German influence. The voice of the people was dulled by these un-Russian forces. Freed of their deadening power, Russia will assert the principles of justice and true democracy that are inherent to the Russian character. Her troubles came not from the Monarchy, but from the alien influences that the Monarchy imbibed. The German incubus will have been removed ere Russia can revive.

Of that revival I perceive sure and certain promise. I believe that the Russian people were destined to play an exalted part in the advancement of mankind, and that the day wiU soon dawn when the peoples of the world will duly appreciate the sacrifices that the Russians have endured, not less than the services that they render to the common cause of humanity. It is with this confidence that I am leaving the hospitable shores of America to rejoin my Russian comrades in the great adventure of this unparalleled war — the restoration of Russia.

R. W.

January 4, 1919.

Chapter I Page

Introduction . 1

PART I— SLAVDOM, THE TATARS, AND AUTOCRACY CHAPTER n

Origins, Rise, and Decline 7

CHAPTER ni BxmEAVCRACY AND Okhrana . . . • > . 15

CHAPTER IV The National Conscience . . . • , . 22

CHAPTER V Razputinism and the Court . . • / ^» • • 30

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER Vn

The Jews • ^f • • 54

CHAPTER Vin

Conditions OF Upheaval . . . ^ -^ - ^ ^ gj

xi xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX

PAGB

CHAPTER X Revolutionary Parties . . . . . . . 93

PART 11—" DEMOCRACY r " SOCIALISM^ AND " FREEDOM "

CHAPTER XI The Revolution 101

CHAPTER XII The Soviet, " Coalition," and Bolshevism . . 132

CHAPTER XIII Abdication and After . 151

CHAPTER XIV Mutiny op the Sailors 165

CHAPTER XV " No Annexation and No Indemnity " ... 173

CHAPTER XVI

PART III— RUSSIA AT WAR CHAPTER XVn The Outbreak of Hostilities 197

CONTENTS xui

CHAPTER XVIII

PAGE

CHAPTER XIX Soldau-Tannenberg and After . . . . • 224

CHAPTER XX *• The Hun within the Gates " . . , . . 240

CHAPTER XXI Nationality Problems 247

CHAPTER XXII Short-lived Victory 262

CHAPTER XXIII The Bolshevist Betrayal 280

PART IV—KORNILOV AND THE COSSACKS CHAPTER XXIV The Fight with Bolshevism 295

CHAPTER XXV The Hope of Russia . 315

Conclusion

CHAPTER XXVI The New Russia 331 xiv CONTENTS

PAOB

Appendix I — ^Declaration of the Progressive Bloc . 841

Appendix II — ^The "Soldiers' Charter" . . . 344

Appendix III — ^Foreign Trade op Russia • , . 347

ILLUSTRATIONS

The AtJTHOR • . Frontispiece

PAGE

Gregory Razputin and His "Devotees'* ..•••• 38

Nicholas II with His Son and Daughters 46

The Tsab and His Ministers 78

Soldiers' and Sailors' "Delegates" in the Dxtma .... 142

The Garden op Captivity 158

One op the "Army Committees" 174

Early Ideals op the Revolution 182

Free Joy Rides fob Revolutionary Soldiers 190

Russia's Fighting Generai^ 198

The Grand Duke Nicholas when Generalissimo Conversing with

AN Army Chaplain ... 206

Caucasian Native Horse Division in the Carpathians . . . 214

The Savages in the Carpathians 222

"Meeting Strategy" 230

General L. G. Kornilov 238

General M. V. Alexeiev 238

Amazons at Prayers 262

Stampeded by the Bolshevik 302

Type op Kuban Cossack 318

General Kaledin 326

Lenin and Trotsky 326

IV

MAPS

PAGX

Plan op the Citt of Pbtrogbad 113

Russia's Northern Communications in 1917 241

The Russian Battle-line 265

Map Showing the Principal Places Mentioned in the Account op Operations in the Directions of Bzhezany and Zlochow (July, 1917) 278

Map Illustrating the Russian Offensive and Retreat in Gamcia (July. 1917) 287

The Russl^n Offensive in 1916 293

Map of Russia Showing Distribution of Cossack Armies and theib Possible Communication with Aliied Countries. Also Distribution op Principal Coal and Oil Fields . . . Facing 347

CHAPTER I

Introduction

Inspired by conceptions of government borrowed from the adjacent Empire of Byzantium, the Russian autocracy was destined, like its protagonist, to enjoy prosperity so long as it avoided direct conflict with powerful neighbors, and, having exceeded this rule, to suffer a gradual process of internal decay and of external disaster. The influences of western civilization ever acted as a dissolvent upon the eastern system of autocracy.

Weakened and retarded in their development by successive waves of Tatar invasion, the Russian people were long in manifesting any decisive tendency to eschew Asiatic in preference for western models. Peter the Great foresaw and prepared his coimtry for the coming change. His successors, devoid of his genius, interpreting his clear-sighted endeavor to reach the open sea as a mere lust for conquest, remained oblivious to the inward teaching of his reign. They introduced reforms tardily, under the stress of circumstance, never anticipating the dangers of delay except by specious methods of police repression which served only to intensify — even if they concealed — the fires of discontent.

Over a century ago Russian oflScers, returning from the Napoleonic wars, organized the first revolutionary movement in Russia. The disastrous Crimean War half a century later, revealing the internal weakness of Russia, led to the emancipation of the serfs and great administrative and judicial reform ^ in the sixties. In the intervals the autocracy had reverted towards reaction, which was enhanced by the successful war against Turkey, undertaken for the liberation of the Balkan Slavs and — as the irony of internal politics demanded — ^for the strengthening of despotism in Russia.

Yet another fifty years later a war against Japan, lightly entered upon from analogous " internal" motives, led to widespread disorders, which could be repressed then, and to a marked development of a constitutional movement, which had to be satisfied. The semi-Constitution of October, 1905, introducing Representative Government, was followed by another period of reaction and by the further development of the ohhrana or secret police system, which belittled and discredited the Duma in the eyes of the masses. Temperance — long urged by the Duma, and at last ordained by Imperial Edict in the early part of 1914 — opened the eyes of the peasant masses, while it enhanced their material prosperity.

The great war with Germany thus found Russia unprepared — her ruler and her people devoid of an organic bond of union. The popularity of the struggle, its humane and exalted aims, were soon overshadowed by internal differences and by the maladministration and abuses of the Old Regime.

Razputinism, symbolizing the superstitions and favoritism of a Court severed from vivifying contact with the People, undermined the prestige of the Throne and of the Church among the masses.

The blessings of temperance bestowed by the autocrat

* These included local government by provincial and district Zemstvos elected by all classes, including a numerous contingent of peasants and municipal councils (Dumas) elected by a property suflFrage, also reform of the Law Courts, assuring "speedy and merciful justice," and introduction of trial by jury.

INTRODUCTION S

proved a fatal gift for the autocracy. The masses only realized more clearly the evils of the autocratic rule. They were many. Disorganization in army supply had involved unnecessary losses of men and territory during the war. Corruption in high places and disorder in railway management had brought about a dearth of food in the cities. Millions of men were needlessly called to the colors. These factors, sufficient in themselves to shake the loyalty of the troops and the people, were aggravated by persistent unwillingness or inabihty on the part of the autocrat to comply with warnings that had been repeatedly conveyed to him by the representatives of the nation, and even by the Allies, as to the urgent need of Responsible Government.

When he at last gave way in March, 1917, it was too late; the Revolutionary movement — ^prepared long beforehand — had already acquired too great an impetus to afford the Moderate parties an opportunity for immediate and effective resistance.

History offers nothing comparable with the events of 1917. An empire covering one-sixth of the world's territories and numbering upwards of 180,000,000 souls suddenly cast off its government and remained bereft of authority, of law, and of order for a prolonged period in the very midst of a great war. The human imagination is overwhelmed by the dimensions of the Russian Revolution. Other countries felt its influences, good and bad, profoundly. Its dramatic incidents and lessons, the pathetic fall of the autocrat, a promise of revival followed by disasters that seemed to be irreparable — all these themes engage our curiosity and arrest our attention. Good and evil are closely interwoven in the Revolutionary record. The evil came uppermost, but the good was bound to survive. One great benefit it has already conferred upon Russia and her friends is the awakening of a deeper interest in her affairs and a desire to know the real truth about her.

An old woman threw a stone at a baker's shop-window and "started" the Russian Revolution. Some days later, in March, 1917, I was standing in the vast square that faces the dull red pile of the Winter Palace, and saw soldiers and civilians, men and women, pulling down the black and yellow standard of the autocracy. It had floated from the high flagstaff surmounting the main gateway ever since that proud building had replaced the humble Dutch cottage — still one of the show places of his metropolis — wherein two centuries ago Peter the Great had made his abode during the foundation of the city that was to be his "window into Europe."

Crude withal and unpolished, his genius, like an uncut diamond of finest water, had shed a new light amid the shadows of Muscovy. Breaking all resistance, severing himself from the trammels of semi-Asiatic tradition, he had boldly, far-sightedly launched and steered the ship of State towards the West. Was this removal of its emblems to be prophetic merely of the end of autocracy .^^ Or was I witnessing the logical sequel to the great work that Peter had begun — the final passing of Russia into the communion of western nations?

The yellow folds, emblazoned with the black doubleheaded eagle, had been adopted by John the Third, on his marriage to a Byzantine princess. It symbolized the union of temporal and spiritual power wielded by the autocrator over Constantinople and the Roman Empire of the East. That symbol had been the guiding motto of Russia's rulers since the days of the Terrible One. In its place, amid the plaudits of the assembled crowd, the Red Flag of Revolution was soon afterwards

INTRODUCTION 5

hoisted, brazenly announcing the end of the autocratic era. Some weeks went by, and, under the mellowing influence of wind and weather, its sanguinary hue faded perceptibly, gradually assuming a dull gray tone. The process of time was to exert a like influence upon the shortsighted enthusiasm of the multitude. Wild and dangerous visionaries, acting largely in collusion with the country's foes, applied Socialistic " ideals." Political chimera was to lead to disillusion and apathy, interrupted by sporadic joy and depression as the ephemeral success of the Revolution alternated with crushing disasters in the field and a shameful peace.

Other thoughts and reminiscences obtruded themselves amidst the turmoil of that eventful day and in that historical square. It had witnessed the loyal outpourings of an emancipated people, when the peasant serfs knelt in gratitude before Alexander II. Here also, when the Great War began, a hundred thousand people acclaimed Nicholas II, forgetting the innocent blood that had been shed within its precincts a decade earlier. Then men, women, and children had come to seek the countenance of their Little Father, desiring a larger measure of freedom, and were received with bullets; now they were avenging that ghastly blunder, dominated by long pent-up feelings of revolt.

We had attained at last a closer communion with Russia, and were bound together by the ties of a common interest against a common enemy, only to find the great cause of Country and Freedom, that we had at heart, tragically weakened by Russia's internal troubles — a temporary weakening, it was to be hoped. But upon our comprehension of its causes and of the remedies that were to be an indispensable condition of recovery would depend the future of Russia and of her Allies.

PART I SLAVDOM, THE TATARS, AND AUTOCRACY CHAPTER n

ORIGINS, RISE, AND DECLINE

The Conflict between Slavdom and the Tatars — Early Civilization Overwhelmed — Republics and Principalities give place to Tsardom — ^The Autocracy — Its Greatness — Its Evils.

At the dawn of history the Slav — last-come of the races that migrated from Asia — gradually colonized the vast domain familiar to us under the names of Serbia, Bohemia, Poland, Galicia, and Russia. Originally pagan tribal communities, they slowly developed into Christian principalities and republics — an evolutionary process called forth and stimulated by circumstances of an economic order.

The great rivers of northern Slavdom — the Vistula, the Dvina, and the Dnieper, with their tributaries, and later the Volga — afforded natural avenues for commerce in the exchange of European commodities — largely dominated by the Hansa cities of the Baltic — with Asiatic markets: Byzantium, Persia, India, and Siberia. And the dwellers by these rivers became the sturdiest and most enterprising representatives of the Northern Slav peoples. Their descendants have preserved these traits. Among them are the Cossacks of the Dnieper, the Don, and the Volga, and the Pomory (literally By-the-sea dwellers) of the Far North.

In what is now European Russia we find in the early Middle Ages flourishing commercial organizations, like the republics of Pskov and Novgorod, doing much business with the Hansa and the principality of Kiev, acting as an entrepot for trade with Byzantium. Those enterprising sea-rovers, the Vikings, who were keen traders as well as fighters, gradually imposed themselves upon the northern Slavs. Hence arose the legend of Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor, the Variag, or Norse brethren, who came to "rule over" these communities. The Norman conquest of northern France and England was attended by circumstances not less far-reaching.

By and by they acquired a permanent status, and their descendants figure largely in the early chronicles of Russia. Among them was Alexander Nevsky, who drove back the Swedes (his ancestors) and Finns many centuries before the time of Peter the Great. Earlier still, Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko (Little Red Sun) had reigned in Eaev and converted his people to Christianity. He was so well beloved that his name still lives in the memory of simple Russian peasants. Both these Grand Dukes were canonized by the Church. Descendants of " Rurik" associated themselves with their people, and largely, thanks to their spirit of duty and self-sacrifice, the nation did not " go under " during the sad times of Tatar domination. Li order to obtain investiture from the Khan they had to travel countless miles — to Mukden, a whole year on the road through Siberia — and to debase themselves in sign of homage; and some never returned.

It is said that the name " Rus " was borne by a Norse tribe, and that the Dnieper warriors coming to Constantinople to vindicate the rights of their merchants were so styled by the Byzantines. The name "Rusfian" would thus appear to be of Norse origin.

The Tatars converted the Dnieper Valley into a wilderness. Kiev lay in ruins for two centuries, until it was if .\ ORIGINS, RISE, AND DECLINE 9

sians of to-day.

Russia's "center of gravity" was lost for a time. Many small "dukedoms" had, however, "budded off" north and eastward, which were later to form a new "center" in Muscovy. To this new country came settlers from the Dnieper, the Dvina, and the Volkhov, bringing the names of their original abodes. Thus Nizhni (Lower) N6vgorod on the Volga recalled Veliky (Great) N6vgorod, the Northern Dvina recalled the river of the Baltic; many place-names in Little Russia were duplicated jnGxeat Russia.

A nej? and larger State thus arose. It had attracted numerous elements from the disturbed oTcr dirty (borders), where Swedes, Lithuanians, Poles, and German "knights" alternately made incursions. It developed the concomitants of statehood — a defensive and administrative apparatus, necessarily crude in its earlier forms, but essentially Russian. The servants of the State were called tidglye liudi (burden-bearers). They had to appear honno i zhruyno (horsed and harnessed) at the summons of the voyevoda (war leader), as the local official was called. When the Tatar raids began to molest Muscovy the people naturally preferred the shelter of strong or less affected dukedoms or voyevodstva. In order to put a stop to these migrations and prevent a weakening of the country's defenses, the settlers or laborers were "bonded" to the local administrator or pomieshckik (fief -holder), land tenure being conditional to military obligations. This measure of State defense afterwards degenerated into the enslavement of the peasants to the pomieshchik — a name that came to be applied to landowners. Such was the origin of serfdom.

Without attempting to give more than an outline of the broad aspects of early Russian history, I think it is important to note that the Russian people displayed in remote times a spirit of enterprise and freedom, and that extraneous circumstances subsequently dulled the one and quenched the other. Wave after wave of Asiatic invasion swept over Russia, effacing the landmarks of national growth, and preparing the way for the reign of autocracy, wherein the people saw their only hopes of salvation. In this view they were confirmed by the teachings of the Church.

Autocratic Russia, like its Asiatic predecessors, waxed in might, majesty, and dominion, in the end subjugating other nations, yet remaining herself nationally undeveloped, and, like the Tatar empires of the East, bound to disclose inherent elements of weakness whensoever she came into decisive collision with the progressive nations of the West.

If we carry the parallel farther, we find the subjugation of more highly civilized races was in itself a source of disintegration. The Tatars left a deep and abiding impression upon Russia, yet, weakened, disrupted, and subjugated, the Russians in the end destroyed the power of the Khans. Similarly, by conquest of the Teutonic and Polish borderlands, the Russian autocracy prepared the way for its own downfall. Had Peter the Great not "opened a window," through which western influences forced themselves headlong into the Asiatic calm of Muscovy, had his successors not laid violent hands upon Lithuania and Poland, through which extraneous, disintegrating elements gained admission into the heart of Russian politics, the history of Russia would have been a very different one.

The autocracy could endure only on one condition: that, like the despotisms of China or Turkey, it sedulously avoided active intervention in the affairs of other States. Alexander I having sent his armies into France, his oflScers, on returning home, conspired to overthrow the autocracy. This was the famous Decembrist plot.

ORIGINS, RISE, AND DECLINE 11

which nearly cost his successor the Throne. When Nicholas I subdued the Magyar revolution in defense of the Hapsburg Crown, he blindly furthered the cause of German world-power, the foundation of which had been laid by former autocrats in starting the Elector of Brandenburg on a career of Empire. The military power of Germany and Austria, with which the Russians and their Allies have engaged in a battle to the death, owes its development to the mistakes of the autocracy, which perished during the war. The Slavophil idea, which prompted the emancipation of Bulgaria, had directly and indirectly sapped the foundations of autocracy. Russia came into the anomalous position of a State that conferred political freedom upon other nations without enjoying it herself. Exalted, humane ideals inspired the autocrats, but were fatal to the autocracy. When Alexander I pledged his word to the Finns to safeguard their civic liberties, he intended to gradually extend the same to his own people, but he found it impossible to do so without sacrificing the autocracy.

The election of the Romanovs three centuries ago did not affect the status of the autocracy, as some students of history would have us believe. Election by the people did not presume a change of principle: it was merely an expedient necessitated by default in the succession. The Tsar Michael Fedorovich and his successors were autocrats enjoying the mystical, unquestioned, and unquestionable power wielded by John the Terrible. In the language of the people they were Bdtiushka Tsar (Little Father); they impersonated the absolute, God-given authority of the Parent of the State, to whom all owed blind obedience, whose word alone was law, who had the power of life and death over all his children. The besotted German who reigned in Petrograd more than a century ago under the style of Peter III,i ignor-

1 Strangled by order of his wife, who became Catherine the Great.

ant of the language of his subjects, reviling their Church, was none the less an autocrat in the eyes of Russia. The power of the autocracy was so great, so exalted, that it retained its hold upon the people till very recent times. What more striking example can be given than the effect of the Tsar's edict on temperance. Nicholas II could boast with reason that only the autocracy had the power to suddenly convert the Russian nation to total abstinence.

We cannot understand the causes of the Russian Revolution unless we gain a clear insight into the essence of autocracy, its grandeur as well as its weakness. Why has Russian history during the past century been marked and marred by spasmodic attempts to enlarge the social framework, followed by periods, more or less prolonged, of obscure, apparently senseless and hopeless, reaction? Why were the latter days of Alexander II poisoned by a seeming repudiation of the bright promise contained in his emancipation of the Serfs .^^ Old age had not made him a despot. What idea inspired his successor to insist upon the repression of all liberal principles .f^ Yet Alexander III was the very soul of honesty and kindhness. How can we reconcile the enlightened personal goodness of Nicholas II with his inveterate distaste for the "vain delusions" of modern statehood.^ Surely it could not be greed of power. The explanation must be sought in the traditional significance of the autocracy. Under its shadow the nation had waxed in numbers, Russia had become a great empire, wielding enormous power. The sacred, mystical attribute of autocracy, its very essence, had to be maintained at all costs. The mind of the autocrat, indoctrinated by teachers of the school of Pobedonostsev, associated the preservation of the autocracy with the maintenance of the State. In a sense they were right. The Russia of the autocracy would naturally cease to be the same Russia without the

ORIGINS, RISE, AND DECLINE 13

autocracy. And so, quite honestly and sincerely, seeing the good of their people in the maintenance of their absolute power, successive autocrats did their utmost to shield Russia from any change that might imperil that sacred, limitless power with which the greatness and prosperity of the State had been identified. Nicholas II is reputed to have said that he considered it to be his most solemn duty to hand over to his son that sacred power, unbelittled, unimpaired. We have no reason to doubt the sincerity of his purpose or the unselfishness of his motives, although in the light of its tragic end we may well dispute the soundness of the autocratic theory invoked by him and his predecessors.