Milford High School - Oak Lily and Ivy Yearbook (Milford, MA)

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8 THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. with immense loss of blood. Russian unity could exist no longer with disor¬ der and turmoil reigning supreme b)thon the battle front and at home and in Petrograd, where men, regardless of the soldiers on the firing line, were squabbling over the contracts for supplies of war. The wonderful news of the dep )sing of the Cz ir had gone through the ranks and one idol was removed from the childlike mind of th p asmt sol¬ dier. At last the Czar and his haughty German wife were removed from the c urt buzzing with German intrigue and the malign influence of the unholy Risputin Tnen came Alexander Kerensky, of whose attractive personality we read as he appeared at the front line of battle, and our hopes were raised that this nervous, active Dictator might turn the Russian defeat into a new victory. But indecision, which has ruined many a man, was, it appears, the fatal flaw in Kerensky’s character. It has often been declared that the se¬ cret to success is to “act quickly, and be right part of the time.” Kerensky, however, dallied with danger and was overthrown. By trying to please both the conservatives and radicals, he merelymade both sides distrust him. The p iople believed that under the new regime Kerensky threatened them with blood and iron. All governments were alike distasteful to them and they wtnted none of them. Democracy to the Russians meant simply the aboli¬ tion of all authority. His chief blunder, according to Russian reports, was his failure to call together the constituent assembly. Instead he postponed it repeatedly until his procrastination gave the Bolsheviki a splendid political opening to demand an honorable and speedy gathering of the assembly. Three real battles determined that Bolshevikism should rule in Russia— the fighting in Petrograd, Kief and M scow. Kerensky’s provisional govern¬ ment had talked until even the Russians were tired of his promises. The workingmen, who are the backbone of the Bolshevik party, promptly re- s rted to arms. Their own natural capacity for organization was directed by the more comprehensive Prussian minds. If this were not true, it would be impossible to explain the almost simultaneous battles in Petrograd, Kief and M iscow, so successfully fought. In Kief Austrian officers openly fraternized with the committee; and it is a certainty that some of the artillery in the b ittle of Moscow was directed by German officers. The independence of Ukrania which cuts off Little Russia from the Pet- rograd government was merged with the Bolshevik movement The active agents in it were the soviets, or workmen’s and soldiers’ committees, such as now control all of Russian life, political and industrial. In the city of Kief, the fighting was controlled almost entirely by the soviet. To this group of radicals, the workingmen of Kief gave staunch alle¬ giance. The fighting lasted for six days, the total casualties numbering about six hundred. The greatest excitement in that city was provided by the large Bolshevik funerals which were virtually parades of armed woikingmen. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviki were gaining enormous victories in Moscow and Petrograd, where after a few days of fighting the care-free crowds cele- brattd with joy the triumph of Bolsluvikism. In Petrograd, for example.

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THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. 7 The Revolution in Russia. Russia is still the great unknown quantity in this war. She is the eter¬ nal question. What will Russia do? What can Russia do? Our questioning does not arise because Russia did not do what she could in the first year of the war, but because of her past .history, and because she is made up of a complex and discordant mass of people speaking a hundred and fifty different languages and dialects. How then, in the view of recent happenings in that extraordinary country, to look upon her as an entirety, as a single and influ¬ ential factor in the history at present in the making? It must be remembered that the ten yeais between the disastrous ending of Russia’s war with Japan and the stirring of her sense of nationalism, both religious and civil, were years of turmoil and confusion. There were times during this period when it seemed as though the torn fabrics of the Russian empire must fall apart of its own weakness of fiber. There were revolutions, enormous labor difficulties, much shed ling of blood, disasters, and social un¬ rest. Russia was in a state of chaos. Then came the great war. It is possible that Russia welcomed the wai, for it was the last opportunity to unit Russia. The result must have been gratifying to true Russian patriots. Broadly speaking, by the supreme fusing of war Russia was made one. The fighting men of the nation, the peasants, with the images of the Cz r and the Church before them, marched to the front singing songs and confident of the holiness of the conflict, iheie was none of that in the war with Japan There was neither enthusias n nor vigor then ; but for this war a sort of Russian national spirit was aroused, and Russia went out to fight whole-heartedly, enthusiastically and confi¬ dently. Russia began her offensive with a will. Contrary to the accepted mili¬ tary theory, Russia mobilized weeks sooner than it was believed she could. And, in stiict accordance with the German plan of campaign, Russia matched, toward the west, pushing all before her. There was talk that the soldiers of the Czar would have their Christmas dinners in Berlin. The Russians swept Prussian Poland, through Galicia, and far into the territory of the enemy. They took cities and ravaged villages, and seemed as irresistible as a t dal wave, advancing and engulfing the enemy. The two big features of the plan of the German campaign weie the quick advance on France and the apparent abandonment of a certain portion of the eastern frontier to the Russian advance. The plan w is to defeat France and then return at leisure and attend t) Russia. All the world knows what his happened when Von Hindenburg turned his attention to the eastern theatre of war The Russians were beaten back mile after mile. The Germans crumpled that brave advance into a retreat. As the Germans pressed on, the Russians, without the piopei supplies oi ammunition or even the necessary weapons, could do nothing but retreat. They lost cities they had taken. They gave up positions they had bought

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THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. 9 amusements were in full sway and gaiety reigned in all sections of the city. Factory strikes prevailed everywhere. The workers, elated with their new power, informed their employers that they would assume entire charge of the factories, and they proceeded to drive out the experts at their pleasure, threatening the owners with death it’ they attempted to close their shops. They regulated their own salaries and in a highhanded and most unscientific way attempted to conduct affairs, in one case ruining in theii ignorance a quarter of a million dollars worth of war material. In many cases, after weeks of confusion, realizing that something beyond the enthusiasm of the worker was necessary for success, they entreated the employers, whom they had driven out, to return. A member of the Root Labor Commission sent to Russia attempted to ell the Russians something of American labor unions and their benefits to he worker, especially children, but Lenine’s newspaper in its editorial col¬ umn demanded, ‘AVhat do we know about union labels and child labor? What we want for everybody is two hours work a day, and no more.” When the Bolsheviki had acquired the political importance which they desired, they shared their power with no man. They scornfully refused to allow a representative from any other party to hold a political office, and ye they term this government democracy. The taint of German gold and insidious Prussian propaganda had done their work. Have you ever stopped to consider the significance of the word Ilohenzollerns ? The early Hohenzollerns were the “high toll takers,” who from their primitive homes on the mountain sides, swooped down upon tired travellers who were forced to pay toll to their barbarous and unwelcome hosts. The modern Ilohenzollern steals provinces instead of purses. And no¬ where has the toll been higher than in Germany’s triumph in the Brest- Litovsk Treaty. To the gloating Prussians, Nikolai Lenine, Bolshevik Pre¬ mier of Russia, and Leon Trotzky, his Commissioner of Foreign Affairs, yielded Poland, Lithuania, Riga, the Moon Islands and an indemnity of $4,000,000,000. Well may we remark in the words of Addison, “Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding.” In less than a year after Trotzky on his ex¬ pulsion from France had declared that he and his political associates would always remain “the outspoken sworn enemies” of Germany, he visited Berlin on his return from America to Russia, and his enemies assert that he was lured by the Kaiser’s gold to reverse his opinion of the Prussians. He holds patriotism in disdain and calls it “a mania of nationalism. Declaring the rescue of the proletariats or workers from the miseries of a long and wcaris mie war to be his sole excuse for bringing about the demobil¬ ization of Russia’s troops, he, with Lenine, with undaunted boldness placed his country in the hands of Kaiser Wilhelm anl E nperor Karl, whom he had but a short time prev ious named as “two criminals who refused to respect the rules and regulations of international law. Thus are the untrained and undeveloped minds of Russia governed by Prussian influence. Well may the government in Russia today be termed