Russia, and it was the consciousness of this military impotency which had dictated the allied policy of aiding the border States to wage war for them vicariously. "But the defeats our proletarian fighting men have inflicted have had a salutary effect," he added. "Already all the Baltic States are conferring with our emissaries, with a view to peace, which has now become merely a matter of time."

The Red Army, Trotzky declared, was the most anti-militaristic body in the world." Nine-tenths of its members were workmen and peasants, and pacifists all. The other tenth were soldiers and officers who had formerly served under the Czar. Immediate demobilization would be carried out as soon as hostilities ceased. "Militarism, striking as it does at the very roots of Communism, cannot possibly exist in Soviet Russia, the only truly pacific country in the world."

Lenin, on his part, declared that the only danger of military aggression came not from Soviet Russia, but from Poland; even Foch, however, could not give the Poles victory against the Red Army, which had become invincible. The Soviet Army had triumphed on every front, and peace was coming speedily with all. [An account of the Polish successes won against the Bolshevist forces early in March will be found in the article on Poland.]

CONSCRIPTION OF LABOR

Russia's internal situation was described by Lenin in this interview as "critical, but hopeful." The cities, he said, would be sufficiently supplied by Spring to save them from famine. The fuel crisis was improving. In this con

Iction he said:

The reconstruction period is under way, thanks to the Red Army's stupendous performances. Now parts of that army are transformed into armies of labor, an extraordinary phenomenon only possible in a country struggling toward a high ideal. Certainly it could not be done in capitalistic countries. We have sacrificed everything to victory over our armed antagonists in the past; and now we shall turn all our strength to economic

rehabilitation. It will take years, but we shall win out in the end. These armies of labor referred to by Lenin were discussed by Trotzky, Minister of War, in his address before the Third Russian Congress, held in Moscow on Jan. 25. His explanation was in part as follows:

Many in the army have already accomplished their military task, but they cannot be demobilized as yet. Now that they have been released from their military duties, they must fight against economic ruin and against hunger, they must work to obtain fuel, peat and other her.t-producing products, they must take part in building, in clearing the lines of snow, in repairing roads, building sheds, grinding flour, &c.

We have already organized several of these armies, and their tasks have been allotted to them. One army must obtain foodstuffs for the workmen of the districts in which it was formerly stationed, and it also will cut wood, cart it to the railways and repair engines. Another army will help in the laying down of railway lines for the transport of crude oil. A third labor army will be used for repairing agricultural implements and machines, and in the Spring will take part in the working of the land. * * *

The Russian proletariat already feels responsible for the welfare of its country and for its economic life. The hardships and poverty we are suffering are educating the workers of the proletariat. Under those conditions every workman and every workwoman is beginning to realize what economic life means to the country. This makes us confident that we will overcome our economic disorganization.

We shall succeed if qualified and trained workers take part in productive labor. Trade unions must register qualified workmen in the villages. Only in those localities where trade union methods are inadequate other methods must be introduced, in particular that of compulsion, because labor conscription gives the State the right t tell the qualified workman who is employed on some unimportant work in his village, "You are obliged to leave your present employment and go to Sormovo or Kolomna because there your work is required."

Labor conscription means that the qualified workmen who leave the army must take their workbooks and proceed to places where they are required, where their presence is necessary to the economic system of the country. We must feed these workmen and guarantee them the minimum food ration.

HE following document throws light upon the causes of Admiral Kolchak's failure to get the support of the Siberian communities that came under his rule. It is a manifesto of the President of the Regional Duma of Siberia, issued at Vladivostok last September and embodying a detailed indictment of the dictatorial methods employed by the head of the Omsk Government. The translation here presented is that of The Contemporary Review:

In these days of fresh trials, when our Fatherland is face to face with the greatest perils, which threaten it from within and from without, I consider it my duty as the chief of the elected representatives of Siberia, to address to my country the following manifesto:

Nine months of dictatorship of Admiral Kolchak, who has, by sheer violence, overthrown the representative Government of the Directorate, have now brought Siberia to a state of complete disintegration and ruin.

The work of regenerating the Russian State, begun by the democracy with such enormous difficulties and sacrifices, has been criminally ruined by an irresponsible power.

The army, created by the volunteer movement and the enthusiasm of the population struggling for a people's Commonwealth, has been brought to the verge of complete destruction. The retreat beyond the Urals, the loss of Ekaterinburg, Uheliabinsk, Kurgan, Tuien, opening to the Bolsheviki the road to the heart of Siberia, all these are the inevitable consequences of the disorganizing policy of the Omsk Government.

Out of touch with the population, peasants and workmen, not recognized by the active elements of the people and by the local executives, the Government of Kolchak proved unfit to accomplish the task of organizing the defense of the country, which it declared to be its foremost object.

Poorly clothed and lacking supplies, the army, not receiving fresh drafts from the rear, was compelled to take care of itself and to renew its forces by mobilizing the population in districts adjoining the front. Again, carts and corn were taken by force from that population which, on the other hand, had no confidence in the Government. The General Headquarters, separated from th front by 1,000 versts, gave no assistance to the army, and at

the same time, through its orders and instructions, created fatal differences in the High Command, paralyzed the work of the best commanding Generals, and sowed among the soldiers mistrust in their offi

cers.

This disintegration of the army imply reflected the general disorganization in the rear.

In spite of the proclamation of a state of war and a state of siege, in spite of severe repressive measures and capital punishment, the irresponsible power could not establish the necessary civil order; on the contrary, it furthered civil war by destroying the order which existed before.

Thanks to the administration of Admiral Kolchak, not a trace is left of the enthusiasm with which the population greeted the fall of the Soviet power. The latent unrest, originating from the time of the proclamation of dictatorship, was steadily growing, and in many places took the shape of open mutiny. A wave of peasants' risings-those peasants who a short time ago had chased the Bolsheviki out of the

same

country-swept through Siberia and clearly revealed the deep discontent of the population. The Government took no steps to appease the country, except flogging and shooting and brutal violence exceeding that of the Bolsheviki. Always busy with intriguing and political moves, the Government did not show the least trace of statesmanship. It failed even to introduce unity into the administration and to curtail local satraps, every one of whom behaved as an absolute autocrat, making laws and ruling the population according to his discretion.

As a result of such administration the country is now on the verge of a catastrophe. The army and the country could not remain indifferent in the face of such a situation; their voice becomes louder and louder in calling the guilty by their names; they grow ever more definite and persistent in their efforts to find a way out.

Both town and rural councils have again and again warned the Government, pointing out that the salvation of the country will be found not in the dictatorship and in the bayonets, but in the creation of a power that will have the authority and confidence and recognition of the population. The best and most popular Generals, acting as the spokesmen of the army, have many times drawn the attention of Admiral Kolchak to the necessity of radical reforms in the rear in order to insure

the safety of the front. Louder and louder became the voices of local executives, of the various public bodies, of prominent public workers, of the representatives of the High Command, demanding the immediate convocation of a representative assembly and the creation of a responsible Government. And yet the Government of Admiral Kolchak remains deaf and blind and continues to lead the It is now country to unavoidable ruin. evident to all and sundry that this Government can not and must not remain in existence.

It is now too late to negotiate; the enemy is at the gates. For the sake of the Fatherland we must If the act. existing power does not realize its duty toward the country, this duty will have to be discharged by the population itself. As the President of a Siberian representative body I take upon myself the great honor and responsibility of inviting the population of Siberia to proceed immediately to create a body of representatives of the people.

So long as the Constituent Assembly of all Siberia is not convoked such a representative body must be created by the towns and rural councils elected on the basis of universal suffrage, and also by the local executives of the Cossack regions and various nationalities. I invite all these local executives to elect immediately representatives to form the Assembly of Siberia (Semsky Sobor).

The statutes of the Assembly, as well as the time and place of its opening meeting, will be published in due course.

The tasks which will be put before the Assembly are the following:

1. The creation of a provisional Government responsible to the Assembly.

2. The working out of statutes and regulations for the Constituent Assembly of all Siberia and the taking of steps for its prompt convocation.

3. The restoration of the legal foundations of civil order.

4. The handing over of the local administration to the municipal bodies.

5. The abolition of the laws and orders of the Omsk Government restricting the rights of the peasants to the use of the land, and the delegation of the rights and duties of the bodies who now regulate the use of the land to the local Government bodies.

6. The restoration of the freedom of the workmen's professional organizations; urgent legislation for protection of labor.

7. Abolition of the reactionary régime in the army; the increasing of its fighting capacity for the struggle for peace on the basis of a people's commonwealth.

8. An amnesty to the participants in peasants' risings who fought for the defense of the Constituent Assembly.

I publish the above manifesto, being deeply convinced that the country will find ways and means to enable its elected representatives to accomplish their sacred duty toward their Fatherland.

In a complete union of all elements of the population grouped round the Assembly of the land, hand in hand and ready for sacrifices, there and there only lies the way of salvation for the country, of the defense of the people's freedom and authority against all aggressors and usurpers! J. JAXUSHEW, President of the Siberian Regional Duma. Vladivostok, Sept. 5, 1919.

HE local press of Morocco City on THE Dec. 8 announced the approaching publication of a decree of the Sultan regulating the terms on which German subjects would be allowed to return and reside in the French Protectorate of Morocco and in Tangier. The terms of the decree provide that no German subject can take up residence in Morocco without the authorization of the Sultan's Government; that any German inheriting property in Morocco must dispose of it within one year to a non-German subject; that three months will be allowed

any German for the liquidation of his affairs in case authorization to reside is withdrawn; that punishment shall be meted out to transgressors of this decree, and that the French tribunals shall have authority to apply its terms. The decree was to be officially communicated to the international representatives at Tangier by the Sultan's representative, and the Pasha of Tangier was to have full authority to punish all infractions. The status of Germans in the Spanish zone remained doubtful, but it was believed in Morocco that the Spanish authorities would issue a similar decree.

P to and even during the great war there was no Russian national spirit comparable in its intensity with the British or with the French. The Russians fought in the war, and fought well, but the peasant soldiers had only the foggiest notion of what it was all about, and the intelligentsia had always a curious aloofness in considering the struggle and its probable results. Some of them, particularly on the extreme right, were convinced that Russia was fighting on the wrong side.

This attitude of aloofness persists among those who have deserted the revolution and are fighting against it on the fringes of Russia and in the lobbies of the European capitals. They are more or less indifferent as to the source from which they get their help. It does not occur to them as strange that they, dining comfortably abroad, should clamor for the continued blockade of their own country. They agitate in Berlin as in London, and with better hopes. They know that if they do succeed in beating their own country they will find readier help * * * from Germany than from. the Allies, if only because Germany is geographically nearer, and German reaction more closely depends on Russian reaction for its own existence. * * *

Central Russia alone is not buying foreigners to fight Russians, but is fighting consciously against foreign interference on the whole of its circumference. It can have no orientation "toward any saviors, English or German, for all alike

66

are its enemies. Here, and here only, is Russia, as Russia, fighting for Russia, and it is to Moscow and not to the backwoods that we must look for the organizing force and for the spirit with which Russia will emerge from the hardships to which we are submitting her, as we temper a blade by submitting it to extremes of heat and cold.

This enormous political advantage is perfectly realized by the Bolsheviki, though they are perhaps less conscious of the fact, patent to all independent observers, that they are themselves being transformed into nationalists. The Bolshevist Stalin, an intimate friend of Lenin, thus explains their victories over Kolchak and Denikin: "The victory of Denikin or Kolchak would mean the loss of Russia's independence and the turning of Russia into a milch cow for English and French moneybags. In this sense the Government of Denikin and Kolchak is the most anti-popular, the most antinational Government; in this sense the Soviet Government is the only popular, the only national Government (in the best meaning of that word) (Pravda, Dec. 28, 1919).

EFFECTS OF BLOCKADE Then, again, the hardship caused by the continuance of the war and the blockade falls not on any political party alone, but on the whole population, and naturally, with every day, more and more of the population is drawn into the common struggle to end that hardship. This is not to be wondered at except by those

who swallow the fairy story that a small minority of hooligans and murderers have been able to keep up a successful fight all these long months against forces equipped far more efficiently than they. That fairy story does not fit the facts, which are obvious to the world, and it is high time that it should be discarded.

Take, for example, medicine and the care of the sick. Is it likely that the doctors and nurses of Russia, who well know that they obtain drugs for their patients only through the smugglers organized by the Soviet Government, should blame that Government instead of blaming the Allies and the White Russians for thus barbarously making the smuggling of medicaments necessary? Of course not. They well know that this Government does its best to help them. Many of them have said publicly that never before have they had such assistance from any Government. Few of them are Bolsheviki, but in the stress of national hardship the realization that they are given all the help they ask brings them into line in the effort to stem the diseases due to that hardship, and the gratitude of the doctor swallows up the opposition of the politician. Thus an active worker under the Commissariat of Health is the wellknown Academician P. P. Lazarev, who while working in an X-ray institute which he has organized is at the same time engaged in devising means for circumventing the scientific blockade imposed by the interventionists. Another well-known doctor, working in the Commissariat, N. G. Freiburg, well known for his works on social hygiene, and an old States Councilor under the Czar, definitely refused the invitation of one of the anti-Bolshevist Governments, on the ground that under the Soviets he is being enabled to carry out the plans of a lifetime.

As with medicine so with every other activity in the country. Specialists in industry, in agriculture, not caring two pins about politics one way or the other, suffer from the blockade. It is to their personal interest that the Soviet Government should secure peace and a lifting of the blockade, and more and more of them, though for the most part not Bolsheviki, are doing their best to assist

it.

Russia is at stake, and they can do no less. FACTIONS WELDED BY SUFFERING

For the first time since 1914 there is in Russia a general concentration on the needs of the war comparable at all with the concentration of the English against the Germans. There are women police in the streets of Petrograd. In the Government offices women, wherever possible, take the places of men. Numbers of women have gone to the front to assist in any way possible in the defense of the country and the revolution. There is scarcely a branch of peaceful industry in the country not handicapped by the absence of men and women. I have been impressed by the voluntary overtime work with which Communists and great numbers of non-political men and women are trying to help these handicapped factories and railways. A colossal effort of this kind produces the conditions in which national spirit is born. We are welding together the Bolsheviki and their erstwhile opponents.

These erstwhile opponents justify their support of the Government in all kinds of ingenious ways. I have heard, for example, Russians of the old governing classes, now willingly working under the Soviet system, put forward the theory that people abroad are entirely wrong in believing that a monarchist or bourgeois reaction is inevitable in Russia, and will be brought in by Denikin. They say, on the contrary, that the discipline and strict order enforced by the Bolsheviki with increasing success constitute the reaction, and that when historians come to look back on these times they will date the period of reaction from Nov. 7, 1917, the day of the Soviet revolution. These Russians say that in a revolution the army grows weaker and weaker until reaction sets in, after which it grows stronger and stronger; and they point to the fact that Russia has a better army today than at any time under the régime of Lvov and Miliukov and Kerensky.

These Russians say that their cousins abroad fail to recognize this fact only because they are so cut off from Russia, and get their information exclusively from the romantic accounts of other