The Russian Revolution and the War

The Russian Revolution and the War

Author: Farbman, Michael S., 1880-1933

Year: 1917

London: National Council for Civil Liberties; The Herald, 1917. — 50 p. This book is the text of a lecture for the National Council for Civil Liberties delivered on July 20th, 1917, by Michael Farbman, late Special Correspondent in Petrograd for the "Manchester Guardian". It seems to be the popular idea that the Revolution was caused by the pro-Ger- manism of the Court and Government. According to this notion the army and the people, full of anger at the shameless betrayal of the national cause, arose and swept the Monarchy away from the path to national victory. Now there can be no doubt that the pro-Germanism of the Court and the Government’s treachery did in fact hasten the catastrophe. But it is equally beyond doubtthat the old regime fell, not merely because of its pro-Germanism and its intended treachery to the national cause, but mainly because it was autocratic. The war revealed not merely the pro-Germanism of the Court and the guiltiness of the Government, but the complete bankruptcy of the autocratic regime. The autocracy had petered out. All strength and vitality, if ever it possessed any, had gone out of it. It was not merely a corpse, but a decomposing corpse. The pill