January 3, 1918 
LAND & WATER 
We Must Help Russia 
By H. M. Hyndman 
IF a poet were inclined to deal with a section of national 
events in the present war after the manner of Thomas 
Hardy in The Dynasls, he could find no more inspiring 
and terrible theme than the history of Russia and Russian 
movements since 1914. Western Europe has been completely 
bemused by the succession of transformation scenes and 
cinema films of upheaval which have been presented to its 
astonished observation. So rapidly have events moved in 
that great country*, during the past three years and a half, 
that we can only recall with difficulty what has actually 
taken place. 
First, it was assumed that Russia with her vast population 
would play the decisive part in the resistance to German 
aggression, and that no long time would elapse ere the Russian 
armies, wliich had helped to save the French and British 
forces from annihilation, might be heard of in the suburbs 
of Berlin. Their smashing defeat at the Masurian Lakes 
put an end to that little orgie of optimism. Later, however, 
the great advance of :Brussiloff into Galicia, with the extra- 
ordinary number of prisoners taken, again raised hopes that 
Russia could play the part assigned to her at first. Once 
more, owing chiefly to the lack of munitions and supplies, 
the Russians were thrown back to a defensive line, and talk 
of treachery in high places was proved to liave only too much 
foundation. Shortly afterwards Rasputinism flourished at 
the Czar's Court in all its infamy and M. Stiirmer arranged 
with Hcrr von Jagow, his separate peace terms for Russia — 
terms which would have placed all tlie resources of that great 
Empire under Germany's control. Then came M. Miliukoff's 
crushing exposure of M. Stiirmer's treaciiery in the Duma, 
the downfall of that pro-German politician, and the appoint- 
ment of AL Protopopoff to carry on the same policy of cor- 
ruption and surrender, with the full approval of the Ras- 
putinists and the Court. But for the sudden attempt of the 
new administration to anticipate an expected revolution by 
a counter-revolution, the plot might have succeeded ; for the 
revolutionary leaders were not prepared for action during the 
war. As it was, the weapons of the reactionaries broke in their 
hands, the very troops they reUed on turned round upon the 
(government, and the pro-German Romanoffs and the up- 
liolders of a separate peace were swept away.. It is well to 
remember that, had not the revolution occurred when it did, 
all Russia would already have been for months under German 
control and Russian resources at the disposal of Germanj'. 
Awakened Democracy 
How far away we seem to bo now from that Revolution. 
How heartily, not only the English people, but the whole of 
Western Europe welcomed the overthrow of the Czar and his 
family. What great results were looked for in many quarters 
from emancipated Russia. If Russia of the Czar was ready to 
fight to tlie death against German aggression how much 
more determined would be the awakened and self-governing 
democracy of Russia, of the Republic, to organise all its 
forces against the enemy whose armies were entrenched on 
Russian soil, and were menacing the newly-acquired Russian 
freedom ! 
Revolutionan,- Russia, like revolutionary France, would 
rise as one man to e.\pel the invader and reconquer 
the occupied territory. That was the general idea. Optimism 
again reigned supreme. The best-known Russian exiles were 
tlien most confident of the future. They feared only that 
ICngland and her Allies would stop the supply of munitions, 
aufl thus prevent Republican Russia from showing her real 
strength. 
CongratulatoVy depiitations were then sent to Potro- 
grad, some of whose members unfortunately completely mis- 
understood the position — which indeed was not surprising 
— and differed greatly among themselves. But the national 
enthusiasm was so great and the desire for common accord, 
to secure the full fruits of the revolution at home and on the 
frontier apjx-ared so strong, that the Allied peoples continued 
to hope against hope, even when affairs in the jirovinces 
of Russia became almost chaotic, and mitters in her towns 
looked threatening indeed. A complete forgetfulness of 
faction and permanent coalition of revolutionists of all sections 
might ha\c saved the situation. A combination under the 
leadership <>l Kerensky, in fact, seemed likel>- to be successful 
for a time ; and the Committees of Soldiers and XN'orkmen, 
in spite of the efforts of the doctrinaire extremists within them. 
' were not desirous of bringing about a conflict between the 
various groups. The Provisional Government could probably 
have carried on safely while the great Delegate Conference mv\ 
at Moscow, and the country might have axyaited with reason- 
able calmness the meeting of the Constituent Assembly. 
This would not have suited (jermany at all. As events 
have shown, -she imderstood the position much better than 
f'.id the Allies. Lenin and his friends, after having been 
hurried through Germanv from Switzerland to Russia by 
special train, accompanied with e\-ery personal attention, at 
once set to work to render anarchy almost inevitable. A 
political and economic programme, wholly unsuited to a 
country in the stage of development of Russia, was thrust 
on the people with fanatical zeal. Simultaneously, a wiiole • 
sale propaganda of mutiny and disbandment was carried on 
in the army. Both were successful. Kerensky and his 
friends, civilian and military, looked on while their policy- 
was wrecked and their party combination disintegrated. 
Democracy was ruined in the name of democracy. 
The Bolsheviks 
t 
Then a sudden stroke put Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolshevik 
minority in control of Petrograd, on lines laid down, it is 
said, by the German Military Staff ; a dictatorship of ille- 
gality was established in Petrograd itself as well as in Moscov\-, 
and two or three other centres ; the Red Guards were trained 
and organised by German officers into an admirable force ; the 
propaganda for peace in the army on the front was carried on 
more systematically than ever, aided by detachments of the 
Petrograd gendarmery of Bolshexik tendencies ; the disinte- 
gration in the public services and the railroads, begun by the? 
reactionaries under the Czar, was pushed even further — until 
Anally the only real organisation left in the north was the 
political and military force at the disposal of Lenin and his 
friends. There was no longer an army to resist the Germans 
between the Riga front and Petrograd. Generals and officers 
who tried to maintain discipline were murdered or arrested. 
Peace with Germany was proclaimed as a necessity for Russia 
and the Bolshevik Self-Illusionists actually thought they could 
successfully appeal to their imaginary" German Democracy"- 
to help them in a imiversal democratic reconstruction ! Of 
course, the only people who have benefited by all this criminal 
lolly are the Kaiser and his henchmen, Hindenburg and 
Ludendorf. 
Yet, in, the face of all this, the Unified French Socialist 
Party and some Pacifists here in England still declare that 
had the pro-German Socialist International Conference niet 
at Stockholm, Russia would have remained true to her engage- 
ments with the AUies, and a new heaven and a new earth 
would have grown up out of the t •enches, amid the soul- 
inspiring hochs of Kameraden Scheidemann, Siidekum, 
David, Heine and Noske. Those who believe that nonsense 
deserve to be in Peti^ograd at the mercy of Lenin and his 
revolutionar\- sbirri. Plechanoff, Catherine Breshkovskaia, 
Tchemoff and others who have given themselves body and 
soul for more than a generation to the service of revolutionary 
Social-Democracy, could tell the world what sort of freedom 
men like Lenin and his new Militarist crew stand for. 
Read what even the Marxist Martoff, himself a Zimnier- 
waldian and a man in favour of what I should call a pro- 
German peace, writes about Bolshevik rule in Petrograd so 
lately as December i6th, 1917 : 
The new Government finds itself compelled to institute a 
reign of terror against a populace bitterly hostile to a military 
dictatorship. Hence arbitrary, \iolent persecution against 
every sort of even Sociahst opposition, suppression of liberty 
of the press and freedom of public meeting. Many Socialists 
have been thrown into prison. ]'"urther, the foreign policy of 
Lenin, inspired liy his anxiety to bring about tlie immediate 
peace promised to the soldiers, assumes a character contrary 
to the international conception of a democratic peace ; andthi; 
the rather that the militarists wish to take advantage of/thi 
jiosition of a government not acknowledged by the majority 
of the people in order to secure the signature of an anti 
democratic peace. 
To form a Leninist majority, Lenin and Trotsky actually 
refuse to acknowledge the supremacy of the Constituent 
.\ssembly, the majority' of which is composed of non-Maxi- 
malist Socialists. Many members of the Constituent 
Assembly have been arrested and the entire bourgeois 
" minority " as well. For these reasons Martoff and his 
section of Marxists, pacifists though they are, will have 
nothing to do with the Lenin autocracy. 
This does not mean, however, that the Bolshevik minority 
will lose ground for some time yet. They have the enor- 
mous advantage of the support of German organisjition, 
German propaganda and German money. TheV arc ame also 
to bribe their soldier contingitits with enormous rates of daily 
pay. Ih-ii high-handed methods, too, give the impression 
