must the tyranny that weighs upon my country necessarily be
Russian? The worst Czars were imitators of Prussia. Every time that the
Russian people of our day have attempted to revindicate their rights,
the reactionaries have used the Kaiser as a threat, proclaiming that he
would come to their aid. One-half of the Russian aristocracy is German;
the functionaries who advise and support despotism are Germans; German,
too, are the generals who have distinguished themselves by massacring
the people; German are the officials who undertake to punish the
laborers' strikes and the rebellion of their allies. The reactionary
Slav is brutal, but he has the fine sensibility of a race in which many
princes have become Nihilists. He raises the lash with facility, but
then he repents and oftentimes weeps. I have seen Russian officials kill
themselves rather than march against the people, or through remorse
for slaughter committed. The German in the service of the Czar feels no
scruples, nor laments his conduct. He kills coldly, with the minuteness
and exactitude with which he does everything. The Russian is a barbarian
who strikes and regrets; German civilization shoots without hesitation.
Our Slav Czar, in a humanitarian dream, favored the Utopian idea of
universal peace, organizing the Conference of The Hague. The Kaiser of
culture, meanwhile, has been working years and years in the erection and
establishment of a destructive organ of an immensity heretofore unknown,
in order to crush all Europe. The Russian is a humble Christian,
socialistic, democratic, thirsting for justice; the German prides
himself upon his Christianity, but is an idolator like the German of
other centuries. His religion loves blood and maintains castes; his true
worship is that of Odin;--only that nowadays, the god of slaughter has
changed his name and calls himself, 'The State'!"

Tchernoff paused an instant--perhaps in order to increase the wonder of
his companions--and then said with simplicity:

"I am a Christian."

Argensola, who already knew the ideas and history of the Russian,
started with astonishment, and Julio persisted in his suspicion, "Surely
Tchernoff is drunk."

"It is true," declared the Russian earnestly, "that I do not worry about
God, nor do I believe in dogmas, but my soul is Christian as is that
of all revolutionists. The philosophy of modern democracy is lay
Christianity. We Socialists love the humble, the needy, the weak. We
defend t