nstration.

But if, on the contrary, you become convinced that the defeat of
Russia will reflect badly upon the interests of the working
population, and if you will help the self-defense of our country
with all your forces, our country and her allies will escape the
terrible danger menacing them.

Therefore, go deeply into the situation. You make a great mistake
if you imagine that it is not to the interests of the
working-people to defend our country. In reality, nobody's
interests suffer more terribly from the invasion of an enemy than
the interests of the working-population.

Take, for instance, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. When the
Germans besieged Paris and the cost of all the necessaries of life
rose enormously, it was clear that the poor suffered much more
than the rich. In the same way, when Germany exacted five billions
of contribution from vanquished France, this same, in the final
count, was paid by the poor; for paying that contribution indirect
taxation was greatly raised, the burden of which nearly entirely
falls on the lower classes.

More than that. The most dangerous consequence to France, due to
her defeat in 1870-71, was the retardation of her economic
development. In other words, the defeat of France badly reflected
upon the contemporary interests of her people, and, even more,
upon her entire subsequent development.

The defeat of Russia by Germany will much more injure our people
than the defeat of France injured the French people. The war now
exacts incredibly large expenditures. It is more difficult for
Russia, a country economically backward, to bear that expenditure
than for the wealthy states of western Europe. Russia's back, even
before the war, was burdened with a heavy state loan. Now this
debt is growing by the hour, and vast regions of Russia are
subject to wholesale devastation.

If the Germans will win the final victory, they will demand from
us an enormous contribution, in comparison with which the streams
of gold that poured into victorious Germany from vanquished
France, after the war of 1871, will seem a mere trifle.

But that will not be all. The most consequent and outspoken
heralds of German imperialism are even now saying that it is
necessary to exact from Russia the cession of important territory,
which shoul