tion and pro-German treachery. Many writers have
called attention to the fact that even in normal times the enormous
exportation of food grains in Russia went on side by side with per capita
underconsumption by the peasants whose labor produced the great harvests,
amounting to not less than 30 per cent. Now, of course, conditions were far
worse.

When the government was urged to call a convention of national leaders to
deal with the food situation it stubbornly refused. More than that, it made
war upon the only organizations which were staving off famine and making it
possible for the nation to endure. Every conceivable obstacle was placed in
the way of the National Union of Zemstvos and the Union of Cities; the
co-operative associations, which were rendering valuable service in meeting
the distress of working-men's families, were obstructed and restricted in
every possible way, their national offices being closed by the police. The
officials of the labor-unions who were co-operating with employers in
substituting arbitration in place of strikes, establishing soup-kitchens
and relief funds, and doing other similar work to keep the nation alive,
were singled out for arrest and imprisonment. The Black Hundreds were
perniciously active in all this oppression and in the treacherous advocacy
of a separate peace with Germany.

In October, 1916, a conference of chairmen of province zemstvos adopted and
published a resolution which declared:

The tormenting and horrifying suspicion, the sinister rumors of
perfidy and treason, of dark forces working in favor of Germany to
destroy the unity of the nation, to sow discord and thus prepare
conditions for an ignominious peace, have now reached the clear
certainty that the hand of the enemy secretly influences the
affairs of our state.

VI

An adequate comprehension of the things set forth in this terrible summary
is of the highest importance to every one who would attempt the task of
reaching an intelligent understanding of the mighty upheaval in Russia and
its far-reaching consequences. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was not
responsible for the disastrous separate peace with Germany. The foundations
for that were laid by the reactionaries of the old regime. It was the
logical outcome of their long-continued efforts. Lenine, Trotzky, and their
Bolshevist associates were mere puppets, simple tools whose visions,
ambitions, and schemes became the channels