To the _moujik_ the great criminals were those who came between the sovereign and his people, and prevented him from extending his favours to them. There was a popular saying that “the Czar gives, but his servants withhold,” in which the peasant expressed his faith in the goodness of his Czar and his hatred of those around him.
[52] Ludendorff, _My War Memories_, vol. ii. (Hutchinson and Co., London). What Ludendorff did not mention, and for good reason, was the untiring efforts Germany had made to produce this revolution which had broken out so unexpectedly.
[53] Is not this idea illustrated in the popular saying which betrays the simple faith of the Russian peasant and his feeling of impotence: “God is a very long way up; the Czar a very long way off.”
[54] Ludendorff exaggerates the _rôle_ of the Entente in the Russian Revolution when he writes: “In March, 1917, a Revolution, the work of the Entente, overthrew the Czar.” The movement was supported by the Allies, but it was not their work. Ludendorff shows well enough what were its immediate results for Germany. “The Revolution meant a fatal loss of military power to Russia, weakened the Entente and gave us considerable relief in our heavy task. The General Staff could at once effect important economies of troops and ammunition, and could also exchange divisions on a much greater scale.” And further on: “In April and May, 1917, it was the Russian Revolution which saved us in spite of our victory on the Aisne and in Champagne.” (Ludendorff, _My War Memories_, vol. ii.).
Thus, by the admission of the Germans themselves, if there had been no Russian Revolution the war would have ended in the autumn of 1917 and millions of human lives would have been spared. Do we realise what would have been the force of a treaty of Versailles signed by the Entente, including Russia! Germany, seized in a vice, would not have been able to escape the fate of the vanquished. The consequences of the Russian Revolution (Bolshevism) have thrown Russia into the arms of Germany. She is still there. Germany alone is in a position to organise and exploit her immense resources. It is in Russia that Germany is preparing her revenge against the Entente.
