Whatever may be its final outcome the Russian Revolution of 1917
bids fair to remain one of the great events of modern history. Its
consequences are still immeasurable and today to many they appear as
fraught with menace as with hope. They have within less than a year
led a mighty empire to the brink of dissolution and no man can foretell
where and how the process will end for worse or for better. The Russian
Revolution saved the Central Powers at the moment when their prospect
looked darkest, but on the other hand it facilitated the entrance of the
United States into the war as one for liberty and democracy. Time has
yet to show whether the loss or the gain has been the greater for the
Allied cause and for mankind. It will be paid for at a heavy price but
our hope cannot easily be shaken that sooner or later an event so full
of promise for the misruled millions of the autocratic empire of the
Tsar will mark a step forward, not backward, in the progress of the
world. The whole story of the sudden out-break in Petrograd which in
little more than a day swept away the fabric of imperial government will
not soon be told, if ever. All real information on the subject is timely
and valuable. We need such studies as those contained in the present
volume, in order that we may understand what has happened, and why it
has happened.
The rise of the modern Jugo-Slav movement offers us a very different
picture. The subject and even the name are new to most people, the
scale is much smaller; the events have been less dramatic. But the
unconquerable resistance which a small disjointed nationality has
offered throughout the ages to ill fortune, oppression, and to attempts
to obliterate it entirely arouses our admiration. The movement too was
intimately connected with the outbreak of the present world war which
cannot be understood without taking it into account. It still represents
only an ardent hope for the future but when the day of peace and justice
comes no permanent allotment can be made of the lands east of the
Adriatic that shall not give it at least some satisfaction.