The Military Power of Russia
It is fondly to be hoped that when these words come to be printed,
peace between Russia and Poland will have been satisfactorily
established. The need of Europe and the world for a real peace and
the awful possibilities of the alternative ought to be the subject of
everybody’s prayer and the impulse to everybody’s endeavour until peace
becomes an accomplished fact.
The situation as it now stands is this. The Russians have everywhere
defeated the Poles, as they told us they would, and are threatening to
move on Warsaw. The Poles have cried to the Allies for help. The Allies
have sent a note to Russia asking for an armistice between Russia
and Poland on certain well-defined terms. The Russians have replied
carefully, expressing a desire for peace, but requesting the Poles
themselves to sue for it, and promising them better terms than the
Allies themselves suggest in the matter of their boundary line.
The territory claimed by the Poles and for which they entered upon
this foolish and wicked adventure is an area of about four hundred
square miles, containing a population which is not ten per cent Polish.
The remaining ninety per cent do not wish to belong to the Polish
Empire. The claim of the Poles to this territory is of the shadowiest
description and dates back to the time when the United States of
America was still a part of the British Empire. Undoubtedly, the claim
upon this land rests upon the ambition of the Poles to make it a
jumping-off ground for an imperialist adventure which would establish
Polish rule from Warsaw to Odessa. No Russian Government, whatever its
name or quality, would accept such an arrangement, and it is the most
natural thing in the world that the insolent campaign of Poland should
have united behind the Soviet Republic every section of the Russian
populace.
Although morally and legally in the right, and full of indignation at
the unworthy part played by certain European statesmen and soldiers in
the business, who have either openly or covertly, helped and encouraged
the Poles, the Russian Government has repeatedly made efforts to
conclude peace, and has offered to concede much of the Poles’
outrageous claim in order to secure it. The Russians need so sorely to
get on with their work of internal reconstruction that only the most
stupid blunderer could for a moment imagine they were eager for spoils
and conquests. The last offer, which was made months ago, was to accept
for an armistice the lines now occupied by the terrified Poles; but it
was refused. The Allies were requested to temper the rapacity of Poland
and help forward peace, but no attention was paid to this appeal. And
now the victorious Russians are requested to stop fighting, to make
peace on terms prepared for them by interested outsiders who have
helped their foes, or to prepare to have brought against them the armed
power of Great Britain and, it may be, the rest of the Allies. It is a
preposterous situation, in which only the Russians occupy a position of
credit. The invocation of the League of Nations by Great Britain, after
the League had remained silent, whilst one of its members, Poland,
played the pirate, has brought still greater contempt upon that poor
ghost of the thing designed to help mankind.
One’s whole sympathy is with the Russians. By every precedent
established by history, by the precedent of every government engaged in
the recent war, Russia would be entitled to march on and bid the Allies
do their worst. But the best friends of Russia must hope that she will
avoid the bad example of the rest of Europe and, in spite of great and
sore temptation, choose the better way.
When we were in Moscow, we noted the passionate longing of the people
for peace. It was clear that the majority of the men in power also
wanted peace. But a minority existed which was totally indifferent to
peace, whilst a few were glad of the war, since it united the masses of
the population behind the extremer Communists at the head of the State.
The policy towards Poland will depend upon which of the sections gets
its way. If the moderate men win, the armistice will be concluded, and
the terms will be generous. If the others gain the day, the war will go
on until Poland consents to reform her Government on Bolshevist lines.
In such case Lemberg and Warsaw will be occupied and the bourgeois
population may suffer a hard fate.
But what an opportunity presents itself for reversing the thinking
world’s judgment of the men who are managing Russian affairs; or if not
quite reversing it, of modifying it! For the choice of peace on fair
terms will prove the Bolshevik commanders superior in international
morals to any European Government engaged in the recent war. A
government capable of such self-control and a people capable of such
self-denial would go down into history as marking a new epoch. There
would be a new faith in idealism born to Europe, which would help to
undo the cruel wrong to Faith and Hope dealt by the treaties miscalled
of Peace.
Our experience of Russia fills us with mingled fear and hope. During
the last two and a half years of bitter fighting the Russian Government
has trained and equipped a magnificent army. Its navy is utterly
devoted to it. In a sense the Revolution is the child of the navy, for
the sailors brought the thing to birth. It is not possible to estimate
the exact number of men in the active forces, but it is very large
indeed, and it is a very different army from the ragged, ignorant,
ill-equipped forces of the Czar, cheated and abused by corrupt generals
and politicians.
In Petrograd we witnessed an enormous display of Reserve Troops,
numbering not less than fifty thousand, in the Uritzky Platz, which
is the new name given to the great square opposite the Winter Palace.
Accompanying these troops were machine guns and much of the regular
paraphernalia of war. The uniforms were smart and the men were well
shod. Two similar displays in Moscow took place, the one chiefly of
young officers in training, the other of fully trained officers about
to leave for the Polish front. The oath which these men took in public,
and in the presence of the British Delegation, is translated as follows:
“1. I, son of the working people, citizen of the Soviet Republic, take
upon myself the name of a warrior of the Labour and Peasant Army.
“2. Before the working classes of Russia and of the whole world I
undertake to carry this name with honour, to follow the military
calling with conscience and to preserve from damage and robbery the
national and military possessions as the hair of my head.
“3. I pledge myself to submit strictly to revolutionary discipline and
to fulfil without objection every command issued by authority of the
Labour and Peasant Government.
“4. I undertake to abstain from and to deter any act liable to
dishonour the name of citizen of the Soviet Republic; moreover, to
direct all my deeds and thoughts to the great aim of liberation of all
workers.
“5. I pledge myself to the defence of the Soviet Republic in any danger
or assault on the part of any of her enemies at the first call of the
Labour and Peasant Government, and undertake not to spare myself in the
struggle for the Russian Soviet Republic, for the aims of Socialism and
the Brotherhood of Nations to the extent of my full strength and of my
life.
“6. Should this promise be broken, let my fate be the scorn of my
fellows. Let my punishment be the stern hand of revolutionary law.”
If one may judge by appearances, by the expression of their faces, by
the brisk march and the smart response to the word of command, by their
bright smiles and thundering cheers, the Red Army at least is well
content to serve the present Government. And it is not by any means
solely because life, except for those in the front lines of battle,
is more assured than for the rest of the population. True it is that
the army receives first attention. It is well-clothed, it receives one
hundred per cent of the food it needs; the small supply of medicines
goes to the troops; but this is the simplest wisdom. The _moral_ of the
Red Army is drawn from its patriotism, and whatever Government were
in power, provided it showed itself true to the people and able for
defence, it would make no difference to the soldiers if the enemy were
thundering at the gate.
Besides the ordinary Reserve Troops, we witnessed a great parade of
the Armed Workers’ Militia. Every industrial worker between the ages
of eighteen and forty has to undergo compulsory military training
of two-hour drills twice a week. In the parade we saw were included
metal workers, building trade workers, railway workers, transport
workers and distributors of food; women workers, university graduates,
technicians, and a variety of others. It took four solid hours for them
to pass a given point at a quick march. There were at least forty
thousand workpeople, of whom twelve thousand were active members of
the Communist party. In addition, there were hundreds of Boy Scouts,
hundreds of Girl Guides, hundreds of women. The women generally marched
in separate detachments, and carried no arms; but in many cases they
were actually marching with the men and dressed in uniform. We were
informed they were there at their own special request that they might
be trained as soldiers. There were one or two companies of nurses in
uniform. On being asked as they passed the stand where the British
Delegation stood if they were prepared, they shouted back gleefully:
“We are prepared.”
And finally, semi-military and gymnastic training is given to the
school children. This all shows a great nation of one hundred and
twenty-five millions of people going through a process of rapid
militarisation which may one day breed menace to the rest of Europe
unless understanding can be reached and maintained. At Kazan, eighty
thousand splendidly trained troops were got ready for our inspection;
and all along the line it was the same.
The unwisdom of encouraging this to go farther by constant attacks from
outside is dawning upon the mind of the world at last; but to revert
once more to the fear felt by some of the Delegation and expressed
in these pages more than once, the question is this: Has it or has
it not gone too far already? Has the evident pride in their new Red
Army already bitten deep into their souls, so that every fresh victory
adds a glory to it? A boy with a knife wants to whittle something.
Is it certain that even peace-loving Russians may not be willing to
allow their brave men to advance from one conquest to another in the
hope, either of making their country feared and respected by the other
Powers, or in the still larger hope of accomplishing by this means the
world-revolution of which their leaders dream?
The education of the army at the front is a wonderful thing. The
political staff there includes amongst its personnel of eight
hundred, artists, writers, printers and teachers. University courses
are provided which include instruction in all branches of civil
reconstruction. It is contemplated employing many of these soldiers in
the Labour Army when the military war is over, and until the economic
foundations of the country are re-established. At Smolensk there is
a school of drama, always an important part of Russian educational
schemes.
Twelve thousand Communists, specially chosen, the very pick of the
party, have been drawn from responsible administrative posts and sent
to the front to receive special instruction in Red Cross work. This
drastic disturbance of so many people’s lives, and of the valuable
constructive work of the State, is explained and justified on the
ground that the work at the front may be long, perhaps twelve months,
as they have to “get through to Germany.” It has been obvious for a
long time to all but the unimaginative men who hold the destinies
of Europe in their hands that this threat about getting through to
Germany is not a light and foolish boast, but part of the extremists’
plan. Should the moral temperature in Germany be pressed much below
zero, the German junkers might reasonably hope to find a way out by
imitating the Russian Czarist officers and throwing in their lot with
the half-million Communists of Germany who would join themselves to the
victorious armies of Trotsky.
For the fact is that almost all the higher commands are held in Russia
by officers of the old regime. General Baltiski, commanding the Volga
area, spoke quite frankly of the open and unequivocal acceptance by
these old soldiers of the new Government, so disgusted were they with
the old. We were informed that these men and the new working-class
officers were working well together, and that the discipline of the
army was daily improving.
It is suggested in some quarters that the old officers are acting with
Machiavellian cunning, and joining the Red Army in order to undo it
at some favourable opportunity. I must confess that in long talks with
generals and admirals I was not able to detect the slightest evidence
that this was even remotely true. But if it were, their chances of this
are small indeed. To every regiment is attached a regimental political
Commissar. Of the Revolutionary War Council two members represent the
Army along with the Commander-in-Chief, and to act with him there are
two political members of the Council. Put quite simply, the chief
business of the two political members of the Revolutionary Council is
to watch the Chief Commander; the chief business of each political
agent is to note the behaviour of the commander of his regiment.
These political agents have to watch military operations, but are not
supposed to interfere with purely military business even in the event
of an alteration of plans. If a serious matter, or what he regards
as serious, or mysterious, arises in connection with the conduct of
the Commanding Officer, the political agent is supposed to report the
matter only. But if it is obviously _very_ serious, he frequently takes
the responsibility of acting, even to the point of suspending the
commander, or of having him shot in a clear case of treachery to the
Republic. The danger of this power lies in the fact that the political
agent is usually a keen Communist but often an ignorant man, and
in that other indisputable fact: that every utterance which implies
criticism of the Government, its principles or its policy, is regarded
as counter-revolutionary by the Government’s agents.
Discipline in the Red Army is of the most severe kind, stricter than
in the old army, stricter than in most armies, particularly strict for
Communist soldiers. For neglecting their duties or muddling orders men
are frequently shot. To the Commander-in-Chief, Trotsky, life is very
cheap, they say. I wonder if that is the reason why so many people,
including many Communists, spoke of the one-time pacifist as “that
beast Trotsky”?