"The enemy began by massing a surprising force on the western front.

Tremendous energy and organizing power were the marks of his supreme

efforts to obtain a decision. It was usually reckoned that the Germans

maintain on all fronts a field army of about seventy-four and a half

army corps, which at full strength number three million men. Yet, while

holding the Russians from Riga to the south of the Pripet Marshes, and

maintaining a show of force in the Balkans, Germany seems to have

succeeded in bringing up nearly two millions and a half of men for her

grand spring offensive in the west. At one time her forces in France and

Flanders were only ninety divisions. But troops and guns were withdrawn

in increasing numbers from Russia and Serbia in December, 1915, until

there were, it is estimated, a hundred and eighteen divisions on the

Franco-British-Belgian front. A large number of six-inch and twelve-inch

Austrian howitzers were added to the enormous Krupp batteries. Then a

large proportion of new recruits of the 1916 class were moved into

Rhine-land depots to serve as drafts for the fifty-nine army corps, and

it is thought that nearly all the huge shell output that had accumulated

during the winter was transported westward.

"The French Staff reckoned that Verdun would be attacked when the ground

had dried somewhat in the March winds. It was thought that the enemy

movement would take place against the British front in some of the

sectors of which there were chalk undulations, through which the rains

of winter quickly drained. The Germans skilfully encouraged this idea by

making an apparent preliminary attack at Lions, on a five-mile front

with rolling gas-clouds and successive waves of infantry. During this

feint the veritable offensive movement softly began on Saturday,

February 19, 1916, when the enormous masses of hostile artillery west,

east, and north of the Verdun salient started registering on the French

positions. Only in small numbers did the German guns fire, in order not

to alarm their opponents. But even this trial bombardment by shifts was

a terrible display of power, calling forth all the energies of the

outnumbered French gunners to maintain the artillery duels that

continued day and night until Monday morning, February 21st.

[Illustration: Photograph]

AMMUNITION FOR THE GUNS

Canadian narrow-gauge line taking ammunition up the line through a

shattered village.

[Illustration: Truck convoy running parallel to troops marching.]

HOW VERDUN WAS SAVED

The motor transport never faltered when the railroads were put out of

action.

[Illustration: Photograph]

NURSE EDITH CAVELL

A victim of German savagery. An English lady whose life had been

devoted to works of mercy, was shot after summary trial, at Brussels

on October 11, 1915, for helping British and Belgian fugitives.

[Illustration: Photograph]

Copyright Underwood and Underwood, N. Y.

CAPTAIN CHARLES A. FRYATT

The martyred British Merchant-Marine Captain, who was executed by the

Germans because his ship attempted to sink a German submarine which

attacked her.

"The enemy seems to have maintained a bombardment all round General

Herr's lines on February 21, 1916, but this general battering was done

with a thousand pieces of field artillery. The grand masses of heavy

howitzers were used in a different way. At a quarter past seven in the

morning they concentrated on the small sector of advanced intrenchments

near Brabant and the Meuse; twelve-inch shells fell with terrible

precision every few yards, according to the statements made by the

French troops. I afterwards saw a big German shell, from at least six

miles distant from my place of observation, hit quite a small target. So

I can well believe that, in the first bombardment of French positions,

which had been photographed from the air and minutely measured and

registered by the enemy gunners in the trial firing, the great,

destructive shots went home with extraordinary effect. The trenches were

not bombarded--they were obliterated. In each small sector of the

six-mile northward bulge of the Verdun salient the work of destruction

was done with surprising quickness.

"After the line from Brabant to Haumont was smashed, the main fire power

was directed against the other end of the bow at Herbebois, Ornes, and

Maucourt. Then when both ends of the bow were severely hammered, the

central point of the Verdun salient, Caures Woods, was smothered in

shells of all sizes, poured in from east, north and west. In this manner

almost the whole enormous force of heavy artillery was centered upon

mile after mile of the French front. When the great guns lifted over the

lines of craters, the lighter field artillery placed row after row in

front of the wreckage, maintained an unending fire curtain over the

communicating saps and support intrenchments.

"Then came the second surprising feature in the new German system of

attack. No waves of storming infantry swept into the battered works.

Only strong patrols at first came cautiously forward, to discover if it

were safe for the main body of troops to advance and reorganize the

French line so as to allow the artillery to move onward. There was thus

a large element of truth in the marvelous tales afterwards told by

German prisoners. Their commanders thought it would be possible to do

all the fighting with long-range artillery, leaving the infantry to act

as squatters to the great guns and occupy and rebuild line after line of

the French defenses without any serious hand-to-hand struggles. All they

had to do was to protect the gunners from surprise attack, while the

guns made an easy path for them.

"But, ingenious as was this scheme for saving the man-power of Germany

by an unparalleled expenditure of shell, it required for full success

the co-operation of the French troops. But the French did not

co-operate. Their High Command had continually improved their system of

trench defense in accordance with the experiences of their own hurricane

bombardments in Champagne and the Carency sector. General Castelnau, the

acting Commander-in-Chief on the French front, was indeed the inventor

of hurricane fire tactics, which he had used for the first time in

February, 1915, in Champagne. When General Joffre took over the conduct

of all French operations, leaving to General Castelnau the immediate

control of the front in France, the victor of the battle of Nancy

weakened his advance lines and then his support lines, until his troops

actually engaged in fighting were very little more than a thin covering

body, such as is thrown out towards the frontier while the main forces

connect well behind.

"We shall see the strategical effect of this extraordinary measure in

the second phase of the Verdun battle, but its tactical effect was to

leave remarkably few French troops exposed to the appalling tempest of

German and Austrian shells. The fire-trench was almost empty, and in

many cases the real defenders of the French line were men with machine

guns, hidden in dug-outs at some distance from the photographed

positions at which the German gunners aimed. The batteries of light

guns, which the French handled with the flexibility and continuity of

fire of Maxims, were also concealed in widely scattered positions. The

main damage caused by the first intense bombardment was the destruction

of all the telephone wires along the French front. In one hour the

German guns plowed up every yard of ground behind the observing posts

and behind the fire trench. Communications could only be slowly

re-established by messengers, so that many parties of men had to fight

on their own initiative, with little or no combination of effort with

their comrades.

"Yet, desperate as were their circumstances, they broke down the German

plan for capturing trenches without an infantry attack. They caught the

patrols and annihilated them, and then swept back the disillusioned and

reluctant main bodies of German troops. First, the bombing parties were

felled, then the sappers as they came forward to repair the line for

their infantry, and at last the infantry itself in wave after wave of

field-gray. The small French garrison of every center of resistance

fought with cool, deadly courage, and often to the death.

"Artillery fire was practically useless against them, for though their

tunnel shelters were sometimes blown in by the twelve-inch shells, which

they regarded as their special terror by reason of their penetrative

power and wide blast, even the Germans had not sufficient shells to

search out all their underground chambers, every one of which have two

or three exits.

"The new organization of the French Machine-gun Corps was a fine factor

in the eventual success. One gun fired ten thousand rounds daily for a

week, most of the positions selected being spots from which each German

infantry advance would be enfiladed and shattered. Then the French 75's

which had been masked during the overwhelming fire of the enemy

howitzers, came unexpectedly into action when the German infantry

attacks increased in strength. Near Haumont, for example, eight

successive furious assaults were repulsed by three batteries of 75's.

One battery was then spotted by the Austrian twelve-inch guns, but it

remained in action until all its ammunition was exhausted. The gunners

then blew up their guns and retired, with the loss of only one man.

"Von Falkenhayn had increased the Crown Prince's army from the fourteen

divisions--that battled at Douaumont Fort--to twenty-five divisions. In

April he added five more divisions to the forces around Verdun by

weakening the effectives in other sectors and drawing more troops from

the Russian front. It was rumored that von Hindenburg was growing

restive and complaining that the wastage at Verdun would tell against

the success of the campaign on the Riga-Dvinsk front, which was to open

when the Baltic ice melted.

"Great as was the wastage of life, it was in no way immediately

decisive. But when the expenditure of shells almost outran the highest

speed of production of the German munition factories, and the wear on

the guns was more than Krupp and Skoda could make good, there was danger

to the enemy in beginning another great offensive likely to overtax his

shellmakers and gunmakers."

Immortal and indomitable France had won over her foe more power than she

had possessed even after the battle of the Marne.

Throughout the entire summer Verdun, with the whole population of France

roused to the supreme heights of heroism behind it, held like a rock.

Wave after wave of Germans in gray-green lines were sent against the

twenty-five miles of earthworks, while the French guns took their toll

of the crack German regiments. German dead lay upon the field until

exposed flesh became the same ghastly hue of their uniforms. No Man's

Land around Verdun was a waste and a stench.

General Joffre's plan was very simple. It was to hold out. As was

afterwards revealed, much to the satisfaction of the French people, Sir

Douglas Haig had placed himself completely at the service of the French

Commander-in-Chief, and had suggested that he should use the British

army to weaken the thrust at Verdun. But General Joffre had refused the

proffered help. No man knew better than he what his country, with its

exceedingly low birthrate, was suffering on the Meuse. He had but to

send a telegram to British Headquarters, and a million Britons, with

thousands of heavy guns, would fling themselves upon the German lines

and compel Falkenhayn to divide his shell output, his heavy artillery,

and his millions of men between Verdun and the Somme. But General

Joffre, instead of sending the telegram in question, merely dispatched

officers to British Headquarters to assure and calm the chafing Scotsman

commanding the military forces of the British Empire.

Throughout that long summer the battle cry of Verdun, "Ne passeront

pas!" ("They shall not pass!"), was an inspiration to the French army

and to the world. Then as autumn drifted its red foliage over the

heights surrounding the bloody field, the French struck back. General

Nivelle, who had taken command at Verdun under Joffre, commenced a

series of attacks and a persistent pressure against the German forces on

both sides of the Meuse. These thrusts culminated in a sudden sweeping

attack which on October 24th, resulted in the recapture by Nivelle's

forces of Fort Douaumont and on November 2d, in the recapture of Fort

Vaux.

Thus ended in glory the most inspiring battle in the long and honorable

history of France.

CHAPTER XXVII

MURDERS AND MARTYRS

Many examples might be cited to show that the Central empires were dead

to the humanities. There were apparently no limits to the brutality of

the German war-makers. Among the outstanding deeds of the Teutons that

sickened the world was the killing of Miss Edith Cavell, an English

nurse working in Belgian hospitals.

A shudder of horror circled the world when announcement was formally

made that this splendid woman was sentenced to death and murdered by a

German firing squad at two o'clock on the morning of October 12, 1915.

The killing of this gentle-natured, brave woman typified to the world

Germany's essentially brutal militarism. It placed the German military

command in a niche of dishonor unique in all history.

The specific charge against Miss Cavell was that she had helped English

and French soldiers and Belgian young male civilians to cross the border

into Holland. The direct evidence against her was in the form of letters

intercepted by the Germans in which some of these soldiers and civilians

writing from England thanked her for the aid she had given to them.

Upon the farcical trial that resulted in the predetermined sentence of

death, Miss Cavell courageously and freely admitted her assistance in

the specified cases of escape. When she was asked why she did it, she

declared her fear that if she had not done so the men would have been

shot by the Germans. Her testimony was given in a clear conversational

tone that betrayed no nervousness and her entire bearing was such as to

win the sympathy of everyone except her stony-hearted judges.

The German officers in command at Brussels made it impossible for Miss

Cavell to see counsel before the trial, and a number of able lawyers who

were solicited to undertake her defense declined to do so because of

their fear of the Germans.

Sentence was imposed upon her at five o'clock on the afternoon of

October 11th. In accordance with its terms, she was taken from her cell

and placed against a blank wall at two o'clock the following

morning--the darkness of the hour vying with the blackness of the deed.

Mr. Gahan, the English clergyman connected with the prison, was

permitted to see her a short time before her murder. He gave her Holy

Communion at ten o'clock on the night of October 11th. To him she

declared she was happy in her contemplation of death; that she had no

regret for what she had done; and that she was glad to die for her

country.

Brand Whitlock, American Minister to Belgium, and Hugh Gibson, Secretary

of the Legation, did all that was humanly possible to avert the crime,

but without avail. They were told that, "the Emperor himself could not

intervene."

Defending the murder, Dr. Alfred Zimmermann, German Under Secretary for

Foreign Affairs, callously disposed of the matter thus:

"I see from the English and American press that the shooting of an

Englishwoman and the condemnation of several other women in Brussels for

treason has caused a sensation, and capital against us is being made out

of the fact. Men and women are equal before the law, and only the degree

of guilt makes a difference in the sentence for the crime and its

consequences."

Monuments to Edith Cavell were reared in widely scattered communities. A

mountain was named in her honor. Her murder multiplied enlistments and

fed the fires of patriotism throughout the Allied countries. In the end,

Germany lost heavily. The Teutons aimed to strike terror into the hearts

of men and women. They only succeeded in arousing a righteous anger that

ultimately destroyed the Imperial government.

Another instance equally flagrant of the utter callousness of the men

who at that time ruled Germany, was the murder of Captain Fryatt, a

gallant British seaman, who had dared to attack the pirates of the

under-seas.

Captain Charles Fryatt was the master of the steamship Brussels, a

merchant vessel owned by the Great Eastern Railway. It was captured by

the Germans on June 23, 1916. Captain Fryatt was taken to Zeebrugge. A

court-martial went through the motions of a trial at Bruges on July

27th. The charge against Captain Fryatt was that of attempting to ram

the German submarine U-33.

Mute testimony against Captain Fryatt was a gold watch found upon his

person. This carried an inscription testifying that the watch had been

presented by the mayor and people of Harwich in recognition of the

Captain's bravery in attempting to ram a submarine, and his successful

escape when the U-boat called upon him to surrender.

The prisoners who were captured with Captain Fryatt were sent to the

prison camp at Ruhlaben, but Captain Fryatt was condemned to death as a

"franc-tireur." The news of the murder was sent to the world through a

German communique dated July 28th. It stated:

The accused was condemned to death because, although he was not a member

of a combatant force, he made an attempt on the afternoon of March 20,

1915, to ram the German submarine U-33 near the Maas lightship. The

accused, as well as the first officer and the chief engineer of the

steamer, received at the time from the British Admiralty a gold watch as

a reward of his brave conduct on that occasion, and his action was

mentioned with praise in the House of Commons.

On the occasion in question, disregarding the U-boat's signal to stop

and show his national flag, he turned at a critical moment at high speed

on the submarine, which escaped the steamer by a few meters only by

immediately diving. He confessed that in so doing he had acted in

accordance with the instructions of the Admiralty. One of the many

nefarious franc-tireur proceedings of the British merchant marine

against our war vessels has thus found a belated but merited expiation.

This brutal action by Germany coming after the murder of Edith Cavell

created intense indignation throughout the world. It ranked with the

poison gas at Ypres, the Lusitania, the Belgian atrocities, the killing

of Edith Cavell and the unrestricted submarine sinkings, as a factor in

arousing the democratic peoples of the world to a fighting pitch.

Germany sowed its seeds of destruction in the wind that bore the fumes

of poison gas, and in the ruthless brutality that decreed the sinking of

the Lusitania and the murders of Edith Cavell and Captain Fryatt.

It reaped the whirlwind in the world-wide wrath that brought America

into the war, and that visited disgrace and defeat upon the German

Empire.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES

First to feel the effects of German terrorism through poison gas were

the gallant Canadian troops on the afternoon of April 22, 1915, at

Ypres, Belgium. Gas had been used by the Germans previously to this, but

they were mere experimental clouds directed against Belgian troops.

Before the battle, the English and Canadians held a line from

Broodseinde to half a mile north of St. Julien on the crest of the

Grafenstafel Ridge. The French prolonged the line to Steenstraate on the

Yperlee Canal. The Germans originally planned the attack for Tuesday,

April 20th, but with satanic ingenuity the offensive was postponed until

between 4 and 5 o'clock on the afternoon of Thursday, the 22d. During

the morning the wind blew steadily from the north and the scientists

attached to the German Field Headquarters predicted that the strong wind

would continue at least twelve hours longer.

The Canadian division held a line extending about five miles from the

Ypres-Roulers Railway to the Ypres-Poelcapelle road. The division

consisted of three infantry brigades, in addition to the artillery

brigades. Upon this unsuspecting body of men the poison fumes were

projected by means of pipes and force pumps. The immediate consequences

were that the asphyxiating gas of great intensity rendered immediately

helpless thousands of men. The same gas attack that was projected upon

the Canadians also fell with murderous effect upon the French. The

consequences were that the French division on the left of the Canadians

gave way and the Third brigade of the Canadian division, so far as the

left was concerned, was "up in the air," to use the phrase of its

commanding officer.

It became necessary for Brigadier-General Turner, commanding the Third

brigade, to throw back his left flank southward to protect his rear.

This caused great confusion, and the enemy, advancing rapidly, took a

number of guns and many prisoners, penetrating to the village of St.

Julien, two miles in the rear of the original French trenches. The

Canadians fought heroically, although greatly outnumbered and pounded by

artillery that inflicted tremendous losses. The Germans, as they came

through the gas clouds, were protected by masks moistened with a

solution containing bi-carbonate of soda.

The tactics of General Turner off-set the numerical superiority of the

enemy, and prevented a disastrous rout. General Curry, commanding the

Second brigade of Canadians, repeated this successful maneuver when he

flung his left flank southward and, presenting two fronts to the enemy,

held his line of trenches from Thursday at 5 o'clock until Sunday

afternoon. The reason the trenches were held no longer than Sunday

afternoon was that they had been obliterated by heavy artillery fire.

The Germans finally succeeded in capturing a line, the forward point of

which was the village of St. Julien. Reinforcements under General

Alderson had come up by this time and the enemy's advance was suddenly

checked. Enemy attacks upon the line running from Ypres to Passchendaele

completely broke down under the withering fire of the reinforced and

reformed artillery and infantry brigades. The record officer of the

Canadians makes this comment of the detailed fighting:

The story of the second battle of Ypres is the story of how the Canadian

division, enormously outnumbered--for they had in front of them at least

four divisions, supported by immensely heavy artillery, with a gap still

existing, though reduced, in their lines, and with dispositions made

hurriedly under the stimulus of critical danger, fought through the day

and through the night, and then through another day and night; fought

under their officers until, as happened to so many, those perished

gloriously, and then fought from the impulsion of sheer valor because

they came from fighting stock.

The enemy, of course, was aware--whether fully or not may perhaps be

doubted--of the advantage his breach in the line had given him, and

immediately began to push a formidable series of attacks upon the whole

of the newly-formed Canadian salient. The attack was everywhere fierce,

but developed with particular intensity at this moment upon the apex of

the newly-formed line, running in the direction of St. Julien.

It has already been stated that some British guns were taken in a wood

comparatively early in the evening of the 22d. In the course of that

night, and under the heaviest machine-gun fire, this wood was assaulted

by the Canadian Scottish, Sixteenth battalion of the Third brigade, and

the Tenth battalion of the Second brigade, which was intercepted for

this purpose on its way to a reserve trench. The battalions were

respectively commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Leckie and

Lieutenant-Colonel Boyle, and after a most fierce struggle in the light

of a misty moon they took the position at the point of the bayonet. At

midnight the Second battalion, under Colonel Watson, and the Toronto

regiment, Queen's Own, Third battalion, under Lieutenant-Colonel Rennie,

both of the First brigade, brought up much-needed reinforcement, and

though not actually engaged in the assault, were in reserve.

All through the following days and nights these battalions shared the

fortunes and misfortunes of the Third brigade. An officer who took part

in the attack describes how the men about him fell under the fire of the

machine guns, which, in his phrase, played upon them "like a watering

pot." He added quite simply "I wrote my own life off." But the line

never wavered. When one man fell another took his place, and with a

final shout the survivors of the two battalions flung themselves into

the wood. The German garrison was completely demoralized, and the

impetuous advance of the Canadians did not cease until they reached the

far side of the wood and intrenched themselves there in the position so

dearly gained. They had, however, the disappointment of finding that the

guns had been blown up by the enemy, and later on in the same night a

most formidable concentration of artillery fire, sweeping the wood as a

tropical storm sweeps the leaves from a forest, made it impossible for

them to hold the position for which they had sacrificed so much.

The fighting continued without intermission all through the night, and,

to those who observed the indications that the attack was being pushed

with ever-growing strength, it hardly seemed possible that the

Canadians, fighting in positions so difficult to defend and so little

the subject of deliberate choice, could maintain their resistance for

any long period. At 6 A. M. on Friday it became apparent that the left

was becoming more and more involved, and a powerful German attempt to

outflank it developed rapidly. The consequences, if it had been broken

or outflanked, need not be insisted upon. They were not merely local.

It was there decided, formidable as the attempt undoubtedly was, to try

and give relief by a counter-attack upon the first line of German

trenches, now far, far advanced from those originally occupied by the

French. This was carried out by the Ontario First and Fourth battalions

of the First brigade, under Brigadier-General Mercer, acting in

combination with a British brigade.

[Illustration: Map: Ypres and the surroundings.]

THE TOWN OF YPRES IS FULL OF MEMORIES FOR THE CANADIANS

It is safe to say that the youngest private in the rank, as he set his

teeth for the advance, knew the task in front of him, and the youngest

subaltern knew all that rested upon its success. It did not seem that

any human being could live in the shower of shot and shell which began

to play upon the advancing troops. They suffered terrible casualties.

For a short time every other man seemed to fall, but the attack was

pressed ever closer and closer.

The Fourth Canadian battalion at one moment came under a particularly

withering fire. For a moment--not more--it wavered. Its most gallant

commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Burchill, carrying, after an old

fashion, a light cane, coolly and cheerfully rallied his men and, at the

very moment when his example had infected them, fell dead at the head of

his battalion. With a hoarse cry of anger they sprang forward (for,

indeed they loved him), as if to avenge his death. The astonishing

attack which followed--pushed home in the face of direct frontal fire

made in broad daylight by battalions whose names should live forever in

the memories of soldiers--was carried to the front line of the German

trenches. After a hand-to-hand struggle the last German who resisted was

bayoneted, and the trench was won.

The measure of this success may be taken when it is pointed out that

this trench represented in the German advance the apex in the breach

which the enemy had made in the original line of the Allies, and that it

was two and a half miles south of that line. This charge, made by men

who looked death indifferently in the face (for no man who took part in

it could think that he was likely to live) saved, and that was much, the

Canadian left. But it did more. Up to the point where the assailants

conquered, or died, it secured and maintained during the most critical

moment of all the integrity of the allied line. For the trench was not

only taken, it was held thereafter against all comers, and in the teeth

of every conceivable projectile, until the night of Sunday, the 25th,

when all that remained of the war-broken but victorious battalion was

relieved by fresh troops.

CHAPTER XXIX

ZEPPELIN RAIDS ON FRANCE AND ENGLAND

The idea of warfare in the air has been a dream of romancers from a

period long before Jules Verne. Indeed, balloons were used for

observation purposes in the eighteenth century by the French armies. The

crude balloon of that period, in a more developed form, was used in the

Franco-Prussian War, and during the siege of Paris by its assistance

communication was kept up between Paris and the outside world. Realizing

its possibilities inventors had been trying to develop a balloon which

could be propelled against the wind and so guided that explosives could

be dropped upon a hostile army. Partially successful dirigible balloons

have been occasionally exhibited for a number of years.

The idea of such a balloon took a strong hold upon the imagination of

the German army staff long before the Great War, and Count Ferdinand

Zeppelin gave the best years of his life to its development. From the

beginning he met with great difficulties. His first ships proved

mechanical failures, and after these difficulties were overcome he met

with a series of accidents which almost put an end to his efforts. By

popular subscription, and by government support, he was able to

continue, and when the war began Germany had thirty-five dirigible

balloons of the Zeppelin and other types, many of them as much as 490

feet long.

The Zeppelin balloon, called the Zeppelin from the name of its inventor,

was practically a vast ship, capable of carrying a load of about fifteen

thousand pounds. It would carry a crew of twenty men or more, fuel for

the engines, provisions, a wireless installation, and armament with

ammunition. For a journey of twenty hours such a vessel would need at

least seven thousand pounds of fuel. It would probably be able to carry

about two tons of explosives. These Zeppelins could travel great

distances. Before the war one of them flew from Lake Constance to

Berlin, a continuous flight of about one thousand miles, in thirty-one

hours.

These great aerial warships were given a thorough trial by the Germans.

They disliked to admit that they had made a costly mistake in adding

them to their armament. It soon turned out, however, that the Zeppelins

were practically useless in battle. Whatever they could do, either for

scouting purposes or in dropping explosives behind the enemy's lines,

could be better done by the airplane. The French and the English, who

before the war had decided that the airplane was the more important

weapon, were right. But the Germans did not give up their costly toy so

easily, and they determined to use it in the bombardment of cities and

districts situated far away from the German line, in dropping bombs, not

upon fortifications, or armed camps where they might meet with

resistance, but upon peaceful non-belligerents in the streets of great

unfortified cities.

It was their policy of frightfulness once again. And once again they had

made a mistake. The varied expeditions of the Zeppelin airships sent

from Germany to bombard Paris, or to cross the Channel and, after

dropping bombs on seaside resorts, to wander over the city of London in

the hope of spreading destruction there, did little real damage and

their net effects, from a military point of view, were practically nil.

The first Zeppelin raid upon England took place on January 19, 1915. The

Zeppelins passed over the cities of Yarmouth, Cromer, Sherringham and

King's Lynn. On this expedition there were two Zeppelins. They reached

the coast of Norfolk about 8.30 in the evening and then steered

northwest across the country toward King's Lynn, dropping bombs as they

went. In these towns there were no military stations and the damage

suffered was very slight. Nine persons were killed, all civilians. This

raid was followed by many others, which at first usually wasted their

ammunition, dropping their bombs on small country towns or in empty

fields.

On the 31st of May an expedition reached London and killed six persons

in the east end. The result of this raid was to stir the English to

intense indignation. Mobs gathered in the London streets, and persons

suspected of being Germans, or with German sympathies, were attacked.

Other raids followed, none of them doing serious military damage, but

usually killing or wounding innocent non-combatants. The stupid policy

of secrecy which they maintained during the first year of the war

unfortunately permitted great exaggeration of the real damages which

they had suffered.

During the first year, according to Mr. Balfour, in eighteen Zeppelin

raids there were only seventy-one civilian adults and eighteen children

killed, one hundred and eighty-nine civilian adults and thirty-one

children wounded. No soldier or sailor was killed and only seven

wounded.

In France similar attacks had been made on Paris and Calais. On the 20th

of March two Zeppelins dropped bombs on Paris, but Paris, unlike London,

was a fortified city, and the sky soldiers were driven off by the

anti-aircraft guns. The French also devised an efficient method of

defense. On the appearance of an airship great searchlights flashed into

the air and the enemy was made at once a target, not only for the guns

of all the forts, but also for airplane attack. In order to attack

successfully a Zeppelin it was necessary that an airplane should attain

a position above the enemy. For an airplane to rise to such a height

time was required, as the airplane rises slowly. The French, therefore,

devised a scheme by which two or more airplanes were kept constantly

circling at a very great height above the city. Relays were formed which

relieved each other at regular intervals. When an airship approached it

would therefore be compelled in the first place to pass through the fire

of the guns on the great forts, and then would find in the air above

airplanes in waiting. The Germans, therefore, practically gave up

attacks upon Paris. They were dangerous.

London, practically unarmed, seemed to them an easy mark. But the

British Lion was now awake. The English had been taken by surprise. They

attempted at first, in an unorganized way, to protect their city, and,

though occasionally successful in destroying an airship through the

gallantry of some individual hero, they soon found that their defense

must be organized, and Admiral Sir Percy Scott was entrusted with the

task. Lights were extinguished on the streets and screened on the water

front. Illumination for advertising purposes was forbidden; windows were

covered, so that London became at night a mass of gloom. The Zeppelins,

compelled to fly at a very great height, because of anti-aircraft guns,

were blinded. As in Paris airplanes were constantly kept on the alert

and searchlights and anti-airship guns placed at every convenient point.

The suggestion was made that the English should undertake reprisals, but

the suggestion was strongly opposed on the ground that the British

should not be a "party to a line of conduct condemned by every

right-thinking man of every civilized nation."

The effect of the English improved defenses was soon obvious, when the

German expeditions began to lose airship after airship. Under the new

regime, when such an attack was signaled, the whole city immediately

received warning and the sky was swept by dozens of searchlights. Safe

retreats were ready for those who cared to use them, but ordinarily the

whole population rushed out to watch the spectacle. Airplanes would dash

at the incoming foe; the searchlights would be switched off and the guns

be silent to avoid hindering the aviators. Then would come the attack

and Zeppelin after Zeppelin would be seen falling, a great mass of

flames, while their companions would hurry back across the Channel. Even

there they would not be safe, for many an airship was brought down on

English fields, or on the waters of the sea.

The Germans, however, did not confine their policy of frightfulness in

the air to the performances of their Zeppelins. Before the Zeppelins had

crossed the Channel their airplanes had visited England. On Christmas

Day, 1914, an airplane attacked Dover, doing, however, no damage. Other

airplanes also visited the British Isles from time to time, dropping

bombs, and as the Germans began to lose faith in the efficacy of their

Zeppelin fleets they began more and more to substitute airplanes for

their airships.

On some of these expeditions much more damage was done than had ever

been done by the Zeppelins. The airplane expedition grew serious in the

year 1917; between May 23d and June 16th of that year there were five

such aerial attacks. The airplanes could not only move with greater

speed but with better direction. An attack on May 25th resulted in the

killing of seventy-six persons and the injuring of one hundred and

seventy-four, the principal victims being women and children. This was

at the town of Folkestone on the southeast coast. In this attack there

were about sixteen airplanes, and the time of the attack was not more

than three minutes. Scarcely any part of Folkestone escaped injury. The

attack was methodically organized. Four separate squadrons passed over

the city, following each other at short intervals. It was impossible to

tell when the attack would end, and people in shelters or cellars were

kept waiting for hours without being able to feel certain that the

danger had passed.

[Illustration: Photograph]

AN AIRPLANE ALARM

Sailors dashing to the fighting tops of a battleship and putting an

anti-aircraft gun in action to repel a hostile airplane.

[Illustration: Painting]

LONDON'S WELCOME TO A ZEPPELIN RAIDER

In the early part of the war Zeppelin raids on England were frequent.

The rapid perfecting of searchlights, anti-aircraft guns and airplane

defenses soon discouraged them. This picture shows an airplane about

to attack with flaming bullets.

[Illustration: Photograph]

GUARDING PARIS FROM THE HUN

Observation post fitted with instruments for gauging the height and

speed of enemy aircraft, a giant searchlight, a listening post and a

"75" gun installed on the outskirts of Paris.

It is probable that one of the motives of these raids was to keep at

home fleets of English airplanes which might be more useful on the

front. Indeed, many Englishmen, alarmed by the damage, urged such a

policy, but the good sense of the English leaders prevented such a

mistake from being made. Pitiful as must have been the suffering in

individual cases, the whole of the damage caused by the German

frightfulness was but a trifle as compared with the usefulness of the

English air-fleets when directly sent against the German armies.

Nevertheless, every squadron of German airplanes sent to England was

attacked by British aviators, and in those attacks the Germans suffered

many losses.

[Illustration: Map]

THE FIRST GERMAN ARMY WHICH INVADED FRANCE (1,200,000) WOULD HAVE

STRETCHED FROM PARIS INTO RUSSIA (1,200 MILES) IF MARCHING IN SINGLE

FILE

The worst raid of all those made was one on June 13th, which was

directed upon the city of London. On that occasion ninety-seven persons

were killed and four hundred and thirty-seven wounded. These airplane

operations differed from the Zeppelin expeditions in being carried on in

the daytime, and this raid took place while the schools were in session

and large numbers of people were in the street. Only one of the

attacking airplanes was brought down. The raiding machines were of a new

type, about three times the size of the ordinary machine, and there were

twenty-two such machines in the squadron. The battle in the air was a

striking spectacle and in spite of the danger was watched by millions of

the population. The raiders were easily seen and their flight seemed

like a flight of swallows as they dived and swerved through the air.

The raids on England were not the only raids conducted by the Germans

during the war. Paris suffered, but as soon as the warning sounded, the

sky over the city was alive with defense airplanes. An attack on the

French capital took place on the 27th of July and began about midnight.

The German airmen, however, never got further than a suburban section of

the city, and their bombardment caused but little damage. In one of the

suburbs, however, a German flyer dropped four bombs on a Red Cross

Hospital, killing two doctors, a chemist and a male nurse, and injuring

a number of patients. The raider was flying low and the distinguishing

marks of the hospital were plainly apparent.

Almost every day during the bitter fighting of 1918, reports came in

that Allied hospitals had been bombed by German raiders. Attacks on

hospitals were, of course, strictly forbidden by the Hague Convention,

and they caused bitter indignation. Such attacks were of a piece with

those upon hospital ships which were made from time to time. From the

very beginning of the war the Germans could not understand the

psychology of the people of the Allied countries. They were not fighting

with slaves, ready to cower under the lash, but with free people, ready

to fight for liberty and roused to fury by lawlessness.

CHAPTER XXX

RED REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA

The Russian Revolution was not a sudden movement of the people. Long

before the war it had raised its head. The Duma itself came into

existence as one of its fruits; but when the war began all parties

joined in patriotic support of the Russian armies and laid aside for the

time their cherished grievances. The war was immensely popular. Slavonic

nationalism turned against Austria-Hungary and Germany who were bent

upon crushing the Slavonic sister state, Serbia. The Liberal elements

saw in Germany the stronghold of reaction and of militarism, and trusted

that its downfall would be followed by that of Russian autocracy. But so

glaring was the incapacity of the old regime, that a union was formed

during the war by all the Liberal parties. This group united on the

single aim of pushing on the war, and silently preparing for the moment

when the catastrophe to Czarism was to come.

This was long before the revolution. But a conviction of the necessity

of immediate change gradually came to all. The Czar himself brought

matters to an issue. His vacillation, his appointment of ministers who

were not only reactionary, but were suspected of being German tools,

were too much for even honest supporters of the Imperial regime. Some of

these reactionaries, it is true, were easily driven from power. In 1915

Sukhomlinov and Maklakov were overthrown by the influence of the army

and the Duma. But in 1916 the parasites came to life again. M. Boris

Stuermer became Prime Minister, and appointed as Minister of the

Interior the notorious Protopopov. On November 14, 1916, Miliukov, the

leader of the Constitutional Democrats, or Cadet Party, attacked the

Premier in one of the fiercest speeches ever made in the Russian Duma.

Stuermer was compelled to resign, but his successor, M. Trepov, though

an honest man with high ambitions, was forced to retain Protopopov at

the Interior. For a moment there was calm. But it was the calm before

the storm.

The Russian Revolution, now recognized as the most bloody revolution in

history, began with the assassination of a single man. This man was

Gregory Novikh, known throughout the world under the name of Rasputin. A

Siberian peasant by birth, immoral, filthy in person, untrained in mind,

he had early received the nickname of Rasputin, which means

"ne'er-do-well," on account of his habits. A drunkard, and a libertine

always, he posed as a sort of saint and miracle worker, let his hair

grow long, and tramped about the world barefoot.

Rasputin had left his district of Tobolsk and at Moscow had started a

new cult, where mystical seances were mingled with debauchery. Through

Madame Verubova he had been introduced to the Empress herself. He became

the friend of Count Witte, of Stuermer, and Protopopov was his tool.

Rumor credited him with exercising an extraordinary influence upon the

Czarina, and through her upon the Czar. This influence was thought to be

responsible for many of the Czar's unpopular policies. In times of great

public agitation the wildest rumors are easily taken for truth and the

absurd legends which were easily associated with his name were greedily

accepted by people of every rank. The influence of Rasputin over the

Imperial family was denied again and again. It has been said from

authoritative sources that the Czar did not know him by sight, and that

the Czarina knew him only as a superstitious and neurotic woman might

know some fortune teller or other charlatan. Nevertheless the credulous

public believed him to be the evil spirit of the Imperial circle, and

every false move, every unpopular act, was ascribed to his baneful

influence. But such a career could not last long, and the end became a

tragedy.

Several times Rasputin had been attacked, but had escaped. At last, on

the 29th of December, 1916, Prince Yusapov, a young man of wealth and

position, invited him to dine with him at his own home. The Prince came

for him in his own car. Entering the dining-room, they found there the

Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch. M. Purishkevitch, a member of the Duma,

had acted as chauffeur, and he followed him in. The three told him that

he was to die and he was handed a pistol that he might kill himself;

instead of doing so, he shot at the Grand Duke, but missed, and then was

shot in turn by his captors. The noise attracted the attention of the

police who inquired what had happened. "I have just killed a dog," was

the reply.

His body was taken in an automobile to the Neva River, a hole cut in the

ice, and weighted with stones, it was dropped into the waters. On the

next day his executioners notified the police of what they had done, and

the news was announced at the Imperial Theatre, whose audience went wild

with enthusiasm, and sang the National Hymn. No legal action was ever

taken against Rasputin's executioners. His body was recovered and given

honorable burial. The Czarina, according to report, following the coffin

to the grave. And so disappeared from the Imperial Court one evil force.

But his tool, Alexander Protopopov, still survived. Protopopov was an

extraordinary man. In 1916 he had visited England and France and made a

splendid impression. His speeches, full of fire and patriotism, were

regarded as the best made by any deputation that had come from Russia.

But on his return to Petrograd he fell completely into the hands of the

Court party. He became associated with Rasputin, and his wild talk and

restless conduct suggested to many that his mind had become affected.

After the death of Rasputin, the meeting of the Duma, which should have

taken place on January 25, 1917, was postponed for a month. The

censorship was drawn tighter, the members of the secret police were

greatly increased, and a deliberate endeavor, under the direction of

Protopopov was made to encourage an abortive revolution, so that its

overthrow might establish the reactionaries in power. But the attempt

failed.

During January and February the people were calm. No one wanted

revolution then. On February 9th, the labor members of the War Industry

Committee were arrested. This was regarded as plainly provocative, and

M. Miliukov wrote appeals to the people for patience. These were

suppressed, but no disturbance ensued. A British Commission, then on a

visit to Russia, reported that there was no danger of revolution. But

the people were hungry. Speakers in the Duma discussed the food problem.

It became harder and harder to procure bread, and little that was

practical seemed to be done to improve the situation, though in some

parts of the country there were large surplus stocks. On March 8th

crowds gathered around the bakery shops, and looted several of them. The

next day the crowds in the streets increased. Groups of Cossacks rode

here and there, fraternizing with the people. They, too, were hungry. In

the afternoon two workmen were arrested for disorder by the police. A

band of Cossacks freed them. Street speakers began to appear here and

there, and crowds gathered to listen to their fiery denunciations of the

government.

On March 11th, General Khabalov, military governor of the city, issued a

proclamation announcing that the police had orders to disperse all

crowds, and that any workman who did not return to work on Monday

morning would be sent to the trenches. The main streets of the city were

cleared and guarded by the police and soldiery. The crowds were

enormous, and disorderly, and more than two hundred of the rioters were

killed. Yet it seemed as if the government had the situation in a firm

grasp, though an ominous incident was that the Pavlovsk regiment on

being ordered to fire upon the mob, mutinied and had to be ordered to

their quarters.

Meantime Rodzianko, the President of the Duma, had telegraphed to the

Czar:

Situation serious. Anarchy reigns in Capital. Government is paralyzed.

Transport food and fuel supplies are utterly disorganized. General

discontent is growing. Disorderly firing is going on in streets. Various

companies of soldiers are shooting at each other. It is absolutely

necessary to invest someone, who enjoys the confidence of the people,

with powers to form a new government. No time must be lost, and delay

may be fatal. I pray to God that in this hour responsibility may not

fall on the wearer of the crown.

The Prime Minister, Prince Golitzin, acting under powers which he had

received from the Czar, prorogued the Duma. But the Duma refused to be

prorogued. Its President, Rodzianko, holding in his hand the order for

dissolution, announced that the Duma was now the sole constitutional

authority of Russia.

During the night following, the soldiers at the Capital, and the

Socialists, decided upon their course. The soldiers determined that they

would not fire upon their civilian brothers. The Socialists planned an

alternative scheme of government.

On March the 12th, the city was taken possession of by a mob. The Preo

Crajenski Guards refused to fire upon the crowd. The Volynsky regiment,

sent to coerce them, joined in the mutiny. Followed by the mob, the two

regiments seized the arsenal. A force of 25,000 soldiers was in the

revolt. At 11 A. M., the Courts of Law were set on fire and the fortress

of SS. Peter and Paul was seized. The police, fighting desperately, were

hunted from their quarters, their papers destroyed and the prisoners,

political and criminal, released from the jails.

During the day the Duma kept in constant session, awaiting the Emperor,

who did not come. Telegram after telegram was sent him, each more

urgent. There is reason to believe that these telegrams never reached

the Czar. When information finally did come to him it was too late.

Meantime the Duma appointed an executive committee. Their names were

Rodzianko, Nekrasov, Konovalov, Dmitrikov, Lvov, Rjenski, Karaulov,

Miliukov, Schledlovski, Schulgin, Tcheidze and Kerensky. The workmen and

soldiers also formed a committee, which undertook to influence the

troops now pouring into Petrograd. But the center of the revolution was

still the Duma, and crowds gathered to listen to its speeches. In the

evening Protopovo surrendered to the Russian guards, but General

Khabalov still occupied the Admiralty building with such forces as were

faithful.

On March 13th it became evident that the army in the field were

accepting the authority of the provisional government. The Duma

committee was composed mainly of men of moderate political views. They

moved slowly, fearing on the one hand the Reactionaries who still

preserved their loyalty to the Czar, and on the other hand the Council

of Labor, with its extreme views, and its influence--with the troops.

The siege of the Admiralty building was ended by the surrender of

General Khabalov. The police, however, were still keeping up a desultory

resistance, but the mob were hunting them like wild beasts. On

Wednesday, the 14th of March, the revolution was over.

The Executive Committee of the Duma and the Council of the Workmen's and

Soldiers' Delegates, now universally known as the Soviet, were working

in harmony. Every hour proclamations were issued, some of them foolish,

some of them, it is thought, inspired by German agents, and some of them

wise and patriotic. One of the most unfortunate of these proclamations

was one to the army directing that "the orders of the War Committee must

be obeyed, saving only on those occasions when they shall contravene the

orders and regulations of the labor deputies and military delegates."

This same proclamation abolished saluting for private soldiers off duty.

It was the beginning of the destruction of the Russian military power.

The proclamation of the Duma committee itself was admirable:

CITIZENS:

The Provisional Executive Committee of the Duma, with the aid and

support of the garrison of the capital and its inhabitants, has now

triumphed over the baneful forces of the old regime in such a manner as

to enable it to proceed to the more stable organization of the executive

power. With this object, the Provisional Committee will name ministers

of the first national cabinet, men whose past public activity assures

them the confidence of the country.

The new cabinet will adopt the following principles as the basis of its

policy:

1. An immediate amnesty for all political and religious offenses,

including military revolts, acts of terrorism, and agrarian crimes.

2. Freedom of speech, of the press, of associations and labor

organizations, and the freedom to strike; with an extension of these

liberties to officials and troops, in so far as military and technical

conditions permit.

3. The abolition of social, religious, and racial restrictions and

privileges.

4. Immediate preparation for the summoning of a Constituent Assembly,

which, with universal suffrage as a basis, shall establish the

governmental regime and the constitution of the country.

5. The substitution for the police of a national militia, with elective

heads and subject to the self-governing bodies.

6. Communal elections to be carried out on the basis of universal

suffrage.

7. The troops that have taken part in the revolutionary movement shall

not be disarmed, but they are not to leave Petrograd.

8. While strict military discipline must be maintained on active

service, all restrictions upon soldiers in the enjoyment of social

rights granted to other citizens are to be abolished.

Meantime the Emperor, "the Little Father," at first thoroughly

incredulous of the gravity of the situation, had at last become alarmed.

He appointed General Ivanov Commander-in-Chief of the army, and ordered

him to proceed to Petrograd at the head of a division of loyal troops.

General Ivanov set out, but his train was held up at Tsarkoe Selo, and

he returned to Pskov. The Czar himself then started for the city, but

he, too, was held up at the little station of Bologoi, where workmen had

pulled up the track, and he returned to Pskov.

He sent for Ruzsky and declared that he was ready to yield to the Duma

and grant a responsible ministry. Ruzsky advised him to get in touch

with Rodzianko, and as a result of a telephone communication with

Rodzianko and with several of his trusted generals, it became clear that

there was no other course than abdication. Guchkov and Shulgin,

messengers from the Duma, arrived on the evening of March 15th, and

found the Emperor alone, except for his aide-de-camp, Count Fredericks.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"You must abdicate," Guchkov told him, "in favor of your son, with the

Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch as Regent."

The Emperor sat for a long time silent. "I cannot be separated from my

boy," he said. "I will hand the throne to my brother." Taking a sheet of

paper he wrote as follows:

By the Grace of God, We, Nicholas II, Emperor of all the Russias, to all

our faithful subjects:

In the course of a great struggle against a foreign enemy, who has been

endeavoring for three years to enslave our country, it has pleased God

to send Russia a further bitter trial. Internal troubles have threatened

to compromise the progress of the war. The destinies of Russia, the

honor of her heroic army, the happiness of her people, and the whole

future of our beloved country demand that at all costs victory shall be

won. The enemy is making his last efforts, and the moment is near when

our gallant troops, in concert with their glorious Allies, will finally

overthrow him.

In these days of crisis we have considered that our nation needs the

closest union of all its forces for the attainment of victory. In

agreement with the Imperial Duma, we have recognized that for the good

of our land we should abdicate the throne of the Russian state and lay

down the supreme power.

Not wishing to separate ourselves from our beloved son, we bequeath our

heritage to our brother, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch, with our

blessing upon the future of the Russian throne. We bequeath it to him

with the charge to govern in full unison with the national

representatives who may sit in the legislature, and to take his

inviolable oath to them in the name of our well-beloved country.

We call upon all faithful sons of our land to fulfil this sacred and

patriotic duty in obeying their Emperor at this painful moment of

national trial, and to aid him, together with the representatives of the

nation, to lead the Russian people in the way of prosperity and glory.

May God help Russia.

So ended the reign of Nicholas the Second, Czar of all the Russias. The

news of the Czar's abdication spread over the world with great rapidity,

and was received by the Allies with mixed feelings. The Czar had been

scrupulously loyal to the alliance. He was a man of high personal

character, and his sympathies on the whole, liberal; but he was a weak

man in a position in which even a strong man might have failed. He was

easily influenced, especially by his wife. Warned again and again of the

danger before him, he constantly promised improvement, only to fail in

keeping his promises. He deeply loved his wife, and yielded continually

to her unwise advice.

The Empress Alexandra Feodorovna is but another instance of a devoted

queen who dethroned her consort. She believed in Divine Right and looked

with suspicion upon popular leaders. Her one object in life was to hand

on the Russian crown to her son, with no atom of its power diminished.

She surrounded herself and her husband with scoundrels and charlatans.

On the whole, the feeling among the Allies was one of relief. There was

a general distrust of the influences which had been surrounding the

Czar. The patriotism of the Grand Duke Michael was well known, and a

government conducted by him was sure to be a great improvement. But it

was not to be. Before the news of the abdication reached Petrograd a new

ministry had been formed by the Duma. Miliukov announced their names and

explained their credentials. The Prime Minister was Prince George Lvov.

Miliukov was Minister of Foreign Affairs, Guchkov Minister of War and

Marine, Kerensky, a new name in the government, Minister of Justice. The

ministry included representatives of every party of the left and center.

Miliukov declared that their credentials came from the Russian

revolution: "We shall not fight for the sake of power. To be in power is

not a reward or pleasure but a sacrifice. As soon as we are told that

the sacrifice is no longer needed, we shall give up our places with

gratitude for the opportunity which has been accorded us."

He concluded by informing his hearers that the despot who had brought

Russia to the brink of ruin would either abdicate of his free will, or

be deposed. He added that the Grand Duke Michael would be appointed

Regent.

This announcement at once produced an explosion. A ministry of moderates

and a continuance of the Imperial government under a regency stirred the

delegates of the workmen and soldiers to revolt. For a time it seemed as

if the new government would disappear in the horrors of mob rule. But

Kerensky saved the situation. Making his way into the meeting of the

Soviet he burst into an impassioned speech.

"Comrades!" he cried, "I have been appointed Minister of Justice. No one

is a more ardent Republican than I, but we must bide our time. Nothing

can come to its full growth at once. We shall have our Republic but we

must first win the war. The need of the moment is organization and

discipline and that need will not wait."

His eloquence carried the day. The Soviet passed a resolution supporting

the provisional government with only fifteen dissenting votes. But it

had been made clear that the people did not approve of the regency, and

on the night of the 15th of March, Prince Lvov, Kerensky and other

leaders of the Duma sought out the Grand Duke Michael and informed him

of the situation. The Grand Duke yielded to the people, and on Friday,

March the 16th, issued a declaration which ended the power of the

Romanovs in Russia:

I am firmly resolved to accept the supreme power only if this should be

the desire of our great people, who must, by means of a plebiscite

through their representatives in the Constituent Assembly, establish the

form of government and the new fundamental laws of the Russian state.

Invoking God's blessing, I, therefore, request all citizens of Russia to

obey the provisional government, set up on the initiative of the Duma,

and invested with plenary powers, until within as short a time as

possible the Constituent Assembly elected on a basis of equal, universal

and secret suffrage, shall enforce the will of the nation regarding the

future form of the constitution.

With this declaration the sacred monarchy had disappeared. In one week

the people had come to their own and Russia was free. But what form of

new government was to replace the old regime was still the question.

There were two rival theories as to the principles to be followed, one

that of the Moderates, the other of the Extremists. The Moderates, who

controlled the provisional government were practical men. They realized

that Russia was at war and that efficient administration was the great

need.

The Extremists of the Soviet were a different type of men. They were

profoundly ignorant of all practical questions of government; their

creed was socialism. The Socialistic party in Russia may be divided into

three different groups. The first, the Social Revolutionary party, came

into prominence in Russia about 1900. It was composed of followers of

the Russian Lavrov who believed in the socialist state, but a state

which should not be a tyrant overriding the individual. Liberty was his

watchword and he made his appeal not only to the workmen in the shops

but with a special force to the peasant. He did not preach class war in

the ordinary sense, and believed in the value of national life. To this

party belonged Kerensky, more and more becoming the leader of the

revolutionary movement.

The second group of the Socialist party were the Bolsheviki. This group

were followers of the German Karl Marx. The revolution which they sought

was essentially a class revolution. To the Bolsheviki the fate of their

country mattered not at all. They were eager for peace on any terms. The

only war in which they were interested was a class war; they recognized

no political boundaries. The leader of this group was Vladimir Iljetch

Uljanov, who, under his pen name of Lenine, was already widely known and

who had now obtained the opportunity which he had long desired.

The third group were the Mensheviki. The Mensheviki believed in the

importance of the working classes, but they did not ignore other

classes. They were willing to use existing forms of government to carry

out the reforms they desired. They saw that the Allied cause was their

own cause, the cause of the workman as well as the intellectual.

The Soviet contained representatives of these three groups. It did not

represent Russia, but it was in Petrograd and could exert its influence

directly upon the government.

The attitude of the provisional government toward the Imperial family

was at first not unkindly. The Czar and the Czarina were escorted to the

Alexandrovsky Palace in Tsarskoe-Selo. The Czar for a time lived quietly

as plain Nicholas Romanov. The Czarina and her children were very ill

with measles, the case of the little Prince being complicated by the

breaking out of an old wound in his foot. The Grand Duchess Tatiana was

in a serious condition and oxygen had been administered. As his family

improved in health the Czar amused himself by strolls in the palace

yard, and even by shoveling snow. Later on Nicholas was transferred to

Tobolsk, Siberia, and then, in May, 1918, to Yekaterinberg. His wife and

his daughter Marie accompanied him to the latter place, while Alexis and

his other three daughters remained in Tobolsk. On July 20th a Russian

government dispatch announced his assassination. It read as follows:

At the first session of the Central Executive Committee, elected by the

Fifth Congress of the Councils, a message was made public that had been

received by direct wire from the Ural Regional Council, concerning the

shooting of the ex-Czar, Nicholas Romanov. Recently Yekaterinberg, the

Capital of the Red Urals, was seriously threatened by the approach of

Czecho-Slovak bands, and a counter-revolutionary conspiracy was

discovered, which had as its object the wresting of the ex-Czar from the

hands of the Council's authority. In view of this fact the President of

the Ural Regional Council decided to shoot the ex-Czar, and the decision

was carried out on July 16th.

The wife and the son of Nicholas Romanov had been sent to a place of

security. In a detailed account of the execution, published in Berlin,

it appeared that the Czar had been awakened at five o'clock in the

morning, and informed that he was to be executed in two hours. He spent

some time with a priest in his bedroom and wrote several letters.

According to this account, when the patrol came to take him out for

execution he was found in a state of collapse. His last words, uttered

just before the executioners fired, are reported to have been "Spare my

wife and my innocent and unhappy children. May my blood preserve Russia

from ruin."

The Russian press, including the Socialist papers, condemned the

execution as a cruel and unnecessary act. The charges of conspiracy were

utterly unproven, and were merely an excuse. The Central Executive

Committee, however, accepted the decision of the Ural Regional Soviet as

being regular, and a decree by the Bolshevist Government declared all

the property of the former Emperor, his wife, his mother and all the

members of the Imperial house, forfeit to the Soviet Republic.

Meantime the provisional government, which had taken power on the 16th

of March, seemed as if it might succeed. Miliukov, whose announcement of

the Regency had made him unpopular, declared for a Republic. The great

army commanders for the most part accepted the revolution. The Grand

Duke Nicholas was removed from his command and the other Grand Dukes

were ordered not to leave Petrograd. Alexiev became commander-in-chief;

Ruzsky had the northern group of armies, Brusilov the southern; Kornilov

was in command of Petrograd, and the central group was put under the

command of Lechitsky. Reports came that discipline was improving

everywhere on the front.

[Illustration: Map of Petrograd]

CAPITAL OF THE NEW REPUBLIC OF RUSSIA

The plans of the government, too, met with general approval. Their

policy was announced by Prince Lvov. "The new government considers it

its duty to make known to the world that the object of free Russia is

not to dominate other nations and forcibly to take away their territory.

The object of independent Russia is a permanent peace and the right of

all nations to determine their own destiny."

Kerensky, in inspiring speeches, encouraged the country to war, and

declared against a separate peace. The new government announced that

Poland was to receive complete independence, with a right to determine

its own form of government, and its relation, if any, to Russia. In

Finland the Governor, Sein, was removed. A Liberal was appointed

Governor and the Finnish Diet was convened. A manifesto was issued on

March 21st, completely restoring the Finnish constitution. To the

Armenians Kerensky expressed himself as in favor of an autonomous

government for them, under Russia's protection, and on March 25th,

absolute equality of the Jews was proclaimed by the new government. A

number of Jews were made officers in the army, and two Jewish advocates

were appointed members of the Russian Senate and of the Supreme Court.

On April 4th full religious liberty was proclaimed, and on the same date

the Prime Minister promised a delegation of women that women would be

given the right to vote.

These acts caused a general subsidence of unrest, and public good

feeling was increased by the return of the political exiles and

prisoners from Siberia. A full hundred thousand of such prisoners were

released, and their progress across Siberia to Russia was one grand

triumphal march.

The most celebrated of these political prisoners were two women,

Catherine Breshkovskaya and Marie Spiridonova. Catherine Breshkovskaya

was known as the grandmother of the revolution. Forty-four years of her

life were spent in exile. When she reached Petrograd she was met at the

railroad depot by a military band, and carried in procession through the

streets. Equally popular was Marie Spiridonova, who, though still young,

had suffered martyrdom. She had been tortured with cruelty that is

unprintable. Her face had been disfigured for life. The agents who had

inflicted the torture were assassinated by the revolutionists.

It was a great day for Russia, and the outlook seemed full of promise.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE DESCENT TO BOLSHEVISM

The hopes entertained for the new Republic of Russia were doomed to

disappointment. For a short time, under the leadership of Lvov, the

Russians marched along the path of true democracy. But the pace became

too rapid.

The government prospered in Petrograd, and the economic organization of

the country proceeded with great speed. An eight-hour day was introduced

in the capital and in many other cities throughout the republic. The

fever of organization spread even to the peasants. They formed a Council

of Peasants' Deputies, modeled after the Council of Workmen and

Soldiers. On the 13th of April, 1917, came the first meeting of the

All-Russia Congress of Soviets, and with it a revival of the differences

of opinion which ultimately were to destroy the government. The great

majority were for war, but the minority, led by Lenine and the

Bolsheviki element, demanded an immediate peace. They declared that the

enemies of the Revolution were not the Central Powers; but the

capitalists in all countries, and not least the Provisional Government

of Russia.

Some clew to the meaning of the Bolsheviki movement in Russia is to be

found in the life of Lenine, its leading spirit. It has been charged

that he was the tool of the German Government. He undoubtedly received

facilities from the German Government to return to Russia from

Switzerland immediately after the Revolution in March. His whole career,

however, suggests that he was not a tool, but a fanatic.

He was born in Simbirsk, in Central Russia, in the year 1870. Lenine was

only one of the several aliases that he had found it necessary to adopt

at various times. He was of good family, and received his education at

the Petrograd University. From the very beginning he took an active

interest in the political and social problems of the day. In 1887 his

brother, A. Uljanov, was arrested, and after a secret trial condemned to

death and hanged as a participant in a plot to wreck the imperial train

carrying Alexander III. Lenine was also arrested, but was released on

account of a lack of evidence. At this time the Russian Socialistic

movement was still in its infancy.

[Illustration: Photograph: About 50 women in military uniforms.]

Copyright Underwood and Underwood, N. Y

THE WOMEN'S "BATTALION OF DEATH" IN NATIONAL DANCE

A unique outgrowth of the Russian revolution was this organization of

women which came into prominence at the beginning of the Russian

front's break-up.

[Illustration: Photograph]

Copyright Underwood and Underwood, N. Y

DEMONSTRATION OF CITIZENS BEFORE THIS WINTER PALACE

The formation of the Red Guard adopting the propaganda of the

Bolshevists resulted, which drove Russia into a chaos of Revolution.

[Illustration: Photograph]

Copyright International Film Service.

SPOILS OF THE VICTORY AT ST. MIHIEL

The Germans left everything behind when they fled to avoid being

trapped in the St. Mihiel salient by the swift American advance. This

shows a soldier examining an abandoned German machine-gun, fully

loaded and not a shot fired.

[Illustration: Photograph]

AN AERIAL BOMB

British airmen examining a huge bomb which later scattered death among

the Huns.

Lenine spent his Sundays in a circle of uneducated workmen, explaining

to them the elements of socialistic economics. Along with this

propaganda work he studied deeply the economic phases of Russian life,

being especially interested in its working and peasant classes. He wrote

several books on the subject, which are still accepted as valuable

representatives of Russian economic literature. Because of his

socialistic activities, Lenine was compelled to leave Russia on several

occasions, when he lived in Switzerland, France and Austria. From these

countries he directed the work of one of the groups of the Social

Democratic party, and became an important leader.

In the General Russian Socialistic Convention, held in 1903, this group

made a definite stand for its program and policies. This was the time

when the word "Bolsheviki" was coined, meaning the "majority," who had

voted in accord with Lenine's proposals. Lenine believed in the seizure

of political power by means of violent revolution and in establishing a

proletarian government. After the Revolution of 1905, the Lenine faction

dwindled and it seemed as if Bolshevism was destined to die out. But in

1911, with the awakening of a new spirit in the political and social

life of Russia, a new impetus was given to the activities of the

Bolsheviki. The first Socialist daily paper, Pravda, ("the Truth,") was

one of their efforts. In 1913 the Bolsheviki sent six representatives to

the Duma.

At the outbreak of the war Lenine was in Cracow. Like other

revolutionary leaders he was compelled to live in exile. He went to

Switzerland where he remained until the news of the successful

revolution caused his return to Russia. On his arrival in Petrograd he

gathered together his followers and began the agitation in favor of the

Bolshevist program and of peace.

The first sign of the conflict between the Provisional Government and

the Soviet arose in connection with the joint note sent to the Allies by

the Provisional Government on May 1st. This note was signed by Foreign

Secretary Miliukov. It declared, among other things, that the

Provisional Government would "maintain a strict regard for its

engagements with the Allies of Russia."

The document aroused strong disapproval among many members of the

Council of the Soviet, and serious anti-government demonstrations

occurred in Petrograd on May 3d and 4th. These demonstrations were

directed distinctly against Miliukov. Detachments of soldiers and

workmen gathered in front of the headquarters of the Provisional

Government, carrying banners, with inscriptions "Down with Miliukov!

Down with the Provisional Government!" Miliukov appealed to the crowd

for confidence, and his words were greeted with hearty cheering.

The Soviet Council ultimately voted confidence in the government by a

narrow margin of 35 in a total of 2,500. But the agitation against the

government persisted, and on May 16th Miliukov resigned. General

Kornilov, Commander of the Petrograd Garrison, and Guchkov, Minister of

War, finding their control of the army weakened by the interference of

the Soviet Council, also resigned.

The situation became critical. As a result of this agitation a new

coalition government was formed. Prince Lvov remained Prime Minister.

Terestchenko became Foreign Minister. Most significant of all, Kerensky

became the Minister of War. The new government issued a new declaration

of policy, promising a firm support of the war with Germany, and an

effort to call together at the earliest possible date a Constituent

Assembly to deal with questions of land and of finance. This manifesto

was received coldly by the Soviets and their press.

It was at this time that the Allies sent special missions to Russia to

aid the Russian Government in forwarding the fight against the common

enemy. The American mission to Russia was headed by Elihu Root, former

Secretary of State. It was cordially received, and housed in the former

Winter Palace of the Czar. On June 15th the American Ambassador, David

R. Francis, presented the Root mission to the Council of Ministers in

the Marinsky Palace, and Mr. Root made an eloquent address, declaring

the sympathy of the American Republic with the new Russian Democracy. He

declared that the liberty of both nations was in danger. "The armed

forces of military autocracy are at the gates of Russia and the Allies.

The triumph of Germans will mean the death of liberty in Russia. No

enemy is at the gates of America, but America has come to realize that

the triumph of German arms means the death of Liberty in the world."

At Moscow Mr. Root addressed representatives of the Zemstvo and the

local Council of the Workmen and Soldiers. He was warmly applauded, and

on motion of the Mayor a telegram was sent to President Wilson, thanking

him for sending the Root Commission to Russia. The Root Mission returned

to the United States early in August, and reported to Washington August

12th. At a public reception given by the citizens of New York, Senator

Root expressed supreme confidence in the stability of the Revolution.

On July 1st, inspired by Kerensky, and under the personal leadership of

General Kornilov, the Russian army began an offensive in Galicia. It

first met with complete success, capturing Halicz, and sweeping forward

close to Dolina in the Carpathian foothills. Then under a very slight

hostile German pressure, the Russian armies, immediately to the north

and south of Kornilov's army, broke and ran. This action was directly

traced to orders subversive of discipline, emanating from the Petrograd

Soviet. Kornilov's army was compelled to retire, and by July 21st was in

full retreat from Galicia.

The Russian mutiny spread. Regiments refused to fight or to obey their

officers.

One of the most picturesque episodes of this phase of the war was the

formation of a woman's regiment, known as the "Command of Death," which

was reviewed at Petrograd June 21st, by Minister of War, Kerensky. In

front of the barracks assigned to this regiment a visitor found posted

at the gate a little blue-eyed sentry in a soldier's khaki blouse, short

breeches, green forage cap, ordinary woman's black stockings and neat

shoes. The sentry was Mareya Skridlov, daughter of Admiral Skridlov,

former commander of the Baltic fleet and Minister of Marines. In the

courtyard three hundred girls were drilling, mostly between 18 and 25

years old, of good physique and many of them pretty. They wore their

hair short or had their heads entirely shaved. They were drilling under

the instruction of a male sergeant of the Volynsky regiment, and marched

to an exaggerated goose step.

The girl commander, Lieutenant Buitchkarev, explained that most of the

recruits were from the higher educational academies, with a few

peasants, factory girls and servants. Some married women were accepted,

but none who had children. The Battalion of Death distinguished itself

on the field, setting an example of courage to the mutinous regiments

during the retreat of Brusilov.

With the army thus demoralized the Russian Revolution encountered a

perilous period toward the end of July, 1917, and civil war or anarchy

seemed almost at hand, when out of the depths of the national spirit

there arose a new revolution to save the situation and to maintain

order. The country was everywhere the scene of riotous disturbances.

Anarchists, radicals, and monarchists seemed to be working hand-in-hand

to precipitate a reign of terror, when once more Kerensky saved the

situation. On July 20th, it was announced that the Premier, Prince Lvov,

had resigned, and that Alexander Kerensky had been appointed Premier,

but would also retain his portfolio as Minister of War.

A new government was quickly formed. Kerensky was made practical

Dictator, and his government received the complete endorsement of a

joint Congress of the Soviets and the Council of peasant delegates.

Kerensky acted with the utmost vigor. Orders were given to fire on

deserters and warrants issued for the arrest of revolutionary agitators

whoever they might be. Rear-Admiral Verdervski, commander of the Baltic

fleet, was seized for communicating a secret government telegram to

sailors' committees. Agitators from the Soviet were arrested, charged

with inciting the Peterhof troops against the Federal Government. On

July 22d, the following resolution was passed by the joint Congress.

Recognizing that the country is menaced by a military debacle on the

front and by anarchy at home, it is resolved:

1. That the country and the revolution are in danger.

2. That the Provisional Government is proclaimed the Government of

National Safety.

3. That unlimited powers are accorded the government for re-establishing

the organization and discipline of the army for a fight to a finish

against the enemies of public order, and for the realization of the

whole program embodied in the governmental program just announced.

The reorganization of the Councils of the All-Russia, and Workmen's and

Peasants' Organizations on the 23d, issued a ringing address to the army

denouncing its mutinous spirit and warning it of the inevitable result.

The Provisional Government also issued a proclamation on July 22d,

charging that the disorders were precipitated to bring about a

counter-revolution by the enemies of the country. But the army was

demoralized. It disregarded discipline and refused to recognize military

rule. A general retreat followed. The Germans and Austrians steadily

advanced through Galicia and crossed the frontier before the Russian

armies could be forced to make a stand.

The death penalty for treason or mutiny was restored in the army on July

25th, when Kerensky threatened to resign unless this was done. On that

same date the government authorized the Minister of the Interior to

suspend the publication of periodicals that incite to insubordination or

disobedience to orders given by the military authorities. By July 28th

the situation had become more hopeful. On that day General Ruzsky,

formerly commander-in-chief of the northern armies of Russia, and

General Gurko, ex-commander on the Russian southwestern front, were

summoned to Petrograd. Each had retired on account of the interference

of the Council of Workmen and Soldiers' delegates. Their return to the

service was a hopeful sign. The Soviet also passed by an overwhelming

majority a resolution censuring Lenine, and demanding that he should be

publicly tried. Charges had been made that Lenine and his associates

were working under German direction and financed by Germans. On August

2d, Kornilov became Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army. A

disagreement in the Cabinet led to its reorganization. In the new

Cabinet appeared again representatives of the Constitutional Democratic

party. Conditions began to show improvement from this time forth.

An extraordinary National Council met at Moscow August 26th, 1917. This

conference consisted of 2,500 delegates representing the Duma, the

Soviets, the Zemstvos, and indeed all organized Russia. Kerensky opened

the conference in a speech of great length in which he reviewed the

general situation, declaring that the destructive period of the

Revolution had past and that the time had come to consolidate its

conquests.

Perhaps the most important address before the Council was that made by

General Kornilov, Commander-in-Chief of the army. General Kornilov was

received with prolonged cheers, which in the light of his subsequent

action were especially significant. General Kornilov described with much

detail the disorganization and insubordination in the army, and

continued:

"We are implacably fighting anarchy in the army. Undoubtedly it will

finally be repressed, but the danger of fresh debacles is weighing

constantly on the country. The situation on the front is bad. We have

lost the whole of Galicia, the whole of Bukowina, and all the fruits of

our recent victories. If Russia wishes to be saved the army must be

regenerated at any cost." General Kornilov then outlined the most

important of the reform measures which he recommended, and concluded: "I

believe that the genius and the reason of the Russian people will save

the country. I believe in a brilliant future for our army. I believe its

ancient glory will be restored."

General Kaledines, leader of the Don Cossacks, mounted the tribune and

read a resolution passed by the Cossacks demanding the continuation of

the war until complete victory was attained. He defied the extreme

Radicals. "Who saved you from the Bolsheviki on the 14th of July?" he

asked contemptuously. "We Cossacks have been free men. We are not made

drunk by our new-found liberties and are unblinded by party or program.

We tell you plainly and categorically, 'Remove yourselves from the place

which you have neither the ability or the courage to fill, and let

better men than yourselves step in, or take the consequences of your

folly.'"

The conference took no definite action, being invested with no

authority, but it served to bring out clearly the line of cleavage

between the Radical or Socialistic element represented by Kerensky and

the Conservatives represented by the generals of the army.

Immediately on the heels of the Moscow conference an important German

advance was made in the direction of Riga, the most important Russian

Baltic port. In spite of a vigorous defense the Germans captured the

city.

The loss of Riga intensified the political excitement in Russia, and

produced a profound crisis. A wave of unrest spread throughout the

country. The Grand Duke Michael, and the Grand Duke Paul with their

families, were arrested on a charge of conspiracy. The Provisional

Government was charged with responsibility of the collapse of the army.

It was on September 9th, that the storm broke, and General Kornilov, the

Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies, raised the flag of revolt

against the Provisional Government. The details of the revolt are as

follows:

At one o'clock Saturday afternoon, Deputy Lvov, of the Duma, called upon

Premier Kerensky, and declared that he had come as the representative of

General Kornilov to demand the surrender of all power into Kornilov's

hands. M. Lvov said that this demand did not emanate from Kornilov only

but was supported by an organization of Duma members, Moscow industrial

interests, and other conservatives. This group, said M. Lvov, did not

object to Kerensky personally, but demanded that he transfer the

Portfolio of War to M. Savinkov, assistant Minister of War, who all

along had supported Kornilov.

"If you agree," M. Lvov added, "we invite you to come to headquarters

and meet General Kornilov, giving you a solemn guarantee that you will

not be arrested."

Premier Kerensky replied that he could not believe Kornilov to be guilty

of such an act of treason, and that he would communicate with him

directly. In an exchange of telegrams Kornilov confirmed fully to the

Premier his demands. Kerensky promptly placed Lvov under arrest,

denounced Kornilov as a traitor and deposed him from his position as

Commander-in-Chief, General Klembovsky being appointed in his place.

General Kornilov responded to the order of dismissal by moving an army

against the Capital.

Martial law was declared in Moscow and in Petrograd. Kerensky assumed

the functions of Commander-in-Chief and took military measures to defend

Petrograd and resist the rebels. On the 12th it was clear that the

Kornilov revolt had failed to receive the expected support. Kornilov

advanced toward Petrograd, and occupied Jotchina, thirty miles southwest

of the Capital, but there was no bloodshed. On the night of the 13th,

General Alexief demanded Kornilov's unconditional surrender, and the

revolt collapsed. Kornilov was arrested and the Provisional Government

reconstituted on stronger lines.

After the so-called Kornilov revolt, the Russian Revolution assumed a

form which might almost be called stable. A democratic congress met at

Moscow, September 27th, and adopted a resolution providing for a

preliminary parliament to consist of 231 members, of whom 110 were to

represent the Zemstvos and the towns. The congress refused its sanction

to a coalition cabinet in which the Constitutional Democrats should

participate, but Kerensky practically defied the congress, and named a

coalition cabinet, in which several portfolios were held by members of

the Constitutional Democratic Party. The new government issued a

statement declaring that it had three principal aims: to raise the

fighting power of the army and navy; to bring order to the country by

fighting anarchy; to call the Constituent Assembly as soon as possible.

The Constituent Assembly was called to assemble in December. It was to

consist of 732 delegates to be elected by popular vote.

Meantime agitation against the Coalition Government continued. On

November 1st, the Premier issued a statement through the Associated

Press, to all the newspapers of the Entente, which conveyed the

information that he almost despaired of restoring civil law in the

distracted country. He said that he felt that help was needed urgently

and that Russia asked it as her right. "Russia has fought consistently

since the beginning," he said. "She saved France and England from

disaster early in the war. She is worn out by the strain and claims as

her right that the Allies now shoulder the burden."

On November 7th, an armed insurrection against the Coalition Government

and Premier Kerensky was precipitated by the Bolsheviki faction. The

revolt was headed by Leon Trotzky, President of the Central Executive

Committee of the Petrograd Council, with Nicholas Lenine, the Bolsheviki

leader. The Revolutionists seized the offices of the telephone and

telegraph companies and occupied the state bank and the Marie Palace

where the preliminary Parliament had been sitting. The garrison at

Petrograd espoused the cause of the Bolsheviki and complete control was

seized with comparatively little fighting. The government troops were

quickly overpowered, except at the Winter Palace, whose chief guardians

were the Woman's Battalion, and the Military Cadets. The Woman's

Battalion fought bravely, and suffered terribly, and with the Military

Cadets who also remained true, held the Palace for several hours. The

Bolsheviki brought up armored cars and the cruiser Aurora, and turned

the guns of the Fortress of SS. Peter and Paul upon the Palace before

its defenders would surrender.

That evening the Revolutionary Committee issued a characteristic

proclamation, denouncing the government of Kerensky as opposed to the

government and the people, and calling upon the soldiers in the army to

arrest their officers if they did not at once join the Revolution. They

announced the following program:

First: The offer of an immediate democratic peace.

Second: The immediate handing over of large proportional lands to the

peasants.

Third: The transmission of all authority to the Council of Workmen's and

Soldiers' Delegates.

Fourth: The honest convocation of the Constituent Assembly.

At a meeting of the Council, Trotzky declared that the government no

longer existed, and introduced Lenine as an old comrade whom he welcomed

back. Lenine was received with prolonged cheers, and said: "Now we have

a Revolution. The peasants and workmen control the government. This is

only a preliminary step toward a similar revolution everywhere."

Proclamation after proclamation came from the new government. In one of

them it was stated "M. Kerensky has taken flight, and all military

bodies have been empowered to take all possible measures to arrest

Kerensky and bring him back to Petrograd. All complicity with Kerensky

will be dealt with as high treason."

A Bolsheviki Cabinet was named. The Premier was Nicholas Lenine; the

Foreign Minister, Leon Trotzky. The other Cabinet members were all

Bolsheviki, including Bibenko, a Kronstadt sailor, of the Committee on

War and Marine, and Shliapnikov, a laborer, who was Minister of Labor.

Lenine's personality has already been described. Trotzky, the chief aid

of Lenine's rebellion, had been living in New York City three months

before the Czar was overthrown, but he had previously been expelled from

Germany, France, Switzerland and Spain. His real name was Leber

Braunstein, and he was born in the Russian Government of Kherson, near

the Black Sea.

When the insurrection occurred, Kerensky succeeded in escaping from

Petrograd, and persuaded about two thousand Cossacks, several hundred

Military Cadets, and a contingent of Artillery, to fight under his

banner. He advanced toward Petrograd, but his forces were greatly

outnumbered by the Bolsheviki. At Tsarskoe-Selo a battle took place, the

Kerensky troops met defeat, and its leader saved himself by flight.

At Moscow the entire city passed into the control of the Bolsheviki but

not without severe fighting in which more than three thousand people

were slain. On the collapse of the Kerensky government conditions

throughout Russia became chaotic. Ukraine declared its independence, and

Finland also severed its connection with Russia. General Kaledines

declared against the Bolsheviki, and organized an army to save the

country. Siberia, Bessarabia, Lithuania, the Caucasus and other

districts declared their complete independence of the Central

Government.

The Bolsheviki, in control at Petrograd, opened negotiations with the

Central Powers for an armistice along the entire front from the Baltic

to Asia Minor, and on December 17th, such an armistice went into effect.

Meanwhile they began negotiations for a treaty of peace. General

Dukholin, the Commander-in-Chief, on November 20th, was ordered by

Lenine to propose the armistice. To this request he made no reply, and

on November 21st, he was deposed and Ensign Krylenko was appointed the

new Commander-in-Chief. General Dukholin was subsequently murdered, by

being thrown from a train after the Bolsheviki seized the general

headquarters.

Trotzky sent a note to the representatives of neutral powers in

Petrograd, informing them of his proposal for an armistice, and stating

"The consummation of an immediate peace is demanded in all countries,

both belligerent and neutral. The Russian Government counts on the firm

support of workmen in all countries in this struggle for peace." Lenine,

however, declared that Russia did not contemplate a separate peace with

Germany, and that the Russian Government, before agreeing to an

armistice, would communicate with the Allies and make a certain proposal

to the imperialistic governments of France and England, rejection of

which would place them in open opposition to the wishes of their own

people.

A period of turmoil followed. In the meantime elections for the

Constituent Assembly were held. The result in Petrograd was announced as

272,000 votes for the Bolsheviki, 211,000 for the Constitutional

Democrats, and 116,000 for the Social Revolutionaries, showing that the

Bolsheviki failed to attain a majority. Notwithstanding the prevailing

chaos, the Lenine-Trotzky Government persisted in negotiations for an

armistice, and it was arranged that the first conference be held at the

German headquarters at Brest-Litovsk.

The Russian delegates were Kamenev, whose real name was Rosenfelt, a

well known Bolshevist leader; Sokolnikov, a sailor; Bithenko, a soldier,

and Mstislasky, who had formerly been librarian to the General Staff,

but who was now a strong Socialist. Representatives were present of

Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria.

After many interchanges of opinion a suspension of hostilities for ten

days was authorized, to be utilized in bringing to a conclusion

negotiations for an armistice. On December 7th it was announced from

Petrograd that for the first time since the war not a shot was fired on

the Russian front. Foreign Secretary Trotzky, on the 6th of December,

notified the allied embassies in Petrograd of these negotiations and

added that the armistice would be signed only on condition that the

troops should not be transferred from one front to another. He announced

that negotiations had been suspended to afford the Allied Governments

opportunity to define their attitude toward the peace negotiation; that

is, their willingness or refusal to participate in negotiations for an

armistice and peace. In case of refusal they must declare clearly and

definitely before all mankind the aims for which the peoples of Europe

had been called to shed their blood during the fourth year of the war.

No official replies were made to this note. On December 7th, Generals

Kaledines and Kornilov raised the standard of revolt, but reports

indicated that the Bolsheviki were extending their control over all

Russia. A meeting of the Constituent Assembly took place on December

11th. Less than 50 of the 600 delegates attended. Meanwhile the

negotiations for an armistice continued. On December 16th an agreement

was reached and an armistice signed, to continue from December 17th to

January 14th, 1918.

[Illustration: Map: All of Europe and Asia, showing the Trans-Siberian

Railway and other railroads.]

RUSSIA'S GREAT RAILWAY LINK BETWEEN VLADIVOSTOK AND THE ARCTIC OCEAN

The Czecho-Slovaks took possession of long stretches of the

Trans-Siberian Railroad. Japan lent her aid in the east, and American

and Allied troops swept down from the Murman coast in the northwest.

Within the first month in which the Bolsheviki conducted the government

numerous edicts of a revolutionary character were issued. Class titles,

distinctions and privileges were abolished; the corporate property of

nobles, merchants and burgesses was to be handed over to the state, as

was all church property, lands, money and precious stones; and religious

instruction was to cease in the schools. Strikes were in progress

everywhere, and disorder was rampant.

Kornilov, Terestchenko and other associates of Kerensky, were imprisoned

in the Fortress of SS. Peter and Paul; the Cadet Party was outlawed by

decree and the houses of its leaders raided. On January 8, 1918, it was

announced that the Bolsheviki had determined that all loans and Treasury

bonds held by foreign subjects, abroad or in Russia, were repudiated.

During this period the Bolsheviki's Foreign Secretary astonished the

world by making public the secret treaties between Russia and foreign

governments in the early years of the war. These treaties dealt with the

proposed annexation by Russia of the Dardanelles, Constantinople and

certain areas in Asia Minor; with the French claim on Alsace-Lorraine

and the left bank of the Rhine; with offers to Greece, for the purpose

of inducing her to assist Serbia; with plans to alter her Western

boundaries, with the British and Russian control of Persia; and with

Italy's desire to annex certain Austrian territories. These treaties had

been seized upon the Bolsheviki assumption of power, and were now

repudiated by the new government.

During the period of the armistice Lenine began his move for a separate

peace, in spite of the formal protests of the Allied representatives at

Petrograd.

The first sitting took place on Saturday, December 22, 1917. Among the

delegates were Dr. Richard von Kuhlmann, Foreign Minister, and General

Hoffman, of Germany; Count Czernin, Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary;

Minister Kopov, of Bulgaria; Nesimy Bey, former Foreign Minister of

Turkey, and a large delegation from Russia, composed of Bolshevist

leaders. Dr. von Kuhlmann was chosen as the presiding officer and made

the opening speech. The Russian peace demands and the German

counter-proposals were then read, and considered.

The German proposals proved unacceptable to Russia, and a second session

of the peace conference was held at Brest-Litovsk on January 10, 1918.

Trotzky himself attended this meeting as one of the representatives from

Russia, and there was also a representative from Ukraine, which had

declared its independence, and was allowed to join the conference.

General Hoffman protested strongly against the Russian endeavor to make

appeals of a revolutionary character to the German troops.

[Illustration: Map: Europe and Eastern Asia.]

RUSSIA AS PARTITIONED BY THE BREST-LITOVSK TREATY

The armistice having expired, it was agreed it should be continued to

February 12th. After a long and acrimonious debate the Conference broke

up in a clash over the evacuation of the Russian provinces. On January

24th it was announced that the Russian delegates to the peace conference

had unanimously decided to reject the German terms. They stated that

when they asked Germany's final terms General Hoffman of the German

delegation had replied by opening a map and pointing out a line from the

shores of the Gulf of Finland to the east of the Moon Sound Islands, to

Valk, to the west of Minsk, to Brest-Litovsk, thus eliminating Courland

and all the Baltic provinces.

Asked the terms of the Central Powers in regard to the territory south

of Brest-Litovsk General Hoffman replied that was a question which they

would discuss only with Ukraine. M. Kaminev asked: "Supposing we do not

agree to such condition, what are you going to do?"

General Hoffman's answer was, "Within a week we would occupy Reval."

On January 27th, Trotzky made his report to the Soviets at Petrograd.

After a thorough explanation of the peace debates, he declared that the

Government of the Soviets could not sign such a peace. It was then

decided to demobilize the Russian army and withdraw from the war.

[Illustration: Map]

GENERAL MAP OF THE BALTIC SEA

With the collapse of Russia German forces advanced from Riga, along

the Gulf of Finland occupying Reval and threatening Petrograd.

Final sessions of the peace congress were resumed at Brest-Litovsk

January 29th; a peace treaty was made between the Central Powers and the

Ukraine, and the Bolsheviki yielded to the German demands without

signing a treaty. Meanwhile the Russian Constituent Assembly which met

at Petrograd on January 19th, was dissolved on January 20th, by the

Bolsheviki Council.

Disorders continued throughout all Russia and counter-revolutionary

movements were started at many places. On February 18th, the day when

the armistice agreement between Russia and the Central Powers expired,

German forces began a new invasion of Russia. The next day the

Bolshevist Government issued a statement, announcing that Russia would

be compelled to sign a peace. The German advance went on rapidly, and

many important Russian cities were occupied. On February 24th, the

Bolshevist Government announced that peace terms had been accepted, and

a treaty was signed at Brest-Litovsk on March 3d.

On March 14th the All-Russia Council of Soviets voted to ratify the

treaty, after an all-night sitting. Lenine pronounced himself in favor

of accepting the German terms; Trotzky stood for war, but did not attend

the meetings of the Council. Lenine defended the step by pointing out

that the country was completely unable to offer resistance, and that

peace was indispensable for the completion of the social war in Russia.

The new treaty dispossessed Russia of territories amounting to nearly

one-quarter of the area of European Russia, and inhabited by one-third

of Russia's total population. Trotzky resigned on account of his

opposition to the treaty and was succeeded by M. Tchitcherin. He became

Chairman of the Petrograd Labor Commune. The treaty between Russia and

the Central Powers was formally denounced by the Premiers and Foreign

Ministers of Great Britain, France, and Italy, and was not recognized by

the Allied nations.

A final revocation of its provisions by both sides did not put an end to

the military operations of the Central Powers in Russia, nor did the

Russians cease to make feeble and sporadic attempts at resistance.

Germany was forced to keep large bodies of troops along the Russian

front, but formally Russia's part in the war had come to an end.

[Illustration: Photograph]

THREE MESSENGERS OF DESTRUCTION FOR TRIESTE

This remarkable photograph was taken from one French aeroplane just as

another had released three aerial torpedoes in a combined bombing and

observation raid on Trieste, the great Austrian naval base. The

photograph itself, showing details of enemy activity on the

waterfront, was of considerable value to the intelligence division of

the Italian army.

[Illustration: Photograph]

Copyright G. V. Buck, Washington. D. C.

THE CARGO SUBMARINE "DEUTSCHLAND"

Shortly before the United States entered the war, Germany sent over a

merchant submarine with a cargo of dye stuffs and drugs, an implied

threat which was later realized in the U-boat attacks on the American

coast.

CHAPTER XXXII

GERMANY'S OBJECT LESSON TO THE UNITED STATES.

During the first two years of the war many Americans, especially those

in the West, observed the great events which were happening with great

interest, no doubt, but with a feeling of detachment. The war was a long

way off. The Atlantic Ocean separated Europe from America, and it seemed

almost absurd to think that the Great War could ever affect us.

In the year 1916, however, two events happened which seemed to bring the

war to our door. The first was the arrival at Baltimore, on July 9th, of

the Deutschland, a German submarine of great size, built entirely for

commercial purposes, and the second was the appearance, on the 7th of

October, of a German war submarine in the harbor at Newport, Rhode

Island, and its exploit on the following day when it sunk a number of

British and neutral vessels just outside the three-mile line on the

Atlantic coast.

The performances of these two vessels were equally suggestive, but the

popular feeling with regard to what they had done was very divergent.

The voyage of the Deutschland roused the widest admiration but the

action of the U-53 stirred up the deepest indignation. Yet the voyages

of each showed with equal clearness that, however much America might

consider herself separated from the Great War, the new scientific

invention, the submarine, had annihilated space, and America, too, was

now but a neighbor of the nations at war.

The voyage of the Deutschland was a romance in itself. It was commanded

by Captain Paul Koenig, a German officer of the old school. He had been

captain of the Schleswig of the North German Lloyd, and of other big

liners. When the power of the British fleet drove German commerce from

the seas, he had found himself without a job, and, as he phrased it,

"was drifting about the country like a derelict." One day, in September,

1915, he was asked to meet Herr Alfred Lohmann, an agent of the North

German Lloyd Line, and surprised by an offer to navigate a submarine

cargo ship from Germany to America. Captain Koenig, who seems to have

been in every way an admirable personage, at once consented. He has told

us the story of his trip in his interesting book called "The Voyage of

the Deutschland."

The Deutschland itself was three hundred feet long, thirty feet wide,

and carried one thousand tons of cargo and a crew of twenty-nine men. It

cost a half a million dollars, but paid for itself in the first trip.

According to Captain Koenig the voyage on the whole seems to have been

most enjoyable. He understood his boat well and had watched its

construction. Before setting out on his voyage he carefully trained his

crew, and experimented with the Deutschland until he was thoroughly

familiar with all its peculiarities. The cargo was composed of dye

stuffs, and the ship was well supplied with provisions and comforts. In

his description of the trip he lays most emphasis upon the discomfort

resulting from heavy weather and from storms. He was able to avoid all

danger from hostile ships by the very simple process of diving. No

English ship approached him closely as he was always able to see them

from a distance, usually observing their course by means of their smoke.

One of his liveliest adventures, however, occurred when attempting to

submerge suddenly during a heavy sea on the appearance of a destroyer.

The destroyer apparently never observed the Deutschland, but in the

endeavor to dive quickly the submarine practically stood on its head,

and dived down into the mud, where it found itself held fast. Captain

Koenig however was equal to the emergency, and by balancing and trimming

the tanks he finally restored the center of gravity and released his

boat.

A considerable portion of his trip was passed upon the surface as he

only submerged when there was suspicion of danger. According to his

story his men kept always in the highest spirits. They had plenty of

music, and doubtless appreciated the extraordinary nature of their

voyage.

An amusing incident during the trip was the attempt to camouflage his

ship by a frame work, made of canvas and so constructed as to give the

outline of a steamer. One day a hostile steamer appeared in the distance

and Captain Koenig proceeded to test his disguise.

After great difficulties, especially in connection with the production

of smoke, he finally had the whole construction fairly at work. The

steamer, which had been peacefully going its way, on seeing the new ship

suddenly changed her course and steered directly toward the Deutschland.

It evidently took the Deutschland for some kind of a wreck and was

hurrying to give it assistance. Captain Koenig at once pulled off his

super-structure and revealed himself as a submarine, and the strange

vessel veered about and hurried off as fast as it could.

On the arrival of the Deutschland in America Captain Koenig and his crew

found their difficulties over. All arrangements had been made by

representatives of the North German Lloyd for their safety and comfort.

As they ran up Chesapeake Bay they were greeted by the whistles of the

neutral steamers that they passed. The moving-picture companies

immortalized the crew and they were treated with the utmost hospitality.

The Allied governments protested that the Deutschland was really a war

vessel and on the 12th of July a commission of three American naval

officers was sent down from Washington to make an investigation. The

investigation showed the Deutschland was absolutely unarmed and the

American Government decided not to interfere.

The position of the Allies was that a submarine, even though without

guns or torpedoes, was practically a vessel of war from its very nature,

and for it to pretend to be a merchant vessel was as if some great

German man-of-war should dismount its guns and pass them over to some

tender and then undertake to visit an American port. They argued that if

the submarine would come out from harbor it might be easily fitted with

detachable torpedo tubes, and become as dangerous as any U-boat. Even

without arms it might easily sink an unarmed merchant vessel by ramming.

But the United States was not convinced, and American citizens rather

admired the genial captain.

His return was almost as uneventful as his voyage out. At the very

beginning he had trouble in not being able to rise after an experimental

dive. This misadventure was caused by a plug of mud which had stopped up

the opening of the manometer. But the difficulty was overcome, and he

was able to pass under water between the British ships which were on the

lookout. His return home was a triumph. Hundreds of thousands of people

gathered along the banks of the Weser, filled with the greatest

enthusiasm. Poems were written in his honor and his appearance was

everywhere greeted with enthusiastic applause. The Germans felt sure

that through the Deutschland and similar boats they had broken the

British blockade.

Captain Koenig made a second voyage, landing at New London, Connecticut,

on November 1st, where he took on a cargo of rubber, nickel and other

valuable commodities. On November 16th, in attempting to get away to

sea, he met with a collision with the tug T. A. Scott, Jr., and had to

return to New London for repairs. He concluded his voyage, however,

without difficulty. In spite of his success the Germans did not make any

very great attempt to develop a fleet of submarine cargo boats.

The other German act which brought home to Americans the possibilities

of the submarine, the visit of the U-53, was a very different sort of

matter. U-53 was a German submarine of the largest type. On October 7,

1916, it made a sudden appearance at Newport, and its captain,

Lieutenant-Captain Hans Rose, was entertained as if he were a welcome

guest. He sent a letter to the German Ambassador at Washington and

received visitors in his beautiful boat. The U-53 was a war submarine,

two hundred and thirteen feet long, with two deck guns and four torpedo

tubes. It had been engaged in the war against Allied commerce in the

Mediterranean. Captain Rose paid formal visits to Rear-Admiral Austin

Knight, Commander of the United States Second Naval District, stationed

at Newport, and Rear-Admiral Albert Gleaves, Commander of the American

destroyer flotilla at that place, and then set out secretly to his

destination.

On the next day the news came in that the U-53 had sunk five merchant

vessels. These were the Strathdene, which was torpedoed; the West Point,

a British freighter, also torpedoed; the Stephano, a passenger liner

between New York and Halifax, which the submarine attempted to sink by

opening its sea valves but was finally torpedoed; the Blommersdijk, a

Dutch freighter, and the Christian Knudsen, a Norwegian boat. The

American steamer Kansan was also stopped, but allowed to proceed. When

the submarine began its work wireless signals soon told what was

happening, and Admiral Knight, with the Newport destroyer flotilla,

hurried to the rescue. These destroyers picked up two hundred and

sixteen men and acted with such promptness that not a single life was

lost.

The action of the U-53 produced intense excitement in America. The

newspapers were filled with editorial denunciation, and the people were

roused to indignation. The American Government apparently took the

ground that the Germans were acting according to law and according to

their promise to America. They had given warning in each case and

allowed the crews of the vessels which they sunk to take to their boats.

This was believed to be a fulfilment of their pledge "not to sink

merchant vessels without warning and without saving human lives, unless

the ship attempts to escape or offers resistance."

The general feeling, however, of American public opinion was that it was

a brutal act. In the case of the Stephano there were ninety-four

passengers. These, together with the crew, were placed adrift in boats

at eight o'clock in the evening, in a rough sea sixty miles away from

the nearest land. If the American destroyer fleet had not rushed to the

rescue it is extremely likely that a great many of these boats would

never have reached land. The German Government did not save these human

lives. It was the American navy which did that. But, technicalities

aside, the pride of the American people was wounded. They could not

tolerate a situation in which American men-of-war should stand idly by

and watch a submarine in a leisurely manner sink ships engaged in

American trade whose passengers and crews contained many American

citizens.

It was another one of those foolish things that Germans were constantly

doing, which gave them no appreciable military advantage, but stirred up

against them the sentiment of the world. The Germans perhaps were

anxious to show the power of the submarines, and to give America an

object lesson in that power. They wished to make plain that they could

destroy overseas trade, and that if the United States should endeavor to

send troops across the water they would be able to sink those troops.

The Germans probably never seriously contemplated a blockade of the

American coast. The U-53 returned to its base and the danger was ended.

American commerce went peacefully on, and the net result of the German

audacity was in the increase of bitterness in the popular feeling toward

the German methods.

CHAPTER XXXIII

AMERICA TRANSFORMED BY WAR

When Germany threw down the gauge of battle to the civilized world, the

German High Command calculated that the long, rigorous and thorough

military training to which every male German had submitted, would make a

military force invincible in the field. The High Command believed that a

nation so trained would carve out victory after victory and would end

the World War before any nation could train its men sufficiently to

check the Teutonic rush.

To that theory was opposed the democratic conception that the free

nations of earth could train their young men intensively for six months

and send these vigorous free men into the field to win the final

decision over the hosts of autocracy.

These antagonistic theories were tried out to a finish in the World War

and the theory of democracy, developed in the training camps of America,

Canada, Australia, Britain, France and Italy, triumphed. Especially in

the training camps of America was the German theory disproved. There

within six months the best fighting troops on earth were developed and

trained in the most modern of war-time practices. Everything that

Germany could devise found its answer in American ingenuity, American

endurance and American skill.

The entrance of America into the tremendous conflict on April 6, 1917

was followed immediately by the mobilization of the entire nation.

Business and industry of every character were represented in the Council

of National Defense which acted as a great central functioning

organization for all industries and agencies connected with the

prosecution of the war. Executives of rare talent commanding high

salaries tendered their services freely to the government. These were

the "dollar a year men" whose productive genius was to bear fruit in the

clothing, arming, provisioning, munitioning and transportation of four

million men and the conquest of Germany by a veritable avalanche of war

material.

Out of the ranks of business and science came Hurley, Schwab, Piez,

Coonley to drive forward a record-breaking shipbuilding program,

Stettinius to speed up the manufacture of munitions, John W. Ryan to

coordinate and accelerate the manufacture of airplanes, Vance C.

McCormick and Dr. Alonzo E. Taylor to solve the problems of the War

Trade Board, Hoover to multiply food production, to conserve food

supplies and to place the army and citizenry of America upon food

rations while maintaining the morale of the Allies through scientific

food distribution and a host of other patriotic civilians who put the

resources of the nation behind the military and naval forces opposed to

Germany. Every available loom was put at work to make cloth for the army

and the navy, the leather market was drained of its supplies to shoe our

forces with wear adapted to the drastic requirements of modern warfare.

German capital invested in American plants was placed under the

jurisdiction of A. Mitchell Palmer as Alien Property Custodian. German

ships were seized and transformed into American transports. Physicians

over military age set a glorious example of patriotic devotion by their

enlistment in thousands. Lawyers and citizens generally in the same

category as to age entered the office of the Judge Advocate General or

the ranks of the Four Minute Men or the American Protective League which

rendered great service to the country in exposing German propaganda and

in placing would-be slackers in military service. Bankers led the mighty

Liberty Loan and War Savings Stamp drives and unselfishly placed the

resources of their institutions at the service of the government.