tormented to death by the Bolshevics, was unfortunately not a man of
inflexible will and unshaken perseverance; and at the time there was no
solitary important personage about the throne, and the fale of Russia was
sealed. But, I emphasize again, the concurrence of concrete — and in this
sense contingent — circumstances led to it: If the war were to break
out, not during the fourth calling together of the Duma, but during the
seventh or eighth, society and the Duma itself would already have been
different, and the history of Russia would have progressed by less tragic
ways. If everything had happened as it did happen and the throne had
been occupied by a man more capable of grappling with these circumstances,
not even of Peter I's stamp, but at least of Alexander IIT’s calibre, then
everything would have progressed differently. If, during the same war,
and under the same wielder of the supreme power, a man would appear on
the pinnacle of power, of the calibre and cut — let us say — of a Stolipin,
then the collapse could still have been averted. Nothing of this kind
happened and therefore the upheaval and its consequences became unavoid-
able. Just because the revolution was absolutely unnecessary, the destruc-
tions caused by it are so monstrous; and for this reason is Russia now a
desolate ruin on which the savage fanatics are dancing their cannibalistic
dance. Whenever a revolution comes as a result of national life in its
historical development, then this need exercises a directing action even in
case of wild rioting, and finds the good among the bad. Here, however,
with the collapse of all the powers and the disintegration of the front, the
negative was fulfilled, the positive could only show men with animal
appetites and bestial ideals: fire the farm, destroy the cattle kept for
breeding purposes, drive the manufacturer and the landholder out of their
properties, everybody rob and plunder everything! That is Bolshevism, when
in search of power. When it took possession of the power ... Let the
more fortunate nations of Europe now looking on Russia with the
questioning glance — how then can you endure it! — not judge, not
having passed through a similar trial. Judge not, lest you be judged.
It seemed to me an absolute necessity to preface these few remarks
to the pages of a book in which Russia's “via dolorosa” is described. He
who pictures to himself the roads which brought Russia to her present
condition, if tinged with political or racial prejudices, will understand very
little of the present book, — for him will the book of fate even remain
sealed. For the fate of Russia, is the fate of Europe, the fate of our
whole civilisation. That will soon be clear to everyone who has eves to see.
pe