- Project Runeberg -  Diplomatic Reminiscences before and during the World War, 1911-1917 /
409

(1920) [MARC] Author: Anatolij Nekljudov - Tema: Russia, War
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i9I6] GERMAN MACHINATIONS

period the Germans who had work in Russia had
received the word of command to show themselves
conservative, loyal to the Imperial Government, obedient
to the authorities. Towards 1907 the word of command
was changed. " Russia and her governors were worth
nothing; the duty of the Germans established in Russia
was to bring to the unfortunate R.ussian people the
good news of their political and social rights." As ever,
when it is a question of German action, the Berlin
directions were carried out with zeal and uniformity.
Whole bales of proclamations and revolutionary
literature were sent from Germany to Russia under the
benevolent eye of the frontier-authorities and even—
so I have been told—under that of German diplomats
and consuls. A remarkably intelligent Frenchwoman
belonging to the Diplomatic Corps of Petrograd,
Frau von L., told me that one day, in her
drawing-room, Baron von Lucius—at that time Counsellor to the
German Embassy—had announced in loud and clear
tones : "What is all this about Russia? Russia cannot
and dare not go to war. And if she dared, the very
next day the revolution, fully armed, would come from
there " (and the Counsellor pointed towards the
workshops and foundries on the other side of the Neva)
"and would hurl itself on all these beautiful palaces!"

From the beginning of the war, as I have said, the
Germans were awraiting with feverish impatience the
outbreak of revolutionary disturbances in Russia.
These disturbances as yet showed no signs of occurring ;
on the contrary—miracle and malediction !—the entire
Russian people seemed seized afresh with true patriotic
ardour. But in 1915, the reverses of the Russian
armies, the grumbling caused by the lack of munitions,
the terrible sufferings of the populations who were
fleeing and whose flight was encouraged, before the
German invasion, the fatigue of the working-classes,
the mistakes made by the Government—all that
combined to cause Berlin to hope that the ardently
wished-for Russian revolution—the one which alone could save

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