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328
SWEDISH NEUTRALITY [chap, xviii.
Convinced of the infallibility of all the political ideas
of his father, brought up by a General of the Staff
himself imbued with the current Slavophile ideas, Nicolas II.
in regard to his foreign policy was entirely in unison
with the opinions prevailing in the intellectual circles in
Russia. He was too conscious of the dangers of war and
of his responsibility towards the lives of his people ever
to take the initiative of the conflict, but once war had
been imposed on Russia by the brutal aggression of
William, the Tsar, in the event of victory, did not expect
or desire any solutions other than those he read of in the
columns of the Novoye Vremya, that he heard praised in
his own set, and that his Ministers themselves offered
him as a natural and desirable state of affairs. A scheme
of agreement with Austria based on certain concessions
would have seemed to him a heresy and a dangerous
eccentricity; the true, the natural course was that
approved of by current opinion, and that was the one to
be pursued. It was not in the unfortunate Monarch’s
nature to rise to the thought that it was precisely and
solely in the sphere of foreign policy that he had the
possibility and the necessity of separating himself, if
need be, from current public opinion, in order to preserve
or to restore to Russia the benefits of an assured and
established peace. Ah well! the path which would have
seemed extravagant and chimerical to him would have
ended the war promptly and gloriously, and would
thus have given the Imperial power a great chance of
salvation; whereas the beaten track of prevailing
opinions led to an indefinite prolonging of hostilities
and suffering and brought nameless and unparalleled
calamities on the wretched Tsar and unfortunate Russia.
Thus peace with Austria did not follow in consequence
of our brilliant campaign in Galicia. During the winter
1914-15 everyone in our country was filled with triumph
at the new conquest, and in Galicia we behaved in a way
that definitely alienated the sympathies of all who were
not radically hostile to the Hapsburg regime; and we
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