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39°
39° A VISIT TO PETROGRAD [chap. xxi.
But when the representatives of Liberal opinions in
Russia agreed thus to proclaim a kind of " sacred
union," and declared that as long as the war lasted they
would prevent a revolution from breaking out, they
were reckoning without their host, that is to say
without Germany.
German policy had reckoned on the Russian
Revolution from the very beginning of the war. She was
counting on it firmly. Long before the precipitation
of political events in Europe had brought about the
conflagration, the German Government had begun to
knead the dough in Russia—dough into which the
leaven of revolutionism was worked. In 1905 and
1906 the role of the German agents with regard to a
Russian revolution was an ostensibly negative one. At
that period William II. thought and hoped to allure the
Tsar afresh through the support he lent him and the
favours he lavished on him. But when, after Bjoerkoe
and more especially after the tightening of
Anglo-Russian ties, the Kaiser’s hopes had faded away, then
Berlin entered resolutely into relations with the Russian
revolutionaries, and sent resolute and clever agents
amongst the working-classes of the Empire. These
agents were rarely recognised revolutionaries. There
was a whole category of people who could further
Germany’s schemes without having to write themselves
down as Socialists, without having to think that they
were engaged in a work of pure destruction ; especially
without arousing the suspicions of the Russian police.
These agents—often unconscious ones—were the
German proprietors, directors, workmen, of the
numerous German industrial enterprises in Russia.
Foreign colonies are, always and everywhere,
inclined to criticise the country in which they find
themselves. More especially does this apply to the foreign
colonies established in Russia, when in the course of
their work they are confronted by the malpractices
and venality of the police, the dilatoriness of the
administration etc. Nevertheless, up to a certain
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