Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXIV. Revolution
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
482
REVOLUTION [chap. xxiv.
my life, I have in no way found this service to be a
reproach ; on the contrary I was proud of it. So that
if I did not take up the defence of my unfortunate
ex-Sovereign now, I, too, should not deserve the esteem
of the Russian people."
The old Revolutionist was silent for a few minutes,
then allowed that from my point of view I was right.
A respectful crowd of Russian exiles, reporters, etc.,
were awaiting their turn to talk with the " great man " ;
meanwhile, in the modest room he was occupying, his
wife, so good, so unaffected and such a perfect lady in
her dignified simplicity, was busily packing into a small
chest some remedies which might be needed on the
journey by her adored man, who was old and often ailing
after his long career of work, travels, dangers, prison.
The correspondent of a prominent Russian
newspaper came to talk to Kropotkin in front of me. At
one moment this gentleman—who seemed sympathetic
and to be possessed of sound principles—touched on
the question of a peace "without annexations and
without indemnities" which had just been raised by the
Zimmerwaldian clique and even by the neutral
democratic Socialists. It was curious to see how the old
man, with such a calm manner, started. "What? so
that Germany should always have Alsace-Lorraine in
her hands ? So that the French frontier should still be
as near Paris as it was before the war ? But that
is inadmissible, absolutely inadmissible. France could
never breathe freely. And who, if not Germany herself,
is going to pay for the ruins she has heaped up with
joyous heart wherever her troops have passed ? She is
to pay for them. I am genuinely sorry for the German
people, but they also have their share of responsibility
and they must contribute by their work and by their
money to the work of rightful reparation."
When I returned to see Kropotkin again later on in
the day we, like the two good old Muscovites that we
chains; but he clearly means the whole Tsarinian regime and the
somewhat cruel Emperor Nicolas I. to be understood by that.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
