Record of a Month's Events
The Russo-German peace treaty, signed by the Bolshevist plenipotentiaries on March 3, 1918, and ratified at a session of the All-Russian Soviet Congress held in Moscow on March 14-16, was approved, after a prolonged discussion, by the Main Committee of the German Reichstag on March 22.
Discussing the situation created in Russia by the Brest-Litovsk pact, a Petrograd daily remarks that, while the rest of the world has secret diplomacy and open war, Russia has open diplomacy and secret war. In fact, the final ratification of the "peace" instrument by both sides did not put an end to the military operations of the Central Powers in Russia. Nor did the Russians cease to make feeble and sporadic attempts at resistance.
In the third week of March the fall of Petrograd seemed imminent, but the transfer of the Government to Moscow and the partial evacuation of the northern capital by the civil population apparently changed the objective of the invading German troops to the ancient Russian metropolis. They began to march on Moscow from northwest, west, and southwest, but stopped within the distance of approximately 150 miles from that city. For the last three weeks practically no fighting has been going on in the north of Russia, except occasional guerrilla skirmishes and punitive expeditions, conducted by the Germans and the propertied classes. On the other hand, in the south the Austro-German invaders have been vigorously pushing on, ostensibly under the pretext of assisting the friendly Ukrainian nation in its struggle against the Soviet power.
By March 20 the Teutons were in possession of the whole of Western Ukraine west of the Dnieper. Among other cities they held Zhitomir, Kiev, Nikolayev, and Odessa. The latter city, the most important commercial seaport in Russia, was reported to have been occupied by four Austro-German regiments without a shot. Kherson was taken March 21. On March 27, the semi-official Russian news agency announced that the Soviet and Ukrainian troops, assisted by naval forces, recaptured Odessa. According to an earlier report, Kherson, Nikolayev, and Znamenka were also recaptured by Red Guards and armed civilians. The retaking of Odessa was officially denied by Vienna, and the city is apparently in the hands of the Teutons at this writing (April 18). They are reported to have seized large stores of war materials at Odessa, and 2,500 ships at Nikolayev, which is a port on the Black Sea, with vast docks for building warships. The Austro-Germans also took Poltava, situated midway between the Dnieper and Donetz, and set it on fire. The capture of Poltava was followed (April 8) by that of Yekaterinoslav and Kharkov, the former seat of the Bolshevist Rada.
On April 11 the invaders occupied the small city of Lgov, 130 miles northwest of Kharkov, and an ultimatum was sent to the City of Kursk, demanding its surrender. Both towns are situated in the province of Kursk, which lies beyond the Russo-Ukrainian border as defined by the Central Powers.
The march of the Teutons, coupled with their requisitions of food products, seemed to arouse a good deal of dissatisfaction among the peasants and workmen in the Ukraine. It is reported that the Rada, which had invited the Germans, requested them to stop the advance of their troops, but their request was not heeded. The behavior of the Teutons in Kiev led to a clash between the Ukrainian authorities and the German commandant. The demand of the Austro-Germans that the Ukraine should furnish them 85 per cent. of its grain and all its sugar except that needed for local consumption was particularly resented. On April 7 the Bolshevist Foreign Minister Chicherin signified to the German Government his willingness to open peace negotiations with the Ukraine. According to some advices the Rada wished to form a federated alliance with the Russian Republic.
IN THE CAUCASUS
Article 4 of the Russo-German treaty provides for the evacuation by the Russian troops of the districts of Erivan, Kars, and Batum, (in the Caucasus,) and the reorganization of these districts in agreement with Turkey. The Transcaucasion Constituent Assembly, meeting in Tiflis, refused to recognize the peace with the Central Powers and pronounced itself in favor of a war against them. On March 29 it was reported that the local Diet declared the independence of the Caucasus and approved the project of a separate peace with Turkey. But when, several days later, the Turks began the military occupation of the Caucasian districts mentioned in the Brest-Litovsk treaty, the Armenians and Georgians rose against the invaders. On April 4 the Armenians were said to have recaptured Erzerum, in Turkish Armenia, which Russia evacuated after the conclusion of peace. Before the Caucasian uprising Turkey officially announced its intention to send troops to restore order in the Crimea. It was reported that massacres of Armenians were resumed by the Turks and that many thousand women and children had been butchered.
On April 14 the Russian Government forwarded to Germany a protest of the Armenian National Council, addressed to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the President of the Reichstag. The document reads in part:
Following upon the withdrawal of the Russian troops Turkish troops already have invaded the undefended country and are not only killing every Turkish Armenian, but also every Russian in Armenia.
In spite of the terms of the peace treaty, which recognizes the right of self-determination for these Caucasian regions, the Turkish Army is advancing toward Kars and Ardahan, destroying the country and killing the Christian population. The responsibility for the future destiny of the Armenians lies entirely with Germany because it was Germany's insistence that resulted in the withdrawal of the Russian troops from the Armenian regions, and at the moment it rests with Germany to prevent the habitual excesses of the Turkish troops, increased by revengefulness and anger.
INTERNAL SITUATION
The internal situation in Russia proper remains uncertain, nor have any definite changes taken place in the mood of the people or in the Governmental policies of the Bolsheviki. It is charged that the Bolshevist Government suppressed the full text of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. On April 10 the Commissioner of Commerce of the Bolsheviki announced that under the terms of the peace treaty Russia had suffered the following losses:
Seven hundred and eighty thousand square kilometers (301,000 square miles) of territory.
Fifty-six million inhabitants, constituting 32 per cent, of the entire population of the country.
One-third of Russia's total mileage of railways, amounting to 21,530 kilometers, (13,350 miles.)
Seventy-three per cent. of the total iron production.
Eighty-nine per cent. of the total coal production.
Two hundred and sixty-eight sugar refineries, 918 textile factories, 574 breweries, 133 tobacco factories, 1,685 distilleries, 244 chemical factories, 615 paper mills, 1,073 machine factories.
These territories, which now become German, formerly brought in annual revenue amounting to 845,238 rubles, and had 1,800 savings banks.
The alarming sweep of the Teutonic invasion, together with the growing realization of what the Brest-Litovsk agreement really means to Russia, seemed finally to arouse some spirit of resistance in the Russian masses. Patriarch Tikhon declared that the Russian Church could not recognize a peace dismembering the country and subjecting it to a foreign power. Since the ratification the spokesmen of the Bolshevist Government have not ceased talking of organizing a large army for a new war. The prevalent Bolshevist opinion is that the new revolutionary army should be used, in the words of the semi-official Bolshevist organ Pravda, "not to strengthen, as the imperialists calculate, this or that bourgeois front, but to turn the front of the world war into a front of the workers' and soldiers' revolution."
TALK OF NEW ARMY
In March it was reported that four of the People's Commissaries had gone south to organize troops for guerrilla warfare. This idea, however, was soon abandoned. Trotzky insisted upon the necessity of having a strictly disciplined army of 300,000 to 750,000 men, under regular officers. "We cannot," he said, "preserve the illusion that European capital will patiently suffer the fact that in Russia the power is in the hands of the working class. * * * We are surrounded by enemies on all sides. If it were proposed to France to return Alsace, the French Bourse would sell Russia tomorrow." On April 2 M. Podvoisky, Assistant Commissary of War, stated that Russia would form an army of 1,500,000 men, and that the Red Army of Volunteers was steadily growing. The army organization has been changed with a view to limiting the application of the elective principle. According to some reports the Bolsheviki are hoping to have an army of 500,000 by the Fall. Some of the leaders went so far as to advocate compulsory military service. On April 10 Leon Trotzky was appointed joint Minister of War and Marine.
On the previous day the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets unanimously passed a resolution ruling that henceforth Russia's national flag would be a red banner bearing the inscription: "Rossiyskaya, Sotzialisticheskaya Federativnaya Sovetskaya Respublika," (Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.) Proposing the measure, the Chairman said: "The Russian flag will have to wave over the embassies in Berlin and Vienna and we cannot have the old tricolor, so I think it most proper to adopt the red flag under which we fought and gained victory."
BESSARABIA AND RUMANIA
An important event has taken place in the southwestern corner of the former Russian Empire, in the rich province of Bessarabia, where separatist tendencies have recently made themselves strongly felt. A Berlin dispatch, dated April 11, announced that the Bessarabian Diet had voted, 86 against 5, that Bessarabia should join the Kingdom of Rumania. Thereupon, the Ukrainian Premier filed a protest in Russia against this act, stating that the Ukraine must have her say in the settlement of Bessarabia's fate in view of the fact that this province has a large Ukrainian population and that the Ukraine is controlling an important region on the Black Sea adjacent to Bessarabia.
The Council of the People's Commissaries was notified on April 9 that the Province of Kazan, situated in the east of European Russia and having a population of 2,000,000, had been proclaimed an independent republic by the Congress of Peasants of that region.
RUSSIA AND THE ALLIES
The Entente did not acknowledge the Russo-German peace. In a statement issued March 18 through the British Foreign Office the Governments of Great Britain, France, and Italy voiced their protest against "the political crimes which, under the name of a German peace, have been committed against the Russian people." Ambassador David R. Francis, when asked whether he would leave Russia in consequence of the ratification of the peace treaty, gave the following reply:
I shall not leave Russia until compelled by force. The American Government and people are too deeply interested in the prosperity of the Russian people for them to abandon Russia to the Germans. America is sincerely interested in the liberty of the Russian people and will do everything possible to safeguard the real interests of the country.
If the brave and patriotic Russian people will forget political differences for the time being and act resolutely and vigorously, they will be able to drive the enemy from their territory, and by the end of 1918 bring a lasting peace for themselves and the whole world. America still counts itself an ally of the Russian people, and we shall be ready to help any Government which organizes a vigorous resistance to the German invasion.
The French, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Serbian, Belgian, Brazilian, Greek, Portuguese, and Siamese representatives, who left Russia when the treaty with Germany was signed, joined the American Ambassador (who did not leave the country) at Vologda, 300 miles northeast of Moscow, late in March. A dispatch dated March 20 says: "There has been a marked change in the attitude of the Allies toward the Soviet Government. * * * There are many signs of renewed co-operation between Russia and the Allies." The dispatch also quotes M. Chicherin, the Bolshevist Foreign Minister, as saying that "Russia's relations with the Entente are unchanged."
At the same time Trotzky approached the American military mission, established in Moscow, asking it to assist Russia in organizing a volunteer army and in improving the country's transportation. On March 27 the Petit Parisien published a statement to the effect that Trotzky had also asked the French to assist him in organizing military resistance to the Germans. A leading article in Premier Clemenceau's L'Homme Libre contained the following statement: "The Entente, as long as the war lasts, will regard Russia, the one and indivisible Russia which signed the pact of London, as an ally."
Russia also reckons on the Allies, especially America, for support in rehabilitating her industries and developing her resources. A large order for agricultural machinery has been placed in the United States, and the shipping of the goods has already begun. According to a London dispatch the Bolsheviki are sending a commission to the United States to settle Russia's accounts with American firms and make arrangements for future trade relations.
THE JAPANESE LANDING
After Russia's collapse, and especially after her capitulation, Japan's intervention in Siberia was a subject of lively discussion in the allied countries. Persistent rumors were circulated by the press to the effect that large masses of armed and organized Teuton prisoners, numbering at least 150,000 men, were ready to seize the Trans-Siberian railroad and menace the military stores accumulated in Vladivostok. These rumors were declared by the Bolshevist authorities to be a part of the propaganda to bring disrepute on the Soviet power and encourage Japanese intervention, which Lenine's Government regards as an encroachment of world imperialism upon Socialist Russia.
On Friday, April 5, two companies of Japanese sailors landed at Vladivostok. According to the report of the President of the Vladivostok Soviet, the landing was effected in the presence of the Japanese Consul and Admiral Kato, Japanese Marine Minister, without the consent of the other allied Consuls. Later in the day fifty British armed sailors were landed. There was also an unconfirmed report that American marines, too, were landed. On the next day 250 more Japanese sailors entered the city. In a proclamation issued at Vladivostok Admiral Kato explained that the step was taken because of the murder of a Japanese soldier and in order to protect the life and property of Japanese and allied subjects. The Vladivostok Soviet protested to the Consular Corps. Resolutions of protest were also passed by the Municipal Council and the local Zemstvo.
The news of the landing produced much excitement in the Bolshevist headquarters in Moscow. In spite of the statement of the allied diplomats that the act was a purely local affair of no political importance, the Bolsheviki construed it as the beginning of the rumored Japanese invasion. A statement issued by the Commissaries on April 6 declared that the killing of the Japanese soldier was part of a prearranged scheme, and that "Japan had started a campaign against the Soviet Republic." The following day the Izvestia spoke of the invasion as the continuation of "the crusade against revolutionary Russia" begun by imperialistic Germany. In a speech at Moscow on April 8 Premier Lenine said: "It is possible that after a short time, perhaps even within a few days, we shall have to declare war on Japan." Two days later it was reported that the Russian Government had requested Germany to permit the postponement of the demobilization of the Russian Army in view of the Japanese landing at Vladivostok.
On April 11 the Consular Corps of Vladivostok officially informed the local Zemstvo that the landing of allied sailors had been made necessary by conditions of anarchy in the port, and that the troops would be withdrawn as soon as order had been restored.
On March 16 the American Ambassador, Mr. Francis, made the following statement:
The Soviet Government and the Soviet press are giving too much importance to the landing of these marines, which has no political significance, but merely was a police precaution taken by the Japanese Admiral on his own responsibility for the protection of Japanese life and property in Vladivostok, and the Japanese Admiral, Kato, so informed the American Admiral, Knight, and the American Consul, Caldwell, in Vladivostok. My impression is that the landing of the British marines was pursuant to the request of the British Consul for the protection of the British Consulate and British subjects in Vladivostok, which he anticipated would possibly be jeopardized by the unrest which might result from the Japanese landing.
The American Consul did not ask protection from the American cruiser in Vladivostok Harbor, and consequently no American marines were landed. This, together with the fact that the French Consul at Vladivostok made no request for protection from the British, American, or Japanese cruisers in the harbor, unquestionably demonstrates that the landing of allied troops is not a concerted action between the Allies.
The Czar's Loyalty to the Allies
An Autograph Letter
A letter written by Nicholas II. to President Poincaré in the Spring of 1916 has recently been made public. Its interest lies in its expression of absolute loyalty to the Allies. It is as follows:
Dear and Exalted Friend: At a moment when France and Russia are more closely bound than ever in the unprecedented struggle of which they are supporting the weight with their faithful allies, it has been a great pleasure to me to see the arrival of members of the French Government in Russia. I have had much pleasure in once again meeting M. Viviani, whom I already know, and in recalling the last interview that I had with you. At the time our one idea was to insure the peaceful development of our two countries, while the enemy was already preparing his attack against the peace of Europe in the hope of securing the hegemony of the world. It also gives me great pleasure to meet M. Albert Thomas, the Minister of Munitions, whose talents have rendered such great services to his country and to the cause of the Allies.
Having always attached great importance to an intimate collaboration between the two Governments, I attach even greater importance to this collaboration at the present time, now that we are thoroughly determined only to disarm by common agreement after gaining the final victory. It is therefore more necessary to co-ordinate our effort in order that our common action may be more effective. It is unquestionable that each of the Allies is animated by a single desire—that of placing its fullest effort at the disposal of the common cause.
It is with this desire that my Government and my officers have devotedly studied, in association with members of the French Government, the methods that should be taken to insure that the greatest possible assistance should be given to our various allies. I hope, consequently, that M. Viviani and M. Thomas will leave here with the absolute conviction that so far as it is materially possible Russia will hesitate before no sacrifice to insure the triumph of the allied cause at the earliest possible moment. My warmest wishes are that our united efforts may soon be crowned with the most striking success, and I am anxious to express to you my admiration of France, which has covered itself with fresh glory in the heroic defense of Verdun.
