And the vital
importance of the long struggle on the Somme was becoming every day more
evident. Only about Russia, both in Paris and at G.H.Q., was there a
kind of silence which meant great anxiety. Lord Milner and General
Castelnau had returned from Petrograd. In Paris, at any rate, it was not
believed that they brought good news. All the huge efforts of the Allies
to supply Russia with money, munitions, and transport, were they to go
for nothing, owing to some sinister and thwarting influence which seemed
to be strangling the national life?
Then a few days after my return home, the great explosion came, and when
the first tumult and dust of it cleared away, there, indeed, was a
strangely altered Europe! From France, Great Britain, and America went
up a great cry of sympathy, of congratulation. The Tsardom was
gone!--the "dark forces" had been overthrown; the political exiles were
free; and Freedom seemed to stand there on the Russian soil shading her
bewildered eyes against the sun of victory, amazed at her own deed.
But ten weeks have passed since then, and it would be useless to
disguise that the outburst of warm and sincere rejoicing that greeted
the overthrow of the Russian autocracy has passed once more into
anxiety.
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