" Notwithstanding the intensification
of the class conflict naturally resulting from the great industrial
development since 1906, patriotism temporarily overshadowed all class
consciousness.
The cheers that greeted Rodzianko's declaration, and the remarkable ovation
to the Allied ambassadors, who were present, amply demonstrated that, in
spite of the frightful suffering and sacrifice which the nation had
endured, all classes were united in their determination to win the war.
Only a corrupt section of the bureaucracy, at one end of the social scale,
and a small section of extreme left-wing Socialists, at the other end of
the social scale, were at that time anti-war. There was this difference
between the Socialist pacifists and the bureaucratic advocates of peace
with Germany: the former were not pro-German nor anti-Ally, but sincere
internationalists, honest and brave--however mistaken--advocates of peace.
Outside of the bureaucracy there was no hostility to the Allies in Russia.
Except for the insignificant Socialist minority referred to, the masses of
the Russian people realized that the defeat of the Hohenzollern dynasty
was necessary to a realization of the ideal of a free Russia.
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