Of that there was no sign and no promise or likelihood.
Kerensky knew that he would have had to make peace, at almost any cost and
on almost any terms, if he remained in power. If the Bolsheviki appear in
the light of traitors to the Allies, it should be remembered that pressure
of circumstances would have forced even such a loyal friend of the Allies
as Kerensky certainly proved himself to be to make a separate peace,
practically on Germany's terms, in a very little while. It was not a matter
of months, but of weeks at most, probably of days.
Russia had to have peace. The nation was war-weary and exhausted. The
Allies had not understood the situation--indeed, they never have understood
Russia, even to this day--and had bungled right along. What made it
possible for the Bolsheviki to assert their rule so easily was the fact
that they promised immediate peace, and the great mass of the Russian
workers wanted immediate peace above everything else. They were so eager
for peace that so long as they could get it they cared at the time for
nothing. Literally nothing else mattered. As we have seen, the Bolshevik
leaders had strenuously denied wanting to make a "separate peace.
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