The Dominion SATUBDAY, APRIL 21, 1917. RUSSIA'S NATIONAL SPIRIT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3059, 21 April 1917, Page 8

The Dominion SATUBDAY, APRIL 21, 1917. RUSSIA'S NATIONAL SPIRIT

« General Iliescu's revelations concerning the base- betrayal of Rumania by M. Stuemee, Russia's infamous pro-German Premier, are not likely to remain the solitary representation o£ Germany's success in corrupting Ministerial and official Russia. Many crimes, connected more particularly with the withholding of munitions and food from the troops, and communicating information to Berlin, remain to bo : investigated, and, if possible,-ex-piated. That _ wireless telegraph station, providing direct communication between Petrograd and Berlin, tolls its own sinister story of an army's and a nation's betrayal. The revolution which burst up the German gang in. the Russian capital, and ■ dethroned Tsar- Nicholas, came just in time, it would appear, to save_ Russia ,and prevent irreparable disaster to the Russian army. Before the war there was published weekly in Berlin' a, characteristically Prussian brodiure, entitled the Militar Wochenblatt, from which many bright and entertaining views of the true Teutonic variety might be gathered. It was the official 'Germany.army weekly, and it may be still appearing, if only to convey ■ hope- and, solace to a dejected army and a disappointed populace.' To an unsympathetic, unbelieving, noh-German public it was an amazing publication. But that public; has since realised-, that the bizarre opinions and the marvellous projects therein given to the world were in reality the opinions held and the plans fostered by the war clique at. Berlin.; . Russia was the theme of many a -belligerent discourse in the Militar Wochenblatt. .The truth is that,' for many years, Germany,, while intriguing in Russia and exploiting the Russians in divers ways, feared Russia, and dreaded an encounter with that mighty State. The Berlin publicalike, steadily belittled the Russian army. On .the very eve of hostilities Russia's troops were described as greatly overestimated; numbers, tho paper declared—almost '. prophetically of Germany's own immense resources in men, it might be said—were less important than morale,'- ability of the higher officers, and, above all, the national spirit. Tho Kaiser's agents were sufficiently, competent to secure information touching the strength and the movements of troops, and to brazenly bribe wholesale for the. undoing of Russia and her Allies; but they were altogether 1 incapable of discovering, far less of understanding, the true national spirit animating the great mass of the Russian people.' The? modem Prussians, from the Kaiser downwards, write and speak as they may about a people's national spirit, know and recognise only one national own, which is based on certain monstrous conceptions touching their own individual superiority and the invulnerability of their empire. In truth, any abstract idoa of Russia's_ national spirit is beyond the typical Prussian. The Russian is a mystic and an idealist; whereas the Prussian is an inexorable- .realist, selfish, callous, and aggressive. . Russia's national spirit—the devotion and tho patriotism of the people—has saved the country at tnis, another, of the great crises which from tirao to time havo arisen within Russia. Boforo the war Germany's influence within the Tsar's dominions was open, and it was unchallenged save by the people and "cry the untainted Russian jflobility. Since tho time of tho Ivans, of Peter the Great, and Catherine the Second, Germans havo flocked into and preyed upon Russia. In the seventeenth century thoEoMANOFF Tsars, with the weal of tho country at heart, introduced many of their then more highly cultivated Western neighbours to assist in the army and in the. civil service. Before long the capital of tho Tsars was overrun with. German barons and German adventurers. Most of

the more conspicuous of the Russian generals had German names, as did the capital, the military' harbour, and the chief imperial residences. There were Kronstadt, Oraniebaum, Schluessenburg, Pcterhof, and Petersburg. Peterhof has- been named the Russian Potsdam; Petersburg was long tho outpost of Germany in tho Russian Empire. The 'Romanoff dynasty existed only in name. That dynasty was established by Michael Romanoff in 1613, and, as a true Russian dynasty, it ended in 1761. In the latter year a petty German prince-let, afterwards known as Peter the Third, became Tsar. ' He was the son of a Duke of Holstein-Grottop, and was the nephew of the Empress Elizabeh, daughter of Peter the Great. He was half Romanoff and half German, but he inherited to the full extent tho character of his German ancestors, and he looked with contempt upon Russia, and the Russians. He married a German, and since his time every Tsar, with one exception, has' married a German princess. A careful genealogical analysis shows that only one sixtyfourth of tho blood of the cx-Tsar is Romanoff blood. In the proportion of sixty-three sixty-fourths it is the blood of Holstein, of Anhalt, of Oldenbtjeg, of Hesse, of Wurteoturg, and of Hohenzollerk In addition many needy. , German princelets went to Russia for wives, while not a few Russian noblemen, following the example of the court, married German princesses. In spite of all the enormous influence which such marriages gave Germany, added to the malign activities of Germany's hirelings, the patriotic spirit of Russia gives every promise of emerging triumphant.. The latest news to hand goes to indicate that a better' understanding- has been reached between the Provisional Government and the Workmen's and Soldiers' Executive; and that the army at the front has settled down • to the new conditions, and is more determined than ever to overthrow the enemy. Supplies of food and munitions are now fully. adequate, and reinforcements are going -forward in increasing numbers. • There are still difficulties ahead, the unsettling effects of the revolution have not entirely disappeared, and German intrigues are still afoot, but there is little doubt to-day as ■ to the final outcome. The spirit of the Rus--sian people is asserting itself, and the menace of Germany to. that full exercise of the' liberty and freedom of a democratic "State are better realised now than ever before. To 'gain the ends, for which they are striving the leaders of tho democratic movement in Russia realise that they must first overcome tho enemy who has invaded their country, and !• render him helpless to interfere with 'thcii , plans now or in the future.