THE GREY COATS OF RUSSIA.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 185, 23 June 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE GREY COATS OF RUSSIA.

PROF. PARES'S LOVE OF THE RUSSIAN SOLDIER. THEIR RECKLESS DARING. By HAROLD BEGBLE. I suppose that no Englishman has seen so much of the Russian armies as Professor Pares, who speaks the Russian language excellently and is almost consumed by his admiration for Russian character. He has lived with Russian officers at the front, and hehas spent many weeks in the trenches with Russian soldiers. He is a man of the liveliest imagination and the quickest sympathy, a man who wot only observes but observes with that warmth and intelligence of feeling which can alone give a truthful impression. . During one of his periodical visits to Petrograd I had the pleasure of difling with him on two or three occasions {writes Harold Begbie in the "Daily Chronicle"). He is & small man, with eroucmng shoulders, and wears a crumpled grey uniform whose untidiness is the amusement of his friends. He hurries through his dinner as quickly as possible in order to get to his hooked p'pe over which he bums anv number of matehas. He sits crumpled up in his cha'r, one leg crossed over tho other, his arms folded, one of his hands nursing the bowl of his pipe, wh-.cji never seems to diaw properly, nni his light-coloured eyes staring strai jht before them, with the brows raiSJd avo the forehead wrinkled. He is extreme Iv pale, with a ragged, reddisn moustache and two deep' lines beside m? month. '•lt is quite impossible, he -old me. • not to love the Russian soldier. Ask anybody who has i : \ed inch Vu., lie is not only brave, he is indifferent to danger. And the way he bears pan is extraordinary, something extraordinary. But it isn't this which makes one love the Russian soldier. It's ha*well, I hardly know how to express it. It's his poetry, his imaginat on, his spirituality. "I've sat in trenches with these men on wonderful moonlight nighia, in a silence only occasionally broken by the howling of distant wolves, ind I ve talked to them about their their wives, their children, listened to them talking of these things anions themselves, and felt—well, I've had almost a religious exaltation, the feeling, 'lt is good for us to be here.' Such gentleness. And such perfectly beautiful sympathy the one with the other "Remember that these same rien with a bayonet are terrible. There is nothing to compare with them. Their contempt for the German as a soldier is complete. They know perfectly well that man for man the German is their inferior. They set their teetn on the great retreat, and said again and again, 'Wait till we, too, have big guns!' "And I wonder if people m England realise that the Russians were masters of that great retreat. They never let the Germans come too near. They dictated the pace, which wao slow, amazingly slow, some five versts a day. Again and again they turned and faced those big guns with only a few rifles. They were slaughtered by the "Wis, but thev wrecked the attacks of tho infantrv with their bayonets every time. And always they were laughing at the Germans , making a mock of them, and spying, 'Wait till we. too, have big guns'.' "One of their favourite sayings will tell vou what they think of the Germans, and as it is born of experience, it is amply justified. They say, 'Wait till we get on the backs of the Germans!' By that they mean, 'Wait till we begin our advance; the Germans will turn then, and we will keep them moving!' This is not an emp-.y boast. The Russians have often seen the Germans flying like scared sheep before them. It only needs big guns to flatten out the German trenches for the Russian infantry to get these miserable little Germans on the run. " 'Why don't you come out, i.ibbits?' thev will call to the German trenches. ' I've seen Russian so'diers any number of times stroll across to the German barb?d v iiv and litccaiiy stand there insulting the Germ ins. for a quarter of an hour, not one :-mge Gorman daring to >how his head! TENDER AND HUMANE. "But although the Russian with a bayonet is one of the greatest fighters on' the earth, he is at heart tender and humane. That is what poonlo don't understand. The Germans are always speaking of 'Cossacks.' and liyin<' to make out that they are barbarians. Rubbish! The Cossack will certainly whiten their gills for them when he gets among them with ins bayonet. There's no doubt of that. Biit he fights fair, he is not a monitor, and to his prisoners he behaves like'a Christian. I've seen it myself. To the Cossack his prisoner becomes a toy, a pet. He laughs over him, makes much of him. strokes him, and asks what he can do for him. "I've seen German prisoners arrive in a state of cal'apse, gasping with funk: and then I've seen them recover 'their assurance and becom? finally arrogant and rude. Yes, the German whoso knees are knocking at one moment, and who believes that his ton<Mie and ears are to be cut off, given a cup of coffee by his captor, will at the next, moment be complaining thai thorn is'not enough sugar in the cup. •\nd tho Russian won't re-cot this rudeness. On the contrary, he will double his attentions. He shares with hi/ German prisoner everything lie pn«P(V-'Ses." He struck his hundredth match, nulled and pulled at the sulky pip?, took it from his lips, scowled at the n .ho«. struck another match, and proceeded : , . , . . -One of the ino-t remarkable things nhmit the Rim-ian is hi- freedom from iottcrne'-s and anger. It'- the hardest thin" m the world to get him to 1 nte' He doesn't understand hatred. \'n a htrht he unde.-.apds perfect'/ veil that he ha., g-'U |o m 1 p:-;m!< . and 1 j]| n« mniiv a.; pn -:m •. lb' Em[r ,„r wifdies'hin. to do ibis, and it iL honourable th m< ... ;K But 1..,t 1.0 should bate the man h- is going to I ;! i i,., - ,s you. that never oi.ti '- •| , j M everv Russian an in- ..... ~.. in the brotherhood of -J, Countries like our own, W |.,- i- . onlv got a political i-on-

ception of democracy, have no idea, no idea whatever, of the religious sense of democracy. They are apt to regard tho Russian as backward because the Government is not democratic. But the Russian people are mentally and spiritually ever so much more democrat tic than we are. That is why they are clean free of snobbishness. Every man feels himself a brother. The least of the peasants is perfectly at his ease in the presence of the littlo Father. "Thev believe in God And they believe in God as tho Father of the human race. Al! of us are brothers, some rich and powerful, other poor and humble, but all brothers. That's a real democracy. It isn't a constructional democracy; it's a social, a spiritual democracy." He told me that to understand Russia a man must be there at Easter. He described how the churches are filled with wailing, and how the priest goes outside and comes back saying, "Christ is dead,'' the people still wailing, and then presently the priest comes joyfully back saying, "Christ is risen!" and the whole church breaks out into the great Easter shout or "Christ js risen, Christ is risen!" Tin's spirit animates the entire Russian Army. Priests have converted every possible shed into an altar. Nearly every soldier possesses a Testament.* And as they wait in the trenches they read the Gospel of St. John, sing their chants, say their prayers, and wait for the great day when they will drive the Germans like sheep before them and march behind their Emperor through the streets of Berlin. They are confident that that day will come. Professor. Pares's faith in the Russian soldier is only equalled by his enthusiasm for the Russian character. He has no doubt of the end.