Russia's Evil Genius.

Taihape Daily Times, 5 October 1918, Page 6

Russia's Evil Genius.

KERENSKY PILLORIED. CRITIC'S CHARACTER SKETCH. The first time I saw Kerensky "was at the Imperial Duma, writes Count Gaston de Merindol in the "Times." His speaking time had come to an end and, like an obedient schoolboy, he resumed his place humbly when the Presidential bell rang and Rodzianko imperiously motioned to him to cease. He went frequently into the tribune, where his eloquent words, somewhat capricious though they were in inspiration, contrasted strangely with his common and affected gestures. Later, atfer the involution, untiring and full of nervous energy, he paraded everywhere his eloquence;, Ibis promises, and his threats. In these three words is the complete description of the man. His capacity goes no further; and, dazzle his audience as he may by his language, he is never able to fulfil the threats and the promises of which he has been so lavish. In the Winter Palace, and wearing the Emperor's slippers, he would strut about in front of the mirrors amid the gilded pillars surrounding the throne, practising his deportment for the reyiew or the speech-making of the next day. With him the "mise en scene" was everything; but arranged as it was by a man of only mediocre "genius" and with the instincts of the : small tradesman it was often ridiculous. The Napoleonic gesture of thrusting his hand in his waistcoat — which he had acquired by studying the portraits of Bonaparte—often provoked ironical remarks muttered am-ong-the soldiers as he was passing. Eaten up by vanity, in fact, he imitated those who had been in power "before him, and already saw his name inscribed on the pages of history beside those of Peter the Great and Alexander 111. But the comedy, or, rather, the farce, ended there. There %rere realities during his " feign" and these realities covered his fatherland with blood and shame; also they caused it to undergo the severest experience that history can have to register. Thanks to this man, who filled Russia and the Allies with illusions, a whole nation is writhing "to-day in misery and madness.

When, before the revolution, men died fighting, they died for Russia and for the Tsar; then some there were—oh, very few! —who gave their lives for liberty; and later still others had to die for .Kerensky! What irony in the fate of those who, deceived by his sonorous phrases, and willing to perish for Russia's sake, were doomed to sacrifice themselves for this man! WHOLE OF RUSSIA BELIEVED IN HIM. ' Who but he Is really responsible for the destruction of the army? The decree came from the Soviet, it is true; but whom did it behove, whose duty was it, and who ought to have had the courage, to annul it? Goutchkoff, I know, was Minister of War at the moment; but who was the man who alone had the power to undj what had been done? Kerensky, and none but Kerensky. The whole of Russia believed in him alone, had no hope but in him; his very name was enough to electrify the masses. And to what use did he put all this power, all this prestige? To concoct speeches, to utter threats, and to make promises, while tacitly consenting to all the exigencies of a party haunted by the madness of anarchy! And therein lay his crime! When Kerensky betrayed Korniloff, after having urged him to Undertake the formation of a strong and ruthless jGovernment, and to march on the capital, did he not commit one of the most infamous acts in all history? The ill-fated General Loukonine, who succeeded him as Generalissimo, told me sadly at headquarters a few days before he was assassinated some details of the business which are still unknown to the public. And what shame and anger was felt, on behalf of all Russia, by the great patriot Alexieff at this fresu'crime on the part of Kerensky! CAN SPEAK ONLY IN HIS OWN 5 : NAME.' Look at this puny little man. Not all the shells, not all the machine-guns of the Germans have done Russia more harm than he. And when we make up his account and find on the one side only phrases and still more phrases such as the oratoZ- loves, and on the other the Russian army destroyed,, every administration, every public service destroyed, estates and properties destroyed. Thus one may describe Kerensky as the great destructive force in Russia. And this is the man who has come to ask the itervention of the Allies! In whose name does he speak? In the name of Russia? In the name of a party? Or in his own name, that of Kerensky? The last must be the right supposition; he can speak only in his own name, for no party in Russia would dream of appointing him its intermediary. Any cause defended by him is condemned beforehand. Made,of the same paste as Rasputin a nd Protopopoff—the one a mystic,

Lhe other a madman— Kerensky s the connecting link between them and the leaders of Bolshevism, Lenin, and Trotsky. Russia, that land of unreality and immeasurable greatness, has beaten the record of the impossible in letting itself be governed for two years by this quintet of political epileptics.