Russia's Ruin (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Russia's Ruin

This book is based on articles published in the Fortnightly Review. It does not profess to give a complete and connected story of the Russian Revolution. Its object is rather to describe in detail some of the chief factors which caused the Revolution and determined its course.

For the benefit of those without a previous knowledge of Russian history, the chapter "Prelude" sketches the general economic and social conditions which made far-reaching political changes in Russia necessary and inevitable. The chapters "The Success of the Revolution" and "The Failure of the Revolution" may be regarded, each for its own section of the book, as broad outlines, of which the subsequent chapters fill in certain of the details.

The facts set forth here are nearly all derived from documentary sources - most of those in the first section from evidence sworn in courts of law. It is no longer necessary to illustrate the abuses of the Tsarist Government by unverifiable anecdote. The trials of Souhomlinoff and Manasevitch-Manouiloff have shown down to the minutest detail how bad that Government was, and why it was so bad. These two men were typical figures for their respective ranks of the bureaucracy. Their careers tell us more convincingly than volumes of vague generalization how well justified were the attacks on the Old Regime.

After The "The Korniloff Affair" was published in its original form, Mr. Kerenski challenged some of its statements. Except where there were good grounds for rejecting his criticisms, the narrative was modified in conformity with them. Mr. Kerenski's Prelude to Bolshevism was published after the main text of this book was already in type. It is, however, dealt with in an appendix.

The approximate pronunciation of the principal Russian names occurring in these pages is indicated in a list at the end of the index.

It may be worth while to remind the reader that the normal value of the rouble is about two shillings. Consequently sums in roubles may be roughly converted into pounds sterling by the simple process of dropping the last digit of the amount. Thus 100 roubles becomes 10, 1,000 roubles 100, and so on.

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