CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE GOVERNMENT
AT first the war evoked an unusually proud and high-spirited feeling in Russia. It was a period of great moral elevation. A series of altruistic acts on the part of the Russian Government gratified the national vanity. The abolition of alcohol was not only felt as a pleasing moral victory; it also roused great hopes for the future. Vodka had always been the most devoted ally of the reaction in Russia. By means of vodka the people were kept in darkness and ignorance. All their sense of human worth and self-respect was drowned in vodka. In short, vodka was the chain of Russia's slavery. And while Russia was making this great cultural step forward, the bankruptcy of German Kultur made the Russian people all the more proud. While Germany was grinding Belgium underfoot, Russia was declaring the freedom of Poland and issuing manifestoes to the oppressed peoples of Austria, bringing them the glad message that Russia's armies were hastening to their rescue. Then Russia began the successful dash into East Prussia to save France. All this was really sufficient ground for pride and satisfaction. Thus there began a period of self-praise and self-admiration.
People went about in a mood of exaltation, carrying flags, cheering and expressing their joy. The Government was delighted, thinking that at last the Tsar and his people were to be welded together for ever. To celebrate this "union of the Tsar with his people" even the national flag was altered. A combination of the yellow Tsar's standard with the national tricolour represented the new reconciliation of Russia. Patriots began to wear small enamelled emblems of this unity in their buttonholes.
