Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/149

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

The Great Triumph

137

the ideal order, the irreproachable discipline, with not a single untoward incident in the course of 12 hours while the army of the Revolution, one and a-half million people, passed the graves, paying their last tribute of honour to their fallen comrades"^[1] ("Izvestia," March 25th).

Among these days of great triumph and exaltation we must mention the 14th of March, exactly a fortnight after the Revolution, when the Soviet addressed its famous manifesto to the peoples of the world. With this manifesto the revolutionary democracy began the struggle for peace.

↑ The "Times" of April 7 published the following account of the funeral of victims of the Revolution.

"(From our own correspondent.) Petrograd, April 5.

"The funeral of the victims of the Revolution took place to-day in the Champ de Mars. The first of the six processions started for its destination about 8 a.m. Owing to a heavy fall of snow not more than 5,000 persons figured in the contingent furnished by one of the most important quarters of the city. Another procession numbered about 2,000. Banners with inscriptions were displayed, dirges were sung, and bands played the 'Marseillaise.' Judging by the processions, most of the victims of the Revolution will not lie in the common grave in the Champ de Mars, to which only about 150 bodies will be conveyed. The families of the remainder have preferred to bury their own dead, with the rites of the Orthodox Church."

In his book "Russia's Agony," Mr. Wilton, the Petrograd correspondent of the "Times," complains that it was impossible to speak the truth about Russia after the Revolution. This is a very grave charge. "The Soviet Régime," he says, "was far worse than the Okhrana" (p. 114). I quote his despatch about the funeral literally from beginning to end, and I may be permitted to ask: What obstacles were placed in Mr. Wilton's way, that he was obliged to make such a miserable departure from the truth in this instance? How were the British public to have any idea of revolutionary Russia when even about its simplest, its humanly most thrilling incidents, such insidious untruths were published in this country? This was only the beginning of a long series of perversions and misrepresentations.

[1] The "Times" of April 7 published the following account of the funeral of victims of the Revolution.

"(From our own correspondent.) Petrograd, April 5.

"The funeral of the victims of the Revolution took place to-day in the Champ de Mars. The first of the six processions started for its destination about 8 a.m. Owing to a heavy fall of snow not more than 5,000 persons figured in the contingent furnished by one of the most important quarters of the city. Another procession numbered about 2,000. Banners with inscriptions were displayed, dirges were sung, and bands played the 'Marseillaise.' Judging by the processions, most of the victims of the Revolution will not lie in the common grave in the Champ de Mars, to which only about 150 bodies will be conveyed. The families of the remainder have preferred to bury their own dead, with the rites of the Orthodox Church."

In his book "Russia's Agony," Mr. Wilton, the Petrograd correspondent of the "Times," complains that it was impossible to speak the truth about Russia after the Revolution. This is a very grave charge. "The Soviet Régime," he says, "was far worse than the Okhrana" (p. 114). I quote his despatch about the funeral literally from beginning to end, and I may be permitted to ask: What obstacles were placed in Mr. Wilton's way, that he was obliged to make such a miserable departure from the truth in this instance? How were the British public to have any idea of revolutionary Russia when even about its simplest, its humanly most thrilling incidents, such insidious untruths were published in this country? This was only the beginning of a long series of perversions and misrepresentations.

[1]