Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/209

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The Political Situation

army the will to carry through the great offensive.

In short, we believe we are justified in saying that among the Socialists, the great majority of whom have broken with the Extremists, a revolution is taking place, very like that which took place with President Wilson. Like the latter, they wish a peace "without victory," that is to say, in reality without conquests. But they wished, and they still wish, a just and durable peace. Now, in face of the attitude of the Central Powers, they have been forced to admit that the road to this peace is necessarily by war. When we were leaving Petrograd, one of us made a note in his diary: "They still speak of peace, but they are preparing for an offensive; to-morrow they will make this offensive to achieve peace." Events since then have confirmed these prophecies, and it was not their fault if their first victories had no morrow.

2. Their Sympathies for Belgium.

What struck us most, perhaps, during this trip, where there was so much to

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