Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution
on the third day in the evening. But we had to take into account the disorder of the transport service, and it was not till six o'clock in the morning that we steamed into the Finland station. Some Belgians, who had spent the night in the station, were waiting for us, carrying our national flag, whilst amidst a flourish of red flags, with pacifist inscriptions in white lettering on gold, some hundreds of Maximalists escorted Trotsky.
Immediately after we were taken to the Hôtel de l'Europe, where we were to be the guests of the Provisional Government.
Renan, in speaking of the French Revolution, said: "It would be absurd to try to impose our petty programmes of common-sense citizens on this extraordinary movement, so completely beyond our comprehension." And those who attempt already to pronounce judgment on the Russian Revolution would do well to reflect on this saying. Never was a revolution more radical and so rapid. From the time of the taking of La Bastille to the downfall of Louis XVI three years elapsed; between the abdication of the
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