CHAPTER VII
law and order
The Russian revolution in its inception was the least terrorist in its methods of all modern upheavals ; in fact, it was a triumph for pacifism. This triumph was gained owing to the fact that common soldiers refused to kill common work people ; that Cossacks refused any longer to treat Russian citizens of Petrograd or Moscow as of different flesh and blood from themselves, but instead fraternised with them and joined in overturning autocracy.
Not only was this so in regard to relationships between ordinary men in and out of uniform, but all at once, throughout the length and breadth of Russia a new thought prevailed. Officials, however highly placed, however gaudily decorated, were no longer sacrosanct—no longer to be considered as persons whose word was law. Consequently when these officials endeavoured to urge workers in uniform to fire on their own flesh
