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and butchered hundreds and thousands of the sons of the people who were then making only the fairest, most just demands. For the second time it could be said that Russia had the army she deserved to have.
In those days the best Russian men, such as, for instance, the famous writer Alexander Herzen, could not withhold their cries of indignation; it was a shame to be a Russian. It was horrible to see and hear how our armies, commanded by the Tsar's brute-sauled Generals, killed thousands of Poles for the offence of seeking to free their native land.
I repeat it. At every state of development, at every step of history. we had the army we deserved to have.
Principally from the moment when civilized Europe, from the old semi-feudal, semi-servile armies, passed to the standing armies organized on the principle of obligatory universal military service, armies everywhere became flesh of the flesh and blood of the blood of the people. And every people had the army it deserved to have. And in each army, as the sun is reflected in the tiniest drop of water, came to be reflected each country's political structure and social order.
If the country was ruled by the landlords, if serfdom existed or the bourgeoisie was the dominant class, all this reacted on the army at every step. So it was in Russia; so it was in the entire world.
