The Revolution
did not even want a victory? For whom the enormous sacrifices and privations? The soldier is sent out to fight for victory, and at home they strike against it!
But secondly, what was the effect upon the enemy?
In the winter of 1917–18 dark clouds rose for the first time on the Allied firmament. For almost four years they had tilted against the German giant, and had been unable to overthrow him; and yet he had only his shield-arm free for defense, while the sword had to swing now to the East, now to the South. Now at last the giant was free behind. Rivers of blood had flowed before he succeeded in definitely smashing one of his adversaries. Now the sword would join the shield in the West, and if the enemy so far had not succeeded in breaking down the defense, the attack now was to fall upon him himself. People dreaded him, and feared the victory.
In London and Paris one conference crowded on the heels of the next, but on the front a drowsy silence reigned. The gentry had suddenly lost their impudence. Even the enemy propaganda was having a struggle; it was no longer so easy to prove the impossibility of a German victory.
But the same thing was likewise true of the front itself. They too began to see an uncanny light. Their inner attitude toward the German soldier had changed. Thus far they might have thought him a fool marked for defeat; but now they were faced with the annihilator of their Russian ally. Born of necessity, the confinement of German offensives to the East now seemed a piece of inspired strategy. For three years the Germans had charged upon Russia, at first apparently without the slightest effect. People almost laughed at this futile undertaking; for, after all, the Russian giant with his superiority of numbers must be the victor at last, while Germany would break down from loss of blood. Fact seemed to justify this hope.
Starting in September, 1914, when the endless masses of Russian prisoners from the battle of Tannenberg first began to swell toward Germany along highways and railroads, the stream scarcely stopped—but for every army beaten and annihilated,
195
