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velopement of events themselves, for a Bolshevik coup d'etat. But, once again, carried along by my hopes, and wishing to transform them into realities, I persuaded myself of the soundness of Kerensky's position, to the same extent as I felt the danger, and the menace of military endeavours, which could not but precipitate the country into the most formidable adventures. Once again I took no heed of, indeed, hardly noticed even, the Bolshevik tendency, the origin and development of which I had neglected to study, considering it (it being so much the simpler) in the light of something artificial, prepared, or at least, supported and fostered by German propaganda. Nothing could have been more untrue; and later events proved to me the complete absurdity and absolute falsity of this charge.
Moreover, ail around me, the force of the Bolsheviks generaly was not taken seriously! Everybody failed to observe that the Bolsheviks were begining to have the masses of the people behind them, seeing that their programme on the two most vital questions, the question of peace and the question of the land, gave expression, in precise and vigorous formulas, to the deepest aspirations of the people themselves. I can recollect very well how Georges Weill on the evening of his departure, which took place only a few hours before the coup d'Etat, said to me in tones of profound conviction „The Bolsheviks will do nothing! I have just had a look at them! Trotzky I examined at leisure, whilst making my report before the Soviet in Smolny, on the Alsace Lorraine question. You have only to look at those people to be quite sure that
