Evening star., 1917-12-09
Picture ef Russ
Situation Today.


wheezy little organ from which ema-
mates strange music. but attractive to
the unsophisticated. Clad in a little red
coat and chained to his master by the
links Of misguided enthusiasm. ignor-
ance or rank sedftIen. is Trotzky beg
/, ging the aims OF popular will. Misguid-
ed people flock about, forsaking their
national heritage and possessions for
the moment and placing them in i'm
mediate peril Of the grasping hand of
Teuton military" might. In the back
ground may be seen the spirit of the
| kaiser dangling his greatest medal be-
fore the eyes of the man who. today,
is most concerned in diverting the Rus
sian peoples from rehabilitation of
their nation along firm and substantial
, lines.
| This is the picture | would draw
were I Bergman an artist equally
| sian situation as lit exists today. No
! other could be more accurate.
l. Lenine. premier of the boisheviki re-
! sinie in Petrograd. which .continues to
| hold the reins of assumed government,
. is saying little. Trotzky, his foreign
| minister and chief aid. today is car
rying out the desired ends of the mas
| ter-chaos.
!, Lenine has brought about complete
! disorganization of Russa's military
! power by condoning negotiations with
the Germans looking to armistice
| or separate peace. II is reliably stated
| that the starvation and abject suffer-
! ing Of tens of thousands of troops along
4 the battle lines, has made war unpopu-
liar with them and all this is the re-
! suit OF Lenine withholding supplies
I that this end might be achieved. Trotz-
! ky continues to preach the great gos-
pei of individual right and democracy
| that the ears OF the Russian peoples
f: may tingie with delight. but at The
iva he 1rt- - .xf 1.
| ests along broader interra t!onal linz 8.
! Trofzky has called upon all Russian
/ troops to be vTeilsnt during the pc
| riod OF armistice, bar at the same tin,e
! encoura ges fraterniZing with the Teu-
| ton. Trotzky las ordered that tens OF
i thousands of circulars describing ktus-
/ sian aims be distributed over German
lines that the tferman soldiers may
iully understand the purposes ot the
Russian radicals in inauSuratiug III
arinistice. He had boldly sta ;ed tiInt
| the kaiser has entered into aegotia- :
tons with the Russians because the
| German emperor fears the German
i proietariat. This sounds good only to
/ the Russian masses.
| -Trotzky may or may not be fully
aware of Lenine's ultimate purposes
but he is carrying them out neverthe-
, less. The Russian peoples are helms
| fed with PROMISES of great things
things which. incidentally. cannot he
| fulfilled At the same time Trotzk!- is
| playing into the hands of both Lee
| nine and the kaiser by taking every
step possible to check the growth OF
the movement for truly representa-
! tive government.
Through I.enine and Trotzky the
! kaiser has achieved great victory
I already; in that the Russian military
| system has been SO permeated with the
i-idea of peace that but little can be ex-
pec,ed of it. even though present ne
| gotiations, he completely broken off
at the eud of the twenty-eight day
armistice, following December 10. the
date on which the armistice takes ef-
| feet. After Euch a period of quiet the
Germans could fall on the trusting
lsussian troops and peoples and seize
the things they otherwise might have
to fight or negotiate for were Russian