Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-07-01
NEW IDEAS CROWD
/ MIND OF RUSSIANS
Sudden Jam Keeps Brains
{, From Working Correctly,
Il. Gen. AIexieff Says.
KERENSKY A HAPPY CHOICE
BY ARNo DoscH-FLEURoT,

Correspondence of The sunday Star
and New York Worldly
Copyright, 1917, by Press Publishing Company.
New York WORLDLY
PETROGRAD, June Gen Alexien,
commander-in-chief of the republican
armies of Russia, has excused all the go
ings-on in that immense machine by say
ing:
THE soldiers have had so many new
ideas suddenly damned into their heads
that their brains can't boil"
For everything in the world seems to be
going on in Russia every day, and 1t gives
ono a headache simply to try to fathom
events as they occur. 1 believe / am
writing about them here as much to clear
my own mind and save my own sanity
as to inform the readers Of The Star more
clearly than is feasible by cable. I want
to find some order, some true direction in
the food of events For, while there are
some people in Russia who know where
they are going, they are all on their way.
the shifting tendencies of the Russian
revolution is as difficult as to segregate
and place in a neat row a bunch Of snakes.
10000, 900 People Explode Daily.
IF right" Gem AIexieff said, here 1t
daily explodings of 170,000,00G people, 1
do not see how the American people can
have anything better than wild guess at
what is going on here. / wonder what
the word determination first went over
the wires. ! wonder If these large, amiable
soldiers were pictured sitting up in front
OF their trenches chewing sunfower seeds
with their German brethren. 1t would not
be 80 far Off"
Take in this picture: The discussion
(abstract discussion, largely Of the
sslf-dehnition of peoples and the
questions of annexations and compen-
satdons. which SO Unexpectedly brought
on wholesale determination on the front,
was being explained one day by an Off
Ger to his men. Constantinople natur-
ally cropped up and the Dardanelles.
whats the Dardanelles?" asked one Of
the simple giants. The officer explained.
But it's water then" commented the
all the soldiers You do not mean to
tell us we have been fighting for water.
We don't want any water. We want
land
How the Disorder Spreads.
Or imagine the trains going from
Petrograd to Moscow in a snowstorm
with soldiers sitting all over the tops
OF the cars; imagine the Buffalo trains
leaving New York with thirty or forty
soldiers sitting on the tops of every
car. Some would freeze. some would
roll on: others would be jerked from
their precarious perch on the sharp
turns and turn up with broken necks
in the ditch. That is hardly a news
item in Russia.
Imagine the soldiers coming out of the
trenches and calmly announcing they
are going home to take a look, and
when they get ready they will come
back Imagine also these same bodies
of soldiers leaving on trains by the
thousands. crossing 500 or 1000 miles
OF eountry, foraging as they go. They
get together with the peasants as they
pass along, and leave the brains of the
peasants SO choked they cannot even
simmer. They find things to drink and
nobody strong enough to keep them from
drinking them, and. when they recover,
30 their way rejoicing. No place of any
kind, of course. and nobody wanting any
police 1t Is a merciful thing that the
Russian Is naturally amiable