Evening star., 1941-09-21

On Monday morning three months
will have elapsed since Hitler began his
epic invasion of Russia. Throughout
battle line stretching from the Arctic
to the Black Sea, the bloodiest contest
in all history has ragged increasingly.
No similar period of the World War
showed anything like equal carnage and
with the advent of autumn the pros
pect is evidently for greater rather than
diminishing slaughter.
Next to the appalling destruction of
life and property, that which stands
out as the season turns is the heroic
and generally unexpected quality of the
Russian resistance.
Three months ago few members of
the host of amateur prophets would
have predicted that today the Red
armies would still be maintaining coher-
ent and effective resistance well to the
west of Moscow. The lightning success
of German drives in the Scandinavian,
French and Balkan campaigns had
made the rapid subsection of Western
Russia seem inevitable. And the ac-
cepted legend of Communist inefhciency
confirmed this outlook.
New Respect for Soviet.
Whatever the eventual result, the
events of the past summer have there
fore brought new respect-not merely
for the dogged endurance of the Rus
sian people but more particularly for
the evident domestic popularity and the
attested efficiency of the Soviet regime
Men do not fight as millions of Rus
slams are fighting, from Leningrad to
Odessa, unless they have admiration
rather than fear for those who order
them to die. And battle lines would
not be maintained against the perfec-
ton of German mechanical warfare un-
less Russian man power were supple
mented by a constant flow of scientifi-
cally fabricated and efficiently assembled
material.
Indeed. the undeniable efficiency of
Communist industrial and political
methods, as shown in these weeks of
supreme test, has raised in number of
minds a question strikingly at variance
with the doubts of Russian capacity
which possessed so many minds a scant
three months ago.
What would Stain demand if by some
miracle his regime should prove able not
merely to block but even to defeat Ger
many? Would he be willing to show the
same statesmanlike restraint that was
poleon's invasion of Russia was shattered
just 129 years ago?
History Repeats in Striking Fashion.
The historical parallels are so ex-
traordinary as to encourage belief in an
other Russian victory, and therefore to
make questions as to Russian policy in
the event of that contingency seem of
more than academic Importance. In
many ways, up to very definite point
Of differentiation, events of the last few
months have in broad outline been re-
peating those which led up to the famous
campaign of 1872 and the subsequent
collapse Of Napoleon's empire OF con-
quest.
few of the outstanding similarities
may prove to be useful knowledge to-
day. In the early months of 1872,
Napoleon had an uneasy alliance with
Car Alexander, much as Hitler had
with Stain until the summer now clos
ing. In both cases this alliance had
been accepted in Moscow for sub
stantially the same reasons; territorial
ambitions, suspicion of British policy
and desire to be on good terms with
a powerful and obviously aggressive
neighbor.
Napoleon Hitler Parallel.
In the spring of 1912, moreover, the
Franco-Russian alliance collapsed for
essentially the same cause that led to
the collapse of the Russo-German
alliance exactly 129 years later Napoleon,
realizing as does Hitler that he could
not expect to conquer England, decided
to enforce his continental system on
Russia. As an ally that country had
demonstrated itself unpredictable, un-
certain and in some fundamentals
definitely antagonistic. So in 1872, as
in 1941, the dictator of Western Europe
decided to crush his potential rival in
the east.
To drive the parallel home a para