"The people at the top are always calling
upon us to sacrifice more, sacrifice more, while those who have
everything are left unmolested.
"We are at war with Germany. Would we invite German generals to
serve on our Staff? Well we're at war with the capitalists too, and
yet we invite them into our Government....
"The soldier says, 'Show me what I am fighting for. Is it
Constantinople, or is it free Russia? Is it the democracy, or is it
the capitalist plunderers? If you can prove to me that I am
defending the Revolution then I'll go out and fight without capital
punishment to force me.'
"When the land belongs to the peasants, and the factories to the
workers, and the power to the Soviets, then we'll know we have
something to fight for, and we'll fight for it!"
In the barracks, the factories, on the street-corners, end less
soldier speakers, all clamouring for an end to the war, declaring
that if the Government did not make an energetic effort to get
peace, the army would leave the trenches and go home.
The spokesman for the Eighth Army:
"We are weak, we have only a few men left in each company. They must
give us food and boots and reinforcements, or soon there will be
left only empty trenches. Peace or supplies... either let the
Government end the war or support the Army...."
For the Forty-sixth Siberian Artillery:
"The officers will not work with our Committees, they betray us to
the enemy, they apply the death penalty to our agitators; and the
counter-revolutionary Government supports them.
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