TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA. THE announcement of the Emperor of Russia that ho is placing himself at the head of his Armies is a momentous one for many reasons. It is customary to regard a country which finds it necessary to make changes in military leadership during a crisis as being in a bad way ; men talk of desperate remedies and forlorn hopes. And even while they may try to keep a composed counte- nance, they feel in their hearts that the changes are a con- fession of failure. It is possible that such things may be said now, but there are ample and numerous reasons why they should not be said. Indeed, we are certain that to regard the supersession of the Grand Duke Nicholas by the Tsar as a kind of last hope would be as far from the truth as auy estimate of a situation very well could be. Russia is not like other countries, and her political problems have been unlike those of any other country. On examination it will be found that in assuming the Com- mandership-in-Chief the Tsar has taken just the course which will mark a turning-point in the Russian conduct of the war, and that no other act on his part, or on that of any one else, could have had this effect. It is not imme- diately obvious why this should be so. But we will try to set down some reasons.
To begin with, we disavow any pretence of believing that in a military sense the substitution of the brain of the Tsar for that of the Grand Duke will work miracles. We do not suppose for a moment that it will. The Tsar is, of course, a trained soldier, but so is the Grand Duke, and a very carefully trained one too, who comes of a military family long devoted to the study of war with a certain intellectual passion. All that we expect of the Tsar as Generalissimo, in a military sense, is that be will inspire his Staff and his troops with devotion, and that he will exercise the Royal virtue of getting the best that is possible out of his subordinates. He has a new Chief of Staff in General Alexeiev, who has a high reputation. To tell the truth, if there are any purely military reasons for the transference of the Grand Duke to the Caucasus, we do not know what they are, and we need not inquire. It is not, in fine, on military grounds that we welcome the memorable announcement of the Tsar. We shall always think of the Grand Duke with gratitude and admira- tion, " whatever record leaps to light " in the future. He it was who planned and ordered the generous and perilous Russian rush into East Prussia which in the critical early days of the war relieved the pressure on the Allies in the West. Since then he has overrun Galicia, and twice thrust back formidable German assaults upon Warsaw. For the past four months fate has been against him, but it is clear that he has performed with striking success the notoriously difficult feat of keeping great armies whole and in touch during a prolonged and hard- pressed retreat. He has deprived the Germans of the only sort of military triumph which will serve them in the long run. He has prevented them from embracing and throttling his troops with their long tentacles. The most dangerous part of the retreat seems to be already over. It is true that there is still much danger, but we are justified in believing that the resource and coolness which have sufficed hitherto will suffice long enough to enable the Russians to reach a line where they can take breath, organize their industrial supplies, and turn upon the enemy under conditions of their own choosing. So much for the services of the Grand Duke, whom we salute in passing. We could not in justice say a word less in praise of his historical achievements.
Now to return to the effect of the Tsar's decision. The first point is that his action has a vast symbolical potency. This might be sot aside as mere sentiment in some countries, but it cannot be so in Russia, which is a land of mystical people. In a sense which penetrates and informs every conception of the relations of the Emperor and the nation, the Tsar is the head of the Russians. He is their religious head (as head of the Church), their political head, and, as the homely sayings of Russians insist, their family head. There is no such conception in any other country. Let us take an analogy of the offices the Tsar may render in one respect only from a common scene in Russian churches. A Russian priest seldom preaches. Exhortation or dogma is not expected of him. What is expected is that he should "look the priest," and on great occasions it is felt that he worthily performs the priestly function on behalf of the people if he has obviously fasted—if he bears traces of his asceticism —and if all his vestments and actions are dignified and seemly. The priest is judged according to the degree in which he performs his ministrations " decently and in order!' Imagine this popular spirit applied to the respect in which the Tsar will be held as Generalissimo. Ho is performing a vast symbolical act. He represents the people. He stands for every section, and gathers up and expresses the determination of every class. He takes his decision at the moment when a great national fast has begun.
Let it not be supposed that this is merely decora- tive language. The Germans had high hopes that they would persuade Russia to make a separate peace. There wore Germanophils in Russia who also hoped and worked for it. They hope no longer. The Tsar at the head of his Army is a personal guarantee that he will neither look back himself nor allow his people to look back. It is absolutely inconceivable that the Tsar should submit to the humiliation of doing what be symbolically pledges himself not to do. Of course it is inconceivable that he would have left his allies in the lurch in any event, but by his latest act he has once and for all taken all the life and heart out of German intrigues and manoeuvres. It should not be forgotten that these have been very real and persistent. The Russian reactionary politicians have long felt that their true orientation was towards Germany, and it is well known that such Germanophils were to be found in nearly every Department of State. Moreover, Germans were leaders of commerce and industry in many parts of Russia, and here, again, Russians with capital to invest had learned to work with Germans and to look upon a break with Germany as the worst financial and industrial misfortune that could befall. All the dangers arising from these conditions are ended. Already many Germanophil officials are said to have been dismissed. There has been much talk of trials for treason. And-now the Tsar's act finally concentrates and puts a point on the national resolve. Russia is to be a Russian, land. German penetration has failed again. If the Germanophils revive their legends that the Allies in the West look on unmoved and immovable while the fair land of Russia is being devastated, they will not be believed. Such lies cannot thrive with the Emperor as the head of the Army working, as of course he will, in the closest touch with the leaders of all the other Allied Armies. As for the organization of industry, this is going to be the crux of Russia's trials. Many of the workshops, as much of the industrial direction and driving-power, are in foreign hands. We in Britain know the difficulties of industrial reorganization, and for Russia it will be trebly difficult. It is here that the Tsar's stimulation will be invaluable. He will epeak with prophetic strength from his new position. He has already proved that he recog- nizes the vast importance of the subject when he addressed the Special Conference on National Defence at the Winter Palace last Saturday. He then implored his hearers to put aside every preoccupation which might distract their thoughts, will, and strength from the one object of producing munitions. A. new Russia has been arising within the old while the war has been going on. We have heard little of it, but we believe that the changes are deep and wide. A people cannot fight for liberty and justice without discovering that those ideas daily react upon their own practice. We read in fragmentary messages of the parties in the DUITIC4 calling a truce to their old differences, of political indul- gence to the Jews, of more freedom to workmen to organize themselves, and so forth. This new heart in the nation knows that it must cease to beat if Germany should win the war. The rising Russia looks for a leader, and the Tsar is there at the very right moment.
It is a dramatic episode, crammed with possibilities. We firmly believe that the Tsar will and can use this great opportunity for the eternal good of his country: He proposed the Hague Conferences ; he conquered vodka— he is a man of ideas and moral courage. We wish him no higher honour, which we are sure will be his, than nobly to inspire the conquest of Germanism in the field.
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