Page:John Rickman - An Eye-witness from Russia.djvu/16

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adhered to their cause. The Czecho-Slovaks were good at fighting in open formation, at timed attacks, and at methods of warfare which might involve co-operation among widely extended units. Relatively to the Bolsheviks, I think it is correct to say that their staff work and their artillery were poor, but their weakness in theory was made good by the excellence of their practice. The Bolsheviks were stronger in theory than in practice.

The contrast between the two forces reveals itself in the spirit in which their campaigns were conducted. The Bolshevik recruits were largely boys to whom fighting for the Revolution was a kind of romance. They felt that they were protecting the liberties and the unity of Russia. There was a strong romantic attachment to their cause, and though conscious of many back-slidings they were also conscious of a power which lay within themselves to lead them on with courage and devotion to great service for their country and humanity.

Czecho-Slovak Bitterness.

The Czecho-Slovaks also were fired with the idea of fighting for the liberation of their country from an oppressor, and they were banded together for this end. They came naturally or were led to see this oppressor stretch out his hand into a distant country and thwart them in their task of national liberation by the method of turning the Bolsheviks against them. What justification they had for holding this idea was discussed in the previous article, but it may be repeated here that what ideas did not come to them through their own observations were pressed upon them by the Allies. Thinking as they did that the underhand methods of Germany were working in the Bolshevik community, they vented their hatred of the oppressor on his supposed ally. Seeing no hope for Europe or for humanity unless the German power was completely crushed, it was but a step for them to come to the position that there was no hope for humanity unless Bolshevism and the Bolsheviks were annihilated.

Their sense of duty to this new undertaking induced a bitterness of spirit towards the new enemy which characterised not only the details of their military operations, instanced by executing all the prisoners they took, but also their relation to the civil Government of Russia. It may here be mentioned that in assisting in the establishment of a new Government they showed their

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