Page:Michael Farbman - The Russian Revolution & The War (1917).djvu/32

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22
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

cere belief that the Tsardom has fallen, not only for Russia, but for all Europe, and that the Revolution could not be without effect upon the German people, which was regarded as being under a yoke similar to the Tsardom. Neither was it forgotten that the Junkers and pan-Germans had made fear of the Tsardom and Russian Imperialism the main argument in popularising the war in Germany.

On March 14th—only about a fortnight after the Revolution—the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates launched that famous first appeal of theirs to the democracies of the world, calling upon them to unite in bringing about a democratic peace.

This appeal was the first clear definition of the new creed of the democracy. It contained the first embodiment of that creed in the famous formula "No annexations; no indemnities." Now this formula sounds very differently to Russian ears than in countries of a highly-developed Imperialism. In such countries it is the watch-