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startling figure of a Russia, convulsed by one of the most gigantic crises that History had ever known. I can still hear M. Noulens, from the windows of the French Embassy on the French Quay, pointing towards the first destroyers of the Red Fleet, moving up the Neva, and remarking: „That is where one arrives when men who bear the responsibility of government fail to enforce respect and authority upon the people. Nevertheless, it is not for the want of warning Tereschtenko enough; all my life I have always insisted with my colleagues in parliament upon the danger of demagogy. To think to what awful depths this poor country has fallen, merely for having disregarded the spirit of discipline!"
Towards the end of December I left Petrograd for Moscow and the south, where I was to meet Kaledin, upon whom diplomatic circles then placed strong hopes. I had not really had any contact with the bolsheviks, except a visit to Smolny in order to obtain the necessary papers for my journey.
The credetials of which I was the bearer was a letter from our Ambassador recommending me „to the civil and military authorities of Russia“. At the Soviet Chancellery a discussion took place, as I very well remember, in regard to my case. They required, first of ail, a definition of the formula used, namely that it should be clearly indicated in one way or another that the document from the French Embassy was really addressed to the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Soviet of Petrograd, and further, that my loyalty in regard to the Workers and Peasants Government of Russia, should
