The absence of Eussia from the Washington
conference is an even graver weakness. People



The Trail of Versailles 43

seem to have forgotten altogether how the Rus-
sians bore the brunt of the opening years of
the great war. Their rapid offensive in 1914
saved Paris and saved the little British Army
from a disastrous retreat to the sea. The debt
of gratitude Britain and France owe to Rus-
sia *s "Unknown Warrior,' ' that poor unhon-
ored hero and martyr, is incalculable. But for
Russia Germany would probably have won the
war outright before the end of 1916. It was
the blood and suffering of the Russian people
saved victory for the Allies; those incredible
soldiers fought often without artillery support,
without rifle ammunition, without boots or food,
under conditions almost inconceivable to the
well-supplied French and British and Ameri-
cans of the western front. And their tale of
killed and wounded exceeds enormously that of
any other combatant. In 1917 Russia col-
lapsed; she was bled white, and she remained
collapsed in spite of the sedulous kicking of her
allies to rouse her to further efforts. The in-
tolerable Rasputin-Czarism went down in the
disaster. After a phase of extreme disorder,



44 Washington and the Riddle of Peace

and very largely because of the British hesita-
tion to support the Kerensky Government by
bold naval action in the Baltic, the hard, tyran-
nous, doctrinaire government of the Bolsheviki
took control.
