November 1916

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  … they could not have done a better job than the Russian government has. On 26 June …

  (It was actually a week later, but the professor of history, no mathematician, always got dates—damn them!—mixed up.)

  from this rostrum I uttered a warning that from one end of the Russian lands to the other sinister rumors of treason and betrayal are rife. Then three days ago the chairmen of provincial zemstvo boards also declared that “the nagging suspicion has become a clear realization that an enemy hand is secretly influencing the course of state business.”

  Quoting each other was, of course, not conclusive proof, but it froze the blood: enemy hand secretly influencing …! People would not be saying that if there was nothing to it. Dark forces—fearsome, many-faced, hydra-headed, insidious—menace Russia and we have foolishly succumbed to them!

  Gentlemen, I have no wish to encourage morbid suspicion, but how can anyone refute these suspicions when a handful of dubious persons manage the most important state business in their own base interests?

  Now the chairmen of the provincial zemstvo boards could boldly quote Milyukov.

  In drafting this speech he had sought to use experience acquired abroad in recent months and to disguise the gap in his experience of his own country during that period. His tactic—convenient, highly effective, and tactical—was to quote from the foreign newspapers which he had read assiduously on his travels and to relay the rumors they contained.

  I have here a copy of the Berliner Tageblatt. The information contained in this article is partly outdated and partly incorrect … You may well ask who Manasevich-Manuilov is. Well, until recently he was Stürmer’s private secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

  Fascinating stuff! Shortage of bread in Russia, you say? The leader of the Bloc is about to lay bare for us the deepest root of Russia’s suffering.

  I will not be telling you anything new, I will be repeating what you already know. That he was arrested for taking a bribe. Why, then, was he let off? That too is no secret: he informed the investigators that he had shared a bribe with the chairman of the Council of Ministers, Stürmer! And was promptly released! (Applause. Uproar.)

  Others had answered an affront in the Duma by challenging the offender to a duel—but not Stürmer: Milyukov had nothing to fear there.

  Chkheidze and Kerensky, who did not read the foreign press, were completely eclipsed! … True, it subsequently emerged that the “bribe” was a put-up job. Who had given how much and for what Pavel Nikolaevich would never discover, and Manasevich had shared it with no one, certainly not with Stürmer, because he had been arrested on the spot. (But never mind that, the story was

  not something learned directly, but conjecture: isolated, often minute details had to be pieced together, like a mosaic. It would be difficult to frame an accusation for a court of law, but for ordinary purposes it looks highly probable.)

  And anyway, this was not a university lecture room, where historical events must be described exactly as they happened. Here, you were no longer describing but making history, and you had to shout louder than mere facts allowed, so as to make things plain to the public and frightening to the enemy with your noise. Stürmer had to be removed, everybody loathed him, and Milyukov especially, because he had tactlessly and ineffectually usurped the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, to which he was so ill suited.

  So how was Russia to be saved?

  Permit me, then, to dwell on Stürmer’s appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In my mind this is bound up with impressions gathered during my trip abroad. I shall simply recount the things I learned on my journey there and back.

  This made it easier for him, doing it stage by stage, having a route to follow. It would also be statesmanlike. And, of course, the deputies would find it interesting: they did not travel abroad, did not have confidential conversations in the private offices of our ambassadors in Paris and London.

  The Berliner Tageblatt: “Stürmer belongs to circles which view the war without special enthusiasm.” Kölnische Zeitung: “Stürmer will do nothing to resist the desire for peace emerging in Russia.” Neue Freie Presse: “However Russified the elderly Stürmer now is, it is still rather strange that a German will be in charge of a foreign policy which originated in Pan-Slav ideas. He has made no promise (take note, gentlemen!) that he will never conclude peace without Constantinople and the Straits.”

  What makes German newspapers so sure that Stürmer, carrying out the wishes of the right, will act in opposition to England? Reports in the Russian press. At about the same time, the Moscow newspapers published a note from the extreme right …

  The speaker’s voice hardened. The extreme right! Those same dark forces which stood in the way of freedom, victory, and England.

  Yet again, gentlemen, a note from the extreme right (Zamyslovsky: “And it always turns out to be a lie!”), delivered to GHQ in July. This note declares that although we must fight on to final victory we should bring the war to a timely end, otherwise the fruits of victory will be lost as a result of revolution. (Zamyslovsky: “Signatories! Signatories!”)

  Milyukov knew nothing about signatories, he had seen no such newspaper. He would have to borrow a plausible piece from the mosaic:

  This is an old theme with our Germanophiles. (Zamyslovsky: “Signatories! Let him tell us who signed it!”)

  The unhappy Varun, unsure from which side the threat was coming, tinkled to himself:

  Member of the Duma Zamyslovsky, please do not speak from the floor.

  Milyukov: I am quoting from the Moscow newspapers.

  Which newspapers? For what date? Why won’t he say? There are many newspapers, and still more dates in the calendar, you can’t look through all of them. Anyway, Pavel Nikolaevich had been abroad, and was short of time on his return. So please make do with the Neue Freie Presse for 25 July.

  Zamyslovsky: Slanderer, name the signatories, don’t slander people.

  Varun: Member of the Duma Zamyslovsky, I most humbly beg you …

  Zamyslovsky: Name the signatories. Slanderer!

  Varun: Member of the Duma … I call on you to …

  Vishnevsky I: We demand to be told who signed it. Tell him to stop slandering …

  Varun: Member of the Duma Vishnevsky …

  They meant to go on badgering him about those signatures. The Progressive Bloc were sitting quietly, the left were sitting quietly, they weren’t calling for signatures, they were being objective about it all. The majority in the chamber were against the “dark forces,” and anyway there was no turning back, he had to show how sure of his facts he was by the firmness of his voice. Milyukov puffed out his bristly mustache and said:

  I’ve told you what my source is. It is the Moscow press, excerpts from which are reproduced in foreign newspapers.

  He would not say in so many words “in the newspapers of the other side in this war.” That would be embarrassing, but the Germans were meticulous people, surely they would not be misquoting? Something must have filtered through to them. Not, perhaps, precisely in that form … But let’s take a leaf from the archaeologists’ book. Don’t show your ignorance! They start with a few nondescript shards, fit them together and reconstitute …

  I am relaying the impressions I formed while abroad … I tell you that the consensus there is that a note from the extreme right was delivered to GHQ …

  (And, like all documents at GHQ, promptly published in the Moscow papers?)

  … to the effect that we must put a speedy end to the war, otherwise there will be a revolution …

  Zamyslovsky: You’re a slanderer, that’s what you are!

  Markov II: He’s simply repeating something he knows to be false.

  Voice from the left: Is such an expression from the floor permissible, Mr. Chairman?

  Varun: I repeat, Member of the State Duma Zamys …

  Milyukov: I am unmoved by Mr. Zamyslovsky’s language. (Voice from the left: “Bravo!”) Who, we may ask, is supposed
to be carrying out this revolution? The Unions of Towns and Zemtsvos perhaps? The War Industry Committees? The Congress of Liberal …

  What a ridiculous charge! The things they thought of! But best move on quickly from the rightists’ note:

  Gentlemen, you know that besides the note I have quoted there exist a number of others. Their idée fixe is the imminence of revolution, from the left!

  Well, really—what an absurd notion! Revolution—set off by the left! Who ever heard of such a thing?

  An idée fixe, which every member of the cabinet is required to be obsessed with. An idée fixe to which the upsurge of national spirit and the beginning of Russian freedom are sacrificed! … Continuing my journey … I reached London and Paris … Firmness of trust which unites us with our allies … Agreement on Constantinople and the Straits … When Sazonov was in charge of the ministry …

  —and under Milyukov’s influence … Till suddenly the post was occupied by … by whom? Not by Milyukov, but by Stürmer.

  What confidence can Russia’s envoys feel when behind them stands—Stürmer? The delicate business of diplomacy calls for fine needlework. But sometimes things are dealt with ham-handedly. I, gentlemen, have seen the damage done to the most delicate fibers … That is what Mr. Stürmer has done—and it is perhaps no oversight on his part that he has not promised us Constantinople and the Straits!

  In this context it was to be hoped that they would not remind him how he had toured the country preaching pacifism before the war. Youthful follies couldn’t be held against him.

  Then I went on to Switzerland, for a rest, not to engage in politics.

  On reading the Duma reports, how pleased the Russian soldier in the trenches would be to find that the leader of the People’s Freedom Party had not had to go without a summer holiday, and had even enjoyed a quick look at some of Switzerland’s spas. (For the Christmas holiday he would be going to his nice little dacha in the Crimea!) Incidentally, Switzerland is full of émigré Russian revolutionaries! … I met one or two of them.

  But even there the same dark shadows dogged me. On the shores of Lake Geneva I could not get away from the Russian Police Department. You know—those “special assignments” which call for special attention on our part.

  So undercover sleuths were treading on Milyukov’s heels? No, they were there to enjoy themselves.

  It appears that officials of the department frequent the salons of Russian ladies well known for their Germanophilia.

  With Milyukov treading on their heels, sacrificing his holiday.

  Gentlemen, I shall not tell you the name of the lady …

  It sounded intriguing, and much more ominous than if he had mentioned the name. At the same time a delicate hint that he was received by great ladies himself … However, to make it more concrete:

  … the lady who progressed from a tenderness for an Austrian prince to a tenderness for a German baron.

  These personal details were unavoidable, women always brought them into politics … The speaker would shortly be surrounded in the corridors by a congratulatory crowd eager to shake his hand, to thank him effusively—and, of course, to interrogate him …

  Her salon on the Via Curva, and later at Montreux, was well known for the pro-German sentiments of the hostess. This lady has now moved to Petrograd. Her name appears in the newspapers. Passing through Paris, I found … Parisians were scandalized, and I must add with deep regret that this was the very same lady who launched Mr. Stürmer on his career …

  The “great ladies” theme was handled with such delicacy that even the extreme right refrained from bellowing in protest. Yet this was just where Milyukov was guilty of a few (venial) errors. (In the summer of 1917 he would—honestly and magnanimously—admit that

  it subsequently became clear to me that the lady in question, E. K. Naryshkina, was innocent.

  Not least because that Naryshkina, Lily, had never returned to Petrograd, and the Petrograd Naryshkina mentioned by newspapers was another person altogether—Zizi, an aged lady-in-waiting, left almost heartbroken by Milyukov’s speech. Pavel Nikolaevich would arrive at the truth in the end. But at the time, speaking from the rostrum of the Duma, only a disrupting suspicion, only a red-hot rumor could give History a push—and what political benefit would conscientious doubt have brought? The masses, all Russia, the whole world was looking to the Duma for something or other that would …)

  What is my object in pointing to these matters? I do not, gentlemen, assert that I have incontestably chanced on one of the channels of communication. But this is one link in the chain … To lay bare the routes and methods … judicial inquiry is needed …

  It might have been treated as a joke—but his audience listened with bated breath. No detective drama could have gripped and excited them like this. It seemed that at any moment now a corner of the curtain would be raised and dreadful secrets disclosed! How penetrating this Milyukov was! He obviously knew much more than he was saying! Now he was mentioning a name—an ill-omened name, and not that of a lady.

  When we accused Sukhomlinov, we also, of course, lacked proof. We had then what we have now—the instinctive voice of the whole country and its subjective certainty! (Applause.)

  Oh God! We sit here or rot in the trenches—and we are betrayed! Russia is betrayed! Where are they leading us?

  (The truth about Sukhomlinov would shortly become clear, and Pavel Nikolaevich would say, in a confidential context, when his words would no longer have any political effect, that Sukhomlinov had

  not acted in accordance with the seriousness of the moment. It was not so much treachery as complete imbecility, inability to rise to the situation. I personally was far from supposing that there was more to it than simple stupidity: treachery, and treason, never entered my head …)

  … Gentlemen, I would probably not have decided to speak about each particular impression I formed if, taken together, they did not constitute … After leaving Paris for London … That for some time past our enemies have gotten to know our most precious secrets, and that this never happened in Sazonov’s time. (Exclamations of “Aha!” from the left.) In communicating this important fact I apologize for my inability to name my source.

  (A certain Allied diplomat had been afraid to show a certain Russian envoy a certain scrap of paper.)

  But the fact that the name was withheld made it all the more frightening: our innermost secrets had been betrayed to Wilhelm!

  The word “treason” had been struck from the Bloc’s declaration, but Milyukov had, oh so cleverly, pinned the label on the government, which had fled from the chamber. Now came the most explosive passage in his speech. But—just in case—he had to cover himself.

  Gentlemen, without harboring any personal suspicion I cannot say exactly what role this affair played in a certain antechamber already well known to us, through which Protopopov also advanced to a ministerial chair. (Hubbub on the left: “Splendid! He means Rasputin!”)

  He had phrased it subtly and elegantly. But, friends, there’s a whiff of something stronger than Rasputin here—the shouters still had no idea of the full force of Milyukov’s explosion. The clever trick he’d thought of was to read from the German press—in German, rapidly, easily, just to get it across, never mind if they didn’t understand, as long as they didn’t interrupt.

  This is the very same court party which appointed Stürmer. As the Neue Freie Presse puts it: “Das ist der Sieg der Hofpartei, die sich um die junge Zarin gruppiert.”

  He had gotten away with it! Varun was transfixed, too shocked to blink. Anyway, not many of those in the chamber understood—but that didn’t matter, it had been said and would be translated in the Duma record. They would spread the word in spluttering Russian: court party grouped around the young Tsaritsa!

  He had gotten away with that—so he could strike again! Nonchalantly, he reverted to Russian.

  In any case, I have some grounds for thinking that the proposals made by the German counselor to Protopopov in St
ockholm were repeated through a more direct channel and from a higher source.

  The deputies rubbed their brows, they still had not understood. This was where the professor had the advantage of the semi-literate Chkheidze and the platitudinous Kerensky. His language was so smooth, no loose ends to pick at, yet everything necessary was said! “From a higher source” obviously meant “from somewhere no lower than the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” and “through a more direct channel” meant to the Russian government, or even the Tsar, directly.

  And when we hear from the British ambassador a grave accusation against the same circle … (Translate for yourselves “court party grouped around the young Tsaritsa”) … paving the way toward a separate peace …

  Behold, the power of parliamentary oratory! However gratuitous, however disingenuous it is, once pronounced it hardens into granite: the Tsaritsa was working for a separate peace!

  Nobody is given time to think about it, to cry out, to let out so much as a squeak: but what actually were Milyukov’s “some grounds for thinking”? … What led you, Pavel Nikolaevich, and you, Sir George Buchanan, to the conclusion that …?

  (At a later date, a much later date, Pavel Nikolaevich would kindly explain:

  There is one puzzling circumstance which I have not succeeded in clarifying. Someone once sent me an American magazine with an article entitled “Russia’s Peace Proposals.” There was a picture of Jagow, a picture of Stürmer, and the text summarized an article in the Swiss newspaper Berner Tagwacht. The agenda for peace talks allegedly proposed by Russia seemed plausible enough. How they found their way into the Berner Tagwacht, what source of information the newspaper has, I have not been able to discover. There were no official traces in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There were, however, frequent allusions, so that there may have been something to the story.

  Yes, of course there was: the Berner Tagwacht article was signed K. R. Karl Radek could not pay his coal bill at the time, and anyway it was such fun!)

  Obviously, once hints were dropped, the leader of the Duma opposition had the right to accuse the Russian government of treason!