1792, which was made in the face of the foreign foe, that you are able, gentlemen of the jury, to sit on those benches to try us, and that you, Mr. Advocate-General, who are of Jewish origin, are able to prosecute us."
Had it not been for the revolution of the 4th of September, 1870, also make in the face of the foreign foe, the public prosecutor, instead of indicting us in the name of the Republic, would have indicted us in the name of the Empire.
And you may be sure, gentlemen, that the Russian people will gain more by the civil war which they are waging at this moment against their rulers, if they win and even if they lose, than the Japanese people from their victories in Manchuria.
If ever we feel any interest at all in a war between nations, it is in that exceptional case where the war, under the guise of a war of nations, is really a civil war, a class war.
If our hearts go out to the soldiers of Valmy[1], fighting against the banded monarchies and aristocracies of all Europe, it is because the wars of the French Revolution were only the extension throughout Europe of the duel which began in France between the Third Estate and the old absolutist and clerical order.
In the same way, if I said that in spite of my "near sight," which does not prevent me from using a rifle, I would set out for Russia—and other comrades with me who are not near sighted—in the event of the German government's sending troops into Poland to break down the Russian revolution, it is because, under the semblance or a war of nation on nation, a war between the Russian revolution and the German Kaiser would still be a civil war, a war from which we might, perhaps, bring forth the European Social Revolution.
In the event, then, of an order for mobilization, we
- ↑ Valmy, the field of the first great battle of the French Revolutionary wars (September 30, 1792), where the revolutionary army, mainly composed of young, untrained volunteers, drove back the Prussian forces who had invaded France on behalf of monarchy and reaction.
