quence of the revolution all these obstacles disappeared. The satisfaction which this caused us, however, was soon mingled with a feeling of anxiety as to what course the revolution would take, and what effect it would exert upon the general military situation. At first I, just as Štefánik, who had witnessed the early days of the revolution before returning to Paris in the following April, had supposed that the revolution would reveal Russia’s military strength in an unprecedented manner, but before long we realized that we should have to be satisfied if Russia managed merely to hold the front, and that in any case the war would be decided in the West.
The first actions of the new provisional Russian Government tended rather to justify our early hopes. On March 18th Masaryk sent Milyukov a telegram in which he emphasized our co-operation with Russia and the Slavs hitherto, and greeted the victory of the Russian revolution which was to bring Russia order and success in the war, besides uniting the Poles, Jugoslavs, and Czechoslovaks, whose independent States it would help to establish. Milyukov immediately acknowledged the receipt of this telegram, to which he replied as follows:
I agree entirely with your ideas as to the perspectives which a free Russia is opening to the family of civilized nations as regards the final re-shaping of Central and South-Eastern Europe.
At the same time the Russian Press Bureau distributed another proclamation by Milyukov made to the representatives of the Russian Press. In it the Russian Foreign Minister referred in detail to a scheme involving the dismemberment of Austria, and said:
The establishment of the Czechoslovak State will set a limit to the aggressive German plans towards the Slav countries. German Austria, as well as Hungary, must be kept within its ethnographical frontiers. The Italians will be united with Italy, the Rumanians with Rumania, and the Ukrainian territories will coalesce with our Ukraine. The natural problems propounded by history demand also the unification of all the Jugoslav regions.
Again, on March 18th, Milyukov distributed among the Russian diplomatic representatives in Allied and neutral countries a circular telegram which also gave us reason for satisfaction. In this telegram Milyukov showed the necessity for the revolution by drawing attention to all the harm which
