prepared for academic and public activity, urged me on to feverish labour to fathom rapidly the political, social, and cultural problems of France. From there I passed over to England, and subsequently also to Belgium, Italy, and Germany. The preparation of my thesis for a doctor’s degree at the Dijon Faculty of Law compelled me at the same time to make a detailed study of the conditions in my own country and in Austria.
My stay in Paris brought me also among the Russian revolutionaries who had taken part in the first Russian Revolution of 1905, and my contact with them made a deep impression upon me. In 1906 and 1907 I visited their meetings at Paris, becoming a member of their societies. I began to make a close study of Russia and of Russian literature, both classical and revolutionary. After my return to Prague I kept in touch with the revolutionary Russians.
I was influenced by a number of political questions then current, which later affected my attitude towards the war. In France there was revolutionary syndicalism, the struggle for the separation of the Church and State, the struggle against the three years’ military service, and anti-militarist propaganda. From these I drew the conclusion that on the whole France was pacifist. In England there was the discussion as to the economic future of England in case of war, the dispute between Liberals and Conservatives on the subject of Protection and the development of the German and English fleets. It was during my stay in London and Berlin that the most active discussion was taking place with regard to the development of the German fleet and the English policy of a “two-power standard.” In Germany they were even then calculating that by 1920 their fleet would be equal in size to that of Great Britain.
The deepest impressions in these matters, however, were those which I formed in Berlin. The military parade, which was arranged in the summer of 1908 and at which I was present, overwhelmed me. The development of industry and railways, of the Prussian military and naval strength, compared with what I had seen at Paris and London in this respect, the mechanization of all public life under the influence of Prussian discipline, the atmosphere of constraint and the prevailing influence and authority of the military, aristocratic, and bureaucratic caste, affected me painfully because at that time I was unable to arrive at any clear conclusion as to what it
