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you doing on your front? While we are fighting, you occupy yourselves with a metre of Souchez sweatmeats“.
The arrival of the Cadet Party to power, at such a critical moment as this naturally inspired me with no great feeling of confidence. I was convinced that it would never be able to go further than the combinations of the Duma, in which it had evolved, and in which the Imperial Government itself had died a slow death. On the other hand, I was sure that the ferment amongst the masses was too strong for the Cadet Party to be able, merely by the means at its disposal (namely a change of persons and of the external administration) to resuscitate the former Imperial Government.
Such, briefly, was my state of mind when circumstances placed me in contact with a man who, in virtue of his vast intelligence and broad character, was destined to exercise a decisive influence over my ideas and the orientation of my thought. I wish to speak of Albert Thomas who arrived in Russia at this moment on a mission of special importance. His ardent enthusiasm and his real love for the Russian people,—a trait which, unfortunately, was infinitely rare amongst the official representatives of the Allies,—his sincere admiration for the Russian revolution, and the System of the Soviets, resulted in his revealing a new horizon for me; and, very rapidly, in giving me back my former faith in the destinies of Russia. Until then, I had been confined to the milieu in which I had lived, if not materially, at least intellectually, prior to the Revolution, and had therefore not seen the elements which since then had decomposed or
