had heard only of their Orthodox brethren in the Balkans. Nor were the radical elements in the Russian intelligentsia—the Socialists in particular—who were in opposition to the Government and its official Nationalism and Slavophilism, well disposed towards our endeavours. This we learned by experience in Russia during the war.
Such was, and is, Russia really—a reality too little known among us, for most of our Russophils were satisfied with hazy notions. To them Russia seemed great and mighty; and, since we sorely needed foreign help against Austria and Germany, brotherly Russia was to deliver us—a policy and a state of mind alike comprehensible. Did not Kollár[1] explain why the idea of inter-Slav reciprocity arose in tiny Slovakia!
A Balance Sheet.
Of Russia and our relationship to her I shall have occasion to speak more fully. At the beginning of the war our business was very carefully to weigh the assets and liabilities of the belligerents on both sides and to make up our minds upon the truly fateful situation. I reckoned thus:—
Germany has a big army of good quality; a definite plan (pan-Germanism) for which she has gained the support not only of the common people but of the more cultured classes; she is well prepared, has efficient commanders (a view I soon modified), is wealthy and has a strong war industry.
The Austrian army and its command are weaker. The various Archdukes (with an impossible fellow like the Archduke Frederick as Commander-in-Chief) and jealousy of Berlin and of the German command are debit items. In Vienna, as I knew, one current ran in favour of a unified Austro-German and the other in favour of an independent Austrian command. Of Conrad von Hoetzendorf, the Chief of General Staff, I had my doubts. Vienna, I expected, would reluctantly submit to and obey Berlin; and the separatist tendencies in Hungary would make themselves felt. Thus the Central Powers, though neighbours, would not get an entirely unified political and military leadership. In the Austrian army our men and the Italians would be untrustworthy, perhaps also the Roumanes and the Yugoslavs.
The Allies, on the other hand, are stronger in man-power (even in 1914), are richer and industrially more powerful. True, France alone has a well-trained army of any size. The Russian army is half-trained, and altogether Russia is an uncertain quantity militarily, politically, economically and financially. England has still to create and train an- ↑ J. Kollár, the first modern Czech poet (1793–1852). By birth a Slovak, and a Protestant by religion, he was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Herder and by the ideas of Rousseau. He was a pan-Slav idealist, and explained that Slovakia, in the centre of the Slav world, was the natural birthplace of idealistic pan-Slavism.
