children, and for their brethren.

We send them our hearty greeting, and persistently say to them:
Listen to us in this fatal time, when the enemy has conquered the
Western strongholds of Russia, has occupied an important part of
our territory and is menacing Kiev, Petrograd, and Moscow, these
most important centers of our social life.

Misinformed people may tell you that in defending yourselves from
German invasion you support our old political regime. These people
want to see Russia defeated because of their hatred of the Czar's
government. Like one of the heroes of our genius of satire,
Shchedrin, they mix fatherland with its temporary bosses. But
Russia belongs not to the Czar, but to the Russian working-people.
In defending Russia, the working-people defend themselves, defend
the road to their freedom. As we said before, the inevitable
consequences of German victory would be the strengthening of our
old regime.

The Russian reactionaries understand this very thoroughly. _In a
faint, half-hearted manner they are defending Russia from
Germany_. The Ministers who resigned recently, Maklakov and
Shcheglovitov, presented a secret report to the Czar, in November,
1914, in which they explained how advantageous it would be for the
Czar to make a separate peace with Germany. _They understand that
the defeat of Germany would be a defeat of the principles of
monarchism, so dear to all our European reactionaries_.

Our people will never forget _the failure of the Czar's government
to defend Russia_. But if the progressive, the politically
conscious people will not take part in the struggle against
Germany, the Czar's government will have an excuse for saying: "It
is not our fault that Germany defeats us; it is the fault of the
revolutionists who have betrayed their country," and this will
vindicate the government in the eyes of the people.

The political situation in Russia is such that only across the
bridge of national defense can we reach freedom. Remember, _we do
not tell you, first victory against the external enemy and then
revolution against the internal, the Czar's government_.

In the course of events the defeat of the Czar's government may
serve as a necessary preliminary condition for, and even as a
guaranty of, the elimination of the German danger. The French