Description
By Robert Wilton. The London Times’ correspondent in Russia provided the first western eyewitness account of the monumental events which resulted in the creation of the Soviet Union.
Wilton provides a full historical background and the disastrous course of World War I for Russia, which sets the scene for the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. He then details the full enormity of the Red Terror, and ends with the optimistic—and incorrect—hope that Bolshevism would be short-lived.
Although Wilton’s credentials were impeccable and his status unchallenged, this book was blacklisted because he dared to report openly on the overwhelming number of Jews amongst the Communist revolutionaries. He wrote:
“Bolshevism is not Russian—it is essentially non-national; its leaders belong almost entirely to the race that lost its country and its nationhood long ago. In April 1918, the Bolshevist “Government,” including 384 “Peoples’ Commissaries,” was represented by 2 negroes, 13 Russians, 15 Chinamen, 22 Armenians and Georgians, and more than 300 Jews. Of the last, 264 had come to Russia from the United States during the ‘Revolution.’
“I reported from Riga on the pernicious influence of Jewish Extremists. But this appeal to moderation was willfully distorted by the Jewish Press. Facts cited by me on the best authority were “proved” to be non-existent, and a campaign of slander and intimidation followed. Now, I was threatened with nothing less than murder.”
“Afterwards their numbers increased largely, and although they studiously concealed their identity under assumed Russian or Polish names, it became known that the principal ones were: Nahamkez-Steklov, Apfelbaum-Zinoviev, Rosenfeldt-Kamenev, Goldmann-Gorev, Goldberg-Mekowski, Zederbaum-Martov, Himmer-Sukhanov, Krachman-Zagorski, Hollander-Mieshkowski, Lourier-Larin, Seffer-Bogdanov. Among the leaders of this gang—under Lenin—were: Trotsky, whose real name was Bronstein, and Feldmann, alias Chernov.”
“Moreover, the Press, almost entirely in Jewish hands, had gone over to the Soviet, and Moderate organs that would not publish the Soviet proclamations glorifying spoilation and promoting Anarchy had been summarily ‘expropriated’ on behalf of newly founded Socialist publications.”
“The revolutionary pseudo-Jews were thus destroying Russia’s hopes of a national revival and dragging the country into disaster.”
This is the first modern edition to be completely reset and which contains all the hand-restored original pictures and maps.
About the author: Robert Archibald Wilton (1868–1925) was a British journalist who worked for the New York Herald in Europe, corresponding on both Russian and German affairs. A fluent Russian-speaker—his father had worked in that country—Wilton served as part of a British contingent with the Russian army during the First World War, and was awarded the Cross of St George. At the same time, he took up an appointment as the Times of London’s correspondent in St. Petersburg. As such, he became the Anglo-Saxon speaking world’s best-known correspondent from Russia during the last years of the Tsarist regime and the Bolshevist Revolution. After the Revolution Wilton escaped from Russia and took up his former employment with the New York Herald. He died from cancer at the Hertford British Hospital in Paris, after authoring two books detailing his experiences in Russia: Russia’s Agony (1918) and The Last Days of the Romanovs (1920).
Contents
Chapter I: Introduction
Chapter II: Origins, Rise, and Decline
Chapter III: Bureaucracy and Okhrana
Chapter IV: The National Conscience
Chapter V: Razputinism and the Court
Chapter VI: German Influences
Chapter VII: The Jews
Chapter VIII: Conditions of Upheaval
Chapter IX: Revolution versus Evolution
Chapter X: Revolutionary Parties
Chapter XI: The Revolution
Chapter XII: The Soviet, “Coalition,” and Bolshevism
Chapter XIII: Abdication and After
Chapter XIV: Mutiny of the Sailors
Chapter XV: “No Annexation and No Indemnity”
Chapter XVI: Anarchy
Chapter XVII: The Outbreak of Hostilities
Chapter XVIII: Poor Armaments; Splendid Army
Chapter XIX: Soldau-Tannenberg and After
Chapter XX: “The Hun within the Gates”
Chapter XXI: Nationality Problems
Chapter XXII: Short-Lived Victory
Chapter XXIII: The Bolshevist Betrayal
Chapter XXIV: The Fight with Bolshevism
Chapter XXV: The Hope of Russia
Chapter XXVI: The New Russia
Appendix I: Declaration of the Progressive Bloc
Appendix II: The “Soldiers’ Charter”
Appendix III: Foreign Trade of Russia
Index
337 pages. Paperback.