"RUSSIA'S EVIL GENIUS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13967, 28 September 1918, Page 2 (Supplement)

"RUSSIA'S EVIL GENIUS."

KERENSKY PILLORIED.

CRITIC'S CHARACTER SKETCH. The first time I saw Kerensky was at the Imperial Duma, writes Count Gaston de Merindol in the "Times. His speaking time had come to an end, and, like an obedient schoolboy, he resumed his place humbly when the Presidential boll rang and Rodzianko imperiously motioned to him to cease. He went frequently into the tribune, where his eloquent words, somewhat capricious though they wore in inepilation, contrasted strangely with his common and affected gestures. Later, after the revolution, untiring and ! full of nervous energy, he paraded every- ' where his eloquence, his promises, and his ! threats. In these three words is tho compleU) description of the man. His capacity j goes no further; and, dazzle his audiences; 1 as he may by his language, he is never 1 able to fulfil the threats and the promises j of which he has been so lavish. j In the Winter Palaco, and wearing the I Emperor's slippers, he would strut about I in front of the mirrors amid the gilded pillars surrounding tho throne, practising , his deportment for the review or the speech-making of the next day. With him [ the " mise en scene " was everything; but | arranged as it was by a man of only mediocre " genius " and with the instincts of tho small tradesman, it was often ridiculous. The Napoleonic gesture of , thrusting his hand in his waistcoat— 1 he had acquired by studying the portraits 'of Bonaparte—often provoked ironical reI marks muttered among the soldiors as he j was passing. I Eaten up by vanity, in fact, he imitated ! those who had been in power before [ him, and already saw his name inscribed lon the pages' of history beside those of Peter the Great and Alexander 111. I But tho comedy, or, rather, the farce, I ended there. There were realities during ! his " reign," and these realities covered I his fatherland with blood and shame; also I they caused it to undergo the severest ex- , perience that history can have to register. . Thanks to this man, who filled Russia and tie Allies with illusions, a whole nation I is writhing to-day in misery and madness. i When, before the revolution, men died i fighting they died for Russia and for the ' Tsar then some there were—oh, very few!—who gave their lives for Liberty; and later still others had to die for I Kerensky! What irony in the fate of 'those who, deceived by his sonorous ' phrases, and willing to perish for Russia's 1 sake, were doomed to sacrifice themselves for this man! Whole of Russia Believed in Him. Who but he is really responsible for the .destruction of ♦be 'army! The decree jcame from the Soviet, it is true; but ! whom did it behove, whose duty was it, , and who ought to have had the courage. 1 to annul it? Goutchkoff, I know, was Mmister of War at the moment; but who : was the man who alone had the power to j undo what had been done? Kerensky, and none but Kerensky. The whole of Russia believed in him alone, had no hope . but in him; his very name was enough ito electrify the masses. And to what | use did he put all this power, all this prestige? To concoct speeches, to utter threats, and to make promises, while : tacitly consenting to all the exigencies of 'a party haunted by the madness of : anarchy! And therein lay his crime! i When Kerensky betrayed Korniloff, I after having ureed him to undertake the ; formation of a strong and ruthless Govern- . Eicnt and to march on the capital, did he i not commit one of the most infamous acts in all history? The ill-fated General Loukonine, who succeeded him as Generalissimo, told me sadly at headquarters a few days before he was assassinated Bomo details of the business which I are still unknown to the public. And h«hat shame and anger was felt, on behalf of all Russia, by the great patriot j Alexeiff at this fresh crime on the part of Kerensky! Oau Speak Only in His Own Name. Look at this puny little man. Not all the shells, not all the machine-guns, of the Germans have done Russia more harm than he.. And when we make up his account we find on the one side only phrases and still more phrases such as the orator loves, and on the other the Russian array destroyed, every administration, every public service destroyed, estates and properties destroyed. Thus one may describe Kerensky as the great destructive force in Russia. And this is the man who has come to ask the intervention of the Allies! In whose name does he speak ? In the nome of Russia? In the name of a party? Or in his own name, that of Kerensky? The last must be the right supposition; he can sneak only in his own name, for no party in Russia would dream of appointing him its intermediary. Any cause defended by him is condemned beforehand. Made of ■ the same paste as Rasputin and Protopopoff—the one a mystic, the other a madman—Kerensky is the connecting link between them and the leaders of Bolshevism, Lenin and Trotsky. Russia, that land of unreality and immeasurable greatness, has beaten the record of the impossible in letting itself be governed for two years by this quintet of political epileptics. •