Kerensky’s fiercest battle last summer was with Ukrania, where a real government was established. It was real enough at all events to force a kind of recognition from the central Provisional Government. Ukrania is an enormous territory in the south of Russia. It extends into southwestern Siberia and southward to the Black Sea. Odessa is its principal port, and within its borders are many important cities. Kiev is one of the largest of these. About 35,000,000 people inhabit the Ukraine, as it is called in Russia. The people are not Russian, strictly speaking. They are Slavs, but they have a language of their own, a literature, a culture. They have been Russian subjects for nearly 300 years. The Ukraine is a self-contained country and could be made a very rich one. It is rich already in agricultural resources, the “black earth” of certain regions producing the most splendid crops of wheat and other grains. The fruits of the Ukraine are the best in Russia, and the vineyards furnish grapes for excellent wines. Russia would be poor indeed without this country. Last June the Ukranian Rada, or local diet, voted to establish a republic, restore the old language and customs, and cut themselves off absolutely from the Russian empire. They actually created a provisional government on the spot. Some of the more moderate members of the Rada favored remaining in the empire as a federated state having complete autonomy, and this was finally accepted, I believe, by the majority. But immediately the Bolsheviki of the south began to clamor for separation, and the Ukranians in the army began to show dangerous signs of unrest. A congress of Ukranian armies was held in Kiev in the middle of June, in which it was decided that the armies of the south and southwest ought to be completely and exclusively made up of Ukranians. If this had been done the Rada would have been in a perfect state to dictate terms of any kind to the Russian Provisional Government. As it was there was considerable dictating done. The military Rada, meeting in June in Odessa, served notice on the Provisional Government that unless the Ukranian soldiers were prevented from forming their own regiments no more soldiers of their force would be sent to the front. The Ukranian regiments were formed, some of them in Petrograd, and the strains of the national hymn, “Ukrania is not dead,” were heard on the streets, played by military bands or sung by soldiers, almost as often as the classic “Marseillaise.”