Hence it was that when the crisis actually broke in 1914, Ukraine was a land of mystery to all except a very few scholars. There was no voice raised in her behalf as that of Paderewski for Poland or Masaryk for Czechoslovakia. Lying within the initial theatre of war and destined to be ravaged by armies on both sides, the Ukrainians had little to do except to trust to the justice of their cause and hope that somehow and in some way they would attract the attention to their problem that it deserved. For years the neighboring peoples had been waiting for the day to come. They had made preparations, often more as an intangible dream than as stark reality but they could, in the crucial moment, put these preparations into action. They could rely upon distinguished sons to win them a hearing everywhere. Rich emigrants could come to their assistance. The Ukrainians had nothing of this. Franko might look forward to the independence of his people with the downfall of the Empires, but even he could hardly think of the way to put his country’s cause before the world. Ukraine entered the First World War as the forgotten nation, but the century and a quarter since the new revival started had changed it from an inchoate mass of serfs, as it was at the time of the extinction of the old traditions, into a fairly well concentrated group of people with a strong core and a strong self-consciousness that could not be ignored and that would not perish without striking a blow in its own behalf. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN _THE FIRST WORLD WAR_ On August 1, 1914, Germany declared war upon Russia and the First World War was on. The tensions and controversies that had been growing in bitterness beneath the surface all through the nineteenth century now exploded with unparalleled force. The future was to be anybody’s guess, for the increasing magnitude of the struggle soon overflowed the bounds that had been set for it in the thoughts of the leaders of the various countries, and the most fantastic dreamer could not have imagined the strange changes that were to take place in an area that seemed to the outside world fixed and determined for centuries. In such a turmoil the Ukrainian problem was involved from almost the first day of the struggle. In Austria, without any delay, the government arrested and interned all the leaders of the Ukrainians who had been in any way sympathetic to Russia. Their institutions were closed, and their publications stopped, for Austria-Hungary had no intention of allowing them to be the focus of a movement on behalf of the enemy.