The Russian proletariat,
joining hands with the intellectuals, rose in revolt, and after an
awful succession of outrages and massacres, power passed into the hands
of the revolutionaries, who established the representative system.
“‘Telegraphy and wireless telephony were then in use from one end of
Europe to the other, and so easy of use that the poorest of individuals
could speak, whenever he wished, and give utterance to whatever he
saw fit to a fellow creature living in any corner of the globe.
Collectivist ideas rained down on Moscow. The Russian peasants could
listen in their beds to the speeches of their comrades of Marseilles
and Berlin. Simultaneously, the approximate steering of balloons and
the exact course of flying-machines came into practical use. The result
was the abolition of frontiers. This was the most critical moment of
all. The patriotic instinct took a fresh life in the hearts of the
nations so near uniting and fusing into one boundless humanity. In
all countries, and at one and the same time, the nationalist faith,
rekindled, emitted flashes of light. As there were no longer any kings,
armies, or aristocracy, this great movement assumed a tumultuous and
popular character. The French Republic, the German Republic, the
Hungarian Republic, the Roman Republic, the Italian Republic, and even
the Swiss and Belgian Republics, each expressed by a unanimous vote
of their respective Parliaments, and at largely attended meetings,
the solemn resolve to defend against all foreign aggression national
territory and industry. Stringent laws were promulgated repressing
the smuggling by flying-machines, and regulating severely the use
of wireless telegraphy. The militia was everywhere reorganised and
brought back to the old type of standing armies. Once more did the
former uniforms, boots, dolmans, and generals’ plumes make their
appearance. Fur busbies were anew welcomed with the applause of Paris.
All the shopkeepers and a portion of the workmen donned the tricolour
cockade. In all foundry districts, cannon and armour-plates were once
more forged. Terrible wars were anticipated. This mad spurt lasted
three years, without matters coming to a clash, and then it slackened
imperceptibly. The militias gradually recovered the bourgeois aspect
and feeling. The union of nations, which had seemed postponed to a
fabled remoteness, was near at hand. Pacific efforts were developing
day by day; collectivists were gradually achieving the conquest of
society. The day came at last when the defeated capitalists abandoned
the field to them.’
“‘What a change!’ I exclaimed. ‘History cannot show another example of
such a revolution.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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