Thus, by the admission of the Germans themselves, if there had been no Russian Revolution the war would have ended in the autumn of 1917 and millions of human lives would have been spared. Do we realise what would have been the force of a treaty of Versailles signed by the Entente, including Russia! Germany, seized in a vice, would not have been able to escape the fate of the vanquished. The consequences of the Russian Revolution (Bolshevism) have thrown Russia into the arms of Germany. She is still there. Germany alone is in a position to organise and exploit her immense resources. It is in Russia that Germany is preparing her revenge against the Entente. [55] Russia had been engaged in a reorganisation of the army which increased the number of her divisions and greatly augmented her striking force. [56] Professor Fiodorof, realising that every hour’s delay meant less chance of averting imminent disaster, went to find General V----, who was one of the most prominent members of the Czar’s staff. He found him perched on a ladder engaged in fixing a nail in the wall on which to hang a picture. Fiodorof told him his fears and begged him to see the Czar at once. But the General called him a “revolution maniac,” and, picking up his hammer, continued the operation which had been interrupted by his tiresome visitor. [57] It was a great misfortune for the Czar Nicholas II. and the Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna that they ascended the throne so young. Like Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, they could have said, “Guard us, protect us, O God! We are reigning too young!” History will ultimately give them their due. What was not written about Louis XVI. at the time of the French Revolution? What accusations were levelled against him? Was there any calumny of which he was not the victim? Yet the children in France learn to-day that “he was honest and kind, and desired to do good” (Malet, _Révolution et Empire_, p. 312). It will be the same with Nicholas II., with the difference that he was a victim to his devotion to his country because he rejected all compromise with the enemy. [58] Another Imperial residence, twelve miles south-west of Petrograd. [59] No one can have any idea of what the Czarina suffered during these days when she was despairing at her son’s bedside and had no news of the Czar. She reached the extreme limits of human resistance in this last trial, in which originated that wonderful and radiant serenity which was to sustain her and her family to the day of their death. [60] Colonel Kobylinsky shortly before had replaced Colonel Korovitchenko as Commandant of the palace.