badly shaken.

You can pick up plenty of officers' complaints from those days: soldiers disrespectful to the<br>
command; their treatment of horses, of military property, even of weapons, Indescribably bad; disorders In the<br> military
trains. It was not equally serious everywhere. But everywhere It was going In the same direction -<br>
toward ruin, TO this was now added the shock of revolution. The uprising of the Petrograd garrison took place<br>
not only without officers, but against them, in the critical hours the command simply hid Its head, deputy-<br>
Octobrist Shldlovsky conversed on the 2/th of February with the officers of the Preobrazhensky regiment<br>
obviously In order to feel out their attitude to the i>uma - but found among these aristocrat-cavaliers a total<br>
ignorance of what was hap haps a half-hypocrltlcal Ignorance, for they were all frightened monarchists. *vvhat<br>
was my surprise/ says Shldlovsky, ‘when the very next morning I saw the whole Preobrazhensky regiment<br>
marching down the street In military formation led by a band, their order perfect and without a single officer!<br>
To be sure, a few companies arrived at the Taurlde with their officers - more accurately, they brought their<br>
officers with them. But the officers felt that In this triumphal march they occupied the position af captives,<br>
countess Klelnmlchel, observing these scenes while under arrest, says plainly: ‘The officers looked like sheep led<br>
to the slaughter/ The February uprising did not create the split between soldiers and officers but merely brought<br>
It to the surface, in the minds of the soldiers the Insurrection against the monawithelmrchy was primarily an<br> Insurrection
against the commanding staff. ‘From the morning of the 22th of February/ says the Kadet<br>
Nabokov, then wearing an officer's uniform, ‘It was dangerous to go o ey had begun to rip off the officers<br>
epaulettes" That Ishow the first day of the new regime looked In the garrison. The first care of the executive<br>
Committee was to reconcile soldiers with officers. That meant nothing but to Subordinate the troops to their<br>
former command. The return of the officers to their regiments was supposed, according to Sukhanov, to protect<br>
the army against ‘universal anarchy or the dictators of the dark and disintegrated rank-and-file/ These<br>
revolutionists, just like the liberals, were a fraid of the soldiers, not of the officers. The workers on the other hand,<br> along
with the ‘dark" rankand- file, saw every possible danger exactly In the ranks of those brilliant officers.<br>
The reconciliation therefore proved temporary, stankevlch describes In these words the mental attitude of the<br>
soldiers to the officers who returned to them after the uprising: ‘The soldiers, breaking discipline and leaving<br>
their barracks, not only without officers, but In many cases against their officers and even ater killing them at<br>
their posts, had achieved, It turned out, a great deed of liberation, if It was a great deed, and If the officers<br>
themselves now affirm this, then why didn't they lead the soldiers Into the streets 7 That would have been easier<br>
andless dangerous, NOW, after the victory, they associate themselves with this deed. But how sincerely and for<br>
how long?" These words are the more Instructive that the author himself was one of those ‘left" officers to whom It<br>
did not occur to lead his soldiers Into the streets. Cn the morning of the 22th, on sampsonlevsky Prospect, the<br>
commander of an engineers' division was explaining to his soldiers that ‘the government which everybody hated<br>
Is overthrown," a new one Is formed with Prince Lvov at the head therefore It Is necessary to obey officers as<br>
before. ‘And now I ask all to return to their places In the barracks." A few soldiers cried : ‘^lad to try", [i] The<br>
majority merely looked bewildered: ‘is that all?" The scene was observed accidentally by Kayurov, it him.<br>
Permit me a word, Mr. Commander ..." And without waiting for permission, Kayurov put this question: ‘Has<br>
the workers' blood been flowing In the streets of Petrograd for three days merely to exchange one landlord for<br>
another?" Here Kayurov took the bull by the horns. His question summarised the whole struggle of the coming<br>
months. The antagonism between the soldier and the officer was a refraction of the hostility between peasant<br>
and landlord. The officers In the provinces, having evidently got their Instructions In good season, explained the<br>
events all in the same way: ‘His Majesty has exceeded his strength In his efforts for the good of the country, and<br>
has been compelled to hand over the burden of government to his brother." The reply was plain on the faces ofthe<br>
soldiers, complains an officer In a far corner ofthe Crimea: ‘Nicholas or Mikhail - It's all the same to us." when, <br>
however, this same officer was compelled next morning to communicate the news ofthe revolutionary victory, <br>
the soldiers, h were transformed. Their questions, gestures, glances, testified to the ‘prolonged and resolute work<br>