Russian
socialists celebrate International Socialist May Day according to the new style
calendar, that is, when other socialists around the world are celebrating it –
though it happens to be April 18 on the old style calendar. It became a
national holiday; not only factories but also government offices shut down.
The holiday
atmosphere spread to the front at staff headquarters in Moghilev, where even the
tsarist generals marched. Elsewhere Russian troops celebrated with
Austro-German POWs, singing the same revolutionary songs in different languages.
This was also the
day Foreign Minister Miliukov chose to send a note reaffirming Russia’s loyalty
to her allies and her pledge not to make a separate peace. This
part was generally agreeable to the defensists in the Soviet. But the subtext
endorsed the annexations and indemnities his British and French counterparts expected
as part of the peace agreement. Naturally one of the annexations Miliukov was
contemplating was that of the Dardanelles, at the expense of Germany’s ally
Turkey. This raid had been planned for, but the soldiers eventually refused to carry
the plan out.
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