authority, were slaughtered during the German advance of
1918. The first mobilizations, when conscription was
introduced, were among the workers in the great industrial
districts. The troops from Petrograd and Moscow,
exclusively workmen's regiments, have suffered more than
any other during the civil war, being the most dependable
and being thrown, like the guards of old time, into the worst
place at any serious crisis. Many thousands of them have
died for the sake of the revolution which, were they living,
they would be hard put to it to save. (The special shortage of
skilled workers is also partially to be explained by the
indiscriminate mobilizations of 1914-15, when great
numbers of the most valuable engineers and other skilled
workers were thrown into the front line, and it was not
until their loss was already felt that the Tsar's Government in this
matter came belatedly to its senses.)


But these explanations are only partial. The more general
answer to the question, What has become of the workmen?
lies in the very economic crisis which their absence
accentuates. Russia is unlike England, where starvation of
the towns would be practically starvation of the whole
island. In Russia, if a man is hungry, he has only to
walk far enough and he will come to a place where there is
plenty to eat. Almost every Russian worker retains in some
form or other connection with a village, where, if he returns,
he will not be an entire stranger, but at worst a poor relation,
and quite possibly an honored guest. It is not surprising that
many thousands have "returned to the land" in this way.