and large scale would become profitable and not very
dangerous. It would be possible, no doubt, for foreigners to
trade with the Russians as with the natives of the cannibal
islands, bartering looking-glasses and cheap tools, but,
should such a state of things come to be, it would mean long
years of colonization, with all the new possibilities and risks
involved in the subjugation of a free people, before Western
Europe could count once more on getting a considerable
portion of its food from Russian corn lands.


That is the position, those the natural tendencies at work.
But opposed to these tendencies are the united efforts of the
Communists and of those who, leaving the question of
Communism discreetly aside, work with them for the sake of
preventing such collapse of Russian civilization. They
recognize the existence of every one of the tendencies I have
described, but they are convinced that every one of these
tendencies will be arrested. They believe that the country

will not conquer the town but the reverse. So far from
expecting the unproductive stagnation described in the last
paragraph, they think of Russia as of the natural food supply
of Europe, which the Communists among them believe will,
in course of time, be made up for "Working Men's
Republics" (though, for the sake of their own Republic, they
are not inclined to postpone trade with Europe until that
epoch arrives). At the very time when spades and sickles are
wearing out or worn out, these men are determined that the
food output of Russia shall sooner or later be increased by