(_Photo from Brown Bros._)]
The New Russia Speaks
An Appeal by Russian Authors, Artists, and Actors
[From the Russkia Vedomosti, No. 223, Sept. 28, (Oct. 11,) 1914, P. 6.]
We appeal to our country, we appeal to the whole civilized world.
What our heart and our reason refused to believe has come indisputably
true, to the greatest shame of humanity. Every new day brings new
horrible proofs of the cruelty and the vandalism of the Germans in the
bloody clash of nations which we are witnessing, in that neutral
slaughtering of brothers provoked by the madness of these same Germans;
in their vainglorious ambition to rule the world with violence, they are
throwing upon the scales of the world's justice nothing but the sword.
We fancy that Germany, oblivious of her past fame, has turned to the
altars of her cruel national gods whose defeat has been accomplished by
the incarnation of the one gracious god upon earth. Her warriors seem to
have assumed the miserable duty of reminding humanity of the latent
vigor of the aboriginal beast within man, of the fact that even the
leading nations of civilization, by letting loose their ill-will, may
easily fall back on an equal footing with their forefathers--those half
naked bands that fifteen centuries ago trampled under their heavy feet
the ancient inheritance of civilization. As in the days of yore, again
priceless productions of art, temples, and libraries perish in
conflagration, whole cities and towns are wiped off the face of the
earth, rivers are overflowing with blood, through heaps of cadavers
savage men are hewing their path, and those whose lips are shouting in
honor of their criminal supreme commander are inflicting untold tortures
and infamies upon defenseless people, upon aged men and women, upon
captives and wounded.
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