On August 15th the Grand Duke Nicholas issued, on behalf of the Tzar, the following Proclamation addressed to all the Poles:

“Poles,—The hour has sounded when the sacred dream of your fathers and your grandfathers may be realised. A century and a half has passed since the living body of Poland was torn in pieces, but the soul of the country is not dead. It continues to live, inspired by the hope that there will come for the Polish people an hour of resurrection, and of fraternal reconciliation with Great Russia. The Russian Army brings you the solemn news of this reconciliation which obliterates the frontiers dividing the Polish peoples, which it unites conjointly under the sceptre of the Russian Tzar. Under this sceptre Poland will be born again, free in her religion and her language. Russian autonomy only expects from you the same respect for the rights of those nationalities to which history has bound you. With open heart and brotherly hand Great Russia advances to meet you. She believes that the sword, with which she struck down her enemies at GrÜnwald, is not yet rusted. From the shores of the Pacific to the North Sea the Russian armies are marching. The dawn of a new life is beginning for you, and in this glorious dawn is seen the sign of the Cross, the symbol of suffering and of the resurrection of peoples.”

This master stroke of policy was one of the most significant and important events in the whole war. It has revolutionised the whole outlook in Eastern Europe. This pledge to restore to dismembered Poland her lands, her liberties, her religion and her national tongue is the most momentous act of any Tzar since the days when Alexander II. abolished the serfdom. With dramatic suddenness it brings to a close one of the most terrible chapters in the history of Europe. For generations Russia has been engaged in a ruthless and vain attempt to force her Polish subjects to become, at least to all outward appearance, Russians. The Poles have been subjected to the fiercest persecution, their religion and language have been denied them, their history has been a stream of blood. Poland has been the greatest tragedy in Europe. Now at a stroke all is changed. The spoliation of Poland has been a bond between Russia, Austria and Prussia for a century and a half. The three nations combined to carry out the crime, and as a consequence they have ever since remained more or less united over the results of the crime. They have regarded the Polish question as their own particular concern, and have brooked no interference from the rest of Europe. They have vied with each other in their efforts to crush the Polish spirit. They have made every move in unison.

The Tzar’s Proclamation consigned the whole system to the limbo of the past. One of the conspirators had realised the errors of his ways, and was determined to make reparation. Of course, the decision to issue the Proclamation was to a large extent dictated by material considerations. But whatever the reasons, there can be no doubt as to the excellence of the results. And by thus breaking the bond of generations Russia proved that she realised that this war was to be fought to the death. After this solemn pledge on the part of Russia, both Germany and Austria must not only be beaten, but conquered. A free Poland would mean the loss to Prussia of the whole province of Posen, and the setting back of her frontiers to Pomerania. Austria would lose all her territories beyond the Carpathians from Silesia to the borders of Roumania. Both countries can be relied upon to resist such a wholesale shrinkage of their boundaries to the utmost of their power. It would be more than a defeat; it would be humiliation, such as no first-class Power has yet been called upon to undergo.

The effects of the Proclamation were anxiously awaited, not only in Russia, but in Germany and Austria as well. It was addressed to the most sacred emotions of the Poles, to that fierce patriotism which no violence has been able to crush. It solemnly promised them all that they have been struggling for so bitterly. But would they forget the past? The treatment they have received would hardly be likely to encourage trust. Massacres and repression are not usually associated with the “dawn of a new life.”

The Polish Deputies immediately hailed the Proclamation with joy. But the people hesitated. It was too sudden a change to be grasped at once. Then the leaders set the example, first one and then another came forward. Sienkiewicz addressed a stirring appeal to his compatriots. The people realised that the promise was genuine, that Poland was really to be free again. Scenes of indescribable enthusiasm followed. The Poles are the most emotional nation in Europe, and from Kalisz to Biala and from Mlava to Stopnika they abandoned themselves to their joy. Thereafter the Polish enthusiasm for the war vied with that of the Russians themselves. The effect was immediately felt in the army. In one of the early dispatches received at Petrograd from the front, mention was made of the furious heroism of the Polish regiments. In Russia, therefore, the results of the Proclamation were to remove the last shreds of apathy and to weld both the subjects and the armies of the Tzar into one pulsating whole.

But the appeal was also addressed to the Polish subjects of the Kaiser and the Emperor Francis Joseph. It was an open invitation to them to revolt. In the circumstances, the German and Austrian Poles who have so often experienced Teutonic methods of stamping out rebellion, can hardly be blamed for accepting the proposal in a cautious spirit. They were quite unprepared for open rebellion, and at the best would have stood but little chance of success against the armies already mobilised in their midst. In addition, the cream of their manhood was with the forces of the Kaiser and Emperor. Only in Austria did a Polish regiment dare to mutiny, with the result that it was shot down to a man. For the rest, wiser if less heroic counsels prevailed. Everything possible was done covertly to assist the Russian advance. Both German and Austrian commanders complained of the extreme activity of innumerable spies, lamented that the whole population seemed to have combined in an effort to be of every possible service to the enemy, and admitted that fighting in Eastern Prussia and Galicia was fraught with all the difficulties attending operations in a hostile country.

But the Proclamation, and the obvious sincerity which prompted it, have had effects extending far beyond military exigencies and the future of the Poles. It has done more than anything else to raise Russia in the estimation of the world. The oppression of Poland has always estranged the leading democracies of the world from Russia. In France it was used as an argument against the Franco-Russian alliance, in Britain it has caused the Triple Entente to be regarded as a potential danger to ourselves. At the time of the war with Japan it withheld the sympathy of the United States from Russia. Now all is changed. The Proclamation was received with approbation by the whole world, with the exception, of course, of Germany and Austria. It was realised by all that Russia is indeed advancing, that the short-sighted autocratic government is giving way to the finest ideals of democracy, and that Russia is an ally worthy of the most ardent lover of liberty.