The Fate of Empires

Abstract

. . Let us examine one of the possible outcomes [of the impending struggle between Russia and the West]. What fate awaits Russia in case of her defeat? If Russia were a national state like France or modern Germany, the answer would have been comparatively simple and not so tragic. To be sure, she would have to endure all the horrors of destruction, humiliation, and starvation that are the lot of defeated Germany today, with the difference that she has become inured by now to hunger and slavery. For the majority of her population the downfall of the hated regime, even at the price of a temporary foreign occupation, would mean liberation. After all, the Americans, unlike Hitler, have no intention of colonizing Russia, nor do they plan to exterminate her inferior races. However, the issue is complicated by the fact that Russia is not a national state but a multinational empire, the last remaining empire in the world after the liquidation of all others. It would be nothing less than a miracle if she should emerge from the cataclysm unimpaired within the geographical boundaries that were hers at the outbreak of the Revolution.