“The Russians naturally do not want the vote to be taken while the German bayonets are still in the country, and the Germans reply that the unexampled terrorism of the Bolsheviks would falsify any election result, since the ‘bourgeois,’ according to Bolshevist ideas, are not human beings at all.  My idea of having the proceedings controlled by a neutral Power was not altogether acceptable to anyone.  During the war no neutral Power would undertake the task, and the German occupation could not be allowed to last until the ultimate end.  In point of fact, both sides are afraid of terrorisation by the opposing party, and each wishes to apply the same itself.

“December 26, 1917.—­There is no hurry apparently in this place.  Now it is the Turks who are not ready, now the Bulgarians, then it is the Russians’ turn—­and the sitting is again postponed or broken off almost as soon as commenced.

“I am reading some memoirs from the French Revolution.  A most appropriate reading at the present time, in view of what is happening in Russia and may perhaps come throughout Europe.  There were no Bolsheviks then, but men who tyrannised the world under the battle-cry of freedom were to be found in Paris then as well as now in St. Petersburg.  Charlotte Corday said:  ’It was not a man, but a wild beast I killed.’  These Bolsheviks in their turn will disappear, and who can say if there will be a Corday ready for Trotski?

“Joffe told me about the Tsar and his family, and the state of things said to exist there.  He spoke with great respect of Nicolai Nicolaievitch as a thorough man, full of energy and courage, one to be respected even as an enemy.  The Tsar, on the other hand, he considered cowardly, false, and despicable.  It was a proof of the incapacity of the bourgeois that they had tolerated such a Tsar.  Monarchs were all of them more or less degenerate; he could not understand how anyone could accept a form of government which involved the risk of having a degenerate ruler.  I answered him as to this, that a monarchy had first of all one advantage, that there was at least one place in the state beyond the sphere of personal ambition and intrigues, and as to degeneration, that was often a matter of opinion:  there were also degenerates to be found among the uncrowned rulers of states.  Joffe considered that there would be no such risk when the people could choose for themselves.  I pointed out that Hr.  Lenin, for instance, had not been ‘chosen,’ and I considered it doubtful whether an impartial election would have brought him into power.  Possibly there might be some in Russia who would consider him also degenerate.

“December 27, 1917.—­The Russians are in despair, and some of them even talked of withdrawing altogether.  They had thought the Germans would renounce all occupied territory without further parley, or hand it over to the Bolsheviks.  Long sittings between the Russians, Kuehlmann, and myself, part of the time with Hoffmann.  I drew up the following:—­