Needless to say the great mass of people did not know
the difference between one kind of government and another but they shouted
as loudly as those who knew. One soldier demanded a republic like that of
England, another insisted on a republic with a tsar at the head, the wife
of the porter of the house where I lived cried as if her heart would break
because "they wanted a republic," and some of the peasant women in the
country clamored for the tsar because "if they take away the tsar they will
also take away God and what will then become of the muzhik." In one place
at the front several regiments almost came to blows over this question. An
orator ended his eloquent speech by saying that "from now on Russia will
have but one monarch, the revolutionary proletariat." This phrase puzzled
the soldiers, they also misunderstood the word "monarch" which they thought
to be "monakh" (monk). They therefore concluded that it was planned to put
a monk on the throne, and an argument arose whether they would have a monk
or not. Some were in favor and others opposed. By the time it got to the
next regiment the question was whether they would have the monk Iliodor as
their ruler. It was no longer a question whether Russia was to have a tsar
but whether the tsar should be a monk or not, and whether it should be
Iliodor or some other one.
Strange to say, as evening came a kind of fear seized the population,
particularly the more ignorant.
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