ABSTRACT
The disintegration of the army began long before the Revolution, and the revolutionary democracy is by no means responsible for the process, which was already completed under the old regime. Fraternisation with the enemy, refusal to fight, mass desertions and panic-stricken flight before advancing Germans-these and other symptoms of disintegration in the army, for which the 'patriotic' Press would blame the Revolution, the 'revolutionary talkers', 'German agents', and 'Bolshevik treachery'-all these appeared in perfectly palpable forms long before the Revolution. Fraternisation was by no means instigated by the Revolution. It had existed before the Revolution; it certainly showed a great increase immediately after the Revolution, but then only as a spontaneous manifestation of the revolutionary enthusiasm of the Russian soldier. The inclusion of soldiers representatives in the Soviet bears witness to its realisation that the strength of the new Russia must be based on unity between the workers and the soldiers.
