ABSTRACT
The economic sufferings of Russia are of a totally different character. Russia's exhaustion is organic. The Revolution was the result of the economic exhaustion of Russia; not by any means its cause. Besides the factor of economic isolation, three other factors effected the economic destruction of Russia. They were: (1) The enemy invasion and occupation of the best organised industrial districts of Russia; (2) the factor of depreciation or attrition—the wearing out of material in railways, factories, and workshops owing to the speeding-up and strain of war; and (3) the unsound and wasteful exploitation of raw materials, machinery, and labour by the State and the manufacturers during the so-called mobilisation of industry for war purposes. The disintegration of the Russian industries and railways, once started, could never be arrested. But this factor only developed at a later stage, during the so-called mobilisation of industry.
