The Russian bourgeois class, too, seems almost as stupid and cowardly as our own, and its members let themselves be slaughtered like sheep.
True, this Russian Bolshevism is a peril to Europe, and if we had the power, besides securing a tolerable peace for ourselves, to force other countries into a state of law and order, then it would be better to have nothing to do with such people as these, but to march on Petersburg and arrange matters there.

But we have not the power; peace at the earliest possible moment is necessary for our own salvation, and we cannot obtain peace unless the Germans get to Paris--and they cannot get to Paris unless their Eastern front is freed.

That is the circle complete.

All this the German military leaders themselves maintain, and it is altogether illogical of them now apparently to object to Lenin on personal grounds.
I was unable to finish this letter yesterday, and now add this to-day.

Yesterday another attempt was made, from a quarter which you will guess, to point out to me the advantage of a separate peace.