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The Abyss

Raemaekers, Louis, 1919, Chromolithograph
The Abyss
The Abyss
The Abyss
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Category
Library Item
Item no
33490
Title
The Abyss
Description
"When autocrats borrow the brands of revolution to enflame [sic] the population of an enemy country, they are resorting to desperate devices. Ideas often possess a boomerang instinct and come back to the mind that threw them out. The collapse of Russia was the direct result of German intrigue, the one instance of success in a campaign that operated in every civilised country. Even in the act of going down Russia was a fatal enemy, for she carried Germany with her. The forces of corruption, the weakening of discipline, the broadcast dissemination of revolutionary ideas, all theses influences permeated the German troops, and the men on the Western front caught echoes of the tumult on the Eastern border. Six months before the close of the War, Cologne was filled with twenty thousand deserters whom nobody dared to order back into the trenches. The High Seas Fleet rusted in its docks, and early in November the Generals informed the Kaiser that they could no longer depend upon the loyalty of their men. It is true that martial defeat brought about the collapse of moral, but once victory vanished forever the idea of revolution took root. Prancing autocracy was caught in the rebound of Bolshevism and the arrogant rider and war horse went hurtling down into the abyss."
Artist / maker
Date
1919
Size
34 x 25.8 cm
Location
Art and Design Library
Copyright
Louis Raemaekaers' drawings are reproduced by kind permission of the Louis Raemaekers Foundation.