276 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
Naturally enough, the Poles are well informed about Soviet
conditions, and no Polish statesman could have been deceived
as M. Herriot was. Nor are there any illusions whatever
as to the position in the Soviet Union. But neighbourly
relations with Russia are among the main foundations of
Poland's foreign policy, and even her interest in the fate of
the Poles settled in Russia, whose position, like that of all the
other nationalities, is extremely difficult, has to take a secondary
place.
An important element in the situation is the new agreement
between Germany and Poland, for it goes without saying that
it would now be difficult for Moscow by means of its usual
tactics to gain advantage from the quarrels between these two
countries.
The position of Russia's four neighbours to the north of
Poland—Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—is similar
to that of Poland. All these states have large groups of their
nationals inhabiting Russian territory. In relation to the total
number of Firms, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians,
these minorities are fairly important; in some cases they form
10 per cent of the total nationals of the country in question.
In the Pleskau region alone there are about 180,000 Estonians,
and there are Estonian, Latvian and Finnish settlements in
various districts as far as Siberia and especially along the Volga
and in the Ukraine.
Each of these countries had formerly to suffer under Moscow's
tactics of divide et impera^ more especially in the economic
wrote as follows: "One cannot help making certain reservations with regard
to this gentleman who is paying us the return visit [following a Polish visit
to Moscow], Could not someone else have been chosen for this mission?
We in Poland recall the answer which a Zamoyski gave the King of Sweden
under the walls of Zamosc, when the King of Sweden sent a Pole as negotiator.
Zamoyski demanded that a Swede should be sent, for a Pole in Swedish
service might have the dogs set on him. This Mr. Radek is in the same
position. He comes from Tarnov and once worked for the Socialist Naprzod
at Cracow, but he went over to the Bolsheviks and, in 1920^ joined the
traitor Marchlevski and others in attempting to seize Warsaw and instituting
Communist rule."