The Red Army's sweep through Manchuria swept up, among other industrial loot, a Japanese optical-goods factory at Mukden. On the guard-box at the factory entrance (see cut) Russian soldiers painted Prince Alexander Nevsky's triumphant boast after his Russians had crushed the invading Teutonic Knights at Lake Peipus in 1242:
Who comes to us with the sword
Will perish by the sword;
On these words the Russian land
Ever stood, will ever stand.
To the lands she had conquered Russia had brought not only the sword but the salvage crew and empty freight train. These instruments of conquest, like the sword, could summon up bitter resistance....
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