_Terror_.--The red terror is over. During the period of its power the
extraordinary commission for the suppression of the counter
revolution, which was the instrument of the terror, executed about
1,500 persons in Petrograd, 500 in Moscow, and 3,000 in the remainder
of the country--5,000 in all Russia. These figures agree with those
which were brought back from Russia by Maj. Wardwell, and inasmuch as
I have checked them from Soviet, anti-Soviet, and neutral sources I
believe them to be approximately correct. It is worthy of note in this
connection that in the white terror in southern Finland alone,
according to official figures, Gen. Mannerheim executed without trial
12,000 working men and women.
_Order_.--One feels as safe in the streets of Petrograd and Moscow as
in the streets of Paris or New York. On the other hand, the streets of
these cities are dismal, because of the closing of retail shops whose
functions are now concentrated in a few large nationalized "department
stores." Petrograd, furthermore, has been deserted by half its
population; but Moscow teems with twice the number of inhabitants it
contained before the war. The only noticeable difference in the
theaters, opera, and ballet is that they are now run under the
direction of the department of education, which prefers classics and
sees to it that working men and women and children are given an
opportunity to attend the performances and that they are instructed
beforehand in the significance and beauties of the productions.
_Morals_.--Prostitutes have disappeared from sight, the economic
reasons for their career having ceased to exist. Family life has been
absolutely unchanged by the revolution. I have never heard more
genuinely mirthful laughter than when I told Lenin, Tchitcherin, and
Litvinov that much of the world believed that women had been
"nationalized." This lie is so wildly fantastic that they will not
even take the trouble to deny it. Respect for womanhood was never
greater than in Russia to-day. Indeed, the day I reached Petrograd was
a holiday in honor of wives and mothers.
_Education_.--The achievements of the department of education under
Lunacharsky have been very great. Not only have all the Russian
classics been reprinted in editions of three and five million copies
and sold at a low price to the people, but thousands of new schools
for men, women, and children have been opened in all parts of Russia.
Furthermore, workingmen's and soldiers' clubs have been organized in
many of the palaces of yesteryear, where the people are instructed by
means of moving pictures and lectures. In the art galleries one meets
classes of working men and women being instructed in the beauties of
the pictures. The children's schools have been entirely reorganized,
and an attempt is being made to give every child a good dinner at
school every day. Furthermore, very remarkable schools have been
opened for defective and over-nervous children. On the theory that
genius and insanity are closely allied, these children are taught from
the first to compose music, paint pictures, sculpt and write poetry,
and it is asserted that some very valuable results have been achieved,
not only in the way of productions but also in the way of restoring
the nervous systems of the children.
_Morale_.--The belief of the convinced communists in their cause is
almost religious. Never in any religious service have I seen higher
emotional unity than prevailed at the meeting of the Petrograd Soviet
in celebration of the foundation of the Third Socialist
Internationale. The remark of one young man to me when I questioned
him in regard to his starved appearance is characteristic. He replied
very simply: "I am ready to give another year of starvation to our
revolution."