February 14th.
I had a rather grim talk with Meshtcheriakov at dinner. He
is an old Siberian exile, who visited England last summer.
He is editing a monthly magazine in Moscow, mostly
concerned with the problems of reconstrucition, and besides
that doing a lot of educational work among the labouring
classes. He is horrified at the economic position of the
country. Isolation, he thinks, is forcing Russia backwards
towards a primeval state.
"We simply cannot get things. For example, I am lecturing
on Mathematics. I have more pupils than I can deal with.
They are as greedy for knowledge as sponges for water, and
I cannot get even the simplest text-books for them. I cannot
even find in the second-hand book stores an old Course of Mathematics
from which I could myself make a series of copies for them.
I have to teach like a teacher of the middle ages. But,
like him, I have pupils who want to learn."
"In another three years," said some one else at the table, "we
shall be living in ruins. Houses in Moscow were always kept
well warmed. Lack of transport has brought with it lack of
fuel, and water-pipes have burst in thousands of houses.
We cannot get what is needed to mend them. In the same
way we cannot get paints for the walls, which are
accordingly rotting. In another three years we shall have all
the buildings of Moscow tumbling about our ears."
Some one else joined in with a laugh: "In ten years we shall
be running about on all fours."
"And in twenty we shall begin sprouting tails."
Meshtcheriakov finished his soup and laid down his wooden
spoon.
"There is another side to all these things," he said. "In
Russia, even if the blockade lasts, we shall get things
established again sooner than anywhere else, because we
have all the raw materials in our own country. With us it is a
question of transport only, and of transport within our own
borders. In a few years, I am convinced, in spite of all
that is working against us, Russia will be a better place to
live in than anywhere else in Europe. But we have a bad
time to go through. And not we alone. The effects of the
war are scarcely visible as yet in the west, but they will
become visible. Humanity has a period of torment before it
. . . ."
"Bucharin says fifty years," I said, referring to my talk of
yesterday.
"Maybe. I think less than that. But the revolution will be far
worse for you nations of the west than it has been for us. In
the west, if there is revolution, they will use artillery at once,
and wipe out whole districts. The governing classes in the
west are determined and organized in a way our
home-grown capitalists never were. The Autocracy never allowed
them to organize, so, when the Autocracy itself fell, our task
was comparatively easy. There was nothing in the way. It
will not be like that in Germany."