CONCLUSION
As I put pen to paper to write the concluding chapter of this book
the news is arriving of the affliction of Russia with one of her
periodical famine scourges, an event which cannot fail to affect the
country politically as well as economically. Soviet organizations are
incompetent to cope with such a situation. For the most pronounced
effect both on the workers and on the peasantry of the communistic
experiment has been to eliminate the stimulus to produce, and the
restoration of liberty of trading came too late to be effective. A
situation has arisen in which Russia must make herself completely
dependent for rescue upon the countries against which her governors
have declared a ruthless political war.
The Communists are between the devil and the deep sea. To say “Russia
first” is equivalent to abandoning hope of the world revolution, for
Russia can only be restored by capitalistic and bourgeois enterprise.
But neither does the prospect of refusing all truck with capitalists,
preserving Russia in the position of world-revolutionary citadel,
offer any but feeble hopes of world-revolutionary success. For the
gulf between “the party” and the Russian people, or as Lenin has
recently expressed it in a letter to a friend in France,[7] “the gulf
between the governors and the governed,” is growing ever wider. Many
Communists show signs of weakening faith. Bourgeois tendencies, as
Lenin observes, “are gnawing more and more at the heart of the party.”
Lastly and most terrible, the proletarians of the West, upon whom the
Bolsheviks from their earliest moments based all their hopes, show
no sign whatever of fulfilling the constantly reiterated Bolshevist
prediction that they would rise in their millions and save the only
true proletarian government from destruction.
Alas! there is but one way to bridge the gulf dividing the party
from the people. It is for Russian Communists to cease to be first
Communists and then Russians, and to become Russians and nothing else.
To expect this of the Third International, however, is hopeless. Its
adherents possess none of the greatness of their master, who, despite
subsequent casuistic tortuosities, has demonstrated the ability,
so rarely possessed by modern politicians, honestly and frankly to
confess that the policy he had inaugurated was totally wrong. The
creation of the Third International was perhaps inevitable, embodying
as it does the essentials of the Bolshevist creed, but it was a fatal
step. If the present administration lays any claim to be a _Russian_
government, then the Third International is its enemy. Even in June,
1921, at the very time when the Soviet Government was considering its
appeal to Western philanthropy, the Third International was proclaiming
its insistence on an immediate world revolution and discussing the
most effective methods of promoting and exploiting the war which
Trotzky declared to be inevitable between Great Britain and France,
and Great Britain and the United States! But there _are_ Communists
who are willing to put Russia first, over-shadowed though they often
are by the International; and the extent to which the existing
organized administration may be utilized to assist in the alleviation
of suffering and a bloodless transition to sane government depends
upon the degree in which Communist leaders unequivocally repudiate
Bolshevist theories and become the nearest things possible to patriots.
There are many reasons why, in the event of a modification of régime,
the retention of some organized machine, even that established by the
Communists, is desirable. In the first place there is no alternative
ready to supplant it. Secondly, the soviet system has existed hitherto
only in name, the Bolsheviks have never permitted it to function, and
there is no evidence to prove that such a system of popular councils
properly elected would be a bad basis for at least a temporary system
of administration. Thirdly, Bolshevist invitations to non-Bolshevist
experts to function on administrative bodies, especially in the
capitals, began at an early date as I have already pointed out. For one
reason or other, sometimes under compulsion, sometimes voluntarily,
many of these invitations have been accepted. Jealously supervised
by the Communist Party, experts who are anything but Communists
hold important posts in government departments. They will obviously
be better versed in the exigencies of the internal situation than
outsiders. To sweep away the entire apparatus means to sweep away
such men and women with it, which would be disastrous. It is only the
purely political organizations--the entire paraphernalia of the Third
International and its department of propaganda, for instance, and, of
course, the Extraordinary Commission--that must be consigned bag and
baggage to the rubbish heap.
[Illustration: THE AUTHOR WITH RUSSIAN CHILDREN]
I have always emphasized the part silently and self-sacrificingly
played by a considerable section of the intellectual class who have
never fled from Russia to harbours of safety, but have remained
to bear on their backs, together with the mass of the people, the
brunt of adversity and affliction. These are the great heroes of
the revolution, though their names may never be known. They will be
found among teachers, doctors, nurses, matrons, leaders of the former
co-operative societies, and so forth, whose one aim has been to save
whatever they could from wreckage or political vitiation. Subjected
at first to varying degrees of molestation and insult, they stuck
it through despite all, and have never let pass an opportunity to
alleviate distress. Their unselfish labours have even restored to
a state of considerable efficiency some of the soviet departments,
particularly such as are completely non-political in character. This is
no indication of devotion to Bolshevism, but rather of devotion to the
people despite Bolshevism. I believe the number of such disinterested
individuals to be much larger than is generally supposed and it is to
them that we must turn to learn the innermost desires and needs of the
masses.
I will cite in this connection a single instance. There was formed
just previous to the Great War an organization known as the League for
the Protection of Children, which combined a number of philanthropic
institutions and waged war on juvenile criminality. As a private
non-State and bourgeois institution its activities were suppressed by
the Bolsheviks, who sought to concentrate all children’s welfare work
in Bolshevist establishments, the atmosphere of which was political
and the objects propagandist. The state of these establishments
varies, some being maintained by special effort in a condition of
relative cleanliness, but the majority, according to the published
statements of the Bolsheviks, are falling into a condition of desperate
insanitation and neglect. In any case, toward the close of 1920, the
Bolsheviks were constrained, in view of ever-increasing juvenile
depravity and demoralization, to appeal to the remnants of the despised
bourgeois League for the Protection of Children to investigate the
condition of the children of the capitals and suggest means for their
reclamation. The report submitted by the League was appalling in the
extreme. I am unable to say whether the recommendations suggested
were accepted by the rulers, but the significance lies in the fact
that, notwithstanding persecution, the League has contrived to
maintain some form of underground existence through the worst years of
oppression, and its leaders are at hand, the moment political freedom
is re-established, to recommence the work of rescuing the children or
to advise those who enter the country from abroad with that benevolent
object.
The fact that the Russian people, unled, unorganized, and coerced,
are growing indifferent to politics, but that the better and educated
elements amongst them are throwing themselves into any and every
work, economic or humanitarian, that may stave off complete disaster,
leads to the supposition that if any healthy influence from outside,
in the form of economic or philanthropic aid, is introduced into
Russia, it will rally round it corresponding forces within the country
and strengthen them. This indeed has always been the most forceful
argument in favour of entering into relations with Bolshevist Russia.
The fact that warring against the Red régime has greatly fortified its
power is now a universally recognized fact; and this has resulted not
because the Red armies, as such, were invincible, but because the
politics of the Reds’ opponents were selfish and confused, their minds
seemed askew, and their failure to propose a workable alternative to
Bolshevism served to intensify the nausea which overcomes the Russian
intellectual in Petrograd and Moscow whenever he is drawn into the
hated region of party politics. So great indeed is the aversion of the
bourgeois intellectual for politics that he may have to be pushed back
into it, but he must first be strengthened physically and the country
aided economically.
Whether the intervention should be of an economic or philanthropic
character was a year ago a secondary question. The Bolshevist régime
being based almost entirely on abnormalities, it needed but the
establishment of any organization on normal lines for the latter
ultimately to supersede the former. Now, however, the intervention
must needs be humanitarian. Soviet Russia has resembled a closed room
in which some foul disease was developing, and other occupants of the
house in the interests of self-protection tightly closed and barred
lest infection leak out. But infection has constantly leaked out, and
if it has been virulent it is only because the longer and tighter the
room was barred, the fouler became the air within! This was not the way
to purify the chamber, whose use everyone recognized as indispensable.
We must unbolt the doors, unbar the windows, and force in the light and
air we believe in. Then, the occupants being tended and the chamber
thoroughly cleansed, it will once again become habitable.
Is it too late to accomplish this vast humanitarian task? Is the
disaster so great that the maximum of the world’s effort will be
merely a palliative? Time will show. But if the Russian dilemma has
not out-grown the world’s ability to solve it, Russia must for years
to come be primarily a humanitarian problem, to be approached from the
humanitarian standpoint.
There are many who fear that even now the faction of the Third
International will surely seek to exploit the magnanimity of other
countries to its own political advantage. Of course it will! The ideals
of that institution dictate that the appeal to Western philanthropy
shall conceal such a dagger as was secreted behind the olive branch
to Western capitalism. Has not the Third International to this day
persistently proclaimed its intention to conspire against the very
Governments with which the Bolsheviks have made, or are hoping to make,
commercial contracts, and from which they now beg philanthropic aid?
But the Third International, I believe, has a bark which is much worse
than its bite. Our fear of it is largely of our own creation. Its lack
of understanding of the psychology of Western workers is amazing, and
its appeals are astonishingly illogical. To kill it, let it talk.
The essential impotence of the Third International is fully recognized
by those little nations that were once part of Russia. Having thrown
off the yoke of revolution, they have long sought to open economic
intercourse with their unlovable eastern neighbour. True, their
attitude is inspired in part by apprehension of those who would compel
them forcibly to renew the severed tie rather than allow them to
re-unite voluntarily with Russia when the time shall mature; but their
desire for normal intercourse is based primarily on the conviction
that the communistic experiment would rapidly succumb under any normal
conditions introduced from outside. Nothing will undermine Bolshevism
so effectually as kindness, and the more non-political, disinterested,
and all-embracing that kindness, the greater will be its effect. With
the supplanting of the spirit of political bigotry by that of human
sympathy many rank and file Communists, attracted to the party in
their ignorance by its deceptive catch-phraseology and the energy,
resolution, and hypnotic influence of its leaders, will realize
with the rest of Russia and with the whole world that Bolshevism is
politically a despotism, economically a folly, and as a democracy a
stupendous delusion, which will never guide the proletarian ship to the
harbour of communistic felicity.
Misgivings are often expressed in liberally minded circles that
reaction might undo all that has been achieved since that historic
moment when Nicholas II signed the deed of abdication from the Russian
throne. “Reaction,” in these days of loose terminology, is a word as
much abused as “bourgeois,” “proletariat,” or “soviet.” If it means
stepping backward, a certain amount of healthy reaction in Russia is
both desirable and inevitable. Are not retrogression and progress at
times identical? No man, having taken the wrong turning, can advance
upon his pilgrimage until he returns to the cross-roads. But the
Russian nation has undergone a psychological revolution more profound
than any visible changes, great though these are, and the maximum of
possible reaction must still leave the country transformed beyond
recognition. This would still be the case even if the sum-total of
revolutionary achievements were confined to the decrees promulgated
during the first month after the overthrow of the Tsar. We need not
fear healthy reaction.
No power on earth can deprive the peasant of the land now acquired,
in the teeth of landlord and Bolshevik alike, on a basis of private
ownership. By a strange irony of fate, the Communist régime has
made the Russian peasant still less communistic than he was under
the Tsar. And with the assurance of personal possession, there must
rapidly develop that sense of responsibility, dignity, and pride which
well-tended property always engenders. For the Russian loves the soil
with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind. His
folk-songs are full of affectionate descriptions of it. His plough and
his harrow are to him more than mere wood and iron. He loves to think
of them as living things, as personal friends. Barbaric instincts have
been aroused by the Revolution, and this simple but exalted mentality
will remain in abeyance as long as those continue to rule who despise
the peasant’s primitive aspirations and whose world-revolutionary
aims are incomprehensible to him. A veiled threat still lies behind
ambiguous and inconsistent Bolshevist protestations. When this veiled
threat is eliminated and the peasant comes fully into his own I am
convinced that he will be found to have developed independent ideas
and an unlooked-for capacity for judgment and reflection which will
astonish the world, and which with but little practice will thoroughly
fit him for all the duties of citizenship.
Shortly after the Baltic republic of Lithuania had come to terms
with Soviet Russia, one of the members of the Lithuanian delegation
who had just returned from Moscow told me the following incident. In
discussing with the Bolsheviks, out of official hours, the internal
Russian situation, the Lithuanians asked how, in view of the universal
misery and lack of liberty, the Communists continued to maintain
their dominance. To which a prominent Bolshevist leader laconically
replied: “Our power is based on three things: first, on Jewish brains;
secondly, on Lettish and Chinese bayonets; and thirdly, on the crass
stupidity of the Russian people.”
This incident betrays the true sentiments of the Bolshevist leaders
toward the Russians. They despise the people over whom they rule. They
regard themselves as of superior type, a sort of cream of humanity,
the “vanguard of the revolutionary proletariat,” as they often call
themselves. The Tsarist Government, except in its final degenerate
days, was at least Russian in its sympathies. The kernel of the Russian
tragedy lies not in the brutality of the Extraordinary Commission, nor
even in the suppression of every form of freedom, but in the fact that
the Revolution, which dawned so auspiciously and promised so much,
has actually given Russia a government utterly alienated from the
sympathies, aspirations, and ideals of the nation.
The Bolshevist leader would find but few disputants of his admission
that Bolshevist power rests to a large extent on Jewish brains and
Chinese bayonets. But his gratitude for the stupidity of the Russian
people is misplaced. The Russian people have shown not stupidity but
eminent wisdom in repudiating both Communism and the alternative to it
presented by the landlords and the generals. Their tolerance of the
Red in preference to the White is based upon the conviction, universal
throughout Russia, that the Red is a merely passing phenomenon. Human
nature decrees this, but there was no such guarantee against the Whites
with the support of the Allies behind them. A people culturally and
politically immature like the Russians may not easily be able to embody
in a formula the longings that stir the hidden depths of their souls,
but you cannot on this account call them stupid. The Bolsheviks are
all formula--empty formula--and no soul. The Russians are all soul with
no formula. They possess no developed system of self-expression outside
the arts. To the Bolshevik the letter is all in all. He is the slave of
his shibboleths. To the Russian the letter is nothing; it is only the
spirit that matters. More keenly than is common in the Western world
he feels that the kingdom of heaven is to be found not in politics
or creeds of any sort or kind, but simply within each one of us as
individuals.
The man who says: “The Russians are a nation of fools,” assumes a
prodigious responsibility. You cannot call a people stupid who in a
single century have raised themselves from obscurity to a position
of pre-eminence in the arts, literature, and philosophy. And whence
did this galaxy of geniuses from Glinka to Scriabin and Stravinsky,
or such as Dostoievsky, Turgeniev, Tolstoy, and the host of others
whose works have so profoundly affected the thought of the last
half-century--whence did they derive their inspiration if not from the
common people around them? The Russian nation, indeed, is not one of
fools, but of potential geniuses. But the trend of their genius is not
that of Western races. It lies in the arts and philosophy and rarely
descends to the more sordid realms of politics and commerce.
Yet, in spite of a reputation for unpracticalness, the Russians have
shown the world at least one supreme example of economic organization.
It is forgotten nowadays that Russia deserves an equal share in
the honours of the Great War. She bore the brunt of the first two
years of it and made possible the long defence of the Western front.
And it is forgotten (if ever it was fully recognized) that while
corruption at Court and treachery in highest military circles were
leading Russia to perdition, the provisioning of the army and of the
cities was upheld heroically, with chivalrous self-sacrifice, and with
astonishing proficiency, by the one great democratic and popularly
controlled organization Russia has ever possessed, to wit, the Union of
Co-operative Societies. The almost incredible success of the Russian
co-operative movement was due, I believe, more than anything else
to the spirit of devotion that actuated its leaders. It is futile
to point, as some do, to exceptional cases of malpractices. When an
organization springs up with mushroom growth, as did the Russian
co-operatives, defects are bound to arise. The fact remains that by the
time the Revolution came, the Russian co-operative societies were not
only supplying the army but also providing for the needs of almost the
entire nation with an efficiency unsurpassed in any other country.
The Bolsheviks waged a ruthless and desperate war against public
co-operation. The Co-operative Unions represented an organization
independent of the State and could therefore not be tolerated under
a Communist régime. But, like religion, co-operation could never be
completely uprooted. On the contrary, their own administration being so
incompetent, the Bolsheviks have on many occasions been compelled to
appeal to what was left of the co-operative societies to help them out,
especially in direct dealings with the peasantry. So that, although
free co-operation is entirely suppressed, the shell of the former
great organization exists in a mutilated form, and offers hope for its
resuscitation in the future when all co-operative leaders are released
from prison. There are many ways of reducing the Russian problem to
simple terms, and not the least apt is a struggle between Co-operation
and Coercion.
A deeper significance is attached in Russia to the word “Co-operation”
than is usual in western countries. The Russian Co-operative Unions
up to the time when the Bolsheviks seized power by no means limited
their activities to the mere acquisition and distribution of the first
necessities of life. They had also their own press organs, independent
and well-informed, they were opening scholastic establishments, public
libraries and reading-rooms, and they were organizing departments of
Public Health and Welfare. Russian Co-operation must be understood
in the widest possible sense of mutual aid and the dissemination of
mental and moral as well as of physical sustenance. It is a literal
application on a wide social scale of the exhortation to do unto
others as you would that they should do to you. This comprehensive and
idealistic movement was the nearest expression yet manifested of the
Russian social ideal, and I believe that, whatever the outward form of
the future constitution of Russia may be, in essence it will resolve
itself into a Co-operative Commonwealth.
There is one factor in the Russian problem which is bound to play a
large part in its solution, although it is the most indefinite. I mean
the power of emotionalism. Emotionalism is the strongest trait of the
Russian character and it manifests itself most often, especially in the
peasantry, in religion. The calculated efforts of the Bolsheviks to
suppress religion were shattered on the rocks of popular belief. Their
categorical prohibition to participate in or attend any religious rites
was ultimately confined solely to Communists, who when convicted of
attending divine services are liable to expulsion from the privileged
ranks for “tarnishing the reputation of the party.” As regards the
general populace, to proclaim that Christianity is “the opium of the
people” is as far as the Communists now dare go in their dissuasions.
But the people flock to church more than ever they did before, and this
applies not only to the peasants and factory hands but also to the
bourgeoisie, who it was thought were growing indifferent to religion.
This is not the first time that under national affliction the Russian
people have sought solace in higher things. Under the Tartar yoke they
did the same, forgetting their material woes in the creation of many of
those architectural monuments, often quaint and fantastic but always
impressive, in which they now worship. I will not venture to predict
what precisely may be the outcome of the religious revival which
undoubtedly is slowly developing, but will content myself with quoting
the words of a Moscow workman, just arrived from the Red capital, whom
I met in the northern Ukraine in November, 1920. “There is only one man
in the whole of Russia,” said this workman, “whom the Bolsheviks fear
from the bottom of their hearts, and that is Tihon, the Patriarch of
the Russian Church.”
* * * * *
A story runs of a Russian peasant, who dreamt that he was presented
with a huge bowl of delicious gruel. But, alas, he was given no spoon
to eat it with. And he awoke. And his mortification at having been
unable to enjoy the gruel was so great that on the following night, in
anticipation of a recurrence of the same dream, he was careful to take
with him to bed a large wooden spoon to eat the gruel with when next it
should appear.
The untouched plate of gruel is like the priceless gift of liberty
presented to the Russian people by the Revolution. Was it, after
all, to be expected that after centuries of despotism, and amid
circumstances of world cataclysm, the Russian nation would all at once
be inspired with knowledge of how to use the new-found treasure, and of
the duties and responsibilities that accompany it? But I am convinced
that during these dark years of affliction the Russian peasant is, so
to speak, fashioning for himself a spoon, and when again the dream
occurs, he will possess the wherewithal to eat his gruel. Much faith
is needed to look ahead through the black night of the present and see
the dawn, but eleven years of life amongst all classes from peasant
to courtier have perhaps infected me with a spark of that patriotic
love which, despite an affectation of pessimism and self-deprecation,
does almost invariably glow deep down in the heart of every Russian. I
make no excuse for concluding this book with the oft-quoted lines of
“the people’s poet,” Tiutchev, who said more about his country in four
simple lines than all other poets, writers, and philosophers together.
In their simplicity and beauty the lines are quite untranslatable, and
my free adaptation to the English, which must needs be inadequate, I
append with apologies to all Russians:
_Umom Rossii nie poniatj;_
_Arshinom obshchym nie izmieritj;_
_U niei osobiennaya statj--_
_V Rossiu mozhno tolko vieritj._
Seek not by Reason to discern
The soul of Russia: or to learn
Her thoughts by measurements designed
For other lands. Her heart, her mind,
Her ways in suffering, woe, and need,
Her aspirations and her creed,
Are all her own--
Depths undefined,
To be discovered, fathomed, known
By Faith alone.
THE END
INDEX
_Agents-provocateurs_, 72, 217
Agitator, professional, 245 f.
Alexandrinsky Theatre, 258
Allies:
economic intervention, 299;
military intervention, 46, 65, 81 f., 92, 226;
political control by, 225 f.
Anglo-Russian Commission, 3
Apfelbaum. _See_ Zinoviev.
Archangel, 4, 11, 83
Arms, right to carry, 268, 277
Army, Red, 34, 42, 69, 116, 207, 210, 215 ff.;
classification of regiments, 234;
Communist “Cells,” 234;
discipline, 237;
essential features, 248;
mobilisation, 231;
mutiny, 229;
oath, 232;
political organisation, 234;
promotion, 227;
revolutionary tribunals, 230, 233;
terror in, 229;
uniform, 215.
_See also_ Desertion, officers.
Arrest, avoidance of, 199, 209, 286;
in Finland, 167;
of workers, 257
Badaev, 281
Balahovitch, 249
Ballot, secret, 236, 274
Baluev, 248
Bielo’ostrof, 22, 98, 118
Bielorusia, 249
Bolshevik, demonstrations, 136 f., 142;
employment of bourgeois, 97, 115, 229, 269;
government, 251 ff.;
and the people, 43, 251 ff., 263;
and Third International, 254;
leaders helped by war, 225, 298;
love of theory, 264, 304;
negotiations with non-Bolsheviks, 64;
party, 34, 251, 271;
purge, 265 f.;
power, basis of, 303;
saints, 131
Bolshevism, and Soviet, 273 f., 296;
despotism, 201;
international aspect of, 252;
a social experiment, 251
Bourgeois, employed by Bolsheviks, 97, 115, 229, 269;
enterprise, need of, 294;
Lenin’s attitude to, 260
Boy scouts, 3
Bribery, of commissars, 98;
investigators, 126;
prison warders, 59, 96
Bronstein. _See_ Trotzky.
Brusilov’s son shot, 224, 248
Cadet schools, 226
Certificates, of identification, 21 ff.;
exemption from military service, 122 ff.
Chaliapin, 158, 258
Children, league for protection of, 297
Clubs, Communist, 268
Commerce. _See_ Trading.
Commissars, bribery of, 98;
Communist, 222;
regimental, 210, 230, 235;
Soviet of, 213, 271 f.
Committee of the poor, 43, 46, 242;
of village poor, 185, 260
Communal booths, 43;
eating-houses, 44, 62
Commune, village, 185
Communist, a typical, 243;
women, 267;
Youth, Union of, 268, 271
Communist “cells,” 234, 275;
clubs, 268; franchise, 273
Communist Party, 68, 71, 79, 114, 131, 211, 248, 251 ff.;
apart from people, 251, 264;
in army, 218, 227 ff.;
change of name, 34;
discipline, 270;
Jews in, 271;
membership, 266 f., 270;
meeting, 79;
and Soviet Government, 254;
and Third International, 254, 271;
training school, 267
_Contre-espionnage_, 64 f.
Co-operative Societies, 115, 255, 271, 305 f.
Counter-revolution, 66, 193, 204.
_See also_ Extraordinary Commission.
Couriers, service of, 169, 171, 209
Crombie, Captain, 12, 65 f.
Cronstadt, 92, 121, 163, 285
Cross-examination, 58, 73 f.
Cultural-Enlightenment Committees, 240 f., 248
Denikin, 215, 224 f., 249
Denunciations, 238
Deriabinskya Prison, 91
Desertion from Red army, 116, 225 f., 229 f.
---- Commission for Combating, 231, 288
Disenfranchising peasants, 273
Disguise, change of, 150, 197 f., 285 f.
Disturbances, suppression of, 212
“Doctor,” the, 131 ff., 169, 194, 207
Dostoievsky, 304
Duma, 2, 257, 277
Dvinsk, 287
Eating-houses, Communal, 44, 283;
private, 44, 81, 120
Ekaterina Canal, 155
Elections, 186, 265 ff.
Electric light scarcity, 53
Engels, 131
Evdokimov, 280
Extraordinary Commission for the suppression of the
counter-revolution, 19 f., 23, 50, 67, 70 ff., 91, 99, 101,
119, 125, 152, 193, 200, 205, 209, 230, 249, 276, 296
Finland, 12, 34, 92, 98, 110, 113 f., 117, 164 ff., 284
---- Railway station, 28
First International, 252
Fleet, British, 285 f.
Food, cards, 43;
rations, 41, 46, 56, 64, 114, 212, 261, 282;
sale of, 34, 40, 43 f., 100, 154, 235, 255 f., 262 f.;
smuggling, 188 f., 261
Formulas, Bolshevik love of, 264, 304
Franchise, 273
Freedom of speech, 79, 133, 141, 255, 277
---- of trade, 154, 255, 263 f.
---- suppression of, 303
“Freight weeks,” 261
Friedmann, 23
Frontier, Finnish, 13, 20, 98, 108 ff., 114, 166 f., 171 f., 285
---- Latvian, 292
---- Patrols, 18, 20, 114, 165, 167, 178
Fuel, 56, 69, 80, 114
Furniture confiscated, 149, 157
German Soviet of Petrograd, 139
Germans understand Russians, 92
Glinka, 304
Goróhovaya Street, No. 2. _See_ Extraordinary Commission.
Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovitch, 111
Green Guards, 291 f.
Grodno, 229
Grusino station, 77, 106
Gutov, 248
Helsingfors, 11 f., 113, 168 f.
Hiding documents, 75 f., 95, 209, 289
Hold-ups in street, 79
Home, molestation in, 149, 157, 224
Hostages, 58, 93, 94, 216, 223 f., 231, 257 f., 289
House committee. _See_ Committee of the poor.
Ice-route to Finland, 163 ff.
Instructions, 6 f.
Intervention. _See_ Allies.
Intrigues in Finland, 171
Investigators of the Extraordinary Commission, 70, 95, 126
Ivan Sergeievitch, 16 f., 38 f., 118, 159, 169, 202 ff.
Jews, in army, 218;
Communist Party, 271
“Journalist,” the, 55, 80, 123, 148, 153, 194
Kamenostrovsky Prospect, 32, 44, 131
Kazan Cathedral, 38, 51, 160, 162
Kazanskaya Street, 38, 160
Klembovsky, 249
Kolchak, 210, 225 f., 249
Kresty Prison, 2
Kuznetchny Pereulok, 100
Labour Party, British, 257
Ladoga, Lake, 108, 172, 178
Latvia, 287 ff.
Lawyers, Tsarist, employed, 233
Legislation, Soviet, 279
Lenin, 3, 34, 218, 241, 254, 257 ff.;
bodyguard, 259;
and bourgeoisie, 260, 294;
and peasants, 260;
and Trotzky, 272
Licences to trade, 33
Lida, 229
Liebknecht, Karl, 131 f., 258
Lissy Nos, 164
Liteiny Bridge, 30
---- Prospect, 62
Lithuania, 303
Luban, Lake, 292
Lunacharsky, 79, 260
Luxembourg, Rosa, 131 f., 258
Makhno, 249
Maria, 52, 73, 94, 99 ff., 113, 153, 195
Marinsky Opera, 159, 258, 275
Market of speculators, 100;
raid on, 154
Marsh, Mr., 31 f., 48 ff., 66, 73, 199;
escape of, 77 ff.
Marsh, Mrs., arrest of, 50, 73, 74;
danger of, 94;
escape of, 97 ff.
Marx, Karl, 131, 242, 252, 260
Matches, smuggling, 188
Melnikoff, 12 ff., 18 f., 48 f., 67, 89 f., 117 f., 125, 131 ff., 205
Menshevist Party, 65, 237, 243, 261, 266, 281
Mihailovsky Square, 77
Military service. _See_ Army.
Exemption from, 117, 122
Miliukoff, 257
Mines in Gulf of Finland, 121
Mirbach, Count, 4
Mobilisation. _See_ Army.
Moscow, 4, 97, 263
Music, love of, 183 f., 244, 258
Mutiny in Red army, 229 f.
Names used by author, 21, 40, 53, 55, 57, 63, 105, 117, 144, 196
Narodny Dom, 159, 217, 258, 262
National Centre, Moscow, 213
Nevsky Prospect, 34, 62, 79, 190, 207
Nicholas station, 190, 232, 253, 255
Obuhov works, 276
Odessa, 220
Officers, Tsarist, in Red army, 91, 211, 216 ff., 220, 223 f., 226
Okhta Bridge, 190
---- station, 77, 105, 189
Opera, 158, 258, 275
Parliament, British, 257
Parsky, 249
Passports, 16, 21, 76, 116, 135, 144
Peasant “capitalist,” 181 f.
Peasantry, against both “Red” and “White,” 225, 227 f., 250;
feud with Bolsheviks, 263, 301 f.;
Finnish, 174;
leaders of, 249;
Lenin understands, 260 f.;
power of, 193;
propaganda among, 47, 228;
treatment of, 68, 185 ff.
Pertz, Otto, 139
Petrograd, return to, 30, 111, 113, 194 f.
---- Soviet, 236, 265 ff.
Petropavlovka, 31
Pilsudski, 249
Poland, 228, 249
Police, Tsarist, re-engaged, 50, 71, 117, 191
“Policeman,” the, 54, 57 f., 73, 85 f., 99, 105, 119, 123, 151, 169
Political guides, 238
Political organisation in army, 232 f.
Press, monopoly of, 34, 277
Professional classes. _See_ Bourgeoisie.
Propaganda, in army, 143, 239 f.;
author to undertake, 285;
Communist, 271, 276;
by gramophone, 241;
among peasants, 47
Protopopoff, 190
Provisional Government, 242
Provocation by police, 72
Public Works, Department of, 54
Punctuality, lack of, 278
Putilov works, 255 f., 276
“Radishes,” 265
Raid, on eating-house, 62;
on market, 154;
on train, 188, 288 f.
Railway travelling, 77 f., 106, 187 f., 261 f., 288 f.
Rajajoki, 17
Rasputin, 257
Rations. _See_ Food.
Rattel, 248
Rautta, 172
Red army. _See_ Army.
Regiments, classification of, 234
Relatives as hostages, 216, 223 f.
Religion, failure to suppress, 305 ff.
Revolt against Bolsheviks, 71, 248, 257
Revolution of March, 1917, 1, 132, 190, 255, 275, 277
Revolutionary Tribunals, 230, 233
Rezhitsa, 289
“Sackmen,” 188 ff., 261
Sadovaya Street, 45
St. Izaac’s Cathedral, 103
St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress, 31, 111
Samara, 3, 278
Scheidemann, 140 ff.
Schools, Communist training, 267
Scriabine, 304
Seals, importance of, 22
Ship committee, 222
Shpalernaya Prison, 91
Siennaya market, 52, 154
Smuggling, 162, 187, 188, 200
Socialist-Revolutionary Party, 65 f., 237, 243, 261, 266, 281
Soldiers’ committees, 221
Soviet, connection with Bolshevism, 273, 296;
election, 186, 265, 272 ff;
Executive Committee, 279;
legislation, 279;
meeting of a, 278 ff.;
of people’s commissars, 213, 271;
Republic’s president, 262;
what is a, 272 ff.
Speculation, 70, 106, 154 f., 201, 235
Speech, freedom of, 79, 133, 141, 255, 277
Speeches, Communist, 133
Spies in Red army, 217
Stage, privileges of the, 64
Stáraya Derévnya, 162
Stepanovna, 39 f., 137 ff., 146, 152 f.
Stravinsky, 304
Street-sweepers, ladies as, 30, 33
Strikes, 84, 193, 256, 259, 274, 276
Suvorov Prospect, 190
Tauride Palace, 2, 277
Tchaikovsky, 83
Tche-Ka. Tchrezvitchaika. _See_ Extraordinary Commission.
Telephone, 90, 206
Terijoki, 168, 171
Theatre, Alexandrinsky, 258.
_See also_ Opera stage.
Third International Workers’ Association, 138, 252 ff., 262, 295 ff.;
headquarters, 253;
relation to Soviet Government, 254, 271
Thought, freedom of, 133
Tihon, the patriarch, 307
Tihonov, 23
Tiutchev, 308
Tolstoy, 304
Trade unions, 115
Trading, private, 70;
licences, 33
Travelling. _See_ Railway.
Troitzkaya Street, 63
Trotzky, 44, 69, 79, 90 f., 211, 219 ff., 227, 229, 241, 248, 259 ff., 272
Tsarskoeselsky station, 208
Turgeniev, 304
“Two-pooding,” 262
Ukraine, 228, 231, 249
Uniform of Red army, 215;
use of British, 215
Uritzky, 20, 266
---- Palace, 277
Vasili Island, 66
Viborg, 12, 134, 174, 202
Vladimirovsky Prospect, 100
Volodarsky, 266
White army, 211, 223, 225, 227, 303
Winter Palace, 137, 202
Women Communists, 267;
electors, 277
Workers invited to join Communists, 266 f.
Wrangel, 225, 228, 249
Yaroslavl, 13, 205
Y.M.C.A., 3, 243
Yudenitch, 211
Zabalkansky Prospect, 156
Zagorodny Prospect, 208
Zinoviev, 20, 34, 79, 137 ff., 216 f., 241, 253, 257 ff., 278 ff.
Ziv, Dr., 219
Znamenskaya Square, 190
Zorinsky, 37, 62, 117 ff., 135 ff., 168 f., 202 f.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In March, 1918, the Bolsheviks changed their official title
from “Bolshevist Party” to that of “Communist Party of Bolsheviks.”
Throughout this book, therefore, the words Bolshevik and Communist are
employed, as in Russia, as interchangeable terms.
[2] A prominent pre-revolutionary journal.
[3] The Bolsheviks assert that I lent the National Centre financial
assistance. This is unfortunately untrue, for the British Government
had furnished me with no funds for such a purpose. I drew the
Government’s attention to the existence of the National Centre, but the
latter was suppressed by the Reds too early for any action to be taken.
[4] Trotzky, by Dr. G. A. Ziv, New York, _Narodopravsto_, 1921, p. 93.
[5] _Ibid._, p. 26.
[6] In such company I was regarded as an invalid, suffering in body and
mind from the ill-treatment received at the hands of a capitalistic
Government. The story ran that I was born in one of the Russian
border provinces, but that my father, a musician, had been expelled
from Russia for political reasons when I was still young. My family
had led a nomadic existence in England, Australia, and America. The
outbreak of the war found me in England, where I was imprisoned and
suffered cruel treatment for refusal to fight. Bad food, brutality, and
hunger-striking had reduced me physically and mentally, and after the
Revolution I was deported as an undesirable alien to my native land.
The story was a plausible one and went down very well. It accounted
for mannerisms and any deficiency in speech. It also relieved me of
the necessity of participation in discussions, but I took care that it
should be known that there burned within me an undying hatred of the
malicious Government at whose hands I had suffered wrong.
[7] Published in the _New York Times_, August 24, 1921.
* * * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
Obvious printer errors corrected silently.
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.