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JST PASS ISSUED BY THE MILITARY EEVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE ON
IE NIGHT THAT THE BOLSHEVIKI CAME INTO POWER IN RUSSIA. '
ranslation :
A.SS I. Military Revolutionary of the Petrograd Council of
'orkers' and Soldiers' Deputies gives Tovaritche Louise Bryant
ee passage through the city.
gned by the Chairman and Secretary of the
ilitary Revolutionary Committee.

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^SS TO SMOLNY. TRANSLATION: MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY
JMMITTEE OF THE SOLDIERS' AND PEASANTS' DEPUTIES,
ASS No. 43. To the building of the Smolny Institute.
ovaritche Louise Bryant,
.J representative of the American Press.
hmmittee on Personnel — S. Peters.
i\^mber 5, 1917.
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DEPOSITED BY THE

LINONIA AND BROTHERS LIBRARY

SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
LOUISE BRYANT

^^^^ UUJcJL4, ^^dj^ .^^^5^^__^
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KATHERINE BRESHKOVSKY
GRANDMOTHER OF THE REVOLUTION

SIX RED MONTHS
IN RUSSIA
An Observer's Account qf Russia Before and
During the Proletarian Dictatorship
BY
LOUISE BRYANT
ILliUSTBATED

NEW >iSJr YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

Copyright, 1918,
By George H. Doran Company

Printed in the United States of America

TO
THAT BELOVED VAGABOND
JOHN REED
This book is affectionately dedicated

Acknowledgments are due to the Philadel
phia Public Ledger and other numerous news
papers and magazines throughout the United
States, Canada and South America for per
mission to reprint these articles.

INTRODUCTION
I ASK a favour of him who reads this bundle of
stories, gathered together on the edge of Asia,
in that mystic land of white nights in summer
and long black days in winter, where events only
heretofore dreamed or vaguely planned for fu
ture ages have suddenly come to be. I ask the
reader to remember his tolerant mood when he sits
himself down under his shaded lamp of an evening
to read certain lovely old legends, to remember how
deliberately he gets himself out of this world into
another as unlike our own as the pale moon. He
should recall that in reading ancient lore he does
so with an open mind, calmly, never once throw
ing down his book and cursing because some an
cient king has marched with all his gallant warriors
into another country without so much as a pass
port from the State Department.
We have here in America an all too obvious
and objectionable prejudice against Russia. And
this, you will agree, is born of fear. In Rus
sia something strange and foreboding has occurred,
it threatens to undo our present civilisation and
instinctively we fear change — for better or for
worse. We hug our comforts, our old habits of
life, our old values. . . . There are those among

X INTRODUCTION
us who whisper that this change will mean dark
ness and chaos, there are those who claim it is but
a golden light which, starting from a little flame,
shall circle the earth and make it glow with hap
piness. All that is not for me to say. I am but
a messenger who lays his notes before you, attempt
ing to give you a picture of what I saw and what
you would have seen if you had been with me.
In that half year of which I write I felt as if I
were continually witnessing events which might
properly come some centuries later. I was continu
ally startled and surprised. And yet I should have
been prepared for surprises. All of us have felt
the deep undercurrents that are turning the course
of the steady tide. The great war could not leave
an unchanged world in its wake — certain move
ments of society were bound to be pushed forward,
others retarded. I speak particularly of Socialism.
Socialism is here, whether we like it or not — just
as woman3i£[i:age is here — and it spreads with the
yeaTsI In Russia the socialist state is an accom
plished fact. We can never again call it an idle
dream of long-haired philosophers. And if that
growth has resembled the sudden upshooting of a
mushroom, if it must fall because it is premature,
it is nevertheless real and must have tremendous
effect on all that follows. Everj^thing considered,
there is just as much reason to believe that the
Soviet Republic of Russia will stand as that it will
fall. The most significant fact is that it will not

INTRODUCTION xi
fall from inside pressure. Only outside, foreign,
hostile intervention can destroy it.
On the grey horizon of human existence looms a
great giant called Working Class Consciousness.
He treads with thunderous step through all the
countries of the world. There is no escape, we must
go out and meet him. It all depends on us whether
he will turn into a loathsome, ugly monster de
manding human sacrifices or whether he shall be the
saviour of mankind. We must use great foresight,
patience, understanding. . . . We must somehow
make an honest effort to understand what is hap
pening in Russia.
And I who saw the dawn of a new world can
only present my fragmentary and scattered evi
dence to you with a good deal of awe. I feel as
one who went forth to gather pebbles and found
pearls. . . .

CONTENTS PAGE
Introduction  ix
CHAPTEK
I On the Wat to Russia  19
n From the Frontier to Petrograd ... 27
in Petrograd  35
rV Smolny  46
V Explanation of Political Parties . . 52
VI The Democratic Congress  59
VII The Preparliament and the Soviet of
the Russian Republic  71
Vni The Fall of the Winter Palace ... 79
IX The Constituent Assembly .... 89
X Katherine Breshkovsky  104
XI Kerensky  113
xn Two Ministers of Welfare — Panina and
KOLLONTAY  122
Xin Lenine and Trotsky  135
XrV A Triumvirate — ^Antonoff, Krylenko
Dubenko  148
XV Marie Spirodonova  164
XVI From One Army to the Other .... 171
xvn Red Guards and Cossacks  178
XVIII The Red Burial  186
XIX Revolutionary Tribunal  193
xiii

xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XX The Foreign Office  200
XXI Women Soldiers  210
XXII Free Speech  220
XXIII Street Fighting  227
XXIV Men of Honour  235
XXV German Propaganda  242
XXVI Russian Children  251
XXVII The Decline of the Church .... 259
XXVIII Odds and Ends of Revolution .... 266
XXIX A Talk with the Enemy  278
XXX Shopping in Germany  284
XXXI Adventures as a Bolshevik Courier . 292

ILLUSTRATIONS
Katherine Breshkovsky  Frontispiece FACING PAGE
General Korniloff  30
tcheidze  66
tchernoff  94
Kerensky  118
Alexander Kollontay  130
Leon Trotsky  144
Dubenko  150
Krylenko  166X9^0
Antonoff  106 \50
Spirodonova  168
Red Guards on the Steps of Smolny  178
The Red Burial Held in Moscow  184
The Revolutionary Tribunal  196
Anna Shub  214
Women Soldiers in Front of the Winter Palace . 230
Facsimiles of Passes Granted to the Author . . 254
Crowd in Nevsky  270

XV

SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA

SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
CHAPTER I
ON THE WAY TO RUSSIA
WHEN the news of the Russian revolution
flared out across the front pages of all
the newspapers in the world, I made up my mind
to go to Russia. I did it suddenly without think
ing at all. By force of habit I put down my two
pennies at a little corner newsstand and the news^
dealer handed me an evening paper. There with
the great city roaring around me I read the first
account, a warm feeling of deep happiness spread
ing over me.
I had been walking with a yoimg Russian from
the East Side. Now I turned to speak to him,
but he was staring at the large black letters crazily,
his eyes bulgiag from his head. Suddenly he
grabbed the paper out of my hand and ran madly
through the streets. Three days later I met him
— ^he was still embracing everybody, weeping and
telling them the good news. He had spent three
years in Siberia. . . .
Early in August I left America on the Danish
steamer United States. From my elevation on
19

20 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
the first-class deck the first night out I could hear
returning exiles in the steerage singing revolution
ary songs. In the days that followed I spent most
of my time down there ; they were the only people
on tbe boat who weren't bored to death. There
were about a hundred of them, mostly Jews from
the Pale. Hunted, robbed, mistreated in every
conceivable manner before they fled to America,
they had somehow maintained the greatest love for
the land of their birth. I could not understand it
then. I do now. Russia lays strong hold on the
affections of even the foreign visitor.
It was a long way back to Russia for these people.
We were held up in Halifax a week on their ac
count. Every morning British officers came on
board and examined and re-examined. Pitiful in
cidents occurred. There was an old woman who
clung frantically to some letters from a dead son.
She secreted them in aU sorts of strange places
and brought down suspicion upon herself. There
was a youth they decided to detain — ^he threw him
self face downward on the deck and sobbed loudly
like a child. The whole lot of them were in a £;tate
of nervous terror; Russia was so near and yet so
far. And they were held up again and again — •
at Christiania, at Stockholm, at Haparanda. I
saw one of the men in Petrograd five months later.
He had just gotten through. . . .
After we left Stockholm my own curiosity grew
every hour. As our train rushed on through the

ON THE WAY TO RUSSIA 21
vast, untouched forests of northern Sweden I could
scarcely contain myself. Soon I should see how
this greatest and youngest of democracies was
learning to walk — to stretch itself — to feel its
strength — unshackled! We were to watch that
brave attempt of the new republic to establish it
self with widely varying emotions, we miscellaneous
folk, who were gathered together for a few hours.
The day we reached the border every one on the
train was up bustling about with the first light, get
ting ready for the change. The rain beat mourn
fully against the car windows as we ate our frugal
meal of sour black bread and weak coffee. Most
of us had been a month on the way and we were
travel-weary. We wondered vaguely what had
happened in Russia — ^no news had leaked into Swe
den since the half-credited story about the German
advance on Riga.
The little ferry-boat gliding over dark, muddy
waters between Haparanda and Tornea, carrying
the same trainload of passengers and piled high
with baggage, landed us on the edge of Finland
on a cheerless grey September morning. A steady
drizzle added to our discomfort. As soon as we
stepped off the boat I caught my first glimpse of
the Russian army; great giants of men, mostly
workers and peasants, in old, dirt-coloured uni
forms from which every emblem of Tsardom had
been carefully removed. Brass buttons with the
Imperial insignia, gold and silver epaulettes, deco-

22 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
rations, all were replaced by a simple arm-band
or a bit of red cloth. I noticed that all of them
smoked, that they did not salute and that sentries,
looking exceedingly droll, were sitting on chairs.
Military veneer seemed to have vanished. What
had taken its place?
Things began to happen as soon as we landed.
One woman in her excitement began speaking Ger
man. Then when it was discovered that her pass
port bore no vise from Stockholm she was hustled
roughly back over the line. She called out as she
went that she had no money, that no one had told
her she needed a vise and that she had three starv
ing children iq Russia. Her thin, hysterical voice
trailed back brokenly.
A taU, white-bearded patriarch, returning after
an enforced absence of thirty years, rushed from
one soldier to another.
"How are you, my dears? What town are you
from? How long have you been here? Ah, I am
glad to be back I"
Thus he ran on, not waiting or expecting an
answer. The soldiers smiled indulgently, although
for some mysterious reason they were in a dead-
serious mood. At length one of them made a ges
ture of impatience.
"Listen, Little Grandfather," he said severely
but not unkindly, "are you not aware that there
are other things to think about in Russia just now
besides family re-unions ?"

ON THE WAY TO RUSSIA 23
The old man caught some deep significance be
hind his words and looked pitifully bewildered. He
had been a dealer in radical books in London for
many years and he had been buried in these books.
He was not prepared for action; he was coming
home to a millennium to die at peace in free, con
tented and joyful Russia. Now a premonition of
fear flitted over his old face. He clutched nerv
ously at the soldier's arm.
"What is it you have to tell me?" he cried. "Is
Russia not free? What begins now but happiness
and peace?"
"Now begins work," shouted several soldiers.
"Now begins more fighting and more dying ! You
old ones will never understand that the job is by
no means finished. Are there not enemies without
and traitors within? . . ."
The old exile appeared suddenly shrunken and
tired. "Tell me," he whispered, "what the trouble

is."

For answer they pointed to a sign-board upon
which a large, new notice was pasted and we joined
an agitated little group and read:

"TO ALL-ALL-ALL:

"On the 26th of August (September Sth,
our time) General Korniloff despatched to
me, Duma member V. N. Lvov, with a de
mand to give him over supreme military and

24 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
civilian power, saying that he will form a new
government to rule the country. I verified the
authority of this Duma member by direct tele
phonic communication with General Korniloff.
I saw in this demand addressed to the Provi
sional Government the desire of a certain class
of the Russian people to take advantage of
the desperate situation, of our nation, to re
establish that system of order which would be
in contradiction to the acquisition of our Revo
lution; and therefore the Provisional Govern
ment considered it necessary for the salvation
of the country, of liberty and democratic gov
ernment, to take all measures to secure order
in the country and by any means suppress all
attempts to usurp the supreme power in the
State and to usurp the rights won by our citi
zens in the Revolution. These measures I
put into operation and will inform the Na
tion more fully of them. At the same time,
I ordered General Korniloff to hand over the
command to General Klembovsky, Comman
der-in-Chief of the Northern Front, defend
ing the way to Petrograd. And herewith I
appoint General Klembovsky Commander-in-
Chief of all the Russian Armies. The City
of Petrograd and the Petrograd District is
declared under martial law by action of this
telegram. I appeal to all citizens that they
should conserve the peace and order so neces-

ON THE WAY TO RUSSIA 25
sary for the salvation of the country and to
all the officers of the army and fleet I appeal
to accomplish their duties in defending the
Nation from the external enemy.
"(Signed) Premier Kerensky."
So I had arrived on the crest of a coumter-
revolution! Korniloff was marching on Petrograd.
Petrograd was in a state of siege. Trenches were
at that very moment being dug outside the city.
The telegram from Kerensky was two days old.
What had happened since then? Wild rumour fol
lowed wild rumour. In fact, such exaggeration
abounded that the whole outlook of the country
was completely changed in each overheated report.
We walked up and down the station under heavy
guard, like prisoners. . . .
Everything was in confusion; passports and lug
gage were examined over and over. I was marched
into a small, cold, badly lit room, guarded by six
soldiers with long, business-like looking bayonets.
In the room was a stocky Russian girl. She mo
tioned for me to remove my clothes. This I did,
wondering. Once they were off she ordered me
to put them on again without any examination. I
was curious. "It's just a rule," she said, smihng at
my incomprehension.
There were British officers here and they advised
me not to proceed. "The Germans have taken
Riga and are already across the Dvina; when they

26 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
get to Petrograd they will cut you in pieces!"
With such gloomy predictions I left the frontier
town and sped onward through flat, monotonous
Finland. . . .

CHAPTER II
PROM THE FRONTIER TO PETROGRAD
NOBODY believed that our train would ever
really reach Petrograd. In case it was
stopped I had made up my mind to walk, so I
was extremely grateful for every mile that we cov
ered. It was a ridiculous journey, more like some
thing out of an extravagant play than anything
in real life.
Next to my compartment was a General, super-
refined, painfully neat, with waxed moustachios.
There were several monarchists, a diplomatic
courier, three aviators of uncertain political opin
ion and, further along, a number of political exiles
who had been held up in Sweden for a month and
were the last to return at the expense of the new
government. Rough, almost ragged soldiers
climbed aboard continually, looked us over and
departed. Often they hesitated before the Gen
eral's door and regarded him suspiciously, never
at -any time did they honour him with the slightest
military courtesy. He sat rigid in his seat and
stared back at them coldly. Every one was too
agitated to be silent or even discreet. At every
27

28 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
station we all dashed out to enquire the news and
buy papers.
At one place we were informed that the Cossacks
were all with Korniloff as well as the artiUery;
the people were helpless. At this alarming news
the monarchists began to assert themselves. They
confided to me in just what manner they thought
the revolutionary leaders ought to be publicly tor
tured and finally given death sentences.
The next rumour had it that Kerensky had been
murdered and all Russia was in a panic ; in Petro
grad the streets were running blood. The return
ing exiles looked pale and wretched. So this then
was their joyful home-coming! They sighed but
they were exceedingly brave. "Ah, well, we will
fight it all over again!" they said with marvellous
determination. I made no comments. I was con
scious of an odd sense of loneliness ; I was an alien
in a strange land.
At all the stations soldiers were gathered in lit
tle knots of six and seven; talking, arguing, ges
ticulating. Once a big, bewhiskered mujik thrust
his head in at a car window, pointed menacingly
at a well-dressed passenger and bellowed inter
rogatively, "Burzhouee!" (Bourgeoise). He looked
very comical, yet no one laughed. . . .
We had become so excited we could scarcely
keep our seats. We crowded into the narrow cor
ridor, peering out at the desolate country, reading
our papers and conjecttu-ing . . .

FROM THE FRONTIER TO PETROGRAD 29
All this confusion seemed to whet our appetites.
At Helsingfors we saw heaping dishes of food
in the railway restaurant. A boy at the door ex
plained the procedure: first we must buy little
tickets and then we could eat as much as we pleased.
To our astonishment the cashier refused the Rus
sian money which we had so carefully obtained be
fore leaving Sweden.
"But this is ridiculous !" I told the cashier. "Fin
land is part of Russia! Why shouldn't you take
this money?"
Flames shot up in her eyes. "It will not long be
a part of Russia!" she snapped. "Finland shall
be a republic!" Here was a brand new situation.
How fast they came now, these complications.
Feeling utterly at a loss, we strolled up and
down, complaining bitterly. Once we found we
could not buy food, our hunger grew alarmingly.
We were saved by a passenger from another car
who had plenty of Finnish marks and was willing
to take our rubles.
At Wiborg we felt the tension was deep and
ominous. We were suddenly afraid to enquire the
news of the crowds on the platform. There were
literally hundreds of soldiers, their faces haggard,
in the half light of late afternoon. The scraps of
conversation we caught sent shivers over us.
"All the generals ought to be killed !" "We must
rid ourselves of the bourgeoisie!" "No, that is not

30 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
right." "I am not in favour of that!" "All killing
is wrong. . . ."
A pale, slight youth, standing close beside me,
unexpectedly blurted out in a sort of stage whis
per, "It was terrible. ... I heard them scream
ing!" I questioned him anxiously. "Heard who?
Heard who?"
"The officers! The bright, pretty officers ! They
stamped on their faces with heavy boots, dragged
them through the mud . . . threw them in the
canal." He looked up and down fearfully, his
words coming in jerks. "They have just finished
it now," he said, still whispering, "they have killed
fifty, and I have heard them screaming."
Once the train moved again we pieced together
our fragments of news and made out the following
story: Early the day before had arrived messages from
Kerensky, ordering the troops to Petrograd to
defend the city. The officers had received the mes
sages but remained silent and gave no orders. The
soldiers had grown suspicious. They mumbled to
gether and their mumblings had become a roar. At
some one's suggestion, they marched in a body
and searched for the messages. The messages were
found. Their worst suspicions were confirmed.
Rage and revenge swept them away. They did not
stop to separate innocent from guilty. The offi
cers were sympathisers of Korniloff, they were aris-

GENERAL KORNILOFF
WHO HEADED THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION IN SEPTEMBER.

FROM THp FRONTIER TO PETROGRAD 31
tocrats, they were enemies of the revolution! In
quick, wild anger they dealt out terrible punish
ment. The details of the massacre were exceedingly
ugly, but no description of mine is necessary.
Every Russian writer who has ever written about
mob violence has described the swift terribleness
of these scenes with amazing frankness. Realis
ing that the most serious of all dissolution and re
volt is military mutiny, our hearts fluttered at the
unutterable possibilities. ...
We were interrupted in our reflections by a wail
from the Russian courier who found himself in a
curious dilemma. "What shall I do?" he asked
of us dismally. "I have been nearly a month at
sea and God knows what has happened to my un
fortunate country in that time. God knows what
is happening now. If I deliver my papers to the
wrong faction it will be fatal!"
It was past midnight when we stopped at Beeloo-
strov. It was the last station. We were so cer
tain all along that we would never get to Petro
grad that we were not surprised now when sol
diers came on board and ordered us all out. We
soon found, however, that it was just another tire
some examination. Crowded into a great bare
room, we stood shivering nervously while our bag
gage was hurled pell-mell into another. As our
names were called we submitted our passports, an
swered questions, wrote down our nationality, our

32 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
religion, our purpose in Russia, and hurried to
unlock our trunks for the impatient soldiers.
The officers startled us by beginning to confiscate
all sorts of ordinary things. We protested as much
as we dared. In explanation they replied that a
new order had just come in prohibiting medicines,
cosmetics and what-not.
Next to me in line was an indignant princess
whose luggage contained many precious "aids to
beauty," all of which had already been passed hur
riedly by bashful censors and custom officials many
times before. But that unreasonable new order up
set everything; rouge-sticks followed rare per
fumes, French powder, brilliantine, hair-dye — all
were thrown roughly into a great unpainted box,
a box whose contents grew rapidly higher and
higher, a box that had the magic power to change
what was art in one's hand-bag into rubbish in its
insatiable maw.
The princess pleaded with the soldiers, used fem
inine wiles, burst into hysterical weeping. Poor,
unhappy princess, forty, with a flirtatious husband,
handsome and twenty-three! The situation was
far too subtle for these crude defenders of the
revolution! Only an old monarchist dared to be
sympathetic, but I noted that he took care to be
sympathetic in English, a language few of his
countrymen understand.
"Madame," he remarked testily, "there is a
strong hint of stupid morality in all this. You

FROM THE FRONTIER TO PETROGRAD 33
must remember that to the uncultured all imple
ments of refinement are considered immoral!"
The husband offered tardy consolation. "Be
calm, my darling, you shall have all these things
again." Unfortunately he would never be able
to make good his promise, for in these rough days
of the new order cosmetics are not considered im
portant and Russian ladies are forced to go "au
natural." We arrived in Petrograd at three in the morn
ing prepared for anything but the apparent order
and the deep enveloping stillness that comes be
fore dawn. My friends of the train soon scat
tered and were lost in the night, and I stood there
in the great station confused, with what was left
of my baggage.
Presently a young soldier came running. "Aft-
mobile?" he enquired in a honeyed voice. "Aftmo-
bile?" I nodded assent, not knowing what else to
do and in a moment we were outside before a big
grey car. In the car was another soldier, also
young and pleasant. I gave them the name of a
hotel some one had told me about — the Angleterre.
So we were off whirling through the deserted
streets. Here and there we encountered sentries
who called out sharply, received the proper word,
and allowed us to pass. I was consumed with
curiosity. These soldiers wore neither arm-bands
nor bits of ribbon. I had no way of knowing who
or what they were . . . One of them wanted to be

34 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
entertaining, so he began to tell me about the first
days of the revolution and how wonderful it was.
"The crowd raised a man on their shoulders,"
he said, "when they saw the Cossacks coming. And
the man shouted, 'If you have come to destroy the
revolution, shoot me first,' and the Cossacks re
plied, 'We do not shoot our brothers.' Some of the
old people who remembered how long the Cossacks
had been our enemies almost went mad with joy."
He ceased speaking. Mysteriously out of the
darkness the bells in all the churches began to boom
over the sleeping city, a sort of wild barbaric tango
of bells, like nothing else I had ever heard. . . .

CHAPTER in
PETROGRAD
THE sleepy porter of the Hotel Angleterre
fumbled his keys and finally got the door
open. My two soldiers rode away waving their
hands cheerfully; I never saw them again. The
porter took my passport and put it in the safe
without looking at it and shuffled along upstairs
ahead of me until we reached a large vault-like
suite on the third floor.
It was four o'clock and not for many hours
would it be light — ^Petrograd is very far north to a
New Yorker. By December when things had
reached such a desperate state that we seldom had
artificial light at all, because there was no coal to
run the power plants, we seemed to live in per
petual darkness. I have often purchased, in the
deserted churches, holy candles which were desig
nated to be burned before the shrines of saints but
which were carried home surreptitiously in order to
see to write. But in October the lights were
still running. When the porter pressed the but
ton I blinked painfully under the dazzling blaze
of sparkling old-fashioned crystal candelabra.
35

36 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
I looked around at the great unfriendly room
in which I found myself. It was all gold and ma
hogany with old blue draperies ; most of the furni
ture was still wearing its summer garments. I had
a feeling that no one had lived in this room for
years — ^it had a musty, unused smell. Lost in a
remote corner of the room adjoining was my bed
and beyond that an enormous bath-tub, cut out of
solid granite, coldly reflected the light.
For all this elegance? "Thirty rubles," the por
ter murmured, still half awake.
There was a large sign above my bed forbid
ding me to speak German — the penalty being fif
teen hundred rubles. I had no desire to break the
law. It seemed a lot to pay for so small amount
of enjoyment, I thought as I slid bravely down
between the icy sheets and fell into a dead slumber.
I was awakened by loud knocks on my door. A
burly Russian entered and began to bellow about
my baggage. I rubbed my eyes and tried to make
out what language he was speaking and suddenly
I realised — ^he was speaking German! I pointed
to the sign and he shook with laughter.
I found out afterwards that no one pays any at
tention to signs in Russia. They read the signs
and then use their own judgment. Take language,
for instance. Few foreigners ever learn to speak
Russian; on the other hand, they are very apt to
have at least a smattering of French or German.
Solution: speak the language you understand. If

PETROGRAD 37
you tell them German is an enemy language they
will tell you that they are not at war with the lan
guage. Furthermore, they have found their use of
it very valuable in getting over propaganda into
Austria and Germany.
Just across from my window, St. Isaac's Cathe
dral loomed blackly and I watched the bellringers
in the ponderous cupolas, bell-ropes tied to elbows,
knees, feet and hands, making the maddest music
with great and little bells. The people passing
looked up also and occasionally one crossed him
self. Out on the streets I wandered aimlessly, noting
the contents of the little shops now pitifully empty.
It is curious the things that remain in a starving
and besieged city. There was only food enough to
last three days, there were no warm clothes at all
and I passed window after window full of flowers,
corsets, dog-collars and false hair !
This absurd combination can be accounted for
without much scientific investigation. The corsets
were of the most expensive, out-of-date, wasp-
waist variety and the women who wear them have
largely disappeared from the capital.
The reason for the false hair and dog collars was
equally plain. About a third of the women of
the towns wear their hair short and there is no mar
ket for the tons of beautiful hair in the shops,
marked down to a few rubles. An enterprising
dealer in such goods could make a fortune by ex-

38 SIX RED MONTHS IN Rl'TSSIA
porting the gold, brown and auburn tresses of the
shorn and emancipated female population of Rus
sia and selling them in America, France or some
other backward country where women still cling
to hairpins.
As for the dog collars, just imagine any one be
ing a dog-fancier or even a fondler of dogs to the
extent of purchasing a gold-rimmed or a diamond-
studded collar while a Revolutionary Tribunal is
sitting just around the comer. Whatever class
lines there were among dogs fell with the Tsar.
And the masses of flowers. Horticulture had
reached a high state of development before the
revolution. This was especially true of exotic
flowers because of the extravagant tastes of the
upper classes. With the change in government the
demand for these luxuries abruptly ceased; but
there were still the hot-houses, there were still the
old gardeners. It is impossible to break off old-
established things in the twinkling of an eye.
Habits of trade are as hard to break as any other
habits of life. So the shops continued to be filled
with flowers. On the Morskaya where so much bit
ter street fighting occurred were three flower-shops
— in them were displayed always the rarest varie
ties of orchids. And in those turbulent January
days suddenly appeared — white lilacs !
These strange left-overs of another time cropped
up everywhere making sharp contrasts. There
were the men, for instance, who stood outside of the

PETROGRAD 39
palaces and the big hotels, peacock feathers in their
round Chinese-looking caps and wearing green,
gold or scarlet sashes. Their duty had been to as
sist people who alighted from carriages, but now
grand personages never arrived, and stiU they stood
there, their sashes bedraggled and faded, their
feathers ragged and forlorn. As helpless they were
as the old negroes of the South who clung to their
slavery after the emancipation.
And in contrast were the waiters bustling about
in the restaurants inside of the very buUdings
where the svetzars stood before the doors like
courtiers without a court. They ran their res
taurants co-operatively and at every table was a
curt Uttle notice.
"Just because a man must make his living by
being a waiter do not insult him by offering him a
tip." Petrograd is impressive, vast and solid. New
York's high buildings have a sort of taU flimsiness
about them that is not sinister; Petrograd looks
as if it were built by a giant who had no regard for
human life. The rugged strength of Peter the
Great is in aU the broad streets, the mighty open
spaces, the great canals curving through the city,
the rows and rows of palaces and the immense fa-
9ades of government buildings. Even such ex
quisite bits of architecture as the graceful gold
spires of the old Admiralty buUding and the round

40 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
blue-green domes of the Turquoise Mosque, can
not break that heaviness. . . .
Built by the cruel wilfulness of an autocrat, over
the bodies of thousands of slaves, against the unani
mous wiU of all grades of society, this huge arti
ficial city, by a peculiar irony has become the heart
of world revolution ; has become Red Petrograd!
There were wonderful tales about the defeat of
Korniloff and what they described as a "new kind
of fighting." Every one was anxious to tell his
version of how the scouts went out and met the
army of the counter-revolutionists and fraternised
with them and overcame them "with talk" so that
they refused to fight and turned against their lead
ers. There was little variation, in short, the story
was this :
The scouts came upon the hostile army en
camped for the night and went among them say
ing: "Why have you come to destroy the revolu
tion?" The hostile army indignantly denied the
charge, claiming that they had been sent to "save"
the revolution. So the scouts continued to argue.
"Do not believe the lies your leaders tell you. We
are both fighting for the same thing. Come to
Petrograd with us and sit in our councils, learn the
truth, and you will abandon this Korniloff who is
attempting to betray you."
Accordingly delegates were sent to Petrograd.
When they reported to their regiments the two
armies joined as brothers.

PETROGRAD 41
While aU this fraternising was going on and no
one was sure of its results, revolutionists in Petro
grad worked feverishly. In one place they told
me that they had manufactured a whole cannon in
thirty hours and the trenches that encircled the city
were dug over night.
Ugly tales went round about the faU of Riga.
Most Russians, with fairly good reason, believe that
it was sold out. It fell just after General Korniloff
said in public: "Must we pay with Riga the price
of bringing the country to its senses ?"
No one ever explained the reason for the vague
order given to the retreating Russian army: "Go
north and turn to the left!" Bewildered soldiers
retreated in confusion for days without officers or
further instructions, finally entrenching themselves,
forming Soldiers' Committees, beginning to fight
again. . . .
Officers returning a week or two afterwards told
an amazing story. It was printed in the conser
vative paper Vetcherneie Vremya and I heard it
twice myself from men who were captured, and I
beUeve it to be true. When Riga fell many pris
oners were taken. It was towards the end of the
week. On Sunday there were services at which
the Kaiser appeared and made a speech to the Rus
sian soldiers. He called them "dogs" and berated
them for kUling their officers whom he claimed were
brave and admirable gentlemen, commanding his
respect. Consistent with Prussian military ideals.

42 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
he made a practical demonstration by allowing the
officers full freedom and issuing orders that the
common soldiers shoiUd have little food and hard
work and in certain cases a flogging. The hun
dreds of thousands of tubercular Russian prisoners
now returning to Russia are evidence of how weU
the instructions were carried out. In his speech to
the soldiers in the church the Kaiser said: "Pray
for the government of Alexander IIL, not for your
present disgraceful government."
That evening he dined the officers and they came
back into Russia and explained that we did not "un
derstand" the Kaiser. . . .
In Petrograd one of the things that strike cold
ness to one's heart are the long lines of scantily clad
people standing in the bitter cold waiting to buy
bread, mUk, sugar or tobacco. From four o'clock
in the morning they begin to stand there, while it
is stiU black night. Often after standing in line
for hours the supplies run out. Most of the time
only one-fourth pound of bread for two days was
aUowed ; and the soggy black peasant's bread is the
staff of life in Russia — it is not a "trimming" like
our American bread. Cabbage is also a staple diet.
On my second night in Petrograd I met a Rus
sian from New York. We strolled up and down
the Nevsky Prospect. All Russia promenades the
Nevsky; it is one of the great streets of the world.
My friend wanted to be hospitable as all Russians
are, but he was very poor. We passed a Uttle booth

PETROGRAD 43
and spied a few bars of American chocolate — 5c
bars. He enquired the price — seven rubles! With
true Russian recklessness he paid out his last
kopeck and said: "Come, let us walk up and down
once again, it is only a mUe. . . ."
Petrograd with food for three days was not
tragic or sad. Russians accept hardships uncom
plainingly. When I first went there I was in
clined to put it down to serviUty, but now I be
lieve it to be because they have unconquerable spir
it. Weeks at a stretch the street cars would not
run. People walked great distances without a
murmur and the life of the city went on as usual.
It would have upset New York completely, espe
ciaUy if it happened as it did in Petrograd that
whUe the street cars were stopped, Ughts and water
also were turned off and it was ahnost impossible
to get fuel to keep warm.
The most remarkable thing about Russians is
this wonderfiU persistence. Theatres somehow
managed to run two or three times a week. The
Nevsky after midnight was as amusing and inter
esting as Fifth Avenue in the afternoon. The
cafes had nothing to serve but weak tea and sand
wiches but they were always full. A wide range
of costumes made the picture infinitely more in
teresting. There is practicaUy no "fashion" in
Russia. Men and women wear what they please.
At one table would be sitting a soldier with his
fur hat puUed over one ear, across from him a Red

44 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Guard in rag-tags, next a Cossack in a gold and
black uniform, earrings in his ears, silver chains
around his neck, or a man from the Wild Division,
recruited from one of the most savage tribes of the
Caucasus, wearing his sombre, flowing cape. . . .
And the girls that frequented these places were
by no means all prostitutes, although they talked to
everybody. Prostitution as an institution has not
been recognised since the first revolution. The de
grading "Yellow Tickets" were destroyed and
many of the women became nurses and went to the
front or sought other legal employment. Russian
women are peculiar in regard to dress. If they
are interested in revolution, they almost invariably
refuse to think of dress at all and go about looking
noticeably shabby — if they are not interested they
care exceedingly for clothes and manage to array
themselves in the most fantastic "inspirations."
I shall always remember Karsavina, the most
beautiful dancer in the world, in those mea^e days,
dancing to a packed house. It was a marvellous
audience ; an audience in rags ; an audience that had
gone without bread to buy the cheap Uttle tickets.
I think Karsavina must have wondered what it
would be like to dance before that tired, under
nourished crowd instead of her once glittering and
exclusive little band of nobles.
When she came on it was as hushed as death.
And how she danced and how they followed her!
Russians know dancing as the ItaUans know their

PETROGRAD 45
operas ; every little beautiful trick they appreciate
to the utmost. "Bravo ! Bravo !" roared ten thou
sand throats. And when she had finished they could
not let her go — again and again and again she had
"co come back until she was wilted like a tired but
terfly. Twenty, thirty times she returned, bow
ing, smUirig, pirouetting, until we lost count. . . .
Then the people filed out into the damp winter
night, puUing their thin cloaks about them.
In Petrograd were flags — all red. Even the
statue of Catherine the Great in the little square
before the Alexandrinsky Theatre did not escape.
There stood Catherine with all her favourite cour
tiers sitting at her feet and on Catherine's sceptre
waved a red flag! These little visible signs of the
revolution were everywhere. Great blotches
marked the places where imperial insignia had been
torn from the buildings. Mild mannered guards
patrolled the principal corners, trying not to offend
anybody. And over it all stalked King Hunger
while a chiU autumn rain soaked into the half -fed
shivering throngs that hurried along, lifting their
faces and beholding a vision of world democ
racy. . . .

CHAPTER IV
SMOLNY
SMOLNY INSTITUTE, headquarters of the
Bolsheviki, is on the edge of Petrograd. Years
ago it was considered "way out in the country,"
but the city grew out to meet it, engulfed it and
finally claimed it as its own. Smolny is an enor
mous place; the great main building stretches in a
straight line for hundreds of feet with an ell jutting
out at each end and forming a sort of elongated
court. Close up to the north eU snuggles the lovely
little Smolny Convent with its duU blue domes
with the sUver stars. Once young ladies of noble
birth from all over Russia came here to receive a
"proper" education.
I came to know Smolny well while I was in Rus
sia. I saw it change from a lonely, deserted bar
racks into a busy humming hive, heart and soul of
the last revolution. I watched the leaders once ac
cused, hunted and imprisoned raised by the mass
of the people of all Russia to the highest places in
the nation. They were borne along on the whirl
wind of radicalism that swept and is stUl sweep
ing Russia and they themselves did not know how
46

SMOLNY 47
long or how well they would be able to ride that
whirlwind. . . .
Smolny was always a strange place. In the cav
ernous, dark hallways where here and there flick
ered a pale electric Ught, thousands and thousands
of soldiers and sailors and factory workers tramped
in their heavy, mud-covered boots every day. AU
the world seemed to have business at Smolny and
the polished white floors over which once tripped
the Ught feet of careless young ladies became dark
and dirt-stained and the great buUding shook with
the tread of the proletariat. . . .
I ate many of my meals in the great mess hall
on the ground floor with the soldiers. There were
long, rough wooden tables and wooden benches and
a great air of friendliness pervaded everywhere.
You were always welcome at Smolny if you were
poor and you were hungry. We ate with wooden
spoons, the kind the Russian soldiers carry in their
big boots, and aU we had to eat was cabbage soup
and black bread. We were always thankful for
it and always afraid that perhaps to-morrow
there would not be even that. . . . We stood in long
lines at the noon hour chattering like children. "So
you are an American, Tavarishe, well, how does it
go now in America?" they would say to me.
Upstairs in a little room tea was served night
and day. Trotsky used to come there and Kol
lontay and Spiradonova and Kaminoff and Volo-
darysky and aU the rest except Lenine. I never saw

48 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Lenine at either of these places. He held aloof and
only appeared at the largest meetings and no one
got to know him very well. But the others I men
tioned would discuss events with us. In fact, they
were very generous about giving out news.
In all the former classrooms typewriters ticked
incessantly. Smolny worked twenty-four hours a
day. For weeks Trotsky never left the building.
He ate and slept and worked in his office on the
third floor and strings of people came in every hour
of the day to see him. All the leaders were fright
fully overworked, they looked haggard and pale
from loss of sleep.
In the great white hall, once the ball-room, with
its graceful columns and silver candelabra, dele
gates from the Soviets all over Russia met in all-
night sessions. Men came straight from the first
line trenches, straight from the fields and the fac
tories. Every race in Russia met there as brothers.
Men poured out their souls at these meetings and
they said beautiful and terrible things. I will give
you an example of the speeches of the soldiers :
A tired, emaciated little soldier mounts the ros
trum. He is covered with mud from head to foot
and with old blood stains. He blinks in the glar
ing light. It is the first speech he has ever m^de
in his life and he begins it in a shrill hysterical
shout :
"Tavarishi! I come front the place "where men
are digging their graves and calling them trenches!

SMOLNY .49
We are forgotten out there in the snow and the
cold. We are forgotten while you sit here and dis
cuss politics! I tell you the army can't fight much
longer! Something's got to be done! Something's
got to be done! The officers won't work with the
soldiers' committees and the soldiers are starving
and the Allies won't have a conference. I tell you
something's got to be done or the soldiers are going
home!" Then the peasants would get up and plead for
their land. The Land Committees, they claimed,
were being arrested by the Provisional Govern
ment ; they had a religious feeling about land. They
said they would fight and die for the land, but
they would not wait any longer. If it was not given
to them now they would go out and take it.
And the factory workers told of the sabotage of
the bourgeoisie, how they were ruining the delicate
machinery so that the workmen could not run the
factories ; they were shutting down the mills so they
would starve. It was not true, they cried, that the
workers were getting fabulous sums. They couldn't
live on what they got!
Over and over and over like the beat of the surf
came the cry of all starving Russia : "Peace, land
and bread!"
It would be very unjust to blame the leaders
for any steps they took, my observation was
that they were always pushed into these actions.
by the great wUl of the majority. It is certainly

50 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
fobUsh also to think that the peasants were iso
lated from Smolny. One of the most spectacxUar
events that happened in Petrograd after the revo
lution was the two-mile parade of peasants from
6 Fontanka, where they were having the meeting
of the AU-Russian Peasants' Congress, to Smolny,
just to show their approval of that institution.
So many different organisations had offices in
Smolny. There worked the now famous MUitary
Revolutionary Committee in Room 17, on the top
floor. This committee, which performed some ex
traordinary feats during the first days of the Bol
shevik uprising, was headed by Lazarimov, an
eighteen-year-old boy. It was a throbbing room;
couriers came and went, foreigners stood in line to
get passes to leave the country, suspects were
brought in. . . .
Antonoff, the War Minister, had an office in
Smolny, as well as Krylenko and Dubenko, so it
vvas the nerve centre for the army and navy, as weU
as the political centre.
In the corridors were stacks of hterature which
the people gobbled up eagerly. Pamphlets, books
and official newspapers of the Bolshevik party Uke
Rabotchi Poot and the Isvestia by the thousands
were disposed of daily.
Soldiers, dead-weary, slept in the haUs and on
chairs and benches in unused rooms. Others stood
alert and on guard before aU sorts of committee
rooms, and if you didn't have a pass like the one

SMOLNY 51
reproduced in this book you didn't get in. The
passes were changed frequently to keep out spies.
In many windows were machine guns pointing
blind eyes into the cold winter air. Rifles were
stacked along the walls, and on the stone steps be
fore the main entrance were several cannon. In
the court were armoured cars ready for action.
Smolny was always well guarded by volunteers.
No matter how late the meetings lasted, and they
usuaUy broke up about 4 o'clock in the morning,
the street-car employees kept the cars waiting.
"WTien the heaviest snowstorms blocked up the traf
fic, soldiers and saUors and working women came
out on the streets and kept the tracks clear to
Smolny. Often it was the only line running in the
city. I have heard that Smolny was the bought estab
lishment of the German imperialists. I have tried
to give a true picture of Smolny. It was not the
kind of place in which an imperialist of any sort
would have been comfortable. I never heard any
leader or any of the thousands of soldiers, workers
or peasants who came there express one trace of
sympathy for the German Government. They
have, however, the same feeling that President Wil
son has about speaking to the people of Austria
and Germany over the heads of their autocratic
mUitary leaders. And how successful they are in /
this must one day be obvious to a doubting world.

CHAPTER V
explanation of political, parties
EVERY change or development of the political
situation in Russia will appear vague and in
comprehensible unless one understands the essen
tial points of the various political parties and has
some definite idea of the way a Soviet government
works. In order to do so it is not at aU necessary
to go into the fine points of Socialism, which the
average reader probably has neither time nor in
clination for, but just to get a broad general idea.
In writing this I do not write as a Socialist, but as
a layman speaking to laymen. I attempt to give
no pointers to students of political economy. They
will be familiar with this outline and much more.
The first thing to remember is that all the im
portant political parties in Russia are Socialist
parties — except the Cadets.
The Cadet party is the party of the propertied
classes; it has no force of arms and no great mass
of people. At one time the only accredited legal
party which stood for fairness and reform, as the
revolution progressed it lost in influence and fell
rapidly into ill repute.
Marie Spirodonova, in speaking of the Cadets,
52

EXPLANATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES 53

RUSSIAN POUTICAL PARTIES

Parties

Monarchists and

Cadets

Menaheviki, So

Bolsheviki and Left

reactionary par

cialist Revolu

Socialist Revolu

ties which dis

tionaries and
tionaries
appeared at be
other moderate
ginning of Rev.
Later these ele
Socialist groups
ments entered
Cadet party
Classes
Feudal land-own
Liberal land own
Socialist intellect
Industrial workers,
represented
ers, reactionary
ers, liberal capi
uals, proprie
day labourers, poor
capitalises
talists, profes
sional classes
tors, well-to-do
peasants
peasants
Attitude
Unconditional
Unconditional
For Socialism but
For Socialism through
towards
ly hostile
ly hostile
consider this not
a proletarian dicta
Sodalism
tbe time for
realisation
torship
Form of
Autocracy
Bourgeois pasfia-
Parliamentary Re
Republic based on
government
meniary t«p«b-
lic or Constitu
pubUc based on
Soviets of Soldiers',
coalition of So-
Workers' and Peas
tional monarchy
cialists and
ants' Deputies
like England
bourgeois classes
Attitude to
CoaUtion of au
Russia a preat
power in alliance
Wanted peace but
Immediate general
ward tbe
tocracies and
no break with
democratic peace.
war ".
Great Russia
with Allies.
WantedDardan- elles and expan
sion in Asia Mi
nor
Allies
Hostile to Germany
but also not in sym
pathy with aUeged
imperialiBtic war
aims of other bellig
erents
said: "It is impossible at the present moment to
be anything more reactionary than a Cadet. The
reason is simple. No one dares to come out openly
in favour of a monarchy or to say he is hostile to
Socialism, so naturally all these people hide be
hind the Cadet party — claim to be Cadets, although
they are not actuaUy members and they do their
best to destroy it. That is why the party that was
once an honest, liberal party has become the Black
Hundred organisation — hated and despised."
Katherine Breshkovsky, in one of her speeches,
expressed much the same opinion. "As regards our
capitalists, great and small, I must tell you that
54 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
upon them rests a great, bloody sin. I am impar
tial — ^you know the class' I come from — I repeat
our enemy at home is just this merchant and cap
italist class."
In trying to compare the deep chasm between the
mass of the people in Russia and our own people
where lines are hardly discernible, we must remem
ber that in Russia over 80 per cent, of the people are
proletariat or semi-proletariat. That is, they are
either entirely without property or they have such
small holdings that they are unable to exist from
them. On the other hand — after the revolution the
propertied classes refused to co-operate in any way
with the democratic organisations of the masses.
They bent every effort to break down those insti
tutions. Often ovir press speaks of the Socialist Revolu
tionists or the Mensheviki as if they were "reason
able" and conservative parties as opposed to the
radical Bolsheviki. They commonly speak of the
Bolsheviki as Anarchists and as MaximaUsts. AU
these ideas are far from correct. The MensheviM
and the Bolsheviki are branches of the same party
and until 1903 they worked together. They stUl
have precisely the same programme, but they dif
fer as to tactics. They are both Social Democrats
— Marxians. They got their names because of the
split. The majority of the party went with the
Bolsheviki and the minority went with the Men
sheviki. That is what their names mean — majori-

EXPLANATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES 65
tists and minoritists. Both stand for the socializk-
tion of the industry and the land. They differ in
tactics. In October, 1917, the Bolsheviki accepted the
Socialist Revolutionists)' land programme. This
was to provisionally divide the land but at the same
time to abolish all private ownership of land.
The SociaUst Revolutionists — ^the party of the
peasants — is by far the greatest party in Russia.
In 1917 this party a,lso split. It is now divided
into two groups known as the Socialist Revolu
tionists and the Left Socialist Revolutionists —
representing the conservative and the radical wings.
The right wing of the Socialist Revolutionists
and the Mensheviki — ^like the Cadets — ^have at pres
ent no foUomng and no force of arms. The active
masses have gone to the left vdng of the Socialist
Revolutionists which works with the Bolsheviki and
upholds the Soviet Government.
This moving of the masses away from the mod
erate groups is largely due to the policy of a gov
ernment composed of Socialists and bourgeoisie
which led to a denial of the desires of the Russian
masses — peace, land and control of industry.
In a modern revolution all middle parties dis
appear or become unimportant. In Russia, where
the proletariat is armed, the proletariat becomes
the only real influential body. The Bolsheviki are
in power because they bow to the will of the masses.

56 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
The Bolsheviki would be overthrown the very mo
ment they did not express that will.
There are other small Socialist groups in Rus
sia — ^namely, the Mensheviki InternationaUsts, a
branch of the Menshevik party; ledinstvo, Plec-
hanov's party, the extreme war party of the Men
sheviki; Troudoviki or Populist Socialists, a semi-
Socialist party; United Social Democrat Interna
tionalists (Gorki's party), etc.
The Maximalists are a small group — an off
shoot of the Socialist Revolutionist party. Their
programme is practically agrarian Anarchism.
That the Bolsheviki are not Anarchists but So
cialists with a political instead of an entirely
economic programme is best demonstrated by the
fact that they opposed the attempted irresponsible
confiscation of property by the Anarchists with
force of arms. The Soviet Government
The Soviets were such a natural form of or
ganisation for the Russian masses to take because of
their long experience with primitive communistic
institutions. They owe their strong hold on the
people to the fact that they are the most demo
cratic and sensitive political organs that have ever
been invented.
The Soviet is an organ of direct proportional
representation based on small units of the popula-

EXPLANATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES 57
tion with one representative to every 500. It is
elected by equal suffrage, secret ballot, with full
right of recall. A Soviet is not elected at regular
periods. The separate delegates, however, can be
recalled and re-elected by their constituents at any
time. Therefore, the complexion of the Soviet im
mediately registers the feeling of the masses of the
population. Soviets are based directly on the work
ers in the factories, the soldiers in the trenches and
the peasants in the fields.
Every town has a joint Soviet of Soldiers' and
Workers' Deputies. The different wards of the
towns also have Soviets. Provinces, counties and
some villages have Peasants' Soviets. The All-
Russian Congress of Soviets is made up of dele
gates from the provincial Soviets, which also may
be directly elected, the proportion being one dele
gate to each 25,000.
The All-Russian Soviet usually meets about
every three months. It elects a Central Execu
tive Committee which is the Parliament of the
Country. The Central Executive Committee con
sists of nearly 300 members. The People's Com
missars which are the Cabinet or Ministry, of which
Trotsky is one, Lunarcharsky another, and so on,
are elected by the Central Executive Committee.
The Commissars are simply men at the head of a
collegium for every department of the government.
Lenine is the chairman of the Commissars.
The whole purpose of the Soviets is not simply

58 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
a territorial representation, but also a class body —
a body representing one class mainly — the working
class. The Soviets are the only organised force in Rus
sia that is definitely anti-German. No further
explanation is necessary than to say that they are
opposed on every point and the two governments
cannot exist side by side.
Another important point to remember is that
both the Provisional Governments eocisted only so
long as they were tolerated by the Soviets.

CHAPTER VI
THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS
WHEN the counter-revolution, headed by
General KornUoff, was at its height and
Russia, bewildered by internal and external
enemies, rushed franticaUy this way and that and
in her confusion allowed the fall of Riga, the
Executive Committee of the AU-Russian Soviets
demanded the holding of a Democratic Congress,
which was to be a fore-runner of the Constituent
Assembly and was to make further counter-revolu
tion impossible.
Accordingly about a month later 1600 delegates
from all parts of Russia answered the summons. It
was a cold mid- September evening, and the rain
glistened on the pavements and splashed down from
the great statue of Catherine in the leafy Uttle
square before the entrance of the Alexandrinsky
Theatre, as the delegates filed past the long lines of
soldiers, solemnly presented their cards and disap
peared into the brUliantly lighted interior of the
immense building.
Our Uttle army of reporters, of which about six
spoke English, went around to the stage door at
59

60 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
the back, climbed up many dark stairs, down many
more, tip -toed behind the wings and finally emerged
into the orchestra pit, where places were arranged
for us.
On the stage sat the presidium at long tables,
behind them the entire Pelrograd Soviet and in the
main theatre and gaUeries sat the delegates. Al
most every revolutionary leader was present, and
there were representatives from the AU-Russian
Soviets of Soldiers and Workmen, the AU-Russian
Soviets of Peasants, Provisional Delegates of the
Soldiers and Workmen's Soviets, Delegates of the
Peasants' Regional Soviets, Labor Unions, Army
Committees at the Front, Workmen's and Peas
ants' Co-operatives, Railroad Employees, Postal
and Telegraph Employees, Commercial Employ
ees, Liberal Professions (doctors, lawyers, etc.),
Zemstvos, Cossacks, Press, and Nationalist Organi
sations, including Ukranians, Poles, Jews, Letts,
Lithuanians, etc. No body just like it had ever met
in Russia before.
The boxes which were formerly retained exclu
sively for members of the Tsar's family, were ffiled
with foreign diplomats and other distinguished vis
itors. Hanging from these boxes were flaming
revolutionary banners. The royal arms and other
imperial insignia had been torn from the walls,
leaving startling grey patches in the rich gold, ivory
and crimson colour scheme. We scarcely had time
to glance about before the Congress was formally

THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS 61
opened by President Tcheidze, and Kerensky came
forward to make his address. All day rumours had
been flying about Petrograd that he would not be
present and that he disapproved of the Congress.
One felt all over the house the suppressed excite
ment created by his appearance.
Only persons of great intensity can make an audi
ence hold its breath in just the way Kerensky did
as he walked quickly across the stage. He was
clad in a plain brown soldier's suit without so much
as a brass button or an epaulette to mark him Com
mander-in-Chief of the Russian Army and Navy
and Minister-President of the Russian Republic.
Somehow all this unpretentiousness accentuated
the dignity of his position. It was characteristic
that he should ignore the speakers' rostrum and pro
ceed to the runway leading from the main floor to
the stage. It produced an effect of unusual in
timacy between the speaker and his audience.
"At the Moscow Conference," he began, "I was
in an official capacity and my scope was limited, but
here I am Tavarish — comrade. There are people
here who connect me with that terrible affair ..."
(referring to the Korniloff counter-revolution) .
He was interrupted by shouts of "Yes, there are
people here who do!"
Kerensky stepped back as if struck, and aU the
enthusiasm went out of his face. One was shocked
by the extreme sensitiveness of the man after so
many years of revolutionary struggle. Deeply con-

62 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
scious of the coldness, the hostility even of his audi
ence, he played on it skUfuUy — ^with oratory, with
pleading, with a strange unabated inward energy.
His face and his voice and his words became tragic
and desolate, changed slowly and became fire-lit,
radiating, triumphant; before the magnificent range
of his emotion aU opposition was at last swept
away. . . .
"After all, it doesn't matter what you think
about me — all that matters is the revolution. We
are here for other business than to heap personal
recriminations upon one another!"
Yes, that was true and everybody in the audi
ence felt it for the time he was speaking. When
he finished they rose in a tremendous ovation.
Dramatically he stepped from the stage,
traversed the long aisle in the centre of the theatre,
mounted the Tsar's own box and raising his right
hand as if to drink a toast, spoke again: "Long
Uve the Democratic Republic and the Revolution
ary Army!" And the crowd shouted back: "Long
Uve Kerensky!"
This was the last ovation Kerensky ever got. If
the Russians had the temperament of the ItaUans
or of the French, I think they would have wor
shipped Kerensky; but Russians are never con
vinced by phrases and they are not hero worship
pers. They were disappointed in Kerensky's
speech. He wa? charming, but he had not told
them anything. There were many detaUs about

THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS 63
the Korniloff affair which they wished straightened
up in their minds, they also wanted desperately to
know what had been done about a conference of
the Allies to discuss war akns, and he had not
mentioned it. An hour after his departure his in
fluence was gone, and they threw themselves into
the struggle of deciding the issues for which they
had come.
For nine days the Democratic Congress con
tinued. Hundreds of delegates spoke in that time.
They had much to say, for how long they had en
dured silence! At first, the Chairman tried to limit
their speeches, but the audience raised a loud
clamour : "Let them say everything they have come
here tq say!"
It was amazing how they could do it. I recall
the words of their countryman, Tshaadaev: "Great
things have always come from the wUderness."
Often a peasant, who had never made a speech in
his life, would give a long sustained talk of an
hour's duration and keep the close attention of his
audience. Not one speaker had stage fright. Few
used notes and every man was a poet. They said
the most beautiful and simple things; they knew
in their innermost hearts what they wanted and
how they wanted it. The gigantic problem was to
weave a general satisfactory programme from their
widely divergent desires. Whenever the chairman
announced recess, we would aU rush out into the
corridors and eat sandwiches and drink tea. The

64 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
sessions often lasted until 4 in the morning, but
the hunger for truth and the liquefaction of diffi
culties never lessened. There was the same earnest
groping for solutions in the grey dawn as in the
flaring sunset. . . .
Some events and some personalities stand out
sharply from that long fortnight of oratory, when
the representatives of over fifty races and 180
million of people spoke all that was in their hearts.
I remember a tall, handsome Cossack, who stood
before the assembly and, blushing with shame, cried
out: "The Cossacks are tired of being policemen!
Why must we forever settle the quarrels of oth
ers?" I remember the dark, striking Georgian who re
buked the speaker who preceded him because he
desired national independence from Russia for his
small nationality. "We seek no separate indepen
dence," he said, "when Russia is free, Georgia will
also be free!"
There was a gentle-looking peasant-soldier who
gave solemn warning: "Mark this down well, the
peasants will never lay down their arms until they
receive their land!"
And the nurse who came to describe conditions
at the front, how she broke down and could only
sob: "Oh, my poor soldiers !"
There was a stern little delegate who arose and
said: "I am from Lettgallia . . ." and who was

THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS 65
interrupted by serious interrogations of "Where is
that?" and "Is that in Russia?"
They had a slow, ridiculous way of counting
votes; it wasted hours. I spoke to one of my
neighbours about it, saying we had quite simple
methods of doing these things in America. "Oh,
time is roubles here," he said, referring to the low
exchange, and the correspondents roared with
laughter. As the Congress progressed one had time to note
some of the visitors. Mrs. Kerensky was one. . She
sat in the first gallery, dressed always in black, pale
and wistful. Only once did she make audible com
ment. It was when a Bolshevik was severely criti
cising the Provisional Government. Almost invol
untarily she exclaimed: "Da volna! — enough!"
In one of the boxes sat Madame Lebedev,
Prince Kropotkin's daughter. She had been so long
a part of London society that she appears more
English than Russian. She frankly protested
against all radical measures and she possessed the
only lorgnette in the Democratic Congress; it was
the subject of much conversation and not a little
resentment among the peasant delegates.
There were a number of Americans in the diplo
matic box, including members of the Red Cross
Mission. Colonel Thompson and Colonel Raymond
Robbins were present at nearly every session and
took a lively interest. Robbins often came down

66 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
to the reporters' quarters and discussed the situa
tion vnth us.
Among the strong personalities of the delegates
were the three sick men — Tcheidze, TsereteUi,
Martoff, all suffering from, and in dangerous
stages of, tuberculosis. Tcheidze is a Georgian,
eagle-eyed, past middle age — a remarkable chair
man whose ready wit always was able to subdue the
sudden uproars that continually threatened the life
of the Congress. It was noticeable that on the only
night he was too ill to attend the serious split with
the Bolsheviki occurred. Tcheidze is a Menshevik
and was at one time a University professor.
TsereteUi is also a Georgian and a Menshevik,
and next to Kerensky, at that time, was undoubt
edly the most powerful man in Russia. Tseretelli's
manner and his whole appearance are so Asiatic
that he looks almost absurd in a trim, business suit;
it is impossible not to picture him in long flowing
robes. He was a member of the Third Duma and
his health was broken by seven years of hard labour
in Siberia.
Martoff is grey and worn, his voice always husky
from throat trouble. He is much beloved by his
constituents and is known everywhere as a brilliant
writer. Exiled in France for many years, he be
came one of the principal figures in the labour
movement there. He is a Menshevik Internation
alist by politics.
Flashing out of that remarkable gathering was

TCHEIDZE CHAIRMAN OF THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS AND THE PREPARLIAMENT

THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS 67
the striking personality of Leon Trotsky, like a
Marat; vehement, serpent-Uke, he swayed the as
sembly as a strong wind stirs the long grass. No
other man creates such an uproar, such hatred at
the sUghtest utterance, uses such stinging words and
yet underneath it all carries such a cool head. In
striking contrast was another Bolshevik leader,
Kameneff, who reminded me of Lincoln Steffens.
His way of expressing his opinions was as mild as
Trotsky's was violent, sharp and inflammatory.
There was the young War Minister, Verkovsky,
known as the only man in Russia who ever was on
time at an appointment. He is one of the most
honest and sincere persons I ever met. It was he
who first had the idea of democratising the army;
it was he who insisted that the Allies be informed of
the alarming morale of the Russian army; he was
a better fighter than a talker. For his frankness
he was dismissed from ofiice by the Provisional
Government. Not by any means to be overlooked were the
twenty-three regularly elected " ^omen-delegates,
notable among them Marie Spirodonova, the most
politi'c&Uy' powerful woman in- Russia or in the y
world, and the only woman the soldiers and peas=>/
ants are sentimental about.
The one" thing that the Congress completely
agreed upon and instructed the PreparUament
which was to follow it to do, was to issue an appeal
to the peoples of the world reaffirming the Soviets'

68 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
formula of last spring for peace "without annexa
tions and indemnities" on the basis of self deter
mination of peoples.
A particularly noticeable sore point in all the
speeches was the subject of capital punishment in
the army; it was always causing an unpleasant stir.
The sentiment of the gathering was firmly against
the re-establishment, but it was never actually put
to a vote.
The quarrel over coalition wrecked the assem
bly and almost broke Russia.
A resolution put up by Trotsky and reading:
We are in favour of coalition of all democratic
elements — except the Cadets carried overwhelm
ingly and showed the real feeling of the country.
Every one knows now that it was the most tragic
thing in the world that that decision was not left.
Unfortunately just after- the resolution was
passed word was brought that Kerensky was about
to announce his new cabinet containing representa
tives of the Cadet party and several Moscow^ busi
ness men known to be particularly out of harmony
with sociaUstic aims. TsereteUi hurried to the Win-,
ter Palace and told Kerensky that he dare not ig
nore the will of the Congress ; that without the sanc
tion of the Democratic Congress, the formation of
such a cabinet would lead directly to civil war.
I The next morning Kerensky appeared before the
Presidium, and threatening to resign, painted such
a tragic picture of the condition of the country, that

THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS 69
the Presidium returned to the Congress with a reso
lution to immediately constitute the Preparliament
with full power to authorise the constitution of a
coalition government, if it thought absolutely neces
sary, and to admit into its own ranks representa
tives of the bourgeoisie proportional to their rep
resentatives in the cabinet.
TsereteUi, Dan, Lieber, Gotz and other poli
ticians upholding the Provisional Government,
spoke again and again for the measure. Lunar
charsky and Kameneff spoke against the wording,
claiming that TsereteUi had not read the same mo
tion which had been agreed upon at the meeting
of the Presidium. Whereupon Tseretelli's usual
self-control deserted him and he cried: "The next
time I deal with Bolsheviki I will insist on having
a notary and two secretaries !"
The Bolshevik Nagine shouted back that he
would give TsereteUi five minutes to retract his
words, aijd TsereteUi remaining stubbornly silent,
the Bolsheviki used this as an excuse for bolting the
§igseqibly] They leftThe halTamidnheinost tre
mendous uproar. Men ran into the hallways,
screaming, pleading, weeping. . . .
This split over coalition marked the beginning
and the end of many things, and was a real blow to
the democratic forces brought together for self -pro
tection during the KornUoff attempt. When the
measure was finally voted on the delegates were
not allowed a secret ballot and those who voted for

\

70 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
coalition sacrificed their political careers. Just over
night a terrific change came over that once peaceful
gathering. When Spirodonova got up and told her
peasants that this measure cheated them out of their
land, a sullen, ominous roar followed her words.
As I watched that change it came to me what the
passage of the measure really meant. It meant
civil war, it meant a great swinging of the masses
to the banners of the Bolsheviki, it meant new
leaders pushed to the surface who would do the
bidding of the people and old leaders hurled into
oblivion, it meant the beginning of class struggle
and the end of political revolution. . . .
The next evening coalition passed by a small
majority and the delegates filed out into the rain
singing, after having arraigned the elections of the
Preparliament.

CHAPTER VII
THE PREPARLIAMENT AND THE SOVIET OF THE
RUSSIAN REPUBLIC
THE first meeting of the Preparliament took
place in the shabby old hall of the Petro
grad City Duma on September 23, and showed that
the moderate socialist machine was stiU in control
by the election of Tcheidze as President. Another
indication of the drift toward the right wing was
the decision to discuss the question of the consti
tution of the government in secret session, in face
of the combined protest of the Bolsheviki, Men
shevik Internationalists and the left wing of the
Socialist Revolutionists.
During the secret session TsereteUi arriv;ed from
the Winter Palace with a report of the alliance,
hastUy concluded, between the moderate socialists
and the bourgeoisie, announcing the bourgeoisie^
would enter the Preparliament in the proportion
of 100 members to each 120 democratic members;,
that a coalition government would be formed; and]
that the government would not be responsible to the
Preparliament. Then, coalition being a fact, every
body entered into violent debates upon the subject,
which were terminated by "Babushka" — Katherine
71

72 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Breshkovsky — announcing in a trembling voice at
2 o'clock in the morning that coalition was right be
cause human life itself is based on the principle of
coalition. . . .
The next day a heated debate took place upon
the question of the death penalty in the army, fol
lowed by passionate addresses by every one alto
gether upon coalition, the dissolution of the T)uma,f
peace, the threatening railroad strike and the land
question which ended in the resolution of the Social
ist Revolutionists insisting that the first task of the
new government should be the immediate placing
of the land under the authority of the General
Peasant Land Committees.
At one time such pandemonium reigned that a
violent discussion between Trotsky and Tcheidze
ended because neither one could hear what the other
was saying. In the lull that followed Babushka re
buked the delegates, saying that they had come to
gether to save Russia and that not a single step had
been taken.
Avksentieff, at that time president of the Peas
ants' Soviets, but now completely out of power, de
clared that if the land amendment had anything to
do with endangering coalition the Socialist Revolu
tionists would retire it. The whole matter was
finally disposed of by the representative of the
Land Committee himself who got up and remarked
bitterly that the whole business was utter absurd
ity and that the Peasants' Land Committee would

THE PREPARLIAMENT AND THE SOVIET (J^TS)
have nothing to do with it, whereupon the resolu
tion was rejected. At six o'clock in the morning
the delegates went wearily home. . . .
The next morning TsereteUi announced that the
official name of the Preparliament would be the
"Council of the Russian Republic" and that it
would meet in the Marinsky Palace after a few
days. Thus ended the first attempt to establish abso
lute democratic power in Russia.
The Cou/ncil of the Russian Republic
Ever since the split of the democratic forces over
coalition with the bourgeoisie, which first definitely
manifested itself at the Democratic Congress, a new
revolution, deeper and in every way more signifi
cant than the first, hung like a thundercloud over
Russia. For weeks the Council of the Russian Republic
held futile sessions. On the very first evening the
Bolsheviki, through their spokesman, Trotsky,
hurled a bomb into the gathering from which it
never recovered. They accused the sens element —
propertied classes — of being represented out of pro
portion to their numbers as shown from the elections
held all over the country, and charged them with
the deliberate intention of ruining the Revolution;
appealing to the soldiers, workers, peasants of aU

f74 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Russia to be on their guard, the Bolsheviki left the
Council never to return.
After that the Council sat day after day a hostile,
divided house, unable to carry out a single measure.
The Mensheviki, Menshevik Internationalists,
Right and Left Socialist Revolutionists, sat on one
side, the Cadets on the other, and the vote on every
important measure was a tie. Orators from the
right got up and heaped recriminations on the left,
orators from the left screamed curses on the right.
And all this time the mass of the people left their
old parties and joined the ranks of the Bolsheviki.
Louder grew the cry: All power to the Soviets!
Every few days Kerensky would appear and
make impassioned addresses without any effect
whatever. He would be received coldly and lis
tened to with indifference ; the Cadets often choos
ing this particiUar time to read their papers. Dur
ing one of the last speeches he made in the Marin
sky Palace, begging them to forget their differ
ences and somehow pull together until the Con
stituent Assembly, he was so overcome with the
hopelessness of the situation that he rushed from
the platform, and having gained his seat, wept
openly before the whole assembly.
AU those who understood the condition of Rus
sia at that time knew that Kerensky was the symbol
of a fictitious union of parties, but how long he could
remain so no one could foretell. He was ill and
carrying the weight of all Russia on his f raU shoul-

THE PREPARLIAMENT AND THE SOVIET 75
ders. Moreover, he had been betrayed by the very
Cadets he had worked so hard to keep in the gov
ernment. The Bolsheviki were offering a definite
programme containing the wishes nearest to the
hearts of the people, and the people were going over
to the Bolsheviki.
One thing might have saved that pitiful Preparli
ament even in the last days, and that was the Allied
Conference to Discuss War Aims which new Rus
sia had demanded at the beginning of the revolution
and which was to be held in June, was postponed
to September, then to November, and finaUy, ap
parently, given up altogether. With the final de
cision of the Allies and the now famous speech of
Bonar Law, the last shred of influence of the Coun
cU of the Russian Republic disappeared. AU Rus
sia was slowly starving, another terrible winter was
coming on, and there was nothing definite to hang
their hopes on. Kerensky himself was not unaware
of the danger or of the confusion. He told me him
self a few days befor^the Provisional Government
fell, that the people had lost confidence and were
too economically tired to put up further effective
resistance against the Germans.
"The Constituent Assembly must be the deciding
factor, one way or the other," he said. He hoped
that he could hold the country together untU then,
but I do not think for a moment that he thought
he could hold it any longer. I do not think he

76 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
dared prophesy what would come out of the Con-
stitiient when it did meet.
I On the 25th of October the meeting of the AU
-Russian Soviets was due to be held in Petrograd.
That that tremendously powerful body would de
mand immediate action on all the burning issues
there was no doubt and that if the Provisional Gov
ernment refused those demands they would take
over the power there was also no doubt. Kerensky
believed that he ought to prevent this meeting by
any means possible, even by force of arms. He did
not realise how far the Bolshevik influence had
spread. The masses moved fast in those days and
the army had gone solidly Bolshevik.
Kerensky took into account, however, that the
Petrograd garrison was composed largely of Bol
sheviki and so on the 14th of October he ordered
this garrison to the front to be replaced by troops
less Bolshevik. NaturaUy, the Petrograd garrison
protested and appealed to the Petrograd Soviet.
The Petrograd Soviet appointed a commission to
go to the front and confer with General Tcherimis-
sov, and demand of him that if he did send regi
ments to replace the Petrograd garrison the Petro
grad Soviet should be allowed to choose them. This
General Tcherimissov flatly refused, saying that he
was the Commander-in-Chief of the army and that
his orders should be obeyed.
In the meantime members of the Petrograd gar
rison held a meeting and elected the now famous

THE PREPARLIAMENT AND THE SOVIET 77
Military Revolutionary Committee, and demanded
that a representative of the committee be allowed
in the General Staff of the Petrograd District.
This proposition the Petrograd Staff refused to
consider. In reply the Petrograd garrison declared
that it would take no orders from anybody unless
countersigned by the Military Revolutionary Com
mittee, as they maintained that the General Staff
was secretly taking measures to violently disperse
the meeting of the AU-Russian Soviets.
On the 23rd of October Kerensky announced be
fore the Council of the Republic that an order had
been issued for the arrest of the Military Revolu
tionary Committee. The next night several of the
members of the Pavlovsk regiment secreted them
selves in the office of the General Staff and discov
ered that plans were being made to seize the city
with the aid of the Junker regiments, and forcibly
prevent the meeting of the AU-Russian Soviets
scheduled for the following day. That night
Kerensky ordered all the extreme radical papers
and the extreme conservative papers suppressed.
But it was too late; it was like sweeping back the
sea with a broom. The Soviets had become the ulti
mate political expression of the popular will, and
the Bolsheviki were the champions of the Soviets.
After the Pavlovsk regiment discovered the plans
of the Provisional Government, they set sentries
and began to arrest all persons entering or leaving
the General Staff. Before this time the Junkers

78 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
had begun to seize automobiles and take them to the
Winter Palace. They also seized the editorial of
fices and the printing shops of the Bolshevik papers.
During aU this confusion a meeting of the old
Executive Committee of the Soviets was taking
place at Smolny. The old Central Executive Com
mittee was composed largely of Mensheviki and
Left Socialist Revolutionists, and the new dele
gates were almost solidly Bolshevik. There was
nothing to do but speedily elect a new Central Ex
ecutive Committee.
The next afternoon I started out as usual to
attend the regular session of the CouncU of the Rus
sian Republic. One glance around the square be
fore the Marinsky Palace assured me that the long
looked for storm of civil war had come. Soldiers
and sailors were guarding the little bridges over the
Moika, a great crowd of sailors were at the door
of the palace and barricades were being hastily
constructed. Word flew round that they were ar
resting the CouncU of the RepubUc. As a matter
of fact no one thought the Council of the Republic
was important enough to arrest. What really hap
pened was tragically funny. A big Cronstadt saUor
marched into the great elaborate red and gold as
sembly chamber and announced in a loud voice:
"No more Council! Go along home!" And the
Council went — disappearing forever as an influence
in the poUtical Ufe of Russia.

CHAPTER VIII
THE FALL OF THE WINTER PALACE
OCTOBER 24th was crowded with events.
After the ludicrous disbanding of the Coun
cU of the Russian Republic at 2 o'clock in the after
noon by the Cronstadt sailors, with two other Amer
icans, John Reed and Albert Rhys Williams, I
started for the Winter Palace to find out what was
happening to Kerensky.
Junker guards were everywhere. They let us
pass after solemnly examining our American pass
ports. Once past the guards we were at liberty to
roam all over the palace and so we went directly to
Kerensky's office. In the ante-room we found one
of his smart-looking aides who greeted us in an
agitated manner. Babushka, he told us, had gone
two days before and Kerensky had also fled after
an embarrassing experience which might have
caused his capture. At the last moment he found
that he did not have enough gasoline for his auto
mobile, and couriers had to be sent into the Bol
shevik lines. . . .
Everybody in the palace was tremendously ex
cited; they were expecting an attack at any min
ute and no one knew just what to do. There was
79

80 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
very little ammunition and it was only a matter of
hours before they would have to give up. The
Winter Palace was cut off from all outside help
and the ministers of the Provisional Government
were inside. . . .
When we left Kerensky's office we walked
straight to the front of the palace. Here were
hundreds of Junkers all armed and ready. Straw
beds were on the floor and a few were sleeping,
huddled up on their blankets. They were all young
and friendly and said they had no objection to our
being in the battle ; in fact, the idea rather amused
them. For three hours we were there. I shall never
forget those poor, imcomfortable, unhappy boys.
They had been reared and trained in officers'
schools, and now they found themselves without a
court, without a Tsar, without all the traditions
they believed in. The MUiukov government was
bad enough, the Provisional government was worse
and now this terrible proletarian dictatorship. . . .
It was too much ; they couldn't stand it.
A little group of us sat down on a window ledge.
One of them said he wanted to go to France "where
people lived decently." Another enquired the best
method to get into the American army. One of
them was not over eighteen. He told me that in
case they were not able to hold the palace, he was
"keeping one bullet for himself." AU the others
declared that they were doing the same.

PHE FALL OF THE WINTER PALACE 81
So\ne one suggested that we exchange keepsakes.
We brought out our little stores. I recall a silver
Caucasian dagger, a short sword presented by the
Tsar and a ring with this inscription: "God, King
and Lady." When conversation lagged they took
us away to show us the "Gold Room" of which they
were very proud. They said that it was one of the
finest rooms in all Europe. AU the talk was sprin
kled with French phrases just to prove they were
really cultured. Russia had moved several cen
turies beyond these precious young men. . . .
Once while we were quietly chatting, a shot rang
out and in a moment there was the wildest confu
sion; Junkers hurried in every direction. Through
the front windows we could see people running
and falling fiat on their faces. We waited for
five minutes, but no troops appeared and no
further firing occurred. While the Junkers were
stiU standing with their guns in their hands, a soli
tary figure emerged, a little man, dressed in ordi
nary citizen's clothes, carrying a huge camera. He
proceeded across the Square until he reached the
point where he would be a good target for both
sides and there, with great deliberation, he began
to adjust his tripod and take pictures of the women
soldiers who were busy turning the winter supply
of wood for the Palace into a fiimsy barricade be
fore the main entrance. There were about two
hundred of them and about fifteen hundred Junkers

82 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
in the whole place. There was absolutely no food
and a very small supply of ammunition.
At five-thirty we decided to go to Smolny to
be present at the opening of the much-talked-of
meeting of the AU-Russian Soviets.
As we crossed under the Red Arch we met a
group of Bolshevik soldiers who were discussing
the best means of taking the Palace. "The bad
part is," said one, "that the Women's Battalion is
on guard there and they will say we shot Russian
women. . . ."
At Smolny a hot battle of words was being
waged between the Mensheviki and Socialist Revo
lutionists on one side and the Left SociaUst Rev
olutionists, Bolsheviki and Menshevik Interna
tionalists on the other. The former were claim
ing that all important matters must be put off imtU
after the Constituent Assembly. But the majority
of the gathering would not listen to them. FinaUy,
an inspired speaker declared that the cruiser
Aurora was at that very moment shelling the Win
ter Palace, and if the whole uprising was not
stopped at once, the delegates from the Menshevik
and Socialist Revolutionist Parties, together with
certain members of the City Duma, would march
unarmed through the firing lines and die with the
Provisional Government.
This came as a complete surprise to many of the
delegates who were to be sacrificed, but neverthe
less a number of them impulsively followed the

THE FALL OF THE WINTER PALACE 83
speaker; others sat uneasily in their seats looking
as if they felt this was carrying party principles
altogether too far. The affair, dramatic as it was,
did not have much effect on the general assembly;
five minutes after the delegates left the hall they
proceeded with their regular business. The soldiers
seemed to think it was a particularly good joke
and kept slapping each other on the back and
guffawing. Of course we foUowed the bolting delegates.
AU the street cars had stopped and it was two
mUes to the Winter Palace. A huge motor truck
was just leaving Smolny. We hailed it and
climbed on board. We found we had for compan
ions several saUors and soldiers and a man from
the Wild Division, wearing his picturesque, long
black cape. They warned us gaily that we'd prob
ably aU get kUled, and they told me to take off a
yeUow hatband, as there might be sniping.
Their mission was to distribute leaflets all over
town, and especiaUy along the Nevsky Prospect.
The leaflets were piled high over the floor of the
truck together with guns and ammunition. As we
rattled along through the wide, dim-lit streets, they
scattered the leaflets to eager crowds. People
scrambled over the cobbles fighting for copies. We
could only make out the headlines in the half-light :
"Citizens! The Provisional Government is
deposed. State Power has passed into the or-

84 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
gan of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and
Soldiers' Deputies."
Before I left Smolny I had secured a pass from
the new famous MUitary Revolutionary Commit
tee. My pass read: "No. 1
"Military Revolutionary Committee of the
Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers'
Deputies gives Tavarishe Louise Bryant free
passage through the city.
"Signed by the Chairman and Secretary
of the Military Revolutionary Com
mittee, and stamped by the Military
Division."
Where the Ekaterina Canal crosses the Nevsky,
guards informed the driver that we could go no
further. So we jumped down and found ourselves
witnesses to as fantastic a political performance as
ever took place in history.
Huddled together in the middle of the Nevsky
were the delegates of the SociaUst Revolutionist
and Menshevik Parties. Unto themselves they
had since gathered various wives and friends and
those members of the city Duma who were not
Bolsheviki, Left Socialist Revolutionists or Men
shevik Internationalists — so that their number was

THE FALL OF THE WINTER PALACE 85
something over two hundred. It was then two
o'clock in the morning. . . .
For a time, I confess, we were all pretty much
impressed by these would-be martyrs; any body
of unarmed people protesting against armed force
is bound to be impressive. In a little while, how
ever, we couldn't help wondering why they didn't
go ahead and die as long as they had made up their
minds to it; and especially since the Winter Pal
ace and the Provisional Government might be cap
tured at any moment.
When we began to talk to the martyrs we were
surprised to find that they were very particular
about the manner in which they were to die — and
not only that but they were trying to persuade
the saUor guards that they had been given per
mission to pass by the Military Revolutionary
Committee. If our respect for their bravery weak
ened, our interest in the uniqueness of their politi
cal tricks grew a good deal; it was clear that the
last thing the delegates wanted to do was to die,
although they kept shouting that they did at the
top of their voices. "Let us pass! Let us sacri
fice ourselves!" they cried like bad children.
Only twenty husky sailors barred the way. And
to all arguments they continued stubborn and un
moved. "Go home and take poison," they advised
the clamouring statesmen, "but don't expect to die
here. We have orders not to aUow it."

86 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
"What wiU you do if we suddenly push for
ward?" asked one of the delegates.
"We may give you a good spanking," answered
the sailors, "but we will not kUl one of you — not by
a damn sight!"
This seemed to settle the business. Prokopo
vitch, Minister of Supplies, walked to the head of
the company and announced in a trembUng voice:
"Comrades : Let us return, let us refuse to be kUled
by switchmen!" Just exactly what he meant by
that was too much for my simple American brain,
but the martyrs seemed to understand perfectly,
for off they marched in the direction from which
they had come and took up headquarters in the
city Duma.
When we showed our passes, it was Uke magic,
the sailors smiled and let us go forward without
a word. At the Red Arch, soldiers informed us
that the Winter Palace had just surrendered.
We ran across the Square after the Bolshevik
troops, a few bullets whistled by, but it was impos
sible to teU from which direction they came. Every
window was lit up as if for a fete and we could see
people moving about inside. Only a smaU en
trance was open and we poured through the nar
row door.
Inside the Junkers were being disarmed and
given their liberty. They had to file past the door
through which we had come. When those we had

THE FALL OF THE WINTER PALACE 87
been with in the afternoon recognised us they waved
friendly greetings. They looked relieved that it
was aU over, they had forgotten about the "one
buUet" they were keeping for themselves. . . .
The Ministers of the Provisional Government
were betrayed by the employees in the palace,
and they were quickly hauled out of all sorts of
secret back rooms and passages. They were sent
to Peter and Paul fortress. We sat on a long
bench by the door and watched theni going out.
Tereschenko impressed me more than the others.
He looked so ridiculous and out of place; he was
so weU groomed and so outraged.
The Woman's Regiment, amounting to abou
two hundred, were also disarmed and told to go
home and put on female attire.
Every one leaving the palace was searched, no
matter on what side he was. There were price
less treasures all about and it was a great tempta
tion to pick up souvenirs. I have always been
glad that I was present that night because so many
stories have come out about the looting. It was
so natural that there should have been looting and
so commendable that there was none. —
A young Bolshevik lieutenant stood by the
only unlocked door, and in front of bun was a great
table. Two soldiers did the searching. The Lieu
tenant delivered a sort of sermon while this was
going on. I wrote down part of his speech:

D

88 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
"Comrades, this is the people's palace. This
is our palace. Do not steal from the people.
. . . Do not disgrace the people. . . ."
It was amusing to see what those great, simple
soldiers had taken — the broken handle of a Chinese
sword, a wax candle, a coat-hanger, a blanket, a
worn sofa-cushion. . . . They laid them out all to
gether, their faces red with shame. And not one
thing was of the least value!
About five o'clock the same morning we left the
Winter Palace and caUed at the City Duma. Here
we found the indignant and no longer self-sacrific
ing politicians furiously forming what they in
geniously chose to call the "Committee for Saving
the Countrv and the Revolution."

>oon after itTell info theirhands, the Soviet
government turned the Winter Palace into a Peo
ple's Museum.

CHAPTER IX
THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
I BELIEVE we are more confused over the
Constituent Assembly than over most things
that have happened in Russia. And there is good
reason for that confusion. Following the poUti
cal developments as closely as I did in those days,
I found it difficult enough to understand. Here
were the radical parties for months shouting for
the Constituent — in fact, ever since the first revo
lution. At last it was called, suddenly dissolved,
and not a ripple in the country!
Of course the outstanding reason was that the
Constituent voted against the Soviets. And that
was a pretty fair test of the Soviets. If any power
in Russia could have broken the Soviets it would
have been the Constituent and the Constituent van
ished at the first attempt.
How did it happen? asked a surprised world.
By bayonets? Yes and no. It happened because
the people were with the Soviets and the bayonets
were in the hands of the people; there was no force
to oppose the Soviets.
The Constituent Assembly delegates were elected

90 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
on lists made up in September and the Constituent
Assembly was not called until the following Janu
ary. The elections were held in November. The
method of Russian elections is this: to vote for
party and programme, the candidates being nomi
nated by the Central Committee of the party.
Now the majority of the Constituent Assembly
delegates were Socialist Revolutionists and before
the elections came the Socialist-Revolutionist party
had split. The majority of the members went with
the party of the left, but the Central Executive
/Committee was still dominated by the right. There-
\fore, the Delegates to the Constituent Assembly did
pot represent the real feeling of the country at that
/time. Moreover, the elections were held two weeks
after the Bolshevik insurrection, when the country
had not yet completely moved to the left; Bol
shevism had not yet accomplished itself. By Janu
ary, when the Constituent met, the country had
swung. In other words, elections were held for the
supreme organ of the kind of government which
was out of existence.
Marie Spirodonova, who keeps in closer touch
with the peasants than any one I know in Russia,
told me that many of the peasants did not vote at
all and the delegates did not want to come. The
one thing that was clear in their minds was that
the Soviets of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies
should still go on, no matter what the Constituent

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 91
Assembly did. ... It took four or five weeks for
the wave of Bolshevism to hit some of the various
centres, but when it did, this was the result pro
duced. As far as I could gather from every source
of information avaUable, the people demanded:
all power to the Soviets — and this was not quali
fied by anything.
An AU-Russian Peasants' Conference was held
in Petrograd shortly after the Bolshevik uprising.
The majority of the delegates came right Social
ist Revolutionists — in three days they had joined
the left wing; had elected Spirodonova president
and gone over to the Soviets, marching in a body to
Smolny. There were two AU-Russian Peasants'
assemblies — ^both did the same thing.
The Bolshevik leaders did not know how much
power the Constituent Assembly would have, but
as time went on one thing was clear — the Soviets
and the Constituent Assembly absolutely canceUed
each other. The main difference between the two
bodies was that the Constituent Assembly included
the Cadets, which the November revolution had
been made to put down.
I was present at the opening of Constituent;
it was a terrific performance from beginning to
end. About eight o'cleck the delegates assembled
and the air fairly crackled with excitement. It
had been extremely hard to obtain tickets and
the Tauride palace was jammed. I sat directly

m SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
over the presidium in a little gaUery reserved for
reporters. Lindhagen, the Socialist mayor of Stockholm,
strolled by and whispered to us : "It is going to be
a regular wild west show . . . every one is carry
ing a gun."
Victor Tchernoff, once so powerful with the
peasants but discredited because he stood for coali
tion at the Democratic Congress, was elected Presi
dent. Whenever he spoke he was hissed and booed
by the left. TsereteUi was the only Constituent
Assembly member listened to by both sides with
respect. TsereteUi is a great man, the finest of
all the moderate socialist party leaders. Why
Kerensky and not TsereteUi was made head of
the nation under the Provisional Government I
could never understand. TsereteUi towers above
Kerensky as Lincoln does over Buchanan or Cleve
land. But middle parties and their leaders can
never stand in time nf revnlvitifvn and TsereteUi
wgnt_down_with all the rest.
In opening the Constituent Assembly, Sverdlov,
chairman of the Central Executive Committee of
the Soviets — the new parliament — read the follow
ing declaration, which the Soviet Government de
manded should be adopted by the Constituent as
its working basis:

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 93
''Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling
AND Exploited People

1. Russia is to be declared a republic of the
workers', soldiers' and peasants' Soviets. All
power in the cities and in the country belongs to
the Soviets.
2. The Russian Soviet Republic is based on the
free federation of free peoples, on the federation of
national Soviet republics. II
Assuming as its duty the destruction of all
exploitation of the workers, the complete abolition
of the class system of society, and the placing of
society upon a socialistic basis, and the ultimate
bringing about of victory for Socialism in every
country, the Constituent Assembly further decides :
1. That the socialization of land be realised,
private ownership of land be abolished, all the land
be proclaimed common property of the people, and
turned over to the toiling masses without compen
sation on the basis of equal right to the use of land.
AU forests, mines and waters, which are of social
importance, as weU as aU Uving and other forms

94 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
of property, and all agricultural enterprises, are
declared national property.
2. To confirm the decree of the Soviets con
cerning the inspection of working conditions, the
highest department of national economy, which is
the first step in achieving the ownership by the
Soviets of the factories, mines, raUroads and means
of production and transportation.
3. To confirm the decree of the Soviets trans
ferring all banks to the ownership of the Soviet
Republic, as one of the steps in the freeing of
the toiling masses from the yoke of capitalism.
4. To enforce general compulsory labour, in
order to destroy the class of parasites, and to re
organise the economic life.
In order to make the power of the toUing masses
secure and to prevent the restoration of the rule
of the exploiters, the toiling masses will be armed
and a Red Guard composed of workers and peas
ants formed, and the exploiting classes shaU be
disarmed.

Ill
1. Declaring its firm determination to make
society free from the chaos of capitalism and im-
periaUsm, which has drenched the country in blood
in this most criminal war of aU wars, the Constitu
ent Assembly accepts completely the poUcy of the
Soviets, whose duty it is to publish all secret

TCHERNOFFCHAIRMAN OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 95
treaties, to organise the most extensive fraternisa
tion between the workers and peasants of the war
ring armies, and by revolutionary methods to bring
about a democratic peace among all the belligerent
nations without annexations and indemnities, on
the basis of the free self-determination of nations
— at any price.
2. For this purpose the Constituent Assembly
declares its complete separation from the brutal
policy of the bourgeoisie, which furthers the well-
being of the exploiters in a few selected nations
by enslaving hundreds of millions of the toiling peo
ples of the colonies and the small nations generally.
The Constituent Assembly accepts the policy of
the CouncU of People's Commissars in giving com
plete independence to Finland, in beginning the
withdrawal of troops from Persia, and in declaring
for Armenia the right of self-determination.
A blow at international financial capital is the
Soviet decree which annuls foreign loans made by
the governments of the Tsar, the land-owners and
the bourgeoisie. The Soviet government is to con
tinue firmly on this road untU the final victory from
the yoke of capitalism is won through international
workers' revolt.
As the Constituent Assembly was elected on the
basis of Usts of candidates nominated before the
November revolution, when the people as a whole
could not yet rise against their exploiters, and did
not know how powerful would be the strength of

96 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
the exploiters in defending their privUeges, and
had not yet begun to create a socialist society, the
Constituent Assembly considers it, even from a
formal point of view, unjust to oppose the Soviet
power. The Constituent Assembly is of the opin
ion that at this moment, in the decisive hour of
the struggle of the people against their exploiters,
the exploiters must not have a seat in any Govern
ment organisation or institution. The power com
pletely and without exception belongs to the people
and its authorised representatives — the workers',
soldiers' and peasants' Soviets.
Supporting the Soviet rule and accepting the
orders of the Council of People's Commissars, the
Constituent Assembly acknowledges its duty to
outline a form for the reorganisation of society.
Striving at the same time to organise a free
and voluntary, and thereby also a complete and
strong union among the toiling classes of all the
Russian nations, the Constituent Assembly limits
itself to outlining the basis of the federation of
Russian Soviet RepubUcs, leaving to the people,
to the workers and soldiers, to decide for them
selves, in their own Soviet meetings, if they are
willing and on what conditions they prefer, to join
the federated government and other federations of
Soviet enterprise.
These general principles are to be published with
out delay, and the official representatives of the

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 97
Soviets are required to read them at the opening of
the Constituent Assembly."
At two o'clock in the morning of November 19th,
the "Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and
Exploited People" was putto a vote, and defeated.
The spokesman of the Bolshevik party demanded
the fioor, and read for his faction the following
statement :
"The great majority of the toiling masses of
Russia, the workers, peasants and soldiers, have
demanded that the Constituent Assembly recog
nise the results of the great October revolution, the
decrees of the Soviets regarding land, peace and
inspection of working conditions, and above all that
it recognise the Soviet government. Fulfilling this
demand of the great majority of the Russian work
ing-class, the AU-Russian Central Executive Com
mittee has proposed to the Constituent Assembly
that the Assembly acknowledge this demand as
binding upon it. In accordance with the demands
of the bourgeoisie, however, the majority of the
Constituent Assembly has refused to accede to this
proposal, thereby throwing the gage of battle
to the whole of toiling Russia. The Socialist-
Revolutionary right wing, the party of Kerensky,
Avksentieff and Tchernoff, has obtained the ma
jority of the Constituent Assembly. This party,
which calls itself a Socialist Revolutionist party,
is directing the fight of the bourgeoisie against the
workers' revolution, and is in reality a bourgeois

98 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
counter-revolutionary party. In its present state
the Constituent Assembly is a resiUt of the relative
party power in force before the great October
revolution. The present counter-revolutionary
majority of the Constituent Assembly, elected on
the basis of obsolete party lists, is trying to resist
the movement of the workers and peasants. The
day's discussions have clearly shown that the So
cialist Revolutionist party of the Right, as in
the time of Kerensky, makes concessions to the
people, promises them everything, but in reaUty
has decided to fight against the Soviet government,
against the socialist measures giving the land and
all its appurtenances to the peasants without com
pensation, nationalising the banks, and cancelling
the national debt.
Without wishing for a moment to condone the
crimes of the enemies of the people, we announce
that we_wiSldraw^om.theXmis,ti±uent.Assembly,
in order to aUow the Soviet power finaUy to de
cide the question of its relations with the counter
revolutionary section of the Constituent Assembly."
Thereupon the Bolsheviki, Left Socialist Revo
lutionists and Unified Social Democrat Interna
tionalists left the chamber. The remaining dele
gates continued to make speeches, but there was no
heart in what they said; without the radical ele
ments, the Constituent was dead. At three o'clock
they passed the following resolution to be sent
broadcast to the whole world :

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 99

Russia's Form of Government
In the name of the peoples who compose the
Russian State, the AU-Russian Constituent Assem
bly proclaims the Russian state to be the Russian
Democratic Federated Republic, uniting indissolu-
bly into one whole the peoples and territories which
are sovereign within the Umits prescribed by the
Federal Constitution.

Laws Regarding Land Ownership
1. The right to privately own land within the
boundaries of the Russian Republic is hereby abol
ished forever.
2. AJl the land within the boundaries of the
Russian RepubUc, with aU mines, forests and wa
ters, is hereby declared the property of the nation.
3. The Republic has the right to control all land,
with aU the mines, forests, and waters thereof,
through the central and local administration, in
accordance with the regulation provided by the
present law.
4. The autonomous provinces of the Russian
RepubUc have title to land on the basis of the pres
ent law and in accordance with the Federal Consti
tution. 5. The tasks of the central and local govern-

100 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
ments as regards the use of lands, mines, forests
and waters are:
a. The creation of conditions conducive to
the best possible utilisation of the country's
natural resources and the highest possible de
velopment of its productive forces.
b. The fair distribution of all natural
wealth among the people.
6. The rights of individuals and institutions to
land, mines, forests and waters are restricted merely
to utilisation by said individuals and institutions.
7. The use of aU mines, forests, land and waters
is free to all citizens of the Russian Republic, re
gardless of nationality or creed. This includes
all unions of citizens, also governmental and pub
lic institutions.
8. The right to use the land is to be acquired
and discontinued on the basis prescribed by this
fundamental law.
9. All titles to land at present held by the indi
viduals, association and institutions are abolished
in so far as they contradict this law.
10. AU land, mines, forests, waters, at present
owned by and otherwise in the possession of indi
viduals, associations and institutions, are confiscated
Without compensation for the hss incurred.
Democratic Peace
In the name of the peoples of the Russian Re
public, the AU-Russian Constituent Assembly ex-

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 101
presses the firm will of the people to immediately
discontinue the war and conclude a just and gen
eral peace, appeals to the Allied countries propos
ing to define jointly the exact terms of the demo
cratic peace acceptable to all the belligerent na
tions, in order to present these terms, in behalf of
the Allies, to the governments fighting against the
Russian Republic and her AUies.
The Constituent Assembly firmly believes that
the attempts of the peoples of Russia to end the
disastrous war will meet with a unanimous response
on the part of the peoples and the Governments
of the Allied countries, and that by commonjeffnrts
a speedy pppr^p wi'll hf ^jvhairipdj which will safe
guard the well being and dignity of all the bel
ligerent countries.
The Constituent Assembly resolves to elect from
its midst an authorised delegation which will carry
on negotiations with the representatives of the
Allied countries and which will present the appeal
to jointly formulate terms upon which a speedy
termination of the war wiU be possible, as weU as
for the purpose of carrying out the decisions of the
Constituent Assembly regarding the question of
peace negotiations with the countries fighting
against us.
This delegation, which is to be under the guid
ance of the Constituent Assembly, is to immedi
ately start fiUfiUing the duties imposed upon it.
Expressing, in the names of the peoples of Rus-

102 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
sia, its regret that the negotiations with Germany
which were started without preliminary agreement
with the AlUed countries, have assumed the char
acter of negotiations for a separate peace, the Con
stituent Assembly, in the name of the peoples of
the Federated Republic, while continuing the
armistice, accepts the further carrying on of the
negotiations with the countries warring against us
in order to work towards a general democratic
peace which shaU be in accordance "with the peo
ple's will and protect Russia's interests."
And now the wUy Russian poUticians over here,
in the face of this historic document, teU us that
the SociaUst Revolutionists of the Right and the
Mensheviki are standing for war! They want us
to put down the Soviets so they can go on fighting.
There is no doubt in the world that Russia must
push the Germans over her borders. But why
should we waste a lot of energy putting down a
popular government to perform that task, when
we can help the government that is in power to
do the same thing? At the Constituent Assembly the
moderate sociaUst parties stood for confiscation of
landed property without compensation and for im
mediate peace. The Soviets can go no further than
that ; and there is no reason to believe that the advo
cates of the Constituent could have brought in the
AUies while continuing the armistice begun by the
Bolsheviki, there is no reason to believe that they

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 103
would have made a less disastrous peace with the
Germans; there is even reason to believe that the
peace might have been more terrible than it was,
because the Soviets had on their side whatever force
of arms there was.
If we are out of harmony with the Soviets — ^we
must necessarily be also out of harmony with the
wishes of the Constituent. That is why I, for
one, do not see the use of splitting hairs over this
matter of approval. The principal problem fSFlj
America is whether or not she desires friendship \
with Russia; and friendship was never improved I
by mixing in family quarrels. —
An hour after the passing of the above resolution
of the Constituent Assembly — it was then four in
the morning — the Cronstadt sailors who were on
^v^ard began to murmur among themselves. They
were tired and they wanted to go home. Finally
one cleared his throat and said: "All the good peo
ple have gone, why don't you go? The guards
want to get some sleep. . . ." So ended the
Constituent. To quote an EngUsh coUeague: "The Assembly
died like the Tsardom, and the coalition before it.
Not any one of the three showed in the manner of
its dying that it retained any right to live."

CHAPTER X
KATHERINE BRESHKOVSKY
KATHERINE BRESHKOVSKY! What
richness of romance that name recaUs. What
tales of a young enthusiast who dared to express
herself under the menacing tyranny of a Russian
Tsar. An aristocrat who gave up everything for
her people; a Jeanne d'Arc who led the masses to
freedom by education instead of bayonets ; hunted,
imprisoned, tortured, almost half a century exiled
in the darkness of Siberia, brought back under the
fiaming banners of revolution, honoured as no othci^
woman of modern times has been honoured, miiSun-
derstanding and misunderstood, deposed again,
broken . . . Katherine Breshkovsky's life was
one of sorrow, of disappointment, of disillusion
ment, but it was a full life. And when the quar
rels of the hour are swept aside her page in his
tory will be one of honour and she will be known
to all posterity by that most beautiful name on the
long records of aspiring mankind — known always
as "Babushka," the Grandmother of the Revolu
tion. For many years Katherine Breshkovsky has been
well known in America; it was to sympathetic
104

KATHERINE BRESHKOVSKY 105
America that she always came for assistance.
Even in prison she kept in touch with her numer
ous admirers and champions in this country. I
felt a sort of vague connection with her because
she knew friends of mine at home, so she was
one of the first persons I sought out when I
reached Petrograd. Cheap tales, gathered by un
sympathetic persons and scattered broadcast
abroad, told of her triumphant entrance into Petro
grad and Moscow, her briUiant installation on the
throne of the Tsar in the Winter Palace, which
was rumoured to be draped all in red, how she sat
there enjoying the drunken revels of the Anarchists
that constantly surrounded her.
I had all this in mind the morning I first went
there. Crossing under the famous Red Arch I
came out upon the beautiful Winter Palace Square,
which is one of the most impressive squares in
the world. The immense red buildings stretch
away endlessly, giving one the idea of deliberate
lavishness on the part of the builder, as if he wanted
to demonstrate to an astonished world that there
was no limit to his magnificence and his power.
I stopped at the main entrance and asked for
Babushka. "Babushka?" repeated the guard.
"Go round to the side gate." At the side gate I
foumi other guards who directed me through a
little garden and I finally entered the palace by a
sort of back door.
The svetzars here told me to climb the stairs to

106 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
the top fioor, and Babushka's room was the last
door along the corridor. The Tsar's private ele
vator, which he had built in recent years, did not
work any more and the stairway wound round and
round the elevator shaft.
I was ushered right into her room, which was
very small — about the size of an ordinary hotel
bedroom. There was a desk in one corner, a table
and a long couch, several chairs and a bed. It
was the kind of room you would pay two or three
dollars a night for in an American hotel. Babushka
came forward and shook hands with me.
"You look Uke an American," she said. "Now,
did you come all the way from America to see what
we're doing with our revolution?"
We sat down on the couch and Babushka went
on talking about America, of which she seemed
particularly fond. She mentioned many well-
known writers here, and called them "her children."
I said, "How does it seem to be here in the
palace?" "Why," she answered artlessly and without hesi
tation, "I don't like it at all. There is something
about palaces that makes me think of prison.
Whenever I go out in the corridor — did you notice
the corridor? — I have a feeling that I must be back
in prison — it's so gloomy and forbidding and dark.
PersonaUy, I'd love to have a Uttle house some
where, with plants in the window and as much sim
coming in as possible. I'd Uke to rest. . . . But I

KATHERINE BRESHKOVSKY 107
stay here because 'this man' wants me to." "This
man" was Kerensky.
There was a touching friendship between Ba
bushka and Kerensky. In the swift whirl of events
the old grandmother was in danger of being for
gotten, after people got over celebrating the down
fall of the Romanoffs. But Kerensky did not for
get. He made her think that she was very neces
sary to the new government of Russia. He asked
her advice on all sorts of things, but whether he
ever took it or not is very doubtful. He paid her
public homage on many occasions and she loved
him like a son.
I saw Babushka a good many times after that
and found why she lived in this back room on the
top floor of the Winter Palace. First, it was be
cause she chose tp live there. TheyTiad ottered
her the choice of the beautiful apartments and she
had refused anything but this simple room. She
insisted on having her bed and all her belongings
crammed into the tiny place, and ate aU her meals
there. I don't know whether it was her long years
in prison that made her assume this peculiar atti
tude, or if it was just because she was a simple
woman and very close to the people. She wrote
a Uttle biography of herself on the way back from
Siberia in which she said:
"When I think back upon my past life I, first
of all, see myself as a tiny five-year-old girl, who
was suffering all the time, whose heart was break-

108 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
ing for some one else; now for the driver, then
again for the chamber-maid, or the labourer or
the oppressed peasant — for at that time there was
still serfdom in Russia. The impression of the
grief of the people had entered so deeply into my
chUd's soul that it did not leave me during the
whole of my life."
Very pathetic, indeed, was her description of
what it was like to be free. This feeling she never
knew until the news of the revolution was brought
to her. "The longer the war lasted," she vsrrote,
"the more terrible were its consequences, the
brighter were the basenesses of the Russian Gov
ernment. The cleaner was the unavoidableness of
the democracies of all countries getting conscious,
the nearer was also our Revolution.
"I was waiting for the ringing of the beUs an
nouncing freedom, and I was wondering why the
bells made me wait. And yet, when in November
last, bursts of indignation took place, when angry
shouts were being transmitted from one group of
the population to another, I was standing already
with one foot in the Siberian sledge and was sorry
that the winter road was fast getting spoiled.
"On the 4th of March a wire reached me in
Menusinsk announcing my liberty. The same day
I was already on my way to Achinsk, the nearest
railway station. From Achinsk began my uninter
rupted contact with soldiers, peasants, workmen.

KATHERINE BRESHKOVSKY 109
railway employees, students and numbers of women
— all so dear to me."
Babushka believed that the Constituent Assem
bly would meet and form a government, and
Kerensky ought to be the first President. She
intended to tour Russia in a sort of presidential
campaign. Of course I wanted to go along. There
were always a lot of people around Babushka, so
she told me to come down early in the morning
and we would have a private talk together.
We walked up and down the corridor. I re
member a significant thing that she said to me.
"If anything terrible happens to my country it will
not be the fault of the working people, but of the
reactionaries." She said she was afraid of a seri
ous counter-revolution, but she didn't seem to know
how or when it would break.
I told her I had come for two reasons: First, I
wanted to tour the country with her, and second,
I wanted to meet Kerensky. She stopped short
and looked at me.
"You're very naive," she said.
"So were you," I answered, "when you smuggled
bombs across the country." Babushka stopped
again and laughed merrily.
"That's right," she admitted. "WeU, we'U see
what we can do. Now, about the tour. I won't
have room in my wagon. Will you get another
wagon?" Then she began to depict the hardships of the

110 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
trip which I believed, with some logic, I could stand
as well as Babushka, for she was very fraU and
much older than her years. At the end of our
talk she gave me a note and sent a girl down with
me to Kerensky.
Babushka is an old lady and is very forgetful.
Often she did not remember in the afternoon what
she had said in the morning. I once spent a most
amusing day in the Winter Palace, accomplishing
none of the things I set out to accomplish. I had
had an appointment with Babushka at ten o'clock.
At ten she was asleep. At eleven-thirty I went in
and we began to talk. Five minutes later three
French officers came to pay their respects. Ba
bushka said they would stay but a moment. They
stayed two hours. All this time I waited in the
adjoining room with a young Caucasian officer,
three girls, two old women and several miscellane
ous officials. We discussed everything from psycho
analysis to the reason why American vsriters don't
produce better literature. The Caucasian officer
gave me letters to his people in the South, and
with true Russian hospitality — not knowing any
thing about me — invited me down there to stay for
an indefinite period.
At three o'clock Babushka appeared and was
amazed to see me. We went back to her room and
had tea and black bread. I am sorry that some
of the people who vsrrote those extravagant stories
could not have seen her as I saw her then with

KATHERINE BRESHKOVSKY 111
her short grey hair and her peasant costume; every
thing about her so simple and unassuming.
She had a plan for educational work which had
the approval of President WUson, and a large fund
donated by American phUanthropists, but somehow
the soldiers and workers did not understand it —
they accused her of using the fimds for poUtical
purposes that were reactionary and against the
Soviets. A sad misunderstanding ensued which
probably led to all the rumours about Babushka's
imprisonment by the Bolsheviki. Nothing of the
kind ever occurred. I do not think any one in
Russia ever thought of harming Babushka, al
though she must have been misled into believing
this because for a while after the fall of the Provi
sional Government she was in hiding. But later
she Uved quietly in Moscow.
There is nothing strange in the fact that
Babushka took no part in the November revolu
tion. History almost invariably proves that those
who give wholly of themselves in their youth to
some large idea cannot in their old age compre
hend the very revolutionary spirit which they them
selves began; they are not only unsympathetic to
it, but usually they offer real opposition. And
thus it was that Babushka, who stood so long for
political revolution, balked at the logical next step,
which is class struggle. It is a matter of age. If
Julia Ward Howe were alive — an old woman of

112 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
eighty — one could hardly expect her to picket for
woman's suffrage in front of the White House,
although in her youth she wrote the Battle Hymn
of the Republic.

CHAPTER XI
KERENSKY
KERENSKY again in the limelight! Keren
sky visiting the world's capitals and hob
nobbing with the world's potentates! A new
Kerensky, reported to have grown a beard to hide
his too apparent youth. Socialist — comrade —
Kerensky now out of politics — comes thence on a
special mission — to explain the revolution! Ah,
weU and good — the world is surely in need of ex
planation. But who in any country, in any lan
guage, can explain the enigmatic Kerensky?
I was in Russia when he was at the height of
his political career, when he received ovations and
lived in the palace of the Romanoffs. It was a me^
teoric career — from the Korniloff rebellion to the/
November revolution — just three months, until]
Kerensky was fleeing in disguise; his only foUoj
ing a few political leaders and a handful of Cos
sacks who deserted him and tried to turn him
over to the Bolsheviki. He could not rally a single
regiment of soldiers, a single company of sailors,
the workmen he had armed to repel Korniloff were
his bitterest enemies, using the very same arms
against him. Even the reactionaries were bent
113

114 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
on his destruction. His faithful friend. General
Krasnov, advised him to give himself up after
the Cossacks were defeated at Tsarskoe Selo. He
promised, begged a moment in which to "compose
himself"; and in that moment he escaped, leaving
his embarrassed protectors to explain as best they
could. Perhaps no popular hero ever had a more
ignominious exit. The revolutionists were sur
prised and hurt. What could he have been think
ing of to start civil war — to march with the Cos
sacks against the people? Was it not for this very
act that he branded Korniloff a traitor? Did he
not join hands with the very element he had been
fighting all his life?
A week passed. From his place in hiding came
a hysterical letter which was published in the Volia
Naroda, beginning, "It is I, Alexander Kerensky,
who speaks!" He asked the people to put down
the usurpers; life went on as usual. In the same
issue of Volia Naroda was an editorial apologising
for the letter, saying Kerensky was a sick man, a
man who had finished his political career, it was
best to be lenient with him; and Volia Naroda was
Kerensky's official organ!
Half a year — almost eight months, to be exact —
and no further word from Kerensky. Now and
again one wonders what could have happened to
him. One remembers that he has always been ill
and thinks perhaps the poor fellow has died. Sud
denly StartUng headlines inform us that he is in

KERENSKY 115
London — in Paris — in Washington! Alexander
Feodorovitch Kerensky will not stay put. I have
a feeling as I write this that whatever I say will
be ancient history in the light of new, violent de
velopments in the career of this remarkable char
acter. Perhaps he wiU star in the movies, per
haps . . . but no ... he can never be a drawing-
room favourite; he is not as cultured as Lenine^
or Trotsky; he speaks only Russian and a few
words of French, whUe they speak any number of
languages, are weU up on the classics and even
chatter of music. Trotsky looks like Paderevski
and Lenine like Beethoven. What chance has he
against them? Still — Kerensky is playful, minis
ters in the Winter Palace claimed that he kept
them awake all hours of the night, singing grand
opera airs. . . .
I had a tremendous respect for Kerensky when^
he was head of the Provisional Government. He
tried so passionately to hold Russia together, and
what man at this hour could have accomplished j
that? He was never wholeheartedly supported by/
any group. Hf attempted to carry the whole
weight of the nation on his frail shoulders, keej
up a front against the Germans, keep down th^
warring political factions at home. Faster ane
faster grew the whirlwind. Kerensky lost his bal
ance and feU headlong. . . .
Everything in Russia was so different from
what I had expected it would be. I had been told

116 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
that the Russians were all for the war — ^when I
got there I heard nothing but peace and the talk
of the soldiers was strange talk for warriors. Con
ditions at the front were alarming. There was a
shortage of ammunition, of food and of clothing.
Soldiers stood, knee-deep in mud, muttering.
Many had no coats and the rain came down in
a cold, miserable drizzle; many had no boots. . . .
One regiment had been without food for three days
except for some carrots they had dug from a field
behind the lines. When an army gets to such a
pass anything is possible.
This was in October. And in Petrograd the art
treasures were aU being removed from the Her
mitage, the old tapestries stripped from the walls
of the Winter Palace. All night long wagons
passed my window laden with priceless old treas
ures bound for Moscow to be stored in the Krem
lin. What could it mean except evacuation? Even
machinery was removed from some of the factories.
In the Council of the Russian Republic, Trotsky
got up and asked why they were getting ready to
turn Petrograd over to the Germans. The burden
of all the speeches was peace. And through all
the confusion moved Kerensky, far from serene,
occasionally breaking down, crying out from the
tribunal, to indifferent ears : "1 am a doomed man.
I cannot last much longer!"
It was through Babushka that I met Kerensky.
She gave me a note one afternoon and I went to

KERENSKY 117
his office to get an interview. A friendly little
Russian girl, one of the numerous secretaries in
the Winter Palace, said that she would arrange
everything. Kerensky's own secretary. Dr. Sos-
kice, was away for a week. I was relieved, because
he was death on correspondents. My friend disap
peared into the inner office and came running back.
"Ah, you are fortunate!" she exclaimed. "He says
to come right in."
We entered the beautiful little private libr^ary
of Nicholas II. Kerensky lay on a couch with
his face buried in his arms, as if he had been sud
denly taken ill, or was completely exhausted. We
stood there for a minute or two and then went
out. He did not notice us. . . .
I had time to note some of the Tsar's favourite
books as I passed along — ^various classics and a
whole set of Jack London, in English.
"Something serious must be the matter with
your Minister-President," I remarked. "I heard
him speak at the Council of the Russian Republic
a few days ago and in the middle of his speech he
rushed from the platform and burst into tears."
"I know," she said. "He really is hysterical.
If he does not weep there he weeps here; and he
is so dreadfully alone. I mean, he cannot depend
on anybody."
Then she went on to teU me aU the things that
were wrong with Kerensky's health. According
to her, he had serious stomach trouble, a badly

118 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
affected lung and kidney trouble. The only way
he could keep up was by taking morphine and
brandy. That cautious correspondent, Ernest
Poole, makes the same statement in his last Rus
sian book. It seemed incredible that this man was
holding the reins of great, seething Russia.
"How long can he manage it, I wonder?" was my
almost involimtary question.
She answered with that outward resignation so
peculiar to Russians. "WeU, surely not very long.
We are going to wake up here some morning and
find that there is no Provisional Government." In
two weeks her prediction had been carried out.
A few days after my unsuccessful visit to
Kerensky a courier brought me a large important
looking envelope containing an official invitation
for an interview.
Kerensky did everything in his power to keep up
the morale of the army. Every week he used to
go to the front, visit the trenches and make
speeches; but the disharmony grew. The officers
refused to work with the soldiers' committees ; deep
conflict ensued. Kerensky had nothing definite to
offer the soldiers; there were no peace plans; he
was standing for coalition and they disapproved;
he did not dare give the peasants the land; no one
was satisfied.
Every time he came back from one of these trips
he was more discouraged. He admitted the situa
tion quite frankly. "The masses of the people are

A - v^/

KERENSKY
THIS IS HIS FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPH. HE GAVE IT TO ME WITH
HIS AUTOGRAPH A WEEK BEFORE HE WAS DEPOSED

KERENSKY 119
too economically tired to do much more fighting.
And by that," he added gravely, "I do not mean
that the revolution has failed or the revolutionary
army has failed."
One week when he was supposed to be at the
front he went out to Tobolsk to visit the Tsar.
The Tsar surprised him by being extremely cor
dial. Kerensky said that he treated him like a fa
vourite minister and made him feel quite embar
rassed. The Tsarina had been haughty with the
guards and they were offended. Kerensky spoke
to the Tsar about it and he agreed that she ought
to be more gracious. Poor, weak Nicholas, for a
lifetime he had made it a point to agree with the last
visitor. I wonder what final conversation he had
with that Red executioner, if indeed he is reaUy
dead. The guards were suspicious of one of the Grand
Duchesses. They said that they overheard her
talking about Dan, Lieber and Gotz, three of
Kerensky's poUtical supporters, and they thought
the conversation ought to be investigated, "it
sounded so much like German. . . ."
The common gossip in Petrograd was that
Kerensky was to marry a famous Russian actress.
This rumour both Kerensky and the actress de
nied, rather superfluously, since both of them were
already married and had begun no divorce pro
ceedings. Madame Kerensky did not live in the
Winter Palace and was never seen with her hus-

120 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
band. She lived quietly in another part of Petro
grad with her two chUdren. Whatever their re
lations were, however, she was essentially loyal
to her husband. After the Provisional Govern
ment fell, she was arrested for tearing off Bolshevik
posters from the walls — tearing them off with her
bare hands. The soldier who took her to prison
found out who she was as soon as the officials be
gan to question her, and he was filled with remorse.
He said that he could understand her actions un
der the circumstances, and begged the officials to
let her off. This request was immediately granted.
Kerensky was not blind to the approaching class
struggle, but he did not know how to time its
appearance. During the last interview he ever
gave as Minister-President, he said: "Remember,
this is not a political revolution. It is not like
the French revolution. It is an economic revolu
tion, and there will be necessary in Russia a pro
found revaluation of classes. And it is a very com
plicated process for all the different nationalities
in Russia. Remember, that the French revolution
took five years and that France was inhabited by
one people; that France is the size of one of our
provincial districts. No, the Russian revolution ii,
not over — it is just beginming."
Another statement he made that day, and that
I am sure he would still maintain, was in regard
to material assistance from America to Russia. I
asked him how America could best aid Russia.

KERENSKY 121
"First," he replied, "by trying to understand us —
by trying to understand the soul of the Russian
people and what they are going through. And
secondly," he smiled, "by sending us clothes, ma
chinery and money."
The Associated Press correspondent who was
with me at the time asked him if American soldiers
would be of assistance. He said that that propo
sition was not practicable, the difficulties of trans
portation were too great and besides there were
plenty of men in Russia — but no supplies.
Russian poUticians here claim that Kerensky is
now for intervention by the Japanese, and his secre
tary in London contradicts all this. In the mean
time the masses in his own country, having forcibly
ejected him, now go on vsdth their struggles with
out considering him at aU.

CHAPTER XII
TWO MINISTERS OF WELFARE — PANINA AND
KOLLONTAY
Countess Panina
<WO women have been Ministers of Welfare
since the revolution — Countess Panina and

plain citizen Alexandra Kollontay.
Both women I know well and respect for widely
different reasons. Countess Panina was in Peter
and PaiU Fortress when I first saw her. She had
refused to hand over ninety thousand rubles in
State funds that was in her possession when the
Bolsheviki came into power. Her trial was one
of the most sensational ever held before a revolu
tionary tribunal.
A young Russian girl and an active worker in
the Menshevik party, who sat next to me during
Panina's trial, made an interesting comment.
"Yes," she said, "Panina really does like poor
people — she thinks they are almost as good as other
people." This is fundamentally the difference between
Panina and Kollontay, and the reason why one is
much loved and the other has been swept aside in
the public regard after the harsh test of revolu
tion. 122

TWO MINISTERS OF WELFARE 123
And yet there are fine things about Panina.
As a liberal she did much for strugghng Russia
in the time of the Tsar. Her Norodny Dom —
People's House — was the only Norodny Dom
in Russia where good concerts were cheap enough
for the masses to attend. She was never afraid
to undertake new and hard tasks. It was she who
introduced popular lectures and adult schools. If
all the members of her party (Cadets) had been
up to her standard, they would never have fallen
into their present disrepute. Lenine in one of his
pamphlets calls her "one of the cleverest defenders
of the capitalistic system."
In appearance Panina reminds one of Jane
Addams. She is middle-aged and wears severe
EngUsh-looking clothes. But somehow her clothes
are not at all consistent with her personality. She
is gay and amusing and she loves to tell funny
anecdotes about the revolution.
Countess Panina considers Alexandra Kollontay
her bitterest political opponent. In July, KoUon-
tay was in Peter and Paul Fortress, and Countess
Panina was Minister of Welfare; by October
things were reversed.
"I followed her course with great pleasure," said
Panina, laughing.
"The Bolsheviki are by no means all prole
tariat," she once told me. "Now take for example
Mme. Sumonsen, who was arrested in July for
implication in a Bolshevik plot. She was a rich

124 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
woman, who was thrUled with the mad adventures
proposed by these radicals. While I was in prison
I came across the weirdest performances of this
creature. "In my cell I had many books, and when I was
given my liberty I began to gather my things to
gether. 'Well, you see,' I said to one of the
Bolshevik officers, 'that's what you get for impris
oning the bourgeoisie — we immediately begin to
collect property.'
"He was not at all impressed.
" 'Why, when Mme. Sumonsen left,' he said, 'she
had to have a whole truck to carry her belongings —
and even that was not enough. It was necessary to
make a second trip. Besides, you never had a
moon.' " 'A moon?' I asked, puzzled.
" 'Yes,' he explained, 'she fitted her cell up with
pink satin and wore pink satin robes and had lace
covers on her cot. In one corner she had specially
arranged a shaded electric light that looked like
a stage moon. In the evening she would lie back
among the satin cushions and the soldiers and
guards would come in and she would discourse
cleverly on literature and art — just like a courtesan
in the time of the Louis.' "
Only in Russia could such an extraordinary
Arabian Nights' tale be a reality.
I asked Panina if she believed in the self-govern
ing ofdiaritable institutions as introduced by Kol-

TWO MINISTERS OF WELFARE 125
Jontay. Countess Panina flushed with anger and
looked at me quizzically.
"Do you mean," she said, "the self-governing
of children under six or people over one hundred?"
Then she began to rage against Kollontay.
"I, myself, am franticaUy democratic!" she ex
claimed. "But being democratic and being prac
tical are two different things. All the reforms
Madame Kollontay will make now will be at the
expense of Russia's unfortunates. The people will
pay for these experiments with their lives."
I wanted to remind her that this was true also
in her time and in any age, but she was unreason
able on every subject that had to do with Kollon
tay. Once she even said, "I blame her for the mas
sacre of the officers, and not the poor sailors ane?
soldiers," which was surely a ridiculously unjust
statement, for Kollontay would be the last person
to think of such a thing.
"This absurd Madame Kollontay," she said, "in
vites the serrants to come and sit in armchairs at
her meetings. Such things cannot be! What can
they know of social reforms or of technical train
ing? It is putting the feet up and the head down,
quite mechanically."
"I cannot understand," I said to Countess
Panina, "how you can love Russia so much and
StiU take part in this terrible sabotaging. To me
the sabotagers are equal to the invading Germans
as enemies of the Russian people."

126 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Panina evaded. "Anyway," she purred, "it has
been far from successful. There was nothing very
spontaneous about it. The very fact that we were
ruining the country, and knew it, made us half
hearted. AU of us had to halt somewhere, so there
was no thoroughness about it. I, for instance,
objected to sabotaging in the schools. As you
know, the teachers' strike lasted only three days.
"Education has always been my work. To close
the schools was punishing the people for wilfulness
by administering darkness. I felt that they needed
light more than anything else. I found myself
going around arguing that the schools were not
a point in question. So that when you come right
down to it I am not very much of a sabotager."
"On what points do you disagree with the Bol
sheviki?" I asked.
"I disagree with them on every point," she cried,
"and I think that their leaders are disgusting."
"But you think that they are honest?"
"I know several that are honest," she admitted
reluctantly. "And they treated you well while you were in
prison?" "Yes, they treated me exceptionally weU, but
the decision of the Revolutionary Tribunal was not
the decision of educated persons; it was absurd
from a judicial point of view."
"What wiU your party do to overthrow the pres
ent regime?"

TWO MINISTERS OF WELFARE 127
"What can we do?" said Countess Panina help
lessly. "At present the Bolsheviki have the army
and most of the workers and peasants. We must
be silent and wait."
"I shouldn't think you would want to do any^
thing if the Soviet Government is really then the
expression of the majority of the Russian people."
We were sitting on a couch in Countess Panina's
library. She reached over impulsively and took
hold of my arm. "Listen," she said, "you are just
naturally a Bolshevik. All Americans are! I can
never understand why."
Alexandra Kollontay
Kollontay had written many books on mothers
and children and on sociology in general before she
was appointed Minister of Welfare.
Although Panina has had all the advantages of
an aristocratic training with the best schools and
teachers, besides having a natural thirst for knowl
edge, Kollontay is the more cultured of the two.
Panina owns one of the best libraries in Russia,
has been a member of the City Duma of Petro
grad, a nominee for the Constituent Assembly, and
for years took part in public life. She speaks six
languages. KoUontayJs more or less self-taught, although
she has studied much abroad. She speaks thirteen
languages flueiiSy! This is reaUy a comment on

128 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
the comparative value of every phase of thought
or accomplishment of these two women. Kollon
tay is doubly as thorough as Panina. As Ministers
of Welfare these two women held one of the high
est poUtical positions of any country.
Unlike most intellectuals, Kollontay instead of
deserting the revolution when it became an ugly
class struggle and every one else was running,
chose that particular time to give her most valua
ble assistance. That is one of the traits I admire
most about Kollontay.
Never an extremist, she believed that in a strug
gle where the masses are fighting for their free
dom against the reactionaries she preferred to stay
with the people.
She often disagrees with Lenine and Trotsky,
but she told me herself that she would never desert
the ranks of the proletariat, "if they made every
mistake on the calendar."
When I went to Russia, Kollontay was in prison.
She had been exiled because of her views against
the Tsar's government. She was shut up again for
disagreeing with the Provisional Government. She
was known to be a Bolshevik and for that "crime"
was arrested at the Russian frontier on the out
rageous charge of being a German spy. She was
let out again because they could not bring her to
trial without any evidence whatsoever. She was
re-arrested and imprisoned by Kerensky after the
July uprising for having openly said that the Soviet

TWO MINISTERS OF WELFARE 129
government was the only form for Russia, which
was the belief of all the Julyists.
Kollontay was seriously ill during her last im
prisonment. Two ancient secret service men of
the Tsar's regime were set to guard her, by the
Kerensky government. She told me herself that
for a month she could not even bathe without the
solemn scrutiny of these individuals.
Finally she was released just before the Demo
cratic Congress. It would have been embarrassing
to have kept her in prison, since she was one of the
leading delegates. It was at the democratic con
gress that I met Kollontay, and as I watched her,
work in the months that followed I came to admire
her more than any other woman in Russia, except
Spirodonova. She is a slim little person, whose age is hard to
determine; sometimes she looks twenty and again
much, much older. She works untiringly and,
through persistence born of flaming intensity, she
accomplishes a tremendous amount. She is one
of the best women orators I ever heard, jhe is
always asked to interpret the speeches of the for
eign delegates that come to Petrograd. Kollon
tay dresses re¥5L.ffieU, which is exceedingly unusual
in Russia among women interested in revolutionary
ideas. When Kollontay took over her department she
found a terrific chaos, and millions bf lives depend
ed on her sanity in dealing with the situation and

130 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
puUing herself out of a carefuUy planned poUtical
intrigue. Countess Panina, who had been in charge of the
department before Kollontay, true to the princi
ples of the bourgeoisie, had persuaded the higher
employees to go on strike.
It is amazing how quickly the bourgeoisie of
Russia learned from the working class how to sabo
tage. The employees hid the keys of the safes
and secreted the books and resorted to all manner
of underhand acts.
Kollontay called them together and quite calmly
ordered them to be locked up. As a matter of
fact it was only her long practice in self-control
that made it possible for Kollontay to appear so
cahn. She was really deeply disturbed, and told
me afterward that she had a terrific struggle with
herself before she was able to give the command
for the arrests.
"I kept saying to myself: 'Is this you, Alexan
dra Kollontay, ordering arrests?' Afterwards I
used to lie awake nights and wonder how I did it."
Nevertheless the strikers must have been un
aware of her struggle, for they returned the keys
and the books early the next morning. The en
tire strike was broken in three days.
Kollontay called another meeting, which even
the lowest servants were asked to attend. She was
very frank with them at this meeting. Russia, she
explained, was bankrupt; there were Uttle funds to

ALEXANDRA KOLLENTAY

TWO MINISTERS OF WELFARE 131
carry on charitable work; no one was to receive
even a "good" salary; she herself was to get $50 a
month, which is the salary of every commissar.
This came as a great blow to the professional
social workers, who up to this time had received
as much as 25,000 rubles a year. KoUontay shocked
them even more by announcing that thereafter aU
employees should continue to be present at meet
ings, which would be held frequently, and that the
same consideration woiUd be given to suggestions
from scrubwomen as from professional phUan
thropists. Every one was to have an equal chance
of promotion.
I used to go up to KoUontay's office on the
Kazanskaya and she explained many of her prob
lems to me. She was very much touched by the way
some of her lower employees had responded to her
appeal in this crisis. It really was astonishing how
much many of these simple and uneducated old
servants understood about the work. And when
they once realised that they were a part of the larger
plan they gladly worked for sixteen hours a day to
help Kollontay, whom they all called "Little Com
rade." The work of her department covered a vast field,
touching all Russia. "One of my greatest tasks,"
said Kollontay, "is to change the whole system
which takes care of the two and a half miUion
maimed soldiers, who are absolutely destitute. If
they could feel that they are in some way helping

132 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
to support themselves, it would add so much to
their general happiness. As it is, they don't receive
enough money to exist decently; they live in filth
and beg for crusts. When I took over the depart
ment the highest pension paid to these dependents
was thirty rubles a year (about $15 in normal
times). "By cutting down salaries and stopping all kinds
of leakage," she continued, "I managed to bring it
up to 216 rubles. But even that does not touch
what it should be. I believe that the minimum for
entirely incapacitated soldiers should be at least
2,400 rubles a year. To do that would require a
budget of 4,000,000,000 rubles.
"This two million and a half maimed does not
include the sick and wounded, of which there are
7,000,000. And there are 350,000 war orphans in
homes alone, and 200,000 deaf, dumb and blind,
besides aU the insane and the delinquents."
One way byjwIiichJSJQUontay secured money for
immediatejneeds^was byjlacing an exorbitant tax
on playing cards, which had to be purchased through
her department. Playing cards in Russia, as in
most continental countries, have always been a gov
ernment monopoly, and the profits go to charity.
Kollontay increased the price from thirty rubles for
a dozen decks to 360 rubles.
One of her dearest ambitions for years Jias been
to establish a home for convalescent mothers known
as the Palace of Motherhood. This work is actually

TWO MINISTERS OF WELFARE 133
being carried out, and what few physicians remain
in Petrograd are keenly interested in it.
On KoUontay's suggestion, the Bolshevik Gov
ernment passed a measure providing freecare for
sixteen weeks for women before, during and after
confinement. When they leave the home they can/
go back if they are not well, and they are required!
to work only four hours a day in the factories foil
the first month after returning. This applies to all\
women, whether married or single. The Bolsheviki
believe that this care of mothers is one of the first
debts to the State.
The foundling homes are a terrible problem.
Russia has long been famous for the slaughter of
her infants, mostly through starvation or neglect.
Kollontay arranged a plan whereby children are
jaken care of bv peasant women in their own homes,
where they:are_treatgda.s members of the family.
Every child in Russia now attends public school. <
AU private institutions^are^officially abolished. Not
only the chUdren in prisons, in reform schools and
in orphan asylums now must go to public schools,
but also the children of the aristocracy must attend
these same schools.
"In free Russia," said Kollontay, "there will be7
neither segregation nor aristocracy in children's
education." One day when I went to see Kollontay a
long line of sweet-faced old people were standing
outside her door. They had come as a delegation

134 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
from one of the old people's homes. KoUontay
explained their presence.
"I have removed the people who used to be over
them and turned their institutions into little re
publics. They come in every day now and express
their gratitude. They elect their own officers and
have their own political fights; choose their own
menus  "
I interrupted her. "What would that consist
of in the present day?" I asked.
Kollontay burst out laughing. "Surely," she
said, "you must understand that there is a great
deal of moral satisfaction in deciding whether you
want thick cabbage soup or thin cabbage soup!"
And this was the whole secret of KoUontay's suc-<
isess, that she aUowed other people to make their
i )wn decisions.
Kollontay spoke to me about American assist-
'ance only two days before I left Russia. She hoped,
she said, that trained people interested in her work
would come to her aid. There is such a pitiful lack
of everything in Russia to-day. Surgical dressings,
for example, have to be used over and over again,
and good doctors are almost impossible to find.

CHAPTER XIII
LENINE AND TROTSKY
LENINE and Trotsky ! How inflamed we be
come at the mere mention of those names.
After our written sentences, after our thoughts,
foUow violent vociferations, ejaculations, roars of
impatient disapproval; it appears impossible for
Anglo-Saxons to judge these men calmly and yet
judge them we must and with the finest degree of
deliberation. In all fairness to ourselves and the
cause of liberty, we must make an unprejudiced de
cision. They have come to stand for certain ideals
of internationalism behind which are certain power
ful and growing world forces ; we must choose them
or men Uke them, who follow in their footsteps, for
friends or enemies. They have become symbols and
symbols are as hard to efface as mountains. Sym
bols cannot be kicked over in sudden anger, passed
by with a shrug of the shoulders ; symbols decide our
destinies . . .
Why do you take off your hat when you stand
at the grave of Lincoln? He has become a symbol.
Why do you centre your hate on Wilhelm II in
stead of his miUions of subjects? He has become a
symbol. President WUson is a symbol; he has
135

136 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
become the interpreter of the AUied war aims. As
a personaUty he is quite detached, but he repre
sents a national ideal. Lenine and Trotsky, espe
cially Lenine, are symbols representing a new or
der. Lenine stands before us, spokesman of the
Soviets, and the Soviets are Russia. We must be
inteUigent and we must reckon with Lenine. It
would be a sad fact to prove that there is no basis
for friendship between two great republics. I
know there cannot be friendship between the Im-
[perial German Government and the Soviets, but I
I sincerely believe understanding is possible between
vthe United States and Russia. I give such facts as
jt have toward that proof:
Friendship must be built on understanding, on
frankness. Reports about Russia should not be
coloured by imagination, personalities must not en
ter in. Supposing that we grant that the ideals
of the Soviet government are not the ideals of the
American democracy. And supposing, after care
ful consideration, we grant also that the ideals of
other nations, entirely friendly toward us, are also
not our ideals. Take Japan, for example, or Korea
— there is a wedge for common ground. If we
could "wash our hands of Russia" as one states
man so unwisely said, we would not have to be
bothered by weighty considerations ; but that is not
possible. To do so would be to voluntarily give
Germany such added power as to make her in
vincible ; when Germany is able to swallow the Rus-

'ei

LENINE AND TROTSKY 137
sian revolution, she will be able to swallow the rest
of the world. And above all, to abandon Russia
or to allow her destruction would place us in the
embarrassing position of abandoning our main rea
sons for entering the war — "making the world saf
for democracy" and the "self determination of peo
pies." It is not easy to write fairly of Lenine, I confess
that. For example, if a reporter were to inter
view two representative Russians, Lenine and
Kerensky, he might easily throw all the weight of
his argument in favour of Kerensky because he
liked him best. Kerensky has "personality plus,"
as Edna Ferber would say ; one cannot help but be
charmed by his wit and his friendliness; he is a
lawyer and a politician. On the other hand, Lenine
is sheer inteUect — ^he is absorbed, cold, unattractive,
impatient ^t interruption. And yet here are the
facts : Ker^st^^ii^pokesman for the deluiKiL ITo-
~VTsioiIaI~Government ; he is discredited; he has no
power in Russia. It would be as silly to try to re-
eistablish him as if some outside force would try to
place William Jennings Bryan in the White House
and eject Wilson. Lenine has tremendous power;
he is backed by the Soviets. Therefore, if the peo
ple of Russia have eliminated Kerensky, we must
also eliminate him in our Russian relations. As/
long as Lenine is head of the Soviet governmentl
we must assuredly deal with Lenine.  j
Our most deep-rooted prejudice against Lenine

138 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
is that he is accused of being pro-German. I coiJd
never find evidence of that; I tried very hard. All
I could find out about Lenine forced me to the op
posite conclusion; to the conclusion that he plans
the destruction of every great German institu
tion, especially Prussian miUtarism. Lenine's co
workers in Germany are Karl Liebknecht, Rosa
Luxemburg, revolutionists and arch enemies of the
German government. We, as Americans, are more
or less committed to that stand — we have avowed
a desire that the present German autocratic govern
ment be overthrown. The only element in Ger
many striving toward that end are the followers
of Lenine's phUosophy. And if it comes to a choice
of accepting as aUies one or the other of those two
diametrically opposed forces, Prussianism or So-
ciaUsm, in a fight for world freedom, we cannot
hesitate to choose Socialism; and by that I do not
mean we have to embrace it. . . .
Lenine is a master propagandist. If any one is
capable of manoeuvring a revolution in Germany
and Austria, it is Lenine. He has lived long in
Germany, and he understands German psychology.
Gorky has described him as a chemist working with
human material instead of chemicals; working just
as coldly and as disinterestedly — without regard to
human life. So worked all the conquerors, Charle
magne, Napoleon, WiUiam Pitt . . . Lenine is
monotonous and thorough and he is dogged; he
possesses all the qualities of a "chief," including

LENINE AND TROTSKY 139
the absolute _ moral-indifference which is so neces
sary to such a part.
He writes treatises on philosophy and philosophic
method ; he is an authority on economics ; he writes
books so scholarly that only sociologists can com
prehend them and, at the same time, he appeals
to the peasants with pamphlets that are marvels
for simplicity.
A hand-biU written by Lenine and signed by both
Lenine and Trotsky, was brought -to me from the
German trenches by a Russian soldier who went
over the lines during the armistice. I quote il
luminating portions:
"Brothers, German soldiers, follow the example
of your great comrade, Karl Liebknecht, leader of
international socialism, who in spite of terrific dif
ficulties has carried on a brave struggle against the
war — by means of hand-bUls and newspapers, num
berless strikes and demonstrations. In this fight
yoiu" government has put thousands of your com
rades in jail.
"Finally, there was the heroic stand of the saUors
in your fleet, which was very reassuring that fully
half the intelligent working people of your coun
try are now prepared for a decisive struggle for
peace. "If you will be helpful to us in our undertaking
to establish the union of the workers and peasants
and the gradual transition to Socialism in Russia
— an undertaking which presents for Russia alone

140 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
many grave difficulties — then with your capacity
for organisation, your experience, your prepara
tion in working class development, we will be in
fallibly assured of the transition to socialism.
"Hasten to our help in the name of the Workers'
and Peasants' Government. . . ."
It would have been impossible for the German
officials to have given permission that such propa
ganda be distributed broadcast under any circum
stances. The effects are already too evident.
Louis Edgar Browne, correspondent for the Chi
cago Daily News and the New York Globe, re
cently returned from Russia, makes the following
statement :
"Bolshevik culture, through underground meth
ods, is undermining the Austrian Empire. There
are 20,000 Bolshevik agitators and revolutionists
hard at work in Austria. These agitators are all
paid agents of the Soviet government."
And as we are well aware, Austria is cracking
open with the fires of revolution.
To-day German papers are forced to admit that
German prisoners fighting with the Red Guards,
when captured by their countrymen and asked
to explain their extraordinary conduct, state that
they are internationalists, fighting for the prin
ciples of internationalism as opposed to German
imperialistic principles.
Trotsky is much more human than Lenine.

LENINE AND TROTSKY 141
Nothing could illustrate this better than their
controversy over the signing of the Brest-Litovsk
treaty. Lenine wanted to accept the first German
peace terms, bad as they were; Trotsky wanted to
fight for better ones. Trotsky it was who staged
the Brest-Litovsk negotiations and insisted that
the negotiations be public. He played for three
things: that the Allies join in, that the German
revolution commence and that the akns of the
Soviets be known throughout the world. Lenine
beUeved that it was absolutely necessary to have a
respite, time to firmly establish the Soviet state and
to organise an army and propaganda against the
German government. Everything turned out as
he predicted at Brest. It was all disastrous, yet
President Wilson, himself, praised the honesty of
Trotsky's stand. Trotsky did not want to sign the
treaty and refused to do so. When his hopes of
a German revolution were disappointed, his desire
was to call aU Russia to arms, as the French rose
in 1792 to protect their revolution. Trotsky had
timed a revolution in Finland, a revolution in the
Ukraine and one in Germany and Austria. The
last failed to materialise. Lenine, in anger at his
failure, called him a "man who blinds himself with
revolutionary phrases." Both men now agree
that a huge fighting force is necessary for Russia.
Lenine's idea is to save as much of Russia as pos
sible by a temporary peace and, in the meantime, to
buUd up the army, systematically, instead of trying

142 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
to fight trained German soldiers with hastily con
structed forces. To use his own words :
"We are compelled to submit to a distressing
peace. It will not stop revolution in Germany.
We shall now begin to prepare a revolutionary
army, not by phrases and exclamations . . . but by
organised work, by the creation of a serious, na
tional, mighty army."
It was the adoption of Lenine's decision by the
Soviets that led Trotsky to give up his position as
Minister of Foreign Affairs and become Minister
of War, bending all his energies towards forming
an adequate Red Army. He has stated that he
wUl accept the services of American officers in train
ing that army; he sees "no reason why Russia and
America should not ride in the same car for a way
as long as they are foUowing the same road. . . ."
There is evidence that American opinion is slowly
swerving also to that view. The Chicago Daily
News prints the following editorial, which shows
an intelligent and sympathetic understanding of
our future relationship to the Soviets and their
leaders :
"Most of us in America do not believe in Lenine,
most of us do not believe in the Bolsheviki. Very
well. But it is absolutely necessary for us to be
lieve in the Soviet. The strength of our belief in
the Soviet is the strength of our chances of success
in Russia.

LENINE AND TROTSKY 143
"The Soviet is the soul of Russia — and more
. . . the Soviet has become its communicating
nervous system and its deciding brain.
"Between the Soviets and us there is a bridge —
the bridge of common belief in common humanity.
Let us cross that bridge now. . . . Beyond it lies
the heart of Russia. And through that heart Ues the/
only road to a re-establishment of the Eastern
Front. "Let us abandon every word of unnecessary
criticism against Russia. In Russia's house we shaU
be guests. It is a Soviet house. If the Soviets
choose Lenine to rule their house, it is their house.
If they choose some one else to rule their house, it
is their house.
". . . It is a republic of Soviets, in the mouth
of every Ainerican the word Soviet must become a
word of friendship, a word of comradeship, a
word of great hope for a great irresistible alliance
against Berlin."
If we are really able to accomplish what the
Daily News suggests, we will have solved the prob
lem. We will have thwarted the scheme of German
agents and ultra-conservatives to create in America
an irreconcilable hatred against the Soviets and
their representatives.
In appearance, Lenine is very different from the
old prison photograph, now used by newspapers,
which was taken years ago when he was sentenced

144 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
to Siberia. He is a little round man, quite bald and
smooth-shaven. For days he shuts himself away
and it is impossible to interview him. We used to
catch him after lectures — ^then he would chat of in
consequential things.
Lenine comes from an old Russian family and
his real name is Ulianov. He is not a Jew. His
brother was one of the revolutionary martyrs, and
was publicly executed. His father and Keren
sky's father were directors in the same school. The
execution of Lenine's brother is said to have been
one of the greatest irifiuences in Kerensky's life.
Neither Lenine nor Trotsky were forced into the
revolutionary struggle by circumstances. Their
people were not peasants. Trotsky's father was a
wealthy Moscow merchant.
Lenine objected to elaborate legal plans for
transferring either lands or industries into the
hands of the proletariat. He believed that the cen
tral authority should have nothing to do with this
transference, that it should be accomplished by
direct revolutionary action on the part of the local
workers and peasants. As early as the end of No
vember all the landlord holdings in Russia had
passed into the hands of the peasants and if the
Soviet Government had fallen then, still it would
have been impossible to return the land to its own
ers. The same thing was largely true of the fac
tories. This is, of course, the factor which makes
it so particularly difficult for the Germans to re-

LEON TROTSKY

LENINE AND TROTSKY 145
store capitalism in Russia — ^without which all at
tempts of the Germans to exploit Russia are abso
lutely futile.
During the first days of the Bolshevik revolt I
used to go every morning to Smolny to get the lat
est news. Trotsky and his pretty little wife, who
hardly ever spoke anything but French, lived in
one room on the top floor. The room was par
titioned off like a poor artist's attic studio. In one
end were two cots and a cheap little dresser and in
the other a desk and two or three cheap wooden
chairs. There were no pictures, no comfort any
where. Trotsky occupied this office aU the time
he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and many dig
nitaries found it necessary to call upon him there.
Outside the door two Red Guards kept constant
watch. They looked rather menacing, but were
reaUy friendly. It was always possible to get an
audience with Trotsky,
Running a government was a new task and often
puzzling to the people in Smolny. They had a cer
tain awe of Lenine, so they left him pretty well
alone, while every little difficulty under the sun
was brought to Trotsky. He worked hard and was
often on the verge of a nervous breakdown; he be
came irritable and flew into rages. For a long time
he refused to use a stenographer and laboriously
wrote out all his letters by hand. A few months
of experience, however, made him change his meth
ods. He got two efficient stenographers and the

146 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Red Guards were replaced by aides who had once
been officers in the regular army.
Trotsky is slight of build, wears thick glasses and
has dark, stormy eyes. His forehead is high and
his hair black and wavy. He is a brUliant and fiery
orator. After knowing him the stories about Ger
man money seem utterly absurd. He stead
fastly refused to take money from his father, in
exile he was desperately poor. Both Lenine and
Trotsky live with great frugality. Both receive,
at their own request, but fifty dollars a month as
the highest officials of the Russian government. I
think a psychoanalyst would say of Trotsky that
he has a "complex" about money. He was so afraid
of plots to implicate him that he threw people out
of his office when they came to offer honest and
legitimate financial aid to Russia.
Lenine and Trotsky are always menaced by as
sassination. I once was present when three shots
were fired at Lenine. He was as cool as if he had
been made of stone. In spite of these attempts
they go about freely and unprotected. I attach
no political importance to these attempts. They
are individual acts of violence countenanced by no
large group.
The most ludicrous piece of team work ever per
formed by Lenine and Trotsky was their action in
connection with the Roumanian Ambassador. Some
Austrians had disarmed a whole division of Bol
shevik troops on the Southwest Front (in Rou-

LENINE AND TROTSKY 147
mania) while the fraternising was going on. Trot
sky was at Brest and he immediately telegraphed
to Petrograd ordering the arrest of the Roumanian
Ambassador. No one had ever heard of such a
performance, just as they had never heard of pub-
Ushing secret documents and other unprecedented
acts. The next day the entire diplomatic corps in
Petrograd went in a body to Smolny. I beUeve
there were thirty-nine. Lenine, when he first be
held them, thought for a joyful moment that all the
nations of the world were sending their repre
sentatives to recognise the Soviet government.
Lenine was in high good humour ; it was not his
wish to put out the pleasant gentlemen who called
and protested. If it was so unprecedented, if they
reaUy did feel so badly because of the imprisonment
of their colleague, he assured them politely that he
woidd issue orders for his immediate release. He
shook hands with all the thirty-nine and the affair
seemed happily ended.
But alas! No sooner had the diplomats rolled
home in their comfortable cars and sat down to din
ner and began to remark that Lenine and Trotsky
were, after aU, not such unreasonable fellows than
couriers came in with the alarming news that while
the Ambassador had indeed been given his freedom,
a new order had just been issued calling for the ar
rest of the Roumanian king ! The diplomats sighed
hopelessly, for, after aU, a king is just a king and
entitled to no diplomatic courtesies. . . .

CHAPTER XIV
A TRIUMVIRATE Antonoff
THE Army and Navy of the Soviet Govern
ment, after the November revolution, was di
rected by a committee of three men — Dubenko,
Krylenko and Antonoff. All three had risen from
the common soldiery — only one had attended an of
ficers' school. All of them were under thirty, a
notable feature of the proletariat revolution so fuU
of youth and of the fiery intensity of youth.
Antonoff, who is at present assisting Trotsky in
organising the Red Army, counts for his largest
support on the voluntary services of the young men
and women of Russia who are surging in like the
full tide to save the revolution. As newly appointed
Commissar of Petrograd he has charge of the de
fense against the Germans.
Antonoff looks like a poet. His face is delicate,
his hair is long and bushy and he usuaUy wears a
bow tie. The bushy hair and the bow tie are by no
means a pose. I doubt very much if Antonoff ever
thinks about his clothes, or if he cares that his is
not the usual costume of a Minister of War. He
148

A TRIUMVIRATE 149
was a captain in the Russian army before the 1905
revolution. After its dismal failure he had to flee
abroad. He has always been an active revolu
tionist. To military men he is known as an extraor
dinarily clever strategist.
Some of the most ridiculous things happened to
Antonoff just after the Bolsheviki came into power.
He had suddenly been elevated to a position of
great authority, and everything was in such a
chaotic state that he had to go on attending to his
customary tasks together with his new duties until
other officers could be properly shifted.
One day in November he went to the telephone
exchange, which was a point bitterly contested for
by both sides. The last he had heard it was safe
in the hands of his own men, so naturally, he was
surprised to walk in and find himself a captive in
the hands of the Junkers. He was entirely un
perturbed and sat down in a corner and began to
read Dostoievsky . . .
The Junkers had taken the telephone exchange
by a very clever ruse. All the uniforms were alike,
so it was impossible to tell one side from the other.
They found out the hour that the Bolsheviki
changed guards, and a few minutes before the time
to relieve them the Junkers sent their own men
around. No one suspected anything, and Anton
off, playing in exceedingly poor luck, happened to
come in almost immediately after the Junker guards
had taken charge.

150 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
As soon as the Bolsheviki found that the Junkers
were in possession of the telephone exchange, they
surrounded the building, and for a whUe a rather
fierce battle ensued. But the Junkers soon ran
out of ammunition, and reinforcements failed to
come, so they had to surrender Antonoff as weU as
themselves after a few hours.
The next day I went to Smolny with Alexander
Gomberg, a Russian from America. Antonoff was
in the courtyard preparing to go to Pulkova, just
outside Petrograd, where the Red Guards were dig
ging trenches to hold a front against the advancing
Cossacks. We asked Antonoff if we could go along. He
assented absent-mindedly, but when we were ready
to start we found there was not nearly enough room.
Two officers and a courier with a folding bicycle,
besides the Minister of War, had to be tucked
away in a one-seated car. They consulted a mo
ment and decided that no guests were necessary.
Just as the car began to move, Gomberg jumped
onto the running board. I didn't have the energy
to follow and I have regretted it ever since, be
cause he had an amazing experience. In fact,
many of the things that occurred in Russia in those
days were so much like Mexico in the time of VUla's
triumph around Chihuahua that we found ourselves
continually commenting on the fact.
On the outskirts of Petrograd the overloaded
automobile broke down. Just what happened to it

A TRIUMVIRATE 151
I do not know, but it was something very vital, be
cause it had to be abandoned. The Minister of
War and the officers and the courier were feeling
highly discouraged when along came a large car
with a soldier at the wheel. He was returning
from the front. Antonoff held him up.
"I'm sorry," he said, "but I will have to requisi
tion your car — ^mine seems to be finished."
The soldier had no respect for authority. "You
can't take my car," he announced with great final
ity. "I'm going back to get supplies for the First
Machine Gun Regiment. They don't need any
more men, they need bullets."
Antonoff looked very serious. "But I am the
Minister of War," he objected.
The soldier swore joyfully. "Why, you're the
very man I need," he exclaimed. "You are to sign
the order for more supplies."
Antonoff felt in his pocket for a pencil. He had
none. Gomberg supplied an American fountain
pen and a notebook. And the order was signed.
"And now," said Antonoff, "how about the ma
chine?" "Oh, that's settled," called the soldier, pressing
the electric button on his self-starter, and off he
went in the direction of Smolny.
The next victim was a wealthy speculator. An
tonoff extracted his car from him with very little
difficulty. Before proceeding, however, he be
thought him of the fact that he had taken no food.

152 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
There was a little grocery store not far away. An
tonoff ordered one of his officers to purchase some
dried fish or whatever else he could find. The ter
rible calamity soon became known that neither the
War Minister nor the officers nor the courier had
any money. Gomberg made the purchases.
Antonoff is not so irresponsible as this story
might make him seem. He had been under a par
ticularly heavy strain and had had no sleep for
three nights.
Alexander Gomberg, in spite of these services to
the new proletarian government, was abandoned
along the muddy front, and after walking a few
miles, met a farmer going to Petrograd with a load
of hay, who took compassion on him and carried
him back to town. He arrived about dawn in a
heavy rain, but was quite cheerful.
"It's a funny story," said Gomberg to me, "and
if I had ever worked on any part of a paper but
the advertising department I would write it up
myself." Krylenko
Krylenko was a student officer before 1905, and
was a member of the Social Democratic party. He
was in prison many times for his revolutionary ac
tivities and at last escaped abroad after the dismal
failure to overthrow the Tsar in that year.
When the February revolution broke out he re-

A TRIUMVIRATE 153
turned to Russia and joined the army. It was
largely due to his influence that the Russian army
turned Bolshevik. Kerensky feared Krylenko, but
did not dare to curb him, knowing how much he was
adored by the soldiers.
Krylenko's peculiarly daring personality always
won instantly the confidence of his men. He is a
good fighter, and has enormous powers of persua
sion. And oratory will for a long time play a large
part in government in Russia, in spite of Lenine's
contempt for the "malady of revolutionary
phrases." I once saw Krylenko do a remarkable thing. It
was in the first days of the Bolshevik uprising and
certain garrisons had almost been persuaded by the
City Duma to remain neutral so that when Keren
sky and his Cossacks arrived the Soviet forces
would not be weU backed up. A great deal de
pended on the way the brunoviki (armoured car
division) went. For days Kerensky had sent them
out through the city to terrify the opposition. They
would come hurtling down a crowded street with
their screaming sirens, and the population would
run for shelter. On the sides of the cars were still
painted in red letters the names given them by the
Tsar's government. It was amusing to see the
names of all the ancient rulers flash by in a terrible
procession. It was as though they had come back
from the dead to curse the new order. In spite of
the fact that Kerensky ordered the cars out, and

154 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
they had gone out, no one felt certain that when
the fighting began they would be on his side.
One night in early November a meeting was
called in the huge Mikhailovsky manege, once the
exercising ground for the best-blooded horses in
the world, and now used as a bam for armoured
cars. The speakers mounted to the top of one of
the cars and thousands of soldiers crowded to the
very edge of this strange rostrum, Ustening in
tently. The great room was blue with cigarette
smoke and hazy in the candlelight.
The first two speakers were for Kerensky. They
were received for the most part in silence, but as
each finished there was applause from the majority.
I thought as I watched that Kerensky could count
on the brunoviki, and in that case he could hold
Petrograd. At any rate, it looked as if they would
not go against him, perhaps they would remain neu
tral. \
When the first two speakers had ceased, a stocky
little man climbed up the sides of the car. He had
short legs and a large head and sharp, squinting
little eyes. It was Krylenko. For two nights he
had not slept, and he had but a few minutes be
fore arrived on a train from the front. His face was
so white and he looked so tired that it seemed fool
ish to bother about him. His cause seemed hope
less. Then he began to speak.
Krylenko has the ardour of "Billy" Sunday. As

A TRIUMVIRATE 155
his voice rose over that huddled crowd of soldiers
the atmosphere changed rapidly. Men began to
move around, to argue with one another; there was
no more polite silence, eyes flashed. . . .
He talked about fifteen minutes. When he fin
ished there was no applause, but a great roar, "All
Power to the Soviets!" Krylenko stepped back
smiling and showed his teeth in a tired grin. The
chairman came forward and asked for the vote.
There were 3,000 soldiers; all but 25 went with
Krylenko. One of the twenty-five said to me : "He's
a devil, that man Krylenko!" After the decision
was reached Krylenko sUd down from the evil-look
ing machine and disappeared into the night.
MUitary men have told me that he has un
usual abUity as an officer; besides he is bent, above
aU things, on stirring up revolution in Germany and
Austria-Hungary. He is a violent Uttle person
and reminds one of characters from the most vivid
pages of the French revolution. He was always
saying pubUcly and privately: "Those who do not
work shall not eat!"
During the negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, Kry
lenko went along the front and helped get revolu
tionary hterature over the lines. One day the Ger
mans confiscated in their own trenches a hundred
thousand copies of "Die Fackel," a paper printed in
German by the Russian Foreign Office. There was
wild excitement — the German soldiers had already

156 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
read the paper and it gave most of them their first
news of what the revolution in Russia aimed to give
to its oppressed people. It told the German sol
diers what a revolution in their own country would
do for them. There were, for instance, illustra
tions of workmen in Petrograd prying off the im
perial insignia from buildings, and a picture of the
old German embassy in Petrograd with the query:
"Why don't you send a German workman to rep
resent you to the workmen's and soldiers' govern
ment of Russia?" No advance on the French front
would have alarmed the German officers to a
greater degree.
The next day the German delegates at Brest
threatened to break off all negotiations if this prop
aganda continued. Krylenko, with a smile, or
dered that no more literature should be sent. The
soldiers understood the smile and laughed good-
naturedly. "It's beginning to work over there —
like yeast," said one. And the Foreign Office also
understood. They began to work twenty-four
hours a day instead of twelve. Tons of revolution
ary pamphlets were smuggled in to the Germans,
and Bolshevik speakers sneaked over No Man's
Land into the enemy's country. At one time forty
of them were in a German insurrection camp and
Krylenko and all the officers knew who they were
and what they were doing.

A TRIUMVIRATE 157

Dubenko

Dubenko is only 25 years of age. Through his
popularity and his marked ability he was elevated
in the spring of 1917 from an ordinary seaman to
chairman of the Central Executive Committee of
the Baltic fleet, and as the whole Russian army and
navy is managed by committees, this office is the
highest in the fleet.
As the Revolution progressed he became one of
the most influential Bolshevik leaders and Cron
stadt, which is the home of the Baltic fleet, followed
him in his political affiliations and opinions almost
en masse. He had a great deal to do with the solid
Bolshevik ranks that grew up in the fleet. After
the Bolshevik uprising he was virtually head of the
navy on the committee with Antonoff and Kry
lenko. He was active field commander against
Kerensky. Revolutionary discipline amid all the intensity
of that tremendous upheaval which will be known
to history as the first proletariat revolution was
largely due to the Cronstadt saUors. Through all
that intensity they moved splendidly with a fervour
that created around them forever a legendary
glamour — loved and depended upon by the people
— feared and hated by the aristocracy and the coun
ter-revolutionists. They were true moralists, the sailors; for they

158 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
cleaned first their own house before they went
abroad to sweep up the dirt of others. In Cron
stadt they posted notices forbidding all drunken
ness, and thieves were punished by death. Their
method was picturesque as well as severe. Thieves
Cjaught in the act were taken to the edge of a cliff
and shot.
Wine produces different effects on different
races. On the Russian soldier it does only one
thing — it brings out his most bestial tendencies. It
was extremely dangerous for the cause of the revo
lution if the soldiers and sailors or the Red Guards
would grow slack in regard to prohibition. There
was enough wine in the cellars of the palaces and
various warehouses and private houses to keep most
of Russia drunk for several years.
Early in January the Cadets hatched a sinister
plot. The masses were hungry and cold and in
rags. They calculated that it was the psychological
moment to open the wine cellars and start a reign
of terror, and that by breaking down the revolu
tionary discipline they could easily take over the
power. I wUl never forget the night I came up the street
and met five roaring, drunken soldiers. They were
like animals. I could have sat down in the snow
and cried, only I didn't have time. We were near
the Winter Palace, and just at that moment a
crowd of Cronstadt sailors ran around the corner
and, screaming curses on their drunken brothers.

A TRIUMVIRATE 159
they opened fire. One soldier was kiUed and the
rest got themselves somehow out of danger. That
night the Cronstadt sailors had to kill thirty sol
diers. But they smashed the plot.
For days after that we could hear firing in all
parts of Petrograd. A strange performance was
going on. Beginning with the Winter Palace the
sailors went systematically all over the city and fin
ished the "booze" problem. They poured the wine
on the streets or threw it into the canals. Cellars
were flooded with it and pumped out with the aid
of fire engines. The snow was rose stained and the
city reeked with stale alcohol.
Groups of from ten to twenty sailors would come
hurtling down the wide streets standing in a great
motor-truck, armed and determined. "Another
wine pogrom," the passerby would remark. It
was a tremendous achievement; it kept the Russian
revolution clean from the hideous guiUotine days
so characteristic of the French Revolution.
It was a miracle almost when one remembers that
the saUors were hungry and cold and the wine
would have warmed them — when one remembers
even that the wine was worth mUlions of dol
lars. While the sailors were severe with the thieves in
Cronstadt they seemed to feel a certain reserve in
deaUng with them in Petrograd. If they found
anything had been stolen that belonged to the peo
ple they would immediately go and reclaim it, ad-

160 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
minister a good scolding to the offender and de
part. The Alexandrinsky Rinok — Alexander Market
— has another name in Petrograd. It is known as
"Thieves' Market," because obviously most of the
things that are for sale there are stolen goods. It
is one of the most interesting places I ever vis
ited. More antique treasures can be bought there
than anywhere else except in old markets in Con
stantinople. The range of loot is amazing. There are old
Bokharas, ikons of wood, brass and iron, amber,
carved silver chains, old enamel, cameos, tapestries,
brocades, peasant embroideries, jewel-studded sil
ver bracelets, heavy silver earrings and silver rings
set with agates, old lusters, Bristol glass, Chinese
porcelains, furs and great trays of precious and
semi-precious stones. It is situated in a remote cor
ner of Petrograd, and no guide-book ever mentions
it. It seems to be entirely overlooked by tourists.
I once took the American consul and Somerset
Maugham, the playwright, to see it. The consul
was shocked at the idea of such an open market for
thieves, but Uke most foreigners, he decided to have
no scruples, since it was not his country and was
none of his business what peculiar customs alien
peoples had. He found a pipe owned by Peter the
Great, and Maugham picked up two marvellous
bead purses.

A TRIUMVIRATE 161
After the Bolsheviki turned the Winter Palace
into a people's museum they missed cases of table
sUver that had been stored in the cellar and was
used at banquets. One afternoon the Cronstadt
sailors surrounded the market and located all the
missing articles. They scolded the merchants for
their lack of loyalty to the revolution, but did them
no violence.
The thieves themselves have peculiar twisted
ideas of honour. An American friend of mine, re
turning from a political meeting at two in the
morning, was held up by robbers. He thought for
a minute and then said to them in his meagre Rus
sian: "Ya ne ponyemayo pa RussMj ya Ameri-
canetSj" which means: "I cannot understand Rus
sian, I am American." The robbers were sur
prised. They consulted together and fijially de
cided that it was unsportsmanlike to hold up a man
who could not speak the language. So one of them
said: "Well, go along, old fellow; we will get an
other one."
I told this story when I first came home, and one
of the persons I told it to remarked quite seriously :
"Of course, they were Bolshevik robbers." It was
as absurd a thing to say as if you should go to Rus
sia and tell a story about a hold-up in America and
a Russian would remark: "Of course, they were
Democrat or Republican robbers." We are so con
fused in this country by a mysterious yet effective
and systematic discrediting of everything that has

162 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
to do with the pdlitical party known as the Bol
sheviki, that we are quite apt to make uninteUigent
comments of this kind.
When the telephone girls went on strike, at the
instigation of the Cadets, after the November revo
lution, the Bolsheviki offered them higher wages
and shorter hours, but, nevertheless, they haughtily
refused. For more than a month the Cronstadt
sailors took over the principal telephone exchanges
and ran them as best they could. They never hesi
tated at any time to do anything that would aid the
revolution. They carried coal to the factories to
keep them going and to keep the workers from be
ing out of work. They went on long expeditions
into Siberia and brought back large supplies of
flour to make bread for the army and feed the
starving popiUation. They are fighting to-day in
Finland with the Red Guards against the Ger
mans and the White Guards.
I am enough of a feminist to be pleased with the
fact that the Cronstadt Soviet has been headed by
a middle-aged woman for more than half a year.
Her name is Madame Stahl, and she manages her
many turbulent sons in a clear-headed and unper
turbed manner.
Dubenko for a time fell from grace, as a result
of his over-confidence in humanity. As head of the
navy he was responsible for the retention of the
higher command. Many high officers after a few
months of Bolshevik rule, having evidently decided

A TRIUMVIRATE 163
that the new government was going to stick, came
back into the service. The common sailors were
suspicious of them, but Dubenko believed them to
be honest in their desire to aid Russia.
After the Brest-Litovsk negotiations and the
subsequent German advance, it was discovered that
these same high officers whom he had reinstated had
betrayed part of the fleet. For example, they gave
up the port of Narva without resistance to the Ger
mans. Further investigation proved that they had
held communication with the enemy through the
diplomatic pouches. Dubenko was held responsi
ble and was arrested, but was later released and ex
onerated. On the opening day of the Third Congress of
Soviets in Moscow in January, he married Alex
andra KoUontay. This was one of the few ro
mances among the revolutionary leaders.

CHAPTER XV
MARIE SPIRODONOVA
MARIE SPIRODONOVA looks as if she
came from New England. Her puritanical
plain black clothes with the chaste little white col
lars, and a certain air of refinement and severity
about her seem to belong to that region more than
to mad, turbulent Russia — yet she is a true daugh
ter of Russia and of the revolution. She is very
young — just past thirty — and appears exceedingly
frail, but she has the wiry, unbreakable strength
of many so-called "delicate" people, and great
powers of recuperation.
Her early history as a revolutionist is excep
tional even in the minds of the Russians, and they
have grown used to great martyrs. She was nine
teen when she killed Lupjenovsky, Governor of
Tambov. Lupjenovsky had as dark a record as
any official ever possessed. He went from village
to viUage taking an insane, diabolical delight in tor
turing people. When peasants were unable to pay
their taxes or offended him in any way at all, he
made them stand in line many hours in the cold
and ordered them publicly flogged. He arrested
any one who dared hold a different political view
164

MARIE SPIRODONOVA 165
from his own; he invited the Cossacks to commit
all sorts of outrages against the peasants, especially
against the women.
Spirodonova was a student in Tambov ; she was
not poor and she suffered no personal discomfort,
but she could not bear the misery about her. She
decided to kill Lupjenovsky.
One afternoon she met him in the railway station.
The first shot she fired over his head to clear the
crowd, the next she aimed straight at his heart, and
Spirodonova has a steady hand as well as a clear
head. Lupjenovsky was surrounded by Cossacks
at the time. They arrested Spirodonova.
First the Cossacks beat her and threw her quite
naked into a cold cell. Later they came back and
commanded her to tell the names of her comrades
and accomplices. Spirodonova refused to speak, so
bunches of her long, beautiful hair were pulled out
and she was burned all over with cigarettes. For
two nights she was passed around among the Cos
sacks and the gendarmes. But there is an end to
all things; Spirodonova fell violently ill. When
they sentenced her to death she knew nothing at all
about it, and when they changed the sentence to
life imprisonment she did not know. She was de
ported to Siberia in a half-conscious condition.
None of her friends ever expected to see her
again. When the February revolution broke out eleven

166 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
years later she came back from Siberia and offered
her life again for freedom.
It is hard for us in comfortable America to un
derstand the fervour of people like Spirodonova. It
is a great pity that we do not understand it be
cause it is so fine and unselfish, I once asked her
how she managed to keep her mind clear during aU
the eleven years that she was in Siberia,
"I learned languages," she said,
"You see, it is a purely mechanical business and
therefore a wonderful soother of nerves. It is like
a game and one gets deeply interested. I learned
to read and speak English and French in prison."
No other woman in Russia has quite the worship
from thfe masses of the people that Spirodonova has.
Soldiers and sailors address her as "dear comrade"
instead of just ordinary "tavarish." She was
elected president of the first two AU-Russian Peas
ant Congresses held in Petrograd and she swayed
those congresses largely to her will. Later she was
chairman of the executive committee of the Peas
ants' Soviets and she is an extremely influential
leader in the Left Socialist Revolutionist party.
f When the Bolsheviki came into power they took
over the land programme of the Socialist Revolu
tionists. This brought about great turmoil in the
party. The Right maintained that it was their
programme and no one had the right to steal it, but
1 Spirodonova and aU her wing only laughed.
"What difference does it make," she wanted to

MARIE SPIRODONOVA 167
know, "who gives the peasants their land — the prin-j
cipal thing is that they get it." (
The first time I saw Spirodonova was at the
Democratic Congress. Orators had been on the
platform arguing about coalition for hours. A
hush fell over the place when she walked on the
stage. She spoke for not more than three minutes,
giving a short, concise, clear argument against
coalition. She began:
"Krestian — peasants — if you vote for coaUtion
you give up all hope of your land!"
The great palace shook with the roaring protests
of the proletariat against coaUtion when she ceased.
Millions of peasants trust her implicitly and move
with her judgment almost invariably. She has the
greatest poUtical following of any woman in the
world. If she were not such a clear thinker and so in
spired a person, her leadership of the physical
giants would be ludicrous. Spirodonova is barely
five feet tall. She may weigh 100 pounds and she
may weigh less. She has big grey eyes circled with
blue rings, and soft brown hair which she wears in
a coronet braid. She works on an average of about
sixteen hours a day, and everybody in Russia pours
into her office at 6 Fontanka to ask advice.
I used to go there and she would tell me inter
esting stories. One day I took in a Russian girl
who belonged to the Menshevik party and who,
therefore, was opposed to Spirodonova. She sat

168 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
sUent and Ustened to her for two hours. When we
came out on the street the girl stopped and her eyes
were full of tears.
"To think," she said, "that with such eyes and
such a face she should ever kill a man! Until to
day I was her enemy — now I know she is the great
est woman in Russia!"
And to Spirodonova I wish also to make my
salaam. I have not met a woman her equal in any
country. The last time I saw her she talked to me about the
war and the possibility of a decent peace being se
cured at Brest-Litovsk. She had no faith in the
success of the negotiations, and she was seriously
working on what she called a "Socialist army."
"We have made secret inquiries," she said, "and we
know we will have enough men; they will all be vol
unteers; there must be no compulsion." I had a
vision then of Spirodonova leading her peasant-
soldiers to battle instead of through the intricate
mazes of politics. ...
She spoke sadly of the sabotagers, especially of
the intellectuals. "They consider the Russian revo
lution an adventure and they hold aloof, but the
Russian revolution is much more than that, even if
it fails for the present. It is the beginning of so
cial revolution all over the world; it is social revo
lution here in full swing! The whole country is
taking part in it now. My reports come in from
the remotest districts. The peasants are already

».J>>

SPIRODONOVA
THIS IS THE ONLY PHOTOGRAPH SHE EVER GAVE TO ANYONE. SHE
TORE IT OFF HER PASSPORT THE DAY I LEFT RUSSIA

MARIE SPIRODONOVA 169
conscious and are making social changes every
where." We talked about women and I wanted to know
why more of them did not hold public office sincg.
Russia is the only place in the world where there
is absolute sex equality. Spirodonova smiled at
my question.
"I am afraid I will sound like a feminist," she
confessed, "but I wUl tell you my theory. You will
remember that before the revolution as many
wornen as men went to Siberia; some years there
were even more women. . . . Now that was all a
very different matter from holding public office.
It needs temperament and not training to be a
martyr. Politicians are usually not very fine, they
accept political positions when they are elected to
them — not because they are especially fitted for
them. I think women are more conscientious.
Men are used to overlooking their consciences —
women are not."
Angelica Balabanov, another Russian revolution
ist, has much the same theory. She told me in
Stockholm: "Women have to go through such a
tremendous struggle before they are free in their
own minds that freedom is more precious to them
than to men." I wish I could believe it, but I can
never see any spiritual difference between men and
women inside or outside of politics. They act and
react very much alike; they certainly did in the

170 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Russian revolution. It is one of the best argu
ments I know in favour of equal suffrage.
Spirodonova as a member of the Left Socialist
Revolutionist party is surrounded by a number of
the finest young idealists in Russia. Hers is the
only party that in a crisis rises above party for the
benefit of the nation. It wiU have more and more
to say as the revolution settles down.
The day I left Russia, Spirodonova gave me her
picture. She hates publicity and it is the only
photograph she ever gave to any one. . . . This one
she tore off her passport but she refused to say
good-bye. "You must come right back," she said,
"when you have written your story. And never
mind saying anything good about me, but do say
something about the revolution. . . . Try to make
them understand in great America how hard we
over here are striving to maintain our ideals."

CHAPTER XVI
FROM ONE ARMY TO THE OTHER
THE Committee /or Saving the Country and
the Revolution with its usual disregard for
facts, informed us one afternoon in the middle of
November that Kerensky had rallied round him a
huge army of Cossacks and was marching up from
Tsarskoe Selo. The first train in that direction left
about 6 P. M. We didn't know where it would
land us, but we decided to take it anyway. There
were three of us, all Americans.
The train jogged along without interruption.
We fell into a discussion, and before we were aware
we had travelled any distance at all the conductor
came in and told us we were at Tsarskoe. Whether
or not we had somehow crossed the lines from one
army to the other we did not know, but we were
uneasily aware of the fact that we carried only
Bolshevik passes.
It was already dark and the town looked quite
dead, with a single Ught flickering here and there.
Around the station things looked normal enough —
people were walking about and soldiers were stand
ing guard. We asked one of the guards for the
Commandant and he took us to a little office where
171

172 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
a ragged soldier sat writing. He looked up from
a pile of papers and gave us a weary smile.
"The station is still in the hands of the people,"
he said, when we told him we were reporters, "but
the Cossacks are just on the other side of the park
and I do not know how long we can hold. . . ."
"Can we wander through the town?"
"Certainly," he replied, "but do not attempt to
cross the park. One of our comrades was kiUed
there yesterday. She thought she could go over
and fraternise with the Cossacks. They shot her
just as she crossed the lines. . . ."
I verified this story after I returned to Petro
grad. She had hoped to prevent the battle be
tween the Red Guards and the Cossacks which took
place a few days later.
We were hungry and looked for the station res
taurant. At one of the tables we found a lone
Englishman who commented on all our remarks by
one word, "Extraordinary!" which he drawled forth
in the proper British manner. When we got tired
of the monotony of his expression and stopped talk
ing, a Russian soldier leaned over and whispered:
"Tell him something else, please. I want to hear
him say that word again. . . ."
We had cold fish and tea, then wandered through
the town. For blocks we did not see a soul. In
front of a large barn-like building we met a sailor
and a soldier. They seemed to be undecided
whether to go into the building or not. At last

FROM ONE ARMY TO THE OTHER 173
one opened the door gingerly and a shaft of light
came streaming through. We stopped also and
looked in. A stout, weU-dressed man was stand
ing in the middle of the empty room. We decided
from the rows of seats that it must be a small town
theatre. "Excuse me," said the sailor, "but will there be a
performance to-night?"
The man on the inside bellowed with rage.
"Performance!" he shouted. "Performance, with
a battle at any moment? Your damned revolution,
I teU you, has ruined my business !"
"Excuse me," said the sailor again, and shut the
door. We aU stood there on the street for a moment.
None of us knew just what to do. Then we showed
our passes to the sailor and soldier expecting them
to be friendly. They took the passes and looked
them over solemnly and handed them back without
a word. We felt sure that they must be anti-Bol
shevik but what puzzled us was that they acted more
afraid of us than we did of them.
A little further along we naet a student and en
quired the way to Ekaterina Palace. We walked
slowly because it was moonlight and the pretty old
town with its beautiful gold and white church was
exquisite under the stars. Our route lay along the
edge of the park and through the trees, now heavy
with snow, we could see the camp-fires of the Cos-
sdfCixS* • • •

174 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
At the great iron entrance gate to the palace
grounds we stopped to rest. On one side was a
fountain buUt in the figure of a huge swan, from
the mouth of which water gushed. We stood there
laughing and talking until voices reached our ears.
Looking up we saw sentries watching us from the
wall; their bayonets shone ominously in the moon
light. We remembered the queer way the soldier
and sailor had acted and we did not want to make
another mistake, so this time we spoke to the sen
tries. "What side are you on?" we asked officiously.
"We are neutral," they caUed down to us.
"We have business with the Commandant."
"Pass!"
And so we entered the great gates and came out
on the broad road that encircles the palace. It is
one of the loveliest old palaces in Russia. Huddled
cosily on the top of a knoll, it rambles off in nu
merous ells and courts, as if it had been added to by
each successive monarch. Nicholas IL, after the
1905 revolution was afraid to come to Petrograd
and spent much of his time in Ekaterinski.
We found the Commandant and his officers
seated around a wood fire and we presented our
passes. The Commandant looked concerned and
consulted with several of his staff. Then he came
back to us and said: "I am sorry to inform you
that you have the wrong papers. It was danger
ous. You might have been arrested. We are hold-

FROM ONE ARMY TO THE OTHER 176
ing this place for Kerensky, but if you would like
to go to the hotel to-night, I can issue an order so
that you can secure a room and I will also give
you correct passes and deny all knowledge of these.
The battie will take place at four in the morn
ing. . . ."
He ordered one of his aides to walk a Uttle way
with us into the town.
At the same time that we were stumbling around
with the wrong passes, two other Americans, one
a former preacher in Boston, turned revolutionist
and SociaUst, and one, the official interpreter for
the American Red Cross mission in Petrograd,
started to walk from their hotel in the city to the
trenches of the Red Guard on the outskirts. They
lost their way and pushed on through the mud for
hours. The interpreter was a delicate chap with
no stomach for battles. He had been entrusted with
both passes which had been obtained at Smolny.
As they went along and darkness came upon
them, they grew more and more nervous. The in
terpreter put the passes in his mouth for fear that
they woiUd encounter the Kerensky army and be
searched. The passes were not very large and were
made out on fine paper. At least that is the only
way he can account for what happened — he swal
lowed the passes !
Shortly afterward they encountered the first
Red Guard sentry. He demanded papers. They

176 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
had none. So he chased them off towards Petro
grad in the mud and rain and threatened them with
violence if they ever came back again. In fact, the
thing that hurt them most of all was that he told
them he thought they were German agents. Amer
icans, he remarked, wisely, do not usually speak
Russian as fluently as the interpreter.
And whUe aU this was going on we were present
ing the wrong passes to the other side and being
treated with great friendliness. Revolutions do not
run along set formulas.
A few days later, after Kerensky's Cossacks were
defeated, a huge procession marched through the
streets of Petrograd to meet the returning Red
Guards and soldiers. After standing all afternoon
watching the demonstration, I went into a little res
taurant on Zagorodny Prospekt. A very old and
simple peasant came in and begged permission to
blow on my fur coat to see if it were real seal. It is
not seal, but he decided that it was. We began to
talk and he asked me where I came from. I said
that I was an American, and for some reason this
seemed to excite him. He began to tell every one
who entered about it.
I asked him curiously what he knew about Amer
ica. For at least five minutes he was silent, think
ing. Then he arose and gravely announced to the
company: "America is a great nation! I know

FROM ONE ARMY TO THE OTHER 177
about America. Sewing machines come from
America." Then he came over, kissed me on both
cheeks, and gave me an apple and a dirty sand
wich.

CHAPTER XVII
RED GUARDS AND COSSACKS
I WILL never forget the first time I saw the Red
Guards going out to battle. A cruel wind
swept the wide streets and hurled the snow against
the bleak buildings. It was 25 degrees below zero ;
I felt Ul with cold under my fur coat. And there
they came, an amazing, inspired mass in thin, tat
tered coats and their pinched white faces — thou
sands and thousands of them ! The Cossacks were
marching on Petrograd and Petrograd rose to re
pel them. They came pouring out of the factories
in a mighty, spontaneous people's army — ^men,
women and children. I saw boys in that army not
over ten years of age.
We were standing on the steps of the City Duma
and one of the Duma members, a Cadet, said to
me: "Look at the Hooligans. . . . They wiU run
Uke sheep. Do you think such ragamuffins can
fight?" I didn't answer. I was thinking of many things,
things way back that made up the deepest impres
sions of my childhood. For the first time I visual
ised Washington and his starving, ragged army at
VaUey Forge. . . . I felt suddenly that the revolu-
178

RED GUARDS ON THE STEPS OF SMOLNY

RED GUARDS AND COSSACKS 179
tion must live in spite of temporary miUtary de
feat, in spite of internal strife, in spite of every
thing. It was the Red Guards that made me realise
that Germany will never conquer Russia in a hun
dred thousand years. . . .
I wish every one in America could have seen that
army as I saw it — all out of step, in odds and ends
of clothing, with aU sorts of old-fashioned fighting
implements — some only armed with spades. If
that wish could be granted there would be much
more sympathy and much less scorn for the Red
army. It took infinite courage, infinite faith to go
out untrained and unequipped to meet the tradi
tional bullies of Russia, the professional fighters,
the paid enemies of freedom. AU of them expected
to die. Suddenly they broke into a wailing, melan
choly revolutionary song. I threw discretion to the
winds and foUowed. . . .
Soldiers in the regular army used to have con
tempt for the workers in the towns — ^the soldiers
are mostly peasants. They used to say that the
people in the towns did all the talking, while they
did aU the fighting, but that was before the Red
Guards came into being.
The city workers are smaller than the peasants;
they are stunted and pale, but they fight like
demons. Lately they have put up the most des
perate resistance to the Germans in Finland and
the Ukraine. In this particular battle vdth the Cos
sacks they were so unused to warfare that they for-

180 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
got to fire off their guns. But they did not know
the meaning of defeat. When one line was mowed
down another took its place. Women ran straight
into the fire without any weapons at all. It was
terrifying to see them; they were like animals pro
tecting their young.
The Cossacks seemed to be superstitious about
it. They began to retreat. The retreat grew into
a rout. They abandoned their artillery, their fine
horses, they ran back miles. . . .
It was a strange procession that came back into
Petrograd the next day. A huge crowd went out
to meet them with the usual floating red banners,
singing the swinging new revolutionary songs.
The returning victorious army had been without
food for a long time and they were dead weary
but they were wild with joy. The tradition of
the Cossacks was broken! Never again should
they seem invincible to the people!
It is very necessary, if America and Russia are
ever going to enjoy the natural friendship that
they ought to enjoy that we in America understand
what the Red Guards, the Cossacks, the Tcheko-
Slovaks and other warring factions continuaUy in
the public eye actually stand for.
/^ The Red Guards are simply the rank and file of
I the working people of the towns and cities. They
I are not anarchists and they have a very construc-
Itive tendency. They believe and fight for the

RED GUARDS AND COSSACKS 181
Soviet form of government. They are anti-
German. Most Americans know the history of the Cos
sacks, but there are interesting points upon which
they are not at all informed. One of those points
is — that the Cossacks have played very little part
in the great war. No matter what opinion we have
of Russia's failure in the end, we ought never to
forget that she stood the brunt of the first years,
that her casualties are the most appalling of any
nation, estimated now at seven mUlion. We must
bear in mind that that seven mUlion was composed
mostly of peasants.
The Cossacks are really the cavalry branch of
the army and, owing to the fact that virtually all
the fighting is now done in the trenches, the Cos
sacks have not been called upon for heavy service.
They have, consequently, had time and energy to
be used in counter-revolutionary attempts. They
have been of excellent assistance to the Germans
by their co-operation with the rich bourgeoisie, for
they have torn Russia with such dreadful internal
strife that the revolutionists have had to waste as
much precious energy in suppressing them as in
repelling the invaders. It is because of such con
ditions that Soviet troops have been unable to hold
a front and have had to sign a disgraceful peace
which they must sooner or later break. But they
cannot break it until they have rid themselves of
such yokes and can re-organise their forces.

182 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
If the Cossacks were reaUy as patriotic as they
pretend it only seems reasonable that their course
of action would have been quite different than it
was. They would themselves have been so busy
fighting the Germans that they would not have had
time to add to the chaos in Russia. When we con
sider the Cossacks we have to face the fact that
they have always been paid fighters ; that they have
shot down the Russian people at the command of
the worst tyrants, without flinching. They are
born and bred fighters and men of that sort do not
usuaUy die for revolution, but quite naturaUy op
pose it. They are more comfortable under a miU-
taristic regime; they would fit better under Prus
sian rule than under the democracy of the Soviet.
With the death of militarism and the practical
working out of the revolution they would have
to seek other work.
But since the November Revolution the rank and
file of the Cossacks have also revolted against their
landlords and exploiters, and now have delegates
in the Soviets, and are at least passive supporters
of the Revolution.
Writing of civil war makes me think of a Uttle
incident that illustrates pretty well the attitude of
many middle-class Russians at the present time. It
was some time in December and the rich people
were beginning to fear that the Soviet government
was going to stick and were getting worried
about it.

RED GUARDS AND COSSACKS 183
I had been invited to dinner at the home of a
well-to-do Russian family. The hostess explained
to me when I arrived that she was desolate because
her cook had left. She gave her a salary of twenty
rubles a month and at the present exchange that
amounted to two dollars. The girl complained
that, because she had to stand long hours in the
bread-lines every day, she wore out her shoes. The
cheapest shoes at the time cost one hundred and
fifty rubles. If she saved every cent of her salary
she could only buy one pair of shoes about every
eight months, and rubbers were out of the question.
My hostess thought the girl was extremely un
reasonable. "She ought to be beaten with a
knout," she said.
At the table the talk drifted to poUtics. Every
one began to malign the Bolsheviki. They said it
would be wonderful if the Germans would only
come in and take possession. There would be
gendarmes on every corner and "dogs of peasants"
running for their lives. . . .
I said I had a great deal of sympathy for the
Bolsheviki because they seemed to be the only
party with backbone enough to try to give the
people what they wanted. My hostess sat up
straight in her chair. "Why, my dear," she said,
sincerely shocked, "you don't know at all what you
are talking about. Why, my servants are Bol
sheviki !"

184 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
They all expressed sorrow that the Cossacks
seemed to be losing power.
"Anyway," remarked one woman, "you wouldn't
be so stupid in America as to have a civil war."
I drew myself up with some pride. "Madam,"
I replied, "we had the Civil War."
So I was asked to explain. It was an odd expe
rience. I thought the whole world knew. I told
how many years it went on, how many were killed,
what it was all about. When I began to talk about
slavery and the position of the negroes my hostess
began to beam with understanding. Suddenly she
burst out: "Oh, yes, now I remember, and it is
quite right that you should be nice to the negroes —
they have such pretty songs!"
I was amused and at the same time depressed.
This story is so typical. The middle class in Rus
sia seem to know nothing of our Civil War, of
their civU war or of the relations of such events.
And they are extremely selfish. They will tell you
that they want the Germans, or they want "law and
order." What they really want is comfort at the
cost of democracy and ideals.
Since the days of the November revolution the
Red Guards have become steadily stronger and
more efficient and the Cossacks have grown weaker.
This was partly due to good politics on the part
of the Bolsheviki. When they began to divide the
land they said expressly in their decree — this does
not apply to Cossacks. Now, there are great land

THE RED BURIAL HELD IN MOSCOW IN NOVEMBER
FIVE HUNDRED BODIES WERE BURIED IN ONE DAY

RED GUARDS AND COSSACKS 185
owners in the Cossack regions as well as anywhere
in Russia. There are rich and poor. An agitation
for land began and it grew and grew until finally
a delegation of Don Cossacks representing many
thousands went to General Kaledin, Hetman of the
Don Cossacks, and demanded that their land be
divided after the manner of the Soviet government
distribution. General Kaledin replied, "That will
only happen over my dead body." Almost imme
diately his ranks deserted him, joining the Soviet.
Kaledin, realising the hopelessness of his mistake,
blew out his brains.
General Semionov was only recently chased out
of Siberia, his men killing their officers and going
over to the Bolsheviki. The backbone of the Cos
sack movement seems to be broken.

CHAPTER XVIII
THE RED BURIAL
I WENT to Moscow on the first train that en
tered the city after the Bolsheviki had won in
the six days' fighting. It was difficult to find a
place to sleep. I wandered from hotel to hotel.
The stolid, bewhiskered clerks made odd replies to
my queries.
"Yes," said one, "I have a large room on the top
floor, but there are no panes in the windows. I hope
the Barishna will not object."
It was twenty-five degrees below zero, so I con
tinued my search. After about two hours I found
a roonj^at the National.
J^\% extremely dangerous to be here," confided
an En^shman I met in the hall who did not ap
prove of "lady" war correspondents. "You wUl
probably be murdered before morning."
<__My window looked out over the Kremlin and
the Red Square. Night had already faUen. Out
of the darkness loomed a long mysterious row of
fires. I was able to move freely through the city
as I had passes from both the Bolsheviki and the
opposition. After dinner I walked over to inves
tigate the fires. 186

THE RED BURIAL 187
The first thing I reaUsed after I crossed imder
the great arch was that the Kremlin was stUl stand
ing. We had had reports in, Petrograd that it had
been razed to the ground, but there it stood, beau
tiful beyond description, lit up weirdly by a long
Une of sputtering torches stuck upon poles beside
the north wall.
As I came closer a strange sight unfolded be
fore me. A huge trench, many hundreds of feet
in length, was being carved out of the frozen
ground. The tall figures of soldiers, the smaUer
and more gaunt figures of factory workers cast
distorted sUhouettes across the snow as they bent
over their gruesome task.
A young student who read over my passes ex
plained what they were doing. "They are digging
the brotherhood grave," he said, "for the last mar
tyrs of the revolution."
I stayed there nearly all night. It was terrify-
ingly still and lonesome. There was no sound but
the clatter of spades and the sputter of torches;
there were no stars and the darkness hung down
heavily like a great bell.
I asked the soldiers why they had chosen this
spot for the Red Burial. They said it was because
they wished to bestow the greatest possible honour
on their dead comrades and to bury them under
the long row of linden trees, across from Our Lady
of Iberia; and the fantastically lovely, many cu-

188 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
polaed Vasili Blazhanie showed their deep rever
ence. It is the holiest spot in all Russia.
About two o'clock I went with the student to the
Soviet, which had headquarters in a large build
ing only a few blocks away. It hummed with
preparations for the funeral on the morrow. AU
night long women and girls were sewing mUes and
miles of red cloth, cutting and trimming and fash
ioning it into banners for the procession. They
sewed with stern, set faces. Perhaps women knit
ting under the guiUotine wore some such expres-.
sions. . . .
After arranging my permission to attend the
funeral we went back to the Red Square. The
trench by this time had become deep and long, and
the mounds beside it had grown into little hills.
About five o'clock we climbed stiffly over the edge
and straggled wearily home. The task was com
pleted; the gaping hole was ready to receive five
hundred bodies.
I drank my tea and ate my black bread at the
hotel and got back to the Soviet at seven-thirty.
The procession began at eight. The Executive
Committee of the Soviet was to head the proces
sion, and they kindly invited me to march with
them. Feeling ran high that day and no one unknown
to the proletariat dared to venture out of doors.
All those with bad consciences — ^monarchists,
counter-revolutionists, speculators — hid behind

THE RED BURIAL 189
drawn blinds, afraid of a reign of terror. Whil3
only eight hundred people were killed in Moscow!
it was a tremendously important battle ; it marked
the end of armed resistance by the upper classes!
it was the last stand of the Junkers.
From early morning I stood on a mound of
newly turned earth watching an immense sea of
people pouring through the white, arched gateway
of the old Tartar City— flooding all the Red
Square. It was bitter cold. Our feet froze to
the ground and our hands ached under our gloves.
But the spectacle before us was so magnificent
that we forgot everything else.
In by the gateway, out by the house of the Ro
manoffs, the crowd passed endlessly in one huge,
interminable funeral procession. Slowly, rhythmi
cally they moved along, like a great operatic pag
eant symbolizing the long, bitter struggle of the
masses throughout the vast intricate fabric of
history. Fine looking young giants of soldiers wearing
towering grey chapkies bore the rough wooden cof
fins, which were stained red as if in blood. After
them came girls with shawls over their heads and
round peasant faces, holding large wreaths of arti
ficial fiowers that rattled metallically as they
walked. Then there were bent old men and bent
old women and little children. There were cavalry
regiments and military bands and people carrying

190 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
enonnous banners that floated out in long, red
waves over the heads of the crowd.
Great banners had been suspended from the top
of the waU and reached down to the earth. On all
the banners were inscriptions about the revolution
and the hopes of the workers. Above the high
red wall the golden domes of the four old churches
inside the Kremlin shone out dizzily against the
pale sky. The dark Bell Tower and the house of
Boris Gordunoff seemed to be frowning.
All the churches and all the shrines were closed.
How impressive it was ! No ceremony, no priests ;
everything so simple and so real!
Sometimes the Lettish band would start sud
denly to play the funeral hymn and the sol
diers, sailors, the Red Guards and even the little
boys and old men would take off their hats; the
snow coming down in big flakes fell on their bowed
heads, like a benediction. Troops of cavalry rode
by at full salute. The martial note of the hymn
stirred our blood and the wailing. Oriental notes
were full of hopeless sorrow. . . .
Women all around began to sob and one quite
near me tried to hurl herself after a coffin as it
was being lowered. Her thin coating of civilisation
dropped from her in a moment. She forgot the
revolution, forgot the future of mankind, remem
bered only her lost one.
With all her frenzied strength she fought against
the friends who tried to restrain her. Crying out

THE RED BURIAL 191
the name of the man in the coffin, she screamed, bit,
scratched like a wounded wild thing until she was
finally carried away moaning and half unconscious.
Tears roUed down the faces of the big soldiers.
Sometimes the procession varied by the appear
ance of a great untrained chorus singing the Revo
lutionary Funeral Song. No people in the world
sing together as weU as the Russians; no people
love so to express themselves by song. The chorus
rose and sweUed, rich and resonant in the thin
winter air — like a great organ in some fine old
cathedral. TwiUght began to settle, softening everything.
The sky grew warmer and the snow took on a rosy
tint. All the wreaths had been hung in the trees
and they swayed back and forth like strange, multi
coloured fruit. It was seven o'clock when the last
coffin was lowered and the dirt began to be shov-
eUed in.
I had other acquaintances in Moscow — a mer
chant fainily turned speculator since the war.
They had invited me for dinner and the table
groaned with food. The warmth and light of the
room stunned me after the thin bitterness of the
Red Square.
The three sons of this family were all fit for mil
itary service, but had bribed their way free. AU
three carried on illegal businesses. One somehow
managed to get gold from the Lena gold mines to

192 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
mysterious parties in Finland. One gambled in
food. One owned a controlling interest in a choco
late factory which furnished the co-operative stores
on condition that the co-operatives first supply his
family with everything he wanted. So, while peo
ple starved just around the corner, they had an
abundance of everything. And they were charming
and cultured and very pleasant to their friends. . . .
While we were at the table the talk turned to
the Red Burial and then to the army. One of
the men showed me a pitiful appeal sent out to
the rich families by the Moscow Soviet, begging
for shoes and clothes for the soldiers at the front.
The company laughed uproariously; they said they
would burn their clothes before they would give
them to the proletariat. I couldn't help thinking
of the people at home, of my own brothers fighting
in France, and how quickly we would have answered
such an appeal, and I was shocked at the difference.
No wonder there is such class bitterness in Russia !
A discussion of the Germans followed and most
of the company expressed themselves in favour
of a German invasion. Just for a test I asked them
to vote on what they really would rather have —
the soldiers' and workers' government or the Kaiser.
AU but one voted in favour of the Kaiser.
I rode home at midnight in a jingling sleigh
across the Red Square. It was sUent and deserted.

CHAPTER XIX
REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL
IT is impossible to compare the French Revo
lutionary Tribunal with the Russian Revolu
tionary Tribunal without being struck at once by
the complete dissimilarity of the two institutions.
No institution could be a more definite expression
of revolutionary thought or a more faithful indi
cator of the character of a people than a revolu
tionary tribunal. The principal business of the
French court was to sentence suspected persons to
death by the guillotine. During the whole time
I was in Russia and watched this extraordinary
body at work, not one person was sentenced to
death. I think of two characteristic cases.
The first was the case of Countess Panina. When
the Bolsheviki came into power Panina had in
her possession ninety thousand rubles belonging
to the government. She refused to tum it over to
the new authorities because she wanted to hold it
until the Constituent Assembly; she refused to rec
ognise the claims of the Soviet government. So
she was arrested and held in Peter and Paul For
tress. 193

194 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
When her trial came up it made a notable stir.
The courtroom was packed with a motley crowd,
workers, reformers, monarchists. Most of the
sessions were held in the new palace of Nicholai
Nicholaiovitch. It was a circular, dead-white room
with red hangings and looked curiously like a stiff
modern stage set. At a long mahogany table with
a red and gold cover sat the seven judges. Jukoff,
a workman, was the president. Two of the judges
wore the uniforms of private soldiers. The first
day they looked a little embarrassed, but on all
occasions maintained a surprising poise and dig
nity. The first person to speak in the defence of
Countess Panina was an old workman who was
grateful to her for various reasons. He arose and
said that she had brought Ught into a life which
once knew only darkness. "She has given me the
possibility to think," he said. "I could not read
and she taught me to read. Then she was strong
and we were weak. Now she is weak and we (the
masses) are strong. We must give her her liberty.
The world must not hear that we are ungrateful
and that we imprison the weak." As he spoke he
grew more and more emotional until he finally
emitted a weird, hysterical shriek. "I cannot bear
to see her sitting here a prisoner!" he cried and,
weeping loudly, he left the room.
Paid lawyers did not make a particular impres
sion at these trials; technical points mattered

REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL 195
not in the least. Countess Panina's smart lawyer
bored his audience frightfully. The last speaker
was a fiery young boy from one of the Petrograd
factories. He could not have .been more than
eighteen years of age. He said in effect:
"Let us not be sentimental. Panina is not a
countess here, she is a plain citizen, and she has
taken the people's money. We do not want to
harm her — ^to do her any injustice. AU we ask
is that she return the money.
"The old man is grateful that she taught him
to read. We Uve in a new age now. We do not
depend on charity for 'light.' We believe that
every man has the right to an education. With
money such as Panina is keeping from the people
we shall found schools, where every one shall learn.
As revolutionists we do not believe in charity, we
are not grateful for chance crumbs that fall from
the tables of the rich."
FoUowing his plea the court adjourned, and
after a few minutes came back with this decision:
Countess Panina shall remain in Peter and Paul
Fortress until she returns the people's money. At
the moment she compUes with this demand she wUl
be given her full liberty and she shall be turned
over to the contempt of the people.
Panina decided at once to reUnquish the funds.
In almost any other coimtry in such tense times
they would have killed Panina, especiaUy since she
was one of the chief sabotagers against the new

196 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
regime. With her experience she could have been
of great assistance, but she did everything possible
to wreck the proletarian government.
Another trial held in the Wiborg quarter of
Petrograd and presided over by two men and one
woman illustrates the treatment of petty cases.
This time the court was packed with working peo
ple. The case concerned a poor man who had
stolen money from a woman news vendor. The
court questioned the man, and he rose up to defend
himself. "I was feeling very sad," he said. "I was tired
of walking around the dark, cold streets. I thought
if I could only go into a warm place where there
were lights and people laughing I would be happy.
I thought of Norodny Dom and I thought I would
Uke to go there and hear Tchaliapin."
"Why did you decide to steal from this par
ticular woman?" asked the court.
"I thought a long time," explained the man. "I
was standing on the corner of a street watching
her seU her papers. She sold to many rich people
— enemies of the poor — and I decided that in a
way she herself was a monarchist and a capitalist.
Did she not handle their papers as well as ours?
So I took her money. And for three days she did
not find me."
The court meditated for some minutes and
finally one of the judges asked very solemnly, "Did
you fed better after you had been to the theatre?"

REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL 197
Russians are truly marveUous. Not one person
in the court laughed at that question. The thief
replied that he did feel better. He said that it
was impossible not to be lifted up by such fine
singing. The news vendor made a plea for herself. She
maintained that she was not by any means a capi
talist, but a person of real service to the com
munity. She was a revolutionist, she believed in
free speech and therefore she thought it only just
that she give out all the news from all sides.
The court adjourned. When they came back
they announced that they believed the argument of
the woman to be fair and just. The argument of
the man to be unjust, therefore the man should in
some way reimburse the woman for what he had
taken from her. They told the audience that it
could decide what the man should give after ex
plaining that the man had no money.
Everybody consulted in excited little groups and
after an hour reached this decision: The man
should give his goloshes (rubbers) to the woman.
They were worth approximately the same amount
as the money he had taken. The woman was en
tirely satisfied, as she said she was without goloshes
and it was necessary for her to stand on the wet
streets aU day. The man was entirely satisfied
because he said that it relieved his conscience. He
shook hands with the woman and they were friends.
Every one went home smiling.

198 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
It sounds like a funny story unless one thinks
about it, then it gives one quite another feeUng.
Justice, if it is justice at all, has to be simple. In
the complicated laws of highly civilised countries
we have pretty weU forgotten about real justice;
we depend on tricks, alibis, technicaUties, evasions
of all sorts. The Russian laws were particularly
bad. The Soviet government decided to re-build
the whole business and in the meantime they estab
lished the revolutionary tribunal. It was never
the intention of any of the parties in power to con
tinue indefinitely this crude justice.
In Petrograd I knew a number of women law
yers. One was the young sister of Evreimov,
the playwright. Natalie Evreimov was the first
woman secretary to a Convention of Justices,
which in Russia was a regular formal court
of three judges to consider small cases. She had
worked a year before the courts were abolished and
she was furious with the Soviets. This group of
women lawyers were all liberals, but they were im
patient to be practising and had great contempt
for the simple justice being dealt out by the tri
bunal. One evening I went to an entertainment at the
house of one of them. My hostess had on a ring
that reminded me of America. It was a plain gold
band with enameled English letters. When I en
quired about it, my hostess blushed and told me

REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL 199
a story. "It was given to me by an American
business man," she said. "He was then my fiance.
I was seventeen and he was forty. He could not
stand the frivolity of a young Russian girl. I was
continually teasing him and making his life a
burden, so he returned to America and I never
heard of him again. The ring is very mysterious.
For years I have pondered on the meaning of the
letters. I once asked him to explain the meaning,
but he said he was bound not to tell."
She slipped the ring from her finger and I read
in astonishment, "I. O. O, F." And I didn't have
the heart to disUlusion her.

CHAPTER XX
THE FOREIGN OFFICE
NO foreign office in the world ever could be like
the Bolshevik Foreign Office; there were
strange new departments and strange activities
which didn't fit at aU with the old-time servants
in their formal blue uniforms with brass buttons
and red coUars, who took off the hats and rubbers
of the common soldiers with the same outward show
of politeness that they once abjectly displayed
towards Grand Dukes and Ambassadors. Every
one called every one else "comrade" and the clerks
sold revolutionary pamphlets, which they kept on
long tables in the corridors.
Trotsky rarely came to the Foreign Office, but
did all his business at Smolny and the svetzars were
kept busy running errands between the two insti
tutions. Dr. Zalkin his assistant, had charge of the
details of the work. He is a handsome man with
a great shock of grey hair and a young face; he
speaks four languages and holds many university
degrees. On his desk was always some scientific
work, usually French, which he read in spare mo
ments. He appeared to be masquerading in work
man's clothes, because he looked so aristocratic with
200

THE FOREIGN OFFICE 201
his long, delicate face, slender build and sensitive
hands. Nevertheless, he was one of the sincerest
revolutionists that I knew.
To an American, accustomed to the time-clock
and high speed, aU the offices seemed to be run in
an incredibly haphazard fashion. There was the
ante-room of the minister's cabinet where foreign
ers came to get their passports stamped. The fee
was fifteen rubles, unless you could prove you were
a member of the working class. When I took my
passport in to have it vised, my money was handed
back and the clerk remarked, vdth a smile, "In my
opinion a reporter is truly a member of the pro
letariat." Perhaps the most interesting of aU the depart
ments was the Department of War Prisoners,
which was particularly active during the month
or two after the last Revolution. What grand
plans for a revolt in the Central Empires were
hatched in those days! What magnificent hopes
to end the war, to bring peace to the world by a
rising of the workers ! Mentsikovski was Commis
sar of the bureau.
Next door was the newly founded Bureau of
International Revolutionary Propaganda, under
the head of Boris Reinstein of Buffalo, New York,
where also worked two other American Socialists,
John Reed and Albert Rhys Williams. The busi
ness of the Committee, among other things, was to
carry revolutionary ideas into Germany and Aus-

202 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
tria by every means possible. Reed and WilUams
introduced American advertising psychology-
briefness and concrete impressions — into the prop
aganda. They got out, for example, an Ulustrated
edition of Die Fackel. They reproduced a picture
of the old German Embassy in Petrograd with the
caption: "German soldiers and workers — ^Why
don't you put a German workman in this place?"
They inserted pictures of revolutionists tear
ing down the royal insignia with the comment:
"When workmen are blind they reverence such
symbols. When wUl you tear the mask from your
eyes?" There was an illustration showing a group of
workmen sitting around comfortably in a palace.
"Workers have always buUt the palaces," read the
caption, "and have defended them with their blood,
now for the first time they live in the palaces they
built and defended. Why do you lag behind?"
The Americans added energy to the plans of
the Russians. Every day they saw that tons of
revolutionary literature were placed on the trains
and started towards the front, WilUams even
formed a Foreign Legion to help repel the threat
ened invasion.
There was the Department of the Press, under
the direction of Radek. These three departments
published jointly newspapers in three languages — in
German, Die Fackel; Hungarian, Nemzetzkoi
Socialista; and Roumanian, Inainte. The papers

THE FOREIGN OFFICE 203
were distributed extensively along the enemy
fronts, smuggled over the lines and circiUated in
prison camps. The Germans are master propa
gandists and they know too well its value and
wrecking ability not to be alarmed by it. It is
worth noting that President WUson's various mes
sages were always smuggled into Germany in this
way, . . .
Secret meetings were held in the Foreign Office,
where German and Austrian prisoners came to plot
revolution in their own countries. I was the only
woman ever present. We had to sign our names
when we went in, as if we were making a death
pact and it was truly a dangerous business. Who
ever signed was somehow discovered and thence
forth marked by both the monarchists and their
co-workers, the German agents. Russians used to
say to me jokingly and half in warning, "You
have a blonde spy foUowing you to-day," or "I
know your spy — he's one of the Black Hundred."
At first I didn't mind; it was a new experience.
But it soon got on my nerves. A weird, emaciated
little man came several times to see me and claimed
to be an American, He invited me to come to his
house. After I told him I knew he was a spy he
ceased coming, but daUy my papers were gone over,
I left my place on Troisky Ulitsa after the editor
of Novia Jisn, Gorky's paper, told me I was fol
lowed by one of the most notorious of the Tsar's
secret police. I took up headquarters in the As-

204 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
toria Hotel, which was the official war hotel.
There I was not molested because it was impos
sible to go in and out without a pass unless one
was known. Husky Cronstadt saUors guarded the
entrance. Two weeks after I went to live in the Astoria
I was followed by two spies into the Tauride Pal
ace. They got in, but they could not get out. The
Lettish guards held them and took away their note
books. AU they contained were exact statistics of
my comings and goings, the number of times I
took carriages, street-cars, and how long I stayed
at various places. I must have been a disappoint
ing subject because I never even took part in a
discussion; I was only allowed as an observer. The
Bolsheviki let my spies cool their heels in Peter
and Paul for over a month, then let them go, as
they do most every one else they arrest, on the
promise to seek honest employment.
The Foreign Office faces the Winter Palace and
the architecture and the colour conform to that of
the greatest palace in the world. One room where
the prisoners used to meet was extremely beautiful,
furnished in massive mahogany and old brocades.
Nothing ever discouraged me as much as the con
duct of the German soldier prisoners at these meet
ings. The representatives of the small nationaU-
ties of Austria-Hungary were violent revolutionists ;
they acted much as the Russians did. That is, they
came in, in their old clothes and muddy boots, and

THE FOREIGN OFFICE 205
sat down quite at ease amid all the splendour. The
Russians have come to the conclusion that the
palaces are theirs and therefore they ought to
utilise them and that is all there is to it. Not so
the German privates. They entered timidly, sat
on the edges of their chairs, twirled their caps nerv
ously in their big awkward fingers. . . .
One night a Prussian officer wedged in on false
pretences. He had lied to the prisoners, pretended
to be a revolutionist, and had been sent as a dele
gate. He sat glowering at the company until he
was asked point-blank for his opinion. Then he
confessed he was only posing as a revolutionist
because he had suspected what was going on. He
was ejected without further ceremony.
As soon as he was out of the room all the Ger
man privates began to talk at once. They said
that they were for the revolution, that they be
lieved in it, and wanted to help in every possible
way. They were against their government, but
they were afraid to speak while the officer was in
the room. Officers in camp had told them, they
confessed, that they would all be shot when they
returned to Germany. . . .
One of the Russians leaned forward and spoke
quietly. "Comrade," he said, "how many officers
have you got in your camp?"
"Why," answered the soldier, "just a few — ^just
three or four."

206 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
"Why don't you kUl them, comrade?" the Rus
sian went on in his even voice.
For a moment the German soldiers were dumb
founded. They looked at eaich other in blank
astonishment, whether because they were horrified
or because the idea had never before occurred to
them, I do not know. At last one of them spoke
very slowly — every word came out as if it hurt
him all over.
"Yes," he said, "you are right. It must come
to that. If we kiU them we will no longer have
them to fear."
The Russian spoke kindly, as a doctor speaks
to a sick child. "Remember," he soothed, "we also
were afraid of our officers. Your officers and our
officers stand for the same sort of tyranny. We
do not fear our officers any more. We are free
now." The Germans agreed solemnly, but their faces
were dead white. One caused a ripple of laughter
from the Russians when he said, "It is true that
we shall have revolution — but wir mussen orden
haben." For a moment I caught a vision of that orderly,
mechanical, thorough, inevitable German revolu
tion. So many heads a minute, no forgiveness, no
compromise. Order can be more deeply horrible
than the utmost confusion. And yet I suppose it
is the only way — a complete reckoning, a calm,
final judgment. . . .

THE FOREIGN OFFICE 207
So far the German social-democrats have been
disappointing in the mass. They have not risen to
the point other socialists expected them to. Per
haps it is because they have so much to overcome;
the step is far greater for them. And yet there
are everywhere signs of a good start — the mutiny
in the fleet, the strikes starting in Vienna and
spreading all over Germany, the latest evidences
of Austria's discontent. ... In the German ad
vance volunteer troops from other fronts were used
because the German officers did not trust the men
impregnated with Bolshevik propaganda. German
prisoners at Pskof helped the Red Guards to re
take the city. They are changed after living in
Russia. I once heard an Austrian officer speaking
to a group of prisoners. "How can we stand by,"
he asked them, "and allow our government to crush
the Russian revolution? We are sick of war, but
if we are men we must fight with our Russian
brothers." While the negotiations were going on at Brest-
Litovsk the prisoners' delegates met and passed
the following resolution:
"The Russian revolution is playing the part of
all oppressed nations and classes against all tyranny
and exploitation. The Russian Revolution re
mained true to itself when its representatives
summed up the peace conditions.
"This appeal is in the name of the Germans
from Germany, of the Germans from Austria, the

208 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Hungarians, the Bohemians, Slovenians, the Rou
manians, the Croatians, the Serbians and other
nationalities. The war prisoners of these nation
alities accept unreservedly the peace proposition
of the Russian government. If it should turn out
that the government of Carl of Austria and Wil
helm of Germany refuse to conduct the peace ne
gotiations on the ground of the above proposi
tions, then we, the Germans, Hungarians, etc.,
immigrants and war prisoners declare war on the
German and Austro-Hungarian imperialists, and
we wUl fight in the trenches shoulder to shoulder
with our Russian comrades, because the further con
duct of engaging in such a war means a revolution
aiming at the emancipation of entire mankind, and
we know how to discharge our duties as revolu
tionists. At the same time we appeal to the Ger
man and Austro-Hungarian comrades in the
trenches fighting under the banners of the German,
Austro-Hungarian imperialists to sabotage the
war, to surrender themselves, and come over to the
side of the Russian revolutionist army, and to do
all they can to disorganise the forces of those im
perialist governments.
"We appeal to the masses of Germany and
Austria-Hungary to develop a strong revolution
ary movement against their governments, and we
call upon our fellow-workers, men and women, en
gaged in the war industries in those countries to
sabotage their work. They must not prepare any

THE FOREIGN OFFICE 209
more ammunitions for those governments because
that ammunition wiU be used now, not against their
enemies, but against their own fathers, brothers
and sons, fighting for international democracy and
solidarity, because from now on we, the Germans,
Austrians, Hungarians, etc., will be fighting in the
Russian trenches."
In order to explain better to the masses and the
soldiers of the Central Powers, the appeal desig
nated broadly what the Russian revolution gave to
the Russian people, and what it aimed to give.
It also demanded that the oppressed nations in
Austria-Hungary, etc., be allowed a referendum
on the question of self -definition, and that all sol
diers, gendarmes, officials, be removed and com
plete freedom of such a referendum be secured.
This resolution was telegraphed to Trotsky at
Brest. I cannot help but feel, after my close glimpses
of the revolutionists of Russia, that if Germany
tries to absorb Russia she will soon suffer from a
mighty attack of national indigestion from which
she will not be able to recover. Revolution is an
insidious disease, spreading under tyranny, flour
ishing under autocracy. . . .

CHAPTER XXI

WOMEN SOLDIERS

NO other feature of the great war ever caught
the public fancy like the Death Battalion,
composed of Russian women. I heard so much
about them before I left America that it was one
of the first things I investigated when I got to
Russia. In six months I saw them go through
a curioui' ucvelopmeni; which divided them into
two bitter hostile camps. Their leader, Leona
Botclikarova, was severely beaten and had to be
taken to a hospital. Hurt, uncomprehending, she
declared: "I do not want to be associated with
women! I do not trust them!" If she had been
a thinker as well as a fighter she would have known
that sex had little to do with the matter. Class
struggle permeated everything and it hurled the
women's regifnents mto the maelstrom with every-
thirg else.
Near Smolny Institute there was a recruiting
station. It was here that I made my fij-st friends
among the women soldiers. A short dumpy little
girl with cropped black hair stood awkwardly hold
ing a big gun with a long bayonet. She regarded
me beUigerently. 210

WOMEN SOLDIERS 211
"Stoi! What do you want?" she queried. I de
cided she must be the guard and explained my
mission. Inside were half a dozen girls sitting on stools
in the hallway. They were arrayed in the strangest
attire; one had on dancing suppers and a frivolous
waist; another high-heeled French shoes, and still
another wore brown buttoned shoes and green
stockings — the only universal note was short hair.
and men's trousers.
They looked like the chorus of a comic opera in
various stages of make-up. They all began to
talk to me at once, as is the Russian custom. "Who
are you?" "Are you English or American?"
"Are you going to join the regiment?"
A very intelligent and lovely girl by the name
of Vera, who was in charge that day, came out and
invited me into her office. I often went back after
that and had lunch with her. She was well read
and spoke five languages. The only thing I didn't
Uke about her was that she loved to salute so much
that she kept doing it all the time, and as she was
the superior officer, she couldn't very well salute
any one else but me. This I found very droll
after coming from France, where war correspond
ents are not treated like commanders-in-chief.
Vera explained about the variety of shoes. She
said that they had ordered boots, but had never
heard any further word. There was a very good
reason, which I found out afterwards; there was no

212 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
leather. The only women soldiers that ever did
get boots or overcoats or anything else they needed
were the first recruits to the Death Battalion. All
the others were "just waiting" as every one does
in Russia.
It was the Death Battalion that took part in
the last Russian offensive. There were two hun
dred and fifty in the battle; six were killed and
thirty wounded. That was their last and only bat
tle, except for the girls who were brought to the
Winter Palace the day that it fell. And they sur
rendered before a single one was wounded.
I gathered these statistics very carefully and
have compared them with the statistics gathered by
reliable persons. I took great pains because I
could not believe them when I first got them. I
had been led to believe that the movement was
much larger. In all Russia less than three thou
sand were gathered into the recruiting stations. It
is interesting to note that many more have since
taken part in the Red Guard Army.
Women in Russia have always fought in the
army. In my opinion the principal reason for the
failure of the woman's regiment was segregation.^
There will always be fighting women in Russia,
but they will fight side by side with men and not
as a sex. Botchkarova herself fought several
years before she organised the Death Battalion at
the instigation of Kerensky and Rodzianko.
When the Soviet formally took over the govern-

WOMEN SOLDIERS 213
ment the women soldiers were given two months*
leave. The majority were ordered home and told
to put on female attire because they were consid
ered enemies of the revolution. There was a good
deal of misunderstanding on both sides.
I came across a peculiar case. I had heard a
rumour that some of the girls had been mistreated
the night the Winter Palace fell. I didn't believe
itjHbut I wanted to assure myself . After a great
deal of searching around I found that one girl
really had been hurt and had been in a hospital.
And another girl had committed suicide because
she was "disappointed in her ideals." I got the
address of the girl who had been sick and went
round to see her.
She lived with another girl in one of the great
barnlike unused buildings so common in Petrograd.
Kira Volakettnova was her name. She was a
dressmaker and had always been very poor. The
building had a court with snow piled high in the
centre. Garbage and filth of aU sorts were thrown
oiKtop of the snow.
I knocked a long time at the front door ; nobody
answered. I found the back door wide open and
went in. Hearing a noise in one of the rooms, I
caUed out but received no reply. I opened the
door and a lot of startled chickens ran in every
direction. I searched all over that floor with no
result, and finally went to the second floor. There
in a tiny room I found Kira and her friend, Anna

214 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Shub. Anna was seventeen and oame from
Moghilev. I asked Kira to explain how she was hurt.
"Well, that night when the Bolsheviki took the
Winter Palace and told us to go home, a few of
us were very angry and we got into an argument,"
she said.
"We were arguing with soldiers of the Pavlovsk
regiment. A very big soldier and I had a terri
ble fight. We screaijiiea at each other and finally
he got so mad that he pushed me and I fell out
of the window. Then he ran downstairs and all
the other soldiers ran downstairs. . . . The big
soldier cried like a baby because he had hurt me
and he carried me all the way to the hospital and
came to see me every day."
"And how do you live now?" I said. "How do
you manage to get enough to eat?"
Anna Shub answered my question. "Why, the
Red Guard," she said, blushing a little, "have been
dividing their bread with us, and yesterday," she
went on proudly, "they brought us six pieces of
wood, and so we have been warm all day."
"Have you forgiven the Bolsheviki for disarm
ing you?" I asked Kira.
Anna Shub broke in and asked excitedly: "Why
should we forgive them? It is they who should
forgiv^e us. We are working girls and traitors
have been trying to persuade us to fight our own
people. We were fooled and we almost did it."

TO FRIENDS IN AMERICA FEOM A VOLUNTEER OP THE
FIRST PETROGRAD BATTALION. "ANNA SiIub"

WOMEN SOLDIERS 215
"How was that?" I asked. pc,^v^
Anna reached under her cot and took out a paste
board box. The contents of that and what she had
on her back was all that she had in the world be
sides a sick sparrow. The sick sparrow she had
picked up on the street half frozen. Now it hopped
about the room looking for crumbs and picking at
spots on the floor. Anna opened the box and took
out some folded papers. Two were small posters
like those pasted daily on the buildings on the
streets qf Petrograd. "Read them," she said.
They were written in the usual extravagant and
colourful language of Russian buUetins. I give
a free translation:
"Come with us in the name of your f aUen heroes !
Come with us and dry the tears and heal the wounds
of Russia. Protect her with your lives.
"Wake up and see clear, you who are selling the
heads of your children to the Germans. Soon, very
soon, you will prefer to face ten German bayonets
to one tigress. We pour out our maledictions upon
you. Enough words! It is time to take up arms.
Only with a storm of fire will we sweep the enemy
off Russian soil. Only with bayonets will we at
tain a permanent peace. Forward against the
enemy! We go to die with you."
After I finished reading Anna went on with
her story.
"I left home," she said. "I left everything be
cause I thought the poor soldiers of Russia were

216 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
tired after fighting so many years, and I thought
we ought to help them. When I arrived m Pet
rograd I began to see the truth; we were supposed
to be shaming the soldiers."
Tears welled in her eyes. "I felt as if I myself
could die of shame. I didn't know what to do.
And then, just before the Winter Palace fell, one
of the aristocrats of the Death Battalion came in
and asked us to go dovm and join the Cossacks
to fight the revolution."
"I am a Jew," said Anna, "and I come from
within the Pale. Liberty is dearer than life to me.
And I . . . I was actually asked to do this thing!"
"I used to talk to the people in the bread-line,"
she went on, "about the Bolsheviki, and they said
they were not bad people, and that they were our
friends. When you go back to America," she said
eagerly, as if every one would know about her
unfortunate conduct, "tell them I am a woman
soldier, and I fight only imperialistic invaders."
Anna and Kira had virtually no clothes at all.
They had thin summer clothing, pieced out with
all sorts of rag-tags they had managed to gather
together, and they didn't know where to get their
next meal. I offered them money and clothes. At
first they both wept and refused and then they
were quite happy in accepting.
A few nights before I left Petrograd I stopped
at one of the huge military hospitals, where women
soldiers were working. The Bolsheviki had secured

WOMEN SOLDIERS 217
them places so that they could get enough to
eat. . . . That very day I had seen two begging
at one of the stations. I found that the girls had
already gone home for the night. Following vague
directions I walked up a dark street for about a
quarter of a mUe. The Uttle house where they
stayed stood in the middle of a deserted garden,
snow-covered and desolate.
I went through an open door that sagged down
on a broken hinge, and felt my way along the hall
until I saw a shaft of light. I knocked and en
tered. Inside the Uttle room was a peasant, his
wife, their baby, the stove, the bed and a highly
pungent odour of cooking cabbage.
At the next door I had better success. This
time it was a large room containing ten girls and
ten beds, a long bench and a Russian stove. They
were deUghted to have company, especially from
"so far away." We sat down on the bench and
talked most of the night. Their stories were much
the same as Anna's.
"We are girls from little towns," said one.
"Some of us came with our parents' blessing, but
most of us came with their curses. We were all
moved by a high resolve to die for the revolution.
"How unhappy we have been! Everywhere we
have been misunderstood. We expected to be hon
oured, to be treated as heroes, but always we were
treated with scorn. On the streets we were in-
siUted. At night men knocked at our barracks

218 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
and cried out blasphemies. Most of us never got
within miles of the front. The soldiers thought
we were militarists and enemies of the revolution,
and at last they* disbanded us and took our arms
away." Another girl began to talk.
"That night," she said, "all of us thought of
suicide ; there was nothing left. We had no clothes
and nowhere to go; life was unbearable. Some
of us wanted to appeal to the Bolsheviki, to have
a conference with them and explain our purpose.
We wanted them to know that we would go 4:0-
the front and fight for them or for any party. Our
aim was to save Russia. But when we suggested
that there were members of our battalion who ob
jected and tried to get us to go down and join
the Cossacks. We were horrified. We under
stood then how we had been misled. Of course
we would not go. . . ."
"Thirteen went," cried one of the girls.
"But they were aristocrats," answered the first
speaker in great contempt.
They were violent in their denunciation of
Botchkarova. "She calls us cowards," they said,
"but it is she who runs away. It is she who aban
dons her country, who believes neither in Russian
women nor Russian men. . . ."
It was just about the time that the negotiations
were broken off at Brest-Litovsk and the possi
bility of the German advance was in everybody's

WOMEN SOLDIERS 219
mouth. I asked them if they would offer their
services to the Soviet government in that case.
They replied unanimously that they would.
"And how about you?" said one. "Will you fight
with us?"
I said that I would. The idea pleased them very
much. I was on my way home when the advance
began and could not keep my word. But perhaps
there will still be opportunity. Russia will be at
war with Germany untU the present German gov
ernment is overthrown, and in that struggle for
freedom of the Russian people I offer my services
unreservedly. It was almost dawn when I bid the women sol
diers farewell. One of them walked a little way
with me into the night. It was painfully cold.
"Be sure to come back," she urged sweetly as
we shook hands.
"I give you my word of honour," I said, feeling
terribly solemn. I looked down and suddenly I
realised that her feet were bare. . . .
When I think back now she personifies Russia
to me, Russia hungry and cold and barefoot —
forgetting it all — planning new battles, new roads
to freedom.

CHAPTER XXII
FREE SPEECH
ANUMBER of papers were shut down after
the November revolution and the conserva
tives wagged their heads with a good deal of rea
son and said: "Well, you see how it is when the
radicals come into power — they do the same things
that we do." It was true and not true. In the
first place, the Soviet government does not pretend
to believe that the reactionaries should be aUowed
to control the press, that a handful of capitaUsts
should make public opinion. They believe that
the press should be the expression of the people
as well as the government. . . .
There was a great scarcity of paper in Russia
and they argued that a just arrangement would be
to limit the amount of press-paper, ink, etc., to the
proportion of votes cast by each political party.
A decree was passed to this effect which cut down
the papers of the conservatives to a large extent.
Another reason for suppression was that many
papers refused to obey the new advertising laws,
making advertising a government monopoly. This
law was passed in order to obtain funds for run
ning the government and maintaining the army.
220

FREE SPEECH 221
During the intenseness of the insurrection cer
tain papers were stopped because they attempted
to create panic and incited to riot by printing all
sorts of exaggerated reports. An explanation of
steps taken to combat this is given by Lenine in
the Decree of the Press, which was passed by the
Petrograd Soviet. It said in part:
"In the serious, decisive hour of the revolution
and the days immediately following, the Provi
sional Revolutionary Committee was compeUed to
adopt a whole series of measures against the
counter-revolutionary press of aU shades.
"At once cries arose from all sides that the new
sociaUstic authority was violating the essential
principles of its programme. The Workers' and
Soldiers' Government draws attention to the fact
that in our country behind such a shield of Ub-
eraUsm is hidden an attempt to poison the minds
and bring confusion into the consciousness of the
masses. It was impossible to leave such a weapon
as wilful misrepresentation in the hands of the
enemy, for it is not less dangerous than bombs
and machine guns.
"That is why temporary and extraordinary meas
ures have been adopted for cutting off the stream
of calumny in which the yellow press would be
glad to drown the young victory of the people.
"As soon as the order will be consolidated, all
administrative measures against the press wUl be
suspended. Full liberty wiU be given within the

222 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
broadest and most progressive measures in this
respect ; even in critical moments the restriction of
the press is admissible only within the bounds of
necessity." It is possible for papers to exist in Russia with
out advertisements because the price of a news
paper is very high and they are only two-page af
fairs with no iUustrations. The editors never heard
of a "human interest" story. Papers are not de
livered, except foreign papers. News vendors are
sold out an hour after the papers appear on the
streets, there being always the greatest hunger for
news. The most important official notices, since the
revolution, were pasted on the waUs of buildings
or printed on handbiUs and distributed throughout
the city.
The advertising decree was interesting; it in
cluded an elaborate plan for state control. Of
fenders of this law were promised three years' im
prisonment, but no editor was ever sentenced,
although many were convicted. The usual pro
cedure was to close up the paper for a week and
then allow it to reappear under another name.
A number of well-known Russian writers got
out one issue of a paper called Journal Protest,
with articles in it denying the right, under any cir
cumstances, of suppression of the press. Among
the contributors were Korolenko, Sologub, Kira-
koff. Max Mijoneff, Professor Kiraieff and Eu-

FREE SPEECH 223
gene Zamiatin. The protest did not create any no
ticeable effect on public opinion and after one at
tempt was given up.
Zamiatin, who is by profession an architect, is
considered by Gorky to be one of the coming Rus
sian writers. A quaint Uttle symboUc tale written
by him as a defence of free speech which he gave
me and which has never been translated into Eng
Ush before I reproduce here :
THURSDAY
There were two brothers Uving in a wood; the
senior and the junior. The senior was Uliterate,
the junior, learned. About Easter they began to
argue between themselves. The senior said, "It's
Easter Sunday, time to eat Easter meals."
But the junior looked at the senior and replied,
"It's only Thursday."
The senior was furious and thought the junior
obstinate, stubborn. He fell upon him with an
axe, crying: "WiU you not eat Easter meals? Say
you it is only Thursday?"
"It is only Thursday."
"Thursday? Thou damned one!" bellowed the
senior and hewed the junior down with the axe
and hid him under the seat. Then he heated the
oven, somehow ate Easter meals and sat under the
ikons, contented. Suddenly under the oven the
chirping of a cricket. Thursday— Thursday,

SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Thursday— Thursday, Thursday— Thursday. The
senior was furious and crept under the oven.
There he searched for the cricket and came out
aU sooted, dreadful, black. But the cricket was
caught, hewed down and the senior perspired,
opened the windows and sat under the ikons con
tented. "Now it's all over," he said.
But outside below the windows, heaven knows
whence, came sparrows, singing — Thursday,
Thursday — Thursday.
More furious than ever was the senior. He
went after the sparrows with his axe. Some flew
away, some were hewed down, "Well, thank
Heaven, it's finished — that damn word Thursday,"
His axe was blunt from so much kiUing, He
began to sharpen it and heard it jmgle — Thurs
day — Thursday, Thursday, The senior threw
down the axe and hid in the shrubs and there he
lay until Easter,
On Easter Sunday the junior, naturaUy, rose
from the dead. He crept out from under the seat
and said to the senior: "Thou fool, to try to hew
down a word. We are both right. Come kiss me,
it's Easter."
While the Soviets declared a temporary sup
pression of the press, they never at any time
tried to interfere with public speaking or with
theatrical performances which ridiculed them or
the revolution. I have often watched a crowd of

FREE SPEECH 225
rich bourgeoisie bullying sailor guards in front of
the City Duma and marvelled at the patience of
the sailors. Street talks were common. Red
Guards would stand quietly listening to a speaker
berate them without getting the least ruffled; they
seemed often deeply interested in the arguments
put up by their opponents. People do not shoot
each other in Russia as a result of heated "dis
cussions"; fist-fighting is practically unknown.
Whenever there is fighting one can be sure that
it is no personal thing but a mass action, a regu
lar battle, no matter how smaU,
The Bolsheviki have been so long suppressed that
when it faUs their lot now to suppress other people
they do it half-heartedly. This attitude was par
ticularly beneficial to the prisoners in Peter and
Paul Fortress. I went out to the prison one bitter
day in January, because I had heard tales of the
terrible hardships the prisoners had to imdergo.
I was surprised and delighted to find that there
were fires in all the ceUs, because in the government
hotel where I Uved we did not have enough fuel
to heat the place and were literaUy freezing,
I walked along the corridor and found BieUnsky,
the old Chief of Police under the Tsar, smiling
with satisfaction. Even Sukomlinov, who sold out
the army at the beginning of the war and who de
served death if any one ever did, was pleased with
his treatment. For the first time since their im
prisonment these men were permitted to walk in

226 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
the courtyard and aUowed to read the newspapers.
All the prisoners were comfortable and had enough
food. That was better than the rest of us on the
"outside" could say.
We told the Bolshevik jailers and guards when
we were leaving that we would like to take a room
in the prison so we could keep warm, but they re
fused to joke about it. One of them said: "We
know what it is like to be shut up for long days
and nights. Nothing can make up for liberty."
It is interesting to note that the political pris
oners liberated through the tolerance of the Bol
sheviki now form their principal poUtical opposi
tion abroad.

CHAPTER XXIII
STREET FIGHTING
EVERY morning after the Bolshevik coup
d'etat I used to call at Smolny and at the
City Duma. They both gave out news quite wiU
ingly. I had passes from both to go around the
city and get into all the battles I wanted to. The
Committee on Saving the Country and the Revolu
tion sat in continual session and outdid any Ameri
can advertising agency I ever came across. They
used to tell us the wildest yarns. When I inves
tigated I invariably found their statements untrue
or at least ridiculously exaggerated. Once I went
to Mayor Schroeder and complained. "At home,"
I said, "a poUtician wouldn't do that; he would
reaUy be afraid to tell a reporter a deliberate story.
Now, the other night you told me that the prison
ers in Peter and PaiU were being massacred and
I went way out there at two o'clock in the morn
ing and found them sleeping peaceably in their
beds." He stroked his bpard and looked serious, right
eous almost. "Well," he said, "they (meaning the
Bolsheviki) have aU the force of arms on their
side and we have, after all, only the moral force."
227

228 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
At Smolny they were frank enough, often thor
oughly discouraged, never overrating their victories
or underestimating their defeats. I think this re
markable way they had of facing the music was
one of the greatest reasons for their success.
On the particular morning that I want to tell
about, when I arrived at Smolny I found one of
the officials very ill. I came back into town with
a Bolshevik who is very close to Trotsky. We
went straight to the Hotel Europe, where the
American Red Cross had its headquarters, in
search of a Red Cross doctor. As we walked
through the lobby I was surprised to see one of
Kerensky's aides standing in a corner with his arms
folded and looking tragically funny. He had spent
a lot of time in Babushka's quarters at the Winter
Palace and I had known him quite weU. He was,
Uke all Russian officers of the old type, rather
dandified and a Uttle too immaculate and per
fumed to please an American, but he was a
Georgian and, like most of his race, so exception
ally handsome with his dark eyes and olive skin
that you had to forgive him his overfastidiousness.
To-day, however, he was a changed man. He
wore a coat too smaU and trousers too large and
his waxed, pointed moustache was all frayed at the
ends. He had on the most amazing tattered cap.
I almost burst out laughing. It was so Russian for
him to do it that way. Just because he was in dis
guise, in hiding, he would feel it necessary to wear

STREET FIGHTING 229
a make-up that would point him out to every one
as a conventional villain. It was with great diffi
culty that I stared right through him and passed on.
My Bolshevik friend and I climbed the wide
stairs and walked along the corridor. When we
were near the end the young Georgian caught up
with us, he was aU out of breath. "Mademoiselle,"
he exclaimed, taking both my hands, "did you not
recognise me? I am in disguise!"
Russians can never keep secrets. It is one of the
things I Uke best about them. Good, bad or in
different their lives are an open book. But on this
occasion I very much regretted this national lack
of repression. In vain I tried to silence him by
winks and cold stares. He couldn't imagine what
was wrong with me. He was lonesome and glad to
see a friend and that is all he thought about. He
blurted out aU sorts of startling information.
"Kerensky will be here by to-morrow with eighty
thousand Cossacks. We will take all the Bol-
sihevik leaders and string them up along' the
streets!" "O please don't talk about it," I said, feeUng
awfully responsible for the serious trouble he was
getting himself into. But he misunderstood me en
tirely and said soothingly: "Now don't you worry,
no one is going to hurt you."
We did not escape from him until he had un
burdened himself of every scrap of information and

230 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
misinformation he possessed. It never occurred to
him to enquire the politics of my companion.
"What are you going to do?" I asked my friend
from Smolny when we were out on the street
again. "Have him arrested," he answered shortly. We
entered into a long argument. I maintained that
he was of no importance and ought to be treated
like the aristocrats who were living in peace aU over
the city. There is the Grand Duke Constantine's
family, for example, who live in the Marble Palace.
They occupy the top floor while all the rest of the
building is used by the Bureau of Labour. . . .
We were not able to finish the argument because
as we turned the comer of Gogol street and St.
Isaacs Square sniping began from roof tops. A
man walking in front of the German Embassy sud
denly dropped down dead, shot by the bullet of
an unknown enemy. Cronstadt sailors, on guard
at the Astoria Hotel, come rushing down the street
to locate the offenders, shouting "Provocatsia!"
People were always being kiUed in those first days
by snipers just to start riots. The working people
did not want riots and it was easy enough to place
the blame.
We could hear firuig going on about a block
away. The Junkers had taken the telephone ex
change on the Morskaya and the Bolsheviki had
surrounded them. Bullets began to fly too gen
erally for comfort. We hid in a courtyard behind

WOMEN SOLDIERS IN FRONT OF WINTER PALACE

STREET FIGHTING 231
the Angleterre Hotel and through the chinks in
the fence we watched the ridiculous, padded Rus
sian cabmen — isvoschicks — who usually amble
along like snails, whipping up their horses and rap
idly clearing the square.
As soon as it became quieter we started back to
Gogol street. At the corner we saw an armoured
car coming at full speed. We did not have time to
seek shelter. We found ourselves crammed against
a closed archway that had great iron doors securely
locked. We hoped that the car would go on, but
directly in front of us it stopped with a jerk as if
something had gone wrong with the machinery. It's
destination was quite evidently the telephone ex
change. We had no way of knowing which side it
was on untU it began to spout fire, shooting up the
street and occasionally right into our midst. Then
we knew that it belonged to the Junkers. There
were twenty in our crowd and about six were Cron
stadt saUors.
The first victun was a working man. His right
leg was shattered and he sank down without a
sound, graduaUy turning paler and losing con
sciousness as a pool of blood widened around him.
Not one of us dared to move. A man in an ex
pensive fur coat kept repeating monotonously:
"I'm sick of this revolution!"
All that happened in the next few minutes is not
exactly clear — we were all so excited. One thing
that I remember, which struck me even then, was

232 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
that no one in our crowd screamed, although seven
were kUled. I remember also the two Uttle street
boys. One whimpered pitifully when he was shot,
the other died instantly, dropping at our feet an
inanimate bundle of rags, his pinched Uttle face cov
ered with his own blood. I remember the old peas
ant woman who kept crossing herself and whisper
ing prayers. . . .
The hopelessness of our position was just begin
ning to sink in on me when the sailors with a great
shout ran straight into the fire. They succeeded in
reaching the car and thrust their bayonets inside
again and again. The sharp cries of the victims rose
above the shouting, and then suddenly everything
was sickeningly quiet. They dragged three dead
men out of the armoured car and they lay face up
on the cobbles, unrecognisable and stuck aU over
with bayonet wounds.
Only the chauffeur escaped. He begged for
mercy and my companion from Smolny said to the
sailors : "For God's sake let him go — diet's not kiU
any more of them than we have to." It was a most
characteristic remark. Russians hate violence and
they hate to kill. At a time Uke that Anglo-Saxons
or ahnost any other race would have been insane
with rage at the death of their seven comrades. But
the Russians let the chauffeur go. . . .
We came back to the argument about Kerensky's
aide as we strolled up the Nevsky. "I will tell you
what I wiU do," said he, "I'll give him three days to

STREET FIGHTING 233
get out — if he isn't out then he will have to go to
prison!" I don't think he ever thought of the aide
again. And in three days Kerensky's troops had
been defeated and Kerensky himself was in dis
guise. One of the most amusing things I heard about
disguises was a story concerning Avksentieff, who
was one time extremely influential with the peasants
untU he voted for coalition at the Democratic Con
gress. By that vote he lost not only his position
and his popularity, but his long silky whiskers of
which he was particularly proud. Madame Lebe
dev, Prince Kropotkin's daughter, sheared them
oflF for him when she helped him out of Petrograd.
In Moscow and some of the small towns much
more bitter street fighting occurred than in Petro
grad. The most bloody battle of the week was for
the possession of the Vladimir Officers' School.
The officers who were defending the place finaUy
put up a white flag, whereupon the Red Guards
came out of their barricades and walked across the
open street. Midway the officers opened fire and
a number of the revolutionists were killed. In the
wild confusion that followed the people stormed the
school, took it and stuck some of the officers up on
their bayonets. I have always imagined that the
whole unfortunate affair occurred because of lack
of co-ordination on the part of the Junkers. It
seems impossible that they would have been so
stupid as to have deliberately fired after surren-

234 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
dering, knowing they were greatly out-numbered,
although a similar affair occurred in Moscow. The
officers seemed incapable of realising that they were
no longer in power.

CHAPTER XXIV
MEN OF HONOUR
ON the morning of January 9th I sat at break
fast in the grand dining room of the Astoria
Hotel. Tired soldiers slouched in and out looking
strangely out of place in a magnificent setting that
was built as a background for gay ladies and flash
ing officers. There had been neither lights nor
water for two days and the Tartar waiter had just
informed us that the bread had run out, but we
could stiU have chi — tea. A soldier at the next
table offered me part of a can of fish and another
leaned over and said: "Well, Comrade, they are
here." He was speaking of the German and Aus
trian delegates. For a long time we had been ex
pecting them — ever since the negotiations had be
gun at Brest-Litovsk.
As Americans we were not permitted to get in
terviews, but there was no law against "looking" at
one's enemy. As soon as we could we located them
and after that all the correspondents spent a good
deal of time watchmg the delegates stow away their
rabchick. Rabchick is a little Russian wild bird,
that and cabbage were virtually all we had to eat
in those days. There were high officers with their
235

236 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
aides and stenographers — altogether numbering
about forty. They sat at long tables chattering
volubly. Above the tables were the same old signs:
"Don't speak German!"
There were two delegations — one stopped at the
Hotel Bristol on the Moika and was headed by
Rear-Admiral Count Kaiserling and Count von
Mirbach who has since been assassinated in Mos
cow. His committee was known as the Naval
Delegation and their mission was to discuss means
of stopping the naval war in accordance with
the armistice treaty. The second delegation was
headed by Count Berchtold, German Red Cross
representative, and met to consider the exchange of
war prisoners. They established themselves at the
Grand and the Angleterre. British and French
officers were stopping at both these places, which
was obviously embarrassing. Almost aU the dele
gates had in some way been connected with the
German and Austrian embassies before the war,
and several had had property in Russia and two
were big German merchants.
It was the business of Dr. Zalkind, Trotsky's as
sistant, to call at their hotels to see if they had se
cured enough rooms.
At exactly the right number of hours and wear
ing the proper attire for such occasions, von Mir
bach returned Zalkind's visit at the Foreign Of
fice as if it had been an official caU. The svetzar
brought in the card. Zalkind was busy, but he

MEN OF HONOUR 237
pushed back the papers on his desk, got up and
walked into the haUway.
"HeUo!" he said, "what are you doing here?"
The count was abashed. "Why, I am just re
turning your call," he said stiffly.
Zalkind was amused. "Excuse me, Coimt," he
said, "we are revolutionists and we don't recognise
ceremony. You might have saved yourself the trou
ble if you had remembered that you are in New
Russia." He thought a minute. "But you can
come in," he added, "and have a glass of tea."
Von Mirbach did not accept the invitation. He
looked dovm at Zalkind's rough clothes, his rum
pled grey hair and his inspired face. Very awk
wardly he got himself out of the alien atmosphere
of the Foreign Office.
Trotsky ordered the Red Guard to mount guard
over the hotels where the delegates were staying.
Almost immediately a clamour went up. Count
Kaiserling and all the rest of them maintained that
they were "men of honour" and that such suspicion
on the part of the Bolsheviki was ridiculous and an
insult. So the guards were withdrawn, but the con
fidence of the Bolsheviki in the word of the Ger
man delegates was not strong enough to prevent
them from retaining the Secret Service.
A week passed.
In tiie Hotel Europe wUd speculation was going
on. Rich Russian business men were falling over
each other to get in touch with the delegates. And

SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
the Germans were evidently in a frenzy to enter into
big contracts with them. The Bolsheviki took note
of all this. From every part of Russia hidden sup
phes suddenly came to light. As far East as Siberia
cars were mysteriously loaded with rubber and
wheat. As far South as the Caucasus food was
packed ready for shipping. Ajid these were the
same "upper classes" who had shut their ears and
their hearts to the pitiful appeals of the starving
and desperate soldiers. In Finland the bourgeoisie
were more active than usual. . . .
I remember a large and pompous German specu
lator, a member of the delegation, who appeared at
this time. He used to stroU up and down the
crowded and battered Nevsky Prospect about
eleven o'clock every morning. He wore a high sUk
hat, and he did not deign to glance at the miserable
and curious population. He was so altogether smug
that I used to wish his ears would freeze or some
other misfortune would befall him, but nothing ever
happened. He was immune to everything Russian
— even the weather.
Taking it all in all, there is little difference be
tween speculators in one country or another. And
in every country they wax fat in wartime — like
ghouls. One day when all this had gone far enough, the
Bolsheviki put back the guard — doubled! The men
of honour understood and said not a word. Many
persons connected with the affair were arrested.

MEN OF HONOUR 239
But the poor people of Russia, used for centuries to
being sold out by the bourgeoisie, when they learned
the truth through the soldiers' papers, were not even
surprised. Kaiserling, during his visit in Petrograd, gave an
hiterview to a reporter on the Dien. In answer to
the query of whether or not he thought Bolshevism
would cross the frontier into Germany, he said iron-
icaUy: "If Bolshevism is a danger to us, why is it
not a danger for France or for England?"
The Russian ruffled him considerably by his next
remark. "Yes, but you cannot deny that Germany
is our nearest neighbour, so don't you think that
the Russian Revolution wiU naturaUy have more in
fluence on the masses in Germany than in distant
countries? And you will not deny that there has
been serious mutiny in the German fleet."
Kaiserling hedged. "There were troubles on cer
tain boats," he confessed, "but they were quickly
suppressed and the guilty were properly punished.
In general your insinuations are vain. At home all
goes better and better. We have full constitutional
Uberty. And in this regard treacherous England
herself is the most abominable state in the universe.
Even the United States can envy us."
Reporter — Have you had the pleasure of seeing
Trotsky, chief of our external affairs?
Kaiserling — No, I have not had this pleasure. I
have tried on five occasions to shake his hand cor-

240 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
dially, but up to the present time he has been too
busy to see me.
Most of the time the Count answered questions
about his government with phrases like this: "We
are entirely tranquil." "Russian anarchy cannot
affect Germany." He asked the reporter what the
demonstration that the Bolsheviki were arranging
for the foUowing day was meant to signify.
The demonstration he spoke of was held on Janu
ary 21. It was one of the largest demonstrations
that has taken place since the first revolution.
About a quarter of a milhon people took part in it,
and it lasted all day. There were Red Guards,
Cronstadt sailors, women and children — all work
ing people. We had heard that it was a peace dem
onstration and wondered if it could be possible
that they expected a decent peace to be signed at
Brest. However, it turned out to be nothing of
the sort. Everybody in the parade was armed! It
was a solemn and menacing procession and yet most
of the banners bore the one word, "Peace."
I am sure the Germans never understood what
the Russians meant by that great parade. They felt
only that they were somehow insulted, and that was
all. But there was a much deeper significance. The
people who marched through the snow-covered
streets knew that they had to have peace — that
they were, for the hour, at the end of things.
At the same time it was a forced peace which left
every man and woman and child with future wars

MEN OF HONOUR 241
to fight; it was an armed peace. And this was only
their pecuUar Russian way of expressing what they
felt. Before every marcher was a vision of a day
when the German miUtarists who now stood gloat
ing over them should no longer hold in terror a tired
and aching world. Almost every demonstration in
Russia has a certain symboUc meaning.

CHAPTER XXV
GERMAN, PROPAGANDA
GERMAN propaganda is by no means as bla
tant and unfinished a thing as we generaUy
believe. Stories of how German agents bought up
whole regiments of Russian soldiers are ridiculously
untrue. Along the Russian front it was dangerous
even to give away cigarettes. Aji American cor
respondent, who was at the front in November, felt
so sorry for the soldiers that he went back to the
nearest town behind the lines and bought a lot of
cigarettes. When he returned to the trenches he
began to distribute them rather freely. He was
ahnost mobbed. When his papers were examined
and he had explained, they finally let him go. But
after that he found it so unpleasant that he de
cided to return to Petrograd. The rumour that he
was a German agent spread and when he was wait
ing for his train at the little railway station the next
day he was again surrounded by soldiers and threat
ened. . . . Those of us who tried to find out how
the Germans managed their propaganda found
their methods very subtle and hard to trace. They
never blundered to the extent of trying to openly
buy the common soldiers — they purchased the ser-
242

GERMAN PROPAGANDA 243
vices of those who could directly or indirectly in
fluence them.
When they found they could not buy the revo
lutionary leaders they did their best to besmirch
them. In Russia one can purchase fake evidence
by the pound to prove that Lenine and Trotsky ^re
German agents. AU this evidence was absolutely
disproved by the Provisional Government while it
held these men for trial. And yet this German
propaganda has been more or less successful. It
was not very long ago that one of our officials came
rushing home with a trunkful and but for the ef
forts of a few sane representatives, the Russian sit
uation woiUd have been more complicated than it is.
The German Bureau of Propaganda, which cen
tres in BerUn, has on its staff members of every pro
fession who are expert in their various lines. Their
special aim is to study the psychology of the peo
ple they wish to reach. For example, if they wish
to do propaganda in Russia they secure the ser
vices of some one who knows the Russian mind and
who has probably lived in Russia a long time and is
located in Berlin. The ground is carefully gone
over and when the bureau decides what to do they
instruct in great detail their agents with whom they
are in touch. These agents have been sent to live
in different localities and are not generally sus
pected. The most illuminating example that I came
across extended over a long period and as it un-

244 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
ravelled I began to understand many other things.
In Stockholm, on the way over, I met a young
woman who said that she was an American cor
respondent. She was frankly pro-German.
A number of us, all reporters, were lunchuig at
the Grand and after luncheon she walked with me
towards my hotel. I said that I was looking for a
fur coat and she said without any hesitation at all:
"Why, don't get it here — everything is so expensive,
I'll get it for you in Germany."
I stopped, thinking for a minute that I had mis-
imderstood. But the young woman only laughed.
"I know what you are going to say," she continued,
"you are going to say that it is traflSeking with the
enemy, but that is very narrow-minded of you."
By this time we had reached my destination. I
watched her swinging down the street; she had
blonde hair and a ruddy skin and everything about
her seemed more German than American. Remem
bering some of her remarks at luncheon about how
fine the Prussian officers were, I hoped that I was
correct in my surmise.
I never saw her again and this story is not alto
gether to do with her, but she is an important link.
Five months later she was ordered arrested by Al
lied authorities and she fled into Germany where
she still remains. Her latest activity was to pub
lish a book called "Mein Lieber Barbars."
In Petrograd there was only one paper published
in Engiish. The editor was a weak-kneed, vacil-

GERMAN PROPAGANDA 245
lating little person with no opinions of his own and
he was dominated by a particularly despicable Uttle
character who claimed to be a Russian when he was
in America and an American when he was in Rus
sia. In both places he managed to escape military
service. Certain articles written by him caused much hard
feeling in Russia against America. He attacked
Trotsky and the Bolsheviki just after they came
into power. It is easy to imagine how we might
have felt if a foreign paper, published in this coun
try, had begun to attack President Lincoln during
the Civil War, every day fiUing its pages with false
reports about the "barbaric" actions of the North.
The Bolsheviki were puzzled as to just what to
do. The owners kept in the background and paid
little attention to the policy. Several times the
English and the American correspondents spoke of
making a formal protest against the paper, but
somehow no action was ever taken. Often in
Smolny excited Russians would say to us accus
ingly: "So this is how the American papers lie
about the revolutionists!" And we would explain,
with vehemence, that the paper was not an Amer
ican publication.
A very cleverly worded story about the six days'
fighting in Moscow when the Bolsheviki overcame
the Junkers, began in this way: "An American
returning from Moscow reports that German of
ficers had charge of the Bolshevik guns."

246 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
The wicked part of that article was not so much
that the whole story was a lie, but that it was put
in just that way — an American says . . .
The man who wrote it told a Russian who
worked in the same office not to let certain Ameri
cans know that he was sending out news to the
young lady who said she could get me a fur coat
in Germany. And the Russian, being as curi
ous as a child, hastened to tell us because he couldn't
imagine what the mystery was about and because no
Russian can keep a secret.
I went in to see this man one day just after he
had printed an article about a German officer stand
ing on the Nikolaisky Voksaal (station) and
haranguing a crowd of Russians for an hour, call
ing them dogs, etc. I asked him why he printed
that story which he knew to be untrue and he
claimed to have seen the officer. He said there were
many Germans in Smolny. I answered that I went
there almost daily and had never encountered any.
"Well," he said slyly, "I have been forbidden to en
ter Smolny, but as long as you go there freely, why
don't you bring me the news ? You can name your
price and if you don't want to do it, get some one
who can."
And this was not all. He made a deliberate ef
fort to get the confidence of the AlUed Ambassa
dors and for a time he succeeded with one of them.
The latest disclosures of German intrigue in the

GERMAN PROPAGANDA 247
United States directly connect these characters in
my story with the Evening Mail fund.
Once when there was a rumour that the Germans
would be in Petrograd within a few days — this was
just after the faU of Riga — the same man confided
to an American girl that she need not worry. AU
she would have to do, he said, was to mention the
name of the woman in Stockholm to the German of
ficers and she would be treated with great respect.
Another sheet which was violently anti-Bolshevik
was I'Entente, a paper formerly published in Rou
mania and later transferred to Petrograd. Finally
the Bolsheviki shut it up and the editor, an un
scrupulous little man, went to see Dr. Zalkind, As
sistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, to make "an
arrangement." He explained to Zalkind that if
he would give him permission to open his paper
again he would make it pro-Bolshevik. Zalkind
smiled and the editor decided that he had won his
point. In Russia there is a new law that if a
paper is closed down it cannot appear again under
the same name. And the wily editor, remembering,
remarked to Zalkind as he rose to depart: "Now
the only thing left to settle is the name . . . Could
you suggest one?"
Zalkind thought a moment and repUed gravely:
"Yes ... I should call such a paper . . . 'The
Prostitute.' "
The best and only authentic mf ormation from aU
parts of Russia was gathered by the French gov-

248 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
ernment. Every day a buUetin of multigraphed
copies was issued and only a few rubles a month was
charged for the service. It contained unprejudiced
news, without comment, and also translations of
leading editorials from all the Russian papers. An
American newspaper pursuing such a neutral pol
icy could not help but be of real benefit.
The German propagandists in Russia have made
a tremendous effort to hurt President WUson in the
eyes of the working people. They have held up the
Mooney trial as "an example of our supposed de
mocracy." They have made use of our lynching
cases and every suppressive measure against our
radicals. It is too bad that we continue to have
these examples for them to point to because there
is no argument to refute them. We ourselves are
at a loss. . . .
Along the front, on the German side, a huge pos
ter used to be displayed, showing President Wilson
pushing the Russian soldiers into battle and hold
ing his own away from the danger.
German propagandists would make Uttle head
way if aU our diplomats were as sensitive to situa
tions as Colonel Raymond Robbins, head of the
American Red Cross Mission. He never spared
himself any difficult task to further friendship be
tween Russia and America. He never assumed an
antagonistic attitude toward any group of Russian
people. He supported the Provisional Govern
ment; he supported the Soviets. No matter how

GERMAN PROPAGANDA 249
fast the changes came or how sweeping they hap
pened to be, he immediately made himself familiar
with them. I think every correspondent wiU agree
with me that, according to their best observation.
Colonel Robbins did more to offset unfavourable
impressions, was more valuable and actuaUy accom
plished more than any other man or group of men
sent to Russia by the United States Government.
When Colonel Robbins left Russia he was given
a special train through Siberia and accorded every
honour from the Soviet government. Nothing
proves better, to my mind, the common ground for
friendship than this confidence of the Russian
masses in Colonel Robbins. Robbins has never?
pretended to be a Socialist nor has he upheld the!
banners of the conservatives; he has merely made
an honest effort to be impartial. ¦ — ^
Russia is the greatest undeveloped land in the
world; it is infinitely rich in raw materials. G^er-
many realises that. After the war there must be
keen competition for Russian trade. And this is
where German propaganda must essentiaUy fail.
She has tried to take by force what she might have
had by extending friendship. Of course it was al
most impossible for her to extend friendship be
cause of the incompatibility of the two govern
ments. There is only one course left for her to
pursue. The Russians wUl never forget the forced
and unjust "peace" which followed the Brest-
Litovsk negotiations. So she must attempt by

860 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
every means possible to keep Russia and other na
tions, especially the United States, on unfriendly
terms and she nuwst overthrow the Soviet govern
ment or even a more moderate government. She
must establish a government more like her own. Of
course, if we are wise and foreseeing enough, we wUl
not faU into Germany's trap. We will offer aid to
Russia and assume toward her a large tolerance and
we will officially recognise whatever government
I there is — without regard to its political views or our
own prejudices in the matter.

CHAPTER XXVI
RUSSIAN CHILDREN
AMERICA has shovm great sympathy for the
chUdren of Belgium, of Serbia, of Poland, of
aU the Uttle warring countries swept by the fire of
war. As a nation we have accomplished splendid
reUef work for which we will never be forgotten.
But in our eagerness to aid the smaU nations we
have almost overlooked great Russia. While the
wildest exaggerations fill our daily papers, Russia
herself does not consciously advertise her sufferings
as other nations do. We have little correct infor
mation as to just how pitiful conditions are in that
vast land of a hundred and eighty million, so we
haven't faced the terrible fact that more children
have died in Russia since the war than in all the lit
tle countries together.
Ever since the beginning, nearly four years ago,
conditions have been unbearable for the children.
Transportation, never very efficient, was almost
completely upset as soon as mobilisation began and
it was never reorganised. Children in the cities
have been without proper nourishment for four
years because milk and other necessities have not
251

262 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
been brought in from the rural districts. At first,
the country chUdren were not greatly affected, but
as the war went on and disorganisation spread.
King Hunger claimed them all. I used to wonder
last year how any of them survived. I once asked a
doctor who has had experience in caring for chU
dren in six warring countries and he said that the
only explanation he could offer was that Russian
children have more resistance than other chUdren.
"I was forced to give them food in my hospital,"
he said, "that American babies would have died on
in a few days. . . ."
If it is true that Russian children are so strong
it only makes the statistics regarding their mor
tality more tragic. On the retreats in Galicia, out
of Volhynia, Riga, and other places, they died at
the rate of 800 out of every 1000. In the charitable
institutions, overcrowded, disease ridden, unsani
tary, lacking almost every medical necessity, only
16 per cent, survived.
Just to write this down, or to speak of it can
not give a mental picture to any one who has not
actually seen such a sweeping scourge of the little
people. It begins to sink into you after you have
lived in Russia for some time and you begin to won
der where the children have gone. I went along
always looking for the happy youngsters to whom
the bright toys in the shop windows, now dust-
covered, should belong. I came to realise with hor
ror that everybody in Russia is grown up. Those

' RUSSLA.N CHILDREN 253
young in years, whom we stiU called children, had
old and sad faces, large, hungry eyes burned forth
from pale countenances, wretched, worn-out shoes,
sagging, ragged little garments accentuated their
so apparent misery.
In Petrograd last winter. Colonel Raymond
Robbins, of the American Red Cross, made an at
tempt to supply the babies of Petrograd with
canned milk, but all sorts of delays in shipping oc
curred, policies toward Russia changed, so that
when I left late in January the milk had not yet
arrived. To be sure, speculators somehow man
aged to smuggle in small consignments and 10c
cans of popular American brands could be bought
at the exorbitant rate of 16^/2 rubles. I wish I
could efface from my memory the old peasant
women and the little ragamuffins who stood in the
snow outside the grocery windows gazing wistfully
at the little red and white cans.*
On the retreats confusion and terror swept along
with the refugees. Last autumn when they were
fleeing down the muddy roads before the advancing
Germans, parents had no tune to stop to bury their
dead children. Mothers fell exhausted and died
with live babies in their arms. Long cherished bits
of household treasures, dragged along with the
hope of making another home somewhere, were
dropped all along the weary miles; here a chest,
*Col. Robbins in February and March distributed several hun
dred thousand cans of milk to Petrograd babies.

254 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
there an old hand-wrought kettle, a brass samo
var. . . . Hatless, coatless, hungry, often bare
footed and knee-deep in slush the population
pushed doggedly along for days.
Even on the more organised retreats where Red
Cross doctors had charge, sick children had to be
left behind in military hospitals, especially was this
true if the children had contagious diseases like
scarlet fever. They were hastUy placed in separate
wards and tags were tied to their clothing, and on
the door was pasted a notice addressed to the Ger
mans, giving brief information about the ailment
of the child, who its parents were, where they came
from, and their destination. There was a desperate
hope that the parent and child would one day find
each other, but in most cases the hope was vain.
A beautiful camaraderie between the children on
these marches existed. The older ones often car
ried the younger and as they tramped along they
sang folk songs, intermingled with all the new revo
lutionary tunes. Their lovely little high sopranos,
sifting through the cold heavy dampness of the
dreary Russian autumn and their huddled little fig
ures through the mist gave them the appearance of
a phantom army of all the children who have died
in this war for the sins of a few diplomats sitting
around a gilded table, plotting conquest and spill
ing the world's blood.
The children showed remarkable courage, stand
ing all sorts of hardships without whimpering. This

II^O II y_jj K L.
yHacTHHK* noxopoiiHoii n^
uecciH, 0 !<peTap£ K-cciH no
opraHKBanii'i noxopoHT

PASS
TO BRYANT
PARTICIPANT OF THE FUNERAL PROCESSION
SECRETARY OF THE ORGANIZATION K. A. M.
THE SEAL READS :
MOSCOW CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
COUNCIL OF SOLDIERS AND WORKERS
DEPUTIES

Ii p 0 n y c K i.

/' f/^ I WonyoKi ;jMoTBii?. Ha 3 flHsi, oe flHfl flBflK,Mi!,
PASSTHE MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE PERMITS LOUISE BRYANT PASSAGE FROM
PETROGRAD TO MOSCOW AND RETURN. PASS GOOD FOR THREE DAYS FROM DATE OF ISSUANCE
DATED 8tH of NOVEMBER, I917
SEAL OF THE MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE

RUSSIAN CHILDREN 255
was especially true of the children who were sent
ahead of the parents in order that, even if the par
ents perished, the children at least might be saved.
In the strangeness and turmoil of the new life, in
dividuals asserted themselves. One little boy or
girl, often by no means the oldest, might lead a band
of twenty or thirty. He would make himself a self-
appointed chief, sometimes displaying rank favour
itism. Life was not all serious in these sad Uttle armies.
The chUdren found time to play jokes on the doc
tors, to tease the nurses and to mimic the revolu
tionary leaders. They formed committees and is
sued proclamations of defiance, pretending to re
fuse orders from superiors. This aping of the new
life was true in the schools of Petrograd. Little
boys laboriously wrote out long documents and
pasted them on the waUs, "just like Lenine and
Trotsky." One of the teachers told me an amusing
tale about a committee of youngsters who came to
her with the portentous information that thereafter
the students in the school would receive no orders
"unless countersigned by the committee," the old
est member of the committee being twelve years
old. The only chUd I ever knew who seemed to enjoy
the hazards of war was an amazingly beautiful boy
by the name of Vanya, son of a well-to-do peasant
from the province of Volhynia. He was lost at one
of the stations where he had gotten out to get water

256 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
for tea. In all the raUway stations there are huge
tankards of boiling water for those who are travel
ling and the peasants always carry with them big
brass kettles for brewing tea, which they drink al
most every hour of the day.
Vanya had persuaded his parents to let him get
the water "just once" after the manner of little
boys. Then it seems that he became interested in
a large friendly dog and forgot his mission. The
train went off and the parents did not discover that
he was missing until they were many miles away;
and refugees cannot turn back. For hours Vanya
stood waiting for the train to return. Toward dusk
he was found by a company of Cossacks going to
ward the front.
His adventures after that were so remarkable that
he became a legendary character and was reported
to have a charmed life. For weeks he rode at the
head of the Cossack regiment on a fiery charger.
He became the idol of the camp and the Cossacks
loaded him down with aU sorts of presents looted
along the way. He wore these round his neck in
loops like a little savage. Cossacks are gentle with
but two living things — children and horses.
Vanya had a genius for being lost. He was lost
by the Cossacks and wandered aimlessly through a
lonely wood eating wild berries and sleeping under
the stars. He was found by a woodcutter and his
wife and adopted by them and loved as a son. But
they also, in their turn, had to flee from the Ger-

RUSSLA.N CHILDREN 257
mans, and after a long journey reached Petrograd.
Here Vanya was lost again and found by an
American and brought to the American Refuge
Home, which was established at the beginning of
the war by subscriptions raised among the members
of the American legation and added to by friends
in America. It never grew to much importance,
but those who kept up an interest were able to care
for about forty children.
The story of how Vanya was at last found by his
parents after he had wandered all over Russia for a
year and a half is one of the exceptional happy end
ings to the thousands of sad tales of scattered and
broken lives of the people from the invaded dis
tricts. To be of assistance in bringing together lost fam
ilies was the principal business of the Grand
Duchess Tatiana Committee which posted semi-
weekly lists of the refugees in the various camps.
It was by this means that Vanya's father read
Vanya's name on one of the lists. He had walked
twenty versts twice a week to the office of the Com
mittee to procure the lists for over a year. . . .
Famine has threatened Russia for months and
now it seems inevitable. There is little or no seed
for the next planting, lack of horses and farming
implements, no means of transportation, while the
grain stores in the Ukraine are being seized by the
Germans or burned by the peasants to keep them
from the enemy's hands ; in Siberia the supplies are

258 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
i held up for one reason or another. For so long we
have believed every odious, unsympathetic tale that
comes out of Russia, tales meant purposely to
poison our minds and make us hostile. In other
words, we have believed just exactly what the Ger
mans have wanted us to believe. But whatever vast
differences of opinion we may hold with the ma
jority of the Russian people, children are the same
to us all the world over. Eventually we will have to
jaid Russian children as generously as children of
other countries.

CHAPTER XXVII
THE DECLINE OF THE CHURCH
RUSSIA, in my imagination, had always been
"holy" Russia, and it was surprising to go
there and find it so apparently unholy. The shrines
along the streets loomed blackly, forgotten and un
lit. The churches for the most part were sUent and
deserted. I had expected to see vast religious
changes with the revolution, but what I found was
so sweeping and so sudden. A year before scarcely
any one passed a church without crossing himself
— ^the soldiers, the cabmen. Now only occasionally
one of the crowd makes his gesture of respect absent
mindedly, Uke an old courtier bowing to a dead
king. Happily no matter what changes may come the
churches wiU remain a striking part of the Rus
sian landscape. I used to think when I looked
out of my window in Moscow that it could scarcely
matter whether or not one ever went inside, because
it was impossible not to get spiritual inspiration by
merely looking at the beautiful exteriors. Moscow
has the most exquisite skylines, the flat-topped col
ourful Russian dwellings broken up by the tall
golden spires, the green and blue domes with the
259

260 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
slender crosses. Moscow is full of churches and so
is all Russia. In the Caucasus the traveller runs
suddenly across a jewel of a little church, of ivory
and blue, nestled in the dark evergreens. . . .
And the bells are beyond description. Sometimes
a low sweet chime comes to you from a great dis
tance, a faint sUver tinkle; sometimes the bells of
all the world seem to be ringing at once in a great
barbaric symphony.
Russians are deeply religious, Uke the Irish or the
Italians, and they will always be religious. But
the church to-day in their minds is aU knit with the
Tsar and the old regime and is naturally absolutely
discredited. Once the Little Father was divine, now
he is only a poor exile with all his weaknesses ex
posed and they are disillusioned. Autocracy was
an integral part of the old reUgion, When the Rus
sian church produced such monsters as Rasputin,
Iliodor and Bishop Pitirim it had reached the
height of its corruption and was rotten to the core.
And Uke the monarchy, it crumpled and disap
peared without a struggle at the first firm blow;
it was but a sheU, And the masses, a simple, mys
tical people, turned the channel of their ardour into
revolutionary enthusiasm, into the idea of world
freedom and internationalism.
The intelligentsia have always been largely athe
istic. This swerving away from the church now
is all by the peasants. Yet they do not harbour a
violent resentment, I bought old ikons in the

THE DECLINE OF THE CHURCH 261
markets and put them up around my room. Al
most every one who came in remarked about my
having them there. If they were intelligentsia
they laughed at my "piety." If they were work
ing people they were puzzled and displeased. I
explained that they were very beautiful — interest
ing from a point of art. "They cannot be beau
tiful to us," they would exclaim, "blind faith in
them has caused us too much sorrow." In the old
days a man carried an ikon when he went forth to
kiU a man as weU as when he went to bless one.
I talked to Y. M. C. A. men who had spent many
months in aU parts of Russia. They aU told me the
same thing. The old Orthodox Greek Church is
dead. In their opinion this was greatly due to the
fact that it offered so little and demanded so much.
As DiUon has recently remarked : "It ( the church )
was a mere museum of liturgical antiquities. No
life-giving ever animated that rigid body, for
Byzance was powerless to give what it did not pos
sess." The Y. M. C. A. representatives are not
hopeless over the situation. They beUeve that it is
only a matter of time before a more satisfactory,
more human institution is built in its place.
An incident which I witnessed in Petrograd in
December Ulustrates an amusing new resentment
among the people for the superior feeling of the
priests. I was riding on a street car one morning
when a priest cUmbed aboard. He refused to pay
his fare, saying he was a man of God and there-

262 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
fore exempt. Immediately the passengers became
excited. They were mostly peasants and they
began to argue hotly. A man of God, they claimed,
was no different from any other man — all were
equal since the revolution. But the priest was stub
born and not until the crowd threatened to take him
to the Revolutionary Tribunal did he consent to
pay, grumbling.
Priests were employed at the funerals after the
February revolution, but the rift between the church
and the people widened quickly. On the greatest
occasions like the famous Red Burial there were no
priests and no ceremony. I shaU never forget the
menacing and hostile glances we received when we
went through the Kremlin the day after the funeral.
The Red Guards took us through so we could make
a correct report of the damages. The priests were
so enraged over the Junker defeat that they would
not even speak — but they were powerless. I had a
feeling that if they had the power instead of the
masses there would have been terrible revenge and
bloodshed. There are many noticeable evidences of pagan
ism in the Russian church. It has been the study
of the church to combat this by purifying what they
could not uproot by turning to account any sim
Uarity of names or of symbols. It explains the
high place of honour given St. George and St.
Dmitrie, the slayers of dragons, and the festival
song in honour of St. John which runs: "John

THE DECLINE OF THE CHURCH 263
and Mary bathed on the hill — while John bathed
tiie earth shook — while Mary bathed the earth ger
minated." The sacred trees and the mysterious
wells have aU been consecrated to the saints and
purified with holy rites.
One of these pagan customs was the annual bless
ing of the Neva. In January of this year the Neva
went unblessed. I saw the whole dismal perform
ance. There were half a dozen priests and about twen
ty old peasants. They gathered in St, Isaacs
Cathedral, and after a good deal of singing and
burning of incense, they emerged from the great
doors and down the broad steps, A small blizzard
had just come up. The streets were knee-deep in
snow and as we walked we kept running into drifts.
After proceeding about three blocks the priests
stopped, sprinkled holy water and waved the in
cense burners, then they trod in a circle, looked
at their scanty following, heaved great disappointed
sighs and began to retreat toward the church. The
peasants, without a word, dwindled away.
In Petrograd there was an entire lack of inter
est in the affair. I tried vainly to get several Rus
sian friends to go with me to see the ceremony,
but they only laughed and went on with their inter
minable discussions.
Russian priests never fit my idea of conventional
priests at aU. I saw two laughing merrily once
while some old peasants were bowing their heads

264 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
to the stone floor during mass. They often had
mean, vicious faces, were extremely dissipated and
commanded no respect from their flocks. One old
priest who spent much time at the front, adored to
tell the most frankly Rabelaisian stories. One of
the peculiar things I found about these few remain
ing priests at the front was that the soldiers com
manded them to pray for the horses and the de
serters as well as themselves. This supervision of
prayers was always a custom in Russia. Drunken
priests were kicked awake and made to pray for a
dying man or perform a marriage ceremony. What
strange intermediaries to God !
The priests were forced to marry according to
the law of the church, but the monks were ceUbate.
None of them seemed to feel that cleanliness was
next to godliness, many of them did not wash at
all. The village priests, always desperately poor,
were a repulsive sight as they went along mumbling
into their matted beards, their long dirty garments
dragging on the sidewalk and half a dozen ragged
children clinging to their arms. The one universal
note was that neither the priests nor the monks Uked
to work. The great rich estates of the church were
confiscated by the Bolsheviki and turned over to the
peasants. The monks were invited to remain if
they would promise to do their share of labour. The
majority of them indignantly refused. Some of the
younger ones, however, left the church and went
into all sorts of service under the new government.

THE DECLINE OF THE CHURCH 265
Madame Kollontay, Minister of Welfare, told me
she had a number in her department. And some I
know were teachers. What became of the rank and
file no one seems to know. Of course, a few are
still tending to the tag ends of their fiocks.
No one, even the most devout, can feel sorry be
cause of the sudden fall of the Russian church.
Whatever is built in its place must be better and
more solid and more satisfying even if it wiU not
be so picturesque and semi-pagan.

CHAPTER XXVIII
ODDS AND ENDS OF REVOLUTION
THERE were many Uttle incidents I came
across in Russia that while of themselves are
of no particular importance, yet gathered together
may give the reader more atmosphere than a de-
i liberate attempt at a picture. Now that I am home
again and must depend for uiformation largely on
the reports sent out by Berlin or Vienna and meant
to prejudice us against Russia, or by those of my
colleagues who make it a business to write sen
sational stories, it seems but fair that I should tell
of my own experiences and those of my friends in
this supposed violent Russia. It is a great pity that
all our correspondents are not as well balanced and
as intelligent as Mr. Arthur Ransome,* whose des
patches appear in the London Daily News, New
York Times, and the New Republic. Mr. Ran
some is an Englishman who has lived in Russia for
ia number of years and knows his ground well, he
writes as an observer and not for or against any
party in power, and that seems to me the only rea
sonable conduct for a reporter. No more clear-
* Mr. Ransome is also known as a novelist, a •^ranslator of Remy
de Gourmont, and a teller of Russian fairy stories.
266

ODDS AND ENDS OF REVOLUTION 267
headed comment on the political situation in Rus
sia has been publicly made than that which ap
peared in his "Letter to the American People" in
which he said, "Remember any non- Soviet govern
ment in Russia would be welcomed by Germany
and, reciprocally, could not but regard Germany as
its protector. Remember that the revolutionary
movement in Eastern Europe, no less than in the
American and British navies, is an integral part of
the Allied blockade of the Central Empires." If
one goes to Russia and finds that the Soviet gov
ernment is the expression of the people, it is quite
necessary to say so, no matter what one may feel
personaUy concerning the Soviet government.
If one expects to find nothing but bloodshed
and one fiaids that there is much else, that one
can go about in a fur coat without the least hin
drance, that theatres, the ballet, movies and other
more or less frivolous institutions still flourish, it
may subdue the tone of one's tale, but it is highly
necessary to note the fact. It is siUy to defend the
revolution by claiming there has been no bloodshed
and it is just as silly to insist that the streets are
running blood. We must use logic in deciding the
truth of widely varying statements. There is, for
example, that careful, scientific observer. Profes
sor Albert Ross, who traveUed 20,000 mUes in Rus
sia and "never saw a blow struck" and "instead of
agitation and tumult, found habit stiU the lord of
Ufe" in comparison to a prejudiced reporter like

268 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Herman Bernstein who somehow managed to see
everywhere the wildest confusion, murders and rob
beries in broad dayUght, cars falling off the tracks,
the dead unburied and so on ad infinitum. No one
can predict what wiU happen before the problem
of a new government is settled in Russia, but up to
the present moment the actions of the mass, so long
mistreated and suppressed, and now suddenly
given Uberty has been surprisingly gentle.
If all the things that are supposed to be done are
really done, L think some of them would have hap
pened to me. I am a woman, not noticeably old,
and I often travelled alone in Russia. I did not
have one unpleasant, ugly experience. I was fol
lowed by spies, I was in battles, but in the first in
stance I was treading on dangerous ground and
in the second instance it was because I chose to be
in the centre of action. A few days ago I read with
some amazement about a brave reporter who trav
elled all the way from Petrograd to Moscow and
back to Petrograd again. It was the first time that
I realised it was a brave thing. I did it many times,
when the train was packed with hungry soldiers.
Once I tried to divide my sandwiches with one. He
had been standing up in the aisle all night and
looked weary and miserable. He refused the food.
"Eat it yourself, little comrade," he said, "it will be
many hours before we reach the end of the jour-
ney."

ODDS AND ENDS OF REVOLUTION 269
A San Francisco newspaper woman, who was
in Russia when I was there and who travelled home
with me, often remarked with indignation on the
exaggerations of conditions in Russia. She tells
an amusing tale about an encounter she had with a
Cossack shortly after her arrival at the Astoria
Hotel in Petrograd. She had been filled with tales
of the brutality of Cossacks and so she was quite
naturally alarmed one evening to have a tall, hand
some Cossack rap sharply on her door. When she
opened it, he stepped into the room, closed the
door, made a bow and took from his pocket a green
sash. Miss B  recognised it as her own. She
realised at once that she must have dropped the
sash going or coming from dinner. She wanted
to thank the Cossack, but she did not speak
Russian and she did not speak German. It oc
curred to her that many Russians speak French.
She had a smattering of French. "Merci — pour —
cette," she murmured, taking the sash and pointing
to her waist. The Cossack came closer, touched her
dress and smUed. "Ah," he remarked in perfect
EngUsh. "I understand, you do not wear corset."
Then he added politely: "That is very interesting.
Good-night, mademoiseUe." And making another
formal little bow he went out.
Tales of violence of the most dastardly character
were spread everywhere in Petrograd and produced,
for a whUe, a mild hysteria in the foreign colonies.

270 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Hysteria always produces ludicrous situations. An
Englishman managed to get aboard a crowded car
one evening and was obliged to stand on the back
platform. He was very nervous and imagined that
one neatly dressed little man avoided his eyes.
Reaching down for his watch, he found it missing.
Just after that the little man got off the car. The
Englishman followed quickly and the little man be
gan to run. The EngUshman finaUy caught him in
a yard hiding behind a pile of wood. He said in a
commanding voice: "Watch! watch!" The little
man promptly handed over a watch.
Safe at home the Englishman found his own
watch on his dresser where he had carelessly left it
in the morning and a strange watch in his pocket.
Very much upset by what he had done, he adver
tised in the papers and in due time the little man
appeared. The Englishman began an elaborate
apology ; but the Uttle man shut him off. "It's quite
all right," he said, "what worried me that night was
that I was carrying 3000 rubles and I was afraid
you would demand those."
The Soviet government tried to do away with
many outworn or difficult customs. They paused
in the midst of civil war to change the calendar
which up until February 7 was thirteen days be
hind the corresponding dates in all other countries.
And they aboUshed classes of society, planned
people's theatres, reformed the marriage laws and
even the spelling.

CROWD ON NEVSKY

ODDS AND ENDS OF REVOLUTION 271
The old caste system enforced in Russia since the
tune of Peter the Great, in the middle of the 18th
century, was never formally annulled until Novem
ber 25, 1917. The decree reads as foUows:
"AU classes of society existing up to the present
time in Russia and all divisions of citizens, all class
distinctions and privileges, class organisations and
institutions and also aU civil grades are abolished.
"All ranks — nobleman, merchant, peasant; all
titles — prince, count, etc., and denominations of
civil grades (private, state and other councUlors)
are aboUshed and the only denomination established
for all the people of Russia is that of citizens of the
Russian republic."
Lunarcharsky, Minister of Education, is one of
the most picturesque figures in Russia, and for years
has been known as the Poet of the Revolution. He
is an extremely cultured man and could very pos
sibly have held the same office under any regime.
He does not beUeve in mixing art and politics. It
was his idea to turn the old palaces into people's
museums, just as they are in France. It was his
idea to organise the Union of Russian Artists.
These artists, made up of all classes, rich and poor,
have charge of the precious art treasures of the na
tion. They have decreed that no art objects over
twenty-five years of age shaU be taken out of the
country.

272 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Lunarcharsky is a fervid Bolshevik, but when he
heard that the Kremlin was razed to the ground he
took to his bed and resigned his position. He ap
peared at his post a few days later when he found
that it was a false report.
Right in the middle of the fiercest fighting he got
out a decree simplifying the spelling, dropping the
superfluous letters out of the alphabet. And he
established the School of Proletarian Drama. Like
mushrooms, overnight almost, dozens of theatres
came into being. Plays were given in factories,
in barracks. And they chose good plays by the
best authors — Gogol, Tolstoi, Shakespeare. . . .
There is so much romance in this whole proletarian
movement, such magnificent and simple ges
tures, it is not surprising that it caught the
imagination of an impressionable man like Lunar
charsky. Lunarcharsky and Professor Pokrovsky,
who holds the chair of history in the University
of Moscow, and is another ardent Bolshevik, are
both true types of the old intelligentsia who have
thrown their lot with the Soviets.
As for the new marriage laws so widely dis
cussed abroad and misunderstood by various indig
nant and righteous public characters ; instance, Mrs.
Pankhurst's latest outburst against certain elements
in Russia, in which she claimed that women over
eighteen have been made public property and
proved it by a decree pubhshed in a French news-

ODDS AND ENDS OF REVOLUTION 273
paper. I was present at the meeting when the
decree of the Soviets regarding marriage was
passed and have the correct data. The decree which
fell into the hands of Mrs. Pankhurst was gotten
out by persons of absolutely no authority, a little
remote group of Anarchists in Odessa. There was
no reason at all to get excited about it. Groups
of Anarchists all over the world have held strange
and outlandish opinions — there are some in Amer
ica that do, but that doesn't prove theirs is the will
of the American people.
According to the marriage laws passed early in
January, nothing but civil marriages are recog
nised. Civil marriages do not mean common law
marriages, but those that have been legalised by
process of law. All the contracting parties have
to do is to go before the Department of Marriage
and Divorce and register. No ceremony is neces
sary. Divorce is equaUy easy. Either or both of
the parties can swear they find it impossible to
Uve together any more, and they are legally free.
If there are chUdren the affair is a Uttle more com
plicated and the one who has the most money, either
the man or the woman, must give the most finan
cial aid. The same decree declared all divorces
pending in the churches to be null and void.
Declarations of marriage are not accepted from
persons of close relationship or those in direct line.
No bigamy is allowed. The age at which marriages
are legaUsed in Great Russia is eighteen for the

274 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
males and sixteen for the females. In the Trans-
Caucasian countries the ages are lowered to six
teen and thirteen respectively.
Just before the vote was taken on this decree one
soldier arose and said that he thought the govern
ment should limit the divorces to three. Another
soldier got up and denounced him, saying: "Why
should we, who believe in freedom, tell any man how
many times he should wed?" So the discussion
was dropped. It is interesting to note that with
marriage and divorce as easy to get as a cup of
tea there has been no great rush to the bureau.
With the removal of all kinds of suppression im
morality notably lessens. Russia with all these lax
laws can boast of less imndorality than any coun
try in the world.
One of the most puritanical acts of the Bol
sheviki was to raid all the gambling houses, to
confiscate the money and turn it over to the army
and the poor. They went even further and posted
notices giving the names of aU persons who fre
quented these places.
Women's magazines are not popular in Russia,
equality of the sexes is too settled a thing. The
only interesting woman's magazine I came across
was edited by Madame Samoilova and was contrib
uted to solely by factory women. It has a circu
lation of twenty-five thousand. ChUdren's maga-

ODDS AND ENDS OF REVOLUTION 276
zines have reached a high stage of development.
They publish one called Our Magazine. All the
illustrations and stories and poems are the work
of small children. Most of the great Russian
artists are interested in it and some fascinating
numbers have been produced, CivU war and the
last German invasions, of course, have temporarily
stopped aU this deUghtful spirit of play.
Russians are not very happy away from their
own country. Many of the rich Russians, no
longer comfortable at home, now seek our shores
or go to Sweden or Norway, France or England.
But they are not content, they are not at all like
the old exUes who fled away from the tyranny of
the Tsar. Russia has a strong hold on all of her
children. Eventually they wiU have to go back
and work it all out together, as we did in our Civil
War, as they did in France, . . .
Pogroms among the Jews have almost ceased.
This anti-Semitic feeling, like aU race hatred, is
artificial and has to he artificiaUy stimulated. With
the fall of the monarchy and the discrediting of
the reactionaries, the Jews ceased to be segregated
according to religion and became Russian citizens.
Many of them did excellent work in reorganising.
This was especially true of those exiles who had
lived a long time in America and had become ac
quainted with American efficiency. William
Shatoff became a member of the famous MiUtary

276 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
Revolutionary Committee, organiser of the Print
ers' Union and a member of the Executive Com
mittee of the Factory Shop Committees. He has
lately been reported to be governor of Karkov.
Voskoff became head of the Factory Shop Com
mittees at Sestroretz, and was one of the chief in
ventors of that ingenious institution. Under the
old regime one of the chief causes for pogroms was
the crowding together of Jews in the Pale so that
they were forced in self-defence to combine against
the Gentiles. Now there is absolutely no occasion
for these hideous performances and none can occur,
except those invited by the Black Hundred who are
working to put back a Tsar on the throne. The
high place and the respect accorded Trotsky give
evidence of the real feeling of the people.
Owing to the terrific scarcity of paper in Rus
sia, ordinary postage stamps were used for kopecks,
minus the glue. The one ruble notes were pasted
together again and again until finally they became
very rare. And there was absolutely no metal
money. We had to use forty and one hundred
ruble notes, and as the merchants had no change we
had to establish credits. In the restaurants where
we ate most frequently we either gave them the
money in advance or they trusted us.
When I read absurd stories of Russia I always
am reminded of the experience of the Evening

ODDS AND ENDS OF REVOLUTION 277
Post's correspondent who was down the Volga, last
summer, absorbing atmosphere. He said one after
noon he sat in a one-roomed peasant's hut jotting
down impressions. He wrote: "Rough wooden
table and benches — large bowl in the centre of the
table from which the whole family eats — ^woman
and dirty baby. . . ." But just then he was inter
rupted, the baby put his feet on the table and the
mother scolded it sharply. "Remember you are not
in America," she said.

CHAPTER XXIX
A TALK WITH THE ENEMY
ONE often wonders what is working in the
German mind. In Russia it was possible for
some of us to find out how the common soldiers
of Germany and Austria reacted to the terrible
tyranny under which they live. Delegates from the
two milhon war prisoners who met in the Foreign
Office became so impregnated withBolshevik propa
ganda and spread it so thoroughly among their men
that whenever a prisoner escaped and got back into
Germany he was kept in a detention camp for
two weeks and fed on literature gotten out by
the German government and calculated as a cure
for the revolutionary fever. Every prisoner was
forced to undergo this ordeal before he was allowed
contact again with his own people. No one realises
more than the German officials the effect of work
ing class conscience on their imperialistic aims.
I travelled direct from Petrograd to Stockholm.
No greater contrast is possible than to go from
a city under the sway of a proletarian dictatorship
to a royal city where a king sits in ermine on an
ancient throne.
Stockholm buzzes with intrigue. On the mag-
278

A TALK WITH THE ENEMY 279
nificent terrace of the Grand Hotel, where fresh
flowers are "planted" beside the fountains every
day, one rubs elbows with people from every cor
ner of the world. The air is heavy with plots and
counter-plots. Spies from the Entente and the
Central Powers dodge round the corners. Guests
speak in subdued tones with their heads close to
gether, glancing furtively from side to side.
I dined there with a diplomat. A taU middle-aged
man passed. My host and the man stared at each
other coldly and my host sighed. "There are things
about the war that are hard to get used to," he said.
"For example, the feUow that just passed is a Ger
man. I have known him for years, but I have been
away a long time and only lately returned to Stock
holm. A few weeks ago he was lunching here with
friends when I came through with a party — ^before
we thought what we were doing, we rushed forward
and shook hands. It was extremely embarrassing
and we were both reprimanded. . . ."
Stockholm was overcrowded. It was impossible
to get rooms in any hotel ; I appealed to the Ameri
can legation and they got me into a little pension
on Clarabergsgatan. I wanted to tell the landlady
that I would be leaving the next day, but she spoke
only Swedish. By signs I tried to indicate that
I wanted an interpreter. At last she understood
and after showing me to my room she returned in
a few minutes with an athletic young man who
clicked hhnself in with a sort of military air and

280 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
made a stiff little bow. He spoke English with
scarcely an accent, explaining briefly what I
wanted. When he had finished the landlady smiled
and went out, but the young man stood still in the
middle of the room staring before him. I stirred
the fire and waited for him to go.
Suddenly he came closer. "I am a German," he
announced. I tried not to appear surprised and there was an
embarrassed silence.
"You are an American," he went on, "so of course
you hate me."
"Let's not talk about it," I answered, turning
away. "I have to talk about it!" he almost shouted.
Then for the first time I began to observe him
closely. He had a wUd look; his eyes were red and
his face drawn as if from lack of sleep. I have
known many soldiers on two fronts and I had seen
them in this state before. He was mentaUy sick.
"What is the matter?" I asked.
"I have been ordered to go back for the Rus
sian advance."
It was several days before the advance and
I found myself getting excited. "But there is no
Russian advance!" I broke in.
"There will be, I tell you. There wUl be an ad
vance and I have been ordered back. You must
understand, whether you hate me or not, that I

A TALK WITH THE ENEMY 281
wUl not go. I wiU not fight against the Russian
people!" He paced up and down. "I am in great dis
grace," he said miserably. "I have begged to go
to the French front, but they will not change their
orders. They are stupid and puffed up with vic
tory. They expect me to go into an exhausted
country and shoot down a starving population. . . .
I cannot do it! German people cannot be so
infamous." "You mean, then," I asked, "that you wUl openly
refuse to fight the Russians?"
"No," he answered in despair. "I wiU kill my
self." Silence followed. Neither one of us could think
of anything to say.
"Liebknecht," I said at last, "is one of the great
figures of the war. It is much braver, in my opin
ion, to do as he has done — to protest against the
action of the government than to kiU yourself and
never be heard of agam."
He drew himself up haughtily. "Liebknecht!"
he exclaimed in surprise. "Why, he is a Sdcialist!"
"Nevertheless," I went on calmly, "he has the
courage to do the unpopular thing, which is more
than any German officer can do,"
His face turned crimson, "MademoiseUe," .he
said gravely, "I shall never forget that you have
called Liebknecht braver than any German officer,"

282 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
A long minute passed. "I shall never forget . . ."
he hesitated, "because, perhaps, it is true.
"I have suffered much," he went on, "A month
ago I came here to recuperate from a wound and
for the first time since the war I have read Ameri
can papers, I have been thinking about many
things and I have thought about Russia. I would
fight to the end against England, but I will not go
a step against Russia. When we fight England
we fight an equal. . , ,"
I came back to the subject of America. "What
did you get out of American papers?"
"Many lies," he said, "and one great truth."
"And that was  "
"That something is wrong with the poUcy of the
German government," He began to reminisce:
"My father is a very rich man. He bought me into
a smart cavalry regiment, I believed in the miU
tary party. But I am different now. I hate that
party. They have made my people a thing of
shame. I loathe my rulers ; I loathe especially the
Crown Prince. But what can I do? I do not
believe in your 'brotherhood of man.' I am not
comfortable with ragamuffins. . . . There is no
place for me. Your President has spoken a great
truth. He has said that the German people are
not bad, . . . Ah, yes, it is true we are not bad
and it is not fine with us. . . ."
"If you should go back," I suggested, "and say

A TALK WITH THE ENEMY 283
you will not take part in the advance into Russia,
what would happen?"
"Only one thing can happen in any case if I go
back; I wUl be shot in twenty-four hours,"
I looked at my enemy standing straight and
young before me. It was true there was no hope
for him. He was already in disgrace. He had ex
pressed himself and there was no recourse. On the
other hand, he couldn't imagine joining the revo
lutionists. He was a lost soul. The only thing
left was oblivion in some hotel bedroom, "It is not
fine . . ." he murmured again in a half-dazed way
as he closed the door and stumbled down the narrow
stairs.

CHAPTER XXX
SHOPPING IN GERMANY
IN Germany you can buy anything for money,"
was the flat statement of an American woman
who had just come from Berlin. We were aU sit
ting around in the music room of the tipsy Uttle
Bergenfjord, somewhere between Norway and
New York. This woman and her son were so
healthy and prosperous that we couldn't help won
dering how they had managed it in a country where
we were pretty certain men were starving. Then
some one ventured to ask. And this was her an
swer. We felt we were really going to get some infor
mation about food speculation and graft so com
mon to all warring countries and began to ply her
with questions, but she withdrew into herself and
answered so enigmatically that we finally had to
abandon her in despair. I give parts of our con
versation: "How did you happen to stay in Germany so
long after the war, especially after the United
States came in?"
"Well, my husband died and I did not feel like
travelling." 284

SHOPPING IN GERMANY 285
'Did you have any trouble getting out?"
'Why should I?"
'You might have observed certain things-

"They understand I'm not interested in politics;
aU my Ufe I have not been interested in politics,"
"Didn't they examine you or anything?"
"Yes, they did examine me once — it was
very embarrassing; they made me take off my
clothes, . . ."
"Did they scrub you?"
"Of course not. I never heard of such a thing!"
The deck steward came in and passed around
declaration blanks to be filled out before we reached
New York Harbour. "I really don't know what to
do," complained the lady from Berlin. "I don't
know what is in my trunks."
"How's that?"
"My maid packed for me."
We tried a new tack.
"Did you find much suffering in Germany among
the women and children? We understood that the
infant mortality was very great,"
"Oh, I don't believe so. People are very well
taken care of, I got plenty of milk for my boy,"
"How much did you have to pay?"
"A great deal,"
"Is it true that they haven't any fat in Ger^
many?" "Yes, I paid one hundred and fifty marks for
a goose — just to get the fat,"

286 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
"And you say you always had plenty of food
and plenty of bread?"
"Yes, one could always buy everything — there
were ways. When we found we were leaving we
ate every last morsel of aU that we had stored up,"
"Do you believe there will be a revolution?"
"I'm not interested in politics."
We gave her up and went to the smoking-room,
where we found the Kaiser's dentist. Rumour ran
around the ship that he had come out of Germany
on a special passport signed by the Emperor, and
further rumours maintained that he had had nine
visits from his majesty within the last few months.
Allied passengers walked up and down the deck
saying queer things about the doctor. They specu
lated upon just what action they would have taken
in similar circumstances. A mild religious youth
burst out with sudden fury that the dentist had
missed a great opportunity which he prayed every
night to have, "I think he was a dirty coward!"
he cried, "It would have been so easy just to let
his hand slip, . . ."
There was an interesting group around the table
at which we were invited to sit down. Two Ameri
cans, one a keen, practical Consul-General from
one of the little neutral countries, a general of the
United States Army, a Russian Prince, still wear
ing his title, Bessie Beatty, a San Francisco news
paper woman, myself . . . and the Kaiser's den
tist.

SHOPPING IN GERMANY 287
We fell into a discussion of food speculation in
Russia. Somebody said that it was the same in
aU countries.
"Even in Germany," remarked the Kaiser's
dentist. From that moment he held our attention.
The doctor was an American, He had lived
many years in Germany, His practice was exclu
sively of the court and the high officers. He was
saluted, he said, when he drove about Berlin in his
car, "Doctor," said one of the men, "I hope you hurt
the Kaiser."
The doctor flushed a little and answered slowly,
perhaps out of professional pride. "No-o," he said
... "I didn't."
We began to talk about food conditions.
"It is always easy to get food if you have money,"
said the doctor.
"TeU us how you did it over there with all the
strict rules and regulations," I said.
"There was a regular system. The porters of
the apartment houses were in with the speculators
and they kept us in touch, I'll give you an instance :
"One morning the maid came and said to us at
breakfast, 'There's a man downstairs who has some
thing to sell,' We told her to send him up. When
he came in he showed us a large ham. He said
he had gotten off the train before he reached Berlin
and walked into the city in order to avoid the

288 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
guards, WhUe he was telling us his story the
porter came in and said excitedly that the poUce
were coming. We hid the ham, and the porter
told the police that the man had gone to the top
floor. We lived on the second, WhUe they were
up there the man escaped,"
"How did the police find he was in the buUd
ing?" "There was a flower shop right across the street.
Two girls who worked there saw the man come in
with the bundle and reported it to the police. And
it was mighty mean of them," he added, "because
we had often bought flowers in their shop."
"After that we were regular customers of this
man untU he suddenly disappeared. I had been
wondering what had become of him, when one day
I was called to the telephone. 'I understand,' said
a voice, 'that you have been trading with a certain
man, , , . Well, ... we have put him out of
business. We had detectives on his trail and we
know his customers. If you would like some nice
flour we could deliver it to you on Wednesday
afternoon at three o'clock.' I agreed.
"On Wednesday morning I was called up again.
'You had better come for the flour yourself,' said
the person at the other end of the wire. 'Not on
your life,' I answered. 'I know the law. Do you
think I want to get fined?' You see, they have a
law in Germany now that the one who delivers the

SHOPPING IN GERMANY 289
goods gets fined — the purchaser merely has his
goods confiscated.
"Anyway, at three a wagon drew up with two
soldiers and a huge sack containing the flour. Be
cause they were in uniform no one paid the slight
est attention to them. The funny part was that
they weren't soldiers, but that they wore uniforms
over their clothes. It was part of the game.
"After they were gone a girl called and pre
sented a bill. There was no name at the top, only
the amount in the middle of a blank page. We
paid the bill and distributed the flour from one end
of the house to the other in case of a search. We
put a lot of it in the attic under some papers and
left only a small portion in the bin."
So much for shopping among Germany's weU-
to-do. We wanted to know how the poor people man
aged. The doctor didn't seem to be clear about
that. "If they don't get enough to eat — ^they
steal," he summed up with some contempt.
"What makes you think so?" asked Miss Beatty,
who has more faith in humanity than the doctor.
"Why, I've seen it myself. There was my little
girl. She began to look pinched. I said to my
wife, 'I bet her nurse is eating her food.' After
that she ate in the dining-room with us and she
improved at once."
The General, who has a heart of gold, didn't Uke
the conversation, it began to trouble him. "Look

290 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
here," he said, "weren't you feeding that girl
enough?" The doctor coloured. "Whoever fed a German
servant enough?" he burst out. "They eat like
horses." "Do you think the masses are restless ? And that
there wiU be a revolution?"
"I am sure I don't know," he said vaguely. "I
didn't keep in touch; in fact, I never talked to
them about it."
He assured us that it was true that they had
paper clothes which had to be washed a special way
or they would dissolve, and the bread, he said, con
tained no wood, "Because I masticate very weU and
I never was aware of it."
"And how does your passport read?" one of the
company queried.
The doctor smiled.
"It says 'no return' and I'm perfectly satisfied."
The steward came and turned out the lights and
we all filed down the long haUway to bed.
I got up pretty early and went to work. I was
in the library, pounding out this story, when the
doctor appeared.
"By the way," he began, a little beUigerently,
"I'd like to speak to you about last night. I shall
have to request you not to use anything I said."
"You can hardly do that because you were in
formed in the beginning that we were newspaper
reporters looking for news."

SHOPPING IN GERMANY 291
"I don't want my name used," he said. "I have
too many interests in Germany to have them spoiled
by anything so trivial."
I promised not to use his name and I don't care
to interfere with his interests, but perhaps they will
forgive him anyway. You will remember he said
that he didn't hurt the Kaiser.

CHAPTER XXXI
ADVENTURES AS A BOLSHEVIK COURIER
I CAME back from Petrograd as far as Stock
holm as a Bolshevik courier. It came about in
this way: I was very worried about my papers.
Once before when I traveUed through Finland most
of my baggage was confiscated. I didn't want it
to happen again, so I went to Assistant Foreign
Minister Zalkind and asked how I could avoid a
similar experience. He thought for a moment,
smiled and said, "Why, I will make you a courier
for the Soviet Government."
I had no idea what it would mean to be taken
for a Bolshevik outside of Russia. Dr. Zalkind
is a subtle person, sometimes I think that he
might have felt that it would be an illuminating
experience for a reporter — and it was.
The night before I left I sent my bags over to
the foreign office. Three old servants, who had
seen many years of service under the Tsar and
who still wore the same old uniforms, stood stiffly
at attention ready to perform the ceremony. One
held a fiaming taper, one the long wax sticks and
one the official seal which never left his person while
he was on duty and which reposed in the great safe
at night. 292

ADVENTURES AS A BOLSHEVIK COURIER 293
They were very solemn and never changed the
expression of their faces as they pasted aU over my
heretofore insignificant baggage large white cards
that proclaimed in black letters that I was about
to depart on an expedition officiel, treating me with
aU the deference due an emissary of His Imperial
Majesty. Only the soldiers and sailors, shuffling
through the buUding, looked m at the door and
grinned broadly.
When the ceremony was over I went in to say
good-bye to Zalkind and he gave me courier's
papers and a letter to the Bolshevik Minister in
Stockholm. "You might tell him what you see on
the way, in case it is exciting," he said.
"Do you expect anything to happen?" I asked.
"Well, the Red Guards are still in power, but
we are not sure how long they can hold out. Keep
your eyes open, anyway."
One has barely time to arrange one's luggage
comfortably in the compartment before the train
stops at Bjeloostrov, just at the border of Fin
land. It is only an hour's ride out of Petrograd.
Bolshevik troops were everywhere. They exam
ined my passports, counted me a friend and scarcely
glanced at my possessions bravely flaunting the
enormous red seals of the Workmen's and Peas
ants' Government.
The trip was uneventful until we reached Tamer-
fors. Here a company of sailors, who had come to

294 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
help the Red Guard, were arrested by the White
Guard, and sombrely marched away. I regretted
that this was my last glimpse of the adventuresome
Cronstadt sailors, for they, more than any other
group, held our imaginations during the prole
tarian dictatorship.
My train was the last one allowed to pass. I
learned in Stockholm that the Cronstadt sailors had
been shot. When the Germans and the White
Guards came into power terrible things immedi
ately foUowed. Seven thousand men and women
belonging to the Red Army were slaughtered after
they had been disarmed. The German method of
kilUng these poor people was this : They took them
in batches of fifty, stood them against a wall and
turned on the machine guns. If I had been a few
hours later in departing from Petrograd, carry
ing papers from the Bolsheviki, I would have prob
ably shared their unhappy fate.
At Tornea the American officer had gone away
to be married, and a lithe young Cossack had
charge. I wasn't sure he was a Bolshevik and hesi
tated to present my credentials. He began at once
to ask me questions in very good English. "Are
you just coming from Petrograd? Are you a So
cialist?" And before I could answer he went on
proudly: "I myself am a Socialist, and I am much
interested in the Bolshevik movement. There is
great chance for advancement. Look at me! I

ADVENTURES AS A BOLSHEVIK COURIER 295
am under thirty and I am a General. What man
in your country is a General under thirty?"
From Tornea to Haparanda everything was
frozen, so we rode from one town to the other in
a sleigh. The Cossack general accompanied me.
He was very happy, telling me aU about himself.
We were only a few miles from the Arctic circle.
He suggested to me that it would be a very nice
experience for an American correspondent to walk
over. It was not quite three o'clock in the after
noon and the sun, which had been up only a few
hours, was already setting, casting back into the
sky flames of yellow and gold, reddening the snow.
Two Uttle sleighs, drawn by reindeer, in each of
which sat a man, came flying from opposite direc
tions. The drivers seemed to have no control of
the furious Uttle animals, who dashed at each other,
upsetting everything.
We didn't leave Haparanda until about eight in
the evening, I had my dinner there and walked
through the town, poking around in the little shops
and talking to the peasants. Handsome young
Swedish officers and Swedish troops in Ught blue
uniforms and high white fur hats were on every
street. I wondered, with a little fear in my heart,
if they were about to go into Finland and com
plicate matters even more.
Almost as soon as we left the border ten German
officers came on board. They were dressed
in all sorts of odds and ends of garments, and if

296 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
I hadn't sat at their table for all three meals the
next day, I might not have known who they were.
It seems that they had established a regular under
ground system from Finland, which was working
especially well since the White Guards were grow
ing in power.
They appeared to have friends all along the way,
and when we got to Stockholm one officer was met
by his wife and two children. Since the beginning
of the war Finnish young men have been fighting
/ in the German trenches against the Russians. It is
an undisguised fact, which has been proven by the
recent actions of the Finnish government, that the
sympathies of the conservative classes in Finland,
I like the sympathies of the conservative classes in
1 Sweden, are pro-German. Nevertheless, it was
Vather startUng to see such open co-operation.
As soon as I got to Stockholm, I tried to find
the Bolshevik officials. I thought maybe a courier
would be going back, and I wanted to get word
to them about the German officers. My troubles
began at once. I went into the largest hotel be
cause I had no definite address, and asked the clerk
if he knew where the Bolshevik office was located.
He threw me a hostile stare: "Down in some cellar,
probably. We have no information about such
people." Curious to see the effect, I continued, "But I am
a courier for the new Russian Government."
"We have no rooms m the hotel," he said, turn-

ADVENTURES AS A BOLSHEVIK COURIER 297
ing his back, which may or may not have been an
answer to my remark.
Next I went to the American legation. Just
across the court before the entrance I noticed the
old Russian imperial double eagle on a sign bear
ing the words, "Russian Consulate." So I went
across the yard and entered the buUding. I heard
voices inside, and knocked at the door. Loud shouts
of "Enter!" summoned me into an ill-lighted room.
In one corner hummed a samovar. A lot of people
were sitting at a table drinking and eating sand
wiches. Clothes were strewn on chairs, and an
unkempt baby gurgled noisily from the middle of
the floor. A man came forward and asked me what
I wanted. I said nonchalantly, "If this is the Bol
shevik office, I have a letter and some information
for you."
Immediately everybody jumped up in great ex
citement, and they all began talking at once as only
Russians can.
"We have nothing to do with Bolsheviki! We
do not receive their representatives."
"Well, at least," I said, "you could tell me where
they are located."
"We have nothing to do with Bolsheviki!"
I was getting a little weary of being treated in
this fashion by snobbish individuals.
"If you represented the Provisional Government,
or even if you were the representatives of the
Tsar's government, the one thing you would be in-

298 SIX RED MONTHS IN RUSSIA
formed about would be the whereabouts of the new
power." "We have nothing to do with the Bolsheviki!"
they cried, screaming with rage and slamming the
door. I started back to the legation, and met a corre
spondent from one of our biggest press agencies.
I began to feel relieved; I was so sure I would
get the right information.
"WUl you teU me," I said, as poUtely as I knew
how, "where I can find the Bolshevik head
quarters?" To my utter astonishment he purpled with in
dignation, "I have nothing to do with such scum!"
he answered icily,
I felt myself forced to ask one more question,
"If you had to choose between the Bolsheviki and
the Germans, which would you prefer?"
Without hesitating he repUed, "The Germans,"
"Have you ever been in Russia?"
"No,"There was nothing further to say, I went into
the American Minister's office and got the right
address. It was only a block away. AU the people
I had asked must have known where it was. I
wondered as I went along what sort of terrible
folk I would find there. A very sUght, almost
timid, youth answered my ring. He said the Consul
would see me in a minute, and gave me a book and
a chair by the fire.

ADVENTURES AS A BOLSHEVIK COURIER 299
The Consul, Vorovsky, proved to be a well-
known musician and a cultured gentleman. His
assistant was a doctor of philosophy, whose imagi
nation had been caught by the romance and the
daring of the Bolshevik movement.
"You must be very tired," said the doctor of phi
losophy, "after your long journey. Just down
the street is a quiet Uttle tea shop where they have
nice concerts and the most delicious Swedish
pastries. We wiU go there and talk."
Seated at the table, we looked out across the wide
street at the slow-moving barges going up and down
the canals. Vast Russia lay far behind. I was
homesick for my own country, but I thought of
the German advance and my heart ached. I wanted
to go back and offer my life for the revolution. My
companion interrupted my thoughts.
"If you care for Swedish art," he began, "there
is an interesting exhibition of Zorn at the National
gaUery. . . ."

THE END

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