,':.; :;!!' iiii 1 Hi iHali mM& "^r.iii mm BARBAROUS SOVIEJ iiil „. ISAAC Mc BRIDE, }'>;('t:i; !i i;i!iPi|!j|||!ii;i!ijl!!ij » ? K IS X D3 05 ^ o **BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA' » 23 ski" journalist had come across the lines and wanted to proceed into the country. There was much conversation while I stood waiting nervously. Presently he hung up the receiver and turning to me said, *'You will have to rei^ort to the Brigade Command at Praele." *'And is there a train?" I asked when I learned that I had twenty-two more versts to go to Praele. There was not; I must drive there in a droshky. It would be ready for me in a few minutes. And the officer gave some orders. Presently the droshky arrived and a great powerful Red Guard with a rifle slung over his shoulder motioned to me to get in. He climbed in after me and we drove off. It was early evening by now. Vast stretches of country swept away from us on either side of the road. I tried to talk to my burly guard, but his English was as meager as my Russian. Our conversation resolved itself into wild gestures and signs. The night was clear, brightly moonlit, and about nine o'clock it grew very cold. The chill crept into every crevice of my clothing and penetrated to my very bones, and I lost all interest in the country around us. For hours we seemed to drive through the chill and dampness. I was fairly frozen when I realized that the guard suddenly took off his coat and silently offered it to me. I refused to take it, of course, thanking him — 24 ^'BAKBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" a Spasiba, Tovarishch I " I said. He chuckled at my Eussian and repeated Tovarishch, the Russian word for comrade. We reached Praele at midnight. My guard took a receipt for me from the commanding officer as though I were a bundle of clothes or a package of groceries, and returned to Levenhoff. . . . *'What do you want here?" I delivered my speech of explanation. The next question was welcome. ''Would you like something to eat before you sleep?" I was very hungry. The officer called a sol- dier who went out and returned with some black bread and tea, with apple sauce. When I had finished eating, my guard took me to a large barrack room where about thirty sol- diers were sleeping in their uniforms on wooden bunks built in around the walls. Several of them woke when we came in and looked me over with interest. They passed cigarettes and apples. We smoked and munched for awhile together, and presently every one settled down to sleep. I awoke about nine the next morning. The soldiers were all up and gone. A guard came in and led me to a building across the street where three officers and two privates were breakfasting together. A pleasant-faced Russian woman presided over the stove. A place was made for me at the table and I was served with a very unsavory coffee-col- * 'BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 25 ored liquid, one egg, a small piece of butter, and plenty of black bread. While we ate a young Russian boy about thirteen years old played the violin, — the Internationale, the Marseillaise, and some charming folk-songs. We returned to the barracks after break- fast and a little later the Commissar at- tached to brigade headquarters came in to see me. He could not speak English, so we carried on our conversation through the Com- mandant. First of all he asked what I wanted in Soviet Russia. I went through my patter and they left me. For half an hour I sat wondering what would happen next. Then the Commandant returned. **We believe you are telling the truth,'* he said. ''We are glad to have people come in from the outside to learn what we are doing and what we hope to do under Soviet rule. But some whom we have allowed to come in have gone out and told outrageous lies about our country and our people; others have come across our lines and have gone away and revealed our military positions to the enemy. We are defending ourselves and must be careful. You must pass on to the Division Command at Rejzistza, thence to Army Headquarters, and finally to the High Com- mand for investigation. After that you will be allowed to remain in Soviet Russia — or you will be deported." That evening I was taken under guard 26 ''BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA'' across country to a smaU railway station where we caught a train which brought us to Rejistza at four o'clock in the morning. A bed was found for me in the station mas- ter's house. At eight o'clock my guard woke me and dragged me off to the Commis- sar and the military Commandant at Divi- sion Headquarters, turned me over to them and took a receipt for me delivered in good order. After breakfast of black bread and tea came the question, *'What do you want here?" I was told that I would have to wait till the following day for a decision on my case. Meanwhile I could walk about and see the town. The Commandant filled out a slip of paper which he told me I was to show to any one who offered to interfere with my stroll. I found Rejistza a fair-sized town. The people were going about their business in normal fashion. They appeared to be in good health and they were all well clothed. Many of the shops were closed for lack of wares; others were open, though none seemed to have much stock. There was, however, an abun- dance of fruit in the stalls, and some vegeta- bles. The streets were dirty. Carpenters were at work on some of the houses, many of which were badly out of repair. I began looking for some one who could speak English, and soon discovered a young *' BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 27 Russian boy who was eager to talk about Ms town. **But why are your streets so dirty?" I asked him. '^Oh, Rejistza always was a dirty town, but we are cleaning it up now as fast as possible," he added with civic pride that was obviously newly acquired. The streets were full of sturdy, well-clad soldiers moving through to the Dvinsk front where the Reds were bringing up reinforce- ments to stop the Polish offensive. Bands were playing and the soldiers marched by in good order, with heads erect, singing the Internationale. I walked down towards the river Dvina. The sun was shining, the air crisply cold. A crowd of children came bounding out of a school-house and scampered towards a large park to enjoy their recess hour. They ran about playing games much as children in this country do. One group quickly marked out a space on the sidewalk with chalk and began skipping and hopping in and put among the chalked squares. Others played tag and still others played hiding games. They were all busy. The teachers had come out into the park with the children, and for an hour chil- dren and teachers alike played and talked to- gether in the sunlight. Here or there sat a teacher on a park bench surrounded by a 28 ''BAJRBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" crowd of alert children who hung upon every word as she related Eussian fairy tales. And when the hour was over every one trooped back into the school-room with as much ardor as when they came out into the park. I wandered over to the river, but soon returned to the school-house. I wanted to find out what a Russian school-room was like. I slipped in through the door and took a seat near by. No one took notice of me. The teacher continued her talking and the chil- dren listened with as much interest as they had outside when she was telling them of the wonderful deeds of the heroes of folk-lore. For an hour I sat and listened and then walked away still unnoticed. I returned through the tovm to the Commissar's house quite unmolested. That day I dined with the Commissar and four or five of his staff. I had looked for- ward to the meal all day, and was grateful when at last we sat down to table. Cabbage soup and a small piece of fish were served to each of us. The others talked a great deal; I waited for more food, but none came, and I w^ent to bed that night with a great gnawing inside of me. I was awakened at four o'clock in the morning by a new guard who led me off to a train. The decision had been made, as the Commandant had promised it would be. The train was bound for Velikie Luki. The new ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 29 guard and I had breakfast on board— black bread and two apples. It was four in the afternoon when we reached our destination. A droshky carried us five versts to the headquarters of the 15th Army, where I was again delivered into the hands of a Commissar. Wearily I repeated my lines, thinking much more about the possibility of getting a meal from this Commissar than I did about getting a pass into Moscow. I must have looked as hungry and tired as I felt, for the Commissar instead of granting the pass took me to his home, which was only a short way down the street. His house seemed to me to be the most comfortable place I had ever seen. I was in- troduced to his wife, who came to meet us at the door. Two children soon appeared and then the Com^missar's mother, and at once we began talking like old friends. I was taken to a cheerful room where I dusted and washed myself, and when I returned to the others the evening meal was set forth on the table. It seemed almost bountiful to me after the meager portions of cabbage soup and black bread I had been eating for the past few days. Actually it was only cabbage soup again, one fish ball for each, some kasha, black bread and tea. I ate ravenously, and I am afraid I gave my host and hostess the im- pression that I was a glutton. 30 **BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA:" I went to bed early that night feeling well fed for the first time in days. In the morning I set forth early for headquarters with the Commissar and there was turned over to a guard, who took me out to show me Velikie Luki. The to^vn was crowded with soldiers stroll- ing idly along the streets, soldiers marching briskly to the railroad station, soldiers falling in and out of barracks, soldiers everywhere, — and singing, always singing, with bands and without, ceaselessly singing their beloved In- ternationale. The troops were moving out to the Dvinsk and Denikin fronts. The thor- oughfares were crowded with civilians watch- ing the regiments pass by — men, women, and children, shouting, waving caps and hand- kerchiefs, and joining in the chorus of the soldiers' song. I followed the marching lines to the rail- way station. Trains were pulling out and empty cars moving in as fast as they could be loaded. And how they were loaded ! Pas- senger cars, box cars, flat cars, jammed with shouting, laughing soldiers, waving good-bye, joking and singing. Every inch of space carried a soldier. Platforms, steps, roofs, and even the engines were covered with scrambling, good-natured Reds. A train already filled drew in and emptied a load of men back from the front for a rest. The wounded were carried off carefully. From TROTZKY Commissar of War and Marine ^'BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 31 the end of the train a detachment of about two hundred disarmed soldiers marched up the platform under guard. These were the first prisoners I had encountered, and I was anxious to see what would be done with them. They marched away from the station and I asked my guard if we might follow them. He made no objection. The townspeople paid no attention to the prisoners. Evidently they were an accustomed sight. They went about a mile down a long side street, parallel to the railroad, and then turned abruptly across lots and entered a large barrack. A sentry was posted outside, but after a little explanation my guard ob- tained permission for us to go in. The pris- oners were seated on the floor, with their backs to the wall. Two soldiers brought in steaming samovars through a side door and others carried in great loaves of bread. Tea was made and handed around to the prison- ers and the bread was cut in large chunks and given to them. The captives ate hun- grily, their guards chatting and laughing with them. While they were still eating, two more Red soldiers entered, with bundles of printed pamphlets, which they distributed among the prisoners, who ate, drank, and read. If there was a German soldier there, he received German literature; if a Lithuanian, he received Lithuanian literature; if he hap- 32 ^'BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA* » pened to be French — well, they had it in all languages. All the while they were holding the prisoners they fed them three times a day, sometimes bread and tea and sometimes cabbage soup, and they kept them reading all the time; when they were not reading some of the Commissars were in there talking with them, telling them about the world, and what the war was about and why they were sent there. They had the organization of it per- fected to such an extent that prisoners were not there five minutes before they were eat- ing, and they were not eating five minutes before they were reading. Bolshevist warfare does not end with the taking of prisoners. The propaganda fol- lows. The Soviet leaders think more of it than they do of bullets. They say it is more effective. Three times on the western front I witnessed this same scene where prisoners were brought in. In Russia they like very much to take prisoners. The only objection is that they haven't got much food and they don't like to starve them. They told me that they would like to take a million prisoners a day, if they had plenty of food and paper. After all, the biggest war they were carrying on in Russia was a war of education. All along the battle-front you could see streamers tell- ing the other side what the thing was about — you could read them a hundred yards away. ^'BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 33 At night they put two posts in the ground and fastened the streamer between them. In the morning, when the sun rose, there it was. During the two days I spent in Velikie Luki, and later at many other places along the front, I sought every opportunity to study the Red army. I am not an expert and cannot report upon the technical details of military equipment. There seemed no lack of small arms or cannon. In general the sol- diers were warmly clad and strongly shod. Certainly they were in good spirits. The re- lations between officers and men were inter- esting. There was no lack of discipline. OR duty all ranks mingled as comrades, men and officers joking, laughing, singing, or talking seriously together. Under orders the men obeyed promptly. I found it the same at the front, in the barracks, and at head- quarters with the Commissars and highest of- ficers. When there was no serious work to be done they associated without distinc- tion. Wherever I met the Red .soldiers I was struck with this combination of comradeship and discipline. On more than one occasion I have gone into a commandant's office along the front, at some high command, and found him playing cards or checkers with his men. Privates and under-officers would crowd in unceremoniously and engage in voluble chat- ter without the slightest indication of supe- 34 ''BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" riority or deference to rank. Then, sudden- ly, perhaps a ring on the telephone, and the commander would receive a report of some development along the front. A brisk order would bring the room to attentive silence; cards and checkerboards and fiddles would be shoved aside. The men would file out to their posts. They seemed to have an instant appreciation of the distinction between com- radeship in the barracks and discipline on duty. THE RED ARMY The ordinary Red soldier gets 400 rubles a month, with rations and clothes. Soviet officials told me that there were 2,000,000 thoroughly trained and equipped men in the fighting forces, with another million in re- serve and under training. About 50,000 young officers, they said, chosen from the most capable peasants and workers, had already graduated from the officers' training schools under the Soviet Government. Thou- sands of others had been developed from the ranks. It is easy for the casual observer to mis- judge that subtle and all-important element known as *' morale." I think that I am per- haps more than ordinarily skeptical of mani- festations of patriotic fervor, knowing some- thing of the means by which every general staff keeps up the fighting spirit of the ''BARBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" 35 ranks. But I retain from my contact with the Eed soldiers a sense of peculiar zeal and dogged grit. Certainly they do not want to fight. They want to go home and settle down in peace. But this frankly confessed distaste for slaughter seems only to empha- size their determination to see the struggle through to the end. For all their war weari* ness they did not act like men driven uut willingly into battle. I tried to imagine my- self enduring what many of them have en- dured for over five years, betrayed by their first leaders, overwhelmingly defeated by their first enemy, and still struggling on against new assaults from those they had been taught to believe were their friends and allies. I tried to imagine what vast process of jjropaganda could have stimulated this un- yielding endurance. Propaganda there un- doubtedly was. Just as the Allied armies had their attendant organizations of welfare workers and entertainers to keep up the morale, so the Red Army was accompanied by a carefully organized system of revolution- ary propaganda. I suppose the American soldier would not have fought so wtII had he not been constantly reminded that he was fighting to make the world safe for De- mocracy. The Red soldier is persuaded that he fights to keep Russia safe for the Revo- lution. This ideal is deeply personal. He 36 *'BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" feels it is his revolution; he feels that he accomplished it regardless of his leaders, certainly in spite of some of them; and now it is his to defend against attacks from with- out and within. In judging this thing I find myself turning away from generalizations and disregarding what I was told by those enthusiasts who have the Red Army in their keeping. I come back again and again to the men themselves. Before I left Russia I had seen a great many soldiers. I had lived with them, traveled with them, slept in their barracks, eaten in their mess. To the Amer- ican of course, the conditions under which the European masses manage to maintain existence, even in normal times, is always a matter of surprise and wonder. The Soviet Government does everything possible for the Red Army. It is their constant thought and care. But the utmost that can be provided, even of bare subsistence, seems painfully inadequate to the westerner. The preferential treatment of the soldiers, of which I had heard so much before I saw it and shared it, consists principally in main- taining an uninterrupted supply of black bread and tea. It may be propaganda, it may be a peculiar quality in the spiritual and physical composition of the Russian peasant. Whatever it is, I do not believe that any other European army would endure so long on a ration of black bread and tea. ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA^' 37 An occasional apple or cigarette were luxur- ies, all too quickly consumed and forgotten. The black bread and tea, constant and un- varied, will ever remain for me the symbol both of the efficiency of the Soviet Commis- sary and of the zeal of the Red soldier. Black bread and tea and song. Their love for song is amazing, — all songs, but principally the Internationale. They march off to the front singing, they limp back from battle singing, they sing on the trains, and in the barracks, and at mess; they sing while they are play- ing checkers and they sing while they are sweeping stables. They wake up at night and sing. I have heard them do it. I was told that about seventy-five percent of the Czar's officers were in the Soviet Army. This was no sign that they were converted to communism. Their spirit remained essen- tially patriotic. They supported the Soviet Government, not because it was a Socialist government, but because it was the govern- ment. They fought to defend Russia. It was Trotzky who insisted on allowing these old officers to come into the army. Many of the Conmiunists thought they would betray the soldiers on the front and turn them over to the enemy. But Trotzky said it was a question of permitting the experienced offi- cers to train the men and teach them military tactics or the Red Army would be destroyed. Trotzky had his way. At every army post. 38 "BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" whether it was a company, a brigade, a regi- ment or a division, wherever there was an old army officer there was a trusted Commis- sar who worked iu the office, and every move the old army officer made was known to the Commissar. The following manifesto, drawn up and signed by 137 officers of the old regime, ap- pealing to their former messmates to quit the counter-revolution and stop making war upon the Soviet Government, which the people had established and would defend against all at- tacks, was sent through the Denikin lines: * * Officers — Comrades : "We address this letter to you with the intention of avoiding useless and aimless shedding of blood. We know quite well that the army of General Denikin will be crushed, as was that of Kolchak and of many others who have tried to put at their mercy a working people of many millions of men. We know equally well that truth and justice are on the side of the Red Army, and that you only remain in the ranks of the White Army through ignorance regarding the Soviet Republic and the Red Army, or because you fear for your fate in case of the latter 's victory. We think it our duty above all to write you the truth about the position made for us in the Red Army. First we guar- antee to you that no officers of the White Army pass- ing over into our camp are shot. That is the order of the Supreme Revolutionary Council of War. "If you come with the simple desire to lessen the sufferings of the working population, to lessen the shedding of blood, nobody will touch you. As to officers who express the desire to serve loyally in the LENIN AND MRS. LENIN, MOSCOW, 1910 *'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 39 Red Army they are received with respect and extreme courtesy. We have not to submit to any kind of out- rage or humiliation. Everywhere our needs are atten- tively supplied. Full respect for the work of spe- cialists of every kind is the fundamental motive of the policy of the present government and of its authorized representatives in the Red Army. Quite unlike the practice in the old army, you are not asked, 'Who are your parents?' but only one thing— 'Are you loyal?' A loyal officer who is educated and who works ad- vances rapidly on the ladder of military administra- tion, is received everywhere with respect, attention, and kindness. Among the troops an exemplary dis- cipline has been introduced. "From the material point of view we could not be better treated. As for the Commissars, in the vast majority of cases we work hand in hand with them, and in case of disagreement the most highly authorized representatives of the power of the Soviets take rapidly decisive measures for getting rid of the differences. In a word, the longer we serve in the Red Army, the more we are convinced that service is not a burden to us. Many of us began to serve with a little sinking of the heart, solely to earn a living, but the longer our service has lasted the more we are convinced of the possibility of loyal and conscientious service in this army. That is why, officer comrades, we allow our- selves to call you such although we know that the word 'comrade' is considered insulting among you, because among us it indicates relations of simple cordiality and mutual respect. Without proposing that you should make any decision, we beg you to examine the question, and in your future conduct to take account of our evidence. We wish to say one thing more, — we congratulate ourselves that in fulfilling obligations loyally we are not the servantvS of any foreign govern- ment. We are glad to serve neither German imperial- 40 "BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" ism, nor the imperialism, whieli is Anglo-Franco-Amer- ican. We do what our conscience dictates to us in the interest of millions and millions of workers, to which number the vast majority of the company of the officers belong." CHAPTER III ON TO MOSCOW BEFORE leaving Velikie Luki I wan- dered with my guard down a street of the town and came upon a Soviet bookstore. Inside were thousands of books and pam- phlets, in what seemed to me all the languages of the world. The store was full of men and women buying these books and pamphlets. I learned that this store and many others like it had been opened almost two years before, and that knowledge of history and social conditions throughout the world was thus be- ing brought to millions of Russians f onnerly held in darkness. Later in the afternoon of that day the Conamissar informed me that I was free to go on to Smolensk and that if I passed mus- ter there I could go anywhere I desired in Russia. I was given another guard, a big fellow who had spent ten years in England and returned to Russia when the Czar was overthrown. He so much resembled the Irish labor leader, Jim Larkin, that I called him *' Larkin" throughout the course of our journey together. He had an exclamation which he used fre- quently when I was too pertinacious to suit him. 41 42 '^BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA^* *'God love a duck, what do you want now?'' he would roar with a despairing gesture, and the tone of his voice also was despairing. It may be that he was justified in his complaint, for there was much that I wanted to know and to see. On the last day of our journey towards Moscow he turned to me and said, *'I haven't prayed for ten years or more, — not since I was down and out in Glasgow, Scotland, and wandered into a Salvation Army headquar- ters. Then I did go down on my knees and pray for help, but I decided since that pray- ing wasn't my job. But God love a duck, when I get you safely into Moscow I'm going down on my knees again and thank God that this job is over and ask Hun to save me from any more Americans of j^our kind." But there was, after all, some excuse for my troubling him so often and so much. *'Larkin" slept on every possible — and im- possible — occasion, and the sound of his snores, with which I can think of nothing worthy of comparison, kept me awake, so that in self-defence I used to rouse him every time we reached a station to ask questions about where we were and why we had stopped there and what the people were doing and why they were doing it. When I had him sufficiently awake to begin to smoke I could snatch a bit of sleep for myself, for he inva- riably sat up until he had smoked eight or *'BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 43 ten cigarettes, after which his snoring began again and my rest ended. **Larkin's" real name was August Graf- man, which sounded Teutonic. He was a Eussian Uew, however, and a good fellow. I hope to see him again sometime, and I com- mend him to any other Americans who want to see for themselves what is going on in Eus- sia at the present time. He spoke English readily and perfectly, and from him I ob- tained much information I might otherwise have missed. There was the time when we waited for a train at a small station in the course of our journey towards Smo- lensk. All at once a commotion arose on the other side of the station. Hurrying around, we saw a man running, pursued by three or four Eed soldiers. Two officers com- ing toward the station drew their sabres and held them before the man, who stopped and his pursuers captured him. They brought him back to the station and I observed that he was a Jew. I wondered if his crime was that of his race, remembering stories of po- groms. The Jew was brought into the sta- tion and seated on a bench. Immcd'^ately the soldiers surrounded him, and one of them stood up in front of him and made a long speech. At its conclusion he sat down, and another rose and made an address. Finally a third vociferously questioned the man. At last the Jew arose, the soldiers made way for U -^'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" him, and lie left tlie station. *'Larkin" who had been too much interested in the proceed- ings to talk to me, now satisfied my curiosity. The Jew had been caught in the act of picking the pockets of a soldier. Further- more it was his third offence. The first man who spoke had tried to impress the Jew with the enormity of the crime of robbing a man who was on his way to defend his country. He had said, "Don't you realize that a man going out to fight carries nothing with him except what he actually needs, whether it be money or anything else, and that it is worse to rob a soldier on this account than an ordi- nary civilian, with a home, and all his treas- ures about hhn?" The second man had talked of the defence of the country; the soldiers were going to fight so that when the fighting ended there would be enough for every one and no need for stealing. The third had tried to obtain a promise that the man would not again steal from soldiers. He had be^m successful, and, "now the Jew is free," said Larkin. "But it was his third offense," I said. **I should think they would punish him se- verelj." "Larkin" gav^e me a pitying glance. "You don't understand the Russians," he said simply. "They are kind and in their own new born freedom they want every one to be free." '^BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 45 At last our train arrived and we got on. To Smolensk and then to Moscow, I thought. But it was not so simple as that. Our train was going to Moghilev direct, so we had to get off again at Polotsk at nine in the eve- ning, where we found that we were half an hour too late to catch the train for Smolensk. *'Larkin" hunted around for a sleeping place for us when we learned that we would have to stay overnight in the town, and finally won the favor of the Commissar, who took us to what he called the ''Trainmen's Hotel," a large building near the station. In the room into which we were ushered there were about twenty beds, the linen on which was far from clean. Two of the beds in one cor- ner of the room were assigned to us and we lay down fully dressed. After what seemed a few minutes I was awakened by a vigorous kick, and found a huge Russian standing over me, brandishing his arms and speaking harshly and menacingly at me. I hurriedly shook ''Larkin" out of his profound slumber, and at the end of a brief but spirited discus- sion between the two in Russian, he informed me that the man had been working all night in the railroad shop and had come in to sleep. He resented finding his bed occupied. I sus- pected "Larkin" of enjoying the joke on me, as I clambered out and shivered in the cold, but his enjoyment was brief, for he was almost immediately ordered out by another man who entered and claimed his bed. 46 ^'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA^' The two of us wandered out forlornly into the cold foggy morning and went back to the station. The Commissar there made us com- fortable in his office until daylight, when we went down the track to a water tank and had a *'hobo wash" after which we ate our break- fast — one egg each, black bread and tea, in the Soviet restaurant in the station. We had been told that we could not get a train to Smolensk before four o'clock in the afternoon, but at eleven the Commissar told us that a trainload of soldiers going to the Denikin front would be passing through at two in the afternoon and that it might be possible to arrange for our transportation on this train, if we wished it. We did wish it and at two o'clock we were in a box car full of soldiers en route to Smolensk, which we would reach at ten that night. The soldiers sang all evening — Russian sol- ders always sing, no matter how crowded, how hungry, or how weary — ^but one by one they dropped off to sleep, huddled up in all sorts of positions. The train jolted along, slowly, it seemed to me, and it was too dark to see anything through the window. My guard went to sleep, and I remember thinking we must be near Smolensk and that I would have to stay awake since he seemed to find his re- sponsibilities resting lightly. The stopping of the train roused me, and thinking that we had arrived at Smolensk I shook ''Larkin" LENIN IN THE COURTYARD OP THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW^ SUMMER OP 1919 ''BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 47 "who looked at his watch and exclaimed, **Why it's midnight. We must have passed Smolensk." Surely enough, we had gone through Smolensk and were seventy five versts on the other side of it, boimd for the Denikin front. I had no objections to going there eventually but I preferred to have permission first, so we hastily bundled out of the train and went into the station. "Larkin" approached the door of the Commissar's office and tried to brush past the Red Guard who sat there, and who objected to such an unceremonious en- trance. After 'an interminable discussion — perhaps five minutes, — I said, ''He wants to see your credentials. Why don't you show them to him? Do you want us both to be arrested?" But the Red guard had lost patience by this time. A snap of his fingers brought a policeman who arrested "Larkin" and before I had finished the *'I told you so," I could not restrain, I found the heavy hand of the law on my own shoulder. The two of us were marched down the street and locked in a lit- tle dark room in what was apparently the town jail. In the two hours of solitude that followed I shared all my dismal forebodings with that unfortunate guard. We would be taken for spies and as spies we would certainly be shot. I couldn't be sorry that this penalty would 48 *'BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" be inflicted upon anyone so stupid and obsti- nate and generally asinine as he, but I at least wanted to get back to America and teU people how stupid a big Russian could be. There were probably some adjectives also, I am not sure that he listened. In any event I could not see the signs of contrition that might at least have lightened my apprehen- sions. At the end of two hours two Red soldiers opened the door of our cell and escorted us to the police station where we were taken at once before the judge, a simple, but very determined looking peasant, who examined first the Red Guard who had caused our ar- rest, the policeman who had arrested us, and two soldiers who had witnessed the affair. **Larkin" in the meantime very reluctantly interpreted whatever comments and explana- tions I had to make. He became more and more stubborn and taciturn. The Red Guard told his story, which was verified by the po- liceman. The two soldiers further attested to the truth of the tale and stated that we had been entirely at fault. Then the judge asked my guard for an explanation, and with the air of one playing a forgotten ace which would take trick and game, ''Larkin" pro- duced our credentials and laid them trium- phantly on the judge's desk. When he had read them the judge rose ''BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 49 and made a statement which I demanded my guard should translate. ^'Oh he is just saying," said *'Larkin," "to please tell the American that we are sorry this thing happened. We are only working people and we must be careful to guard our country. The Red Guard at the door was simply obeying orders and doing his duty, and we want the American to un- derstand that no deliberate offence was in- tended. There are so many people making war on us, both inside and outside, and we have to be careful. ' ' When "Larkin" had translated my reply, which w^as to the effect that we acknowledged our fault, and had only congratulations for the men who understood their duty and had the courage to perform it, and that I regret- ted having been the cause of so much trou- ble, the judge himself led us to a first-class train coach in the yards, unlocked it, and told us to enter and spend the rest of the night there. "At eight o'clock in the morning this coach will be picked up by the train to Smolensk. Now, go to sleep, you won't have to be on the watch this time," he said with a sugges- tion of a smile. Weary as I was I still remembered a few more things to say to "Larkin" who was by this time somewhat subdued. It was not un- til I had threatened to report him to the Mos- 50 ''BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" cow Government, and had again told him that it was a brutal thing to take advantage of men who were doing their duty under the most difficult circumstances conceivable, that my mind was lightened sufficiently so that I could go to sleep. Of one thing I had been convinced — ^the general efficiency of organization which I had encoimtered again and again in Soviet Rus- sia. The people were universally kind, but with strangers they took no chances. Well, I concluded, they could not have been blamed if they had kept us in jail for a long while, until they had checked up my entire record in Russia, at least. And I was grateful that my prison record amounted to two hours only, thanks to the expedition with which they administer trial to suspects in Red Russia. Shut up in our coach we sped on to Smolensk the next day. Another twenty-four hours in Smolensk, where I was given per- mission to proceed to Moscow and again I boarded a train. I had been relayed from one army post to another; from the company to the regiment, from the regiment to the brigade, from the brigade to the division, from the division to the army command, and from the army command to the high com- mand. And after eight days I was almost within reach of Moscow. On the morrow I would be off for Moscow itself. OS 1— I Oi T— I J w 71' w Q CHAPTER IV MOSCOW I REACHED Moscow on Sunday afternoon and was taken at once by *'Larkin'^ to the Foreign Office at the Metropole hotel. As we drove through the picturesque town of many churches we passed great numbers of people enjoying the sunshine. The parks and squares were full of romping children. In the Foreign Office I was greeted by Lit- vinoff, who gave me credentials which granted me freedom of action — freedom to go where I pleased and without a guard as long as I remained in Soviet Russia; and Communist life began for me. The Metropole hotel, like all others in Soviet Russia, had been taken over by the Government. The rooms not occupied by the Foreign Office were used as living rooms by Government employees. The National hotel is used entirely for Soviet workers, and the beautiful residence in which Mirbach, the German ambassador, was assassinated is now the headquarters of the Third International. No one was allowed to have more than one meal a day. This consisted of cabbage soup, a small piece of fish and black bread, and was served at Soviet restaurants at any time 51 52 "BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA > > between one o'clock in tlie afternoon and seven at night. There were a few old cafes still in existence, run by private speculators, where it was possible to purchase a piece of meat at times, but the prices were exorbitant. In the Soviet restaurants ten rubles was charged for the meal, while in the cafes the same kind of meal would have cost from 100 to 150 rubles. The Soviet restaurants had been estab- lished everywhere, in villages and small towns as well as in cities. In the villages and rail- way stations they were usually in the station building itself or near it. In the cities they were scattered everywhere, so as to be easily accessible to the workers. Some of them were run on the cafeteria plan; in others women carried the food to the tables for the other workers. One entered, showed his credentials to prove that he was a worker and was given a meal check, for which he paid a fixed sum. Needless to say, there was no tipping. I had not the courage to experiment by offering a tip to these dignified, self-respecting women. I think they would have laughed at my *^ stupid foreign ways" had I done so. The old cafe life of Moscow was a thing of the past. If you wished anything to eat at night you had to purchase bread and tea earlier in the day and make tea in your room. This was very simple because the kitchens in hotels were used exclusively for heating ''BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 53 water. At breakfast time and all through the evening a stream of people went to the kitchen with pails and pitchers for hot water which they carried to their rooms themselves where they made their tea and munched black bread. There were no maids or bell boys to do these errands for you, and the only ser- vice you got in a hotel was that of a maid who cleaned your room each morning. The working people would buy a pound or two of black bread in the evening on their way home. They had their samovars on which they made tea, and if they felt so incHned ate in the evening. For breakfast they again had tea and black bread like every one else. As a result of this diet hundreds of thousands of people were suffering from malnutrition. The bulk of the people in the city were hungry all the time. I found the tramway service, — reduced fifty percent because of the lack of fuel, — miserably inadequate for the needs of the population which had greatly increased since Moscow became the capital. The citizens in their necessity have developed the most ex- traordinary propensities in step-clinging. They swarm on the platforms and stand on one another's feet with the greatest good na- ture, and then, when there isn't room to wedge in another boot, the late-comers cling to the bodies of those who have been lucky enough to get a foothold, and still others 54 *' BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA' » cling to these, until the overhanging mass reaches half-way to the curb. I tried it once myself — and wall^ed thereafter. There were not many automobiles to be seen. The Gov- ernment had requisitioned all cars. The mo- tors were run by coal oil and alcohol, and the Government had very little of these. During my second day in Moscow I met some English prisoners walking quite freely in the streets. I went up to a group of three and told them I was an American, and asked how they were getting on. They said they wanted to go home because the food was scarce, but aside from the lack of food they had nothing to complain of. **0f course food is scarce," said one, "but we get just as much as anyone else. Nobody gets much. You see us walking about the streets. No one is following us. We are free to go where we please. They send us to the theatre three nights a week. We go to the opera and the ballet. That's what they do with all prisoners." Another broke in enthusiastically to say that if there were only food enough he would be glad to stay in Eussia. Several of their pals, they told me, were working in Soviet offices. They belonged to a detachment of ninety English who had been captured six months before, on the Archangel front. Before they went into action, they said, their commanding ''BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 55 officer told each one to carry a hand grenade in his pocket, and if taken prisoner to blow off his head. **The Bolsheviki," he told us, ^* would tor- ture us — first they would cut off a finger, then an ear, then the tip of the nose, and they would keep stripping us and torturing us untU we died twenty-one days later. **Well, before we knew it the Bolsheviki had us surrounded. There was nothing to do but surrender — and none of us used his bomb. The Bolsheviks marched us back about ten miles to a barrack, where we were told to sit down. Pretty soon they brought in a samovar and gave us tea and bread, and when we were about half through eating they brought in bundles of pamphlets. The pam- phlets were all printed in English, mind you, and they told us why we had been sent to Russia." I recognized in his description the thing I had seen myself on the Western Front a few days before. I asked him if that was the usual way of treating prisoners. '*Yes,'' he said, ** that's the way they do it. They don't kill you. They just feed you with tea and bread, and this — what they call on the outside ^propaganda' and they say to you, *you read this stuff for a week,' and you do, and you believe it — you can't help it." It was bitterly cold in Moscow, though the Bolshevists made light of the September 56 ''BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" weather and laughed at my complaints. ''Stay the winter with us," they said, "and you will learn what cold is." The city was prac- tically without heat. The chill and damp en- tered my bones and pursued me through the streets and into my bed at night. One can stand prolonged exposure and cold if there is only the sustaining thought of a glowing fire somewhere, and a warm bed. But in Moscow there was no respite from the relent- less chill. One was cold all day and all night. The aching pinch of it tore at the nerves. I marvelled at the endurance of the under- nourished clerks and officials in the great damp Government office buildings, where it was often colder than in the drv sunshine outside. All the large department stores and the clothing and shoe shops had been taken over by the Government. Here and there, how- ever, were small private shops, selling goods without regard to Government prices. The Soviet stores were arranged much like our large department stores. One could go in and buy various commodities, shoes in one department, clothing in another, and so on. Soviet employees had the right at all times to purchase in these stores at Soviet prices. They carried credentials showing they were giving useful service to the Government. "Without credentials one could buy nothing — ^'BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA'' 57 not even food — except from the privately- owned shops. To tJiese the peasant speculators would bring home-made bread in sacks and sell it to the shop speculators, who in turn de- manded as much as eighty rubles a pound. This was the only way of getting bread with- out credentials because the Government had taken control of the bakeries. In a Soviet store a pound of bread could be bought for ten rubles. All unnecessary labor in Soviet stores had been eliminated. Young girls and women acted as clerks; very few men were employed in any capacity. The manager, who usually was to be found on the first floor, was a man, and he directed customers to the departments which sold the things they wished to pur- chase. The elevators were rimning not only in the stores, but in the office buildings. White collars and white shirts could be bought in some stores, but they were rationed so that it w^ould have been impossible to buy three or four shirts at one time. The win- dows in the stores were filled with articles, but there was no attempt to display goods, and there was no advertising. A shine, a shave and a hair-cut were obtain- able at the Soviet barber shops. They were not rationed ; one could buy as many of these as desired. Theatres and operas were open and largely 58 "BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" attended in Moscow, and the actors and ac- tresses, as well as the singers, did not seem to mind the cold. The streets were but dimly lighted, because of the fuel shortage, but I saw and heard of no crimes being committed. I wandered about the city through many of its darkest streets, at all hours of the night, and was never molested. Now and then a policeman demanded my permit, which, when I had shown it, was accepted without question. The city was well policed, the streets fairly clean, and the government was doing everything possible to prevent disease. Orders were issued that all water must be boiled, but as all Russians drink tea this order was not unusual or difficult to carry out. The telephone and telegraph systems seemed to me unusually good. Connections by telephone between Moscow and Petrograd were obtained in two minutes. Local service was prompt and efficient, and connections with wrong numbers were of rare occurrence. Many newspapers were being published, the size of all being limited on account of the shortage of paper. In addition to the Government newspapers and the Bolshevist party papers there were papers of opposing parties, notably publications controlled by the Menshevists and the Social Revolu- tionists. All of them were free from the advertising ^'BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 59 of business firms, since the Government had nationalized all trade. Of course there was no "funny page" or *' Women's Section." As soon as news came from the front great bulletins were distributed through the city and posted on the walls of buildings where every one could read them. These bulletins contained the news of both defeat and vic- tory. If prisoners had been taken or a re- treat had been necessary, the populace was informed of it frankly. There was no at- tempt to keep up the *' morale" of the civilian population by assuring it that all went w^ell and that victory was certain. Any one in Soviet Russia who accepted the responsibil- ities of the new order did so knowing that it meant hardship and defeat — for a time. In Moscow many statues have been erected since the revolution, Skobileff Square, — now called Soviet Square, — has a statue of Liberty which takes the place of the old statue of Skobileff. I saw sculptors at work all over the city, putting in medallions and bas-reliefs, on public buildings. In Red Square, along the Kremlin wall, are the graves of many who fell in the revolution. Sverdlov, formerly president of the executive committee, and a close friend of Lenin, is buried here. I was told that his death had been a great loss to the Soviet Government. Moscow, like all the other Russian cities I saw, had schools everywhere, art schools, mu- 60 ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" sical conservatories, technical schools, in ad- dition to the regular schools for children. On ''Speculator's Street" in Moscow all kinds of private trading went on without in- terference. I found this street thronged with shoppers and with members of the old bour- geoisie selling their belongmgs along the curb; men and women umnistakably of the former privileged classes offering, dress suits, opera cloaks, evening go^vns, shoes, hats, and jewelry to any one who would pay them the rubles that they, in turn, must give to the exorbitant speculators for the very necessities of life. These irreconcilables of the old regime, un- willing to cooperate with the new government and refusing to engage in useful work which would entitle them to purchase their supplies at the Soviet shops, at Soviet prices, were compelled to resort to the speculators and un- der pressure of the constantly decreasing ruble and the wildly soaring prices, were driven to sacrifice their valuables in order to avoid starvation. Any one who desired and who had the money could buy from the spec- ulators; but one pays dearly for pride in Soviet Russia. The speculators charged sev- enty-five rubles a pound for black bread that could be bought in the Government shops for ten rubles. The right to buy at the Soviet shops and to eat in the Soviet restaurants was to be had by the mere demonstration of a sin- **BAEBAKOUS SOVIET RUSSIA'' 61 cere desire to do useful work of hand or brain. Nevertheless these defenders of the old order still held out — fewer of them every day, to be sure — and the speculators throve accordingly. It seemed at first glance a strange anomaly. I could see through the windows of the specu- lator's shops canned goods and luxuries, and even necessities, for which the majority of the population were suffering. I asked why the Government did not put its principles into practice by requisitioning all these stocks and ending the speculation. There were many things in their program, the Bol- shevists said, which could not be carried out at once because the energy of the Government was consumed in the mobilization of all avail- able resources for national defence. There were thousands of speculators all over Rus- sia, and it would take a small army to elim- inate them entirely. Half measures would only drive them underground where they would be a constant source of irritation and anti-Government propaganda. It was better to let them operate in the open, they said, where they could be kept under observation and restrained within certain limits. Meanwhile the speculators were eliminating themselves and dragging with them the re- calcitrant bourgeoisie on whom they preyed. Hoarded wealth and old finery do not last forever. As the ruble falls and the specula- 62 -'BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" tor's prices rise their victims are compelled to sacrifice more and more of their dwindling resources. The Government prices are a stand- ing temptation to reconciliation. Only the obdurate bourgeoisie and the s]3eculators suf- fer from the depreciation of the ruble. Every two months wages are adjusted to meet de- preciation, by a Government commission which acts in conjunction with the Central Federation of All Russian Professional Al- liances, representing skilled and unskilled labor. This serves to stabilize the purchasing power of the workers earnings, although in the past unavoidable and absolute dearth of necessities has tended to work against this stabilization. In the meantime the falling ruble and the avaricious speculator between them drive thousands of the stubborn into the category of useful laborers. Every day brings nmn- bers who have, either through a change of heart, or by economic necessity, been driven to ask for work which will entitle them to their bread and food cards. Thus the Com- munists, too busy with the military defence of their country to attend to the last meas- ures of expropriation, make use of the ir- resistible economic forces of the old order and aUow the capitalists to expropriate them- selves. I found no Red terror. There was seri- ous restriction of personal liberty and stern LENIN IN SWITZERLAND, MARCH, 191G *' BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 63 enforcement of law and order, as might be expected in a nation threatened with foreign invasion, civil war, counter revolution, and an actual blockade. While I was in Moscow sixty men and seven women were shot for complicity in a counter revolutionary plot. They had arms stored in secret places and had been found guilty of circularizing the soldiers on the Denikin front, telling them that Petrograd and Moscow had both fallen. They made no concealment of their purpose to overthrow the Govermnent and went brave- ly to their execution. Several days later two bombs were exploded under a building in which a meeting of the Executive Connnittee of the Communist party w^as being held. Eleven of the Communists were killed and more than twenty wounded. The cadet coun- ter revolutionists, it was charged, committed this outrage as reprisal for the execution of their comrades. But no terror or persecution followed. Instead great mass meetings were held everywhere to protest against all ter- rorist acts. Intrigue and propaganda were met with counter propaganda and popular enthusiasm for the Soviet Government. Before leaving Moscow for Petrograd I ap- plied at the Foreign Office for permission to go to the Kremlin and interview Lenin. I was told that permission would be granted, and an appointment was made for me to meet Lenin at his office at three o'clock on the following day. CHAPTER V INTERVIEW WITH LENIN A QUARTER of an hour ahead of the hour set for my appointment with Lenin, I hastened to the Kremlin enclosure, the well-guarded seat of the executive gov- ernment. Two Russian soldiers inspected my pass and led me across a bridge to obtain another pass from a civilian to enter the Kremlin itself and to return to the outside. I had heard that Lenin was guarded by Chinese soldiers, but I looked in vain for a Chinese among the guards that surrounded the Kremlin. In fact I saw but two Chinese soldiers during my entire stay in Soviet Russia. I mounted the hill and went toward the building where Lenin lives and has his office. At the outer door two more soldiers met me, inspected my passes, and directed me up a long staircase, at the top of which stood two more soldiers. They directed me down a long corridor to another soldier who sat before a door. This one inspected my passes and finally admitted me to a large room in which manv clerks, both men and women, were busy 64 '^BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 65 over desks and typewriters. In the next room I found Lenin's secretary who in- formed me that *' Comrade Lenin will be at liberty in a few minutes.'^ It was then five minutes before three. A clerk gave me a copy of the London Times, dated September 2, 1919, and told me to sit down. While I read an editorial the secretary addressed me and asked me to go into the next room. As I turned to the door it opened, and Lenin stood waiting with a smile on his face. It was twelve minutes past three, and Le- nin's first words were, *'I am glad to meet you, and I apologize for keeping you wait- ing." Lenin is a man of middle height, close to fifty years of age. He is well proportioned, and very active, physically, in spite of the fact that he carries in his body two bullets fired at him in August, 1918. His head is large, massive in outline, and is set close to his shoulders. His forehead is broad and high, his mouth large, the eyes wide apart and there appears in them at times a very infectious twinkle. His hair, pointed beard, and mustache, have a bro^vn tinge. His face has wrinkles,— said by some to be wrinkles of humor,— but I am inclined to believe them the result of deep study, and of the suffering he endured through long years of exile and persecution. I would not minimize the con- tribution that his sense of humor has made 66 "BAEBAROUS SOVIET EUSSIA" to these lines and wrinl^les, for no man who lacked a sense of humor could have overcome the obstacles he has met. During our conversation his eyes never left mine. This direct regard was not that of a man who wished to be on guard; it bespoke a frank interest, which seemed to me to say, **We shall be able to tell many things of in- terest to each other. I believe you to be a friend. In any event we shall have an inter- esting talk." He moved his chair close to his desk and turned so that his knees were close to mine. Almost at once he began asking me about the labor movement in America, and from that he went on to discuss the labor situation in other countries. He was thoroughly informed even as to the most recent developments everywhere. I soon found myself asking him questions. I told him that the press of various coun- tries had been saying that Soviet Russia was a dictatorship of a small minority. He re- plied, '*Let those who believe that silly tale come here and mingle with the rank and file and learn the truth. *'The vast majority of industrial workers and at least one-half of the articulate peasan- try are for Soviet rule, and are prepared to defend it with their lives. **You say you have been along the West- ern Front," he continued. ^^You admit that *'BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA'* 67 you have been allowed to mingle with the soldiers of Soviet Russia, that you have been unhampered in making your investigation. You have had a very good opportunity to understand the temper of the rank and file. You have seen thousands of men living from day to day on black bread and tea. You have probably seen more suffering in Soviet Rus- sia than you had ever thought possible, and all this because of the unjust war being made upon us, including the economic blockade, in all of which your own country is playing a large part. Now I ask you what is your opinion about this being a dictatorship of the minority?" I could only answer that from what I had seen and experienced I could not believe that these people, who had found their strength and overthrown a despotic Czar, would ever submit to such privations and sufferings ex- cept in defence of a government in which, however imperfect, they had ultimate faith, and which they were prepared to defend against all odds. *'What have you to say at this time about peace and foreign concessions'?" I asked. He answered, *'I am often asked whether those American opponents of the war against Russia— as in the first place bour- geois — are right who expect from us, after peace is concluded, not only resumption of trade relations but also the possibility of se- 68 ''BAKBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA'' curing concessions in Russia. I repeat once more that they are right. A durable peace would be such a relief to the toiling masses of Russia that these masses would undoubt- edly agree to certain concessions being granted. The granting of concessions under reasonable terms is also desirable to us, as one of the means of attracting into Russia the technical help of the countries which are more advanced in this respect, during the co-existence side by side of Socialist and cap- italist states.'^ In reply to my next question about Soviet power he replied: *'As for the Soviet power, it has become familiar to the minds and hearts of the labor- ing masses of the whole world which clearly grasped its meaning. Everywhere the labor- ing masses, in spite of the influence of the old leaders with their chauvinism and oppor- tunism which permeates them through and through, became aware of the rottenness of the bourgeois parliaments and of the neces- sity of the Soviet power, the power of the toiling masses, the dictatorship of the pro- letariat, for the sake of the emancipation of humanity from the yoke of capital. And the Soviet power will win in the whole world, however furiously, however frantically the bourgeoisie of all countries may rage and storm. *'The bourgeoisie inundates Russia with ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 69 blood, waging war upon us and inciting against us the counter revolutionaries, those who wish the yoke of capital to be restored. The bourgeoisie inflict upon the working masses of Eussia unprecedented sufferings, through the blockade, and through their help given to the counter revolutionaries, but we have already defeated Kolchak and we are carrying on the war against Denikin with the firm assurance of our coming victory." In his replies to my last questions he had covered the ground of the others on my list, and since the fifteen minutes allotted to me had extended to more than an hour, I rose to go. I intended to ask him about '* nation- alization of women." I had never believed the story, and had already discovered that it was false, but I had thought to ask Lenin how the story arose. When I met him and had talked to him something in his face silenced the question. Perhaps it was the mocking humor that seemed ready to flash out of the wrinkled countenance in scathing ridicule, or perhaps it was the sign of long- suffering and profound thought that lay deeper. Whatever it w^as I did not ask that question. I had seen for myself that women in Soviet Russia are sho^vn a respect and deference far exceeding the superficial polite- ness which in other countries too often serves to conceal political, economic, and domestic oppression. Women are on an equal footing 70 '^BAEBAKOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" in all respects with men in Russia, and they enjoy a greater measure of freedom and security than the women of other countries. He shook hands cordially, and I went away cudgelling my brains to find another fig- ure among the statesmen of the world with whom I might compare him. I could think only of our own Lincoln, whose image came to me, suggested perhaps by the simplicity and plainness of Lenin's attire. Workman's shoes, worn trousers, a soft shirt with a black four-in-hand tie, a cheap ofi&ce coat, and the kindly strong face and figure, — these were my impressions of the man. He works from fifteen to eighteen hours a day, receiving reports, keeping in touch with the situation all over Russia, attending com- mittee meetings, making speeches, always ready to give anyone advice, counsel, or sug- gestion. He lives with his wife who is most loyal and devoted, in the same building where he has his office, in two modestly furnished rooms. Soviet rule has captured not only the im- agination, but also the intellects of the ma- jority of the rank and file of Russia. Lenin is looked upon as the highest representative of that principle; he is trusted and he is loved. I was told that so many people come to see him from the outlying districts, men, women, and children, that it is impossible for him to see them all. They bring him 2 D N O o S a El Q 2i "BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 71 bread, eggs, butter, and fruit, — and he turns all into the common fund. Sometime in the future, whatever may happen to Soviet Russia, the true life of Le- nin will be written, and when it is he will stand out as one of history's most remarkable men. CHAPTER YI **WHO IS LENIN?'' MANY conflicting stories were told and published about Lenin after the Bol- shevist uprising in November, 1917. I de- cided to ascertain for myself during the two weeks I spent in Switzerland before going into Eussia what the people of that coimtry knew about him. Lenin arrived in Switzerland in Septem- ber, 1914, and left for Russia in March, 1917, with thirty other Russians, on the much- talked-of train that went through Germany with the sanction of the Kaiser. A whole myth has grown up around Lenin since his return to Russia. He was a German agent; he was sent from Switzerland to Rus- sia through Germany ; he went for the express purpose of fomenting revolution in order to break down the morale of the Russian Army and to make it possible for German militarism to conquer. Document after document was printed to prove that this man was mercenary, that he was cold-blooded, without ideals of any kind, and that he had received millions in money from the Germans, whose plans he conscientiously carried out, — at least in con- 72 **BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA'' 73 nection with the disorganization of the Rus- sian Army. While in Switzerland for two years during the war, he lived in luxury, al- ways had plenty of money which was sup- plied from an unknown source, later dis- covered to be the banks of Germany. I found when I went to Zurich that Lenin had passed the greater part of his time when in Switzerland in that to\\Ti, and had lived in the poor quarter of the city. The house in which he and his wife lived, No. 14 Spie- gelgasse, is on a very narrow street running down to the quay. They lived in one room on the second floor of this house. Their meagre furniture included a table, a wash- stand, two plain chairs, a small stove, a bed, a couch, and a petrol lamp. The room had a plaster ceiling and was unpapered, the bare board walls seeming most bleak. A cheap, dingy carpet covered the floor. The room was accessible only through a dark nar- row corridor. On the same floor were three other rooms, two of which were occupied by two families, and the third was used as a common kitchen by every one. In this kitchen Lenin's wife, who was his constant compan- ion, only secretary and assistant, prepared their frugal meals and carried them, to their room. For these quarters Lenin paid thirty-eight francs a month, the equivalent of six dollars and sixty cents in American money. 74 "BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" I was told by many people who had known him in Zurich that Lenin seemed to wish to mingle only with working people there. His revolutionary friends took great pride in say- ing, **He never spent any time with mere in- tellectual reformers." They told me that much of his time was passed in the Swiss Workers' Assembly, where he talked to every one, but never made any speeches. He did speak, however, on many occasions in the Russian Assembly in Zurich. His income was derived from articles writ- ten for Russian party papers. Before leav- ing for Russia he closed his account at a Zurich bank and drew out the balance on deposit there, which amounted to twenty-five francs. For a short time while in Switzerland Le- nin lived in Berne, in two rooms. I met the woman at whose Pension he dined while there. She said she had served Lenin, his wife, and his wife's mother midday dimiers while they stayed there. The price of those meals was eighty centimes each, — approxi- mately sixteen cents. She informed me that they prepared their own breakfasts and eve- ning meals. The proprietor of the Wiener cafe, a coffee house located on the corner of Schrittfaren and Gurtengasse in Berne, told me that he remembered Lenin well, that he had come into his place oh a number of occasions for ^'BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 75 a cup of coffee. "He spent most of his time here reading the papers and talking with the waiters," he said, and described him as always being poorly dressed. None of these simple people thought of Lenin as a person of any greater import- ance than themselves. He was one of them, a serious student who mingled with working people, eager to tell them of their importance in the political world. When the Czar was overthrown and the Kerensky Government came into power, a committee of all the Socialist parties in Switzerland except the ''Social Patriots" made an effort to assist in getting Rus- sian exiles back to their own country. This committee collected the money for the transportation of the exiles. They endeav- ored to secure from France, England, and Switzerland permission for their passage through Archangel to Petrograd, but the Allied governments denied this permit. Then the Swiss Socialists entered into negotiations with the German Government to secure pas- sage through Germany. On condition that an equal number of civilian prisoners then held in Russia be allowed to return to Ger- many, the German Government agreed to the passage of the immigrants through Germany. The following statement, signed by the members of the Committee, is given in full, 76 *'BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" even to tlie peculiar English of the transla- tion. '*T}ie Return of the Russian Emigrants.^' In view of the fact that the Entente news- papers have recently published a series of sensational and false accounts and articles re- garding the return of the Russian comrades (Lenin, Zinovieff and others) branding them as accomplices and agents of Imperial Ger- many, as coworkers of the German Govern- ment. Simultaneouslv the German and Aus- trian press is attempting to represent these Russian revolution comrades as pacifists and separate peace advocates, we therefore deem it necessary to publish the following explana- tion under the Signature of the Comrades of France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland to whitewash the Comrades that departed to Russia. We the undersigned are aware of the hin- drances which the governments of the En- tente are putting in the way of our Russian Internationalists in their departure. They learned of the conditions which the German Government has placed before them for their passage through to Sweden. Not having the slightest doubt as to the fact, that the German Goverimaent is specula- ting by it to strengthen the one-sided anti- war tendencies in Russia, we declare: The Russian Internationalists who during the whole war period have been combating ''BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 77 in the sharpest possible manner imperial- ism in general and the German imperialism in particular, and who are now going to Eus- sia in order to work there for the cause of the Revolution, will thus be aiding the prole- tarians of all countries as well, and particu- larly the German and Austrian working class by encouraging them to the revolutionary struggle against their own governments. Nothing can be more stimulating and in- spiring in this respect than the example of the heroic struggle on the part of the Russian proletariat. For that reason we the under- signed Internationalists of France, Switzer- land, Poland and Germany consider it to be not only the right but a duty on the part of our Russian comrades to use the opportunity for the voyage to Russia, which is offered to them. We wish them the best results in the strug- gle against the Imperialistic policy of Rus- sian bourgeoisie, which constitutes a part of our general struggle for the liberation of the working class, for the social revolution. Bern, April 7, 1917. Paul Hantstein, Germany Henri Guilbeaux, France F. Loriot, France Bronski, Poland F. Flatten, Swiss The above declaration has received the full 78 **BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" approval and signature of the following Scan- dinavian comrades: Lindhagen, Mayor of Stockholm Strom, Congressman and Secretary of S. D. P. of Sweden Karleson, Congressman and President of Trades Union Council Fure Nerman, Editor Politiken Tchilbun, Editor Steuhleken Hansen, Norway. The next train left in May, 1917, carrying three hundred Eussians, and another three hundred went through Germany in July, 1917. In July the French and English governments finally granted permission for a train-load to pass through those countries to Archangel and thence to Russia. This trip lasted two months. I learned that the May and July trains also carried to Russia many active Menshevists, supporters of the Kerensky Government. In August another group tried to return, but because Kerensky protested, the French and English notified this group that they must have passports from Russia. It was then impossible to go through Germany be- cause of battles going on along the front. They did not get to Russia until December, after the Russian-German armistice. Zinovieff, in an address to the Petrograd a. > o a: o o *'BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 79 Soviet, September 6, 1918, told the story of the fabled armored train as follows : **In March, 1917, Lenin returned to Rus- sia. Do you remember the cries that went up about the * armored train' on which Le- nin and the rest of us returned? In real- ity Lenin felt a profound hatred of German imperialism. He hated it no less than he hated any other brand of imperialism. . . . When a prominent member of the Scheide- mann party attempted to enter our car (which was not armored) in order to 'greet' us, he iwas told, at Lenin's suggestion, that we would not speak to traitors and that he would be sparing himself insult if he refrained from trying to enter. The Mensheviki and the Social Revolutionists, who were rather stub- born at first, later on came back to Russia in the same way (more than three hundred of them). Lenin put the matter simply, 'All bourgeois governments are brigands : we have no choice since we cannot get into Russia by any other way.' " I found the following in a long article of appreciation written by Ernest Nobs, editor of the Swiss VolkrecJit, published in Zu- rich in December, 1917. ''One who has seen the last winter, the medium-sized, square-built man, with a some- what yellowish face and sharp, sparkling and flashing Mongol eyes, as he was steering towards some library in a wornout ulster 80 ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" coat, with a heap of books under his arm, could hardly foresee in him the future Rus- sian premier." In the address mentioned on the foregoing page, delivered at the time Lenin was shot, Zinovieff said : Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanoff (Lenin) was born on April 10, 1870, in the city of Sim- birsk. His father, who was of peasant de- scent, was employed as Director of Public Schools in the Volga region. His elder bro- ther, Alexander Ulyanoff was executed by Czar Alexander III. From that time on his mother showered all her tender affections on Vladimir Ilyich, and Lenin in his turn dearly loved her. Living as an emigrant, an exile, persecuted by the Czar's Government, Lenin used to tear himself away from the most urgent tasks to go to Switzerland to see his mother in her last davs. She died in 1913. Upon his graduation from high school (gymnasium) Vladimir Ilyich entered the law school at the Kazan University. The uni- versities of the capitals were closed to him because he was the brother of an executed revolutionist. A month after his entry he was expelled from the University for partici- pation in a revolutionary movement of the students. It was not until four years had gone by that he was allowed to resume his studies. The legal career held no attrac- tions for Lenin. His natural inclinations lay towards the field of revolutionary ac- **BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 81 tivity. . . . When lie was expelled from the Kazan University he went to Petrograd. The first phase of his activities was confined to student circles. A year or two later he created in Petrograd the first * work- men's circles' and a little later crossed swords on the literary arena with the old leader of the Populists, N. K. Mikhailovsky. Under the nom de plume of Ilyin, Lenin published a series of brilliant articles on economics which at once won him a name. In Petrograd he, with other workers, founded the 'Union for the Emancipation of the Working Class,' and conducted the first labor strikes, writing meanwhile leafiets and pamphlets remarkable for their simplicity of style and clarity. These were printed on a hectograph and distributed. . . . Very often now workers coming from far off Si- beria or the Ural to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets recall to him their activities to- gether in the early 90 's. They recognize that he was their teacher, the first to kindle the spark of communism in them. In the 90 's Lenin was sentenced to a long prison tenn and then exiled. While in exile he devoted himself to scientific and literary activities, and wrote a number of books. One of these reached a circle of exiles in Switzer- land, among whom were Plekhanoff, Axelrod, and Zasulich, who welcomed Lenin as the har- binger of a coming season, and who could not 82 **BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" find words of praise sufficiently strong. Another book, a truly scientific one, won the praise of Professor Maxim Kovalevsky of the Paris School of Social Science. **What a good professor Lenin would have made!" he said. Vladimir Ilyich languished in exile like a caged lion. The only thing that saved him was the fact that he was leading the life of a scientist. He used to spend fifteen hours daily in the library over books, and it is not without reason that he is now one of the most cultured men of our time. ... In 1901 Lenin, together with a group of intimate friends, began the publication of a newspa- per, Iskra, The Spark. This paper not only waged a political struggle, but it carried on vast organizing activities, and Lenin was the soul of the organizing committee. Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya XJlyanova was the secretary of Iskra and the secretary of the organizing committee. Throughout Lenin's activities as an organizer a considerable share of the credit is due to his wife. All the correspondence was in her charge. At one time she was in conmiunication with en- tire Eussia. Who did not know her? Mar- tov in his bitter controversy with Lenin once called her ** Secretary of Lenin, the Super- Center." . . . In the summer of 1905 the first confer- '*BAEBAKOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 83 ence of the Bolsheviki was called. Officially it was known as -the Third Conference of the Eevolutionary Social Democratic Labor Party. This conference laid the corner-stone for the present Communist Party. ... In the revolution of 1905 Lenin's part was enor- mous, although he was residing in Petrograd illegally and was forbidden by the party to attend its meetings openly. Vladimir Ilyich was exiled for the sec- ond time in 1907. In Geneva, and later in Paris, chiefly through the efforts of Lenin, the newspapers. The Proletarian and The Social Democrat were founded. Complete decadence was reigning all around. Obscene literature took the place of art literature. The spirit of nihilism permeated the sphere of politics. Stolypin was indulging in his or-- gies. And it seemed as if there was no end to all this. At such times true leaders reveal them- selves. Vladimir Ilyich suffered at that time, as he did right along in exile, the greatest personal privations. He lived like a pauper, he was sick and starved, especially when he lived in Paris. But he retained his courage as no one else did. He stood firmly and bravely at his post. He alone knew how to weld together a circle of gallant fighters to whom he used to say, **Do not lose your courage. The dark days will pass, a few 84 ''BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" years will elapse, and the proletarian revolu- tion will be revived." For two years Lenin scarcely left the national library at Paris, and during this time he accomplished such a large amount of work that even those very professors who were attempting to ridicule his philosophic works admitted that they could not under- stand how a man could do so much. The years 1910-11 brought a fresh breeze to stir the atmosphere. It became clear in 1911 that the workers' movement was begin- ning to revive. We had in Petrograd a pa- per, the Star, (Zviezda), and in Moscow a magazine, Thought (Mysl), and there was a small labor representation in the Duma. And the principal worker both on these pa- pers and for the Duma representation was Lenin. He taught the principles of revolu- tionary parliamentarism to the labor depu- ties in the Duma. *'You just get up and tell the whole of Russia plainly about the life of the worker. Depict the horrors of the capita- list galleys, call upon the workers to revolt, fling into the face of the black Duma the name of 'scoundrels and exploiters.' " At first they found this strange advice. The entire Dmna atmosphere was depressing, its members and ministers met in the Tauride palace, clad in full dress suits. They learned their les- sons however. In 1912 we started to lead a new life. '^BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" 85 At the January conference of that year the Bolsheviki reunited their ranks which had been broken up by the counter revolution. At the request of the new Central Executive Committee Lenin and myself went to Kra- kov (Cracow, in Galicia). There comrades began to come to us from Petrograd, Mos- cow, and elsewhere. I recall the first large general meeting of the Petrograd metal workers, in 1913. Two hours after our can- didates had been elected to the executive com- mittee Lenin received a wire from the metal workers, congratulating him upon the vic- tory. He lived a thousand versts away from Petrograd, yet he was the very soul of the workers of Petrograd. It was a repetition of what took place in 1906-7 when Lenin lived in Finland, and we used to visit him every week to receive counsel from him. From the little village of Kuokalla, in Finland, he steered the labor movement of Petrograd. In 1915-17 Lenin was leading a very pe- culiar life in Switzerland. The war and the collapse of the International had a very marked effect on him. Many of his comrades who knew him well were surprised at the changes wrought in him by the war. He never felt very tenderly toward the bourgeoisie, but with the beginning of the war he began to nurture a concentrated, keen, intense hatred for them. It seemed that his very countenance had changed. 86 "BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" In Zurich lie resided in the poorest quar- ter, in the flat of a shoemaker. He appeared to be after every single proletarian, trying as it were to get hold of him and explain that the war was an imperialistic slaughter. . . . . Lenin has always understood what enormous difficulties would arise before the working class after it had seized all power. From the first days of his arrival in Petro- grad he carefully observed the economic dis- ruption. He valued his acquaintance with every bank employee, striving to penetrate into all the details of the banking business. He was well aware of the provisioning prob- lem, and of other difficulties. In one of his most remarkable books he dwells at length on these difficulties. On the question of the nationalization of banks, in the domain of the provisioning policy and on the war question Lenin has said the decisive word. He worked out concretely the plan of practical measures to be adopted in all domains of national life, long before October 25, (November 7), 1917. The plan is clear, concrete, distinct, like all his works. ... ZINOVIEPF President of the Petrograd Soviet CHAPTER VII PETROGRAD I ARRIVED at the Nicolai station in Petrograd on the 24th of September, from Moscow, and went at once to the Astoria hotel on St. Isaac's Square at the farther end of Nevsky Prospekt. As we drove along the thoroughfare I noticed workmen tearing out the wooden paving-blocks which covered that famous street, and recalled having read in New York papers that whole streets in Petrograd had been torn up and used for fuel. This seemed credible enough, even de- sirable, I thought, as I recalled the shivering nights I had spent in Russia. When my droshkv came nearer to the crew of workers I saw worn and broken blocks piled to one side ; in their places new blocks had been put in. Two days later I walked along this same thoroughfare from one end to the other, still looking for unmended gaps in the paving. My search w^as vain. And the pavements of the side streets, on which I w^alked miles during my stay in Petrograd, were in good condition. Many of the shops along Nevsky Pros- 87 88 "BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" pekt were closed and boarded up, and those that remained open had but few wares on th^ir shelves. The large stores, however, now con- verted into Soviet stores, were all open and contained a goodly supply of various com- modities, but the bright-colored toys that used to fill the shop windows of Petrograd had entirely disappeared. Apparently the peas- ants of Russia, busy with weightier matters, had found no time to carve grotesque wooden figures and charming dolls and the other gayly-colored toys they know so well how to make. The Russian child who does not have these toys left over from the old days has to do without. Whatever beautiful things Russia still had, however, were placed in the stores along with the necessities. They were not regarded as luxuries for the few. Art belongs to every one in Soviet Russia. I learned that the high w^all which used to surround the Winter Palace of the Czar had been torn down, and when I asked why -this had been done, was told that there was a beautiful garden back of this wall, and since "beauty should not be hidden from the peo- ple," they had torn down the wall so that all might see the garden. The palace itself was unoccupied. Its art treasures had been removed to Moscow, and placed in museums there. It was planned to make a museum of the palace later. ^'BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 89 On my second day in Petrograd I went out to Smolny Institute, a large stone structure overlooking the Neva, formerly a school for the daughters of the aristocracy, now the office building of the officials and workers of the Northern Commune and Petrograd Soviet. In front of the institute there was set up a large statue of Karl Marx. It looked im- pressive enough from a distance. But when I passed on my way into the building and looked back at the statue I discovered Karl Marx — a silk hat in his hand. I have not yet been able to get over my memory of the great economist standing there, heroically erect, before the headquarters of the work- ingmen's government, holding a silk hat. In Smolny Institute I met Zinovieff, presi- dent of the Petrograd Soviet, a curly-haired, impetuous Jew, full of energy and with a deep understanding of the Eussian revolu- tionary movement. He has been a life-long friend of Lenin and was his companion in exile. I found him distrustful at first, but very cordial when convinced that my inten- tions were honest. **Do you still talk about nationalization of women in America?" he asked me with a broad grin. He was the only official in Soviet Kussia who ever mentioned the subject to me. Later in the day I attended a meeting of the Petrograd Soviets which included repre- 90 <*BAEBAROUS SOVIET EUSSIA" sentatives of all unions, army, navy and peasants. They were assembled in the Tau- ride Palace, where the Dmna met formerly. A decree for compulsory education for adults was under consideration, and Zinovieff spoke for the adoption of the decree. I could not, of course, understand his impassioned ad- dress, which subsequent translation revealed to be a clear analysis of the whole educa- tional problem. He has a high-pitched voice, which grated on my ears sometimes, but rang with earnestness and conviction. The decree, which is now in effect, was passed by a prac- tically unanimous vote. It provided that after November 1, 1919, all adults of the Northern Commune unable to read and write would have to attend public school classes two hours daily for six months, at the end of which time those unable to pass the examinations were to be denied the right to work. For their hours of study the decree provided that they be paid wages at the rate in effect in their branches of in- dustry. For those illiterates in occupations requir- ing eight hours labor, the working day was reduced to six, giving them the opportunity to spend the full two hours in school. The six-hour day in force in the hazardous occu- pations was reduced to four hours. Soviet officials informed me that passage of the decree did not mean that those who **BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA' » 91 were unable to assimilate knowledge would be denied the right to w^ork. That disciplining would be invoked only for those capable ones who wilfully refused to study. The measure was but one of the efforts of the Soviet Gov- ernment to hasten the development of the intellectual side of the people's life and to raise culture in general. Under Czars there were few public schools, and these were in- efficiently conducted. Seventy-five percent of the people could not read or write. I inquired about the "Red Terror" in Petrograd. "Yes," I was informed, "there were two or three days of Red Terror in August, 1918, when Lenin was shot, in Moscow." The rank and file were devoted to this man, and when they heard of the attempt on his life they turned loose, and it took three days of hard work on the part of the government officials and the government i:)arty members to stop the rush of the mob. Probably two thousand w^ere killed, and dur- ing the six weeks that Lenin lay between life and death great crowds of working peo- ple watched the bulletins from his physicians that were posted on walls in all parts of the city from day to day. I was told that quite aside from his value to the government itself, it was a godsend to Russia that he survived, because his death w^ould have meant an uprising that would have spared no human being believed to be in opposition to Lenin 92 ''BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" and the Soviet Government. Even Zinovieff is reported to have lost his head for a little time, when he heard of the precarious con- dition of his old friend and comrade. A Russian friend of mine in America had asked me to look for his father who lived two or three blocks from St. Isaac's Square when last heard from four years before. I found the old man in his place of busi- ness — a picture frame store. He lived with his wife in two or three rooms in the rear. He had been in business for years, and was one of the bourgeoisie of the olden days. Wlien I asked him if he had been disturbed by the Bolsheviki he said that during the two years since the revolution his store had been -visited once by the authorities — an officer came to inquire for the address of some per- son living in the immediate neighborhood. I asked him how he liked the new regime. *'I don't like it because food is scarce and prices high." He showed me a small picture frame. ''Before the war I could sell this for 70 kopecks, now I must charge 40 rubles, — but then maybe it was the war and not the revolution that caused the high prices, — I don't know." He took me dovm the street three blocks to \isit his daughter, so that when I returned to America I could assure my friend that his sister, too, was safe. She and her husband were both working for the Soviet Govern- **BABBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 93 ment and had but one complaint to make, *^ scarcity of food." She was a teacher in one of the Soviet schools. They had two beauti- ful boys; the elder was studying sculpture in a Soviet art school, the younger was still in the grades. I asked this most intelligent and refined woman whether the Bolshevists had broken up the homes in Petrograd. She smiled and said, ''Do they believe that in America?" When I had to answer that *'some do," she replied, ''Please tell them it does not show intelligence to believe such things." I talked to three or four of the business men along the Nevsky Prospekt who were still clinging to their little shops, with their piti- ful stocks of goods. These people have re- mained undisturbed for reasons I have al- ready explained. In substance they all said the same thing: "It is terrible, — terrible. Before long we must quit business. The Bol- shevists are setting up what they call 'Soviet' stores. The people don't come to us now, — only a few of our old customers. The Soviet stores control the products and undersell us. Russia is doomed. We want to go away. How is it in America?" The last cry of the private shopkeeper in Russia ! Some day when the war is over and Russia is doing business with the rest of the world, these same shopkeepers will probably find the Soviet stores more attractive even 94 "BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" than their own. They may remember, with no regret, their constant struggle to survive competition. Doubtless they will get behind the counters of the Soviet stores, as many of their kind have already done, and there find security of employment and compensation, and in the knowledge that they are rendering a real service to the New Eussia they will find an adequate substitute for the stimulation of *' private enterprise." With the removal of the capital to Moscow, the sending of thousands of workers to the army, the voluntary emigration to the vil- lages of thousands of others, and the exodus of the bourgeoisie to Scandinavia, France, England and even America, Petrograd has probably one half the population it had under the Czar. Moscow had gained, however, dur- ing the same period in greater proportion than Petrograd lost. Tram cars were running more regularly than in Moscow, so far as I could observe. The streets were poorly lighted, as in Moscow, and for the same reason. All automobiles had been requisitioned by the army and were used mostly for trucking. The city was policed by women in daytime, by men at night. It was rather startling to encounter a woman policeman with a rifle on her shoulder, but the people took it for granted, and I w^as told that the women were quite as efficient as the men. In spite of poor CHICHERIN Commissar of Foreign Affairs "BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 95 lighting, Petrograd is as safe as Moscow at night — or as safe as New York or Chicago, for that matter. Prostitution has lost its clientele. Thousands of women from the streets have found decent employment in various institutions of the Soviet Govermnent, and are able to lead independent, normal lives. I visited one of the large textile industries, which was in full operation, employing prob- ably three thousand men and women. They were making civilian suits and overcoats and winter coats for the soldiers. Motor lorries drove up and carried away thousands of these winter coats for shipment to the sol- diers at the front. Some of the factories were closing down through lack of fuel. I asked what would become of the workers who were thrown out of employment, and was told that pending their re-employment they would be given "out of work" cards showing that their idle- ness was not voluntary, and the government would continue to pay them their regular wages. I visited Maxim Gorky in his modest apart- ment near the Fortress of Peter and Paul. Gorky is typical of a large class of the in- tellectuals. Two years ago he was a bitter opponent of Bolshevism, and his writings violently attacked the government. Of artistic rather than political tempera- 96 '^BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" ment, and strongly pacifist, he was sickened by the killing on both sides. Since then, however, he has come to the support of the Soviet Government. His tribute to the con- structive ability of the Soviet leaders was issued over his signature a year ago, and has been widely circulated. I had been told that Maxim Gorky was suffering from tuberculosis, and after aU the misery I had seen in Soviet Russia because of the lack of food, I expected to find him emaciated. Instead, he was vigorous and healthy. He stood before me tall, powerful, with a slight bend in his shoulders. He seemed with his mass of gray hair like some huge and fearless animal. There was sadness in his voice and his gray eyes when he spoke of Russia's suffer- ing. Gorky himself was a child of the streets, and he feels keenly the suffering of the people. But it was when he spoke of the future of his country that he was the true Russian. He told me he believed in the invincible spirit of the Russian masses and their determina- tion to defend *' their revolution." He dwelt with pride upon the accomplishments of in- dividual workers, whose native genius had been set free from the old bondage. I was surprised to find the interest he took in the industries. In one factory just outside of Petrograd, he told me, they were extracting *'BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 97 sugar f rgna the sawdust of certain woods by a process discovered by a workman. With equal enthusiasm he told me of another worker who had perfected a method of pre- serving fish nets so that their durability had been increased four hundred percent. He told me a manifesto would soon be issued to the world, coming from a number of Russian scientists of established reputa- tion, setting forth the scientific achievements accomplished under Soviet rule. "Under two years of Soviet rule," Gorky said, ''there have been more discoveries made in Russia and there has been more progress in general than previously in twenty years under Czarism." The greatest joy that Gorky finds in his work for the Soviet Government is in the tremendous task of preserving the art of old Russia and creating new art. Even in the throes of the revolution when Gorky opposed the Bolshevik rule, he was working with the government to preserve the old art. Under his direction a museum was estab- lished in a fine structure, wherein were stored thousands of art treasures recovered during the revolution. Bourgeoisie who fled to other countries left their unoccupied homes full of beautiful things. The Soviet Government took possession of these homes at once and removed valuable art to the museum. Man- ifestos were sent broadcast appealing to the 98 "BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA*' people to preserve these things which were now theirs. In Petrograd the following bul- letin, under the title "Appeal for the Preser- vation of Works of Art," appeared: "Citizens! The old landlords have gone. Behind them remains a tremendous inher- itance. Now it belongs to the whole people. Guard this inheritance; take care of the palaces. They will stand as the palaces of the art of the whole people. Preserve the pictures, the statues, the buildings — these are a concentration of the spiritual force of your- selves and of your forefathers. Art is that beauty which men of talent have been able to create even under the lash of despotism. Do not touch a single stone, safeguard monu- ments, buildings, ancient things, and docu- ments. All these are your history, your pride." "But it was impossible to save everything," Gorky told me. "There were the soldiers and the peasants, who had never had a chance to see any of these beautiful things in the past. The people did not wish to destroy these things. They only threw away what seemed worthless to them, one priceless painting was found in a garbage can. But it was found and brought back by the people themselves. And now it is in the museum where every one may see it." Gorkv is head of the "World Literature Publishing House," a vast institution or- <*BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" 99 ganized by the Soviet Government to pub- lish the best literary and scientific produc- tions of all countries in popular editions for the Russian masses. A great staff of literarj^ and professional men and women are enrolled in this work. Already about six hundred books have been edited and are ready for publication, although only thirty volumes had been printed when the work had to stop on ac- comit of the lack of paper. As soon as paper is available they hope to begin printing mil- lions of volumes in editions which will be within the reach of all the Eussian people. In addition to this work Gorky has been devoting much time to the preparation of a series of motion-picture scenarios, composed with scientific historical exactness, showing the history of man from the Stone Age down through the Middle Ages to the time of Louis XVI of France, and finally to the present day. This work was begun in July 1919, and when I talked with Gorky in Sep- tember of the same year, he told me that they had already fijiished twenty-five scenarios. He described the extraordinary difficulties under which the w^ork was going forward; the actors and actresses who were often un- dernourished, persevered over all obstacles, inspired by an enthusiasm which Gorky thought would have been impossible in any other country. The Soviet Government was aiding the production in every way. The best 100 "BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" actors and actresses in the country had been enlisted in this work along with historians and scientists. The films were being sent iato the remote towns and villages, and thousands of small theatres already were being built. The motion picture theatres in general in Petrograd were not showing the ordinary romances that we see in this country in films. The motion picture was used largely for edu- cating the people and showing the develop- ment of industry, the proper care of children and the advantages of sanitary conditions. Eussia is in great need of education so far as sanitation is concerned. In the large cities the sanitation is modern, but in smaller towns and in the villages the people have no idea of a sewage system. The theatre of Soviet Eussia had already been organized throughout the country at the time of my visit. The production of plays and scenarios was included in the educational program of the government. The theatres were organized into one corporation and sub- sidized by the Soviet Government, which did not, however, interfere in any way with the artistic work of the producers. I saw Schiller's '^Eobbers" and Gorky's *'Lower Depths" produced wonderfully. The people crowded to the theatres. The first four per- formances each week are set aside for the Soviet workers. Gorky assured me that the elements op- "BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" 101 posed to Soviet rule ''do not find any support among the rank and file. The working class strongly supports the Soviets, and most of the peasants approve, although the village youth is still indifferent." The Jewish people were plajdng an import- ant part in the revolutionary reconstruction of the country, Gorky said, but added that he did not mean the class of Jews who had been influential in the old regime. The Jews who had come forward under the revolution were the ones who had formerly been kept within the pale. They felt that a new freedom had been offered them by the Soviet Government, that they would be treated as brothers, and so they were rendering valuable constructive service. *'If they would only leave us alone," he cried out bitterly. "Tell America for the sake of humanity to leave Russia alone." His words fairly burned as he sat there and talked, emphasizing each phrase with a ges- ture of his clenched fists. "Tell them to leave us alone. I know quite well that there are many persons in America who have no vision of this Russia, who have no comprehension of what Russia is. But after all, you have a few enlightened people in America. Please tell them that Russia is not Central Africa, without civilization or statesmanship. Russia is well able to take care of herself." CHAPTER VIII BOLSHEVIK LEADERS— BRIEF SKETCHES TROTZKY ALMOST inseparable from the name of ^ Lenin, in the minds of Americans, is that of Trotzk}^ Minister of W^ar, whose his- tory is well known here. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs up to the time of the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, when it became necessary to mobilize an army to protect Soviet Russia from foreign invasion, and he was made Minister of War. He took hold of a badly disorganized and worse dis- couraged army, and through his own hard work, and with the assistance of others, built up an army probably better than any other in the world today. While in Moscow I heard him address a gathering of some two thousand women, in the Labor Temple— formerly a noblemen's club. He had just returned from the front, and was still wearing his suit of plain khaki and high boots. He reviewed the work of the Red Army, recounting its victories and defeats. A well-set figure, with black eyes flashing through a pair of thick glasses; a wealth of 102 LITVINOFF Assistant Commissar of Foreign AfTairs "BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 103 jet black hair brushed back from a high fore- head; dark moustache and small beard; his whole face tanned from being in the open with the troops, he paced the platforai from one end to the other, like a caged lion. When he spoke of the counter-revolutionary forces his voice resounded through the hall, filled with scorn, and his face wore a look that was uncannv. The next moment his ex- pression changed, and lowering his voice he spoke in soothing tones of the heroism and devotion of the soldiers of the Red Army. I could understand at the end of his forty minutes' address what Colonel Raymond Robins meant when he said: "Trotzkv is a great orator." He is undoubtedly the most convincing I have ever heard, and I have heard many in several countries. He seems to tug at his listeners until they find them- selves leaning forward so as not to miss a single word. The history of this man's life and activities would make an interesting book. I hope it will be written. CHICHERIN" As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trotzky was succeeded bv Chicherin. He is a tall, slightly stooped figure, about fifty years old, with eyes that burn like coals. He is emaci- ated from hunger and from hard work. Never a day goes by but Chicherin can be found in his office from twelve to sixteen 104 ''BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" hours of the time, working with quiet deter- mination and zeal. I saw him in his office at the Metropole two or three times, and was captivated by his kind and gentle manner. *'Yes," he said to me, *'we want peace and are ready to conclude at once. Concessions are still here for American capital. Leases can be had for forty-nine years. All we ask is that the Russian labor laws shall prevail here and the Government shall not be inter- fered with. There is flax here, and timber and many other things that the people of your country want. *'Go back to America and tell them to leave us alone. Just let us get our breath and turn our energies into productive work." They all said that, Chicherin and many other Commissars. All dwelt upon the need for technical assistance. They look for- ward to the dav when they wiU be able to apply the best technical and scientific experi- ence of the world to the solution of their problems. They need experts in all lines and of all grades, from simple mechanicians to the most highly trained laboratory specialists. Litvinoff is a solidly built, jovial, and very astute Lithuanian. He was one of the Col- legium in the foreign office under Chicherin, and was the Soviet ambassador in England after the revolution. Later he was sent back *'BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 105 to Russia by the British Government. He is an equally shrewd business man and diplo- mat, and looks more like a British member of parliament than a Russian Bolshevik. He has a keen sense of humor and fun, but takes his duties very seriously. He is the type of man often seen .among directors of great en- terprises in America, putting through *'big deals." One imagines that if he chose to sell his services to a capitalist organization or state he could easily become a *'big man." He was my first host in Moscow, and was very kind and helpful in giving me all the information and assistance possible. MADAME KOLLONTAY I met Madame Kollontav in the National Hotel, three or four days after I arrived in Moscow. She is a beautiful, cultured woman, and an excellent speaker. She had just re- turned from a tour of the southern part of Russia, where she had been establishing schools and organizing homes for the aged, and informed me that the children are so enthusiastic that they do not want to go home when the day's session is over. *^ There is a feeling of solidarity among them," she said. **They are being educated without the feel- ing of property of any kind. The psy- chology of the people has so changed since the revolution that the old order could not last even if it were to be restored," she said **and 106 "BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" if the Allies would only withdraw their armies and stop supporting the counter-revolution- aiy forces Eussia could recoup herself with- out outside aid of any kind." Asked about the devotion of the people to I^enin she replied that while he was deeply loved and respected the people were not fol- lowing him blindh% and that their devotion was due to the fact that they realized that he stood alwavs for their best interests. Madame Kollontay has spent several years in America and asked me about many of her friends in this country. She said she hoped to be able to return at some future time. MADAME BALABANOVA Madame Balabanova, secretary of the Third International, which has headquarters at Moscow, is an Italian, not over five feet tall, elderly, but full of fire and spirit. She speaks many languages, including fluent Eng- lish. I met her on several occasions in Mos- cow. She reminded me that there was much work to be done, and that the revolu- tion had not ended with the overthrowing of the old order. *'We are building the new society," she said, ''but it is slow work be- cause of the necessity of converting the coun- try into an armed camp to repel invasion, but when the war stops we will show tKe world what Soviet rule can do for the op- pressed." *'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 107 She said she hoped to go back to Italy sometime, but presumed it would be impos- sible, at least until that and other countries had recognized that the Russians and those in sympathy with them were human beings and not *' carriers of contagion." She is a wonderful speaker and an ex- tremely energetic and hard working little woman, much admired and respected by her colleagues. I once accompanied her on a visit to a hos- pital, where she spoke to wounded soldiers. More than two hundred convalescent soldiers made up her audience. They lay on their cots or sat in wheel-chairs, some of them armless or with but one arm, others with one leg shot oi¥, and many with ugly head wounds. They greeted Madame Balabanova cheerily, and listened almost eagerly to her story of what was going on at the front and in the country generally. When she had finished her address there was a silence, and then from all the men came the deep singing of the Internationale. BUCHARIN" Bucharin, a close friend and companion of Lenin, is the editor of Pravda, the party organ in Moscow. I learned that he, too, had been in America for two or three months previous to the overthrow of the Czar, and had hurried back when this news reached 108 ''BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA'* iiim. He is a small figure, always hurrying somewhere, with a book imder his arm. One meets him in the Theater Square in the morn- ing, in Soviet Square a few hours later, at the Kremlin still later, and in the evening at the extreme opposite end of the city. There is a saying about him, *'One can never tell where he will turn up next. He is always on the move." And yet he always has time for a kindly word or question or greeting. He is a student of history and quotes freely, from memory, all the Kussian and many European writers. GEORGE MELCHOIR George Melchoir is president of the Mos- cow Central Federation of All-Russian Pro- fessional Alliances. He worked for a long time at Bayonne, New Jersey, but like many others returned to Russia after the overthrow of the Czar. He took an active part in or- ganizing the taking of Moscow in the early days of the Bolshevist uprising. Melchoir has been a working man all his life, and is extremely intelligent. The posi- tion which he holds demands a great deal of technical knowledge, as well as executive abil- ity, and every one agreed that he was thor- oughly qualified for his post. I had a long talk with him. He was enthusiastic about the future of Russia. It would be built "BARBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" 109 up, iie said, by the various unions and peas- ant organizations. He is probably tbirty-five years of age, of medium height, with a bulky figure, full of vigor and enthusiasm. PETERS In the early days of the revolution Peters was chief of the Internal Defense of Petro- grad. American newspapers said of him that *'his fingers were cramped from writing death warrants." I asked him how many death warrants he had signed and he told me three hundred in all. He expressed regret that he had been looked upon in other coun- tries as a murderer, and said it was unfortu- nate that those people did not understand the conditions that surrounded Russia while in the throes of a revolution. He insisted that the warrants he had signed had been neces- sary in the interest of the country as a whole, and that they had been signed only after in- vestigation and a trial of the individuals, and that in no case had there been an execution to gratify the personal revenge of any one. He is a Lett, very young, perhaps between twenty-eight and thirty years old, short and stocky, with a mass of black hair combed straight back. He lived in England for a number of years, and speaks the English lan- guage easily and fluently. no **BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA»' BORIS EEINSTEIN As a former resident of Buffalo, New York, and member of the American Socialist Labor Party, Boris Reinstein returned to Russia after the overthrow of the Czar. He was for some time an assistant in the Foreign Office; later a lecturer in a military school, and is now an official lecturer in the large college for training writers and speakers in Moscow. This school was running full blast while I was there. Classes number from seventy-five to one hundred each. Pupils are elected by various Soviet organizations over the country, and at the end of six months' training are re- turned to their various communities and oth- ers are sent into their places. The Govern- ment supports all these pupils while they are in training. Reinstein is an excellent speaker and a tireless worker, and is one of the kindest and most conscientious men I have ever met. He is certainly not the "wild-eyed agitator" he has been pictured in the American press. He has given valuable service to the revolution, though he has lost twenty-five pounds in doing so. **bill" shatoff <*Biir' Shatoff, described by American pa- pers as *'the well-known anarchist," is one of the officials of the Soviet Army. When I was in Petrograd he was the commander of the - 53 ►-3 13 o -s o i; > CO 9 O •T3 > « o ft o •a o o a 2 3 u u «3 o t- 3 5 o S Is w ^ a .ii :3 3 •JO CI .a a ^ c 5 6 2^ 3 " (J o o **• C c tn O Ui E -52 <: l-H H (—1 O « (M O CO rH rH CJ "«H iH M t- (M (M CO JO CO (M CO ^ rH (M (M O N CO rH • CO N CJ CO • CO (M (M (M I ^ C^ (N iH CM x* I CJ tH • I u:. CO a> tSJ O >■ > o c o3 > N c o o > > o > ea O E-t 05 Ml M .^ = « g O •S -a .-^ 118 ^'BAEBAROUS SOVIET EUSSIA" More than 2,500 libraries had been estab- lished throughout the country since the rev- olution. All the larger towns have their high schools, technical schools, and musical con- servatories. As every able-bodied adult must work in Soviet Russia, I wondered who went to the advanced technical schools. Each local Soviet elected its group of students to attend schools for special training for terms varying from three to six months. At the end of the train- ing the students returned to their communi- ties to teach, and a new group was sent for similar training. The schools were free; the students were furnished with food, clothing, living quarters and books, and were provided with tickets for theatres, concerts and other entertainments. All students were granted loans, to be used for spending money while in school, if they preferred to purchase their OAvn clothing and other necessaries. In Moscow the average loan was 1,200 rubles, varying according to the rise or fall of the ruble's value. Throughout the country homes for the aged had been established where men over sixty and women over fifty were cared for by the government, provided they did not have chil- dren or relatives who wished to keep them in their own homes. In the latter case they were given adequate pensions. I found less of the "institution" atmos- phere in these homes than in those I have V O ^ It' S t o i 03 " S ^1 '^BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 119 seen in other countries. Books, pictures, a meeting-room, and dining-room, and a gen- eral atmosphere of comfort and freedom seemed to make the elderly people content and happy. They are not considered '' pau- pers" or ^'charges on the state," but human beings who have contributed their service to society and are entitled to all the peace and comfort society can give them. I have dwelt upon the organization and spirit of the Red Army and upon the educa- tion and care of the children more than upon anything else, because these are the things that made the strongest impression upon me during my stay in Soviet Russia. They stand out above all else in the memor}^ of weeks crowded with a multitude of rapid and vari- ous observations. The soldiers and the chil- dren come first in the consideration of the government. Here the greatest ingenuity and energy have been applied, and here the best results are evident. It has been the purpose of the Soviet leaders to make the first line of defense — the army — unconquerable. Govern- ment officials claim they have succeeded in this, and point to the map as evidence. The children, they say, are the strategical reserves of the communist state. They are aiming to keep them health}^ in body, despite the priva- tions imposed by the blockade, and to develop them mentalh^ and phj^sically to carry on the future state. No one can deny the large meas- ure of success realized. CHAPTER S GOVERNMENT INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE THE SO\TET STATE THE All-Russian Congress of Soviets is composed of representatives of urban Soviets, one delegate for 25,000 voters, and of rural Soviets, one delegate for 125,000 in- habitants. TMs Congress is convoked at least twice a year. There had already been six meetings. The Congress elects an All-Rus- sian Central Executive Committee of not more than two hundred members, which is the supreme power of the republic, in all periods between convocations of the Congress. It di- rects in a general way the activities of the Workers' and Peasants' Government, consid- ers and enacts all measures or proposals introduced by the Soviet of Peoples' Commis- sars, convokes the Congress of Soviets, and forms a Coimcil of People's Commissars. This council in turn is entrusted with the gen- eral management of the affairs of the republic and in this capacity issues decrees, resolutions and orders, notifying the Central Executive Committee immediately of all such orders or decrees. 120 **BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 121 There are seventeen of these Commissars, (1) Foreign Affairs, (2) Army, (3) Navy, (4) Interior, (5) Justice, (6) Labor, (7) So- cial Welfare, (8) Education, (9) Post and Telegraph, (10) National Affairs, (11) Fi- nances, (12) Ways of Communication, (13) Agriculture, (14) Commerce and Industry, (15) National Supplies, (16) Supreme Soviet of National Economy, (17) Public Health. Each Commissar has a collegium, or commit- tee, the members of which are appointed by the Council of People 's Commissars, of which body Lenin is the president. These committees act as the administrators of the nation, dealing mth ratification and amendments to the constitution; the gen- eral interior and foreign policy of the republic; boundaries; the admission or seces- sions of new members; the establishing or changing of weights, measures, or money denominations; declarations of war or peace treaties; loans, commercial agreements or treaties; taxes; military affairs; legislation and judicial procedure; civil and criminal procedure; and citizenship. Local affairs are administered by local Soviets, in the following order : Rural Soviets, of ten or less than ten members, send one dele- gate to the rural congress, which in turn sends one delegate for each ten of its members to the County Soviet Congress. This County Soviet Congress sends one delegate for each 122 ^'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" 1,000 inhabitants (though not more than three hundred in all may be sent) to the Provincial Soviet Congress, which is made up of repre- sentatives of both urban and rural Soviets. The Provincial Soviet Congress sends from its body one representative for 10,000 inhab- itants of the rural districts, and one for each 2,000 voters in the city, to the Eegional Soviet Congress. This Congress sends one delegate for each 125,000 inhabitants to the All-Rus- sian Congress of Soviets. All these Congresses of Soviets elect their own executive committees for handling local affairs, but in small rural districts ques- tions are decided at general meetings of the voters whenever possible. The functions of the local Congresses of Soviets and deputies are given thus in the Constitution : To carry out all orders of the respective higher organs of the Soviet Power; to take all steps for raising the cultural and economic standard of the given territory; to decide all questions of local importance within their respective territories ; and to coordinate all Soviet ac- tivity in their respective territories. Roughly speaking, the Supreme Council of National Economy, which is established under the Council of the People's Commis- sars, deals with the organization and distri- bution of production. It coordinates the ac- tivities of the federal and the local Soviets, and has the right of confiscation, requisi- **BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA'» 123 tion, or compulsory syndication of various branches of industry and commerce; it deter- mines the amount of raw materials and fuel needed, obtains and distributes them, and or- ganizes and supplies the rural economy. It works in close and constant touch with the All-Russian Professional Alliances, and under its direction the latter constantly regulates the wage scales in accordance with the rise and fall of prices of commodities. When I was in Moscow the average wage paid was 3,000 rubles per month, and in Petrograd 3,500. A member of the Council of People's Commissars received 4,500 per month, out of which he had to pay rent and buy food and clothing. Lenin, as president, received the same amount, which was equivalent to about $180 in American money. All men and women of the republic belong- ing to the following classes are allowed to vote after their eighteenth year: Individ- uals doing productive or useful work; all persons engaged in housekeeping which en- ables others to do productive work ; peasants who employ no help in agricultural labor; soldiers of the army and sailors of the nav}^; citizens who are incapacited for work; and foreigners who live in and are working for the republic. Suffrage and candidacy are denied to per- sons who employ labor in order to obtain profits; persons who live on an income, such 124 "BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" as interest from capital, receipts from prop- erty, etc.; private merchants, trade or com- mercial brokers; monks and clergy of all denominations;* employees and agents of the former police, gendarmes, or secret service; persons under legal guardianship, or who have been declared bv law as demented or mentally deficient; and persons who have been deprived of their rights of citizenship by a Soviet, for selfish or dishonorable offences for the term fixed by the Soviet. The Church has been separated from the State and the School from the Church, but the right of religious or anti-religious propa- ganda is accorded to every citizen. The gov- ernment press has been freed from all de- pendence upon capital in the form of adver- tising, and all the technical and material means for publication, as well as for the pub- lication of books and pamphlets are free. Furnished halls, with heating and lighting free, are given to the poorest peasantry for meeting-places. LAND :n"atio:n"alization' The brief Land Decree of November 7, 1917, was replaced in September, 1918, by ^'The Fundamental Law of Socialization of the Land," which has alreadv been enforced * There have been some modifications of this regulation recently. I have heard since my return to America that clergy- men are given the right to vote provided they are supported by the workers and not from endowments. ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" 125 throughout the country except in the cases of land owned by peasants and worked by the owner and his family. This land decree has been enforced gradually, and perhaps less completely than any other of the Soviet decrees, first because the energies of the Gov- ernment were diverted to a war of defence, and secondly, because the land question would naturally take the longest to settle even in times of peace. The land decree provides that all property rights in land, minerals, oil, gas, peat, medi- cinal springs, waters, timber and other nat- ural resources be abolished and the land given to the use of the entire laboring population, without open or secret compensation to for- mer owners. The right to use this land be- longs to those who till it by their own labor, and is not restricted by sex, religion, nation- ality, or foreign citizenship. Under-surface deposits, timber, etc., are at the disposal of the Soviet powers, local or federal, and all live stock and agricultural implements are to be taken over without indemnification by the land departments of the Soviets. Infants, or minors, cripples, invalids, or aged persons who would be deprived of their means of sub- sistence by the enforcement of this decree are pensioned either for life or until they attain their majority. Minors are given the same pension as soldiers. Land may be used for cultural and educa- 126 ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" tional purposes; for agricultural purposes, communities, associations, village organiza- tions, individuals and families; and for in- dustrial, commercial and transportation en- terprises under the control of the Soviet power. It is given to those who wish to work it for themselves, to local agricultural workers whose plots are now too small, or who have been employed by land owners, and to immigrants who come from towns or cities in order to w^ork on the land. When the land was turned over to the peas- ants each one seized the opportunity to estab- lish his own little homestead. Since that time the peasants have discovered the benefits of cooperative agricultural production, and have established their own agricultural communes all over the country. In the Orel Government there were 391 of these communes, covering 39,000 dessiatins,* with a population of 29,000 people. In the province of Moghilev there were 225, mth more than 11,000 people and 40,000 dessiatins of land. In the Vitebsk government there were 214, covering 60,000 dessiatins of land with a population of 60,000. In the pro\dnce of Novgorod there were 72, with 11,376 in- habitants and 22,253 dessiatins. In Kaluga 150, with 6,500 inliabitants, covering 12,000 dessiatins. Officials estimated that this num- ber would be doubled before the end of 1919. * A dessiatin is approximately 2.7 acres. m « o a o ;?; o Oh O « > O in o Eh ti O OS 'A w hH l-H H o ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 127 In the Petrograd Government 830 communes were organized, with 17,000 dessiatins and 15,313 inhabitants, all of whom were laborers. In Tula there were 78, with 5,465 workers, and 8,554 dessiatins of land. LABOR LAWS The Soviet Russian Code of Labor Laws passed by the Russian Central Executive Committee in 1919 covers the whole field of Russian labor activities. To workers in other countries some of the provisions will appear drastic, but it must be remembered that Russia is still an armed camp and that the war has disorganized industry, transpor- tation and almost every other form of en- deavor. I was informed that every effort was being made under these laws to coordinate the productive forces of the country with a view to securing the highest possible produc- tion for the pressing needs of the Russian people. When the war stops, as it no doubt wiU in the immediate future, Soviet Russia will be faced with the problem of diverting into productive channels its three million soldiers, as well as other millions now engaged directly or indirectly in the war. Just as we had our *'Work or Fight" measures in this country for the purpose of utilizing the na- tion's human energy in a profitable way in time of stress, so in Soviet Russia every effort is being made to place the workers where the 128 ''BAKBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" greatest results to the nation as a wliole will accrue. In connection with the passage of these labor laws, it must be borne in mind that the working people in Soviet Russia enjoy much more control at the present time than do the same class of people in possibly any other country. One must take into consideration the fact that these laws were initiated by the unions themselves or their represencatives, who shared jointly with the political side of the Government the responsibility for main- taining the new order. Many of the former so-called bourgeoisie of the old regime, I was informed, have spent the past two years do- ing nothing but live by speculation and they stir up trouble on the slightest pretext against the new Government. It was pri- marily to reach recalcitrants of this character that the compulsory provisions were inserted in the code. The result of the passage of these laws did not, so far as I could judge, diminish the enthusiasm of the Russian workers for the new order, but on the other hand their energy seems to have been stimu- lated, no doubt because they were beginning to feel that through their various organiza- tions this step had been taken for the express purpose of forcing into production every man and woman in the country capable of producing and helping to reconstruct Russia. Article I of the code deals with compulsory "BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" 129 labor. It provides that all citizens of the Soviet Republic, with the following excep- tions, are subject to compulsory labor: First, persons under sixteen years of age; second, all persons over fifty years of age; third, persons who have become incapacitated by injury or illness ; fourth, women for a pe- riod of eight weeks before and eight weeks after confinement. All students are subject to compulsory labor at the schools. Labor conditions in all establishments, Soviet, nationalized, public and private, are regulated by tariff rules drafted by the trade unions in agreement with the directors or owners of establishments and enterprises and approved by the Deople's commissariat of labor. Article II, entitled ''The Right to Work," provides that all citizens able to work have the right to employment at their vocations and remuneration fix:ed for such class of work. The district exchange bureaus of the Department of Labor Distribution, in agree- ment with respective unions, assign individual wage earners or groups of them to work at other trades if there is no demand for labor at the vocation of the persons in question. All persons of the female sex and those of the male sex under eighteen years of age have no right to work at night or in those indus- tries in which the conditions of labor are espe- cially hard or dangerous. 130 '^BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA'* Article III, provides for the methods of labor distribution. Any wage earner who is not engaged on work at his vocation shall reg- ister at the Local Department of Labor Dis- tribution as unemployed. An unemployed per- son has no right to refuse an offer of work at his vocation, providing the working condi- tions conform with the standards fixed by the respective tariff regulations, or, in the ab- sence of the same, by the trades unions. An unemployed person who is offered work out- side his vocation shall be obliged to accept it on the understanding, if he so wishes, that this be only until he receives work at his vocation. Article V, makes provision for the transfer of a wage earner to other work within the enterprise, establishment or institution where he is employed. His transfer may be ordered by the managing authorities of said enter- prise, establishment or institution. The deci- sion of the Department of Labor in the matter of a transfer of labor may be appealed from under the law by the interested parties to the District Department of Labor or to the People's Commissariat of Labor, whose deci- sion of the matter in dispute is final. In case of urgent public work the Department of Labor, in agreement with the respective pro- fessional unions, may order the transfer of a whole group of wage earners from the organi- zation where they are employed to another •*'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 131 situated in tlie same or a different locality. This is done, provided a sufficient number of volunteers for sucli work cannot be found. Under Article VI, which covers remuner- ation of labor, the law provides that in work- ing out tariff rates and determining the standard rates of remuneration all wage earners of a trade shall be divided into groups of skill, and a definite standard of re- muneration shall be fixed for each group. In determining the standard of remuneration for each category, consideration must be given to the kind of labor, the danger of the conditions under which the work is per- formed, the complexity and accuracy of the work. Remuneration for piece-work is com- puted by dividing the daily tariff rate by the number of pieces constituting the production standard. Remuneration for overtime work shall not exceed time and a half. During illness of a wage earner the remuneration due him shall be paid as a subsidy from the hos- pital fund. The unemployed receive a sub- sidy out of the funds for unemployed. Under Article VII, which deals with work- ing hours, provision is made that the duration of a normal working day must in no case exceed eight hours for day work and seven hours for night work, and that the duration of a normal day, first, for persons under eigh- teen years of age, and second, for persons working in especially hard or health-endan- 132 ^'BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA*' gering branches of industry, must not exceed six hours. In case the nature of the work is such that it requires a working day in excess of the normal, two or more shifts shall be engaged. Except in extreme cases work in excess of the normal hours, or what is usually caUed overtime work, is not permitted. No females and no males under eighteen years of age may do any overtime work, and the time spent by those on such work in the course of two consecutive days must not exceed four hours. All wage earners must be allowed a weekly uninterrupted rest of not less than forty-two hours, and on the eve of rest days the normal working day is reduced by two hours. Every wage earner who has worked without interruption not less_than six months shaU be entitled to leave of absence for two weeks, and every wage earner who has worked without interruption not less than a vear shall be entitled to leave of absence for not less than one month with full pay. Article VIII deals with methods to insure efficiency of labor. The standard output for wage earners of each trade and group is fixed by valuation commissions of the respective trades unions. This article provides that a wage earner systematically producing less than the fixed standard may be transferred by the decision of the proper valuation com- mission to other work in the same group and category, or to a lower group or category *'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA'' 133 with a corresponding reduction of wages. However, appeal can be taken from this pro- vision of the law as well as all other provi- ' sions in the code. Article IX provides for protection of life, health and labor of persons engaged in any economic activity, and the carrying out of this part of the law is entrusted to labor inspectors, technical inspectors and the representatives of sanitary inspection. The labor inspection is under the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Labor and its local branches, which are the Departments of Labor, and is composed of labor inspectors, elected by the councils of professional unions. The inspectors are compelled under the law to visit at any time of the day or night all the industrial enterprises of their district and all places where work is carried on, as well as places provided for the workmen by the en- terprises, such as rooming-houses, asylums, baths, etc., and to assist the trades unions and works committee in their efforts to ameliorate in individual enterprises as weU as in branches of industry. This brief outline of the Code of Labor Laws, the full text of which will be found in the appendix, shows how thoroughly the new regime in Russia has gone into the ques- tion of organizing the labor power of the country for production on the highest scale. I was told over and over again by various 134 *'BARBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" officials of the labor organizations of Soviet Eussia and the Government officials as well, that what they were interested in above all else at the present time was the organization of labor along lines that would insure suf- ficient production of essential commodities to meet the needs of all the people under Soviet rule. TRANSPORTATION Before the war there were in Russia 37,000 railway locomotives. At the end of the war 13,000 were left. Of these, at the time of the Brest Litovsk treaty, thirty-five percent were disabled. In the spring of 1919 the total num- ber of disabled locomotives amounted to fifty percent. Since that time there has been some improvement, and last August only forty- seven percent of them were disabled. There is a great demand for locomotives. Russia could use to advantage the entire product of the United States for the next six years. Ap- proximately the same conditions prevail with reference to cars. Practically the whole transportation system was given over to the movement of troops and army supplies. In certain sections of the country there was a surplus of grain, but no facilities to transport it to the cities. On the last stage of the journey to Moscow I had a vivid glimpse into the transportation problem of Soviet Russia. Two or three hours ''BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA'' 135 out of Smolensk we stopped at a small way station and hooked on seventeen cars loaded with wood intended to relieve the critical fuel shortage in Moscow. After five or six hours* journey, with only brief stops, the train made a prolonged halt. I got out to learn the cause of the delay. The cars loaded with wood had been uncoupled from the train and men were busy throwing the biUets into the field by the track. The station was crowded with soldiers. Word had been received to rush reinforce- ments southward to meet the advance of Denikin. These cars were needed to carry the troops. **What about the wood?" I asked, "Isn't it needed in Moscow?" *'Yes," w^as the reply. "The nights are getting very cold in Moscow. But Moscow must wait. The army comes first." Such incidents were happening daily, hourly, no doubt, all over Russia. Always, they complained, the necessities of the war and the mobilization hampered the produc- tive enterprises of the nation. INDUSTRY "While I was in Moscow the Government received a report from the Supreme Council of National Economy to the effect that war industry was progressing at full speed and producing sufficient supplies and ammuni- tions for the army. In addition the depart- 136 ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" ments of building materials, fur, leather, fuel, metal, chemicals, and trade, had been or- ganized. There were fifty-one factories in the building material branch alone, capable of producing 121,500,000 bricks, 2,000,000 poods of cement, 870,000 poods of lime, and 510,000 poods of tiles. The tanneries were running on the basis of 240,800 poods annually. The department of forests had obtained a con- tract for twenty percent of the fuel demand, in the Moscow Government alone. There were sixty-eight saw mills and 128 planing miUs running on full time. All paper factories were working. The chemical department con- trols the paper, china, and chemical produc- tion. The trade department supervised 175,- 000 workers and had its own art industry museum. The Government is planning the construc- tion of enormous power systems, one of which w^ill be the largest in the world. They will also utilize the water falls for great hydraulic power stations, all of which would require great amounts of machinery from America. CANALS The Volga and Don canal will connect the Black and Caspian Seas and the Volga river with the Baltic Sea. Canal Dredges are needed to build these. ''BARBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" 137 RAW MATERIALS There are at present in warehouses in Rus- sia 200,000 tons of flax, the present market price of which, in London, is over $1,000 per ton. There are also 100,000 tons of hemp. There is gold, timber, and ninety percent of the world's supply of platinum. Many factories will be erected, great rolling mills, steel mills, etc. There is no doubt but that Eussia will eventually be able to produce everything it needs. The country is thor- oughly stocked with all kinds of mineral products and it is merely a matter of time before it will be entirely independent. It struck me that in the meantime the American business men are missing a wonderful oppor- tunity in these ready markets for their machinery and equipment. Eussia will be, in the course of a very few years, a very strong competitor, whereas now it offers a vast market. CHAPTER XI PROPAGANDA ON my way into Eed Russia the train on which I was travelling passed, between Rejistza and Novo-Sokoliev, a train of ten or twelve cars, the sides of which were covered with huge, multi-colored placards. It was the *' Lenin Train" used for carrying propa- ganda literature all over the republic. When I saw it, it was on a tour of the country be- hind the Western Front. The train was decorated with great paint- ings in bright colors and with revolutionary inscriptions. In one of the cars was a mov- ing picture apparatus and screen; another was fitted up as a book shop ; and a third as a telegraph station which posted the latest news bulletins at every station, and circulated news from the front and from the rest of the world. The train carried representatives from government departments and a staff of speakers and lecturers. It had been in constant service for about two months, during which time it travelled through the districts of Pskov, Vitebsk, Let- tonia. White Russia, Lithuania, and Khar- kov, covering some 3,590 versts. In all the stations and towns through which it passed, 138 ''BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 139 leaflets, pamphlets and books were distributed. Meetings were arranged and lectures given, and the Commissary representatives visited the Soviet institutions offering suggestions and aid. Workers and peasants assembled about the train and listened to speeches made from the roofs of cars and gathered bundles of literature to be distributed in the villages and workshops. They told of their difficulties to the speakers and asked them for their ad- vice. In America I had always heard so much about the illiteracy of the Eussian peasants that I wondered what use quantities of read- ing matter would be to them. I discovered that illiteracy was not nearly so general as popularly supposed, and was decreasing rapidly under the government's energetic educational program. In every community there is at least one who can read and write. Russians live in villages everywhere ; even on the plains or steppes such a thing as an iso- lated farmhouse or workman's cottage is rare. The farmer may, and often does, have to go some distance to work his land, but his home is always among other homes. When litera- tures arrives those who can, read aloud. The others gather around the reader to listen. Long discussions, so dearly loved by the Rus- sians, follow. The *' Lenin Train" was preceded by tele- graphic announcements of its coming, so 140 "BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA*' there was a crowd to meet it at every station. Sometimes the reception was very cere- monious. At Rejistza, where it arrived at night, it was met with banners, music and torches. At a tiny station, Malinooka, a crowd of peasants from the nearby villages was waiting to receive their literature and *'to hear directly from the seat of their gov- ernment." I learned that five more similar trains were being prepared to be put on the Volga and its tributaries, and motor-trucks to be sent into the sections where neither rail- ways nor waterways entered. One was to be called ''The October Revolution," another ''The Communist," and a third "The Red Army." The others were not yet named. Boats too were used for that purpose. It was easy to understand why these peo- ple, beset on all sides, were carrying on prop- aganda to defend their country. But I found that their propaganda did not end with this defensive material. By far the greater pro- portion of it was what might be called cul- tural. It was intended not only to waken the people to a realization that their own lives were threatened, but to teach them that they were a part of the great world that lay out- side their own land. The art, the music, the literature and the science of the world was brought to them in simj)le form so that they could comprehend it and be stimulated to further reading and study. Whatever *«BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 141 else tlie Eussians may be they are not mate- rialistic. I found them more eager for ne\YS and knowledge than for food, of which they got SO little. Whatever news is obtained from the outside world is disseminated at once, by telegraph and bulletins, to all parts of the coimtry. At the town of Praele a Bolshevist soldier said to me with a twinkle in his eye, ^'You have a great country in America." *'Why do you think it a great country?" I asked. *'They are shooting negroes in Chicago and Washington now," was his answer; ''and that's the country that talks about Soviet Russia being barbarous." Naturally I was interested in the confirma- tion or refutation of the reports I had heard, that the Bolshe\dki intend to spread their propaganda all over the world. Soviet offi- cials talked frankly to me about prisoners and propaganda. They liked to take prison- ers, they said. They only wished they had more food so that they could afford to take more of them. They didn't want them to starve. They would like to take a million prisoners a day if they had enough food and paper. ''After all," they said, ''our war is primarily a war of education." At many points along the battlefronts I saw great banners stretched between posts, with letters large enough to be read 142 "BAEBAPtOUS SOVIET EUSSIA*' a hundred yards away, telling the other side what the war was about. One, which I had translated for me on the Lettish front, read, "The Germans are marching on Eiga. German soldiers are helping you to destroy the working class republic in Russia. If you want to defend Lettland go back and drive the Germans out of Eiga." The Russians placed great reliance on this battlefront pro- paganda. I found evidence in the Lettish ranks of the effectiveness of these tactics. In striking contrast to the enthusiasm of the Soviet officials for this propaganda at the fighting front, and their reliance upon it to achieve important military results, was their seeming indifference to propaganda abroad. They were anxious enough that the case for the Russian revolution and the Soviet Govern- ment should be presented to the people of other countries, but they displayed none of that eager confidence in their ability to stir revolution abroad with which they are com- monly credited. They believed that by means of propaganda they could break the morale of any army brought against them; but they did not pretend to be able to subvert remote governments. They were amused by the fear of Bolshevik propaganda displayed in the foreign press. They were not inclined to rate their powers so highly. ''To be sure," they told me, "we are internationalists and revo- lutionists, but if other countries are not ready H Q 5 = 3 c o a 1 **BARBAROUS SOVIET EUSSIA" 143 for revolution liow can we stimulate it ? Tliat is not our job. We have liad our revolution in Russia and we must bend all our energies to preserve it. The workers in other countries must take care of their own affairs." They were willing to give guarantees that the Soviet Government would not engage in revolutionary propaganda abroad. They told me that they had repeatedly assured foreign journalists and agents that their govermnents could take any measures they saw fit to pro- tect themselves against Russian propaganda. Of propaganda in Russia itself there is plenty. I have already described the propa- ganda among prisoners of war, and of its effect upon the English prisoners in Moscow. I have no doubt the same ''torture" was ad- ministered to Americans in Siberia. I saw, in an American magazine, a statement of a Canadian soldier that he and many of his comrades had been entirely converted to the doctrines of Bolshevism, but he attributed his conversion to actual experiences and to the things he saw rather than to anything he had read or been told. It occurs to an unpreju- diced observer who has been in Soviet Russia that the nations that feared the contagion of Bolshevist propaganda took the worst possible way of avoiding it when they sent their young soldiers into a land full of propaganda ex- plaining and upholding the new order estab- lished there. CHAPTER XII COMING OUT OF SOVIET RUSSIA 1WAS checked and guarded out of Eed Eussia in the same manner in wMcli I had been checked and guarded into it. "When I was ready to leave Petrograd, early in Octo- ber, Zinovieff delegated as my guard and guide a short, stocky Esthonian, Isaac Mik- kal. As Grafman had reminded me of Larkin, so Mikkal reminded me of Tom Hickey, the famous Texas socialist. He ap- peared rather pleased at my calling him *' Hickey" which I did, throughout the jour- ney. We left Petrograd at eleven o'clock at night, and arrived at Pskov the next morning at eight, where we had to remain until five in the evening before we could get a train for Rejistza, which we reached at six the follow- ing day. Here the division commandant stamped our papers and sent us on to Velikie Luki to the headquarters of the army com- mand. ^^ Hickey" had turned out lo be a less aggressive and efficient guide than Larkin, and as he could give me little information about either the country we were passing 144 i i BAEBAKOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 145 through or the events thai were taking place, I longed often for my old friend whom I had left at Moscow weeks before. With our pa- pers stamped at Velikie Luki, we were al- lowed to go on to the front without going through Smolensk, and I asked the comman- dant to give me a guide who understood that part of the Western Front, so that I could proceed more swiftly. He granted this re- quest, but said that "Hickey" must also be of the party, since he had been charged at Petro- grad with my safe delivery and must make his report on his return to that city. After a brief telephone conversation, in Russian, the commandant informed me that another guide would appear in less than a half hour. We had dinner and waited calmly. At the end of the stipulated time my guide entered, and to my surprise and pleasure it was ^^Larkin.'^ He stopped short, looked at me a moment, raised his hands to his head and brushed off his cap which fell to the floor. "God love a duck, is it you? They told me there was a journalist here who wanted to go to the front but if I had known it was you I would have said I was laid up with cholera.'' I introduced my two guides and we went to the station, only to find that the train we had expected to take at eleven that night would not go before five the next morning. There was nothing to do but climb in one of 146 .^'BAKBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA'' the coaclies, but since the train was aiready full of soldiers, talking, singing, and smoking, there was but little sleep for me that night. At five in the morning we started — on time at last. The conductor informed me that we would reach Rejistza at five in the after- noon, but we did not arrive until four in the morning. I endeavored to learn from both ^'Larkin" and "Hickey" the real reason for the delay, but they told me to ^'forget it. A few hours' delay makes no difference to you one way or the other." At last ^'Larkin must have grown very weary of my impor- tunities. At any rate he said, ^'Please remem- ber you are in Eussia and that we are at war. All trains are soldier trains. They must stop to take on soldiers and to let soldiers off. They must stop to make repairs. They must stop for many reasons. Don't imagine you are in America, on an express train. Some time when the war is over trains will run on time, but now, — well stop kicking." I stopped. In Rejistza we learned that we must wait until four p.m. for a train going to the Dvinsk front. In the division conmiandant's office we found two foreigners who had come across the front the night before. They were on the way to Moscow, and were being checked in as I had been. The commandant asked *'Larkin," whom he knew quite well, if he would take them to Velikie Luki; and on ''Larkin's" saying that he had been '^BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 147 ientrasted with the task of seeing me to the front, the commandant told him that ''Hick- ey" could see me through. I was sorry to lose ^'Larkin," but there was nothing else to be done, and we parted with a cordial wish that we might meet again under more favorable circumstances. **But, God love a duck, — I hope you stay out of Russia until peace comes," were his last words to me. When ^^Hickey'' and I finally reached Dvinsk the Poles were shelling the town. The soldier train on which I was traveling stopped two miles outside the city and the soldiers detrained and began marching into Dvinsk to reinforce their comrades. I did not wish to go through Dvinsk. One experi- ence under shell-fire had been sufficiently shocking to my nervous system, and it wasn't my war at any rate. I protested to *'Hickey" that he had been instructed to see me safely across the front, and demanded that he take me to some other point where I could cross. He told me that the papers read that I was to pass through the Dvinsk front. I said that, papers to the contrary notwithstanding, I refused to cross at Dvinsk. Poor '^Hickey" crossed to an officer and held a discussion, during which he made a few notes. At the conclusion of their talk he returned to me *'If you won't go this way," he told me, ^'we will have to go back on this train seventy-five yersts and then drive ten versts across coun- 148 ^'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" tiy to the thirty-second division command to get your papers amended. Then you'll have to return to the same station, wait for a train, ride forty versts, get off and drive twenty-two versts across country to the brigade command of this division, and then from there we will have to drive twenty versts more to the Soviet outposts, where you can get into the neutral zone and start for the Lettish outposts seven- teen versts away/' All my former desire for speedy travel and short cuts seemed to have evaporated. I yielded meekly to this decree and was, I believe, fairly patient during the two days it took us to carry out this long program. When we finally arrived at the Soviet front 1 was told to start down the road and walk seventeen versts, which would bring me into Lettish territory. Again my suitcase was heavy, or rather it was still heavy, and I pro- tested that I could not walk so far and carry it. But no vehicles were available in that part of the country. My officer informant pointed to a village two or three versts away, across a field, and said: *'When you get to that village you may be able to hire a hay-rick." Even that comparatively short walk did not appear attractive, but at this particular moment there came around a bend in the road an old Russian driving a familiar hay-rick. He readily consented to take me to the village, and after saying farewell to **BAEBAROUS SOVIET EUSSIA'' 149 ^'Hickey," and enjoining him to *'keep smil- ing," my aged saviour and I set out on our journey. A half hour later, in the village, I tried my best, with my still limited Russian vocabulary, to procure another hay-rick to drive me the fourteen versts remaining be- tween me and the Lettish front. Out of the crowd of villagers that surrounded me there emerged a Lettish boy of perhaps fifteen years, who told me in German that he would take me across. When the villagers under- stood what I wanted, the peasant women in- sisted that I must have food before starting. I was taken into one of the dingy little homes, where I was served with good rye bread, but- ter, milk, and eggs, which I ate greedily, I am afraid, for I was very hungry. Not even the thousands of flies that I had to brush away before I could take a bite prevented my enjoyment of this food. At seven in the evening my boy rescuer and I reached the Lettish front, this time in a hay-rick de luxe, with straw and an old quilt on the slats of the floor. The Lettish officers examined me again, and told me that if I would take a hay-rick and drive twenty- two versts to the Kreisberg station I could take a train at two in the morning that would bring me to Riga early the next afternoon. They gave me food, produced a hay-rick, and, half frozen but safe, I reached Kreizberg and finally Riga, at one the next afternoon. 150 ''BAKBxVKOUS SOVIET KUSSIA" Feeling secure at last, I left the station at Riga and proceeded up the street towards the De Rome Hotel. I noticed an aeroplane circling overhead, but I had grown so accus- tomed to war manoeuvers that I disregarded it entirely. About two squares further on my way I heard a terrific crash and explosion and turned to see smoke rising from the station I had just left. A German aeroplane had bombed the station, killing seven people and injuring fourteen. Arrived at the hotel, I asked the proprietor what was wrong. He told me that the Ger- mans were marching on the town, and shell- ing it as they marched, and that 60,000 of them were just across the river. My only thought was that I wanted to get out at once. '*You can't go," he said. ** There are no boats running and the Ger- man army* controls the railroad to Mitau." Apparently it was as dangerous to come out to civilization as it had been to go into *' barbarous" Soviet Russia. I recalled the peace and the kindness I had found inside that supposedly violent land with a great longing. That afternoon I went to the Lettish Foreign Office to visit the officials who had granted me permission to enter a few weeks before. They appeared glad to see me, but incredulous as to my identity. Was I sure • This was the Army ol Von der Glotz. I ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA" 151 that I had been safely through Russia ? Was I still in the flesh or merely a very vigorous and somewhat pugnacious ghost? My young friend who had been so concerned was very eager to know what I had seen. I told him I could indeed confirm his worst fears. The Bolsheviki were people who had but little respect for the sacred rights of private prop- erty. I hastened to make my escape before he could ask me about the nationalization of women. I did not want to disappoint him too much. The next day all the guests of the hotel were locked in and forbidden to leave the hotel. The Lettish staff officers were estab- lished in the hotel, two doors away from my room. Two regiments of Esthonians reached Riga that day and their first act was to place a big field-gun immediately in front of the hotel and begin firing over the roof of it into the German position. Knowing the reputa- tion of the Germans for finding gun posi- tions, I was not very sanguine over the prospects of my safe return to America. The shelling lasted for forty-eight hours, during which time the deafening noise and the jar- ring of the w^alls made rest impossible. The Danish Consul and his staff occupied the rooms immediately across the hall from mine. The third day they invited me over to lunch with them in their room, as Lettish soldiers had been billeted in the dining-room 152 ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA'» downstairs. About four in the afternoon, after the wine had all been consumed, the Danes began singing the songs of their own country. Scarcely an hour later the door of the room was opened and five Lettish officers marched in, ordering us all to *'Get your clothes together and get ready." The Danish Consul asked what they meant. ^'You have been drinking the health of Germany and singing German songs. You are imder ar- rest," was the answer. I was somewhat disappointed when they apologized after we had shown them our papers. Arrest and deportation to other shores seemed very attractive to me just then. A little later the proprietor came in and told us that food was getting scarce, that prices had doubled, and that we would have to pay in Czarist rubles, since the Lettish rubles (wliich he had been glad to take be- fore) were no longer any good. After we had organized a vigorous protest he recanted and we had no further difficulty on that score. The next day Michael Farbman of the Chicago Trilune, with G. G. Desmond of the London Daily News, dropped in from some- where and told me there would be a chance that Sunday night of going to Copenliagen on a British destroyer. Since Desmond was a British subject we chose him to take up the matter with the British mission. His efforts were successful, and we left the hotel under ''BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 153 cover of darkness and, hugging the walls of the buildings, we finally reached the British mission. In company with several English officers we started through the dark streets at seven-thirty in the evening with shells falling everyw^here, and walked three miles to the bend of the Dvina, out of range of the firing. Twice we were shot at by Lettish outposts who had not been informed that we were supposed to pass. Luckily for us they proved to be bad shots, and the shouts of ^'English, English" from the officers stopped the firing. At nine in the evening we reached the river and were bundled into two small boats, pulled by a slow- going gasoline launch. The Letts were on one side of the river; the Germans on the other, and both sides impartially fired at us with their, rifles, but although they hit each boat once they did not touch us. I shall never forget the English officers, crouching in the bottoms of the boats^ — beside me — shouting ** English, English" at the top of their- voices as we proceeded, and persisting in their shouting of the word that had hitherto proven a magic one, in spite of the fact that it could not possibly be heard by either side, and forgetting, apparently, that if it were heard by the Germans it might not deter them. After two and one-half hours of this, dur- ing which we traversed eight miles, we reached the gulf and the comparative safety 154 *'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA'* of tlie Britisli cruiser Ahdiel At last my troubles were over. "We were to leave for Copenliagen the next morning. However, at ten the next morning we were transferred from the Ahdiel to the Princess Margaret, a Canadian Royal steamer w^hich had been converted into a mine-layer during the war, and had come into the harbor the night before, on her way to Riga with a cargo of goods. She could not proceed up the river because of the firing. English officers and all were transferred to this ship, because the Ahdiel was not leaving and there was no telling when the Princess Margaret would leave. For three days we were kept on this boat. During this time more than a hun- dred refugees from Riga were added to its list. Eight or nine British cruisers and de- stroyers were lying at anchor in the Gulf, and on our second morning on the Princess Margaret we learned that the English had given the Germans until that time to evacuate their positions, after which they would open fire. The Germans had refused, and the bombarding began. The Princess Margaret stood out of range, but we could see with glasses the effects of the bombardment, which lasted the whole afternoon, until finally the German guns were silenced and the Letts crossed the river. That evening we heard that the destroyer Cleopatra was sailing the next morning ^'BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 155 for Copenhagen and England and would come alongside to take mail, and that the English officers on the Princess Margaret were going on the Cleopatra. Farbman and I sent Desmond to the captain to get permission for us to go also, which he ob- tained after some persuasion. The others remained — and may be there still. At eight the next morning the Cleopatra came toward us, but the sea was running high and she could not approach nearer than a hundred yards. A lifeboat was lowered from the Princess, our baggage thrown in, and we descended on rope ladders to the swaying and tossing boat below. I am a poor swimmer and the brief but exciting journey to the Cleopatra was occupied in meditation on my escape from shot and shell only to be drowned in the waters of the Gulf. When we finally reached the Cleopatra, I was prepared for more delay, any amount of delay. I had grown so accustomed to it that I thought it would save my nerves from further strain to take it for granted. How- ever we started almost immediately. This was Friday morning, October 17th. We reached Copenhagen Saturday, October 18th, at six in the evening. At last I had escaped the roar of cannon and the sound of bursting shells. The relief and the peace of Copen- hagen could only be compared with the peace I had found in "Barbarous Soviet Russia." APPENDIX 157 APPENDIX SOVIET RUSSIA'S CODE OF LABOR LAWS I. The Code of Labor Laws shall take effect im- mediately upon its publication in the Compilation of Laws and Regulations of the Workmen's and Peasants' Government. This Code must be extensively circulated among the working class of the country by all the local organs of the Soviet Government and be posted in a conspicuous place in all Soviet Institutions. II. The regulations of the Code of Labor Laws shall apply to all persons receiving remuneration for their work and shall be obligatory for all enterprises, institu- tions and establishments (Soviet, public, private and domestic), as well as for all private employers exploiting labor. III. All existing regulations and those to be issued on questions of labor, of a general character (orders of individual establishments, instructions, rules of inter- nal management, etc.), as well as individual contracts and agreements, shall be valid only in so far as they do not conflict with this Code. IV. All labor agreements previously entered into, as well as all those which will be entered into in the future, in so far as they contradict the regulations of this Code, shall not be considered valid or obligatory, either for the employees or the employers, V. In- enterprises and establishments where the work is carried- on in the form of organized cooperation (Sec- tion 6, Labor Division A of the present Code) the wage earners must be allowed the widest possible self-govern- ment under the supervision of the Central Soviet author- ities. On this basis alone can the working masses be 159 160 "BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" successfully educated in the spirit of socialist and com- munal government. VI. The labor conditions in the communal enterprises organized as well as supported by the Soviet institutions (agricultural and other communes) are regulated by spe- cial rules of the AU-Russian Central Executive Commit- tee and of the Council of People's Commissars, and by instructions of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture and Labor. The labor conditions of farmers on land assigned them for cultivation are regulated by the Code of Rural Laws. The labor conditions of independent artisans are regu- lated by special rules of the Commissariat of Labor. ARTICLE I ON COMPULSORY LABOR 1. All citizens of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, with the exceptions stated in Sections 2 and 3, shall be subject to compulsory labor. 2. The following persons shall be exempt from com- pulsory labor: (a) Persons under 16 years of age; (6) All persons over 50 years; (c) Persons who have become incapacitated by injury or illness. 3. Temporarily exempt from compulsory labor are: (a) Persons who are temporarily incapacitated owing to illness or injury, for a period necessary for their recovery. (6) Women, for a period of eight weeks before and eight weeks after confinement. 4. All students shall be subject to compulsory labor at the schools. 5. The fact of permanent or temporary disability APPENDIX 161 shall be certified after a medical examination by the Bureau of Medical Survey in the city, district or prov- ince, by accident insurance office or agencies represent- ing the former, according to the place of residence of the person whose disability is to be certified. Note I. The rules on the method of examination of disabled workmen are appended hereto. Note 11. Persons who are subject to compulsory labor and are not engaged in useful public work may be sum- moned by the local Soviets for the execution of public work, on conditions determined by the Department of Labor in agreement with the local Soviets of trade unions. 6. Labor may be performed in the form of— ^ (a) Organized cooperation; (6) Individual personal services; (c) Individual special jobs. 7. Labor conditions in government (Soviet) estab- lishments shall be regulated by tariff rules approved by the Central Soviet authorities through the People's Commissariat of Labor. 8. Labor conditions in all establishments (Soviet, nationalized, public and private) shall be regulated by tariff rules drafted by the trade unions, in agreement with the directors or owners of establishments and en- terprises, and approved by the People's Commissariat of Labor. Note. In cases where it is impossible to arrive at an understanding with the directors or owners of establish- ments or enterprises, the tariff rules shall be drawn up by the trade unions and submitted for approval to the People's Commissariat of Labor. 9. Labor in the form of individual personal service or in the form of individual special jobs shall be regu- lated by tariff rules drafted by the respective trade unions and approved by the People's Commissariat of Labor. 162 *'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET KUSSIA'* ARTICLE II THE RIGHT TO WORK 10. All citizens able to work have the right to em- ployment at their vocations and for remuneration fixed for such class of work. Note. The District Exchange Bureaus of the Depart- ment of Labor Distribution may, by agreement with the respective unions, assign individual wage earners or groups of them to work at other trades if there is no demand for labor at the vocations of the persons in question. 11. The right to work belongs first of all to those who are subject to compulsory labor. 12. Of the classes exempt from compulsory labor, only those mentioned in subdivision "h" of Section 2 have a right to work. 13. Those mentioned in subdivisions ''a" and "c" of Section 2 are absolutely deprived of the right to work, and those mentioned in Section 3 temporarily deprived of the right to work. 14. All persons of the female sex, and those of the male sex under 18 years of age, shall have no right to work during night time or in those branches of indiistry where the conditions of labor are especially hard or dangerous. Note. A list of especially hard and health-endanger- ing occupations shall be prepared by the Department of Labor Protection of the People's Commissariat of Labor, and shall be published in the month of January of each year in the Compilation of Laws and Regula- tions of the Workmen's and Peasants' Government. APPENDIX 163 ARTICLE III METHODS OF LABOR DISTRIBUTION 15. The enforcement of the right to work shall be secured through the Departments of Labor Distribution, trade unions, and through all the institutions of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. 16. The assignment of wage earners to work shall be carried out through the Departments of Labor Dis- tribution. 17. A wage earner may be summoned to work, save by the Departments of Labor Distribution, only when chosen for a position by a Soviet institution or enterprise. 18. Vacancies may be filled by election when the work offered requires political reliability or unusual spe- cial knowledge, for which the person elected is noted. 19. Persons engaged for work by election must regis- ter in the Department of Labor Distribution before they are accepted, but they shall not be subject to the rules concerning probation set forth in Article IV of the present Code. 20. Unemployed persons shall be assigned to work through the Departments of Labor Distribution in the manner stated in Sections 21-30. 21. A wage earner who is not engaged on work at his vocation shall register in the local Department of Labor Distribution as unemployed. 22. Establishments and individuals in need of work- ers should apply to the Local Department of Labor Dis- tribution or its division (Correspondence Bureau) stat- ing the condition of the work offered as well as the re- quirements which the workmen must meet (trade, knowl- edge, experience). 23. The Department of Labor Distribution, on re- ceipt of the application mentioned in Section 22, shall 164 **BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" assign the persons meeting the requirements thereof in the order determined by the same. 24. An unemployed person has no right to refuse an offer of work at his vocation, provided the working con- ditions conform with the standards fixed by the respec- tive tariff regulations, or in the absence of the same by the trade unions. 25. A wage worker engaged for work for a period of not more than two weeks, shall be considered unem- ployed, and shall not lose his place on the list of the Department of Labor Distribution. 26. Should the Local Department of Labor Distribu- tion have no workers on its lists meeting the stated requirements, the application must be immediately sent to the District Exchange Bureau, and the establishment or individual offering the employment shall be simulta- neously notified to this effect. 27. Whenever workers are required for work outside of their district, a roll-call of the unemployed registered in the Department of Labor Distribution shall take place, to ascertain who are willing to go ; if a sufficient number of such should not be found, the Department of Labor Distribution shall assign the lacking number from among the unemployed in the order of their registration, pro- vided that those who have dependents must not be given preference, before single persons. 28. If in the Departments of Labor Distribution, within the limits of the district, there be no workmen meeting the requirements, the District Exchange Bureau has the right, upon agreement with the respective trade union, to send unemployed of another class approaching as nearly as possible the trade required. 29. An unemployed person who is offered work out- side his vocation shall be obliged to accept it, on the un- derstanding, if he so wishes, that this be only temporary, until he receives work at his vocation. 30. A wage earner who is working outside his spe- APPENDIX 165 cialty, and wlio has stated his wish that this be only temporary, shall retain his place on the register on the Department of Labor Distribution until he gets work at his vocation. 31. Private individuals violating the rules of labor distribution set forth in this article shall be punished by the order of the local board of the Department of Labor Distribution by a fine of not less than 300 rubles or by arrest for not less than one week. Soviet estab- lishments and officials violating these rules on labor dis- tribution shall be liable to criminal prosecution. ARTICLE IV PROBATION PERIODS 32. Final acceptance of workers for permanent em- ployment shall be preceded by a period of probation of not more than six days; in Soviet institutions the pro- bation period shall be two weeks for unskilled and less responsible work and one month for skilled and respon- sible work. 33. According to th^ results of the probation the wage earner shall either be given a permanent appoint- ment, or rejected with payment for the period of pro- bation in accordance with the tariff rates. 34. The results of the probation (acceptance or re- jection) shall be communicated to the Department of Labor Distribution. 35. Up to the expiration of the probation, period, the wage earner shall be considered^ as unemployed, and shall retain his place on the eligible list of the Depart- ment of Labor Distribution. 36. A person who, after probation, has been rejected, may appeal against this decision to the union of which he is a member. 37. Should the trade union consider the appeal men- 166 ''BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" tioned in the preceding section justified, it shall enter into negotiations with the establishment or person who has rejected the wage earner, with the request to accept the complainant. 38. In ease of failure of negotiations mentioned in Section 37, the matter shall be submitted to the Local Department of Labor, whose decision shall be final and subject to no further appeal. - 39. The Department of Labor may demand that the person or establishment provide with work the wage earner who has been rejected without sufficient reason. Furthermore, it may demand that the said person or establishment compensate the wage earner according to the tariff rates for the time lost between his rejection and his acceptance pursuant to the decision of the De- partment of Labor. ARTICLE V TRANSFER AND DISCHARGE OF WAGE EARNERS 40. The transfer of wage earners in all enterprises, establishments, or institutions employing paid labor, can take place only if it is required in the interest of the business and by the decision of the proper organ of management. Note. This rule does not apply to work with private individuals employing paid labor, if the work is of the subdivisions mentioned in "&" and "c" of Section 6. 41. The transfer of a wage earner to bther work with- in the enterprise-, establishment or institution where he is employed may be ordered by the managing organs of said enterprise, establishment or institution. 42. The transfer of a wage earner to another enter- prise, establishment or institution situated in the same or in another locality, may be ordered by the corres- ponding organr of management with the consent of the Department of Labor Distribution. APPENDIX 167 43. The order of an organ of management to trans- fer a wage earner as mentioned in Section 40 may be appealed from to the respective Department of Labor (local or district) by the interested individuals or or- ganizations. 44. The decision of the Department of Labor in the matter of the transfer of a wage earner may be appealed from by the interested parties to the District Depart- ment of Labor or to the People 's Commissariat of Labor, whose decision in the matter in dispute is final and not subject to further appeal. 45. In case of urgent public work the District De- partment of Labor may, in agreement with the respec- tive professional unions and with the approval of the People's Commissariat of Labor, order the transfer of a whole group of wage earners from the organization where they are employed to another situated in the same or in another locality, provided a sufficient number of volunteers for such work cannot be found. 46. The discharge of wage earners from an enter- prise, establishment or institution where they have been employed is permissible in the following cases: (a) In case of complete or partial liquidation of the enterprise, establishment or institution, or of cancellation of certain orders or work; (6) In case of suspension of work for more than a month; (c) In case of expiration of term of employment or of completion of the job, if the work was of a temporary character; (d) In case of evident unfitness for work, by special decision of the organs of management and subject to agreement with the respective profes- sional unions. (c) By request of the wage earner. 168 ''BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA** 47. The organ of management of the enterprise, es- tablishment or institution where a wage earner is em- ployed, or the person for whom a wage earner is work- ing must give the wage earner two weeks' notice of the proposed discharge, for the reasons mentioned in '*a/' "6" and "c?" of Section 46, notifying simultaneously the Local Department of Labor Distribution. 48. A wage earner discharged for the reasons men- tioned in subdivisions "a," "h" and *'d" oi Section 46 shall be considered unemployed and entered as such on the lists of the Department of Labor Distribution and shall continue to perform his work until the expira- tion of the term of two weeks mentioned in the preceding section. 49. The order to discharge an employee for the rea- sons mentioned in subdivisions "a," *'6" and "d" of Section 46 may be appealed from by the interested persons to the Local Department of Labor. 50. The decision of the Local Department of Labor on the question of discharge may be appealed from by either party to the District Department of Labor, whose decision on the question in dispute is final and not subject to further appeal. 51. Discharge by request of the wage earner from enterprise, establishment or institution must be preceded by an examination of the reasons for the resignation by the respective organ of workmen's self-government (works and other committees). Note. This rule does not apply to the resignation of a wage earner employed by an individual, if the work is of the character mentioned in subdivisions "&*' and "c" of Section 6. 52. If the organ of workers' self-government (works or other committee) after investigating the reasons for the resignation finds the resignation unjustified the wage earner must remain at work, but may appeal from APPENDIX 169 the decision of the Committee to the respective profes- sional union. 53. A wage earner who quits work contrary to the decision of the Committee, pursuant to Section 52, shall forfeit for one week the right to register with the De- partment of Labor Distribution. 54. Institutions and persons employing paid labor shall inform the Local Department of Labor Distribu- tion and the respective professional union of each wage earner who quits work, stating the date and the reason thereof. ARTICLE VI EEMUNERATION OP LABOR 55. The remuneration of wage earners for work in enterprises, establishments and institutions employ- ing paid labor, and the detailed conditions and order of payment shall be fixed by tariffs worked out for each kind of labor in the manner described in Sections 7-9 of the present Code. 56. All institutions working out the tariff rates must comply with the provisions of this article of the Code of Labor Laws. 57. In working out the tariff rates and determining the standard remuneration rates, all the wage earners of a trade shall be divided into groups and categories and a definite standard of remuneration shall be fixed for each of them. 58. The standard of remuneration fixed by the tariff rates must be at least sufficient to cover the minimum living expenses as determined by the People's Commis- sariat of Labor for each district of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic and published in the Com- pilation of Laws and Regulations of the Workmen's and Peasants' Government. 170 *'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA'* 59. In determining the standard of remuneration for each group and category attention shall be given to the kind of labor, the danger of the conditions, under which the work is performed, the complexity and ac- curacy of the work, the degree of independence and responsibility as well as the standard of education and experience required for the performance of the work. 60. The remuneration of each wage earner shall be determined by his classification in a definite group and category. 61. The classification of wage earners into groups and categories within each branch of labor shall be done by special valuation commissions, local and cen- tral, established by the respective professional organi- zations. Note. The procedure of the valuation commissions shall be determined by the People's Commissariat of Labor. 62. The tariff regulations shall fix the standard of remuneration for a normal working day or for piece- work, and particularly the remuneration for overtime work. 63. Remuneration for piece-work shall be computed by dividing the daily tariff rate by the number of pieces constituting the production standard. 64. The standard of remuneration fixed for overtime work shall not exceed time and a half of the normal re- muneration. 65. Excepting the remuneration paid for overtime work done in the same or in a different branch of labor, no additional remuneration in excess of the standard fixed for a given group and category shall be permitted, irrespective of the pretext and form under which it might be offered and whether it be paid in only one or in several places of employment. 66. Persons working in several places must state in APPENDIX 171 which place of employment they wish to receive their pay. 67. Persons receiving excessive remuneration, in violation of Section 65, shall be liable to criminal prose- cution for fraud, and the remuneration received in ex- cess of the normal (standard) may be deducted from subsequent payments. 68. From the remuneration of the wage earner may be deducted the excess remuneration received in viola- tion) of Section 65, and the remuneration earned by thf wage earner during his vacation; deduction may also be made for cessation of work. 69. No other deductions, except those mentioned in Section 68, shall be permitted, irrespective of the form or pretext under which they might be made. 70. Payment of remuneration must not be made in advance. 71. If the work is steady, payment for the same must be made periodically, at least once in every fortnight. Remuneration for temporary work and for special jobs provided the same continues at least for two weeks, shall be paid immediately upon completion of work. 72. Payments shall be made in money or in kind (lodgings, food supplies, etc.) 73. To make payments in kind special permission must be obtained from the Local Department of Labor which shall determine the rates jointly with the respec- tive trade unions. Note. The rates thus determined must be based on the standard prices fixed by the respective institutions of the Soviet authority (valuation commissions of the Commissariat of Victuals, Land and Housing Depart- ment, Price Committee, etc.) 74. Payments must take place during working hDurs. 75. Payments must be made at the place of work. 76. The wage earner shall be paid only for actual work done. If a cessation of work is caused during 172 ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET EUSSIA*' the working day by circumstances beyond the control of the wage earner (through accident or through the fault of the administration), he shall be paid for the time lost on the basis of the daily tariff rates, if he does time work, or on the basis of his average daily earn- ing, i:^ he does piece-work. 77. A wage earner shall be paid his wage during leave of absence (Sections 106-107). 78. During illness of a wage earner the remunera- tion due him shall be paid as a subsidy from the hospi- tal funds. Note. The manner of payment of the subsidy is fixed by rules appended hereto. 79. Unemployed shall receive a subsidy out of the funds for unemployed. Note. Rules concerning unemployed and the pay- ment of subsidies to them are appended hereto. 80. Every wage earner must have a labor booklet in which all matters pertaining to the work done by him as well as the payments and subsidies received by him are entered. Note. Rules regarding labor booklets for wage earn- ers are appended hereto. ARTICLE VII WORKING HOURS 81. Working hours are regulated by the tariff rules made for each kind of labor, in the manner described in Sections 7-9 of the present Ck)de. 82. The rules for working hours must conform with the provisions of this article of the Code of Labor Laws. 83. A normal working day shall mean the time fixed by the tariff regulations for the production of a certain amount of work. APPENDIX 173 84. The duration of a normal working day must in no case exceed eight hours for day work and seven hours for night work. 85. The duration of a normal day must not exceed six hours: (a) for persons under 18 years of age, and (6) in especially hard or health-endangering branches of industry (note Section 14 of the present Code). 86. During the normal working day time must be allowed for meals and for rest. 87. During recess machines, beltings and lathes must be stopped, unless this be impossible owing to technical conditions or in cases where these machines, beltings, etc., serve for ventilation, drainage, lighting, etc. 88. The time of recess fixed by Section 86 is not included in the working hours. 89. The recess must take place not later than four hours after the beginning of the working day, and must continue not less than a half hour and not more than two hours. Note. Additional intermissions every three hours, and for not less than a half hour, must be allowed for working women nursing children. 90. The wage earners may use their free time at their own discretion. They shall be allowed during re- cess to leave the place of work. 91. In case the nature of the work is such that it requires a working day in excess of the normal, two or more shifts shall be engaged. 92. Where there are several shifts, each shift shall work the normal working hours; the change of shifts must take place during the time fixed by the rules of the internal management without interfering with the normal course of work. 93. As a general rule, work in excess of the normal hours (overtime work) shall not be permitted. 94. Overtime work may be permitted in the follow- ing exceptional cases: 174 **BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA'* (a) Where the work is necessary for the pre- vention of a public calamity or in case the existence • of the Soviet Government of the R. S. F. S. R. or human life is endangered; (6) An emergency, public work in relation to water supply, lighting, sewerage or transportation, in case of accident or extraordinary interruption of their regular operation; (c) When it is necessary to complete work which, owing to unforeseen or accidental delay due to technical condition of production, could not be completed during the normal working hours. If leaving the work uncompleted would cause damage to materials or machinery ; (d) On repairs or renewal of machine parts or construction work, wherever necessary to prevent stoppage of work by a considerable number of wage earners. 95. In the case described in subdivision **c'* of Section 94, overtime work is permissible only with the consent of the respective trade union. 96. For overtime work described in subdivision **d" of Section 94, permission must be obtained from the lo- cal labor inspector, in addition to the permit mentioned in the preceding section. 97. No females and no males under 18 years of age may do any overtime work. 98. The time spent on overtime work in the course of two consecutive days must not exceed four hours. 99. No overtime work shall be permitted to make up for a wage earner's tardiness in reporting at his place of work. 100. All overtime work done by a wage earner, as well as the remuneration received by him for the same, must be recorded in his labor booklet. 101. The total number of days on which overtime may be permitted in any enterprise, establishment or APPENDIX 175 institution must not exceed 50 days per annum, includ- ing such days when only one wage earner worked over- time. 102. Every enterprise, establishment or institution must keep a special record book for overtime work, 103. All wage earners must be allowed a weekly un- interrupted rest of not less than 42 hours. 104. No work shall be done on specially designated holidays. Note. Rules concerning holidays and days of weekly rest are appended hereto. 105. On the eve of rest days the normal working day shall be reduced by two hours. Note. This section shall not apply to institutions and enterprises where the working day does not exceed six , hours. 106. Every wage earner who has worked without in- terruption not less than six months shall be entitled to leave of absence for two weeks, irrespective of whether he worked in only one or in several enterprises, estab- lishments or institutions. 107. Every wage earner who has worked without in- terruption not less than a year shall be entitled to leave of absence for one month, irrespective of whether he worked in only one or in several enterprises, establish- ments or institutions. Note. Sections 106 and 107 shall take effect begin- ning Januaiy 1, 1919. 108. Leave of absence may be granted during the whole year, provided that the same does not interfere with the normal course of work in enterprise, establish- ment or institution. 109. The time and order in which leave of absence may be granted shall be determined by agreement between the management of enterprise, establishment or institution and proper self-government bodies of the wage earners (works and other committees). 176 ''BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 110. A wage earner shall not be allowed to work for remuneration during his leave of absence. 111. The remuneration of a wage earner earned dur- ing his leave of absence shall be deducted from his regu- lar wages. 112. The absence of a wage earner from work caused by special circumstances and permitted by the manager shall not be counted as leave of absence ; the wage earner shall not be paid for the working hours lost in such cases. ARTICLE VIII METHODS TO ASSURE EFFICIENCY OF LABOR 113. In order to assure efficiency of labor, every wage earner working in an enterprise, establishment or institution (governmental, public or private) em- ploying labor in the form of organized collaboration, as well as th« administration of the enterprise, estab- lishment or institution, shall strictly observe the rules of this article of the Code relative to standards of effici- ency, output and rules of internal management. 114. Every wage earner must during a normal work- ing day and under normal working conditions perform the standard amount of work fixed for the category and group in which he is enrolled. Note. Normal conditions referred to in this section, shall mean: (a) Good condition of machines, lathes and ac- cessories ; (6) Timely delivery of materials and tools neces- Bary for the performance of the work ; (c) Good quality of materials and tools; (d) Proper hygienic and sanitary equipment of the building where the work is performed (neces- sary lighting, heating, etc.). APPENDIX 177 115. The standard output for wage earners of each trade and of each group and category shall be fixed by- valuation commissions of the respective trade unions (Section 62.) 116. In determining the standard output the valua- tion commission shall take into consideration the quan- tity of products usually turned out in the course of a normal w^orking day and under normal technical con- ditions by the wage earners of the particular trade group and category. 117. The production standards of output adopted by the valuation commission must be approved by the proper Department of Labor jointly with the Council of National Economy. 118. A wage earner systematically producing less than the fixed standard may be transferred by decision of the proper valuation commission to other work in the same group and category, or to a lower group or cate- gory, with a corresponding reduction of wages. Note. The wage earner may appeal from the decis- ion to transfer him to a lower group or category with a reduction of wages, to the Local Department of Labor and from the decision of the latter to the District De- partment of Labor, whose decision shall be final and not subject to further appeal. 119. If a wage earner's failure to maintain the stand- ard output be due to lack of good faith and to negligence on his part, he may be discharged in the manner set forti^ in subdivision "ti" of Section 46 without the two weeks' notice prescribed by Section 47. 120. The Supreme Council of National Economy jointly with the People's Commissariat of Labor may direct a general increase or decrease of the standards of efficiency and output for all wage earners and for all enterprises, establishments and institutions of a given district. 121. In addition to the regulations of the present 178 '^BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" article relative to standards of efficiency and output in enterprises, establishments and institutions, efficiency of labor sball be secured by rules of internal manage- ment. 122. The rules of internal management in Soviet in- stitutions shall be made by the organs of Soviet author- ity with the approval of the People's Commissariat of Labor or its local departments. 123. The rules of internal management in indus- trial enterprises and establishments (Soviet, national- ized, private and public) shall be made by the trade unions and certified by the proper Departments of La- bor. 124. The rules of internal management must include clear, precise and, as far as possible, exhaustive direc- tions in relation to — (a) The general obligations of all wage earners (careful handling of all materials and tools, com- pliance with instructions of the managers regarding performance of work, observance of the fixed stand- ard of working hours, etc.) ; (h) The special duties of the wage earners of the particular branch of industry (careful hand- ling of the fire in enterprises using inflammable materials, observance of special cleanliness in en- terprises producing food products, etc.) ; (c) The limits and manner of liability for breach of the above duties mentioned above in subdivisions **o"and"6." 125. The enforcement of the rules of internal man- agement in Soviet institutions is entrusted to the re- sponsible managers. 126. The enforcement of the rules of internal man- agement in industrial enterprises and establishments (Soviet, nationalized, public or private) is entrusted to the self-government bodies of the wage earners (works or similar committees). APPENDIX 179 ARTICLE IX PROTECTION OP LABOR 127. The protection of life, health and labor of per- sons engaged in any economic activity is entrusted to the labor inspection — the technical inspectors and the rep- resentatives of sanitary inspection. 128. The labor inspection is under the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Labor and its local branches (Department of Labor) and is composed of elected labor inspectors. 129. Labor inspectors shall be elected by the Coun- cils of Professional Unions. Note I. The manner of election of labor inspectors shall be determined by the People's Commissariat of Labor. Note II. In districts where there is no Council of Trade Unions, the Local Department of Labor shall summon a conference of representatives of the trade unions which shall elect the labor inspectors. 130. In performing the duties imposed upon them concerning the protection of the lives and health of wage earners the officers of labor inspection shall en- force the regulations of the present Code, and decrees, instructions, orders and other acts of the Soviet power intended to safeguard the lives and health of the workers. 131. For the attainment of the purposes stated in Section 130 the officers of labor inspection are auth- orized — (a) To visit at any time of the day or night all the industrial enterprises of their districts and all places where work is carried on, as well as the buildings provided for the workmen by the enter- prise (rooming houses, hospitals, asylums, baths, etc.) ; 180 ''BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA'* (6) To demand of the managers of enterprises or establishments, as well as of the elective organs of the wage earners (works and similar commit- tees) of those enterprises or establishments in the management of which they are participating, to produce all necessary books, records and informa- tion; (c) To draw to the work of inspection represen- tatives of the elective organizations of employees, as well as officials of the administration (managers, superintendents, foremen, etc.) ; (d) To bring before the criminal court all vio- lators of the regulations of the present Code, or of the decrees, instructions, orders and other acts of the Soviet authority intended to safeguard the lives and health of the wage earners ; (e) To assist the trade unions and works com- mittees in their efforts to ameliorate the labor con- dition in individual enterprises as well as in whole branches of industry. 132. The officers of labor inspection are authorized to adopt special measures, in addition to the measures mentioned in the preceding section, for the removal of conditions endangering the lives and health of workmen, even if such measures have not been provided for by any particular law or regulation, instructions or order of the People's Commissariat of Labor or of the Local Department of Labor. Note. Upon taking special measures to safeguard the lives and health of wage earners, as authorized by the present section, the officers of inspection shall imme- diately report to the Local Department of Labor, which may either approve these measures or reject them. 133. The scope and the forms of activity of the or- gans of labor inspection shall be determined by in- structions and orders issued by the People's Commis- sariat of Labor. APPENDIX 18j 134. The enforcement of the instructions, rules and reflations relating to safety is entrusted to the techni- cal inspectors. 135. The technical inspectors shall be appointed by the Local Departments of Labor from among engineer- ing specialists; these inspectors shall perform within the territory under their jurisdiction the duties pre- scribed by Section 31 of the present Code. 136. The technical inspectors shall be guided in their activity, besides the general regulations, by the instruc- tions and orders of the People's Commissariat of Labor and by the instructions issued by the technical division of the Local Department of Labor. 137. The activity of the sanitary inspection shall be determined by instructions issued by the People's Com- missariat of Health Protection in conference with the People's Commissariat of Labor. APPENDIX TO SECTION 79 . RULES CONCERNING UNEMPLOYED AND PAYMENT OP SUBSIDIES 1. An ''unemployed" shall mean every citizen of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic subject to labor duty who is registered with the Local Department of Labor Distribution as being out of work at his voca- tion or at the remuneration fixed by the proper tariff. 2. An "unemployed" shall likewise mean: (a) Any person who has obtained employment for a term not exceeding two weeks (Section 25 of the present Code) ; (6) Any person who is temporarily employed outside his vocation, until he shall obtain work at his vocation (Sections 29 and 30 of the present Code). 182 *'BAEBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 3. The rights of unemployed shall not be extended — (a) To persons who in violation of Sections 2, 24 and 29 of the present Code, have evaded the labor duty, and refused work offered to them; (h) To persons npit registered as unemployed with the Local Department of Labor Distribution (Section 21 of the present Ck>de) ; (c) To persons who have wilfully quit work, for the term specified in Section 54 of the present Code. 4. All persons described in Section 1 and subdivision **6" of Section 2 of these rules shall be entitled to per- manent employment (for a term exceeding two weeks) at their vocations in the order of priority determined by the list of the Department of Labor Distribution for each vocation. 5. Persons described in Section 1 and subdivision "6" of Article 2 of these rules shall be entitled to a subsidy from the local fund for unemployed. 6. The subsidy to unemployed provided in Section 1 of the present rules shall be equal to the remunera- tion fixed by the tariff for the group and category on which the wage earner was assigned by the valuation commission (Section 61.) Note. In exceptional cases the People's Commissariat of Labor may reduce the unemployed subsidy to the minimum of living expenses as determined for the dis- trict in question. 7. A wage earner employe^ temporarily outside of his vocation (Subdivision "ft" of Seciion 2) shall re- ceive a subsidy equal to the differences between the re- muneration fixed for the group and category in which he is enrolled and his actual remuneration, in case the latter be leas than the former. 8. An unemployed who desires to avail himself of his right to a subsidy shall apply to the local funds for unemployed and shall present the following documents: APPENDIX 183 (a) his registration card from the Local Department of Labor Distribution; and (&) a certificate of the valua- tion commission showing his assignment to a definite group and category of wage earners. 9. Before paying the subsidy the local funds for un- employed shall ascertain, through the Department of Labor Distribution and the respective trade union, the extent of applicant's unemployment and the causes thereof, as well as the group and category to which he belongs. 10. The local funds for unemployed may for good reasons, be denied the applicant. 11. If an application is denied, the local fund for unemployed shall inform the applicant thereof within three days. 12. The decision of the local fund for unemployed may within two weeks, be appealed from by the inter- ested parties to the Local Department of Labor, and the decision of the latter may be appealed from to the District Department of Labor. The decision of the District Department of Labor is final and subject to no further appeal. 13. The payment of the subsidy to an unemployed shall commence only after he has actually been laid oS. and not later than by the fifth day. 14. The subsidies shall be paid from" the fund of insurance for the unemployed. 15. The fund of unemployment insurance shall be made up, (a) from obligatory payments by all enterprises, establishments and institutions employing paid la- bor; (&) from fines imposed for default in such pay- ments ; (c) from casual payments. 184 ''BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" 16. The amount and the manner of collection of the payments and fines mentioned in Section 15 of these rules shall be determined every year by a special order of the People's Commissariat of Labor. APPENDIX TO SECTION 80 RULES CONCERNING LABOR BOOKLETS 1. Every citizen of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, upon assignment to a definite group and category (Section 62 of the present Code), shall receive, free of charge, a labor booklet. Note. The form of the labor booklets shall be worked out by the People's Commissariat of Labor. 2. Each wage earner, on entering the employment of an enterprise, establishment or institution employ- ing paid labor, shall present his labor booklet to the man- agement thereof, or on entering the employment of a private individual — to the latter. Note. A copy of the labor booklet shall be kept by the management of the enterprise, establishment, institu- tion or private individual by whom the wage earner is employed. 3. All work performed by a wage earner during the normal working day as well as piece-work or overtime work, and all payments received by him as a wage earner (remuneration in money or in kind, subsidies from the unemployment and hospital funds) , must be entered in his labor booklet. Note. In the labor booklet must also .be entered the leaves of absence and aick leave of the wage earner, as well as the fines imposed on him during and on ac- count of his work. 4. Each entry in the labor booklet must be dated and signed by the person making the entry, and «lso by the APPENDIX 185 wage earner (if the latter is literate), who thereby certi- fies the correctness of the entry. 5. The labor booklet shall contain: (a) The name, surname and date of birth of the wage earner; (6) The name and address of the trade union of which the wage earner is a member; (c) The group and category to which the wage earner has been assigned by the valuation commis- sion. 6. Upon the discharge of a wage earner, his labor booklet shall under no circumstances be withheld from him. Whenever an old booklet is replaced by a new one, the former shall be left in possession of the wage earner. 7. In case a wage earner loses his labor booklet, he shall be provided with a new one into which shall be copied all the entries of the lost booklet ; in such a case a fee determined by the rules of internal management may be charged to the wage earner for the new booklet. 8. A wage earner must present his labor booklet upon the request: (a) Of the managers of the enterprise, establish- ment or institution where he is employed; (6) Of the Department of Labor Distribution; (c) Of the trade union; (d) Of the officials of workmen's control and of labor protection; ( Master parts of three categories are being worked out : (1) for the production of metal ware on a large scale, (2) for general machine construction, (3) for the con- struction of Diesel engines, which is now developing into a general division of thermo-technics. In addition to this, a project is being completed for a lathe designed for the needs of home industries, and for repair work. A project is being worked out for a series of lathes of all sizes, required for machine con- struction shops. Besides work on the standardization of industry, ef- forts are also being made to lay down the technical con- ditions. Of the above mentioned committees, the following deserve special mention: (1) The committee on steam turbine construction is distributing orders for the construction of turbines of various types. The Petrograd metal works and the Puti- loff wharf have already completed part of their orders. In addition to this, the committee has investigated the construction of steam turbines in Russia. (2) The committee on tractor construction has re- distributed and again alloted orders among the Obukhov factory, the Mamin mill and the Kolomenksky mill for 75, 16 and 30 horse-power tractors. The drawings for the latter type of tractor have been worked out by the committee. Out of the number of tractors ordered at the Obukhov works, the first three Russian-made trac- tors are already completed. The others will be turned cut in January and in June of 1920. It is proposed to organize the production of tractors on a large scale at the new Vyxunsk mill, the building of which is being completed. (3) The committee on the construction of gas genera- ting installations which has determined the basic type of gas generating engine most suitable for the condi- tions of Russian machine construction, has standardized APPENDIX 263 the normal power of the engines; it has also outlined the preliminary measures for the adaptation of certain mills to large scale production of gas-generating engines. (4) The committee for the development and improve- ment of steam boiler construction in Russia, has pre- pared the material and worked out detailed conditions for a contest of stationary water-tube boilers, the cheap- est as to cost of production and the most economical in operation to be adopted by the committee. The com- mittee also prepares the conditions for a contest on the production of a mechanical stoker, having investigated possible productivity and modern methods of produc- tion of steam boilers in Russia. (5) The committee on the construction of refrigera- ting machinery ascertained the requirements for 1919- 1920 in the line of refrigerating machinery ; it is laying down and determining the types of refrigerating ma- chines and apparatus that would be most desirable ; it is working out the construction of the same, etc. Fin- ally, it has drawn up plans for the construction of re- frigerator-barges to sail regularly on the Volga between Astrakhan and Rybinsk. In addition to the above-mentioned commissions, the Metal Department has a number of committees now functioning, such as the committee in charge of supply- ing the country with high grades of steel, having a tech- nical convention of its owti the committee on the organ- ization of the Ural industries, the committee on locomo- tive construction, etc. As we have mentioned before, simultaneously with rendering support to large industries and taking wsteps for their conversion to normal conditions, particularly careful attention had to be given to the intermediate, small and home industries. Intermediate industry comprises almost all of the ag- ricultural machine construction, under the direction of the agricultural machinery section of the Metal Depart- 264 ''BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" ment of the Supreme Council of National Economy. This section operates in close contact with the local governing bodies in charge of the people's industries: provincial, councils of national economy. According to the data of the section, covering the period of October 1st, 1918 to October 1st, 1919, the following simple as well as com- plicated agricultural machines and implements have been produced : 147,453 ploughs 3,717 winnowing machines 1,440 straw cutters 11,451 harrows 98,689 scythes 684,420 sickles 11,980 harvesting machines For the purpose of organizing the production of scythes in the most efficient manner possible the agricul- tural machine section created a special Scythes Bureau, which is investigating this line of production, ascertain- ing the possible amount of productivity if manufactured in the machine shop manner or according to the home industry method, both in the central provinces and in the Ural region. The bureau has laid down a plan for radical change in the nature of production by means of splitting it into two fundamental processes: the metal- lurgical — the rolling of steel of worked out profile; and the finishing process in the mills and shops. For the purpose of rolling the metal it has been proposed to utilize the Vyxunsk mill, which has been requested to include in its program the rolling of steel for the pro- duction of scythes. In the field of home industry production on a small scale the committee on metal products and apparatus of the Metal Department is working in close coopera- tion with other government institutions, having organ- ized agencies in Pavlovsk, Tula, Murom, and Vladimir, for the purpose of financing artisans and distributing APPENDIX 265 raw material among them on the one condition that they turn in their product to the government stores for organized distribution. The results of this work can be judged by the following approximate data on the cost of manufactured products, the stock on hand from previous year returned to the factories and enterprises of the Murom, Pavlovsk, Tula region, as well as to the group of ca.st iron foundries of the provinces of Kaluga and Ryazan. The Murom district, manufacturing cutlery and to some extent also instruments, has turned out, during the period following the organization of the government agency, 15 million roubles' worth of goods, while the total worth of it, including remnants returned, amounts to 25 million roubles; the Pavlovsk district engaged in the manufacture of cutlery, locks and instruments, — among others, .surgical instruments — has produced since October 1st, 1918, 70 million roubles' worth of mer- chandise; including the remnants, this would aggregate to 100 million roubles. The Tula district (hardware, locks, stove accessories, .samovars, hunters' rifles), has produced since May 1919, 30 million roubles' worth of goods, which, including the remnants, amount to 60 million roubles. The cast-iron foundries of the Kaluga and Ryazan districts (manufacturing cast-iron utensils, stove accessories and various other castings) have pro- duced since October 1st, 1918, 50 million roubles' worth of merchandise, including the remnants. Thus, the total amount of goods produced amounts to 165 million roubles, — or to 235 million roubles, if the value of the remnants is added, — taking 40 as the co-efficient of its value according to peace-time prices. The central administration could not take upon it- self the direct organization of home industries to the full extent. Its best assistants in this matter are the local institutions of national economy — the provincial and district metal committees, which have been brought 266 "BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA'* in close contact with the central administration by the conventions of the representatives of the district and provincial metal committees. These conventions were being called at regular intervals for the purpose of work- ing out and ratifying their programs concerning produc- tion and distribution of metals, and financial questions. We must also mention the fact that all the measures in the domain of the metal industry are being carried out with the close and immediate cooperation of the workers' producing association — ^the union of metal workers. Thus, as has been proven from practical experience, the methods and forms of organization of the metal in- dustry have turned out to be correct. Their applica- tion is therefore to be continued and widened, strength- ening the ties binding these organizations with the lo- cal administrative bodies, such as the provincial and district metal committees and with the central manage- ment of the amalgamated enterprises. The great obstacle in the path of future development in our metal industry is the food question, which car- ries with it the dissolution of labor power. Considering the fact that circumstances have compelled our indus- try in general, and particularly the metal industry, to supply chiefly the needs of national defence, to which it is necessary to give right of way over all other in- terests, the authorities and the labor organizations must do everything in their power to avert the food crisis threatening the metal workers, even if this be to the detriment of the population. It is necessary not only to cease all further mobiliza- tion of laborers and responsible workers, but also to select a considerable portion of those already mobilized for the purpose of transferring them from the army into industry. The course of work of the metal industry during the past two years gives us reason to hope that these meas- APPENDIX 267 ures, if introduced systematically, might make it pos- sible to cope with the difficult external conditions and furnish a mighty stimulus for preparing the metal in- dustry for the needs of peaceful construction. M. VINDELBOT. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RURAL INDUS- TRIES B — FROM "economic LIFE," NoV. 7, 1919, The Supreme Council of National Economy has put into practice the idea of nationalization of all our in- dustries: at present there is not one mill or factory of any considerable size that is not the property of the people. During .the second year of its existence, the Supreme Council of National Economy has made some headway in the work of nationalization of land. As a particular instance we might cite the fact that it was upon the initiative and due to the energetic efforts of the Supreme Council of National Economy that the land fund for the sugar industry has been nationalized. The total area of land nationalized for the sugar industry amounts to 600,000 dessiatins. The sugar-beet industry has furnished the initial step in the development of the rural industries, since this particular industry has been better preserved during the transitional period of the Revolution. The alcohol industry occupies the next place. Its development has been begun by the Supreme Council of National Econ- omy during the last few days. These two large branches of rural industry are fol- lowed by a number of lesser significance, such as the 268 ''BARBAEOUS SOVIET RUSSIA' » production of starch, molasses, butter, milk, tobacco, medicinal herbs, the group of fibre plants, etc. The Supreme Council of National Economy is now laying a solid foundation for the development of all these in- dustries. What then is the program of action of the Supreme Council of National Economy for the development of the rural industries? In the first place, to supply defi- nite land areas for the cultivation of certain plants, the introduction of definite forms of agricultural labor, and of uniform management for the manufacturing and agri- cultural industries, the establishment of close connec- tions between the industrial proletariat and the citizens engaged in the rural industries. Among the problems enumerated above, foremost is that of uniting the industrial proletariat with the rural workers. The Supreme Council of National Economy has already begun to work on this task. Thus the indus- trial proletariat is now officially in possession of 90,000 dessiatins of land, on which communes have been or- ganized. , The crops from these estates go to satisfy the needs of the associations in whose name the estates are registered. At the same time, the industrial proletariat, through participation in agricultural labor, is intro- ducing new ideas into the rural industries. The Supreme Council of National Economy is mining the coal from the depths of the earth and exploiting the peat deposits. In order to utilize the resources com- pletely, it is paying particular attention to the conver- sion of swampy areas and exhausted turf deposits into areable land, transforming the bottom of the exploited turf areas into vegetable gardens, the sections border- ing upon the swamps into artificial meadows, and the uplands into fields. During last summer similar work was accomplished on a considerable scale on the lands of the central electric station, in the Government of Mos- cow, the Ilatur electric station, in the Government of APPENDIX 269 Ryazan, Gus-Hrustalny, in the Government of Vladi- mir, and the Gomza estates in the Government of Nizhni- Novgorod. Thus, during last summer, the work was organized in four central provinces, abounding in large areas of land, which cannot be conveniently used for agricultural purposes. Simultaneously the improvement of dwellings, and the building of garden-cities is being given careful and im- mediate consideration. This work is being carried on by the Supreme Council of National Economy at the electric station of Kashirsk, the Shatur station and the Central Electric station. In order to unify rural industries the Supreme Coun- cil of National Economy has formed the central admin- istration of agricultural estates and industrial enter- X-)rises, assigning to it the task of uniting and develop- ing as far as possible, the work of the rural mills. The Central Administration of Agriculture considers it one of its immediate problems to propagate widely the idea of nationalization of land for all iniral indus- tries and the opening of new districts for those indus- tries. In apportioning the land, especially valuable districts should be set apart, such as the meadows, flooded with water from the Don river, fully suitable for the culti- vation of tobacco, fibre plants, and olives, on a large scale. These lands, if distributed among the peasants will never yield such wealth as they could do were they na- tionalized for rational exploitation. Next on the program of the Central Administration of Agriculture is the building up of new branches of ru- ral industry, such as the working of sugar beets into mo- lasses and into beet flour, in the northern districts, the production of ammonium sulphate out of the lower grades of peat, the preparation of fodder out of animal refuse, the production of turf litter material, the prep- 270 '' BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" aration of new sources of nitrate fertilizer out of peat, etc. Electric power must be utilized for the cultivation of land. The practical realization of this problem has been started on the fields of the electric power trans- mission department. This Fall we succeeded in tilling the ground by means of a power-driven plow. In order to build up the rural industries, practical work must be carried on, simultaneously with that which is being done on the particularly important lands, also on such lands as will not be the bone of contention be- tween the proletariat and the peasantry. What lands are these ? The swampy areas, the forest- covered lands, those districts where the people are starv- ing, the dry lands, the scarcely populated districts, etc. These are the brief outlines of the program. The foundations of absolutely all of the development of rural industry mentioned have been laid down. The practical steps for the materialization of the plans have to some extent already been, or are being, undertaken. All of this work the Supreme Council of National Economy had to carry out under extremely difficult con- ditions. Prior to that, a considerable part of the sources of raw material for the rural industries has been com- pletely torn away from the Soviet Republic. Another serious hindrance was the insufficient number of already existing organizations, which would be capable of ful- filling the tasks outlined by the Council. A considerable amount of harm has been done to this work by interde- partmental friction. But difficult as the present conditions may be, and no matter how strong is the desire of the former ruling classes to turn back the tide of life, this is impossible and can never take place. CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION OF AGRICULTURE. APPENDIX 271 NATIONALIZATION OF AGRICULTURE C — FROM "economic LIFE," NoV. 7, 1919. The nationalization of agriculture is one of the most complicated problems of the Socialist Revolution, and perhaps in no other country is this problem as complex as in Soviet Russia. At the time when the decree on Socialist land man- agement was made public, the fundamental elements of nationalization had hardly begun to take shape : the ter- ritory affected by nationalization was by no means de- fined; there was not the personnel necessary for the creation and enforcement of any plan concerning pro- duction ; the large masses of laborers hardly understood the idea of nationalization and in some instances were hostile to the measures by means of which the Soviet power was carrying out the program of nationalization. In order to summarize the results of the work, which began on a nation-wide scale in March, 1919, and to estimate these results, one must first realize the condi- tions which formed the starting-point for the work of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture at the time when it commenced to carry out the nationalization of agriculture. The extent of the capitalist heritage, which our or- ganized Soviet estates now have at their disposal, amounts to 615,503 dessiatins or areable land, situated in the Soviet provinces and formerly in the hands of private owners. Eighty-five per cent of the areable land, which formerly belonged to the landed aristocracy was taken over for the purpose of both organized and non-organized distribution — chiefly the latter. The equipment of the various estates was diminished and destroyed to no lesser extent. Instead of the 386,- 672 privately owned horses, registered in the Soviet provinces, according to the census of 1916, the Soviet 272 *'BAEBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" estates in the hands of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture received 23,149 horses — a number hardly- sufficient for the cultivation of one-third of the area under cultivation now belonging to the Soviet estates. Of the 290,969 cows — only 43,361 came into the posses- sion of the Soviet estates. The entire number of horses and cows will yield sufficient fertilizer for only 13,000 dessiatins of fallow land, i. e., about 10 per cent of the area intended to be converted into areable land. The supply of agricultural machinery and implements was in the same condition. The Soviet estates had almost no stocks of provisions. The workmen were compelled either to steal or to de- sert for places where bread was more abundant. The winter corn was sowed in the fall of 1918 on very limited areas (not over 25 per cent of the fallow land), very often without fertilizer, with a very small quantity of seeds to each dessiatin. In 13 out of 36 Soviet provinces (governments) no winter corn has been sowed at all. A considerable portion of the estates taken over by the People's Commissariat of Agriculture could not be utilized due to the lack of various accessories, such as harness, horseshoes, rope, small instruments, etc. The workers were fluctuating, entirely unorganized, politically inert — due to the shortage of provisioning and of organization. The technical forces could not get used to the village; besides, we did not have sufficient numbers of agricultural experts familiar with the prac- tical organization of large estates. The regulations gov- erning the social management of land charged the rep- resentatives of the industrial proletariat with a leading part in the work of the Soviet estates. But torn between meeting the various requirements of the Republic of prime importance, the proletariat could not with suffi- cient speed furnish the number of organizers necessary for agricultural management. APPENDIX 273 The idea of centralized management on the Soviet estates has not been properly understood by the local authorities, and the work of organization from the very beginning had to progress amidst bitter fighting between the provincial Soviet estates and the provincial offices of the Department of Agriculture. This struggle has not yet ceased. Thus, the work of nationalizing the country's agricul- ture began in the spring, i. e., a half year later than it should have, and without any definite territory (every inch of it had to be taken after a long and strenuous siege on the part of the surrounding population) , with insufficient and semi-ruined equipment, without pro- visions, without an apparatus for organization and with- out the necessary experience for such work, with the agricultural workers engaged in the Soviet estates hav- ing no organization at all. According to our preliminary calculations, we are to gather in the Fall of this year a crop of produce totaling in the 2,524 Soviet estates as follows : Poods Area in Dessiatins Winter crop 1,798,711 54,000 Spring corn 4,765,790 97,720 Potatoes 16,754,900 23,754 Vegetables, approximately .... 4,500,000 4,659 Of the Winter com we received only a little over what was required for seed (in a number of provinces the crops are insufficient for the consumption of the workers of the Soviet estates). The Soviet estates are almost everywhere sufficiently supplied with seeds for the spring crops. The number of horses used on the Soviet estates has been increased through the additional purchase of 12,- 000 to 15,000. The number of cattle has also been somewhat in- creased. 274 *' BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" The Soviet estates are almost completely supplied with agricultural implements and accessories, both by having procured new outfits from the People 's Commissariat for Provisioning and by means of energetic repair work on the old ones. The foundation has been laid (in one-half of the prov- inces sufficiently stable foundations) for the formation of an organizational machinery for the administration of the Soviet estates. Within the limits of the Soviet estates the labor union of the agricultural proletariat has developed into a large organization. In a number of provinces the leading part in the work of the Soviet estates has been practically assumed by the industrial proletariat, which has furnished a number of organizers, whose reputation had been suf- ficiently established. Estimating the results of the work accomplished, we must admit that we have not as yet any fully nation- alized rural economy. But during the eight months of work in this direction, all the elements for its organiza- tion have been accumulated. We have strengthened our position in regard to sup- plies, having been enabled not only to equip more ef- ficiently the Soviet estates (2,524) already included in our system of organization, but also to nationalize dur- ing the season of 1920 additional 1,012 Soviet estates, with an area of 972,674 dessiatins. The combined area of the nationalized enterprises will probably amount in 1920 to about 2,000,000 dessiatins within the present Soviet territority. A preliminary familiarity with individual estates and with agricultural regions makes it possible to begin the preparation of a national plan for production on the Soviet estates and for a systematic attempt to meet the manifold demands made on the nationalized estates by the agricultural industries: sugar, distilling, chemical, APPENDIX 275 as well as by the country's need for stock breeding, seeds, planting and other raw materials. The greatest difficulties arise in the creation of the machinery of organization. The shortage of agricul- tural experts is being replenished with great difficulty, for the position of the technical personnel of the Soviet estates, due to their weak political organization, is ex- tremely unstable. The mobilization of the proletarian forces for work in the Soviet estates gives us ground to believe that in this respect the spring of 1920 will find us sufficiently prepared. The ranks of proletarian workers in the Soviet estates are drawing together. True, the level of their enlighten- ment is by no means high, but "in union there is strength" and this force, if properly utilized, will yield rapidly positive results. In order to complete the picture of the agricultural work for the past year we are citing the following fig- ures: the total expenditures incurred on the Soviet es- tates and on account of their administration up to Jan- uary 1st, 1920, is estimated to amount to 924,347,500 roubles. The income, if the products of the Soviet es- tates are considered at firm prices, amount^ to 843,372,- 343 roubles. Thus, the first, the most difficult year, has ended with- out a deficit, if one excludes a part of the liabilities which are to be met during a number of years, i. e., horses and implements. Of course, it is not the particular experience which the workers possess that has caused the favorable balance of the Soviet estates, this being mainly due to the fact that the productive work in the realm of agriculture un- der modern conditions is a business not liable to lose. And this is natural : industry in all its forms depe^ds upon the supply of fuel, raw material, and food. Na- tionalized rural economy has an inexhaustible supply of 276 ^'BARBAROUS SOVIET RUSSIA" solar energy — a fuel supply independent of transporta- tion of the blockade. The fundamental element of production — ^land — does not demand any ''colonial" means of restoration of its productivity. And as for provisions, these we get from the earth under the sun ! After eight months of work on the nationalization of our rural economy, as a result of two years of titanic struggle on the part of the proletariat for the right to organize the Socialist industries with its own hands, — is it not high time to admit that the most expedient, most far-sighted, and correct method to stabilize the Soviet power would be to use the greatest number of organized proletarian forces for the work of nationalizing our agri- culture ? N. BOGDANOV. % University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 • Box 951388 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. ORC mii\ Form I \ 3 1158 01294 7395 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 728 978 8 ji! mi' ' Hi!'! I| !!! '^m