RUSSIA: 1918

BOLSHEVISM IN PRACTICE.

By W. DANIEL.

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RUSSIA: 1918 ...

51935

BOLSHEVISM IN PRACTICE

BY W. DANIEL.

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PREFACE

HE publication of this series of notes on the events in Russia during the first year of the Bolshevik regime should prove of advantage all round in helping the general public to understand, from the point of view of the details of daily life, what is happening in Russia to-day. In perusing this little volume it is necessary to bear in mind the fundamental difference in character between our own and the Russian race, as otherwise the reader will fail to comprehend how the various changes of opinion, as here set forth, could possibly take place.

The urgent assistance and sympathy of the whole British race is necessary to help this great nation in dire distress, whose inhabitants were deceived and maltreated in the past as in the present, are thoroughly mystified by the enormity of what has occurred, and are utterly unable themselves to understand the series of events happening in their own country. Their very faith has been put up to blasphemy and declared to be a worthless relic of the old order of things, thus uprooting the beliefs of centuries; their characters have been unstablized by the ever changing and kaleidoscopic series of events; their lives, their very souls have become the playthings of a guilty minority, which jeers at the distraction of the mothers who by acts of murder show their inability to witness further the agony of their starving babes, and which claims as rightful recruits for prostitution all youth and innocence in the land.

Civilization has been uprooted in that unhappy country, the sufferings of all classes have never been so great, hunger, disease and unemployment stalk through the land, whilst one can safely predict that a continuation of the present methods of administration would eventually lead to the extermination of the entire population from the effects of starvation alone.

CONTENTS

RUSSIA : 1918. BOLSHEVISM IN PRACTICE.

CHAPTER I.

RUSSIA has been advertised very extensively during the earlier stages of the war, and latterly she has advertised herself to a remarkable degree.

No doubt after reviewing the whole series of events the average looker-on from the point of view of the daily papers will consider that he is none the wiser on the subject of that vast country, although he has daily had thrust under his nose at the breakfast table some phase of its people's activities, follies and peculiarities. The fact however remains that the bulk of the public are now well schooled to the idea that Russia presents a distinct persons lity of its own, a living force not to be ignored and a great possibility for the future.

Hitherto regarded in the light of a far distant enigma, little known, and from a business man's point of view somewhat doubtful, Russia now emerges as a serious commercial consideration, only awaiting the transformation to a state with pretensions to orderly civilization from its present state of chaos upon chaos, to become a great factor in international trade.

The language sounds strange to the average Englishman and would appear to be a barrier to commercial intercourse. Our commercial travellers may speak French and German, but of Russian the majority have hitherto been a little shy, yet there are a far greater number of Britishers with a knowledge of the Russian language than is generally supposed.

Money was ever easily earned by foreigners in the easy-going cities of Russia. The Jew had not the opportunity in most cases of bringing sharp competition to bear on his neighbour, whilst my Russian was mostly hardly in a fit state earlier than 12 o'clock midday to bring his thoughts to the serious consideration of business problems after his previous night's revelries and late hours. He can not be said to be a lover of hard work, and although often filled with enthusiasm and bright ideas, he has not always the necessary force of character to carry on his efforts to a satisfactory termination.

Thus whole industries have been initiated and brought to maturity by foreigners, whilst foreign agencies have thrived on the sale of goods manufactured abroad, and the foreigner has most often been found to occupy the leading commercial positions throughout the country. Russia can not by any means be said to be destitute of institutions for the technical education. The upper classes had every opportunity to acquire knowledge in all and every kind of the commercial sciences, but the fault lies in the fact that the system hitherto in vogue produces very few specialists, and practical men none at all. A man steps out into the world with very high honours acquired in all branches of engineering, for example, but take him to your factory and you will find that he has no particular knowledge of your particular machines. Our usual system, whereby a man serves his apprenticeship to some special branch of trade, whereby he obtains a sound practical knowledge of his departmental work, without, however, any special technical skill, will invariably prove to be of more commercial value in practice than all the products of great institutions for imparting to the youth the ethics of the thing in the abstract, as practised in Petrograd and Moscow. Our system saves itself more or less, as we usually have a combination in the few heads of our business ventures, whereas our brother Russian exceedingly seldom combines the necessary technical skill with a sound practical backing.

For this reason I suppose I, like many others before me, no product of Russia being available; found myself, after being invited to betake myself to Russia, in command of a cotton mill representing the investment of large sums of British money, on the eventful night when the Kerensky Government was overthrown. We waited expectantly for the issue of events from this latest of revolutions, having but recently been witnesses to the betrayal of Korniloff, with the attendant wild excitements and rumours incidental to the approach of that patriot's army to the capital.

The one possibility of saving Russia's honour, and the only escape from all her subsequent miseries, apart from Allied support, during this most difficult period of reconstruction, had been ruthlessly sacrificed by one man whose fanatical visions lack the very essence of capability, the whole being overshadowed by his own self-complacent belief in his cleverness and superior personality, which at a blow threw the young republic to the ground, a prey to the dark forces of enemy intrigue, Jewish vampires, and all the criminal classes of the country.

As a talker in public he was undoubtedly second to none in the country. He also imagined that success could only be obtained and held by compromise, that his own brains would prove capable of finding means to hold in check the ever-growing power of the Soviets, which had steadily sprung to life and were thriving under this self-complacency like mushrooms in the dark, surely but slowly

displacing the obstructing sods above and gradually rearing forth their numberless heads into the light of day. This day had arrived, and the presence of the Soviets had become a potent factor, claiming for themselves all power in all things, after long months of thriving on a reckless policy of inaction, compromise and futile rhetoric, crowned by the overthrow of the only living force capable at the time of establishing the necessary democratic dictatorship to preserve the integrity of Russia against the ravenous foe without.

The circle of ministers dissolved into the embrace of this new power; some endeavoured to prove their early recognition and assistance to this new force in the land, and others to save themselves in flight, whilst their leader became a fugitive from his own accomplices.

Gathering a decidedly lukewarm army about himself in the immediate provinces, he now endeavoured to do what he had denied Korniloff the possibility of doing some weeks earlier, and after boring them with long drawn-out and needless speeches, again lost the game through the eventual disgust and lack of confidence of all in a man of words and so essentially without deeds.

After that the Kerensky fiasco was definitely at an end, an exploded soapwater bubble, and Kerensky himself, as we see, eventually joins the Anglo-East End throng thriving on British democratic liberty, but none the less raising its voice in dissatisfaction against its good-natured protectors.

This second revolution, as the Bolsheviks call their successful overthrow of the Provisional Government, has many interesting sides to it, and its results may in fact be called the most unique and criminal record of any government, if government it can be called at all, ever known to exist.

The actual tactics of overthrow were not made conspicuous by any great amount of fighting, by plots and counter-plots, or the consummation of a well-planned coup d'etat, but eventually resolved itself into a case of sheer force overcoming all resistance by overwhelming pressure, in much the same manner as a block of steel is rolled out into a steel plate, giving resistance, but powerless to resist the issue.

Kerensky and his government were, for reasons no doubt attributable to much propaganda amongst a class of man who had little to loose, and considered himself well occupied as a mercenary soldier with the resultant possibility of pillage and loot, very unpopular with the rank and file of Lettish troops. Immediately after his overthrow the main movements of a military character noticeable in the town, apart from the preparations of the Soviets to resist the re-entry of Kerensky into Petrograd, were the influx of these soldiers with all their military equipment, the majority appearing to have

come from Finland. These troops had no feelings of sentiment towards the population of Petrograd, and, for that matter, for anyone at all, and were for that reason very suitable for all acts of repression by the Bolsheviks, in which capacity they have succeeded in excelling in every part of Bolshevik Russia, indeed proving themselves the most reckless and merciless adherents to a regime of the most appaling infamy, to which belonged mainly those who derived some material advantage from its prolongation.

Just prior to his downfall Kerensky is believed to have assured the Allied representatives that he only needed the provocation of a rising to be able to crush this growing force of the Soviets once and for all. It is exceedingly doubtful if he himself believed this statement to be true at the time, but owing to wild rumours at the time of Mr. Kerensky's marriage to a well-known actress, at the most critical period, it would appear to an onlooker that this ruler was not clever enough to realise the situation as it stood.

All began very quietly in the capital, and Petrograd, in spite of the total absence of any visible organization for keeping public order in the public interest, continued its normal course for several weeks with no more alarming incidents than the lynching of thieves in the streets, and a growing danger to the evening pedestrian of being relieved of his property and clothes in the streets of the town.

The hooligan type, which benefited from this state of controlless inaction, soon became more daring, and it became necessary for the inhabitants of each house to organize for the protection of their premises at night against the intrusion of armed marauders. Thus one was frequently on duty for a night watch, with a loaded revolver at hand, in the vicinity of the main entrance of the block of flats in which one happened to live, and apart from this we employed soldiers, who had individually returned from the front with their guns, to patrol the street outside our own particular house at night.

The workpeople at this time, although collectively less violent in their behaviour than during the period of political inactivity preceding the second revolution, which had failed to give them the benefits they had anticipated, and had yet given them courage enough to endeavour to obtain their demands by force, the government having shown a lack of any policy which could be said to favour either side, showed a spirit of determined hostility towards their employers. They firmly believed that having been largely, if not wholly, instrumental in the putting into power of the Soviet government, they would now reap the full reward of their actions as promised by the plausible leaders of the movement, namely: peace, food in abundance, and workpeople's ownership of the factories, with the complete overthrow of the former managements, and a division of all profits amongst themselves.

CHAPTER II.

felt in the factories by the establishment of the new Ministry of Labour, over which presided and predominated labour men and the student class of Socialist. The establishment of Works' Committees in every factory now became a phase of factory life. The people appointed to the membership of these Works' Committees had hitherto been working members of the staff who had been the ringleaders in all troubles, and the spokesmen in all disputes with foremen or managements. They now, however, claimed full recognition by the simple process of demanding a room as an office in every mill, and the payment of one member of the committee for every hundred workpeople, without any compulsion being put upon the members thus elected to do any work whatsoever apart from the looking after of the interests of the other workpeople.

The newly-established Ministry of Labour called meetings of all these committees on certain days of the week at headquarters, each trade being dealt with individually, and its members being instructed as to the steps they were to take in the immediate future with or against their employers, this after careful consideration and the most searching inquiries as to the conditions of labour prevailing at each factory. The organization thus far established can only be said, from the point of view of modern social democracy, to have been an admirably arranged and managed affair in so far as all disputes had to be settled by arbitration at the Ministry. The employers can, however, hardly be said to have had a fair chance, as the committees thus formed far exceeded in number the entire management and office staff, whilst the unhappy manager was also largely "up against it" as far as these latter are concerned. The workpeople also had the support of their Union delegates at all the cases in dispute, and needless to say that of the judges. Let us picture an unfortunate manager at one of these meetings. A large room filled with tables capable of seating from six to eight people. Round the table are seated, apart from the manager, two of the permanent officials of the Ministry, a Union delegate, and the remaining seats are occupied by his own workpeople, who also muster around the table in large numbers to substantiate each other's evidence, whilst the whole place rings with the sounds of shouts and arguments from the other tables in the vicinity, where similar proceedings are in progress. True, the manager could bring with him a secretary from the Masters' Association, which at that time was still in existence, but this individual counts for nothing, and is considered an intruder in a weighty matter of showing the manager how he should be treated in these revolutionary

times. A certain fairness was, however, shown in all cases where the manager put forward technical or financial reasons for refusing this or that demand. We may, however, safely say that in nine cases out of ten the Works' Committee returned triumphantly to the mill, and after calling a general meeting in the middle of working hours on full pay, and having explained the downfall of the management as it occurred, resumed its occupation of novel reading pending further disturbances. To say that the strain of paying these unoccupied individuals was too heavy a drag on the resources of the firm would be incorrect at the time, only because then it was still possible to demand any price for goods sold, and because competition was practically non-existent, all manufactured commodities being greedily swallowed up by the dealers.

continual harping on the possible necessity of consulting these gentlemen, and the production of permits for one thing and another quite unsolicited, from them.

be made at the State bank. The trade in this species of document very rapidly increased, so that after several days it became impossible to get a cheque cashed without having previously occupied a position in a queue outside the bank from 3 a.m. onwards. Both private and State banks were only open for this sort of business, and for one hour only daily. The bank staffs were then invited to resume their work under the new owners, whilst the management were in every case completely ignored. The staffs declined to work under these conditions, and the resultant deadlock did not assist matters, except that the work-people had their first experience of going home without their wages on pay day. The banks thus continued to do no business at all, even being used as latrines and remaining in a filthy state, whilst owners used their last remaining resources to pay their obligations in the hopes of a speedy release from these difficulties. This was the situation without any alteration a month after the banks had first been occupied.

Other detachments, told off to destroy all the stocks of wine in the town, carried out their work whilst their Jewish brethren had been keeping an eye on the banks. This involved all manner of excesses, which continued without interruption for three months. A cellar would be surrounded and invaded, when a great smashing of bottles would ensue, and the invariable drunken orgy started by some members of the invading party. Then a split in the party, with heavy reinforcements on both sides, always resulted in a first-class shooting match with much waste of ammunition, lasting as long even as ten days in certain cases, during which the cellar was probably taken and re-taken many times over, whilst the inhabitants of houses above and round about went in fear of their lives, or laid in a stock of most excellent wines for a mere song, as the circumstances of the moment dictated. The resultant bodies were flung into the nearest canal or became buried in the snow, whilst bottles littered the streets for hundreds of yards in the vicinity, and houses took on the appearance of a small-pox patient as a result of the wholesale machine gun and rifle fire. Finally to prevent people from drinking the resultant mixture in the cellar, these places were pumped or baled out into the street, where French and German wines vanished together in the slush and snow.

CHAPTER III.

Businesses were seized and declared to be the property of the clerks. In many cases the former owner was driven out entirely, in others he could remain on suffrance at a salary less than or equal to the junior member of his staff. All funds were seized, and banking accounts only made payable to the order of the committee of control. Money was recklessly divided, if obtainable, and ruin speedily followed. The owner, one would expect from the point of view of English standards, to refuse to have any dealings with this rabble of outlaws, but, alas,

he hoped against hope for a change to occur, and having no court of justice or appeal, allied himself to these proceedings in a vain hope of being able to save something from the wreck before all was lost. Thus we witnessed many such establishments of the lesser order in a state when neither goods nor trade remained to staff or owner, which state of affairs usually culminated in a stormy meeting at which all the books were examined, the owner having to be present to be charged with a misappropriation of funds which most probably never existed. Then the assistance of a commissar would be called in, which only served to increase the chaos, and the owner could be pleased if he escaped without imprisonment. After that appeared a pompous advertisement in the official organ of the Soviets announcing the confiscation of that particular business, its goods, assets, etc., but nothing about its liabilities.

so far not reconciled themselves to revolution at all; although undoubtedly at this period the majority favoured the plausible arguments of the Bolshevik agitators as the most likely thing to bring them all they desired in the future, of which bread, peace, and other people's goods were the principal attractions. It would almost be safe to say that at one time or another almost the entire population of the lower middle and working classes called themselves Bolsheviks until, in this way or that, the recognition of the fact that the new power did not mean a fortune to themselves individually forced itself into their outlook on the future.

Then we have the great bogus of the National Assembly. Had we not heard great things about the future of free Russia under the guidance of the elected of this vast nation—how all difficulties and disputes would fade before these coming legislators; would not every one of the many parties be able to witness before its very eyes its actual status in the land, as proven by the number of the delegates assembled, representing the votes of the masses of the electors; great hopes and vain belief in the honesty of our fellow mortals. Elections, of a sort, were held in due course under conditions laid down by the new powers, placing all manner of restrictions on electors and elected alike, so that a great proportion of the population went on strike, in the sense that they refused to vote one way or the other. None the less, the result of the elections did not apparently give satisfaction to those in control, and in any case there was no intention to allow so much as one member of another party to raise his voice in the affairs of the future of the nation. Hence, as we all know, the futile attempts of the few who eventually assembled in Petrograd to meet for a discussion of the situation. The majority were refused even admission into the hall of assembly, and the whole fabric of hopes collapsed in a farce, amidst the chagrin and bewilderment of all classes not firmly allied to the Bolsehvik cause. A large number of people interested in politics, and great numbers of ardent Socialists belonging to the left or right Socialist parties, and Mensheviks, suffered a serious blow alike to their aspirations and pride over the squashing of the assembly, and thus we get a further large quota of the population estranged from any further practical sympathy with the Bolshevik cause.

A mention should here be made of the Mayor of Petrograd, who made superhuman efforts to carry on the municipal offices of the town—sanitary, medical, utilitarian and otherwise. A feeble old man, of about seventy years of age, Mr. Shreider was a true patriot, and declined to cease his efforts for the public good in spite of armed forces which forcibly closed his office, turned him out, scattered his assistants, and eventually threw him into prison. Why it was necessary to interfere with him, or at least why he could not have been replaced without this most unnecessary violence, is quite beyond comprehension, except that he also amongst his many activities attempted to obtain fair play at the elections, which may have been the cause of the subsequent

persecution of a fearless old man, who otherwise never concerned himself in any way with politics.

CHAPTER IV.

O one at the time in Russia could have explained the situation exactly as to cause and effect of all the daily disturbances. The Russians are easily led and easily excited; but on all and every occasion they take fate as they find it, and finish by being content in their own way, which is the only fact that made life possible at all. Every time all became quiet around the town all the shops would re-open if they had goods to sell, the shutters, however, ready on the pavement to be put up at a moment's notice. Of course the quantities of goods for sale were of the scantiest, but the continual influx of just enough to help one to be able to get along somehow had the peculiar effect of causing a wholesale search of premises to be ordered and carried out towards the end of the month, in an endeavour to discover hidden supplies.

Numbers of Germans and Austrians, in full uniform, had been making their appearance in daily increasing numbers, and at this time they increased to such an extent that it became quite a matter for astonishment where from, and how, all these people reached the city. Officers and men rubbed shoulders in the streets, although the number of German officers in uniform as compared with the Austrians was infinitesimal. The man in the street told them to go home, believing them all to be prisoners of war, and explaining that as far as they were concerned the war was at an end; but the wildest rumours were afloat about the intended capture of the city by the Germans from within. In the face of the numberless enemy subjects one felt quite relieved to talk to some of the Bolshevik officials, to ascertain their view of the subject, in fact, I quite liked some of these extremists at the time, especially as no unnecessary bloodshed on a large scale had been caused up to date, and the only sincere ones were dupes, whilst the others professed to be, and were, rogues. Also at the time their absurd theories had not been carried beyond a point dictated by the wisdom of the "wait and see" idea.

About this time I had occasion to travel in the province, and saw a little of the modus operandi of the railway service under the banner of freedom. My route took me towards the German frontier, and my fellow-passengers were a motley throng of women and children, men and boys loaded with every conceivable article of household furniture.

It was generally understood that a train left in the evening, and being a bitterly cold night I went to great pains to discover a compartment where the windows were not smashed, and at last secured such a one, this being one of only three or four which were intact throughout the whole train. The backs of the seats were raised as if for sleeping, and I hoisted myself on to one of these, knowing that the train would be crowded to overflowing. All plush and every fitting in the compartment had been removed, and even the layers of canvas or duck which cover the springs had been cut away. "What is the use of freedom," says the rural Russian if he cannot remove good plush going to waste in a railway carriage. In my compartment were eventually herded, one upon the other, a total of twenty-seven people, and the door was tightly shut. The train made no attempt to move until about 3 a.m., being scheduled according to the last time-table issued at 10 p.m. On the roofs of every carriage were innumerable soldiers lying huddled in furs in the bitter cold, whilst their luggage was tied to the ventilators on the top of the train, and hung over the windows at the sides in much the same manner as a camel is loaded for a trip over the desert. The temperature must have been well 15 degrees below zero, and according to rumour most of these deck passengers fell off and became buried in the snow. However, I cannot vouch for this, as I was unable to get out of my compartment until 11 a.m. the next day, and then no one remained on the roof, although a number of pieces of baggage still encumbered the outside of the train. During the night the air in the compartment became so stifling that I put my foot through the window, which proved to be fastened with screws, the Russians declining to open the door an inch to allow of a little fresh air coming in. No one asked for any tickets, and apparently this sort of train was run by the people for the people to commit suicide on, or otherwise, gratis. On the return journey I must say I found things better, and even the train was not quite so dilapidatd.

Having got back to town I found things quieter. They seemed to be short of ammunition, or saving it for the next best occasion. This, however, proved to be again only the lull before the storm. The Germans declared their intention of occupying the town, and incidentally let loose all the forces of chaos which resulted from the varied and mixed feelings with which people viewed this latest development. The British colony almost vanished in a week, or rather what was left of it; the exceptions being the Consulate and a few commercial men who, like myself, felt that things could be no worse under whosoever came next, and that time remained to disappear at the eleventh hour if necessary. A few old ladies and invalids also remained. The panic increased, hundreds of British leaving daily, also the Embassy staffs; whilst Russians also, amongst whom were all sorts and conditions, fled pell-mell, however possible, beyond the limits of the town, on foot, by cart or train, just as the opportunity occurred. The British members of mill staffs had become a thing of the past in a few days, and with them went the last shreds of all technical control except such scant attention as one or two remaining managers could give to such matters. At the stations every Englishman received the utmost courtesy from the Red Guards and all officials encountered during their departure. Their passports were not visied, as no one could b found to perform this

Opposite our mill an establishment known as a Red Guard staff had been established under the command of a villainous-looking sailor. These people gave me endless trouble, but none the less served the purpose of keeping us from molestation by other hooligans. These people filled their own yard with guns of all calibre, and out of every window protruded machine guns. At any hour of the day or night shells and bullets buzzed over and around our premises, making it very dangerous to be anywhere but under cover, and even then one had no guarantee of security. Long envied as a most suitable ground for expansion, the houses of mill foremen and others in our yard were one day occupied by these gentry of all arms and declared to be their property henceforth. As this would have spelt the end of any further peaceful work at the factory, one had to resolve on a more or less desperate move, and finally I personally led a detachment of our own Red Guard into the stronghold over the road and demanded the clearance of our premises. This resulted in endless talk, threats, and unpleasantness, but fortunately not in a free fight, as I rather feared. The office staff arranged a counter demonstration against me with the

aid of some soldier friends; however we carried the day, and the place was duly evacuated solely because of the hostile attitude of our own workpeople to the invaders. After that it was necessary to fill the houses of the departed foremen with our own workpeople, and thus the peace was preserved for a while.

At the mill we were in receipt of an official notice to be ready to evacuate all our machinery in 24 hours, later being visited by an official whose business was supposed to be the arranging of details of transport. One felt in no mood for these people at the time, and ignored the notice, using very impolite language to the man in question; after which I heard no more of the matter.

An outstanding feature of the whole state of affairs at the time was the difficulty of concentrating on the quiet continuation of the work under such conditions, of coming to any vital decisions such as the purchase of such raw materials as might be available, and of finding the money should one come to the reluctant decision to buy. To close down was out of the question at the time, if only from the point of view of losing the support of the workpeople, who in the long run served

to keep things together by giving the necessary backing to the management, if somewhat unconsciously, whilst themselves again inclining to lean on the manager for support throughout this crisis owing to the threat of unemployment and the fear of the Germans. Was ever business carried on under such trying and such varying conditions? A change of management had really been the best possible move on the part of those responsible, giving the new man a chance to start on a more democratic basis, with full recognition extended to the Works Committee and Unions alike, taking advantage where he could of the changing circumstances and giving way where he must, unreservedly, to the wild and extravagant demands that were made, coaxing and persuading to obtain the line of action necessary at the moment and following out an elastic and tactful policy suitable for the day, but changeable to-morrow. A man was necessary who could take a pretty series of adversity with a smile and still be an optimist; who could say all goes well because we still have a factory, and that is the main issue at the moment; what occurs incidentally is all in the way of trivialities, both unavoidable and anticipated, but seldom pleasant. An Englishman could always console himself with the reflection that he had a homeland to retreat to, whereas the unhappy Russian was fated to live in the nest he had made for himself. Sympathy can, however, in every case not be said to be deserved by the Russian in general, the lower classes having spoilt themselves by their general doings and the upper classes by doing so little.

April saw the end of any immediate threat to Petrograd, although 24 hours would have been enough to have taken the place in at any time. The rout of the Red Army in Finland also had its effect on the capital, as the limit of the advance of the Finnish-German army could likewise not be gauged, whilst hordes of all the scum of Russia were driven pell mell from beyond the borders of that little country back into the capital. Poor Finland! For months vainly struggling against the terror in their midst, at that date far worse than anything known in Petrograd, she at length called in the assistance of the enemies of the Allies and herself, to help her wash her territory of the Bolshevik evil, and only succeeded in exchanging one robber for another.

CHAPTER V.

TOW for a short while we have a more settled state. True, German missions and consulates, and even Embassies, invaded the country, but the Bolshevik had now decided that provided he obeyed orders he was apparently free to rummage in his own nest. At once this feeling became reflected amongst the labour at the works, these now casting about themselves for guidance in fulfilling their interrupted task of taking everything in their own hands from the hated capitalist.

If they could have found the opportunity to get excited on all and every occasion of dispute things would have taken a different course. We will now leave the Soviet of the People's Property and its effects for a time, to refer to the contemporary events.

CHAPTER VI.

full day's strenuous effort was again marked as payable, this time at the State bank. The following day this remarkable cheque was actually cashed. Thus my first effort at cashing cheques under this reconstructed banking system gave me something to think about, and the prospect of a fortnightly repetition of this pantomime was not in any way heartening. Anyway, for several times after that the financial control passed my cheques without any further visits to the office. According to a decree every person was now compelled to accept cheques in payment for anything, but the majority preferred not to sell anything. One needed money urgently, and it became necessary to think out a plan for obtaining it. There remained the possibility of obtaining goods from the controlled firms for cheques, and selling again to such small dealers as remained active for cash, and this had to be done at some risk. Also cash books were falsified and a complete set of false books kept, in which many entries failed to appear regarding sums received, but none referring to expense were forgotten. The shortage of fuel, owing to the money conditions under which no one would carry on, led to large requisitions by the Soviet of the People's Property on behalf of controlled firms. To obtain a share of this plunder I led my Works Committee to the fore, and got my quota of the stolen property in return for cheque payment.

Later, banks again began to collect cheques and place these sums to your credit, the individuals in charge having come to a better knowledge of the subject by this time; commissions amounting to large sums were charged however for this service, although all the banks were now known as branches of the State bank. A sum beyond the small allowance to private individuals could be obtained from bank officials by the simple expedient of giving 50 per cent. of the amount required to that official. Also a sum of 5000 roubles was sufficient to have a sum much larger written in your pass book where no sum had been paid in at all. The bank safes, in which were stored the securities of the firm, were closely inspected; all gold, cash, and in many cases jewellery being confiscated alike from firms or individuals. In the case of paper money this sum was put to your credit in your bank account.

Later these safes were again opened in the presence of the owner, if he appeared, and this time all securities were confiscated. In my case, I was relieved of considerable quantities of share certificates, both English and Russian, for which I received a receipt. The faces of some of the private owners who were being despoiled at the time were a sight never to be forgotten. Two days after this I was visited at my flat by a Jewish commissar who was in charge of that particular bank, and the following propositions were made to me:—

• 1.—To sell me back all confiscated share certificates at 10 per cent. of their nominal value.
• To sell me all share certificates in a hitherto unopened safe at 5 per cent. of their nominal value.

3.—For 2000 roubles to prevent this second safe being opened at all.

All these ideas I, of course, declined to be a party to.

Meanwhile, Asiatic cholera had been raging in the town, and lurry loads of coffins were a daily sight in the streets. Even bodies were removed in lurries without any covering whatever, and medical assistance stations were established in all the principal streets to render first aid to sufferers which might be too late if left till the person reached his home. Grave-digging became a serious problem, and led to thousands of the better class people being ordered individually to appear for burial duties. Offices were established for the purpose, and the president of each house committee had to appear in person with a list of all the inmates of his house. Then he received little slips which he had to deliver to all the men in his house whose names appeared on the list. My most reliable man at the mill was afflicted with a slight attack of this grim disease, and I had to replace him at repair work in the mill, being very badly able to spare the time from the office. Whilst thus engaged, and at the busiest time, I received such a slip to appear for burial duties, and needless to say informed them that an Englishman did not usually undertake other people's dirty work, after which I heard no more of the matter. Mainly owing to a very fortunate cold spell of weather, the disease was got under at a time when it threatened very serious consequences, owing to the under-nourished state of the population.

After a very troublesome time with the Works Committee I again found a change taking place. Lack of food, delays in the payment of wages, and the threats of a German occupation had so disheartened them that they became quite childish in their attitude towards the management once again. The office staff had been threatened by myself, and were quite overawed by the workpeople, and inclining to the belief that things could not remain thus had ceased all hostilities to myself and continued their work in a quiet, sulky manner. Also just at this time the doings of their unions, and the publications of their trade union journals, had found extreme disfavour with the powers of the land, and these went so far as to publish a decree excluding all office staffs from any further "benefits" of the revolution, and ordering all managements to refuse them any further advances in wages from that date. This of course had the effect of placing them at the mercy of everyone, and having made themselves very unpopular all round they soon paid the penalty of their crimes by seeing every labourer's wage soar well above that of a clerk of many years' service.

CHAPTER VII.

fear, but any satisfaction one might have derived from that turn of events was easily overshadowed by the increasing pressure from without. At last even the workpeople were beginning to realise that all the vain promises of food and peace had produced nothing of the sort. Red Guards were being hurried off in all directions to suppress risings against the Soviets from Archangel to Odessa, labourers, thrown out of their employment by the ruin of the firms to which they had belonged, were compelled to join the Red Army, having no other alternative for obtaining food, whilst the hordes of soldiers still returning from various fronts formed many unwilling detachments from sheer lack of anything better to do. The Germans were making great progress in their activities of bringing every industry of the country to a standstill, no doubt in order to have everything at their mercy when the appropriate time arrived, and they were also obtaining a great amount of information they desired about the various important industries of the country. Their unwilling but obedient servants, the Bolsheviks, explained this state of affairs when questioned by saying that it was necessary to break down the entire sequence of affairs in order to begin again on their own lines. This policy of destruction could not, however, be openly carried out with that intention, as the workpeople, though steadily losing ground, had still a considerable amount of power in the land. Nevertheless, by the end of August they also had fully realised the situation, but by that time they had lost all influence; their power, their work, their arms, their all had gone.

Thus at the time when I most needed the Committee to support my demands, or to make demands in their own name on behalf of the firm, they resigned in a body and refused to continue to act, bringing me all the rubber stamps and equipment and offering to sign any number of blank papers or forms in advance as a sort of compromise. This I could not permit, and we thus had a complete reversal from the situation of a few months previously, when we had to struggle against the entire power of control being handed over to them. This likewise was by no means the universal attitude, although very general at the time. In many mills of importance the Committee had been seen to be weakening for some time, and these had been replaced by professional agitators, from the government school for agitators, and even members of the actual Soviet government appointed to keep their eyes on events.

An attempt to keep the workpeople quiet was made as soon as the harvest was ready. From every mill and factory a quota of men and even women was ordered to go and fetch the corn for themselves and their fellow-workers under Bolshevik control. These detachments were armed and incorporated "temporarily" in the Red Army, it being already nothing new to see women engaged in this most unladylike occupation. They were put under Red Army leaders and set out in great good humour. However, sad was the tale related by the returning stragglers, and great the dissatisfaction. True the harvest was obtained in many districts, and loaded into trucks at the disposal of the government, but at what a price! Farmers were paid nothing and left nothing for the winter. In desperation they fetched from their lofts and outhouses the machine guns and rifles they had laid aside since the time when they had straggled home from the war, and then commenced a disorganized defence of their house and property, which resulted in such an appaling slaughter of men, women and children, together with the burning of their homes and complete devastation of thousands of villages, as will sicken the world by its horror when the full facts become generally known. For months this sort of thing continued, particularly in the districts close to the German occupied zone. Then large numbers of these provision detachments were driven forward to fight in other parts of the country against Czecho-Slovaks, Cossacks and all the other miscellaneous armies collected in various parts of that huge country.

To continue the tale of our relationship with the Soviet of the People's Property. This we had come to regard in the light of a sort of glorified trades union, however, it was necessary to note all of the many decrees issued under its signature. When applying for a permit to send goods to Moscow from the Nicholas Railway Station, which formula had become necessary owing to the restricted services to prevent hopeless congestion at the collecting depots, I was referred to the above-mentioned Soviet. Having sent the clerk who had the matter in hand to that place, I received the reply that the permit would not be granted, so I gathered together the orders for the goods, all from large factories, and started out to visit these people personally. A sleek-looking young Jew was the man I got hold of, after fruitless arguments with others, this man occupying the position of first secretary to the section. Here I was told that I should be aware of the fact that speculation was now prohibited, and that I should on no account receive a permit. This, needless to say, rather dumbfounded me, and I went on to explain that the goods we had made were absolutely necessary to the factories concerned for their continued production, were mostly ordered by various control committees, and had been manufactured by Petrograd workmen, for which labour they were paid their wages. This availed nothing, and I enquired on whose behalf the so-called Soviet of the People's Property might be working, as it could not possibly be in the interests of the work-

At about this time we were in receipt of a very lengthy printed form from this "People's Property" bureau, consisting of one long string of questions, which by a moderate estimate, if conscientiously filled in, could not take less than two months to complete in the time

The reason for all this additional stringency was the ever-greater shortage of cash at the banks, owing largely to the number of large cheques cashed for the commissars, which these had received in the course of all manner of bribery for failure to arrest, interfere, appropriate, etc. Taxes became a source of income to the individual instead of to the State. The various needy ex-officials whose services had been enlisted presented claims, which after lunch were settled on a small percentage basis in favour of the inspector. This refers, however, only to those taxes which had been in vogue prior to the Bolshevik usurpation, and not to the extraordinary taxes levied by them through the Soviets.

CHAPTER VIII.

ITH reference to the general conditions about the town about midsummer, as already stated things were quieter on the whole. Shooting matches in the streets had become quite infrequent, whilst the evening daylight had quite damped the efforts of the hooligan element. Of police, of course, there had been none since the advent of the first revolution, and strangely enough these now were very little missed, providing that one remained indoors during the dark hours, the exceptions being usually such occasions as would in our country call for the reading of the Riot Act or the declaration of martial law. The Isvoschik plying for hire in the streets had decreased to an enormous extent. Horse meat had become the principal article of diet months ago, apart from the continual dying of horses in the streets from under nourishment and the Bolshevik requisition from among the remainder for their military purposes. As many as three or four could be seen lying dead or dying at any time of any day on the Nevsky Prospect. Traffic, as the result of the closing of factories, etc., and the horse shortage, almost vanished from the streets, whilst petrol from August onwards had become a commodity exclusively reserved for the automobiles of the commissars, and mainly those commissars of the Extraordinary Commission for the fight with counter-revolution. Theatres had been in full swing still in the spring, but later such performances as were continued were carefully avoided by all cautious people owing to the wholesale arrests of audiences, which were frequently marched hundreds strong from the theatre to a place of confinement, to be sorted out at the pleasure of their captors, usually resulting in a very leisurely proceeding which caused months of imprisonment to many innocent people.

Picture houses fared likewise, all the young women being marched off on several occasions to the barracks of various Red Army units and there set to wash dirty clothes, etc., and being finally released from two to three days later. The main occupants of the streets during both afternoon and evening were sailors, together with all manner of girls dressed surprisingly gaudily considering that there was an entire lack of any purchasable clothing. No doubt thousands of girls were driven by hunger and lack of work to seek the company of sailors as a means of obtaining enough money to buy any available food at the enormous prices prevailing. These gentlemen always appeared to have plenty of cash, the rumour being that in order to keep them quiet they were thus handsomely provided for. The river was packed with cruisers, destroyers, mine sweepers, merchant ships

and auxiliaries, which arrived in one continual stream from the time of the defeat of the Red Army in Finland onwards. Not enough river frontage being available in the town, many of the lighter craft took up permanent station along the villages by the river as far as Schlusselberg.

All newspapers, with the exception of the three Government organs, had been suppressed and their presses confiscated and staffs ejected. Apart from this the only papers available were the entire list of German dailies, which arrived as regularly as clockwork, three to four days after their publication, presumably via Stockholm and the boats from Sweden. Other foreign papers had not been seen throughout the entire year. The landing of our forces at Archangel

At this period the most notable organization in the town was the Extraordinary Commission for the fight with counter-revolution and speculation, situated in the building formerly occupied by the police as headquarters, in the Gorochovaia Street No. 2, the institution being usually simply known as "Gorochovaia," and presided over by the famous Uritzky, the Petrograd counterpart of the Moscow Pieters of ill fame. This Uritzky was an elderly, ferret-eyed Jew of very unprepossessing appearance, and judging by the reputation he was fast gaining as the signer of wholesale death warrants, and the guardian of prisons and barracks full of innocent captives of the upper and officer class, a very unpleasant customer. Our Naval Attaché was told by him during a business visit that he himself expected to be murdered in due course, but would see to making things as unpleasant and dangerous as possible for the Britishers before that occurred. Happy thoughts! I personally had a trio of officer friends

CHAPTER IX.

by their own party, and according to reliable advice there were several victims later found in the yard of whose killing it is quite impossible to say, except that no Englishmen were in that locality at the time of the raid.

the continual traffic allowed of no sleep, whilst a sleeper on the floor swallowed such quantities of dust as to become absolutely ill, the luxury of a table or a form being only possible to a few. Fellow prisoners included all conditions of humanity; old aristocracy, officers, business men and shopkeepers, labourers of other Socialist parties, a few actual criminals caught in the act, an entire Divisional Soviet, a few sailors, students and ex-commissars, late pedestrians, and quite a number of priests of the Russian church. Also the old father of the murderer of Uritzky was of the chosen, whilst his mother, grandmother, and a number of young sisters could be seen through the window. A maid-servant of one of the Englishmen was also arrested with him, and retained for two and a half months, no charge being preferred against her. On arrival at this place we were taken before a sleek, long-haired Jew, and told various absurdities, apart from the fact that we would be shot, such as the fact of our undoubted participation in the murder of Uritzky, and we were also questioned as to which political party we were members of. Of course the reply to this was none at all. We were then marched back to the general room. Wives, friends and neutral diplomats enquiring as to whether we might be supplied with food from outside were told that we were already all shot, and if not that we soon should be, and in any case did not need any food. Each day large parties of Russians left for various prisons or unknown destination under a heavily armed guard. On the third day our turn came. An "iron guard" as they called it, was provided, and we were formed into ranks four deep in the yard, the while the commandant of the prisoners rushed about in a manner reminiscent of a dog barking at a motor car.

We sallied forth and were met outside by the anxious gaze of hundreds of women and children, wild-eyed and half distraught; vainly seeking for missing husbands or mothers amongst the unfortunates brought forth from this den of infamy. I later learned that those in the women's room were mainly the wives of officers whom it was desired to find and thus coerce into giving themselves up. A weary tramp through the streets of the town lay before us, past the now deserted Embassy and over the Troitsky Bridge into the probably most celebrated fortress in the world, that of Saints Peter and Paul. I had never been in this place of evil repute as a sightseer, and found it very interesting, but one's interest suffered a little damping as we were very doubtful to what fate we came; perhaps to be dispatched, perhaps not, but in any case to no pleasant state. We were advised by other prisoners at Gorochovaia to take with us a herring each, and if possible an empty bottle. I filled my bottle with water and was very glad of it before long. Once inside the main courtyard we were officially handed over by a disreputable little Jew and then inspected by the Lettish commandant. Then we waited for two hours, after which we were taken round many corners and along alleyways, until we finally passed in through an iron grid into a corridor

CHAPTER X.

quietening, in so far as each relief at once asked where the murderers were and displayed the utmost hostility, appearing to have been systematically worked into a passion prior to being allowed to come to their posts. Here, however, it was otherwise. They showed the utmost surprise at Britishers being thus incarcerated, and expressed the belief that the Bolsheviks would not have dared to do it had they not decided on worse to follow, or, in common parlance, "to go the whole hog." Our fate in this respect was of course a matter of speculation which interested us very considerably. Of shooting we had heard enough, and the realization of the gloomy suggestion of the guards would not have surprised us in the least. According to all accounts there was a split in the Petrograd Soviet over this. Some were for doing away with us and others against, the former party being conceded to in so far that seven members of our party were condemned to death, which sentence was duly put off until such time as better reason prevailed. An attempt was, however, made to get the guards to carry on with the job unofficially, and owing to inflammatory placards, newspaper articles, etc., of the worst sort we could quite expect something of this sort to occur at any time, and thus kept handy the empty bottles which we possessed, this being the only means of defence available to show that Britishers will anyway die fighting.

Coming back to the subject of our fellow-prisoners, we learned that these had been four days without a morsel of food of any sort being given them, a pleasant prospect indeed for the future. We gave them our herrings and settled ourselves somehow for the night. At three o'clock a.m. a considerable disturbance occurred, which sort of thing we were to get very accustomed to before long. A number of people were taken from various cells and a few minutes later a number of shots rang out, announcing the end of these unfortunates.

The following day no morsel of food reached us from any source. We swore and joked in turns, and shouts of "Are we downhearted?" were greeted with loud "No's!" from other cells, the sounds being audible along the corridor owing to the small openings in the main doors of the cells. This caused much annoyance to the guards. The following night, at about 2-30, it being pitch dark, as all lights had gone out at midnight, a basin of soup was passed in through the trap door. The hole being roughly 9" x 6", the size of the bowl can well be imagined, this being intended for the whole twenty prisoners and no facilities for eating it being given whatsoever. Needless to say,

Apart from the stone floor, the furniture consisted of one iron bedstead bolted to the floor, with no sort of mattress or clothing on it, and an open latrine, over which was a tap with a supply of Neva water, which, as is well known, contains all the germs in creation, including typhoid and cholera. Here I was destined to remain for two months before being moved again. We methodically set about cleaning up all rubbish and dirt with our hands, and someone sacrificed a handkerchief with which we mopped up the floor, all dirt being purposely slung through the trap door into the corridors for the edification of our captors. Then we considered the situation, and decided that things looked black indeed, but in the course of conversation with the guards on duty outside we learned that it was sometimes possible to receive parcels from outside. This set up new hopes, and we decided to endeavour to set up communication with the outside world, towards which end serious conversations ensued with the purveyor of the doubtful soup that evening, and much cash

changed hands. As a result an intimation of our plight reached those outside, and it was explained that we lacked all the necessities of life.

About five times during our confinement we were allowed by sympathetic guards to walk in the corridor, in contravention of the orders of the commandant. On these occasions we played leap-frog, and greatly astonished these gentry by our unbroken spirits. In our cell we had a regular routine of washing oneself and the cell, dinner, an afternoon sleep, and even bridge. I also kept in touch with the business, and ordered the workpeople to endeavour to get me released, which could not harm anyway, but had no effect. The general prison life conditions were however very terrible. Within a day or so of the big dispatch to Kronstadt an influx of four or five hundred people had filled all the cells to suffocation point again. Great distress prevailed

amongst the Russians, and we frequently supplied these unfortunates with all manner of things which might alleviate their sufferings, mainly food. People frequently died of weakness and starvation. A request for a doctor was met with a laugh, whilst if a man died during the night the guards would inform the others that the rubbish could not be cleared up before 8 a.m. In this connection, in one of the prisons in Petrograd, a body was kept by the other inmate of a cell made for two, until the guards detected the smell, with a view to the other occupant being able to obtain the dead man's meagre ration in an attempt to keep his own body and soul together.

After much trouble, our benefactor managed to obtain permission for a doctor to visit our many sick. Colds and coughs were inseparable from the entire community owing to the continual living in wet clothes, but a number of old Englishmen of about sixty years of age simply crumbled up under these conditions of confinement. This led to a visit by a hospital official to the Russians, so as not to give the impression that the British were receiving preferential treatment. He selected eighty of the worst cases for removal to hospital prison elsewhere. I was in a position to view the departure of this party. A more pitiful sight I have never seen in my life. Old men, some of whom must have been over seventy years of age, tottered aimlessly along, apparently too far gone to realise further their surroundings. Others had become completely demented under the treatment accorded, whilst one and all showed the worst symptoms of neglect, weakness and starvation, and holding each other up and guiding each other by the hand, this truly God-forsaken crowd of humanity moved off. Each night between the hours of twelve and three much shouting occurred in the search for the unhappy ones who were to be the victims of that night. To endure the sound of the succeeding shots became increasingly difficult, and one lay awake at times for hours afterwards, trembling with sheer overstrung emotion of the nervous system, not having any excitement to counterbalance one's presence at the slaughter of these innocents.

In the next cell were a number of hooligans of the Red Guard, incarcerated because having killed a prisoner in the street they had thrown his body in the river, instead of bringing it as proof that bribery had not played a part in this little tragedy. This man, whom we can imagine as the father of young children left at home to starve, was thus bayoneted because too weak to walk he had dropped on the road whilst being taken from one prison to another. These Red Guards, it may be mentioned, received every day substantial rations and were liberated after about a week in the fortress.

Great are the crimes of these Bolsheviks, and just as great will be the reaction in its day: forces of hatred and revenge, which when let loose will know no bounds and flow well beyond the limits of the present horror, and thus again will the innocent be engulfed in this sea of despair, greater than any known for centuries or in the darkest ages. Times like these, when men would gladly sell their lives to ensure a quiet resting place from persecution for those they love, their wives and children; when mothers ruthlessly slay their babes to save them further agony; when all the evil forces of Satan are given their fullest swing and satisfaction, cannot fail to enact a bitter penalty, both from sufferers and tormentors alike, before the restoration of an ordered future. The very soul of Russia cries for help, nine-tenths of the people long to be rescued from the evil by anyone at all; but still the destructing forces grind relentlessly on, gaining further impetus from such opposition as is met and crushed, forcing further tyrannical acts from those who even would stay their hands when nearly overcome by the horror of their own deeds. Armistice, Peace, League of Nations are idle words to this great nation wallowing in its distress, cut off from all mankind. Many a wretched prisoner; to say nothing of office staffs and workpeople, enquired "When will your armies arrive?" In despair they look to the nation they honour most. What hope could one hold out to them. Perhaps the cry of: "Settle it amongst yourselves." What irony!

CHAPTER XI.

Very soon after this I was transferred again to the headquarters at Gorochovaia 2, and there put in the company of spies and agitators, with a view to my entrapping myself, evidence of some sort being

greatly wanted by the government to justify their actions, and I being thought to be in possession of more information than I had disclosed. All searches of Englishmen's houses, during which a few English ladies were badly knocked about, had failed to disclose anything of evidence in the nature likely to prove any activity against the Bolsheviks. Instead of supplying anything in this line, I was enabled to make great acquaintance with a famous murderer of ex-ministers, who was at this time the commandant of the prisoner section, and endeavoured to open negotiations for my release by bribery. The workpeople again made an effort, prominent Bolsheviks were entertained at my expense by a charming lady, and spurious correspondence with a woman in the town was allowed to fall into Bolshevik hands, whilst my lips uttered many pardonable lies to the headquarter agents in an endeavour to make the most of my stay at this place.

The woman Jacoblevna, then the head of Gorochovaia 2, was in my opinion an evil-looking old vixen and eminently worthy of a brick round her neck before being pitched into the Neva for her foul deeds and indiscriminate slaughter.

My fellow prisoners were more interesting than ever. They included officers removed from the immediate localities south of the Allied Front, many of the town robber class who had been rounded up by one of their own gang—this individual being given his life for his services and no doubt being enlisted in the service of the State, as robbery was undoubtedly a State monopoly and a nationalised trade. The others were apparently all shot without trial or ceremony, and in the case of a gang of nine brought in together the sum of 600,000 roubles was taken off them. Peasants were in prison for resisting the Red Guards when those gentry were "requisitioning" food, others for bringing food into the town themselves, this being called speculation. Workmen from the town for holding speeches demanding freedom were in great numbers, and a few naval officers caught trying to reach the British lines, whose fate was undoubtedly sealed as far as this world goes. The great Putiloff iron works were well represented, being always hostile to Bolshevism to the tune of 10,000 men. A Jew also caused me some amusement, being rather an exceptional race to find represented here, although a good many of these were also robbed and persecuted. This man was simply told that no charge was preferred against him, but that his money to the extent of 200,000 roubles was necessary to Bolshevik aims. His avowal that he did not possess so big a sum simply earned him three weeks in the fortress. After that he had just returned, and was now offered release for 100,000.

At length my turn came, and to my surprise I was given a slip stating that I was released. It seemed too good after seeing so many others released from their miseries in a different way, and not knowing how many were in the plot, I made great haste to get outside, landing in the kitchen during the process, and only gaining the street after much hunting around, during which I found that no one apparently took any

further interest in the holder of such a slip, although I took good care not to meet any of the principals, the locality of their rooms being fairly familiar to me.

Home again, washed and clean, a sleepless night due to the reaction on one's nerves, and great rejoicings on the part of the office staff and workpeople followed, who viewed one's release as a blessing which would bring in its train a relief from the unhappy situation into which the business had fallen, threatening closure and the entire cessation of wages. One member of the staff had absconded with certain moneys, whilst all the others had received very much less than was due to them. The Works Committee, with many flattering remarks as to the happy way we had worked together in the past, and much denunciation of the Bolshevik rule, which had brought them to the brink of ruin, suggested that they had feared I might disappear subsequently to my release, and implored me to remain by them. Disappearance had become something in the nature of an epidemic rather than a habit on the part of all and sundry, each for reasons best known to himself, but in every case attributable to the prevailing anarchy.

I found food conditions appaling. Not a potato could be bought, even at the most fabulous prices, although the harvest time could barely be said to be over. The markets had all been closed, accused of speculation, and positively nothing remained except the very meagre ration of bread when obtainable, which mainly owing to the infrequency would not have sufficed to keep alive a pet dog. This was the position in November already. Quite naturally the last shred of sympathy for the Bolshevik cause had now vanished; beginning with the industrial classes and following on with the officers, the shop keepers, the porters and the others of the Socialist parties, the clerks, largely the peasants, and finally the workpeople, all only prayed for release. Now however there was no release from within. All resistance had long since been effectively crushed, house to house searches had delivered up great stacks of arms, the workman to obtain the necessary food to keep alive had been compelled to accept service in distant parts in the Red Army, which he had helped to create and had lived to hate so well. The only hope of delivery could at this time be said to be one from without the Bolshevik area, although the saying that even a worm will turn may apply here if given enough time, for in Russia the seemingly impossible occurs, and occurs frequently at that. Anyway, with an almost total lack of food and complete stoppage of all industry it is difficult to see how a nation can continue without some force or other showing itself in the interests of common sense.

True, the workpeople could live in any fine flat of their choosing in the best quarters of the town, and there was nothing to prevent them donning the former owner's evening dress, but this was unfamiliar and felt to be uncertain ground, so that in most cases after pillaging the contents, the flat was again evacuated by its temporary tenants.

We now come to the turning of the tables on our friend the enemy. With great headlines the papers of the regime announced that the German Government had levelled an ultimatum at them on the subject of reparation for the death of Mirbach. The following day a declaration of war was announced, which may or may not have been genuine, but was in any case a matter of little concern to anyone. Then, the following day, the entire German Consulate Staff was arrested, to the number of about a hundred, with the active co-operation of German soldiers (presumably ex-prisoners of war). Then in larger type still was announced the revolution in Germany, and encouraged by these signs the campaign against the local Germans was vigorously pursued, all civilians of the Central Powers being rounded up, as far as it lay in the power of the Bolsheviks to find them. These were carted off to the famous Gorochovaia 2, and later to the fortress, and the government announced that the German people had rebelled against fighting the Russian proletariat. I heard Germans being marched to prison protesting loudly that they were citizens of Berlin, and smilingly cogitated on the saying that he who laughs last laughs loudest, although at the time I was disposed to keep very quiet and made myself scarce as soon as possible, an English passport being likewise a pass to prison, and once arrested again amidst all this chaos, well, who knows what next. Then was witnessed the strange sight of British and German officers assisting each other to escape, no doubt unique in the annals of the war.

CHAPTER XII.

been the preparations of the government to celebrate the anniversary of the inauguration of this strange freedom. For days past gangs of men had been busy putting up huge hoardings and scaffolding to which were attached huge banners bearing inscriptions such as: "All power to the workers," "Away with the capitalists and imperialists," etc. Ugly and crude paintings were hung out all along the main streets, depicting a peasant pushing a hand plough and a labourer hammering nothing on an anvil; whilst large placards depicting heaven knows what in the way of futurist representation adorned the most important buildings and large corner houses. On these latter were painted trams, houses and aeroplanes all jumbled up together at all angles, including upside down, and suspiciously suggestive of sarcasm on the part of the artists, appertaining to the present state of affairs in the Soviet Republic, but otherwise strongly resembling a possible scene after a boiler explosion in a populous district. All tramway standards were draped in red, and many hoardings carried nothing at all in the poster line, being half finished or in excess of requirements. The combined effect was ridiculous in the extreme.

The papers did not fail to remind all and sundry that Bolshevik rule was now one year old, a reminder hardly necessary to the majority, who dated all their troubles from the Bolshevik accession to power, and the effects being visible on every hand. About five thousand paupers from hundreds of villages had been invited to attend, being promised lodgings and food. Instead of this number, from fifteen to twenty thousand made their appearance, all manner of unemployed taking the opportunity of travelling free to the capital and being feted there. The last surviving hotels were at once requisitioned, and all this mass of humanity accommodated anyhow in the finest buildings of the town. Bitter complaints were heard on all hands of the feeding and overcrowding, unhappy paupers having to wait hour after hour in queues in the most drenching rain to obtain an inadequate supply of the most indifferent food. Apart from the paupers, the crowd, in the shape of the workers, were intended to demonstrate and form the well-known processions marching around to the most dirge-like of tunes as in January, on May 1st, and in August. These however had had about enough of such affairs, and apart from the rain were not at all sure that the whole show would not end in a shooting match on a grand scale, as had so often happened before, and thus stayed discreetly at home. On several mornings placards had been found posted all over the town which read: "Away with the Bolsheviks." These had disquietened the few would-be enthusiasts, the others being too

contrast when I reached Finland was also one of the things I shall never forget in connection with this series of events of 1918. It was a cold frosty morning, in a decent train calling at all the little stations between the frontier and Terijoki, seeming to be expressly run for the purpose of carrying the children to school. Hundreds of round-faced chubby boys and girls getting in at every station, their laughter ringing from end to end of train and platform alike, chaffing each other and the guards, frivolous and full of life as one remembered children in our own happier land in happier days. All this a mere handful of miles from Petrograd and all its miseries, and to think that only nine months previously the same pest held sway over these happily released young people.

Certain people and papers profess to exercise their thoughts as to the cause of the anti-semitic disturbances which have been a feature of the re-occupation of various districts of middle eastern Europe by sane rulers. When it is remembered that the people mainly responsible for all poor Russia has suffered are for the most part Jews with changed names it is perhaps hardly surprising that the greatest pacifist has in those parts become fiercely vengeful against those morally responsible for all this trouble, and without whose intellectual powers the whole show would long since have collapsed.

The great holiday was over. Sightseers and pedestrians there had been practically none in the streets for three days. People turned out from their houses again, but no work to return to in the majority of cases, only the incessant hunt for food to be continued in the ever-increasing cold. The troops were to a great extent rushed off to the Finnish border to meet an expected attack from the Germans in occupation in Finland. These had not been affected by the revolution in Germany, and carried on much as before to the date of their leaving that country. There was great talk of a Bolshevik advance into Finland, and at least half of the troops imagined that that was their errand, the Bolsheviks at the time apparently being undecided as to the appropriate time for re-establishing themselves in that now orderly country. Of German troops they were, however, always afraid, and there was the possibility of them bringing about Swedish intervention, which would have probably meant the loss of Petrograd to them. Numbers of their troops were sent scouring the woods between Petrograd and the frontier to apprehend the large numbers of Germans who, in terror of their lives, had fled pell mell into the forest and were trying to reach Finland.

In this way a number of English and many of the better class Russians were captured whilst on a similar errand, mostly to be released again on payment of large sums of money to their captors prior to their arrival at Gorochovaia 2.

The nationalization of women had been experimented on in the provinces, Petrograd and Moscow not being affected by the decree,

a copy of which I now have in my possession in England, being a cutting from the official organ of the Lenin-Trotzky regime. Alas! people were even to loose their souls in this social upheaval. Never was freedom less free or tyranny more tyrannous, even in the days when the double eagle was still the Byzantine crest. The most charitable explanation of the nationalization of women decree is that certain commissars in the towns mentioned had their eyes on some particular women who had refused their overtures, and thus had got this decree put into print, but from experience it is far more likely that but for the damaging effect of this decree to their propaganda it would have been exploited to the full.

Now we come to the final scene in this tragedy of a nation, as far as it concerned myself at the moment. Sleeping in different places every night owing to the danger of re-arrest, on no account being out or about after 8 p.m., and avoiding the very sight of Red Guards who might be on the hunt for Germans and other foreigners, these now being blamed in the papers en masse for all the evils in the land

in language more infamous than ever proceeded from an East End coster, became quite an intolerable mode of existence. The entreaties of workpeople, etc., could not assist one to control a nervous system already rudely shocked by many months of overstrain, anxiety and hardship. Permission to leave officially was granted to no one of less than 48 years of age, and one at length found oneself amongst the "outlaws" and other refugees in the forests of the far North, which were already firmly in the grip of the grim Northern winter. Disguised as a peasant, many days of wandering through swamps and semi-frozen rivers, nights of shivering in clothes saturated to the skin, encounters with Red Guards and commissars complete the tale, all however ending satisfactorily with the final crossing of the frontier into Finland, where one arrived with a feeling of extreme relief akin to the usual happy ending of a fairy tale in so far that one had hopes of "living happily ever after," anyhow, at all, if only not so. I talk of happiness, but I doubt if any of the recent arrivals from there can obliterate from their minds the thought of the misery left behind.

Recollections of women, children and old men of the upper classes repairing roads under Red Guards with fixed bayonets, of the desperate situation of everyone except the chosen few, of the unhappy work-people thrown out of employment and unable to get food otherwise than by joining Trotzky's hordes under the Red flag; scenes never to be forgotten.

A more misled, intimidated and unhappy crowd than the workers of the factory one cannot imagine. All badly educated owing to their scandalous treatment at the hands of the Tzarist regime, utterly unable to comprehend the ever-changing position of themselves and others, in fact, quite incapable of understanding who in all the chaos is responsible for their misfortunes, believing this man to-day and someone else to-morrow, they are the most to be pitied, and their position should appeal to the hearts of the great British nation as one requiring the utmost indulgence and all our powers of assistance.

What high hopes had not been indulged in by every Britisher in their midst after the fall of the old autocracy. Visions of a regenerated and reinvigorated Russia were conjured up, only again to be dashed to the ground by the overthrow of all freedom, which has left but the ashes of a great nation. Russia has again to be re-born from amidst these ruins, and in this great task the British nation will no doubt bear an honourable part in nursing the infant republic to maturity, but the citizens of Russia must learn to forget and forgive, remembering the good old British maxim of "Live and let live," and using this as their watchword for the future