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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2e98da --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #66371 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66371) diff --git a/old/66371-0.txt b/old/66371-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index e66b294..0000000 --- a/old/66371-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6854 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Inside the Russian Revolution, by Rheta -Louise Childe Dorr - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Inside the Russian Revolution - -Author: Rheta Louise Childe Dorr - -Release Date: September 24, 2021 [eBook #66371] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive/American - Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INSIDE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION *** - -+-------------------------------------------------+ -|Transcriber’s note: | -| | -|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | -| | -+-------------------------------------------------+ - - - - -INSIDE THE RUSSIAN -REVOLUTION - - - - -[Illustration: Logo] - -THE MACMILLAN COMPANY -NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO -DALLAS · ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO - -MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED -LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA -MELBOURNE - -THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. -TORONTO - - -[Illustration: Catherine Breshkovskaia, the “Little Grandmother of the -Russian Revolution.”] - - - - -INSIDE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION - -BY -RHETA CHILDE DORR - -_ILLUSTRATED_ - - -New York -THE MACMILLAN COMPANY -1917 -_All rights reserved_ - - - - -Copyright, 1917, -By THE EVENING MAIL - -COPYRIGHT, 1917, -BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - -Set up and Electrotyped. Published November, 1917 - - - - -TABLE OF CONTENTS - -CHAPTER PAGE - I TOPSY-TURVY LAND 1 - - II “ALL THE POWER TO THE SOVIET” 10 - - III THE JULY REVOLUTION 19 - - IV AN HOUR OF HOPE 30 - - V THE COMMITTEE MANIA 41 - - VI THE WOMAN WITH THE GUN 50 - - VII TO THE FRONT WITH BOTCHKAREVA 58 - - VIII CAMP AND BATTLEFIELD 65 - - IX AMAZONS IN TRAINING 75 - - X THE HOMING EXILES--TWO KINDS 84 - - XI HOW RASPUTIN DIED 97 - - XII ANNA VIRUBOVA SPEAKS 107 - - XIII MORE LEAVES IN THE CURRENT 119 - - XIV THE PASSING OF THE ROMANOFFS 129 - - XV THE HOUSE OF MARY AND MARTHA 141 - - XVI THE TAVARISHI FACE FAMINE 152 - - XVII GENERAL JANUARY, THE CONQUEROR 162 - -XVIII WHEN THE WORKERS OWN THEIR TOOLS 172 - - XIX WHY COTTON CLOTH IS SCARCE 181 - - XX MRS. PANKHURST IN RUSSIA 189 - - XXI KERENSKY, THE MYSTERY MAN 199 - - XXII THE RIGHTS OF SMALL NATIONS 208 - -XXIII WILL THE GERMANS TAKE PETROGRAD? 217 - - XXIV RUSSIA’S GREATEST NEEDS 226 - - XXV WHAT NEXT? 235 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - -Catherine Breshkovskaia, the “Little Grandmother -of the Russian Revolution.” _Frontispiece_ - - FACING - PAGE - -Typical crowd on the Nevski Prospect during the -Bolshevik or Maximalist risings 22 - -Kerensky watching the funeral of victims of the July -Bolshevik risings 42 - -Mareea Botchkareva, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and -Women of “The Battalion of Death.” 52 - -Prince Felix Yussupoff, at whose palace on the -Moika Canal Rasputin was killed, and his wife, -the Grand Duchess Irene Alexandrovna, niece of -the late Czar 92 - -Gregory Rasputin and some of his female devotees 108 - -Alexander Feodorovitch Kerensky 142 - -The Grand Duchess Elizabeta Feodorovna, sister of -the late Czarina, and widow of the Grand Duke -Serge, who was assassinated during the Revolution -of 1905, now Abbess of the House of Mary and -Martha at Moscow 150 - - - - -INSIDE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION - - - - -CHAPTER I - -TOPSY-TURVY LAND - - -Early in May, 1917, I went to Russia, eager to see again, in the hour -of her deliverance, a country in whose struggle for freedom I had, for -a dozen years, been deeply interested. I went to Russia a socialist -by conviction, an ardent sympathizer with revolution, having known -personally some of the brave men and women who suffered imprisonment -and exile after the failure of the uprising in 1905-6. I returned from -Russia with the very clear conviction that the world will have to wait -awhile before it can establish any coöperative millenniums, or before -it can safely hand over the work of government to the man in the street. - -All my life I have been an admiring student of the French revolution, -and I have fervently wished that I might have lived in the Paris of -that time, to witness, even as a humble spectator, the downfall of -autocracy and the birth of a people’s liberty. Well--I lived for three -months in the capital of revolutionary Russia. I saw a revolution -which presents close parallels with the French revolution both in men -and events. I saw the downfall of autocracy and the birth of liberty -much greater than the French ever aspired to. I saw the fondest dream -of the socialists suddenly come true, and the dream turned out to be a -nightmare such as I pray that this or any country may forever be spared. - -I saw a people delivered from one class tyranny deliberately hasten -to establish another, quite as brutal and as unmindful of the common -good as the old one. I saw these people, led out of groaning bondage, -use their first liberty to oust the wise and courageous statesmen who -had delivered them. I saw a working class which had been oppressed -under czardom itself turn oppressor; an army that had been starved and -betrayed use its freedom to starve and betray its own people. I saw -elected delegates to the people’s councils turn into sneak thieves and -looters. I saw law and order and decency and all regard for human life -or human rights set aside, and I saw responsible statesmen in power -allow all this to go on, allow their country to rush toward an abyss of -ruin and shame because they were afraid to lose popularity with the mob. - -The government was so afraid of losing the support of the mob that -it permitted the country to be overrun by German agents posing -as socialists. These agents spent fortunes in the separate peace -propaganda alone. They demoralized the army, corrupted the workers in -field and factories, and put machine guns in the hands of fanatical -dreamers, sending them out into the streets to murder their own -friends and neighbors. Every one knew who these men were, but the mob -liked their “line of talk” and the government was afraid to touch them. -After one of the last occasions when, at their behest, the Bolsheviki -went out and shot up Petrograd, Lenine, the arch leader, and some of -his principal gangsters deemed it the part of discretion to retire -from Russia temporarily, and they got to Sweden without the slightest -difficulty, no attempt having been made to stop them. Some of the minor -employees of the Kaiser were arrested, among them a woman in whose name -the bank account appeared to be. But she too, and probably all the -others, were later released. - -A government like this could not bring peace and order into a -distracted nation. It could not establish a democracy. It could not -govern. The sooner the allied countries realize this the better it will -be for Russia and for the world that wants peace. It is not because I -am unfriendly to Russia that I write thus. It is because I am friendly, -because I have faith in the future of the Russian people, because I -believe that their experiment in popular government, if it succeeds, -will be as inspiring to the rest of the world as our own was in the -eighteenth century. I think the most unkind thing any friend of Russia -can do is to minimize or conceal the facts about the terrible upheaval -going on there at the present time. Russia looks to the American people -for help in her troubled hour, and if the American people are to help -they will have to understand the situation. No discouragement to the -allies, no assistance to the common enemy need result from a plain -statement of the facts. The enemy knows all the facts already. - -Everything I saw in Russia, in the cities and near the front, convinced -me that what is going on there vitally concerns us. Every man, -woman and child in the United States must get to work to give the -help so sorely needed by the allies. Whatever has failed in Russia, -whatever has broken down must never be missed. We must supply these -deficiencies. Our business now is to understand, and to hurry, hurry, -hurry with our task of getting trained and seasoned men into France. -After what I saw in the neighborhood of Vilna, Dvinsk and Jacobstadt, -I know what haste on this side means to the world. There are several -reasons why the whole truth has not before been written about the -Russian revolution. It could not be written or cabled from Russia. -It could not be carried out in the form of notes or photographs. It -could not even be discovered by the average person who goes to Russia, -because the average visitor lives at the expensive Hotel d’Europe, -never goes out except in a droshky, and meets only Russians of social -position to whom he has letters of introduction, and who naturally -try to give him the impression that the troubled state of affairs is -merely temporary. The visitor usually knows no Russian and cannot read -the newspapers. There are two good French newspapers published in -Petrograd, but the average American traveler is as ignorant of French -as of Russian. Even if he could read all the daily papers, however, he -would not get very much information. The press censorship is as rigid -and as tyrannical to-day as in the heyday of the autocracy, only a -different kind of news is suppressed. One of the modest demands put -forth by the Tavarishi (comrades) when I was in Petrograd was for a -requisition of all the white print paper in the market, the paper to be -distributed equally among all newspapers, large and small. The object, -candidly stated, was to diminish the size and the circulation of the -“bourgeois” papers. - -A great deal of news, as we regard news, never gets into the papers at -all, or is compressed into very small space. For example there have -been a number of terrible railroad accidents on the Russian roads. Most -of these one never heard of unless some one he knew happened to be -killed or injured. Sometimes a bare announcement of a great fatality -was permitted. Thus an express train between Moscow and Petrograd was -wrecked, forty persons being killed and more than seventy injured. This -wreck got a whole paragraph in the newspapers, with no list of the -dead and injured and no explanation of the cause. The fact is that the -railroads are in a condition of complete demoralization and the only -wonder is that more wrecks do not occur. - -An acquaintance of mine in Moscow, the wife of a colonel in the British -army, was anxious to go to Petrograd to meet her husband who was -expected there on his way from the front. My friend’s father, who is -the managing head of a large Moscow business concern, tried to prevail -on her to wait for her husband to reach her there, but she was anxious -to see him at the earliest moment and insisted on her tickets being -purchased. The day after she was to have gone her father called on me -and told me of his intense relief at receiving, an hour before train -time, a telegram from the colonel saying that he would be in Moscow the -next morning. - -“And what do you think happened to that train my daughter was to have -taken?” he asked. It was the regular night express to Petrograd, -corresponding somewhat to the Congressional Limited between New York -and Washington. A few miles out of Moscow a difference arose between -the engineer and the stoker, and in order to settle it they stopped the -train and had a fight. One of the men hit the other on the head with a -monkey wrench, injuring him pretty badly. Authority of some kind stepped -in and arrested the assailant. The engineer’s cab was blood-stained, -and some authority unhitched the engine and sent it back to Moscow as -evidence. The train all this time, with its hundreds of passengers, -stood on the tracks waiting for a new engine and crew, and if it was -not run into and wrecked it was because it was lucky. - -About the middle of August an American correspondent traveled on that -same express train from Petrograd to Moscow. The night was warm, and -as the Russian occupants of his carriage had the usual constitutional -objection to raised windows, he insisted on leaving the door of the -compartment open. In the middle of the night a band of soldiers boarded -the train and went into every one of the unlocked compartments, five in -all, neatly and silently looting them of all bags and suitcases. The -American correspondent lost everything he possessed--extra clothes, -money, passport, papers. There was a Russian staff officer in that -compartment and he lost even the clothes he traveled in, and was -obliged to descend in his pajamas. The conductor of the train admitted -that he saw the robbery committed, that he raised no hand to prevent -it, nor even pressed the signal which would have stopped the train. -“They would have killed me,” he pleaded in extenuation. “Besides, it -happens almost every night on a small or large scale.” - -There is only one way of getting at the facts of the Russian situation, -and that is by living as the Russians do, associating with Russians, -hearing their stories day by day of the tragedy of what has been called -the bloodless revolution. This I did, as nearly as it was possible, -from the end of May until the 30th of August, in Petrograd, Moscow and -behind one of the fighting fronts. In Petrograd I lived in the Hotel -Militaire, formerly the Astoria, the headquarters of Russian officers -and of the numerous English, French and Roumanian officers on missions -in Russia. This was the hotel where the bitterest fighting took place -during the revolutionary days of February, 1917. The outside of the -building is literally riddled with bullets, every window had to be -replaced, and the work of renovating the interior was still going on -when I left. Under the window in my bedroom was a pool of dried blood -as big as a saucer, and the carpet was stained with drops leading from -the window to the stationary washbowl in the alcove dressing room. Over -the bed were two bullet holes. - -Since the revolution the Hotel Militaire has been a garrison, soldiers -sleeping in several rooms on the ground floor and two sentinels -standing day and night at the door and at the gateway leading into -the service court. I do not know why, when I asked for a room, the -manager gave it to me. Two other women writers had rooms there, but -one was in a party which included American officers, and the other -was introduced by an English officer attached to the British embassy. -However, I took the room and was grateful, because whatever happened in -Petrograd was quickly known in the hotel. Also, it faced the square on -which was located the Marie Palace, where the provisional government -held many of its meetings, and where several important congresses were -held. Whenever the Bolsheviki broke loose this square always saw some -fighting. It was an excellent place for a correspondent to live. - -I spent much of my time in the streets, listening, with the aid of -an interpreter, a young university girl, to the speeches which were -continually being made up and down the Nevski Prospect, the Litainy and -other principal streets. I talked, through my interpreter, with people -who sat beside me on park benches, in trams, railroad trains and other -public places. I met all the Russians I could, people of every walk of -life, of every political faith. I spent days in factories. I talked -with workers and with employers. I even met and talked with adherents -of the old régime. I talked for nearly an hour with the last Romanoff -left in freedom, the Grand Duchess Serge, sister of the former empress, -widow of the emperor’s uncle. I went, late at night, to a palace on the -Grand Morskaia where in strictest retirement lives the woman who has -been charged with being the closest friend and ally of Rasputin, the -one who, at his orders, is alleged to have administered poison to the -young Czarevitch. I traveled in a troop train two days and nights with -a regiment of fighting women--the Botchkareva “Battalion of Death”--and -I lived with them in their barrack behind the fighting lines for nine -days. I stayed with them until they went into action, I saw them -afterward in the hospitals and heard their own stories of the battle -into which they led thousands of reluctant men. I talked with many -soldiers and officers. - -Russia is sick. She is gorged on something she has never known -before--freedom: she is sick almost to die with excesses, and the -leadership which would bring the panacea is violently thrown aside -because suspicion of any authority has bred the worst kind of license. -Russia is insane; she is not even morally responsible for what she is -doing. Will she recover? Yes. But, God! what pain must she bear before -she gets real freedom! - - - - -CHAPTER II - -“ALL THE POWER TO THE SOVIET” - - -About the first thing I saw on the morning of my arrival in Petrograd -last spring was a group of young men, about twenty in number, I should -think, marching through the street in front of my hotel, carrying a -scarlet banner with an inscription in large white letters. - -“What does that banner say?” I asked the hotel commissionaire who stood -beside me. - -“It says ‘All the Power to the Soviet,’” was the answer. - -“What is the soviet?” I asked, and he replied briefly: - -“It is the only government we have in Russia now.” - -And he was right. The soviets, or councils of soldiers’ and workmen’s -delegates, which have spread like wildfire throughout the country, are -the nearest thing to a government that Russia has known since the very -early days of the revolution. - -The most striking parallel between the French and the Russian -revolutions lies in the facility with which both were snatched away -from the sane and intelligent men who began them and placed in the -hands of fanatics, who turned them into mad orgies of blood and terror. -The first French revolutionists rebelled against the theory of the -divine right of kings to govern or misgovern the people. They wanted -a constitution and a government by consent of the governed. But the -mob came in and took possession of the situation, and the result -was the guillotine and the reign of terror. Miliukoff, Rodzianko, -Lvoff, and their associates in the Russian Duma, rebelled against a -stupid, cruel autocrat who was doing his best to lose the war and to -bring the country to ruin and dishonor. They wanted a constitution -for Russia, and, for the time being at least, a figurehead king who -would leave government in the hands of responsible ministers. But the -Petrograd council of soldiers’ and workmen’s delegates came in and -took possession of the situation, and the result is a country torn -with anarchy, brought to the verge of bankruptcy, and ready, unless -something happens between now and next spring, to fall into the hands -of the Germans. - -These councils of workmen are not new. In the upheaval of 1905-06 a man -named Khrustaliov, a labor leader, became the head of an organization -called the Petrograd Council of Workmen’s Deputies. It was made up of -elected delegates from all the principal factories in and near the -capital, and during the general strike which forced Nicholas to convene -the first Duma, the council assumed general control of the whole -labor situation, managing matters with rare good sense and firmness. -Witte, who became premier in those days, negotiated with Khrustaliov -as with an equal. For a time he and his council were a real power -in the empire. A dozen cities formed similar organizations. There -were councils of workmen’s deputies, peasants’ deputies, even, in -some places, of soldiers’ deputies. The reaction which came in July, -1906, swept them all into oblivion, and I never found anybody who -knew what became of Khrustaliov. But the tradition of the council of -workmen’s deputies was unforgotten. Perhaps the council even existed -still in secret; I do not know. It was quickly revived in March, 1917, -and before the political revolution was fairly accomplished it had -added soldiers to its title and had curtly informed the provisional -government and the Duma that no laws could be made or enforced -without first having received the approval of the working people’s -representatives. No policy in peace or war could be announced or put -into practice; no orders could be given the army; no treaties concluded -with the allies; in short, nothing could be done without first -consulting the 1,500 men and women--five women--who made up the Council -of Workmen´s and Soldiers’ Delegates. - -If the country had been in a condition of peace instead of war this -would not have been at all a bad thing. The working people of Russia, -under the electoral system devised by the old régime, had very little -representation in the Duma, and they had a perfect right to demand a -voice in the organization of the new government. But unfortunately -the country was at war; and more unfortunately still, the Council -of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates was made up in large part of -extreme radicals to whom the war was a matter of entire indifference. -The revolution to them meant an opportunity to put into practice new -economic theories, the socialistic state. They conceived the vast dream -of establishing a new order of society, not only for Russia but for -the whole world. They were going to dictate terms of peace, and call -on the working people of every country to join them in enforcing that -peace. After that they were going to do away with all capitalists, -bankers, investors, property owners. Armies and navies were to be -scrapped. I don’t know what they purposed doing with the constitution -of the United States, but “capitalistic” America was to be made over -with the rest of the world. - -Many members of this council are well-meaning theorists, dreamers, -exactly like thousands in this country who read no books or newspapers -except those written by their own kind, who “express themselves” by -wearing red ties and long hair, and who exist in a cloudy world of -their own. These people are honest and they are capable of being -reasoned with. In Russia they are known as Minsheviki, meaning small -claims. A noisy and troublesome and growing minority in the council -are called Bolsheviki (big claims), because they demand everything -and will not even consider compromise. They want a separate peace, -entirely favorable to Germany. I talked to a number of these men, but -I could never get one of them to explain the reason of this friendship -for Germany. Vaguely they seemed to feel that socialism was a German -doctrine and, therefore, as soon as Russia put it into practice, the -Germans would follow suit. Not all the council members are working -people. Some have never done a hand’s turn of manual work in their -lives. Many of the soldier members have never seen service and never -will. The Jewish membership is very large, and in Russia the Jews have -never been allowed any practice of citizenship. - -Lastly the council is liberally sprinkled with German spies and agents. -Every once in a while one of these men is unmasked and put out. But -it is more than likely that his place is quickly filled. It is a most -difficult thing to convince the council that any “Tavarish,” which -is the Russian word for comrade, can be guilty of double dealing. -The council defended Lenine up to the last moment. Even after he -fled the country the Socialist newspapers, _Isvestia_, _Pravda_, and -Maxim Gorki’s _Nova Jisn_, declared him to be the victim of an odious -calumny. It was this Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates that -first claimed a consultive position in the government, and within a few -months was parading the streets with banners demanding “All the Power -to the Soviet.” - -I cannot say that I unreservedly blame them. They were people who had -never known any kind of freedom, they had been poor and oppressed and -afraid of their lives. All of a sudden they were freed. And when they -went in numbers to the Duma and claimed a right to a voice in their own -future, men like Kerensky and others, who are honest dreamers, others -plain demagogues and office seekers, came out and lauded them to the -skies, told them that the world was theirs, that they alone had brought -about the revolution and therefore had a right to take possession of -the country. The effect of this on soldiers and on the working people -was immediate and disastrous. - -If Kerensky was not the author of the famous Order No. 1, which -was the cause of most of the riot and bloodshed in the army, he at -least signed it and defended it. This order provided for regimental -government by committees, the election of officers by the soldiers, -the doing away with all saluting of superiors by enlisted men and the -abolition of the title “your nobility,” which was the form of address -used to officers. In place of this form the soldiers were henceforth to -address their officers as Gospodeen (meaning mister), captain, colonel, -general, as the case might be. Order No. 1 was a plain license to -disband the Russian army. Abolishing the custom of saluting may seem -a small thing. A member of the Root mission expressed himself thus to -me soon after his arrival in Petrograd: “This talk of anarchy is all -nonsense,” he said. “A lot of peacock officers are sore because the men -don’t salute them any more. Why should the men salute?” - -Perhaps I don’t know why they should, but I know that when they don’t -they speedily lose all their soldierly bearing and slouch like tired -subway diggers. They throw courtesy, kindness, consideration to the -winds. The soldiers of other countries look on them with disgust and -horror. At Tornea, the port of entry into Finland, I got my first -glimpse of this “free” Russian soldier. He was handing some papers -to a trim British Tommy, who was straight as an arrow, clean cut and -soldierly. The Russian slouched up to him, stuck out the papers in a -dirty paw and blew a mouthful of cigarette smoke in his face. What -the Tommy said to him was in English, and I am afraid was lost on -the Russian, who walked off looking quite pleased with himself. In -Petrograd I saw two of these “free” soldiers address, without even -touching their caps, a French officer who spoke their language. The -conversation was repeated to me thus: “Is it true that in your country, -which calls itself a democracy, the soldiers have to stand in the -presence of officers? Is it true that they----” The interrogation -proceeded no further, for the Frenchman replied quickly: “In the -first place French soldiers do not walk up to an officer and begin -a conversation uninvited, so I find it impossible to answer your -questions.” - -If he had been a Russian officer he would probably have been murdered -on the spot. The death penalty having been abolished, and the police -force having been reduced to an absurdity, murder has been made a safe -and pleasant diversion. Murder of officers is so common that it is -seldom even reported in the newspapers. When the truth is finally and -officially published, if it ever is, it will be found that the brutal -and horrible butchery of officers exceeds anything the outside world -has ever imagined. I met a woman whose daughter went insane after her -husband was killed in the fortress of Kronstadt, the port of Petrograd. -He with a number of officers was imprisoned there, and some of the -women went to the commander and begged permission to see and speak to -their men. He grinned at them, and said: “They are just finishing their -dinner. In a few minutes you may see them.” Shortly afterwards they -were summoned to a room where the men sat around a table. They were -tied in their chairs, and were all dead, with evidences of having been -tortured. - -In the beginning of the revolution the soldiers of Kronstadt killed -the old officer commandant. They began by gouging out his eyes. When he -was quite finished they brought in the second officer in command and -his young son, a lieutenant in the navy. “Will you join us, embrace -the glorious revolution, or shall we kill you?” they demanded. “My -duty is to command this garrison,” replied the officer. “If you are -going to kill me do it at once.” They shot him, and threw his corpse -on a pile of others in a ditch. The son they spared, and a few nights -later the young man rescued his father’s body and brought it home to be -buried. This story was related under oath by him, but in the face of it -and hundreds more like it the death penalty was abolished; nor would -Kerensky consent to restore it, except for desertion at the front. - -At the Moscow congress, held in August, Kerensky said, apologizing for -even this small concession: “As minister of justice I did away with the -death penalty. As president of the provisional government I have asked -for its reinstatement in case of desertion under fire.” There was a -burst of applause, and Kerensky exclaimed: “Do not applaud. Don’t you -realize that we lose part of our souls when we consent to the death -penalty? But if it is necessary to lose our souls to save Russia we -must make the sacrifice.” - -Petrograd and Moscow are literally running over with idle soldiers, -many of whom have never done any fighting, and who loudly declare that -they never intend to do any. They are supported by the government, wear -the army uniform, claim all the privileges of the soldier and live -in complete and blissful idleness. The street cars are crowded with -soldiers, who of course pay no fares. It is impossible for a woman to -get a seat in a car. She is lucky if the soldiers permit her to stand -in the aisle or on a platform. “Get off and walk, you boorzhoi,” said -a soldier to my interpreter one day when she was hastening to keep an -appointment with me. She got off and walked. I heard but one person -dispute with a soldier. She was a street car conductor, one of the many -women who have taken men’s places since the war. She turned on a car -full of these idlers riding free and littering the floor with sunflower -seeds, which they eat as Americans eat peanuts, and told them exactly -what she thought of them. It must have been extremely unflattering, for -the other passengers looked joyful and only one soldier ventured any -reply. “Now, comrade,” said he, “you must not be hard on wounded men.” - -“Wounded men!” exclaimed the woman. “If you ever get a wound it will -be in the mouth from a broken bottle.” There was a burst of laughter, -in which even the soldiers joined. But after it subsided one of the -men said defiantly: “Just the same, comrades, it was we who sent the -Czar packing.” This opinion is shared by the Council of Workmen’s and -Soldiers’ Delegates. They have completely forgotten that the Duma had -anything to do with the revolution. At their national congress of -Soviets held in July, they solemnly debated whether or not they would -permit the Duma to meet again, and it was a very small majority that -decided in favor. But only on condition that the national body worked -under the direction of the councils. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE JULY REVOLUTION - - -Every one who has read the old “Arabian Nights” will remember the -story of the fisherman who caught a black bottle in one of his nets. -When the bottle was uncorked a thin smoke began to curl out of the -neck. The smoke thickened into a dense cloud and became a huge genie -who made a slave of the fisherman. By the exercise of his wits the -fisherman finally succeeded in getting the genie back into the bottle, -which he carefully corked and threw back into the sea. Kerensky tried -desperately to get the genie back into the bottle, and every one hoped -he might succeed. Up to date, however, there is little to indicate that -the giant has even begun materially to shrink. Petrograd is not the -only city where the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates has -assumed control of the destinies of the Russian people. Every town has -its council, and there is no question, civil or military, which they do -not feel capable of settling. - -I have before me a Petrograd newspaper clipping dated June 12. It is -a dispatch from the city of Minsk, and states that the local soviet -had debated the whole question of the resumption of the offensive, the -Bolsheviki claiming that the question was general and that it ought -to be left for the men at the front to decide. They themselves were -against an offensive, deeming it contrary to the interests of the -international movement and profitable only to capitalists, foreign as -well as Russian. Workers of all countries ought to struggle against -their governments and to break with all imperialist politics. The -army ought to be made more democratic. This view prevailed, says the -dispatch, by a vote of 123 against 79. - -This is typical. In some cities the extreme socialists are in the -majority, in others the milder Minsheviki prevail. In Petrograd it -has been a sort of neck and neck between them, with the Minsheviki -in greater number. But as the seat of government Petrograd has had a -great attraction for the German agents, and they are all Bolsheviki -and very energetic. Early in the revolution they established two -headquarters, one in the palace of Mme. Kchessinskaia, a dancer, high -in favor with some of the grand dukes, and another on the Viborg side, -a manufacturing quarter of the city. Here in a big rifle factory and a -few miles down the Neva in Kronstadt, they kept a stock of firearms, -rifles and machine guns big enough to equip an army division. - -The leader of this faction, which was opposed to war against Germany -but quite willing to shoot down unarmed citizens, was the notorious -Lenine, a proved German agent whose power over the working people -was supreme until the uprisings in July, which were put down by -the Cossacks. Lenine was at the height of his glory when the Root -Commission visited Russia, and the provisional government was so -terrorized by him that it hardly dared recognize the envoys from -“capitalistic America.” Only two members of the mission were ever -permitted to appear before the soviet or council. They were Charles -Edward Russell and James Duncan, one a socialist and the other a labor -representative. Both men made good speeches, but not a line of them, -as far as I could discover, ever appeared in a socialist newspaper. In -fact, the visit of the commission was ignored by the radical press, the -only press which reaches 75 per cent of the Russian people. - -In order to make perfectly clear the situation as it existed during the -spring and summer, and as it exists to-day, I am going to describe two -events which I witnessed last July. Both of these were attempts of the -extreme socialists to bring about a separate peace with Germany, and -had they succeeded in their plans would have done so. Moreover, they -might easily have resulted in the dismemberment of Russia. - -The 18th of June, Russian style, July 1 in our calendar, is a day -that stands out vividly in my memory. For some time the Lenine -element of the Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Council had planned to get up -a demonstration against the non-socialist members of the provisional -government and against the further progress of the war. The Minshevik -element of the council, backed by the government, spoiled the plan -by voting for a non-political demonstration in which all could take -part, and which should be a memorial for the men and women killed in -the February revolution, and buried in the Field of Mars, a great open -square once used for military reviews. As the plan was finally adopted -it provided that every one who wanted to might march in this parade, -and no one was to carry arms. Great was the wrath of the Lenineites, -but the peaceful demonstration came off, and it must have given the -government its first thrill of encouragement, for events that day -proved that the Bolsheviki or Lenine followers were cowards at heart -and could be handled by any firm and fearless authority. - -It was a beautiful Sunday morning, this eighteenth of June, when I -walked up the Nevski Prospect, the Fifth avenue of Petrograd, watching -the endless procession that filled the street. Two-thirds of the -marchers were men, mostly soldiers, but women were present also, and -a good many children. Red flags and red banners were plentiful, the -Bolshevik banners reading “Down with the Ten Capitalistic Ministers,” -“Down with the War,” “Down with the Duma,” “All the Power to the -Soviets,” and presenting a very belligerent appearance. - -With me that day was another woman writer, Miss Beatty of the San -Francisco _Bulletin_, and as we walked along we agreed that almost -anything could happen, and that we ought not to allow ourselves to get -into a crowd. For once the journalistic passion for seeing the whole -thing must give place to a decent regard for safety. We had just agreed -that if shooting began we would duck into the nearest court or doorway, -when something did happen--something so sudden that its very character -could not be defined. If it was a shot, as some claimed, we did not -hear it. All we heard was a noise something like a sudden wind. That -great crowd marching along the broad Nevski simply exploded. There is -no other word to express the panic that turned it without any warning -into a fleeing, fighting, struggling, terror-stricken mob. The people -rushed in every direction, knocking down everything in their track. -Miss Beatty went down like a log, but she was up again in a flash, and -we flung ourselves against a high iron railing guarding a shop window. -Directly beside us lay a soldier who had had his head cut open by the -glass sign against which he was thrown. Many others were injured. - -[Illustration: Typical crowd on the Nevski Prospect during the -Bolshevik or Maximalist risings.] - -Fortunately the panic was shortlived. It lasted hardly five minutes, as -a matter of fact. All around the cry rose that nothing was the matter, -that the Cossacks were not coming. The Cossacks, once the terror of the -Russian people, in this upheaval have become the strongest supporters -of the government. Nothing could better demonstrate the anti-government -intention of the Bolsheviki than their present fear and hatred of the -Cossacks. So the “Tavarishi” took up their battered banners and resumed -their march. No one ever found out what started the panic. Some said -that a shot was fired from a window on one of the banners. Others said -that the shot was merely a tire blowing out. Some were certain that -they heard a cry of “Cossacks,” and some cynics suggested that the -pick-pockets, a numerous and enterprising class just now, started the -panic in the interests of business. This was the only disturbance I -witnessed. The newspapers reported two more in the course of the day. A -young girl watching the procession from the sidewalk suddenly decided -to commit suicide, and the shot she sent through her heart precipitated -another panic. Still a third one occurred when two men got into a -fight and one of them drew a knife. - -The instant flight of the crowds and especially of the soldiers must -have given Kerensky hope that the giant could be got back into the -bottle, especially since on that very day, June 18, Russian style, the -army on one of the fronts advanced and fought a victorious engagement. -The town went mad with joy over that victory, showing, I think, that -the heart of the Russian people is still intensely loyal to the allies, -and deadly sick of the fantastic program of the extreme socialists. -Crowds surged up and down the street bearing banners, flags, pictures -of Kerensky. They thronged before the Marie Palace, where members of -the government, officers, soldiers, sailors made long and rapturous -speeches, full of patriotism. They sang, they shouted, all day and -nearly all night. When they were not shouting “Long live Kerensky!” -they were saying “This is the last of the Lenineites.” But it wasn’t. -The Bolsheviki simply retired to their dancer’s palace, their Viborg -retreats and their Kronstadt stronghold, and made another plan. - -On Monday night, July 2, or in our calendar July 15, broke out what -is known as the July revolution, the last bloody demonstration of the -Bolsheviki. I had been absent from town for two weeks and returned to -Petrograd early in the morning after the demonstration began. I stepped -out of the Nicholai station and looked around for a droshky. Not one -was in sight. No street cars were running. The town looked deserted. -Silence reigned, a queer, sinister kind of a silence. “What in the -world has happened?” I asked myself. A droshky appeared and I hailed -it. When the izvostchik mentioned his price for driving me to my hotel -I gasped, but I was two miles from home and there were no trams. So I -accepted and we made the journey. Few people were abroad, and when I -reached the hotel I found the entrance blocked with soldiers. The man -behind the desk looked aghast to see me walk in, and he hastened to -tell me that the Bolsheviki were making trouble again and all citizens -had been requested to stay indoors until it was over. - -I stayed indoors long enough to bathe and change, and then, as -everything seemed quiet, I went out. Confidence was returning and the -streets looked almost normal again. I walked down the Morskaia, finding -the main telephone exchange so closely guarded that no one was even -allowed to walk on the sidewalk below it. That telephone exchange had -been fiercely attacked during the February revolution, and it was one -of the most hotly disputed strategic positions in the capital. Later -I am going to tell something of the part played in the revolution by -the loyal telephone girls of Petrograd. A big armored car was plainly -to be seen in the courtyard of the building, and many soldiers were -there alert and ready. I stopped in at the big bookshop where English -newspapers (a month old) were to be purchased, and bought one. The -_Journal de Petrograd_, the French morning paper, I found had not been -issued that day. Then I strolled down the Nevski. I had not gone far -when I heard rifle shooting and then the sound, not to be mistaken, -of machine gun fire. People turned in their tracks and bolted for -the side streets. I bolted too, and made a record dash for the Hotel -d’Europe. The firing went on for about an hour, and when I ventured -out again it was to see huge gray motor trucks laden with armed men, -rushing up and down the streets, guns bristling from all sides and -machine guns fore and aft. - -What had happened was this. The “Red Guard,” an armed band of workmen -allied with the Bolsheviki, together with all the extremists who could -be rallied by Lenine, and these included some very young boys, had been -given arms and told to “go out in the streets.” This is a phrase that -usually means go out and kill everything in sight. In this case the -men were assured that the Kronstadt regiments would join them, that -cruisers would come up the river and the whole government would be -delivered into the hands of the Bolsheviki. The Kronstadt men did come -in sufficient numbers to surround and hold for two days the Tauride -Palace, where the Duma meets and the provisional government had its -headquarters. The only reason why the bloodshed was not greater was -that the soldiers in the various garrisons around the city refused to -come out and fight. The sane members of the Soviet had begged them -to remain in their casernes, and they obeyed. All day Tuesday and -Wednesday the armed motor cars of the Bolsheviki dashed from barrack -to barrack daring the soldiers to come out, and whenever they found a -group of soldiers to fire on, they fired. Most of these loyal soldiers -are Cossacks, and they are hated by the Bolsheviki. - -Tuesday night there was some real fighting, for the Cossacks went to -the Tauride Palace and freed the besieged ministers at the cost of the -lives of a dozen or more men. Then the Cossacks started out to capture -the Bolshevik armored cars. When they first went out it was with -rifles only, which are mere toy pistols against machine guns. After -one little skirmish I counted seventeen dead Cossack horses, and there -were more farther down the street. As soon as the Cossacks were given -proper arms they captured the armored trucks without much trouble. The -Bolsheviki threw away their guns and fled like rabbits for their holes. -Nevertheless a condition of warfare was maintained for the better part -of a week, and the final burst of Bolshevik activity gave Petrograd, -already sick of bloodshed, one more night of terror. That night I shall -not soon forget. - -The day had been quiet and we thought the trouble was over. I went to -bed at half-past ten and was in my first sleep when a fusilade broke -out, as it seemed, almost under my window. I sat up in bed, and within -a few minutes, the machine guns had begun their infernal noise, like -rattlesnakes in the prairie grass. I flung on a dressing gown and ran -down the hall to a friend’s room. She dressed quickly and we went down -stairs to the room of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the English suffragette, -which gave a better view of the square than our own. There until nearly -morning we sat without any lights, of course, listening to repeated -bursts of firing, and the wicked _put-put-put-put_ of the machine -guns, watching from behind window draperies, the brilliant headlights -of armored motors rushing into action, hearing the quick feet of men -and horses hastening from their barracks. We did not go out. All a -correspondent can do in the midst of a fight is to lie down on the -ground and make himself as flat as possible, unless he can get into a -shop where he hides under a table or a bench. That never seemed worth -while to me, and I have no tales to tell of prowess under fire. - -I listened to that night battle from the safety of the hotel, going -the next day to see the damage done by the guns. A contingent of -mutinous soldiers and sailors from Kronstadt, which had been expected -for several days by the Lenineites, had come up late, still spoiling -for a fight; had planted guns on the street in front of the Bourse and -at the head of the Palace Bridge across the Neva, and simply mowed -down as many people as were abroad at the hour. Nobody knows, except -the authorities, how many were killed, but when we awoke the next day -we discovered that, for a time at least, the power of the Bolsheviki -had been broken. The next day the mutinous regiments were disbanded in -disgrace. Petrograd was put under martial law, the streets were guarded -with armored cars, thousands of Cossacks were brought in to police the -place, and orders for the arrest of Lenine and his lieutenants were -issued. But it was openly boasted by the Bolsheviki that the government -was afraid to touch Lenine, and certain it is that he escaped into -Sweden, and possibly from there into Germany. - -I should not like to believe that the government actually connived at -his escape, since there was always the menace of his return, and the -absolute certainty that he would remain an outsider directing force -in the Bolshevik campaign. It is more probable that in the confusion -of those days of fighting he was smuggled down the Neva in a small -yacht or motor boat to the fortress of Kronstadt, and from there was -conveyed across the mine strewn Baltic into Sweden. Rumor had it that -he had been seen well on his way to Germany, but it is more likely -that his employers kept him nearer the scene of his activities. He was -guilty of more successful intrigue, more murder and violent death than -most of the Kaiser’s faithful, and deserves an extra size iron cross, -if there is such a thing. In spite of all that he has done he has -thousands of adherents still in Russia, people who believe that he is -“sincere but misguided,” to use an overworked phrase. The rest of the -fighting mob were driven from their palace, which they had previously -looted and robbed of about twenty thousand dollars’ worth of costly -furniture, china, silver and art objects. They were hunted out of their -rifle factory, and finally surrendered to the government after they -had captured, but failed to hold the fortress of Peter and Paul. They -surrendered but were they arrested and punished? Not a bit of it. They -were allowed to go scot free, only being required to give up their -arms. The government existed only at the will of the mob, and the mob -would not tolerate the arrest of “Tavarishi.” - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -AN HOUR OF HOPE - - -There was an hour when the sunrise of hope seemed to be dawning for the -Russian people, when the madness of the extreme socialists seemed to be -curbed, the army situation in hand, and a real government established. -This happened in late July, and was symbolized in the great public -funeral given eight Cossack soldiers slain by the Bolsheviki in the -July days of riot and bloodshed in Petrograd. I do not know how many -Cossacks were killed. Only eight were publicly buried. It is entirely -possible that the government did not wish the Bolsheviki to know the -full result of their murder feast, and for that reason gave private -burial to some of the dead. The public funeral served as a tribute -to the loyal soldiers, a warning to the extremists that the country -stood back of the war, and a notice to all concerned that the days of -revolution were over and that henceforth the government meant to govern -without the help or interference of the Tavarishi, or comrades in the -socialist ranks. The moment was propitious for the government. The -Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates was in a chastened frame -of mind, caused first by the running amuck of the Bolshevik element, -the unmasking and flight of Lenine, and next by a lost battle on the -Galician front, and the disgraceful desertion of troops under fire. - -The best elements in the council supported the new coalition ministry, -although it did not have a Socialist majority, and it claimed the right -to work independently of the council. The Cossack funeral was really a -government demonstration, and those of us who saw it believed for the -moment that it marked the beginning of a new era in Russia’s troubled -progress toward democracy and freedom. The services were held in St. -Isaac’s Cathedral, the largest church in Petrograd, and one of the -most magnificent in a country of magnificent churches. The bodies, in -coffins covered with silver cloth, were brought to the cathedral on a -Friday afternoon at 5 o’clock, accompanied by many members of their -regiments and representatives of others. The flower-heaped coffins -surrounded by flaming candles filled the space below the holy gate -leading to the high altar; around them knelt the soldiers and the -weeping women relatives of the dead, while a solemn service for the -repose of their souls was chanted. - -In the Russian church no organ or other instrumental music is -permitted, but the singing is of an order of excellence quite unknown -in other countries. Part of a priest’s education is in music, and the -male choirs are most carefully trained and conducted. They have the -highest tenor and the lowest bass voices in the world in those Russian -church choirs, and there is no effect of the grandest pipe organ which -they cannot produce. They sing nothing but the best music, and their -masses are written for them by the greatest of Russian composers. -Many times I have thrilled to their singing, but at this memorial -service to brave men slain in defense of their country I was fairly -overwhelmed by it. I do not know what they sang, but it was a solemn, -yet triumphant symphony of grief, religious ecstasy, faith and longing. -It soared to a great climax, and it ended in a prolonged phrase sung -so softly that it seemed to come as from a great distance, from Heaven -itself. The whole vast congregation was on its knees, in tears. - -The service in the cathedral next morning was long and elaborate, -and it was early afternoon before the procession started for the -Alexander Nevski monastery where a common grave had been prepared for -the murdered men. Back of the open white hearses walked the bereaved -women and children, bareheaded, in simple peasant black. Thousands -of Cossacks, also bareheaded, many weeping bitterly, followed. The -dead men’s horses were led by soldiers. The Metropolitan of Petrograd -and every other dignitary of the church was in the procession. I saw -Miliukoff, Rodzianko and other celebrities. Women of rank walked side -by side with working women. Many nurses were there in their flowing -white coifs. There were uncounted hundreds of wreaths and floral -offerings. The bands played impressive funeral marches. But there was -not a single red flag in the procession. - -There was, of course, Kerensky, and his appearance was one of the -dramatic events of the day. I watched the procession from a hotel -window, and I saw just as the hearses were passing a large black motor -car winding its way slowly through the crowd that thronged the street. -Just as the last hearse passed the door of the car opened and Kerensky -sprang out and took his place in the procession, walking alone hatless -and with bowed head after the coffins. He was dressed in the plain -service uniform of a field officer, and his brown jacket was destitute -of any decorations. The crowd when it saw him went mad with enthusiasm; -forgot for a moment the solemnity of the occasion and rushed forward to -acclaim him. “Kerensky! Kerensky!” - -It was his first appearance as premier, and practically dictator of -Russia, and he would not have been human if he had not felt a thrill -of triumph at this reception. But with a splendid gesture he waved the -crowd to silence, and bade them stand quietly back. At first it seemed -impossible to restrain them, but the people in the front ranks joined -hands and formed a living chain that kept the crowds back, and in a few -moments order was restored. There was something fine and symbolic about -that action, those joined hands that stopped what might have created -a panic and turned the government’s demonstration into a fiasco. That -spontaneous bit of social thinking and acting restored order better -than a police force could have done, and it left in me the conviction -that whenever the Russian people join hands in behalf of their country -they are going to work out a splendid civilization. If they had only -done it after that day! But the new coalition ministry, with President -Kerensky, the popular idol, substituted for Lvoff, who had grown -wearied and dispirited by the struggle, soon found itself facing the -same old sea of troubles that had swamped the former ministries. - -The democracy, created largely by Kerensky, in a country which is not -yet ready for self-government, had split up into many anarchistic -groups. It had become a Frankenstein too huge and too crazy with -power to be handled by any man less than a Napoleon Bonaparte, and -Kerensky is not a Bonaparte. Perhaps he had the brain of a Bonaparte, -as he certainly had the charm and magnetism. It may be that he lacked -the iron will or the deathless courage. It may only be that his -frail physical health stood in the way of resolution. Whatever the -explanation, the fact remains that Kerensky never once was able to -take that huge, disorganized, uneducated, restless, yearning Russian -mob by the scruff of the neck and compel it to listen to reason. -Apparently, also, he was unable or unwilling to let any one else do -it, as the mysterious Korniloff incident seems to prove. The story -of the disintegration of the Russian army has been described in many -dispatches. Later I am going to tell what I saw of the Russian army, -and what I know of the demoralization at the front. The state of things -was bad, but it was by no means hopeless, as it is fast becoming. That -Russian army, I confidently believe, could, as late as August, 1917, -have been reorganized, renovated and made into an effective fighting -force. It is very evident that it still has possibilities, because the -Germans still keep an enormous number of troops on the eastern front. -They know that the Russians can fight, and they fear that they will -fight, as soon as they are given a real leader. Military leaders they -do not lack, as the Germans also know. Most of the old commanders, the -worthless, corrupt hangers-on of the old régime, are gone now. Some -are dead, some in prison, some relegated to obscurity. The men who are -left are real soldiers, good fighters, true allies of America, France -and England. Especially is this true of the once feared and hated -Cossack leaders. - -The Cossack regiments to the last man had supported the provisional -government, and were wholeheartedly in favor of fighting the war to a -finish. There are about five million of these Cossacks, and practically -every able-bodied man is a soldier. And what a soldier! Except our own -cowboys, there never were such horsemen. No troops in the world excel -them in bravery and fighting power. They are a proud race and would -never serve under officers save those of their own kind. I asked a -young Cossack at the front where his officers got their training. He -had spent some ten years in Chicago and spoke English like one of our -own men. “We train them in the field,” he said with a smile. “Every one -of us is a potential officer, and when our highest commander drops in -battle, there is always a man to take his place.” - -The Cossack has no head for politics. He agrees on the government he is -going to support and he serves that government with an undivided mind. -When he served the Czar he did the Czar’s bidding. When he decided to -serve the new democracy he could be depended on to do it. He has done -no fraternizing with wily Germans in the trenches. He has listened -to no German propaganda in Petrograd. He wants to fight the war to -a successful end, and then he wants to go back to his home on the -peaceful Don river, or in the wild Urals and cultivate his fields and -vineyards. - -Of all Cossack leaders the most picturesque and the most celebrated -as a military genius was Gen. Korniloff. His life and adventures -would fill volumes. He fought his way up from a penniless boyhood -to a successful manhood. He knows Russia from one end to the other, -and speaks almost every dialect known to the empire, and several -foreign languages in addition, especially those of the Orient. He is a -small, wiry man with a beard, and the only time I ever saw him he was -surrounded by a bodyguard of tall Turkestan Cossacks wearing long gray -tunics, huge caps of Persian lamb and a perfectly beautiful collection -of silver-mounted swords, daggers and pistols. In a pictorial sense -Gen. Korniloff was quite obscured by them. - -Following a series of disasters and wholesale desertions at the front, -the late provisional government announced that the chief command of the -army had been given to Gen. Korniloff. The command was accepted with -certain conditions attached to the acceptance. Gen. Korniloff would -not be a commander in any limited or modified sense of the word. He -demanded absolute power and control over all troops, both at the front -and in the rear. He wanted to abolish the committees of soldiers who -administered all regimental affairs, and who even decided what commands -the men might or might not obey. Gen. Korniloff could never tolerate -these bodies. Whenever he visited an army division he asked: “Have your -regiments any committees?” And if the answer was yes, he immediately -gave the order: “Dissolve them.” One of the principal demands made by -Gen. Korniloff on the provisional government was the right to inflict -the death penalty on deserters, both in the field and in the rear. I -have written of the thousands of idle soldiers in Petrograd, and of -the expressed refusal of many of them to go to the front when ordered. -There was no secret about this, nor any concealment of the fact that -of many thousands of soldiers sent to the front at various times since -the early spring, about two-thirds deserted on the way. They captured -trains--hospital trains in some instances--turned the passengers out, -left the wounded lying along the tracks, and forced the trainmen to -take them back to Petrograd, or wherever they wanted to go. - -Kerensky had tried every means in his power to stop this shameful -business. He had fixed three separate dates on which all soldiers -must rejoin their regiments and must obey orders to advance. He -had published manifestoes notifying these coward and slackers that -unless they did report for duty they would be declared traitors to -the revolution, their families would be deprived of all army benefits -and they would not be allowed to share in the distribution of land -when the new agrarian policy went into effect. These manifestoes were -absolutely ignored. The desertions continued. Army disintegration -increased. Anarchy pure and simple reigned on all fronts and in the -rear. Soldiers who were willing to fight were afraid to, because there -was every probability of their own comrades shooting them in the back -if they obeyed their officers. The state of mind of the officers can be -imagined perhaps--it cannot be described. Many committed suicide in -the madness of their shame and despair. - -Gen. Korniloff wanted to deal with this horrible situation in the only -possible way, by shooting all deserters. This may sound drastic. No -doubt it will to every copperhead and pro-German in this country. But -remember, for every man who deserts on that Russian front some American -boy will have to suffer. We shall have to fight for the Russians, we -shall have to pay the awful price of their defection. Gen. Korniloff, -a true patriot, knew this, and he wanted to save his country from -that dishonor. Kerensky apparently could not endure the thought of -those firing squads. Or else he did not dare to risk the wrath of the -soviet. There is no doubt that he would have courted great personal -danger, it may be certain death, but what of it? There is no doubt -that Gen. Korniloff, if he saved the situation, would loom larger as -a popular hero than Kerensky, but what of it? The whole country, all -of it that retained its sanity and its patriotism, looked for Gen. -Korniloff to establish a military dictatorship in the army. There was -never any question of his assuming the civil power. There was never any -indication that he wanted it. - -But there was this question--what political party in Russia was going -to dominate the constituent assembly, that consummation which has been -postponed many times, but which cannot be indefinitely postponed? The -Social Revolutionary party, of which Kerensky was a member, seems -to have had a clear majority, but there was little organization, -and the Socialists were split up into numerous groups. In one city -election recently there were eighteen tickets in the field, most of -them separate Socialist parties. The Cossacks, solidly lined up behind -Korniloff, announced that in the coming constituent assembly election -they would form a bloc with the Constitutional Democrats and the -moderate party known as the Cadets, of which Prof. Paul Miliukoff is -the leader. That bloc might dominate the constituent assembly. If it -did the Bolshevik element in the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ -Delegates throughout the country would be overpowered and discredited. -The “social revolution” which the councils still insisted must come out -of the political revolution might be modified. - -Outside of the secret conclaves of the provisional government, outside -of the inner circles of political life in Russia, there is no one who -knows the exact truth of the so-called Korniloff rebellion. It is known -that a congress was held in Moscow in late August, in which Kerensky -made one of his great speeches, absolutely capturing his audience -and once more hypnotizing a large public into the belief that he -could restore order in Russia. Korniloff appeared, and aroused great -enthusiasm, as he always does. Everybody seemed to think that the two -leaders would get together and agree on a program. But they did not get -together, and the government announced the “rebellion” and disgrace -of Korniloff. Two more things were announced: that the Bolsheviki had -gained a majority in the Petrograd Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ -Delegates, and that Lenine was on his way back to Russia to address a -“democratic congress,” which had for its objects the abolishment of -the Duma and the calling of a parliament chosen from its membership. -Russia’s hour of hope had come and gone. When will it come again? - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE COMMITTEE MANIA - - -In writing a plain statement of the condition of anarchy into which -Russia has fallen, I am very far from wishing to create a prejudice -against the Russian people. I don’t want anybody to distrust or scorn -the Russians. I want the American people to understand their situation -in order that, through sympathy, patience and common sense, they can -find some way of helping them out of the blind morass that surrounds -them. All the educated Russians I have met like Americans and trust -them. They will not soon forget that the United States was the first -great power to recognize the new government and to hail the revolution. -The American ambassador, David R. Francis, is easily the most popular -diplomat in Petrograd. Every one knows him, and he rarely appeared -in a meeting or convention without being applauded. Over and over -again, during my three months’ visit to Russia, I was told that it -was to America they looked for help and guidance, and after the war -they want to enter into the closest commercial relations with us. One -business man said to me just before I left: “Tell your people that we -will never trade with Germany again unless the Americans force us to -do so. If they will supply us with chemicals, with manufactures and -machinery, we will gladly buy them. If they will send us experts for -our manufacturing plants we will be delighted to have them instead of -the Germans we used to employ, who never taught our people any of their -knowledge because they did not want us to develop.” - -The Russians want us to help them establish public schools; to -show them how to build and operate great railroad systems; to farm -scientifically; to do any number of things we have learned to do well. -We mustn’t despise the Russians, we must help them. And we can’t do -that unless we understand them. Take, for example, the army situation. -It is very bad. The mass of the soldiers are in rebellion against all -authority. But consider the past history, the very recent past history -of those soldiers. Aside from brutal personal treatment at the hands -of some of the officers, they were cheated and starved and neglected -by the bureaucracy in Petrograd, and then again by their commanders -at the front. The Russian soldier’s wants are simple enough. He eats -the same food seven days in the week and rarely complains. This food -consists of soup made of salt meat and cabbage; kasha, a porridge -made of buckwheat; black bread and tea. “Ivan” wears coarse clothes -and big, clumsy boots, and he has none of the small comforts we think -essential to the fighting man in the field. But slight as the Russian -soldier’s equipment is he did not invariably get it in the old days. -It was stolen from him by a band of official crooks with which the -war department and the army were honeycombed. Every department of the -army, from the commissariat to the Red Cross, was full of corruption -and graft. The traffic in army supplies and ammunition, even in -hospital supplies, that went on constantly beggars description. Gen. -Sukhomlinoff, the former minister of war, who has been tried and -sentenced to life imprisonment for the part he played in this business, -was only one of the big thieves. Under him were myriads more, and among -them all the soldiers were often stripped of their overcoats in the -dead of winter, and of half of their rations the year round. When a -Russian soldier was badly wounded he might as well have been shot as -succored. I have seen these men, pitiful wretches, having lost one or -more arms or legs, blind perhaps, or frightfully disfigured, begging in -the streets of Petrograd. Clad in tattered uniform, pale and miserable, -these poor soldiers stand on the steps of the churches or on street -corners and beg a few kopecks from the passersby. There is no such -thing as a pension for them, no soldiers’ homes. They suffered for a -country that knew no such thing as gratitude. Russia sent her men into -battle without sufficient arms or ammunition with which to fight. It -fed them to the German guns without mercy, that a band of looters in -the government might buy sables and bet on horse races. It let them -shiver and freeze in shoddy uniforms that army contractors might grow -rich. And, after they were wounded, it let them beg their bread. - -[Illustration: Kerensky watching the funeral of victims of the July -Bolshevik risings.] - -Small wonder, then, after the revolution, that there was a great -popular demand for swift justice for the soldiers. The provisional -government announced that henceforth each regiment should have an -elected committee, an executive body which should have entire charge -of regimental affairs. Food, clothing, supplies of all kinds, were to -pass through the hands of these committees, and they were to hear and -pass on all complaints. The committees were the vocal organs of the -army. For the first time in Russian history the soldier was allowed -to speak. The plan might have worked excellently had the provisional -government not made the mistake of too much zeal in democratizing the -army. It gorged the soldiers with freedom, gave them such heady doses -of self-government that they got drunk on the idea and ran amuck like -so many crazed Malays. Kerensky decreed that the soldiers need not -salute their officers. “Well then, we won’t,” they said. “And just to -show how free we are we won’t wash our faces, or wear clean clothes, or -touch our caps to women, or stand up straight----” and from that it was -an easy journey to “We won’t take any orders from anybody.” - -The government told the soldiers to elect their own officers, and they -did, after butchering a thousand or so of their old ones. They elected -them wisely in some instances, but in a great many more they did not. -They chose men, not for their capacity to lead in a military way, but -for their political views. In a Bolshevik regiment the best Bolsheviki -were elected. If there was a Minshevik majority the new officers were -pretty sure to be Minsheviki. And after they were elected nobody -respected them, nor did they dare give orders. But of all the madness -that took possession of the “free” soldiers, the committee madness went -farthest. The Russians love to talk. To make speeches, to heckle and -be heckled is the joy of their lives. The committee gave them a new -chance to talk, and they got the habit of calling a committee meeting -on every conceivable occasion. Petrograd heard with horror last summer -that the men in the trenches, when ordered to advance, actually called -meetings to discuss the orders and to vote whether or not they were to -be followed. They did this at times when the Germans were at the very -gates of an important strategic point. - -Even in the hospitals it got so that the doctors and the nurses were -without authority. If a man was ordered to take a pill he wanted to -call a committee meeting to discuss the thing. It is an actual fact -that men refused to take treatment or undergo operations until they -had consulted the Tavarishi about it. From that to refusing to obey -any orders is a short step, and Red Cross nurses have told me some -fantastic stories about life in Russian lazarets. Some wounded men -refused to take their clothes off and insisted on wearing them, boots -and all, to bed. Others refused to go to bed at night, preferring to -snooze during the day and wander around in pajamas and dressing gowns -at night. Some insisted on being discharged before they should be, -while others, on being discharged, declined to go. - -They were not like that in all hospitals, of course. Ivan is a great -child, and very often he is a stupid and an unruly child. But often -he is good, especially when he is sick and suffering and in need of -women’s care and kindness. I don’t want to describe the bad hospital -conditions without admitting that they have the other kind, too, in -Russia. I remember seeing at the corner of a street below a big -lazaret in Petrograd a dozen discharged wounded men and a group of -nurses and orderlies. They were waiting for the tram which was to carry -the men to the railroad station. Some still wore bandages, some were -on crutches, some walked with the aid of sticks. Two were blind. But -all were wildly happy at the prospect of going home to the old village. -The nurses and orderlies shared in the excitement. Some of them were -going to the station, and had their arms full of bundles, clothes, food -and souvenirs of battle. One nurse carried a competent looking cork -leg, the future prop of a pale young fellow on crutches. The car swung -around the corner, full of passengers, idle soldiers mostly, but even -they, at the command of the energetic sister, vacated their seats for -the invalids. They climbed aboard, and those who were most helpless -were lifted. The cork leg was handed in through an open window and -delivered to one of the more able-bodied men. There had been plenty -of time for farewells before, but parting was difficult, and for five -minutes after boarding the car the men continued to shake hands with -the nurses, to shout last messages, and to kiss their hands to those on -the sidewalk. The nurses patted their charges’ arms and shoulders, and -called anxious admonitions. “Take care of that leg, Ivan Feodorovitch. -You know how to bandage it. Don’t try to walk too much, and keep out of -the sun.” You didn’t have to know a word of Russian to understand what -those nurses were saying. - -The street car conductor wrung her hands and begged to be allowed to go -on. The time schedule had to be observed. “Please, sister, please,” -she entreated, and at last she was permitted to ring the bell and send -her car forward. As it turned the corner the men were still waving and -laughing and wiping the tears from their cheeks. I don’t believe those -men had called any committee meetings before obeying their nurses, or -ever reminded the doctors that it was a free country now and they could -take medicine or not as they pleased. - -You certainly got tired of that overworked phrase “It’s a free country -now.” You hear it on all sides in Russia. “It’s a free country,” says -a man with a third-class ticket taking possession of a first-class -compartment. “It’s a free country,” declares a soldier, tossing a -handful of sunflower seed shells on a woman’s white shoes in a street -car. “It’s a free country,” say a group of men, stripping off their -clothes before a crowd of women and children and taking a bath in the -Neva. This occurs frequently on the Admiralty quay, a great pleasure -resort in Petrograd. - -“They called them Sans Culottes during the French Revolution,” said a -clever woman writer in one of the newspapers. “Our men will go down to -fame as Sans Caleçons. The difference, perhaps, between a political and -a social revolution.” The first French phrase means without trousers. -The second carries the denuding process to its concluding stage. - -In this kind of a free country nobody is free. Try to imagine how -it would be in Washington, in the office of the secretary of the -treasury, let us say, if a committee of the American Federation of -Labor should walk in and say: “We have come to control you. Produce -your books and all your confidential papers.” This is what happens to -cabinet ministers in Russia, and will continue until they succeed in -forming a government responsible only to the electorate, and not a -slave to the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates. Of course, -the simile is grossly unfair to the American Federation of Labor. Our -organized labor men are the most intelligent working people in the -community, and most of them have had a long experience in citizenship. -Above all, their loyalty, as a body, has been amply demonstrated. The -Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates has among its members -loyal, honest, intelligent men and women. But it has also a number of -extreme radicals, people who would dishonor the country by concluding a -separate peace with Germany, and who care nothing for the interests of -any group except their own. Nobody in Russia has very much experience -in citizenship, and the working people have less than others. Yet -the soviet, to give the council its local name, deems itself quite -capable of passing on all affairs of state, not only in Russia but in -the allied countries as well. The soviets have had the presumption to -announce that they are going to name the peace terms, although Russia -has virtually ceased to fight. “No annexations or contributions,” is -the formula, very evidently made in Germany. I am sure that not one in -a thousand knows what this means. - -“Have you ever thought,” I asked a member of the Petrograd council, -“what your program would mean to the working people of Belgium? Don’t -you think that the farmers and artisans of northern France are -entitled to compensation for their ruined homes and blasted lives?” - -“Yes, but not from Germany,” was the astounding reply. “All countries -should contribute.” - -“If I were a cashier in a bank and stole a million dollars of the -depositors’ money, do you think I ought to be made to pay it back, or -should all the employés be taxed?” To this question I got no answer. -There isn’t any answer. - -In all this confusion of mind, this whirlwind of ideas and theories, -are there no Russians who can think clearly? Are there no brave and -courageous people left in Russia? None who realize the ruin and -desolation which is being prepared for them? There are. Russia has its -submerged minority of thinkers. It has at least two fighting elements -which are ready to die to restore peace, order and bright honor to -their distracted land. These two elements are the Cossacks and the -women. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE WOMAN WITH THE GUN - - -The women soldiers of Russia, the most amazing development of the -revolution, if not of the world war itself, I am disposed to believe, -will, with the Cossacks, prove to be the element needed to lead, if it -can be led, the disorganized and demoralized Russian army back to its -duty on the firing line. It was with the object, the hope, of leading -them back that the women took up arms. Whatever else you may have heard -about them this is the truth. I know those women soldiers very well. I -know them in three regiments, one in Moscow and two in Petrograd, and I -went with one regiment as near to the fighting line as I was permitted. -I traveled from Petrograd to a military position “somewhere in Poland” -with the famous Botchkareva Battalion of Death. I left Petrograd in -the troop train with the women. I marched with them when they left the -train. I lived with them for nine days in their barrack, around which -thousands of men soldiers were encamped. I shared Botchkareva’s soup -and kasha, and drank hot tea out of her other tin cup. I slept beside -her on the plank bed. I saw her and her women off to the firing line, -and after the battle into which they led reluctant men, I sat beside -their hospital beds and heard their own stories of the fight. I want -to say right here that a country that can produce such women cannot -possibly be crushed forever. It may take time for it to recover its -present debauch of anarchism, but recover it surely will. And when it -does it will know how to honor the women who went out to fight when the -men ran home. - -The Battalion of Death is not the name of one regiment, nor is it used -exclusively to designate the women’s battalions. It is a sort of order -which has spread through many regiments since the demoralization began, -and signifies that its members are loyal and mean to fight to the death -for Russia. Sometimes an entire regiment assumes the red and black -ribbon arrowhead which, sewed on the right sleeve of the blouse, marks -the order. Regiments have been made up of volunteers who are ready to -wear the insignia. Such a regiment is the Battalion of Death commanded -by Mareea Botchkareva (the spelling is phonetic), the extraordinary -peasant woman who has risen to be a commissioned officer in the Russian -army. - -Botchkareva comes from a village near the Siberian border and is, I -should judge, about thirty years old. She was one of a large family of -children, and the family was very poor. They had a harder time than -ever after the father returned from the Japanese war minus one foot, -but that did not prevent their number from increasing, and merely -made the lot of Mareea, the oldest girl, a little more miserable. She -married young, fortunately a man with whom she was very happy. He -was the village butcher and she helped him in the shop, as they had -no children. When the war broke out in July, 1914, Mareea’s husband -marched away with the rest of the quota from their village, and she -never saw him again. He was killed in one of the first battles of the -war, and the only time I ever saw Botchkareva break down was when she -told me how she waited long months for the letter he had promised -to write her, and how at last a wounded comrade hobbled back to the -village and told her that the letter would never come. He was dead--out -there somewhere--and they had not even notified her. - -“The soldiers have it hard,” she said, when her brief storm of tears -was over, “but not so hard as the women at home. The soldier has a gun -to fight death with. The women have nothing.” - -For months Mareea Botchkareva watched the sufferings of the women and -children of her village grow worse and worse. Winter killed some of -them, winter and an unwonted scarcity of food. Typhus came along and -killed more. The village forgot that it had ever danced and sung and -was happy. Every family was in mourning for its dead. Mareea decided -that she could not endure it to sit in her empty hut and wait for -death. She would go out and meet it in the easier fashion permitted to -men. That was the way, she explained to me, she joined the regiment of -Siberian troops encamped near the village. The men did not want her, -but she sought and got permission, and when the regiment went to the -front she went along too. - -[Illustration: Mareea Botchkareva, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and Women of -“The Battalion of Death.”] - -She fought in campaigns on several fronts, earned medals and finally -the coveted cross of St. George for valor under fire. She was three -times wounded, the last time in the autumn of 1916, so badly that she -lay in hospital for four months. She got back to her regiment, where -she was now popular, and I imagine something of a leader, just before -the revolution of February, 1917. - -Botchkareva was an ardent revolutionist, and her regiment was one -of the first to go over to the people’s side. Her consternation and -despair were great when, shortly after the emancipation from czardom, -great masses of the people, and especially the soldiers at the front, -began to demonstrate by riots and desertions how little they were ready -for freedom. The men of her regiment deserted in numbers, and she went -to members of the Duma who were going up and down the front trying to -stay the tide, and said to them: “Give me leave to raise a regiment of -women. We will go wherever men refuse to go. We will fight when they -run. The women will lead the men back to the trenches.” This is the -history of Botchkareva’s Battalion of Death, or rather of how it came -to be organized. The Russian war ministry gave her leave to recruit the -women, gave her a barrack in a former school building, and promised her -equipment and a place at the front. Many women in Petrograd, women of -wealth and social position, took fire with the idea, raised money for -the regiment, helped in the recruiting, some of them joining. - -In an odd copy of an American newspaper that reached me in Russia I -read a paragraph stating that the schoolgirls of Petrograd were forming -a regiment under a man named Butchkareff, a lieutenant in the army. -I don’t know who sent out that piece of news, but it lacked most of -the facts. The women soldiers are not schoolgirls, and Botchkareva’s -battalion has no men officers. Three drill sergeants, St. George cross -men all of them, did assist in the training of the battalion while -it remained in Petrograd. Other men drilled it behind the lines, -but Botchkareva, and another remarkable woman, Marie Skridlova, her -adjutant, commanded and led it in battle. - -Marie Skridlova is the daughter of Admiral Skridloff, one of the most -distinguished men of the Russian navy. She is about twenty, very -attractive if not actually beautiful, and is an accomplished musician. -Her life up to the outbreak of the war was that of an ordinary -girl of the Russian aristocracy. She was educated abroad, taught -several languages, and expected to have a career no more exciting or -adventurous than that of any other woman of her class. When the war -broke out she went into the Red Cross, took the nurses’ training and -served in hospitals both at the front and in Petrograd. Then came -the revolution. She was working in a marine hospital in the capital. -She saw many of the horrors of those February days. She saw her own -father set upon by soldiers in the streets, and rescued from death only -because some of his own marines who loved him insisted that this one -officer was not to be killed. - -Into the ward of the hospital where she was stationed there was borne -an old general, desperately wounded by a street mob. He had to be -operated on at once to save his life, and as he was carried from the -operating room to a private ward the men in the beds sat up and yelled, -“Kill him! Kill him!” It is unlikely that they knew who he was, but -it was death to all officers in those days of madness and frenzy. Half -unconscious from loss of blood, still under the spell of the ether, the -old man clung to his nurse as a child to his mother. “You won’t let -them kill me, will you?” he murmured. And Mlle. Skridlova assured him -that she would take care of him, that he was safe. - -The door opened and a white faced doctor rushed into the room. -“Sister,” he gasped, “go for that medicine--go quickly.” Not -comprehending she asked, “What medicine?” But he only pushed her -towards the door. “Go, go!” he repeated. - -She left the room, and then she saw and understood. Down the corridor -a mob was streaming, a wild, unkempt, blood-thirsty mob, the sweepings -of the streets and barracks. Quickly she threw herself across the door -of the old general’s room. “Get back,” she commanded. “The man in that -room is old and wounded and helpless. He is in my care, and if you harm -him it must be over my body.” - -Incredible as it seems this girl of twenty was able for forty minutes -to hold the mob at bay. When guns were pointed at her she told the men -to fire through the red cross that covered her heart. They did not -shoot, but some of the most brutal struck her down, and then held her -helpless while others rushed into the room and hacked and beat the -old man to death. When the nurse fought her way to his side he was -breathing his last. She had time to whisper a prayer, and to make the -sign of the cross above his glazing eyes. Then she went home, took off -her Red Cross uniform, and said to her father: “Women have something -more to do for Russia than binding men’s wounds.” - -When Botchkareva’s Battalion of Death was formed Marie Skridlova -determined to join it. Admiral Skridloff, veteran of two wars, iron -old patriot, went with her to the women’s barracks and with his own -hand enrolled her in the Russian army service. In the regiment of which -this girl was adjutant I found six Red Cross nurses who were through -with nursing and had gone out to die for their unhappy country. There -was a woman doctor who had seen service in base hospitals. There were -clerks and office women, factory girls, servants, farm women. Ten women -had fought in men’s regiments. Every woman had her own story. I did -not hear them all, but I heard many, each one a simple chronicle of -suffering or bereavement, or shame over Russia’s plight. - -There was one girl of nineteen, a Cossack, a pretty, dark-eyed young -thing, left absolutely adrift after the death in battle of her father -and two brothers, and the still more tragic death of her mother when -the Germans shelled the hospital where she was nursing. To her a place -in Botchkareva’s regiment and a gun with which to defend herself -spelled safety. - -“What was there left for me?” sighed a big Esthonian woman, showing me -a photograph she wore constantly on her heart. It was a photograph of a -lovely child of five years. “He died of want,” said the woman briefly. -“His father is a prisoner somewhere in Austria.” - -There was a Japanese girl in the regiment, and when I asked her her -reason for joining she smiled, and in the evenly polite tone that -marks her race, replied: “There were so many reasons that I prefer -not to tell any of them.” One twilight I came on this girl sitting -outside with the little Polish Jewess with whom she bunked. The two sat -perfectly motionless on a fallen tree, watching a group of soldiers -gathered around a fire. In their silent gaze I read a malevolence, a -reminiscence so full of concentrated loathing that I turned away with -a shudder. I never asked another woman her reason for joining the -regiment. I was afraid it might be more personal than patriotic. - -I do not believe, however, that this was the case with the majority. -Mostly the women were in arms because they feared and dreaded the -further demoralization of the troops, and they believed fervently -that they could rally their men to fight. “Our men,” they said, “are -suffering from a sickness of the soul. It is our duty to lead them back -to health.” Every woman in the regiment had seen war face to face, had -suffered bitterly through war, and finally had seen their men fail in -the fight. They had beheld their men desert in time of war, the most -dishonorable thing men can do, and they said, “Well then, there is -nothing left except for us to go in their places.” - -Did the world ever witness a more sublime heroism than that? Women, in -the long years which history has recorded, have done everything for men -that they were called upon to do. It remained for Russian men, in the -twentieth century, to call upon women to fight and die for them. And -the women did it. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -TO THE FRONT WITH BOTCHKAREVA - - -Women of all ranks rushed to enlist in the Botchkareva battalion. -There were many peasant women, factory workers, servants and also a -number of women of education and social prominence. Six Red Cross -nurses were among the number, one doctor, a lawyer, several clerks and -stenographers and a few like Marie Skridlova who had never done any -except war work. If the working women predominated I believe it was -because they were the stronger physically. Botchkareva would accept -only the sturdiest, and her soldiers, even when they were slight of -figure, were all fine physical specimens. The women were outfitted and -equipped exactly like the men soldiers. They wore the same kind of -khaki trousers, loose-belted blouse and high peaked cap. They wore the -same high boots, carried the same arms and the same camp equipment, -including gas masks, trench spades and other paraphernalia. In spite of -their tightly shaved heads they presented a very attractive appearance, -like nice, clean, upstanding boys. They were very strictly drilled and -disciplined and there was no omission of saluting officers in that -regiment. - -The battalion left Petrograd for an unknown destination on July 6 -in our calendar. In the afternoon the women marched to the Kazan -Cathedral, where a touching ceremony of farewell and blessing took -place. A cold, fine rain was falling, but the great half circle before -the cathedral, as well as the long curved colonnades, were filled with -people. Thousands of women were there carrying flowers, and nurses -moved through the crowds collecting money for the regiment. - -I passed a very uneasy day that July 6. I was afraid of what might -happen to some of the women through the malignancy of the Bolsheviki, -and I was mortally afraid that I was not going to be allowed to get -on their troop train. I had made the usual application to the War -Ministry to be allowed to visit the front, but I did not follow up the -application with a personal visit, and therefore when I dropped in for -a morning call I was dismayed to find the barrack in a turmoil, and to -hear the exultant announcement, “We’re going this evening at eight.” - -It was an unseasonal day of rain, and I spent reckless sums in droshky -hire, rushing hither and yon in a fruitless effort to wring emergency -permits from elusive officials who never in their lives had been called -upon to do anything in a hurry, or even to keep conventional office -hours. Needless to say I found nobody at all on duty where he should -have been that day. Even at the American Embassy, where, empty-handed -and discouraged, I wound up late in the afternoon, I found the entire -staff absent in attendance on a visiting commission from home. The one -helpful person who happened to be at the Embassy was Arno Dosch-Fleurot -of the New York _World_. “If I were you,” he said, “I wouldn’t worry -about a permit. I’d just get on the train--if I could _get_ on--and -I’d stay until they put me off, or until I got where I wanted to go. -Of course they may arrest you for a spy. In any other country they’d -be pretty sure to. But in Russia you never can tell. Shepherd, of the -United Press, once went all over the front with nothing to show but -some worthless mining stock. Why not try it?” - -I said I would, and before eight that evening I was at the Warsaw -Station, unwillingly participating in what might be called the -regiment’s first hostile engagement. For at least two thirds of the -mob that filled the station were members of the Lenine faction of -Bolsheviki, sent there to break up the orderly march of the women, -and even if possible to prevent them from entraining at all. From the -first these spy-led emissaries of the German Kaiser had sworn enmity to -Botchkareva’s battalion. Well knowing the moral effect of women taking -the places of deserting soldiers in the trenches, the Lenineites had -exhausted every effort to breed dissension in the ranks, and at the -last moment they had stormed the station in the hope of creating an -intolerable situation. In the absence of anything like a police force -they did succeed in making things painful and even a little dangerous -for the soldiers and for the tearful mothers and sisters who had -gathered to bid them good-by. But the women kept perfect discipline -through it all, and slowly fought their way through the mob to the -train platform. - -As for me, a mixture of indignation, healthy muscle and rare good luck -carried me through and landed me in a somewhat battered condition next -to Adjutant Skridlova. “You got your permit,” she exclaimed on seeing -me. “I am so pleased. Stay close to me and I’ll see you safely on.” - -Mendaciously perhaps, I answered nothing at all, but stayed, and -every time a perspiring train official grabbed me by the arm and told -me to stand back Skridlova rescued me and informed the man that I -had permission to go. At the very last I had a bad moment, for one -especially inquisitive official asked to see the permission. This time -it was the Nachalnik, Botchkareva herself, who came to the rescue. -Characteristically she wasted no words, but merely pushed the man -aside, thrust me into her own compartment and ordered me to lock the -door. Within a few minutes she joined me, the train began to move and -we were off. That was the end of my troubles, for no one afterwards -questioned my right to be there. At the Adjutant’s suggestion I parted -with my New York hat and early in the journey substituted the white -linen coif of a Red Cross nurse. Thus attired I was accepted by all -concerned as a part of the camp equipment. - -The troop train consisted of one second class and five fourth class -carriages, the first one, except for one compartment reserved for -officers, being practically filled with camp and hospital supplies. -In the other carriages, primitive affairs furnished with three tiers -of wooden bunks, the rank and file of the regiment traveled. I had a -place in the second class compartment with the Nachalnik, the Adjutant -and the standard bearer, a big, silent peasant girl called Orlova. Our -luxury consisted of cushioned shelves without bedding or blankets, -which served as seats by day and beds by night. We had, of course, a -little more privacy than the others, but that was all. As for food, -we all fared alike, and we fared well, friends of the regiment having -loaded the train with bread, butter, fruit, canned things, cakes, -chocolate and other delicacies. Tea-making materials we had also, and -plenty of sugar. So filled was our compartment with food, flowers, -banners, guns, tea kettles and miscellaneous stuff that we moved about -with difficulty and were forever apologizing for walking on each -other’s feet. - -For two nights and the better part of two days we traveled southward -through fields of wheat, barley and potatoes, where women in bright red -and blue smocks toiled among the ripening harvests. News of the train -had gone down the line, and the first stage of our journey, through -the white night, was one continued ovation. At every station crowds -had gathered to cheer the women and to demand a sight of Botchkareva. -It was largely a masculine crowd, soldiers mostly, goodnatured and -laughing, but many women were there too, nurses, working girls, -peasants. Occasionally one saw ladies in dinner gowns escorted by -officer friends. - -The farther we traveled from Petrograd, the point of contact in Russia -with western civilization, the more apparent it grew that things were -terribly wrong with the empire. More and more the changed character -of the station crowds reminded us of the widespread disruption of the -army. The men who met the train wore soldiers’ uniforms but they had -lost all of their upright, soldierly bearing. They slouched like -convicts, they were dirty and unkempt, and their eyes were full of -vacuous insolence. Absence of discipline and all restraint had robbed -them of whatever manhood they had once possessed. The news of the -women’s battalion had drawn these men like a swarm of bees. They thrust -their unshaven faces into the car windows, bawling the parrot phrases -taught them by their German spy leaders. “Who fights for the damned -capitalists? Who fights for English bloodsuckers? We don’t fight.” - -And the women, scorn flashing from their eyes, flung back: “That is the -reason why we do. Go home, you cowards, and let women fight for Russia.” - -Their last, flimsy thread of “peace” propaganda exhausted the men -usually fell back on personal insults, but to these the women, -following strict orders, made no reply. When the language became too -coarse the women simply closed the windows. No actual violence was -ever offered them. When they left the train for hot water or for tea, -for more food or to buy newspapers, they walked so fearlessly into the -crowds that the men withdrew, sneering and growling, but standing aside. - -There was something indescribably strange about going on a journey -to a destination absolutely unknown, except to the one in command of -the expedition. Above all it was strange to feel that you were seeing -women voluntarily giving up the last shred of protection and security -supposed to be due them. They were going to meet death, death in battle -against a foreign foe, the first women in the world to volunteer for -such an end. Yet every one was happy, and the only fear expressed was -lest the battalion should not be sent at once to the trenches. - -As for me, when we arrived at our destination, some two miles from the -barracks prepared for us, I had a moment of longing for the comparative -safety of the trenches. For what looked to me like the whole Russian -army had come out to meet the women’s battalion, and was solidly massed -on both sides of the railroad track as far as I could see. - -I looked at the Nachalnik calmly buckling on her sword and revolver. -She had a confident little smile on her lips. “You may have to fight -those men out there before you fight the Germans,” I said. - -“We are ready to begin fighting any time,” she replied. - -She was the first one out of the train, and the others rapidly followed -her. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -IN CAMP AND BATTLEFIELD - - -The women’s regiment did not have to fight its brothers in arms, -however. The woman commander took care of that. She just walked into -that mob of waiting soldiers and barked out a command in a voice I -had never before heard her use. It reminded me somewhat of that extra -awful motor car siren that infuriates the pedestrian, but lifts him -out of the road in one quick jump. Botchkareva’s command was spoken in -Russian, and a liberal translation of it might read: “You get to hell -out of here and let my regiment pass.” - -It may not have been ladylike, but it had the proper effect on the -Russian army, which promptly backed up on both sides of the road, -leaving a clear lane between for the women. The women shouldered their -heavy kits and under a broiling sun marched the two miles which lay -between the railroad and the camp. The Russian army followed the whole -way, apparently deciding that the better part of valor was to laugh at -the women, not to fight them. - -Botchkareva must also have decided that the first thing to be done was -to give those men to understand that whether the regiment was funny or -not it would have to be treated with respect. As soon as we reached -our barracks and disposed of the heavy loads, she made a little speech -in which she said that here we were, and while we would be obliged -to mingle with the men, relations would be kept formal. The men must -be shown that the women were entitled to the same camp privileges as -themselves, and were no more to be molested or annoyed than any other -soldiers. We had had a long, hot journey, she ended, and the first -thing we were going to do was to go down to the river and have a nice -swim. So with towels around their necks the 250 women made gayly for -the river. I trotted along on the commander’s arm. At least a thousand -men went along, too, but just before we reached the swimming pool under -a railroad bridge, Botchkareva turned around and delivered another of -those crisp little commands. The men stopped in their tracks as if she -had thrown some kind of freezing gas at them, and we went on. - -It was a lovely swimming pool, clear and cold and fringed with -sheltering willows. The women peeled off their clothes like boys and -plunged in. As we dressed afterward I looked at them, heads shaved, -ugly clothes, coarse boots, no concealments, not a single aid to -beauty, but, in spite of it all, singularly attractive. Some of course -were homely, primitive types. Purple and fine linen would not have -improved them much. But some who would not have been especially pretty -as girls were almost handsome as boys. A few were strikingly beautiful -in spite of their shaved heads. You observed that they had good skulls, -nice ears, fine eyes, strong characters, whereas in ordinary clothes -they might have appeared as pleasingly commonplace as the girl on the -magazine cover. - -Cool and refreshed, the battalion marched back to the barracks, which -consisted of two long, hastily constructed wooden buildings, exactly -like hundreds of others on all sides about as far as the eye could -reach. Some of the buildings were half underground, for warmth in -winter, and must have been rather stuffy. Our buildings were well -ventilated with many dormer windows in the sharply slanting roof, and -they were new and clean and free from the insects which in secret I -had been dreading. Inside was nothing at all except two long wooden -platforms running the length of the building, about ninety feet. They -were very roughly planed and full of bumps and knot holes, but they -were the only beds provided by a step-motherly government. Here the -women dumped their heavy loads, their guns, ammunition belts, gas -masks, dog tents, trench spades, food pails and other paraphernalia. -Here they unrolled their big overcoats for blankets, and here for the -next week, all of us, officers, soldiers and war correspondent, ate, -slept and lived. Two hundred and fifty women in the midst of an army -of men. Behind us a government too engrossed in fighting for its own -existence to concern itself about the safety of any group of women. -Before us the muttering guns of the German foe. Between us and all -that women have ever been taught to fear, a flimsy wooden door. But -sleeplessly guarding that door a woman with a gun. - -In that first midnight in camp I woke on my plank bed to hear the -shuffling of men’s feet on the threshold, a loud knock at the door, -and from our sentry a sharp challenge: “Who goes there?” - -“We want to come in,” said a man’s voice ingratiatingly. - -“No one can come in at this hour,” answered the sentry. “Who are you -and what do you want?” - -The man’s answer was brutally to the point. “Aren’t there girls here?” -he demanded. - -“There are no girls here,” was the instant reply. “Only soldiers are -here.” - -An angry fist crashed against the thin wood, to be answered by the -swift click of a rifle barrel on the other side. “Unless you leave at -once we shall fire on you,” said the sentry in a voice of portentous -calm. - -Down the long plank platform I heard a succession of low chuckles, and -a sleepy comment or two which the retreating men outside would not -have found complimentary. That midnight encounter served the excellent -purpose of finally establishing the status of the regiment in camp. -From that time on we lived unmolested. We stood in line with the men -at the cookhouse for our daily rations of black bread, soup and kasha, -a sort of porridge made of buckwheat. We performed our simple morning -toilets in the open; we washed our clothes in improvised washtubs -behind the barracks; we strolled about between drills. The men followed -us around from morning until night. They watched us open eyed, hung in -curious groups before the doors. A few were openly friendly, and beyond -some disparaging remarks regarding our personal appearance none were -hostile. - -The day after we arrived, Monday, it rained. It poured. The camp became -a swamp. The women stayed in their barrack, drilling as best they could -in the narrow aisles. Sitting on the edge of their plank beds, the -only place there was to sit, they listened with deep attention while -under-officers read aloud the army code and regulations. In the morning -a group of nurses from a hospital train in the neighborhood came to -call, and in the afternoon half a dozen officers came from the stavka, -two miles away. The commander, a charming man, seemed astonished and -deeply impressed with the regiment standing at attention to greet him. - -“It is beautiful,” he said repeatedly, and he was good enough to say to -me, “How wonderful for an American woman to be with them. Thank you for -coming.” - -Tuesday it cleared and the battalion had its first open field drills. -The rest of the Russian army stood around and pretended to be vastly -amused. Whenever a woman made a mistake in the manual, and better -still, when she fell down while charging, or splashed into a mud puddle -on a run, the men laughed loudly. Some of that laughter, I feel pretty -certain, hid hurt pride, for every decent soldier I talked to expressed -his sorrow and humiliation that the women had felt the necessity of -enlisting. Quite a number of men in that camp had been in America and -of course spoke English. They said, “Say, sister, what do you suppose -they think about this back in Illinois?” One man said, “Sister,” (I -still wore the nurse’s coif, having no other headgear) “back home -in the States they used to say women oughtn’t to vote because they -couldn’t fight. I’ll bet these women can fight.” - -The officers in and around that army position were evidently of the -same opinion. They came to the drill field every day to inspect and -criticize the work, and they sent their best drill sergeants to -instruct the women, who worked hard and learned quickly. One day the -commander of the Tenth army, whose Russian name is too much for my -memory at this distance, came over with his whole staff, a brilliant -sight. The commander was plainly delighted, and shook hands with a -great many of the women. He even went out of his way to shake hands -with the American. Kerensky was in the neighborhood one day, but he -did not visit us. The Nachalnik saw him at staff headquarters and he -sent kind messages, promising the women that they should be sent to the -front as soon as they were ready. - -The impatience of those women to go forward, to get into action, was -constant. They fretted and quarreled during the frequent rainy spells -which kept them housebound, and were really happy only when something -happened to promise an early start. One day it was the arrival of 250 -pairs of new boots, great clumsy things which it would have crippled me -to wear, and in fact all the women who could afford it had boots made -to order. Another day it was the appearance of a camp cooking outfit -especially for the battalion. Four good horses were attached to the -outfit, and the country girls hailed them with delight as something to -pet and fuss over. - -The women spent much time cleaning and learning their guns. They seemed -to love their firearms, one girl always alluding to her rifle as “my -sweetheart.” - -“How can you love a gun?” I asked her. - -“I love anything that brings death to the Germans,” she answered -grimly. This girl, a highly educated, wellbred young woman, was in -Germany when the war broke out. She was arrested and charged with -espionage, a charge which, for all I know, may have been true. It -was not proved, of course, or she would have been shot. On the mere -suspicion, however, she was kept in prison for a year and must have -suffered pretty severely. She looked forward to the coming fight with -keen zest. I asked her one day what she would do if she was taken -prisoner again. She pulled from under her blouse a slender gold chain -on the end of which was a capsule in a chamois bag. “I shall never be -taken prisoner,” she said. “None of us will.” - -From Thursday on the weather improved and the regiment worked hard in -the field. I had felt the strain of confinement in barracks, and when -I was not watching the drill I was taking long walks down a highway -over which went a constant procession of troops and camp supply -wagons, moving on and on, nearer the horizon, from which came frequent -low mutterings like distant thunder, but which were heavy gunfire. -Sometimes I walked as far as a little settlement which the Nachalnik -told me was not unlike the village she found so unbearable after her -husband left it. The village consisted of two rows of log or roughly -timbered cottages along a winding, muddy road. Green moss grew on the -thatched roofs, and the whole place had a forlorn, neglected look, but -surrounding each cottage was a carefully tended garden with beets, -cabbages, onions, potatoes, and sunflowers grown for the seeds, which -are the Russian substitute for chewing gum. Often the cottages had -poppies growing in the rows of vegetables, the bright blooms giving -brilliance to the somber and lonely landscape. - -Half a dozen miles on the other side of the railroad was another and -a larger village, equally dismal, but furnished with a church, a -wayside shrine, small shops and other improvements. My special friend -the Adjutant and I drove over there one day after supplies. We bought -chocolate, nuts, sardines and biscuits to relieve the deadly monotony -of our daily black bread, soup and kasha. The regiment bought some -supplies at little market stalls near the station. Here one bought -butter, sausages reeking with garlic, tinned fish and doubtful eggs. -At an officers’ store in the vicinity Botchkareva spent some of the -money donated in Petrograd for tea and sugar when they were needed, -and for a kind of white bread or biscuits. They were hard and shaped -like old-fashioned doughnuts, with a hole in the middle through which a -string was run. A yard or two of this bread went well with good butter -and hot, fragrant tea. As far as food was concerned I was better off -in the camp than I was a little later in Petrograd. There was even -a fairly good hot meal to be had at the station when we chose to go -there, which we did several times. But no amount of good food would -have kept our regiment happy in camp very long. The women fretted -and chafed and demanded to know why they were kept in that hole. The -Nachalnik coaxed and scolded them along, and Skridlova, who was easily -the most popular person in camp, reminded them that it took six months -to train ordinary soldiers and that they were being especially favored -by having the time shortened. - -Those women went into battle after less than two months’ training, as -it turned out, for the evening of the ninth day the Nachalnik came back -from headquarters with orders to march the next morning at five. What -an uproar followed! Cheers, laughter, singing. You would have thought -they were going anywhere except to a battlefield where death waited for -some and cruel suffering for many. I wanted to go with them, and would -have insisted on going had I known that they were so soon to fight. -But orders were merely to advance for further drill under gunfire. I -would have been frightfully in the way in the new position, which had -no barracks, but only dog tents, just enough to go around. Nothing on -earth except the knowledge that I would be depriving some one of those -brave women from the comfort of a dry and sheltered bed persuaded me to -leave them. - -Five days later in Petrograd I read in the dispatches that they had -been sent almost directly into action, leading men who had previously -refused to advance, and turning a defeat into a victory; a small one -to be sure, but Russia was thankful for even small victories those -days. A short note from Skridlova prepared me for the story of losses -which I knew was coming. She wrote in French, which she knows better -than English, “You have heard already perhaps that we have been in -action. I do not know yet how many were killed or have died of wounds, -but two of those you knew well were killed. Catherine and Olga, who -you remember had won three medals of St. George. Eighteen girls are -wounded badly, Nina among them.” Nina was the girl who called her gun -“sweetheart,” and who had been a prisoner in Germany. Skridlova was -badly contused in the head, shoulders and knees, but she remained -in command of the remnant of the battalion because the Nachalnik, -Botchkareva, had suffered so severely from shell shock that she had to -be sent to a hospital in Petrograd. She was nearly deaf when I saw her, -and her heart was badly affected. - -“It was a good fight,” she whispered, smiling from her pillow. “Not a -woman faltered, not one. The Russian men hid in a little wood while the -officers swore at them and begged them to advance. Then they sent us -forward, and we called to the men that we would lead them if they would -only follow. Some of them said they would follow, and we went forward -on a run, still shouting to the men. About two-thirds of them went -with us, and we easily put the Germans to flight. We killed a lot of -Germans and took almost a hundred prisoners, including two officers.” -In another hospital I found more than twenty of the battalion, some -slightly and others seriously wounded. The worst cases were kept in -base hospitals, near the battle front, and I never saw Nina again. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -AMAZONS IN TRAINING - - -If the first battle of the first women soldiers in the world had been -fought on American soil imagine what the newspapers would have made of -the story. Especially if the women had gone into battle with the object -of rallying a demoralized American army, and had succeeded in their -object. And this is all the space Botchkareva’s victorious battalion -was accorded in _Novoe Vremya_, one of the best newspapers in Russia. -After describing briefly the engagement on the Smorgon-Krevo front, in -which prisoners, guns and ammunition were taken, the account proceeded: -“The women’s battalion made a counter attack, replacing deserters who -ran away. This battalion captured almost a hundred prisoners including -two officers. Botchkareva and Skridlova are wounded, the latter -receiving contusions and shock from the explosion of a big shell. The -battalion suffered some losses, but has won historic fame for the name -of women. The best soldiers looked with consideration and esteem on -their new fighting comrades, but the deserters were not touched by -their example, and in this respect the aim was not reached. We must -take care of these dear forces, and not give too much consideration to -new formations of the kind.” - -If the press of Russia had been wise, the fact that some of the -slackers in the army were not touched by the women’s bravery would -have been made less conspicuous than the more important fact that many -soldiers were touched by it, and that the Russian army was thereby -enabled to win a victory. Instead of discouraging new formations, the -press should have called for more and more regiments of women to lead -the men. They should have kept it up until people got so excited over -the tragedy of women being torn to pieces by German shot and shrapnel -that they would have risen in wrath, taken hold of their army and their -government, and created conditions which would relieve women from the -dreadful necessity of fighting. - -It could have been done, the people were ready for it. They felt the -tragedy. At a memorial service for the dead women, held in Kazan -Cathedral the Sunday after the battle, the presiding priest said: -“This is a terrible and yet a glorious hour for Russia. Sad it is, -and terrible beyond expression that men have allowed women to die in -their places for our unhappy country. But glorious it will ever be that -Russian women have been ready and willing to do it.” - -After the service, a Bolshevik soldier, standing in front of the -cathedral, tried to turn the sympathies of the crowd by making -insulting remarks about the dead women. He did not have time to say -much before a group of working women, with howls of rage, rushed him, -and I believe would have killed him if his friends had not got him away. - -Of the women left alive but wounded, thirty were brought to a hospital -not far from the Nikolai station, Petrograd, and there I saw them. When -I went into the first hospital ward a wounded girl sat up in bed and, -smiling like the sun, held out to me a German officer’s helmet, her -prize of battle. She had killed him--that was her duty--and had taken -his helmet as a man would have done. But when she told me that Orlova, -big, dull, kind, unselfish Orlova, loved by everybody, was among the -killed, she broke down and wept as any woman would have done. - -From this girl and the others I learned that Botchkareva had spoken the -exact truth when she said that no woman had faltered or shown fear. “We -all expected to die, I think,” one girl said. “I know that I did. I -said over the prayers for the dying while I was dressing that morning. -We all prayed and kissed our holy pictures, and thought sadly about -the ones at home. But we were not afraid. We were stationed between -two little woods. They were full of men, some who openly refused to -go forward, some who hesitated and didn’t quite know what they ought -to do. We shouted at them, the commander shouted at them, called them -cowards, traitors, everything we could think of. Then the commander -called out: ‘Come on, brothers, we’ll go first if you’ll only follow.’ - -“‘All right then,’ some of them called back, and we ran forward as fast -as we could, following Botchkareva. She was wonderful, and Skridlova -was wonderful too. We would have followed them anywhere.” - -“Did you really capture a hundred Germans?” I asked. - -“I don’t believe we did it all by ourselves,” was the modest reply. -“After we got into the fighting the men and the women were side by -side. We fought together and we won the battle together.” - -Every one of those wounded women soldiers wanted to go back to the -front line. If fighting and dying were the price of Russia’s freedom, -they wanted to fight and fight again. If they could rally unwilling -men to fight, they wanted nothing in the world except more chances to -do it. Wounds were nothing, death was nothing in the scale of Russia’s -honor or dishonor. Then too, and this is a strange commentary on -women’s “protected” position in life, the women soldiers said that -fighting was not the most difficult or the most disagreeable work they -had ever done. They said it was less arduous if a little more dangerous -than working in a harvest field or a factory. - -This point of view I have heard expressed by other Russian women -soldiers, those who have fought in men’s regiments. There are many -such women; I have met and talked with some of them. One girl I saw in -a hospital, a bullet in her side and a broken hand in a plaster cast, -assured me that fighting was the most congenial work she had ever -done. This girl had gone to Petrograd from Riga to join Botchkareva’s -battalion, but for some reason she had not been accepted. She met a -young marine who told her of a new Battalion of Death which was being -formed out of the remnants of several old regiments and of a number -of marines. “Why not join us?” he asked. “We already have four girl -comrades.” So she joined. - -We were alone except for the interpreter, and I took occasion to ask -this girl minutely how it fared with women who joined men’s regiments. -Were the women treated with respect, let alone? How did they manage -about their physical needs? Where did they bathe and change their -clothes? Did not the officers object to their presence in the barracks? -At first, my young soldier admitted, the men did not treat the women -with respect, did not let them alone. She was obliged to give the -men some severe lessons. But after a while they learned. They were -considerate in certain respects, and arranged for the girls to have -some privacy. Of course one lost foolish mock modesty when in camp. - -The officers did not object to their enlisting, but were inclined to -treat them with a lofty indifference. The men too seemed to assume that -the girls could not endure the real hardships of war when they came. -“The first thing we had to do in camp was to make a quick march of -twelve versts. ‘Of course the girls can’t walk that far,’ the men said, -‘they can ride on the cook wagons.’ But we said, ‘Not much we don’t -ride on the cook wagons. We didn’t come here to watch you do things. -We came to be soldiers like yourselves.’ So they said, ‘Oh, very well! -_Harasho!_ March if you like.’ And we did. And when we got back to -camp, it was so funny; sailors are not much used to walking, you know, -and those men were completely tired out, exhausted. They lay around in -their bunks and groaned and called on everybody to look at their feet -and their blisters, while we weren’t tired at all. Why, any of us -had walked as far and worked as hard in one day in the kitchen or the -harvest field. So we laughed at the men and said, ‘You’re just a lot of -old women. Look at us. We could do it all over again and not complain.’ -After that I can tell you they didn’t patronize us quite such a lot.” - -When the regiment got into camp near the trenches and the men were -given the regulation uniform of the army, the officers decreed that the -girls’ soldiering should come to an end. The real business of fighting -was about to begin and women were not wanted. They could be sanitaries, -said the commander. So they went back to women’s clothes and women’s -historic job of waiting on men. This girl, however, objected, and -finally confided to one of her men friends that the sanitary’s work -was too distasteful for her to endure longer. “Why should I be obliged -to patch up wounds?” she asked. “It is much easier to make them.” The -soldier found some regimentals for her and she went out and fought in -a skirmish line. When the commander heard of it he was terribly angry -and to frighten her he put her on sentry duty in an exposed post. “He -thought he’d cure me of my taste for fighting,” she chuckled, “but I -wasn’t frightened a bit, and so he said, ‘Well, be a soldier if you are -so bent on it. We need soldiers.’ And so, I fought.” - -She described her first and only battle where she helped storm several -lines of trenches and was one of thirty-seven survivors out of a -thousand in her regiment who took part in the engagement. Her wounds, -she said, did not hurt much at the time, but she was bleeding pretty -badly and thought she ought to get to the hospital. - -“Just then I saw our captain, and he was badly wounded, almost -unconscious in fact, and I had to get him to the rear on my back. It -was all that I could do, for about that time I felt that I was growing -weak and would soon have to sit down. I managed to get him as far as -the first line of Red Cross men, and then I went under. I had been hit -in the side by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel and I was pretty sick -for a while. By and by I felt better and somehow got back to the rear. -The first thing I saw was one of our men who was weeping with his head -in his hands. ‘What’s wrong?’ I asked, and when he looked up and saw -me he gave a yell. ‘They said you had been killed,’ he shouted. And -he began to dance a hornpipe. Poor chap, he had been wounded too and -before he had danced more than a few steps he began to bleed and fell -over in a faint.” - -The ambulances were pretty full, so this plucky young creature thought -she could walk the three or four versts to the hospital. She had to -give up before long and a captain of another regiment, himself wounded, -took her into his cart or whatever conveyance he had, and carried her -to the hospital. “Our captain was there,” she finished, “quite out of -his head with pain. He kept saying, ‘Don’t let that girl go back to the -field. Don’t let her fight again. She is too young.’ He did not know -then that I had carried him off on my back, and me wounded too.” - -A great many women who had seen service in men’s regiments were leaving -them and joining one or another of the women’s regiments which were -forming all over Russia about that time. The largest of these regiments -was being trained for action in Moscow. There were about two thousand -women in this battalion, which was formed and recruited by a women’s -committee, “The Society of Russian Women to Help the Country.” Among -the women was Madame Morosova, before the war prominent socially, but -since the war almost entirely occupied with relief work. She was a very -gay and laughter-loving person, but she had fed and clothed and helped -on their way thousands of refugees. She had turned her house into a -maternity hospital at times, and she had given large sums of money for -the relief of women and children. Finally the women soldiers appealed -to her as the most important work to be assisted and her whole energies -last summer were devoted to the battalion. Princess Kropotkin, a -relative of the celebrated Prince Pierre Kropotkin, was another member -of the society. She had a Red Cross hospital until the army desertions -began, and then she closed the hospital and turned to recruiting women. -Mme. Popova, vice-president of the society, is one more untiring -worker. In August she obtained Kerensky’s consent to go to Tomsk, her -old home, and organize a battalion there. - -The Moscow regiment was being drilled by a colonel and half a dozen -younger officers, all of whom seemed immensely proud of their command. -Twenty picked women of the regiment were going daily to the officers’ -school and when ready were to be given commissions in the regular army. - -In Petrograd a regiment of 1,500 women was almost ready for the -trenches when I saw them last in August. They too were to be officered -by women, two score being a daily attendance at a military school. On -August 20 I saw these 1,500 women march out of their barrack in the old -Engineers’ Palace, to go into camp preparatory to going to the front. -This palace was once the home of the mad Emperor Paul, son of Catherine -the Great. He was assassinated there and his restless ghost is supposed -to haunt the gusty corridors. I asked Captain Luskoff, commander of -the regiment, if he had found out what the Emperor Paul thought of the -women soldiers, and he laughed and promised to report later on that -point. - -It was not intended to raise many regiments of women, I was told. The -intention was to enlist and train to the highest point of efficiency -between ten and twenty thousand women, and to distribute the -regiments over the various front lines to inspire and stimulate the -disorganized army. They would lead the men in battle when necessary, -as Botchkareva’s brave band led them, and they would appear as a sign -and symbol that the women of the country were not willing that the -revolution, which generations of Russian men and women have died for, -and have endured in the snows of Siberia sufferings worse than death, -should end in chaos and national disintegration. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -THE HOMING EXILES--TWO KINDS - - -In a great, bare room, furnished with rows of narrow cots like a -hospital, but with none of the crisp whiteness of the hospital, nor any -of its promise of relief and restoration, a young man, propped with -pillows, played on a concertina. He was white, emaciated, near the end -of his young life. His eyes were like banked fires. He sat up in bed -and in the intervals of coughing made the most wonderful music on that -concertina, much more wonderful than I had ever dreamed the humble -instrument could produce. The man was a true musician, and he had had -many years of practice on his concertina, for it had been the one -friend and solace of a solitary confinement which lasted nearly a dozen -years. All around him in that bare room men lay in bed and listened -to him. Some, however, were asleep. Even music could not break their -weary rest. All were sick. Some were as near death as was the musician. -Siberia had done its work with them. They had come home to die. - -On a soap box, or its equivalent on a corner of the Nevski Prospect -near the Alexander Theater, another young man stood and poured out a -passionate speech to the crowd of soldiers, workmen and workwomen and -idle boys who had paused to listen. The man was about thirty years -old, and his clothes, it was plain to see, had never been purchased in -Russia. They were American clothes of fair quality, and of that stylish -cut possible to buy for twenty-five dollars in almost any department -store. He wore a derby hat, tipped back on his head, a soft collar and -a flowing tie. He talked rapidly and with many gestures, and the crowd -listened with rapt interest to his speech. I, too, stopped to listen. -“What is he saying?” I asked my interpreter. - -“I don’t like to tell you,” she replied. - -I insisted, and this is an almost literal translation of what that man -said, on that Petrograd street corner, on an August day, 1917: - -“You people over here in Russia don’t want to make a mistake of setting -up the kind of a republic, of the kind of phony democracy like what -they’ve got in the United States. I lived in the United States for ten -years, and you take it from me, it’s the worst government in the world. -They have a president who is worse than the Czar. The police are worse -than Cossacks. The capitalist class is on top there just like they were -in the old days in Russia. The working class is fighting them, and they -are going to win. We are going to put the capitalists out just like you -put them out here, and don’t you let any American capitalists come over -here and help fasten on you a government like that one they still have -in America. It’s the capitalists that plunged America into war. The -working class never wanted it.” - -These are two types of exiles which Russia has called back to her bosom -since the revolution, both of which constitute another grave problem -with which the distracted people are struggling. The sick ones, of -whom there are thousands, came back and more of them are coming from -Siberia at a time when food suitable for the sick is impossible to -obtain. There was almost no milk. Eggs were hard to get and were not -very fresh. Food of all kinds was getting scarcer every day. There was -a fuel shortage that threatened to make all Russia spend a shivering -winter, and what was to become of the sick was and still is a grave -question. There is a great shortage of many medicines. If fighting is -resumed the hospitals will be overcrowded. Doctors and nurses will be -scarce. Yet the exiles continue to come back, the long stream from the -remote villages continues to hold out its longing hands to the people -back home, who cannot deny them. And nearly all the exiles come back -sick and homeless and penniless. Russia must take care of those freed -Siberian exiles, and I don’t quite see how she is going to do it, -unless the miracle happens and they find a way of restoring peace and -order in the land. In that case they can do anything. They can even -deal with the kind of exile I heard talking on the Nevski. - -Carlyle says that of all man’s earthly possessions, unquestionably -the dearest to him are his symbols. They have the strongest hold on -us without a doubt. At the time of the French revolution the sign -and symbol of the old régime was the Bastille, that state prison in -Paris which was the living grave of the king’s enemies, or of almost -anybody who made himself unpopular with one of the king’s favorites. -When the French people rose up in their might and swept the old régime -out, the first thing they did, obeying a common impulse, was to tear -down and destroy utterly the Bastille. In Russia the sign and symbol -of the autocracy was the exile system, and particularly Siberia. The -first thing the Russian people did when they rose up and dethroned -the Romanoffs was to send telegrams to every political prison and to -every convict village in Siberia that the prisoners and exiles were -free. They sent orders to all the jailers and guards that the exiles -were to be furnished with clothing and money and transportation to -the railroads, and the railroads were directed to bring them back to -Petrograd. - -There is something to warm the coldest blood in the thought of what -it must have meant to those poor desolate creatures, living in the -hopeless isolation of Siberia, to have the door of the cell open -one February day and hear the words,“You are free!” Sometimes the -announcement was prefaced by words of unheard of friendliness and -courtesy from wardens and jailers who had before been cruel and brutal -task-masters. “Please forgive me if I have been over-zealous in my -duties,” these men would say, and the prisoner would think that he -had gone mad and was dreaming. Then the announcement would come, -unbelievable in its wonder; the revolution had actually happened. -The Czar was gone. The prisoner was free. They heard that news in -the depths of mines, where men worked shackled and hopeless. They -heard it in lonely villages near the Arctic Circle. They heard it in -far lands, where homesick men and women toiled in sweatshops among -aliens. They were free, and Mother Russia was calling them home again. -I should think they would almost have died of joy at the tidings. No -generous mind can wonder that Russia called back her children, all of -them, without stopping to sort out the good and the bad, the well and -the sick, the desirable and the undesirable. Or without stopping to -calculate how she was going to take care of them when they got there. - -But very early in the day it became evident that Russia was going to -face a serious problem in her returned exiles. In the very first days -of the revolution they opened all the prison doors in Petrograd as -well as in other Russian cities, and let all the prisoners out. Among -them were a number of politicals, and many of them immediately became -public charges. They had no money, no friends, no home. The revolution -had robbed them, in some cases, of all three. In some cases of long -imprisonment the homes and friends had been taken from them by death. -There had been a committee working secretly in behalf of political -prisoners, and now this committee, with a group in the Red Cross, -got together and formed a society which they call the Political Red -Cross, the committee in charge of returned exiles. For they saw plainly -that what had happened in the case of the Petrograd prisoners would -be repeated on a large scale when the Siberian exiles and those from -foreign lands returned. Another committee was formed in Moscow. They -sprang up in various cities, co-operating with the Zemstvoes or county -councils. - -At the head of the work is Vera Figner, one of the most famous of the -old revolutionists, almost the last survivor of the nihilism of the -eighteen seventies. The Russians are said to lack organizing ability, -but the work done by this committee under Vera Figner’s direction -looks to me that once Russia gets a government that can govern and an -army that will fight the people of Russia will organize a civilization -that will teach Europe new things. The committee started with nothing, -not even machinery to work with. There is no such thing in Russia as -a charity organization society. Charity and benevolence there are, -mostly of the old-fashioned type, “Under the patronage of her imperial -highness, the Princess Olga,” or “the empress dowager.” There was no -well-organized society of any kind to appeal to to help take care of -some seventy-five thousand exiles hurrying home, an unknown number of -them sick, another unknown number poor and homeless, and all of them -strangers in a new Russia. - -Vera Figner I saw in the Petrograd headquarters of the society. She -is a matronly woman, looking less than sixty, although she must be -older. She has a handsome face, with the deep, smoldering eyes of the -revolutionist, but her smile is quiet and kind. Near her at the long -committee table sat Mme. Kerenskaia, the estranged wife of the minister -president Kerensky. She is an attractive young woman with dark eyes and -abundant dark hair, who gives all of her time to the work of the exiles -committee. Mme. Gorki is another woman of prominence who works with -the committees, and Prince Kropotkin and his daughter, Mme. Lebedev, -whose husband was in the government when I left, are also constant -workers. The work was done through eight committees, one of which -collected money, a great deal of money, too. Hundreds of thousands of -roubles have poured in from all over Russia as well as from England, -America, France. Another committee collects clothes, and they are much -scarcer than money in Russia. A committee on home-finding also collects -sanitarium and hospital beds wherever they are to be found. A reception -committee meets the exiles and takes them to their various lodgings. A -medical and a legal aid committee take care of their own sides of the -work. All over Petrograd and Moscow they have established temporary -lodgings and temporary hospitals for the cure of the returned sick and -helpless. It was in such a refuge that I saw and heard the man with the -concertina. - -I had come to find Marie Spirodonova, one of the most appealing as -well as the most tragic figures of the revolution of 1905-06. She -was the Charlotte Corday of that revolution, for like Charlotte she, -unaided by any revolutionary society, freed her country of one of -the worst monsters of his time. She shot and killed the half-mad and -wholly horrible governor of Tambosk. And like Charlotte she paid for -that deed with her life. She lived indeed to return to Russia, but her -span after that was short. Marie Spirodonova was in the last stages of -tuberculosis when they brought her back to Russia. Ten years’ solitary -confinement had done that for her. The first sentence of death, -afterward commuted to twenty years’ exile, would have been shorter -and more merciful. When I saw her, she was in bed, so wasted that she -looked like a child. The flush of fever on her cheeks gave her a false -look of health, and she looked almost as beautiful as on the day when -she stood in the prisoner’s dock and told the judges how and why she -killed the monster of a governor. Her voice was all but gone now, and -it was in a hoarse whisper that she greeted me, and asked news of her -one or two friends in America. I could stay only a few minutes, she was -so weak. It is hardly possible that she still lives, although no news -of her death has reached me. - -Until the last breath she must have kept her iron will and indomitable -spirit. Ten years in a solitary cell could not break that spirit, as -the story of her release shows. When the first telegram came to the -distant prison, where she and nine other women were confined, the names -of only eight of them were specifically mentioned. - -“But what about us?” wailed the two forgotten ones. - -The warden of the prison perhaps did not entirely believe in the -success of the revolution, and wanted to be on the safe side. “You -stay,” he said. - -“Then none of us will go,” said Marie Spirodonova, and they all stayed -until the next day when another telegram arrived setting them all free. -In the same spirit Spirodonova refused to leave her companions after -they reached Petrograd. She was so famous, so sought after, that she -could have chosen among a dozen hospitable homes, in the country, in -the Crimea or the bracing mountains of the Caucasus. But she said she -would not have anything her old prison mates did not have, so Marie -Spirodonova, daughter of a general, and the concertina player, child -of a peasant, die as they lived, revolutionists, spurning all the -comforts of life, all the protection and security of home, all the -plaudits of the world. They lived and died for Russia as surely as -though they died on the battlefield. - -Of the same type is the most celebrated exile of all, Catherine -Breshkovskaia, the Babushka, or little grandmother of the revolution. -They brought Babushka back to Petrograd in the first rush. They gave -her a reception at the station such as no crowned head in Europe ever -had, and they took her to the Winter Palace and told her that when the -Czar moved out he left it to her. Babushka lived in the Winter Palace -when she was in Petrograd, which was seldom. Most of the time she was -touring rural Russia and trying to make her peasants understand what -the revolution meant, and that they would make the country a worse -place than it ever was before unless they stopped fighting to grab all -the land in sight without any regard to right and justice. “I know -them,” she said in a brief talk I had with her in the palace. “If I can -only live long enough to reach them in numbers, I can deal with them. -They have listened to a pack of nonsense, but I shall tell them better.” - -Breshkovskaia is past seventy years old. She is growing very deaf, -and her weight makes traveling difficult. Yet her mind is clear and -vigorous, and when she makes a speech she manages somehow to call -back the voice and the strength of a woman of forty. Spirodonova, -Breshkovskaia, Kropotkin, Tschaikovsky and almost every one of the old -revolutionists are eager adherents of the moderate program of the early -provisional government, before the Bolsheviki crowded in with their -cry of “All the power to the Soviets!” They want the war fought to a -finish, and they want order restored in Russia. It is quite otherwise -with another type of exile, and I am sorry to say some of this other -kind were made in the United States of America. - -[Illustration: Prince Felix Yussupoff, at whose palace on the Moika -Canal Rasputin was killed, and his wife, the Grand Duchess Irene -Alexandrovna, niece of the late Czar.] - -In the boat in which I crossed the Atlantic last May there were three -Russian men who had spent some years in America and were on their -way back to Petrograd. These men were not exiles, but they had found -Russia intolerable to live in and had gone to America, which had been -so kind to them in a material way that they were able to go back to -Russia in the first cabin of an ocean liner. All three were pronounced -pacifists and one was a readymade Bolshevik. He was for the whole -program, separate peace, no annexations or contributions, no sharing -the government with the bourgeois, no compromise on anything. A real -Bolshevik. And made on the east side of New York. This man used to talk -to me on deck and in the saloon about how the Soldiers’ and Workmen’s -Delegates were going to dictate terms of peace to the allies, and how -the social revolution was going to spread all over the world, and -especially all over America, and then he would hasten to assure me that -he wasn’t nearly as radical as some of the Tavarishi I would meet in -Russia, and he wasn’t. When we reached the Finnish frontier and stopped -at Tornea for examination I had the pleasure of seeing all three of -these men taken into custody by some remnant of authority existing -in the army, and taken down to Petrograd under guard as men who had -evaded military duty. My friend declared that nothing would ever induce -him to put on a uniform or to fight. Not he. And the others rather -less confidently echoed his defiance. Finally one of them said: “on -the whole, I think I will enlist. They need educated men at the front -to talk peace to them.” Thus at least one emissary of the Kaiser was -contributed to poor, bleeding Russia by the United States. - -Just one more case, because it is typical of many. This man was a -real exile, and for eleven years he had lived in Chicago. Born in a -small city of western Russia, he joined, when still a youth, what was -known as the Bund, a socialist propagandist circle of Jewish young men -and women. The youth’s parents, quiet, orthodox people, knew nothing -of his activities, nor of the revolutionary literature of which he -was custodian and which he had concealed in the sand bags piled up -around the cottage to keep out the winter cold. On May 31, 1905, the -Tavarishi, or comrades, in his town organized a small demonstration -against the celebration of the Czar’s birthday. The next day the -police began searching houses and making arrests among the youth of -the town, and they found the books hidden in the sandbags. The boy -fled, and found refuge in the next town. Money was raised, a passport -forged and the youth finally got to England via Germany. He didn’t like -England and in 1906 he crossed to the United States. He didn’t like the -United States either, and his whole career in Chicago was a history of -agitation and rebellion. He was one of the founders of a socialist -Sunday school in Mayor Thompson’s town, where children of tender years -are given a thorough education in Bolshevik first principles. - -When the Russian revolution broke and Russian consuls all over the -world advertised for exiles to be taken back to Russia’s heart, this -man presented himself as one of the returners. He showed me the -certificate issued by the Russian consulate in Chicago. It says that it -was issued in accordance with the orders of the provisional government -and records that the said ---- ---- was paid the sum of $157.25 and -was given transportation from Chicago to Petrograd, via the Pacific -Ocean and the Trans-Siberian railroad. At Vladivostock he received more -money, and on his arrival in Petrograd he was given a small weekly -allowance in addition to his free lodgings. He had a good time on the -journey, he said. There was a band at most of the stations where the -train stopped, crowds, flowers and much cheering. It was agreeable to -get back to Petrograd also and be met by a committee. But the habit -of hating governments was so settled in his system that within a -week he was talking against the one that had paid his way back, and -he was talking hard against the one which had taken him in and given -him a free education and a job and a chance to establish a socialist -Sunday school with perfect impunity. He was in with all the Bolshevik -activities except one. He had no stomach for fighting. The spirit was -willing but the flesh was weak. It got to a point where it was hard to -be a Bolshevik in good standing and never do any gun work, so this -exile determined to go back to Chicago. When I knew him he was haunting -the committees and various ministries trying to persuade them to give -him the money with which to return. - -“You don’t think they can draft me into the American army, do you?” he -asked me anxiously. “I am a Russian subject. I don’t see how they could -do it legally.” - -I don’t know how many men of this kind went back to Russia from the -United States, but there were enough of them to be conspicuous, and the -Russian radicals believe them to be far more reliable witnesses than -the Root Commission, which made a remarkably good impression on the -educated people but none at all on the Tavarishi. “Don’t you believe -that the United States is in this war for democracy,” shouted one -Nevsky Prospect orator. “The United States is just as imperialistic as -England. You oughtta read what Lincoln Steffens and John Reed wrote -about the United States and Mexico.” These men will do Russia all the -harm they can, and then they will come back to America and do us all -the harm they can. If I had my way they would go from Ellis Island, -with all the rest of their kind still remaining here, to some kind of a -devil’s island in the South Seas and be kept there until they died. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -HOW RASPUTIN DIED - - -Looking at these exiles, these wrecks of humanity done to death in the -name of the state, and reflecting that their number was so great that -months had to elapse before they could all be located and brought back -to life, it is not to be wondered at that most Russians believed the -autocracy a thing too strong to be shaken. But the February revolution -revealed that the autocracy was a tree rotten at the roots. At a touch -it collapsed. - -The Russian autocracy went down like a house of cards, and within an -incredibly short time the whole horde of ignorant and reactionary -ministers, grafting generals, corrupt officials, court parasites, -vagrant monks, mystics and fortune tellers went down with it and -were buried in its ruins. The Czar--a reed shaken in the wind. The -Czarina, the Empress Dowager, the poor little Czarevitch, Rasputin, -Anna Virubova, his sponsor at the court--leaves in the current. They -all went. In the dead of night a group of determined men, led by a -nephew-in-law of the Czar, murdered a monk, and almost the next day -the whole Protopopoff-Sturmer gang was in the fortress of Peter and -Paul and the Romanoff family was on its way to Siberia. Rasputin, it -is true, was killed in December, and the revolution did not actually -occur until February; but two months in the history of a nation is an -inconsiderable lapse of time. The story of the killing of Rasputin has -been published in this country, and, in its main facts, accurately. In -some of its important details the published stories are in error, and -I am glad to be able to tell the facts as they were related by Prince -Felix Yussupoff himself, the man who fired the shot that freed Russia. - -Prince Yussupoff did not tell these facts directly to me. He told them -to Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the English suffragist, with whom he is -on terms of warm friendship, and gave her permission to repeat them -to me, which she did within an hour of hearing them. Prince Yussupoff -was willing that I should know the story, but our acquaintance was -brief, and I am sure that I heard a more detailed account through -Mrs. Pankhurst than I should have had had he talked directly to me, a -comparative stranger. - -Prince Yussupoff did not kill Rasputin, as has been charged, because -the monk had cast lascivious eyes on his beautiful young wife, the -Grand Duchess Irene Alexandrovna. At least he said nothing about her in -connection with the affair, and it is certain that she took no active -part in it. She did not lure the monk to the Yussupoff palace on the -fatal night. She could not have done so because she was in the Crimea -at the time. Prince Yussupoff killed Rasputin because of the man’s evil -influence on the Czar, his wife’s uncle, and his worse influence on the -Czarina. The thing had got beyond scandal. It had become unbearable, -and when evidence was presented to him that Rasputin was trying to -influence the royal pair to force Russia into a separate peace with -Germany, Prince Yussupoff decided that the time for Rasputin’s death -had come. Rasputin had to die. He was invited to Yussupoff’s house and -he accepted. Then he died. - -I have often walked past that great, beautiful, yellow palace on the -Moika canal, the Petrograd town house of the Yussupoff family, and -tried to reconstruct the ghastly drama enacted there on that December -night. Snow burying the black ice of the canal, shrouding the street -and silent houses, dimming the street lights, and in a basement room, -a private retreat of the lord of the palace, a young man sweating from -every shivering pore, and watching the sinister monk eat and drink -deadly poison which affected him no more than water. They had fed one -of the poisoned cakes to a dog, just before they sent them downstairs -to be fed to Rasputin, and the dog died in a few seconds. Rasputin -ate one and lived. Explain it who can, but cease to wonder that the -Russians firmly believe that Rasputin was something more than human. - -Excusing himself on some pretext Prince Yussupoff went upstairs, where -the others waited--young Grand Duke Dmitri and two or three other men, -and told them the incredible news. When he went back he had a revolver -in his pocket. He and the monk resumed their conversation, which was on -general topics. It was the first time Rasputin had visited Yussupoff or -had any particular conversation with him. The prince was not a favorite -at court, the empress especially disapproving of certain alleged -episodes in his youthful past. For this reason young Prince Felix and -the monk were on formal terms, and it took a great deal of diplomacy -to persuade Rasputin to make that midnight visit at all. They resumed -their interrupted conversation, and in the course of it the prince -invited Rasputin to cross the room and look at an ikon, or sacred -picture, which hung on the opposite wall. These ikons are frequently -rare objects of art, gold or silver, and incrusted with gems. The ikon, -which was to be the last on which Rasputin’s gaze was to rest, was an -antique of almost priceless value. He looked, and the next moment a -revolver shot tore through his side and he crumpled up on the floor -without a groan. Prince Yussupoff had shot him. - -The prince had never killed a man before, and it was natural that, in -his revulsion of nerves after the deed, he should have rushed from -the room. He fled upstairs and gasped out that it was over, the thing -they had sworn to do was done, Rasputin was dead. The next thing was -to get the body out of the house, and this task was rendered the more -difficult because a policeman who had passed the house at the moment -when the shot was fired, rang a doorbell and insisted on knowing what -had occurred. He was pacified somehow, and one of the men went out -to get a motor car. Prince Yussupoff went downstairs to guard the -body until the car came. Rasputin lay motionless on the floor beneath -the jeweled ikon, but as his slayer reached the spot where he lay, -the monk’s body shot up, the monk’s long arms darted forward and his -powerful hands reached and clawed for Yussupoff’s throat. Half mad -with amazement and horror, the young man tore himself loose, leaving -one of the epaulets from his uniform in the clawing hands. Rushing with -all his might to the room upstairs, he shrieked: “He lives yet! He is -the devil himself! We cannot kill him!” - -“We must kill him!” they shrieked in return, and the whole band rushed -for the stairs. When they opened the door Rasputin was crawling on -hands and knees up the stairs. His face was diabolic. What followed -does not make pleasant reading. They tried to kill him, crawling toward -them, using every weapon they could grasp--revolvers, swords, daggers, -clubs, heavy chairs, even their boots. They shot and beat him until -he was senseless, but even then he did not die. They tied his hands -and feet and regardless of possible risk of detection they loaded the -senseless body into a motor car, drove to the Neva, a considerable -distance, and threw the still breathing thing through a hole in the -ice. There Rasputin died. - -That is the way Prince Yussupoff tells it. The world knows how the Czar -had the body embalmed and buried, and how he and all the royal family -walked in the funeral procession. It was the intention of the Empress -to build a costly tomb over his grave, perhaps a church. They usually -built a church to commemorate assassinations of royalty, and the poor, -half-demented Empress of Russia regarded Rasputin as greater than -royalty. Perhaps if the revolution of February had not succeeded the -church would have been built, loaded with gold and art treasures, as -those Russian churches are, and might in time have become a shrine in -which the superstitious would pray for miracles. But the revolution did -succeed, and one of the first things they did was to unearth the corpse -of Rasputin and give it another burial. I heard several accounts of -that burial, all of them horrible. One account has it that the body was -burned. It doesn’t make any real difference. Rasputin had to be killed, -and he was. The burial was nothing unless you find something symbolic -in the uneasy character of the man even after he was dead. It does -indicate, strangely, the sinister nature of the whole Rasputin episode. - -No arrests followed the killing of Rasputin, although the men who did -it were known almost from the first. Rasputin’s family, with whom he -lived in Petrograd, knew where he went on his death night, and when -he did not return they telephoned Tsarskoe Selo to ask if he was -there. The royal family lived in the Alexander palace at Tsarskoe, and -Rasputin often visited them there. But he did not live at court, as -many people seem to think. The Czarina, frightened half to death, sent -for the Petrograd chief of police and the dragnet immediately thrown -out drew in the policeman who had heard a revolver shot from the yellow -palace on the Moika canal. The chief of police went in person to the -Yussupoff palace and found it a shambles. Prince Felix had been so -nearly prostrated by the events of the night--he is really little more -than a boy--that he had not even had the place cleaned. The prince at -first refused to tell anything of the affair and he steadfastly refused -to divulge the names of the men who had helped him do the deed. But -little by little the police unearthed the whole story, and the frantic -Czarina learned that at least two of the assassins were of the blood -royal. She demanded their punishment, and the Czar joined with her in -the demand. - -They would have sent all the men to the farthest Siberian mine if they -had had their way. But there was a meeting of the Romanoff clan in -the Tsarskoe palace, probably more than one meeting. The grand dukes -were all there, and the Empress Dowager. They told the royal pair -that nobody must suffer for the deed. Horrible as it was, it had to -happen some time, because assassination was the certain end of men like -Rasputin. They told the Emperor and Empress plainly that they were -fortunate that only one assassination had taken place. Nobody at that -time knew that the revolution was close at hand. None of the Romanoff -family believed that the revolution would ever come. But they knew--all -of them except the Czar and his wife--that the house of Romanoff was -due to have a thorough cleaning, and they were thankful at heart that -Prince Felix and young Grand Duke Dmitri had had the nerve to begin the -work. The young grand duke was sent to the Caucasus and Prince Felix -was banished to his estates. I don’t know where the lesser lights were -sent, but certainly they were not arrested. The grand duke is still in -the Caucasus, the provisional government wisely considering him well -off out there on the Persian border. - -Prince Yussupoff is not only free but he is something of a popular -hero still. He is very democratic, is openly sympathetic with the -revolution, although he detests the Bolsheviki, who have turned -revolution into riot. The constitutional democrats and other -conservative revolutionists admire the young man, and there is even -a group, I don’t know how large, which would like to see him the -constitutional monarch of Russia. He is not a Romanoff, but his wife -is. She is young, rarely beautiful and a great favorite in society. -As for Prince Felix, he belongs if not to royalty, to a family which -has intermarried more than once with royalty. On his father’s side -he is Count Sumarokoff-Elston, the latter name indicating British -descent, the original Elston coming over from Scotland during the reign -of the Empress Catherine. He gained her favor and secured the title -and estates of Sumarokoff. The father of Prince Felix assumed, by -Imperial decree, the title of Prince Yussupoff on his marriage with the -beautiful Princess Yusupova, the last of her line, who thus perpetuated -the family name. The Yussupoffs are one of the oldest and wealthiest -families in Russia. Their origin runs back into the half-fabulous days -of Tartar domination, the name Yussupoff being Tartar, and not Russian -at all. It means Joseph’s son. The title, however, dates back only -about a century. Prince Felix is the head of the family, his elder -brother having been killed in a duel some years ago on French soil. -He is barely thirty years old, and looks much younger. Nobody would -be likely to pick out this man in a crowd for an assassin. He is tall -and slender, and almost too handsome. With his fine features, dark, -melancholy eyes and ivory skin he might almost be called effeminate in -appearance. One sees such men only in very old families where the vigor -has begun to run low. There is plenty of vigor left in Prince Felix, -however. He has an Oxford education, and speaks English perfectly. He -speaks many other languages besides, as the highly educated Russians -are all supposed to do, but which they frequently do not. French is -commonly spoken, of course. - -I had a long talk with Prince Felix Yussupoff in Moscow, and we -talked, most of the time, about the American public school system. He -wanted to know what the Gary system was, and fortunately I was able -to tell him. As I described the schools, where children spent their -days, working, studying, playing, being wholly educated and trained -to think as well as to work, the prince’s eyes glowed and his face -shone with interest and amazement. “It’s the finest thing I ever heard -of,” he exclaimed. “It is exactly what we ought to have in Russia.” -And then he went on to say thoughtfully: “Mrs. Dorr, my wife and I -want to do something for Russia, something really worth while. I -don’t want to be forever remembered for--for just one thing. I want -to do something constructive. Of course, as things are now, there is -nothing constructive to be done. Besides, my wife is a Romanoff, and, -naturally----” He paused with a graceful little gesture of the hand. -Naturally a Romanoff couldn’t be conspicuous in any way just then. “But -when the time comes, if it ever does, when Russia is normal again, why -shouldn’t the contribution I make be to the education of children?” - -“The salvation of your country lies in the education of its children, -all of them, not just the children of the rich,” I replied. - -“I believe it,” was the earnest response. “And I want to help establish -the best public school system in the world in Russia. How can I do it?” - -I told him, to the best of my ability. And he promised me that he would -carry out my suggestions. Prince Felix Yussupoff means to spend the -next year or two studying the American public school, and especially -the Gary system. He doesn’t want to be remembered for just one thing. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -ANNA VIRUBOVA SPEAKS - - -“Let any American mother imagine that her only son, who came into the -world a weakling, and whose life had always hung on a thread, had been -miraculously restored to health. Suppose also that the person who did -this wonderful thing was not a doctor, but a monk of that mother’s -church. Wouldn’t it be natural for that mother to regard the man with -almost superstitious gratitude for the rest of her life? Wouldn’t it -also be natural that she would want to keep the monk near her, at least -until the child grew up, in order to have the benefit of his advice and -help in case of a return of the illness?” - -I had heard the story of the Rasputin murder as told by one of the -principals in the gory tragedy, Prince Felix Yussupoff, and now I was -to hear it again, this time from one of the reputed “dark forces,” of -which Rasputin had been the head and front, Anna Virubova, the intimate -friend and confidante of the Empress of Russia, and believed by many -to be the chief accomplice of Rasputin. I had heard all sorts of -horrible stories about this woman. It was said that she was Rasputin’s -procuress. It was said that she conspired with him to make the Empress -believe that the Czarevitch would die if the monk were sent away from -court, or if he voluntarily withdrew. On the several occasions when -he did go, Madame Virubova was said to have fed the child with minute -doses of poison, so that he sickened, and when that happened of course -the frantic mother demanded the return of Rasputin. - -As the monk’s appetite for power grew and he demanded the removal -of this or that metropolitan or bishop, the removal or appointment -of ministers, the suppression of newspapers that denounced him, the -Czarina, urged on by her friend Madame Virubova, would insist that -Rasputin should have his way. Otherwise he might leave, and the -Czarevitch would surely die. Madame Virubova was also said to have -conspired with a court physician to poison the Czar, or rather to put -constant doses of some toxic in his food in order to cloud his mind, -and thus make him an easier dupe for the pro-German conspirators. They -told the most amazing stories about this woman, making her out a sort -of a combination of Lucrezia Borgia and Jezebel. - -[Illustration: Gregory Rasputin and some of his female devotees.] - -Whether the provisional government believed these stories or not, -the Duma members who forced the revolution evidently believed Anna -Virubova to be one of the most dangerous of the inner court circle, -or camarilla, which was planning a German peace. For when the Czar -was forced to abdicate, and all the accused men of the camarilla -were arrested and thrown into the fortress of Peter and Paul, Madame -Virubova was also arrested and sent to the fortress. She was taken out -of a sick bed--there had been an epidemic of measles in the royal -family--thrown into an underground cell and kept there for three -months. At the end of that time she was in such a state of collapse -that the prison physician recommended her removal to a hospital. To -this the provisional government consented, but when the order for her -release was presented to the governor of the fortress, and he ordered -her cell door unlocked, the soldiers on duty refused to obey the order. -It was days before they were persuaded to let her go. Madame Virubova -was sent to a hospital for a month, and then they set her free. That -is, they permitted her to go to the home of her brother-in-law, who -is a stepson of the Grand Duke Paul, and to live there under strict -surveillance. They had searched her house in Tsarskoe Selo, and her -rooms in the palace. They had put her through every kind of cross -examination, not once but many times, and they were forced to admit -that they could not discover a single incriminating circumstance, or -any evidence of poisoning or conspiracy. They had to release her, but -she was not allowed to leave the country, or even her brother’s house, -without permission, which, of course, would not be granted. She was -watched all the time, and might be rearrested and given the third -degree at any time if the least bit of evidence seemed to warrant it. - -Anna Virubova is considered a very dangerous woman. She is one of -two things, very dangerous or very much maligned. She gave me the -impression, after two long, intimate talks, of a woman absolutely -innocent of any wrongdoing. If she is a criminal she ought to be put -in prison for life, for her powers of deceit are simply marvelous. I -liked Anna Virubova, and I don’t think I could possibly like a woman -capable of poisoning little boys or handing innocent young girls over -into the claws of a lascivious monk. - -How I met this woman, how she came to talk confidentially with me, -where I saw her and when, are not to be written just now. They could -not be published without injuring a number of people, perhaps including -Madame Virubova herself. I saw and talked with her soon after her -release from the prison hospital. She was still a little drawn and -haggard from the hardships and the terror of her experiences in Peter -and Paul, and she was in the depth of despondency over the plight -of her friend the Czarina. She is a very pretty woman, this alleged -Borgia-Jezebel. She has an abundance of brown hair and her eyes are -large and deeply blue. Her features are regular, and her mouth curves -like a child’s. Two or three years ago the train on which she was -traveling between Petrograd and Tsarskoe Selo was wrecked, some say -purposely. Madame Virubova was desperately injured, both legs being -broken and her spine wrenched. She was lamed for life and walks with a -crutch, but in spite of that all her movements are singularly graceful. -One of the stories about her is that she was a peasant girl brought to -court by Rasputin and forced on the Empress as a convenient tool of -the conspirators. This is quite untrue. Madame Virubova is a patrician -by birth, and before she was born, and long before Rasputin appeared -in Tsarskoe Selo, her family was attached to the court. The father and -the grandfather of Madame Virubova were court officials, confidential -secretaries to the emperors of their times. Both her parents are living -and I have met them both. They are highly educated and unmistakably -well bred. They are not rich people, but they live in a very beautiful -apartment in an exclusive quarter of Petrograd. - -For more than a dozen years Mme. Virubova lived on terms of closest -friendship with the Czarina. She did not live at court, at least she -did not until after the murder of Rasputin, when she went to the palace -to be near the frightened and despairing Empress. She had a house of -her own in Tsarskoe Selo, and it was at her house that the Empress met -the monk who was to have such a sinister influence on her after life. -The Empress, who was never popular at court, and never happy there, -liked to have a place where she could go and throw off her imperial -character, be a woman among her intimate friends, care free. Such a -refuge was Mme. Virubova’s home to the melancholy Alexandra, wife of -the Emperor of all the Russias. Mme. Virubova’s husband was an officer -in the navy, and gossip had it that he disapproved of his wife’s -friendship with the Empress, and disapproved still more of the people -who were invited to meet her in his home. Rasputin was not the only one -of the mystics and charlatans she met and talked with, it appears. The -Empress was deeply religious, and she was interested in all kinds of -strange and mystical doctrines. The husband of Mme. Virubova was not, -and he feared, as well he might, that almost any kind of a political -plot might be hatched by that “little group of serious thinkers” who -met in his drawing room and in the scented boudoir of his wife. They -quarreled. It got to the point where they did nothing but quarrel, and -one day Mme. Virubova was given a choice between her husband and her -friend. She chose the friend, and thenceforth she occupied the house in -Tsarskoe Selo alone. The husband went to sea, and after a year or two -he died. - -Something of this Madame Virubova told me, and the rest a friend of -the husband told me. In her story the husband appears as a jealous, -unreasonable, bad tempered man, almost a lunatic. In her friend’s story -he appears a martyr. “I have not had a very amusing life,” said Anna -Virubova, in speaking of her marriage. She smiled, a little bitterly. -“Perhaps that is one reason why I, like the Empress, was attracted to -religion, why we both liked and trusted Rasputin. We did trust him, -and to the end everything he did justified our confidence. As for the -Empress’s feeling for him I give you my solemn word of honor it was -solely that of a grateful mother, and a devout member of the Orthodox -church.” And then she spoke the words with which I have opened this -chapter. “Let any American mother imagine that she had an only son who -had come into the world a weakling, one whose life had always hung on a -thread, and that that child had suddenly and miraculously been restored -to health. Let her suppose that the person who did this wonderful thing -was not a doctor but a monk of her own church. Wouldn’t it be natural -for that mother to regard the man with almost superstitious gratitude -for the rest of her life? Wouldn’t it also be natural that she should -want to keep the monk near her, at least until the child grew up, in -order to have the benefit of his advice and help in case of return -of the illness? Well, that is the whole truth about the Empress and -Rasputin.” - -“But did Rasputin really heal the Czarevitch, and restore him to -health?” I asked. - -“Judge for yourself,” she replied. “Perhaps you know how ardently the -birth of a son was desired by both the Emperor and the Empress. They -had four girls, but a woman may not inherit the Russian throne. A -boy was wanted, and when at last he came, a poor little sickly baby, -the Empress was nearly in despair. The child had a rare disease, one -which the doctors have never been able to cure. The blood vessels -were affected, so that the patient bled at the slightest touch. Even -a small wound would endanger his life. He might bleed to death of a -cut finger. In addition to this the boy developed tuberculosis of the -hip. It seemed impossible that he could ever live to grow up. He was -a dear child, always, beautiful, clever, and lovable. Even had less -hung on his life than succession to the throne it would have been -hard to give him up. Each one of his successive illnesses racked the -Empress with such terror and anguish that her mind almost gave away. -For a long time she was so melancholy that she had to live in seclusion -under the care of nurses. It was not so much assassins that she feared. -It was that the child should die of the maladies that afflicted him. -And, in addition to all this daily and hourly anxiety and pain she -suffered, the poor Empress was torn this way and that by the grand -dukes and all the members of the court circle. Each one had a remedy -or a treatment they wanted applied to the child. There were always new -doctors, new treatments, new operations in the air. The Empress was -criticized bitterly because she wouldn’t try them all. The Empress -Dowager--well----” Virubova looked at me and we both smiled. The -mother-in-law joke is as sadly amusing in a palace as in a Harlem flat. - -“Then came Rasputin,” continued Madame Virubova. “And he said to the -Empress: ‘Don’t worry about the child. He is going to live, and he -is going to get well. He doesn’t need medicine, he needs as much of -a healthy, outdoor life as his condition can stand. He needs to play -with a dog and a pony. He needs a sled. Don’t let the doctors give -him any except the mildest medicines. Don’t on any account allow them -to operate. The boy will soon show improvement, and then he will get -well.’” - -“Did Rasputin say that he was going to heal him?” I asked. - -“Rasputin simply said that the boy was going to get well, and he told -us almost the day and the hour when the boy would begin to get well. -‘When the child is twelve years old,’ Rasputin told us, ‘he will begin -to improve. He will improve steadily after that, and by the time he is -a man he will be in ordinary health like other men.’ And very shortly -after he turned twelve years old he did begin to improve. He improved -rapidly, just as Rasputin said he would, and within a few months he -could walk. Before that, when he went out it was in the arms of a -soldier, who loved him better than his own life, and would have gladly -given his life if that could have brought health to his prince. The -man’s joy when the child really began to walk, began to play with his -dog and his pony, was equaled only by that of the empress. For the -first time in her life in Russia she was happy. Do you blame her, do -you blame me for being grateful to Rasputin? Whether he cured him or -God cured him, I know no more than you do. But Rasputin told us what -was going to happen, and when it was going to happen. Make of it what -you will.” - -Rasputin told the Empress of Russia that her son would begin to improve -when he was twelve years old. Almost any doctor might have told her -that it was not unlikely that he would begin to improve as soon as -adolescence began. Many childish weaknesses, and even some very grave -constitutional weaknesses, have been known to disappear gradually from -that period. Empresses and ladies in waiting are not usually medical -experts, but they might have learned that much from ordinary reading, -if the doctors failed to enlighten them. But neither Alexandra nor -Virubova knew it, and when Rasputin threw that gigantic bluff at them -they grabbed it. As a guesser Rasputin was a wonder, for the almost -impossible happened and the sick little Czarevitch lived up to his -prediction. That’s what I make of it. - -When the Czarevitch grows to manhood, if he ever does, and reads the -history of his father’s and mother’s last years as rulers of Russia, -what a subject for reflection this whole Rasputin episode will afford -him! He was the pawn shoved back and forth across the chessboard where -the destinies of nearly two hundred million Russians, to say nothing of -the Romanoff family, were being decided. He was the bait with which the -biggest game in modern European politics was played. He and a wily monk -and two women with a taste for mystical religion. - -“This was the beginning of the close friendship between Rasputin and -the royal family,” Madame Virubova continued. “But it was by no means -the only tie between them. Whatever anybody says about Rasputin, -whatever there may have been that was irregular in his private life, -whatever he may have done in the way of political plotting, this -much I shall always believe about him, he was clairvoyant, he had -second sight, and he used it, at least sometimes, for good and holy -purposes. His prediction about the health of the Czarevitch was only -one instance. Often and often he told us that such and such thing would -happen, and it always did. The Emperor and Empress consulted him at -several crises in their lives, and he always told them what they ought -to do. In each and every case the advice was wise. It was miraculously -wise. No one except a person gifted with second sight could possibly -have known how to give it.” - -“Was Rasputin as bad as they say he was?” I asked. - -“He couldn’t have been,” she answered. “But he may have been more or -less licentious. Unfortunately you find men, even in holy orders, who -are weak in certain ways. I can only answer positively for myself -and the Empress. The charge that either of us ever had any personal -relation with Rasputin was a foul slander. Nothing of the kind ever -existed, or ever could have existed. Oh,” she cried, a sudden flame -dyeing her white cheeks, “how easy, very easy, it is to say that -kind of thing about a woman. Nobody ever asks for proofs. Accusation -and judgment are joined instantly together. Why, Rasputin was just a -wandering monk when we met him. He was dirty, uneducated, uncouth. He -did learn to wear a clean shirt and to preserve a sort of cultivated -manner when he came to court. That was not very often, by the way. I am -sure that the Empress did not see him more than six or eight times a -year, and the Emperor saw him more rarely than that.” - -“Was he a German agent? Was he a part of the political intrigue that -threatened a separate peace for Russia?” - -Anna Virubova was silent for a long minute. She seemed to be pondering. -Then she spoke, and her eyes were the candid eyes of a child. “Truly, I -do not know. Certainly I did not believe it in Rasputin’s lifetime, but -now--I do not know. This much I do know, that it was difficult, very -difficult, at the Russian court, to avoid being drawn into political -intrigues. You know, of course, what a court is like.” - -“No,” I said, “I don’t know anything about a court. Tell me what it is -like.” - -“There is only one word in English to describe it,” replied Mme. -Virubova. “That word is ‘rotten.’ A court is made up of numberless -little cliques, each one with its endless gossip, its whisperings, -its secrets and its plots, big and small. There is nothing too big -or too small for these cliques to concern themselves with. They plot -international political changes, and they plot private murders. They -plot to ruin the mind and the morals of an Emperor, and they plot to -break up a friendship between two women. They plot to raise this one -to power and they plot to bring about the fall of another. They plot -in peace and they plot in war. The person who lives at court and is -not drawn into some of these plots is an exception to the rule. That -is all that I can say. However, Rasputin, as I told you before, never -lived at court. He did not even live in Petrograd. Most of his time was -spent in Siberia, and he ought to have been in Siberia on the day he -was murdered. But he had a home in Petrograd, where his wife and two -daughters lived while the girls were being educated. Rasputin was very -fond of those girls, and he was visiting them when that Yussupoff boy -killed him.” Mme. Virubova usually spoke of Prince Felix Yussupoff as -“that Yussupoff boy.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -MORE LEAVES IN THE CURRENT - - -In an even, passionless voice Anna Virubova went on to tell me the -story of the murder in the Yussupoff palace, as it had appeared to the -slain man’s devotees in Tsarskoe Selo. - -“We knew that certain people were plotting to kill Rasputin. His life -was attempted, you may know, at least three times. But it never entered -our minds that Prince Yussupoff was in the plot. He was not a favorite -with the Empress, who thought him a very dissolute young man. Still, -he was in Tsarskoe once in a while, because his wife, who is a lovely -girl, often came, and sometimes he came with her. On one of his last -visits he saw the Empress. I was in the room and I heard him say, quite -casually, that he had invited Rasputin to come to his house. ‘My wife -wants to meet him,’ he said. - -“We thought no more about it, but on the morning after the dreadful -thing happened one of Rasputin’s daughters called me on the telephone -and asked me if I knew where her father was, and if not would I -telephone the palace and find out if he was there. Some intuition -seemed to tell me that something terribly wrong had occurred. - -“Trying not to let my voice tremble, I asked the girl when her father -had left the house and with whom. ‘He left about midnight,’ she -answered. ‘I don’t know whose motor car it was that came for him, -but he told us he was going to call on Prince Yussupoff.’ I did not -telephone the palace to ask about Rasputin. I went there as quickly -as I could and told the Empress my news. ‘He went to see Felix?’ she -exclaimed. ‘Why should he have gone there now, when Irene is in the -Crimea?’ We looked at each other and the same kind of awful fear looked -out of her eyes that had gathered in my heart. ‘Send for the chief of -police at once,’ said the Empress. ‘Tell him to come as fast as he -possibly can.’ It is almost too terrible for me to tell you. The police -found the Yussupoff house in the most ghastly state of blood and--ugh!” -she exclaimed, “it made me sick to hear them describe it, and it -makes me sick just to remember it.” After a moment she continued, -real feeling in her voice. “The thing was not difficult to trace. The -Yussupoff boy denied everything at first, made up a silly story about a -dog that had to be killed.” - -When Mme. Virubova said this I admit I shuddered. It was evident that -she did not grasp the subtlety of that “silly story about a dog that -had to be killed.” - -“While Prince Felix was still insisting that no crime had been -committed the police found the hole in the ice, and around it, on the -snow, many bloodstains. And then they found the poor corpse. They -had killed him, first by shooting and then by every horrible means -in their power. He was shot in the head and in the body, crushed and -mangled almost beyond recognition. There was one frightful, ragged -wound across his stomach which could only have been made with a spur, -the doctors told us. When he had been beaten until he was helpless -those men tied him up with meters of rope and threw him in the river to -drown. He must have regained consciousness at the end, because he had -dragged one arm partially free and by his hand we knew that he tried to -make the sign of the cross. Yussupoff persisted in his denials until -Grand Duke Michael and his son drove to the palace and told the Czar -that they were all more or less in it, and that it had been a good -thing to do. A good thing to murder and mutilate a defenseless man! -Well, you asked me what a court was like. - -“There was a terrific time at the palace. The Emperor was horrified, -and the Empress, I think, was nearer the insanity they accused her of -than she had ever been before. They demanded the name of every man and -woman connected with the plot, and promised that every one of them -should be brought to sternest justice. But what power had they, after -all? The grand dukes and the whole family stood as one against the -Emperor and Empress. They declared that no one should be punished for -that atrocious crime. I cannot tell you all they said and did, because -that would be revealing confidences. But they held a strong enough club -over the poor Emperor when they threatened to desert him in a troubled -and uncertain time. He was absolutely forced to agree that only the -principal plotters should be banished to their estates, and the others -should be left unpunished. Afterward, when we could talk about it at -all,” Mme. Virubova resumed, “I reminded the Empress that the day -before Rasputin was murdered that Yussupoff boy had telephoned to me -asking me to arrange for him to see the Empress. She had declined to -see him, and we both believe that if she had received him he would have -killed her and then, very likely, me also. We are convinced that there -was a great assassination plot all laid. But there is no proof.” - -This, then, is how the Rasputin murder appears in the reverse. Prince -Felix Yussupoff did not look like a wholesale assassin to me, but, -then, neither did Anna Virubova look like a poison plotter. Evidently -you have to be accustomed to the atmosphere of courts to judge these -things. I don’t judge anybody in this grewsome drama. I leave that to -history. - -I asked Mme. Virubova why the court cliques plotted against the -Empress. “It was inevitable,” she replied. “The Empress came there, -a stranger, a poor, beautiful, painfully shy young girl. She did not -know how to flatter or win favor. She was studious, and she was devoted -to her husband and children. They needed her devotion--oh, far more -than the ordinary family needs that of the mother. You have heard, I -suppose, some of the atrocious slanders that have been circulated about -the Empress. One of these had it that she encouraged the Emperor in his -weakness for alcohol because she wanted to keep him in a muddled state -of mind and herself be the real ruler of Russia. The exact opposite is -true. The poor Emperor did drink too much sometimes, but it was not her -fault. There were others at that court who were vitally interested in -keeping their Emperor in a muddled state of mind, and they constantly -played on his weakness. His wife fought for him desperately, did -everything in her power to save him from these men. - -“Another slander said that the Empress tried to Germanize the court, -and that she made her children talk German to her. The children almost -never spoke a word of German to her or to any one else. Of course they -were taught German, with other languages, but English and Russian -were the only two languages spoken in the family circle. The Empress -was anxious for all her children to be good linguists, but not all of -them were gifted that way. Tatiana, the second daughter, for example, -declared that she never would be able to carry on a conversation in -French, the easiest of all foreign tongues. But English they all spoke -from their cradles. - -“As for the Empress’s intrigues for a separate peace with Germany,” -and here Mme. Virubova’s voice trembled with indignation, “that was -the greatest nonsense and the wickedest slander of them all. From the -time the war broke out until the revolution last February the Empress -was tireless in her work for the Russian soldiers and their families. -She fairly lived in the hospitals at Tsarskoe Selo. Immediately after -breakfast every morning she began her rounds, dressed in the plain -cotton frock of the Red Cross nurse. There was no duty too humble, no -task too arduous for her to undertake. She stood beside the surgeons -in the operating room, seeing the most dreadful amputations. She sat -beside the suffering and the dying in their beds. ‘Stand near me, -czaritza,’ a poor wretch would cry to her in his anguish and pain, -and she would take his rough hand and soothe him, pray for him, that -he might bear it for Russia. They loved her then, those men, though -they turned against her afterward. We used to motor home for luncheon -and then go to more hospitals. It would be 5 o’clock before we reached -home, and then the Empress always sent for her children. What time did -she have, will you tell me, for German intrigues? - -“The home life of the royal family was happy and harmonious above any -I have ever seen,” interpolated Mme. Virubova. “The Czar worshiped his -wife and the children worshiped both of them. Would you believe that -some of those court parasites tried to break up that happy home? Once -when the Emperor was at Livadia, in the Crimea, some one sent each day -a great basket of flowers to be placed on his writing table. Attached -to the basket was my card. They thought they could make the Empress -believe that I was carrying on an intrigue with the Emperor. As a -matter of fact, the Empress asked me directly if I sent the flowers. -I had not heard a word of it before, and if she had merely sent me -away I should never have known the reason. Against me they plotted -ceaselessly. Why? Because the Empress loved and trusted me, and I would -have died for her, and they all knew it. They resented our friendship. -They hated to see us sitting together hours at a time over our books. -We read a great deal. It may interest you to know that we read many -American books.” - -“What American books did the Empress read?” I asked. - -“We read Mrs. Eddy’s book, of course, and the complete works of the -great American author, Miller.” - -“Miller?” I interrupted. “What Miller?” - -“I don’t remember his first name,” said Mme. Virubova. “But you must -know who I mean. He wrote many religious and philosophical works. The -Empress was very fond of them.” - -I was obliged to confess that I had never heard of Miller, and Mme. -Virubova looked her surprise. - -“Another reason why the Empress, and of course myself, were unpopular -was because the children were with us so much of the time. The Empress -simply would not allow them to associate with the sons and daughters -of the nobility. She wanted to keep them sweet and clean minded and -good, and she knew that very few of the children of high society in -Russia were fit companions for them. The daughters of our nobility are -mostly frivolous, selfish, empty-headed girls, and as for the sons, -they are too often debauched in early boyhood. You can imagine that the -Empress’s poor opinion of them and her refusal to allow her children -to know them aroused great resentment. People always think their own -children perfect, you know.” - -The former Empress of Russia is one of the enigmas of histories. Mme. -Virubova, who knew her better than almost any other living woman, makes -her out a religious devotee and something of a puritan. She does not -reveal her as an intellectual woman, in spite of her love of books. A -really intelligent woman in her position would not have spent so much -of her time in the wards of hospitals in the one small town of Tsarskoe -Selo. She would have used her brains, her vast wealth and her almost -unlimited power to organize the work of the hospitals all over the war -area. I have seen some of those hospitals, and while some of them are -modern and well equipped, many are of the crudest description. I never -saw such a thing as a fly screen in any Russian hospital. Flies seem -to be regarded as harmless domestic pets even in contagious disease -hospitals in Russia. - -The Empress may or may not have been a German plotter. I heard it said -on high authority that the minutest search of all the palace records, -after the revolution, failed to unearth any evidence to that effect. -Practically everybody in Russia, however, believes that she was a -traitor to her country in the war. Those who are charitably disposed -toward her say that she was melancholy, mad, irresponsible, and a weak -tool in the hands of Russia’s enemies. But when the days of revolution -burst on the palace at Tsarskoe Selo, and the night of perpetual -extinction began to descend on the royal house of Romanoff, it was -this woman, the Empress of Russia, who alone showed strength of mind -and character. She alone of the whole court kept her head and her cool -nerve, and kept them to the last. - -Much has been made of Alexandra’s influence over the weak and yielding -Emperor. It is said that the Empress, when arguments failed to move -him, resorted to hysterical fits which invariably brought results. But -this may be the merest gossip. Alexandra’s influence over her husband -was probably as strong as the average wife’s, but is it not a little -curious that, while few countries allow women to inherit a throne and -not all countries allow women to vote, when anything happens to a -dynasty they always discover that the queen was the only member of the -family who had any brains or any strength of character? The troubles of -the whole house of Bourbon have been ascribed to Marie Antoinette, and -the fall of the third empire and the house of Bonaparte was caused by -the malign influence of Josephine. - -Rasputin is another actor in the drama who will have to be judged by -the historians. I firmly believe that Rasputin as a dark force was -very much overrated. I have no doubt that he was a wicked, deceitful, -plotting creature, a monster of sensuality, an impostor and an -all-around bad lot. That seems to be settled. But I cannot find much -evidence that he was anything more than a tool of the German plotters, -whoever they were. He exercised great influence, but it seems to me -that almost everything he did was out of personal spite. He demanded -the suppression of a newspaper that attacked him, the removal of a -minister who insulted him. His principal activities were against men in -the orthodox church. Here he was about as venomous as a rattlesnake. An -obscure monk, it filled him with pride and joy to humble a bishop, to -unfrock a priest, to influence appointments. - -Rasputin had a small, mean mind, and his egotism was colossal. Of -course the women fools at court who flattered and deferred to him, -perhaps worse, fostered this egotism until it reached the limit of -inflation. But Rasputin, I believe, will live in history more as a -scandal than as a menace to Russia. He was a menace also, because a -bad, weak man is often even more of a menace than a bad, strong one. -The weakling is almost sure sooner or later to fall into the hands of -plotters and criminals, and under their directing power he becomes as -dangerous as a rabid animal. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE PASSING OF THE ROMANOFFS - - -I asked Mme. Virubova to tell me what happened at the palace during the -revolution and how the royal family received the news of its overthrow. - -“I can tell you only what I personally know,” she replied, “and I was -very ill in bed when it happened. All the children had measles and, -helping the empress nurse them, I was stricken too. The Empress was -an angel. She went from one room to another caring for us, waiting on -us, while all the time anxiety must have been tearing cruelly at her -heartstrings. Once or twice she said something to me about trouble in -Petrograd, food riots. - -“The scarcity of food had preyed on the Empress’s mind for many months, -and one of the last conversations she ever had with Rasputin was on -that subject. The winter of 1916 set in early, and the snows were so -deep that transportation of all kinds of things, food included, was -greatly impeded. I remember that the Empress said to Rasputin that -nature itself seemed to be conspiring against poor Russia that year. - -“The rioting in Petrograd increased, and even in my bed I could hear -echoes of it around the palace. Shots I heard and horrid yells. I -tried to get out of bed, but the Empress soothed me. ‘It is bad, of -course,’ she said, ‘but it will quiet soon. The poor people are mad -with hunger. They will be given food and then all this will be over.’ -Soon the palace guards, the regiments on duty in Tsarskoe Selo, began -to show signs of demoralization. They were afraid for their own lives, -and you cannot wonder that they were. The Empress used to go out in -the cold and snow in the dead of night and talk to the men, reassure -them, comfort them. ‘Nothing will happen,’ she told them. But for her I -believe the last man would have thrown away his gun and fled. Her will -and her resolution alone kept them at their posts.” - -“Do you think that the Empress really believed that it was a riot and -not a revolution?” I asked. It was history this woman was telling me, -history that will live in libraries a thousand years after we two, and -all of us, are dust. I wanted to know the exact truth. - -“I am sure she did,” said Mme. Virubova. “If she had dreamed that it -was a revolution she would have sent earlier for the Emperor, who, you -know, was at the front with his army. She was alone and she faced the -trouble alone, but if she had known the full extent of the trouble -she would have wanted the Emperor where he would be safer than out -there among that murderous gang. She did not know that Russia was in -revolution, nor would she believe it at first when she was told that -the army had gone over to the revolutionists. The officers of the guard -told her, but she simply shook her head. Finally, Grand Duke Paul came -tearing out to Tsarskoe in his highest power motor car. He convinced -her that it was true. Even then her steel nerves endured. ‘Send for -the Emperor,’ she said calmly and sternly. ‘I am going back to my sick -children.’ And she went.” - -The iron nerve displayed by the Empress of Russia when she learned that -supreme disaster had befallen the house of Romanoff was in contrast -to the emotion which overcame the deposed Emperor on his return to -Tsarskoe Selo. At the time of his abdication, near the army front, -he had behaved with dignity and self-command. He scornfully refused -the whispered suggestion of one general that he escape in one of the -high-power motor cars which always accompanied the imperial train. If -the people wanted him to abdicate, he was ready to do so, and ready -also to place himself at their disposal. Nicholas also showed himself -to be a good Russian and no tool of the pro-German party, if reports -are correct. When the news came that the army had gone over to the -revolution some one near the Emperor, it is said, told him that there -was one desperate way to avert the catastrophe. He could open up the -Dvinsk front, let the enemy in, and thus by the sacrifice of his -country save his dynasty. Nicholas refused even to consider such a -crime. He committed many sins of cruelty in his time, and many more -sins of stupidity. But in the end he showed himself no traitor. His -return to Tsarskoe Selo was intended by Kerensky and the other members -of the provisional government to be in accordance with his former rank, -and orders were given to treat him with all respect and consideration. -These orders, if Mme. Virubova is to be believed, were disregarded by -the soldiers on guard at the Alexander palace, the home of the royal -family. - -In my last talk with Mme. Virubova she spoke with deep feeling of -the rowdy reception given the returning Nicholas. “They blew tobacco -smoke in his face, the brutes!” she said. “A soldier grabbed him by -the arm and pulled one way, while others clutched him on the other -side and pulled him in an opposite direction. They jeered at him and -laughed at his anger and pain. When he was finally alone with his -family and intimate friends he could not contain his grief but wept -unrestrainedly. We all wept, for that matter: we who loved him.” - -It is to the credit of Kerensky and the ministers that they never would -consent to any suggestion that Nicholas be thrown into a dungeon or -otherwise harshly treated. As long as the family remained at Tsarskoe -Selo, which was until the 1st of August, Russian style, and August -13 in the western calendar, it lived in its accustomed manner. The -servants, most of them, remained at their posts, and while no member -of the family was allowed to leave the palace grounds on any pretext, -nor the palace itself except when accompanied by armed guards, they -had the freedom of their home and the society of a few friends. They -were not allowed to telephone, and all letters reaching them had first -to be read by the officer in command of the guards. Mme. Virubova told -me that in spite of Kerensky’s good intentions, the deposed royalties -were subjected to a number of petty annoyances which must have caused -them all the resentment and humiliation their tormentors intended. -The electric lights were sometimes turned off early in the evening, -leaving the palace in darkness. There were days when the water was -turned off and the family was deprived of bathing facilities. The -soldiers on guard were not infrequently rude and churlish and openly -exultant in the presence of their prisoners. - -Kerensky cannot be held responsible for these things, but he was -responsible for depriving the former Empress of the society of her -most intimate friend, Mme. Virubova. I have already told how she was -arrested while still suffering from the effects of measles and thrown -into a cell in Peter and Paul. The cell was damp and insanitary, and -the sick woman suffered extreme misery all the time she was there. -Surrounded constantly by soldiers, who watched her night and day, she -was never alone even long enough to dress or to bathe. She is lame, as -I have stated, and once she fell on the slippery floor of her cell and -was unable for a long time to rise. The soldiers on guard refused to -help her, but simply stood and laughed at her efforts to reach her bed. -“Twice during the months of my confinement they let my mother visit -me,” she told me. “But I was allowed to talk to her only in presence of -the guard and across a wide table in the governor’s room.” - -A friend of Mme. Virubova told me a still worse story concerning her -imprisonment. Several times her father was visited by soldiers from -Peter and Paul and made to pay large sums of money in order to insure -his daughter from the most horrible indignities at the hands of the men -who guarded her. He paid this blackmail. He had to. There was no power -in Russia to appeal to, and Kerensky himself could not have prevented -the murder or outrage of that lame and helpless woman in the fortress -of Peter and Paul. She escaped the last insult men are capable of -offering to women, and the government, after vainly trying to fasten -the crime of treason on her, set Anna Virubova free under military -surveillance. But they would not grant the Empress’s plea to send her -friend back to Tsarskoe Selo. - -The first shock of dumbfounded amazement over, the royal family, which -had never believed that it could be overthrown, regained its composure -and accepted its destiny with quiet resignation. The Emperor became his -adored son’s tutor, and the Empress her daughters’ constant companion. -When spring came the whole family went out and made a garden. The -hundreds of soldiers in Tsarskoe and thousands of people from Petrograd -made pilgrimages to the palace grounds and watched through the high -iron fence the former Czar spading up the ground and the former heir -and his sisters planting and hoeing potatoes. The former Empress, in -a wheeled chair or low pony carriage, for she was in feeble health, -usually looked on smilingly. - -Of course, the Tavarishi, or at least the extremists in the Council -of Soldiers’ and Workmen’s Delegates, resented the respectful and -considerate treatment accorded the captive royalties. They kept up a -constant clamor for the removal of the Emperor and Empress to some -dungeon in Kronstadt or Peter and Paul. Every once in a while the -newspapers published a resolution to that effect passed by a committee -of the council in Petrograd or Tsarskoe, or in a city more remote. A -dispatch from Helsingfors said that the crews of three warships lying -near there had passed fiery resolutions demanding that the Czar be -turned over to the tender mercies of the ruffians at Kronstadt. The -crew of the cruiser _Gangoute_ went on record as saying: “This is the -third time that we have expressed our will in this matter, and we have -not been trifling. This is our last resolution. Next we shall employ -force.” - -The government, however, disregarded all these resolutions and muttered -threats. It may very well be, though, that the final decision to send -Nicholas and his wife into Siberian exile came as a result of pressure -on the part of the soviets. Kerensky may have feared a bloody tragedy -at Tsarskoe Selo, and perhaps he had reason to fear it. At all events, -the provisional government decided, some time in July, to transfer the -family to one of the remotest spots in the empire, Tobolsk, in Eastern -Siberia. The government kept this decision an absolute secret, as far -as the deposed Emperor as well as the general public were concerned. -A few days before the transfer was made one of the soviets, I think -at Tsarskoe, held a stormy meeting at which great indignation was -expressed over the ease and comfort in which the once royal family -lived. “We eat black bread, they eat white,” complained one impassioned -orator. “We drink cold water and Nicholas drinks wine. My wife walks -while his rides in a carriage. Where’s the justice in that?” - -Doesn’t it sound like a deliberate plagiarism of one of the speeches -made against allowing the sixteenth Louis to remain in the Tuileries? A -lot of things have changed since the French revolution, but some human -nature is just as small and mean as ever. - -It was not until the Romanoff family was well on its way to Siberia -that the transfer was mentioned in the newspapers. Many people knew of -it, of course, and the news was passed from excited lip to lip in the -capital a few hours after the special train left Tsarskoe Selo. In the -newspapers of August 3 (16, old style) the carefully censored story -of the departure was published. The full story, as far as I know it, -reveals that for three weeks beforehand the garrison at Tsarskoe knew, -or suspected, that something was about to happen to the captives. Two -days before the event Kerensky went in person to the garrison and asked -the soldiers to choose from their ranks a squadron of the most reliable -and trustworthy men. They were needed, he explained, for a mission of -great importance. Three hundred and eighty-four men were chosen, eight -from forty-eight regimental groups. On the 31st of July (August 12) -at midnight Kerensky appeared at the barrack, called the picked men -together and told them that their mission was to escort the man who had -been their emperor and autocrat into exile in far Siberia. - -The royal family knew its fate before that time, but just when they -were told has not been revealed. Kerensky told them, and I feel -sure that he did it gently and courteously. But he refused them all -information as to where they were going. On July 30 (August 11) the -confessor of the family held a service for those about to go on a long -journey. Then they went to work to pack trunks and to choose among -clothes, trinkets, furs, personal belongings, books, ikons, rugs and -other essential things that would lighten exile and keep them in memory -of other days. It is said that neither Nicholas nor Alexandra slept on -the night before their departure, but wandered from room to room, hand -in hand, mutely and sorrowfully bidding their beloved home good-by. -Many others in Tsarskoe Selo refrained from sleep on that night. The -garrison was wildly excited, and the streets of the picturesque little -town were full of people. At 3 o’clock in the morning motor vans -were driven into the palace grounds, and those near enough the gates -could see that the vans were being loaded with trunks and boxes. At 6 -o’clock a long train slowly backed into the station of Tsarskoe Selo, -the station was surrounded by soldiers, and troops with loaded rifles -marched out and lined both sides of the road from the palace to the -station, each soldier carrying in his belt sixty rounds of cartridges. - -Those who saw the departure differ in minor details, of course, because -no two people ever see the same event exactly alike. Especially an -important event on which we would like to have all the details. But all -the observers agree that Nicholas walked out of the palace and entered -the waiting motor car with the calm manner of a man about to take a -pleasure drive. Alexandra did the same. She walked without assistance, -having apparently recovered her shattered health. The former -Czarevitch, in a sailor suit and cap, danced ahead of his parents, in -pleased anticipation of a journey, and the young grand duchesses also -appeared in high spirits. They are extremely handsome girls, all of -them, and people rather sympathetically observed that during their -illness in February they had all had their luxuriant hair cut short. - -Some of the observers say that the former Czar drove to the station -alone, others say Kerensky followed him into the car and still others -say that the family went together. Some say that Nicholas wore the -uniform of a Russian army officer, others particularly noticed his gray -suit. To some he looked dejected and tearful, and to others careless -and cold. Some saw tears in his eyes when he entered the train, others -marveled at the calmness with which he shook hands with members of the -provisional government who were on the platform. To this day we do not -know whether Louis XVI. laid his head on the block quietly or fought -the headsman all over the place, although several thousand Frenchmen -witnessed the execution. - -It is said that the Emperor left Tsarskoe under the impression that he -was being taken to Livadia, the beautiful Crimean estate toward which -he yearned at the time of his abdication. He must have been profoundly -shocked when he learned that instead he was speeding toward one of -the bleakest and dreariest spots in Siberia. Before the train left -the Emperor is said to have asked Kerensky, who accompanied him to -the last, if the family would ever be allowed to return to Tsarskoe -Selo. If he did, Kerensky’s reply must have been evasive, for Nicholas -told one of his suite, or is said to have done so, that he expected to -return after the war. - -The Empress, when told that the family was on its way to Tobolsk, -is reputed to have smiled coldly and said: “I am glad we shall see -Tobolsk. It is a place that has dear associations.” Tobolsk, or its -near neighborhood, it will be remembered, was the early home of -Rasputin. Women of the French aristocracy mounted the guillotine with -exactly such speeches on their lips, a last defiance of the mob. - -“Why are there so many soldiers on this train?” asked one of the young -grand duchesses. She was used to being escorted by soldiers, but the -great number on this occasion excited her surprise. The children -all knew that they were going into exile, and had been given their -choice of remaining with relatives or going with their parents. Mme. -Virubova’s claim that the family bond is strong was borne out by their -unanimous decision to go wherever their father and mother went. - -Mme. Narychkine, one of the empress’s faithful ladies in waiting, went -with her, since the provisional government would not let her have Mme. -Virubova or even allow the two friends to bid each other farewell. -Prince Dolgorouki was permitted to go with the Emperor. The children -retained a governess and the boy a tutor. Twelve servants accompanied -the family. - -According to the depths of his nature and understanding, one feels a -certain pity for the former autocrat of all the Russias, or rejoices -wildly at his present plight. He had to be exiled, and perhaps Siberia -was the best place to send him. But Siberia has a large variety of -climates and places to choose among, and it seems to many people that -the provisional government might have been a little more humane in -their choice of a residence for Nicholas and his family. Whatever his -shortcomings, however just his punishment, his five children never -harmed anybody, and they deserve no punishment. According to accounts, -every hour they spend at Tobolsk will be a punishment, and their time -there will be short, because all of them will probably die owing to the -frightful surroundings. - -Tobolsk is a town of about 25,000 inhabitants, situated on the Irtish -river, a little sluggish stream that drains, or partially drains one -of the great marshes of eastern Siberia. The town is built on a marsh, -and the mosquitoes which breed there are said to be of a size and a -ferocity unequaled elsewhere. Malaria haunts the miasmas of the marshy -forests that stretch for miles around the town and line the river -banks. The nearest railroad is 300 versts distant. In winter, which -endures eight months of the year, the place is shut off from the world. -It is as remote from human association as the moon. The provisional -government apologizes for Tobolsk as a choice on the ground of the -necessity for remoteness. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -THE HOUSE OF MARY AND MARTHA - - -On the afternoon of the day when Nicholas II., deposed emperor and -autocrat of all the Russias, with his wife and children left Tsarskoe -Selo and began the long journey toward their place of exile in Siberia, -I sat in a peaceful convent room in Moscow and talked with almost the -last remaining member of the royal family left in complete freedom in -the empire. This was Elisabeta Feodorovna, sister of the former empress -and widow of the Grand Duke Serge, uncle of the emperor. The Grand Duke -Serge was assassinated, blown to pieces by a bomb, almost before the -eyes of his wife, by a revolutionist on February 4 old style, 1905. He -was killed when going to join the Grand Duchess in one of the churches -of the Kremlin in Moscow. She rushed out and saw his mutilated remains -lying in the snow. The Grand Duchess Serge had long been known as a -noble and saintly woman, and her conduct following the horrible death -of her husband perfectly illustrates her character. She besought the -Czar to commute the death sentence passed upon the assassin, and when -he refused she went to the prison where the wretched man waited his -death, gained admission to his cell, and almost to the end prayed with -him and comforted him. No children had ever been born to her, and -after the event which cut the last tie that bound her to the life of -royal pomp and glitter she retired from society and gave herself up to -religion. As soon as possible she became a nun. Her private fortune, -to the last rouble, investments, palaces, furniture, art treasures, -jewels, motor cars, sables and other fine raiment were turned into cash -and the money used to build a convent and to found an order of which -she became the lady abbess. The Grand Duchess Serge literally obeyed -the edict of Christ to the rich young man: “Sell all thou hast and give -it to the poor.” - -The Convent of Mary and Martha, of the Order of Mercy in Moscow, is a -living token of her great sacrifice. Here for the past eight years she -has lived and worked among her nuns, at least one of whom was a court -lady, and many of whom are women from the intellectual classes. Some -of the nuns were from humble households, for the order is perfectly -democratic. Every one who enters the House of Mary and Martha does -so with the understanding that her life is to be spent in service, -spiritual service such as Mary of the Gospels gave, and material -service such as the practical Martha rendered her Lord. The somewhat -dreamy and passive Russians will tell you that Elisabeta Feodorovna’s -convent is one of the most efficient institutions in the empire, and -they usually add: “They say she makes her nuns work terribly hard.” - -When the days of revolution came, in February, 1917, a great mob went -to the House of Mary and Martha, battered the gates open and swarmed -up the convent steps demanding admission. The door opened and a tall, -grave woman in a pale silver-gray habit and white veil stepped out into -the porch and asked the mob what it wanted. - -[Illustration: Alexander Feodorovitch Kerensky.] - -“We want that German woman, that sister of the German spy in Tsarskoe -Selo,” yelled the mob. “We want the Grand Duchess Serge.” - -Tall and white, like a lily, the woman stood there. “I am the Grand -Duchess Serge,” she replied in a clear voice that floated above the -clamor. “What do you want with me?” - -“We have come to arrest you,” they shouted. - -“Very well,” was the calm reply. “If you want to arrest me I shall have -to go with you, of course. But I have a rule that before I leave the -convent for any purpose I always go into the church and pray. Come with -me into the church, and after I have prayed I will go with you.” - -She turned and walked across the garden to the church, the mob -following. As many as could crowd into the small building followed her -there. Before the altar door she knelt, and her nuns came and knelt -around her weeping. The Grand Duchess did not weep. She prayed for a -moment, crossed herself, then stood up and stretched her hands to the -silent, staring mob. - -“I am ready to go now,” she said. - -But not a hand was lifted to take Elisabeta Feodorovna. What Kerensky -could not have done, what no police force in Russia could have done -with those men that day, her perfect courage and humility did. It -cowed and conquered hostility, it dispersed the mob. That great crowd -of liberty-drunk, blood-mad men went quietly home, leaving a guard -to protect the convent. It is probably the only spot in Russia to-day -where absolute inviolability may be said to exist for any members of -the hated “bourju,” as the Bolsheviki call the intellectual classes. - -On the August day when I rang the bell of the convent’s massive -brown gate I did not really know that I was to see and speak with -the grand duchess. Mr. William L. Cazalet, of Moscow, the friend who -took me there, doubted very much whether I could be received thus -informally, without a previous appointment. The gravity of the times, -and especially the situation of the Romanoff family, placed the Grand -Duchess Serge in a position of extreme delicacy, and Mr. Cazalet said -frankly that he expected to find her living in strict retirement. The -best he could promise, he said, was that I should see the convent, -where one of his young cousins was a nun. - -The convent, which is situated in the heart of Moscow, is a group of -white stone and stucco houses built around an old garden and surrounded -by a high white wall, over which vines and foliage ramble and fall. A -key turned, the brown gate swung open to our ring and we stepped into -a garden running over with the richest bloom. I remember the pink and -white sweet-peas against the wall, the white madonna lilies that nodded -below and the carpet of gay verbenas that ran along the pathway to the -convent door. There were many old apple trees and a forest of lilacs, -purple and white. - -In her small room, combination of office and living room, we were -received by the executive head of the convent, Mme. Gardeeve, for -many years the intimate friend of Elisabeta Feodorovna. Like the grand -duchess she had had a life full of tears and tribulation, in spite -of her rank and wealth, and when the grand duchess took the veil she -followed her example and became a nun. The business of the convent is -transacted under her direction, and most ably, I was told. Efficiency -and ability are written in every feature of Mme. Gardeeve’s fine -face, in her crisp, clear voice and quick though graceful movements. -Her enunciation was a joy to hear, an especial joy to me, for I have -difficulty in understanding the rather indistinct French spoken by -the average Russian. Mme. Gardeeve’s French was of that perfect kind -you hear spoken in Tours more often than in Paris or elsewhere. I -understood every word. Woman of the world to her finger tips, Mme. -Gardeeve wore the picturesque habit of the order with the same grace -that she would have worn the latest creation of the ateliers. She -smiled and chatted with Mr. Cazalet, who is very well known in the -convent, and was most kind and cordial to me. After a few minutes’ -conversation my friend said to her that I had told him some extremely -interesting things about public schools in America, and he wanted me to -repeat them to her. - -So I told her something about the extraordinary experiments that have -been worked out in Gary, Indiana, and the work that was being done -in New York and elsewhere to give children, rich and poor alike, the -complete education they merit. As I talked she exclaimed from time to -time: “But it is excellent! I find it admirable! The Grand Duchess -should hear of this!” - -I said hopefully that I would like very much to meet the Grand Duchess -and she replied she thought it might be arranged. Not to-day, however, -as the Grand Duchess’s time was completely filled. How long did I -expect to remain in Moscow? A week? It could certainly be arranged, she -thought. Meanwhile what would I like to see of the convent? Everything? -She laughed and touched a little bell on the desk beside her. A little -nun appeared and Mme. Gardeeve handed me over to her with orders that I -was to see everything. - -I saw a small but perfectly equipped hospital, with an operating room -complete in all its details. The hospital had been devoted to poor -women and children before the war. Now most of the wards are filled -with wounded soldiers. I saw a room filled with blinded soldiers who -were being taught to read Braille type by sweet-faced nuns. Blindness -is bitter hard for any man, but for illiterates it must be blank -despair. I saw a house full of refugee nuns from the invaded districts -of Poland. I saw an orphanage full of slain soldiers’ children. I -lingered long in the lovely garden where nuns were at work, some with -their habits tucked up, among the potato rows, some pruning trees and -hedges, some sweeping the gravel paths with besoms made of twigs, some -teaching the orphan girls to embroider at big frames, to knit and to -sew. They made a fascinating picture, and I could hardly leave them -even to see the church, which is one of the most beautiful small gems -of architecture to be found in Europe. I never really saw that church -at all, as it turned out, for just as we entered and I was getting a -first impression of its blue and white and gold beauty, a messenger -hastily opened the door and said that the Grand Duchess wanted to see -me. - -We went back to the convent and I was taken to a tiny parlor, which -is the private retreat of the Lady Abbess. It is not much bigger than -a hall bedroom, and it gave the same general impression of blue and -white and gold that one sees throughout the place. There were many -books bound in the lapis blue which seems to be the Grand Duchess’s -favorite color; a few pictures, mostly of the Madonna and Child; some -small tables, one with Stephen Graham’s book, “The House of Mary -and Martha,” held open upon it by a piece of embroidery carelessly -dropped. There were easy chairs of English willow with blue cushions, -and a businesslike little desk crammed with papers. Everywhere, in the -window, on tables and the desk, were bowls and vases of flowers. Every -room in the place, in fact, was filled with flowers. - -The door opened and the Grand Duchess came in with a radiant smile of -welcome and a white hand outstretched. “I am so glad to find that I had -time to meet you to-day, Mrs. Dorr,” she said, in a rarely sweet voice. - -“Your highness speaks English?” I exclaimed in surprise, and she -replied, waving me to a comfortable armchair: “Why not? My mother was -English.” - -I had forgotten for the moment that the Grand Duchess and her younger -sister, the former Empress of Russia, were daughters of the Princess -Alice of England and granddaughters of Queen Victoria. Russia seemed -to have forgotten it also and to have remembered only that the father -of these women was the Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. The Grand -Duchess added when we were seated that when she was a child at home -they always spoke English to their mother, if German to their father. -“I welcome an opportunity to speak English, because if one is wholly -Russian, as I am, and especially if one is orthodox, he hears little -except Russian or French.” Then she said, with another radiant smile: -“Tell me what you think of my convent.” - -I told her that I felt as though I had stepped back into the glowing -and romantic thirteenth century. - -“That is just what I wanted my convent to be,” she replied, “one of -those busy, useful medieval types. Such convents were wonderfully -efficient aids to civilization in the middle ages, and I don’t think -they should have been allowed to disappear. Russia needs them, -certainly, the kind of convent that fills the place between the -austere, enclosed orders and the life of the outside world. We read the -newspapers here, we keep track of events and we receive and consult -with people in active life. We are Marys, but we are Marthas as well.” - -The Grand Duchess’s interest in the outside world is patent. She asked -me eagerly to tell her how things were going in Petrograd, and her -face saddened when I told her of the riotous and bloody events I had -witnessed during the days of the July revolution, scarcely past. -“Times are very bad with us just now,” she said, “but they will improve -soon, I am sure. The Russian people are good and kind at heart, but -they are mostly children--big, ignorant, impulsive children. If they -can find good leaders, and if they will only realize that they must -obey their leaders, they will emerge from this dreadful chaos and build -up a strong, new Russia. Have you seen Kerensky, and what do you think -of him?” - -I replied rather cautiously. Like every one else, I still hoped that -Kerensky would succeed in getting his released giant back into its -bottle, and I did not want to unsettle any one’s confidence in him even -to the extent of an expressed doubt. Kerensky, I told her, was greatly -admired and liked, and I hoped he might prove the strong leader Russia -needed in her trouble. - -“I hope so,” replied the last of the Romanoffs, “I pray for him every -day.” - -The bells of the little church chimed the hour softly, and the Grand -Duchess paused to cross herself devoutly. “I want to hear about those -wonderful public schools of yours,” she said, “but first tell me what -America is doing in war preparation.” - -As I talked she listened, nodding and smiling as if immensely pleased. -The great airplane fleet in course of construction seemed to amaze -and delight her, and when I told her of the conservation of the food -supply and the restriction of the manufacture of alcohol she fairly -glowed. “America is simply stupendous,” she exclaimed. “How I regret -that I never went there. Of course I never shall now. To me the United -States stands for order and efficiency of the best kind. The kind of -order only a free people can create. The kind I pray may be built some -day here in Russia.” And then she made her one allusion to the deposed -Czar. I did not know that at that minute the Czar was on his way to -Siberia, but it is very probable that she knew it. She said: “I am glad -you are going to protect your soldiers from the danger of the drink -evil. Nobody can possibly know how much good the abolition of vodka -did our soldiers and all our people. I think history should give the -Emperor credit for his share in that act, don’t you?” I agreed that the -Emperor should receive full credit for what he did, and I spoke with -all sincerity. - -Elisabeta Feodorovna kept me for nearly three-quarters of an hour -talking to her about the Gary schools, which she is eager to see in -Russia; about American women and their part in the war, and about -welfare work for children, especially for tubercular and anemic -children. “It is wonderful,” she said with a sigh. “I can scarcely help -envying you sinfully. Think of a great, young, hurrying nation that can -still find time to study all these frightful problems of poverty and -disease, and to grapple with them. I hope you will go on doing that, -and still find more and more ways of bringing beauty into the lives -of the workers. How can you expect workmen who toil all day in hot, -hideous factories or on remote farms, with nothing in their lives but -work and worry, to have beauty in their souls?” - -[Illustration: The Grand Duchess Elizabeta Feodorovna, sister of the -late Czarina, and widow of the Grand Duke Serge (who was assassinated -during the Revolution of 1905), now Abbess of the House of Mary and -Martha at Moscow.] - -She wanted eagerly to know about the women soldiers, and said that she -greatly admired their heroism. What was their life in camp like, and -were they strong enough to stand the hardships? The Grand Duchess Serge -is a good feminist and she agreed with me that in Russia’s crisis, -as in the situation in all countries created by the war, it had been -completely demonstrated that women would have henceforth to play a rôle -equally important and equally prominent as that of men. - -They would have to share equally with men in the successful operation -of the war whether on the battlefield or behind the lines. She had -always had a special devotion to Jeanne d’Arc and believed her to have -been inspired by God. Other women also had been called of God to do -great things. - -“I am glad you like my convent,” she repeated as we parted. “Please -come again. You know that it does not belong to me any more, but to the -Provisional Government, but I hope they will let me keep it.” - -I hope they will. The House of Mary and Martha, with the beautiful -woman in it, is one of the things new Russia can least afford to lose. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -THE TAVARISHI FACE FAMINE - - -The Romanoffs gone, the soviets apparently yielding to Kerensky’s -demand for a coalition government, and finally voting to give him -almost supreme power, what then stood in the way of restoring order in -the army and civil life? Readers of the despatches in the daily press -last September and later must have puzzled over this question. The fact -is that while there were indications that the last convention held in -Petrograd by the Russian Socialists, the so-called Democratic Council, -ended in a partial victory for Kerensky, there remained every evidence -that the Bolshevik element was still very strong. Kerensky succeeded in -forming a coalition ministry, but the Petrograd Council of Soldiers’ -and Workmen’s Delegates at the same time succeeded in electing a -Bolshevik central executive committee with the notorious Leo Trotzky -as chairman, displacing N. C. Tcheidse, the Georgian Duma member, -prominent in the Council, but against whose sincerity and honesty I -never heard a word. - -Trotzky was elected because the Bolsheviki couldn’t then get Lenine -back. There were not enough bold spirits in the Democratic Council -to force from the government a promise of immunity from arrest for -Lenine, should he appear at a meeting, so he was kept in the background -and Trotsky was made chairman of the Petrograd executive committee in -his stead. - -Lenine is the real leader of the Bolsheviki to-day, exactly as he was -during the fateful days of July when he sent mutinous soldiers and idle -workmen out on the streets of the capital with machine guns to murder -the populace. Trotzky, however, is an able and faithful lieutenant. -He is a Jew and his real name is Braunstein. He is one of those Jews, -unhappily too prominent in Russian affairs just now, who are doing -everything in their power to prejudice the people of Russia against the -race, and to check the movement for the full freedom of the Jews of the -empire. - -Trotzky, or Braunstein, is known to many in New York city. He gained -some newspaper publicity when he arrived in New York from Spain a -short time before the February revolution. He posed as a martyr to -socialist principles, one who had been persecuted by the governments -of four countries--Russia, Germany, France and Spain. All four had -expelled him, he said, for the crime of editing really successful -socialist newspapers. Trotzky’s story was founded on fact. At least, -four countries did find him as a citizen too undesirable to retain. -Banishment from Russia, under the old régime, is no stigma, so we may -begin Trotzky’s saga in August, 1914, the early days of the world war. -He was editing a Jewish paper in Berlin. He was given a few hours to -leave, he says, and with his family fled across the Swiss frontier to -Zurich. From there he went to Paris, where he was miraculously able, -poor as he had always been and high as the price of white paper was -soaring, to establish a socialist newspaper in the Russian language. -When the Russian contingent of the allied armies reached France in -April, 1916, _Our Words_, which was the name of Trotzky’s spicy little -sheet, was circulated free among the 65,000 soldiers. The motto of the -paper was “Down with the War” far more than it was “Up with Socialism.” -It was filled from page one to page four with the sort of pro-German -stuff that has done its deadly work with the men at the Russian front, -inducing them to refuse to fight and thus opening their country to the -German army. - -The French government, which had its hands full with its own pet -sedition raisers, had never before heard of Trotzky, but now it told -him to move on. He did. He went to Spain, where he was arrested as -an extreme trouble-maker, and after a short time expelled from the -country. He came to the United States, where he remained until the -Russian revolution of late February, 1917, when he flew back to -Petrograd. Trotzky always had money to make these long journeys. At -Halifax he was halted, for the English government knew his record. The -English authorities considered interning him for the duration of the -war, but a lot of people interceded for the poor Russian exile, and he -was allowed to go on to Russia. Poor Russia! - -Trotzky was elected a member of the Petrograd Council of Workmen’s -and Soldiers’ Delegates, being a pacifist and never having done any -manual work. Last summer when I was in Russia I used to read almost -daily in the accounts of the National Council of Soviets, or councils, -burning speeches of Trotzky’s in which he urged a separate peace with -Germany, or what would amount to exactly the same thing, Russia’s -immediate cessation of fighting. Trotzky ridiculed the idea that -abandonment of the allies would in any way injure Russia in a material -way or soil the national honor. His ideas of economics and finance were -simply and frequently reiterated. Arrest all capitalists and force -them to disclose the secret of how they got rich, and hang all the -bankers--presumably as the first step toward seizing the contents of -the banks. With this man as chairman of the central executive committee -of the Petrograd Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Council, and with -the October revolt of the German naval men on five ships for him to -point to as evidence that the social revolution is at hand in Germany, -the life of the last coalition government was not likely to be peaceful. - -But the end of the Bolsheviki is in sight in spite of Lenine, Trotzky -and the entire majority in the Council of Soldiers’ and Workmen’s -Delegates. It has been coming on stealthy feet for many months, and -now the messengers’ hands are on the latch. The messengers’ names are -Hunger and Cold. - -When I went down to my first dinner in Petrograd last May, I was amazed -to see the price on the menu card placed at five rubles fifty kopecks, -about $1.80. In a previous visit to Petrograd I had eaten an excellent -dinner in this same hotel and had paid for it one ruble seventy-five -kopecks, or about seventy-five cents, as the ruble was then valued. -The one offered for more than twice this amount consisted of a watery -soup, a small piece of not very fresh fish, a thin slice of veal with -peas and a water ice flavored with cherry juice. One piece of black -bread without butter was served. If I wanted water to drink with the -meal I had to pay two rubles for bottled water, for one drink of plain -water in Petrograd is an attempt at suicide by the typhoid route. If I -wanted coffee I had to pay one ruble sixty-five kopecks more, and after -I added the customary 10 per cent. for the tip my check was ten rubles -and six kopecks. Three dollars and thirty-five cents. - -This was bad enough, but before I left Russia the price of that meager -meal had advanced to thirteen rubles and the quality of the dinner had -sensibly declined. Also the tip had advanced, for after a strike of -waiters a system was adopted all over Russia, as far as I traveled, -whereby tips were abolished and 15 per cent. was added to the bill by -the hotel and restaurant proprietors. - -You now pay an additional 15 per cent. of your entire hotel bill in -Russia, which is distributed in tips to all the servants except the -lift boys and the gorgeous individual who stands in front of the hotel -door, who assists you to alight from your droshky when you arrive, -and touches his peacock feather trimmed hat to you when you go in -and out. He is called the Swiss, denoting the origin of his earliest -predecessor, I imagine, and why he and the elevator men do not share in -the general distribution I never found out. - -Walk down the Nevsky Prospect, or the Grand Morskaia, which begins in -fine shops and ends in palaces, like Fifth avenue. Wander through the -maze of little shops in the huge arcade called the Gostinny Dvor. Go -far out on the Nevsky, cross the beautiful Anitchkoff bridge, with its -four groups of rearing horses, and turn in at the Litainy, where the -cheaper shops are to be found, and try to buy something. It doesn’t -matter what, just try to buy something to eat, drink, wear or use. When -the waiter brought in the coffee that morning he said cheerfully, “Niet -malako,” no milk. Try to buy a few cans of condensed milk against a -similar experience. I walked all over Petrograd trying to buy condensed -milk, for the shortage of fresh milk was grave when I arrived, and grew -steadily worse. I found one can, for which I paid two dollars. Shortly -afterward a friend arrived from Japan and gave me two cans, which she -spared out of her store. - -Russian illiteracy is so general that the shop signs are not written -but illustrated. Brilliant signboards on the outside show pictures of -what the shopkeeper has to sell. A dairy shop will have a picture of a -cow, crocks of butter, chickens, ducks, geese, baskets of eggs, cheese -of many varieties and so forth. A greengrocer’s signboard is decorated -like a seed catalogue cover, while a clothing store is advertised -by pictures of clothes and hats which were fashionable perhaps ten -years ago. It once added to the gay appearance of the streets, but -just now it increases their anxious and ominous air. Hundreds of the -shops are empty, the doors are locked and the brilliant signboards -alone remain to indicate that business was ever conducted there. One -of the mournfulest sights in Petrograd to me was an abandoned shop -where they once sold French bread and pastry. I used to turn my head -away from the mocking poster, picturing crisp white bread in yard-long -loaves, delicious breakfast crescents, patés and cakes. The standard -bread served in Russia at the present time is black, soggy, sour and -indigestible. It is sold by weight, hence loaded with water and baked -as little as possible to be bread and not dough. Some one has suggested -that that bread was meant for food and drink together, and it is -certain that it is so wet that it quickly mildews. But bad as it is it -is scarce and expensive. A bread ticket calls for three-quarters of a -pound, the daily allotment per person when I left the last of August. -This costs at the rate of ten kopecks a pound. It used to be three and -a half kopecks a pound, and good bread, too. - -Butter, when it can be bought at all, was three rubles a pound, about a -dollar. Excellent butter a year or two ago was less than fifty kopecks -a pound, for Russia was rapidly becoming a dairy country. Veal, and -veal is about the only meat to be had, was nearly a dollar a pound. -Feed for cattle is so scarce and so expensive that cows are not allowed -to grow into beef size, hence the prevalence of veal. Chickens may vary -the menu, if you can afford to pay from three dollars upward. You could -buy only a short-weight half pound of meat a day per person, except for -the Sunday dinner, when a pound was allowed. - -Even at the Hotel Militaire, where I lived most of the time, and where -the food supply came from government sources, we had veal or its -derivatives, hash, croquettes, etc., five days in the week. Sometimes -they offered what they called beef, but it wasn’t. It was horsemeat, -coarse and strong. Once a week or so we had chicken, a welcome change. -When August came we began to have game, grouse of various kinds mostly. -Game is very plentiful in Russia and Finland this year, because since -the war men have hunted only one another. But game, which is a treat -when you have it occasionally, is a punishment when you have it more -than once or so a week. You detest it when it appears on the table -three times a week, and if it appears oftener you choose a meatless day -as an alternative. - -Coffee was about a dollar and a half a pound, not so bad, and tea was -even more moderate in price. What the Russian people would do if the -tea gave out I cannot imagine. Everybody drinks tea, scalding hot, -several times a day. Even the babies drink tea, and it is a fact that -in the best babies’ hospital I saw in Russia the head nurse proudly -showed me, in a hot water table, a whole row of nursing bottles full -of tea for the sick babies’ evening repast. Tea they still have, but -they are almost out of sugar to go with it. In a hotel or restaurant -they serve you with three very tiny lumps of sugar with each glass of -tea, and that is all you can have. If for any reason you do not use -all your sugar you put it in your pocket. You do this whether you keep -house or not, because you can’t buy much candy, and when meat is scarce -everybody craves sweets. - -Sugar is not the only leftover one takes home. One day I went into the -Vienna restaurant on the Gogol for dinner, sitting down at a table -just vacated by a very smart young officer. He left behind him on -the window ledge a little parcel neatly wrapped in white paper with -a pink string. It might have been a jeweler’s parcel. I picked it up -with the impulse to hand it over to the waiter, but first as a matter -of precaution, lest it should be really valuable, I opened a corner of -the paper and examined the contents. A piece of fairly white bread as -big as a small turnip, the remains of luncheon, perhaps, at the house -of a rich friend. I went into a fashionable tea place in Moscow just -before I left, and they served with the tea, in lieu of sugar, a kind -of sticky preserve. I had with my sugarless tea a cake made without -flour or sugar. It tasted like almond paste and the whole thing cost me -a dollar and ten cents. - -Most of the shops are closed, but before most of those which remain -open you may see, at any hour of the day or night, a queue of people, -men, women and children, waiting to get in and buy. The people often -wait in line twenty-four hours or more. They wait days to buy some -things. Go home from a visit or get in from a journey at any time -of night, midnight, three a. m., any hour, and you see these long, -patient, waiting lines of people. They curl up on the stones of -the pavement and sleep, members of a family relieve one another at -intervals, but every one desperately hangs on to his place in the line. - -Not only do all the small shop keepers and the street peddlers have -to replenish their poor little stocks by standing thus for days, but -housekeepers have to feed and clothe their families that way. People -who can afford servants, of course, send their servants to wait in -line. The daily newspapers often contain the advertisement, “Wanted -a queue maid,” meaning a woman whose sole duty it is to sleep on the -sidewalk and bring home next day’s dinner. - -It was summer when I was in Petrograd and Moscow. Sleeping on the -sidewalk left something to be desired even in warm weather. The first -hint of autumn was in the air when I left on August 30. By the first -of October it was cold, and by the end of November it was frigid. When -the storms and the driving snows of winter set in in earnest people -will not be able to sleep on the sidewalks. Where will they get food, -and when starvation stares them in the face what will they do? Russia’s -real crisis, political and economic, will come then, and the Bolsheviki -will not be the people to overcome it. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -GENERAL JANUARY, THE CONQUEROR - - -After Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeated legions had fled from Russia to -freeze and starve and die by thousands in a frenzied attempt to get -back to France, the victorious commander of the Russian army said that -his two greatest aides had been General January and General February. -The relentless cold and storm of a Russian winter were foes too strong -for Bonaparte to conquer. They sent him to St. Helena, and the same -strong foes this winter are going to rout and banish the Bolsheviki. -The Russian revolution began with a bread riot and it will culminate -in a bread riot. When the people of Russia get hungry enough, they -are going to stop talking about “no annexations or contributions,” -“all the power to the soviets,” and the rest, and demand a government -that shall govern, and as soon as possible put the country back on a -normal basis. When the thermometer falls to 45 degrees below zero, and -a fifty-miles-an-hour wind is driving sleet and snow in their faces, -people can no longer stand twenty-four hours in line to buy food for -their children. Especially when their clothes are thin and worn and -their boots are dropping off their feet. - -I have told something about the food situation in Russia. The clothing -situation and the fuel situation are, if anything, worse. If you want -to buy a pair of shoes in Petrograd you must take two days to do it -and you must put much money in your purse. There is an American shoe -store on the Nevsky Prospect and every day the line of people trying -to get in and buy shoes was so great that it blocked traffic and the -city authorities finally had to close the street entrance. The line now -forms in a court or lane in the rear of the store and the customers are -admitted, a few at a time, through the back door. This American shoe -store is very popular because the shoes are of excellent quality and -the prices are regarded as reasonable. A woman can buy a pair of boots -there as low as $25. Men’s shoes are somewhat dearer. But the stock was -running low when I was there in the summer, and when it gives out I -don’t see how they are going to replenish it. On a corner of the Grand -Morskaia there was another shoe store, in front of which a crowd stood -all day long and all night. The queue extended around the corner, and -I have seen it when it stretched to the Moika canal a very long block -away. This is a store where cheaper shoes were sold. It represented an -attempt on the part of one of the fleeting ministries to relieve the -shoe shortage. Large quantities of shoes and leather were purchased and -were then being distributed through authorized channels in the shop on -the Morskaia. - -In order to buy a pair of those shoes a man or a woman went there -and got a place in line. Each stood in line until his or her turn -came to be admitted to the shop, a long and weary business. When he -gained admission to the shop and the clerk got around to waiting on -him he received--a pair of shoes? Not a bit of it. He got a ticket -with a number on it. The ticket entitled the customer to come back at -some future date, stand in line and claim a pair of shoes which were -probably at the time being made--provided he could afford to pay a -minimum of ten dollars for them. - -When I was in Poland with the women soldiers, the Botchkareva Battalion -of Death, the regiment was delayed in its further progress toward the -fighting line by a dearth of boots in which to march. About half the -women soldiers received boots along with their other equipment before -they left Petrograd, but the other half wore, with their khaki uniform, -the women’s shoes, often worn and tattered, in which they had enlisted. -One day there was great rejoicing in the barrack. The boots had come, -and the rest of the afternoon was spent in sorting out from the pile -a pair to fit each girl. I was interested in those boots, for they -were mute but eloquent witnesses of the poverty of life in Russia. Not -a pair was new. They were all second-hand, remade and mended boots, -and I strongly suspect that most of them had been taken off the feet -of dead soldiers. They had, in many cases, new feet or new soles, but -the majority of them were merely mended and patched. Coarse, stiff, -malodorous and badly put together as these were, the girls were only -too glad to get them. The Adjutant, Skridlova, and one or two of the -well-to-do soldiers had their boots made to order, and they paid ninety -dollars a pair for them. Seventy-five dollars for a pair of women’s -boots is not an unheard-of price. - -What is true of boots and shoes is true of almost every other clothing -commodity. I ran out of gloves while I was in Russia, but, after -hearing what gloves cost in Petrograd, I went without. You could get -cotton gloves as low as a dollar and eighty cents a pair. They were -ugly and shapeless, but people bought and wore them. If you wanted a -pair of kid gloves and you knew where you could find them and had time, -you could buy them for three to five dollars. They were the kind that -an American department store might put on a table in the center aisle -and sell for fifty cents to attract customers in the dull season. A man -pays a dollar for a fifteen-cent collar in Petrograd. He pays several -dollars for a decent pair of socks. What he pays for a suit of clothes -staggers the imagination. There are only two things that are cheap -to buy in Russia just now: cats and dogs. You can buy a magnificent -wolfhound or other thoroughbred dog, or a pure bred Persian or Angora -cat for a song in Petrograd, because people can’t afford to feed pet -animals. Mr. Basil Miles, attached to the Root mission, took home with -him two Russian wolfhounds that are going to make him the most envied -man in the next dog show in his town, and the song he sang to get them -was too short to mention. - -Russia is a very cold country and almost every one, rich and poor -alike, wears furs. The rich wear sable, mink and ermine, and the poor -wear rabbit and sheep skin. But furs just now are as difficult to buy -as other clothing indispensables. There are several special reasons for -this shortage of fur in a fur country. There are not so many people -hunting furs since the war, and the pelts are scarcer; and besides, -the Russians have never cured and dyed their own furs. They sent them -to Germany to be prepared for market, and, of course, the war put -a stop to that. Aside from these special reasons, the fur shortage -and all the food, clothing and other shortages are caused by two -main obstacles. There is plenty of food in the empire, plenty of raw -materials for clothing. But the transportation system has almost broken -down and they cannot distribute food or raiment. Also the factory -system has all but broken down, and they cannot produce the clothing. -There are besides minor and contributory obstacles, some of which I -shall describe. The main reason why Russia will starve and freeze this -winter is because the people of Russia have allowed their railroad -system to go to pieces, and because they have, to an almost incredible -extent, ceased to do any work. - -I cannot speak as an expert about the railroad situation, nor would -mere figures and statistics give the reader any adequate picture of the -railroad demoralization. To say that on May 15, 1917, the then Minister -of Ways and Communications reported to the Duma that more than 25 per -cent. of the total number of locomotives in the empire were laid up for -repairs wouldn’t begin to express the thing. The average reader does -not know that 5 per cent. of “sick” locomotives is considered high by -competent railroad managers. I might go further and say that the number -of freight cars loaded from May 15 to May 31, 1917, was 87,000 poods -less than the number loaded between those dates in 1916, but that -would not mean much. Few outside of Russia know what a pood is. As a -matter of fact it is thirty-six pounds. But figures cannot adequately -describe the situation. - -What told the tale of railroad demoralization to me was the constant -anxiety I heard voiced on all sides by people trying to buy their -winter stock of wood and coal. There is an endless quantity of wood in -Russia. Great forests of pine and cedar and birch--beautiful forests. -I had often marveled at them from the windows of my railway carriage -passing through Finland and the country between Petrograd and Moscow. -Plenty of this wood has been cut. I saw thousands and thousands of -cords of it piled up along the railroad tracks, and of course there -must have been much more elsewhere. Petrograd is built on a marsh and -the ground is drained by picturesque if rather badly smelling canals -which run through the city and empty into the Neva. Down one of the -widest of these--the Moika, which I crossed every day--a constant -line of barges, loaded with wood, floated slowly, drawn by horses and -sometimes by men walking along a towpath beside the canal. I used to -watch those bargeloads of wood and wonder why, with such an almost -unparalleled means of distributing wood after it got there, the people -of Petrograd should be troubled about the winter fuel supply. Not -nearly enough of it was getting there last summer; that was all. The -quantity that floated down the Moika and the other canals and got -stacked up in woodyards and in the courtyards of apartment houses, -hotels, hospitals, factories and even palaces, was not half the normal -quantity. There weren’t enough flat cars and locomotives running to get -the wood as far as the city limits. - -I tried the experiment of keeping house with the wife of the _Outlook_ -correspondent after he left Russia on a mission. We had a charming -little apartment offered us rent free, with a maid thrown in, if we -would live in it and keep it from being looted. Every one who knew a -Cossack or other reliable soldier, or an American, did that when they -went to the country from Petrograd. We gave up housekeeping after a -week and went back to hotels, partly because the maid could not get -us enough to eat, and partly because we never had any hot water. The -landlord of the apartment house had cut off the wood. He said that -he couldn’t get wood enough to warm the house next winter, much less -provide warm baths for the tenants in summer. - -The railroad situation was visualized for me on a dreadful two days and -nights’ journey I took on a Russian railroad last July. Miss Beatty, of -the San Francisco _Bulletin_, was with me, and the train was so small -and so crowded that the only berth we could get was an upper one three -feet wide. The two of us slept in that berth, Miss Beatty’s head one -way and mine the other. Every time the train struck a rough place on -the rails the _Bulletin_ came near losing its star reporter, for she -had the outside, just above an open window. That railway carriage could -have seated, by close crowding, eleven passengers. On the last night -of the journey twenty-five people were packed into it. They took turns -sitting down. - -Every railroad train you get on is about as crowded as that, and one -of the most difficult things to buy at present is a railroad ticket. -To buy one you usually have to bribe the ticket agent or the hotel -manager. You go to the office of the International Wagons-Lits and tell -them that you want to go to Moscow or Kazan. You want to go to-morrow -or in three days, some near date. The clerk shakes his head. “I might -be able to get you a ticket and a berth in three days,” he will say. -“Of course, you will have to pay a supplement; say, sixty rubles.” -Pressed for particulars he will explain that some one will have to be -paid to stand in line for the ticket. I paid forty rubles extra to -Bennet’s, which is the Cook’s of Petrograd, for a ticket to Moscow, -and that was considered a bargain. When I wanted to return I asked -the hotel management in Moscow how much they would charge to send to -the station and get me a ticket, and they said one hundred rubles. -The ruble was then about thirty cents, so I would have had to pay, in -addition to the cost of the ticket, which had just been raised about 50 -per cent., thirty dollars. I got the ticket in almost the only other -way possible. I acted as a courier carrying confidential papers from a -foreign consulate in Moscow to an embassy in Petrograd, and the consul -used his official influence to get me a ticket for the regular price -only. - -On the 21st of July the Minister of Ways and Communications ordered a -reduction of 50 per cent. in the number of travelers passing between -Petrograd and Moscow, in view, he explained, of the shortage of fuel -and rolling stock. Soon it will be next to impossible to buy, for love -or money, a ticket or a sleeping berth between the two points in Russia. - -This is nearly true now on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Every Tuesday -evening at 8 o’clock the weekly express on that famous line leaves -the Nikolai station, Petrograd, and every berth is filled every week. -What those passengers paid extra for their tickets forms one of the -principal topics of conversation during the long trip over Siberia. -The passengers beguile the weary journey swapping experiences of how -they came to be there at all. I have known people who waited weeks -for a chance to pay the extortionate supplement. The Trans-Siberian -post train which leaves every night and makes stops along the way is a -sight to behold before it leaves. The people crowd the train platform -and fight for a place near the edge. As the train backs slowly into -the station shed, the travelers run to meet it, climb in the windows, -drag their women and children in, rush the platforms and fight like -tigers to get in the doors. The number of carriages to each train has -been reduced gradually until now the train is too short to hold the -travelers. - -But didn’t we send a railroad commission to Russia, and didn’t the -papers say something about some 5,000 locomotives and 23,000 freight -cars sent to Vladivostock? We did send a railroad commission, headed -by John Stevens, of Panama canal fame, one of the greatest organizers -and executives in the United States. This commission has done good -work. It has shown the Russians how they could immediately increase -the efficiency of their railroads 60 per cent. We have sent many -locomotives and freight cars to Russia. Nevertheless the transportation -problem remains unsolved. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -WHEN THE WORKERS OWN THEIR TOOLS - - -John Stevens, head of the railroad commission sent to Russia from the -United States, has shown the Russian government how to increase its -transportation facilities sixty per cent. In a report made public in -mid-August Mr. Stevens said that the chief cause of the railroad crisis -was bad management. Locomotives traveled 2,800 versts a month when they -could be made to travel 5,000 versts. A verst is about three-quarters -of a mile. Twice as much freight as was being hauled could be carried, -said Mr. Stevens. Freight cars were constantly being sent out only -half loaded. Mr. Stevens recommended government dictatorship of all -railroads, both publicly and privately owned. That was rather naïve, -considering that the government was powerless to control, much less to -dictate to, any department of activity in the empire. A little earlier -Mr. Nekrassoff, then Minister of Ways and Communications, issued a -circular in which he outlined his plan for coping with the railroad -crisis. He advised turning the entire railroad system over to the -workmen, the engineers, firemen, conductors and machinists. A shriek of -protest went up from the engineering profession and a howl of laughter -arose from the press of Russia. But the fact of the matter is that the -railroads were and are still, for all practical purposes, in the hands -of the working people, and so is every other industry in Russia. - -One of the great dreams of the socialists and philosophical anarchists -is of the day when the worker shall own his tools, as they put it, when -all industry shall be owned by the people who operate the machines, and -all profits shall be shared by them. It really is a great dream, and -will probably be realized in some measure some day. But not now. The -human race is not yet educated to such a Utopia. The strongest proof -that the capitalistic system is not yet ready to pass is the well-known -fact that the secret ambition of almost every human being in every walk -of life is to become a capitalist, large or small. This has just been -proved on an enormous scale in Russia. The workers have seized the -factories, shops, department stores and offices, and in no instance of -which I could learn, and I searched diligently, have they used their -great opportunity wisely or unselfishly for the common good. They have -used it to get all the money possible out of the employers and to -render back the minimum of service. - -This is what is the matter with the transportation system in Russia. -It is the reason why the people of Petrograd, Moscow and other cities -will go cold and hungry this winter, one reason why the death rate of -children and old people, already appallingly large, will grow more -appalling within the next few months; one reason, and a very strong -one, why order has not been restored in Russia. High as are the prices -of all food and manufactured articles, the working people, as a class, -have money enough to pay for them, and not until the merchants’ stocks -are completely gone and the weather gets too cold to stand in line -long hours in order to buy will the purblind workers realize their -situation. Not until then will they realize what their selfishness and -cruel folly have done to themselves and the entire working class of the -country. - -So struck was I by the scarceness of goods in the shops and the soaring -prices of almost every article that I went to the Minister of Labor and -asked him to tell me something of industrial conditions of the country. -I was not entirely ignorant of those conditions. I knew, for example, -that Russia is not exclusively an agricultural country, that, on the -contrary, her development as a manufacturing country has been going -on by leaps and bounds, especially in the last dozen years. Russia -has a proletariat and a factory system, although not quite as large -proportionately as those of the United States. Her iron industry, her -cotton mills, her machine shops are enormous and in normal times they -are wonderfully productive. After the suppressed revolution of 1905-06 -important reforms in the land laws were enacted, and for the first time -the peasants were given their lands in fee simple. That is, they were -given an opportunity in certain circumstances to take title to their -share in communal lands. This gave them an opportunity to sell if they -chose, and a large number of peasant artisans did sell their lands, -moved into the cities and became factory workers. Before this time the -factory workers had more or less alternated between town and rural -life. - -The leaders of the Social Democratic party encouraged by every means -in their power the selling of lands by peasant owners, because they -wanted the workers to move to town, organize in labor unions and become -a political power. In their own words, they wanted to create a landless -working class, one which, having no stake in property, would the more -easily revolt against the government and more heartily support the -movement to create a coöperative commonwealth. It was good reasoning -up to a certain point. A man with a piece of land thinks twice before -he puts that land in danger of being absorbed by his neighbors. He -hesitates before he takes a course of action which might turn even a -bad government out at least. The bad government protects his title. But -the leaders of the Social Democrats left an important human element -out of their reasoning. A landless man makes a good revolutionist, it -is true, but he does not necessarily make a good coöperator. Nine and -three-quarters times in ten he is just as strong for number one as the -real estate owner. When he gets a chance to grab power and money he -does it, and he divides up just as little as the others let him. - -A story is told in Russia which illustrates this trait of character. -Some one asked a peasant of Little Russia what he would do if he -were made czar. “I’d steal a hundred rubles and run away,” was the -prompt reply. In a word, that is virtually what the working people of -Russia did as soon as the revolution of February, 1917, made them into -individual czars of Russia. - -When I called on the Minister of Labor and asked him what was the -matter with industry, his face assumed an expression of mingled -amusement and despair. “If you really want to know,” he said, in -effect, “go and look at some of our factories.” - -I was given an official document, elaborately stamped and signed, -authorizing me to enter and inspect any factory in Petrograd, and I -began, bright and early the next morning, with one of the largest -munitions factories in the Viborg district of the city. I showed my -pass to the man at the gate, who read it doubtfully, and said he didn’t -think it was good. “What right has the Minister of Labor to give you -permission to visit this plant?” he inquired. “If anybody had a right -to give you such permission, I should think it would be the Minister -of War, for only war materials are manufactured here. Anyhow, I don’t -think you can get in.” - -I asked him mildly if he was sure that he had the power to keep me out, -and I suggested that he put the case up to a higher authority, the -manager, for instance. He turned to a wall telephone in his little gate -house and conversed with some one at the other end of the line. Then he -said: “The committee is in session and will see you.” - -A long walk through the enormous yard and past many shops brought me to -the office building of the plant, and there, in a small room, I found -the committee, that is, the group of workmen elected by the entire -working force of the factory to manage the industry and to fix all -conditions of labor. Every industry in Russia is thus managed. I had a -long talk with this committee, but I did not get into the factory. The -man would not permit me to get in. They wouldn’t even allow me to see -any one connected with the office force. Kindly but firmly they gave -me to understand that they were all the power there was in that plant -and they could give me all the information I could possibly need. So I -sat there for an hour or so, and, through my interpreter, learned how -manufacturing is carried on when the workers own their tools. - -Because I could carry but few notes out of the country, I am not -certain how many delegates per thousand workers make up a committee of -management in a Russian factory, but I think each unit of one hundred -men elects a representative. Perhaps there are two hundred men to the -unit. My memory for numbers is not always reliable. At all events, the -committee members, who are usually the intelligent and highly paid -workers, do no work except committee work. But they draw their full -pay. The employer has no voice in the conduct of his own business. The -committee tells him how much he pays his employees, what their hours -of work are, when they arrive and when they depart and how much they -produce. And the employer pays the committee for its kind words and -deeds. I asked the particular committee which thus informed me if this -seemed fair to the employer. Mostly the men said they thought it did. -One man asked me who in my opinion ought to pay the committee members. -I told him I thought the workers might pay at least a part of their -salaries, and perhaps also give the employers a casting vote in case of -a tie, or something like that. They seemed to find the idea humorous, -all except one fine, thoughtful young fellow, who said: “There may be -an element of unfairness in some of the present conditions, but time -will adjust them. There is no question but that the workers should own -the industries, and they will. The working class has never had a square -deal and now that they have seized the powers of government, nothing -less than confiscation of industries will satisfy them.” - -The working class in Russia has had rather less of a square deal than -any other in the modern world, it is true. The factory system being -comparatively new in Russia, there has not been time for the workers to -organize closely, and under the autocracy there was little or no chance -to obtain enlightened factory legislation. There was hardly a chance -for the Russian workman to attain a very high degree of skill in many -industries. He could not, as a rule, learn the finest processes of his -trade, because until the war broke out most of those processes were -in the hands and under the control of Germany. When I was in Russia -in 1906 one of the most striking things to me was the prevalence of -German shopkeepers, German managers, German foremen. You hardly ever -saw a Russian in command of any industry. I spoke of this to a Russian -friend and told him that I should not like to see in my country all -the business controlled by foreigners, for these Germans were not even -Russian citizens. He shrugged his shoulders and said “Nitchevo,” which -means almost anything and is a general expression of indifference or -resignation to the inevitable. “We have no heads for that sort of -thing, we Russians,” he apologized. - -“But what if you should ever go to war with Germany?” I asked. And he, -sobered a little, said: “We should have to learn to be business men and -skilled mechanics, in that case, and we should have a devil of a time -doing it.” - -Eight years later, almost to a day, they did go to war with Germany, -and they did have a devil of a time adjusting their industries to -meet the crisis caused by the exodus of thousands of highly skilled -German managers and department heads in hundreds of factories and shops -throughout the empire. - -One story told me in Moscow is representative, I believe. A very large -factory taken over by the government for the fine toolmaking facilities -its machines afforded was found to be managed exclusively by German -foremen and managers. Not only had they drawn large salaries for years -in that factory, but they had insisted on hiring for the last processes -and the most highly skilled jobs workmen from Germany. They didn’t -want, or rather the German government didn’t want, the Russian people -to know how to do skilled work. They wanted to keep Russia in exactly -the right condition for permanent commercial exploitation by the -fatherland. - -I go into this because I think it is only fair to the Russian working -class to explain that they have not been allowed to develop the -intelligence and skill which the English and American working classes -have done. Because of this ignorance the Russians of the working -class have in their few months’ debauch of liberty and the control of -industry wrecked their country industrially and have brought themselves -and their own people to the verge of starvation. They have done to -their class approximately what the mutinous soldiers at the front did -to the men who wanted to go forward and fight--shot them in the back. -I know this, because I have seen it. The next factory I approached the -committee let me in. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -WHY COTTON CLOTH IS SCARCE - - -When I got on the train to leave Russia for the United States the first -familiar face I saw was that of Mr. Daniel Cheshire, mill owner and -operator of Petrograd. “I’m going home to England to enlist,” he said, -as we shook hands. - -“What have you done with your mills?” I asked. - -“I have left them to the Tavarishi,” replied Mr. Cheshire, “I thought I -might as well.” - -Daniel Cheshire is not the only large manufacturer who has abandoned -his business after a vain struggle to cope with the situation created -by the Russian revolution, and the taking over by the working people -of the control of industry. Others have given up the struggle, and -many more will probably follow their example. But Mr. Cheshire’s -story I know at first hand. His abandonment of his mills is full -of significance, partly because of the importance of his branch of -manufacturing, and partly because his act may hasten the day when, -through sheer lack of the necessities of life, the Russian people will -cease pursuing their utopian dream and will content themselves with a -government which, although still capitalistic, will rescue them from -starvation and ruin. - -Those who think of Russia as a land of snow and ice will be interested -to learn that in Turkestan and Transcaucasia as well as in other -provinces of the south and east, they raise millions of pounds of very -good cotton, the seeds of which originally came from America. Those -who think that every Russian peasant does nothing but farm will be -surprised to hear that over a million Russians work in textile mills, -principally cotton textiles. - -When cotton spinning and weaving began in Russia the mill owners, in -most cases, sent to England for their foremen and managers, and the -descendants of some of these Englishmen still live and still manage -cotton mills in Russia. The Cheshire family is a case in point. The -original Cheshire went out from Manchester in the 1840’s to manage a -small cotton spinning factory in Petrograd. He saved money, bought -a partnership and enlarged the business. His sons enlarged it still -more, and to-day his grandchildren own and operate ten large cotton -mills in and around Petrograd. Daniel Cheshire, a keen young man -of thirty-something, is head of the family and chief owner of the -mills. That is, he was up to February, 1917. After that he wasn’t. -The Tavarishi, or “comrades,” whose wages he paid, became the virtual -owners then, and on August 30, 1917, they became, temporarily at least, -the sole owners. - -It was in one of the Cheshire cotton mills that I got the most intimate -view of what becomes of industry when the workers own their tools. -Perhaps it would be fairer to say, when the workers seize their tools. -Some day, perhaps, they will find out how to own them honestly and -then they will use them wisely and for the common good. - -It was a happy accident that first led me into a Cheshire cotton -mill. After being refused permission to inspect the big munition -works to which I applied--refused by the workers’ committee, not by -the proprietors--I wandered through the Viborg district of Petrograd -until I found another large factory. This time the permit given me by -the Minister of Labor worked better, and I was shown into the general -office of the plant. It was a big, modern, up-to-date office, furnished -with the usual desks, files, safes and the like, but to remind me -that I was in revolutionary Russia, the walls were decorated with -many red flags, and banners inscribed with white-lettered mottoes and -declarations. The head of the workmen’s committee, who came forward to -meet me, looked a little doubtful about letting me go through the mill, -but just then the door opened and a strapping young Englishman came in. -“See the works?” said he. “Of course you may. I’d like nothing better -than to show my mills just now to newspaper people. I call them my -mills yet, but only for a joke.” - -He said something in Russian to the workman, who shrugged his shoulders -and stood aside, and Mr. Cheshire and I went into the nearest mill -room. It was a storeroom, as a matter of fact, the receiving room for -the huge bales of coarse yarn spun in another mill. The bales were -soft and made excellent beds, a fact that was not overlooked, for two -tired Russian mill-workers reposed blissfully on a pile of bales as we -passed through, sleeping the sleep of the just. They were not the only -sleepers I saw in that mill. Several women were taking naps on piles -of cloth near their machines, and a great many of the workers, men and -women, might as well have been asleep, for they were doing no work. One -woman was displaying a new pair of shoes to a group of other women, who -stopped their machines to look. Shoes are so expensive in Russia at -present that a new pair is worth looking at, I admit, but they might -have postponed the exhibition until closing time. These women stood and -discussed the shoes, from every point of view, apparently, nor did they -go back to their machines when we stopped and discussed the women. - -“Do you mean to tell me that you cannot order them back to their work?” -I asked. - -“Oh, I can order them,” was the reply. “But if they choose not to go -that would make me look rather foolish, wouldn’t it?” - -“You could discharge them, couldn’t you?” I countered. - -“I certainly could not,” declared Mr. Cheshire. “Nobody can discharge -an employé until the shop committee has sat on the case and decided -that it does not want the man or woman in the mill. All I can do is to -make my complaints to the committee and ask it to act.” - -Mr. Cheshire was born in Russia, and has lived there all his life -except for a few years spent in an English school. Yet he speaks the -English of his grandfather, the same unmistakable little Lancashire -burr. He has the Lancastrian’s sense of humor also and he laughed even -when he told me of the demoralization and ruin in which the fantasies -of the revolution had plunged his business. The utter absurdity of it -was as present in his mind as the disaster. - -“Look at that man,” he said, pointing to a machine at which a man sat -and wound cotton cloth into huge round cylinders. “He and the others at -his particular job have had their wages raised to sixteen rubles (about -$5.25) a day. Yes, of course. The committee decides on the wage scale. -I am not consulted. Even if I were, I should have nothing except a -complimentary vote, one against hundreds. That chap gets sixteen rubles -a day, and in addition I must hire a girl at four rubles a day to lift -the roll of cloth off the machine.” - -We passed into a print room still discussing the committee. I asked Mr. -Cheshire if it was true that these workmen’s committees were highly -paid men who performed no service to their employers and still received -their regular pay. - -“It is true,” he replied. Then he went on to tell me the following -story: “The work we do in this room is something a little unusual in -Russia. Few mills have these machines as yet, and our product is almost -the only cotton goods of the kind possible to buy in Russian markets -since the war. Before that a great deal of it was imported from England -and Germany. Naturally it is scarce at present, and not long ago one -of our men complained that he couldn’t buy it at all. ‘Of course you -cannot,’ I told him, ‘because these mills are turning out very little -of it. Go into the print room and see for yourself how many machines -are idle for lack of workers.’ And then I made him this offer, for he -was a member of the committee: ‘Let me have four men of your committee -back to work on these machines, and I will guarantee that you will soon -be able to buy the goods you want.’ Well, he agreed, and he got the -rest of the committee to agree, and I got the men back. But what do you -think those four men demanded? They said that they had been doing hard -mental work on the committee for two months, and they thought before -they went back to the machines they ought to have a month’s vacation -with pay. I did draw the line there. I told them I’d close the works -first. But since then I understand that the committee has begun to -discuss the two months on and one month off as a future policy. They -say that mental work--they call committee meetings mental work--is much -harder than physical labor.” - -“I’m glad they are finding it out,” I remarked. “Perhaps after a while -they will discover that even you belong to the proletariat.” - -“If they raise the wages again,” said Mr. Cheshire, “I mean to ask them -to give me a job. I’ll have to. Then they’ll have some real mental work -finding out how to pay me or themselves either. This factory and all -the others in our name have been running farther and farther behind -for months. Soon we shall have to close. We should have been closed -before now except that we hoped that a strong government would be -formed and industry as well as the army and navy would be placed under -a dictatorship.” - -The committees have created an eight-hour day in this particular -industry. Some industries have a six-hour day, and I was told that -numbers of working people claimed that a two-hour day was the ideal -towards which they aspired. I heard also, on good authority, that -certain groups favored a complete cessation of all factory work during -the three hot months of summer. - -Mr. Cheshire’s mills were supposed to run eight hours a day, but he -declared that he would be satisfied, in present circumstances, to get -a good, solid five hours’ work out of his people. If they would stay -on the job and actually produce for five hours every working day he -thought he might avert bankruptcy. “We close at five,” he told me. “But -along about 4 o’clock you watch them begin to go home.” - -I watched and they did. Man after man and woman after woman stopped all -work and began to put on their shoes. Many millworkers work barefooted. -They gathered in little knots at a window and looked out, talking -aimlessly. They strolled about the rooms. Some just stopped work and -went out. At half past four in the rooms through which I walked, not -half the machines were running. - -“Is it really like this in all the mills and factories of Russia?” I -asked, “or is this mill an exception to the rule? Is it worse than the -average?” - -“It is no worse than most,” was the reply. “It is better than some. -Industrial Russia has completely broken down in some places. It is -rapidly breaking down everywhere.” - -What I saw afterwards absolutely confirmed this statement. The -industrial world is as much in the hands of the Bolsheviki or -extremists as are the councils of workmen’s and soldiers’ delegates. -While the provisional government of the early weeks of the revolution -discussed ways and means whereby the workers in mills and factories -might gradually acquire an interest in their industries and a voice in -the councils of the managers, the workers settled the whole thing by -turning the employers out and taking over the industries themselves. -They have voted themselves enormous salaries, short hours and little -work. But they have done little or nothing to insure the permanence -of the salaries. Soon there will be, instead of an eight hour day, no -working day at all. All the shops and factories will close. - -In Moscow is the largest and finest department store in Russia. It is -an English concern, Muir & Merrilies, managed and largely owned by Mr. -William L. Cazalet. I know him well, and his testimony, when I saw him -in August, bore out this statement. The committee in Muir & Merrilies -voted that they found it inconvenient to have clerks and other employés -go home for lunch at different hours. They therefore ordered the store -closed every day from 12 to 2 o’clock. The store was accordingly closed. - -“I don’t mind,” said Mr. Cazalet cheerfully. “My stocks are running -low, the transportation system is on the verge of collapse, and I can’t -get any more goods. As each line of goods is exhausted I shall close -the department. When the time comes I shall close the store and go home -to England for a vacation.” - -He will go, as Daniel Cheshire went, others will follow, and the -workers will own their tools. They won’t own anything else. - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -MRS. PANKHURST IN RUSSIA - - -Emmeline Pankhurst, the English militant suffrage leader, known to -thousands in this country, went to Russia in late June of this year -to organize the women of the country and help them to support the -provisional government and to oppose the Bolsheviki or extremists. -She succeeded in organizing a group of strong and influential women -leaders, and she might have accomplished great good had not Kerensky -frowned on the movement. Mrs. Pankhurst’s project, in my opinion, was -one of Kerensky’s many lost opportunities. - -This will answer a natural curiosity on the part of the reader as to -why Mrs. Pankhurst came to be in revolutionary Russia. She went of her -own initiative and under the auspices of her suffrage organization, the -Women’s Social and Political Union, but her plan had the warm approval -of the English premier, Mr. Lloyd George, who personally issued her -passport and that of her secretary, Jessie Kenney. Mr. Lloyd George -also gave directions that Mrs. Pankhurst and Miss Kenney should be -allowed to travel on the only passenger boat that plies regularly -between Great Britain and Norway. This boat is strongly convoyed and -it is used by very few people not in the service of the English -government. No one in England has a higher esteem for Mrs. Pankhurst -than Lloyd George, and since the beginning of the war the two erstwhile -enemies have become friends and allies. Mrs. Pankhurst’s suffragettes -fired a house that Mr. Lloyd George was building in the country, and -Mrs. Pankhurst was sentenced to three years’ penal servitude for the -deed. She had served several weeks of the sentence, in hunger strike -intervals which extended over a year or more, when the war broke out -and all internal feuds were declared off in England. The Pankhursts -at once called a truce of militancy and ever since have done yeoman -service in recruiting for the army, collecting money for war sufferers, -especially in Serbia, and in many other lines of patriotic work. - -The whole world admired the statesmanship of this policy, but only a -few people know how really statesmanlike it was. Among those who do -know is the English premier, for without it he might not have become -premier. In abandoning militancy Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughter -Christabel were actuated by two motives: they wanted England and the -allies to win the war, and they saw in the war an opportunity to -further the cause of woman suffrage. They were under no delusion that -a grateful country would bestow the vote on its women as a reward for -their unselfish war services. Women have rendered the noblest kind of -service in all the wars that have ever been fought, but no country ever -showed its gratitude by making them citizens for it. Witness our civil -war. Mrs. Pankhurst and Christabel knew that suffrage would come in -England when the political situation suffered certain changes, and it -would come in no other way. - -They were in France in July, 1914, Mrs. Pankhurst out of prison under -the famous “Cat and Mouse” act, and resting up for another bout with -the Holloway jailers. Christabel lived in Paris and edited there the -British suffragette weekly newspaper. They watched with deep emotion -the mobilization of the French army and saw the French women drop all -their other activities and mobilize for hospital and relief work. They -agreed that they must go back to England and organize their women for -the same work, and they said: “At last! A chance to get rid of Asquith -and Sir Edward Grey!” - -These two men, especially Mr. Asquith, were the arch enemies of the -women’s cause. Mr. Asquith had consistently blocked the woman suffrage -bills in Parliament, even when a large majority of the House of Commons -wanted to vote favorably on them. Mr. Lloyd George, on the other hand, -was, theoretically at least, a suffragist. He wanted the women to have -votes, but he wanted something else a great deal more. He wanted, with -an earnestness amounting to a cosmic urge, to be prime minister of -England. His whole soul being set on that ambition, he was not going -to take people’s minds off of his candidacy by getting into the woman -suffrage controversy. So he put the whole subject one side for future -reference. - -Mrs. Pankhurst, great and wise stateswoman that she is, perfectly -understood this. She knew that, if Mr. Lloyd George became premier, he -would probably put a suffrage bill through Parliament, and she and -Christabel knew that the new war cabinet, which they trusted would -come, would probably have Lloyd George at its head. So they bent all -their energies to ousting Mr. Asquith and boosting Mr. Lloyd George. -They criticized caustically, with pen and voice, the cabinet’s war -policies, they turned a whole volume of scorn on England’s Serbian -blunders and the Dardanelles failure. They went all over England -talking about Mr. Asquith and his ministers, and their work told. So -when Mrs. Pankhurst decided to go to Russia and do what she could to -rally the women of that distracted country, Mr. Lloyd George knew that -she would do it if any one could. He gave her a passport and a safe -conduct, and she went. A little later Ramsay Macdonald, leader of -England’s “little group of wilful men” opposing the war, thought he -would go to Russia and undo any good Mrs. Pankhurst might do. - -Mr. Lloyd George at first refused to give Mr. Macdonald a passport, but -his refusal so angered the Bolshevik element in the Petrograd Council -of Soldiers’ and Workmen’s Delegates that Kerensky was actually forced -to ask the English premier to allow Mr. Macdonald to visit Russia. The -English premier therefore consented to issue the passport, but the -Seamen’s Union, which was not in the least afraid of the Petrograd -soldiers and workmen, or of any international misunderstandings, -refused point blank to allow Mr. Ramsay Macdonald to travel on any -boat crossing to Norway. The union served notice that the moment Mr. -Macdonald stepped foot on any boat leaving England the sailors on that -boat would step off. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald accordingly never stepped on -a boat. - -Mrs. Pankhurst was very well received in Russia. The newspapers -published columns about her, statesmen and ambassadors called on her, -almost as on a visiting royalty, and the finest women in Petrograd came -to her and welcomed her proffered aid. Which is certainly discouraging -to those suffragists who always try to be good and well mannered and -never picket the White House or disturb a congressman’s afternoon nap. -A series of meetings were arranged for Mrs. Pankhurst, but they were -neither well arranged nor well managed. Some of them got into the hands -of women who had movements of their own to push, and who were willing -to use Mrs. Pankhurst’s drawing capacity to fill a room, but were not -willing to turn the meeting over to her when she got there. - -I was present at such a meeting, which had for chairman a lady of title -who had a scheme of some kind, and the speakers were mostly women who -had other schemes, and they all talked and talked about their schemes, -until I feared that Mrs. Pankhurst would never be given a chance to -talk at all. One woman spoke for over an hour about the food situation. -Her remedy was to send a commission to America and beg that a shipload -of food be sent via Archangel to Petrograd. It was pointed out to her -at some length by Mr. MacAllister Smith, an American business man -living in Petrograd, that there was plenty of food nearer home than -America, and that it didn’t need to be begged for. - -Through it all Mrs. Pankhurst sat quietly, but I who knew her well -saw a suspicious little color creep into her cheeks and a light of -battle flash into her gray eyes. I don’t know what might have happened, -but what did happen was dramatic. A tall, fine-looking woman in the -back of the room sprang to her feet and burst into a passionate -speech of protest. While the women in that room were wasting time in -inconsequential talk the Germans were steadily advancing, the Russian -troops were retreating and ruin and desolation were at their very -doors. She begged them for the sake of bleeding Russia to drop all -controversy and let Mrs. Pankhurst, if she could, tell them what to do. - -As she sat down, or rather dropped exhausted into her seat, Mrs. -Pankhurst stood up. She is a small woman, but when she is in certain -moods she manages somehow to look tall. She looked tall on this -occasion. She spoke in French and her talk lasted not longer than -fifteen minutes, but when she finished half the women in the room would -have gone into the trenches after her. The others looked frightened. -Mrs. Pankhurst told the women that 250 Russian women had gone out of -their homes, donned soldiers’ uniforms and were prepared to give their -lives for their country and the democracy of the world. Mrs. Pankhurst -was naturally an admirer of Botchkareva and her Battalion of Death, -and had a few days before this meeting reviewed the regiment. She told -these women of leisure that if working women were willing to risk -their lives on the battlefield for the freedom of Russia the women -who remained at home ought to be willing to risk their lives on the -streets. Whenever a Bolshevik street orator preached separate peace -or a cessation of fighting, a woman of education and ability ought to -stand up and tell that same street crowd the truth. The women ought to -storm the soviets all over Russia and force the men to support Kerensky -and the Provisional Government in their effort to rally the army and -defeat the Germans. - -The movement, she told them, must be a Russian women’s movement only. -No foreigners should appear in it at all. They must do the work, but -she was there to give them the full benefit of her experience as -an organizer. She would show them how to do the work, how to train -speakers, how to manage politicians, how to arrange demonstrations. -One of the first things she advised them to do was to establish -a headquarters in a conspicuous place, and to get up a great -demonstration of women to march in a body to the Winter Palace or -the Tauride Palace, wherever the Provisional Government was holding -its meetings at the time. They should offer their services to the -government, and let the country see that women were in the field to -support the war. That speech and that program swept the women off their -feet. Immediate steps were taken to organize, and a few women, without -waiting for organization, actually did go out into the streets and talk -against the Bolsheviki. - -Then came the days of the July revolution when all street speaking -ceased, and that interfered with the women’s plan. What discouraged -it most of all was Kerensky’s cynical attitude toward it. A woman of -rank and of great ability, knowing Kerensky well, went to him and told -him what they proposed to do, and asked for his coöperation. To her -astonishment he refused point blank and he told her that the women -would not be allowed to make a demonstration or to march to the palace. -Naturally she asked him why, and he replied evasively that there had -been too many demonstrations already. - -Ambassador Francis shared the women’s disappointment to the extent -of calling on Kerensky and trying to make him see the value of their -assistance in an hour of crisis, but Kerensky persisted in his refusal. - -I do not understand why he acted in this manner. His own domestic -affairs were in a sad state at this time, a rumor stating that Mme. -Kerenskaia was divorcing her famous husband. It may be that Kerensky -was in a state of mind of general prejudice against all women. Perhaps -he has the Napoleonic conception of the position of women in the state. -I do not know. But if he is an anti-suffragist he is almost alone in -his opinion in Russia. Mrs. Pankhurst did not have to convert the -country to suffrage. There is no spoken opposition to it anywhere, -as far as I could discover. It is taken for granted that women will -vote under the new constitution. They have voted already in municipal -elections, and in many cities they have been elected to the town dumas. -Fourteen women were elected to the Moscow town duma last summer. - -Neither is Russia opposed to militant suffragism. Mrs. Pankhurst -was a guest of honor one night at the great congress of Cossacks in -Petrograd. When she appeared on the platform she received an ovation, -and Prof. Miliukoff’s introduction of the famous Englishwoman was a -high eulogy. Mrs. Pankhurst’s autobiography has been translated into -Russian and is widely circulated. Her mission failed because Kerensky -killed it. That is all. Her visit to Russia was not a complete failure, -however, for she succeeded in awakening at least one group of Russian -women to a keen sense of their political responsibilities. They have -begun to work, and when order is restored in the country, their work -will be heard of. - -They told her in my hearing that they had never before realized what -was before them, and they did not intend that the new constitution -should be written by any but the best men in Russia. Much can be -expected of Russian women in the future, in my opinion. - -Among the working people the women have shown themselves to be at least -as ready for citizenship as the men. They appear among the Bolsheviki, -of course, and they are seen among the slackers in industry. But one -group of women workers played a loyal part throughout the February -revolution and in the after troubles. This was the telephone force, -especially the girls in the big central office in the Morskaia. These -girls, without any direction or orders, joined in an absolute refusal -to connect the headquarters of the Bolsheviki in the dancer’s palace on -the Neva, or the munitions factory which was their other stronghold. -Cut off from using the telephone the mutinous soldiers and workmen were -severely handicapped, and the government was materially assisted. - -Women of the educated classes will play an important part in the -reconstruction of Russia. They will hold office, and may sit in the -ministry. Already one woman has been appointed adjunct Minister of -Public Welfare. This was the well known and efficient Countess Panine, -whose civic work is famous throughout the empire. Countess Panine held -office for a short time only, because no ministry held together long. -That she will be returned to office when stability is secured, there -seems to be no doubt. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - -KERENSKY, THE MYSTERY MAN - - -It is unfortunate that nothing has ever been written about Kerensky -except eulogies. However deserved they may be, eulogies have the fault -of not being informative. Who is Kerensky? What kind of a man is he? -Why hasn’t he restored order in Russia? If he cannot restore order, -discipline the army and make it fight, why doesn’t he step aside and -let somebody else try? These questions have been asked on all sides. - -I may not be able to answer all or any conclusively. But I was in -Russia three months, and I watched Kerensky progress from Minister of -War to Minister-President of the Provisional Government and virtual -President of the Russian Republic. I can tell my own observations of -the man, and I can present the evidence of events, allowing the reader -to draw his conclusions. I saw Kerensky frequently, heard him speak -several times, and, like almost every one else, I went through a period -of extreme enthusiasm for him. A certain enthusiasm I have retained. I -still think he has achieved marvels in keeping a government together -and remaining for nearly six months at the head of that government. -In fact Kerensky, whatever else is said of him, for a time at least -kept before the wild-eyed, liberty-mad masses of the Russian people -the certain fact that governments must be, that the state cannot exist -without leaders. - -There was apparently no other man in Russia who could do this thing. -The old theory that great events always produce great men seems to -have failed in this case. The most stupendous event in modern history, -the Russian revolution, has as yet produced no great, or even, when -Kerensky is left out, no near-great men. The first provisional -government contained able men like Lvoff and Miliukoff. But they could -no more cope with the situation created by the fall of autocracy in -Russia than so many children could operate a railroad system. - -These men thought that they had helped to bring on a political -revolution. They little knew their Russia. There was just one man of -ability in that first ministry who knew the truth, and he knew only -part of it. Alexander Feodorovitch Kerensky, the socialist who was -appointed Minister of Justice, knew that what the world was about to -witness in Russia was a social revolution. But he, too, was blind to -the task before him. At the very outset of his career as Minister of -Justice, Kerensky insisted on abolishing the death penalty. “I do not -wish that this shall be a bloody revolution,” he declared. In one -sentence he showed how little he, too, knew his Russia. - -There was some excuse for ignorance on the part of most of the other -ministers. Prince Lvoff, for example, was a large estate owner, a man -who lived in the country a great deal of the time, one who had been -active in the affairs of his zemstvo or county council, a friend and -adviser of peasants, but always the great gentleman, the aristocrat. -Miliukoff was a university professor, a man of books, an amateur of -music. And so on through the list. - -But Kerensky was no aristocrat. He was an obscure lawyer, one who -specialized in cases of men and women accused of political offenses. He -defended with fiery zeal young students whose revolutionary activities -drew them within the tiger claws of the autocracy. He was the friend -of the poor. He was one of the executive council of the Social -Revolutionary party, largely made up of peasants. Why did he not know -and understand his countrymen? Why could he not have known that the -abolishment of the death penalty at that hour of supreme crisis would -drench the revolution in blood? - -Kerensky was in the beginning an extreme idealist, a preacher, a -prophet. He changed a great deal between February and November, 1917. -But events, I think, on the whole, prove him an extreme idealist, a -dreamer instead of a doer. Such men and women are never really great as -leaders. They can stir up an enormous enthusiasm, send the crowd to the -highest pitch of inspiration, even make it do monumental things for a -time. But the dreamer’s usefulness stops there. - -Somewhere in Russia, in one of the universities perhaps, in some -farmhouse or on some lonely steppe, there lives a big, hard-fisted -strong-brained ruthless boy who can and will some day do the kind of -ruling and guiding Kerensky talks about and would have enforced if he -could. Perhaps that boy got his inspiration from hearing Kerensky talk. -But the boy is a real leader. He will stretch out his hand to the mob -and the mob will obey his indomitable will. - -Did the mob ever obey Kerensky’s will? Take the army situation, for -example. The day I arrived in Petrograd, May 28, I had a talk with the -then American consul, Mr. North Winship. He told me what he had seen -of the revolution, and spoke gravely and apprehensively of the future. -The sedition in many regiments at the front was, to his mind, the most -sinister single menace that had yet developed. “Kerensky, the new war -minister, has just been sent down to the front,” he told me. “He will -save the situation if any living human being can. His influence over -the Russians is enormous. He can sway them like the tides with his -eloquence.” - -Kerensky, who all the world knows is a sickly man, spared himself no -whit during those critical days. He tore all over the front in motor -cars. He made scores of speeches, thrilling speeches. Every one reading -in the newspapers of his wonderful speeches breathed more freely and -whispered, “We are saved.” But were they? - -One incident. It may have been cabled to the American newspapers. On -one front where Kerensky was speaking a soldier, doubtless deputed -by the less brave in the regiment, stepped forward and said: “It is -all very well to urge us to fight for liberty, but if a man is killed -fighting what good is liberty to him?” Instantly Kerensky’s wrath -poured out in a torrent of eloquence. He denounced the man for a -traitor and a disgrace. The man who would think about his miserable -skin when the freedom of his mother country was threatened was unfit -to live with brave men. Turning to the colonel of the regiment, he -demanded that the soldier be degraded and immediately turned out of the -army, sent home a branded coward. - -The colonel replied that there were others in the regiment who might, -with justice, receive the same treatment. But no, said Kerensky, one -man disgraced was enough. He would be a symbol of dishonor. The Russian -army needed nothing more. The unfortunate man is said to have fallen in -a swoon. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was so. But he was probably -glad enough after he recovered that he was sent home. Nor was the -symbol of dishonor enough for the Russian army. It continued to desert. - -Often after one of Kerensky’s speeches he would call on the troops to -declare whether or not they would fight. Always they roared out that -they would, to the death. Sometimes they did, it is true, but sometimes -also they didn’t. At present no one can tell whether any soldiers, -except the Cossacks and the women, are going to go forward when -commanded. - -When the army demoralization, fraternization and desertions began to -assume recent frightful proportions Kerensky issued a manifesto telling -the soldiers what he was prepared to do to deserters. They would not be -shot--no, the death penalty was for all time abolished in Russia. But -deserters would be treated as traitors. Their families would receive -no soldiers’ benefits, and they would not be allowed to participate in -the redistribution of land. The Minister-President, for by this time -Kerensky was at the head of the Provisional Government, would give the -deserters time to get back to their regiments. He named a date about -three weeks in advance. But on that day, at the extreme limit, all -soldiers must be back in their regiments. This manifesto was issued -not once, but three times, as I have stated. Three separate dates were -given, three ultimata pronounced. But none of them was even noticed by -the demoralized soldiers. On one date, June 18, it is true, Kerensky’s -order to advance was obeyed. At all events, the troops advanced on that -day and fought a victorious fight. It may have been in response to -Kerensky’s order, or it may have been a coincidence. - -Kerensky’s idealism began to suffer. He began to see his people as an -unruly, unreasoning, sanguinary mob. But he loved the mob and could -not bring himself to do it violence even for its own good. In July he -agreed that Korniloff should be made commander-in-chief of the army, -with power to shoot deserters in the face of battle. Korniloff’s demand -for full command of the army, both at the front and in the reserve, -with power to shoot all slackers, Kerensky would not agree to. However, -in that same month of July, 1917, Kerensky had progressed so far that -he told the world that he was prepared to save Russia and Russian unity -by blood and iron, if argument and reason, honor and conscience, were -not sufficient. Apparently they were not sufficient, but where was -the blood and iron? Beating Russia into submission would be a big job -for anybody just then, and it would be interesting to know just how -Kerensky thought he could do it. He was the only man of first rate -ability in his ministry, the only strong force. He would have had to -have some backing, and where could he get it? - -The Soviets? They have over and over, after fierce fighting, voted to -give Kerensky support. Once they voted to give him supreme power. But -they were never in earnest about it, and Kerensky knew it very well. -They proved that they were insincere, it seems to me, by their action -in October in refusing to support any ministry not made up exclusively -of Socialists, and then making such a body subject to criticism and -control. - -“The Germans are at our very gates,” Kerensky told those men. “While -you sit talking here, and are refusing to listen to words of reason -from your commander-in-chief, your revolution is in danger of -destruction. Are there no words of mine to make you see it?” - -Words, words, words! Hurled passionately from a burning heart into -a whirling void. That seems to me to typify Alexander Feodorovitch -Kerensky talking to the Russian revolutionary mob. - -The French revolution offers no parallel to this. Each one of the -successive leaders of that mob accomplished something good or bad. -Mirabeau led the mass as far as a constituent assembly. Marat and -Danton got rid of the king. Robespierre imposed his will on Paris -until the end of the reign of terror. Robespierre, “the sea-green -incorruptible,” is the nearest parallel to Kerensky that the French -revolution offers. He led the mob in the direction it wanted to go. -Kerensky followed it in a direction it wanted to go, begging it with -all his eloquence to turn around and follow him. The mob applauded -him, adulated him, wove laurels for his brow, but it would not follow -him. - -He could not turn the mob. Perhaps nobody could have done so. Perhaps -what had happened in Russia was inevitable, the only possible reaction -from three centuries of Romanoff rule. To have it otherwise Kerensky -has all but laid down his life. He suffers from some kind of kidney -disease, and shortly before the February revolution he underwent an -operation which nearly finished him. His right hand is incapacitated -and is usually worn in a sling or tucked inside his coat. He is thin, -hollow of chest and walks with a slight stoop. - -A man of thirty-seven, Kerensky is about five feet eight in height. He -has thick brown hair, which bristles in pompadour all over his finely -shaped head. His myopic eyes are blue, or grey, according to his mood. -You see those eyes in Russia, deep, beautiful blue at times, steel grey -at others. Kerensky’s eyes look straight at you and give you confidence -in his candor. Sometimes when he is suffering physically the eyes seem -to sink in his head and lose all their brightness. When he is tired or -discouraged they burn like somber fires. His face is pale, and even -sometimes an ashen grey, and the face is deeply lined and scarred with -troubled thought. The nose is big and strong, the mouth deeply curved, -and the strong chin is cleft, with a deep line, rather than a dimple. - -Kerensky’s speeches, to my mind, read better than they sound. He is -intensely nervous on the platform, jerking, moving from side to side, -striding up and down, thrusting out his chin--a kind of delivery I -especially dislike. His gestures are all jerky and nervous. His voice -is rather shrill. But in spite of all this he is a really eloquent -speaker, and he rouses his audiences to a point of enthusiasm I have -seen only one man equal. Of course I mean Theodore Roosevelt. - -Kerensky was formerly a model family man, I heard, but something went -wrong, and last summer Mme. Kerenskaia and her two small sons, nine and -seven, lived alone in the modest home. Kerensky lived in a suite in -the Winter Palace and drove in the Czar’s motor cars and was waited on -by a whole retinue of faithful retainers. No disparagement to him is -intended in the statement. The Winter Palace was his headquarters, and -as for the motor cars he had a right to drive in them, and every right -in the world to be waited on and cared for. - -The parents of this fated child of revolution were well educated and -fairly well circumstanced. The elder Kerensky was a school inspector -and was able to give his son a university education. Rumor persistently -states that Kerensky’s mother was a Jewess, but I do not know whether -this is true or not. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - -THE RIGHTS OF SMALL NATIONS - - -One of the main contentions of the extremists of the Russian revolution -concerns the self-governing rights of the states, large and small, -which make up the empire. I met no one in Russia who did not agree that -each one of the states had a right to local autonomy, but I met many -who feared greatly lest the empire should be dismembered and should -fall apart into a number of small, weak states. Especially disastrous -would this be, both to Russia and to the Allies, if it happened during -the war. That Germany is doing everything in her power to bring about -this end is proof enough that it would be disastrous to the Allies. -Germany’s army and navy and German diplomacy are working overtime -to separate the Russian states. The enemy forces are working now to -isolate the Baltic states and Finland, and German agents are busy all -over the empire spreading the propaganda of secession. - -“The right of small peoples to govern themselves” is one of the -easiest gospels in the world to preach. As a principle it is not even -debatable. In practice, however, it very often is far from expedient -or practicable. But the recently liberated Russians, each separate -language and racial group smarting from remembered wrongs inflicted by -the old government, took fire with the idea of self-government, and in -every corner of Russia are found provinces, governments, even cities, -repudiating the central government and setting up republics of their -own. Provisional governments were created last summer in provinces of -Siberia, in the rich province of Ukrania, in the town of Kronstadt, in -the Siberian towns of Tomsk and Tsaritsine, and in a number of other -localities. Finland very early started an agitation for a separate -government, and only the closing of the Diet and the prevention by -armed force of the convening of a new Diet stood in the way of a -socialist manifesto of separation. The Socialists are the majority -party in the Diet, and they counted on the support of enough people -in the three “bourgeois” parties--the Swedish, old Finnish and young -Finnish parties--to carry their measure through. - -Every one of these attempts at secession was marked by riots, murders -and excesses of every kind. A report from Kirsanoff, a city that -wanted last June to be a republic all by itself, told of a garrison of -soldiers who broke loose, fell on the inhabitants of the town, robbed -and murdered them, outraged women, burned houses, looted shops and -generally behaved like maddened animals. There seemed to be no reason -why the soldiers, who had previously behaved like decent men, should -have been seized with sudden criminal mania. Liberty simply acted on -their systems like a deadly drug. - -It was the same thing in Kronstadt, only in Kronstadt they developed a -drug habit, so to speak. This fortified town of some 60,000 inhabitants -is situated at the mouth of the Neva on the Gulf of Finland. The -fortress of Kronstadt, which dominates the town, in normal times -constitutes one of the chief defenses of Petrograd, a few miles up the -river. The Gulf of Kronstadt, on which the fortress stands, is the -chief station of the Baltic fleet. With a strong garrison, a fleet of -battleships and a well-organized Bolsheviki, Kronstadt was able for -many weeks to defy the Provisional Government, to maintain what it -called a government of its own, and to commit more horrible crimes and -more stupid excesses than almost any other place in Russia. Murder -on a wholesale scale marked the progress of the revolution in the -fortress and on the battleships. More than a score of young officers in -training were killed in the fortress in one day last spring. They were -not even arrested and tried on any charges. They were just butchered. -A number of other officers were killed, including the commandant and -vice-commandant of the fortress, and other officers were thrown into -cells and kept there for months without even the farce of a trial. - -Kronstadt set up a republic in late May and by mid-June the orgy was in -full swing. The civil population looted and robbed, and the soldiers -and marines aided and abetted them heartily. Once a band of looters -sacking a warehouse were arrested by the militia police after a lively -shooting match and put in jail. Cases where the militia actually -arrested thieves were so rare in Russia last summer that this one -received considerable newspaper publicity. The papers were obliged to -record that, a few hours after the men were arrested, a crowd of armed -soldiers and sailors demanded the liberation of the prisoners. Of -course their demands were honored. - -The provisional government was able to keep Finland in partial check -by threatening to withhold cereals and other provisions from her in -case of secession. But Kronstadt, being a fortress, had plenty of -provisions, as plenty goes in Russia these days. Kronstadt had more -food and fuel than Petrograd. That is why her orgy was able to last so -long. It lasted until the days of the July revolution, when thousands -of loyal troops were recalled from the front to restore order, many -of the ringleaders of the mutinous troops were expelled from the army -and several regiments were disbanded in disgrace. The orgy still goes -on to a certain extent in the fortress, and no one knows yet how far -disaffection among the naval forces went. - -The Kronstadt Soviet, or Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates, -covered itself with glory during the existence of the republic. The -Soviet, or one of its committees, undertook the solving of the housing -problem as follows: The committee went all over the town and inspected -houses and apartments. They inquired in each case at the different -places the amount of the rent, and then they proceeded to cut down -the rent, one-third to one-half. They didn’t say anything about the -reduction to the landlord, but they passed the word around to the -Tavarishi. A perfect exodus of renters out of their apartments into -bigger and better ones ensued. Everybody moved, and when rent day came -around and the landlords or their agents called on the new tenants they -were calmly told: “Not on your life is my rent thirty rubles a month. -It is fifteen rubles, and if you don’t take that you will get nothing.” - -The landlords appealed to the Soviet, but all the satisfaction they got -there was a threat of confiscation. “You’ve robbed the working class -long enough,” said the Soviet. “We ought not to pay you any rent, and -perhaps after a while we won’t.” - -From one point of view not the least outrage the Soviet perpetrated -on the helpless population of Kronstadt was an attempt to talk it to -death. There is a fine cathedral in Kronstadt and in front of it, as -is customary in Russia, a large open square. In this square the Soviet -erected a speaker’s stand and every day the population, or as much of -it as could get into the square, assembled and listened for hours to -fervid oratory. The people had to come because the Soviet ordered them -to, and very likely they enjoyed themselves at first. Even in Russia, -however, a continual political meeting, carried on three months at a -time, every day at 5 p. m., must be a trial. - -Tomsk was another city where the right of small peoples to govern -themselves was demonstrated last summer. In the newspapers of June -8, old style, appeared a telegram from Tomsk to Minister-President -Kerensky, the Minister of Justice and the all-Russian Council of -Deputies, Workmen and Soldiers, then in session in Petrograd. The -telegram was sent by the commanding general of loyal regiments and it -read in part thus: “Criminal and mutinous soldiers in company with -other criminal elements of the population have organized themselves -into bands and have set themselves systematically to pillage and -assassination. Under the flag of anarchy they have looted the banks, -the shops, business houses of all kinds. They were prepared to murder -all heads of public organizations, and declared that they would next -move on to other towns and cities and continue their robberies there.” - -The telegram went into more particulars of these outrages, and closed -by saying that martial law had been established in Tomsk on the 3d -of June, 2,300 persons had been arrested and the city, thanks to the -presence there of a few brave and loyal troops, was now in order. - -Thus the tale could be continued. Finland, usually a peaceful, orderly, -law-abiding and intelligent country, by far the most enlightened in -Russia, lost its head completely over the right of small peoples’ idea. -Helsingfors has seen days of violence in the old years of rule by fire -and sword. But Finland has never answered with fire and sword, but by -the most intelligent kind of passive resistance. With the revolution -passive resistance became violence. Most of this, it is true, came from -soldiers and sailors of Sveaborg, the island fortress of Helsingfors. -Murder of officers went on there and in the town also. Marines pursued -their hapless officers through the streets, cutting them down with -swords and knives, shooting them and killing them by torture before the -eyes of women and children. The townspeople did no such shocking deeds -as that, but there were bloody strikes and many riots, and finally the -attempt to open an illegal diet and to force a separation from the -empire. Kerensky handled that situation very well, sending the best -men in the government to Helsingfors, where some kind of a truce, -temporary no doubt, but a truce, was patched up. - -Kerensky’s fiercest battle last summer was with Ukrania, where a -real government was established. It was real enough at all events to -force a kind of recognition from the central Provisional Government. -Ukrania is an enormous territory in the south of Russia. It extends -into southwestern Siberia and southward to the Black Sea. Odessa is -its principal port, and within its borders are many important cities. -Kiev is one of the largest of these. About 35,000,000 people inhabit -the Ukraine, as it is called in Russia. The people are not Russian, -strictly speaking. They are Slavs, but they have a language of their -own, a literature, a culture. They have been Russian subjects for -nearly 300 years. - -The Ukraine is a self-contained country and could be made a very rich -one. It is rich already in agricultural resources, the “black earth” -of certain regions producing the most splendid crops of wheat and -other grains. The fruits of the Ukraine are the best in Russia, and -the vineyards furnish grapes for excellent wines. Russia would be poor -indeed without this country. - -Last June the Ukranian Rada, or local diet, voted to establish a -republic, restore the old language and customs, and cut themselves off -absolutely from the Russian empire. They actually created a provisional -government on the spot. Some of the more moderate members of the Rada -favored remaining in the empire as a federated state having complete -autonomy, and this was finally accepted, I believe, by the majority. -But immediately the Bolsheviki of the south began to clamor for -separation, and the Ukranians in the army began to show dangerous signs -of unrest. A congress of Ukranian armies was held in Kiev in the middle -of June, in which it was decided that the armies of the south and -southwest ought to be completely and exclusively made up of Ukranians. -If this had been done the Rada would have been in a perfect state to -dictate terms of any kind to the Russian Provisional Government. - -As it was there was considerable dictating done. The military Rada, -meeting in June in Odessa, served notice on the Provisional Government -that unless the Ukranian soldiers were prevented from forming their own -regiments no more soldiers of their force would be sent to the front. -The Ukranian regiments were formed, some of them in Petrograd, and the -strains of the national hymn, “Ukrania is not dead,” were heard on the -streets, played by military bands or sung by soldiers, almost as often -as the classic “Marseillaise.” - -Kerensky made a frantic dash to Odessa, to Kiev and other cities of -the Ukraine. He took with him Tereshtshenko, Minister of Foreign -Affairs, and one or two other ministers, and they met the new -provisional government in parley. The result was that Kerensky made a -complete surrender, recognized the provisional government--at least -informally--and agreed that the Ukraine should be a separate state. -There was a perfect tempest of protest when the ministers returned -to Petrograd. The rest of the ministry declared that Kerensky had -overstepped his authority in committing the entire government to a -policy which ought to have been left to the constituent assembly to -decide. They said that his act, entered into without the knowledge or -consent of the full government, was illegal. Perhaps it was; but it -stood, and all the most aggrieved ministers could do about it was to -resign. - -The greatest task ahead of Russia is federation, and she probably will -in the end learn how to give autonomy to her states and establish a -central government which will bind all the states together in happy -union. But she has years of strife and monumental effort ahead of -her before the task is done. The wisest men in Russia--even Prof. -Miliukoff, who lived for years in the United States--appear to be in -a complete fog on the subject of federation. Half the wise men want -an empire like Great Britain or Germany, with practically all the -power in one central governing body. The other half see nothing ahead -but dismemberment of the empire. Nobody apparently can see Russia as -another United States. - -I believe that part of our responsibility, after the war--perhaps -before that time comes--will be to teach Russia how to establish a -peaceful federation on republican lines. Russia perhaps does not need -to be taught democracy. When she emerges from this present anarchy she -may be trusted to establish a safely democratic civilization. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - -WILL THE GERMANS TAKE PETROGRAD? - - -Will the German army get to Petrograd and Moscow? The answer to this -question is, they probably can if they want to, but it is hardly -possible that they do. If they have that object, and if they succeed -in taking Moscow it will simply add one more to the psychological -blunders committed by the German government since the war began. The -disorganized Russian army might not pull itself together and fight -for Petrograd, but the army and the people would fight to the death -for Moscow. It is their holy city, their crown of glory, their dream. -Moscow is Russia, and one who has never seen it knows not the Russian -people. - -Petrograd is a modern European city, built by Peter the Great in the -early part of the eighteenth century and by Catherine II, also called -“the Great,” in the latter half of the same century. Peter, who would -have been a master man in any century and in any country, whether born -in a palace or a farmhouse, was all the more a marvel because he was -a Russian, born at a time when the Russian people were still medieval -and still oriental. Peter didn’t allow the fact that he was heir to an -oriental autocracy to interfere with his ambitions or his activities. -He left the golden palace in the Kremlin, left Moscow, the capital, -and sacred heart of the empire, left Russia altogether, and went off -to become a day laborer in the shipyards of England and Holland. Peter -learned what he could in a short time and went back to establish -western civilization in Russia. He chose the site of his new capital -much as the United States Steel Company chose the site of Gary, Ind., -for its nearness to a good harbor, its easy access to trade routes and -its fine front view of the best commercial centers. Peter called his -city “a window toward Europe.” - -Petersburg, as it was styled by the half German Peter, was a more -stupendous piece of engineering than Gary, Ind., although the steel -town is one of the greatest triumphs of engineering this country can -boast. It was built on a marsh which nowhere rose above the muddy -waters of the Neva more than two or three feet, and in most places was -partially or wholly submerged. That marsh never has been completely -drained. When, in 1765, St. Isaac’s Cathedral was built to replace -a small wooden church of Peter’s time, they first had to drive over -twelve hundred huge piles into the soft ground. Of the 40,000 workmen -who toiled under Peter’s direction to create the first Petrograd a -majority died from exposure and cold, and of fevers bred in the miasmas -of the bogs. - -Catherine, who became czarina a little more than half a century later, -vastly improved the city. She enlarged it, erecting many splendid -palaces and public buildings, and bringing in a vast amount of western -culture in the way of libraries, art galleries and theatres. The -monuments of Peter and Catherine are the most conspicuous objects in -the capital. The ghosts of Catherine and Peter may be said to walk in -every street in Petrograd. But the Russians, for all their admiration -for their greatest monarchs, have little real love for the city they -built. - -The ghost of Ivan the Terrible walks through the streets of Moscow; -nevertheless, the Russians love the place as the Mohammedans love -Mecca. It is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and one -of the strangest. It has hundreds of churches, so gorged with art -treasures and with gold, silver and jewels that it dizzies the mind -to contemplate them. It has the ancient wall, foliage-hung, that -enclosed the Moscow of the thirteenth century, and it has the Kremlin, -or fortress, which antedates the town. Inside the Kremlin is the old -palace of the rulers of Russia built, in part, centuries before they -became czars. The first Kremlin palaces were built by the dukes of -Moscow in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. - -Some of the most beautiful of the treasure churches of the Kremlin were -built by Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century. One of these, -just outside the walls, the Cathedral of St. Basil, is a gem of such -radiance supreme that the half-mad Ivan determined that it should never -be surpassed. When it was finished he called the architect to him and -asked him if he thought he could ever design a better church. The -architect, in the pride and joy of his achievement, modestly said that -he thought he might. “You never will,” said the terrible Ivan, and he -had the man’s eyes burned out with red-hot irons. - -In the great square in front of the Kremlin still stands the high place -of execution where Ivan and the other almost as terrible czars tortured -and slew their victims. In a side street still stands the wonderful -golden house which was the home and seat of the Romanoff boyars, and -where the first (or second) czar of Russia was born. Moscow is the very -symbol of czardom; nevertheless the Russians love it as their heart. -Germany might send her armies there, but they could no more take it, or -hold it, than they could take and hold Washington. Inside the Kremlin -walls lie heaped thousands of bronze cannons, bright and beautiful -as snakes, all decorated with eagles and N’s and ambitious mottoes. -Napoleon Bonaparte left them there when he fled, defeated and routed by -the Russians, only to be still more soundly defeated by snow and storm -and bitter cold. Those cannon are evidence indeed of the invincibility -of Moscow. - -Germany ought to know that a march on Moscow, however easy, would -result in unifying the Russian army against the foe. Perhaps Germany -does not know this, for she seems not to know anything about the hearts -and minds of any people. The mechanics of nationality she knows and -understands. The psychology of it she never understands. However, I -do not believe that Germany’s recent attack and partial conquest of -the islands before Riga are a prelude to a march on the capital or on -Moscow. What Germany probably wants is the splendid loot to be found in -Courland and Esthonia. Riga, which is a city of 400,000 inhabitants, -is, next to Petrograd, the most important port on the Baltic Sea. Out -from Riga go immense exports of timber, flax and hemp, linseed and many -cereals. The country east and south of Riga produces these things in -great quantity, and Germany needs them in her business just now, and -needs them badly enough to risk a few of her ships and men to get them. - -Germany is not after conquest, this trip; she is after food and fuel -and supplies. A little south of Riga lie the Governments of Kovno, -Vilna and Minsk, and a little south and west lies Russian Poland, -already partially in German hands. I traveled through part of that -country last summer and watched through the train windows vast fields -of rye and wheat, and thousands of acres of potatoes. I did not see -many sugar-beet fields, but they lie somewhere in that region--hundreds -of thousands of acres of them, already harvested or waiting to be -harvested. And Germany is hungry for those harvests. - -There may be other reasons why Germany is pounding so desperately at -the defenses of Riga. Not very far away, to the north, washed by the -same Baltic Sea, lies the grand duchy of Finland, the one province of -the Russian empire which has shown friendliness to Germany. Finland -is also the one province which has already declared its unalterable -determination not to belong further to the Russian empire. Finland -wishes to set up a separate government and to be an independent state. -At least the mass of the people, expressing themselves through a -Socialist majority in the local Diet, has declared for this policy. - -It would be tremendously to the advantage of Germany to have the -big Russian empire split up into separate states, and the German -government has worked assiduously to encourage the Finnish people in -their secession policy. Finland is such a Mecca for German agents, and -so many Finns are in the pay of these agents, that the provisional -government last July practically shut the grand duchy off, marooned -it, so to speak, from the rest of the empire. A traveler cannot go -to Finland from Russia without special permission obtained from the -war ministry. A resident of Petrograd could not go down to one of the -numerous and charming Finnish seaside towns near the capital, even for -a week-end visit, without such a permit. I have spent some time in -Finland and know a great many people in Helsingfors, the capital. I -tried to get a permit to stop in Helsingfors on my way out of Russia, -but the war ministry refused to grant the permit. - -When the traveler left Russia for England or the United States, for -any country, for that matter, he had to take a certain train leaving -Petrograd at 7.30 o’clock in the morning, and he left that train just -once before he reached the frontier. That once is at Beli Ostrov, -for the customs inspection. After that the traveler was a prisoner -in his train until he reached Tornea, where he was finally inspected -and convoyed across a narrow stretch of water to Sweden. That was the -attitude of the Russian provisional government toward Finland. - -The grand duchy is rightly considered one of the greatest menaces to -the future integrity of the empire. It is rightly considered by Germany -a hope for the future of Germany, and it may very well be that the -German navy expects and hopes to follow up the conquest of the Baltic -port of Riga with a conquest of the Baltic port of Helsingfors. Finland -detests Russia to such an extent that she is apparently blind to the -danger of a friendship with Germany. For fifty years she has hated and -feared Russia, and she apparently cannot get it into her head that the -thing she hated and feared has gone forever. I have observed this state -of mind in Poles as well as Finns. They have hated Russia so long that -they cannot stop all at once. The Finns have hated Russia so hard that -they would not even look at the Russian soldiers quartered on them by -the old government. I spent the winter of 1913 in Helsingfors, and -it was one of the sights of the place to me to watch the Finns cut -the Russians in the street every day. A regiment of Russians marched -through the streets, bands playing, swords clanking, feet tramping, -a gorgeous sight. But the soldiers might as well have been invisible -phantoms for all the notice taken of them by the Finns. They walked -quietly along, attending to their business, conversing or chatting with -their neighbors, never looking at the Russians. In fact, it was a point -of honor with the Finns never to look at a Russian. As for speaking -to one, knowing him, inviting him to his house, a Finn who did such a -thing would have been ostracized. Even the smallest children knew that. - -This being the state of mind of the Finns, it is explainable in a -measure why, in order to wring their independence from Russia now, -they are willing to run a very great risk of being absorbed or badly -exploited by the Germany of after the war. They became part of the -Russian empire willingly, having been on very bad terms for a number -of years with their old over-lord, Sweden. This was in 1801. Then the -Czar made a solemn compact with Finland, both for himself and his -heirs, that the country should have almost complete autonomy. It was -to maintain its own army, which would never be called upon to serve on -Russian soil, but should defend the Finnish coast and border in case -Russia was involved in war. - -Finland was to have her own coinage, postal systems, schools, courts, -language and her own local diet. The Czar retained the right of vetoing -legislation, the right to collect foreign customs and other imperial -rights. Almost every promise made in that treaty has been broken by -the czars of Russia, especially by Nicholas II, now in Siberia. This -Nicholas tried to break the treaty altogether, abolish it, but the -Finns were too intelligent, too clear-headed and too united to let -him do it. Their resistance to his tyrannous treachery is a thrilling -story in itself. Finland has never broken any part of her treaty with -Russia, but now she wants to abolish the treaty. The contention is that -the treaty was made with the czars of Russia, and, now that there are -now no more czars, the treaty has ceased to hold good. Finland is full -of German agents, and they must have invented this brilliant piece of -reasoning and taught it to the Finnish Socialists. At all events, they -must have fostered it with might and main, and perhaps the German navy -believes that a visit to Helsingfors would convert the whole country to -it. - -There is even a better reason why the German navy has been pounding -away in the Gulf of Finland, and why in the spring it will pound again. -Germany seeks to separate still further Russia and her allies. There -are only three ways by which Russia can communicate with Europe and -America. One of these ways is across Siberia and the Pacific Ocean, a -long distance. Another way, through Archangel, is a summer way only. -The third and shortest way is through Finland and Sweden. If Germany -can partially take Finland and seize the railroad which leads to -Sweden, and there is only one main line of railroad, she can cut Russia -off from her allies very effectively. Perhaps her next step would be to -interfere, by means of submarines, with Russia’s other outlet in the -Pacific. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV - -RUSSIA’S GREATEST NEEDS - - -It would be a very terrible thing for democracy and the world’s peace -if the Allies, observing the anarchy into which Russia has fallen, -should relax any of their efforts to help her back to a sound military, -economic and social foundation. The first impulse is to beseech the -United States government to refuse to loan money to such an unstable -government, and even to decline to send Red Cross relief to a people -who will not try to help themselves. But second thought reveals the -unwisdom of deserting Russia in her crisis, however wilfully the crisis -was brought on. We must loan money to Russia even though we lose the -money. We must send her food and supplies even though they be received -without much gratitude. For the sake of democracy, to which revivified -and regenerated Russia has a world to contribute, we must help her now. -The task will not be as difficult as the surface facts indicate. Russia -is rapidly approaching the climax of her woe. - -Aside from her military situation, bankruptcy is coming if it is not -already there. Bankruptcy for the national treasury, for few taxes are -being paid. Bankruptcy for food, clothing, fuel for all the people -except a few on the farms, and even they will suffer for many things. -Hunger and cold are at the door. The Russian army may rally, may turn -on the Germans and magnificently retrieve its lost reputation as a -fighting force. But there is no way in which the army of producers, the -farmers and the working people, can rout the enemy they have admitted -within the lines. - -The farmer class of Russia this year did not produce full crops, and -they refused to send to market a very large proportion of what they did -produce. They hoarded their grain for their own use and some of it at -least they have turned into vodka. In the towns and cities of Russia -prohibition almost prohibits, but the peasant very quickly learned the -art of illicit distilling, and I heard on authority I could scarcely -question that stills have been established in half the villages of -Russia. The statement is borne out to some extent by the fact that -drunkenness among soldiers is increasing, especially in places remote -from the larger cities. In Petrograd I saw little drunkenness, but the -farther I traveled southward into the farming area the more I saw and -heard of it. At the military position in Poland where the Botchkareva -Battalion of Death was stationed, I talked with a soldier who had lived -in America. In the course of our conversation he mentioned that a group -in his regiment had got drunk and were in trouble. - -“Where could they get liquor?” I asked. - -“Oh, they get it,” he replied. “It’s new and it’s quite horrible, but -they drink it.” - -Serious as the grain shortage was, the transportation situation was -still more serious. Food for which Petrograd and Moscow would pay -almost any money, rotted on the ground, spoiled in the half-loaded -freight cars, and wasted in congested way stations for lack of -transportation facilities and for lack of labor. In the industrial -world things were as bad. The working people, blind to their own peril, -had shortened hours of work, had gone slack on their jobs, and had -voted themselves wages far in excess of their productive activities. -The consequences were rapidly accumulating. Factories were closing -down, partly because they could not get coal and partly because of the -extortions of labor. Soon there will be gaunt famine in the land. The -working people will know what it is to go hungry with their pockets -full of money. - -When these troubles culminate--and in a few weeks at the most, the -world will stand aghast at Russia’s state--the orgy of the Bolsheviki, -the riot of the dreamers will end. Human nature is the same in Russia -as it is elsewhere, the same as it is in New York or in Emporia, -Kansas. We all know how, when hard times pinch the country, the -Republican party elects its candidates. The people follow their -theorizing and dreaming leaders in good times, but when the hard times -come they turn to the party of strong business men to set them on their -feet again. The full dinner pail argument is going to appeal strongly -to the Russian masses this coming winter, and if the constituent -assembly is postponed until the autumn of 1918, I am confident that the -people will vote in favor, not of a socialistic millennium that will -not work, but for a sane, practical democracy that will. - -What Russia needs above all other things is leaders. What the people -of this country must do for Russia is to help her find and develop -those leaders. They are there somewhere. Russia has shown that she -can produce great men and great women, people whom any nation might -be proud to follow. But under czardom the only people permitted to -lead were so corrupt, so reactionary and tyrannical that the Russians -learned to fear and distrust all leadership. When they overthrew -czardom and banished the tyrants and the corruptionists they thought -they could get along without any leaders. The world knows now how fatal -was their mistake, and very soon the blindest of the blind in Russia -will know it. - -Russia needs not only political leaders, she needs, even more urgently, -leaders in the economic field. She needs at the present time a business -man of the caliber of Mark Hanna, a man who, with a better ethical -standard, possesses Mark Hanna’s great genius for organization, his -marvelous executive ability. Such a man rarely dazzles the public with -oratorical powers. He wastes little energy in speech. But he knows -exactly what to do. He says to one man “come” and to another man “go,” -and you may depend on it they are precisely the right men at the right -jobs. He says to all about him, “Do this,” and they do it “to the -king’s taste.” Russia needs many such men. - -Nobody need be a slave under leaders, responsible and removable, like -that. We were, in the United States, until we got our eyes a little -open. We sink back once in a while still. Witness some of our municipal -governments. But freedom under strong leadership is entirely possible. -In fact, it is the only real freedom there is in the world. - -The Russians may have a difficult time achieving it, for they are not -quite the hard-fibered, ambitious, struggling race the English, French -and Americans are. They are fatalistic and dreamy. That is the reason -they endured their autocrats so long. But in the end they will achieve -it. - -Russia needs education, and here again America must show her the way. -A public school system on the best lines we have been able to develop -will make over the Russian people in one generation. Ninety per cent. -of the present population is said to be illiterate. The old government -tried within the past ten years to extend the common schools, but with -little effect on illiteracy. The mass of the children were given two -years of schooling, with the object of teaching them at least to read -and write. Most of them barely learned and practically all forgot, -because they were not encouraged to use their tiny bit of knowledge. -Russia has no conception of the public library as we have developed -it. There are libraries, magnificent ones, in the cities. But they are -reference libraries for the learned, not reading and lending libraries -for the masses. I am sure there is not such a thing in Russia as a -children’s library, much less a librarian especially trained and paid -to teach children how to use and to love books. Russia needs schools -to teach children knowledge and she needs libraries very near, if not -directly attached, to the schools. I talked to many people in Russia -about the wonderful Gary schools, in which children work, study and -play their way to fine, strong, thinking manhood and womanhood, and in -every case the response was the same. “We must have schools like that -all over Russia. Will you help us, when the time comes, to organize -them?” - -They cannot hope, of course, to go at once into all the intensive -work of the Gary public school system, but they can adopt its general -principles and its duplicate use of the school plant. In this way they -will be able to educate more children in each school house and thus -hasten the day when all the children will be in school. William Wirt’s -next great work may be organizing school systems in new Russia. Having -no old system to replace, he will not meet with the stupid and criminal -obstruction and opposition with which his labors in New York were met. - -Russia needs wholesome popular amusements to entertain and instruct her -adult population. If I were to write a detailed list of Russia’s most -pressing needs I should place near the head of the list plumbers and -moving pictures. The empire is back in the dark ages as far as building -sanitation is concerned. That is no small thing, because it affects -both the health and the morals of a people. It affects their manners -also, as any one who ever had to enter the lavatory of a Russian -railroad carriage or station can testify. - -They have some moving picture theaters in Russia, but they are poor in -performance and frightfully high-priced. You pay as much to go to the -movies in Russia as you pay to hear a high class symphony concert. I -never saw a 10 and 15 cent motion picture house, nor could I learn that -they existed anywhere in the empire. Mrs. Pankhurst and I went to the -movies one night, paying something like a dollar and a half for our -seats. The play was a long, dreary drama, ending in suicide and general -misery. The acting was poor and the actors fat and elderly. For current -events pictures they presented the Cossack funeral, reeled off at such -a dizzy pace that it looked less like a funeral than an automobile race. - -Moving pictures, carefully selected, offered for a small admission -fee, would be a boon to Russia. They would teach the grown people a -thousand and one things they have never had a chance to learn, and -they would perhaps get the Russian mind out of its habit of ingrowing, -self-torturing analysis that leads to nowhere. They would also give -the Tavarishi something to do besides soap box spouting, and their -listeners something more to think about than half-baked social -theories. Because of the great illiteracy of the masses, Russia would -have to introduce into her picture theaters an institution which Spain -has already established. In Spain few people can read the titles and -captions that run through the picture dramas, so each theater has a -public reader, a man with a strong voice and clear enunciation, who -reads aloud to the audience, and also makes any explanations that are -necessary. - -I know exactly where moving pictures for the masses could be shown in -Petrograd without waiting for private enterprise to open theaters. -On the west bank of the Neva, not far from the sinister fortress -of Peter and Paul, stands the best and most democratic monument to -Russian enterprise in the capital. This is known as the Narodny Dom, -or People’s House, a combination club house, restaurant, theater -and general meeting place of the working classes, founded by Prince -Alexander of Oldenburg and liberally supported by the late Czar. - -They have some fine concerts there, in times of peace, and an excellent -drama for the more intelligent of the workers. Admission prices are -fairly low and the performances good. For the less intellectual there -are certain Coney Island features, and these are so well patronized -that the concessionaries were well on the road to vast wealth. Long -lines of people waited every evening for a turn on the chutes or the -roller coaster. Their absolute hunger for a little amusement, a chance -to laugh and be gay is pathetic to witness. - -Another thing Russia needs is the soda fountain. A cold soft drink in -summer and a hot chocolate in winter, easily accessible and cheap, -would do more to take Ivan’s mind off moonshining vodka than all the -laws in the world. Last summer there were times when I would cheerfully -have given a dollar for a frosty glass of soda, any kind, any flavor. -And there were plenty of others in Petrograd of my mind. - -The best place to have luncheon in Petrograd is at the officers’ -stores in the street which bears the appalling name of Bolshaia -Konnyushennyaia. Here the food, government supplied, is good and it -is sold for something approaching reasonable prices. The best meal -I had every day was luncheon at the officers’ stores. The place is -crowded from 11 to 4 every week-day, military men and their families -predominating. Once, on a hot July day, there appeared on the counter -where hors d’oeuvres were sold a cold delicious drink. It was a sort -of cherry phosphate, and there were glass pitchers and pitchers of it, -literally gallons. It sold for about twenty cents a small glass, and -within half an hour it was gone, every drop. The crowd swarmed to that -counter waving its money in the air, swallowed the cherry phosphate in -one gulp, so to speak, and clamored loudly for more. I remember that -I pleaded almost with tears for a second glass and could not get it. -There is a fortune waiting for the capitalist who will take cold, soft -drinks to Russia, and he will have besides the fortune the additional -satisfaction of bringing hope to the sodden victims of vodka. - -An army that will obey orders; a government that will govern; leaders -in business, in transportation, in agriculture and a people willing to -obey those leaders; education, wholesome life. Russia needs all these, -and in her coming mighty struggle to achieve them the whole world of -democracy, and especially our United States, must lend willing and -sympathetic help and guidance. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV - -WHAT NEXT? - - -Man must hope. He must believe that his fight is a winning fight or -he must give up in despair. That is why the Americans place credence -in every despatch from Russia which seems to indicate that the -disorganized fighting forces are being whipped into form again. That -is why any hint that Kerensky had not succeeded in restoring order in -the empire was for some time received with incredulity by the reading -public. But why refuse to face the facts? We must face them some time. - -In late September I read in one of the newspapers a headline which -stated that the so-called democratic congress then in session in -Petrograd had voted to sustain Kerensky’s demand for a coalition -ministry. The headlines were wrong. What the dispatch really stated -was that the congress had voted not to form any coalition with the -bourgeois element, or with members of the Constitutional Democratic -party. That is, the congress would not support a ministry that had any -non-socialist members in it. “All the power to the Soviets” was retired -as too conservative a slogan. It was “all the power to the Bolsheviki” -then, for that is precisely what the vote in that so-called Democratic -Congress meant. - -Since June, 1917, no fewer than six congresses or conventions have -been held in Russia with the object of finding a way out of the chaos -with which the country is threatened. Every one of them was hailed -beforehand as the one which was going to be a revelation of the -intentions and desires of the people. The most important of these was -the all-Russia congress of Soviets held last July, and before that -the preliminary convention to prepare for the constituent assembly. -The one was to decide once and for all whether or not the moderate or -the extreme element in the Soviets was to rule, and the other was to -quiet both elements by showing that the government intended to prepare -a liberal and a democratic constitution for them to debate, amend and -adopt when the time came. Lastly, there was the great Moscow congress -of last August. I don’t remember what the stated object of that -congress was, but it does not matter much. The real object was to find -out which was the stronger man, Kerensky or Korniloff. Kerensky won -by a narrow margin, a very narrow margin. And then they held another -convention, and Kerensky lost. - -What will happen next in that distracted country? Into what new morass -are the people being led? Frankly, I do not know. I do not know anybody -who does. The only analogous situation in modern history is that of the -Poland of the eighteenth century. Poland had a government quite as bad -as that of the Russian Soviets, or Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ -Delegates. Instead of being an all-socialist affair Poland’s parliament -was made up entirely of noblemen. These men were so proud, so “free” -in the New Russia sense of the word that they wouldn’t yield on any -question even to a majority vote. A single dissenting voice in their -parliament was enough to kill any measure. The people of Poland had no -more to say about government than the middle class and the rich have -in the Russia of to-day. And when a European war on a limited scale -broke out, and Frederick the Great started the era of frightfulness -which William the last thought he could bring to a triumphant -conclusion, the three great eastern powers of Europe--Russia, Prussia -and Austria--sliced up Poland and handed each of the three monarchs -a piece. Maria Theresa, who ruled the Austria of that day, wanted it -printed in the records that she wept when she took her piece, but she -took it just the same, and Poland has wept ever since. - -This could happen to Russia. She could be dismembered and handed -around. But this is not likely to happen. The Allies would never be -so foolish or so cruel as to permit it to happen. Russia could fall -apart and become an aggregation of small separate states, but each one -of those would still have its Soviets, and consequently a government -without stability or permanence. Finland and the Ukraine are two -Russian states which are trying to bring about this end, and they may -succeed, but a dissected Russia would furnish such good material for -future wars that the Allies can hardly afford to consent to it. - -Civil war is a fine possibility in Russia just now, except that there -seems to be no one at hand to organize the two forces. The strongest -probability is more guerilla warfare, more street fighting, more -motor trucks loaded with machine guns rushing up and down Petrograd, -more battle, murder and sudden death, and then the reaction. Just -what form the reaction will take nobody knows. But the mad Bolsheviki -know that it is coming, and though they almost court it they also -fear it. They call this inevitable reaction the counter revolution, -and they excuse all their vagaries, their obstinacy, their pig-headed -resistance to a coalition with non-socialists on the ground that -they are fighting the counter revolution. I have heard Americans in -Russia, college professors, business men, correspondents, even members -of American commissions, say: “Don’t blame these people too much for -their radicalism. They are afraid they will lose all they gained by the -revolution. They fear the return of autocracy.” - -I can say with all confidence that whatever may happen in Russia, there -is not even the remotest chance of any counter revolution, in the sense -meant by the extremists, nor is there the slightest risk of a return of -autocracy. The autocracy collapsed like a house of cards, and the real -surprise there was in it for the Duma members who deposed Nicholas was -that the thing was so easy. I can imagine Miliukov, Rodzianko and the -others getting together afterward and saying: “Why on earth didn’t we -do this in August, 1914?” - -Nobody wants the Czar back unless it is the Romanoff family, and -doubtless each one of the grand dukes believes that if any one came -back it ought to be himself. The only possibility of a return of -monarchy in Russia would result from desperation on the part of the -men who will finally restore order there. The situation may be so bad, -when the time comes to do that, that they may decide on a limited -constitutional monarchy as the best form of government for people who -are not yet ready for self-government. A figurehead king, something -visible to the people and symbolizing government, but a king with -responsible ministers who really rule, is a possibility for Russia. The -inevitable reaction, especially if it is long postponed, may take that -form. I have heard many Russians say so. Some said it with sorrow, some -with satisfaction, but there are plenty of educated and liberal-minded -people in Russia who would welcome it. If it comes, I predict that the -capital of Russia will be moved back to Moscow. The constitutional -monarch, if they have one, may be that brother of the late Czar who is -known in Russia as Michael Alexandrovitch, who as one of the ablest and -most enlightened of the Romanoff family. He is the man who was chosen -by the first provisional government to succeed the Czar when the latter -was deposed, and the governments which have followed have all treated -him with rather especial consideration. Last June he asked permission -to leave turbulent Petrograd and spend the summer in his villa on one -of the Finnish lakes. This permission was granted, and Michael has -lived in Finland in comparative peace and comfort ever since. The -government has not treated any other Romanoff as well. - -Most of the grand dukes and grand duchesses are virtually prisoners on -their estates. The Empress Dowager is confined to her estate in the -Crimea, and the government would not even allow her to leave it to bid -her exiled son good-by. But Michael Alexandrovitch must have convinced -the government that he is trustworthy, and he seems to be regarded as -a man who could be brought out of his shadowy background and set up -for the people to call a king, if the worst comes to the worst and -they have to have a king. This is the most severe form the reaction -could permanently take in Russia, as far as I can judge. Of course a -military dictatorship may precede this, but the dictatorship would be a -temporary thing, a war measure to crush the Bolsheviki and bring order -out of chaos. Nobody in Russia, as far as I know and believe, wants a -counter revolution in the sense suggested by the Bolsheviki. But the -counter revolution, as a bogie to be held over the heads of the timid -dreamers and of those half-hearted ones who shrink from bloodshed, is -so useful that the Bolshevik leaders worked it hard all summer and in -the latest developments they were still at it. - -The experience of the French people after their revolution is often -cited by the timorous in Russia. It is true that the Bourbons came -back, but the people of France did not call them back. They were -put back by the allied monarchs of Europe, aghast at the spread of -republicanism in the eastern hemisphere. Following the revolution and -the two score years of Napoleonic wars, these rulers got together, -signed a secret agreement that the peace of Europe depended on France -remaining a monarchy, and in 1814 they put Louis XVIII on the throne. -By virtue of giving the French a liberal constitution he kept the -throne until his death, ten years later. The allied monarchs saw to -it that his brother, Charles X, succeeded him, but the allies could -not prevent the French from turning him out of the country within six -years. Nor could they stay the revolution of 1848 which banished Louis -Philippe, the last Bourbon. - -Times have changed since the French revolution. Kings have lost most -of their power and almost all of their popularity. They cannot get -together and, under the direction of a Metternich, agree that the peace -of Europe demands that Russia remain an autocracy. They could not do -this even if the old combination, Russia, Prussia, Austria, England -and France, had not been violently disrupted. No country in Europe is -interested in restoring the Romanoff dynasty, unless it be the country -of the Hohenzollerns, and that country is not going to have much to say -about the world’s business for the next few years. - -There may be no counter-revolution in Russia, but there will ultimately -be a return to sanity and order. There will be a constitutional -convention, not too soon, it is to be hoped, and in that convention the -voice of the leaders of the moderate parties will be heard. Trotsky -may be a delegate, but so will Prof. Paul Miliukoff, the leader of the -Constitutional Democrats, or Cadets, as they are colloquially known. -All through the riot and turmoil of the summer Prof. Miliukoff and -his colleagues worked steadily to keep the party alive, to keep it -constantly in the foreground as the liberal-conservative force which -might at least share in shaping the new constitution. - -There are plenty of wise, sane statesmen, plenty of good citizens in -Russia. They are not very conspicuous just now, and for good reason. -A fine old French abbé who was asked what he did during the Reign of -Terror, replied simply, “I lived.” Avoiding assassination is a career -in itself just now in Russia. Many of the wealthy classes and the -estate owners spent the summer in Finland. Some went to England or -the United States. The peasants in many parts of the empire, falling -in joyfully with the Kerensky plan of dividing up the land, began -the process by sacking and burning the homes of the estate owners, -destroying their fields, orchards and vineyards, and cutting and -burning their forests. These acts, in conjunction with riots and -excesses in the towns have encouraged the intellectual classes to leave -the country and to take no part in politics. - -Despite everything that has happened, despite these excesses, there is -no question that the Russian people in revolt have contributed greatly -to the world’s democracy. They will make still greater contributions, -I believe. They have a long road to travel before they establish their -new civilization. The Russians are not as developed as the English, the -French or the Americans. In some respects they are no further developed -than the English of the reign of Henry the Eighth. They ride in street -cars, but the street cars were made in Germany. They use the telephone, -and go up stairs in a lift, but the telephone and the lift came from -Sweden. They have only recently learned to use modern tools with skill -or to farm scientifically. But they are learning very fast. They are -learning to coöperate in their farming faster than almost any other -people in Europe, which to my mind is the most hopeful sign of all. - -For I am just as much of a socialist as when I went to Russia in May, -1917, and just as little of an anarchist. I believe that the next -economic development will be socialism, that is coöperation, common -ownership of the principal means of production, and the administration -of all departments of government for the collective good of all the -people. I believe that the world is for the many, not the few. But -Russia has demonstrated that there is no advantage to be gained by -taking all power out of the hands of one class and placing it in the -hands of another. Too much power rests now in the hands of a small -class. But that class never abused its power more ruthlessly than the -Russian Tavarishi did in the 1917 revolution. - -The lesson of Russia to America is patient, intelligent, clear-sighted -preparation for the next economic development. Beginning with the -youngest children, we must contrive for all children a system of -education which will create in the coming generation a thinking working -class, one which will accept responsibility as well as demand power, -and into whose hands we can safely confide authority and destiny. - - -_Printed in the U. S. A._ - - - - -The following pages contain advertisements of a few of the -Macmillan books on kindred subjects - - - - -Russia in 1916 - -BY STEPHEN GRAHAM - -_Frontispiece, 12mo, $1.25_ - -“Impressionistic pen-pictures which aptly reflect the mood of -present-day Russia.... He speaks with sympathy and admiration.”--_New -York Evening Post._ - -“Authentic, instructive, and interesting. He is both scholarly and -practical. He has a storehouse of information in a mind well qualified -to analyze it.... In this vitally interesting volume he gives us a -marvelously clear and keen sketch of that country as it is to-day with -its people, noble and peasant.”--_Philadelphia Press._ - -“A keen, penetrating, sympathetic study of Russian conditions and -tendencies during the war, by a man who knows Russia well and who has -exceptional ability for making his own observations and impressions -known to others.”--_New York Tribune._ - -“If all the countries at war had such an interpreter as Mr. Graham, -we should be able to look more deeply into the hearts of their -peoples.”--_Boston Transcript._ - -THE MACMILLAN COMPANY -Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York - - - - -Russia and the World - -BY STEPHEN GRAHAM - -_Illustrated, cloth, 8vo, $2.25_ - -For more than seven years Stephen Graham has been a close student of -things Russian. Compelled by an intense sympathy with the country and -its people, he forsook his native England and went to Russia when he -was twenty-three to study at first hand the life and customs of that -country. This was the beginning of an attachment which grew stronger -with the years and out of which have come several of the most important -contributions made to English literature bearing on the Russia of -modern times. - -At the outbreak of the present European war Mr. Graham was in Russia, -and his book opens, therefore, with a description of the way the news -of war was received on the Chinese frontier, one thousand miles from a -railway station, where he happened to be when the Tsar’s summons came. -Following this come other chapters on Russia and the War, considering -such subjects as, Is It a Last War?, Why Russia Is Fighting, The -Economic Isolation of Russia, An Aeroplane Hunt at Warsaw, Suffering -Poland: A Belgium of the East and The Soldier and the Cross. - -But “Russia and the World” is not by any means wholly a war book. It -is a comprehensive survey of Russian problems. Inasmuch as the War is -at present one of her problems it receives its due consideration. It -has been, however, Mr. Graham’s intention to supply the very definite -need that there is for enlightenment in English and American circles -as to the Russian nation, what its people think and feel on great -world matters. On almost every country there are more books and more -concrete information than on his chosen land. In fact, “Russia and the -World” may be regarded as one of the very first to deal with it in any -adequate fashion. - -THE MACMILLAN COMPANY -Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York - - - - -Through Russian Central Asia - -BY STEPHEN GRAHAM - -_Illustrated, 8vo, $2.25_ - -This book describes a journey by the author through Russian Central -Asia. Among the topics which the author touches upon are the Russian -pioneers, Mohammedanism and its characteristic expression, the colored -tribes, Russian rule, the expansion of the Russian empire and the -question of danger to India. The volume tells of much tramping, of -wayside experiences, of sights in the desert and nights under the Asian -stars or in the tents of the nomads. - - “A delightful book.... Always and everywhere Stephen Graham has - the gift of transferring his knowledge of Russia to the reader’s - heart and brain.”--_Chicago Herald._ - - “Full of information and as charming as it is informing. It is - rich in the lure of the open road ... in the romance of old - cities, in the wilderness of the vast waste spaces.... In the - view it gives of a phase of Russian life entirely new to American - readers.”--_New York Times._ - - -THE MACMILLAN COMPANY -Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York - - - - -With the Russian Pilgrims to Jerusalem - -BY STEPHEN GRAHAM - -_Decorated cloth, illustrated, 8vo, $2.75_ - -The journey of the Russian peasants to Jerusalem has never been -described before in any language, not even in Russian. Yet it is the -most significant thing in the Russian life of to-day. In the story lies -a great national epic. - - - “Mr. Stephen Graham writes with full sympathy for the point of - view of the devout, simple-minded, credulous peasants whose - companion he became in the trip by boat from Constantinople to - Jaffa and thence on foot to the holy places.”--_The Nation._ - - “Apart from the value which must be attached to the authenticity - of the glimpses of Russian life that Mr. Graham gives in his - latest book, it also clearly ranks him as the best modern writer - of the saga of vagabondage.”--_N. Y. Times._ - - “Mr. Graham has written an intensely interesting book, one that is - a delightful mixture of description, impression, and delineation - of a peculiar but colorful character.”--_Book News Monthly._ - - “A book of intensely human interest.”--_The Continent._ - - “The book is beautifully produced, illustrated with thirty-eight - exceptionally fine snapshots, and is of commanding interest, - whether read as a mere piece of adventure or as revelation of an - almost unknown tract of religious belief.”--_Christian Advocate._ - - “The story is written with a graphic and eloquent pen.”--_The - Congregationalist._ - - -THE MACMILLAN COMPANY -Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INSIDE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Inside the Russian Revolution</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Rheta Louise Childe Dorr</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 24, 2021 [eBook #66371]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INSIDE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ***</div> - -<div class="mynote"><p class="center">Transcriber’s Note:<br /><br /> -Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.<br /></p></div> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/front.jpg" alt="front" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<h1>INSIDE THE RUSSIAN <br />REVOLUTION</h1> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/logo.jpg" alt="logo" /></div> - -<p class="center">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO<br /> -DALLAS · ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO<br /> -<br />MACMILLAN & CO., <span class="smcap">Limited</span><br /> -LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA<br />MELBOURNE<br /> -<br />THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span><br />TORONTO</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><a name="frontis.jpg" id="frontis.jpg"></a><br /><img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="Catherine Breshkovskaia" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Catherine Breshkovskaia, the “Little Grandmother of the -Russian Revolution.”</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="title page" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p class="bold2">INSIDE THE RUSSIAN<br />REVOLUTION</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">BY</p> - -<p class="bold2">RHETA CHILDE DORR</p> - -<p class="bold space-above"><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></p> - -<p class="bold space-above">New York<br />THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />1917<br /><i>All rights reserved</i></p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center">Copyright, 1917,<br />By THE EVENING MAIL<br /> -<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1917,<br />By</span> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> -————<br /> -Set up and Electrotyped. Published November, 1917</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2> - -<table summary="CONTENTS"> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="left"><span class="smaller">CHAPTER</span></td> - <td><span class="smaller">PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>I </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Topsy-Turvy Land</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>II </td> - <td class="left">“<span class="smcap">All the Power to the Soviet</span>”</td> - <td><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>III </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The July Revolution</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>IV </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">An Hour of Hope</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>V </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Committee Mania</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VI </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Woman with the Gun</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VII </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">To the Front with Botchkareva</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VIII </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Camp and Battlefield</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>IX </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Amazons in Training</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>X </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Homing Exiles—Two Kinds</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XI </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">How Rasputin Died</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XII </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Anna Virubova Speaks</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XIII </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">More Leaves in the Current</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XIV </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Passing of the Romanoffs</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XV </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The House of Mary and Martha</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XVI </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Tavarishi Face Famine</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XVII </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">General January, the Conqueror</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XVIII </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">When the Workers Own Their Tools</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XIX </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Why Cotton Cloth Is Scarce</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XX </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Pankhurst in Russia</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XXI </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Kerensky, the Mystery Man</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XXII </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">The Rights of Small Nations</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XXIII </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Will the Germans Take Petrograd?</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XXIV </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">Russia’s Greatest Needs</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_226">226</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>XXV </td> - <td class="left"><span class="smcap">What Next?</span></td> - <td><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> - -<table summary="LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS"> - <tr> - <td class="left">Catherine Breshkovskaia, the “Little Grandmother<br /> -of the Russian Revolution.”</td> - <td><a href="#frontis.jpg"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left"></td> - <td>FACING<br />PAGE</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Typical crowd on the Nevski Prospect during the<br /> -Bolshevik or Maximalist risings</td> - <td><a href="#i022.jpg">22</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Kerensky watching the funeral of victims of the July<br /> -Bolshevik risings</td> - <td><a href="#i042.jpg">42</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Mareea Botchkareva, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and<br /> -Women of “The Battalion of Death.”</td> - <td><a href="#i052.jpg">52</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Prince Felix Yussupoff, at whose palace on the<br /> -Moika Canal Rasputin was killed, and his wife,<br /> -the Grand Duchess Irene Alexandrovna, niece of<br /> -the late Czar</td> - <td><a href="#i092.jpg">92</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Gregory Rasputin and some of his female devotees</td> - <td><a href="#i108.jpg">108</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">Alexander Feodorovitch Kerensky</td> - <td><a href="#i142.jpg">142</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">The Grand Duchess Elizabeta Feodorovna, sister of<br /> -the late Czarina, and widow of the Grand Duke<br /> -Serge, who was assassinated during the Revolution<br /> -of 1905, now Abbess of the House of Mary and<br /> -Martha at Moscow</td> - <td><a href="#i150.jpg">150</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">INSIDE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION</p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER I</span> <span class="smaller">TOPSY-TURVY LAND</span></h2> - -<p>Early in May, 1917, I went to Russia, eager to see again, in the hour -of her deliverance, a country in whose struggle for freedom I had, for -a dozen years, been deeply interested. I went to Russia a socialist -by conviction, an ardent sympathizer with revolution, having known -personally some of the brave men and women who suffered imprisonment -and exile after the failure of the uprising in 1905-6. I returned from -Russia with the very clear conviction that the world will have to wait -awhile before it can establish any coöperative millenniums, or before -it can safely hand over the work of government to the man in the street.</p> - -<p>All my life I have been an admiring student of the French revolution, -and I have fervently wished that I might have lived in the Paris of -that time, to witness, even as a humble spectator, the downfall of -autocracy and the birth of a people’s liberty. Well—I lived for three -months in the capital of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>revolutionary Russia. I saw a revolution -which presents close parallels with the French revolution both in men -and events. I saw the downfall of autocracy and the birth of liberty -much greater than the French ever aspired to. I saw the fondest dream -of the socialists suddenly come true, and the dream turned out to be a -nightmare such as I pray that this or any country may forever be spared.</p> - -<p>I saw a people delivered from one class tyranny deliberately hasten -to establish another, quite as brutal and as unmindful of the common -good as the old one. I saw these people, led out of groaning bondage, -use their first liberty to oust the wise and courageous statesmen who -had delivered them. I saw a working class which had been oppressed -under czardom itself turn oppressor; an army that had been starved and -betrayed use its freedom to starve and betray its own people. I saw -elected delegates to the people’s councils turn into sneak thieves and -looters. I saw law and order and decency and all regard for human life -or human rights set aside, and I saw responsible statesmen in power -allow all this to go on, allow their country to rush toward an abyss of -ruin and shame because they were afraid to lose popularity with the mob.</p> - -<p>The government was so afraid of losing the support of the mob that -it permitted the country to be overrun by German agents posing -as socialists. These agents spent fortunes in the separate peace -propaganda alone. They demoralized the army, corrupted the workers in -field and factories, and put machine guns in the hands of fanatical -dreamers, sending them out into the streets<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> to murder their own -friends and neighbors. Every one knew who these men were, but the mob -liked their “line of talk” and the government was afraid to touch them. -After one of the last occasions when, at their behest, the Bolsheviki -went out and shot up Petrograd, Lenine, the arch leader, and some of -his principal gangsters deemed it the part of discretion to retire -from Russia temporarily, and they got to Sweden without the slightest -difficulty, no attempt having been made to stop them. Some of the minor -employees of the Kaiser were arrested, among them a woman in whose name -the bank account appeared to be. But she too, and probably all the -others, were later released.</p> - -<p>A government like this could not bring peace and order into a -distracted nation. It could not establish a democracy. It could not -govern. The sooner the allied countries realize this the better it will -be for Russia and for the world that wants peace. It is not because I -am unfriendly to Russia that I write thus. It is because I am friendly, -because I have faith in the future of the Russian people, because I -believe that their experiment in popular government, if it succeeds, -will be as inspiring to the rest of the world as our own was in the -eighteenth century. I think the most unkind thing any friend of Russia -can do is to minimize or conceal the facts about the terrible upheaval -going on there at the present time. Russia looks to the American people -for help in her troubled hour, and if the American people are to help -they will have to understand the situation. No discouragement to the -allies, no assistance to the common enemy need result from a plain -statement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> of the facts. The enemy knows all the facts already.</p> - -<p>Everything I saw in Russia, in the cities and near the front, convinced -me that what is going on there vitally concerns us. Every man, -woman and child in the United States must get to work to give the -help so sorely needed by the allies. Whatever has failed in Russia, -whatever has broken down must never be missed. We must supply these -deficiencies. Our business now is to understand, and to hurry, hurry, -hurry with our task of getting trained and seasoned men into France. -After what I saw in the neighborhood of Vilna, Dvinsk and Jacobstadt, -I know what haste on this side means to the world. There are several -reasons why the whole truth has not before been written about the -Russian revolution. It could not be written or cabled from Russia. -It could not be carried out in the form of notes or photographs. It -could not even be discovered by the average person who goes to Russia, -because the average visitor lives at the expensive Hotel d’Europe, -never goes out except in a droshky, and meets only Russians of social -position to whom he has letters of introduction, and who naturally -try to give him the impression that the troubled state of affairs is -merely temporary. The visitor usually knows no Russian and cannot read -the newspapers. There are two good French newspapers published in -Petrograd, but the average American traveler is as ignorant of French -as of Russian. Even if he could read all the daily papers, however, he -would not get very much information. The press censorship is as rigid -and as tyrannical to-day as in the heyday of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> the autocracy, only a -different kind of news is suppressed. One of the modest demands put -forth by the Tavarishi (comrades) when I was in Petrograd was for a -requisition of all the white print paper in the market, the paper to be -distributed equally among all newspapers, large and small. The object, -candidly stated, was to diminish the size and the circulation of the -“bourgeois” papers.</p> - -<p>A great deal of news, as we regard news, never gets into the papers at -all, or is compressed into very small space. For example there have -been a number of terrible railroad accidents on the Russian roads. Most -of these one never heard of unless some one he knew happened to be -killed or injured. Sometimes a bare announcement of a great fatality -was permitted. Thus an express train between Moscow and Petrograd was -wrecked, forty persons being killed and more than seventy injured. This -wreck got a whole paragraph in the newspapers, with no list of the -dead and injured and no explanation of the cause. The fact is that the -railroads are in a condition of complete demoralization and the only -wonder is that more wrecks do not occur.</p> - -<p>An acquaintance of mine in Moscow, the wife of a colonel in the British -army, was anxious to go to Petrograd to meet her husband who was -expected there on his way from the front. My friend’s father, who is -the managing head of a large Moscow business concern, tried to prevail -on her to wait for her husband to reach her there, but she was anxious -to see him at the earliest moment and insisted on her tickets being -purchased. The day after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> she was to have gone her father called on me -and told me of his intense relief at receiving, an hour before train -time, a telegram from the colonel saying that he would be in Moscow the -next morning.</p> - -<p>“And what do you think happened to that train my daughter was to have -taken?” he asked. It was the regular night express to Petrograd, -corresponding somewhat to the Congressional Limited between New York -and Washington. A few miles out of Moscow a difference arose between -the engineer and the stoker, and in order to settle it they stopped the -train and had a fight. One of the men hit the other on the head with a -monkey wrench, injuring him pretty badly. Authority of some kind stepped -in and arrested the assailant. The engineer’s cab was blood-stained, -and some authority unhitched the engine and sent it back to Moscow as -evidence. The train all this time, with its hundreds of passengers, -stood on the tracks waiting for a new engine and crew, and if it was -not run into and wrecked it was because it was lucky.</p> - -<p>About the middle of August an American correspondent traveled on that -same express train from Petrograd to Moscow. The night was warm, and -as the Russian occupants of his carriage had the usual constitutional -objection to raised windows, he insisted on leaving the door of the -compartment open. In the middle of the night a band of soldiers boarded -the train and went into every one of the unlocked compartments, five in -all, neatly and silently looting them of all bags and suitcases. The -American correspondent lost everything he possessed—extra clothes, -money, passport, papers. There was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> a Russian staff officer in that -compartment and he lost even the clothes he traveled in, and was -obliged to descend in his pajamas. The conductor of the train admitted -that he saw the robbery committed, that he raised no hand to prevent -it, nor even pressed the signal which would have stopped the train. -“They would have killed me,” he pleaded in extenuation. “Besides, it -happens almost every night on a small or large scale.”</p> - -<p>There is only one way of getting at the facts of the Russian situation, -and that is by living as the Russians do, associating with Russians, -hearing their stories day by day of the tragedy of what has been called -the bloodless revolution. This I did, as nearly as it was possible, -from the end of May until the 30th of August, in Petrograd, Moscow and -behind one of the fighting fronts. In Petrograd I lived in the Hotel -Militaire, formerly the Astoria, the headquarters of Russian officers -and of the numerous English, French and Roumanian officers on missions -in Russia. This was the hotel where the bitterest fighting took place -during the revolutionary days of February, 1917. The outside of the -building is literally riddled with bullets, every window had to be -replaced, and the work of renovating the interior was still going on -when I left. Under the window in my bedroom was a pool of dried blood -as big as a saucer, and the carpet was stained with drops leading from -the window to the stationary washbowl in the alcove dressing room. Over -the bed were two bullet holes.</p> - -<p>Since the revolution the Hotel Militaire has been a garrison, soldiers -sleeping in several rooms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> on the ground floor and two sentinels -standing day and night at the door and at the gateway leading into -the service court. I do not know why, when I asked for a room, the -manager gave it to me. Two other women writers had rooms there, but -one was in a party which included American officers, and the other -was introduced by an English officer attached to the British embassy. -However, I took the room and was grateful, because whatever happened in -Petrograd was quickly known in the hotel. Also, it faced the square on -which was located the Marie Palace, where the provisional government -held many of its meetings, and where several important congresses were -held. Whenever the Bolsheviki broke loose this square always saw some -fighting. It was an excellent place for a correspondent to live.</p> - -<p>I spent much of my time in the streets, listening, with the aid of -an interpreter, a young university girl, to the speeches which were -continually being made up and down the Nevski Prospect, the Litainy and -other principal streets. I talked, through my interpreter, with people -who sat beside me on park benches, in trams, railroad trains and other -public places. I met all the Russians I could, people of every walk of -life, of every political faith. I spent days in factories. I talked -with workers and with employers. I even met and talked with adherents -of the old régime. I talked for nearly an hour with the last Romanoff -left in freedom, the Grand Duchess Serge, sister of the former empress, -widow of the emperor’s uncle. I went, late at night, to a palace on the -Grand Morskaia where in strictest <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>retirement lives the woman who has -been charged with being the closest friend and ally of Rasputin, the -one who, at his orders, is alleged to have administered poison to the -young Czarevitch. I traveled in a troop train two days and nights with -a regiment of fighting women—the Botchkareva “Battalion of Death”—and -I lived with them in their barrack behind the fighting lines for nine -days. I stayed with them until they went into action, I saw them -afterward in the hospitals and heard their own stories of the battle -into which they led thousands of reluctant men. I talked with many -soldiers and officers.</p> - -<p>Russia is sick. She is gorged on something she has never known -before—freedom: she is sick almost to die with excesses, and the -leadership which would bring the panacea is violently thrown aside -because suspicion of any authority has bred the worst kind of license. -Russia is insane; she is not even morally responsible for what she is -doing. Will she recover? Yes. But, God! what pain must she bear before -she gets real freedom!</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER II</span> <span class="smaller">“ALL THE POWER TO THE SOVIET”</span></h2> - -<p>About the first thing I saw on the morning of my arrival in Petrograd -last spring was a group of young men, about twenty in number, I should -think, marching through the street in front of my hotel, carrying a -scarlet banner with an inscription in large white letters.</p> - -<p>“What does that banner say?” I asked the hotel commissionaire who stood -beside me.</p> - -<p>“It says ‘All the Power to the Soviet,’” was the answer.</p> - -<p>“What is the soviet?” I asked, and he replied briefly:</p> - -<p>“It is the only government we have in Russia now.”</p> - -<p>And he was right. The soviets, or councils of soldiers’ and workmen’s -delegates, which have spread like wildfire throughout the country, are -the nearest thing to a government that Russia has known since the very -early days of the revolution.</p> - -<p>The most striking parallel between the French and the Russian -revolutions lies in the facility with which both were snatched away -from the sane and intelligent men who began them and placed in the -hands of fanatics, who turned them into mad orgies of blood and terror. -The first French revolutionists rebelled against the theory of the -divine right of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> kings to govern or misgovern the people. They wanted -a constitution and a government by consent of the governed. But the -mob came in and took possession of the situation, and the result -was the guillotine and the reign of terror. Miliukoff, Rodzianko, -Lvoff, and their associates in the Russian Duma, rebelled against a -stupid, cruel autocrat who was doing his best to lose the war and to -bring the country to ruin and dishonor. They wanted a constitution -for Russia, and, for the time being at least, a figurehead king who -would leave government in the hands of responsible ministers. But the -Petrograd council of soldiers’ and workmen’s delegates came in and -took possession of the situation, and the result is a country torn -with anarchy, brought to the verge of bankruptcy, and ready, unless -something happens between now and next spring, to fall into the hands -of the Germans.</p> - -<p>These councils of workmen are not new. In the upheaval of 1905-06 a man -named Khrustaliov, a labor leader, became the head of an organization -called the Petrograd Council of Workmen’s Deputies. It was made up of -elected delegates from all the principal factories in and near the -capital, and during the general strike which forced Nicholas to convene -the first Duma, the council assumed general control of the whole -labor situation, managing matters with rare good sense and firmness. -Witte, who became premier in those days, negotiated with Khrustaliov -as with an equal. For a time he and his council were a real power -in the empire. A dozen cities formed similar organizations. There -were councils of workmen’s deputies, peasants’ deputies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> even, in -some places, of soldiers’ deputies. The reaction which came in July, -1906, swept them all into oblivion, and I never found anybody who -knew what became of Khrustaliov. But the tradition of the council of -workmen’s deputies was unforgotten. Perhaps the council even existed -still in secret; I do not know. It was quickly revived in March, 1917, -and before the political revolution was fairly accomplished it had -added soldiers to its title and had curtly informed the provisional -government and the Duma that no laws could be made or enforced -without first having received the approval of the working people’s -representatives. No policy in peace or war could be announced or put -into practice; no orders could be given the army; no treaties concluded -with the allies; in short, nothing could be done without first -consulting the 1,500 men and women—five women—who made up the Council -of Workmen´s and Soldiers’ Delegates.</p> - -<p>If the country had been in a condition of peace instead of war this -would not have been at all a bad thing. The working people of Russia, -under the electoral system devised by the old régime, had very little -representation in the Duma, and they had a perfect right to demand a -voice in the organization of the new government. But unfortunately -the country was at war; and more unfortunately still, the Council -of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates was made up in large part of -extreme radicals to whom the war was a matter of entire indifference. -The revolution to them meant an opportunity to put into practice new -economic theories, the socialistic state. They conceived the vast dream -of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>establishing a new order of society, not only for Russia but for -the whole world. They were going to dictate terms of peace, and call -on the working people of every country to join them in enforcing that -peace. After that they were going to do away with all capitalists, -bankers, investors, property owners. Armies and navies were to be -scrapped. I don’t know what they purposed doing with the constitution -of the United States, but “capitalistic” America was to be made over -with the rest of the world.</p> - -<p>Many members of this council are well-meaning theorists, dreamers, -exactly like thousands in this country who read no books or newspapers -except those written by their own kind, who “express themselves” by -wearing red ties and long hair, and who exist in a cloudy world of -their own. These people are honest and they are capable of being -reasoned with. In Russia they are known as Minsheviki, meaning small -claims. A noisy and troublesome and growing minority in the council -are called Bolsheviki (big claims), because they demand everything -and will not even consider compromise. They want a separate peace, -entirely favorable to Germany. I talked to a number of these men, but -I could never get one of them to explain the reason of this friendship -for Germany. Vaguely they seemed to feel that socialism was a German -doctrine and, therefore, as soon as Russia put it into practice, the -Germans would follow suit. Not all the council members are working -people. Some have never done a hand’s turn of manual work in their -lives. Many of the soldier members have never seen service and never -will. The Jewish membership is very large, and in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> Russia the Jews have -never been allowed any practice of citizenship.</p> - -<p>Lastly the council is liberally sprinkled with German spies and agents. -Every once in a while one of these men is unmasked and put out. But -it is more than likely that his place is quickly filled. It is a most -difficult thing to convince the council that any “Tavarish,” which -is the Russian word for comrade, can be guilty of double dealing. -The council defended Lenine up to the last moment. Even after he -fled the country the Socialist newspapers, <i>Isvestia</i>, <i>Pravda</i>, and -Maxim Gorki’s <i>Nova Jisn</i>, declared him to be the victim of an odious -calumny. It was this Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates that -first claimed a consultive position in the government, and within a few -months was parading the streets with banners demanding “All the Power -to the Soviet.”</p> - -<p>I cannot say that I unreservedly blame them. They were people who had -never known any kind of freedom, they had been poor and oppressed and -afraid of their lives. All of a sudden they were freed. And when they -went in numbers to the Duma and claimed a right to a voice in their own -future, men like Kerensky and others, who are honest dreamers, others -plain demagogues and office seekers, came out and lauded them to the -skies, told them that the world was theirs, that they alone had brought -about the revolution and therefore had a right to take possession of -the country. The effect of this on soldiers and on the working people -was immediate and disastrous.</p> - -<p>If Kerensky was not the author of the famous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> Order No. 1, which -was the cause of most of the riot and bloodshed in the army, he at -least signed it and defended it. This order provided for regimental -government by committees, the election of officers by the soldiers, -the doing away with all saluting of superiors by enlisted men and the -abolition of the title “your nobility,” which was the form of address -used to officers. In place of this form the soldiers were henceforth to -address their officers as Gospodeen (meaning mister), captain, colonel, -general, as the case might be. Order No. 1 was a plain license to -disband the Russian army. Abolishing the custom of saluting may seem -a small thing. A member of the Root mission expressed himself thus to -me soon after his arrival in Petrograd: “This talk of anarchy is all -nonsense,” he said. “A lot of peacock officers are sore because the men -don’t salute them any more. Why should the men salute?”</p> - -<p>Perhaps I don’t know why they should, but I know that when they don’t -they speedily lose all their soldierly bearing and slouch like tired -subway diggers. They throw courtesy, kindness, consideration to the -winds. The soldiers of other countries look on them with disgust and -horror. At Tornea, the port of entry into Finland, I got my first -glimpse of this “free” Russian soldier. He was handing some papers -to a trim British Tommy, who was straight as an arrow, clean cut and -soldierly. The Russian slouched up to him, stuck out the papers in a -dirty paw and blew a mouthful of cigarette smoke in his face. What -the Tommy said to him was in English, and I am afraid was lost on -the Russian, who walked off looking quite pleased with himself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> In -Petrograd I saw two of these “free” soldiers address, without even -touching their caps, a French officer who spoke their language. The -conversation was repeated to me thus: “Is it true that in your country, -which calls itself a democracy, the soldiers have to stand in the -presence of officers? Is it true that they——” The interrogation -proceeded no further, for the Frenchman replied quickly: “In the -first place French soldiers do not walk up to an officer and begin -a conversation uninvited, so I find it impossible to answer your -questions.”</p> - -<p>If he had been a Russian officer he would probably have been murdered -on the spot. The death penalty having been abolished, and the police -force having been reduced to an absurdity, murder has been made a safe -and pleasant diversion. Murder of officers is so common that it is -seldom even reported in the newspapers. When the truth is finally and -officially published, if it ever is, it will be found that the brutal -and horrible butchery of officers exceeds anything the outside world -has ever imagined. I met a woman whose daughter went insane after her -husband was killed in the fortress of Kronstadt, the port of Petrograd. -He with a number of officers was imprisoned there, and some of the -women went to the commander and begged permission to see and speak to -their men. He grinned at them, and said: “They are just finishing their -dinner. In a few minutes you may see them.” Shortly afterwards they -were summoned to a room where the men sat around a table. They were -tied in their chairs, and were all dead, with evidences of having been -tortured.</p> - -<p>In the beginning of the revolution the soldiers of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> Kronstadt killed -the old officer commandant. They began by gouging out his eyes. When he -was quite finished they brought in the second officer in command and -his young son, a lieutenant in the navy. “Will you join us, embrace -the glorious revolution, or shall we kill you?” they demanded. “My -duty is to command this garrison,” replied the officer. “If you are -going to kill me do it at once.” They shot him, and threw his corpse -on a pile of others in a ditch. The son they spared, and a few nights -later the young man rescued his father’s body and brought it home to be -buried. This story was related under oath by him, but in the face of it -and hundreds more like it the death penalty was abolished; nor would -Kerensky consent to restore it, except for desertion at the front.</p> - -<p>At the Moscow congress, held in August, Kerensky said, apologizing for -even this small concession: “As minister of justice I did away with the -death penalty. As president of the provisional government I have asked -for its reinstatement in case of desertion under fire.” There was a -burst of applause, and Kerensky exclaimed: “Do not applaud. Don’t you -realize that we lose part of our souls when we consent to the death -penalty? But if it is necessary to lose our souls to save Russia we -must make the sacrifice.”</p> - -<p>Petrograd and Moscow are literally running over with idle soldiers, -many of whom have never done any fighting, and who loudly declare that -they never intend to do any. They are supported by the government, wear -the army uniform, claim all the privileges of the soldier and live -in complete and blissful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> idleness. The street cars are crowded with -soldiers, who of course pay no fares. It is impossible for a woman to -get a seat in a car. She is lucky if the soldiers permit her to stand -in the aisle or on a platform. “Get off and walk, you boorzhoi,” said -a soldier to my interpreter one day when she was hastening to keep an -appointment with me. She got off and walked. I heard but one person -dispute with a soldier. She was a street car conductor, one of the many -women who have taken men’s places since the war. She turned on a car -full of these idlers riding free and littering the floor with sunflower -seeds, which they eat as Americans eat peanuts, and told them exactly -what she thought of them. It must have been extremely unflattering, for -the other passengers looked joyful and only one soldier ventured any -reply. “Now, comrade,” said he, “you must not be hard on wounded men.”</p> - -<p>“Wounded men!” exclaimed the woman. “If you ever get a wound it will -be in the mouth from a broken bottle.” There was a burst of laughter, -in which even the soldiers joined. But after it subsided one of the -men said defiantly: “Just the same, comrades, it was we who sent the -Czar packing.” This opinion is shared by the Council of Workmen’s and -Soldiers’ Delegates. They have completely forgotten that the Duma had -anything to do with the revolution. At their national congress of -Soviets held in July, they solemnly debated whether or not they would -permit the Duma to meet again, and it was a very small majority that -decided in favor. But only on condition that the national body worked -under the direction of the councils.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER III</span> <span class="smaller">THE JULY REVOLUTION</span></h2> - -<p>Every one who has read the old “Arabian Nights” will remember the -story of the fisherman who caught a black bottle in one of his nets. -When the bottle was uncorked a thin smoke began to curl out of the -neck. The smoke thickened into a dense cloud and became a huge genie -who made a slave of the fisherman. By the exercise of his wits the -fisherman finally succeeded in getting the genie back into the bottle, -which he carefully corked and threw back into the sea. Kerensky tried -desperately to get the genie back into the bottle, and every one hoped -he might succeed. Up to date, however, there is little to indicate that -the giant has even begun materially to shrink. Petrograd is not the -only city where the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates has -assumed control of the destinies of the Russian people. Every town has -its council, and there is no question, civil or military, which they do -not feel capable of settling.</p> - -<p>I have before me a Petrograd newspaper clipping dated June 12. It is -a dispatch from the city of Minsk, and states that the local soviet -had debated the whole question of the resumption of the offensive, the -Bolsheviki claiming that the question was general and that it ought -to be left for the men at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> the front to decide. They themselves were -against an offensive, deeming it contrary to the interests of the -international movement and profitable only to capitalists, foreign as -well as Russian. Workers of all countries ought to struggle against -their governments and to break with all imperialist politics. The -army ought to be made more democratic. This view prevailed, says the -dispatch, by a vote of 123 against 79.</p> - -<p>This is typical. In some cities the extreme socialists are in the -majority, in others the milder Minsheviki prevail. In Petrograd it -has been a sort of neck and neck between them, with the Minsheviki -in greater number. But as the seat of government Petrograd has had a -great attraction for the German agents, and they are all Bolsheviki -and very energetic. Early in the revolution they established two -headquarters, one in the palace of Mme. Kchessinskaia, a dancer, high -in favor with some of the grand dukes, and another on the Viborg side, -a manufacturing quarter of the city. Here in a big rifle factory and a -few miles down the Neva in Kronstadt, they kept a stock of firearms, -rifles and machine guns big enough to equip an army division.</p> - -<p>The leader of this faction, which was opposed to war against Germany -but quite willing to shoot down unarmed citizens, was the notorious -Lenine, a proved German agent whose power over the working people -was supreme until the uprisings in July, which were put down by -the Cossacks. Lenine was at the height of his glory when the Root -Commission visited Russia, and the provisional government was so -terrorized by him that it hardly dared recognize<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> the envoys from -“capitalistic America.” Only two members of the mission were ever -permitted to appear before the soviet or council. They were Charles -Edward Russell and James Duncan, one a socialist and the other a labor -representative. Both men made good speeches, but not a line of them, -as far as I could discover, ever appeared in a socialist newspaper. In -fact, the visit of the commission was ignored by the radical press, the -only press which reaches 75 per cent of the Russian people.</p> - -<p>In order to make perfectly clear the situation as it existed during the -spring and summer, and as it exists to-day, I am going to describe two -events which I witnessed last July. Both of these were attempts of the -extreme socialists to bring about a separate peace with Germany, and -had they succeeded in their plans would have done so. Moreover, they -might easily have resulted in the dismemberment of Russia.</p> - -<p>The 18th of June, Russian style, July 1 in our calendar, is a day -that stands out vividly in my memory. For some time the Lenine -element of the Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Council had planned to get up -a demonstration against the non-socialist members of the provisional -government and against the further progress of the war. The Minshevik -element of the council, backed by the government, spoiled the plan -by voting for a non-political demonstration in which all could take -part, and which should be a memorial for the men and women killed in -the February revolution, and buried in the Field of Mars, a great open -square once used for military reviews. As the plan was finally adopted -it provided that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> every one who wanted to might march in this parade, -and no one was to carry arms. Great was the wrath of the Lenineites, -but the peaceful demonstration came off, and it must have given the -government its first thrill of encouragement, for events that day -proved that the Bolsheviki or Lenine followers were cowards at heart -and could be handled by any firm and fearless authority.</p> - -<p>It was a beautiful Sunday morning, this eighteenth of June, when I -walked up the Nevski Prospect, the Fifth avenue of Petrograd, watching -the endless procession that filled the street. Two-thirds of the -marchers were men, mostly soldiers, but women were present also, and -a good many children. Red flags and red banners were plentiful, the -Bolshevik banners reading “Down with the Ten Capitalistic Ministers,” -“Down with the War,” “Down with the Duma,” “All the Power to the -Soviets,” and presenting a very belligerent appearance.</p> - -<p>With me that day was another woman writer, Miss Beatty of the San -Francisco <i>Bulletin</i>, and as we walked along we agreed that almost -anything could happen, and that we ought not to allow ourselves to get -into a crowd. For once the journalistic passion for seeing the whole -thing must give place to a decent regard for safety. We had just agreed -that if shooting began we would duck into the nearest court or doorway, -when something did happen—something so sudden that its very character -could not be defined. If it was a shot, as some claimed, we did not -hear it. All we heard was a noise something like a sudden wind. That -great crowd marching along the broad Nevski simply exploded. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> is -no other word to express the panic that turned it without any warning -into a fleeing, fighting, struggling, terror-stricken mob. The people -rushed in every direction, knocking down everything in their track. -Miss Beatty went down like a log, but she was up again in a flash, and -we flung ourselves against a high iron railing guarding a shop window. -Directly beside us lay a soldier who had had his head cut open by the -glass sign against which he was thrown. Many others were injured.</p> - -<div class="center"><a name="i022.jpg" id="i022.jpg"></a><br /><img src="images/i022.jpg" alt="Typical crowd on the Nevski Prospect" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Typical crowd on the Nevski Prospect during the -Bolshevik or Maximalist risings.</p> - -<p>Fortunately the panic was shortlived. It lasted hardly five minutes, as -a matter of fact. All around the cry rose that nothing was the matter, -that the Cossacks were not coming. The Cossacks, once the terror of the -Russian people, in this upheaval have become the strongest supporters -of the government. Nothing could better demonstrate the anti-government -intention of the Bolsheviki than their present fear and hatred of the -Cossacks. So the “Tavarishi” took up their battered banners and resumed -their march. No one ever found out what started the panic. Some said -that a shot was fired from a window on one of the banners. Others said -that the shot was merely a tire blowing out. Some were certain that -they heard a cry of “Cossacks,” and some cynics suggested that the -pick-pockets, a numerous and enterprising class just now, started the -panic in the interests of business. This was the only disturbance I -witnessed. The newspapers reported two more in the course of the day. A -young girl watching the procession from the sidewalk suddenly decided -to commit suicide, and the shot she sent through her heart precipitated -another panic. Still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> a third one occurred when two men got into a -fight and one of them drew a knife.</p> - -<p>The instant flight of the crowds and especially of the soldiers must -have given Kerensky hope that the giant could be got back into the -bottle, especially since on that very day, June 18, Russian style, the -army on one of the fronts advanced and fought a victorious engagement. -The town went mad with joy over that victory, showing, I think, that -the heart of the Russian people is still intensely loyal to the allies, -and deadly sick of the fantastic program of the extreme socialists. -Crowds surged up and down the street bearing banners, flags, pictures -of Kerensky. They thronged before the Marie Palace, where members of -the government, officers, soldiers, sailors made long and rapturous -speeches, full of patriotism. They sang, they shouted, all day and -nearly all night. When they were not shouting “Long live Kerensky!” -they were saying “This is the last of the Lenineites.” But it wasn’t. -The Bolsheviki simply retired to their dancer’s palace, their Viborg -retreats and their Kronstadt stronghold, and made another plan.</p> - -<p>On Monday night, July 2, or in our calendar July 15, broke out what -is known as the July revolution, the last bloody demonstration of the -Bolsheviki. I had been absent from town for two weeks and returned to -Petrograd early in the morning after the demonstration began. I stepped -out of the Nicholai station and looked around for a droshky. Not one -was in sight. No street cars were running. The town looked deserted. -Silence reigned, a queer, sinister kind of a silence. “What in the -world has <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>happened?” I asked myself. A droshky appeared and I hailed -it. When the izvostchik mentioned his price for driving me to my hotel -I gasped, but I was two miles from home and there were no trams. So I -accepted and we made the journey. Few people were abroad, and when I -reached the hotel I found the entrance blocked with soldiers. The man -behind the desk looked aghast to see me walk in, and he hastened to -tell me that the Bolsheviki were making trouble again and all citizens -had been requested to stay indoors until it was over.</p> - -<p>I stayed indoors long enough to bathe and change, and then, as -everything seemed quiet, I went out. Confidence was returning and the -streets looked almost normal again. I walked down the Morskaia, finding -the main telephone exchange so closely guarded that no one was even -allowed to walk on the sidewalk below it. That telephone exchange had -been fiercely attacked during the February revolution, and it was one -of the most hotly disputed strategic positions in the capital. Later -I am going to tell something of the part played in the revolution by -the loyal telephone girls of Petrograd. A big armored car was plainly -to be seen in the courtyard of the building, and many soldiers were -there alert and ready. I stopped in at the big bookshop where English -newspapers (a month old) were to be purchased, and bought one. The -<i>Journal de Petrograd</i>, the French morning paper, I found had not been -issued that day. Then I strolled down the Nevski. I had not gone far -when I heard rifle shooting and then the sound, not to be mistaken, -of machine gun fire. People turned in their tracks and bolted for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> -the side streets. I bolted too, and made a record dash for the Hotel -d’Europe. The firing went on for about an hour, and when I ventured -out again it was to see huge gray motor trucks laden with armed men, -rushing up and down the streets, guns bristling from all sides and -machine guns fore and aft.</p> - -<p>What had happened was this. The “Red Guard,” an armed band of workmen -allied with the Bolsheviki, together with all the extremists who could -be rallied by Lenine, and these included some very young boys, had been -given arms and told to “go out in the streets.” This is a phrase that -usually means go out and kill everything in sight. In this case the -men were assured that the Kronstadt regiments would join them, that -cruisers would come up the river and the whole government would be -delivered into the hands of the Bolsheviki. The Kronstadt men did come -in sufficient numbers to surround and hold for two days the Tauride -Palace, where the Duma meets and the provisional government had its -headquarters. The only reason why the bloodshed was not greater was -that the soldiers in the various garrisons around the city refused to -come out and fight. The sane members of the Soviet had begged them -to remain in their casernes, and they obeyed. All day Tuesday and -Wednesday the armed motor cars of the Bolsheviki dashed from barrack -to barrack daring the soldiers to come out, and whenever they found a -group of soldiers to fire on, they fired. Most of these loyal soldiers -are Cossacks, and they are hated by the Bolsheviki.</p> - -<p>Tuesday night there was some real fighting, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> the Cossacks went to -the Tauride Palace and freed the besieged ministers at the cost of the -lives of a dozen or more men. Then the Cossacks started out to capture -the Bolshevik armored cars. When they first went out it was with -rifles only, which are mere toy pistols against machine guns. After -one little skirmish I counted seventeen dead Cossack horses, and there -were more farther down the street. As soon as the Cossacks were given -proper arms they captured the armored trucks without much trouble. The -Bolsheviki threw away their guns and fled like rabbits for their holes. -Nevertheless a condition of warfare was maintained for the better part -of a week, and the final burst of Bolshevik activity gave Petrograd, -already sick of bloodshed, one more night of terror. That night I shall -not soon forget.</p> - -<p>The day had been quiet and we thought the trouble was over. I went to -bed at half-past ten and was in my first sleep when a fusilade broke -out, as it seemed, almost under my window. I sat up in bed, and within -a few minutes, the machine guns had begun their infernal noise, like -rattlesnakes in the prairie grass. I flung on a dressing gown and ran -down the hall to a friend’s room. She dressed quickly and we went down -stairs to the room of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the English suffragette, -which gave a better view of the square than our own. There until nearly -morning we sat without any lights, of course, listening to repeated -bursts of firing, and the wicked <i>put-put-put-put</i> of the machine -guns, watching from behind window draperies, the brilliant headlights -of armored motors rushing into action, hearing the quick feet of men -and horses <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>hastening from their barracks. We did not go out. All a -correspondent can do in the midst of a fight is to lie down on the -ground and make himself as flat as possible, unless he can get into a -shop where he hides under a table or a bench. That never seemed worth -while to me, and I have no tales to tell of prowess under fire.</p> - -<p>I listened to that night battle from the safety of the hotel, going -the next day to see the damage done by the guns. A contingent of -mutinous soldiers and sailors from Kronstadt, which had been expected -for several days by the Lenineites, had come up late, still spoiling -for a fight; had planted guns on the street in front of the Bourse and -at the head of the Palace Bridge across the Neva, and simply mowed -down as many people as were abroad at the hour. Nobody knows, except -the authorities, how many were killed, but when we awoke the next day -we discovered that, for a time at least, the power of the Bolsheviki -had been broken. The next day the mutinous regiments were disbanded in -disgrace. Petrograd was put under martial law, the streets were guarded -with armored cars, thousands of Cossacks were brought in to police the -place, and orders for the arrest of Lenine and his lieutenants were -issued. But it was openly boasted by the Bolsheviki that the government -was afraid to touch Lenine, and certain it is that he escaped into -Sweden, and possibly from there into Germany.</p> - -<p>I should not like to believe that the government actually connived at -his escape, since there was always the menace of his return, and the -absolute certainty that he would remain an outsider directing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> force -in the Bolshevik campaign. It is more probable that in the confusion -of those days of fighting he was smuggled down the Neva in a small -yacht or motor boat to the fortress of Kronstadt, and from there was -conveyed across the mine strewn Baltic into Sweden. Rumor had it that -he had been seen well on his way to Germany, but it is more likely -that his employers kept him nearer the scene of his activities. He was -guilty of more successful intrigue, more murder and violent death than -most of the Kaiser’s faithful, and deserves an extra size iron cross, -if there is such a thing. In spite of all that he has done he has -thousands of adherents still in Russia, people who believe that he is -“sincere but misguided,” to use an overworked phrase. The rest of the -fighting mob were driven from their palace, which they had previously -looted and robbed of about twenty thousand dollars’ worth of costly -furniture, china, silver and art objects. They were hunted out of their -rifle factory, and finally surrendered to the government after they -had captured, but failed to hold the fortress of Peter and Paul. They -surrendered but were they arrested and punished? Not a bit of it. They -were allowed to go scot free, only being required to give up their -arms. The government existed only at the will of the mob, and the mob -would not tolerate the arrest of “Tavarishi.”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER IV</span> <span class="smaller">AN HOUR OF HOPE</span></h2> - -<p>There was an hour when the sunrise of hope seemed to be dawning for the -Russian people, when the madness of the extreme socialists seemed to be -curbed, the army situation in hand, and a real government established. -This happened in late July, and was symbolized in the great public -funeral given eight Cossack soldiers slain by the Bolsheviki in the -July days of riot and bloodshed in Petrograd. I do not know how many -Cossacks were killed. Only eight were publicly buried. It is entirely -possible that the government did not wish the Bolsheviki to know the -full result of their murder feast, and for that reason gave private -burial to some of the dead. The public funeral served as a tribute -to the loyal soldiers, a warning to the extremists that the country -stood back of the war, and a notice to all concerned that the days of -revolution were over and that henceforth the government meant to govern -without the help or interference of the Tavarishi, or comrades in the -socialist ranks. The moment was propitious for the government. The -Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates was in a chastened frame -of mind, caused first by the running amuck of the Bolshevik element, -the unmasking and flight of Lenine, and next by a lost battle on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> -Galician front, and the disgraceful desertion of troops under fire.</p> - -<p>The best elements in the council supported the new coalition ministry, -although it did not have a Socialist majority, and it claimed the right -to work independently of the council. The Cossack funeral was really a -government demonstration, and those of us who saw it believed for the -moment that it marked the beginning of a new era in Russia’s troubled -progress toward democracy and freedom. The services were held in St. -Isaac’s Cathedral, the largest church in Petrograd, and one of the -most magnificent in a country of magnificent churches. The bodies, in -coffins covered with silver cloth, were brought to the cathedral on a -Friday afternoon at 5 o’clock, accompanied by many members of their -regiments and representatives of others. The flower-heaped coffins -surrounded by flaming candles filled the space below the holy gate -leading to the high altar; around them knelt the soldiers and the -weeping women relatives of the dead, while a solemn service for the -repose of their souls was chanted.</p> - -<p>In the Russian church no organ or other instrumental music is -permitted, but the singing is of an order of excellence quite unknown -in other countries. Part of a priest’s education is in music, and the -male choirs are most carefully trained and conducted. They have the -highest tenor and the lowest bass voices in the world in those Russian -church choirs, and there is no effect of the grandest pipe organ which -they cannot produce. They sing nothing but the best music, and their -masses are written for them by the greatest of Russian composers. -Many times<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> I have thrilled to their singing, but at this memorial -service to brave men slain in defense of their country I was fairly -overwhelmed by it. I do not know what they sang, but it was a solemn, -yet triumphant symphony of grief, religious ecstasy, faith and longing. -It soared to a great climax, and it ended in a prolonged phrase sung -so softly that it seemed to come as from a great distance, from Heaven -itself. The whole vast congregation was on its knees, in tears.</p> - -<p>The service in the cathedral next morning was long and elaborate, -and it was early afternoon before the procession started for the -Alexander Nevski monastery where a common grave had been prepared for -the murdered men. Back of the open white hearses walked the bereaved -women and children, bareheaded, in simple peasant black. Thousands -of Cossacks, also bareheaded, many weeping bitterly, followed. The -dead men’s horses were led by soldiers. The Metropolitan of Petrograd -and every other dignitary of the church was in the procession. I saw -Miliukoff, Rodzianko and other celebrities. Women of rank walked side -by side with working women. Many nurses were there in their flowing -white coifs. There were uncounted hundreds of wreaths and floral -offerings. The bands played impressive funeral marches. But there was -not a single red flag in the procession.</p> - -<p>There was, of course, Kerensky, and his appearance was one of the -dramatic events of the day. I watched the procession from a hotel -window, and I saw just as the hearses were passing a large black motor -car winding its way slowly through the crowd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> that thronged the street. -Just as the last hearse passed the door of the car opened and Kerensky -sprang out and took his place in the procession, walking alone hatless -and with bowed head after the coffins. He was dressed in the plain -service uniform of a field officer, and his brown jacket was destitute -of any decorations. The crowd when it saw him went mad with enthusiasm; -forgot for a moment the solemnity of the occasion and rushed forward to -acclaim him. “Kerensky! Kerensky!”</p> - -<p>It was his first appearance as premier, and practically dictator of -Russia, and he would not have been human if he had not felt a thrill -of triumph at this reception. But with a splendid gesture he waved the -crowd to silence, and bade them stand quietly back. At first it seemed -impossible to restrain them, but the people in the front ranks joined -hands and formed a living chain that kept the crowds back, and in a few -moments order was restored. There was something fine and symbolic about -that action, those joined hands that stopped what might have created -a panic and turned the government’s demonstration into a fiasco. That -spontaneous bit of social thinking and acting restored order better -than a police force could have done, and it left in me the conviction -that whenever the Russian people join hands in behalf of their country -they are going to work out a splendid civilization. If they had only -done it after that day! But the new coalition ministry, with President -Kerensky, the popular idol, substituted for Lvoff, who had grown -wearied and dispirited by the struggle, soon found itself facing the -same old sea of troubles that had swamped the former ministries. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> - -<p>The democracy, created largely by Kerensky, in a country which is not -yet ready for self-government, had split up into many anarchistic -groups. It had become a Frankenstein too huge and too crazy with -power to be handled by any man less than a Napoleon Bonaparte, and -Kerensky is not a Bonaparte. Perhaps he had the brain of a Bonaparte, -as he certainly had the charm and magnetism. It may be that he lacked -the iron will or the deathless courage. It may only be that his -frail physical health stood in the way of resolution. Whatever the -explanation, the fact remains that Kerensky never once was able to -take that huge, disorganized, uneducated, restless, yearning Russian -mob by the scruff of the neck and compel it to listen to reason. -Apparently, also, he was unable or unwilling to let any one else do -it, as the mysterious Korniloff incident seems to prove. The story -of the disintegration of the Russian army has been described in many -dispatches. Later I am going to tell what I saw of the Russian army, -and what I know of the demoralization at the front. The state of things -was bad, but it was by no means hopeless, as it is fast becoming. That -Russian army, I confidently believe, could, as late as August, 1917, -have been reorganized, renovated and made into an effective fighting -force. It is very evident that it still has possibilities, because the -Germans still keep an enormous number of troops on the eastern front. -They know that the Russians can fight, and they fear that they will -fight, as soon as they are given a real leader. Military leaders they -do not lack, as the Germans also know. Most of the old commanders, the -worthless, corrupt hangers-on <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>of the old régime, are gone now. Some -are dead, some in prison, some relegated to obscurity. The men who are -left are real soldiers, good fighters, true allies of America, France -and England. Especially is this true of the once feared and hated -Cossack leaders.</p> - -<p>The Cossack regiments to the last man had supported the provisional -government, and were wholeheartedly in favor of fighting the war to a -finish. There are about five million of these Cossacks, and practically -every able-bodied man is a soldier. And what a soldier! Except our own -cowboys, there never were such horsemen. No troops in the world excel -them in bravery and fighting power. They are a proud race and would -never serve under officers save those of their own kind. I asked a -young Cossack at the front where his officers got their training. He -had spent some ten years in Chicago and spoke English like one of our -own men. “We train them in the field,” he said with a smile. “Every one -of us is a potential officer, and when our highest commander drops in -battle, there is always a man to take his place.”</p> - -<p>The Cossack has no head for politics. He agrees on the government he is -going to support and he serves that government with an undivided mind. -When he served the Czar he did the Czar’s bidding. When he decided to -serve the new democracy he could be depended on to do it. He has done -no fraternizing with wily Germans in the trenches. He has listened -to no German propaganda in Petrograd. He wants to fight the war to -a successful end, and then he wants to go back to his home on the -peaceful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> Don river, or in the wild Urals and cultivate his fields and -vineyards.</p> - -<p>Of all Cossack leaders the most picturesque and the most celebrated -as a military genius was Gen. Korniloff. His life and adventures -would fill volumes. He fought his way up from a penniless boyhood -to a successful manhood. He knows Russia from one end to the other, -and speaks almost every dialect known to the empire, and several -foreign languages in addition, especially those of the Orient. He is a -small, wiry man with a beard, and the only time I ever saw him he was -surrounded by a bodyguard of tall Turkestan Cossacks wearing long gray -tunics, huge caps of Persian lamb and a perfectly beautiful collection -of silver-mounted swords, daggers and pistols. In a pictorial sense -Gen. Korniloff was quite obscured by them.</p> - -<p>Following a series of disasters and wholesale desertions at the front, -the late provisional government announced that the chief command of the -army had been given to Gen. Korniloff. The command was accepted with -certain conditions attached to the acceptance. Gen. Korniloff would -not be a commander in any limited or modified sense of the word. He -demanded absolute power and control over all troops, both at the front -and in the rear. He wanted to abolish the committees of soldiers who -administered all regimental affairs, and who even decided what commands -the men might or might not obey. Gen. Korniloff could never tolerate -these bodies. Whenever he visited an army division he asked: “Have your -regiments any committees?” And if the answer was yes, he immediately -gave the order:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> “Dissolve them.” One of the principal demands made by -Gen. Korniloff on the provisional government was the right to inflict -the death penalty on deserters, both in the field and in the rear. I -have written of the thousands of idle soldiers in Petrograd, and of -the expressed refusal of many of them to go to the front when ordered. -There was no secret about this, nor any concealment of the fact that -of many thousands of soldiers sent to the front at various times since -the early spring, about two-thirds deserted on the way. They captured -trains—hospital trains in some instances—turned the passengers out, -left the wounded lying along the tracks, and forced the trainmen to -take them back to Petrograd, or wherever they wanted to go.</p> - -<p>Kerensky had tried every means in his power to stop this shameful -business. He had fixed three separate dates on which all soldiers -must rejoin their regiments and must obey orders to advance. He -had published manifestoes notifying these coward and slackers that -unless they did report for duty they would be declared traitors to -the revolution, their families would be deprived of all army benefits -and they would not be allowed to share in the distribution of land -when the new agrarian policy went into effect. These manifestoes were -absolutely ignored. The desertions continued. Army disintegration -increased. Anarchy pure and simple reigned on all fronts and in the -rear. Soldiers who were willing to fight were afraid to, because there -was every probability of their own comrades shooting them in the back -if they obeyed their officers. The state of mind of the officers can be -imagined <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>perhaps—it cannot be described. Many committed suicide in -the madness of their shame and despair.</p> - -<p>Gen. Korniloff wanted to deal with this horrible situation in the only -possible way, by shooting all deserters. This may sound drastic. No -doubt it will to every copperhead and pro-German in this country. But -remember, for every man who deserts on that Russian front some American -boy will have to suffer. We shall have to fight for the Russians, we -shall have to pay the awful price of their defection. Gen. Korniloff, -a true patriot, knew this, and he wanted to save his country from -that dishonor. Kerensky apparently could not endure the thought of -those firing squads. Or else he did not dare to risk the wrath of the -soviet. There is no doubt that he would have courted great personal -danger, it may be certain death, but what of it? There is no doubt -that Gen. Korniloff, if he saved the situation, would loom larger as -a popular hero than Kerensky, but what of it? The whole country, all -of it that retained its sanity and its patriotism, looked for Gen. -Korniloff to establish a military dictatorship in the army. There was -never any question of his assuming the civil power. There was never any -indication that he wanted it.</p> - -<p>But there was this question—what political party in Russia was going -to dominate the constituent assembly, that consummation which has been -postponed many times, but which cannot be indefinitely postponed? The -Social Revolutionary party, of which Kerensky was a member, seems -to have had a clear majority, but there was little organization, -and the Socialists were split up into numerous groups. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> one city -election recently there were eighteen tickets in the field, most of -them separate Socialist parties. The Cossacks, solidly lined up behind -Korniloff, announced that in the coming constituent assembly election -they would form a bloc with the Constitutional Democrats and the -moderate party known as the Cadets, of which Prof. Paul Miliukoff is -the leader. That bloc might dominate the constituent assembly. If it -did the Bolshevik element in the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ -Delegates throughout the country would be overpowered and discredited. -The “social revolution” which the councils still insisted must come out -of the political revolution might be modified.</p> - -<p>Outside of the secret conclaves of the provisional government, outside -of the inner circles of political life in Russia, there is no one who -knows the exact truth of the so-called Korniloff rebellion. It is known -that a congress was held in Moscow in late August, in which Kerensky -made one of his great speeches, absolutely capturing his audience -and once more hypnotizing a large public into the belief that he -could restore order in Russia. Korniloff appeared, and aroused great -enthusiasm, as he always does. Everybody seemed to think that the two -leaders would get together and agree on a program. But they did not get -together, and the government announced the “rebellion” and disgrace -of Korniloff. Two more things were announced: that the Bolsheviki had -gained a majority in the Petrograd Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ -Delegates, and that Lenine was on his way back to Russia to address a -“democratic congress,” which had for its objects the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> abolishment of -the Duma and the calling of a parliament chosen from its membership. -Russia’s hour of hope had come and gone. When will it come again?</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER V</span> <span class="smaller">THE COMMITTEE MANIA</span></h2> - -<p>In writing a plain statement of the condition of anarchy into which -Russia has fallen, I am very far from wishing to create a prejudice -against the Russian people. I don’t want anybody to distrust or scorn -the Russians. I want the American people to understand their situation -in order that, through sympathy, patience and common sense, they can -find some way of helping them out of the blind morass that surrounds -them. All the educated Russians I have met like Americans and trust -them. They will not soon forget that the United States was the first -great power to recognize the new government and to hail the revolution. -The American ambassador, David R. Francis, is easily the most popular -diplomat in Petrograd. Every one knows him, and he rarely appeared -in a meeting or convention without being applauded. Over and over -again, during my three months’ visit to Russia, I was told that it -was to America they looked for help and guidance, and after the war -they want to enter into the closest commercial relations with us. One -business man said to me just before I left: “Tell your people that we -will never trade with Germany again unless the Americans force us to -do so. If they will supply us with chemicals, with manufactures and -machinery,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> we will gladly buy them. If they will send us experts for -our manufacturing plants we will be delighted to have them instead of -the Germans we used to employ, who never taught our people any of their -knowledge because they did not want us to develop.”</p> - -<p>The Russians want us to help them establish public schools; to -show them how to build and operate great railroad systems; to farm -scientifically; to do any number of things we have learned to do well. -We mustn’t despise the Russians, we must help them. And we can’t do -that unless we understand them. Take, for example, the army situation. -It is very bad. The mass of the soldiers are in rebellion against all -authority. But consider the past history, the very recent past history -of those soldiers. Aside from brutal personal treatment at the hands -of some of the officers, they were cheated and starved and neglected -by the bureaucracy in Petrograd, and then again by their commanders -at the front. The Russian soldier’s wants are simple enough. He eats -the same food seven days in the week and rarely complains. This food -consists of soup made of salt meat and cabbage; kasha, a porridge -made of buckwheat; black bread and tea. “Ivan” wears coarse clothes -and big, clumsy boots, and he has none of the small comforts we think -essential to the fighting man in the field. But slight as the Russian -soldier’s equipment is he did not invariably get it in the old days. -It was stolen from him by a band of official crooks with which the -war department and the army were honeycombed. Every department of the -army, from the commissariat to the Red Cross, was full<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> of corruption -and graft. The traffic in army supplies and ammunition, even in -hospital supplies, that went on constantly beggars description. Gen. -Sukhomlinoff, the former minister of war, who has been tried and -sentenced to life imprisonment for the part he played in this business, -was only one of the big thieves. Under him were myriads more, and among -them all the soldiers were often stripped of their overcoats in the -dead of winter, and of half of their rations the year round. When a -Russian soldier was badly wounded he might as well have been shot as -succored. I have seen these men, pitiful wretches, having lost one or -more arms or legs, blind perhaps, or frightfully disfigured, begging in -the streets of Petrograd. Clad in tattered uniform, pale and miserable, -these poor soldiers stand on the steps of the churches or on street -corners and beg a few kopecks from the passersby. There is no such -thing as a pension for them, no soldiers’ homes. They suffered for a -country that knew no such thing as gratitude. Russia sent her men into -battle without sufficient arms or ammunition with which to fight. It -fed them to the German guns without mercy, that a band of looters in -the government might buy sables and bet on horse races. It let them -shiver and freeze in shoddy uniforms that army contractors might grow -rich. And, after they were wounded, it let them beg their bread.</p> - -<div class="center"><a name="i042.jpg" id="i042.jpg"></a><br /><img src="images/i042.jpg" alt="Typical crowd on the Nevski Prospect" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Kerensky watching the funeral of victims of the July -Bolshevik risings.</p> - -<p>Small wonder, then, after the revolution, that there was a great -popular demand for swift justice for the soldiers. The provisional -government announced that henceforth each regiment should have an -elected committee, an executive body which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> should have entire charge -of regimental affairs. Food, clothing, supplies of all kinds, were to -pass through the hands of these committees, and they were to hear and -pass on all complaints. The committees were the vocal organs of the -army. For the first time in Russian history the soldier was allowed -to speak. The plan might have worked excellently had the provisional -government not made the mistake of too much zeal in democratizing the -army. It gorged the soldiers with freedom, gave them such heady doses -of self-government that they got drunk on the idea and ran amuck like -so many crazed Malays. Kerensky decreed that the soldiers need not -salute their officers. “Well then, we won’t,” they said. “And just to -show how free we are we won’t wash our faces, or wear clean clothes, or -touch our caps to women, or stand up straight——” and from that it was -an easy journey to “We won’t take any orders from anybody.”</p> - -<p>The government told the soldiers to elect their own officers, and they -did, after butchering a thousand or so of their old ones. They elected -them wisely in some instances, but in a great many more they did not. -They chose men, not for their capacity to lead in a military way, but -for their political views. In a Bolshevik regiment the best Bolsheviki -were elected. If there was a Minshevik majority the new officers were -pretty sure to be Minsheviki. And after they were elected nobody -respected them, nor did they dare give orders. But of all the madness -that took possession of the “free” soldiers, the committee madness went -farthest. The Russians love to talk. To make speeches, to heckle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> and -be heckled is the joy of their lives. The committee gave them a new -chance to talk, and they got the habit of calling a committee meeting -on every conceivable occasion. Petrograd heard with horror last summer -that the men in the trenches, when ordered to advance, actually called -meetings to discuss the orders and to vote whether or not they were to -be followed. They did this at times when the Germans were at the very -gates of an important strategic point.</p> - -<p>Even in the hospitals it got so that the doctors and the nurses were -without authority. If a man was ordered to take a pill he wanted to -call a committee meeting to discuss the thing. It is an actual fact -that men refused to take treatment or undergo operations until they -had consulted the Tavarishi about it. From that to refusing to obey -any orders is a short step, and Red Cross nurses have told me some -fantastic stories about life in Russian lazarets. Some wounded men -refused to take their clothes off and insisted on wearing them, boots -and all, to bed. Others refused to go to bed at night, preferring to -snooze during the day and wander around in pajamas and dressing gowns -at night. Some insisted on being discharged before they should be, -while others, on being discharged, declined to go.</p> - -<p>They were not like that in all hospitals, of course. Ivan is a great -child, and very often he is a stupid and an unruly child. But often -he is good, especially when he is sick and suffering and in need of -women’s care and kindness. I don’t want to describe the bad hospital -conditions without admitting that they have the other kind, too, in -Russia. I <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>remember seeing at the corner of a street below a big -lazaret in Petrograd a dozen discharged wounded men and a group of -nurses and orderlies. They were waiting for the tram which was to carry -the men to the railroad station. Some still wore bandages, some were -on crutches, some walked with the aid of sticks. Two were blind. But -all were wildly happy at the prospect of going home to the old village. -The nurses and orderlies shared in the excitement. Some of them were -going to the station, and had their arms full of bundles, clothes, food -and souvenirs of battle. One nurse carried a competent looking cork -leg, the future prop of a pale young fellow on crutches. The car swung -around the corner, full of passengers, idle soldiers mostly, but even -they, at the command of the energetic sister, vacated their seats for -the invalids. They climbed aboard, and those who were most helpless -were lifted. The cork leg was handed in through an open window and -delivered to one of the more able-bodied men. There had been plenty -of time for farewells before, but parting was difficult, and for five -minutes after boarding the car the men continued to shake hands with -the nurses, to shout last messages, and to kiss their hands to those on -the sidewalk. The nurses patted their charges’ arms and shoulders, and -called anxious admonitions. “Take care of that leg, Ivan Feodorovitch. -You know how to bandage it. Don’t try to walk too much, and keep out of -the sun.” You didn’t have to know a word of Russian to understand what -those nurses were saying.</p> - -<p>The street car conductor wrung her hands and begged to be allowed to go -on. The time schedule<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> had to be observed. “Please, sister, please,” -she entreated, and at last she was permitted to ring the bell and send -her car forward. As it turned the corner the men were still waving and -laughing and wiping the tears from their cheeks. I don’t believe those -men had called any committee meetings before obeying their nurses, or -ever reminded the doctors that it was a free country now and they could -take medicine or not as they pleased.</p> - -<p>You certainly got tired of that overworked phrase “It’s a free country -now.” You hear it on all sides in Russia. “It’s a free country,” says -a man with a third-class ticket taking possession of a first-class -compartment. “It’s a free country,” declares a soldier, tossing a -handful of sunflower seed shells on a woman’s white shoes in a street -car. “It’s a free country,” say a group of men, stripping off their -clothes before a crowd of women and children and taking a bath in the -Neva. This occurs frequently on the Admiralty quay, a great pleasure -resort in Petrograd.</p> - -<p>“They called them Sans Culottes during the French Revolution,” said a -clever woman writer in one of the newspapers. “Our men will go down to -fame as Sans Caleçons. The difference, perhaps, between a political and -a social revolution.” The first French phrase means without trousers. -The second carries the denuding process to its concluding stage.</p> - -<p>In this kind of a free country nobody is free. Try to imagine how -it would be in Washington, in the office of the secretary of the -treasury, let us say, if a committee of the American Federation of -Labor should walk in and say: “We have come to control<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> you. Produce -your books and all your confidential papers.” This is what happens to -cabinet ministers in Russia, and will continue until they succeed in -forming a government responsible only to the electorate, and not a -slave to the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates. Of course, -the simile is grossly unfair to the American Federation of Labor. Our -organized labor men are the most intelligent working people in the -community, and most of them have had a long experience in citizenship. -Above all, their loyalty, as a body, has been amply demonstrated. The -Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates has among its members -loyal, honest, intelligent men and women. But it has also a number of -extreme radicals, people who would dishonor the country by concluding a -separate peace with Germany, and who care nothing for the interests of -any group except their own. Nobody in Russia has very much experience -in citizenship, and the working people have less than others. Yet -the soviet, to give the council its local name, deems itself quite -capable of passing on all affairs of state, not only in Russia but in -the allied countries as well. The soviets have had the presumption to -announce that they are going to name the peace terms, although Russia -has virtually ceased to fight. “No annexations or contributions,” is -the formula, very evidently made in Germany. I am sure that not one in -a thousand knows what this means.</p> - -<p>“Have you ever thought,” I asked a member of the Petrograd council, -“what your program would mean to the working people of Belgium? Don’t -you think that the farmers and artisans of northern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> France are -entitled to compensation for their ruined homes and blasted lives?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, but not from Germany,” was the astounding reply. “All countries -should contribute.”</p> - -<p>“If I were a cashier in a bank and stole a million dollars of the -depositors’ money, do you think I ought to be made to pay it back, or -should all the employés be taxed?” To this question I got no answer. -There isn’t any answer.</p> - -<p>In all this confusion of mind, this whirlwind of ideas and theories, -are there no Russians who can think clearly? Are there no brave and -courageous people left in Russia? None who realize the ruin and -desolation which is being prepared for them? There are. Russia has its -submerged minority of thinkers. It has at least two fighting elements -which are ready to die to restore peace, order and bright honor to -their distracted land. These two elements are the Cossacks and the -women.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER VI</span> <span class="smaller">THE WOMAN WITH THE GUN</span></h2> - -<p>The women soldiers of Russia, the most amazing development of the -revolution, if not of the world war itself, I am disposed to believe, -will, with the Cossacks, prove to be the element needed to lead, if it -can be led, the disorganized and demoralized Russian army back to its -duty on the firing line. It was with the object, the hope, of leading -them back that the women took up arms. Whatever else you may have heard -about them this is the truth. I know those women soldiers very well. I -know them in three regiments, one in Moscow and two in Petrograd, and I -went with one regiment as near to the fighting line as I was permitted. -I traveled from Petrograd to a military position “somewhere in Poland” -with the famous Botchkareva Battalion of Death. I left Petrograd in -the troop train with the women. I marched with them when they left the -train. I lived with them for nine days in their barrack, around which -thousands of men soldiers were encamped. I shared Botchkareva’s soup -and kasha, and drank hot tea out of her other tin cup. I slept beside -her on the plank bed. I saw her and her women off to the firing line, -and after the battle into which they led reluctant men, I sat beside -their hospital beds and heard their own stories of the fight.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> I want -to say right here that a country that can produce such women cannot -possibly be crushed forever. It may take time for it to recover its -present debauch of anarchism, but recover it surely will. And when it -does it will know how to honor the women who went out to fight when the -men ran home.</p> - -<p>The Battalion of Death is not the name of one regiment, nor is it used -exclusively to designate the women’s battalions. It is a sort of order -which has spread through many regiments since the demoralization began, -and signifies that its members are loyal and mean to fight to the death -for Russia. Sometimes an entire regiment assumes the red and black -ribbon arrowhead which, sewed on the right sleeve of the blouse, marks -the order. Regiments have been made up of volunteers who are ready to -wear the insignia. Such a regiment is the Battalion of Death commanded -by Mareea Botchkareva (the spelling is phonetic), the extraordinary -peasant woman who has risen to be a commissioned officer in the Russian -army.</p> - -<p>Botchkareva comes from a village near the Siberian border and is, I -should judge, about thirty years old. She was one of a large family of -children, and the family was very poor. They had a harder time than -ever after the father returned from the Japanese war minus one foot, -but that did not prevent their number from increasing, and merely -made the lot of Mareea, the oldest girl, a little more miserable. She -married young, fortunately a man with whom she was very happy. He -was the village butcher and she helped him in the shop, as they had -no children. When the war broke out in July, 1914,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> Mareea’s husband -marched away with the rest of the quota from their village, and she -never saw him again. He was killed in one of the first battles of the -war, and the only time I ever saw Botchkareva break down was when she -told me how she waited long months for the letter he had promised -to write her, and how at last a wounded comrade hobbled back to the -village and told her that the letter would never come. He was dead—out -there somewhere—and they had not even notified her.</p> - -<p>“The soldiers have it hard,” she said, when her brief storm of tears -was over, “but not so hard as the women at home. The soldier has a gun -to fight death with. The women have nothing.”</p> - -<p>For months Mareea Botchkareva watched the sufferings of the women and -children of her village grow worse and worse. Winter killed some of -them, winter and an unwonted scarcity of food. Typhus came along and -killed more. The village forgot that it had ever danced and sung and -was happy. Every family was in mourning for its dead. Mareea decided -that she could not endure it to sit in her empty hut and wait for -death. She would go out and meet it in the easier fashion permitted to -men. That was the way, she explained to me, she joined the regiment of -Siberian troops encamped near the village. The men did not want her, -but she sought and got permission, and when the regiment went to the -front she went along too.</p> - -<div class="center"><a name="i052.jpg" id="i052.jpg"></a><br /><img src="images/i052.jpg" alt="Mareea Botchkareva, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Mareea Botchkareva, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and Women of -“The Battalion of Death.”</p> - -<p>She fought in campaigns on several fronts, earned medals and finally -the coveted cross of St. George for valor under fire. She was three -times wounded, the last time in the autumn of 1916, so badly that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> she -lay in hospital for four months. She got back to her regiment, where -she was now popular, and I imagine something of a leader, just before -the revolution of February, 1917.</p> - -<p>Botchkareva was an ardent revolutionist, and her regiment was one -of the first to go over to the people’s side. Her consternation and -despair were great when, shortly after the emancipation from czardom, -great masses of the people, and especially the soldiers at the front, -began to demonstrate by riots and desertions how little they were ready -for freedom. The men of her regiment deserted in numbers, and she went -to members of the Duma who were going up and down the front trying to -stay the tide, and said to them: “Give me leave to raise a regiment of -women. We will go wherever men refuse to go. We will fight when they -run. The women will lead the men back to the trenches.” This is the -history of Botchkareva’s Battalion of Death, or rather of how it came -to be organized. The Russian war ministry gave her leave to recruit the -women, gave her a barrack in a former school building, and promised her -equipment and a place at the front. Many women in Petrograd, women of -wealth and social position, took fire with the idea, raised money for -the regiment, helped in the recruiting, some of them joining.</p> - -<p>In an odd copy of an American newspaper that reached me in Russia I -read a paragraph stating that the schoolgirls of Petrograd were forming -a regiment under a man named Butchkareff, a lieutenant in the army. -I don’t know who sent out that piece of news, but it lacked most of -the facts. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> women soldiers are not schoolgirls, and Botchkareva’s -battalion has no men officers. Three drill sergeants, St. George cross -men all of them, did assist in the training of the battalion while -it remained in Petrograd. Other men drilled it behind the lines, -but Botchkareva, and another remarkable woman, Marie Skridlova, her -adjutant, commanded and led it in battle.</p> - -<p>Marie Skridlova is the daughter of Admiral Skridloff, one of the most -distinguished men of the Russian navy. She is about twenty, very -attractive if not actually beautiful, and is an accomplished musician. -Her life up to the outbreak of the war was that of an ordinary -girl of the Russian aristocracy. She was educated abroad, taught -several languages, and expected to have a career no more exciting or -adventurous than that of any other woman of her class. When the war -broke out she went into the Red Cross, took the nurses’ training and -served in hospitals both at the front and in Petrograd. Then came -the revolution. She was working in a marine hospital in the capital. -She saw many of the horrors of those February days. She saw her own -father set upon by soldiers in the streets, and rescued from death only -because some of his own marines who loved him insisted that this one -officer was not to be killed.</p> - -<p>Into the ward of the hospital where she was stationed there was borne -an old general, desperately wounded by a street mob. He had to be -operated on at once to save his life, and as he was carried from the -operating room to a private ward the men in the beds sat up and yelled, -“Kill him! Kill<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> him!” It is unlikely that they knew who he was, but -it was death to all officers in those days of madness and frenzy. Half -unconscious from loss of blood, still under the spell of the ether, the -old man clung to his nurse as a child to his mother. “You won’t let -them kill me, will you?” he murmured. And Mlle. Skridlova assured him -that she would take care of him, that he was safe.</p> - -<p>The door opened and a white faced doctor rushed into the room. -“Sister,” he gasped, “go for that medicine—go quickly.” Not -comprehending she asked, “What medicine?” But he only pushed her -towards the door. “Go, go!” he repeated.</p> - -<p>She left the room, and then she saw and understood. Down the corridor -a mob was streaming, a wild, unkempt, blood-thirsty mob, the sweepings -of the streets and barracks. Quickly she threw herself across the door -of the old general’s room. “Get back,” she commanded. “The man in that -room is old and wounded and helpless. He is in my care, and if you harm -him it must be over my body.”</p> - -<p>Incredible as it seems this girl of twenty was able for forty minutes -to hold the mob at bay. When guns were pointed at her she told the men -to fire through the red cross that covered her heart. They did not -shoot, but some of the most brutal struck her down, and then held her -helpless while others rushed into the room and hacked and beat the -old man to death. When the nurse fought her way to his side he was -breathing his last. She had time to whisper a prayer, and to make the -sign of the cross above his glazing eyes. Then she went home, took off -her Red Cross uniform, and said to her father:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> “Women have something -more to do for Russia than binding men’s wounds.”</p> - -<p>When Botchkareva’s Battalion of Death was formed Marie Skridlova -determined to join it. Admiral Skridloff, veteran of two wars, iron -old patriot, went with her to the women’s barracks and with his own -hand enrolled her in the Russian army service. In the regiment of which -this girl was adjutant I found six Red Cross nurses who were through -with nursing and had gone out to die for their unhappy country. There -was a woman doctor who had seen service in base hospitals. There were -clerks and office women, factory girls, servants, farm women. Ten women -had fought in men’s regiments. Every woman had her own story. I did -not hear them all, but I heard many, each one a simple chronicle of -suffering or bereavement, or shame over Russia’s plight.</p> - -<p>There was one girl of nineteen, a Cossack, a pretty, dark-eyed young -thing, left absolutely adrift after the death in battle of her father -and two brothers, and the still more tragic death of her mother when -the Germans shelled the hospital where she was nursing. To her a place -in Botchkareva’s regiment and a gun with which to defend herself -spelled safety.</p> - -<p>“What was there left for me?” sighed a big Esthonian woman, showing me -a photograph she wore constantly on her heart. It was a photograph of a -lovely child of five years. “He died of want,” said the woman briefly. -“His father is a prisoner somewhere in Austria.”</p> - -<p>There was a Japanese girl in the regiment, and when I asked her her -reason for joining she smiled,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> and in the evenly polite tone that -marks her race, replied: “There were so many reasons that I prefer -not to tell any of them.” One twilight I came on this girl sitting -outside with the little Polish Jewess with whom she bunked. The two sat -perfectly motionless on a fallen tree, watching a group of soldiers -gathered around a fire. In their silent gaze I read a malevolence, a -reminiscence so full of concentrated loathing that I turned away with -a shudder. I never asked another woman her reason for joining the -regiment. I was afraid it might be more personal than patriotic.</p> - -<p>I do not believe, however, that this was the case with the majority. -Mostly the women were in arms because they feared and dreaded the -further demoralization of the troops, and they believed fervently -that they could rally their men to fight. “Our men,” they said, “are -suffering from a sickness of the soul. It is our duty to lead them back -to health.” Every woman in the regiment had seen war face to face, had -suffered bitterly through war, and finally had seen their men fail in -the fight. They had beheld their men desert in time of war, the most -dishonorable thing men can do, and they said, “Well then, there is -nothing left except for us to go in their places.”</p> - -<p>Did the world ever witness a more sublime heroism than that? Women, in -the long years which history has recorded, have done everything for men -that they were called upon to do. It remained for Russian men, in the -twentieth century, to call upon women to fight and die for them. And -the women did it.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER VII</span> <span class="smaller">TO THE FRONT WITH BOTCHKAREVA</span></h2> - -<p>Women of all ranks rushed to enlist in the Botchkareva battalion. -There were many peasant women, factory workers, servants and also a -number of women of education and social prominence. Six Red Cross -nurses were among the number, one doctor, a lawyer, several clerks and -stenographers and a few like Marie Skridlova who had never done any -except war work. If the working women predominated I believe it was -because they were the stronger physically. Botchkareva would accept -only the sturdiest, and her soldiers, even when they were slight of -figure, were all fine physical specimens. The women were outfitted and -equipped exactly like the men soldiers. They wore the same kind of -khaki trousers, loose-belted blouse and high peaked cap. They wore the -same high boots, carried the same arms and the same camp equipment, -including gas masks, trench spades and other paraphernalia. In spite of -their tightly shaved heads they presented a very attractive appearance, -like nice, clean, upstanding boys. They were very strictly drilled and -disciplined and there was no omission of saluting officers in that -regiment.</p> - -<p>The battalion left Petrograd for an unknown <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>destination on July 6 -in our calendar. In the afternoon the women marched to the Kazan -Cathedral, where a touching ceremony of farewell and blessing took -place. A cold, fine rain was falling, but the great half circle before -the cathedral, as well as the long curved colonnades, were filled with -people. Thousands of women were there carrying flowers, and nurses -moved through the crowds collecting money for the regiment.</p> - -<p>I passed a very uneasy day that July 6. I was afraid of what might -happen to some of the women through the malignancy of the Bolsheviki, -and I was mortally afraid that I was not going to be allowed to get -on their troop train. I had made the usual application to the War -Ministry to be allowed to visit the front, but I did not follow up the -application with a personal visit, and therefore when I dropped in for -a morning call I was dismayed to find the barrack in a turmoil, and to -hear the exultant announcement, “We’re going this evening at eight.”</p> - -<p>It was an unseasonal day of rain, and I spent reckless sums in droshky -hire, rushing hither and yon in a fruitless effort to wring emergency -permits from elusive officials who never in their lives had been called -upon to do anything in a hurry, or even to keep conventional office -hours. Needless to say I found nobody at all on duty where he should -have been that day. Even at the American Embassy, where, empty-handed -and discouraged, I wound up late in the afternoon, I found the entire -staff absent in attendance on a visiting commission from home. The one -helpful person who happened to be at the Embassy was Arno Dosch-Fleurot -of the New York <i>World</i>. “If<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> I were you,” he said, “I wouldn’t worry -about a permit. I’d just get on the train—if I could <i>get</i> on—and -I’d stay until they put me off, or until I got where I wanted to go. -Of course they may arrest you for a spy. In any other country they’d -be pretty sure to. But in Russia you never can tell. Shepherd, of the -United Press, once went all over the front with nothing to show but -some worthless mining stock. Why not try it?”</p> - -<p>I said I would, and before eight that evening I was at the Warsaw -Station, unwillingly participating in what might be called the -regiment’s first hostile engagement. For at least two thirds of the -mob that filled the station were members of the Lenine faction of -Bolsheviki, sent there to break up the orderly march of the women, -and even if possible to prevent them from entraining at all. From the -first these spy-led emissaries of the German Kaiser had sworn enmity to -Botchkareva’s battalion. Well knowing the moral effect of women taking -the places of deserting soldiers in the trenches, the Lenineites had -exhausted every effort to breed dissension in the ranks, and at the -last moment they had stormed the station in the hope of creating an -intolerable situation. In the absence of anything like a police force -they did succeed in making things painful and even a little dangerous -for the soldiers and for the tearful mothers and sisters who had -gathered to bid them good-by. But the women kept perfect discipline -through it all, and slowly fought their way through the mob to the -train platform.</p> - -<p>As for me, a mixture of indignation, healthy muscle and rare good luck -carried me through and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> landed me in a somewhat battered condition next -to Adjutant Skridlova. “You got your permit,” she exclaimed on seeing -me. “I am so pleased. Stay close to me and I’ll see you safely on.”</p> - -<p>Mendaciously perhaps, I answered nothing at all, but stayed, and -every time a perspiring train official grabbed me by the arm and told -me to stand back Skridlova rescued me and informed the man that I -had permission to go. At the very last I had a bad moment, for one -especially inquisitive official asked to see the permission. This time -it was the Nachalnik, Botchkareva herself, who came to the rescue. -Characteristically she wasted no words, but merely pushed the man -aside, thrust me into her own compartment and ordered me to lock the -door. Within a few minutes she joined me, the train began to move and -we were off. That was the end of my troubles, for no one afterwards -questioned my right to be there. At the Adjutant’s suggestion I parted -with my New York hat and early in the journey substituted the white -linen coif of a Red Cross nurse. Thus attired I was accepted by all -concerned as a part of the camp equipment.</p> - -<p>The troop train consisted of one second class and five fourth class -carriages, the first one, except for one compartment reserved for -officers, being practically filled with camp and hospital supplies. -In the other carriages, primitive affairs furnished with three tiers -of wooden bunks, the rank and file of the regiment traveled. I had a -place in the second class compartment with the Nachalnik, the Adjutant -and the standard bearer, a big, silent peasant girl called Orlova. Our -luxury consisted of cushioned shelves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> without bedding or blankets, -which served as seats by day and beds by night. We had, of course, a -little more privacy than the others, but that was all. As for food, -we all fared alike, and we fared well, friends of the regiment having -loaded the train with bread, butter, fruit, canned things, cakes, -chocolate and other delicacies. Tea-making materials we had also, and -plenty of sugar. So filled was our compartment with food, flowers, -banners, guns, tea kettles and miscellaneous stuff that we moved about -with difficulty and were forever apologizing for walking on each -other’s feet.</p> - -<p>For two nights and the better part of two days we traveled southward -through fields of wheat, barley and potatoes, where women in bright red -and blue smocks toiled among the ripening harvests. News of the train -had gone down the line, and the first stage of our journey, through -the white night, was one continued ovation. At every station crowds -had gathered to cheer the women and to demand a sight of Botchkareva. -It was largely a masculine crowd, soldiers mostly, goodnatured and -laughing, but many women were there too, nurses, working girls, -peasants. Occasionally one saw ladies in dinner gowns escorted by -officer friends.</p> - -<p>The farther we traveled from Petrograd, the point of contact in Russia -with western civilization, the more apparent it grew that things were -terribly wrong with the empire. More and more the changed character -of the station crowds reminded us of the widespread disruption of the -army. The men who met the train wore soldiers’ uniforms but they had -lost all of their upright, soldierly bearing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> They slouched like -convicts, they were dirty and unkempt, and their eyes were full of -vacuous insolence. Absence of discipline and all restraint had robbed -them of whatever manhood they had once possessed. The news of the -women’s battalion had drawn these men like a swarm of bees. They thrust -their unshaven faces into the car windows, bawling the parrot phrases -taught them by their German spy leaders. “Who fights for the damned -capitalists? Who fights for English bloodsuckers? We don’t fight.”</p> - -<p>And the women, scorn flashing from their eyes, flung back: “That is the -reason why we do. Go home, you cowards, and let women fight for Russia.”</p> - -<p>Their last, flimsy thread of “peace” propaganda exhausted the men -usually fell back on personal insults, but to these the women, -following strict orders, made no reply. When the language became too -coarse the women simply closed the windows. No actual violence was -ever offered them. When they left the train for hot water or for tea, -for more food or to buy newspapers, they walked so fearlessly into the -crowds that the men withdrew, sneering and growling, but standing aside.</p> - -<p>There was something indescribably strange about going on a journey -to a destination absolutely unknown, except to the one in command of -the expedition. Above all it was strange to feel that you were seeing -women voluntarily giving up the last shred of protection and security -supposed to be due them. They were going to meet death, death in battle -against a foreign foe, the first women in the world to volunteer for -such an end. Yet every one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> was happy, and the only fear expressed was -lest the battalion should not be sent at once to the trenches.</p> - -<p>As for me, when we arrived at our destination, some two miles from the -barracks prepared for us, I had a moment of longing for the comparative -safety of the trenches. For what looked to me like the whole Russian -army had come out to meet the women’s battalion, and was solidly massed -on both sides of the railroad track as far as I could see.</p> - -<p>I looked at the Nachalnik calmly buckling on her sword and revolver. -She had a confident little smile on her lips. “You may have to fight -those men out there before you fight the Germans,” I said.</p> - -<p>“We are ready to begin fighting any time,” she replied.</p> - -<p>She was the first one out of the train, and the others rapidly followed -her.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER VIII</span> <span class="smaller">IN CAMP AND BATTLEFIELD</span></h2> - -<p>The women’s regiment did not have to fight its brothers in arms, -however. The woman commander took care of that. She just walked into -that mob of waiting soldiers and barked out a command in a voice I -had never before heard her use. It reminded me somewhat of that extra -awful motor car siren that infuriates the pedestrian, but lifts him -out of the road in one quick jump. Botchkareva’s command was spoken in -Russian, and a liberal translation of it might read: “You get to hell -out of here and let my regiment pass.”</p> - -<p>It may not have been ladylike, but it had the proper effect on the -Russian army, which promptly backed up on both sides of the road, -leaving a clear lane between for the women. The women shouldered their -heavy kits and under a broiling sun marched the two miles which lay -between the railroad and the camp. The Russian army followed the whole -way, apparently deciding that the better part of valor was to laugh at -the women, not to fight them.</p> - -<p>Botchkareva must also have decided that the first thing to be done was -to give those men to understand that whether the regiment was funny or -not it would have to be treated with respect. As soon as we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> reached -our barracks and disposed of the heavy loads, she made a little speech -in which she said that here we were, and while we would be obliged -to mingle with the men, relations would be kept formal. The men must -be shown that the women were entitled to the same camp privileges as -themselves, and were no more to be molested or annoyed than any other -soldiers. We had had a long, hot journey, she ended, and the first -thing we were going to do was to go down to the river and have a nice -swim. So with towels around their necks the 250 women made gayly for -the river. I trotted along on the commander’s arm. At least a thousand -men went along, too, but just before we reached the swimming pool under -a railroad bridge, Botchkareva turned around and delivered another of -those crisp little commands. The men stopped in their tracks as if she -had thrown some kind of freezing gas at them, and we went on.</p> - -<p>It was a lovely swimming pool, clear and cold and fringed with -sheltering willows. The women peeled off their clothes like boys and -plunged in. As we dressed afterward I looked at them, heads shaved, -ugly clothes, coarse boots, no concealments, not a single aid to -beauty, but, in spite of it all, singularly attractive. Some of course -were homely, primitive types. Purple and fine linen would not have -improved them much. But some who would not have been especially pretty -as girls were almost handsome as boys. A few were strikingly beautiful -in spite of their shaved heads. You observed that they had good skulls, -nice ears, fine eyes, strong characters, whereas in ordinary clothes -they might have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>appeared as pleasingly commonplace as the girl on the -magazine cover.</p> - -<p>Cool and refreshed, the battalion marched back to the barracks, which -consisted of two long, hastily constructed wooden buildings, exactly -like hundreds of others on all sides about as far as the eye could -reach. Some of the buildings were half underground, for warmth in -winter, and must have been rather stuffy. Our buildings were well -ventilated with many dormer windows in the sharply slanting roof, and -they were new and clean and free from the insects which in secret I -had been dreading. Inside was nothing at all except two long wooden -platforms running the length of the building, about ninety feet. They -were very roughly planed and full of bumps and knot holes, but they -were the only beds provided by a step-motherly government. Here the -women dumped their heavy loads, their guns, ammunition belts, gas -masks, dog tents, trench spades, food pails and other paraphernalia. -Here they unrolled their big overcoats for blankets, and here for the -next week, all of us, officers, soldiers and war correspondent, ate, -slept and lived. Two hundred and fifty women in the midst of an army -of men. Behind us a government too engrossed in fighting for its own -existence to concern itself about the safety of any group of women. -Before us the muttering guns of the German foe. Between us and all -that women have ever been taught to fear, a flimsy wooden door. But -sleeplessly guarding that door a woman with a gun.</p> - -<p>In that first midnight in camp I woke on my plank bed to hear the -shuffling of men’s feet on the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>threshold, a loud knock at the door, -and from our sentry a sharp challenge: “Who goes there?”</p> - -<p>“We want to come in,” said a man’s voice ingratiatingly.</p> - -<p>“No one can come in at this hour,” answered the sentry. “Who are you -and what do you want?”</p> - -<p>The man’s answer was brutally to the point. “Aren’t there girls here?” -he demanded.</p> - -<p>“There are no girls here,” was the instant reply. “Only soldiers are -here.”</p> - -<p>An angry fist crashed against the thin wood, to be answered by the -swift click of a rifle barrel on the other side. “Unless you leave at -once we shall fire on you,” said the sentry in a voice of portentous -calm.</p> - -<p>Down the long plank platform I heard a succession of low chuckles, and -a sleepy comment or two which the retreating men outside would not -have found complimentary. That midnight encounter served the excellent -purpose of finally establishing the status of the regiment in camp. -From that time on we lived unmolested. We stood in line with the men -at the cookhouse for our daily rations of black bread, soup and kasha, -a sort of porridge made of buckwheat. We performed our simple morning -toilets in the open; we washed our clothes in improvised washtubs -behind the barracks; we strolled about between drills. The men followed -us around from morning until night. They watched us open eyed, hung in -curious groups before the doors. A few were openly friendly, and beyond -some disparaging remarks regarding our personal appearance none were -hostile. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> - -<p>The day after we arrived, Monday, it rained. It poured. The camp became -a swamp. The women stayed in their barrack, drilling as best they could -in the narrow aisles. Sitting on the edge of their plank beds, the -only place there was to sit, they listened with deep attention while -under-officers read aloud the army code and regulations. In the morning -a group of nurses from a hospital train in the neighborhood came to -call, and in the afternoon half a dozen officers came from the stavka, -two miles away. The commander, a charming man, seemed astonished and -deeply impressed with the regiment standing at attention to greet him.</p> - -<p>“It is beautiful,” he said repeatedly, and he was good enough to say to -me, “How wonderful for an American woman to be with them. Thank you for -coming.”</p> - -<p>Tuesday it cleared and the battalion had its first open field drills. -The rest of the Russian army stood around and pretended to be vastly -amused. Whenever a woman made a mistake in the manual, and better -still, when she fell down while charging, or splashed into a mud puddle -on a run, the men laughed loudly. Some of that laughter, I feel pretty -certain, hid hurt pride, for every decent soldier I talked to expressed -his sorrow and humiliation that the women had felt the necessity of -enlisting. Quite a number of men in that camp had been in America and -of course spoke English. They said, “Say, sister, what do you suppose -they think about this back in Illinois?” One man said, “Sister,” (I -still wore the nurse’s coif, having no other headgear) “back home -in the States they used to say women oughtn’t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> to vote because they -couldn’t fight. I’ll bet these women can fight.”</p> - -<p>The officers in and around that army position were evidently of the -same opinion. They came to the drill field every day to inspect and -criticize the work, and they sent their best drill sergeants to -instruct the women, who worked hard and learned quickly. One day the -commander of the Tenth army, whose Russian name is too much for my -memory at this distance, came over with his whole staff, a brilliant -sight. The commander was plainly delighted, and shook hands with a -great many of the women. He even went out of his way to shake hands -with the American. Kerensky was in the neighborhood one day, but he -did not visit us. The Nachalnik saw him at staff headquarters and he -sent kind messages, promising the women that they should be sent to the -front as soon as they were ready.</p> - -<p>The impatience of those women to go forward, to get into action, was -constant. They fretted and quarreled during the frequent rainy spells -which kept them housebound, and were really happy only when something -happened to promise an early start. One day it was the arrival of 250 -pairs of new boots, great clumsy things which it would have crippled me -to wear, and in fact all the women who could afford it had boots made -to order. Another day it was the appearance of a camp cooking outfit -especially for the battalion. Four good horses were attached to the -outfit, and the country girls hailed them with delight as something to -pet and fuss over.</p> - -<p>The women spent much time cleaning and learning their guns. They seemed -to love their firearms, one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> girl always alluding to her rifle as “my -sweetheart.”</p> - -<p>“How can you love a gun?” I asked her.</p> - -<p>“I love anything that brings death to the Germans,” she answered -grimly. This girl, a highly educated, wellbred young woman, was in -Germany when the war broke out. She was arrested and charged with -espionage, a charge which, for all I know, may have been true. It -was not proved, of course, or she would have been shot. On the mere -suspicion, however, she was kept in prison for a year and must have -suffered pretty severely. She looked forward to the coming fight with -keen zest. I asked her one day what she would do if she was taken -prisoner again. She pulled from under her blouse a slender gold chain -on the end of which was a capsule in a chamois bag. “I shall never be -taken prisoner,” she said. “None of us will.”</p> - -<p>From Thursday on the weather improved and the regiment worked hard in -the field. I had felt the strain of confinement in barracks, and when -I was not watching the drill I was taking long walks down a highway -over which went a constant procession of troops and camp supply -wagons, moving on and on, nearer the horizon, from which came frequent -low mutterings like distant thunder, but which were heavy gunfire. -Sometimes I walked as far as a little settlement which the Nachalnik -told me was not unlike the village she found so unbearable after her -husband left it. The village consisted of two rows of log or roughly -timbered cottages along a winding, muddy road. Green moss grew on the -thatched roofs, and the whole place had a forlorn, neglected look, but -surrounding each cottage was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> carefully tended garden with beets, -cabbages, onions, potatoes, and sunflowers grown for the seeds, which -are the Russian substitute for chewing gum. Often the cottages had -poppies growing in the rows of vegetables, the bright blooms giving -brilliance to the somber and lonely landscape.</p> - -<p>Half a dozen miles on the other side of the railroad was another and -a larger village, equally dismal, but furnished with a church, a -wayside shrine, small shops and other improvements. My special friend -the Adjutant and I drove over there one day after supplies. We bought -chocolate, nuts, sardines and biscuits to relieve the deadly monotony -of our daily black bread, soup and kasha. The regiment bought some -supplies at little market stalls near the station. Here one bought -butter, sausages reeking with garlic, tinned fish and doubtful eggs. -At an officers’ store in the vicinity Botchkareva spent some of the -money donated in Petrograd for tea and sugar when they were needed, -and for a kind of white bread or biscuits. They were hard and shaped -like old-fashioned doughnuts, with a hole in the middle through which a -string was run. A yard or two of this bread went well with good butter -and hot, fragrant tea. As far as food was concerned I was better off -in the camp than I was a little later in Petrograd. There was even -a fairly good hot meal to be had at the station when we chose to go -there, which we did several times. But no amount of good food would -have kept our regiment happy in camp very long. The women fretted -and chafed and demanded to know why they were kept in that hole. The -Nachalnik coaxed and scolded them along, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> Skridlova, who was easily -the most popular person in camp, reminded them that it took six months -to train ordinary soldiers and that they were being especially favored -by having the time shortened.</p> - -<p>Those women went into battle after less than two months’ training, as -it turned out, for the evening of the ninth day the Nachalnik came back -from headquarters with orders to march the next morning at five. What -an uproar followed! Cheers, laughter, singing. You would have thought -they were going anywhere except to a battlefield where death waited for -some and cruel suffering for many. I wanted to go with them, and would -have insisted on going had I known that they were so soon to fight. -But orders were merely to advance for further drill under gunfire. I -would have been frightfully in the way in the new position, which had -no barracks, but only dog tents, just enough to go around. Nothing on -earth except the knowledge that I would be depriving some one of those -brave women from the comfort of a dry and sheltered bed persuaded me to -leave them.</p> - -<p>Five days later in Petrograd I read in the dispatches that they had -been sent almost directly into action, leading men who had previously -refused to advance, and turning a defeat into a victory; a small one -to be sure, but Russia was thankful for even small victories those -days. A short note from Skridlova prepared me for the story of losses -which I knew was coming. She wrote in French, which she knows better -than English, “You have heard already perhaps that we have been in -action. I do not know yet how many were killed or have died of wounds,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> -but two of those you knew well were killed. Catherine and Olga, who -you remember had won three medals of St. George. Eighteen girls are -wounded badly, Nina among them.” Nina was the girl who called her gun -“sweetheart,” and who had been a prisoner in Germany. Skridlova was -badly contused in the head, shoulders and knees, but she remained -in command of the remnant of the battalion because the Nachalnik, -Botchkareva, had suffered so severely from shell shock that she had to -be sent to a hospital in Petrograd. She was nearly deaf when I saw her, -and her heart was badly affected.</p> - -<p>“It was a good fight,” she whispered, smiling from her pillow. “Not a -woman faltered, not one. The Russian men hid in a little wood while the -officers swore at them and begged them to advance. Then they sent us -forward, and we called to the men that we would lead them if they would -only follow. Some of them said they would follow, and we went forward -on a run, still shouting to the men. About two-thirds of them went -with us, and we easily put the Germans to flight. We killed a lot of -Germans and took almost a hundred prisoners, including two officers.” -In another hospital I found more than twenty of the battalion, some -slightly and others seriously wounded. The worst cases were kept in -base hospitals, near the battle front, and I never saw Nina again.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER IX</span> <span class="smaller">AMAZONS IN TRAINING</span></h2> - -<p>If the first battle of the first women soldiers in the world had been -fought on American soil imagine what the newspapers would have made of -the story. Especially if the women had gone into battle with the object -of rallying a demoralized American army, and had succeeded in their -object. And this is all the space Botchkareva’s victorious battalion -was accorded in <i>Novoe Vremya</i>, one of the best newspapers in Russia. -After describing briefly the engagement on the Smorgon-Krevo front, in -which prisoners, guns and ammunition were taken, the account proceeded: -“The women’s battalion made a counter attack, replacing deserters who -ran away. This battalion captured almost a hundred prisoners including -two officers. Botchkareva and Skridlova are wounded, the latter -receiving contusions and shock from the explosion of a big shell. The -battalion suffered some losses, but has won historic fame for the name -of women. The best soldiers looked with consideration and esteem on -their new fighting comrades, but the deserters were not touched by -their example, and in this respect the aim was not reached. We must -take care of these dear forces, and not give too much consideration to -new formations of the kind.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> - -<p>If the press of Russia had been wise, the fact that some of the -slackers in the army were not touched by the women’s bravery would -have been made less conspicuous than the more important fact that many -soldiers were touched by it, and that the Russian army was thereby -enabled to win a victory. Instead of discouraging new formations, the -press should have called for more and more regiments of women to lead -the men. They should have kept it up until people got so excited over -the tragedy of women being torn to pieces by German shot and shrapnel -that they would have risen in wrath, taken hold of their army and their -government, and created conditions which would relieve women from the -dreadful necessity of fighting.</p> - -<p>It could have been done, the people were ready for it. They felt the -tragedy. At a memorial service for the dead women, held in Kazan -Cathedral the Sunday after the battle, the presiding priest said: -“This is a terrible and yet a glorious hour for Russia. Sad it is, -and terrible beyond expression that men have allowed women to die in -their places for our unhappy country. But glorious it will ever be that -Russian women have been ready and willing to do it.”</p> - -<p>After the service, a Bolshevik soldier, standing in front of the -cathedral, tried to turn the sympathies of the crowd by making -insulting remarks about the dead women. He did not have time to say -much before a group of working women, with howls of rage, rushed him, -and I believe would have killed him if his friends had not got him away.</p> - -<p>Of the women left alive but wounded, thirty were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> brought to a hospital -not far from the Nikolai station, Petrograd, and there I saw them. When -I went into the first hospital ward a wounded girl sat up in bed and, -smiling like the sun, held out to me a German officer’s helmet, her -prize of battle. She had killed him—that was her duty—and had taken -his helmet as a man would have done. But when she told me that Orlova, -big, dull, kind, unselfish Orlova, loved by everybody, was among the -killed, she broke down and wept as any woman would have done.</p> - -<p>From this girl and the others I learned that Botchkareva had spoken the -exact truth when she said that no woman had faltered or shown fear. “We -all expected to die, I think,” one girl said. “I know that I did. I -said over the prayers for the dying while I was dressing that morning. -We all prayed and kissed our holy pictures, and thought sadly about -the ones at home. But we were not afraid. We were stationed between -two little woods. They were full of men, some who openly refused to -go forward, some who hesitated and didn’t quite know what they ought -to do. We shouted at them, the commander shouted at them, called them -cowards, traitors, everything we could think of. Then the commander -called out: ‘Come on, brothers, we’ll go first if you’ll only follow.’</p> - -<p>“‘All right then,’ some of them called back, and we ran forward as fast -as we could, following Botchkareva. She was wonderful, and Skridlova -was wonderful too. We would have followed them anywhere.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Did you really capture a hundred Germans?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“I don’t believe we did it all by ourselves,” was the modest reply. -“After we got into the fighting the men and the women were side by -side. We fought together and we won the battle together.”</p> - -<p>Every one of those wounded women soldiers wanted to go back to the -front line. If fighting and dying were the price of Russia’s freedom, -they wanted to fight and fight again. If they could rally unwilling -men to fight, they wanted nothing in the world except more chances to -do it. Wounds were nothing, death was nothing in the scale of Russia’s -honor or dishonor. Then too, and this is a strange commentary on -women’s “protected” position in life, the women soldiers said that -fighting was not the most difficult or the most disagreeable work they -had ever done. They said it was less arduous if a little more dangerous -than working in a harvest field or a factory.</p> - -<p>This point of view I have heard expressed by other Russian women -soldiers, those who have fought in men’s regiments. There are many -such women; I have met and talked with some of them. One girl I saw in -a hospital, a bullet in her side and a broken hand in a plaster cast, -assured me that fighting was the most congenial work she had ever -done. This girl had gone to Petrograd from Riga to join Botchkareva’s -battalion, but for some reason she had not been accepted. She met a -young marine who told her of a new Battalion of Death which was being -formed out of the remnants of several old regiments and of a number -of marines.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> “Why not join us?” he asked. “We already have four girl -comrades.” So she joined.</p> - -<p>We were alone except for the interpreter, and I took occasion to ask -this girl minutely how it fared with women who joined men’s regiments. -Were the women treated with respect, let alone? How did they manage -about their physical needs? Where did they bathe and change their -clothes? Did not the officers object to their presence in the barracks? -At first, my young soldier admitted, the men did not treat the women -with respect, did not let them alone. She was obliged to give the -men some severe lessons. But after a while they learned. They were -considerate in certain respects, and arranged for the girls to have -some privacy. Of course one lost foolish mock modesty when in camp.</p> - -<p>The officers did not object to their enlisting, but were inclined to -treat them with a lofty indifference. The men too seemed to assume that -the girls could not endure the real hardships of war when they came. -“The first thing we had to do in camp was to make a quick march of -twelve versts. ‘Of course the girls can’t walk that far,’ the men said, -‘they can ride on the cook wagons.’ But we said, ‘Not much we don’t -ride on the cook wagons. We didn’t come here to watch you do things. -We came to be soldiers like yourselves.’ So they said, ‘Oh, very well! -<i>Harasho!</i> March if you like.’ And we did. And when we got back to -camp, it was so funny; sailors are not much used to walking, you know, -and those men were completely tired out, exhausted. They lay around in -their bunks and groaned and called on everybody to look at their feet -and their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> blisters, while we weren’t tired at all. Why, any of us -had walked as far and worked as hard in one day in the kitchen or the -harvest field. So we laughed at the men and said, ‘You’re just a lot of -old women. Look at us. We could do it all over again and not complain.’ -After that I can tell you they didn’t patronize us quite such a lot.”</p> - -<p>When the regiment got into camp near the trenches and the men were -given the regulation uniform of the army, the officers decreed that the -girls’ soldiering should come to an end. The real business of fighting -was about to begin and women were not wanted. They could be sanitaries, -said the commander. So they went back to women’s clothes and women’s -historic job of waiting on men. This girl, however, objected, and -finally confided to one of her men friends that the sanitary’s work -was too distasteful for her to endure longer. “Why should I be obliged -to patch up wounds?” she asked. “It is much easier to make them.” The -soldier found some regimentals for her and she went out and fought in -a skirmish line. When the commander heard of it he was terribly angry -and to frighten her he put her on sentry duty in an exposed post. “He -thought he’d cure me of my taste for fighting,” she chuckled, “but I -wasn’t frightened a bit, and so he said, ‘Well, be a soldier if you are -so bent on it. We need soldiers.’ And so, I fought.”</p> - -<p>She described her first and only battle where she helped storm several -lines of trenches and was one of thirty-seven survivors out of a -thousand in her regiment who took part in the engagement. Her wounds, -she said, did not hurt much at the time, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> she was bleeding pretty -badly and thought she ought to get to the hospital.</p> - -<p>“Just then I saw our captain, and he was badly wounded, almost -unconscious in fact, and I had to get him to the rear on my back. It -was all that I could do, for about that time I felt that I was growing -weak and would soon have to sit down. I managed to get him as far as -the first line of Red Cross men, and then I went under. I had been hit -in the side by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel and I was pretty sick -for a while. By and by I felt better and somehow got back to the rear. -The first thing I saw was one of our men who was weeping with his head -in his hands. ‘What’s wrong?’ I asked, and when he looked up and saw -me he gave a yell. ‘They said you had been killed,’ he shouted. And -he began to dance a hornpipe. Poor chap, he had been wounded too and -before he had danced more than a few steps he began to bleed and fell -over in a faint.”</p> - -<p>The ambulances were pretty full, so this plucky young creature thought -she could walk the three or four versts to the hospital. She had to -give up before long and a captain of another regiment, himself wounded, -took her into his cart or whatever conveyance he had, and carried her -to the hospital. “Our captain was there,” she finished, “quite out of -his head with pain. He kept saying, ‘Don’t let that girl go back to the -field. Don’t let her fight again. She is too young.’ He did not know -then that I had carried him off on my back, and me wounded too.”</p> - -<p>A great many women who had seen service in men’s regiments were leaving -them and joining one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> or another of the women’s regiments which were -forming all over Russia about that time. The largest of these regiments -was being trained for action in Moscow. There were about two thousand -women in this battalion, which was formed and recruited by a women’s -committee, “The Society of Russian Women to Help the Country.” Among -the women was Madame Morosova, before the war prominent socially, but -since the war almost entirely occupied with relief work. She was a very -gay and laughter-loving person, but she had fed and clothed and helped -on their way thousands of refugees. She had turned her house into a -maternity hospital at times, and she had given large sums of money for -the relief of women and children. Finally the women soldiers appealed -to her as the most important work to be assisted and her whole energies -last summer were devoted to the battalion. Princess Kropotkin, a -relative of the celebrated Prince Pierre Kropotkin, was another member -of the society. She had a Red Cross hospital until the army desertions -began, and then she closed the hospital and turned to recruiting women. -Mme. Popova, vice-president of the society, is one more untiring -worker. In August she obtained Kerensky’s consent to go to Tomsk, her -old home, and organize a battalion there.</p> - -<p>The Moscow regiment was being drilled by a colonel and half a dozen -younger officers, all of whom seemed immensely proud of their command. -Twenty picked women of the regiment were going daily to the officers’ -school and when ready were to be given commissions in the regular army.</p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> - -<p>In Petrograd a regiment of 1,500 women was almost ready for the -trenches when I saw them last in August. They too were to be officered -by women, two score being a daily attendance at a military school. On -August 20 I saw these 1,500 women march out of their barrack in the old -Engineers’ Palace, to go into camp preparatory to going to the front. -This palace was once the home of the mad Emperor Paul, son of Catherine -the Great. He was assassinated there and his restless ghost is supposed -to haunt the gusty corridors. I asked Captain Luskoff, commander of -the regiment, if he had found out what the Emperor Paul thought of the -women soldiers, and he laughed and promised to report later on that -point.</p> - -<p>It was not intended to raise many regiments of women, I was told. The -intention was to enlist and train to the highest point of efficiency -between ten and twenty thousand women, and to distribute the -regiments over the various front lines to inspire and stimulate the -disorganized army. They would lead the men in battle when necessary, -as Botchkareva’s brave band led them, and they would appear as a sign -and symbol that the women of the country were not willing that the -revolution, which generations of Russian men and women have died for, -and have endured in the snows of Siberia sufferings worse than death, -should end in chaos and national disintegration.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER X</span> <span class="smaller">THE HOMING EXILES—TWO KINDS</span></h2> - -<p>In a great, bare room, furnished with rows of narrow cots like a -hospital, but with none of the crisp whiteness of the hospital, nor any -of its promise of relief and restoration, a young man, propped with -pillows, played on a concertina. He was white, emaciated, near the end -of his young life. His eyes were like banked fires. He sat up in bed -and in the intervals of coughing made the most wonderful music on that -concertina, much more wonderful than I had ever dreamed the humble -instrument could produce. The man was a true musician, and he had had -many years of practice on his concertina, for it had been the one -friend and solace of a solitary confinement which lasted nearly a dozen -years. All around him in that bare room men lay in bed and listened -to him. Some, however, were asleep. Even music could not break their -weary rest. All were sick. Some were as near death as was the musician. -Siberia had done its work with them. They had come home to die.</p> - -<p>On a soap box, or its equivalent on a corner of the Nevski Prospect -near the Alexander Theater, another young man stood and poured out a -passionate speech to the crowd of soldiers, workmen and workwomen and -idle boys who had paused to listen.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> The man was about thirty years -old, and his clothes, it was plain to see, had never been purchased in -Russia. They were American clothes of fair quality, and of that stylish -cut possible to buy for twenty-five dollars in almost any department -store. He wore a derby hat, tipped back on his head, a soft collar and -a flowing tie. He talked rapidly and with many gestures, and the crowd -listened with rapt interest to his speech. I, too, stopped to listen. -“What is he saying?” I asked my interpreter.</p> - -<p>“I don’t like to tell you,” she replied.</p> - -<p>I insisted, and this is an almost literal translation of what that man -said, on that Petrograd street corner, on an August day, 1917:</p> - -<p>“You people over here in Russia don’t want to make a mistake of setting -up the kind of a republic, of the kind of phony democracy like what -they’ve got in the United States. I lived in the United States for ten -years, and you take it from me, it’s the worst government in the world. -They have a president who is worse than the Czar. The police are worse -than Cossacks. The capitalist class is on top there just like they were -in the old days in Russia. The working class is fighting them, and they -are going to win. We are going to put the capitalists out just like you -put them out here, and don’t you let any American capitalists come over -here and help fasten on you a government like that one they still have -in America. It’s the capitalists that plunged America into war. The -working class never wanted it.”</p> - -<p>These are two types of exiles which Russia has called back to her bosom -since the revolution, both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> of which constitute another grave problem -with which the distracted people are struggling. The sick ones, of -whom there are thousands, came back and more of them are coming from -Siberia at a time when food suitable for the sick is impossible to -obtain. There was almost no milk. Eggs were hard to get and were not -very fresh. Food of all kinds was getting scarcer every day. There was -a fuel shortage that threatened to make all Russia spend a shivering -winter, and what was to become of the sick was and still is a grave -question. There is a great shortage of many medicines. If fighting is -resumed the hospitals will be overcrowded. Doctors and nurses will be -scarce. Yet the exiles continue to come back, the long stream from the -remote villages continues to hold out its longing hands to the people -back home, who cannot deny them. And nearly all the exiles come back -sick and homeless and penniless. Russia must take care of those freed -Siberian exiles, and I don’t quite see how she is going to do it, -unless the miracle happens and they find a way of restoring peace and -order in the land. In that case they can do anything. They can even -deal with the kind of exile I heard talking on the Nevski.</p> - -<p>Carlyle says that of all man’s earthly possessions, unquestionably -the dearest to him are his symbols. They have the strongest hold on -us without a doubt. At the time of the French revolution the sign -and symbol of the old régime was the Bastille, that state prison in -Paris which was the living grave of the king’s enemies, or of almost -anybody who made himself unpopular with one of the king’s favorites.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> -When the French people rose up in their might and swept the old régime -out, the first thing they did, obeying a common impulse, was to tear -down and destroy utterly the Bastille. In Russia the sign and symbol -of the autocracy was the exile system, and particularly Siberia. The -first thing the Russian people did when they rose up and dethroned -the Romanoffs was to send telegrams to every political prison and to -every convict village in Siberia that the prisoners and exiles were -free. They sent orders to all the jailers and guards that the exiles -were to be furnished with clothing and money and transportation to -the railroads, and the railroads were directed to bring them back to -Petrograd.</p> - -<p>There is something to warm the coldest blood in the thought of what -it must have meant to those poor desolate creatures, living in the -hopeless isolation of Siberia, to have the door of the cell open -one February day and hear the words,“You are free!” Sometimes the -announcement was prefaced by words of unheard of friendliness and -courtesy from wardens and jailers who had before been cruel and brutal -task-masters. “Please forgive me if I have been over-zealous in my -duties,” these men would say, and the prisoner would think that he -had gone mad and was dreaming. Then the announcement would come, -unbelievable in its wonder; the revolution had actually happened. -The Czar was gone. The prisoner was free. They heard that news in -the depths of mines, where men worked shackled and hopeless. They -heard it in lonely villages near the Arctic Circle. They heard it in -far lands, where homesick men and women toiled in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> sweatshops among -aliens. They were free, and Mother Russia was calling them home again. -I should think they would almost have died of joy at the tidings. No -generous mind can wonder that Russia called back her children, all of -them, without stopping to sort out the good and the bad, the well and -the sick, the desirable and the undesirable. Or without stopping to -calculate how she was going to take care of them when they got there.</p> - -<p>But very early in the day it became evident that Russia was going to -face a serious problem in her returned exiles. In the very first days -of the revolution they opened all the prison doors in Petrograd as -well as in other Russian cities, and let all the prisoners out. Among -them were a number of politicals, and many of them immediately became -public charges. They had no money, no friends, no home. The revolution -had robbed them, in some cases, of all three. In some cases of long -imprisonment the homes and friends had been taken from them by death. -There had been a committee working secretly in behalf of political -prisoners, and now this committee, with a group in the Red Cross, -got together and formed a society which they call the Political Red -Cross, the committee in charge of returned exiles. For they saw plainly -that what had happened in the case of the Petrograd prisoners would -be repeated on a large scale when the Siberian exiles and those from -foreign lands returned. Another committee was formed in Moscow. They -sprang up in various cities, co-operating with the Zemstvoes or county -councils.</p> - -<p>At the head of the work is Vera Figner, one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> the most famous of the -old revolutionists, almost the last survivor of the nihilism of the -eighteen seventies. The Russians are said to lack organizing ability, -but the work done by this committee under Vera Figner’s direction -looks to me that once Russia gets a government that can govern and an -army that will fight the people of Russia will organize a civilization -that will teach Europe new things. The committee started with nothing, -not even machinery to work with. There is no such thing in Russia as -a charity organization society. Charity and benevolence there are, -mostly of the old-fashioned type, “Under the patronage of her imperial -highness, the Princess Olga,” or “the empress dowager.” There was no -well-organized society of any kind to appeal to to help take care of -some seventy-five thousand exiles hurrying home, an unknown number of -them sick, another unknown number poor and homeless, and all of them -strangers in a new Russia.</p> - -<p>Vera Figner I saw in the Petrograd headquarters of the society. She -is a matronly woman, looking less than sixty, although she must be -older. She has a handsome face, with the deep, smoldering eyes of the -revolutionist, but her smile is quiet and kind. Near her at the long -committee table sat Mme. Kerenskaia, the estranged wife of the minister -president Kerensky. She is an attractive young woman with dark eyes and -abundant dark hair, who gives all of her time to the work of the exiles -committee. Mme. Gorki is another woman of prominence who works with -the committees, and Prince Kropotkin and his daughter, Mme. Lebedev, -whose husband was in the government when I left, are also constant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> -workers. The work was done through eight committees, one of which -collected money, a great deal of money, too. Hundreds of thousands of -roubles have poured in from all over Russia as well as from England, -America, France. Another committee collects clothes, and they are much -scarcer than money in Russia. A committee on home-finding also collects -sanitarium and hospital beds wherever they are to be found. A reception -committee meets the exiles and takes them to their various lodgings. A -medical and a legal aid committee take care of their own sides of the -work. All over Petrograd and Moscow they have established temporary -lodgings and temporary hospitals for the cure of the returned sick and -helpless. It was in such a refuge that I saw and heard the man with the -concertina.</p> - -<p>I had come to find Marie Spirodonova, one of the most appealing as -well as the most tragic figures of the revolution of 1905-06. She -was the Charlotte Corday of that revolution, for like Charlotte she, -unaided by any revolutionary society, freed her country of one of -the worst monsters of his time. She shot and killed the half-mad and -wholly horrible governor of Tambosk. And like Charlotte she paid for -that deed with her life. She lived indeed to return to Russia, but her -span after that was short. Marie Spirodonova was in the last stages of -tuberculosis when they brought her back to Russia. Ten years’ solitary -confinement had done that for her. The first sentence of death, -afterward commuted to twenty years’ exile, would have been shorter -and more merciful. When I saw her, she was in bed, so wasted that she -looked like a child. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> flush of fever on her cheeks gave her a false -look of health, and she looked almost as beautiful as on the day when -she stood in the prisoner’s dock and told the judges how and why she -killed the monster of a governor. Her voice was all but gone now, and -it was in a hoarse whisper that she greeted me, and asked news of her -one or two friends in America. I could stay only a few minutes, she was -so weak. It is hardly possible that she still lives, although no news -of her death has reached me.</p> - -<p>Until the last breath she must have kept her iron will and indomitable -spirit. Ten years in a solitary cell could not break that spirit, as -the story of her release shows. When the first telegram came to the -distant prison, where she and nine other women were confined, the names -of only eight of them were specifically mentioned.</p> - -<p>“But what about us?” wailed the two forgotten ones.</p> - -<p>The warden of the prison perhaps did not entirely believe in the -success of the revolution, and wanted to be on the safe side. “You -stay,” he said.</p> - -<p>“Then none of us will go,” said Marie Spirodonova, and they all stayed -until the next day when another telegram arrived setting them all free. -In the same spirit Spirodonova refused to leave her companions after -they reached Petrograd. She was so famous, so sought after, that she -could have chosen among a dozen hospitable homes, in the country, in -the Crimea or the bracing mountains of the Caucasus. But she said she -would not have anything her old prison mates did not have, so Marie -Spirodonova, daughter of a general, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> concertina player, child -of a peasant, die as they lived, revolutionists, spurning all the -comforts of life, all the protection and security of home, all the -plaudits of the world. They lived and died for Russia as surely as -though they died on the battlefield.</p> - -<p>Of the same type is the most celebrated exile of all, Catherine -Breshkovskaia, the Babushka, or little grandmother of the revolution. -They brought Babushka back to Petrograd in the first rush. They gave -her a reception at the station such as no crowned head in Europe ever -had, and they took her to the Winter Palace and told her that when the -Czar moved out he left it to her. Babushka lived in the Winter Palace -when she was in Petrograd, which was seldom. Most of the time she was -touring rural Russia and trying to make her peasants understand what -the revolution meant, and that they would make the country a worse -place than it ever was before unless they stopped fighting to grab all -the land in sight without any regard to right and justice. “I know -them,” she said in a brief talk I had with her in the palace. “If I can -only live long enough to reach them in numbers, I can deal with them. -They have listened to a pack of nonsense, but I shall tell them better.”</p> - -<p>Breshkovskaia is past seventy years old. She is growing very deaf, -and her weight makes traveling difficult. Yet her mind is clear and -vigorous, and when she makes a speech she manages somehow to call -back the voice and the strength of a woman of forty. Spirodonova, -Breshkovskaia, Kropotkin, Tschaikovsky and almost every one of the old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> -revolutionists are eager adherents of the moderate program of the early -provisional government, before the Bolsheviki crowded in with their -cry of “All the power to the Soviets!” They want the war fought to a -finish, and they want order restored in Russia. It is quite otherwise -with another type of exile, and I am sorry to say some of this other -kind were made in the United States of America.</p> - -<div class="center"><a name="i092.jpg" id="i092.jpg"></a><br /><img src="images/i092.jpg" alt="Prince Felix Yussupoff" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Prince Felix Yussupoff, at whose palace on the Moika -Canal Rasputin<br />was killed, and his wife, the Grand Duchess Irene<br /> -Alexandrovna, niece of the late Czar.</p> - -<p>In the boat in which I crossed the Atlantic last May there were three -Russian men who had spent some years in America and were on their -way back to Petrograd. These men were not exiles, but they had found -Russia intolerable to live in and had gone to America, which had been -so kind to them in a material way that they were able to go back to -Russia in the first cabin of an ocean liner. All three were pronounced -pacifists and one was a readymade Bolshevik. He was for the whole -program, separate peace, no annexations or contributions, no sharing -the government with the bourgeois, no compromise on anything. A real -Bolshevik. And made on the east side of New York. This man used to talk -to me on deck and in the saloon about how the Soldiers’ and Workmen’s -Delegates were going to dictate terms of peace to the allies, and how -the social revolution was going to spread all over the world, and -especially all over America, and then he would hasten to assure me that -he wasn’t nearly as radical as some of the Tavarishi I would meet in -Russia, and he wasn’t. When we reached the Finnish frontier and stopped -at Tornea for examination I had the pleasure of seeing all three of -these men taken into custody by some remnant of authority<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> existing -in the army, and taken down to Petrograd under guard as men who had -evaded military duty. My friend declared that nothing would ever induce -him to put on a uniform or to fight. Not he. And the others rather -less confidently echoed his defiance. Finally one of them said: “on -the whole, I think I will enlist. They need educated men at the front -to talk peace to them.” Thus at least one emissary of the Kaiser was -contributed to poor, bleeding Russia by the United States.</p> - -<p>Just one more case, because it is typical of many. This man was a -real exile, and for eleven years he had lived in Chicago. Born in a -small city of western Russia, he joined, when still a youth, what was -known as the Bund, a socialist propagandist circle of Jewish young men -and women. The youth’s parents, quiet, orthodox people, knew nothing -of his activities, nor of the revolutionary literature of which he -was custodian and which he had concealed in the sand bags piled up -around the cottage to keep out the winter cold. On May 31, 1905, the -Tavarishi, or comrades, in his town organized a small demonstration -against the celebration of the Czar’s birthday. The next day the -police began searching houses and making arrests among the youth of -the town, and they found the books hidden in the sandbags. The boy -fled, and found refuge in the next town. Money was raised, a passport -forged and the youth finally got to England via Germany. He didn’t like -England and in 1906 he crossed to the United States. He didn’t like the -United States either, and his whole career in Chicago was a history of -agitation and rebellion. He was one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> founders of a socialist -Sunday school in Mayor Thompson’s town, where children of tender years -are given a thorough education in Bolshevik first principles.</p> - -<p>When the Russian revolution broke and Russian consuls all over the -world advertised for exiles to be taken back to Russia’s heart, this -man presented himself as one of the returners. He showed me the -certificate issued by the Russian consulate in Chicago. It says that it -was issued in accordance with the orders of the provisional government -and records that the said —— —— was paid the sum of $157.25 and -was given transportation from Chicago to Petrograd, via the Pacific -Ocean and the Trans-Siberian railroad. At Vladivostock he received more -money, and on his arrival in Petrograd he was given a small weekly -allowance in addition to his free lodgings. He had a good time on the -journey, he said. There was a band at most of the stations where the -train stopped, crowds, flowers and much cheering. It was agreeable to -get back to Petrograd also and be met by a committee. But the habit -of hating governments was so settled in his system that within a -week he was talking against the one that had paid his way back, and -he was talking hard against the one which had taken him in and given -him a free education and a job and a chance to establish a socialist -Sunday school with perfect impunity. He was in with all the Bolshevik -activities except one. He had no stomach for fighting. The spirit was -willing but the flesh was weak. It got to a point where it was hard to -be a Bolshevik in good standing and never do any gun work, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> this -exile determined to go back to Chicago. When I knew him he was haunting -the committees and various ministries trying to persuade them to give -him the money with which to return.</p> - -<p>“You don’t think they can draft me into the American army, do you?” he -asked me anxiously. “I am a Russian subject. I don’t see how they could -do it legally.”</p> - -<p>I don’t know how many men of this kind went back to Russia from the -United States, but there were enough of them to be conspicuous, and the -Russian radicals believe them to be far more reliable witnesses than -the Root Commission, which made a remarkably good impression on the -educated people but none at all on the Tavarishi. “Don’t you believe -that the United States is in this war for democracy,” shouted one -Nevsky Prospect orator. “The United States is just as imperialistic as -England. You oughtta read what Lincoln Steffens and John Reed wrote -about the United States and Mexico.” These men will do Russia all the -harm they can, and then they will come back to America and do us all -the harm they can. If I had my way they would go from Ellis Island, -with all the rest of their kind still remaining here, to some kind of a -devil’s island in the South Seas and be kept there until they died.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XI</span> <span class="smaller">HOW RASPUTIN DIED</span></h2> - -<p>Looking at these exiles, these wrecks of humanity done to death in the -name of the state, and reflecting that their number was so great that -months had to elapse before they could all be located and brought back -to life, it is not to be wondered at that most Russians believed the -autocracy a thing too strong to be shaken. But the February revolution -revealed that the autocracy was a tree rotten at the roots. At a touch -it collapsed.</p> - -<p>The Russian autocracy went down like a house of cards, and within an -incredibly short time the whole horde of ignorant and reactionary -ministers, grafting generals, corrupt officials, court parasites, -vagrant monks, mystics and fortune tellers went down with it and -were buried in its ruins. The Czar—a reed shaken in the wind. The -Czarina, the Empress Dowager, the poor little Czarevitch, Rasputin, -Anna Virubova, his sponsor at the court—leaves in the current. They -all went. In the dead of night a group of determined men, led by a -nephew-in-law of the Czar, murdered a monk, and almost the next day -the whole Protopopoff-Sturmer gang was in the fortress of Peter and -Paul and the Romanoff family was on its way to Siberia. Rasputin, it -is true, was killed in December, and the revolution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> did not actually -occur until February; but two months in the history of a nation is an -inconsiderable lapse of time. The story of the killing of Rasputin has -been published in this country, and, in its main facts, accurately. In -some of its important details the published stories are in error, and -I am glad to be able to tell the facts as they were related by Prince -Felix Yussupoff himself, the man who fired the shot that freed Russia.</p> - -<p>Prince Yussupoff did not tell these facts directly to me. He told them -to Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the English suffragist, with whom he is -on terms of warm friendship, and gave her permission to repeat them -to me, which she did within an hour of hearing them. Prince Yussupoff -was willing that I should know the story, but our acquaintance was -brief, and I am sure that I heard a more detailed account through -Mrs. Pankhurst than I should have had had he talked directly to me, a -comparative stranger.</p> - -<p>Prince Yussupoff did not kill Rasputin, as has been charged, because -the monk had cast lascivious eyes on his beautiful young wife, the -Grand Duchess Irene Alexandrovna. At least he said nothing about her in -connection with the affair, and it is certain that she took no active -part in it. She did not lure the monk to the Yussupoff palace on the -fatal night. She could not have done so because she was in the Crimea -at the time. Prince Yussupoff killed Rasputin because of the man’s evil -influence on the Czar, his wife’s uncle, and his worse influence on the -Czarina. The thing had got beyond scandal. It had become unbearable, -and when <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>evidence was presented to him that Rasputin was trying to -influence the royal pair to force Russia into a separate peace with -Germany, Prince Yussupoff decided that the time for Rasputin’s death -had come. Rasputin had to die. He was invited to Yussupoff’s house and -he accepted. Then he died.</p> - -<p>I have often walked past that great, beautiful, yellow palace on the -Moika canal, the Petrograd town house of the Yussupoff family, and -tried to reconstruct the ghastly drama enacted there on that December -night. Snow burying the black ice of the canal, shrouding the street -and silent houses, dimming the street lights, and in a basement room, -a private retreat of the lord of the palace, a young man sweating from -every shivering pore, and watching the sinister monk eat and drink -deadly poison which affected him no more than water. They had fed one -of the poisoned cakes to a dog, just before they sent them downstairs -to be fed to Rasputin, and the dog died in a few seconds. Rasputin -ate one and lived. Explain it who can, but cease to wonder that the -Russians firmly believe that Rasputin was something more than human.</p> - -<p>Excusing himself on some pretext Prince Yussupoff went upstairs, where -the others waited—young Grand Duke Dmitri and two or three other men, -and told them the incredible news. When he went back he had a revolver -in his pocket. He and the monk resumed their conversation, which was on -general topics. It was the first time Rasputin had visited Yussupoff or -had any particular conversation with him. The prince was not a favorite -at court, the empress especially disapproving of certain <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>alleged -episodes in his youthful past. For this reason young Prince Felix and -the monk were on formal terms, and it took a great deal of diplomacy -to persuade Rasputin to make that midnight visit at all. They resumed -their interrupted conversation, and in the course of it the prince -invited Rasputin to cross the room and look at an ikon, or sacred -picture, which hung on the opposite wall. These ikons are frequently -rare objects of art, gold or silver, and incrusted with gems. The ikon, -which was to be the last on which Rasputin’s gaze was to rest, was an -antique of almost priceless value. He looked, and the next moment a -revolver shot tore through his side and he crumpled up on the floor -without a groan. Prince Yussupoff had shot him.</p> - -<p>The prince had never killed a man before, and it was natural that, in -his revulsion of nerves after the deed, he should have rushed from -the room. He fled upstairs and gasped out that it was over, the thing -they had sworn to do was done, Rasputin was dead. The next thing was -to get the body out of the house, and this task was rendered the more -difficult because a policeman who had passed the house at the moment -when the shot was fired, rang a doorbell and insisted on knowing what -had occurred. He was pacified somehow, and one of the men went out -to get a motor car. Prince Yussupoff went downstairs to guard the -body until the car came. Rasputin lay motionless on the floor beneath -the jeweled ikon, but as his slayer reached the spot where he lay, -the monk’s body shot up, the monk’s long arms darted forward and his -powerful hands reached and clawed for Yussupoff’s throat. Half<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> mad -with amazement and horror, the young man tore himself loose, leaving -one of the epaulets from his uniform in the clawing hands. Rushing with -all his might to the room upstairs, he shrieked: “He lives yet! He is -the devil himself! We cannot kill him!”</p> - -<p>“We must kill him!” they shrieked in return, and the whole band rushed -for the stairs. When they opened the door Rasputin was crawling on -hands and knees up the stairs. His face was diabolic. What followed -does not make pleasant reading. They tried to kill him, crawling toward -them, using every weapon they could grasp—revolvers, swords, daggers, -clubs, heavy chairs, even their boots. They shot and beat him until -he was senseless, but even then he did not die. They tied his hands -and feet and regardless of possible risk of detection they loaded the -senseless body into a motor car, drove to the Neva, a considerable -distance, and threw the still breathing thing through a hole in the -ice. There Rasputin died.</p> - -<p>That is the way Prince Yussupoff tells it. The world knows how the Czar -had the body embalmed and buried, and how he and all the royal family -walked in the funeral procession. It was the intention of the Empress -to build a costly tomb over his grave, perhaps a church. They usually -built a church to commemorate assassinations of royalty, and the poor, -half-demented Empress of Russia regarded Rasputin as greater than -royalty. Perhaps if the revolution of February had not succeeded the -church would have been built, loaded with gold and art treasures, as -those Russian churches are, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> might in time have become a shrine in -which the superstitious would pray for miracles. But the revolution did -succeed, and one of the first things they did was to unearth the corpse -of Rasputin and give it another burial. I heard several accounts of -that burial, all of them horrible. One account has it that the body was -burned. It doesn’t make any real difference. Rasputin had to be killed, -and he was. The burial was nothing unless you find something symbolic -in the uneasy character of the man even after he was dead. It does -indicate, strangely, the sinister nature of the whole Rasputin episode.</p> - -<p>No arrests followed the killing of Rasputin, although the men who did -it were known almost from the first. Rasputin’s family, with whom he -lived in Petrograd, knew where he went on his death night, and when -he did not return they telephoned Tsarskoe Selo to ask if he was -there. The royal family lived in the Alexander palace at Tsarskoe, and -Rasputin often visited them there. But he did not live at court, as -many people seem to think. The Czarina, frightened half to death, sent -for the Petrograd chief of police and the dragnet immediately thrown -out drew in the policeman who had heard a revolver shot from the yellow -palace on the Moika canal. The chief of police went in person to the -Yussupoff palace and found it a shambles. Prince Felix had been so -nearly prostrated by the events of the night—he is really little more -than a boy—that he had not even had the place cleaned. The prince at -first refused to tell anything of the affair and he steadfastly refused -to divulge the names of the men who had helped him do the deed. But -little by little the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> police unearthed the whole story, and the frantic -Czarina learned that at least two of the assassins were of the blood -royal. She demanded their punishment, and the Czar joined with her in -the demand.</p> - -<p>They would have sent all the men to the farthest Siberian mine if they -had had their way. But there was a meeting of the Romanoff clan in -the Tsarskoe palace, probably more than one meeting. The grand dukes -were all there, and the Empress Dowager. They told the royal pair -that nobody must suffer for the deed. Horrible as it was, it had to -happen some time, because assassination was the certain end of men like -Rasputin. They told the Emperor and Empress plainly that they were -fortunate that only one assassination had taken place. Nobody at that -time knew that the revolution was close at hand. None of the Romanoff -family believed that the revolution would ever come. But they knew—all -of them except the Czar and his wife—that the house of Romanoff was -due to have a thorough cleaning, and they were thankful at heart that -Prince Felix and young Grand Duke Dmitri had had the nerve to begin the -work. The young grand duke was sent to the Caucasus and Prince Felix -was banished to his estates. I don’t know where the lesser lights were -sent, but certainly they were not arrested. The grand duke is still in -the Caucasus, the provisional government wisely considering him well -off out there on the Persian border.</p> - -<p>Prince Yussupoff is not only free but he is something of a popular -hero still. He is very democratic, is openly sympathetic with the -revolution, although he detests the Bolsheviki, who have turned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> -revolution into riot. The constitutional democrats and other -conservative revolutionists admire the young man, and there is even -a group, I don’t know how large, which would like to see him the -constitutional monarch of Russia. He is not a Romanoff, but his wife -is. She is young, rarely beautiful and a great favorite in society. -As for Prince Felix, he belongs if not to royalty, to a family which -has intermarried more than once with royalty. On his father’s side -he is Count Sumarokoff-Elston, the latter name indicating British -descent, the original Elston coming over from Scotland during the reign -of the Empress Catherine. He gained her favor and secured the title -and estates of Sumarokoff. The father of Prince Felix assumed, by -Imperial decree, the title of Prince Yussupoff on his marriage with the -beautiful Princess Yusupova, the last of her line, who thus perpetuated -the family name. The Yussupoffs are one of the oldest and wealthiest -families in Russia. Their origin runs back into the half-fabulous days -of Tartar domination, the name Yussupoff being Tartar, and not Russian -at all. It means Joseph’s son. The title, however, dates back only -about a century. Prince Felix is the head of the family, his elder -brother having been killed in a duel some years ago on French soil. -He is barely thirty years old, and looks much younger. Nobody would -be likely to pick out this man in a crowd for an assassin. He is tall -and slender, and almost too handsome. With his fine features, dark, -melancholy eyes and ivory skin he might almost be called effeminate in -appearance. One sees such men only in very old families where the vigor -has begun to run low. There is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> plenty of vigor left in Prince Felix, -however. He has an Oxford education, and speaks English perfectly. He -speaks many other languages besides, as the highly educated Russians -are all supposed to do, but which they frequently do not. French is -commonly spoken, of course.</p> - -<p>I had a long talk with Prince Felix Yussupoff in Moscow, and we -talked, most of the time, about the American public school system. He -wanted to know what the Gary system was, and fortunately I was able -to tell him. As I described the schools, where children spent their -days, working, studying, playing, being wholly educated and trained -to think as well as to work, the prince’s eyes glowed and his face -shone with interest and amazement. “It’s the finest thing I ever heard -of,” he exclaimed. “It is exactly what we ought to have in Russia.” -And then he went on to say thoughtfully: “Mrs. Dorr, my wife and I -want to do something for Russia, something really worth while. I -don’t want to be forever remembered for—for just one thing. I want -to do something constructive. Of course, as things are now, there is -nothing constructive to be done. Besides, my wife is a Romanoff, and, -naturally——” He paused with a graceful little gesture of the hand. -Naturally a Romanoff couldn’t be conspicuous in any way just then. “But -when the time comes, if it ever does, when Russia is normal again, why -shouldn’t the contribution I make be to the education of children?”</p> - -<p>“The salvation of your country lies in the education of its children, -all of them, not just the children of the rich,” I replied. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I believe it,” was the earnest response. “And I want to help establish -the best public school system in the world in Russia. How can I do it?”</p> - -<p>I told him, to the best of my ability. And he promised me that he would -carry out my suggestions. Prince Felix Yussupoff means to spend the -next year or two studying the American public school, and especially -the Gary system. He doesn’t want to be remembered for just one thing.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XII</span> <span class="smaller">ANNA VIRUBOVA SPEAKS</span></h2> - -<p>“Let any American mother imagine that her only son, who came into the -world a weakling, and whose life had always hung on a thread, had been -miraculously restored to health. Suppose also that the person who did -this wonderful thing was not a doctor, but a monk of that mother’s -church. Wouldn’t it be natural for that mother to regard the man with -almost superstitious gratitude for the rest of her life? Wouldn’t it -also be natural that she would want to keep the monk near her, at least -until the child grew up, in order to have the benefit of his advice and -help in case of a return of the illness?”</p> - -<p>I had heard the story of the Rasputin murder as told by one of the -principals in the gory tragedy, Prince Felix Yussupoff, and now I was -to hear it again, this time from one of the reputed “dark forces,” of -which Rasputin had been the head and front, Anna Virubova, the intimate -friend and confidante of the Empress of Russia, and believed by many -to be the chief accomplice of Rasputin. I had heard all sorts of -horrible stories about this woman. It was said that she was Rasputin’s -procuress. It was said that she conspired with him to make the Empress -believe that the Czarevitch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> would die if the monk were sent away from -court, or if he voluntarily withdrew. On the several occasions when -he did go, Madame Virubova was said to have fed the child with minute -doses of poison, so that he sickened, and when that happened of course -the frantic mother demanded the return of Rasputin.</p> - -<p>As the monk’s appetite for power grew and he demanded the removal -of this or that metropolitan or bishop, the removal or appointment -of ministers, the suppression of newspapers that denounced him, the -Czarina, urged on by her friend Madame Virubova, would insist that -Rasputin should have his way. Otherwise he might leave, and the -Czarevitch would surely die. Madame Virubova was also said to have -conspired with a court physician to poison the Czar, or rather to put -constant doses of some toxic in his food in order to cloud his mind, -and thus make him an easier dupe for the pro-German conspirators. They -told the most amazing stories about this woman, making her out a sort -of a combination of Lucrezia Borgia and Jezebel.</p> - -<div class="center"><a name="i108.jpg" id="i108.jpg"></a><br /><img src="images/i108.jpg" alt="Gregory Rasputin" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Gregory Rasputin and some of his female devotees.</p> - -<p>Whether the provisional government believed these stories or not, -the Duma members who forced the revolution evidently believed Anna -Virubova to be one of the most dangerous of the inner court circle, -or camarilla, which was planning a German peace. For when the Czar -was forced to abdicate, and all the accused men of the camarilla -were arrested and thrown into the fortress of Peter and Paul, Madame -Virubova was also arrested and sent to the fortress. She was taken out -of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> sick bed—there had been an epidemic of measles in the royal -family—thrown into an underground cell and kept there for three -months. At the end of that time she was in such a state of collapse -that the prison physician recommended her removal to a hospital. To -this the provisional government consented, but when the order for her -release was presented to the governor of the fortress, and he ordered -her cell door unlocked, the soldiers on duty refused to obey the order. -It was days before they were persuaded to let her go. Madame Virubova -was sent to a hospital for a month, and then they set her free. That -is, they permitted her to go to the home of her brother-in-law, who -is a stepson of the Grand Duke Paul, and to live there under strict -surveillance. They had searched her house in Tsarskoe Selo, and her -rooms in the palace. They had put her through every kind of cross -examination, not once but many times, and they were forced to admit -that they could not discover a single incriminating circumstance, or -any evidence of poisoning or conspiracy. They had to release her, but -she was not allowed to leave the country, or even her brother’s house, -without permission, which, of course, would not be granted. She was -watched all the time, and might be rearrested and given the third -degree at any time if the least bit of evidence seemed to warrant it.</p> - -<p>Anna Virubova is considered a very dangerous woman. She is one of -two things, very dangerous or very much maligned. She gave me the -impression, after two long, intimate talks, of a woman absolutely -innocent of any wrongdoing. If she is a criminal she ought to be put -in prison for life, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> her powers of deceit are simply marvelous. I -liked Anna Virubova, and I don’t think I could possibly like a woman -capable of poisoning little boys or handing innocent young girls over -into the claws of a lascivious monk.</p> - -<p>How I met this woman, how she came to talk confidentially with me, -where I saw her and when, are not to be written just now. They could -not be published without injuring a number of people, perhaps including -Madame Virubova herself. I saw and talked with her soon after her -release from the prison hospital. She was still a little drawn and -haggard from the hardships and the terror of her experiences in Peter -and Paul, and she was in the depth of despondency over the plight -of her friend the Czarina. She is a very pretty woman, this alleged -Borgia-Jezebel. She has an abundance of brown hair and her eyes are -large and deeply blue. Her features are regular, and her mouth curves -like a child’s. Two or three years ago the train on which she was -traveling between Petrograd and Tsarskoe Selo was wrecked, some say -purposely. Madame Virubova was desperately injured, both legs being -broken and her spine wrenched. She was lamed for life and walks with a -crutch, but in spite of that all her movements are singularly graceful. -One of the stories about her is that she was a peasant girl brought to -court by Rasputin and forced on the Empress as a convenient tool of -the conspirators. This is quite untrue. Madame Virubova is a patrician -by birth, and before she was born, and long before Rasputin appeared -in Tsarskoe Selo, her family was attached to the court. The father and -the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> grandfather of Madame Virubova were court officials, confidential -secretaries to the emperors of their times. Both her parents are living -and I have met them both. They are highly educated and unmistakably -well bred. They are not rich people, but they live in a very beautiful -apartment in an exclusive quarter of Petrograd.</p> - -<p>For more than a dozen years Mme. Virubova lived on terms of closest -friendship with the Czarina. She did not live at court, at least she -did not until after the murder of Rasputin, when she went to the palace -to be near the frightened and despairing Empress. She had a house of -her own in Tsarskoe Selo, and it was at her house that the Empress met -the monk who was to have such a sinister influence on her after life. -The Empress, who was never popular at court, and never happy there, -liked to have a place where she could go and throw off her imperial -character, be a woman among her intimate friends, care free. Such a -refuge was Mme. Virubova’s home to the melancholy Alexandra, wife of -the Emperor of all the Russias. Mme. Virubova’s husband was an officer -in the navy, and gossip had it that he disapproved of his wife’s -friendship with the Empress, and disapproved still more of the people -who were invited to meet her in his home. Rasputin was not the only one -of the mystics and charlatans she met and talked with, it appears. The -Empress was deeply religious, and she was interested in all kinds of -strange and mystical doctrines. The husband of Mme. Virubova was not, -and he feared, as well he might, that almost any kind of a political -plot might be hatched by that “little group of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>serious thinkers” who -met in his drawing room and in the scented boudoir of his wife. They -quarreled. It got to the point where they did nothing but quarrel, and -one day Mme. Virubova was given a choice between her husband and her -friend. She chose the friend, and thenceforth she occupied the house in -Tsarskoe Selo alone. The husband went to sea, and after a year or two -he died.</p> - -<p>Something of this Madame Virubova told me, and the rest a friend of -the husband told me. In her story the husband appears as a jealous, -unreasonable, bad tempered man, almost a lunatic. In her friend’s story -he appears a martyr. “I have not had a very amusing life,” said Anna -Virubova, in speaking of her marriage. She smiled, a little bitterly. -“Perhaps that is one reason why I, like the Empress, was attracted to -religion, why we both liked and trusted Rasputin. We did trust him, -and to the end everything he did justified our confidence. As for the -Empress’s feeling for him I give you my solemn word of honor it was -solely that of a grateful mother, and a devout member of the Orthodox -church.” And then she spoke the words with which I have opened this -chapter. “Let any American mother imagine that she had an only son who -had come into the world a weakling, one whose life had always hung on a -thread, and that that child had suddenly and miraculously been restored -to health. Let her suppose that the person who did this wonderful thing -was not a doctor but a monk of her own church. Wouldn’t it be natural -for that mother to regard the man with almost superstitious gratitude -for the rest of her life? Wouldn’t it also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> be natural that she should -want to keep the monk near her, at least until the child grew up, in -order to have the benefit of his advice and help in case of return -of the illness? Well, that is the whole truth about the Empress and -Rasputin.”</p> - -<p>“But did Rasputin really heal the Czarevitch, and restore him to -health?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“Judge for yourself,” she replied. “Perhaps you know how ardently the -birth of a son was desired by both the Emperor and the Empress. They -had four girls, but a woman may not inherit the Russian throne. A -boy was wanted, and when at last he came, a poor little sickly baby, -the Empress was nearly in despair. The child had a rare disease, one -which the doctors have never been able to cure. The blood vessels -were affected, so that the patient bled at the slightest touch. Even -a small wound would endanger his life. He might bleed to death of a -cut finger. In addition to this the boy developed tuberculosis of the -hip. It seemed impossible that he could ever live to grow up. He was -a dear child, always, beautiful, clever, and lovable. Even had less -hung on his life than succession to the throne it would have been -hard to give him up. Each one of his successive illnesses racked the -Empress with such terror and anguish that her mind almost gave away. -For a long time she was so melancholy that she had to live in seclusion -under the care of nurses. It was not so much assassins that she feared. -It was that the child should die of the maladies that afflicted him. -And, in addition to all this daily and hourly anxiety and pain she -suffered, the poor Empress was torn this way and that by the grand -dukes and all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> the members of the court circle. Each one had a remedy -or a treatment they wanted applied to the child. There were always new -doctors, new treatments, new operations in the air. The Empress was -criticized bitterly because she wouldn’t try them all. The Empress -Dowager—well——” Virubova looked at me and we both smiled. The -mother-in-law joke is as sadly amusing in a palace as in a Harlem flat.</p> - -<p>“Then came Rasputin,” continued Madame Virubova. “And he said to the -Empress: ‘Don’t worry about the child. He is going to live, and he -is going to get well. He doesn’t need medicine, he needs as much of -a healthy, outdoor life as his condition can stand. He needs to play -with a dog and a pony. He needs a sled. Don’t let the doctors give -him any except the mildest medicines. Don’t on any account allow them -to operate. The boy will soon show improvement, and then he will get -well.’”</p> - -<p>“Did Rasputin say that he was going to heal him?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“Rasputin simply said that the boy was going to get well, and he told -us almost the day and the hour when the boy would begin to get well. -‘When the child is twelve years old,’ Rasputin told us, ‘he will begin -to improve. He will improve steadily after that, and by the time he is -a man he will be in ordinary health like other men.’ And very shortly -after he turned twelve years old he did begin to improve. He improved -rapidly, just as Rasputin said he would, and within a few months he -could walk. Before that, when he went out it was in the arms of a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>soldier, who loved him better than his own life, and would have gladly -given his life if that could have brought health to his prince. The -man’s joy when the child really began to walk, began to play with his -dog and his pony, was equaled only by that of the empress. For the -first time in her life in Russia she was happy. Do you blame her, do -you blame me for being grateful to Rasputin? Whether he cured him or -God cured him, I know no more than you do. But Rasputin told us what -was going to happen, and when it was going to happen. Make of it what -you will.”</p> - -<p>Rasputin told the Empress of Russia that her son would begin to improve -when he was twelve years old. Almost any doctor might have told her -that it was not unlikely that he would begin to improve as soon as -adolescence began. Many childish weaknesses, and even some very grave -constitutional weaknesses, have been known to disappear gradually from -that period. Empresses and ladies in waiting are not usually medical -experts, but they might have learned that much from ordinary reading, -if the doctors failed to enlighten them. But neither Alexandra nor -Virubova knew it, and when Rasputin threw that gigantic bluff at them -they grabbed it. As a guesser Rasputin was a wonder, for the almost -impossible happened and the sick little Czarevitch lived up to his -prediction. That’s what I make of it.</p> - -<p>When the Czarevitch grows to manhood, if he ever does, and reads the -history of his father’s and mother’s last years as rulers of Russia, -what a subject for reflection this whole Rasputin episode will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> afford -him! He was the pawn shoved back and forth across the chessboard where -the destinies of nearly two hundred million Russians, to say nothing of -the Romanoff family, were being decided. He was the bait with which the -biggest game in modern European politics was played. He and a wily monk -and two women with a taste for mystical religion.</p> - -<p>“This was the beginning of the close friendship between Rasputin and -the royal family,” Madame Virubova continued. “But it was by no means -the only tie between them. Whatever anybody says about Rasputin, -whatever there may have been that was irregular in his private life, -whatever he may have done in the way of political plotting, this -much I shall always believe about him, he was clairvoyant, he had -second sight, and he used it, at least sometimes, for good and holy -purposes. His prediction about the health of the Czarevitch was only -one instance. Often and often he told us that such and such thing would -happen, and it always did. The Emperor and Empress consulted him at -several crises in their lives, and he always told them what they ought -to do. In each and every case the advice was wise. It was miraculously -wise. No one except a person gifted with second sight could possibly -have known how to give it.”</p> - -<p>“Was Rasputin as bad as they say he was?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“He couldn’t have been,” she answered. “But he may have been more or -less licentious. Unfortunately you find men, even in holy orders, who -are weak in certain ways. I can only answer positively for myself -and the Empress. The charge that either<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> of us ever had any personal -relation with Rasputin was a foul slander. Nothing of the kind ever -existed, or ever could have existed. Oh,” she cried, a sudden flame -dyeing her white cheeks, “how easy, very easy, it is to say that -kind of thing about a woman. Nobody ever asks for proofs. Accusation -and judgment are joined instantly together. Why, Rasputin was just a -wandering monk when we met him. He was dirty, uneducated, uncouth. He -did learn to wear a clean shirt and to preserve a sort of cultivated -manner when he came to court. That was not very often, by the way. I am -sure that the Empress did not see him more than six or eight times a -year, and the Emperor saw him more rarely than that.”</p> - -<p>“Was he a German agent? Was he a part of the political intrigue that -threatened a separate peace for Russia?”</p> - -<p>Anna Virubova was silent for a long minute. She seemed to be pondering. -Then she spoke, and her eyes were the candid eyes of a child. “Truly, I -do not know. Certainly I did not believe it in Rasputin’s lifetime, but -now—I do not know. This much I do know, that it was difficult, very -difficult, at the Russian court, to avoid being drawn into political -intrigues. You know, of course, what a court is like.”</p> - -<p>“No,” I said, “I don’t know anything about a court. Tell me what it is -like.”</p> - -<p>“There is only one word in English to describe it,” replied Mme. -Virubova. “That word is ‘rotten.’ A court is made up of numberless -little cliques, each one with its endless gossip, its whisperings, -its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> secrets and its plots, big and small. There is nothing too big -or too small for these cliques to concern themselves with. They plot -international political changes, and they plot private murders. They -plot to ruin the mind and the morals of an Emperor, and they plot to -break up a friendship between two women. They plot to raise this one -to power and they plot to bring about the fall of another. They plot -in peace and they plot in war. The person who lives at court and is -not drawn into some of these plots is an exception to the rule. That -is all that I can say. However, Rasputin, as I told you before, never -lived at court. He did not even live in Petrograd. Most of his time was -spent in Siberia, and he ought to have been in Siberia on the day he -was murdered. But he had a home in Petrograd, where his wife and two -daughters lived while the girls were being educated. Rasputin was very -fond of those girls, and he was visiting them when that Yussupoff boy -killed him.” Mme. Virubova usually spoke of Prince Felix Yussupoff as -“that Yussupoff boy.”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XIII</span> <span class="smaller">MORE LEAVES IN THE CURRENT</span></h2> - -<p>In an even, passionless voice Anna Virubova went on to tell me the -story of the murder in the Yussupoff palace, as it had appeared to the -slain man’s devotees in Tsarskoe Selo.</p> - -<p>“We knew that certain people were plotting to kill Rasputin. His life -was attempted, you may know, at least three times. But it never entered -our minds that Prince Yussupoff was in the plot. He was not a favorite -with the Empress, who thought him a very dissolute young man. Still, -he was in Tsarskoe once in a while, because his wife, who is a lovely -girl, often came, and sometimes he came with her. On one of his last -visits he saw the Empress. I was in the room and I heard him say, quite -casually, that he had invited Rasputin to come to his house. ‘My wife -wants to meet him,’ he said.</p> - -<p>“We thought no more about it, but on the morning after the dreadful -thing happened one of Rasputin’s daughters called me on the telephone -and asked me if I knew where her father was, and if not would I -telephone the palace and find out if he was there. Some intuition -seemed to tell me that something terribly wrong had occurred.</p> - -<p>“Trying not to let my voice tremble, I asked the girl when her father -had left the house and with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> whom. ‘He left about midnight,’ she -answered. ‘I don’t know whose motor car it was that came for him, -but he told us he was going to call on Prince Yussupoff.’ I did not -telephone the palace to ask about Rasputin. I went there as quickly -as I could and told the Empress my news. ‘He went to see Felix?’ she -exclaimed. ‘Why should he have gone there now, when Irene is in the -Crimea?’ We looked at each other and the same kind of awful fear looked -out of her eyes that had gathered in my heart. ‘Send for the chief of -police at once,’ said the Empress. ‘Tell him to come as fast as he -possibly can.’ It is almost too terrible for me to tell you. The police -found the Yussupoff house in the most ghastly state of blood and—ugh!” -she exclaimed, “it made me sick to hear them describe it, and it -makes me sick just to remember it.” After a moment she continued, -real feeling in her voice. “The thing was not difficult to trace. The -Yussupoff boy denied everything at first, made up a silly story about a -dog that had to be killed.”</p> - -<p>When Mme. Virubova said this I admit I shuddered. It was evident that -she did not grasp the subtlety of that “silly story about a dog that -had to be killed.”</p> - -<p>“While Prince Felix was still insisting that no crime had been -committed the police found the hole in the ice, and around it, on the -snow, many bloodstains. And then they found the poor corpse. They -had killed him, first by shooting and then by every horrible means -in their power. He was shot in the head and in the body, crushed and -mangled almost beyond recognition. There was one frightful, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>ragged -wound across his stomach which could only have been made with a spur, -the doctors told us. When he had been beaten until he was helpless -those men tied him up with meters of rope and threw him in the river to -drown. He must have regained consciousness at the end, because he had -dragged one arm partially free and by his hand we knew that he tried to -make the sign of the cross. Yussupoff persisted in his denials until -Grand Duke Michael and his son drove to the palace and told the Czar -that they were all more or less in it, and that it had been a good -thing to do. A good thing to murder and mutilate a defenseless man! -Well, you asked me what a court was like.</p> - -<p>“There was a terrific time at the palace. The Emperor was horrified, -and the Empress, I think, was nearer the insanity they accused her of -than she had ever been before. They demanded the name of every man and -woman connected with the plot, and promised that every one of them -should be brought to sternest justice. But what power had they, after -all? The grand dukes and the whole family stood as one against the -Emperor and Empress. They declared that no one should be punished for -that atrocious crime. I cannot tell you all they said and did, because -that would be revealing confidences. But they held a strong enough club -over the poor Emperor when they threatened to desert him in a troubled -and uncertain time. He was absolutely forced to agree that only the -principal plotters should be banished to their estates, and the others -should be left unpunished. Afterward, when we could talk about it at -all,” Mme. Virubova <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>resumed, “I reminded the Empress that the day -before Rasputin was murdered that Yussupoff boy had telephoned to me -asking me to arrange for him to see the Empress. She had declined to -see him, and we both believe that if she had received him he would have -killed her and then, very likely, me also. We are convinced that there -was a great assassination plot all laid. But there is no proof.”</p> - -<p>This, then, is how the Rasputin murder appears in the reverse. Prince -Felix Yussupoff did not look like a wholesale assassin to me, but, -then, neither did Anna Virubova look like a poison plotter. Evidently -you have to be accustomed to the atmosphere of courts to judge these -things. I don’t judge anybody in this grewsome drama. I leave that to -history.</p> - -<p>I asked Mme. Virubova why the court cliques plotted against the -Empress. “It was inevitable,” she replied. “The Empress came there, -a stranger, a poor, beautiful, painfully shy young girl. She did not -know how to flatter or win favor. She was studious, and she was devoted -to her husband and children. They needed her devotion—oh, far more -than the ordinary family needs that of the mother. You have heard, I -suppose, some of the atrocious slanders that have been circulated about -the Empress. One of these had it that she encouraged the Emperor in his -weakness for alcohol because she wanted to keep him in a muddled state -of mind and herself be the real ruler of Russia. The exact opposite is -true. The poor Emperor did drink too much sometimes, but it was not her -fault. There were others at that court who were vitally <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>interested in -keeping their Emperor in a muddled state of mind, and they constantly -played on his weakness. His wife fought for him desperately, did -everything in her power to save him from these men.</p> - -<p>“Another slander said that the Empress tried to Germanize the court, -and that she made her children talk German to her. The children almost -never spoke a word of German to her or to any one else. Of course they -were taught German, with other languages, but English and Russian -were the only two languages spoken in the family circle. The Empress -was anxious for all her children to be good linguists, but not all of -them were gifted that way. Tatiana, the second daughter, for example, -declared that she never would be able to carry on a conversation in -French, the easiest of all foreign tongues. But English they all spoke -from their cradles.</p> - -<p>“As for the Empress’s intrigues for a separate peace with Germany,” -and here Mme. Virubova’s voice trembled with indignation, “that was -the greatest nonsense and the wickedest slander of them all. From the -time the war broke out until the revolution last February the Empress -was tireless in her work for the Russian soldiers and their families. -She fairly lived in the hospitals at Tsarskoe Selo. Immediately after -breakfast every morning she began her rounds, dressed in the plain -cotton frock of the Red Cross nurse. There was no duty too humble, no -task too arduous for her to undertake. She stood beside the surgeons -in the operating room, seeing the most dreadful amputations. She sat -beside the suffering and the dying in their beds. ‘Stand near me, -czaritza,’ a poor wretch would cry to her in his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>anguish and pain, -and she would take his rough hand and soothe him, pray for him, that -he might bear it for Russia. They loved her then, those men, though -they turned against her afterward. We used to motor home for luncheon -and then go to more hospitals. It would be 5 o’clock before we reached -home, and then the Empress always sent for her children. What time did -she have, will you tell me, for German intrigues?</p> - -<p>“The home life of the royal family was happy and harmonious above any -I have ever seen,” interpolated Mme. Virubova. “The Czar worshiped his -wife and the children worshiped both of them. Would you believe that -some of those court parasites tried to break up that happy home? Once -when the Emperor was at Livadia, in the Crimea, some one sent each day -a great basket of flowers to be placed on his writing table. Attached -to the basket was my card. They thought they could make the Empress -believe that I was carrying on an intrigue with the Emperor. As a -matter of fact, the Empress asked me directly if I sent the flowers. -I had not heard a word of it before, and if she had merely sent me -away I should never have known the reason. Against me they plotted -ceaselessly. Why? Because the Empress loved and trusted me, and I would -have died for her, and they all knew it. They resented our friendship. -They hated to see us sitting together hours at a time over our books. -We read a great deal. It may interest you to know that we read many -American books.”</p> - -<p>“What American books did the Empress read?” I asked. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> - -<p>“We read Mrs. Eddy’s book, of course, and the complete works of the -great American author, Miller.”</p> - -<p>“Miller?” I interrupted. “What Miller?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t remember his first name,” said Mme. Virubova. “But you must -know who I mean. He wrote many religious and philosophical works. The -Empress was very fond of them.”</p> - -<p>I was obliged to confess that I had never heard of Miller, and Mme. -Virubova looked her surprise.</p> - -<p>“Another reason why the Empress, and of course myself, were unpopular -was because the children were with us so much of the time. The Empress -simply would not allow them to associate with the sons and daughters -of the nobility. She wanted to keep them sweet and clean minded and -good, and she knew that very few of the children of high society in -Russia were fit companions for them. The daughters of our nobility are -mostly frivolous, selfish, empty-headed girls, and as for the sons, -they are too often debauched in early boyhood. You can imagine that the -Empress’s poor opinion of them and her refusal to allow her children -to know them aroused great resentment. People always think their own -children perfect, you know.”</p> - -<p>The former Empress of Russia is one of the enigmas of histories. Mme. -Virubova, who knew her better than almost any other living woman, makes -her out a religious devotee and something of a puritan. She does not -reveal her as an intellectual woman, in spite of her love of books. A -really intelligent woman in her position would not have spent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> so much -of her time in the wards of hospitals in the one small town of Tsarskoe -Selo. She would have used her brains, her vast wealth and her almost -unlimited power to organize the work of the hospitals all over the war -area. I have seen some of those hospitals, and while some of them are -modern and well equipped, many are of the crudest description. I never -saw such a thing as a fly screen in any Russian hospital. Flies seem -to be regarded as harmless domestic pets even in contagious disease -hospitals in Russia.</p> - -<p>The Empress may or may not have been a German plotter. I heard it said -on high authority that the minutest search of all the palace records, -after the revolution, failed to unearth any evidence to that effect. -Practically everybody in Russia, however, believes that she was a -traitor to her country in the war. Those who are charitably disposed -toward her say that she was melancholy, mad, irresponsible, and a weak -tool in the hands of Russia’s enemies. But when the days of revolution -burst on the palace at Tsarskoe Selo, and the night of perpetual -extinction began to descend on the royal house of Romanoff, it was -this woman, the Empress of Russia, who alone showed strength of mind -and character. She alone of the whole court kept her head and her cool -nerve, and kept them to the last.</p> - -<p>Much has been made of Alexandra’s influence over the weak and yielding -Emperor. It is said that the Empress, when arguments failed to move -him, resorted to hysterical fits which invariably brought results. But -this may be the merest gossip. Alexandra’s influence over her husband -was probably as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> strong as the average wife’s, but is it not a little -curious that, while few countries allow women to inherit a throne and -not all countries allow women to vote, when anything happens to a -dynasty they always discover that the queen was the only member of the -family who had any brains or any strength of character? The troubles of -the whole house of Bourbon have been ascribed to Marie Antoinette, and -the fall of the third empire and the house of Bonaparte was caused by -the malign influence of Josephine.</p> - -<p>Rasputin is another actor in the drama who will have to be judged by -the historians. I firmly believe that Rasputin as a dark force was -very much overrated. I have no doubt that he was a wicked, deceitful, -plotting creature, a monster of sensuality, an impostor and an -all-around bad lot. That seems to be settled. But I cannot find much -evidence that he was anything more than a tool of the German plotters, -whoever they were. He exercised great influence, but it seems to me -that almost everything he did was out of personal spite. He demanded -the suppression of a newspaper that attacked him, the removal of a -minister who insulted him. His principal activities were against men in -the orthodox church. Here he was about as venomous as a rattlesnake. An -obscure monk, it filled him with pride and joy to humble a bishop, to -unfrock a priest, to influence appointments.</p> - -<p>Rasputin had a small, mean mind, and his egotism was colossal. Of -course the women fools at court who flattered and deferred to him, -perhaps worse, fostered this egotism until it reached the limit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> of -inflation. But Rasputin, I believe, will live in history more as a -scandal than as a menace to Russia. He was a menace also, because a -bad, weak man is often even more of a menace than a bad, strong one. -The weakling is almost sure sooner or later to fall into the hands of -plotters and criminals, and under their directing power he becomes as -dangerous as a rabid animal.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XIV</span> <span class="smaller">THE PASSING OF THE ROMANOFFS</span></h2> - -<p>I asked Mme. Virubova to tell me what happened at the palace during the -revolution and how the royal family received the news of its overthrow.</p> - -<p>“I can tell you only what I personally know,” she replied, “and I was -very ill in bed when it happened. All the children had measles and, -helping the empress nurse them, I was stricken too. The Empress was -an angel. She went from one room to another caring for us, waiting on -us, while all the time anxiety must have been tearing cruelly at her -heartstrings. Once or twice she said something to me about trouble in -Petrograd, food riots.</p> - -<p>“The scarcity of food had preyed on the Empress’s mind for many months, -and one of the last conversations she ever had with Rasputin was on -that subject. The winter of 1916 set in early, and the snows were so -deep that transportation of all kinds of things, food included, was -greatly impeded. I remember that the Empress said to Rasputin that -nature itself seemed to be conspiring against poor Russia that year.</p> - -<p>“The rioting in Petrograd increased, and even in my bed I could hear -echoes of it around the palace. Shots I heard and horrid yells. I -tried to get out of bed, but the Empress soothed me. ‘It is bad, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> -course,’ she said, ‘but it will quiet soon. The poor people are mad -with hunger. They will be given food and then all this will be over.’ -Soon the palace guards, the regiments on duty in Tsarskoe Selo, began -to show signs of demoralization. They were afraid for their own lives, -and you cannot wonder that they were. The Empress used to go out in -the cold and snow in the dead of night and talk to the men, reassure -them, comfort them. ‘Nothing will happen,’ she told them. But for her I -believe the last man would have thrown away his gun and fled. Her will -and her resolution alone kept them at their posts.”</p> - -<p>“Do you think that the Empress really believed that it was a riot and -not a revolution?” I asked. It was history this woman was telling me, -history that will live in libraries a thousand years after we two, and -all of us, are dust. I wanted to know the exact truth.</p> - -<p>“I am sure she did,” said Mme. Virubova. “If she had dreamed that it -was a revolution she would have sent earlier for the Emperor, who, you -know, was at the front with his army. She was alone and she faced the -trouble alone, but if she had known the full extent of the trouble -she would have wanted the Emperor where he would be safer than out -there among that murderous gang. She did not know that Russia was in -revolution, nor would she believe it at first when she was told that -the army had gone over to the revolutionists. The officers of the guard -told her, but she simply shook her head. Finally, Grand Duke Paul came -tearing out to Tsarskoe in his highest power motor car. He convinced -her that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> it was true. Even then her steel nerves endured. ‘Send for -the Emperor,’ she said calmly and sternly. ‘I am going back to my sick -children.’ And she went.”</p> - -<p>The iron nerve displayed by the Empress of Russia when she learned that -supreme disaster had befallen the house of Romanoff was in contrast -to the emotion which overcame the deposed Emperor on his return to -Tsarskoe Selo. At the time of his abdication, near the army front, -he had behaved with dignity and self-command. He scornfully refused -the whispered suggestion of one general that he escape in one of the -high-power motor cars which always accompanied the imperial train. If -the people wanted him to abdicate, he was ready to do so, and ready -also to place himself at their disposal. Nicholas also showed himself -to be a good Russian and no tool of the pro-German party, if reports -are correct. When the news came that the army had gone over to the -revolution some one near the Emperor, it is said, told him that there -was one desperate way to avert the catastrophe. He could open up the -Dvinsk front, let the enemy in, and thus by the sacrifice of his -country save his dynasty. Nicholas refused even to consider such a -crime. He committed many sins of cruelty in his time, and many more -sins of stupidity. But in the end he showed himself no traitor. His -return to Tsarskoe Selo was intended by Kerensky and the other members -of the provisional government to be in accordance with his former rank, -and orders were given to treat him with all respect and consideration. -These orders, if Mme. Virubova is to be believed, were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> disregarded by -the soldiers on guard at the Alexander palace, the home of the royal -family.</p> - -<p>In my last talk with Mme. Virubova she spoke with deep feeling of -the rowdy reception given the returning Nicholas. “They blew tobacco -smoke in his face, the brutes!” she said. “A soldier grabbed him by -the arm and pulled one way, while others clutched him on the other -side and pulled him in an opposite direction. They jeered at him and -laughed at his anger and pain. When he was finally alone with his -family and intimate friends he could not contain his grief but wept -unrestrainedly. We all wept, for that matter: we who loved him.”</p> - -<p>It is to the credit of Kerensky and the ministers that they never would -consent to any suggestion that Nicholas be thrown into a dungeon or -otherwise harshly treated. As long as the family remained at Tsarskoe -Selo, which was until the 1st of August, Russian style, and August -13 in the western calendar, it lived in its accustomed manner. The -servants, most of them, remained at their posts, and while no member -of the family was allowed to leave the palace grounds on any pretext, -nor the palace itself except when accompanied by armed guards, they -had the freedom of their home and the society of a few friends. They -were not allowed to telephone, and all letters reaching them had first -to be read by the officer in command of the guards. Mme. Virubova told -me that in spite of Kerensky’s good intentions, the deposed royalties -were subjected to a number of petty annoyances which must have caused -them all the resentment and humiliation their tormentors intended. -The electric<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> lights were sometimes turned off early in the evening, -leaving the palace in darkness. There were days when the water was -turned off and the family was deprived of bathing facilities. The -soldiers on guard were not infrequently rude and churlish and openly -exultant in the presence of their prisoners.</p> - -<p>Kerensky cannot be held responsible for these things, but he was -responsible for depriving the former Empress of the society of her -most intimate friend, Mme. Virubova. I have already told how she was -arrested while still suffering from the effects of measles and thrown -into a cell in Peter and Paul. The cell was damp and insanitary, and -the sick woman suffered extreme misery all the time she was there. -Surrounded constantly by soldiers, who watched her night and day, she -was never alone even long enough to dress or to bathe. She is lame, as -I have stated, and once she fell on the slippery floor of her cell and -was unable for a long time to rise. The soldiers on guard refused to -help her, but simply stood and laughed at her efforts to reach her bed. -“Twice during the months of my confinement they let my mother visit -me,” she told me. “But I was allowed to talk to her only in presence of -the guard and across a wide table in the governor’s room.”</p> - -<p>A friend of Mme. Virubova told me a still worse story concerning her -imprisonment. Several times her father was visited by soldiers from -Peter and Paul and made to pay large sums of money in order to insure -his daughter from the most horrible indignities at the hands of the men -who guarded her. He paid this blackmail. He had to. There was no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> power -in Russia to appeal to, and Kerensky himself could not have prevented -the murder or outrage of that lame and helpless woman in the fortress -of Peter and Paul. She escaped the last insult men are capable of -offering to women, and the government, after vainly trying to fasten -the crime of treason on her, set Anna Virubova free under military -surveillance. But they would not grant the Empress’s plea to send her -friend back to Tsarskoe Selo.</p> - -<p>The first shock of dumbfounded amazement over, the royal family, which -had never believed that it could be overthrown, regained its composure -and accepted its destiny with quiet resignation. The Emperor became his -adored son’s tutor, and the Empress her daughters’ constant companion. -When spring came the whole family went out and made a garden. The -hundreds of soldiers in Tsarskoe and thousands of people from Petrograd -made pilgrimages to the palace grounds and watched through the high -iron fence the former Czar spading up the ground and the former heir -and his sisters planting and hoeing potatoes. The former Empress, in -a wheeled chair or low pony carriage, for she was in feeble health, -usually looked on smilingly.</p> - -<p>Of course, the Tavarishi, or at least the extremists in the Council -of Soldiers’ and Workmen’s Delegates, resented the respectful and -considerate treatment accorded the captive royalties. They kept up a -constant clamor for the removal of the Emperor and Empress to some -dungeon in Kronstadt or Peter and Paul. Every once in a while the -newspapers published a resolution to that effect passed by a committee -of the council in Petrograd or Tsarskoe, or in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> a city more remote. A -dispatch from Helsingfors said that the crews of three warships lying -near there had passed fiery resolutions demanding that the Czar be -turned over to the tender mercies of the ruffians at Kronstadt. The -crew of the cruiser <i>Gangoute</i> went on record as saying: “This is the -third time that we have expressed our will in this matter, and we have -not been trifling. This is our last resolution. Next we shall employ -force.”</p> - -<p>The government, however, disregarded all these resolutions and muttered -threats. It may very well be, though, that the final decision to send -Nicholas and his wife into Siberian exile came as a result of pressure -on the part of the soviets. Kerensky may have feared a bloody tragedy -at Tsarskoe Selo, and perhaps he had reason to fear it. At all events, -the provisional government decided, some time in July, to transfer the -family to one of the remotest spots in the empire, Tobolsk, in Eastern -Siberia. The government kept this decision an absolute secret, as far -as the deposed Emperor as well as the general public were concerned. -A few days before the transfer was made one of the soviets, I think -at Tsarskoe, held a stormy meeting at which great indignation was -expressed over the ease and comfort in which the once royal family -lived. “We eat black bread, they eat white,” complained one impassioned -orator. “We drink cold water and Nicholas drinks wine. My wife walks -while his rides in a carriage. Where’s the justice in that?”</p> - -<p>Doesn’t it sound like a deliberate plagiarism of one of the speeches -made against allowing the sixteenth Louis to remain in the Tuileries? A -lot of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> things have changed since the French revolution, but some human -nature is just as small and mean as ever.</p> - -<p>It was not until the Romanoff family was well on its way to Siberia -that the transfer was mentioned in the newspapers. Many people knew of -it, of course, and the news was passed from excited lip to lip in the -capital a few hours after the special train left Tsarskoe Selo. In the -newspapers of August 3 (16, old style) the carefully censored story -of the departure was published. The full story, as far as I know it, -reveals that for three weeks beforehand the garrison at Tsarskoe knew, -or suspected, that something was about to happen to the captives. Two -days before the event Kerensky went in person to the garrison and asked -the soldiers to choose from their ranks a squadron of the most reliable -and trustworthy men. They were needed, he explained, for a mission of -great importance. Three hundred and eighty-four men were chosen, eight -from forty-eight regimental groups. On the 31st of July (August 12) -at midnight Kerensky appeared at the barrack, called the picked men -together and told them that their mission was to escort the man who had -been their emperor and autocrat into exile in far Siberia.</p> - -<p>The royal family knew its fate before that time, but just when they -were told has not been revealed. Kerensky told them, and I feel -sure that he did it gently and courteously. But he refused them all -information as to where they were going. On July 30 (August 11) the -confessor of the family held a service for those about to go on a long -journey. Then they went to work to pack trunks and to choose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> among -clothes, trinkets, furs, personal belongings, books, ikons, rugs and -other essential things that would lighten exile and keep them in memory -of other days. It is said that neither Nicholas nor Alexandra slept on -the night before their departure, but wandered from room to room, hand -in hand, mutely and sorrowfully bidding their beloved home good-by. -Many others in Tsarskoe Selo refrained from sleep on that night. The -garrison was wildly excited, and the streets of the picturesque little -town were full of people. At 3 o’clock in the morning motor vans -were driven into the palace grounds, and those near enough the gates -could see that the vans were being loaded with trunks and boxes. At 6 -o’clock a long train slowly backed into the station of Tsarskoe Selo, -the station was surrounded by soldiers, and troops with loaded rifles -marched out and lined both sides of the road from the palace to the -station, each soldier carrying in his belt sixty rounds of cartridges.</p> - -<p>Those who saw the departure differ in minor details, of course, because -no two people ever see the same event exactly alike. Especially an -important event on which we would like to have all the details. But all -the observers agree that Nicholas walked out of the palace and entered -the waiting motor car with the calm manner of a man about to take a -pleasure drive. Alexandra did the same. She walked without assistance, -having apparently recovered her shattered health. The former -Czarevitch, in a sailor suit and cap, danced ahead of his parents, in -pleased anticipation of a journey, and the young grand duchesses also -appeared in high spirits. They are <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>extremely handsome girls, all of -them, and people rather sympathetically observed that during their -illness in February they had all had their luxuriant hair cut short.</p> - -<p>Some of the observers say that the former Czar drove to the station -alone, others say Kerensky followed him into the car and still others -say that the family went together. Some say that Nicholas wore the -uniform of a Russian army officer, others particularly noticed his gray -suit. To some he looked dejected and tearful, and to others careless -and cold. Some saw tears in his eyes when he entered the train, others -marveled at the calmness with which he shook hands with members of the -provisional government who were on the platform. To this day we do not -know whether Louis XVI. laid his head on the block quietly or fought -the headsman all over the place, although several thousand Frenchmen -witnessed the execution.</p> - -<p>It is said that the Emperor left Tsarskoe under the impression that he -was being taken to Livadia, the beautiful Crimean estate toward which -he yearned at the time of his abdication. He must have been profoundly -shocked when he learned that instead he was speeding toward one of -the bleakest and dreariest spots in Siberia. Before the train left -the Emperor is said to have asked Kerensky, who accompanied him to -the last, if the family would ever be allowed to return to Tsarskoe -Selo. If he did, Kerensky’s reply must have been evasive, for Nicholas -told one of his suite, or is said to have done so, that he expected to -return after the war.</p> - -<p>The Empress, when told that the family was on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> its way to Tobolsk, -is reputed to have smiled coldly and said: “I am glad we shall see -Tobolsk. It is a place that has dear associations.” Tobolsk, or its -near neighborhood, it will be remembered, was the early home of -Rasputin. Women of the French aristocracy mounted the guillotine with -exactly such speeches on their lips, a last defiance of the mob.</p> - -<p>“Why are there so many soldiers on this train?” asked one of the young -grand duchesses. She was used to being escorted by soldiers, but the -great number on this occasion excited her surprise. The children -all knew that they were going into exile, and had been given their -choice of remaining with relatives or going with their parents. Mme. -Virubova’s claim that the family bond is strong was borne out by their -unanimous decision to go wherever their father and mother went.</p> - -<p>Mme. Narychkine, one of the empress’s faithful ladies in waiting, went -with her, since the provisional government would not let her have Mme. -Virubova or even allow the two friends to bid each other farewell. -Prince Dolgorouki was permitted to go with the Emperor. The children -retained a governess and the boy a tutor. Twelve servants accompanied -the family.</p> - -<p>According to the depths of his nature and understanding, one feels a -certain pity for the former autocrat of all the Russias, or rejoices -wildly at his present plight. He had to be exiled, and perhaps Siberia -was the best place to send him. But Siberia has a large variety of -climates and places to choose among, and it seems to many people that -the provisional government might have been a little more <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>humane in -their choice of a residence for Nicholas and his family. Whatever his -shortcomings, however just his punishment, his five children never -harmed anybody, and they deserve no punishment. According to accounts, -every hour they spend at Tobolsk will be a punishment, and their time -there will be short, because all of them will probably die owing to the -frightful surroundings.</p> - -<p>Tobolsk is a town of about 25,000 inhabitants, situated on the Irtish -river, a little sluggish stream that drains, or partially drains one -of the great marshes of eastern Siberia. The town is built on a marsh, -and the mosquitoes which breed there are said to be of a size and a -ferocity unequaled elsewhere. Malaria haunts the miasmas of the marshy -forests that stretch for miles around the town and line the river -banks. The nearest railroad is 300 versts distant. In winter, which -endures eight months of the year, the place is shut off from the world. -It is as remote from human association as the moon. The provisional -government apologizes for Tobolsk as a choice on the ground of the -necessity for remoteness.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XV</span> <span class="smaller">THE HOUSE OF MARY AND MARTHA</span></h2> - -<p>On the afternoon of the day when Nicholas II., deposed emperor and -autocrat of all the Russias, with his wife and children left Tsarskoe -Selo and began the long journey toward their place of exile in Siberia, -I sat in a peaceful convent room in Moscow and talked with almost the -last remaining member of the royal family left in complete freedom in -the empire. This was Elisabeta Feodorovna, sister of the former empress -and widow of the Grand Duke Serge, uncle of the emperor. The Grand Duke -Serge was assassinated, blown to pieces by a bomb, almost before the -eyes of his wife, by a revolutionist on February 4 old style, 1905. He -was killed when going to join the Grand Duchess in one of the churches -of the Kremlin in Moscow. She rushed out and saw his mutilated remains -lying in the snow. The Grand Duchess Serge had long been known as a -noble and saintly woman, and her conduct following the horrible death -of her husband perfectly illustrates her character. She besought the -Czar to commute the death sentence passed upon the assassin, and when -he refused she went to the prison where the wretched man waited his -death, gained admission to his cell, and almost to the end prayed with -him and comforted him. No children had ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> been born to her, and -after the event which cut the last tie that bound her to the life of -royal pomp and glitter she retired from society and gave herself up to -religion. As soon as possible she became a nun. Her private fortune, -to the last rouble, investments, palaces, furniture, art treasures, -jewels, motor cars, sables and other fine raiment were turned into cash -and the money used to build a convent and to found an order of which -she became the lady abbess. The Grand Duchess Serge literally obeyed -the edict of Christ to the rich young man: “Sell all thou hast and give -it to the poor.”</p> - -<p>The Convent of Mary and Martha, of the Order of Mercy in Moscow, is a -living token of her great sacrifice. Here for the past eight years she -has lived and worked among her nuns, at least one of whom was a court -lady, and many of whom are women from the intellectual classes. Some -of the nuns were from humble households, for the order is perfectly -democratic. Every one who enters the House of Mary and Martha does -so with the understanding that her life is to be spent in service, -spiritual service such as Mary of the Gospels gave, and material -service such as the practical Martha rendered her Lord. The somewhat -dreamy and passive Russians will tell you that Elisabeta Feodorovna’s -convent is one of the most efficient institutions in the empire, and -they usually add: “They say she makes her nuns work terribly hard.”</p> - -<p>When the days of revolution came, in February, 1917, a great mob went -to the House of Mary and Martha, battered the gates open and swarmed -up the convent steps demanding admission. The door<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> opened and a tall, -grave woman in a pale silver-gray habit and white veil stepped out into -the porch and asked the mob what it wanted.</p> - -<div class="center"><a name="i142.jpg" id="i142.jpg"></a><br /><img src="images/i142.jpg" alt="Alexander Feodorovitch Kerensky" /></div> - -<p class="bold">Alexander Feodorovitch Kerensky.</p> - -<p>“We want that German woman, that sister of the German spy in Tsarskoe -Selo,” yelled the mob. “We want the Grand Duchess Serge.”</p> - -<p>Tall and white, like a lily, the woman stood there. “I am the Grand -Duchess Serge,” she replied in a clear voice that floated above the -clamor. “What do you want with me?”</p> - -<p>“We have come to arrest you,” they shouted.</p> - -<p>“Very well,” was the calm reply. “If you want to arrest me I shall have -to go with you, of course. But I have a rule that before I leave the -convent for any purpose I always go into the church and pray. Come with -me into the church, and after I have prayed I will go with you.”</p> - -<p>She turned and walked across the garden to the church, the mob -following. As many as could crowd into the small building followed her -there. Before the altar door she knelt, and her nuns came and knelt -around her weeping. The Grand Duchess did not weep. She prayed for a -moment, crossed herself, then stood up and stretched her hands to the -silent, staring mob.</p> - -<p>“I am ready to go now,” she said.</p> - -<p>But not a hand was lifted to take Elisabeta Feodorovna. What Kerensky -could not have done, what no police force in Russia could have done -with those men that day, her perfect courage and humility did. It -cowed and conquered hostility, it dispersed the mob. That great crowd -of liberty-drunk, blood-mad men went quietly home, leaving a guard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> -to protect the convent. It is probably the only spot in Russia to-day -where absolute inviolability may be said to exist for any members of -the hated “bourju,” as the Bolsheviki call the intellectual classes.</p> - -<p>On the August day when I rang the bell of the convent’s massive -brown gate I did not really know that I was to see and speak with -the grand duchess. Mr. William L. Cazalet, of Moscow, the friend who -took me there, doubted very much whether I could be received thus -informally, without a previous appointment. The gravity of the times, -and especially the situation of the Romanoff family, placed the Grand -Duchess Serge in a position of extreme delicacy, and Mr. Cazalet said -frankly that he expected to find her living in strict retirement. The -best he could promise, he said, was that I should see the convent, -where one of his young cousins was a nun.</p> - -<p>The convent, which is situated in the heart of Moscow, is a group of -white stone and stucco houses built around an old garden and surrounded -by a high white wall, over which vines and foliage ramble and fall. A -key turned, the brown gate swung open to our ring and we stepped into -a garden running over with the richest bloom. I remember the pink and -white sweet-peas against the wall, the white madonna lilies that nodded -below and the carpet of gay verbenas that ran along the pathway to the -convent door. There were many old apple trees and a forest of lilacs, -purple and white.</p> - -<p>In her small room, combination of office and living room, we were -received by the executive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> head of the convent, Mme. Gardeeve, for -many years the intimate friend of Elisabeta Feodorovna. Like the grand -duchess she had had a life full of tears and tribulation, in spite -of her rank and wealth, and when the grand duchess took the veil she -followed her example and became a nun. The business of the convent is -transacted under her direction, and most ably, I was told. Efficiency -and ability are written in every feature of Mme. Gardeeve’s fine -face, in her crisp, clear voice and quick though graceful movements. -Her enunciation was a joy to hear, an especial joy to me, for I have -difficulty in understanding the rather indistinct French spoken by -the average Russian. Mme. Gardeeve’s French was of that perfect kind -you hear spoken in Tours more often than in Paris or elsewhere. I -understood every word. Woman of the world to her finger tips, Mme. -Gardeeve wore the picturesque habit of the order with the same grace -that she would have worn the latest creation of the ateliers. She -smiled and chatted with Mr. Cazalet, who is very well known in the -convent, and was most kind and cordial to me. After a few minutes’ -conversation my friend said to her that I had told him some extremely -interesting things about public schools in America, and he wanted me to -repeat them to her.</p> - -<p>So I told her something about the extraordinary experiments that have -been worked out in Gary, Indiana, and the work that was being done -in New York and elsewhere to give children, rich and poor alike, the -complete education they merit. As I talked she exclaimed from time to -time: “But it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> excellent! I find it admirable! The Grand Duchess -should hear of this!”</p> - -<p>I said hopefully that I would like very much to meet the Grand Duchess -and she replied she thought it might be arranged. Not to-day, however, -as the Grand Duchess’s time was completely filled. How long did I -expect to remain in Moscow? A week? It could certainly be arranged, she -thought. Meanwhile what would I like to see of the convent? Everything? -She laughed and touched a little bell on the desk beside her. A little -nun appeared and Mme. Gardeeve handed me over to her with orders that I -was to see everything.</p> - -<p>I saw a small but perfectly equipped hospital, with an operating room -complete in all its details. The hospital had been devoted to poor -women and children before the war. Now most of the wards are filled -with wounded soldiers. I saw a room filled with blinded soldiers who -were being taught to read Braille type by sweet-faced nuns. Blindness -is bitter hard for any man, but for illiterates it must be blank -despair. I saw a house full of refugee nuns from the invaded districts -of Poland. I saw an orphanage full of slain soldiers’ children. I -lingered long in the lovely garden where nuns were at work, some with -their habits tucked up, among the potato rows, some pruning trees and -hedges, some sweeping the gravel paths with besoms made of twigs, some -teaching the orphan girls to embroider at big frames, to knit and to -sew. They made a fascinating picture, and I could hardly leave them -even to see the church, which is one of the most beautiful small gems -of architecture to be found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> in Europe. I never really saw that church -at all, as it turned out, for just as we entered and I was getting a -first impression of its blue and white and gold beauty, a messenger -hastily opened the door and said that the Grand Duchess wanted to see -me.</p> - -<p>We went back to the convent and I was taken to a tiny parlor, which -is the private retreat of the Lady Abbess. It is not much bigger than -a hall bedroom, and it gave the same general impression of blue and -white and gold that one sees throughout the place. There were many -books bound in the lapis blue which seems to be the Grand Duchess’s -favorite color; a few pictures, mostly of the Madonna and Child; some -small tables, one with Stephen Graham’s book, “The House of Mary -and Martha,” held open upon it by a piece of embroidery carelessly -dropped. There were easy chairs of English willow with blue cushions, -and a businesslike little desk crammed with papers. Everywhere, in the -window, on tables and the desk, were bowls and vases of flowers. Every -room in the place, in fact, was filled with flowers.</p> - -<p>The door opened and the Grand Duchess came in with a radiant smile of -welcome and a white hand outstretched. “I am so glad to find that I had -time to meet you to-day, Mrs. Dorr,” she said, in a rarely sweet voice.</p> - -<p>“Your highness speaks English?” I exclaimed in surprise, and she -replied, waving me to a comfortable armchair: “Why not? My mother was -English.”</p> - -<p>I had forgotten for the moment that the Grand Duchess and her younger -sister, the former Empress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> of Russia, were daughters of the Princess -Alice of England and granddaughters of Queen Victoria. Russia seemed -to have forgotten it also and to have remembered only that the father -of these women was the Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. The Grand -Duchess added when we were seated that when she was a child at home -they always spoke English to their mother, if German to their father. -“I welcome an opportunity to speak English, because if one is wholly -Russian, as I am, and especially if one is orthodox, he hears little -except Russian or French.” Then she said, with another radiant smile: -“Tell me what you think of my convent.”</p> - -<p>I told her that I felt as though I had stepped back into the glowing -and romantic thirteenth century.</p> - -<p>“That is just what I wanted my convent to be,” she replied, “one of -those busy, useful medieval types. Such convents were wonderfully -efficient aids to civilization in the middle ages, and I don’t think -they should have been allowed to disappear. Russia needs them, -certainly, the kind of convent that fills the place between the -austere, enclosed orders and the life of the outside world. We read the -newspapers here, we keep track of events and we receive and consult -with people in active life. We are Marys, but we are Marthas as well.”</p> - -<p>The Grand Duchess’s interest in the outside world is patent. She asked -me eagerly to tell her how things were going in Petrograd, and her -face saddened when I told her of the riotous and bloody events I had -witnessed during the days of the July<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> revolution, scarcely past. -“Times are very bad with us just now,” she said, “but they will improve -soon, I am sure. The Russian people are good and kind at heart, but -they are mostly children—big, ignorant, impulsive children. If they -can find good leaders, and if they will only realize that they must -obey their leaders, they will emerge from this dreadful chaos and build -up a strong, new Russia. Have you seen Kerensky, and what do you think -of him?”</p> - -<p>I replied rather cautiously. Like every one else, I still hoped that -Kerensky would succeed in getting his released giant back into its -bottle, and I did not want to unsettle any one’s confidence in him even -to the extent of an expressed doubt. Kerensky, I told her, was greatly -admired and liked, and I hoped he might prove the strong leader Russia -needed in her trouble.</p> - -<p>“I hope so,” replied the last of the Romanoffs, “I pray for him every -day.”</p> - -<p>The bells of the little church chimed the hour softly, and the Grand -Duchess paused to cross herself devoutly. “I want to hear about those -wonderful public schools of yours,” she said, “but first tell me what -America is doing in war preparation.”</p> - -<p>As I talked she listened, nodding and smiling as if immensely pleased. -The great airplane fleet in course of construction seemed to amaze -and delight her, and when I told her of the conservation of the food -supply and the restriction of the manufacture of alcohol she fairly -glowed. “America is simply stupendous,” she exclaimed. “How I regret -that I never went there. Of course I never shall now. To me the United -States stands for order and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>efficiency of the best kind. The kind of -order only a free people can create. The kind I pray may be built some -day here in Russia.” And then she made her one allusion to the deposed -Czar. I did not know that at that minute the Czar was on his way to -Siberia, but it is very probable that she knew it. She said: “I am glad -you are going to protect your soldiers from the danger of the drink -evil. Nobody can possibly know how much good the abolition of vodka -did our soldiers and all our people. I think history should give the -Emperor credit for his share in that act, don’t you?” I agreed that the -Emperor should receive full credit for what he did, and I spoke with -all sincerity.</p> - -<p>Elisabeta Feodorovna kept me for nearly three-quarters of an hour -talking to her about the Gary schools, which she is eager to see in -Russia; about American women and their part in the war, and about -welfare work for children, especially for tubercular and anemic -children. “It is wonderful,” she said with a sigh. “I can scarcely help -envying you sinfully. Think of a great, young, hurrying nation that can -still find time to study all these frightful problems of poverty and -disease, and to grapple with them. I hope you will go on doing that, -and still find more and more ways of bringing beauty into the lives -of the workers. How can you expect workmen who toil all day in hot, -hideous factories or on remote farms, with nothing in their lives but -work and worry, to have beauty in their souls?”</p> - -<div class="center"><a name="i150.jpg" id="i150.jpg"></a><br /><img src="images/i150.jpg" alt="The Grand Duchess Elizabeta Feodorovna" /></div> - -<p class="bold">The Grand Duchess Elizabeta Feodorovna, sister of the -late Czarina,<br />and widow of the Grand Duke Serge (who was assassinated<br /> -during the Revolution of 1905), now Abbess of the<br />House of Mary and -Martha at Moscow.</p> - -<p>She wanted eagerly to know about the women soldiers, and said that she -greatly admired their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> heroism. What was their life in camp like, and -were they strong enough to stand the hardships? The Grand Duchess Serge -is a good feminist and she agreed with me that in Russia’s crisis, -as in the situation in all countries created by the war, it had been -completely demonstrated that women would have henceforth to play a rôle -equally important and equally prominent as that of men.</p> - -<p>They would have to share equally with men in the successful operation -of the war whether on the battlefield or behind the lines. She had -always had a special devotion to Jeanne d’Arc and believed her to have -been inspired by God. Other women also had been called of God to do -great things.</p> - -<p>“I am glad you like my convent,” she repeated as we parted. “Please -come again. You know that it does not belong to me any more, but to the -Provisional Government, but I hope they will let me keep it.”</p> - -<p>I hope they will. The House of Mary and Martha, with the beautiful -woman in it, is one of the things new Russia can least afford to lose.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XVI</span> <span class="smaller">THE TAVARISHI FACE FAMINE</span></h2> - -<p>The Romanoffs gone, the soviets apparently yielding to Kerensky’s -demand for a coalition government, and finally voting to give him -almost supreme power, what then stood in the way of restoring order in -the army and civil life? Readers of the despatches in the daily press -last September and later must have puzzled over this question. The fact -is that while there were indications that the last convention held in -Petrograd by the Russian Socialists, the so-called Democratic Council, -ended in a partial victory for Kerensky, there remained every evidence -that the Bolshevik element was still very strong. Kerensky succeeded in -forming a coalition ministry, but the Petrograd Council of Soldiers’ -and Workmen’s Delegates at the same time succeeded in electing a -Bolshevik central executive committee with the notorious Leo Trotzky -as chairman, displacing N. C. Tcheidse, the Georgian Duma member, -prominent in the Council, but against whose sincerity and honesty I -never heard a word.</p> - -<p>Trotzky was elected because the Bolsheviki couldn’t then get Lenine -back. There were not enough bold spirits in the Democratic Council -to force from the government a promise of immunity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> from arrest for -Lenine, should he appear at a meeting, so he was kept in the background -and Trotsky was made chairman of the Petrograd executive committee in -his stead.</p> - -<p>Lenine is the real leader of the Bolsheviki to-day, exactly as he was -during the fateful days of July when he sent mutinous soldiers and idle -workmen out on the streets of the capital with machine guns to murder -the populace. Trotzky, however, is an able and faithful lieutenant. -He is a Jew and his real name is Braunstein. He is one of those Jews, -unhappily too prominent in Russian affairs just now, who are doing -everything in their power to prejudice the people of Russia against the -race, and to check the movement for the full freedom of the Jews of the -empire.</p> - -<p>Trotzky, or Braunstein, is known to many in New York city. He gained -some newspaper publicity when he arrived in New York from Spain a -short time before the February revolution. He posed as a martyr to -socialist principles, one who had been persecuted by the governments -of four countries—Russia, Germany, France and Spain. All four had -expelled him, he said, for the crime of editing really successful -socialist newspapers. Trotzky’s story was founded on fact. At least, -four countries did find him as a citizen too undesirable to retain. -Banishment from Russia, under the old régime, is no stigma, so we may -begin Trotzky’s saga in August, 1914, the early days of the world war. -He was editing a Jewish paper in Berlin. He was given a few hours to -leave, he says, and with his family fled across the Swiss frontier to -Zurich. From there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> he went to Paris, where he was miraculously able, -poor as he had always been and high as the price of white paper was -soaring, to establish a socialist newspaper in the Russian language. -When the Russian contingent of the allied armies reached France in -April, 1916, <i>Our Words</i>, which was the name of Trotzky’s spicy little -sheet, was circulated free among the 65,000 soldiers. The motto of the -paper was “Down with the War” far more than it was “Up with Socialism.” -It was filled from page one to page four with the sort of pro-German -stuff that has done its deadly work with the men at the Russian front, -inducing them to refuse to fight and thus opening their country to the -German army.</p> - -<p>The French government, which had its hands full with its own pet -sedition raisers, had never before heard of Trotzky, but now it told -him to move on. He did. He went to Spain, where he was arrested as -an extreme trouble-maker, and after a short time expelled from the -country. He came to the United States, where he remained until the -Russian revolution of late February, 1917, when he flew back to -Petrograd. Trotzky always had money to make these long journeys. At -Halifax he was halted, for the English government knew his record. The -English authorities considered interning him for the duration of the -war, but a lot of people interceded for the poor Russian exile, and he -was allowed to go on to Russia. Poor Russia!</p> - -<p>Trotzky was elected a member of the Petrograd Council of Workmen’s -and Soldiers’ Delegates, being a pacifist and never having done any -manual work. Last summer when I was in Russia I used to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> read almost -daily in the accounts of the National Council of Soviets, or councils, -burning speeches of Trotzky’s in which he urged a separate peace with -Germany, or what would amount to exactly the same thing, Russia’s -immediate cessation of fighting. Trotzky ridiculed the idea that -abandonment of the allies would in any way injure Russia in a material -way or soil the national honor. His ideas of economics and finance were -simply and frequently reiterated. Arrest all capitalists and force -them to disclose the secret of how they got rich, and hang all the -bankers—presumably as the first step toward seizing the contents of -the banks. With this man as chairman of the central executive committee -of the Petrograd Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Council, and with -the October revolt of the German naval men on five ships for him to -point to as evidence that the social revolution is at hand in Germany, -the life of the last coalition government was not likely to be peaceful.</p> - -<p>But the end of the Bolsheviki is in sight in spite of Lenine, Trotzky -and the entire majority in the Council of Soldiers’ and Workmen’s -Delegates. It has been coming on stealthy feet for many months, and -now the messengers’ hands are on the latch. The messengers’ names are -Hunger and Cold.</p> - -<p>When I went down to my first dinner in Petrograd last May, I was amazed -to see the price on the menu card placed at five rubles fifty kopecks, -about $1.80. In a previous visit to Petrograd I had eaten an excellent -dinner in this same hotel and had paid for it one ruble seventy-five -kopecks, or about seventy-five cents, as the ruble was then valued. -The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> one offered for more than twice this amount consisted of a watery -soup, a small piece of not very fresh fish, a thin slice of veal with -peas and a water ice flavored with cherry juice. One piece of black -bread without butter was served. If I wanted water to drink with the -meal I had to pay two rubles for bottled water, for one drink of plain -water in Petrograd is an attempt at suicide by the typhoid route. If I -wanted coffee I had to pay one ruble sixty-five kopecks more, and after -I added the customary 10 per cent. for the tip my check was ten rubles -and six kopecks. Three dollars and thirty-five cents.</p> - -<p>This was bad enough, but before I left Russia the price of that meager -meal had advanced to thirteen rubles and the quality of the dinner had -sensibly declined. Also the tip had advanced, for after a strike of -waiters a system was adopted all over Russia, as far as I traveled, -whereby tips were abolished and 15 per cent. was added to the bill by -the hotel and restaurant proprietors.</p> - -<p>You now pay an additional 15 per cent. of your entire hotel bill in -Russia, which is distributed in tips to all the servants except the -lift boys and the gorgeous individual who stands in front of the hotel -door, who assists you to alight from your droshky when you arrive, -and touches his peacock feather trimmed hat to you when you go in -and out. He is called the Swiss, denoting the origin of his earliest -predecessor, I imagine, and why he and the elevator men do not share in -the general distribution I never found out.</p> - -<p>Walk down the Nevsky Prospect, or the Grand Morskaia, which begins in -fine shops and ends in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> palaces, like Fifth avenue. Wander through the -maze of little shops in the huge arcade called the Gostinny Dvor. Go -far out on the Nevsky, cross the beautiful Anitchkoff bridge, with its -four groups of rearing horses, and turn in at the Litainy, where the -cheaper shops are to be found, and try to buy something. It doesn’t -matter what, just try to buy something to eat, drink, wear or use. When -the waiter brought in the coffee that morning he said cheerfully, “Niet -malako,” no milk. Try to buy a few cans of condensed milk against a -similar experience. I walked all over Petrograd trying to buy condensed -milk, for the shortage of fresh milk was grave when I arrived, and grew -steadily worse. I found one can, for which I paid two dollars. Shortly -afterward a friend arrived from Japan and gave me two cans, which she -spared out of her store.</p> - -<p>Russian illiteracy is so general that the shop signs are not written -but illustrated. Brilliant signboards on the outside show pictures of -what the shopkeeper has to sell. A dairy shop will have a picture of a -cow, crocks of butter, chickens, ducks, geese, baskets of eggs, cheese -of many varieties and so forth. A greengrocer’s signboard is decorated -like a seed catalogue cover, while a clothing store is advertised -by pictures of clothes and hats which were fashionable perhaps ten -years ago. It once added to the gay appearance of the streets, but -just now it increases their anxious and ominous air. Hundreds of the -shops are empty, the doors are locked and the brilliant signboards -alone remain to indicate that business was ever conducted there. One -of the mournfulest sights in Petrograd to me was an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>abandoned shop -where they once sold French bread and pastry. I used to turn my head -away from the mocking poster, picturing crisp white bread in yard-long -loaves, delicious breakfast crescents, patés and cakes. The standard -bread served in Russia at the present time is black, soggy, sour and -indigestible. It is sold by weight, hence loaded with water and baked -as little as possible to be bread and not dough. Some one has suggested -that that bread was meant for food and drink together, and it is -certain that it is so wet that it quickly mildews. But bad as it is it -is scarce and expensive. A bread ticket calls for three-quarters of a -pound, the daily allotment per person when I left the last of August. -This costs at the rate of ten kopecks a pound. It used to be three and -a half kopecks a pound, and good bread, too.</p> - -<p>Butter, when it can be bought at all, was three rubles a pound, about a -dollar. Excellent butter a year or two ago was less than fifty kopecks -a pound, for Russia was rapidly becoming a dairy country. Veal, and -veal is about the only meat to be had, was nearly a dollar a pound. -Feed for cattle is so scarce and so expensive that cows are not allowed -to grow into beef size, hence the prevalence of veal. Chickens may vary -the menu, if you can afford to pay from three dollars upward. You could -buy only a short-weight half pound of meat a day per person, except for -the Sunday dinner, when a pound was allowed.</p> - -<p>Even at the Hotel Militaire, where I lived most of the time, and where -the food supply came from government sources, we had veal or its -derivatives,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> hash, croquettes, etc., five days in the week. Sometimes -they offered what they called beef, but it wasn’t. It was horsemeat, -coarse and strong. Once a week or so we had chicken, a welcome change. -When August came we began to have game, grouse of various kinds mostly. -Game is very plentiful in Russia and Finland this year, because since -the war men have hunted only one another. But game, which is a treat -when you have it occasionally, is a punishment when you have it more -than once or so a week. You detest it when it appears on the table -three times a week, and if it appears oftener you choose a meatless day -as an alternative.</p> - -<p>Coffee was about a dollar and a half a pound, not so bad, and tea was -even more moderate in price. What the Russian people would do if the -tea gave out I cannot imagine. Everybody drinks tea, scalding hot, -several times a day. Even the babies drink tea, and it is a fact that -in the best babies’ hospital I saw in Russia the head nurse proudly -showed me, in a hot water table, a whole row of nursing bottles full -of tea for the sick babies’ evening repast. Tea they still have, but -they are almost out of sugar to go with it. In a hotel or restaurant -they serve you with three very tiny lumps of sugar with each glass of -tea, and that is all you can have. If for any reason you do not use -all your sugar you put it in your pocket. You do this whether you keep -house or not, because you can’t buy much candy, and when meat is scarce -everybody craves sweets.</p> - -<p>Sugar is not the only leftover one takes home. One day I went into the -Vienna restaurant on the Gogol for dinner, sitting down at a table -just <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>vacated by a very smart young officer. He left behind him on -the window ledge a little parcel neatly wrapped in white paper with -a pink string. It might have been a jeweler’s parcel. I picked it up -with the impulse to hand it over to the waiter, but first as a matter -of precaution, lest it should be really valuable, I opened a corner of -the paper and examined the contents. A piece of fairly white bread as -big as a small turnip, the remains of luncheon, perhaps, at the house -of a rich friend. I went into a fashionable tea place in Moscow just -before I left, and they served with the tea, in lieu of sugar, a kind -of sticky preserve. I had with my sugarless tea a cake made without -flour or sugar. It tasted like almond paste and the whole thing cost me -a dollar and ten cents.</p> - -<p>Most of the shops are closed, but before most of those which remain -open you may see, at any hour of the day or night, a queue of people, -men, women and children, waiting to get in and buy. The people often -wait in line twenty-four hours or more. They wait days to buy some -things. Go home from a visit or get in from a journey at any time -of night, midnight, three a. m., any hour, and you see these long, -patient, waiting lines of people. They curl up on the stones of -the pavement and sleep, members of a family relieve one another at -intervals, but every one desperately hangs on to his place in the line.</p> - -<p>Not only do all the small shop keepers and the street peddlers have -to replenish their poor little stocks by standing thus for days, but -housekeepers have to feed and clothe their families that way.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> People -who can afford servants, of course, send their servants to wait in -line. The daily newspapers often contain the advertisement, “Wanted -a queue maid,” meaning a woman whose sole duty it is to sleep on the -sidewalk and bring home next day’s dinner.</p> - -<p>It was summer when I was in Petrograd and Moscow. Sleeping on the -sidewalk left something to be desired even in warm weather. The first -hint of autumn was in the air when I left on August 30. By the first -of October it was cold, and by the end of November it was frigid. When -the storms and the driving snows of winter set in in earnest people -will not be able to sleep on the sidewalks. Where will they get food, -and when starvation stares them in the face what will they do? Russia’s -real crisis, political and economic, will come then, and the Bolsheviki -will not be the people to overcome it.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XVII</span> <span class="smaller">GENERAL JANUARY, THE CONQUEROR</span></h2> - -<p>After Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeated legions had fled from Russia to -freeze and starve and die by thousands in a frenzied attempt to get -back to France, the victorious commander of the Russian army said that -his two greatest aides had been General January and General February. -The relentless cold and storm of a Russian winter were foes too strong -for Bonaparte to conquer. They sent him to St. Helena, and the same -strong foes this winter are going to rout and banish the Bolsheviki. -The Russian revolution began with a bread riot and it will culminate -in a bread riot. When the people of Russia get hungry enough, they -are going to stop talking about “no annexations or contributions,” -“all the power to the soviets,” and the rest, and demand a government -that shall govern, and as soon as possible put the country back on a -normal basis. When the thermometer falls to 45 degrees below zero, and -a fifty-miles-an-hour wind is driving sleet and snow in their faces, -people can no longer stand twenty-four hours in line to buy food for -their children. Especially when their clothes are thin and worn and -their boots are dropping off their feet.</p> - -<p>I have told something about the food situation in Russia. The clothing -situation and the fuel <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>situation are, if anything, worse. If you want -to buy a pair of shoes in Petrograd you must take two days to do it -and you must put much money in your purse. There is an American shoe -store on the Nevsky Prospect and every day the line of people trying -to get in and buy shoes was so great that it blocked traffic and the -city authorities finally had to close the street entrance. The line now -forms in a court or lane in the rear of the store and the customers are -admitted, a few at a time, through the back door. This American shoe -store is very popular because the shoes are of excellent quality and -the prices are regarded as reasonable. A woman can buy a pair of boots -there as low as $25. Men’s shoes are somewhat dearer. But the stock was -running low when I was there in the summer, and when it gives out I -don’t see how they are going to replenish it. On a corner of the Grand -Morskaia there was another shoe store, in front of which a crowd stood -all day long and all night. The queue extended around the corner, and -I have seen it when it stretched to the Moika canal a very long block -away. This is a store where cheaper shoes were sold. It represented an -attempt on the part of one of the fleeting ministries to relieve the -shoe shortage. Large quantities of shoes and leather were purchased and -were then being distributed through authorized channels in the shop on -the Morskaia.</p> - -<p>In order to buy a pair of those shoes a man or a woman went there -and got a place in line. Each stood in line until his or her turn -came to be admitted to the shop, a long and weary business. When he -gained admission to the shop and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> clerk got around to waiting on -him he received—a pair of shoes? Not a bit of it. He got a ticket -with a number on it. The ticket entitled the customer to come back at -some future date, stand in line and claim a pair of shoes which were -probably at the time being made—provided he could afford to pay a -minimum of ten dollars for them.</p> - -<p>When I was in Poland with the women soldiers, the Botchkareva Battalion -of Death, the regiment was delayed in its further progress toward the -fighting line by a dearth of boots in which to march. About half the -women soldiers received boots along with their other equipment before -they left Petrograd, but the other half wore, with their khaki uniform, -the women’s shoes, often worn and tattered, in which they had enlisted. -One day there was great rejoicing in the barrack. The boots had come, -and the rest of the afternoon was spent in sorting out from the pile -a pair to fit each girl. I was interested in those boots, for they -were mute but eloquent witnesses of the poverty of life in Russia. Not -a pair was new. They were all second-hand, remade and mended boots, -and I strongly suspect that most of them had been taken off the feet -of dead soldiers. They had, in many cases, new feet or new soles, but -the majority of them were merely mended and patched. Coarse, stiff, -malodorous and badly put together as these were, the girls were only -too glad to get them. The Adjutant, Skridlova, and one or two of the -well-to-do soldiers had their boots made to order, and they paid ninety -dollars a pair for them. Seventy-five dollars for a pair of women’s -boots is not an unheard-of price. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> - -<p>What is true of boots and shoes is true of almost every other clothing -commodity. I ran out of gloves while I was in Russia, but, after -hearing what gloves cost in Petrograd, I went without. You could get -cotton gloves as low as a dollar and eighty cents a pair. They were -ugly and shapeless, but people bought and wore them. If you wanted a -pair of kid gloves and you knew where you could find them and had time, -you could buy them for three to five dollars. They were the kind that -an American department store might put on a table in the center aisle -and sell for fifty cents to attract customers in the dull season. A man -pays a dollar for a fifteen-cent collar in Petrograd. He pays several -dollars for a decent pair of socks. What he pays for a suit of clothes -staggers the imagination. There are only two things that are cheap -to buy in Russia just now: cats and dogs. You can buy a magnificent -wolfhound or other thoroughbred dog, or a pure bred Persian or Angora -cat for a song in Petrograd, because people can’t afford to feed pet -animals. Mr. Basil Miles, attached to the Root mission, took home with -him two Russian wolfhounds that are going to make him the most envied -man in the next dog show in his town, and the song he sang to get them -was too short to mention.</p> - -<p>Russia is a very cold country and almost every one, rich and poor -alike, wears furs. The rich wear sable, mink and ermine, and the poor -wear rabbit and sheep skin. But furs just now are as difficult to buy -as other clothing indispensables. There are several special reasons for -this shortage of fur in a fur country. There are not so many people -hunting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> furs since the war, and the pelts are scarcer; and besides, -the Russians have never cured and dyed their own furs. They sent them -to Germany to be prepared for market, and, of course, the war put -a stop to that. Aside from these special reasons, the fur shortage -and all the food, clothing and other shortages are caused by two -main obstacles. There is plenty of food in the empire, plenty of raw -materials for clothing. But the transportation system has almost broken -down and they cannot distribute food or raiment. Also the factory -system has all but broken down, and they cannot produce the clothing. -There are besides minor and contributory obstacles, some of which I -shall describe. The main reason why Russia will starve and freeze this -winter is because the people of Russia have allowed their railroad -system to go to pieces, and because they have, to an almost incredible -extent, ceased to do any work.</p> - -<p>I cannot speak as an expert about the railroad situation, nor would -mere figures and statistics give the reader any adequate picture of the -railroad demoralization. To say that on May 15, 1917, the then Minister -of Ways and Communications reported to the Duma that more than 25 per -cent. of the total number of locomotives in the empire were laid up for -repairs wouldn’t begin to express the thing. The average reader does -not know that 5 per cent. of “sick” locomotives is considered high by -competent railroad managers. I might go further and say that the number -of freight cars loaded from May 15 to May 31, 1917, was 87,000 poods -less than the number loaded between those dates in 1916,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> but that -would not mean much. Few outside of Russia know what a pood is. As a -matter of fact it is thirty-six pounds. But figures cannot adequately -describe the situation.</p> - -<p>What told the tale of railroad demoralization to me was the constant -anxiety I heard voiced on all sides by people trying to buy their -winter stock of wood and coal. There is an endless quantity of wood in -Russia. Great forests of pine and cedar and birch—beautiful forests. -I had often marveled at them from the windows of my railway carriage -passing through Finland and the country between Petrograd and Moscow. -Plenty of this wood has been cut. I saw thousands and thousands of -cords of it piled up along the railroad tracks, and of course there -must have been much more elsewhere. Petrograd is built on a marsh and -the ground is drained by picturesque if rather badly smelling canals -which run through the city and empty into the Neva. Down one of the -widest of these—the Moika, which I crossed every day—a constant -line of barges, loaded with wood, floated slowly, drawn by horses and -sometimes by men walking along a towpath beside the canal. I used to -watch those bargeloads of wood and wonder why, with such an almost -unparalleled means of distributing wood after it got there, the people -of Petrograd should be troubled about the winter fuel supply. Not -nearly enough of it was getting there last summer; that was all. The -quantity that floated down the Moika and the other canals and got -stacked up in woodyards and in the courtyards of apartment houses, -hotels, hospitals, factories and even palaces, was not half the normal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> -quantity. There weren’t enough flat cars and locomotives running to get -the wood as far as the city limits.</p> - -<p>I tried the experiment of keeping house with the wife of the <i>Outlook</i> -correspondent after he left Russia on a mission. We had a charming -little apartment offered us rent free, with a maid thrown in, if we -would live in it and keep it from being looted. Every one who knew a -Cossack or other reliable soldier, or an American, did that when they -went to the country from Petrograd. We gave up housekeeping after a -week and went back to hotels, partly because the maid could not get -us enough to eat, and partly because we never had any hot water. The -landlord of the apartment house had cut off the wood. He said that -he couldn’t get wood enough to warm the house next winter, much less -provide warm baths for the tenants in summer.</p> - -<p>The railroad situation was visualized for me on a dreadful two days and -nights’ journey I took on a Russian railroad last July. Miss Beatty, of -the San Francisco <i>Bulletin</i>, was with me, and the train was so small -and so crowded that the only berth we could get was an upper one three -feet wide. The two of us slept in that berth, Miss Beatty’s head one -way and mine the other. Every time the train struck a rough place on -the rails the <i>Bulletin</i> came near losing its star reporter, for she -had the outside, just above an open window. That railway carriage could -have seated, by close crowding, eleven passengers. On the last night -of the journey twenty-five people were packed into it. They took turns -sitting down. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> - -<p>Every railroad train you get on is about as crowded as that, and one -of the most difficult things to buy at present is a railroad ticket. -To buy one you usually have to bribe the ticket agent or the hotel -manager. You go to the office of the International Wagons-Lits and tell -them that you want to go to Moscow or Kazan. You want to go to-morrow -or in three days, some near date. The clerk shakes his head. “I might -be able to get you a ticket and a berth in three days,” he will say. -“Of course, you will have to pay a supplement; say, sixty rubles.” -Pressed for particulars he will explain that some one will have to be -paid to stand in line for the ticket. I paid forty rubles extra to -Bennet’s, which is the Cook’s of Petrograd, for a ticket to Moscow, -and that was considered a bargain. When I wanted to return I asked -the hotel management in Moscow how much they would charge to send to -the station and get me a ticket, and they said one hundred rubles. -The ruble was then about thirty cents, so I would have had to pay, in -addition to the cost of the ticket, which had just been raised about 50 -per cent., thirty dollars. I got the ticket in almost the only other -way possible. I acted as a courier carrying confidential papers from a -foreign consulate in Moscow to an embassy in Petrograd, and the consul -used his official influence to get me a ticket for the regular price -only.</p> - -<p>On the 21st of July the Minister of Ways and Communications ordered a -reduction of 50 per cent. in the number of travelers passing between -Petrograd and Moscow, in view, he explained, of the shortage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> of fuel -and rolling stock. Soon it will be next to impossible to buy, for love -or money, a ticket or a sleeping berth between the two points in Russia.</p> - -<p>This is nearly true now on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Every Tuesday -evening at 8 o’clock the weekly express on that famous line leaves -the Nikolai station, Petrograd, and every berth is filled every week. -What those passengers paid extra for their tickets forms one of the -principal topics of conversation during the long trip over Siberia. -The passengers beguile the weary journey swapping experiences of how -they came to be there at all. I have known people who waited weeks -for a chance to pay the extortionate supplement. The Trans-Siberian -post train which leaves every night and makes stops along the way is a -sight to behold before it leaves. The people crowd the train platform -and fight for a place near the edge. As the train backs slowly into -the station shed, the travelers run to meet it, climb in the windows, -drag their women and children in, rush the platforms and fight like -tigers to get in the doors. The number of carriages to each train has -been reduced gradually until now the train is too short to hold the -travelers.</p> - -<p>But didn’t we send a railroad commission to Russia, and didn’t the -papers say something about some 5,000 locomotives and 23,000 freight -cars sent to Vladivostock? We did send a railroad commission, headed -by John Stevens, of Panama canal fame, one of the greatest organizers -and executives in the United States. This commission has done good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> -work. It has shown the Russians how they could immediately increase -the efficiency of their railroads 60 per cent. We have sent many -locomotives and freight cars to Russia. Nevertheless the transportation -problem remains unsolved.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XVIII</span> <span class="smaller">WHEN THE WORKERS OWN THEIR TOOLS</span></h2> - -<p>John Stevens, head of the railroad commission sent to Russia from the -United States, has shown the Russian government how to increase its -transportation facilities sixty per cent. In a report made public in -mid-August Mr. Stevens said that the chief cause of the railroad crisis -was bad management. Locomotives traveled 2,800 versts a month when they -could be made to travel 5,000 versts. A verst is about three-quarters -of a mile. Twice as much freight as was being hauled could be carried, -said Mr. Stevens. Freight cars were constantly being sent out only -half loaded. Mr. Stevens recommended government dictatorship of all -railroads, both publicly and privately owned. That was rather naïve, -considering that the government was powerless to control, much less to -dictate to, any department of activity in the empire. A little earlier -Mr. Nekrassoff, then Minister of Ways and Communications, issued a -circular in which he outlined his plan for coping with the railroad -crisis. He advised turning the entire railroad system over to the -workmen, the engineers, firemen, conductors and machinists. A shriek of -protest went up from the engineering profession and a howl of laughter -arose from the press of Russia. But the fact of the matter is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> that the -railroads were and are still, for all practical purposes, in the hands -of the working people, and so is every other industry in Russia.</p> - -<p>One of the great dreams of the socialists and philosophical anarchists -is of the day when the worker shall own his tools, as they put it, when -all industry shall be owned by the people who operate the machines, and -all profits shall be shared by them. It really is a great dream, and -will probably be realized in some measure some day. But not now. The -human race is not yet educated to such a Utopia. The strongest proof -that the capitalistic system is not yet ready to pass is the well-known -fact that the secret ambition of almost every human being in every walk -of life is to become a capitalist, large or small. This has just been -proved on an enormous scale in Russia. The workers have seized the -factories, shops, department stores and offices, and in no instance of -which I could learn, and I searched diligently, have they used their -great opportunity wisely or unselfishly for the common good. They have -used it to get all the money possible out of the employers and to -render back the minimum of service.</p> - -<p>This is what is the matter with the transportation system in Russia. -It is the reason why the people of Petrograd, Moscow and other cities -will go cold and hungry this winter, one reason why the death rate of -children and old people, already appallingly large, will grow more -appalling within the next few months; one reason, and a very strong -one, why order has not been restored in Russia. High as are the prices -of all food and manufactured <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>articles, the working people, as a class, -have money enough to pay for them, and not until the merchants’ stocks -are completely gone and the weather gets too cold to stand in line -long hours in order to buy will the purblind workers realize their -situation. Not until then will they realize what their selfishness and -cruel folly have done to themselves and the entire working class of the -country.</p> - -<p>So struck was I by the scarceness of goods in the shops and the soaring -prices of almost every article that I went to the Minister of Labor and -asked him to tell me something of industrial conditions of the country. -I was not entirely ignorant of those conditions. I knew, for example, -that Russia is not exclusively an agricultural country, that, on the -contrary, her development as a manufacturing country has been going -on by leaps and bounds, especially in the last dozen years. Russia -has a proletariat and a factory system, although not quite as large -proportionately as those of the United States. Her iron industry, her -cotton mills, her machine shops are enormous and in normal times they -are wonderfully productive. After the suppressed revolution of 1905-06 -important reforms in the land laws were enacted, and for the first time -the peasants were given their lands in fee simple. That is, they were -given an opportunity in certain circumstances to take title to their -share in communal lands. This gave them an opportunity to sell if they -chose, and a large number of peasant artisans did sell their lands, -moved into the cities and became factory workers. Before this time the -factory workers had more or less alternated between town and rural -life. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> - -<p>The leaders of the Social Democratic party encouraged by every means -in their power the selling of lands by peasant owners, because they -wanted the workers to move to town, organize in labor unions and become -a political power. In their own words, they wanted to create a landless -working class, one which, having no stake in property, would the more -easily revolt against the government and more heartily support the -movement to create a coöperative commonwealth. It was good reasoning -up to a certain point. A man with a piece of land thinks twice before -he puts that land in danger of being absorbed by his neighbors. He -hesitates before he takes a course of action which might turn even a -bad government out at least. The bad government protects his title. But -the leaders of the Social Democrats left an important human element -out of their reasoning. A landless man makes a good revolutionist, it -is true, but he does not necessarily make a good coöperator. Nine and -three-quarters times in ten he is just as strong for number one as the -real estate owner. When he gets a chance to grab power and money he -does it, and he divides up just as little as the others let him.</p> - -<p>A story is told in Russia which illustrates this trait of character. -Some one asked a peasant of Little Russia what he would do if he -were made czar. “I’d steal a hundred rubles and run away,” was the -prompt reply. In a word, that is virtually what the working people of -Russia did as soon as the revolution of February, 1917, made them into -individual czars of Russia.</p> - -<p>When I called on the Minister of Labor and asked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> him what was the -matter with industry, his face assumed an expression of mingled -amusement and despair. “If you really want to know,” he said, in -effect, “go and look at some of our factories.”</p> - -<p>I was given an official document, elaborately stamped and signed, -authorizing me to enter and inspect any factory in Petrograd, and I -began, bright and early the next morning, with one of the largest -munitions factories in the Viborg district of the city. I showed my -pass to the man at the gate, who read it doubtfully, and said he didn’t -think it was good. “What right has the Minister of Labor to give you -permission to visit this plant?” he inquired. “If anybody had a right -to give you such permission, I should think it would be the Minister -of War, for only war materials are manufactured here. Anyhow, I don’t -think you can get in.”</p> - -<p>I asked him mildly if he was sure that he had the power to keep me out, -and I suggested that he put the case up to a higher authority, the -manager, for instance. He turned to a wall telephone in his little gate -house and conversed with some one at the other end of the line. Then he -said: “The committee is in session and will see you.”</p> - -<p>A long walk through the enormous yard and past many shops brought me to -the office building of the plant, and there, in a small room, I found -the committee, that is, the group of workmen elected by the entire -working force of the factory to manage the industry and to fix all -conditions of labor. Every industry in Russia is thus managed. I had a -long talk with this committee, but I did not get into the factory. The -man would not permit me to get in.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> They wouldn’t even allow me to see -any one connected with the office force. Kindly but firmly they gave -me to understand that they were all the power there was in that plant -and they could give me all the information I could possibly need. So I -sat there for an hour or so, and, through my interpreter, learned how -manufacturing is carried on when the workers own their tools.</p> - -<p>Because I could carry but few notes out of the country, I am not -certain how many delegates per thousand workers make up a committee of -management in a Russian factory, but I think each unit of one hundred -men elects a representative. Perhaps there are two hundred men to the -unit. My memory for numbers is not always reliable. At all events, the -committee members, who are usually the intelligent and highly paid -workers, do no work except committee work. But they draw their full -pay. The employer has no voice in the conduct of his own business. The -committee tells him how much he pays his employees, what their hours -of work are, when they arrive and when they depart and how much they -produce. And the employer pays the committee for its kind words and -deeds. I asked the particular committee which thus informed me if this -seemed fair to the employer. Mostly the men said they thought it did. -One man asked me who in my opinion ought to pay the committee members. -I told him I thought the workers might pay at least a part of their -salaries, and perhaps also give the employers a casting vote in case of -a tie, or something like that. They seemed to find the idea humorous, -all except one fine, thoughtful young fellow, who said: “There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> may be -an element of unfairness in some of the present conditions, but time -will adjust them. There is no question but that the workers should own -the industries, and they will. The working class has never had a square -deal and now that they have seized the powers of government, nothing -less than confiscation of industries will satisfy them.”</p> - -<p>The working class in Russia has had rather less of a square deal than -any other in the modern world, it is true. The factory system being -comparatively new in Russia, there has not been time for the workers to -organize closely, and under the autocracy there was little or no chance -to obtain enlightened factory legislation. There was hardly a chance -for the Russian workman to attain a very high degree of skill in many -industries. He could not, as a rule, learn the finest processes of his -trade, because until the war broke out most of those processes were -in the hands and under the control of Germany. When I was in Russia -in 1906 one of the most striking things to me was the prevalence of -German shopkeepers, German managers, German foremen. You hardly ever -saw a Russian in command of any industry. I spoke of this to a Russian -friend and told him that I should not like to see in my country all -the business controlled by foreigners, for these Germans were not even -Russian citizens. He shrugged his shoulders and said “Nitchevo,” which -means almost anything and is a general expression of indifference or -resignation to the inevitable. “We have no heads for that sort of -thing, we Russians,” he apologized.</p> - -<p>“But what if you should ever go to war with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> Germany?” I asked. And he, -sobered a little, said: “We should have to learn to be business men and -skilled mechanics, in that case, and we should have a devil of a time -doing it.”</p> - -<p>Eight years later, almost to a day, they did go to war with Germany, -and they did have a devil of a time adjusting their industries to -meet the crisis caused by the exodus of thousands of highly skilled -German managers and department heads in hundreds of factories and shops -throughout the empire.</p> - -<p>One story told me in Moscow is representative, I believe. A very large -factory taken over by the government for the fine toolmaking facilities -its machines afforded was found to be managed exclusively by German -foremen and managers. Not only had they drawn large salaries for years -in that factory, but they had insisted on hiring for the last processes -and the most highly skilled jobs workmen from Germany. They didn’t -want, or rather the German government didn’t want, the Russian people -to know how to do skilled work. They wanted to keep Russia in exactly -the right condition for permanent commercial exploitation by the -fatherland.</p> - -<p>I go into this because I think it is only fair to the Russian working -class to explain that they have not been allowed to develop the -intelligence and skill which the English and American working classes -have done. Because of this ignorance the Russians of the working -class have in their few months’ debauch of liberty and the control of -industry wrecked their country industrially and have brought themselves -and their own people to the verge of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>starvation. They have done to -their class approximately what the mutinous soldiers at the front did -to the men who wanted to go forward and fight—shot them in the back. -I know this, because I have seen it. The next factory I approached the -committee let me in.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XIX</span> <span class="smaller">WHY COTTON CLOTH IS SCARCE</span></h2> - -<p>When I got on the train to leave Russia for the United States the first -familiar face I saw was that of Mr. Daniel Cheshire, mill owner and -operator of Petrograd. “I’m going home to England to enlist,” he said, -as we shook hands.</p> - -<p>“What have you done with your mills?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“I have left them to the Tavarishi,” replied Mr. Cheshire, “I thought I -might as well.”</p> - -<p>Daniel Cheshire is not the only large manufacturer who has abandoned -his business after a vain struggle to cope with the situation created -by the Russian revolution, and the taking over by the working people -of the control of industry. Others have given up the struggle, and -many more will probably follow their example. But Mr. Cheshire’s -story I know at first hand. His abandonment of his mills is full -of significance, partly because of the importance of his branch of -manufacturing, and partly because his act may hasten the day when, -through sheer lack of the necessities of life, the Russian people will -cease pursuing their utopian dream and will content themselves with a -government which, although still capitalistic, will rescue them from -starvation and ruin. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> - -<p>Those who think of Russia as a land of snow and ice will be interested -to learn that in Turkestan and Transcaucasia as well as in other -provinces of the south and east, they raise millions of pounds of very -good cotton, the seeds of which originally came from America. Those -who think that every Russian peasant does nothing but farm will be -surprised to hear that over a million Russians work in textile mills, -principally cotton textiles.</p> - -<p>When cotton spinning and weaving began in Russia the mill owners, in -most cases, sent to England for their foremen and managers, and the -descendants of some of these Englishmen still live and still manage -cotton mills in Russia. The Cheshire family is a case in point. The -original Cheshire went out from Manchester in the 1840’s to manage a -small cotton spinning factory in Petrograd. He saved money, bought -a partnership and enlarged the business. His sons enlarged it still -more, and to-day his grandchildren own and operate ten large cotton -mills in and around Petrograd. Daniel Cheshire, a keen young man -of thirty-something, is head of the family and chief owner of the -mills. That is, he was up to February, 1917. After that he wasn’t. -The Tavarishi, or “comrades,” whose wages he paid, became the virtual -owners then, and on August 30, 1917, they became, temporarily at least, -the sole owners.</p> - -<p>It was in one of the Cheshire cotton mills that I got the most intimate -view of what becomes of industry when the workers own their tools. -Perhaps it would be fairer to say, when the workers seize their tools. -Some day, perhaps, they will find out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> how to own them honestly and -then they will use them wisely and for the common good.</p> - -<p>It was a happy accident that first led me into a Cheshire cotton -mill. After being refused permission to inspect the big munition -works to which I applied—refused by the workers’ committee, not by -the proprietors—I wandered through the Viborg district of Petrograd -until I found another large factory. This time the permit given me by -the Minister of Labor worked better, and I was shown into the general -office of the plant. It was a big, modern, up-to-date office, furnished -with the usual desks, files, safes and the like, but to remind me -that I was in revolutionary Russia, the walls were decorated with -many red flags, and banners inscribed with white-lettered mottoes and -declarations. The head of the workmen’s committee, who came forward to -meet me, looked a little doubtful about letting me go through the mill, -but just then the door opened and a strapping young Englishman came in. -“See the works?” said he. “Of course you may. I’d like nothing better -than to show my mills just now to newspaper people. I call them my -mills yet, but only for a joke.”</p> - -<p>He said something in Russian to the workman, who shrugged his shoulders -and stood aside, and Mr. Cheshire and I went into the nearest mill -room. It was a storeroom, as a matter of fact, the receiving room for -the huge bales of coarse yarn spun in another mill. The bales were -soft and made excellent beds, a fact that was not overlooked, for two -tired Russian mill-workers reposed blissfully on a pile of bales as we -passed through, sleeping the sleep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> of the just. They were not the only -sleepers I saw in that mill. Several women were taking naps on piles -of cloth near their machines, and a great many of the workers, men and -women, might as well have been asleep, for they were doing no work. One -woman was displaying a new pair of shoes to a group of other women, who -stopped their machines to look. Shoes are so expensive in Russia at -present that a new pair is worth looking at, I admit, but they might -have postponed the exhibition until closing time. These women stood and -discussed the shoes, from every point of view, apparently, nor did they -go back to their machines when we stopped and discussed the women.</p> - -<p>“Do you mean to tell me that you cannot order them back to their work?” -I asked.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I can order them,” was the reply. “But if they choose not to go -that would make me look rather foolish, wouldn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“You could discharge them, couldn’t you?” I countered.</p> - -<p>“I certainly could not,” declared Mr. Cheshire. “Nobody can discharge -an employé until the shop committee has sat on the case and decided -that it does not want the man or woman in the mill. All I can do is to -make my complaints to the committee and ask it to act.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Cheshire was born in Russia, and has lived there all his life -except for a few years spent in an English school. Yet he speaks the -English of his grandfather, the same unmistakable little Lancashire -burr. He has the Lancastrian’s sense of humor also and he laughed even -when he told me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> of the demoralization and ruin in which the fantasies -of the revolution had plunged his business. The utter absurdity of it -was as present in his mind as the disaster.</p> - -<p>“Look at that man,” he said, pointing to a machine at which a man sat -and wound cotton cloth into huge round cylinders. “He and the others at -his particular job have had their wages raised to sixteen rubles (about -$5.25) a day. Yes, of course. The committee decides on the wage scale. -I am not consulted. Even if I were, I should have nothing except a -complimentary vote, one against hundreds. That chap gets sixteen rubles -a day, and in addition I must hire a girl at four rubles a day to lift -the roll of cloth off the machine.”</p> - -<p>We passed into a print room still discussing the committee. I asked Mr. -Cheshire if it was true that these workmen’s committees were highly -paid men who performed no service to their employers and still received -their regular pay.</p> - -<p>“It is true,” he replied. Then he went on to tell me the following -story: “The work we do in this room is something a little unusual in -Russia. Few mills have these machines as yet, and our product is almost -the only cotton goods of the kind possible to buy in Russian markets -since the war. Before that a great deal of it was imported from England -and Germany. Naturally it is scarce at present, and not long ago one -of our men complained that he couldn’t buy it at all. ‘Of course you -cannot,’ I told him, ‘because these mills are turning out very little -of it. Go into the print room and see for yourself how many machines -are idle for lack of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> workers.’ And then I made him this offer, for he -was a member of the committee: ‘Let me have four men of your committee -back to work on these machines, and I will guarantee that you will soon -be able to buy the goods you want.’ Well, he agreed, and he got the -rest of the committee to agree, and I got the men back. But what do you -think those four men demanded? They said that they had been doing hard -mental work on the committee for two months, and they thought before -they went back to the machines they ought to have a month’s vacation -with pay. I did draw the line there. I told them I’d close the works -first. But since then I understand that the committee has begun to -discuss the two months on and one month off as a future policy. They -say that mental work—they call committee meetings mental work—is much -harder than physical labor.”</p> - -<p>“I’m glad they are finding it out,” I remarked. “Perhaps after a while -they will discover that even you belong to the proletariat.”</p> - -<p>“If they raise the wages again,” said Mr. Cheshire, “I mean to ask them -to give me a job. I’ll have to. Then they’ll have some real mental work -finding out how to pay me or themselves either. This factory and all -the others in our name have been running farther and farther behind -for months. Soon we shall have to close. We should have been closed -before now except that we hoped that a strong government would be -formed and industry as well as the army and navy would be placed under -a dictatorship.”</p> - -<p>The committees have created an eight-hour day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> in this particular -industry. Some industries have a six-hour day, and I was told that -numbers of working people claimed that a two-hour day was the ideal -towards which they aspired. I heard also, on good authority, that -certain groups favored a complete cessation of all factory work during -the three hot months of summer.</p> - -<p>Mr. Cheshire’s mills were supposed to run eight hours a day, but he -declared that he would be satisfied, in present circumstances, to get -a good, solid five hours’ work out of his people. If they would stay -on the job and actually produce for five hours every working day he -thought he might avert bankruptcy. “We close at five,” he told me. “But -along about 4 o’clock you watch them begin to go home.”</p> - -<p>I watched and they did. Man after man and woman after woman stopped all -work and began to put on their shoes. Many millworkers work barefooted. -They gathered in little knots at a window and looked out, talking -aimlessly. They strolled about the rooms. Some just stopped work and -went out. At half past four in the rooms through which I walked, not -half the machines were running.</p> - -<p>“Is it really like this in all the mills and factories of Russia?” I -asked, “or is this mill an exception to the rule? Is it worse than the -average?”</p> - -<p>“It is no worse than most,” was the reply. “It is better than some. -Industrial Russia has completely broken down in some places. It is -rapidly breaking down everywhere.”</p> - -<p>What I saw afterwards absolutely confirmed this statement. The -industrial world is as much in the hands of the Bolsheviki or -extremists as are the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>councils of workmen’s and soldiers’ delegates. -While the provisional government of the early weeks of the revolution -discussed ways and means whereby the workers in mills and factories -might gradually acquire an interest in their industries and a voice in -the councils of the managers, the workers settled the whole thing by -turning the employers out and taking over the industries themselves. -They have voted themselves enormous salaries, short hours and little -work. But they have done little or nothing to insure the permanence -of the salaries. Soon there will be, instead of an eight hour day, no -working day at all. All the shops and factories will close.</p> - -<p>In Moscow is the largest and finest department store in Russia. It is -an English concern, Muir & Merrilies, managed and largely owned by Mr. -William L. Cazalet. I know him well, and his testimony, when I saw him -in August, bore out this statement. The committee in Muir & Merrilies -voted that they found it inconvenient to have clerks and other employés -go home for lunch at different hours. They therefore ordered the store -closed every day from 12 to 2 o’clock. The store was accordingly closed.</p> - -<p>“I don’t mind,” said Mr. Cazalet cheerfully. “My stocks are running -low, the transportation system is on the verge of collapse, and I can’t -get any more goods. As each line of goods is exhausted I shall close -the department. When the time comes I shall close the store and go home -to England for a vacation.”</p> - -<p>He will go, as Daniel Cheshire went, others will follow, and the -workers will own their tools. They won’t own anything else.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XX</span> <span class="smaller">MRS. PANKHURST IN RUSSIA</span></h2> - -<p>Emmeline Pankhurst, the English militant suffrage leader, known to -thousands in this country, went to Russia in late June of this year -to organize the women of the country and help them to support the -provisional government and to oppose the Bolsheviki or extremists. -She succeeded in organizing a group of strong and influential women -leaders, and she might have accomplished great good had not Kerensky -frowned on the movement. Mrs. Pankhurst’s project, in my opinion, was -one of Kerensky’s many lost opportunities.</p> - -<p>This will answer a natural curiosity on the part of the reader as to -why Mrs. Pankhurst came to be in revolutionary Russia. She went of her -own initiative and under the auspices of her suffrage organization, the -Women’s Social and Political Union, but her plan had the warm approval -of the English premier, Mr. Lloyd George, who personally issued her -passport and that of her secretary, Jessie Kenney. Mr. Lloyd George -also gave directions that Mrs. Pankhurst and Miss Kenney should be -allowed to travel on the only passenger boat that plies regularly -between Great Britain and Norway. This boat is strongly convoyed and -it is used by very few <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>people not in the service of the English -government. No one in England has a higher esteem for Mrs. Pankhurst -than Lloyd George, and since the beginning of the war the two erstwhile -enemies have become friends and allies. Mrs. Pankhurst’s suffragettes -fired a house that Mr. Lloyd George was building in the country, and -Mrs. Pankhurst was sentenced to three years’ penal servitude for the -deed. She had served several weeks of the sentence, in hunger strike -intervals which extended over a year or more, when the war broke out -and all internal feuds were declared off in England. The Pankhursts -at once called a truce of militancy and ever since have done yeoman -service in recruiting for the army, collecting money for war sufferers, -especially in Serbia, and in many other lines of patriotic work.</p> - -<p>The whole world admired the statesmanship of this policy, but only a -few people know how really statesmanlike it was. Among those who do -know is the English premier, for without it he might not have become -premier. In abandoning militancy Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughter -Christabel were actuated by two motives: they wanted England and the -allies to win the war, and they saw in the war an opportunity to -further the cause of woman suffrage. They were under no delusion that -a grateful country would bestow the vote on its women as a reward for -their unselfish war services. Women have rendered the noblest kind of -service in all the wars that have ever been fought, but no country ever -showed its gratitude by making them citizens for it. Witness our civil -war. Mrs. Pankhurst and Christabel knew that suffrage would come in -England<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> when the political situation suffered certain changes, and it -would come in no other way.</p> - -<p>They were in France in July, 1914, Mrs. Pankhurst out of prison under -the famous “Cat and Mouse” act, and resting up for another bout with -the Holloway jailers. Christabel lived in Paris and edited there the -British suffragette weekly newspaper. They watched with deep emotion -the mobilization of the French army and saw the French women drop all -their other activities and mobilize for hospital and relief work. They -agreed that they must go back to England and organize their women for -the same work, and they said: “At last! A chance to get rid of Asquith -and Sir Edward Grey!”</p> - -<p>These two men, especially Mr. Asquith, were the arch enemies of the -women’s cause. Mr. Asquith had consistently blocked the woman suffrage -bills in Parliament, even when a large majority of the House of Commons -wanted to vote favorably on them. Mr. Lloyd George, on the other hand, -was, theoretically at least, a suffragist. He wanted the women to have -votes, but he wanted something else a great deal more. He wanted, with -an earnestness amounting to a cosmic urge, to be prime minister of -England. His whole soul being set on that ambition, he was not going -to take people’s minds off of his candidacy by getting into the woman -suffrage controversy. So he put the whole subject one side for future -reference.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Pankhurst, great and wise stateswoman that she is, perfectly -understood this. She knew that, if Mr. Lloyd George became premier, he -would probably put a suffrage bill through Parliament, and she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> and -Christabel knew that the new war cabinet, which they trusted would -come, would probably have Lloyd George at its head. So they bent all -their energies to ousting Mr. Asquith and boosting Mr. Lloyd George. -They criticized caustically, with pen and voice, the cabinet’s war -policies, they turned a whole volume of scorn on England’s Serbian -blunders and the Dardanelles failure. They went all over England -talking about Mr. Asquith and his ministers, and their work told. So -when Mrs. Pankhurst decided to go to Russia and do what she could to -rally the women of that distracted country, Mr. Lloyd George knew that -she would do it if any one could. He gave her a passport and a safe -conduct, and she went. A little later Ramsay Macdonald, leader of -England’s “little group of wilful men” opposing the war, thought he -would go to Russia and undo any good Mrs. Pankhurst might do.</p> - -<p>Mr. Lloyd George at first refused to give Mr. Macdonald a passport, but -his refusal so angered the Bolshevik element in the Petrograd Council -of Soldiers’ and Workmen’s Delegates that Kerensky was actually forced -to ask the English premier to allow Mr. Macdonald to visit Russia. The -English premier therefore consented to issue the passport, but the -Seamen’s Union, which was not in the least afraid of the Petrograd -soldiers and workmen, or of any international misunderstandings, -refused point blank to allow Mr. Ramsay Macdonald to travel on any -boat crossing to Norway. The union served notice that the moment Mr. -Macdonald stepped foot on any boat leaving England the sailors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> on that -boat would step off. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald accordingly never stepped on -a boat.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Pankhurst was very well received in Russia. The newspapers -published columns about her, statesmen and ambassadors called on her, -almost as on a visiting royalty, and the finest women in Petrograd came -to her and welcomed her proffered aid. Which is certainly discouraging -to those suffragists who always try to be good and well mannered and -never picket the White House or disturb a congressman’s afternoon nap. -A series of meetings were arranged for Mrs. Pankhurst, but they were -neither well arranged nor well managed. Some of them got into the hands -of women who had movements of their own to push, and who were willing -to use Mrs. Pankhurst’s drawing capacity to fill a room, but were not -willing to turn the meeting over to her when she got there.</p> - -<p>I was present at such a meeting, which had for chairman a lady of title -who had a scheme of some kind, and the speakers were mostly women who -had other schemes, and they all talked and talked about their schemes, -until I feared that Mrs. Pankhurst would never be given a chance to -talk at all. One woman spoke for over an hour about the food situation. -Her remedy was to send a commission to America and beg that a shipload -of food be sent via Archangel to Petrograd. It was pointed out to her -at some length by Mr. MacAllister Smith, an American business man -living in Petrograd, that there was plenty of food nearer home than -America, and that it didn’t need to be begged for.</p> - -<p>Through it all Mrs. Pankhurst sat quietly, but I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> who knew her well -saw a suspicious little color creep into her cheeks and a light of -battle flash into her gray eyes. I don’t know what might have happened, -but what did happen was dramatic. A tall, fine-looking woman in the -back of the room sprang to her feet and burst into a passionate -speech of protest. While the women in that room were wasting time in -inconsequential talk the Germans were steadily advancing, the Russian -troops were retreating and ruin and desolation were at their very -doors. She begged them for the sake of bleeding Russia to drop all -controversy and let Mrs. Pankhurst, if she could, tell them what to do.</p> - -<p>As she sat down, or rather dropped exhausted into her seat, Mrs. -Pankhurst stood up. She is a small woman, but when she is in certain -moods she manages somehow to look tall. She looked tall on this -occasion. She spoke in French and her talk lasted not longer than -fifteen minutes, but when she finished half the women in the room would -have gone into the trenches after her. The others looked frightened. -Mrs. Pankhurst told the women that 250 Russian women had gone out of -their homes, donned soldiers’ uniforms and were prepared to give their -lives for their country and the democracy of the world. Mrs. Pankhurst -was naturally an admirer of Botchkareva and her Battalion of Death, -and had a few days before this meeting reviewed the regiment. She told -these women of leisure that if working women were willing to risk -their lives on the battlefield for the freedom of Russia the women -who remained at home ought to be willing to risk their lives on the -streets. Whenever a Bolshevik<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> street orator preached separate peace -or a cessation of fighting, a woman of education and ability ought to -stand up and tell that same street crowd the truth. The women ought to -storm the soviets all over Russia and force the men to support Kerensky -and the Provisional Government in their effort to rally the army and -defeat the Germans.</p> - -<p>The movement, she told them, must be a Russian women’s movement only. -No foreigners should appear in it at all. They must do the work, but -she was there to give them the full benefit of her experience as -an organizer. She would show them how to do the work, how to train -speakers, how to manage politicians, how to arrange demonstrations. -One of the first things she advised them to do was to establish -a headquarters in a conspicuous place, and to get up a great -demonstration of women to march in a body to the Winter Palace or -the Tauride Palace, wherever the Provisional Government was holding -its meetings at the time. They should offer their services to the -government, and let the country see that women were in the field to -support the war. That speech and that program swept the women off their -feet. Immediate steps were taken to organize, and a few women, without -waiting for organization, actually did go out into the streets and talk -against the Bolsheviki.</p> - -<p>Then came the days of the July revolution when all street speaking -ceased, and that interfered with the women’s plan. What discouraged -it most of all was Kerensky’s cynical attitude toward it. A woman of -rank and of great ability, knowing Kerensky well, went to him and told -him what they proposed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> do, and asked for his coöperation. To her -astonishment he refused point blank and he told her that the women -would not be allowed to make a demonstration or to march to the palace. -Naturally she asked him why, and he replied evasively that there had -been too many demonstrations already.</p> - -<p>Ambassador Francis shared the women’s disappointment to the extent -of calling on Kerensky and trying to make him see the value of their -assistance in an hour of crisis, but Kerensky persisted in his refusal.</p> - -<p>I do not understand why he acted in this manner. His own domestic -affairs were in a sad state at this time, a rumor stating that Mme. -Kerenskaia was divorcing her famous husband. It may be that Kerensky -was in a state of mind of general prejudice against all women. Perhaps -he has the Napoleonic conception of the position of women in the state. -I do not know. But if he is an anti-suffragist he is almost alone in -his opinion in Russia. Mrs. Pankhurst did not have to convert the -country to suffrage. There is no spoken opposition to it anywhere, -as far as I could discover. It is taken for granted that women will -vote under the new constitution. They have voted already in municipal -elections, and in many cities they have been elected to the town dumas. -Fourteen women were elected to the Moscow town duma last summer.</p> - -<p>Neither is Russia opposed to militant suffragism. Mrs. Pankhurst -was a guest of honor one night at the great congress of Cossacks in -Petrograd. When she appeared on the platform she received an ovation, -and Prof. Miliukoff’s introduction of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>famous Englishwoman was a -high eulogy. Mrs. Pankhurst’s autobiography has been translated into -Russian and is widely circulated. Her mission failed because Kerensky -killed it. That is all. Her visit to Russia was not a complete failure, -however, for she succeeded in awakening at least one group of Russian -women to a keen sense of their political responsibilities. They have -begun to work, and when order is restored in the country, their work -will be heard of.</p> - -<p>They told her in my hearing that they had never before realized what -was before them, and they did not intend that the new constitution -should be written by any but the best men in Russia. Much can be -expected of Russian women in the future, in my opinion.</p> - -<p>Among the working people the women have shown themselves to be at least -as ready for citizenship as the men. They appear among the Bolsheviki, -of course, and they are seen among the slackers in industry. But one -group of women workers played a loyal part throughout the February -revolution and in the after troubles. This was the telephone force, -especially the girls in the big central office in the Morskaia. These -girls, without any direction or orders, joined in an absolute refusal -to connect the headquarters of the Bolsheviki in the dancer’s palace on -the Neva, or the munitions factory which was their other stronghold. -Cut off from using the telephone the mutinous soldiers and workmen were -severely handicapped, and the government was materially assisted.</p> - -<p>Women of the educated classes will play an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>important part in the -reconstruction of Russia. They will hold office, and may sit in the -ministry. Already one woman has been appointed adjunct Minister of -Public Welfare. This was the well known and efficient Countess Panine, -whose civic work is famous throughout the empire. Countess Panine held -office for a short time only, because no ministry held together long. -That she will be returned to office when stability is secured, there -seems to be no doubt.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XXI</span> <span class="smaller">KERENSKY, THE MYSTERY MAN</span></h2> - -<p>It is unfortunate that nothing has ever been written about Kerensky -except eulogies. However deserved they may be, eulogies have the fault -of not being informative. Who is Kerensky? What kind of a man is he? -Why hasn’t he restored order in Russia? If he cannot restore order, -discipline the army and make it fight, why doesn’t he step aside and -let somebody else try? These questions have been asked on all sides.</p> - -<p>I may not be able to answer all or any conclusively. But I was in -Russia three months, and I watched Kerensky progress from Minister of -War to Minister-President of the Provisional Government and virtual -President of the Russian Republic. I can tell my own observations of -the man, and I can present the evidence of events, allowing the reader -to draw his conclusions. I saw Kerensky frequently, heard him speak -several times, and, like almost every one else, I went through a period -of extreme enthusiasm for him. A certain enthusiasm I have retained. I -still think he has achieved marvels in keeping a government together -and remaining for nearly six months at the head of that government. -In fact Kerensky, whatever else is said of him, for a time at least -kept before the wild-eyed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> liberty-mad masses of the Russian people -the certain fact that governments must be, that the state cannot exist -without leaders.</p> - -<p>There was apparently no other man in Russia who could do this thing. -The old theory that great events always produce great men seems to -have failed in this case. The most stupendous event in modern history, -the Russian revolution, has as yet produced no great, or even, when -Kerensky is left out, no near-great men. The first provisional -government contained able men like Lvoff and Miliukoff. But they could -no more cope with the situation created by the fall of autocracy in -Russia than so many children could operate a railroad system.</p> - -<p>These men thought that they had helped to bring on a political -revolution. They little knew their Russia. There was just one man of -ability in that first ministry who knew the truth, and he knew only -part of it. Alexander Feodorovitch Kerensky, the socialist who was -appointed Minister of Justice, knew that what the world was about to -witness in Russia was a social revolution. But he, too, was blind to -the task before him. At the very outset of his career as Minister of -Justice, Kerensky insisted on abolishing the death penalty. “I do not -wish that this shall be a bloody revolution,” he declared. In one -sentence he showed how little he, too, knew his Russia.</p> - -<p>There was some excuse for ignorance on the part of most of the other -ministers. Prince Lvoff, for example, was a large estate owner, a man -who lived in the country a great deal of the time, one who had been -active in the affairs of his zemstvo or county council, a friend and -adviser of peasants, but always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> the great gentleman, the aristocrat. -Miliukoff was a university professor, a man of books, an amateur of -music. And so on through the list.</p> - -<p>But Kerensky was no aristocrat. He was an obscure lawyer, one who -specialized in cases of men and women accused of political offenses. He -defended with fiery zeal young students whose revolutionary activities -drew them within the tiger claws of the autocracy. He was the friend -of the poor. He was one of the executive council of the Social -Revolutionary party, largely made up of peasants. Why did he not know -and understand his countrymen? Why could he not have known that the -abolishment of the death penalty at that hour of supreme crisis would -drench the revolution in blood?</p> - -<p>Kerensky was in the beginning an extreme idealist, a preacher, a -prophet. He changed a great deal between February and November, 1917. -But events, I think, on the whole, prove him an extreme idealist, a -dreamer instead of a doer. Such men and women are never really great as -leaders. They can stir up an enormous enthusiasm, send the crowd to the -highest pitch of inspiration, even make it do monumental things for a -time. But the dreamer’s usefulness stops there.</p> - -<p>Somewhere in Russia, in one of the universities perhaps, in some -farmhouse or on some lonely steppe, there lives a big, hard-fisted -strong-brained ruthless boy who can and will some day do the kind of -ruling and guiding Kerensky talks about and would have enforced if he -could. Perhaps that boy got his inspiration from hearing Kerensky talk. -But the boy is a real leader. He will stretch out his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> hand to the mob -and the mob will obey his indomitable will.</p> - -<p>Did the mob ever obey Kerensky’s will? Take the army situation, for -example. The day I arrived in Petrograd, May 28, I had a talk with the -then American consul, Mr. North Winship. He told me what he had seen -of the revolution, and spoke gravely and apprehensively of the future. -The sedition in many regiments at the front was, to his mind, the most -sinister single menace that had yet developed. “Kerensky, the new war -minister, has just been sent down to the front,” he told me. “He will -save the situation if any living human being can. His influence over -the Russians is enormous. He can sway them like the tides with his -eloquence.”</p> - -<p>Kerensky, who all the world knows is a sickly man, spared himself no -whit during those critical days. He tore all over the front in motor -cars. He made scores of speeches, thrilling speeches. Every one reading -in the newspapers of his wonderful speeches breathed more freely and -whispered, “We are saved.” But were they?</p> - -<p>One incident. It may have been cabled to the American newspapers. On -one front where Kerensky was speaking a soldier, doubtless deputed -by the less brave in the regiment, stepped forward and said: “It is -all very well to urge us to fight for liberty, but if a man is killed -fighting what good is liberty to him?” Instantly Kerensky’s wrath -poured out in a torrent of eloquence. He denounced the man for a -traitor and a disgrace. The man who would think about his miserable -skin when the freedom of his mother country was threatened was unfit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> -to live with brave men. Turning to the colonel of the regiment, he -demanded that the soldier be degraded and immediately turned out of the -army, sent home a branded coward.</p> - -<p>The colonel replied that there were others in the regiment who might, -with justice, receive the same treatment. But no, said Kerensky, one -man disgraced was enough. He would be a symbol of dishonor. The Russian -army needed nothing more. The unfortunate man is said to have fallen in -a swoon. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was so. But he was probably -glad enough after he recovered that he was sent home. Nor was the -symbol of dishonor enough for the Russian army. It continued to desert.</p> - -<p>Often after one of Kerensky’s speeches he would call on the troops to -declare whether or not they would fight. Always they roared out that -they would, to the death. Sometimes they did, it is true, but sometimes -also they didn’t. At present no one can tell whether any soldiers, -except the Cossacks and the women, are going to go forward when -commanded.</p> - -<p>When the army demoralization, fraternization and desertions began to -assume recent frightful proportions Kerensky issued a manifesto telling -the soldiers what he was prepared to do to deserters. They would not be -shot—no, the death penalty was for all time abolished in Russia. But -deserters would be treated as traitors. Their families would receive -no soldiers’ benefits, and they would not be allowed to participate in -the redistribution of land. The Minister-President, for by this time -Kerensky was at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> the head of the Provisional Government, would give the -deserters time to get back to their regiments. He named a date about -three weeks in advance. But on that day, at the extreme limit, all -soldiers must be back in their regiments. This manifesto was issued -not once, but three times, as I have stated. Three separate dates were -given, three ultimata pronounced. But none of them was even noticed by -the demoralized soldiers. On one date, June 18, it is true, Kerensky’s -order to advance was obeyed. At all events, the troops advanced on that -day and fought a victorious fight. It may have been in response to -Kerensky’s order, or it may have been a coincidence.</p> - -<p>Kerensky’s idealism began to suffer. He began to see his people as an -unruly, unreasoning, sanguinary mob. But he loved the mob and could -not bring himself to do it violence even for its own good. In July he -agreed that Korniloff should be made commander-in-chief of the army, -with power to shoot deserters in the face of battle. Korniloff’s demand -for full command of the army, both at the front and in the reserve, -with power to shoot all slackers, Kerensky would not agree to. However, -in that same month of July, 1917, Kerensky had progressed so far that -he told the world that he was prepared to save Russia and Russian unity -by blood and iron, if argument and reason, honor and conscience, were -not sufficient. Apparently they were not sufficient, but where was -the blood and iron? Beating Russia into submission would be a big job -for anybody just then, and it would be interesting to know just how -Kerensky thought he could do it. He was the only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> man of first rate -ability in his ministry, the only strong force. He would have had to -have some backing, and where could he get it?</p> - -<p>The Soviets? They have over and over, after fierce fighting, voted to -give Kerensky support. Once they voted to give him supreme power. But -they were never in earnest about it, and Kerensky knew it very well. -They proved that they were insincere, it seems to me, by their action -in October in refusing to support any ministry not made up exclusively -of Socialists, and then making such a body subject to criticism and -control.</p> - -<p>“The Germans are at our very gates,” Kerensky told those men. “While -you sit talking here, and are refusing to listen to words of reason -from your commander-in-chief, your revolution is in danger of -destruction. Are there no words of mine to make you see it?”</p> - -<p>Words, words, words! Hurled passionately from a burning heart into -a whirling void. That seems to me to typify Alexander Feodorovitch -Kerensky talking to the Russian revolutionary mob.</p> - -<p>The French revolution offers no parallel to this. Each one of the -successive leaders of that mob accomplished something good or bad. -Mirabeau led the mass as far as a constituent assembly. Marat and -Danton got rid of the king. Robespierre imposed his will on Paris -until the end of the reign of terror. Robespierre, “the sea-green -incorruptible,” is the nearest parallel to Kerensky that the French -revolution offers. He led the mob in the direction it wanted to go. -Kerensky followed it in a direction it wanted to go, begging it with -all his eloquence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> to turn around and follow him. The mob applauded -him, adulated him, wove laurels for his brow, but it would not follow -him.</p> - -<p>He could not turn the mob. Perhaps nobody could have done so. Perhaps -what had happened in Russia was inevitable, the only possible reaction -from three centuries of Romanoff rule. To have it otherwise Kerensky -has all but laid down his life. He suffers from some kind of kidney -disease, and shortly before the February revolution he underwent an -operation which nearly finished him. His right hand is incapacitated -and is usually worn in a sling or tucked inside his coat. He is thin, -hollow of chest and walks with a slight stoop.</p> - -<p>A man of thirty-seven, Kerensky is about five feet eight in height. He -has thick brown hair, which bristles in pompadour all over his finely -shaped head. His myopic eyes are blue, or grey, according to his mood. -You see those eyes in Russia, deep, beautiful blue at times, steel grey -at others. Kerensky’s eyes look straight at you and give you confidence -in his candor. Sometimes when he is suffering physically the eyes seem -to sink in his head and lose all their brightness. When he is tired or -discouraged they burn like somber fires. His face is pale, and even -sometimes an ashen grey, and the face is deeply lined and scarred with -troubled thought. The nose is big and strong, the mouth deeply curved, -and the strong chin is cleft, with a deep line, rather than a dimple.</p> - -<p>Kerensky’s speeches, to my mind, read better than they sound. He is -intensely nervous on the platform, jerking, moving from side to side, -striding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> up and down, thrusting out his chin—a kind of delivery I -especially dislike. His gestures are all jerky and nervous. His voice -is rather shrill. But in spite of all this he is a really eloquent -speaker, and he rouses his audiences to a point of enthusiasm I have -seen only one man equal. Of course I mean Theodore Roosevelt.</p> - -<p>Kerensky was formerly a model family man, I heard, but something went -wrong, and last summer Mme. Kerenskaia and her two small sons, nine and -seven, lived alone in the modest home. Kerensky lived in a suite in -the Winter Palace and drove in the Czar’s motor cars and was waited on -by a whole retinue of faithful retainers. No disparagement to him is -intended in the statement. The Winter Palace was his headquarters, and -as for the motor cars he had a right to drive in them, and every right -in the world to be waited on and cared for.</p> - -<p>The parents of this fated child of revolution were well educated and -fairly well circumstanced. The elder Kerensky was a school inspector -and was able to give his son a university education. Rumor persistently -states that Kerensky’s mother was a Jewess, but I do not know whether -this is true or not.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XXII</span> <span class="smaller">THE RIGHTS OF SMALL NATIONS</span></h2> - -<p>One of the main contentions of the extremists of the Russian revolution -concerns the self-governing rights of the states, large and small, -which make up the empire. I met no one in Russia who did not agree that -each one of the states had a right to local autonomy, but I met many -who feared greatly lest the empire should be dismembered and should -fall apart into a number of small, weak states. Especially disastrous -would this be, both to Russia and to the Allies, if it happened during -the war. That Germany is doing everything in her power to bring about -this end is proof enough that it would be disastrous to the Allies. -Germany’s army and navy and German diplomacy are working overtime -to separate the Russian states. The enemy forces are working now to -isolate the Baltic states and Finland, and German agents are busy all -over the empire spreading the propaganda of secession.</p> - -<p>“The right of small peoples to govern themselves” is one of the -easiest gospels in the world to preach. As a principle it is not even -debatable. In practice, however, it very often is far from expedient -or practicable. But the recently liberated Russians, each separate -language and racial group smarting from remembered wrongs inflicted by -the old <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>government, took fire with the idea of self-government, and in -every corner of Russia are found provinces, governments, even cities, -repudiating the central government and setting up republics of their -own. Provisional governments were created last summer in provinces of -Siberia, in the rich province of Ukrania, in the town of Kronstadt, in -the Siberian towns of Tomsk and Tsaritsine, and in a number of other -localities. Finland very early started an agitation for a separate -government, and only the closing of the Diet and the prevention by -armed force of the convening of a new Diet stood in the way of a -socialist manifesto of separation. The Socialists are the majority -party in the Diet, and they counted on the support of enough people -in the three “bourgeois” parties—the Swedish, old Finnish and young -Finnish parties—to carry their measure through.</p> - -<p>Every one of these attempts at secession was marked by riots, murders -and excesses of every kind. A report from Kirsanoff, a city that -wanted last June to be a republic all by itself, told of a garrison of -soldiers who broke loose, fell on the inhabitants of the town, robbed -and murdered them, outraged women, burned houses, looted shops and -generally behaved like maddened animals. There seemed to be no reason -why the soldiers, who had previously behaved like decent men, should -have been seized with sudden criminal mania. Liberty simply acted on -their systems like a deadly drug.</p> - -<p>It was the same thing in Kronstadt, only in Kronstadt they developed a -drug habit, so to speak. This fortified town of some 60,000 inhabitants -is situated at the mouth of the Neva on the Gulf of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>Finland. The -fortress of Kronstadt, which dominates the town, in normal times -constitutes one of the chief defenses of Petrograd, a few miles up the -river. The Gulf of Kronstadt, on which the fortress stands, is the -chief station of the Baltic fleet. With a strong garrison, a fleet of -battleships and a well-organized Bolsheviki, Kronstadt was able for -many weeks to defy the Provisional Government, to maintain what it -called a government of its own, and to commit more horrible crimes and -more stupid excesses than almost any other place in Russia. Murder -on a wholesale scale marked the progress of the revolution in the -fortress and on the battleships. More than a score of young officers in -training were killed in the fortress in one day last spring. They were -not even arrested and tried on any charges. They were just butchered. -A number of other officers were killed, including the commandant and -vice-commandant of the fortress, and other officers were thrown into -cells and kept there for months without even the farce of a trial.</p> - -<p>Kronstadt set up a republic in late May and by mid-June the orgy was in -full swing. The civil population looted and robbed, and the soldiers -and marines aided and abetted them heartily. Once a band of looters -sacking a warehouse were arrested by the militia police after a lively -shooting match and put in jail. Cases where the militia actually -arrested thieves were so rare in Russia last summer that this one -received considerable newspaper publicity. The papers were obliged to -record that, a few hours after the men were arrested, a crowd of armed -soldiers and sailors demanded the liberation of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> prisoners. Of -course their demands were honored.</p> - -<p>The provisional government was able to keep Finland in partial check -by threatening to withhold cereals and other provisions from her in -case of secession. But Kronstadt, being a fortress, had plenty of -provisions, as plenty goes in Russia these days. Kronstadt had more -food and fuel than Petrograd. That is why her orgy was able to last so -long. It lasted until the days of the July revolution, when thousands -of loyal troops were recalled from the front to restore order, many -of the ringleaders of the mutinous troops were expelled from the army -and several regiments were disbanded in disgrace. The orgy still goes -on to a certain extent in the fortress, and no one knows yet how far -disaffection among the naval forces went.</p> - -<p>The Kronstadt Soviet, or Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates, -covered itself with glory during the existence of the republic. The -Soviet, or one of its committees, undertook the solving of the housing -problem as follows: The committee went all over the town and inspected -houses and apartments. They inquired in each case at the different -places the amount of the rent, and then they proceeded to cut down -the rent, one-third to one-half. They didn’t say anything about the -reduction to the landlord, but they passed the word around to the -Tavarishi. A perfect exodus of renters out of their apartments into -bigger and better ones ensued. Everybody moved, and when rent day came -around and the landlords or their agents called on the new tenants they -were calmly told: “Not on your life is my rent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> thirty rubles a month. -It is fifteen rubles, and if you don’t take that you will get nothing.”</p> - -<p>The landlords appealed to the Soviet, but all the satisfaction they got -there was a threat of confiscation. “You’ve robbed the working class -long enough,” said the Soviet. “We ought not to pay you any rent, and -perhaps after a while we won’t.”</p> - -<p>From one point of view not the least outrage the Soviet perpetrated -on the helpless population of Kronstadt was an attempt to talk it to -death. There is a fine cathedral in Kronstadt and in front of it, as -is customary in Russia, a large open square. In this square the Soviet -erected a speaker’s stand and every day the population, or as much of -it as could get into the square, assembled and listened for hours to -fervid oratory. The people had to come because the Soviet ordered them -to, and very likely they enjoyed themselves at first. Even in Russia, -however, a continual political meeting, carried on three months at a -time, every day at 5 p. m., must be a trial.</p> - -<p>Tomsk was another city where the right of small peoples to govern -themselves was demonstrated last summer. In the newspapers of June -8, old style, appeared a telegram from Tomsk to Minister-President -Kerensky, the Minister of Justice and the all-Russian Council of -Deputies, Workmen and Soldiers, then in session in Petrograd. The -telegram was sent by the commanding general of loyal regiments and it -read in part thus: “Criminal and mutinous soldiers in company with -other criminal elements of the population have organized themselves -into bands and have set themselves systematically<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> to pillage and -assassination. Under the flag of anarchy they have looted the banks, -the shops, business houses of all kinds. They were prepared to murder -all heads of public organizations, and declared that they would next -move on to other towns and cities and continue their robberies there.”</p> - -<p>The telegram went into more particulars of these outrages, and closed -by saying that martial law had been established in Tomsk on the 3d -of June, 2,300 persons had been arrested and the city, thanks to the -presence there of a few brave and loyal troops, was now in order.</p> - -<p>Thus the tale could be continued. Finland, usually a peaceful, orderly, -law-abiding and intelligent country, by far the most enlightened in -Russia, lost its head completely over the right of small peoples’ idea. -Helsingfors has seen days of violence in the old years of rule by fire -and sword. But Finland has never answered with fire and sword, but by -the most intelligent kind of passive resistance. With the revolution -passive resistance became violence. Most of this, it is true, came from -soldiers and sailors of Sveaborg, the island fortress of Helsingfors. -Murder of officers went on there and in the town also. Marines pursued -their hapless officers through the streets, cutting them down with -swords and knives, shooting them and killing them by torture before the -eyes of women and children. The townspeople did no such shocking deeds -as that, but there were bloody strikes and many riots, and finally the -attempt to open an illegal diet and to force a separation from the -empire. Kerensky handled that situation very well, sending the best -men in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>government to Helsingfors, where some kind of a truce, -temporary no doubt, but a truce, was patched up.</p> - -<p>Kerensky’s fiercest battle last summer was with Ukrania, where a -real government was established. It was real enough at all events to -force a kind of recognition from the central Provisional Government. -Ukrania is an enormous territory in the south of Russia. It extends -into southwestern Siberia and southward to the Black Sea. Odessa is -its principal port, and within its borders are many important cities. -Kiev is one of the largest of these. About 35,000,000 people inhabit -the Ukraine, as it is called in Russia. The people are not Russian, -strictly speaking. They are Slavs, but they have a language of their -own, a literature, a culture. They have been Russian subjects for -nearly 300 years.</p> - -<p>The Ukraine is a self-contained country and could be made a very rich -one. It is rich already in agricultural resources, the “black earth” -of certain regions producing the most splendid crops of wheat and -other grains. The fruits of the Ukraine are the best in Russia, and -the vineyards furnish grapes for excellent wines. Russia would be poor -indeed without this country.</p> - -<p>Last June the Ukranian Rada, or local diet, voted to establish a -republic, restore the old language and customs, and cut themselves off -absolutely from the Russian empire. They actually created a provisional -government on the spot. Some of the more moderate members of the Rada -favored remaining in the empire as a federated state having complete -autonomy, and this was finally accepted, I believe, by the majority. -But immediately the Bolsheviki<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> of the south began to clamor for -separation, and the Ukranians in the army began to show dangerous signs -of unrest. A congress of Ukranian armies was held in Kiev in the middle -of June, in which it was decided that the armies of the south and -southwest ought to be completely and exclusively made up of Ukranians. -If this had been done the Rada would have been in a perfect state to -dictate terms of any kind to the Russian Provisional Government.</p> - -<p>As it was there was considerable dictating done. The military Rada, -meeting in June in Odessa, served notice on the Provisional Government -that unless the Ukranian soldiers were prevented from forming their own -regiments no more soldiers of their force would be sent to the front. -The Ukranian regiments were formed, some of them in Petrograd, and the -strains of the national hymn, “Ukrania is not dead,” were heard on the -streets, played by military bands or sung by soldiers, almost as often -as the classic “Marseillaise.”</p> - -<p>Kerensky made a frantic dash to Odessa, to Kiev and other cities of -the Ukraine. He took with him Tereshtshenko, Minister of Foreign -Affairs, and one or two other ministers, and they met the new -provisional government in parley. The result was that Kerensky made a -complete surrender, recognized the provisional government—at least -informally—and agreed that the Ukraine should be a separate state. -There was a perfect tempest of protest when the ministers returned -to Petrograd. The rest of the ministry declared that Kerensky had -overstepped his authority in committing the entire government to a -policy which ought to have been left to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>constituent assembly to -decide. They said that his act, entered into without the knowledge or -consent of the full government, was illegal. Perhaps it was; but it -stood, and all the most aggrieved ministers could do about it was to -resign.</p> - -<p>The greatest task ahead of Russia is federation, and she probably will -in the end learn how to give autonomy to her states and establish a -central government which will bind all the states together in happy -union. But she has years of strife and monumental effort ahead of -her before the task is done. The wisest men in Russia—even Prof. -Miliukoff, who lived for years in the United States—appear to be in -a complete fog on the subject of federation. Half the wise men want -an empire like Great Britain or Germany, with practically all the -power in one central governing body. The other half see nothing ahead -but dismemberment of the empire. Nobody apparently can see Russia as -another United States.</p> - -<p>I believe that part of our responsibility, after the war—perhaps -before that time comes—will be to teach Russia how to establish a -peaceful federation on republican lines. Russia perhaps does not need -to be taught democracy. When she emerges from this present anarchy she -may be trusted to establish a safely democratic civilization.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XXIII</span> <span class="smaller">WILL THE GERMANS TAKE PETROGRAD?</span></h2> - -<p>Will the German army get to Petrograd and Moscow? The answer to this -question is, they probably can if they want to, but it is hardly -possible that they do. If they have that object, and if they succeed -in taking Moscow it will simply add one more to the psychological -blunders committed by the German government since the war began. The -disorganized Russian army might not pull itself together and fight -for Petrograd, but the army and the people would fight to the death -for Moscow. It is their holy city, their crown of glory, their dream. -Moscow is Russia, and one who has never seen it knows not the Russian -people.</p> - -<p>Petrograd is a modern European city, built by Peter the Great in the -early part of the eighteenth century and by Catherine II, also called -“the Great,” in the latter half of the same century. Peter, who would -have been a master man in any century and in any country, whether born -in a palace or a farmhouse, was all the more a marvel because he was -a Russian, born at a time when the Russian people were still medieval -and still oriental. Peter didn’t allow the fact that he was heir to an -oriental autocracy to interfere with his ambitions or his activities. -He left the golden palace in the Kremlin, left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> Moscow, the capital, -and sacred heart of the empire, left Russia altogether, and went off -to become a day laborer in the shipyards of England and Holland. Peter -learned what he could in a short time and went back to establish -western civilization in Russia. He chose the site of his new capital -much as the United States Steel Company chose the site of Gary, Ind., -for its nearness to a good harbor, its easy access to trade routes and -its fine front view of the best commercial centers. Peter called his -city “a window toward Europe.”</p> - -<p>Petersburg, as it was styled by the half German Peter, was a more -stupendous piece of engineering than Gary, Ind., although the steel -town is one of the greatest triumphs of engineering this country can -boast. It was built on a marsh which nowhere rose above the muddy -waters of the Neva more than two or three feet, and in most places was -partially or wholly submerged. That marsh never has been completely -drained. When, in 1765, St. Isaac’s Cathedral was built to replace -a small wooden church of Peter’s time, they first had to drive over -twelve hundred huge piles into the soft ground. Of the 40,000 workmen -who toiled under Peter’s direction to create the first Petrograd a -majority died from exposure and cold, and of fevers bred in the miasmas -of the bogs.</p> - -<p>Catherine, who became czarina a little more than half a century later, -vastly improved the city. She enlarged it, erecting many splendid -palaces and public buildings, and bringing in a vast amount of western -culture in the way of libraries, art galleries and theatres. The -monuments of Peter and Catherine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> are the most conspicuous objects in -the capital. The ghosts of Catherine and Peter may be said to walk in -every street in Petrograd. But the Russians, for all their admiration -for their greatest monarchs, have little real love for the city they -built.</p> - -<p>The ghost of Ivan the Terrible walks through the streets of Moscow; -nevertheless, the Russians love the place as the Mohammedans love -Mecca. It is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and one -of the strangest. It has hundreds of churches, so gorged with art -treasures and with gold, silver and jewels that it dizzies the mind -to contemplate them. It has the ancient wall, foliage-hung, that -enclosed the Moscow of the thirteenth century, and it has the Kremlin, -or fortress, which antedates the town. Inside the Kremlin is the old -palace of the rulers of Russia built, in part, centuries before they -became czars. The first Kremlin palaces were built by the dukes of -Moscow in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.</p> - -<p>Some of the most beautiful of the treasure churches of the Kremlin were -built by Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century. One of these, -just outside the walls, the Cathedral of St. Basil, is a gem of such -radiance supreme that the half-mad Ivan determined that it should never -be surpassed. When it was finished he called the architect to him and -asked him if he thought he could ever design a better church. The -architect, in the pride and joy of his achievement, modestly said that -he thought he might. “You never will,” said the terrible Ivan, and he -had the man’s eyes burned out with red-hot irons. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p> - -<p>In the great square in front of the Kremlin still stands the high place -of execution where Ivan and the other almost as terrible czars tortured -and slew their victims. In a side street still stands the wonderful -golden house which was the home and seat of the Romanoff boyars, and -where the first (or second) czar of Russia was born. Moscow is the very -symbol of czardom; nevertheless the Russians love it as their heart. -Germany might send her armies there, but they could no more take it, or -hold it, than they could take and hold Washington. Inside the Kremlin -walls lie heaped thousands of bronze cannons, bright and beautiful -as snakes, all decorated with eagles and N’s and ambitious mottoes. -Napoleon Bonaparte left them there when he fled, defeated and routed by -the Russians, only to be still more soundly defeated by snow and storm -and bitter cold. Those cannon are evidence indeed of the invincibility -of Moscow.</p> - -<p>Germany ought to know that a march on Moscow, however easy, would -result in unifying the Russian army against the foe. Perhaps Germany -does not know this, for she seems not to know anything about the hearts -and minds of any people. The mechanics of nationality she knows and -understands. The psychology of it she never understands. However, I -do not believe that Germany’s recent attack and partial conquest of -the islands before Riga are a prelude to a march on the capital or on -Moscow. What Germany probably wants is the splendid loot to be found in -Courland and Esthonia. Riga, which is a city of 400,000 inhabitants, -is, next to Petrograd, the most important port on the Baltic Sea.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> Out -from Riga go immense exports of timber, flax and hemp, linseed and many -cereals. The country east and south of Riga produces these things in -great quantity, and Germany needs them in her business just now, and -needs them badly enough to risk a few of her ships and men to get them.</p> - -<p>Germany is not after conquest, this trip; she is after food and fuel -and supplies. A little south of Riga lie the Governments of Kovno, -Vilna and Minsk, and a little south and west lies Russian Poland, -already partially in German hands. I traveled through part of that -country last summer and watched through the train windows vast fields -of rye and wheat, and thousands of acres of potatoes. I did not see -many sugar-beet fields, but they lie somewhere in that region—hundreds -of thousands of acres of them, already harvested or waiting to be -harvested. And Germany is hungry for those harvests.</p> - -<p>There may be other reasons why Germany is pounding so desperately at -the defenses of Riga. Not very far away, to the north, washed by the -same Baltic Sea, lies the grand duchy of Finland, the one province of -the Russian empire which has shown friendliness to Germany. Finland -is also the one province which has already declared its unalterable -determination not to belong further to the Russian empire. Finland -wishes to set up a separate government and to be an independent state. -At least the mass of the people, expressing themselves through a -Socialist majority in the local Diet, has declared for this policy.</p> - -<p>It would be tremendously to the advantage of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> Germany to have the -big Russian empire split up into separate states, and the German -government has worked assiduously to encourage the Finnish people in -their secession policy. Finland is such a Mecca for German agents, and -so many Finns are in the pay of these agents, that the provisional -government last July practically shut the grand duchy off, marooned -it, so to speak, from the rest of the empire. A traveler cannot go -to Finland from Russia without special permission obtained from the -war ministry. A resident of Petrograd could not go down to one of the -numerous and charming Finnish seaside towns near the capital, even for -a week-end visit, without such a permit. I have spent some time in -Finland and know a great many people in Helsingfors, the capital. I -tried to get a permit to stop in Helsingfors on my way out of Russia, -but the war ministry refused to grant the permit.</p> - -<p>When the traveler left Russia for England or the United States, for -any country, for that matter, he had to take a certain train leaving -Petrograd at 7.30 o’clock in the morning, and he left that train just -once before he reached the frontier. That once is at Beli Ostrov, -for the customs inspection. After that the traveler was a prisoner -in his train until he reached Tornea, where he was finally inspected -and convoyed across a narrow stretch of water to Sweden. That was the -attitude of the Russian provisional government toward Finland.</p> - -<p>The grand duchy is rightly considered one of the greatest menaces to -the future integrity of the empire. It is rightly considered by Germany -a hope for the future of Germany, and it may very well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> be that the -German navy expects and hopes to follow up the conquest of the Baltic -port of Riga with a conquest of the Baltic port of Helsingfors. Finland -detests Russia to such an extent that she is apparently blind to the -danger of a friendship with Germany. For fifty years she has hated and -feared Russia, and she apparently cannot get it into her head that the -thing she hated and feared has gone forever. I have observed this state -of mind in Poles as well as Finns. They have hated Russia so long that -they cannot stop all at once. The Finns have hated Russia so hard that -they would not even look at the Russian soldiers quartered on them by -the old government. I spent the winter of 1913 in Helsingfors, and -it was one of the sights of the place to me to watch the Finns cut -the Russians in the street every day. A regiment of Russians marched -through the streets, bands playing, swords clanking, feet tramping, -a gorgeous sight. But the soldiers might as well have been invisible -phantoms for all the notice taken of them by the Finns. They walked -quietly along, attending to their business, conversing or chatting with -their neighbors, never looking at the Russians. In fact, it was a point -of honor with the Finns never to look at a Russian. As for speaking -to one, knowing him, inviting him to his house, a Finn who did such a -thing would have been ostracized. Even the smallest children knew that.</p> - -<p>This being the state of mind of the Finns, it is explainable in a -measure why, in order to wring their independence from Russia now, -they are willing to run a very great risk of being absorbed or badly -exploited by the Germany of after the war. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> became part of the -Russian empire willingly, having been on very bad terms for a number -of years with their old over-lord, Sweden. This was in 1801. Then the -Czar made a solemn compact with Finland, both for himself and his -heirs, that the country should have almost complete autonomy. It was -to maintain its own army, which would never be called upon to serve on -Russian soil, but should defend the Finnish coast and border in case -Russia was involved in war.</p> - -<p>Finland was to have her own coinage, postal systems, schools, courts, -language and her own local diet. The Czar retained the right of vetoing -legislation, the right to collect foreign customs and other imperial -rights. Almost every promise made in that treaty has been broken by -the czars of Russia, especially by Nicholas II, now in Siberia. This -Nicholas tried to break the treaty altogether, abolish it, but the -Finns were too intelligent, too clear-headed and too united to let -him do it. Their resistance to his tyrannous treachery is a thrilling -story in itself. Finland has never broken any part of her treaty with -Russia, but now she wants to abolish the treaty. The contention is that -the treaty was made with the czars of Russia, and, now that there are -now no more czars, the treaty has ceased to hold good. Finland is full -of German agents, and they must have invented this brilliant piece of -reasoning and taught it to the Finnish Socialists. At all events, they -must have fostered it with might and main, and perhaps the German navy -believes that a visit to Helsingfors would convert the whole country to -it.</p> - -<p>There is even a better reason why the German<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> navy has been pounding -away in the Gulf of Finland, and why in the spring it will pound again. -Germany seeks to separate still further Russia and her allies. There -are only three ways by which Russia can communicate with Europe and -America. One of these ways is across Siberia and the Pacific Ocean, a -long distance. Another way, through Archangel, is a summer way only. -The third and shortest way is through Finland and Sweden. If Germany -can partially take Finland and seize the railroad which leads to -Sweden, and there is only one main line of railroad, she can cut Russia -off from her allies very effectively. Perhaps her next step would be to -interfere, by means of submarines, with Russia’s other outlet in the -Pacific.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XXIV</span> <span class="smaller">RUSSIA’S GREATEST NEEDS</span></h2> - -<p>It would be a very terrible thing for democracy and the world’s peace -if the Allies, observing the anarchy into which Russia has fallen, -should relax any of their efforts to help her back to a sound military, -economic and social foundation. The first impulse is to beseech the -United States government to refuse to loan money to such an unstable -government, and even to decline to send Red Cross relief to a people -who will not try to help themselves. But second thought reveals the -unwisdom of deserting Russia in her crisis, however wilfully the crisis -was brought on. We must loan money to Russia even though we lose the -money. We must send her food and supplies even though they be received -without much gratitude. For the sake of democracy, to which revivified -and regenerated Russia has a world to contribute, we must help her now. -The task will not be as difficult as the surface facts indicate. Russia -is rapidly approaching the climax of her woe.</p> - -<p>Aside from her military situation, bankruptcy is coming if it is not -already there. Bankruptcy for the national treasury, for few taxes are -being paid. Bankruptcy for food, clothing, fuel for all the people -except a few on the farms, and even they will suffer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> for many things. -Hunger and cold are at the door. The Russian army may rally, may turn -on the Germans and magnificently retrieve its lost reputation as a -fighting force. But there is no way in which the army of producers, the -farmers and the working people, can rout the enemy they have admitted -within the lines.</p> - -<p>The farmer class of Russia this year did not produce full crops, and -they refused to send to market a very large proportion of what they did -produce. They hoarded their grain for their own use and some of it at -least they have turned into vodka. In the towns and cities of Russia -prohibition almost prohibits, but the peasant very quickly learned the -art of illicit distilling, and I heard on authority I could scarcely -question that stills have been established in half the villages of -Russia. The statement is borne out to some extent by the fact that -drunkenness among soldiers is increasing, especially in places remote -from the larger cities. In Petrograd I saw little drunkenness, but the -farther I traveled southward into the farming area the more I saw and -heard of it. At the military position in Poland where the Botchkareva -Battalion of Death was stationed, I talked with a soldier who had lived -in America. In the course of our conversation he mentioned that a group -in his regiment had got drunk and were in trouble.</p> - -<p>“Where could they get liquor?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“Oh, they get it,” he replied. “It’s new and it’s quite horrible, but -they drink it.”</p> - -<p>Serious as the grain shortage was, the transportation situation was -still more serious. Food for which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> Petrograd and Moscow would pay -almost any money, rotted on the ground, spoiled in the half-loaded -freight cars, and wasted in congested way stations for lack of -transportation facilities and for lack of labor. In the industrial -world things were as bad. The working people, blind to their own peril, -had shortened hours of work, had gone slack on their jobs, and had -voted themselves wages far in excess of their productive activities. -The consequences were rapidly accumulating. Factories were closing -down, partly because they could not get coal and partly because of the -extortions of labor. Soon there will be gaunt famine in the land. The -working people will know what it is to go hungry with their pockets -full of money.</p> - -<p>When these troubles culminate—and in a few weeks at the most, the -world will stand aghast at Russia’s state—the orgy of the Bolsheviki, -the riot of the dreamers will end. Human nature is the same in Russia -as it is elsewhere, the same as it is in New York or in Emporia, -Kansas. We all know how, when hard times pinch the country, the -Republican party elects its candidates. The people follow their -theorizing and dreaming leaders in good times, but when the hard times -come they turn to the party of strong business men to set them on their -feet again. The full dinner pail argument is going to appeal strongly -to the Russian masses this coming winter, and if the constituent -assembly is postponed until the autumn of 1918, I am confident that the -people will vote in favor, not of a socialistic millennium that will -not work, but for a sane, practical democracy that will. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p> - -<p>What Russia needs above all other things is leaders. What the people -of this country must do for Russia is to help her find and develop -those leaders. They are there somewhere. Russia has shown that she -can produce great men and great women, people whom any nation might -be proud to follow. But under czardom the only people permitted to -lead were so corrupt, so reactionary and tyrannical that the Russians -learned to fear and distrust all leadership. When they overthrew -czardom and banished the tyrants and the corruptionists they thought -they could get along without any leaders. The world knows now how fatal -was their mistake, and very soon the blindest of the blind in Russia -will know it.</p> - -<p>Russia needs not only political leaders, she needs, even more urgently, -leaders in the economic field. She needs at the present time a business -man of the caliber of Mark Hanna, a man who, with a better ethical -standard, possesses Mark Hanna’s great genius for organization, his -marvelous executive ability. Such a man rarely dazzles the public with -oratorical powers. He wastes little energy in speech. But he knows -exactly what to do. He says to one man “come” and to another man “go,” -and you may depend on it they are precisely the right men at the right -jobs. He says to all about him, “Do this,” and they do it “to the -king’s taste.” Russia needs many such men.</p> - -<p>Nobody need be a slave under leaders, responsible and removable, like -that. We were, in the United States, until we got our eyes a little -open. We sink back once in a while still. Witness some of our municipal -governments. But freedom under strong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> leadership is entirely possible. -In fact, it is the only real freedom there is in the world.</p> - -<p>The Russians may have a difficult time achieving it, for they are not -quite the hard-fibered, ambitious, struggling race the English, French -and Americans are. They are fatalistic and dreamy. That is the reason -they endured their autocrats so long. But in the end they will achieve -it.</p> - -<p>Russia needs education, and here again America must show her the way. -A public school system on the best lines we have been able to develop -will make over the Russian people in one generation. Ninety per cent. -of the present population is said to be illiterate. The old government -tried within the past ten years to extend the common schools, but with -little effect on illiteracy. The mass of the children were given two -years of schooling, with the object of teaching them at least to read -and write. Most of them barely learned and practically all forgot, -because they were not encouraged to use their tiny bit of knowledge. -Russia has no conception of the public library as we have developed -it. There are libraries, magnificent ones, in the cities. But they are -reference libraries for the learned, not reading and lending libraries -for the masses. I am sure there is not such a thing in Russia as a -children’s library, much less a librarian especially trained and paid -to teach children how to use and to love books. Russia needs schools -to teach children knowledge and she needs libraries very near, if not -directly attached, to the schools. I talked to many people in Russia -about the wonderful Gary schools, in which children work, study and -play their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> way to fine, strong, thinking manhood and womanhood, and in -every case the response was the same. “We must have schools like that -all over Russia. Will you help us, when the time comes, to organize -them?”</p> - -<p>They cannot hope, of course, to go at once into all the intensive -work of the Gary public school system, but they can adopt its general -principles and its duplicate use of the school plant. In this way they -will be able to educate more children in each school house and thus -hasten the day when all the children will be in school. William Wirt’s -next great work may be organizing school systems in new Russia. Having -no old system to replace, he will not meet with the stupid and criminal -obstruction and opposition with which his labors in New York were met.</p> - -<p>Russia needs wholesome popular amusements to entertain and instruct her -adult population. If I were to write a detailed list of Russia’s most -pressing needs I should place near the head of the list plumbers and -moving pictures. The empire is back in the dark ages as far as building -sanitation is concerned. That is no small thing, because it affects -both the health and the morals of a people. It affects their manners -also, as any one who ever had to enter the lavatory of a Russian -railroad carriage or station can testify.</p> - -<p>They have some moving picture theaters in Russia, but they are poor in -performance and frightfully high-priced. You pay as much to go to the -movies in Russia as you pay to hear a high class symphony concert. I -never saw a 10 and 15 cent motion picture house, nor could I learn that -they existed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>anywhere in the empire. Mrs. Pankhurst and I went to the -movies one night, paying something like a dollar and a half for our -seats. The play was a long, dreary drama, ending in suicide and general -misery. The acting was poor and the actors fat and elderly. For current -events pictures they presented the Cossack funeral, reeled off at such -a dizzy pace that it looked less like a funeral than an automobile race.</p> - -<p>Moving pictures, carefully selected, offered for a small admission -fee, would be a boon to Russia. They would teach the grown people a -thousand and one things they have never had a chance to learn, and -they would perhaps get the Russian mind out of its habit of ingrowing, -self-torturing analysis that leads to nowhere. They would also give -the Tavarishi something to do besides soap box spouting, and their -listeners something more to think about than half-baked social -theories. Because of the great illiteracy of the masses, Russia would -have to introduce into her picture theaters an institution which Spain -has already established. In Spain few people can read the titles and -captions that run through the picture dramas, so each theater has a -public reader, a man with a strong voice and clear enunciation, who -reads aloud to the audience, and also makes any explanations that are -necessary.</p> - -<p>I know exactly where moving pictures for the masses could be shown in -Petrograd without waiting for private enterprise to open theaters. -On the west bank of the Neva, not far from the sinister fortress -of Peter and Paul, stands the best and most democratic monument to -Russian enterprise in the capital.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> This is known as the Narodny Dom, -or People’s House, a combination club house, restaurant, theater -and general meeting place of the working classes, founded by Prince -Alexander of Oldenburg and liberally supported by the late Czar.</p> - -<p>They have some fine concerts there, in times of peace, and an excellent -drama for the more intelligent of the workers. Admission prices are -fairly low and the performances good. For the less intellectual there -are certain Coney Island features, and these are so well patronized -that the concessionaries were well on the road to vast wealth. Long -lines of people waited every evening for a turn on the chutes or the -roller coaster. Their absolute hunger for a little amusement, a chance -to laugh and be gay is pathetic to witness.</p> - -<p>Another thing Russia needs is the soda fountain. A cold soft drink in -summer and a hot chocolate in winter, easily accessible and cheap, -would do more to take Ivan’s mind off moonshining vodka than all the -laws in the world. Last summer there were times when I would cheerfully -have given a dollar for a frosty glass of soda, any kind, any flavor. -And there were plenty of others in Petrograd of my mind.</p> - -<p>The best place to have luncheon in Petrograd is at the officers’ -stores in the street which bears the appalling name of Bolshaia -Konnyushennyaia. Here the food, government supplied, is good and it -is sold for something approaching reasonable prices. The best meal -I had every day was luncheon at the officers’ stores. The place is -crowded from 11 to 4 every week-day, military men and their families -predominating. Once, on a hot July day, there <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>appeared on the counter -where hors d’oeuvres were sold a cold delicious drink. It was a sort -of cherry phosphate, and there were glass pitchers and pitchers of it, -literally gallons. It sold for about twenty cents a small glass, and -within half an hour it was gone, every drop. The crowd swarmed to that -counter waving its money in the air, swallowed the cherry phosphate in -one gulp, so to speak, and clamored loudly for more. I remember that -I pleaded almost with tears for a second glass and could not get it. -There is a fortune waiting for the capitalist who will take cold, soft -drinks to Russia, and he will have besides the fortune the additional -satisfaction of bringing hope to the sodden victims of vodka.</p> - -<p>An army that will obey orders; a government that will govern; leaders -in business, in transportation, in agriculture and a people willing to -obey those leaders; education, wholesome life. Russia needs all these, -and in her coming mighty struggle to achieve them the whole world of -democracy, and especially our United States, must lend willing and -sympathetic help and guidance.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span>CHAPTER XXV</span> <span class="smaller">WHAT NEXT?</span></h2> - -<p>Man must hope. He must believe that his fight is a winning fight or -he must give up in despair. That is why the Americans place credence -in every despatch from Russia which seems to indicate that the -disorganized fighting forces are being whipped into form again. That -is why any hint that Kerensky had not succeeded in restoring order in -the empire was for some time received with incredulity by the reading -public. But why refuse to face the facts? We must face them some time.</p> - -<p>In late September I read in one of the newspapers a headline which -stated that the so-called democratic congress then in session in -Petrograd had voted to sustain Kerensky’s demand for a coalition -ministry. The headlines were wrong. What the dispatch really stated -was that the congress had voted not to form any coalition with the -bourgeois element, or with members of the Constitutional Democratic -party. That is, the congress would not support a ministry that had any -non-socialist members in it. “All the power to the Soviets” was retired -as too conservative a slogan. It was “all the power to the Bolsheviki” -then, for that is precisely what the vote in that so-called Democratic -Congress meant. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> - -<p>Since June, 1917, no fewer than six congresses or conventions have -been held in Russia with the object of finding a way out of the chaos -with which the country is threatened. Every one of them was hailed -beforehand as the one which was going to be a revelation of the -intentions and desires of the people. The most important of these was -the all-Russia congress of Soviets held last July, and before that -the preliminary convention to prepare for the constituent assembly. -The one was to decide once and for all whether or not the moderate or -the extreme element in the Soviets was to rule, and the other was to -quiet both elements by showing that the government intended to prepare -a liberal and a democratic constitution for them to debate, amend and -adopt when the time came. Lastly, there was the great Moscow congress -of last August. I don’t remember what the stated object of that -congress was, but it does not matter much. The real object was to find -out which was the stronger man, Kerensky or Korniloff. Kerensky won -by a narrow margin, a very narrow margin. And then they held another -convention, and Kerensky lost.</p> - -<p>What will happen next in that distracted country? Into what new morass -are the people being led? Frankly, I do not know. I do not know anybody -who does. The only analogous situation in modern history is that of the -Poland of the eighteenth century. Poland had a government quite as bad -as that of the Russian Soviets, or Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ -Delegates. Instead of being an all-socialist affair Poland’s parliament -was made up entirely of noblemen. These men were so proud, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> “free” -in the New Russia sense of the word that they wouldn’t yield on any -question even to a majority vote. A single dissenting voice in their -parliament was enough to kill any measure. The people of Poland had no -more to say about government than the middle class and the rich have -in the Russia of to-day. And when a European war on a limited scale -broke out, and Frederick the Great started the era of frightfulness -which William the last thought he could bring to a triumphant -conclusion, the three great eastern powers of Europe—Russia, Prussia -and Austria—sliced up Poland and handed each of the three monarchs -a piece. Maria Theresa, who ruled the Austria of that day, wanted it -printed in the records that she wept when she took her piece, but she -took it just the same, and Poland has wept ever since.</p> - -<p>This could happen to Russia. She could be dismembered and handed -around. But this is not likely to happen. The Allies would never be -so foolish or so cruel as to permit it to happen. Russia could fall -apart and become an aggregation of small separate states, but each one -of those would still have its Soviets, and consequently a government -without stability or permanence. Finland and the Ukraine are two -Russian states which are trying to bring about this end, and they may -succeed, but a dissected Russia would furnish such good material for -future wars that the Allies can hardly afford to consent to it.</p> - -<p>Civil war is a fine possibility in Russia just now, except that there -seems to be no one at hand to organize the two forces. The strongest -probability is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> more guerilla warfare, more street fighting, more -motor trucks loaded with machine guns rushing up and down Petrograd, -more battle, murder and sudden death, and then the reaction. Just -what form the reaction will take nobody knows. But the mad Bolsheviki -know that it is coming, and though they almost court it they also -fear it. They call this inevitable reaction the counter revolution, -and they excuse all their vagaries, their obstinacy, their pig-headed -resistance to a coalition with non-socialists on the ground that -they are fighting the counter revolution. I have heard Americans in -Russia, college professors, business men, correspondents, even members -of American commissions, say: “Don’t blame these people too much for -their radicalism. They are afraid they will lose all they gained by the -revolution. They fear the return of autocracy.”</p> - -<p>I can say with all confidence that whatever may happen in Russia, there -is not even the remotest chance of any counter revolution, in the sense -meant by the extremists, nor is there the slightest risk of a return of -autocracy. The autocracy collapsed like a house of cards, and the real -surprise there was in it for the Duma members who deposed Nicholas was -that the thing was so easy. I can imagine Miliukov, Rodzianko and the -others getting together afterward and saying: “Why on earth didn’t we -do this in August, 1914?”</p> - -<p>Nobody wants the Czar back unless it is the Romanoff family, and -doubtless each one of the grand dukes believes that if any one came -back it ought to be himself. The only possibility of a return of -monarchy in Russia would result from desperation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> on the part of the -men who will finally restore order there. The situation may be so bad, -when the time comes to do that, that they may decide on a limited -constitutional monarchy as the best form of government for people who -are not yet ready for self-government. A figurehead king, something -visible to the people and symbolizing government, but a king with -responsible ministers who really rule, is a possibility for Russia. The -inevitable reaction, especially if it is long postponed, may take that -form. I have heard many Russians say so. Some said it with sorrow, some -with satisfaction, but there are plenty of educated and liberal-minded -people in Russia who would welcome it. If it comes, I predict that the -capital of Russia will be moved back to Moscow. The constitutional -monarch, if they have one, may be that brother of the late Czar who is -known in Russia as Michael Alexandrovitch, who as one of the ablest and -most enlightened of the Romanoff family. He is the man who was chosen -by the first provisional government to succeed the Czar when the latter -was deposed, and the governments which have followed have all treated -him with rather especial consideration. Last June he asked permission -to leave turbulent Petrograd and spend the summer in his villa on one -of the Finnish lakes. This permission was granted, and Michael has -lived in Finland in comparative peace and comfort ever since. The -government has not treated any other Romanoff as well.</p> - -<p>Most of the grand dukes and grand duchesses are virtually prisoners on -their estates. The Empress Dowager is confined to her estate in the -Crimea,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> and the government would not even allow her to leave it to bid -her exiled son good-by. But Michael Alexandrovitch must have convinced -the government that he is trustworthy, and he seems to be regarded as -a man who could be brought out of his shadowy background and set up -for the people to call a king, if the worst comes to the worst and -they have to have a king. This is the most severe form the reaction -could permanently take in Russia, as far as I can judge. Of course a -military dictatorship may precede this, but the dictatorship would be a -temporary thing, a war measure to crush the Bolsheviki and bring order -out of chaos. Nobody in Russia, as far as I know and believe, wants a -counter revolution in the sense suggested by the Bolsheviki. But the -counter revolution, as a bogie to be held over the heads of the timid -dreamers and of those half-hearted ones who shrink from bloodshed, is -so useful that the Bolshevik leaders worked it hard all summer and in -the latest developments they were still at it.</p> - -<p>The experience of the French people after their revolution is often -cited by the timorous in Russia. It is true that the Bourbons came -back, but the people of France did not call them back. They were -put back by the allied monarchs of Europe, aghast at the spread of -republicanism in the eastern hemisphere. Following the revolution and -the two score years of Napoleonic wars, these rulers got together, -signed a secret agreement that the peace of Europe depended on France -remaining a monarchy, and in 1814 they put Louis XVIII on the throne. -By virtue of giving the French a liberal constitution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> he kept the -throne until his death, ten years later. The allied monarchs saw to -it that his brother, Charles X, succeeded him, but the allies could -not prevent the French from turning him out of the country within six -years. Nor could they stay the revolution of 1848 which banished Louis -Philippe, the last Bourbon.</p> - -<p>Times have changed since the French revolution. Kings have lost most -of their power and almost all of their popularity. They cannot get -together and, under the direction of a Metternich, agree that the peace -of Europe demands that Russia remain an autocracy. They could not do -this even if the old combination, Russia, Prussia, Austria, England -and France, had not been violently disrupted. No country in Europe is -interested in restoring the Romanoff dynasty, unless it be the country -of the Hohenzollerns, and that country is not going to have much to say -about the world’s business for the next few years.</p> - -<p>There may be no counter-revolution in Russia, but there will ultimately -be a return to sanity and order. There will be a constitutional -convention, not too soon, it is to be hoped, and in that convention the -voice of the leaders of the moderate parties will be heard. Trotsky -may be a delegate, but so will Prof. Paul Miliukoff, the leader of the -Constitutional Democrats, or Cadets, as they are colloquially known. -All through the riot and turmoil of the summer Prof. Miliukoff and -his colleagues worked steadily to keep the party alive, to keep it -constantly in the foreground as the liberal-conservative force<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> which -might at least share in shaping the new constitution.</p> - -<p>There are plenty of wise, sane statesmen, plenty of good citizens in -Russia. They are not very conspicuous just now, and for good reason. -A fine old French abbé who was asked what he did during the Reign of -Terror, replied simply, “I lived.” Avoiding assassination is a career -in itself just now in Russia. Many of the wealthy classes and the -estate owners spent the summer in Finland. Some went to England or -the United States. The peasants in many parts of the empire, falling -in joyfully with the Kerensky plan of dividing up the land, began -the process by sacking and burning the homes of the estate owners, -destroying their fields, orchards and vineyards, and cutting and -burning their forests. These acts, in conjunction with riots and -excesses in the towns have encouraged the intellectual classes to leave -the country and to take no part in politics.</p> - -<p>Despite everything that has happened, despite these excesses, there is -no question that the Russian people in revolt have contributed greatly -to the world’s democracy. They will make still greater contributions, -I believe. They have a long road to travel before they establish their -new civilization. The Russians are not as developed as the English, the -French or the Americans. In some respects they are no further developed -than the English of the reign of Henry the Eighth. They ride in street -cars, but the street cars were made in Germany. They use the telephone, -and go up stairs in a lift, but the telephone and the lift came from -Sweden. They have only recently learned to use modern tools with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> skill -or to farm scientifically. But they are learning very fast. They are -learning to coöperate in their farming faster than almost any other -people in Europe, which to my mind is the most hopeful sign of all.</p> - -<p>For I am just as much of a socialist as when I went to Russia in May, -1917, and just as little of an anarchist. I believe that the next -economic development will be socialism, that is coöperation, common -ownership of the principal means of production, and the administration -of all departments of government for the collective good of all the -people. I believe that the world is for the many, not the few. But -Russia has demonstrated that there is no advantage to be gained by -taking all power out of the hands of one class and placing it in the -hands of another. Too much power rests now in the hands of a small -class. But that class never abused its power more ruthlessly than the -Russian Tavarishi did in the 1917 revolution.</p> - -<p>The lesson of Russia to America is patient, intelligent, clear-sighted -preparation for the next economic development. Beginning with the -youngest children, we must contrive for all children a system of -education which will create in the coming generation a thinking working -class, one which will accept responsibility as well as demand power, -and into whose hands we can safely confide authority and destiny.</p> - -<p class="center space-above"><i>Printed in the U. S. 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