TROTZKY

Almost inseparable from the name of Lenin, in the minds of Americans, is that of Trotzky, Minister of War, whose history is well known here. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs up to the time of the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, when it became necessary to mobilize an army to protect Soviet Russia from foreign invasion, and he was made Minister of War. He took hold of a badly disorganized and worse discouraged army, and through his own hard work, and with the assistance of others, built up an army probably better than any other in the world today.

While in Moscow I heard him address a gathering of some two thousand women, in the Labor Temple—formerly a noblemen’s club. He had just returned from the front, and was still wearing his suit of plain khaki and high boots. He reviewed the work of the Red Army, recounting its victories and defeats.

A well-set figure, with black eyes flashing through a pair of thick glasses; a wealth of jet black hair brushed back from a high forehead; dark moustache and small beard; his whole face tanned from being in the open with the troops, he paced the platform from one end to the other, like a caged lion. When he spoke of the counter-revolutionary forces his voice resounded through the hall, filled with scorn, and his face wore a look that was uncanny. The next moment his expression changed, and lowering his voice he spoke in soothing tones of the heroism and devotion of the soldiers of the Red Army.

I could understand at the end of his forty minutes’ address what Colonel Raymond Robins meant when he said: “Trotzky is a great orator.” He is undoubtedly the most convincing I have ever heard, and I have heard many in several countries. He seems to tug at his listeners until they find themselves leaning forward so as not to miss a single word. The history of this man’s life and activities would make an interesting book. I hope it will be written.

CHICHERIN

As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trotzky was succeeded by Chicherin. He is a tall, slightly stooped figure, about fifty years old, with eyes that burn like coals. He is emaciated from hunger and from hard work. Never a day goes by but Chicherin can be found in his office from twelve to sixteen hours of the time, working with quiet determination and zeal. I saw him in his office at the Metropole two or three times, and was captivated by his kind and gentle manner.

“Yes,” he said to me, "we want peace and are ready to conclude at once. Concessions are still here for American capital. Leases can be had for forty-nine years. All we ask is that the Russian labor laws shall prevail here and the Government shall not be interfered with. There is flax here, and timber and many other things that the people of your country want.

“Go back to America and tell them to leave us alone. Just let us get our breath and turn our energies into productive work.”

They all said that, Chicherin and many other Commissars. All dwelt upon the need for technical assistance. They look forward to the day when they will be able to apply the best technical and scientific experience of the world to the solution of their problems. They need experts in all lines and of all grades, from simple mechanicians to the most highly trained laboratory specialists.

LITVINOFF

Litvinoff is a solidly built, jovial, and very astute Lithuanian. He was one of the Collegium in the foreign office under Chicherin, and was the Soviet ambassador in England after the revolution. Later he was sent back to Russia by the British Government. He is an equally shrewd business man and diplomat, and looks more like a British member of parliament than a Russian Bolshevik. He has a keen sense of humor and fun, but takes his duties very seriously. He is the type of man often seen among directors of great enterprises in America, putting through “big deals.” One imagines that if he chose to sell his services to a capitalist organization or state he could easily become a “big man.”

He was my first host in Moscow, and was very kind and helpful in giving me all the information and assistance possible.

MADAME KOLLONTAY

I met Madame Kollontay in the National Hotel, three or four days after I arrived in Moscow. She is a beautiful, cultured woman, and an excellent speaker. She had just returned from a tour of the southern part of Russia, where she had been establishing schools and organizing homes for the aged, and informed me that the children are so enthusiastic that they do not want to go home when the day’s session is over. “There is a feeling of solidarity among them,” she said. “They are being educated without the feeling of property of any kind. The psychology of the people has so changed since the revolution that the old order could not last even if it were to be restored,” she said “and if the Allies would only withdraw their armies and stop supporting the counter-revolutionary forces Russia could recoup herself without outside aid of any kind.”

Asked about the devotion of the people to Lenin she replied that while he was deeply loved and respected the people were not following him blindly, and that their devotion was due to the fact that they realized that he stood always for their best interests.

Madame Kollontay has spent several years in America and asked me about many of her friends in this country. She said she hoped to be able to return at some future time.

MADAME BALABANOVA

Madame Balabanova, secretary of the Third International, which has headquarters at Moscow, is an Italian, not over five feet tall, elderly, but full of fire and spirit. She speaks many languages, including fluent English. I met her on several occasions in Moscow. She reminded me that there was much work to be done, and that the revolution had not ended with the overthrowing of the old order. “We are building the new society,” she said, “but it is slow work because of the necessity of converting the country into an armed camp to repel invasion, but when the war stops we will show the world what Soviet rule can do for the oppressed.”

She said she hoped to go back to Italy sometime, but presumed it would be impossible, at least until that and other countries had recognized that the Russians and those in sympathy with them were human beings and not “carriers of contagion.”

She is a wonderful speaker and an extremely energetic and hard working little woman, much admired and respected by her colleagues.

I once accompanied her on a visit to a hospital, where she spoke to wounded soldiers. More than two hundred convalescent soldiers made up her audience. They lay on their cots or sat in wheel-chairs, some of them armless or with but one arm, others with one leg shot off, and many with ugly head wounds. They greeted Madame Balabanova cheerily, and listened almost eagerly to her story of what was going on at the front and in the country generally. When she had finished her address there was a silence, and then from all the men came the deep singing of the Internationale.

BUCHARIN

Bucharin, a close friend and companion of Lenin, is the editor of Pravda, the party organ in Moscow. I learned that he, too, had been in America for two or three months previous to the overthrow of the Czar, and had hurried back when this news reached him. He is a small figure, always hurrying somewhere, with a book under his arm. One meets him in the Theater Square in the morning, in Soviet Square a few hours later, at the Kremlin still later, and in the evening at the extreme opposite end of the city. There is a saying about him, “One can never tell where he will turn up next. He is always on the move.” And yet he always has time for a kindly word or question or greeting. He is a student of history and quotes freely, from memory, all the Russian and many European writers.

GEORGE MELCHOIR

George Melchoir is president of the Moscow Central Federation of All-Russian Professional Alliances. He worked for a long time at Bayonne, New Jersey, but like many others returned to Russia after the overthrow of the Czar. He took an active part in organizing the taking of Moscow in the early days of the Bolshevist uprising.

Melchoir has been a working man all his life, and is extremely intelligent. The position which he holds demands a great deal of technical knowledge, as well as executive ability, and every one agreed that he was thoroughly qualified for his post. I had a long talk with him. He was enthusiastic about the future of Russia. It would be built up, he said, by the various unions and peasant organizations.

He is probably thirty-five years of age, of medium height, with a bulky figure, full of vigor and enthusiasm.

PETERS

In the early days of the revolution Peters was chief of the Internal Defense of Petrograd. American newspapers said of him that “his fingers were cramped from writing death warrants.” I asked him how many death warrants he had signed and he told me three hundred in all. He expressed regret that he had been looked upon in other countries as a murderer, and said it was unfortunate that those people did not understand the conditions that surrounded Russia while in the throes of a revolution. He insisted that the warrants he had signed had been necessary in the interest of the country as a whole, and that they had been signed only after investigation and a trial of the individuals, and that in no case had there been an execution to gratify the personal revenge of any one.

He is a Lett, very young, perhaps between twenty-eight and thirty years old, short and stocky, with a mass of black hair combed straight back. He lived in England for a number of years, and speaks the English language easily and fluently.

As a former resident of Buffalo, New York, and member of the American Socialist Labor Party, Boris Reinstein returned to Russia after the overthrow of the Czar. He was for some time an assistant in the Foreign Office; later a lecturer in a military school, and is now an official lecturer in the large college for training writers and speakers in Moscow. This school was running full blast while I was there. Classes number from seventy-five to one hundred each. Pupils are elected by various Soviet organizations over the country, and at the end of six months’ training are returned to their various communities and others are sent into their places. The Government supports all these pupils while they are in training.

Reinstein is an excellent speaker and a tireless worker, and is one of the kindest and most conscientious men I have ever met. He is certainly not the “wild-eyed agitator” he has been pictured in the American press. He has given valuable service to the revolution, though he has lost twenty-five pounds in doing so.

“BILL” SHATOFF

“Bill” Shatoff, described by American papers as “the well-known anarchist,” is one of the officials of the Soviet Army. When I was in Petrograd he was the commander of the Petrograd front. He is a big jolly Russian Jew, and certainly does not look any the worse for his participation in Soviet warfare, nor for the stinted rations he has shared with his men.