Socialists worthy of the name throughout the
length and breath of the world ; and this for
his own sake, and also because of the tremendous
service he has rendered to the common people. It is extraordinary to find that
most of his bitter enemies in the Church,
and amongst the classes whom his policy has
ruined so far as material wealth goes, speak
well of this Russian. It is only outside Russia
that filth is thrown at him and lying calumnies
printed about him. For Lenin has proved himself
a great impersonal soldier and leader in
the one cause worth living, and if needs be,
dying for—the establishment of the International by the replacement of capitalism by
socialism.
Before the revolution the Czars were known as the “ little fathers of the Russian people.” To-day Lenin is symbolic of a new spirit. He is in very deed a father of his people—a father who toils for them, thinks for them, acts for them, suffers with them, and is ready to stand in danger or in safety struggling on their behalf. Tens of thousands of men and women love him and would die for him because he is their comrade, their champion in the cause of social and economic freedom.
A few days later I travelled sixty versts out of Moscow to meet Peter Kropotkin and his wife. They are old friends and I found them in a comfortable house in a rather nice little
