Town Council. He is a very capable chairman
and gave me a very cordial welcome to the
meeting. The members were made up of
workers and soldiers ; some women and one or
two soldiers were present. About six or seven
hundred members were in attendance, most of
whom were men who had just left work.
Kameneff conducted the business in much the
same manner as I conduct the business of the
Poplar Borough Council or Cyril Cobb conducts
the business of the County Council. It
is a queer thing to think of the Soviets as something
ordinary and commonplace, and yet of
course they are. They are just gatherings of
men and women who talk or parley. I tried
to make Kameneff understand that this was
what I was thinking, as he was putting
through report after report from the various
commissars of Public Health, Education, Food
Control, Co-operation, etc.
Of Krassin, Nogin, Radek, and others it is not necessary to speak here except to say that all of them appeared to me always to be busy, always working with no time for leisure or pleasure of any kind.
I also met a good many women who occupy various positions. Chief amongst these was Madame Kollontai and Madame Balabanoff, both of whom I had known a good deal about before going to Russia. Madame Kollontai devotes almost all her time to work amongst
