CHAPTER V
The Communists
ACCOMPANYING the British Delegation were two British journalists, one representing a great Liberal daily and the other a well-known Radical weekly journal. At Reval we were joined by an American writer. Later a French and an Italian journalist were added to the number. Later still came a German writer on the scene; and in addition a considerable number of Swedes and Norwegians who had come to Russia to make a special study of industrial life, with a view to organising assistance from Sweden of the various big constructive plans contemplated by the Russian Government. We were all housed under the same roof, fed at the same tables, carried about in the same fleet of automobiles and subjected to the same supervision during the visit to Petrograd and Moscow.
Radios sent out by delegates and journalists were censored by the Authorities, who have sole control of all the means of communication with the outer world, a very natural state of affairs in a country at war with so many enemies. Very natural, also, is it that in this, as in other ways, the Russian Government should exactly copy the methods of other Governments in selecting for world-distribution those messages which tell in its favour. It must certainly be conceded in their behalf that never in the history of mankind has the public Press been used to pervert the truth and exaggerate the evil more than for the purposes of destroying the detested Communist régime.
But of this monopoly of the wires by the Government we were ourselves occasionally the victims, the smiling and amused victims I may say; as when a fiery speech on true Bolshevist lines by an eloquent Britisher, unable to resist his atmosphere, was flashed around the world, whilst a more sober utterance was treated with contemptuous disregard.
I remember one little incident which caused those of us who were aware of it the greatest entertainment as evidencing the methods of some of the more timid and consequently the more autocratic of the Communists. The representative of the Daily News and the American journalist wished to extend their trip on the Volga and to go down to Astrakhan. To do this it was necessary to have permission from the Foreign Office. They drew up a telegram and handed it to the Commissioner in charge of our party, who smilingly assured them that the telegram should be sent and that they might expect the reply in a few hours. They waited. The point at which the Delegation was to leave the ship and return to Moscow was reached. They approached the Commissioner and asked him if there were any news for them.
"The message was sent at once, but no reply has come; therefore it is impossible for you to stay on the ship" he replied in good French, lying without a wink. Their message had never been sent to Moscow!
Red Petrograd is very proud of its name. The reason why it is "redder" than Moscow is due in all probability to the fact that, as the capital city and the place of residence of the Czars, it has been the scene of more revolutionary propaganda and anarchist intrigues than any other single city in the wide dominions of Russia. Add to this the terrors of the blockade, the invasion by Judenitch, who crept very close to the city, and the very fearful sufferings of Petrograd during the war and there is sufficient to explain the more terrible reaction. The marked despotism and even cruelty of the men in power in Petrograd became noticeable to us before we left. A brief conversation with one Communist there lingers in my mind.
"There is a rivalry between Moscow and Petrograd," he informed me "which threatens to become something very serious."
"Very much like the rivalry between Manchester and Liverpool or Lancashire and Yorkshire, I suppose?" was my reply.
"Not in the very least" was his answer. "Perhaps rivalry is not the right word. Rather is it a conflict; or only a rivalry in the sense of striving to keep the Communist ideal untarnished."
I was interested, and bade him continue.
"There are certain elements in Moscow which are still tainted with the spirit of compromise. Even Lenin himself is not above suspicion. There is a great and growing opposition to Lenin in Red Petrograd. We do not like his tenderness for the interests of foreign concessionaires. We do not approve of the toleration shown in Moscow to the counter-revolutionary Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries. It is necessary we yield nothing to those who are not fully with us in our programme and our methods. These traitors will undermine the fabric of the Communist Republic. Lenin himself must go if this is his way."
The man was a bitter and gloomy fanatic. But his words were interesting. "You do not suggest that Lenin is seeking compromise for his own ends, do you?" I asked, unwilling that anything so squalid should fasten itself to the reputation of one of the most amazing personalities the war has produced. I was promptly reassured on that point.
"Oh, no, indeed no," was his answer. "Lenin is pure. He seeks nothing for himself. But he is making mistakes. The influences in Moscow are not good. Here we are strong. Red Petrograd is different from Moscow."
So I learnt first, and afterwards was confirmed in the knowledge, that there are several varieties of Communists in Russia, and that to criticise those in power at present is not by any means to be an opponent of Communism. Everybody is behind the Government at present, because of the war. Soldiers and statesmen of the old régime who have not fled; literary men like Gorky; bourgeois citizens who remain in Russia are serving the Government, and every variety of Socialist, hating the methods of the Communist with a deadly hatred, is none the less tacitly behind it so long as the country is in danger from outside aggression.
Men like Kameneff, Sverdloff and Krassin, who hold high and responsible positions in the State service, good and sincere Communists, would not rise to power nor maintain their position by indiscriminate slaughter and brutal methods of tyranny, but having faith in the ultimate triumph of their principle, would establish it through education and organisation. That men of a more violent character hold the reins of power is due, in my considered judgment, to the fatal policy of the Allies, and in these days, of the Poles, in seeking to decide the issue by the sword. The resumption of war by the misguided Poles and the consequent fear that fell upon the Russian people, joined to a perfectly proper patriotism, gave that powerful instrument of tyranny, the Extraordinary Commission, with its secret police, the opportunity to revive itself, and fasten itself like the plague upon terror-stricken population and frightened administrators alike.
But the extreme men, with their gospel of a world-revolution by violence, and the dictatorship of one class over the rest of mankind, are a painful phenomenon. Pure and unselfish idealists as many of them undoubtedly are, and born out of due time, they are the terrible progeny of the maddest war and the cruellest "peace" that ever tore civilisation to tatters.
Some work quietly, live nobly, and starve on the rations which only the very best men decline to augment. But, for the most part, the Communists live better than the rest and form the new aristocracy. Their duties are specially dangerous and hazardous, and the difference is justified for this reason. If there is an epidemic to be fought or special labour to be performed, the Communists are the first to be called upon to do the work; but there are privileges also, as with the aristocracy of any other country. Of the civilian population, Communists only may carry arms. Special food and clothing privileges are made available for Communists. The children of Communists form the greater number in the country colonies for children. The way to professional advancement and to positions of power and responsibility is through the Communist Party. This fact may explain the position within the Party of one able man with whom I spoke. I had been trying to convince a little Communist lady that there was no Communist Party as such in Great Britain and that the number of Communists in England was very small.
"There are no published statistics, but," I said, "I do not believe there are five thousand Communists in the whole of England. I doubt if there are five hundred Communists there who have thought the thing out to the very bottom, and who give to Communism anything more than an emotional support."
"And do you really think there are more than five thousand or even five hundred Communists of the better sort in this country?" was his question.
"Indeed I do," I replied. "I believe that there are 650,000 Communists according to your own published statistics."
"Published statistics are queer things," he said slowly. "It is not easy to join the Communist Party. There is six months' probation to be served. One has to have two guarantors. But when joining the Party is the only sure way to sufficient nourishment and some prospect of advancement, even the dangerous duties cannot deter all from joining." He shrugged his shoulders and walked away. He, along with the rest of the Trade Unionists, had been ordered under threat of penalties to join the parade in the Uritzky Platz which had been organised for the British Delegation.
The first public meeting in Petrograd and a similar occasion in the Moscow Opera House were like every other meeting we had in Russia. The slight difference between these two gatherings was that in Petrograd the audience was restricted to Trade Unionists as the hall-space was limited to about two thousand, and the meeting was held under the auspices of the Unions, whilst in Moscow the meeting was open to the general public and was three times as big as in Petrograd.
Speeches were made by Russians and British alternately. At the Moscow meeting a Menshevik was permitted to speak, and made a plucky performance under very trying circumstances. The Russian official speeches were all of one quality and directed towards very definite ideas. These speeches soon became so familiar that we learnt to anticipate the phrases. When a little boy of ten was brought forward at one of the schools to repeat to us his Communist lesson, we recognised the words of the father on the lips of the child. There was the same talk of the dictatorship of the working masses, the same passionate appeal to the British workers to drop their old method and march into the streets and to the barricades, the same prophecies of a world-revolution, the same sneers at those who hope to achieve their object by peaceful and democratic means, the same wearisome exclamatory phrases at the end. "Long live the Soviet Republic!" "Long live the Workers Revolution!" "Long live the international solidarity of Labour!" Admirable phrases were some of these, but incongruous in the mouth of a pale little fellow of ten, undersized on his cabbage soup and black bread; and unspeakably funny tripping from the unaccustomed lips of sober-speeched Britons, anxious not to be outdone in the delivery of explosive perorations. "Long live Soviet Russia!" "Long live the Russian Communist Party!" "Long live the Workers Revolution!"
A few phrases from the speeches of the Russian orators will illustrate the kind of message they wished to give us and will show the misunderstanding of our mission and of the state of the Labour Movement in Great Britain of which I wrote in a previous chapter. To take the following sentences from a speech delivered by Ziperovitch, of the Trades Union Council of the Province of Petrograd:
"It is with a feeling of deep satisfaction that the Russian Trades Union Council notices that the mighty pressure of the British Revolutionary Movement has at last made the Government of Lloyd George give up the police methods (as the refusal of passports) so degrading to the British proletariat."
Was it, I wonder, the "mighty pressure of the British Revolutionary Movement" which accomplished this? Or was it due to the Prime Minister's desire to begin the movement for happier relations with Russia? Take another phrase:
"I am deeply convinced that the visit of our British comrades is a promising symbol of the great moral upheaval in that country."
Knowing as I did the ideas about the British Labour Movement they have in mind in Russia, I felt it incumbent upon me for the sake of the Russians themselves, to disabuse them of the notion that there is any evidence worthy of the name to show that the British workers are within appreciable distance of using Communist methods of violence for what, in some respects, is a oneness of ultimate ideal; but that history, tradition, temperament, training and the great fact of our comparative freedom and prosperity all precluded the hope on their part of entering together upon the last decisive fight for world revolution.
From the speech of Losowsky, also a Trade Union leader, I have selected the following phrases to show the aim of the Bolshevik leaders:
"The Labour movement of Russia stands determinedly and definitely for the Social Revolution and the Dictatorship of the Social Revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat."
"The working class has taken the power into its own hands and with fire and sword annihilates all who seek to turn Russian history backward."
"No compromise. Merciless war on the bourgeoisie to the victorious end."
The terrible danger of this inflammatory talk lies in the fact that the deeds of the Communists in power march with their words, and as every person who ventures to disagree in the slightest particular with the principles of the Party is regarded as a traitor, he comes under the suspicion of the Authorities and goes about daily in fear of being denounced and punished as a counter-revolutionary.
But for many of these bitter men, much excuse may be made when the facts of their lives are known. Many of them have been the greatest sufferers from the tyranny of the Czardom. Many of them have had long terms of imprisonment or exile, have suffered from the knout or the bayonet, have been sentenced to death and escaped, or have lost health and happiness in Siberian wilds. Six years in solitary confinement does not tend to sweeten a man's outlook on life. Fourteen years in the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, with the daily terror of being taken out of his cell and shot, does not make for sweetness and light. Outrage and torture of women very naturally hardens them and forms into a thin cruel line many of the lips made to press tender kisses on the foreheads of little children. Very few of the Communist leaders of Russia there are who have not had to endure one or all of these hideous experiences. That they should be infected, unconsciously to themselves, by the virus of cruelty is not to be wondered at. And the greater part of the blame for all that has happened and is happening to the opponents of unadulterated Communism must be laid upon the shoulders of those who, by promoting wars, civil and; foreign, have made their task of government impossibly hard.