MIRRORS OF MOSCOW BY LOUISE BRYANT With five illustrations by CÉSARE New York THOMAS SELTZER 1923 Copyright, 1923, by THOMAS SELTZER, Inc. ——— All rights reserved PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO THREE WISE EDITORS— M. KOENIGSBERG BRADFORD MERRILL PHILLIP FRANCIS...

Revolution! The air is filled with flames and fumes. The shapes of men, seen through the smoke, become distorted and unreal. Promethean supermen, they seem, giants in sin or virtue, Satans or saviours. But, in truth, behind the screen of smoke and flame they are like other men: no larger and no smaller, no better and no worse: all creatures of the same incessant passions, hungers, vanities and fears. So it is in Russia. And in this book I have tried to show the leaders of the revolution as they

Lenin became an active revolutionist through the spiritual motives that have moved all great reformers—not because he himself was hungry and an outcast, but because he could not stand by unmoved in a world where other men were hungry and outcast. Such characters are predestined internationalists; the very quality that lifts them above materialism places them above borders and points of geography; they strive for the universal good. Lenin believes that the only thing worth living for is the next

The world, which now very generally concedes to Lenin great political adroitness, is not fully aware of the extent of his talent. What other man could have managed, under the stress of the hour, to have kept control of the politics of great Russia, the Ukraine, the Far Eastern Republic and even of China? And not only does he guide the destinies of these Republics, he subordinates the men at the head of them. Thus he is consolidating Russia. In Moscow, people believe that Lenin will some day brin

Out in Chicago Abraham Moiseyevitch Krasnichakov was plain Mr. Tobinson, but for three years he has enjoyed great authority under his own name as head of the Far Eastern Republic. There is nothing lacking in either romance or adventure in the story of A. Stroller Tobinson. He was born in the city of Chernobyl, in the province of Kiev, in Russia, and fled to the United States about the time his brother was executed in Odessa for some connection with revolutionary activities. This was in 1904. Tob

Toward the end of the first week of the Bolshevik uprising, Zinoviev and Kaminev lost heart. With Mylutin, Nogin and Rykov, they handed in resignations to the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party. Lenin read the letters at a great meeting in Smolny and cried: “Shame upon these men of little faith, who hesitate and doubt!” Lenin has long since conquered their opposition, but he has not changed their souls. Kaminev and Zinoviev are in his cabinet, as satellites, however, not as leade

No other Russian enjoys the solid political and popular backing of Aliexiev Rykov; he is the logical successor to Lenin. Rykov is one of those “unknown-quantity” men which are in every government and every political party and who are on the “inside” of every government decision, men who silently assume more and more power but remain unknown to the press until some event brings them to the public attention. Rykov, although he has held for several years four of the most important posts in Russia,

JACOB PETERS, FEDORE S. DZERZHINSKY AND THE EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSION It is a curious but indisputable fact that Jacob Peters, known to the world as “Peters, the Terrorist,” has never been head of the Russian Extraordinary Commission. Since its inception, Fedore Dzerzhinsky has had charge of that sombre institution, which in the revolutionary vernacular is known as the “Cheka,” a word derived from the initial letters of “extraordinary” and “commission.” Dzerzhinsky is a Pole, forty-four years of

ANATOL VASSILIEVITCH LUNACHARSKY AND RUSSIAN CULTURE Thus wrote the Soviet Minister of Education, Anatol Lunacharsky, in those remote days when a revolution was only a vague goal and when he could not believe that in his own lifetime a day would come when he would be torn from his quiet study and forced to put his dreams into practice, or as near into practice as dreams ever reach. Reality is revolting and disappointing to any artist, but Lunacharsky possesses enough recuperative powers to overc

AND THE PEASANTS KALININ MICHAEL IVANOVITCH KALININ There have been two presidents of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic; only recently we have become vaguely aware of one of them. Ever since the Bolshevik coup d’ état America has spoken of the Soviet Government as “the government of Lenin and Trotsky.” America was right in so far as these men enjoy immense power, and wrong in so far as she imagined it would have been possible at any time, and less so now, for either of these men or

AND THE WOMAN’S MOVEMENT KOLLONTAI MADAME ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI Madame Alexandra Kollontai believes that everything which exalts is good; being a feminist, she exalts women. She tells women that they are capable of a new freedom, beautiful and unexampled. She is so carried away by her enthusiasm that she is unmindful of how easily wings are broken in this age of steel. But if her inspiration, which aims to lift women to the skies, lifts them only from their knees to their feet, there will be nothi

TROTSKY LEON TROTSKY, SOVIET WAR LORD Minister of War, Leon Trotsky, has no prototype in history. Therefore, he cannot be compared, he can only be contrasted. He is without question the most dramatic character produced during the whole sweep of the Russian revolution and its only great organizer. No man will overshadow his eminence in the history of the revolution except Lenin. They will remain the two most distinguished personalities. They are complementary figures. Lenin represents thought; Tr

AND THE MOHAMMEDANS ENVER PASHA ENVER PASHA No man I ever met lives so completely in the immediate moment as Enver Pasha; the past he puts behind him, the future he leaves to Allah. His only hero is Napoleon. In Moscow he was the avant coureur of the new understanding between Russia and the Mohammedan world, which means Turkey, Afghanistan, Persia, Bokhara and enough of India to shake the British Empire. Any man who has brains and gives all his being to the task in hand is bound to possess perso

TIKON AND THE RUSSIAN CHURCH There are two points of importance in regard to the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian revolution. First, that the church has maintained itself and second, that it has issued no frantic appeals for outside help. While certain priests have allied themselves with counter-revolutionists, officially the church has never taken sides. Even at the present moment when a bitter conflict is on, the quarrel remains a family quarrel. Tikon, the Patriarch, by remaining unruffl

COMMISSAR FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AND HIS SUBORDINATES. GREGORY VASSILIEVITCH TCHICHERIN MAXIM LITVINOV, ASSISTANT COMMISSAR LEONID KRASSIN DAVID ROTHSTEIN GREGORY WEINSTEIN MICHAEL KARAKHAN MR. FLORINSKY MR. AXIONOV GREGORY VASSILIEVITCH TCHICHERIN My first interview with Tchicherin was at midnight and my last interview was at five in the morning. This happens to cover a fairly complete rotation of the official hours of the Soviet Foreign Office. One evening at a box party in the Bolshoi Theatre,

LEONID KRASSIN AND SUBORDINATES MAXIM LITVINOV, ASSISTANT COMMISSAR, LEONID KRASSIN AND SUBORDINATES Litvinov, more than Tchicherin, has been Lenin’s spokesman to the outside world in the past three years. Litvinov is closer to Lenin; he knows how Lenin will react on most situations, while Tchicherin is usually in doubt. This knowledge gives Litvinov power to make immediate decisions. Litvinov has worked with Lenin since the Communist party was created, while Tchicherin actually only came into t