LENIN AND TROTSKY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 148, 12 March 1918, Page 6

LENIN AND TROTSKY

"MY VISIT TO THEM"

BY AN ENGLISHMAN PETKOGRAD

The following narrative (in tho "Daily Mail") throws some light on the attitude of Lenin and Trotsky, the Extremist, or Bolshevik, leaders in Russia, who aro immersed in internal disorder on the one hand and in peace negotiations on the other:—

I had urgent need of a pass over the Finnish railway, which a month ago was working irregularly on account of a strike. 1 was told 1 could not leavo Petrograd (where I have lived for several years), but I knew that the- liolslieviks ran a certain number of trains, so I determined I would go to their headquarters and beg for permission to travel in one of these. I was urged by several friends to wait a few days till the Bolshevik power was overthrown.

_ "It cannot last," they said. But I did not agree with them. "I believe it has come to stay," I told them. "Ninety per cent, of the people support it, so far as Russians in the mass ever support anything. It keeps better order and sees to it that the people get more food than they did when Kerensky was at the top. I am going to ask Lenin or Trotsky for a pass." ■

I went to the Smolny Institute, which used to be a girls' school, explained what I wanted, and was told to take my place in a line of men and women waiting for tickets, which would allow them to enter the anterooms of those whom they wished to see. Tho giving out of the tickets went on slowly. I thought, "I must try to do better than this." So I left the lino and strolled about the lobby.

In one room I say n typist. I said to her, "I am English. 1 want you to help mo." She said, "I speak English." This was ah unexpected piece of luck. She did help me and I got to Trotsky's apartments. Once and a second time ho declined to see me. _ I stayed on, hoping. I made friends with the'two "tovarishchi" (comrades) who guarded the door with fixed bayonets. I said: "It is hard he won't see me." They said humorously, tapping their bayonets, "That's all right. We will persuade him." Tho porter of the institute brought mo a glass of tea and two large slices of excellent black (rye) -bread. I offered him a tip. Ho said: "No. I thank you. That isn't our way hero." I think I was never more astonished. "Russia is getting herself born again in earnest," I said to myself. I talked to the Secretary of the Government, Mr. Shatoff. I told him that German agitators wero at work in the guise of Bolsheviks. He said, "Their success is due to England. _ They put out fantastic stories, I admit. They say that England's aims are selfish, that she wants German trade and German colonies, that she, as well as France and Italy, hope to profit by continuing the war. Tlion, if they are told their stories are untrue, they say, "fhon why does not England put an end to tliem by stating her aims?' That argument is generally convincing to ltussian minds."

This was so new a point of view to me that I should scarcely have known how to reply. The entrance of Trotsky saved me. Ho is in appearance Jewish, liko a small Svengali. Ho talks English well. He was impatient at first, but become more cordial and made a statement which was more moderate than any Bolshevik manifesto I had seen. Ho seemed to wish for Britain's good will. Although he has .always refused interviews, he asked me to publish his. statement, bub I do not think tho English Censorship will allow this. Ho belongs to the clever, restless, scheming type; 1 cannot say what his motive may have been. Later I saw Lenin. He is a very benevolent-looking old fellow, not real--ly old, but the kind of man who can never have been young. He wrote his 1 name "V. V. Ulyanoft" on ono of my ! cards. Everywhere Hub was honoured i immediately and with tho utmost re- ! spect. He is in tho eyes of all tho peasants I came across the saviour of '■ liis country. Ho speaks a littlo English. I said to him, among other things, "If your country's interest required it, would you retire?" Ho said ho would not hesitate. I asked Trotsky tho same. He replied, "Sure, why not?" But at present they are supported by nine-tenths of tho people, at any rate in the north.