THE TEN MEN OF RUSSIA.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4796, 7 January 1925, Page 3

THE TEN MEN OF RUSSIA.

POSTS HELD YEAR IN AND OUT.

(By William Henry Chamberlain, in

the “Atlantic Monthly.’’}

‘‘Authority is notably concentrated in Soviet Russia,” says Mr Chamberlain. “The ten men I describe hold in their hands the threads of leadership both of the Party and of the State apparatus. They control Russia’s economic development, together with its relations, political and commercial, with other countries. Their removal would leave a huge vacuum in the place of the existing Soviet icgiihe.

“There is something very conservative about the composition of the Russian revolutionary government. Under the Communist dictatorship there are no cabinet crises. The same Commis--sar« hold their posts year in and year out. the same men are to be seen presiding at Party and Soviet Congresses.’’

Here are some of Mr Chamberlains sketches of these men who run Russia :—

“Leon Trotzky is unquestionably the outstanding industrial figure in Russia s public life to-day,” we are told. “No one can .rival him in personal magnetism, in widespread popular reputation, in capacity for inspiring prolonged ovations. That Trotzky today is not a member of the inmost Communist ruling group is only a sign that pensonal distinction does not necessarily involve political success. Trotzky owes his fame chiefly to his achievements in the Civil War.”

“In a room in the’huge building of the Communist Central Committee a tali dark man paces up and down incessantly, like a caged lion, occasionally pausing to jot down a note or send off a message. This man is the Georgian Djugashvili, more generally known by hfea ppropriate Russian revolutionary pseudonym of Stalinsteel. Stalin is Secretary of the Russian Communist Party, and, although he occupies no official position, he holds in his hands more of the threads of the Russian revolutionary government than any other individual.

“Stalin has always been a power behind the throne in the Russian Communist Party. In pre-revolutionary ...days, when most’of the Party leadens were abroad in exile, Stalin superintended the work of the Party in Russia. ‘Lenin trusts Stalin ; Stalin trusts no one.’ was a current saying two years ago, and it adequately expressed the impression created by this silent and potent Caucasian, who has exploited his personality most effectively by consistently suppressing all visible manifestations of it.

“Trotzky is a man of fire ; Stalin is a man of ice. Trotzky is a frequent speaker and prolific writer; Stalin constantly holds himself behind a veil <>f reserve, only expressing himself on occasions of the finst importance.

“That Zinoviev Is a powerful figure in the councils of the Communist Party can scarcely be doubted. He delivered the leading reports at the two most important Congresses that have taken place in Russia recently, the Communist Party Congress late m yiay and the Congress of the Communist International in June and July. He possesses a certain faculty for appealing to the Communist rank-and-file, for exciting and exploiting to the utmost degree the mass "emotions of class consciousness, fanaticism, hatred of the bourgcoise, of the Mensheviks,, of the 'intelligentsia, of any group Ih ’t he denounces as hostile or lukewarm to the Party and the Revolution. - ■

“Leo Kamenev, third member of the Communist Party triumvirate of leadeqs that also includes Stalin and Zinoviev, is a brother-in-law of Trotzky. A stout man of medium height, with spectacles and a pointed professorial beard of moderate dimensions, Kamenev suggests a savant, rather than a revolutionary leader, when one.sees him presiding over a formal meeting of the Moscow Soviet, of which he is President. In his capacity as one of Russia’s .three Vice-Premiers—the other tWo.-were Rykov and Tsurupa— Kamenev lias taken on his shoulders an increasing share of the general administrative work of the Soviet Government. 'Kamenev conveys the impression of being a conciliatory, cautious, discreet personality.

“Felix Dzerzhinsky suffered perhaps more than any other prominent Bolshevist leader for his activities n the 'days before the Revoluiton. He went through the horrors of penal servitude in Siberia.’ Liberated by the overthrow of the Tsarist regime, this Polish revolutionist returned to become one of the great active figures <if the Soviet regime. By organising the Cnekha, or Extraordinary Commission, the famous espionage organ the Revolution, he made a contribution to the victory of the Communists in the civil war scarcely second' to that of Trotzky. It is to his origin, pe’-haps, that Alexei Ivanovitch Rykov owes his elevation to the post of Premier in preference to several other men who played more prominent parts in the revolutionary drama. To be sure Rykov was a well-known figure among the Soviet leaders. As head of the Supreme Economic Council and chairman of the Sto, he worked in close co-operation with Lenin on problems of economic reconstruction. But he figured as an economic expert rather than as a popular leader. Subject to fits of stammering, he has never been able to .sway the masses like several of the other Communist leaders who are notable oratorjs.

“A popular. speaker at Soviet and Party meetings is a slightly built man with a pointed beard, a resonant voice, and a splendid command of the Russian language. This is Nikolai Bukharin, editor of the official Communist 01 gan ‘Pravda,’ leading Party theoretician and Joint author with Evgeny Prebrazhensky of “The ABC of Communism,’ the outstanding popu-

lar textbook .on the subject. Bukharin is a favourite among the workers and A the Communist youth, both for his •?* fleiy eloquence and for his austere life/’