didn’t quite know what I had come about, but he agreed to sit to me on the following Wednesday at 10 a.m.
August 17th.
Kameneff arrived almost punctually at 10 a.m. for an hour, but he stayed till 1 o’clock, and we talked for the whole three hours almost without stopping. I do not know how I managed to work and talk so much. My mind was really more focussed on the discussion, and the work was done subconsciously. At all events when the three hours were ended, I had produced a likeness.
There is very little modelling in his face, it is a perfect oval, and his nose is straight with the line of his forehead, but turns up slightly at the end, which is a pity. It is difficult to make him look serious, as he smiles all the time. Even when his mouth is severe his eyes laugh.
My “Victory” was unveiled when he arrived and he noticed it at once. I told him it represented the Victory of the Allies, and he exclaimed: “But no! It is the Victory of all the ages. What pain! What suffering! What exhaustion!” He then added that it was the best bit of Peace propaganda that he had seen.
We had wonderful conversations. He told me all kinds of details of the Soviet legislation, their ideals and aims. Their first care, he told me, is for the children, they are the future citizens and require every protection. If parents are too poor to bring up their children, the State will clothe, feed, harbour and educate them until fourteen years old, legitimate and illegitimate alike, and they do not need to be lost to their parents, who can see them whenever they wish. This system, he said, had doubled the percentage of marriages (civil of course), and it had also allayed a good deal of crime—for what crimes are not committed to destroy illegitimate children?
He described the enforced education of all classes—he told of the concerts they organise for their workmen, and of their appreciation of Bach and Wagner.
They have had to abandon (already!) the idea that all should be paid alike. Admitting that some are physically able to work longer and better than others, therefore there have to be grades of payment, and when great talent shows itself, “cela merite d’être recompensé.”
Chaliapin, who used to have the title of “Artist to the Court,” is now called “The Artist of the People.” Chaliapin, I gathered, was a very popular figure.