“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.