Propaganda was conducted among educated people along much the same lines. Numbers of pamphlets appeared attacking England’s colonial policy—England in Egypt, England in Ireland, and so on. These were invariably based on German sources, and were no doubt paid for by German money. The attacks on Capitalism and Imperialism were directed against the English or American varieties, never against the German. The most absurd lies were spread about the price America was demanding for the help she was willing to give Russia. The Y.M.C.A. suffered especially from these agitators. I shall never forget hearing a Russian gentleman tell his wife some details of the Y.M.C.A. work in Irkutsk. “But, my dear,” said his wife, “why do you allow them to work among the soldiers? They only come to sell their goods.” The husband tried to explain, but his wife would not listen. “You are much too simple and trusting,” she insisted. “Anybody could make a fool of you. Every one knows that the Y.M.C.A. is a big American firm, and that its agents are simply commercial travellers here to push their goods.” Some Bolshevik papers were served by German correspondents, and articles, word for word the same, appeared simultaneously in German and Russian newspapers. That the Bolsheviks were in receipt of German money they themselves never denied. A member of the Petrograd Soviet acknowledged it to a friend of mine. “Well, then,” said my friend, “you are a spy.” “No,” said the Bolshevik; “we would take money from the devil, if we could get it.” It was especially curious to watch the attitude of the Bolshevik press towards Henderson. So long as he was in Russia they could not find words bad enough for him. Only his quarrel with Lloyd George made him a hero. Then he became a stick to beat the English with. And even so his appearance was against him. I showed some Bolsheviks a portrait of Henderson, which had just appeared in an English magazine. He was smiling, dapper, and neat, and as fresh as a rose. Everything about him was fresh, his linen spotless, his clothes well brushed, his boots polished to a bright shine, and he had evidently washed and shaved that day—all things abhorred of your Bolshevik. “Why,” they said, “he’s not a Socialist, he’s a Bourgeois!” And in their eyes Henderson was done for. I think if we send any more Socialist delegates to Russia, it would be well to let their hair and nails grow first, and also to take their razors and soap away from them. Then they might have some chance. When Lenin wanted a disguise to secure him from Kerenski’s men, he used to have a shave.
FIRST BOLSHEVIK ATTEMPT
All the propaganda that was going on was sure to take effect, and in September the Bolsheviks tried their first revolution. Their plan was simple. The two infantry regiments which lay outside the town were to march into the town and unite with the regiments there in overturning the Government. After that the rule of the Soviets was to be proclaimed. All this could not be arranged so secretly that the authorities should not hear of it. The General Commanding-in-Chief came up in his car in order personally to see the men and hear their complaints. He was promptly arrested. The soldiers then held a meeting to consider the situation. I was present and recognized on the platform certain officers of the regiment. It was decided to march off into the town, and I thought that, as a matter of course, the officers would go with them and march at their head. But not a bit of it.
The resolutions having been confirmed with a blood-curdling yell, the officers disappeared. Just as the soldiers were on the point of starting, there came on the scene two hundred and fifty Younkers (Officers’ Training Corps). They took up a position barring the way to the town, and proceeded to demand the release of the general, the surrender of all arms, and that the ringleaders should be named to them. The left wing of the Younkers rested for a time on our garden, and it was a pleasure to see the smartness of their evolutions. They were real soldiers confronting sham ones. For though this small handful of troops had in front of them a regiment some thousands strong, and on their right flank another regiment, they won the day. It is true that they had two field guns, but these could easily have been rushed by determined soldiers. After some hours’ parleying (extremely anxious for us, who would have been in the thick of any fighting) the Bolsheviks gave in entirely. As I have said before, their officers had disappeared at the very beginning, and most of their other ringleaders ran away when they saw things were getting serious. Of those who were caught, one had his pockets stuffed with pornographic literature and he was wearing women’s underclothing; another had thousands of pounds on him, a remarkable thing in a common soldier; while a third was a notorious criminal who had the murder of two whole families on his conscience. I had always regarded as a stupid libel the favourite Conservative assertion that the Socialist leaders incite their followers to revolt and then keep out of harm’s way themselves, but here was evidence too damning. With my own eyes I saw the officers stir the men up to revolt, I saw the officers walk off before the trouble began, and next day, not knowing what I had seen, these same men told me that the whole affair had been got up by a few misguided fanatics and cowards, and that it was very much to be deplored.
CHAPTER XI
THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT
BEFORE THE STORM
Such a fiasco would have been enough to discredit the movement in any other country. But the Bolsheviks die hard, and they are quick to profit, not only by other people’s mistakes, but by their own. They saw that it was useless to attempt anything in Irkutsk without getting the artillery over to their side. So they set to work systematically to detach each battery from its allegiance to the Provisional Government. I used to hear through the German agent how they were getting on, how first one battery and then another succumbed, till at last only one was left on which the authorities could rely. In time this also was won over. The work required patience, and it was not until Christmas week that the Bolsheviks were ready to turn out the Government. The officers in the army, of course, knew what was happening, but they were powerless. In any case they were not trained political agitators, and they had received no political education. They knew little of the lives of their men, they had no especial sympathy with their desires for more freedom and power, and the inner meaning of what was going on before their eyes escaped them. It will probably be so in every army infected by Bolshevik agitators. From the outset their privileges, and the distance enjoined by their rank, handicap the officers in dealing with these men.
As usual, treachery was everywhere. Kerenski had sent down an emissary with instructions to watch the situation for him. The man’s name was Strendberg, which looks German-Jewish, but he professed to be a Finn. He spoke German fluently; but when the Allied officers came to Irkutsk to investigate the arming of the prisoners of war, he denied that he knew a word of German. After the Revolution he acknowledged that he had played Kerenski false, and had used his influence to pervert the army still more thoroughly. The Bolsheviks rewarded him by making him their Commander-in-Chief for a time. It is curious that the German prisoners of war at Krasnoyarsk had planned an insurrection to take place on the very day that fighting began at Irkutsk. A War Staff had been formed, every German officer had his task assigned to him, and if the coup had succeeded, it must have thrown the whole of Siberia into confusion. A Russian officer, who understood German, overheard the prisoners speaking about it and reported the matter to Irkutsk. The last act of the Provisional Government was to take severe measures to punish the offenders, and to make a repetition of the offence impossible. If it was a coincidence, it was surely a most remarkable one, that the Germans should have hit upon the same date as the Bolsheviks for their rising.
THE STORM BURSTS