It goes without saying that this book is not designed to rectify this record of inaccuracies on the part of the Soviet Government. It was impossible in writing my story to combine precision of narrative with effective camouflage of individuals and places. The part of this book which deals with my personal experiences is therefore not complete, but is a selection of episodes concerning a few individuals, and I have endeavoured to weave these episodes into a more or less consecutive narrative, showing the peculiar chain of circumstances which led to my remaining in charge of the intelligence service in Russia for the best part of a year, instead of a month or two, as I had originally expected. To my later travels in Bielorussia, the northern Ukraine, and Lithuania I make but little reference, since my observations there merely confirmed the conclusions I had already arrived at as to the attitude of the Russian peasantry. In writing, I believe I have achieved what I was bound to regard as a fundamental condition, namely, the masking of the characters by confusing persons and places (except in one or two instances which are now of small import) sufficiently to render them untraceable by the Bolshevist authorities.
“Even when one thinks a view unsound or a scheme unworkable,” says Viscount Bryce in Modern Democracies, “one must regard all honest efforts to improve this unsatisfactory world with a sympathy which recognizes how many things need to be changed, and how many doctrines once held irrefragable need to be modified in the light of supervenient facts.” This is true no less of Communist experiments than of any others. If in this book I dwell almost entirely on the Russian people’s point of view, and not on that of their present governors, I can only say that it was the people’s point of view that I set out to study. The Bolshevist revolution will have results far other than those anticipated by its promoters, but in the errors and miscalculations of the Communists, in their fanatical efforts to better the lot of mankind, albeit by coercion and bloodshed, lessons are to be learned which will be of incalculable profit to humanity. But the greatest and most inspiring lesson of all will be the ultimate example of the Russian people, by wondrous patience and invincible endurance overcoming their present and perhaps even greater tribulation, and emerging triumphant through persevering belief in the truths of that philosophy which the Communists describe as “the opium of the people.”
“... Nothing is more vital to national progress than the spontaneous development of individual character.... Independence of thought was formerly threatened by monarchs who feared the disaffection of their subjects. May it not again be threatened by other forms of intolerance, possible even in a popular government?”
Bryce, Modern Democracies.
CONTENTS
| [CHAPTER I] | PAGE |
|---|---|
| ONE OF THE CROWD | 1 |
| The Revolution of March 1917—Recalled to London—Offered work in Secret Service—Archangel—Helsingfors—Melnikoff—Departure for Russia—Forging passports—Crossing the frontier. | |
| [CHAPTER II] | |
| FIVE DAYS | 30 |
| Petrograd—An unpleasant encounter—Dearth and stagnation—A secret café—Stepanovna—Quarters for the night—An eating-house—Welcomed as English—Mr. Marsh—Maria—The “Journalist”—The “Policeman”—A raid on an eating-house—Captain Zorinsky—The Extraordinary Commission—Mr. Marsh escapes. | |
| [CHAPTER III] | |
| THE GREEN SHAWL | 79 |
| Allies expected in Petrograd—A story of Archangel—Proposals to attack Bolsheviks—Arranging Mrs. Marsh’s escape—News of Melnikoff under arrest—Attempts to arrange his escape—Buying a disguise—In the prison of the Extraordinary Commission—Mrs. Marsh’s escape—Across the frontier in the snow. | |
| [CHAPTER IV] | |
| MESHES | 113 |
| Back in Petrograd—“The Metropolis of the World Revolution”—Communists employing bourgeois specialists—Zorinsky supplies information and asks questions—Certificates of exemption from military service—Plans to rescue Melnikoff. | |
| [CHAPTER V] | |
| MELNIKOFF | 181 |
| Bolshevik Saints—Melnikoff’s Doctor uncle—Zorinsky suspected of double dealing—A Bolshevik demonstration—A new passport—Unrecognized by former housekeeper—A letter of introduction—News of Melnikoff’s execution. | |
| [CHAPTER VI] | |
| STEPANOVNA | 152 |
| New acquaintances—A raid on a public market—“Speculators”—Confiscationof furniture—Stepanovna in trouble. | |
| [CHAPTER VII] | |
| FINLAND | 162 |
| Escape to Finland over the ice—Running the gauntlet of the searchlights—Pursued—Hiding on the bare ice—Arrest by Finnish patrols—Arranging for a service of couriers—Intrigues in Finland—Back into Russia—On ski through the forest—A trying experience. | |
| [CHAPTER VIII] | |
| A VILLAGE “BOURGEOIS-CAPITALIST” | 181 |
| A Russian peasant’s house—Music—The troubles of a thrifty peasant—A village Soviet—Smuggling food and matches into Petrograd—Attempt to stop “sackmen”—Recollections of March 1917. | |
| [CHAPTER IX] | |
| METAMORPHOSIS | 193 |
| Unrest in Petrograd—Attempts at arrest—A narrow escape at the “Journalist’s”—A new disguise—A friend of Melnikoff—Zorinsky’s treachery confirmed. | |
| [CHAPTER X] | |
| THE SPHINX | 209 |
| At work in a factory—Joining the Red army—Tsarist officers in the Red army—Military service helpful to intelligence work—To Moscow. | |
| [CHAPTER XI] | |
| THE RED ARMY | 215 |
| The uniform—Terrorizing Tsarist officers—Relatives used as hostages for good behaviour—Jews in the Red army—Bronstein or Trotzky—Trotzky conciliates Tsarist officers—Penalties of refusing service—Mistakes of the White leaders—Discipline by terror—A mutiny—Revolutionary Tribunals—Desertion—The army oath—System of political control—A conscientious commissar—Cultural-Enlightenment Committees—A regimental entertainment. | |
| [CHAPTER XII] | |
| “THE PARTY” AND THE PEOPLE | 251 |
| “Government of Workers and Peasants” a misnomer—A gulf between the Communist Party and People—The Third International—Its relation to the Soviet Government—Disturbances in Petrograd—Suppression and arrests—A speech by Lenin—“Sackmen” legalized—Free trading permitted—Welfare of people subordinate to interests of party—A party purge—Of what did the party consist?—Training members—Three degrees of membership—What is a Soviet?—Bolshevism not Soviet Government—Soviet elections—A meeting of the Petrograd Soviet. | |
| [CHAPTER XIII] | |
| ESCAPE | 285 |
| Plans for escape—To join British Fleet in Gulf of Finland—Sent to Latvian frontier on military service—Train searched—The Green Guards—Across Lake Luban. | |
| [CHAPTER XIV] | |
| CONCLUSION | 294 |
| The only hope for Russian Communists, country before party—Influence of non-Bolshevik elements—Russian dislike of politics—Intervention must be humanitarian—Impotence of the Third International—Russian love of the soil—Bolsheviks despise the Russians—Co-operative Societies proof of Russian organizing capacity—The power of religion. | |
| [INDEX] | 309 |