On February 4 the representatives of several of the Russian anarchist groups were to meet at 534 East 5th Street and pass the resolution against militarism, but they could not agree upon it, and the session ended by postponing the matter. Most of the delegates present adjourned to 64 East 7th Street (almost within earshot of the Washington Arch), to hear Chudnofsky rave against enlistment, the police, the government and the war.
Those little meetings were typical of the eruptions which occurred throughout the poorer districts of the great city during the remainder of the month of February. Such propagandists as Chudnofsky and Trotzky, uttering their exhortations to a multiplication of such groups as gathered in the Fifth Street house, spread among the gossipy East Siders and into the remotest slums the news that great things were about to happen in Russia, and rumor and expectancy set the stage for the arrival of the news of the revolution on March 12. The leaders then began to mobilize their forces and act quickly. Under Shatoff, Schnabel and Rodes the revolutionary fire was passed along from one to another. The story was that Russia was free, reclaimed from Czardom and all that it had meant of oppression.
The lid was off, and it was a case of first come, first served. The Provisional Government was no better than any other, these men said. “Russia shall be ours.” “How?” asked the eager disciples. “By helping yourselves,” answered Shatoff and Schnabel and Rodes. “That’s all very well,” said the proletariat, “but we haven’t the price.” “Oh, in that case, come to the farewell meeting on March 26 for Leon Trotzky, at Harlem River Casino, and all will be made clear to you.”
Some 800 people were at Trotzky’s farewell party, which was held under the auspices of the German Socialist Federation. Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman were among those present. A blond Russian made a speech in which he said: “Comrades, some of us are going back to Russia to push the revolution as we think it ought to be pushed, and those who remain here must get ready to do their share of the work as it ought to be done.” Trotzky then rose and speaking first in German, then in Russian, repeated the advice the previous speaker had given, and added: “You who stay here must work hand in hand with the revolution in Russia, for only in that way can you accomplish revolution in the United States.” He was cheered to the echo.
(There are still those who wonder why we have not recognized the Bolsheviki.)
The pier of the Norwegian-American line the next morning was a strange sight. Trotzky, with his wife, Chudnofsky, Plotkin, and a group of fifty more Russians, including such names as Muhin, Rapaport, Dnieprofsky, Yaroshefsky and Rashkofsky, sailed for Norway. An undersized, wild-eyed, fanatic little plucked-bantam of a Russian expatriate literally set out from Hoboken to upset the Provisional Government of Russia, prevent the formation of a republic, stop the war with Germany and prevent interference from other governments—that was his open boast. And, if such a mission can be crowned with success, he succeeded.
The leaders of the groups left behind began that very afternoon to examine recruits for the return to Russia. They met at 534 East 5th Street and elected a committee of five to serve as examining board for applicants for the $20 to $50 free passage money extended by the Provisional Government to help Russians who had fled the persecutions of the old days to repatriate themselves. It is unnecessary to state that the Provisional Government hardly knew how thoroughly these homing pigeons were going to re-establish themselves. All those who passed muster were put down for a sailing date.
The Norwegian ship bearing Trotzky and his party put into Halifax and the British detained the entire passenger list. On April 15 a mass meeting of anarchists, socialists, and Industrial Workers of the World was held at Manhattan Lyceum to make a formal protest to the British government against their detention. Kerensky asked for their release, and they were allowed to go on. By this time a second consignment had left, but by a different route. On April 3 George Brewer, H. Gurin, Mr. and Mrs. David Rohlis, one Kotz, one Schmidt, one Nemiroff and 27 others left the Pennsylvania Station for Chicago, Vancouver, Japan and Siberia. On April 23 Comrades Bogdanovitch, Bendetsky, Albert Greenfield, John (or Ivan) Stepanoff, Michael Smirnoff, Henry Shklar and 89 more left on the Erie Railroad for Seattle, Japan and Siberia. On the 12th day of May, “Dynamite Louise” Berg, sister of the anarchist who was killed July 4, 1914, by the accidental explosion of a bomb, boarded the steamship United States of the Scandinavian-American Line in Hoboken for Christiania and Russia. On that ship sailed nearly a hundred others of the anarchist and revolutionary element. Ninety more, including Sokoloff, a prominent I. W. W., left for San Francisco and Japan two days later. On May 26 Mrs. Bill Shatoff, with Alexander Broide, J. Wishniefsky, and 18 more members of the Coöperative Anarchist Organization sailed from Hoboken on the Oskar II. Two days passed and Meyer Bell, an anarchist who had seen the inside of many an American jail for revolutionary agitation, and Mrs. Meyer Bell, with 110 others took their departure for San Francisco and the Orient. The last consignment but one, a group of 90 more potential Bolsheviki, followed them on June 24.
Captain John B. Trevor, Military Intelligence