Upon my arrival in Petrograd I found unexpected work awaiting me. Zorin informed me that he had been notified by Tchicherin that a thousand Russians had been deported4 from America and were on their way to Russia. They were to be met at the border and quarters were to be immediately prepared for them in Petrograd. Zorin asked me to join the Commission about to be organized for that purpose.
The plan of such a commission for American deportees had been broached5 to Zorin soon after our arrival in Russia. At that time Zorin directed us to talk the matter over with Tchicherin, which we did. But three months passed without anything having been done about it. Meanwhile, our comrades of the Buford were still walking from department to department, trying to be placed where they might do some good. They were a sorry lot, those men who had come to Russia with such high hopes, eager to render service to the revolutionary people. Most of them were skilled workers, mechanics—men [Pg 59]Russia needed badly; but the cumbersome6 Bolshevik machine and general inefficiency7 made it a very complex matter to put them to work. Some had tried independently to secure jobs, but they could accomplish very little. Moreover, those who found employment were soon made to feel that the Russian workers resented the eagerness and intensity8 of their brothers from America. "Wait till you have starved as long as we," they would say, "wait till you have tasted the blessings9 of Commissarship, and we will see if you are still so eager." In every way the deportees were discouraged and their enthusiasm dampened.
To avoid this unnecessary waste of energy and suffering the Commission was at last organized in Petrograd. It consisted of Ravitch, the then Minister of Internal Affairs for the Northern District; her secretary, Kaplun; two members of the Bureau of War Prisoners; Alexander Berkman, and myself. The new deportees were due in two weeks, and much work was to be done to prepare for their reception. It was unfortunate that no active participation10 could be expected from Ravitch because her time was too much occupied. Besides holding the post of Minister of the Interior she was Chief of the[Pg 60] Petrograd Militia11, and she also represented the Moscow Foreign Office in Petrograd. Her regular working hours were from 8 A. M. to 2 A. M. Kaplun, a very able administrator12, had charge of the entire internal work of the Department and could therefore give us very little of his time. There remained only four persons to accomplish within a short time the big task of preparing living quarters for a thousand deportees in starved and ruined Russia. Moreover, Alexander Berkman, heading the Reception Committee, had to leave for the Latvian border to meet the exiles.
It was an almost impossible task for one person, but I was very anxious to save the second group of deportees the bitter experiences and the disappointments of my fellow companions of the Buford. I could undertake the work only by making the condition that I be given the right of entry to the various government departments, for I had learned by that time how paralysing was the effect of the bureaucratic13 red tape which delayed and often frustrated14 the most earnest and energetic efforts. Kaplun consented. "Call on me at any time for anything you may require," he said; "I will give orders that you be admitted everywhere and supplied with [Pg 61]everything you need. If that should not help, call on the Tcheka," he added. I had never called upon the police before, I informed him; why should I do so in revolutionary Russia? "In bourgeois15 countries that is a different matter," explained Kaplun; "with us the Tcheka defends the Revolution and fights sabotage16." I started on my work determined17 to do without the Tcheka. Surely there must be other methods, I thought.
Then began a chase over Petrograd. Materials were very scarce and it was most difficult to procure18 them owing to the unbelievably centralized Bolshevik methods. Thus to get a pound of nails one had to file applications in about ten or fifteen bureaus; to secure some bed linen19 or ordinary dishes one wasted days. Everywhere in the offices crowds of Government employees stood about smoking cigarettes, awaiting the hour when the tedious task of the day would be over. My co-workers of the War Prisoners' Bureau fumed20 at the irritating and unnecessary delays, but to no purpose. They threatened with the Tcheka, with the concentration camp, even with raztrel (shooting). The latter was the most favourite argument. Whenever any difficulty arose one immediately heard raztreliat—to be shot. But the expression, so terrible[Pg 62] in its significance, was gradually losing its effect upon the people: man gets used to everything.
I decided to try other methods. I would talk to the employees in the departments about the vital interest the conscious American workers felt in the great Russian Revolution, and of their faith and hope in the Russian proletariat. The people would become interested immediately, but the questions they would ask were as strange as they were pitiful: "Have the people enough to eat in America? How soon will the Revolution be there? Why did you come to starving Russia?" They were eager for information and news, these mentally and physically21 starved people, cut off by the barbarous blockade from all touch with the western world. Things American were something wonderful to them. A piece of chocolate or a cracker22 were unheard-of dainties—they proved the key to everybody's heart.
Within two weeks I succeeded in procuring23 most of the things needed for the expected deportees, including furniture, linen, and dishes. A miracle, everybody said.
However, the renovation24 of the houses that were to serve as living quarters for the exiles was not accomplished25 so easily. I inspected what,[Pg 63] as I was told, had once been first-class hotels. I found them located in the former prostitute district; cheap dives they were, until the Bolsheviki closed all brothels. They were germ-eaten, ill-smelling, and filthy26. It was no small problem to turn those dark holes into a fit habitation within two weeks. A coat of paint was a luxury not to be thought of. There was nothing else to do but to strip the rooms of furniture and draperies, and have them thoroughly27 cleaned and disinfected.
One morning a group of forlorn-looking creatures, in charge of two militiamen, were brought to my temporary office. They came to work, I was informed. The group consisted of a one-armed old man, a consumptive woman, and eight boys and girls, mere28 children, pale, starved, and in rags. "Where do these unfortunates come from?" I inquired. "They are speculators," one of the militiamen replied; "we rounded them up on the market." The prisoners began to weep. They were no speculators, they protested; they were starving, they had received no bread in two days. They were compelled to go out to the market to sell matches or thread to secure a little bread. In the midst of this scene the old man fainted from exhaustion29, demonstrating better than words that he had speculated only in[Pg 64] hunger. I had seen such "speculators" before, driven in groups through the streets of Moscow and Petrograd by convoys30 with loaded guns pointed31 at the backs of the prisoners.
I could not think of having the work done by these starved creatures. But the militiamen insisted that they would not let them go; they had orders to make them work. I called up Kaplun and informed him that I considered it out of the question to have quarters for American deportees prepared by Russian convicts whose only crime was hunger. Thereupon Kaplun ordered the group set free and consented that I give them of the bread sent for the workers' rations32. But a valuable day was lost.
The next morning a group of boys and girls came singing along the Nevski Prospekt. They were kursanti from the Tauride Palace who were sent to my office to work. On my first visit to the palace I had been shown the quarters of the kursanti, the students of the Bolshevik academy. They were mostly village boys and girls housed, fed, clothed, and educated by the Government, later to be placed in responsible positions in the Soviet33 régime. At the time I was impressed by the institutions, but by April I had looked somewhat beneath the surface. I recalled what a[Pg 65] young woman, a Communist, had told me in Moscow about these students. "They are the special caste now being reared in Russia," she had said. "Like the church which maintains and educates its religious priesthood, our Government trains a military and civic34 priesthood. They are a favoured lot." I had more than one occasion to convince myself of the truth of it. The kursanti were being given every advantage and many special privileges. They knew their importance and they behaved accordingly.
Their first demand when they came to me was for the extra rations of bread they had been promised. This demand satisfied, they stood about and seemed to have no idea of work. It was evident that whatever else the kursanti might be taught, it was not to labour. But, then, few people in Russia know how to work. The situation looked hopeless. Only ten days remained till the arrival of the deportees, and the "hotels" assigned for their use were still in as uninhabitable a condition as before. It was no use to threaten with the Tcheka, as my co-workers did. I appealed to the boys and girls in the spirit of the American deportees who were about to arrive in Russia full of enthusiasm for the Revolution and eager to join in the great work of[Pg 66] reconstruction35. The kursanti were the pampered36 charges of the Government, but they were not long from the villages, and they had had no time to become corrupt37. My appeal was effective. They took up the work with a will, and at the end of ten days the three famous hotels were ready as far as willingness to work and hot water without soap could make them. We were very proud of our achievement and we eagerly awaited the arrival of the deportees.
At last they came, but to our great surprise they proved to be no deportees at all. They were Russian war prisoners from Germany. The misunderstanding was due to the blunder of some official in Tchicherin's office who misread the radio information about the party due at the border. The prepared hotels were locked and sealed; they were not to be used for the returned war prisoners because "they were prepared for American deportees who still might come." All the efforts and labour had been in vain.
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1
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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2
anarchist
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| n.无政府主义者 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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deported
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| v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止 | |
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5
broached
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| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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6
cumbersome
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| adj.笨重的，不便携带的 | |
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7
inefficiency
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| n.无效率，无能；无效率事例 | |
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8
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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9
blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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10
participation
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| n.参与，参加，分享 | |
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militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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12
administrator
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| n.经营管理者，行政官员 | |
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bureaucratic
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| adj.官僚的，繁文缛节的 | |
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14
frustrated
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| adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧 | |
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15
bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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16
sabotage
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| n.怠工，破坏活动，破坏；v.从事破坏活动，妨害，破坏 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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18
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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19
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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20
fumed
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| 愤怒( fume的过去式和过去分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟 | |
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21
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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22
cracker
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| n.（无甜味的）薄脆饼干 | |
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23
procuring
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的现在分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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24
renovation
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| n.革新，整修 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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27
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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28
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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29
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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30
convoys
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| n.（有护航的）船队( convoy的名词复数 )；车队；护航（队）；护送队 | |
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31
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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32
rations
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| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
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33
Soviet
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| adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃 | |
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34
civic
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| adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的 | |
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35
reconstruction
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| n.重建，再现，复原 | |
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36
pampered
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| adj.饮食过量的，饮食奢侈的v.纵容，宠，娇养( pamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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