Revolution breaks the social forms grown too narrow for man. It bursts the molds which constrict him the more solidified they become, and the more Life ever striving forward leaves them. In this dynam...

December 23, 1919.⁠—We are somewhere near the Azores, already three days at sea. No one seems to know whither we are bound. The captain claims he is sailing under sealed orders. The men are nearly cra...

January 20, 1920.⁠—Late in the afternoon yesterday we touched the soil of Soviet Russia. Driven out from the United States like criminals, we were received at Beloostrov with open arms. The revolution...

January 21, 1920.⁠—The bright winter sun shines upon the broad white bosom of the Neva. Stately buildings on either side of the river, with the Admiralty rearing its slender peak on high, foppishly gr...

February 10, 1920.⁠—The opportunity to visit the capital came unexpectedly: Lansbury and Barry, of the London Daily Herald, were in Petrograd, and I was asked to accompany them to Moscow as interprete...

February 25.⁠—Life in the Kharitonensky is interesting. It is an ossobniak (private house), large and roomy, and contains a number of delegates and guests. At meal time we gather in the common dining ...

February 24.⁠—It was 3 a.m. In the Foreign Office correspondents were about and visitors come by appointment with Chicherin. The People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs has turned night into day. I fou...

I like the feel of the hard snow singing under my feet. The streets are alive with people⁠—a striking contrast to Petrograd, which gave me the impression of a graveyard. The narrow sidewalks are crook...

The Commissar of our ossobniak, having to lay in provisions, invited me to accompany him to the Moskkommune. It is the great food supply center, a tremendous organization that feeds Moscow and its env...

In the “Universalist” Club on Tverskaya Street I was surprised to meet a number of the Buford deportees. They had grown tired waiting to be assigned to work in Petrograd, they said, and had decided to...

Kropotkin lives in Dmitrov, a small town sixty versts from Moscow. Owing to the deplorable railroad conditions, traveling from Petrograd to Dmitrov was not to be thought of. But recently I learned tha...

March 1, 1920.⁠—The first All-Russian Conference of Cossacks is in session at the Labor Temple. Some interesting faces and picturesque uniforms are there, Caucasian dress is much in evidence; camelhai...

I walked to the Hotel Savoy to meet a friend whom I expected from Petrograd. Nearing the Okhotny Ryad I was surprised to find the raided market in full operation again. All day long women and children...

March 9.⁠—Yesterday Lenin sent his auto for me, and I drove to the Kremlin. Times have changed, indeed: the old stronghold of the Romanovs is now the home of “Ilyitch,”12 of Trotsky, Lunacharsky, and ...

Petrograd, March 15.⁠—I received a message from Chicherin, informing me that a thousand American deportees had arrived in Libau and were to reach Russia on March 22. A committee was to be formed, and ...

Petrograd, March 15.⁠—I received a message from Chicherin, informing me that a thousand American deportees had arrived in Libau and were to reach Russia on March 22. A committee was to be formed, and ...

In Sebezh our train was held up. We could not proceed further, the authorities informed us, because of military activities on the border, about twenty-five versts distant. It was the 22nd of March, th...

Like most Russian provincial towns, Sebezh lies several miles distant from the railroad station. It is the county seat, beautifully situated in a valley nestling in the bosom of rolling country⁠—a pre...

Three days later Prelide notified me at Sebezh of the arrival of a new group of emigrants. Hoping they might be the long expected political deportees from America, I hastened to the border. To our gre...

April 2, 1920.⁠—I found Zinoviev very ill; his condition⁠—it is rumored⁠—is due to mistreatment at the hands of workers. The story goes that several factories had passed resolutions criticizing the ad...

For months Zorin had been thinking of a project to afford the toilers of Petrograd an opportunity to recuperate during the summer. The workers are systematically undernourished and exhausted⁠—a few we...

Awakened early in the morning by strains of music and song, I went out into the street. The city was in gala attire: flags and banners fluttered in the air; red carpets and curtains hung from windows ...

May, 1920.⁠—New life has come to Petrograd with the arrival of the British Mission; many meetings, banquets, and festivities are taking place in its honor. I believe the Communists are inclined to exa...

The Universalist Club on the Tverskaya was in great commotion. Anarchists, Left Social Revolutionists, and Maximalists, with a considerable sprinkling of factory workers and soldiers, filled the lectu...

June.⁠—Winter has released its icy grip, and the sun shines brightly. In the parks the benches are filling with people. Our Buford mascot, the “Baby,” passed me and I hailed him. The color has faded f...

July, 1920.⁠—Turbulent mobs besiege our train at every station. Soldiers and workers, peasants, women, and children, loaded with heavy bags, frantically fight for admission. Yelling and cursing, they ...

The work of collecting material is divided among the members of our Expedition according to fitness and inclination. By general consent, and to his own great satisfaction, the only Communist among us,...

Petrovsky, Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee, the supreme government body of the South, sat at his desk busy over a pile of documents. A middle-aged man of medium stature, his ...

A short, slender man of thirty, with lustrous dark eyes set wide apart, and a face of peculiar sadness. The expression of his eyes still haunts me: now mournful, now irate, they reflect all the traged...

Greatly interested in the personality and activities of Makhno, I induced Yossif to sketch his story in its essential features. Born of very poor parents in the village of Gulyai-Pole (county of Alexa...

A nauseating stench assails us as we enter the compulsory labor camp at Kharkov. The courtyard is filled with men and boys, incredibly emaciated, mere shadows of humans. Their faces yellow and eyes di...

August 7, 1920.⁠—Slowly our train creeps through the country, evidence of devastation on every hand reminding us of the long years of war, revolution, and civil strife. The towns and cities on our rou...

August 12, 1920.⁠—Our little company slowly trudges along the unpaved, dusty road that runs almost in a straight line to the marketplace in the center of the city. The place seems deserted. The houses...

The Krestchatik, Kiev’s main thoroughfare, pulsates with intense life. Straight as an arrow it lies before me, a magnificent broad avenue stretching far into the distance and finally disappearing in t...

By the aid of R⁠⸺, the secretary of an important labor union, I have gathered much valuable material for the Expedition. R⁠⸺ is a Menshevik who has in some unexplained manner escaped the recent “clean...

A pall hangs over the home of my friend Kolya, the tailor. His wife is ill, the children neglected, dirty, and hungry. The plumbing is out of order, and water must be carried from the next street, fou...

September 2, 1920.⁠—Late yesterday afternoon we reached Odessa, our little commune greatly disturbed over the fate of Alsberg. Our traveling companion, whose cheerful spirit and ready helpfulness cont...

Railroad communication between Odessa and Nikolayev is suspended, but we have been informed that a motor truck belonging to the Maritime Ossobiy Otdel (Cheka) is to leave for that city at midnight on ...

Having learned that old police records are in possession of the Extraordinary Commission, I visited Burov, the predsedatel of the Cheka. Very tall and broad, of coarse features and curt demeanor, he g...

After a stay of several days we left Nikolayev, returning to Odessa by the same maritime auto truck. We followed the former route and witnessed the previous scenes again. Our reception was even more u...

December, 1920.⁠—Yaroslavl, an ancient city, is picturesque on the banks of the Volga. Very impressive are its cathedrals and monasteries, fine specimens of the architectural art of northeastern Russi...

The military fronts have been liquidated; civil war is at an end. The country breathes a sigh of relief. The Entente has ceased to finance counterrevolution, but the blockade still continues. It is no...

Petrograd, February, 1921.⁠—The cold is extreme and there is intense suffering in the city. Snowstorms have isolated us from the provinces; the supply of provisions has almost ceased. Only half a poun...

Pensively Pushkin stands on his stone pedestal, viewing life flowing by on the square bearing his name. On the boulevard the trees are smiling with budding green, and promenaders bask in the April sun...

Since my early youth, revolution⁠—social revolution⁠—was the great hope and aim of my life. It signified to me the Messiah who was to deliver the world from brutality, injustice, and evil, and pave th...

Since my early youth, revolution⁠—social revolution⁠—was the great hope and aim of my life. It signified to me the Messiah who was to deliver the world from brutality, injustice, and evil, and pave th...

The October Revolution was not the legitimate offspring of traditional Marxism. Russia but little resembled a country in which, according to Marx, “the concentration of the means of production and the...

Statue of Peter the Great ↩ Master. ↩ Well-to-do peasants. ↩ Requisition. ↩ Master. ↩ Raid. ↩ Communist Party. ↩ Political imprisoned in the Schlüsselburg Fortress. ↩ Your health. ↩ Show schools. ↩ Si...