Communism -- Soviet Union; Goldman, Emma, 1869-1940; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921 -- Personal narratives, American
The following day we received an invitation from Balabanova to attend
a banquet given in honour of the Italian delegates. Anxious to meet
the foreign guests, several members of our Expedition accepted the
invitation.
The affair took place in the former Chamber of Commerce building,
profusely decorated for the occasion. In the main banquet hall long
tables were heavily laden with fresh-cut flowers, several varieties
of southern fruit, and wine. The sight reminded one of the feasts
of the old bourgeoisie, and I could see that Angelica felt rather
uncomfortable at the lavish display of silverware and wealth. The
banquet opened with the usual toasts, the guests drinking to Lenin,
Trotsky, the Red Army, and the Third International, the whole company
rising as the revolutionary anthem was intoned after each toast, with
the soldiers and officers standing at attention in good old military
style.
Among the delegates were two young French Anarcho-syndicalists. They
had heard of our presence in Kiev and had been looking for us all
day without being able to locate us. After the banquet they were
immediately to leave for Petrograd, so that we had only a short time at
our disposal. On our way to the station the delegates related that they
had collected much material on the Revolution which they intended to
publish in France. They had become convinced that all was not well with
the Bolshevik régime: they had come to realize that the dictatorship
of the proletariat was in the exclusive hands of the Communist Party,
while the common worker was enslaved as much as ever. It was their
intention, they said, to speak frankly about these matters to their
comrades at home and to substantiate their attitude by the material in
their possession. "Do you expect to get the documents out?" I asked La
Petit, one of the delegates. "You don't mean that I might be prevented
from taking out my own notes," he replied. "The Bolsheviki would not
dare to go so far--not with foreign delegates, at any rate." He seemed
so confident that I did not care to pursue the subject further. That
night the delegates left Kiev and a short time afterward they departed
from Russia. They were never seen alive again. Without making any
comment upon their disappearance I merely want to mention that when
I returned to Moscow several months later it was generally related
that the two Anarcho-syndicalists, with several other men who had
accompanied them, were overtaken by a storm somewhere off the coast of
Finland, and were all drowned. There were rumours of foul play, though
I am not inclined to credit the story, especially in view of the fact
that together with the Anarcho-syndicalists also perished a Communist
in good standing in Moscow. But their disappearance with all the
documents they had collected has never been satisfactorily explained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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