Communism -- Soviet Union; Goldman, Emma, 1869-1940; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921 -- Personal narratives, American
In Moscow there were many formalities to go through with. We thought
a few days would suffice, but we remained two weeks. However, our
stay was interesting. The city was alive with delegates to the Second
Congress of the Third International; from all parts of the world the
workers had sent their comrades to the promised land, revolutionary
Russia, the first republic of the workers. Among the delegates there
were also Anarchists and syndicalists who believed as firmly as I
did six months previously that the Bolsheviki were the symbol of the
Revolution. They had responded to the Moscow call with enthusiasm.
Some of them I had met in Petrograd and now they were eager to hear
of my experiences and learn my opinions. But what was I to tell
them, and would they believe me if I did? Would I have believed any
adverse criticism before I came to Russia? Besides, I felt that my
views regarding the Bolsheviki were still too unformed, too vague, a
conglomeration of mere impressions. My old values had been shattered
and so far I have been unable to replace them. I could therefore not
speak on the fundamental questions, but I did inform my friends that
the Moscow and Petrograd prisons were crowded with Anarchists and other
revolutionists, and I advised them not to content themselves with the
official explanations but to investigate for themselves. I warned them
that they would be surrounded by guides and interpreters, most of them
men of the Tcheka, and that they would not be able to learn the facts
unless they made a determined, independent effort.
There was considerable excitement in Moscow at the time. The Printers'
Union had been suppressed and its entire managing board sent to prison.
The Union had called a public meeting to which members of the British
Labour Mission were invited. There the famous Socialist Revolutionist
Tchernov had unexpectedly made his appearance. He severely criticised
the Bolshevik régime, received an ovation from the huge audience
of workers, and then vanished as mysteriously as he had come. The
Menshevik Dan was less successful. He also addressed the meeting, but
he failed to make his escape: he landed in the Tcheka. The next morning
the Moscow _Pravda_ and the _Izvestia_ denounced the action of the
Printers' Union as counter-revolutionary, and raged about Tchernov
having been permitted to speak. The papers called for exemplary
punishment of the printers who dared defy the Soviet Government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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