Kameneff came at midday to say good-bye to me; he is off to the front
to-morrow for an indefinite time. He brought with him a young man with
close-cropped hair and clear-cut features, calling himself Alexandre.
Kameneff thinks Alexandre may be able to take care of me during his
absence. I certainly need someone, as Michael Borodin goes to Madrid on
Tuesday, and then I do not know what will become of me. Kameneff
discussed with me about the Government buying the Russian copyright of
my heads. He then asked me to make a list of things I wanted, and that
he could do for me before he goes. I had several wants: for one thing, I
am extremely cold. The coat I arrived in is only cloth--now there is
snow on the ground, and the river begins to freeze. I have to wrap my
rug round my shoulders when I go out. The peasants are far better off,
they have all appeared in sheepskin coats, the fur they wear inside, and
the leather, which is usually stained deep orange or rust colour, is a
very decorative exterior. The bourgeois women have brought out their
former remains of splendour, and although they may have only felt or
canvas shoes on their feet, and a shawl over their heads, some of them
wear coats that one would turn round to look at in Bond Street. I headed
my list of requirements with the request for a coat--as well as caviare,
Trotsky, and a soldier of the Red Army whom I want to model. Trotsky is
expected back from the front in a few days. It is a bore that Kameneff
is going away, but Alexandre promised to arrange sittings for me.
OCTOBER 11TH.
In the morning I accompanied Michael Borodin to the headquarters of the
Third International. It is a beautiful house, formerly the German
Embassy, and where Mirbach was murdered.
I came away in a car with Madame Balabanoff, of whom I had often heard.
She is small, past middle age, with a crumpled-up face, but intelligent.
I did not find her any too amiable on our way to the Kremlin, where she
dropped me.
She told me that it was absurd that any bust
[Illustration: LENIN, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
_p. 114._]
[Illustration: BUST OF LENIN.
_p. 114._]
of Lenin or any one else should be done, the theory being that the
cause, not the individuals, should count. The humblest person who
suffers privation for the cause is equally as important as any of the
legislators, she explained, and proceeded to assure me that no picture
or bust of herself existed, nor ever should. Happily I had not asked her
to sit for me. She practically told me that I was doing Lenin’s head to
take back to England to show to the idle curious. I corrected her by
saying that, so far as the public was concerned, I only wished to enable
those who had him at present represented by a photograph, to substitute
a bust. She was equally vehement about the photograph. Perhaps she
expects to alter human nature.
Before I got out of the car, she assured me that her tirade was in no
way personal and would I, please, not misunderstand her.
OCTOBER 14TH.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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