I wondered, as I looked at the fertile fields along the Volga, how much they knew of the part they would play in the coming course of revolution. Even the gods seemed cruel to the cities of the north; for on the Volga, where transportation facilities were adequate, the spring rains had been so light that the crops were far below normal; and down in the south, where weather conditions had proved ideal, the railways were too disorganized to move the grain. The boat stopped at every little town along the way, and the landings were a series of Rapine pictures. Now it was a gang of stevedores in full cotton trousers with inch-wide stripes of gay color, and crude straw sandals upon their unstockinged feet. They dragged their heavy cargoes down to the boat’s edge with ropes held over their shoulders, singing a weird rhythmical tune of the Volga to time their movements. Again, it was a group of gypsies on the dock’s edge, camped for the night--the naked brown babies swarming under the feet of the Volga giants, who dodged them uncomplainingly. Everywhere we found the people talking revolution, and the phrases that sounded through the streets of Petrograd were familiar here. We bought the newspapers. Several of them were trying desperately to rouse the people to the great Germanic danger. Miss Smith read them to me. Many of the appeals were from the Zemstvo Unions. One from the Kineshna Revolutionary Committee said: “We are facing a great disaster for free Russia. Absolute ruin threatens us, and the triumph of the armed fist of William, if we are not bold enough to oppose to him a steel-like strength of the revolutionary army. Famine and its results threaten us, and the counter-revolution is making use of this. We must at once be bold enough to rectify our food question, to exert great efforts over this and other dangers. Anarchy and counter-revolution threaten to restore the old régime under William. [Illustration: © Orrin S. Wightman The Volga--the great highway of Russia from Petrograd to the Caspian Sea] [Illustration: © Orrin S. Wightman “To Nizhni-Novgorod, where the Oka and the Volga rivers meet, the commerce of the world comes flowing”] “A despicable peace, giving us into the claws of our enemy, threatens us unless we take immediate steps. All who can must be ready to go to the front to take the place of the worn and exhausted warriors--ready to hurl back the enemy or die in the attempt. It is a question of saving the land and the Revolution. The army is in need of ammunition, food, clothing, and uninterrupted transfer. The workmen must place the interests of the land and the Revolution above all else and raise their standard of work to the maximum. The peasants must give all the bread they can spare. All to work, to work! The danger is great!”