A large open space in the heart of the city called the Field of Mars,
and devoted in the old times to military reviews and the drilling of
troops, is being converted by the Communists into a fine memorial
of the heroes of the Revolution who have lost their lives in some
prominent fashion in the struggle for freedom. Voluntary labour and
the labour of the Red Army is digging up the hard soil and planting
beautiful trees in symmetrical designs. In the middle of this large
tract a simple stone memorial has been erected. It is not a flaunting
column shouting to the sky, but it takes the form of a low, solid,
granite wall, enclosing in four sections with rounded corners a burial
ground. The spaces between the sections permit people to enter. From
all parts of Russia the bodies have been brought and are laid just
inside the wall and all the way round. A footpath follows the wall and
encloses the graves on the other side. The centre of the square is
at present a grass-plot with flowers and shrubs. The whole thing is
naturally on a very large scale.
One lovely evening, after a most enthusiastic gathering inside the
People’s Hall, we were taken in a decorated tramcar to see the
Martyrs’ Memorial. I have experienced nothing in my life so moving and
impressive. A great crowd from the meeting accompanied us, and stood in
silent groups outside the wall whilst we walked slowly round. The eyes
of the leaders shone with the light of a great pride and a deep passion
as they approached one by one the graves of their honoured dead. The
pride melted into tears at some of the graves, when we stopped in our
walk and sang slowly a verse of the plaintive martyrs’ hymn, a sad and
haunting melody with just a single note of triumph in it. One after
another the heroes were pointed out to us. Here was a man who had
been tortured to death. Here was one who was shot by hired Government
assassins. Here lay one who was blown to bits by his own bomb; here a
tender girl who gave up her life for the cause.
The tears were quickly dried. Russian revolutionaries do not weep
easily. Instead of tears a hard glitter filled the eyes of a fierce
fellow. “But we will be avenged,” he shouted. “For every one of our
comrades who has died like this we will send ten of the bourgeois to
their graves.” I shuddered in the presence of a terrible fanaticism.
Poor ghosts! If they could rise from the dead would they not tell us to
make no more human sacrifices to their memory? Would they not speak to
us of a better way?
I tried hard to get a copy of the mournful song we sang on this and
many occasions subsequently. I was several times promised it but it
never came. The words I never knew for they were Russian, but the
melody I captured and I give it as it printed itself upon my mind. It
will be recognised by Russian readers.
[Music: SONG OF THE MARTYRS]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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