The man was a bitter and gloomy fanatic. But his words were interesting. “You do not suggest that Lenin is seeking compromise for his own ends, do you?” I asked, unwilling that anything so squalid should fasten itself to the reputation of one of the most amazing personalities the war has produced. I was promptly reassured on that point. “Oh, no, indeed no,” was his answer. “Lenin is pure. He seeks nothing for himself. But he is making mistakes. The influences in Moscow are not good. Here we are strong. Red Petrograd is different from Moscow.” So I learnt first, and afterwards was confirmed in the knowledge, that there are several varieties of Communists in Russia, and that to criticise those in power at present is not by any means to be an opponent of Communism. Everybody is behind the Government at present, because of the war. Soldiers and statesmen of the old régime who have not fled; literary men like Gorky; bourgeois citizens who remain in Russia are serving the Government, and every variety of Socialist, hating the methods of the Communist with a deadly hatred, is none the less tacitly behind it so long as the country is in danger from outside aggression. Men like Kameneff, Sverdloff and Krassin, who hold high and responsible positions in the State service, good and sincere Communists, would not rise to power nor maintain their position by indiscriminate slaughter and brutal methods of tyranny, but having faith in the ultimate triumph of their principle, would establish it through education and organisation. That men of a more violent character hold the reins of power is due, in my considered judgment, to the fatal policy of the Allies, and in these days, of the Poles, in seeking to decide the issue by the sword. The resumption of war by the misguided Poles and the consequent fear that fell upon the Russian people, joined to a perfectly proper patriotism, gave that powerful instrument of tyranny, the Extraordinary Commission, with its secret police, the opportunity to revive itself, and fasten itself like the plague upon terror-stricken population and frightened administrators alike. But the extreme men, with their gospel of a world-revolution by violence, and the dictatorship of one class over the rest of mankind, are a painful phenomenon. Pure and unselfish idealists as many of them undoubtedly are, and born out of due time, they are the terrible progeny of the maddest war and the cruellest “peace” that ever tore civilisation to tatters.