Emacs-Time-stamp: "2007-11-14 20:18:56" __EMAIL__ webmaster@leninist.biz __OCR__ ABBYY 6 Professional (2006.03.0) __WHERE_PAGE_NUMBERS__ bottom __FOOTNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [*]+ __ENDNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ [BEGIN] &progress; [1] photo [2] __AUTHOR__ X __TITLE__ LENIN IN OUR LIFE __TEXTFILE_BORN__ 2006-12-30T21:14:43-0800 __TRANSMARKUP__ "R. Cymbala" 099-1.jpg 099-2.jpg 099-3.jpg __PUBL__ Progress Publishers Moscow 1967 [3] Translated from the Russian by T. Kapustin Edited by Y. S d o b n i k o v J1EHHH B HAUJEH >KH3HH Ha QHSJIUIICKOM nSblKS __COPYRIGHT__ First printing 1967 I'rinli'tl in tin' Union of Sonii'l Socialist [4] CONTENTS About the Book.................. 7 Lydia Zhak. Gorky................ 11 Boris Kostyukovsky. Renewal............ 33 Nikolai Strokovsky. The Pen as a Bayonet....... 55 Alexei Musatov, Mikhail Lyashenko. A Meeting Thai Never Took Place................... 85 Victor Sytin. The Visionary from Kaluga....... 107 Alexander Deich. Lunacharsky............ 125 Galina Bashkirova. The Right Stand.......... 147 Zakhar Dicharov. A Life Story............ 161 Ustas Paleckis. The Most Important Thing in Life .... 179 Marietta Shaginyan. A Lesson from Lenin....... 195 Alexander Belov. A Lesson for Life.......... 221 Berdy Kerbabayev. Dreams Come True........ 243 Sergei Konenkov. Guiding Star............ 257 Nikolai Zhukov. A Great Theme........... 271 Wanda Beletskaya. Unfinished Poem.......... 287 Yevgeny Ryabchikov. The Central Cosmodrome..... 307 5 ~ [6] __ALPHA_LVL1__ ABOUT THE BOOK

The reader need not be surprised that among the men and women whose reminiscences are collected in the present volume he will find not only old and tried Bolsheviks and Lenin's trusted comrades-in-arms, but also those who may never have had a chance of meeting or speaking with Lenin. The great force of Lenin's ideas lies precisely in their ability to inspire the minds and fire the souls of those who joined the revolutionary struggle in the full consciousness of what they were doing, and also those who seemed, at first glance, to have little to do with the revolution. Lenin was always ready to meet them half-way. He stretched out a hand of welcome to anyone who worked honestly and fruitfully in the interests of the people, and helped them see the right road during the years of the country's revolutionary transformation.

Lenin's interest and concern for people were revealed in a variety of ways. He made friends and maintained personal contacts, and he kept up a correspondence with workers, peasants, writers, scientists, architects, etc. He was ready to offer material aid to those in need. He was keenly interested in people's lives, aspirations and endeavours; and his approach to each had a touch peculiarly his own, be it a famous writer, a young inventor, a wise old gardener, or a bold dreamer dreaming of interstellar flight, which seemed, in those days, nothing short of fantastic.

The reader will find ample confirmation of all this in the present collection of stories. And he will find in them something else, no less valuable; for they tell of the response which Lenin's tactful concern drew from many Russian scientists, artists, workers and inventors who laboured unstintingly so that the young Soviet Republic might grow strong and prosperous.

7 GORKY [8] 099-4.jpg [9]

Lenin, October 1920

[10] __ALPHA_LVL1__ GORKY

For Gorky Lenin had a particular affection, such as few other men had merited.

M. I. Vlyanova

Gorky's love for Lenin was deep and impetuous, and his admiration, passionate.

M. F. Andreyeva

Some themes are so vast that it takes more than one writer, artist or scientist to encompass them. Lenin and Gorky fall in that class, for it will require a great collective effort, by many minds and hearts, to tell the full story of their lives one day.

What we do have is thumb-nail portraits, snatches of biography and glimpses of the untiring selfless effort and courageous struggle of two men who were deeply devoted to each other and who had a profound awareness of each other's part in transforming this life.

Let the documents tell how Gorky was drawn to Lenin, and how an abiding friendship developed between the great leader of the socialist revolution and its bard, who himself did so much for its cause.

At the turn of the century, Gorky was a writer of world renown. Not only did he stand up in defence of man oppressed in capitalist society, and expose the anti-humanism and false morality of capitalism, but he demonstrated in his brilliant literary images that in terms of history the bourgeoisie was bankrupt and had no valid claim to lasting domination. He sang the inevitable revolution and extolled heroic exploits to secure its victory.

Lenin's younger sister, Maria Ilyinichna, wrote in her reminiscences: ``I recall the hard years when the Party had to work underground, and the great impact of Gorky's 11 works on the young people of the day who were deprived of the freedom of speech. We all read and reread his Mother and committed to memory his Song of the Stormy Petrel.

Lenin and Gorky first met in 1905 but long before that their articles were frequently published in the same progressive journals, and their names were linked together in the hearts and minds of revolutionary young Marxists who looked to them for guidance.

Gorky first heard of Lenin (Ulyanov) in Samara in the spring of 1896. By then Lenin was a faithful reader of the rapidly maturing writer and was greatly interested not only in his creative work but also in his personality and social stand.

Gorky was connected with the underground SocialDemocratic movement from the very start of his literary career. He was arrested on April 17, 1901, on a charge of spreading anti-government propaganda among the workers of Sormovo.

Progressive people in Russia mounted a campaign in defence of Gorky. He suffered from tuberculosis and soon was released from prison but was exiled to Arzamas where he lived under police surveillance. With great difficulty he finally managed to obtain permission to go to the Crimea for treatment. Gorky's departure from Nizhny Novgorod sparked off a mass demonstration by the local revolutionary-minded youth. In his article, entitled `` Demonstrations Have Begun'', which he wrote in this connection, Lenin attached national significance to the demonstration and for the first time mentioned Gorky's name in print, hailing his deeds and talent. ``On November 7, a small but successful demonstration was held in Nizhny Novgorod, which arose out of a farewell gathering in honour of Maxim Gorky. An author of European fame, whose only weapon was free speech (as a speaker at the Nizhny Novgorod demonstration aptly put it), was being banished by the autocratic government from his home town without trial or investigation. The bashi-bazouks accuse him of 12 exercising a harmful influence on us, said the speaker in the name of all Russians in whom but a spark of striving towards light and liberty is alive, but we declare that his influence has been a good one.''

099-5.jpg

M. Gorky

Thus, at the turn of the twentieth century, Lenin saw Gorky as a writer and public figure who was destined to cast in his lot with the cause of the Russian working class and its vanguard, the Party.

By October 1902 Gorky had established connections with Lenin's newspaper Iskra, and expressed readiness to cooperate in every way. Lenin was informed of this by Natasha Kozhevnikova, the paper's Moscow agent, who wrote to him: ``Our comrade has probably informed you that we have had a talk with Gorky----The meeting was almost official, but I was greatly delighted to learn that all his sympathies are with us___He finds our paper to be the only one which is of interest, which shows talent and commands respect. He considers our organisation to be the strongest and most solid.''

Gorky helped Iskra, and after the split within the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (R.S.D.L.P.) sided with the Bolsheviks. While it may appear no personal relations between Gorky and Lenin had yet been established ---after all, they had neither met nor written to each other---actually these relations already existed and were growing stronger. Contact with Gorky in Russia was maintained through Party workers.

In November 1904, R. S. Zemlyachka wrote to Lenin 13 that she had spoken with Gorky and briefed him on the differences in the Party. Gorky had expressed his full support for the majority, she wrote. ``Down with the generals,'' he had said, and advocated calling a congress; he offered to help in publishing a paper. A subsequent letter to Geneva said: ``He is ready to give 3,000 rubles to cover the cost of publication at once, and promised to give more and more if he finds that the organ spurns trivial polemics.'' That same day Gorky gave Bogdanov his first cheque of 700 rubles to forward it to Lenin in Geneva specially for publishing the Bolshevik paper Vperyod. By his active participation in Bolshevik Party work, Gorky helped to implement Lenin's ideas, although he was not a cardcarrying member of the Party and had not yet met Lenin in person.

R. S. Zemlyachka wrote to Krupskaya and Lenin: ``I have recently had long talks with the writer who had sent us the funds. He is now completely on our side and is very much concerned about our welfare. . . . He told me that he regards the Old Man (Lenin) as the only real political leader and I am trying to take advantage of this disposition. I think the Old Man should write to him personally so as to back up his mood with man-to-man correspondence.''

But this, unfortunately, did not materialise. Gorky was soon arrested in Riga for writing his appeal ``To Russian Society'', following the mass shooting of workers in St. Petersburg on January 9, 1905, of which he himself was an eye witness. Lenin was informed of this by Maxim Litvinov, who wrote to him en route from Riga to St. Petersburg: ``Unless I am mistaken, the gendarmes are hauling Gorky to St. Petersburg in the same coach with me. He had returned from there only yesterday morning.''

The revolution was maturing and no amount of repression could stem the tide of popular indignation.

On January 11, 1905, the German paper Vossiche Zeitung published an item which said that Gorky's arrest in Riga 14 had sparked off student disturbances. Lenin took note of these lines and on January 25 the paper Vperyod carried his article, entitled ``Trepov Plays the Master'', in which Lenin assessed the arrest of Gorky and others primarily as a political act testifying to tsarism's cowardice, confusion and frenzy.

With the atmosphere in Russia white hot because of the 1905 revolution, the R.S.D.L.P. held its Third Congress abroad to work out the tactics of the revolution. Even in this turbulent period, Lenin remembered Gorky and was anxious to know what he thought of the events. On the eve of the Congress, Lenin showered Stroyev (V. A. Desnitsky), the Nizhny Novgorod delegate, with questions about Gorky: "What is he doing now? What is his attitude to the Party? Is he taking part in the literary activity of local organisations?" Having heard the answer, Lenin remarked, "This is fine! It is very good that Gorky is with us. He is a real revolutionary writer of great talent---he detests intellectual slobbery, he refuses to whimper, and this is good!''

``You realise, of course,'' Lenin drove home his point, "how important it is that a truly great writer is coming--- has come---to us and the working class to defend the cause of the revolution.''

Lenin saw Gorky chiefly as an artist close to the proletariat, a writer contributing his talent to its cause, and he sought to preserve this talent.

In 1905 Gorky was released on bail from prison pending his trial, and immersed himself in the cause of the revolution. He became its active participant. He sought ways of raising funds for the Party, and played an active role in organising the first legal Bolshevik paper, Novaya Zhizn, which was subsequently edited by Lenin after his return to Russia.

By then Gorky was in the thick of the revolutionary events in Moscow, and joined the Party.

15

His first meeting with Lenin took place on November 27, 1905, in the editorial office of Novaya Zhizn.

Gorky had corne from Moscow to attend a special conference. In his memoirs, V. A. Desnitsky describes Gorky's report on the mood of the Moscow workers: "Gorky spoke at length about the events and the mood of the people in Moscow, Bauman's funeral, the reactionary gangs, the arming of workers and students, and the attitude of intellectuals, giving a graphic description of street scenes. Lenin listened to his account with profound interest. As usual, he was anxious to get at the concrete facts, the minute details and words which conveyed a fresh and direct impression of actual reality. It was his first experience of Gorky as a raconteur and he at once realised the tremendous importance of his observations of and conclusions about men and events.''

After their meeting in St. Petersburg, Lenin and Gorky worked even closer together. Their names appeared ever more frequently side by side in the same pro-Bolshevik papers and journals.

The various themes that Gorky conceived in 1905 and 1906 for his articles and works of fiction sprang from his personal experience, observations and thinking and were nearly always in the same stream as those dealt with by Lenin and the Bolshevik press.

Lenin welcomed Gorky's "Notes on the Petty-- Bourgeoisie'', published in Novaya Zhizn. When this was viciously attacked by N. Berdyaev, a reactionary Cadet publicist, Lenin ridiculed him in his article, "The Victory of the Cadets and the Tasks of the Workers' Party".

Gorky realised that the defeat of the 1905 armed uprising was but a temporary setback. In his article, "The Case of Nikolai Schmidt'', he wrote: "The revolution is not--- and will not be---crushed.

``Sometimes a flame must cover itself up in smoke to hide its terrible face, but it does this not to die down, but 16 merely to collect all its strength and leap out afresh, to envelop and incinerate everything.''

Gorky expressed the same idea in his play The Enemies and in his novel Mother. In the play, the actress Tatyana Lugovaya, seeing the heroic behaviour of the workers after their defeat, is filled with the conviction "that these men will win''. In the novel, the mother has suffered a great deal but remains indomitable. "Reason cannot be drowned in blood,'' she hurls into the faces of the gendarmes beating her up.

All of Gorky's writings and appeals helped Lenin and the Bolsheviks to carry on the revolutionary struggle. That is why it was natural for Lenin to turn to Gorky's images in his article, "Before the Storm'', published in Proletary on August 21, 1906. He wrote: ".. . the proletariat is preparing for the struggle; it is unitedly and boldly marching to meet the storm, eager to plunge into the thick of the fight. We have had enough of the hegemony of the cowardly Cadets, those 'stupid penguins' who 'timidly hide their fat bodies behind the rocks'.

``Let the storm rage louder!''

__*_*_*__

Gorky was given a Party assignment to go to America via Europe and tell the truth about the Russian revolution, so as to prevent the tsarist government from obtaining a loan, and to raise the necessary funds for Party work.

Shortly before his departure for Helsingfors, Gorky met Lenin. N. Y. Burenin, who accompanied Gorky, wrote: "Lenin attached great importance to the trip.'' We may assume, therefore, that he gave Gorky some personal instructions and wished him bon voyage.

Gorky launched a campaign in the European press against the granting of any loan to the tsarist government. In France, l'Humanit\'e carried his article entitled, "Don't give any money to the Russian Government''. Another of __PRINTERS_P_17_COMMENT__ 2---2330 17 his articles published in Britain by The Nation condemned any possible British aid to tsarism. It said, in part: "There are two Russias---with which one of the two do you intend to conclude an alliance? One of them is the Russia of the Emperor Nicholas, the bureaucracy and the 'union of the Russian people' . . . the other Russia is the Russia of 100 million Slavs and about 50 million people of various other nationalities constituting the Russian Empire. This entire mass of people, to a man, hate the tsar and all those who are with him and for him. Which then of the two Russias do you consider to be the real one, capable of sustaining itself and working towards creating a civilisation that you cherish and value?''

Gorky urged the French and British proletariat to protest against their governments' granting any loans to Nicholas II for suppressing those who were their brothers by class.

France, nevertheless, granted tsarist Russia a loan. But Gorky did not give up. He published a wrathful pamphlet, entitled "La Belle France'', and followed it up a little later with "An Open Letter to Monsieur Olar" in which he expressed his firm conviction "that the Russian people will never repay to the French bankers the loans for which they have already paid in blood".

The works Gorky wrote in America, primarily his novel Mother and his play The Enemies, were a big help to the Bolsheviks in combating the Menshevik appraisals of the lessons of the 1905 revolution in Russia.

Before their departure for London, Gorky and Lenin met again in Berlin. This and their trip together made them very close friends.

In Berlin, they spent most of their time together, going to theatres, promenading and having long discussions. They met K. Kautsky and R. Luxemburg, together. It was there that Lenin was given the manuscript of Gorky's Mother.

Gorky's first two meetings with Lenin were purely on 18 business, but their meeting in Berlin gave him an opportunity of getting to know Lenin the man. Later on, in the tense atmosphere of the Congress in London he watched him as leader. Gorky observed how Lenin spoke with the worker delegates, and noticed their unbounded admiration of him. With his every fibre, he felt the powerful bonds linking Lenin with the people, with all of Russia's progressive proletarians.

Gorky realised that Lenin was a new type of leader.

And although his friendship with Lenin thereafter continued to be one "of equals'', Gorky himself admitted that from then on Lenin became for him "the gentle friend and strict teacher" who exercised a tremendous personal influence on him.

There are ample grounds to assert that after the London Congress, Gorky's activity as a representative of the progressive, proletarian culture was influenced mainly by Lenin. This was so despite Gorky's intimacy with the bogostroiteli^^*^^ in 1908 and 1909 and his serious political mistakes in 1917 and 1918.

Lenin never tried to curry favour with his friend by glossing over his mistakes. He did not ``forgive'' him, but explained the essence of his erroneous views. He was not afraid to do that because he was sure that Gorky, the great herald of the proletarian revolution (its Stormy Petrel, as one of his stories is called), would never abandon it.

Lenin's letters to Gorky are very instructive in this respect. Gorky was above all a writer, emotional and highly inflammable. Lenin never forgot that Gorky viewed the world as an artist, and he always made a point of explaining to him at length the political essence of various social phenomena.

_-_-_

^^*^^ Bogostroiteli (god-builders)---a religious philosophical trend, hostile to Marxism, that emerged after the defeat of the 1905--07 revolution in Russia. They advocated the establishment of a new ``socialist'' religion and tried to reconcile Marxism and religion.

19

On November~16, 1909, Lenin wrote to Gorky from Paris:

``I gathered from Mikhail that you are taking things hard, dear A. M. You are seeing the working-class and Social-Democratic movement from an aspect and in forms and manifestations which already more than once in the history of Russia and Western Europe have led intellectuals of little faith to despair of the workers' movement and Social-Democracy. I am confident that this will not happen in your case, and after my talk with Mikhail I want to shake your hand heartily.

``With your gifts as an artist you have rendered such a tremendous service to the working-class movement of Russia and indeed not only of Russia---and will render a still greater service yet, that it is on no account permissible for you to fall a prey to moods of depression evoked by episodes of the struggle abroad.''

The bourgeois press spread rumours that Gorky had broken with the Bolsheviks. Lenin retaliated with a biting article, entitled "The Bourgeois Press's Fable about Gorky's Expulsion'', which read in part: "The bourgeois parties would like Gorky to leave the Social-Democratic Party. . . . Their labour is in vain. Comrade Gorky by his great works of art has bound himself too closely to the workers' movement in Russia and throughout the world to reply with anything but contempt.''

Lenin wrote these lines when he already knew not only of Gorky's sympathy for the bogostroiteli but also of the fact that it had been described in the story Confession, which Lenin censured. He did so because he deeply believed that this story was only a temporary deviation in the life of the great writer from the straight path of proletarian art, which Gorky had followed so consistently until then. Lenin's reminder to Gorky of what his writing meant to the working class of Russia and the whole world was also part of the effort to get him back on the right path.

Plekhanov, on the other hand, took advantage of Gorky's delusions and played up his story in order to separate him 20 from Marxism. In his article, entitled "Religious Strivings' in Russia" he tried hard to prove that the fallacies in The Confession were not accidental and could be traced to their source in the novel Mother. That being the case, he argued, it followed that Gorky failed to understand Marxism and socialism, and would never understand them.

Plekhanov had tried to discount Gorky as a writer of the proletariat, while Lenin expressed his faith in Gorky and said that he would still "do so much good" to the working class of Russia and the whole world. And Lenin was right.

At another and far more decisive moment of Russian history in 1917 and 1918, fresh disputes flared up over Gorky---with various and conflicting attitudes towards him---within the ranks of the Communist Party, the two extremes of which were expressed by the articles of Lenin and of Stalin. By his subsequent activity and creative work Gorky justified Lenin's hopes and disproved the prediction made by Stalin, who himself later radically changed his views about Gorky and gave the great proletarian writer his due.

What was it that had happened to Gorky in the early Soviet years?

In his recollections of Lenin, in his own articles, letters and talks, Gorky very frankly and honestly spoke of his errors in 1917 and 1918 and of his relations with Lenin in that period. He wrote: "My relations with Lenin in 1917 and 1918 left much to be desired, but they could not have been otherwise.

``When Lenin returned to Russia in 1917 and published his 'theses', I thought that with these theses he risked sacrificing to the Russian peasantry the whole numerically insignificant but heroic body of politically-trained workers and the sincere revolutionary intelligentsia and that this active force, the only revolutionary one then in Russia, would be tossed, like a pinch of salt, into the vast freshwater swamp of the peasantry---only to dissolve in it 21 without a trace, without altering anything at all in the life, spirit and history of the Russian people.''

Gorky erred, and erred gravely, when he backed up his views on the pages of the semi-Menshevik newspaper Novaya Zhizn, and many feared that he had lost his bearings, that he had done with the revolution and was gone.

But even then, for all the gravity of his errors, Gorky did not set himself apart from the revolutionary people and their lot. Nor did the people deny the writer: together with Lenin, they worked to bring him back.

It cannot be said that Lenin ever ``forgave'' Gorky. For when he exposed the Novaya Zhizn stand, laying bare its objective meaning, he also exposed the objective content of Gorky's articles in that paper. Thus, the following of Lenin's words about the paper likewise applied to Gorky's articles:

``If Novaya Zhizn, therefore, is afraid of the proletarian dictatorship and rejects it because, as it claims, the proletarian power may be defeated by the bourgeoisie, it is tantamount to its surreptitiously reverting to the position of compromise with the capitalists! It is as clear as daylight, that whoever is afraid of resistance, whoever does not believe that it is possible to break this resistance, whoever warns the people: 'beware of the resistance of the capitalists, you will not be able to cope with it', is thereby again calling for compromise with the capitalists.''

But even when Lenin saw Gorky's mistakes, he had no doubt at all that Gorky was "an enormous artistic talent, who has been, and will be of great benefit to the world proletarian movement''. Consequently, he would come to understand his mistakes and would return to march in step with the Party.

It was in this period that a group of Bolsheviks in St. Petersburg, members of the Vyborg District Soviet of Workers' Deputies, had a talk with Lenin, and one of them asked, "Is it really true that Gorky has left us for 22 good?" Lenin answered confidently, "No, Gorky cannot really leave us. It is all a passing phase, an alien wind, and he will definitely be with us.''

Once again Lenin won in the struggle for Gorky. V. A. Desnitsky, who knew both Lenin and Gorky closely, wrote: "Lenin's attitude towards Gorky's 'errors' only looks like 'condescension' and 'leniency'. Actually, it is a form and a phase of a political leader's tense struggle for a great writer, whose loss would be a grave misfortune to the proletariat.''

Lenin's tactics proved to be correct: Gorky returned to Lenin. He rolled up his sleeves and went on to help the Party build socialist culture.

Lenin knew Gorky's strong points and weak ones. He knew that in politics Gorky sometimes displayed "utter spinelessness'', but that in his writing he was wise and as an organiser of workers in culture, excellent. Lenin, therefore, never tried to turn him into a political functionary but always strove to have him take up such assignments of the Party, and later of the Soviet Government, in which his services were invaluable.

Long before the revolution, Lenin welcomed Lunacharsky's proposal to have Gorky edit the literary criticism in Proletary, and asked Gorky to write something for early issues of the paper, invited him to contribute to Zvezda, Pravda, and Prosveshcheniye, write something about Lev Tolstoi, etc. Lenin praised Gorky's Italian Tales and discussed with him plans for the publication of collections and other publishing business. Gorky was always very responsive to all of Lenin's suggestions, and took an active part both as author and editor in various Bolshevik papers and journals, mustering the literary talent of the then young proletarian literature.

Lenin always regarded Gorky as an authority in the field of art. Gorky, for his part, always paid great heed to Lenin's views of literature, particularly his opinion of Gorky's own works and literary plans.

23

When the two men were on Capri, Gorky told Lenin of the theme of a new novel about the life of three generations in a bourgeois family. Lenin, having heard him out, expressed approval, but added there and then that a book of that sort should be written after the revolution, for life itself had not yet provided the material for an ending. Gorky must have taken heed of this advice, and The Artamonovs (the novel in question) was written only when life itself had prompted an appropriate ending.

In the early years after the revolution, Gorky was so engrossed in the everyday affairs of the young Soviet Republic, that he seemed to find no time at all to write. But he did write---with deep, mature and pent-up feeling. In 1918--19, he published his memoir essays about the writers Korolenko, Tolstoi and Andreyev. Many readers then wondered if that was not a sign of retreat, of an attempt by Gorky to escape from reality by seeking seclusion in the past. Their apprehensions, however, proved unfounded.

Gorky's recollections of his fellow writers were not only history or finely wrought portraits of great writers whom he knew and loved. These portraits are an expression of Gorky's own outlook, his own militant position, which was close to that of Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

In those years, Lenin is known to have urged a critical reappraisal of the cultural heritage of the past. He explained to young people that if they were to become the builders of a new, communist society, they had to assimilate all the values created by age-old human culture. Lenin fought against the pseudo-``proletarian'' and nihilistic attitude towards all cultural heritage.

In his essay on Leonid Andreyev, Gorky revealed the tragedy of a talented writer who had refused to join the revolutionary struggle of his own people and had broken away from them. It was much more than just the writer's personal recollections of Leonid Andreyev and a portrayal of the fate of an individual. It was a discussion of the 24 relationship of the intelligentsia and the people, the intelligentsia and the revolution---a burning and most topical theme at the time.

From 1908 to 1911 Lenin wrote several articles about Lev Tolstoi. The first of these, entitled Lev Tolstoi as a Mirror of the Russian Revolution, revealed Tolstoi in a completely new light. Lenin wrote of the crying contradictions in Tolstoi's views and works, pointing out what was of permanent value in the great writer's heritage and what was outdated and rejected by Russia's historical development. Gorky's reminiscences of Tolstoi appeared in 1919. It would be naive to look for illustrations here to all the points raised by Lenin in his article on Tolstoi just mentioned. But in sentiment and ideology Gorky's essay on Tolstoi echoes Lenin's earlier analysis of the great writer's works. Here is the view of A. V. Lunacharsky, a contemporary and an authority: 'iGorky, through his excellent analysis of Tolstoi---brought out in the form of vivid recollections and sympathetic comments---presents an original sociological interpretation of Tolstoi. It is close to Lenin's analysis.''

``What a rock, eh? What a giant of humanity!" said Lenin. "That, my friend, is an artist.. .. And---do you know what else amazes me? There was no real muzhik in literature before that Count came along.''

Lenin's words denoted both his high esteem of Tolstoi's great talent, and full agreement with Gorky's portrayal of him. B. F. Malkin recounts: "When Gorky's book on his recollections of Tolstoi was published we immediately sent Lenin a copy. He later told us that that night he had read the book right through at one gulp and enjoyed it tremendously. 'You know,' he said, sharing his impressions with us, 'Gorky's image of Tolstoi is as vivid as though he were alive. I doubt if anyone has ever written so truthfully and boldly about him.'"

Such was Lenin's heartfelt response to Gorky's recollections of Tolstoi, which were his in spirit.

25

After the revolution, Gorky was fully absorbed with the building of Soviet culture. He did much for the intellectuals and helped the Soviet power to win them over to its side.

Gorky worked with Lenin in the cultural field and was his most valued assistant.

But there were times when Gorky was beset by doubts and was in the grip of pessimistic moods, and in these moments of depression he either wrote to Lenin or went from Petersburg to Moscow to see him and have long talks with him.

Lenin helped Gorky to overcome these melancholic moods, and regain his faith. In one of his letters to Gorky in 1919 Lenin explained that he found not a shadow of an indication of a divergence in politics or in ideas. Lenin knew that Gorky's malaise was due to his inner emotional strife resulting from the fact "that he had artificially placed himself in a state of constant suspense---that while the new life had not as yet manifested itself in the huge capital, he saw that bourgeois decadence there prevailed".

Lenin sought in many ways to bring Gorky into closer contact with everyday life. He tried to convince him that the upshoots of the new life---and consequently, the deductions to be made therefrom---can "best be observed at the grass roots. . .".

The call repeatedly heard in Lenin's letters to Gorky over a long period---from 1908 and 1909, through 1913, and during the early years of the revolution---was to keep in touch with life. On March 6, 1913, for example, Lenin advised Gorky to take advantage of the literary amnesty and to return to Russia. Lenin's motive was "that for a revolutionary writer to have the possibility of roaming around Russia (the new Russia) meant that he would afterwards be able to hit a hundred times harder at the Romanovs and Co.".

It is impossible in a short essay to describe all of Gorky's manifold activities in the first years of the revolution in 26 which he always had Lenin's support. We can at best therefore convey only the atmosphere of friendship that existed between the great leader and the writer.

M. I. Glyasser wrote: "There was an atmosphere of great joy in the secretariat in those days whenever Gorky came to visit Lenin. This joy seemed to spring for us from Lenin's elation, from his eager anticipation to see Gorky, for whom he had such obvious and great affection, an intimate friend who had devoted all his great talent to serve the cause of the proletarian revolution.

``During these hours when Gorky was our guest we always had a very busy time, for he would come to Lenin with a whole lot of cares about people and problems, and Lenin would listen to him attentively and carefully examine every question. We were then immediately given instructions, and made the necessary inquiries, wrote letters, dispatched telegrams and urgently reported the results to Lenin.

``Sometimes on Lenin's instructions, just after a talk with Gorky, I would discuss various matters with Gorky in detail and take note of his requests. Gorky could not conceal his excitement after his talks with Lenin; he often shared his impressions and lived them all over again.. ..''

In November 1921, on Lenin's insistence, the ailing Gorky went abroad to recuperate. They corresponded directly and through third parties. Lenin looked after Gorky's affairs and promoted the publication of his collected works. He attached great importance to Gorky's contacts abroad with progressive figures in European culture.

Then Lenin became gravely ill. Shortly before his death, he thought of Gorky, asked about him and wanted something read from his works. It is not surprising, therefore, that Gorky was among the first to whom N. K. Krupskaya wrote after Lenin's death.

``Dear Alexei Maximovich,'' she wrote, "yesterday we buried Vladimir Ilyich.

27

``Until his very last hour, he remained as you had always known him---a man of tremendous will-power and selfcontrol, who showed such tender concern for others, who laughed and joked even on the very eve of his death. ...

``Every day we would read the paper and carry on a discussion.

``Once when he came across a report in the paper saying that you were ill, he became highly alarmed and kept asking worriedly, 'How is he? What news is there?'

``In the evenings I would read him books which he himself selected from the parcels arriving from the city. He first asked me to read him your book about Korolenko and then My Universities."

Thus, Gorky was a companion of Lenin's till his very last day.

For Gorky, Lenin was the guiding light in the whole of his life's work.

Lydia Zhak

[28] ~ [29]

RENEWAL

[30] 099-6.jpg [31]

Lenin, November 1921

[32] __ALPHA_LVL1__ Renewal

Soon after the transfer of the Soviet Government from Petrograd to Moscow in 1918, Lenin asked Zholtovsky, the architect, to come and see him.

Ivan Zholtovsky took from his side-pocket a thick folded sheet of paper and as he reread it he thought again of the fact that Lenin had indicated not only the hour of the appointment and the address---the former City Duma---but even the floor and the room number, to help Zholtovsky save time in finding his way.

He wondered what the head of the Soviet Government wanted to see him about. Was it really new construction--- and this at a time when the Soviet State was confronted by a host of outstanding problems, when it was hard pressed by enemies on all sides and beset by ruin, famine and disease?

Punctual to the minute, Zholtovsky knocked at the door Lenin had indicated. He was met by a young secretary with short-cropped hair.

``You must be Comrade Zholtovsky? Vladimir Ilyich is ready to see you,'' she said.

Zholtovsky walked in. Lenin rose from his desk, walked forward briskly, with his head slightly inclined to one side, and warmly shook his hand. He motioned invitingly towards the armchair.

``Did my invitation come as a surprise, Ivan Vladislavovich?" Lenin asked.

__PRINTERS_P_33_COMMENT__ 3---2330 33

``I was very glad to get it, Vladimir Ilyich,'' answered Zholtovsky quite frankly, still feeling somewhat nervous.

``We are badly in need of your assistance and experience.''

``I shall be happy to oblige in any way I can, Vladimir Ilyich.''

``Comrade Lunacharsky thinks very highly of you and believes you are the best man to carry out some of our plans.''

``I am greatly flattered, Vladimir Ilyich, and am entirely at your service.''

Lenin's face lit up with a soft smile.

``You will admit, I'm sure, that this is quite a surprise: all of a sudden and at such a difficult time, the Bolsheviks broach the subject of long-term plans for Moscow's reconstruction and new building?''

``The reconstruction and new building of Moscow?" Zholtovsky echoed. "But that's wonderful!''

``You are a man of action, and let's come straight to the point: the Soviet Government invites you to take charge of all this work. I have heard that you have already done something in this direction in the newly established design office. I should like to know whether you have the basic idea of a future plan.''

Lenin's posture as he sat in the armchair by Zholtovsky's side---with his head on his hand, a kindly twinkle in his eyes---imparted a sense of homeliness and ease and took the official edge off the conversation.

Zholtovsky suddenly felt a wave of relief, and now, with Lenin talking to him about what he knew and liked so well, at once regained his composure.

Zholtovsky believed that the main idea behind Moscow's development plan should be to build up the areas leading to Vorobyovy = Hills^^*^^ and around Novodevichy Convent. He explained that the prevailing _-_-_

^^*^^ Now Lenin Hills.

34 winds in the city were southwesterly, which made Vorobyovy Hills the healthiest place for new residential areas.

099-7.jpg I. Zholtovsky

``That's a splendid idea,"

exclaimed Lenin and rose to pace the floor. " Vorobyovy Hills, Vorobyovy Hills!" he repeated. "You remember, of course, that it was there that Herzen and Ogarev pledged their friendship. It will not be a bad thing at all if the Bolsheviks start building the new Moscow in that area. Not bad at all, and rather symbolic, I should say.''

Lenin stopped short in front of Zholtovsky and looked at him with his keen and friendly gaze. Zholtovsky found himself rising, but Lenin gently but insistently made him sit back in his armchair.

``Tell me about yourself and your work. I know very little about you.''

For a moment Zholtovsky felt confused and embarrassed: talking to Lenin about yourself was no easy matter. What could he tell about himself? That he had graduated from the Academy of Arts with a gold medal for designing the House of the People? That he had reconstructed the Yusupov Palace in Petrograd, and built the Byelovezhsky Palace? That he had also built the Racing Club in Moscow and numerous mansions for the rich, and had been to Italy? 35 All this would hardly be of interest to Lenin, he thought. Or should he tell Lenin that he, an academician of architecture since 1909, had for many years been carrying on a one-man struggle against the degradation of architectural style in Russia?

He found it appropriate to mention only his design of the House of the People, of which he was really proud. Impetuously, he also expressed his aversion for modern eclecticism.

``Many consider that I am old-fashioned and conservative in my views on architecture. But I can't help myself, I would reject eclecticism at the stake. I must confess that I have thoroughly studied the beautiful creations of the Italian master-builders, the classics of the 15th and 16th centuries---Brunellesco, Rossellino, Alberti and Palladio. That is immortal beauty indeed! We have a lot to learn from the classics.''

``I, too, have a weakness for beauty, for genuine beauty in art,'' said Lenin. "I believe that now you will not be alone in your strivings. There are so many things that demand our immediate attention at present, but I assure you that we will come to that too, in time. And we will then proclaim for all to hear that we must in every way strive towards beauty, using it as a model for the development of art and culture in socialist society.''

Lenin walked up to the window and stopped in meditation.

``It is good that you started your architectural career with the building of the House of the People, and there is no need for you to feel embarrassed over the fact that you have built palaces, mansions and other beautiful buildings for the rich. After all, what else was there for you to build in tsarist Russia considering who your customers were. Your customer now is the socialist state, which, I assure you, will give you much more scope. At present, 36 however, so much needs to be done---so many things that we need! Just take a glimpse at this here: corn-chandlers' shops, gluttons' row, dirt, filth and disorder in the very heart of Moscow. All this needs to be demolished, wiped out. It is national disgrace on display.''

``The remarkable thing,'' said Zholtovsky, "is that on my way here I thought of the same things.''

``Yes, it is too glaring a sight to escape notice. And yet I'd like to draw your attention,'' said Lenin turning abruptly towards Zholtovsky, "to the need of exercising discretion in this question of reconstruction and replacement as some of our comrades are apt to carry destruction too far. We should look deeper into the root of things: removals and replacements, by all means, wherever necessary--- but only after mature consideration. You have been entrusted with drawing up a plan for Moscow's reconstruction and development: what are your views on the Russian people's rich national heritage, the numerous ancient architectural monuments? Of course, I think we could and should create new beautiful structures in place of all these trade rows and flour-shops, but in the area of the Kremlin, Red Square and St. Basil's Cathedral I hardly think we should attempt to elaborate anything, for there is undying beauty there already---we need only to preserve and emphasise it.''

``I fully agree with you,'' exclaimed Zholtovsky, "those are precisely the principles I had in mind.''

``I should also like to ask you,'' Lenin went on, "to give as much thought as you can to Moscow's vegetation. Consider this one of the basic aspects of Moscow's general development plan. In this case your model could be London with its splendid Hyde Park, Paris with its Champs Elysees, Vienna with its picturesque Ring.... Give it some serious thought, including the green-planting of the Moskva's banks. We must see to it that Moscow is well supplied with fr&hair, and plenty of oxygen.''

37 099-8.jpg

As he listened to Lenin, Zholtovsky found himself wholeheartedly in agreement with everything he said. Zholtovsky had a feeling that he was discussing technical details with a fellow architect, and what was most important was that he, an eminent academician, the head of a whole school of Russian architecture, was finding support for some of his own vague ideas. Lenin seemed to rouse and lend wings to his dormant powers.

Zholtovsky immediately accepted the offer to work for the Soviet Government, issuing a challenge to his reactionary-minded colleagues.

In the first few months of the republic, he had come to know many of the Moscow Soviet's functionaries and had sensed that only by working with these men might he realise his youthful dreams of erecting public buildings and whole architectural ensembles.

What Lenin had proposed surpassed all his expectations. Zholtovsky had had some doubts about the need and feasibility of plans for Moscow's general reconstruction and development but Lenin dispelled them all, when he said: "We realise that we have burdened you with a tremendous task whose solution, frankly speaking, requires more than a lifetime. I suggest, therefore, that you select for yourself strong and competent assistants, men with initiative who share your convictions, and who are loyal to the Soviet power. Have you any in mind?''

``I do,'' Zholtovsky hurriedly assured him. "I can name several---Shchussev, Fomin, Tamanyan, Shchuko. They are highly talented architects, fully dependable and meet our requirements.''

Lenin went to his desk and jotted down some notes.

``That's splendid, then put them to work,'' he said with a smile, and rubbed his hands. "Surprising, how flexible the Russian language is, don't you think? Here I just said 'put them to work' and you could take that literally to mean 'sweating for the Soviet power' and a lot more." 38 Then he was serious again. "Well then, we've talked about many things, but you haven't told me of your decision: are you willing to take charge of the task of drawing up Moscow's general reconstruction and development plan?''

Overcome by the solemnity of the moment and strong emotion Zholtovsky uttered the somewhat old-fashioned words which occurred to him: "I shall consider it a great honour to accept this proposal and promise to serve with truth and loyalty.''

Lenin seemed pleased with the answer, or rather with the keen eagerness to start that he sensed in the architect's voice. On his face was a broad smile.

``Truth and loyalty, Ivan Vladislavovich, is just what we need. Tell your friends that the Bolsheviks have come to stay: they are not destroyers or barbarians, as the Western and our own bourgeoisie depicts them. We will yet build and attain such a vast scale and rapid growth of = construe-^^1^^' tion as no bourgeois has ever dreamed of.''

Zholtovsky rose to leave, feeling it fully appropriate to do so as everything had been thoroughly discussed. And although Lenin had in no way implied that the interview was over, Zholtovsky expressed his gratitude for the trust placed in him. Lenin, in turn, thanked him for the talk, and expressed pleasure at having made his acquaintance.

``It is I who should thank you, Vladimir Ilyich.''

``Not at all, Ivan Vladislavovich. We are no longer strangers, and I ask you to come and see me should the need arise. You will encounter many difficulties and will require help, so do not hesitate to come.''

Zholtovsky made a bow, but it was more of a polite refusal than acceptance---he could not imagine he would ever have to come and worry Lenin.

Lenin saw Zholtovsky to the door, shook hands and said, "That was a splendid suggestion of yours---about the 39 Vorobyovy Hills for a new development area. Let our motto be: towards Vorobyovy Hills.''

Outside Zholtovsky, in a mood of exaltation, felt a strange urge: he had no desire whatsoever to go home or to his studio. He turned into a street leading to Red Square. As always, a feeling of deep veneration descended on him at the sight of the Kremlin Wall, the Towers, and the gay domes of St. Basil's. "Lord,'' he thought, "their beauty is truly supernatural.'' He went down towards the bridge, crossed the Moskva and the Kremlin's majestic panorama opened before his eyes. He stood there gazing at a close-up view of the ancient towers, gilt-domed cathedrals and white-stone palaces. From there the crenelated wall seemed to be light and transparent because of its pale-grey hue. "It is true,'' thought Zholtovsky recalling Lenin's words, "this splendour needs only to be emphasised and preserved just as it is. The Kremlin should be clearly visible from all sides---then it will dominate the heart of the city with its unparalleled beauty enhanced.''

Upon his return home, Zholtovsky went straight to his joiner's shop. There he wrote down some of his thoughts about the Kremlin in the light of his conversation with Lenin: "Man needs beauty, for it elevates and ennobles him. Unity of diversity is a major principle of harmony in architectural composition, witness the Moscow Kremlin and the Centre in Petrograd.''

As was his wont Zholtovsky spent several hours in his shop that day. He took off his jacket, put on a blue coat and began to examine different specimens of dry planks. Here he would devote himself for hours to his hobby: planing, sawing, gluing and polishing. He was both a master carpenter and expert furniture-maker, designing many new models and building them with his own hands. Wood was a building material the Russian master-builders had used from time immemorial and Zholtovsky sought to utilise it as an ornamental element.

40

He started planing a plank mechanically, not quite knowing what he would do with it: he needed some physical exercise to let off some of the tension built up on that eventful day.

__*_*_*__

Outwardly, Zholtovsky's life seemed to flow as usual. He alone knew how greatly it had changed since his talk with Lenin.

As chief of the Architectural Department of the Moscow Soviet he was now completely engrossed in blueprinting and replanning Moscow's eleven districts.

He had some highly competent assistants who needed no more than a hint. In view of the large-scale reconstruction work to be done in the capital, the Moscow Soviet set up three additional departments to deal with research, building materials and legislation.

Although Zholtovsky had hoped to manage without worrying Lenin and taking up his valuable time, Lenin himself again invited him to come and see him after a few months. This time the meeting took place in Lenin's office of Chairman of the Soviet of People's Commissars at the Kremlin.

Lenin greeted Zholtovsky as an old friend and then came straight to the point: "I have two big requests. I have been told that the Bolshoi Theatre building is in a precarious state. The experts say that it needs a new foundation, and that it would also be highly desirable to reconstruct and widen its stage. I realise that this is a complex task, but I should like you to undertake this assignment.''

``Put myself to work?" smiled Zholtovsky.

``That's it, precisely---until the sweat comes pouring down.'' Lenin laughed in his contagious way. "I realise full well, my dear Ivan Vladislavovich, that you have enough problems as it is, but there are emergencies, and tasks of first priority, so to speak. The reconstruction 41 of the Bolshoi Theatre and the entire Theatrical Square is one of them.''

``I shall get on with it right away.''

``And what about Okhotny Ryad?''

``I remember our conversation, Vladimir Ilyich. The flour-shops and trading stalls are all to go soon.''

``That will be fine. Well, and how is our general plan working out?''

Zholtovsky told Lenin about the establishment of a design office for Moscow's new development scheme, and the working out of drafts for some of the districts.

``Simultaneously,'' he continued, "we are studying problems of civil engineering to promote and improve the organisation of public services and amenities, including additional green-planting.''

``You mean large green tracts?" asked Lenin.

``Exactly,'' said Zholtovsky.

``I should like to have a glance at the blueprints,'' said Lenin.

Zholtovsky paused, making a mental calculation.

``We shall be able to show you the first drafts for some districts within three weeks, or a month at most.''

``Good thing you mentioned civil engineering. How do you visualise solving the problem of the city's future transport facilities? I believe this too belongs in the general plan?''

``Certainly, Vladimir Ilyich, but we have not looked into things that far ahead.''

``And that's a pity, Ivan Vladislavovich, for you should, and here is why. Moscow will soon, very soon indeed, be facing a growing transportation and traffic problem. Time flies and in five or ten years we shall be told that our streets are clogged with trams and a more rational solution will then be urgently demanded: elevated or underground roads. As a Muscovite, I personally should not like to have any roads above ground. I have seen 42 enough of them, and they only rob a city of its sunlight and pollute the air. Besides the constant din overhead is no pleasure. Now, underground is a different matter. That's where we should start, in the near future, to build our city's underground railway network. That, I think, will be the most rational, convenient and sanitary means of urban transportation.''

Zholtovsky was delighted and marvelled at Lenin's analytical mind and foresight, his capacity to consider a wide range of problems and his cultural scope.

Lenin noticed Zholtovsky's thoughtful expression and inquired: "You don't agree with me, do you? I may be wrong, if so please tell me quite frankly. After all I am not a specialist.''

``Why, Vladimir Ilyich? I have been listening to you very attentively and I consider all your suggestions to be extremely valuable.''

Lenin then said to Zholtovsky in that specially confidential manner which he used when trying to drive home his point: "In order to ensure success we must always think of the workers and peasants, of their needs and interests. Ours is a workers' and peasants' state, and that too is something quite new. And if you will serve it with truth and loyalty, as you once put it, I assure you that the workers and peasants will acknowledge you as their own. At present, there are no architects among them; these will have to be educated and trained.''

``We have already made a start,'' said Zholtovsky. "In Moscow we have organised state art courses which are open to everyone. They are attended by a large number of workers and peasants and their children. As one of the lecturers, I am happy to say that they really thirst for knowledge, and are very resolute and responsive.''

``That's fine,'' exclaimed Lenin. "The thing to understand is that once ignorance and illiteracy are overcome, the workers and peasants and their children will show 43 099-9.jpg their mettle. I assure you that they readily respond to beauty. I know so many fine workers and peasants who have no education, but have keen minds, fine-strung systems, who are clever and are capable of persevering self-education and have achieved very notable results in the face of the poverty, the oppression and the lack of equal opportunity with the rich. What then can we expect of these pent-up forces and talents that have been striving to break loose for centuries? Just give them time. Both you and I are quite advanced in years, but even we shall witness the emergence of the new, Soviet intelligentsia.''

``I'm sure we shall,'' said Zholtovsky. "I intend to live long as my forefathers did. And I insist that you, too, should live at least a hundred years.''

Lenin smiled, wagging his finger. "That's overdoing it, I'm afraid. But, in general, we Bolsheviks are immortal. You must admit that that's something even your forefathers had not managed to achieve.'' "Yes, that's true.''

``There you are. But you, as their successor who has thrown his lot in with the Bolsheviks, will be remembered by posterity---for you are heading towards immortality, particularly since the work you are doing can be easily classed as immortal.''

Lenin again looked at Zholtovsky; he seemed to be sizing the man up, but not in a way that could arouse resentment. "Architecture is a high art, one of the loftiest and at the same time vitally indispensable. That is indisputable. But like all real beauty, architecture should look to the very best of models. But don't forget that real beauty has always been, is and will continue to be an antipode of the philistine idea of beauty. Beware, therefore, of its infiltration: it has a knack of doing this by taking on various superficially attractive forms.''

44

On parting Lenin told Zholtovsky, in a more resolute tone: "Strive by all means to attain beauty, but steer clear philistinism!''

Zholtovsky felt the full strength of Lenin's antipathy for petty-bourgeois standards and always remembered his words.

Lenin gave Zholtovsky an assignment to design and build the All-Russia Agricultural Exhibition on what was formerly a dumping ground on the Moskva's bank.

Lenin again reminded him of green tracts: the pavilions were to be steeped in vegetation, and the longterm scheme was that it should subsequently stretch out along the entire bank from Vorobyovy Hills to the Kremlin.

For the first time in all his 25-year career, Zholtovsky faced such a grand task of complex planning, construction and engineering. With the Exhibition scheduled to open in the spring of 1923, there was very little time indeed.

Together with his assistants Zholtovsky worked tirelessly on the project of the young Soviet Republic's first architectural ensemble, which later became the basis for the sprawling All-Russia Agricultural Exhibition.

Zholtovsky himself built the main gate, the six-sided pavilion, and the theatre and several major pavilions.

The Exhibition as a whole formed a single panorama consisting of large sections, each with its pavilions in consecutive arrangement. Despite its diverse and highly picturesque architectural forms, it constituted an integral whole which gravitated towards the Moskva along a heavy lateral axis running the length of the bank.

45

Here Zholtovsky's favourite building material, wood, was brought out in a new and prominent light. He did not clothe it in plaster, marble or other ``garments'', and this brought out the strongly national Russian character of all the structures.

It is at this period that he wrote down in his note-book some of his remarkable ideas on architecture: "What are the axioms and commandments governing the classical form of the architectural idiom?''

``They are above all realism and proximity to nature. No wonder 'imitation of nature' was the central concept of aesthetics in antiquity which did not imply, however, any naturalistic reproduction of appearances but the creation of an artistic image.''

Zholtovsky envisaged the Exhibition as an integral part of the city's landscape. He did not know then that in time this area would become one of the city's most popular spots---the Gorky Recreation Park---and that the structures, pavilions, squares and green spaces would all fit into the park very nicely.

Zholtovsky, engrossed in his cares in connection with the task of Moscow's redevelopment, wondered: "What makes a city's skyline interesting, impressive and memorable? It is the element of surprise! You walk along a green street and suddenly a building floats into view through an opening or you find yourself in a square. But if both sides of a street are lined with identical fagades, the eye soon tires and ceases to register the architecture.''

Zholtovsky was guided by these principles in projecting the first large development scheme in Moscow and all over the country. The Exhibition marked the beginning of the capital's redevelopment in which a whole district was not just renewed but built anew. Monuments also found a fitting place and application here: the sculpture in wood by Konenkov and the bas-reliefs by Shadr (Ivanov).

46

Zholtovsky knew that Lenin had been gravely ill for a long time.

Since their first meeting five years earlier, Zholtovsky's entire life had undergone a great change. Throughout this period he was so actively involved in many activities and various creative undertakings that he found no time for looking back. It seemed that Lenin's will had been guiding his activities invisibly all these years: he would barely complete one task when another, a still more majestic one, would present itself.

By then, the reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theatre and the adjoining square had been completed; he was almost done with Okhotny Ryad's ungainly stalls, was working on the project of the U.S.S.R. State Bank and altogether immersed in his main preoccupation---the major assignment of his life---the new Moscow plan.

Even in his formative years, when it was so easy to tread the beaten path, Zholtovsky had found the strength and courage not only to reject but even to ignore the precepts and demands of his teachers at the Academy of Arts.

In the period of decline and neglect of the splendid Russian architecture, he suddenly rose up above the rest and took a bold stand for Russian classicism, giving it a new meaning in his structures.

Even greater courage was required of him in the turbulent years of the Civil War, the general confusion, the various fads and ``isms'', the passion for modernism among anarchic intellectuals and ignoramuses, who imagined that the revolution should literally "destroy the old world" with the whole of its cultural legacy.

Zholtovsky's foresight, his deep sense of loyalty to his people, and to art, enabled him to keep his footing in that turbid tide. He managed to keep his head above water. To do so, however, he had to break for good with his old milieu, draw inspiration from the lofty aims of 47 the revolution, and resolutely side with the proletariat. Lenin's care and ready attention in things, big and small, undoubtedly played a highly significant role in all this. Here is a case in point.

One day, Lenin asked Zholtovsky to call on him. That very day, however, someone in the Moscow Soviet had issued orders to evict the architect from his flat. Zholtovsky was thrown off balance, angered and offered a gratuitous insult. In that state he came to the Kremlin.

Lenin did not know what had happened. He was in a radiant mood, his lively eyes full of sparkle: general Frunze's army had just driven the Whites from the Urals, and Lenin, standing by the tiled stove half-covered by a large map, was engaged in pinning little red flags onto it with obvious pleasure.

Zholtovsky was also glad to hear the good news. Lenin as usual got straight to the point. He told Zholtovsky that he had just received some books on architecture from Berlin and wanted to examine them with him.

He couldn't very well refuse, especially since Lenin had mentioned the books before. Nevertheless, Zholtovsky apologised and suggested that they do it some other time.

``But why?" Lenin asked in surprise. Then he noticed that Zholtovsky had something on his mind. The architect had to tell him of the call by the grim commission executing the directive on "getting the surplus living space out of the bourgeoisie" and its order "to clear out of the flat within 24 hours".

Never had Zholtovsky seen Lenin so furious---his entire demeanour changed and he seemed ready to fight. Lenin wanted to know the details: who had come to the flat and who had signed the eviction order.

He then called a secretary and at once dictated an instruction to the Moscow Soviet.

48

Zholtovsky noted that its tenor was highly correct; it was not sent in the name of the Head of Government but only from the chief of the managing department of the Council of People's Commissars. The note was in the form of a request to cancel the eviction order.

Lenin had finished his dictating, smiled and added as an after-thought: "Add this post-scriptum: if necessary, this request will be supported by Comrade Lenin.''

Zholtovsky was handed the instruction, with which the Moscow Soviet complied.

__*_*_*__

Zholtovsky did not feel his age, and had probably never before been so active and happily preoccupied in his life.

The building of the Exhibition convinced him that it was only the beginning of grand schemes, that with Lenin at the helm he was capable of tackling even the most fantastic undertakings.

Zholtovsky was very much alarmed over Lenin's illness. He wanted him to see the Exhibition with his own eyes, but Lenin had long been bed-ridden and saw no one.

Then one sunny October day, Lenin suddenly arrived at the Exhibition. As Zholtovsky learned later, Lenin had come to Moscow from Gorki against his doctors' orders.

He was pale and unusually pensive. As his car stopped at the various pavilions, he would study the sculptures by Konenkov and Shadr, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand. Later, he drove along the bank with his cap off to enjoy the fresh air.

Zholtovsky never saw Lenin again. In his mind and heart, however, Zholtovsky often communed with him, recalling their conversations, and elaborating ideas whose seeds had been planted by Lenin.

__PRINTERS_P_50_COMMENT__ 4---2330 49 099-10.jpg

There was so much he wanted to discuss with Lenin! He missed Lenin's valuable advice on plans for the future. He remembered the big assignment Lenin had given him, the general plan for Moscow's redevelopment.

``There's enough work there for more than a lifetime,'' he recalled Lenin's words. That was very true, but it had all seemed so much easier when Lenin was alive, for then Zholtovsky always had the benefit of his advice and guidance, his requests and instructions. They had helped him visualise every plan in a broad, bright and realistic aspect and this had always inspired him. His respect for and confidence in Lenin were unparalleled.

Zholtovsky designed the residential blocks along the Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Avenue and they determined Moscow's new aspect for many years.

He built the splendid building of the City Soviet in Sochi, an impressive combination of grandeur and lightness, and perfect proportions.

He designed and built theatres, administrative buildings and new blocks of flats, and every structure reflected something of his own inimitable architectural style.

Always opposed to drabness, monotony and what he called "barrack architecture'', Zholtovsky all his life struggled against distortion of architectural form. Looking at the buildings designed by some thoughtless architects today, one wonders how Zholtovsky would have assessed them. We don't suppose he would have endorsed all of them.

Those who worked with him, imitated his style of work: lack of haste and thoroughness.

``Architecture is not to be trifled with,'' he would say, when examining the project of a constructivist. " Thoughtlessness in this matter may have a bad effect on the taste of generations and create inconveniences. Who said it was easier to pull down a building than to build one? But it is a pity to destroy a building---isn't it? Ungainly though it is it could stand for hundreds of years. We can 50 be sure that Lenin would not praise us for such a project.''

Zholtovsky often turned to Lenin in his thoughts. He cherished this inner relationship through the years of his long life.

With Lenin in his heart, he went on building tirelessly, with faith in immortality.

An upright, inflexible man, he lived a really long life, almost a century.

Boris Kostyukovsky

[51]

THE PEN
AS A BAYONET

[52] 099-11.jpg [53]

Lenin, October 1918

[54] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE PEN AS A BAYONET

It is hard to give a portrait of Felix Kon, a revolutionary and writer, and a man of many parts. Beneath the simple exterior of a good mixer was a complex nature, a character not easily fathomed. He loved life, but with youthful abandon he deliberately faced death on three occasions, risking his own life for others. The common cause, the struggle against evil, his comrades' assignments in things big or small, filled his entire being. His ability to contain himself---to quell his own passions if they might hurt the cause---not his own but that of the revolution---showed how modest, scrupulous and firm he was.

In all his endeavours Felix Kon always championed a noble cause.

1

''. . . On His Imperial Majesty's order of December 8, 1885, the Provisional Military Tribunal of the Warsaw Alexandrov Citadel heard the cases of ...'' droned the monotonous voice of a pale wiry official in the small gloomy prison hall.

Kon remembered the official and his voice for the rest of his life: the thin hunched-up figure with wrinkled neck 55 in a tight collar; narrow starched cuffs sticking out of the sleeves and rattling against the table. He could repeat word for word the indictment, the speeches of the prosecutors, the fiery words of his comrades and even the emotional and witty improvisations of the famous lawyer, Vladimir Spasovich.

The sentence read in part: "At the end of 1882 and the beginning of 1883, within the Vistula region, a society was formed calling itself the 'Proletariat' Social-- Revolutionary Party, whose aim was the violent overthrow of the existing state, social and economic order in Russia.''

The well-groomed military prosecutor---who was probably something of a society man---spoke first and demanded the application of article 249, which carried the death-penalty to all the accused. A chilly silence descended on the hall. Generals and officers who had come to the trial all turned their gaze towards GovernorGeneral Gurko, who sat in the centre of the hall in his red damask-upholstered and gilded armchair in full view of all.

The next three prosecutors also demanded the death penalty. They spoke of the Warsaw "proletariats'" ideological ties with the St. Petersburg terrorists, of the "martyrdom of His Imperial Majesty Alexander II, the tsar-liberator'', and of the revolution threatening Russia. But for all their gesticulations and intonations, their speeches were something of an anti-climax.

All eyes were turned to Gurko, who was peering at the faces of the defendents, and his own face said: "Is all this taking place in my governorship? What will the tsar say?''

The tribunal knew what was required of it. But only six of the accused---carefully selected for police reasons to serve as an object lesson---were condemned to death. The others were sentenced to long terms of hard labour. Felix Kon was given 10 years and 8 months.

That was young Felix Kon's first experience of ``justice'',

56

Later, two of the death sentences were commuted by an act of royal ``mercy'', but the noble hearts of four revolutionaries stopped beating on the dawn of January 28, 1886.

099-12.jpg

F. Kon

2

Felix Kon never forgot another morning, when he was thousands of miles away from Warsaw, in Nerchinsk District, where he had already spent three years of ``instruction'' at a H. M. hard labour " university" in Kara. . ..

On October 24, 1889, the convicts were ordered to leave their cells and to line up in the corridor under a heavy guard. His voice showing signs of strain, Lieutenant-Colonel Masyukov read out Governor-General Baron Korff's order on the application of corporal punishment to political prisoners on a par with ordinary criminals. This decision of the Amur Territory's vicegerent was designed to strike fear into the hearts of the inmates who had protested against the prison regime and their barbaric treatment by Masyukov of the special gendarmes corps, the commandant of the Kara prisons.

The order was heard out in silence, and the men went back to their cells. Only there did they show signs of agitation.

How were they to protest? Some said a letter should be sent to the Minister of Internal Affairs, demanding immediate cancellation of the illegal order. Others proposed circulating a statement all over Russia and even abroad.

57

The fiery and resolute Felix Kon wanted more: a blow for a blow.

He proposed that until the sadistic baron revoked his order, two men should commit suicide every day by drawing lots!

``That's anarchism!" cried the ``moderates''. "We do not share Nechayev's anarchistic methods!''

``In that case, so much the worse for you: do you imagine that only anarchists have revolutionary firmness!" exclaimed Bobokhov, who was very popular with everyone. "What do you propose?''

``We must protest against barbarous methods but must not resort to them ourselves.''

No decision was reached after all. Shortly afterwards, however, it was learned that a certain Nadezhda Konstantinovna Malaksiano-Sigida, a new arrival from Petropavlovskaya Fortress had decided to sacrifice her life. Under the pretext of wishing to convey some secret information to Masyukov she obtained an interview, and slapped him in the face. She was flogged to death.

In protest, Sigida's cell mates---Kalyuzhnaya, Kovalevskaya and Smirnitskaya---poisoned themselves. This brought the total of deaths to four.

``The women are protesting! They are not afraid to die, but we are scared!" cried the indignant Kon.

``What do you propose?''

``If you don't want to die in pairs, I suggest we barricade ourselves in the barrack, drench the walls with paraffin oil and burn ourselves alive! The flames which burn us will rise high up above the prison-house of Russia and will be seen by all its people and the world.''

``We shall burn, but the penal colonies will still be there. This will change nothing. The autocracy cannot be toppled by a bunch of individuals."

58

``What is worse, you want us to go back to witchcraft, to the Middle Ages!''

But the hot-headed young people remained undaunted. It was decided to take a poll in the barrack to determine who was prepared to poison himself in protest.

The volunteers were fourteen, nine of them were students of the universities of Kharkov, Moscow, Novorossiisk (Odessa), Kiev, Warsaw and St. Petersburg.

Poison was procured from the medicine chest. Farewell letters were written to relatives.

At the appointed hour, a song was heard from the cell occupied by Kon and his friends. It was the prearranged signal. The men took leave of each other.

Many of those remaining had tears in their eyes and implored their comrades to change their minds. They said their sacrifice was useless; there would be no changes for the better. But it was too late.

The three bosom friends---Sergei Bobokhov, sentenced to twenty years, Ivan Kalyuzhny (the brother of Maria, who had poisoned herself with her cell mates), a student of Kharkov University, and Felix Kon lay down on the plank-beds, embraced, and took opium.

But in the night they woke up to a horrible nightmare which was worse than death.

There was a reserve supply of morphine hidden in the wall of one of the cells, but it was not available until morning, for all the cell doors had been locked for the night. They had to wait.

They waited until morning, concealing their agony, physical and mental, from the warders and even their cell mates; they even went through the routine check-up as if everything was in order.

Once again "the living" tried hard to dissuade "the dead'', five of whom eventually yielded to their pleas.

The day seemed to drag on for ever. They felt crushed, annihilated. Dying is always an excruciating business, 59 but dying a second death is terrible. In the evening nine people took poison again. Kon felt a throbbing pain in his temples, nausea and a cramp in his stomach; his heart beat unevenly, his breath came in gasps and he was covered with sticky sweat. Before losing consciousness, he saw Bobokhov and Kalyuzhny scraping up what was left of the morphine in the jar; with feeble hand he too reached out for it and swallowed what was left.

He awoke again at dawn. He heard the agonised groans of Sergei Bobokhov and saw the breathless body of Ivan Kalyuzhny. ... He saw the convulsions of Nikolai Senkovsky, a former excise official, whose death sentence for firing at Cherevin, a minister of the court, was later commuted to hard labour for life. Kiev University student Pavel Ivanov lay prostrate nearby.

No, indeed, this was no nightmare; it was stark reality.

The warders were already hustling in the barrack; prison doctor Pribylev was pouring an antidote into the mouths of the suicides; the dead and the dying were being carried out and efforts were being made to revive them with artificial respiration.

Bobokhov and Kalyuzhny died, the others were restored to life by force.

What were they to do now? How were they to live today and tomorrow?

Did it mean that they should give up? No, they must act! They must compel the prison authorities to retreat. Once again, three students---Andrian Mikhailov of Moscow, Sergei Dikovsky of Odessa and Felix Kon, keeping strict secrecy even from their own cell mates, decided to continue the struggle by resorting to the same method. They resolved to die for the third time.

It was agreed that Dikovsky and Kon would die first and if that brought no result, Andrian Mikhailov was to follow a fortnight later.

60

Luckily, a ministerial decree abolished corporal punishment, and Masyukov was threatened with dismissal from his post. Soon afterwards the prison was closed down. Many others including the Akatui prison still remained but the Kara prison was gone, and that was victory!

3

There followed the long grueling years of exile in Yakutia, itself a prison without bars, and later in Irkutsk, Balagansk and Minusinsk.

It was in Minusinsk that Kon met Lenin, the man who was to steer so sharp a turn in the course of mankind's social history. But who could have known then that humanity would soon take a new road and that Lenin would become the leader of the world's proletariat, and the pilot of the socialist revolution?

On that warm autumn day, September 27, 1897, Kon saw a stocky young man of 27, of medium height, who had a pair of keen eyes on a tanned intelligent face. He wore a small curly beard and a drooping moustache and had that easy and jocular manner which was typical of students.

As usual at that time of the year in Minusinsk, a sandy wind blew steadily in from the Sayan Mountains. Lenin, soft cap lowered over prominent forehead, left hand clasping the lapels of his spring-coat with velvet collar, was walking down the street of this backwoods little town with Semyon Raichin, an exiled SocialDemocrat.

``Here, Kon,'' shouted Raichin, a noisy, boisterous and rather defiant man, who preferred to keep to himself.

Felix stopped on the shaky boardwalk near the local lore museum founded by Martyanov. There was something familiar about the stranger's face.

Kon realised that he was another exile. But who was he? He had heard that about four months ago a group 61 from the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class---Ulyanov, Starkov, Krzhizhanovsky, Lengnik, Shapovalov and Lepeshynsky----had arrived in these parts. He wondered if it was Ulyanov.

``Oh yes, I have heard about you,'' said Lenin, slightly rolling his rs. He shook hands with Kon.

They walked on together, and Lenin inquired about life in the colony, about Tyrkov, Tyutchev, Yakovlev and Melnikov, what was being done and whether contacts were being maintained with Moscow, Petersburg and the comrades in the East.

``I have come to meet the comrades,'' said Lenin. "You must tell me all about yourself. I've heard all sorts of curious stories but prefer to hear them at first hand.''

Kon told Lenin briefly about himself. Lenin asked him about his activities in Yakutia, what he had written and published there, and what he knew of the everyday life of the Kachin, the Sagai and the Kizil minorities inhabiting the area.

``I want to go to the Martyanov museum, of which I heard so much in Krasnoyarsk. I also want to find a few things at the library---on Russia's economic development, and on factory legislation. Will you be my guide?''

``No one knows the museum better than Felix,'' said Raichin, "and Martyanov often leaves him in charge of it.''

Kon seemed to wince.

``Will you be staying here long?" he asked Lenin.

``You mean in Minusinsk? Oh, a couple of days. Besides seeing the comrades, I have other business: file a complaint with the magistrate in the case of a friend of mine Basil, Vassily Starkov. Then I need to call at the PostOffice because a parcel of books is long overdue, and also to do some shopping. By the way, can one buy a pair of felt boots over here? I am told that now is just the time to get them for the winter. I also need a lamp, and 62 an alarm-clock.'' Lenin laughed, adding, "Will you believe it, I simply cannot wake up early. I must have caught up on all the sleep I missed during the pre-trial detention, but I still sleep like a log.''

Kon also laughed, and said, "I think we'll manage to get the felt boots, the lamp and the paraffin oil, but have doubts about the alarm-clock. The local shopkeepers are not that sharp: they don't restock until they sell out.''

``You know, the Petersburg force of habit is still strong,'' said Lenin. "I imagine I can go out and buy what I need. In Shushenskoye, there's nothing to be got at all. Minusinsk, by comparison, is a metropolitan city!''

Raichin suddenly got all excited and hustled away without a word.

``Where is he off to?" asked Lenin.

``Hard to say. He's an odd sort of fellow.''

``Well, and how do you find things down here?" Lenin asked. Kon was thoughtful.

``Well, it's not too bad, after Yakutia, Balagansk especially. What a hole! You know, out there I found myself yearning for the hard-labour prison. I shudder to think of it.''

Nikolai Martyanov was out. He had gone to the Abakan Iron-Smelting Works. Kon introduced Lenin to Martyanov's wife, Yelena, and then showed him round. They walked from room to room, and Kon explained where and how the indefatigable Martyanov had obtained the various exhibits.

Kon spoke with much feeling, clearly enjoying himself.

``I see that you are quite at home here; ethnography must be your element,'' said Lenin.

Kon sighed, "What else is there?''

``Are you quite sure?" asked Lenin.

``It's getting on for fourteen years.''

``Fourteen years!" There was sadness in Lenin's eyes. 63 ``Yes, the sacrifice of our revolutionaries is very great indeed!''

Lenin then took Kon to his furnished rooms, where they drank tea out of a samovar, nibbling bits of sugar. Lenin made Kon tell again about life in Yakutia, the Sibiryakov expedition organised by the Yakutian Statistical Committee, and the scientific and literary work of the exiles.

``I took a census of the Khatyn-Arynsk Skoptsi^^*^^ settlement in the Namsk Ulus area; I looked into farming in Yakutsk District and collected material on anthropology. Among other things, the expedition wanted to find out whether the Yakut people were growing or dying out. We collected some very valuable material on the life of the Yakuts and the Russians. Last year I managed to publish some of it in the Proceedings of the East-Siberian Department of the Geographical Society."

``Any response?''

``Yes, some scientists noted my work, 'The KhatynArynsk Skoptsi Settlement'.''

``I should very much like to read it. Is there a copy in the local library?''

``Yes, there is. The library here is almost as large as the one in Krasnoyarsk.''

``Oh, I have been to that one and even had the honour of being attended by Yudin himself. The old man claims to have collected about eighty thousand books.''

``Despite the commercial mentality, I believe the figure is no exaggeration.''

``And what are you working on now?''

``I am completing another study: 'Physiological and Biological Data on the Yakuts'. Perhaps I shall be able to publish it here. I also write essays and articles for several Siberian journals and newspapers.''

``Where is your family?''

_-_-_

^^*^^ A religious sect practising castration.---Tr.

64

``I was married in Yakutia. My wife, Christina, a political exile, has served her term and is now staying with some relatives in Nikolayev, together with our three children.''

Over tea, Kon expounded his views, which still betrayed many Narodnik prejudices. Lenin listened attentively, eyes slightly narrowed, and argued in a tactful, friendly way.

The next day, Kon helped Lenin to get some books at the library and buy a few things.

They met again in November.

Even before Lenin's arrival in Shushenskoye, Kon, in Minusinsk, had studied books, brochures and appeals dealing with the class struggle. He had read Marx and Engels and had been gradually evolving from a " proletariat" who thought Marxism compatible with terroristic acts on behalf of the masses, to a revolutionary Marxist. Through Victor Kurnatovsky he learned of the activities of the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class.

Kon realised that the new arrivals who were Marxists could help him sort out some of the more intricate questions of the class struggle, and understand the strategy and tactics of the proletarian revolution. When he was leaving on a visit to Starkov and Krzhizhanovsky in Tesinskoye, the Narodopravtsy (People's Right) men had jealously warned him, "Watch out. See that you don't join them!" That was something Kon was not afraid of: the important thing for him was to find the answers that had given him no peace of mind since he first came across some Marxist literature in Kara. It was bound in covers bearing the most innocent titles on history and economics.

Exiles arriving in Eastern Siberia spoke much about Lenin, a remarkable lawyer from Samara, who was the brother of Alexander Ulyanov, of the People's Will group. It was known that Lenin had lectured and __PRINTERS_P_65_COMMENT__ 5---2330 65 organised the first Marxist group in Samara. Later he had carried on revolutionary activities in St. Petersburg, and in 1894 published a book, What "the Friends of the People" Are and Plow They Fight the Social-Democrats? He had published an article called "Frederick Engels'', and had prepared the first issues of Rabocheye Dyelo, an illegal paper.

Kon wanted to meet Lenin as soon as the latter arrived in Shushenskoye on May 8, 1897, but did not find the opportunity to do so. He got his chance when Lenin came to Minusinsk: this resolved his doubts as to whether it was appropriate to thrust himself upon Lenin. Kon found Lenin much easier to get along with than all the other Marxists he had met. He was sparing of a person's selfrespect, had more human warmth and was more affable.

Nadezhda Krupskaya and her mother arrived in Minusinsk in early May 1898.

From Lenin's letters she knew about the exile colony at Minusinsk, and was bringing a letter for her schoolfriend's brother, Arkady Tyrkov, who came from a noble family of ancient standing and had been let off with his life at the trial of the March First^^*^^ case. She conveyed to Tyrkov the regards of his relatives, and there met Felix Kon. Their meeting was just as friendly and as open-hearted as with Lenin. Felix helped the two women with some inquiries at the Post-Office (a parcel was overdue) and then went in search of a cart to take them to Shushenskoye.

Yegor Filatov, one of those convicted in "the case of the fifty'',^^**^^ lived nearby on a farmstead. Kon persuaded him to take the women to Shushenskoye. It was a pity that _-_-_

^^*^^ On March 1, 1881, members of the People's Will terrorist group assassinated the Russian tsar Alexander.

^^**^^ "The case of the fifty" (March 1877) where populists were accused of disseminating revolutionary propaganda among the workers.

66 he himself did not go along, for that may have helped him to break with the ``proletariats''.

There followed much controversy among the exiles over Semyon Raichin, who threw down a challenge to the "People's Right Elders''. It was established tradition that any exile making his escape was provided with money, documents and shelter. But it was an unwritten law that no escape was to be attempted on officially granted leave for a medical or other purpose. Raichin failed to warn anyone and the others had no time to hide their illegal literature in advance of the raids that followed. Some condemned him, others sought to justify him. Relations within the populist ranks were aggravated but there was no siding with the Marxists. Kon found himself alone, and feeling it keenly. So when the Geographical Society's East-Siberian branch offered him a trip beyond the Sayan Mountains, he accepted it without hesitation.

Kon did not meet Lenin again for a long time. The Trans-Sayan expedition lasted almost four and a half years. Kon collected much interesting material and performed a truly Herculean task:'he led the expedition, and did the research, and the laboratory work. He was the first researcher ever to make a thorough study of the Tuva people's everyday life: their farming and hunting, their crafts, arts, games, national festivities and beliefs. He brought back detailed diaries and sketches, heaps of photographs, specimens of their craftwork, and even bones and skulls for craniologieal research.

Kon was given a triumphal greeting by the scientists of Irkutsk. Irkutskiye Vedomosti published an article on the successful return of the expedition he headed, and named the hotel where he stopped. The Geographical Society intended to stage a public reception in his honour; billboards were put up and invitations issued. But Governor-General, Count Kutaisov, put his foot down. For 67 him, Kon was nothing but a political exile, without any rights.

Kon delivered a brief report at a closed meeting of the Geographical Society's committee. His only concern was that the material, collected with such pains, should not fall into the hands of ignoramuses. His report, the exhibits and his account of the numerous adventures on the expedition evoked delight. He was thanked officially, and promised that everything would be duly utilised and his literary and scientific works published. Thus ended Kon's expedition, on which he was accompanied only by a guide and an interpreter.

After Minusinsk and the Trans-Sayan settlements, Irkutsk was a splendid capital city. Kon looked forward to meeting his fellow prisoners from Warsaw, Kara and Yakutia, but he was disappointed: ideologically they were out of touch. During the solitary years of his expedition, Kon continued to think of Lenin and Kurnatovsky, pondering over his own political attitudes. But now in Irkutsk, having met his old comrades, with whom he once saw eye to eye, he discovered that there was a gulf between them. His old friends thought it was he and not they who were to blame.

In low spirits, Kon returned to Minusinsk, the " twoby-four town'', Lenin used to call it; 1903 was coming to a close and war seemed imminent.

Lenin was no longer in Shushenskoye. Kon was told that late one night at the end of January, three years earlier, Lenin, Nadezhda and her mother had arrived in Minusinsk and had left the following morning for Achinsk, 300 versts away. They travelled in a low wide sledge through the dense mist caused by the bitter cold. Lenin, his family and friends then went on to Ufa and Pskov, from where they went abroad.

Kon learned that Lenin had done a great deal of work in Shushenskoye, and had written several major studies, among them The Development of Capitalism in Russia. 68 The book was discussed chapter by chapter, by the Minusinsk Social-Democrats. Russkiye Vedomosti said it was published at the end of March 1899, under the pen name of Vladimir Ilyin.

Lenin had also written many reviews and articles and made several translations from the German; he had started to work on a draft programme of the R.S.D.L.P.

While Kon was away, Lenin had made several visits to Minusinsk, where he had talks with the exiles and had held meetings.

After his long absence Kon felt completely at a loss and he was not much heartened even by the news that he had been awarded a gold medal and half of the Rastsvetov Prize for his outstanding work on the expedition.

Shortly afterwards Kon's term of exile came to an end. "What has a beginning must have an end.'' It was time to return home.

Twenty years had elapsed since his arrest in Warsaw. To his disappointment, he was met there not as a living revolutionary but as a martyr, an icon. This was not what he had expected at all, he had not suffered the long years of hard labour to be canonised. Was it possible that people lived merely on memories of the heroic past?

However, Kon's reunion with his old and tireless friend Kwiatkowski-Tadeusz, who was still full of go, convinced him that Warsaw had undergone some changes which he had not at first noticed. The workers were fired with a firm belief in an early inevitable victory, and the advent of a new era.

One day, he saw a workers' demonstration. They marched through the streets of Warsaw with banners on one of which Felix read the names of his four comrades who had been sentenced to death on that fateful dawn of January 28. Their names blazed. The revolution 69 lived on, full of faith in its strength and in the future. The past and the present merged into a single powerful tide---and that was just what Kon wanted to see and to feel!

After long years of solitude, he was again communing with life, with a real revolution, which poured new strength into everyone who dedicated himself to it heart and soul.

4

Kon's next meeting with Lenin took place in 1907 at the August Congress in Stuttgart, which Kon attended as a representative of the P.S.P. Lewica.^^*^^ It was Lenin's first international meeting.

In preparation for the conference, Kon was sent by the P.S.P. to ``inspect'' its Paris, London, Zurich and other sections abroad. The impression of the trip was very depressing: there was widespread ideological dissension and lack of any clear view of common aims.

This fact was even more glaringly revealed at the Stuttgart Congress of the 2nd International. The Polish delegation was a strange conglomerate of parties, ranging from the extreme Left (Rosa Luxemburg) to the extreme Right (Jozef Pilsudski).

Lenin only smiled when Kon told him of this: people with different aims and convictions had to sit down to one table, and their very first discussion, on the distribution of mandates, ended in dispute. Rosa Luxemburg and other members of the Polish Social-Democratic Party and the P.S.P. ``Left'' walked out.

``Only the tail-coats remain: men from the Galicia and Poznan groups.''

``The Poles call the splinter groups 'tail-coats', eh?" Lenin asked Kon. "Very witty, indeed!''

_-_-_

^^*^^ The Left wing of the petty-bourgeois nationalist Polish Socialist Party.---Ed.

70

Lenin did not speak at the Stuttgart Congress: his opponents were far superior in number and it would have been futile to attempt an open struggle. Lenin was a member of the commission drafting the resolution on "Militarism and International Conflicts''. In the intervals between sittings, he mixed with the delegates, and recruited supporters among the waverers.

At the Congress, Kon noticed that other delegations were also ill-assorted. Among the delegates were such famous opportunists as David and van Kol who defended the right of civilised nations to oppress and exploit colonial peoples; the fiery Jaures, the well-known extempore orators, Adler, Ferri and Daszynski, the shrewd demagogue Vandervelde, the anarchist-minded phrasemonger Herve, and the tired "patriarch of the 2nd International'', August Bebel, who retained something of the old Marxist traditions, but whose revolutionary ardour was gone.

In this "political Babylon'', Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg had the difficult task of drawing the opportunist sting from Bebel's resolution. By means of subtle amendments Lenin imparted to the resolution a Marxist content: in the event of an international armed conflict the workers were to convert the imperialist war into a civil war.

Lenin said to Kon after the conference, "Although the resolution itself is much too long, it does contain valuable ideas and clearly indicates the proletariat's tasks. It will undoubtedly hasten the Russian Social-Democrats' decisive break with neutralism, of which our liberals are so fond.''

Lenin and Kon left Stuttgart together on August 11. Lenin was returning to Kuokkala, Finland, and Kon to Cracow. They boarded the same train to travel together to Nuremberg. Night was falling, and a thick candle was lit in the lantern over the coach door. Stuttgart---Hegel's birthplace and the centre of the Baden-Wiirttemberg state---was a medium-sized industrial town lying in the 71 valley of the Nekkar, a tributary of the Rhine. They were now leaving it behind, and carrying away with them the impressions of the week's debates.

They could now relax, and the clatter of wheels invited them to a leisurely sharing of impressions. For a while Lenin sat in meditation, then said, "I recollect the banquet held in the countryside. A sort of children's picnic,'' he added, screwing up his eyes.

Kon looked up at Lenin, who went on:

``Beer, wine, delicacies, sweet speeches and charming smiles were all brought into play in an attempt to unite what cannot be united!''

It was an interesting episode, indeed. Bebel, with a group of admirers, making a solemn round of all the delegations and raising toasts:

``Meine Kinder,'' he would always say, and then carry on with praise for those who supported the views of the 2nd International leaders, and paternal rebukes and admonishments for the recalcitrants. The Russians were regarded as "dissenters and sectarians''. Kon was among the Russians.

``Why do you dislike us?" Litvinov suddenly asked as Bebel 'drew up to the Russian delegation and was about to say his piece.

Bebel was taken aback and there was a hush on the meadow. But conscious of his position, he smiled, saying, "I like everyone! But Bolshevism is 'kinderkrankheit', an infantile disease. It will soon pass.''

Standing by the coach seat, Lenin chuckled, "That was damned good!''

That had been one occasion when everyone realised the sharp differences between the two trends in the contemporary working-class movement. One of these trends was losing its revolutionary character, just as the last and crucial struggle drew near; the other was gaining in strength and confidence as the revolution developed, 72 coming to the fore to lead the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat and communism.

The wheels throbbed, the candle flickered in an unsteady light, and Lenin's mind went back to Minusinsk and the exiles.

``I read somewhere,'' he said to Kon, "that after the publication of your work on the Tuva people, no new studies can be made without reference to yours. You were a pioneer in that area, and have made a big contribution to science.''

``You overrate my merits,'' Kon said.

``Not at all. You're just being modest.''

Again Kon recalled the 27-year-old Lenin in the old days, when he too was an exile and one of them.

They returned to the Congress and Polish affairs, with which Lenin was preoccupied.

``It is a complicated situation with us,'' said Kon. "All this hostility, dissent and splits. Pilsudski is prepared to rely on the most frantic chauvinists to seize power.''

``They don't seem to understand that it is not socialism for national independence, but national independence for the struggle for socialism. Speaking frankly, Comrade Kon, in my opinion your 'Leftists' also seem to be half inclined to revise the principles of P.S.P. nationalism. You need once and for all to switch to Marxism, to the path of socialist revolution, the path of proletarian dictatorship.''

``You're right. I have been giving this much thought, on my Sayan expedition, and later on in Poland, and not without success, I believe. But the past is not easy to throw off.''

``That's true, the important thing is to realise that this needs to be done.''

For a few moments they were both silent.

``The Congress left me with vague feelings,'' said Kon, not wishing to discuss personal matters.

``Vague, did you say? Not at all. The question is quite 73 clear. We managed to achieve something, but, of course, I have no illusions. In the event of an armed conflict the present leaders of the 2nd International will not implement even this resolution. That's opportunism for you.''

Lenin asked Kon how he had managed to get permission in Minusinsk to go abroad.

Kon explained that the Geographical Society's Eastern branch, after his Yakutia expedition, invited him to go on another expedition to study the UryankhaitSoyot people. Count Kutaisov, the Governor-General of Irkutsk, had no idea where this people lived, and gave his consent.

To his great embarrassment he subsequently learned that they lived outside the tsarist empire, and that a foreign passport had to be issued. As a political exile, Kon had to surmount many obstacles to travel even in Siberia. In the circumstances what could the Count do if he was not to expose his ignorance. After some usual red tape, Kon received his passport.

Lenin laughed heartily.

``A most characteristic story from the life of the tsarist satraps! I myself have a few such curiosities to tell. But that's an old story.''

``But always new,'' Kon quoted from Heine, and added, "as long as the tsarist regime is there.''

5

The Stuttgart Congress, Kon's talk with Lenin in the train and all the subsequent events that followed in his life led Kon towards the path of which Lenin had spoken.

Later, when the World War broke out and Lenin was arrested at Poronin in Austria-Hungary in the summer of 1914, Kon and his friends did everything possible to get him out. In Switzerland, when the war had caused a split in the 2nd International, Kon had many opportunities 74 of seeing many other facets of Lenin's character, talent and ability to work with people.

Kon supported the Bolsheviks at the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences, and fulfilled his international duty by struggling against opportunism and helping to establish revolutionary Marxist, Communist parties.

Kon had frequent meetings with Lenin in Switzerland. These took place generally at Lenin's small suburban flat near the woods in Berne, at the Marmenthal, an inexpensive boarding-house in the small mountain village of Sb'renberg, at the Zum Alder Cafe in Zurich; at the various highly efficient libraries, or at the Emigre's Mutual Aid Bureau, of which Kon was chairman and Nadezhda Krupskaya, secretary.

Lenin used to say:

``There are still many trying days ahead of us. We have learned to wait, however, and will find the necessary patience. But it does seem that the West-European workers are inconceivably timid and tolerant. The Russian muzhik's patience is proverbial, but I'm afraid they have outdone him.''

During the war, when the various functionaries of the 2nd International made an open deal with their bourgeoisie, Lenin demanded a complete break with the traitors. He urged the establishment of a new International, one that would be free of opportunism and socialchauvinism. Only such an International, he declared, could command the support of the workers, transform the imperialist war into a civil war and end all wars.

Illumined by Lenin's ideas, Kon was able to see more clearly his old mistakes, the truth of the present, and the contours of the distant future. Then came the February Revolution, his return to Russia, and the Great October Socialist Revolution.

In 1918, a hard but glorious year, Kon joined the Bolshevik Party. He had matured politically.

When bourgeois Poland attacked the young Soviet 75 state, Kon became editor of the Polish paper Glos komunistyczny (The Voice of the Communist), which was circulated among the Poles within the ranks of the Red Army and the Pilsudski legionnaires. He wrote appeals urging his compatriots to turn their weapons against their own bourgeoisie, and advocated peace and friendship between Poland and Russia and their peoples. In 1920, when the Red Army units were approaching Warsaw, Kon was elected member of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee in Belostok, Poland's first workers' government.

That autumn, Kon returned to the Ukraine, where he was elected member of the newly-formed C.C. of the Ukrainian Bolshevik Communist Party, which in March 1921 elected him its Secretary. Being a hard worker himself, Kon was also very demanding of others. After the Civil War and the intervention things had to be restored from scratch. Agriculture had to be revived, factories and mines restarted to provide the people with light and warmth.

Later, Kon returned to Moscow, where from 1922 to 1935 he was on the Comintern's Executive Committee, and concurrently and later edited several newspapers and journals, e.g., Krasnaya Zvezda, Rabochaya Gazeta, Sovietsky Muzei and Nasha Strana; he also wrote a number of pamphlets for young people.

Kon headed numerous committees, departments and organisations, including the Art Sector of the People's Commissariat for Education of the R.S.F.S.R., the AilUnion Radio Committee, the Museum Department of the People's Commissariat for Education, and the Revolutionary, Artistic and Cultural Monuments Committee, the Political Prisoners' Society, and the International Organisation for Aid to Revolutionary Fighters.

The list alone shows the boundless energy of the man who was then---in 1924---sixty years old.

Apart from numerous political, publicistic, historical, 76 scientific and biographical articles, pamphlets, monographs and studies, Kon also wrote Over the Past 50 Years---four volumes of his memoirs. This work has been reprinted a number of times and contains much valuable historical data on the revolutionary movement in Poland and Russia at the turn of the century. He gives a vivid description of the life of the revolutionaries of that period, the prevailing moods and aspirations of the various classes and social strata. He gives a graphic portrayal of life in irons and hard labour. His memoirs also contain much that is of special interest to students of the Yakut and Tuva peoples. His is a delightful combination of the competent ethnographer, anthropologist and statistician with the talented writer.

Kon's fellow journalists noted his distinctly Leninist style of work as editor, and in his selection of staffs and organisation of editorial work. B. Barova, recollecting the period when Kon was editor of Krasnaya Zvezda, wrote: "At that time many soldiers and commanders were not too literate, but Kon would tell them, 'Write, and don't mind the grammar. That will come later, but it is now, just now and not tomorrow, that you must start taking an active part in social life.' "

Kon's sincere and heartfelt attitude to others won him the confidence of all, and this enabled him to mould the men and women under him into a strong, united and welldisciplined collective. He reiterated Lenin's idea, that publishing is a highly important and responsible Party assignment, and that every line should be directed towards the promotion of the Party's aims and tasks. Lenin used to say, "If a journal lacks clear direction it becomes an absurd, scandalous and harmful thing.'' Kon took this for his main principle.

Kon disliked loud words and gave more space to reports which brought out the features of the new Soviet life and the new human relations. At editorial meetings or when briefing correspondents, Kon reminded his colleagues of 77 Lenin's instructions "to keep closer to life, to pay more attention to the way in which the workers and peasants were actually building the new in their everyday work, and more verification so as to ascertain the extent to which the new was communistic".

Kon was against sensational articles. He demanded primarily a down-to-earth approach when writing about any event, with a thorough analysis of its facts and causes.

Kon was intolerant of artificiality and insincerity. He was simple in his treatment of people, and they came to him with news, or for a friendly exchange of opinion, for he showed great interest in everything that took place in the country. But despite his simplicity he resented slackness and familiarity and was strongly critical of conceit.

With the publication of the Rabochaya Gazeta's 2,000th jubilee issue in 1928, Kon became editor of this organ of the Bolshevik Party's Central Committee. It was an 8- or 12-page affair and had special pages for Leningrad, the Urals and the Ukraine. It also published magazine supplements, and in 1929 had a circulation of more than 1,200,000. It had more than 14,000 worker correspondents, and received up to 400 letters a day.

With his appointment in February 1930 as head of the Art Sector of the People's Commissariat for Education, Kon also introduced the Leninist style of work into the field of art. He travelled all over the country and held meetings and conferences for the promotion of friendly ties and contacts between Moscow theatre companies, actors, artists, writers and composers and their counterparts in outlying provinces. All this took time, care and fine understanding of the problems involved.

In the summer of 1930 the arrival in Moscow of 18 national theatre companies and 10 ethnic musical ensembles marked the inaugural of the Art Olympiad---a national festival. Animated meetings symbolising Lenin's life-giving national policy and the unity of socialist 78 culture took place in theatres, at parks, clubs and in the streets.

Kon, who was never much of a dresser, had a new suit for the occasion and looked much younger than his years. From the stage he delivered a fiery speech: "This is a historic moment. As we meet here for our olympiad, bombs and guns are still the answer to the national question abroad. What we shall see here today is but the epitome of what is taking place throughout the entire Soviet Union. We are rediscovering our country. Lenin wrote: 'We have yet to learn of the proletariat's creative forces, but they will fully reveal themselves only after the overthrow of capitalist domination.' As I look upon all of you present here I picture to myself a great train of international coaches carrying passengers of various nationality.''

That was a period when the working masses, having overcome the ruins of war, yearned for the theatre, literature, music and the fine arts. It was a time when some ``Leftists'' used revolutionary words in an effort to divert the powerful course of socialist culture and to deprive it of its communist content; they renounced the cultural heritage of the past and in the guise of ``novelty'' smuggled in formalism in art and literature devoid of principles and ideals.

Kon firmly implemented Lenin's policy by striving to acquaint the broad masses with the great cultural heritage of the past and to bring contemporary art closer to life and make it more fully reflect the interests, aims and hopes of the people, and bring them happiness and strengthen their faith in the victory of communist ideas.

Despite his great age, Kon travelled across the country, and it was his idea that Moscow theatre companies and musical ensembles should go out to the construction sites of the First Five-Year Plan period. Mobile art exhibitions displaying the best works went to towns in the Urals, 79 Siberia and Kazakhstan. Many theatres, studios, Sunday conservatoires and art schools were opened locally.

Lenin said:

``A cultural problem cannot be solved as quickly as political and military problems. ... It is possible to obtain victory in war in a few months. But it is impossible to achieve a cultural victory in such a short time. By its very nature it requires a longer period; and we must adapt ourselves to this longer period, plan our work accordingly. . . .''

Kon realised this full well, and worked with dedication on the vast cultural front. In 1931, the Party appointed him to head the nation's radio broadcasting system and radio installation work. There again, guided by his concept of the spirit of Leninism, Kon did much to vivify a field that was, in fact, quite unfamiliar to him.

He told a correspondent of Radiofront magazine: "We are now directing all our efforts to acquaint the masses with the cultural treasures of the past, and seek to attract to broadcasting our most talented contemporaries in literature and music.''

Speaking to his fellow workers in the Radio Committee, Kon pointed out the boundless possibilities of radio as a mass medium which got through to an audience running into millions. "It's wonderful,'' he said, "but it's also a great responsibility.''

__*_*_*__

Time never stopped. Kon measured it in his own way, by the notches in his heart. He was in a Moscow suburb in 1941, when the war broke out, and the Central Committee summoned him urgently on June 22.

At 77 one is not much of a fighter, but Kon went to the front as editor of the Polish Radio Broadcasting Committee. This was a weapon tried and true: it boosted the morale of his friends, and hit out at the enemy. But 80 the strain proved too great, and like a soldier he died at his post.

Kon, a member of the Soviet Writers' Union, never claimed to be a man of letters, but his pen was a real bayonet.

He was an ethnographer and a historian, but never claimed to be a scientist. He was a leader in culture but regarded himself as a rank-and-file member of the great Party of Lenin, a soldier of the revolution, a loyal servant of the people, who gave his life for them.

Nikolai Strokovsky

6---2330

[81]

A MEETING THAT NEVER TOOK PLACE

[82] 099-13.jpg [83]

Lenin, May 1919

[84] __ALPHA_LVL1__ A MEETING THAT NEVER TOOK PLACE

I have no greater desire than to continue, together with thousands of other enthusiasts, the job of renewing the earth, as the great Lenin urged us to do.

Ivan Michurin

1

``The job of renewing the earth" was a favourite expression of Ivan Michurin, and it occurs again and again in his basic works and in the hundreds of letters, greetings, reports and telegrams that he sent out and received.

The great selectionist had a really hard---not to say terrible---life, waging a humiliating and hopeless campaign to break through the sticky web of bureaucratic red tape. In the long years of heroic and zealous endeavour, Michurin created dozens of new---high-yielding, frost-resistant, unpretentious and delicious---varieties of apples, pears, cherries, apricots and berries. But he could do nothing to carry these fantastic achievements beyond the confines of his native town of Kozlov.

The authorities, the Church and the official scientific circles maintained that all things were immutable and had been created by God. It was assumed that only trouble-makers and revolutionaries tried to alter the established order of things. Michurin's apples and pears 85 could be seen, felt and tasted, but their existence could not be recognised. It was easier to turn a blind eye on them than to acknowledge that man had dared interfere with God's ``divine'' works. What Michurin was doing looked very much like "undermining the established".

He himself strove to speak to the nation, but had no chance. He was not invited to any of the official conferences, and no books---not so much as a pamphlet---were published before the Revolution about his methods.

Michurin then started issuing annual price lists of all his varieties of fruit. They were printed on cheap paper, and went to official institutions, apple vendors, train guards and anyone who came to Kozlov.

He had travelled much, and had seen extreme want and poverty. Now he held and offered the key to abundance, wealth and glory, but met with indifference and even mockery. Horticulturists simply refused to believe that what Michurin had done was possible.

In the course of his anxious and futile efforts over the decades to pass his knowledge on to the Russian peasants, Michurin acquired a strong hatred for the authorities who threw up the wall that blocked his way and spoiled his life.

A few faded pages remain of his 1869 diary. Michurin, then thirteen, kept a record of the weather and the flowering of fruit-trees and their yields. Every line spoke of the boy's keen and slightly ridiculous eagerness instantly to tackle the elements in an organised manner. It would be ridiculous, indeed, but for his subsequent achievements.

At the age of sixty, it is natural to sum up your life. On the eve of his sixtieth birthday, in 1914, Michurin published a small and very sad item in the journal Sadovodstvo (Gardening) under the rather unusual 86 heading: "Some General Autobiographical Information for a Portrait''. On the photograph that appeared with the article was a thin man, with a small beard and a long moustache, wearing a strict frock-coat. Not only his eyes, keen, strict and somewhat tired, but also the quite noticeable wrinkles across the bridge of his nose, his defensive pose, and the wary poise of his head, all spoke of long struggle and high tension. One's 099-14.jpg I. Michurin first impression was that the man, if not already broken in spirit, was pretty close to it. What Michurin said in his article seemed only to substantiate such a conclusion: "I made tens of thousands of experiments. I grew a vast amount of new varieties of fruit-bearing plants.... I worked the best I could on the means which I obtained by my own labour. Throughout the past period I constantly struggled against poverty and endured all kinds of hardships silently; I never asked for assistance from the government so that I might more extensively develop this work, so highly useful and so very necessary to Russian agriculture. "On the advice of eminent horticulturists, I submitted 87 several memoranda to our department of agriculture in which I tried to explain the vast importance and the necessity of improving and increasing native varieties of fruit-bearing plants by raising local varieties from seeds. Nothing came of these memoranda. And now, at last, it is too late---the years have gone by and my strength is exhausted.''

A look at the photograph makes one wonder: Is it possible that the man is sixty? You could give him 47 or 50 at the most! You take a closer look and realise that the man is not broken at all, that after all, as the saying later went, there are still "inexhaustible reserves" of energy in him. The man had a will of iron.

Michurin could lash himself into a fury of sarcastic indignation, but he never complained. Fate was hard on him, and visited him almost daily with some new calamity.

There was irony in the very fact that he, a weak offspring of an impoverished Ryazan landowner, should spurn an armchair vocation and opt for one which required hard manual work. Poor as Miehurin's family was, it was nevertheless also proud and obstinate. It bowed to none. The future selectionist grew up an upright man with an unbending character. His father's death and complete ruin merely served to sharpen his sense of independence and need to stand up for his human dignity. His ego took many knocks from early childhood. After a short while at school, he was expelled for "failure to show respect to his seniors".

Then followed years of monotonous and stupefying office work, poverty and pathetic efforts to keep a family on 12 rubles a month. At the cost of incredible privation he managed to lease a small plot of land for his first orchard. He was still years away from his idea of renewing the earth, but he already felt an overpowering attraction to gardening. With his wife, her sister and niece Michurin worked hard every day, and well past midnight. He carries on his work at the office, repairs watches and 88 various appliances at home, but devotes his best time to gardening. His diary of this first decade is evidence of tremendous and complete dedication to the idea that held him. He arrived at the conclusion that many plants in their natural state bring far less benefit than they could. They should be improved, and endowed with useful properties, while their negative ones should be destroyed.

Gardening becomes Michurin's obsession; he is by now so absorbed in it that he hardly takes notice of anything else. His enthusiasm is contagious: everyone who comes into contact with him---especially his family---live by plans alone. There are more than 600 different plants on his small plot, but they are so crowded that many are stifled and begin to die. His appeals for help meet with nothing but irony. Michurin has not the heart to destroy any of his experimental plants, and decides on measures which are recorded in his diary: "Plant between the trees and along the fence. With seven inches per plant, they should last for three years.''

And for three years his family live on a salty soup of bread and onions, in addition to the vegetables they grow, and two kopeks' worth of tea a brew. But he always got a bigger plot of land---when he could, either on time or by selling everything he could spare. In one case, there was no money left to hire a cart, and so Michurin and his family carried their plants on their backs over a distance of some seven kilometres.

For two years the family lived in a hut, having sold their house to buy more land. But in five years' time it became another splendid and unsurpassed orchard, full of trees bearing fruits to be found nowhere else in the world.

Meanwhile, the country remains oblivious of this, and