Word: petrograd
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Forty years ago this week, the only freely elected Parliament in the history of Russia met in Petrograd. For Russia's people, the Constituent Assembly was more than just a word. It was the instrument that was to fashion a new, democratic Russia. The Bolsheviks, seizing power in the October Revolution, permitted the elections already arranged by the Kerensky government, because they thought they would win. They were stunned at the results. Across Russia, an astonishing 50% of the eligibles voted; out of a total of 707 delegates, 370 were Social Revolutionaries, only 775 Bolsheviks. Seventeen hours after...
...Molotov's burst of reminiscence was the 40th anniversary of his first meeting with Lenin. The milder February Revolution of 1917, sled by the Social-Democrats and the Socialist-Revolutionaries and their allies, had broken out. Most of the leading Bolsheviks were still on their way to Petrograd from places of exile. In their absence Molotov, one of the editors of Pravda, gave out Bolshevik policy: Demand the complete Marxist program forthwith. When the big Bolsheviks arrived, they pooh-poohed the youthful (27) Molotov's naive and uncompromising view. But when Lenin stepped out of his railroad...
Such Moments. Wrote Molotov last week: "I first came to meet Lenin the day he returned to Petrograd from Switzerland (April 16. 1917). It was an exceptional and unforgettable moment for all of us who were present. We were impatient to see and hear Lenin. Instinctively many of us had, more or less correctly, divined the course the party had to follow. This was assisted by the articles and letters Lenin used to send to Pravda from abroad." Having indicated how things stood between himself and Lenin, Molotov goes on: "In the square outside the station I heard Lenin...
...word Pravda article was there mention of an earlier claimant to the same honor, whose name today is actually carved beside that of Lenin on the famous tomb in Red Square: Stalin. Since Stalin had long ago seen to it that few witnesses of those early Petrograd days remained alive in Russia, there was no one around to dispute with Molotov his actual relationship with Lenin. But the archives of Leninism still held their verdict. In a letter commenting on Molotov's work, the exiled Lenin wrote: "We have received a stupid letter from the editorial board [i.e., Molotov...
Fool's Mate. Kennan's book begins by evoking the grimness of the Russian scene seen at its capital, Petrograd, where at every hand "one feels the proximity of the great wilderness of the Russian north-silent, somber, infinitely patient." Lenin and Trotsky were emerging as the main figures on that somber scene. These agile clever, ruthless and dedicated men-Stalin was still a poisonous penumbra on the horizon of history-were theoretically bent on directing Russia as an ally of the U.S. and the Anglo-French alliance against imperial Germany and Austria. The problem...