The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 20, 1926, Page 13

By S. Hopner (Natasha). Septentber, 1910, after a consid- erable number of “failures” in Odessa and in Ekaterinoslav, and after innumerable and fruitless at- tempts to remain despite these fail- ures in an illegal position and to con- tinue party work, I managed to obtain a foreign passport by diddling the police—and I found myself in Paris. Those were hard times in Russia, and hard times also in exile. In Paris every day arrived new groups of emi- gres who had escaped from penal ser- vitude or had completed their impris- onment, or who had escaped the threat of penal sentences hanging over them. Brilliant, rich and interesting Paris was a torture for those who did not know the French language, for those who knew no trade or who in general could not adapt themselves. The feeling of elation of the first hours, when Still full-of joy at escap- ing the police clutches in the “dear fatherland,” is. succceeded by a feeling of perplexity and painful terror at this gigantic town, full of temptations, living day and night without a break, and at the noisy streets along which everyone and everything are hurrying and whirling somewhere or other. Who wants emigrants here? Who asked them to come? Who will give them any work, even of the most dif- ficult kind, if only to keep them from dying of hunger? HAD a number of comrades in Paris with whom I had «orre- sponded. Having rested after the journey, I went out for the first time to wander along unknown streets, and very soon I ran into Comrade Valerian (Y. Bran- denburgsky). Valerian took me along with him to show me the main parts of the Quartier Latin. Lively and impressive, he showered upon me questions about Russia, interlarding between the questions news about emote f cdurse-you Will go to see Ilyitch tomorrow,” I suddenly heard him say. “Why ‘of course’,” I asked, “I did not intend doing so.” Indeed I had not so intended. In Russia I had heard a great deal about emigre life and about its negative features. What was particularly in- grained in my mind was the con- sciousness that the bad side of emi- gre life was the frequent visiting of one another (thru having nothing to do), the endless, fruitless discussion and conversations and the impossi- bility for even the most “organized” natures to avoid dislocation thru the idle visits, and talk of comrades who did not khow how to pass away the day. And I, who had come among the emigres for the first time, wanted somehow or other to avoid this as much as possible; I did not want to go to anyone except for a definite pur- pose, Particularly not to Lenin. I .had not met Lenin personally; only once in 1907 I had heard a re- port on the London congress by Vlad- imir Ilyitch (in a small Finnish town) and there also seen Nadezhda Con- stantinovna (Krupskaya, Lenin’s wife) in the street, It already seemed to me to be quite improper to go to Lenin and to pre- sent myself, etc., without some defi- nite aim, as I had heard it said that he was always very busy. It did not enter my head that it would be inter- esting for him to talk to a newcomer from Russia, a rank-and-file worker, and what is more, with one not from the capital, but from Ekaterinoslav and Odessa. Valerian, however, viewed the mat- ter in a different Nght. He was ab- solutely indignant at my replying that I. dia not wish to go to Lenin,’ and refused to understand it. “‘Why can you not understand, Natasha (my, ille- gal pseudonym) that Myitch and Nadezhda Constantinovna pounce on any new arrivel from Russia just like hungry animals!” he said to me. Nevertheless, I did not go, as I did not know how far Valerian was cor- rect, The same evening I learned from Valerian that in a week’s time on a certain day our Bolshevik “Paris sec- tion” would meet, and I also learned where I could register as a member of same, A’ the appointed day and hour I arrived at the meeting of the “Paris section” of the Bolsheviks. The meeting took place in a room on the second floor of a cafe-restaurant in Rue Orleans No, 11. I immediately recognized Lenin among those who had gathered; heewas bending over a game of chess. I do not remember the agenda of the meeting, but at any rate I believe there were no particularly notable questions. Lenin spoke on one of these questions for about ten minutes, I think. But why was it that after his rather commonplace speech my feelings were so radically changed? It is very difficult to describe them. I changed from the condition of grave depression in which I had been for over a year as the result of an illegal existence under the difficult comti- tions of the terrible political reaction of 1909-10—I changed from this feel- ing of simultaneous physical and moral brokenness, a condition which had become chronic and almost habitual—not even the fresh Paris impressions could disperse it—I changed to quite a new and opposite state, one of courage and freshness. it was exactly as if I had recuperated after a grave illness. . . . This wave of life, this current of vigor and be- lief poured forth from the words, voice, gestures and glance of this man who appeared to be so squat and ordi- nary, and who had said quite platitudi- nous things in unpretentious and sim- ple language. M*A* years have passed since then, much water and much blood have flowed and my impression of this first meeting with Lenin, which caused such a sharp change in the whole of my feelings, can never be effaced. Afterwards I had occasion to hear that many comrades had ex- perienced the same thing in the same or similar circumstances, ; At the end of the meeting vaerion came up to me with WN. stantinovna, who said: “So it yon. Natasha, who refused to céme to us? Well, llyitch has commissioned me to drag you along without fail. Come to us tomorrow evening at 8 o’clock.” She said all this so firmly and at the same time in such a friendly way that I at once ceased to resist, At the appointed time I came to him at Rue Marie-Rose No. 4, second floor. Afterwards I began to come frequently to thig apartment and I remember it perfectly well. There were two rooms, one of which was larger with alcoves for bed and kitchen. In the middle of the big room there was a plain wooden table (after they went away I got the use of it and it surely still stands there in the apartment which I left in Paris); along one of the walls was a long row of wooden shelves filled’ with books, and there were also a few chairs. This was the room Ilyitch worked-in. In the small room Nadezhda Constantinovna worked. The kitchen, as customary among all our emigres, also served as a din- ing room. It was there that we sat soon after I arrived, all having supper around the table and drinking tea. They made me relate all the news. At first I did not know what to start with, still thinking that the som- bre picture which I had left behind me in Russia was already known to everyone, and was of no particular in- terest. But this did not last for more than a minute, and afterwards I saw everything in a new light, I myself felt. an interest in what I was relat- ing and I soon became quite encour- aged. The reason for this change lay in my listeners, and above all in Lenin, He was full of eagerness and attention. My account of the posi- tion of the work in Odessa and Bka- terinoslav, the attempt to publish the “Odessa Trade Union Herald” which had met with failure after the publi- cation of the first number, my account about the newspaper'in Ekaterinoslav, ys the mood of the workers, the shop nts and so-called social circles oat of interest to Lenin in every detail. No sooner had he noticed an attempt on my part to shorten my ac« count than he immediately inter- Lenin: Impressions of a First: Meeting Fresh Inspiration vee eet oy. >, Deda tn A rupted me, all the time encouraging me to relate things in greater detail, er else to reply to a number of addi- tional questions which he literally showered upon es like from the horn of . We,tal ked, in this manner for abouttwo nd Finally the con- versation in general came to an end and Lenin suddenly, as if he had just remembered something, quickly ex- cu sedghimself and ran into the other room, taking a glass of tea with him. This meeting left irradicable traces on me. In this eager attention of Lenin’s to my account, which was far from consistent, which had not been thought out, and in which the import- ant things were interwoven with the trifles, one felt that in Lenin there vas something more than a demand be au courant with affairs, one felt the terrible longing to take part in life’s affairs there in Russia, where everything it is true was gloomy, but where, in spite of all difficulties, the illegal workers are living, doing some- thing, and struggling. My impression was soon confirmed. I was deputed to speak to a well- known French surgeon (Duboucher) with whom I had been well acquaint- ed in Russia, and to ask his assist- ance in transferring a well-known comrade of ours, Kurnatovsky, from one hospital to another, All comrades were very worried as to his fate, and it was decided somewhere and by someone that it was I who should go to Duboucher, as I was acquainted with him, and that comrade Lenin should also go “to add more weight.” T the appointed hour, Com, Lenin arrived at my place on the sixth floor, not coming in, but flying in as was his wont. During the very first minutes he cast a rapid glance round my room and noticed a postcard on the wall — a reproduction of a pic- ture by a Russian artist Polenov, if I remember rightly. It was a picture of Russian life, called “Comrades.” It depicted a meeting of two elderly people in a teashop, after many years separation, who evidently were now on different steps of the social ladder; one was quite ragged end dishevelled, whilst the other was very well dress- ed. “How truly that is pictured! How T love that artist!” — said Lenin with a voice full of feeling. And once again I was astonished at the force of his William Gropper, our cartoonist, shows that the Workers’ Revolution of today draws inspiration from the history of the Paris Commune. emotions and at the same time at the simplicity and naturalness of these feelings. I was so surprised because Lenin, this iron man, “as hard as stone,” “severe,” “fantastic,” as he was described, stood there overjoyed like a youth on seeing 9 very ‘small reproduction of a very small cornér of the varied and complicated life of Russia — so near and comprehensible and at the same time so distant and inaccessible... During the whole time of our journey on the under- ground electric railway, which whirl- ed us along to Duboucher, our conver- sation on Russia continued, R about two years I had often to see Nadezhda Constantinovna in their apartment, where I met Comrade Lenin in private surroundings. Be- sides this, I saw him twice a month at various meetings, right up to the time they left for Austria. In the gloomy, suffocating atmos- phere of emigré life, the Lenin family was a wonderful oasis for all, a magte source from which a refreshing and healing current poured out to every- body. Their simple, warm and comradely attitude, their vigor not damped by any doubts, the belief in the close advent of a new wave of revolution, in the victory of the. proletariat, the per- sonal example of industriousness, as- siduity and organized mode of life, and a complete absence of grievances in face of any political depression or the material needs and the thousand and one disagreeable things—it is hard to describe to what a degree all these characteristics of Lenin and his wife saved no small number of us from despair, from disappointment in the terrible conditions of emigré life of those days, HERE were many among our Bol- sheviks who were devoted revo- lutionaries, ready without thinking twice to give their lives for the small- est glitter of the revolution, for the tiniest piece ‘of success for our Cause. But were there many who during their own life hoped still to see the revolu- tion and its victory? There were very few... And among these very few the first was Com. Lenin, who lived and worked in such a way that by looking at him one might think that he knew for Certain that the revolu- tion will come, if not today, then to- morrow. ‘