The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 29, 1927, Page 11

sa - eee a re 8 a ec Heth 4 (Continued from page 6 he was always able to give up any- thing that hindered his work. When still at school, for example, he used to love skating, but found he got tired and sleepy after it, and there- fore gave it up as it hindered his studies. He was also very fond of Latin, but he also gave this up as it hindered more important work. Krup- skaya, in her reminiscences, alludes to the fact that several writers have compared Lenin’s style and phrasing with the phraseology of the Roman orators. She thinks that this is not by chance, but under influence of his former enthusiasm for the Roman writers. Meanwhile, throughout these years of exile, Lenin’s interest and enthusi- asm for the revelutionary movement did not subside. On the contrary, as the termination of his exile drew near, his hopes. for the future increased with his impatience to be free. Al- ready before his return, he was plan- ning the work for the formation of a ‘compact Party with a clear-cut ideol- ogy. He spent many sleepless nights thinking out detailed plans for a Par- ty paper published abroad, means of illegal transportation into Russia, and so on. He communicated these plans to Martov andthe comrades in Russia. Return From Exile. In March, 1900, Lenin’s exile ended. Day and night he travelled in a sleigh across the Siberian snow—-300 versts up the River Yenessei, dreaming of the future, Returning to Pskov, he began organizing a network of con nections for the future Soeial-Demo- eratic paper that was to be publishéd abroad, but he was soon to leave Rus- sia to join Axelrod and Plekhanov. Just as he was about to leave Pskov for abroad, Lenin was arrested in the street together with Martov. He had 2,000 roubles in his pocket. He ex- plained to the police that he had got the money from his “aunt.” - Luckily, the list of contacts for the newspaper was written in chemical ink and cov- ered with faked calculations. If the gendarmes had thought of heating this piece of paper, the entire scheme for the newspaper might have been wrecked. However, “Lenin was re- leased after being under arrest ten days. ~ In August, 1900, Lenin came to agreement with the Plekhanov group for the publication of “Iskra.” After * a short stay in Geneva, he settled in Munich, where he was later joined by Krupskaya, who had just completed her Siberian exile. Krupskaya relates an interesting incident connected with her journey abroad. She had been given an address in Prague. On ar- riving there, she found Lenin was ac- tually in Munich and the Prague ad- dress had only been a point for the dispatch of correspondence. Occur- ‘rences of this kind were frequent in the history of the illegal work of the Party. Shliapnikov, for instance, once went to Genoa instead of Geneva, while another comrade was almost sent to America instead of England. In this case, Krupskaya was sent on from Prague to Herr Rithmeyer at an address in Munich. She arrived at # beer-house and inquired for Herr Rithmeyer, expecting to. be presented to Lenin. But again it appeared she was on the wrong track. “I am Rith- meyer,” replied the owner of the beer- house. But he told her there was a Russian gentleman staying there who was expecting his wife from Siberia. Fortunately, the Russian gentleman turned out to be Lenin. He had writ- ten to her to come to Munich, but she had not received his letter. Krupskaya found Lenin living very simply. The owner of the beer-house to whom the room belonged, was a Social-Democrat. His wife, a buxom German woman, used to feed Lenin on mehlspeise (a kind of pudding) while he used to get his breakfasts and suppers himself. He drank out of a tin mug which he himself washed out and hung up on a nail by the tap. Although the Russian emigrants in Munich mostly lived legally, Lenin and Krupskaya lived apart from the Russian colony in order not to com- promise comrades coming from Rus- sia,on Party work. Krupskaya was nted editorial secretary. Togeth- er with Axelrod, Vera Zassulitch and Plekhanoy, they organized the pro- duction of ‘“Iskra” and its illegal transportation to Russia. It was gen- erally sent to various arranged ad- dresses in Russia, “to be called for.” ' While in Munich, Lenin commenced his famous book, “What is to be Done?” First, he would pace up and down in deep thought. Then he would sit down and write for hours at a stretch. Krupskaya never interrupt- ed him with questions while he ‘was working. But afterwards, in the eve- ning, they would walk right out to the quietest part of the suburbs, and he would outline with great enthusiasm the main content of what he had writ- ten. They would then return to their room where the meetings of the Ed- itorial Board were held. Martov used to come in the morn- ing to look over the post and sit near- ly all day long smoking and telling all the latest news. He used to go on and on, jumping from one subject to another. “Martov is a typical jour- nalist,” Lenin often said. “He is ex- tremely talented, seems to- grasp ey- erything immediately, extremely im- pressionable, but takes up a light at- titude towards everything.” Other comrades used to drop in and they had long, heated arguments for hours at a stretch. Most of the Russian emigrants preferred talking, smoking and sitting round the table drinking endless glasses of tea. Lenin, how- ever, could not stand this and when- ever possible he tried to slip away for a walk. His love for Nature attracted him to the river, or far away to the outskirts of the town. Seeing that the long arguments and talks fatigued Lenin, and were detrimental to his health, Krupskaya went round to Martov and asked him to come to see them less frequently. It was agreed that she should go to Martov and re- port on all the letters received from Russia. But after two days the whole scheme broke down. Martov could not live Without the long talks. In London. In April, 1902, Lenin came to Lon- don. As Lenin had translated Webb's -“Pheory and Practice of Trade Union- ism” from English into Russian while in exile in Siberia, and as Krupskaya had learnt English from a seli-tutor while in prison, they both thought they would be able to speak the lan- guage. To their dismay, they found that no one understood a word they were talking about. Nor could they understand a word of English “as she is spoke.” However, they started learning the colloquial language as- siduously. They went to all kinds of meetings, sat in the front, and at- tentively watched the speaker's mouth. Lenin used to go to Hyde Park to hear an Irish Atheist whose pronunciation he found easier to un- derstand than the London accent. He also advertised and got two English- men to exchange English lessons for Russian. Lenin was thus able to learn the language fairly thoroughly. Lenin also took great interest in studying London. Except for the British Museum, where he spent half his time in the library, he did not like visiting museums. Egyptian mum- mies and Babylonian cvheiform wear- ied him. The only museum of which he never tired, was a little museum of the 1848 French Revolution, in Rue des Cordilieres, Paris. Very fond of going round. London on top of the bus, he would observe the comfortable semi-detached houses with gardens in « the residential parts of the city and the squalid slums of the workers’ dis- tricts. “T'wo nations!” he would mut- ter through his teeth in English to Krupskaya. He always felt an attrac- tion towards crowds, and often took a bus ride on Saturday night through the working class +districts, watching with interest the long rows of bar- rows with fiares, and the people do- ing their Saturday shopping. Already in those days, Lenin had great hopes in the British workers, He always tried to get as near to the rank and file as possible. He not only listened to the Hyde Park orators, talking about atheism, garden cities and the bad conditions of shop assist- ants, but also went to various Social- ist meetings in the suburbs, and a Socialist church in Seven Sisters Road. He used to go to Whitechapel and talk with the Russian sailors and listen to the troubles of poor Russian Jew immigrants. ’ Even in whirling and smoky Lon- don, Lenin’s love for Nature did not diminish. ‘To use Krupskaya’s own words, “. . . even in London we man- aged to get a glimpse of Nature, and this was not so easy in this smoky, foggy city—especially when we could not spend more than three-halfpence for a.bus.” When a comrade once said that Lenin only sat in the British Museum, Vera Zassulitch burst out indignantly: “He passomately loves Nature.” During this period, Lenin paid a visit to his mother in Brittany. He loved the sea; its continual move- ment and great breadth soothed him, and he felt resteo. While in Lonaon, he was very fond of the Zoological Gardens. He often’ walked up Prim- rose Hill and admired the view of the city. Capitalist Tout te Farmer:—The worker back there in the to blame for your troubles. "NEW MASSES” WRITERS TALK WAR By S A. GARLIN. The February issue of “The New Masses” is practically an “oil” num- ber. The daring exploits of the American capitalist imperialists in the Caribbean area are described with much gusto by Scott Nearing, with the active assistance of several of the cartoonists of the magazine. In an article entitled, “Uncle Sam— Buccaneer” Nearing, in his custom- ary crisp manner, tells some of the reasons that make it necessary for the Coolidge administration to have 15 warships and several hundred U. S. marines in Nicaragua. “Uncle Sam needs another canal across the Isthmus. The Panama Canal is getting crowded and besides, in time of war its locks and slides | are indefensible from the air. “Nicaragua,-has the only alterna- against an attack tive route, thru the San Juan River _ and Lake Nicaragua. To ‘be sure, Costa Rico claims a voice in the mat- ter as the San Juan River borders that country. But Costa Rico will be dealt with later.” The rele of Adolpho Diaz as a petty henchman of American busi- ness interests is explained by Near- ing in this article, who points out that the present “head” of the gov- ernment was a clerk in the office of an American corporation operating in Nicaragua when he advanced $600,000 to finance a revolution that was sup- ported, recognized and defended by the U. S. State Department. In another article on the present situation in Mexico, Nearing puts down all the current troubles of the Mexican people to the discovery of oil in that republic in 1863. “If the keeping of the Mexican oil fields costs a few rivulets of working- class blood—well, at. any rate, Stand- ard will have the oil—and oil is thicker than blood any day.” John B. Chapple, who shows an in- timacy with the struggle of the Amer-* ican farmers, writes in this issue on theit growing disgust with petty re- forms on the one hand, and patroniz- ing “scientific agriculturalists” on the other. : ~ Declaring that “the dirt farmers are hungry,” the writer says that they afe being driven off the farms throughout the United States. “Their costs are going up and their receipts down, Taxes and mortgages have them helpless. ‘Insurance com- panies are cancelling policies, beeause “the value of farms has dropped be- low what the buildings were insured for .a few years ago, and the com- panies fear the temptation to set the buildings on fire is teo great.” i / ee ” “Love Feasts for Labor” is the title of a bristling article by Robert W. Dunn. Discussing the recent out- pourings of socialogical .blah about the “way to handle the labor situa- tion,” and how “labor and capital ean work together,” Dunn gives the laugh to the pompous hypocrites. There is an interesting article on “The Russians in China” by Lewis S. Gamnett, an editor of The Nation, who spent more than a year investi- gating conditions in that no-longer benighted country. (Continued from page 4) the whole drive against tha Com- munists at this time. The Commun- ists stand for the class struggle for better conditions fer the workers, for the organization of the unorganized, against class collaboration. They must be destroyed. The bosses en- lit the aid of the American Feder- tion of Labor, the. Socialists to help them in this work. But they do not stop here. They do not want any kind of unionism. They -want the open shop. When the Communists are cleaned out, they want the A. FP. of L. to aid them in cleaning out the Socialists, and when that has been done -the open shoppers will begin their campaign to destroy Unionism in this country and proclaim the open shop. But the New York Commercial and the bosses as a whole will find that while they may and are enlisting the American Federation of Labor. of- ficials and the Socialists in the united front against the Communists and militant unionism, they will not destroy the Communist movement and they will not destroy the trade union movement. The Communists will continue their work. The left wing in the trade unions will eon- tinue their work. What the New York Commercial and similar agen- cies ‘are doing is to expose the So- cialists and the trade union bureau- erats‘ before the bread masses of organized and unorganized workers, and hasten the process of cleaning the labor movement of the agents of the bosses and prepare the ground for a bigger, broader and more mili- tant trade union movement in this country. “Against the united front of the government, the open shoppers, the Socialists and the labor bureau- erats there will be formed the united front of all militants in the American labor movement.” ” é Mo aa ep oe Sp wien pean Ree pants peer STOTT Ss se ee i |