village, looking to me very picturesque with
its quaint wooden houses covered with snow
and ice. The house they live in is one which
has become vacant because the previous owner
has left the country. As everywhere the
people in this village were hungry, but not
so hungry as the people in Moscow. Kropotkin, his wife and daughter have suffered as
much as most people owing to the shortage of
food : I think also they miss the company of
friends, and from their conversation I gathered
that they found themselves rather apart from
things that are going on.
Kropotkin and Madame Kropotkin are both very scornful and condemnatory of the Soviet Government and all its methods. They think of it as a class government and as tyranny. I believe they take no part in the organisation of life at all. Listening to them, it seemed to me a tragedy that after all the years of toil and stress, this brave, confident fighter on behalf of truth should find himself, in the midst of the revolution which he had done so much to help bring about, a comparative stranger, or at least unable to take part in its organising work. I am doubtful though if any elected government would have really satisfied our comrade. He is a philosophical anarchist and hates authority. He seems quite confident that the Russian nation will win its salvation, if only the outside world will leave
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