Mr. Arthur Henderson, the English Labour leader, was likewise sent by the British Government to report upon the position, while Vandervelde came from Belgium. With Vandervelde I had already corresponded, and I had met him personally during the crossing from Aberdeen.
Besides Milyukoff, I was in touch with Peter Struve and other Cadets; with Plekhanoff, the Socialist, whom I had last seen at Geneva; and with Gorky, who was then publishing his daily newspaper. I made the acquaintance of several Social Revolutionaries, and of Sorokin, the editor of one of their chief journals. Savinkoff I saw afterwards at Moscow. With academic and University circles I renewed old relations; and when Kerensky’s Government came into power, I had to negotiate with its members. Kerensky himself I did not meet as he spent so much of his time away from Petrograd, especially at the front; but I often saw his uncle, Professor Vasilyeff, to whom I gave my messages and requests. I, too, travelled constantly between Petrograd, Moscow and Kieff.
As in London and in Paris, I gave public addresses in all these cities or arranged meetings with leading and influential persons. I kept the newspapers informed and wrote a number of articles. The refrain of my propaganda was “Break up Austria!”—propaganda not less necessary in Russia than it had been in the West, since the Russians had no definite anti-Austrian policy but accepted rather the idea of making Austria smaller. With the leading Russian Poles whom I met in all the chief towns—their centre was at Moscow—I made acquaintance immediately after my arrival, and we agreed upon joint or, at least, parallel action in the army question. The Poles were forming their future army out of their men in the Russian ranks, and their difficulties were naturally the same as ours.
The Russian Anarchy.
Before leaving London I had promised my friends to send them as soon as possible a report on the position in Russia. The question was whether and to what extent the Allies could still rely upon Russian help in the war. Upon military Russia, I soon discovered, the Allies could not and ought no longer to reckon. In a telegram to “The Times” on or about May 25, I expressed this conviction; though, as telegrams were censored, I cannot say whether the text as printed was what I actually wrote and what the Petrograd correspondent of “The Times” had agreed upon. I could do no other than dispel, once for
