world's blockade against Russia. He is setting up trade relations between revolutionary Russia and reactionary capitalist countries, notwithstanding that Russia has repudiated its debts to them.[1] He is also largely responsible for the elaboration and development of the other new economic policies (fully described elsewhere) which mean so much for Russia.
Tchitcherin, Peoples' Commissar for Foreign Affairs, was in his younger days an aristocrat and diplomat under the old regime. For many years past, however, he has been an active revolutionist. An exile from Russia, he travelled in many countries, learning their languages, their customs, and much else that proved invaluable when he later came to take over the job of working out the foreign policy of the Soviet Republic. He is generally conceded to be the equal of the world's cleverest diplomats.
Lossovsky, Secretary of the Red Trade Union International, is a hatter by trade. He is about 40 years of age. He, too, as an exile, lived in several countries. For a long time he was secretary of a clothing workers' union in France. Since the February revolution he has been very active in Russia. When Tomsky, President of the All-Russian trade unions, recently resigned his position, Lossovsky, then Secretary of the organization, was elected in his stead. Lossovsky is Russia's greatest expert on the world's trade union movement. Just now his big job is to build the Red Trade Union International into an organization that will win the support and affiliation of the great masses of workers now organized in the Amsterdam International.
Kollontai, head of the international Communist women's organization, is one of the most remarkable characters produced by the labor movement anywhere. Her activities cover a wide scope. and she has a long record as a revolutionary fighter. She is now one of the most prominent leaders of the "Workers' Opposition," or body of Syndicalist Communists who object to giving authority to the industrial experts and who want the full control of industry left to the actual manual workers. She is perhaps the best linguist of all the leaders (and that is an honor indeed), as she speaks several languages fluently. She has a wonderful
- ↑ It is almost certain that the capitalist nations will compel Russia to recognize these old debts before they trade with her.
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