Page:Albert Rhys Williams - Through the Russian Revolution (1921).djvu/257

Rh At Marinsk, the Commissar of Transport gave a new turn to events, by despatching this telegram:

"To all Soviets:Kuntz and Williams, General Organizers of the Red Army, are on Train Two. I ask that representatives of the Soviets meet with them for consultation.Sadovnikov"

The telegram was read to the crowds assembling at every station to meet the express. With their ap^ petites and implements whetted for a Czar, suddenly two comrades were handed them. It called for a swift reversal of their emotions, but they did nobly. We rode into each station in a storm of greetings. The new detachments of the Red Army saluted, the commissars solemnly laid before us their problems, the throngs pushed forward to gaze upon us as military geniuses.

It was embarrassing, but illuminating. We got a glimpse of a new civilization in the making, the future in the act of being born. In one town the foundations had just been laid—the peasants marching over had joined the workers in one central Soviet. In another they had scarcely got to the foundations—the intelligentsia were all on strike. In many centres the new structure was well along, the Soviet schools were filled, the peasants were bringing the grain to market, the factories were turning out goods, as well as oratory. The exhibits, tho often crude and