Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/59

 zeal, but one or two hours afterwards the opportunity for a discussion with some comrades arises, or for a manifestation in favour of the Revolution; in a word, the opportunity to waste time agreeably. Perhaps the first time the temptation is successfully resisted, perhaps even the second time, but it is not easy to go on resisting all the time, the more so as the authority of the overseer is no longer there to call them to order, and because recent events have created a disturbing atmosphere of general excitement and opportunities for distraction have become greatly multiplied.

What most strikes the foreigner, who has an opportunity of observing what is taking place in Russian factories, is the enormous amount of time that is consecrated to or wasted in discussions. On the slightest pretext two workmen will lay down their tools to exchange views on the subject of Lénin's policy or the latest decision of the Soviet. Soon other workmen will stop to listen, or to put in a word, and one need not be surprised, on returning an hour later, to find the whole workshop engaged