Page:John Rickman - An Eye-witness from Russia.djvu/5

 the first time into contact with the Allies, and so added another political point of view to my collection.

My impression on that journey was that I was travelling in a different direction from that usually taken by foreigners; I was travelling from the village, the life of the village, to the city, and so on to foreign opinions. The experience led me to reflect on the basis on which most opinions on Russia are formed. The village was not to me a curiosity, it was normal Russian life; the opinions of the village were the first Russian opinions I gathered first-hand. As they differed greatly from my usual stock of ideas I began to see the necessity of analysing the sources of all opinions, and so when I talked with consuls, generals, engine-drivers, and moujiks I found myself first trying to see whence they received their ideas, and next what were their ideals in life and in government.

In the following article I discuss the condition of a rural district under Bolshevik rule during the winter and spring of 1917–18. At that time I was engaged in relief work in the Buzuluk department of the Samara government on behalf of the friends' War Victims' Relief Committee.

Of all the industrial and economic enterprises in the district none suffered less change than the Co-operative Society, which had been started before the war under the old régime, and which continued unchanged under the Provisional and Kerensky Governments, and enlarged its membership 500 per cent. under the Bolsheviks. In the time I speak of the Co-operative Society had virtually become a monopoly, and had either put out of business or absorbed the small traders. It could get credit from the Soviet, was recognised by the railway officials almost as a Government department, and could undertake purchasing operations on a large scale and look to guarantee of transport. It had an organisation of sub-branches in nearly every village, and could distribute and sell its goods without having to get permits and licences from the Soviet. The Government decided to purchase wheat and rye in Siberia for seed and consumption, and naturally placed the order with the Co-operative Society. Purchase of medical requirements in Moscow for the numerous Soviet hospitals was done through the same channel, members of the