Three Days in Russia—II

WE concluded an intensely interesting day in Lenin- grad with another " banquet " at the 'Europe,' and left by the 17.0 p.m. train for Moscow. The station at Leningrad was crowded with workers arriving and departing, all carrying large or small bundles, and re- minding one of the emigrants one used to sec at Liverpool landing-stage years ago, bound " steerage " for the United States. We noticed that the locomotive tenders were piled with wood logs.

Cooks had arranged for the provision of a special train for the journey from Leningrad to Moscow. It was com- posed exclusively of sleeping-ears, and each compartment contained two sleeping berths, and toilet accommodation. We had no worries about our baggage, which was all labelled with the number of the sleeping-car berth reserved, and was put into the " sleeper" to await us on arrival at the station after the day's sightseeing in Leningrad. During the day in Moscow the baggage was left in the train, and we found it in perfect order on our return.

The train was comparable with the usual continental wagons-lits, the compartments being rather larger than hose on the Calais-Bide express. There was no restaurant car, and only tea and a very hard black rusk were served.

We did not arrive in Moscow until ten-thirty a.m. the next day, and many of us rose early, for some had no blankets and it turned very cold in the small hours. With the morning light we noticed that we were passing through long stretches of uncultivated land, but apparently fertile soil. Here and there were labourers using primitive agricultural implements. The roads near the .stations where we slackened speed were rain, sodden and deep with mud. On the platforms of many wayside stations were peasant women with little bunches ofwild flowers, and at most village stations,, where we litOpped from time to time; one became aware of- a pro-

found stillness. There were wooden houses everywhere, whose windows were curtained with lace of the Notting- ham variety.

Upon arrival at Moscow we found the usual Women guides, and rows of cars in the station approach. The guide who claimed us was most efficient. By way of introduction she informed us that she was twenty-six years of age, married to an official in the Labour Depart- ment Of the Government, had one child, and was a student of economics at Moscow University, in her third Year. She had never been in England, but she spoke English perfectly, using difficult idioms, and was generally up to date.

Moscow differs from Leningrad. It was a hot summer day ; in Leningrad it had been damp, chilly, and de- pressing. The buildings have the same forlorn, paintless, neglected appearance as in Leningrad, but the people in the streets look brighter and more "foreign." The clean-laundered white tunics of the men were particularly noticeable. We drove again through miles of cobble. stoned streets, in an ancient car, which every moment threatened to collapse. We leapt chasms and potholes, and ached with the shocks. As in Leningrad, it scented to us that everywhere road work was in progress, but there appeared to be no newly finished stretch. Our guide, in reply to questions about the bad road surface (the worst I have ever known—worse even than those indescribable tracks in Portugal) said they were doing what they could ; that sixty streets in Moscow had already been repaired ; that the others must wait ; that the Government's policy was to develop the large indus- tries first ; that the workers did not mind the bad roads ; they did not ride in motor-cars ; but that they soon would have a Russian motor-ear, which was to be manu- factured at Nijni-Novgorod in co-operation with Mr. Ford ; that in order to achieve the bigger things they were prepared to put up with the present shortage of food, of clothes, of boots, and the discomfort of it all. As to queues (which one sees in Moscow everywhere with ever-patient expressionless people waiting, waiting) she said they rather liked them ! It was a habit.

In Moscow we performed the tourist round, as in Leningrad, but managed first to have a private walk under the walls of the Kremlin. We strolled through the Gardens, and caught a glimpse of the real Moscow and its daily life. Returning to our car, we entered the Kremlin. Here, again, we noticed the modern Russian craze for museums, and we were shown endless galleries of pictures and objets d'art. Later, over the Moskwa, we saw that revolution and change had failed to spoil the magnificent view of the Kremlin across the river. All traces of damage to the buildings during the fighting have disappeared.

Red Square, the political pivot of Moscow (the scene of many violent battles during the October Revolution of 1917—and now the demonstration centre of workers for the celebration of National Holidays) badly needs paving. In it the Lenin Mausoleum is at present surrounded by a wooden hoarding. The temporary wooden monument which hitherto stood over Lenin's Tomb is to be replaced shortly by one of red and white granite. So Lenin's body, until recently visible in its glass-fronted coffin, is not to be seen. It lies temporarily- in the Kremlin. To the Grand Hotel -we came for luncheon, racked and shaken by the ordeal of the cobble stones. The usual large crowd had assembled at the hotel entrance, and mounted police were at hand to control it. One spectator, whose curiosity led him too near to us, and who Was inclined for badinage, was unceremoniously. bundled off between two policemen.

"Do the people like us or dislike us ? " we asked our guide, for the faces before us were enigmatic. "Neither," was the reply. "They are just curious and interested. Foreign clothes, foreign faces—just that." We noticed no begging in Moscow, except for cigarettes and tobacco. Small boys know well how to say, " Geben Sic war eine Cigarette." One man dressed as a workman approached Inc in the hotel lounge and, holding a few kopecks in his hand, said something in Russian. I did not understand. Ile thereupon fetched a man who spoke German, who explained that his friend wanted to buy some tobacco from me—as this was scarce—and he also liked the taste of English tobacco. I gave him a pouchful and had some difficulty over refusing the proffered kopecks, as the man was very insistent and wanted to treat the matter as a business transaction. Later, another member of our Party, having responded to the request of a small boy for cigarettes, was amazed to see a policeman stride up to the boy, _take the cigarette out of his mouth, and smoke it himself.

The luncheon at Moscow was a repetition of the Leningrad banquet, but there was no orchestra. The service was very bad, with long waits between the courses, and several trilling disputes arose on the score of over- charging for "extras." There is a great lack of small change, and unless one has the exact price of an article often one cannot buy it owing to lack of change. Here again soap and towels were expensive "extras." The sanitary equipment in the hotel is good, but rendered dangerous to health by an incredible and unmentionable custom, made neeessary, we were told, by the narrow gauge of the local drain pipes.

After luncheon we approached our guide with the sug- gestion that we should do some shopping. " The shops are not for foreigners," she said. We particularly wished to stand in one of the queues and go through the whole business of buying some ordinary commodity in the approved Russian way. We implored her to stop at a confectioner's shop where there was a long sugar queue. Our guide, privileged doubtless, disappeared for a moment into the shop, and emerged With permission for us to go in at the head of the queue, which we did much against our will. The crowd displayed complete indifference, and we wondered what would have happened in a London theatre queue in such a case. Once inside, we found everything unbelievably dear, a pound box of chocolates, the price of Which we asked, costing- the Russian equiva- lent to 88s. We then tried several antique shops stocked with looted goods similar to those in the dock pavilion at Leningrad.- There were no queues here. We learnt that after the Revolution furniture and objets d'art were available at ridiculously low prices. Now—although all such goods before being offered for sale are valued by experts, and the prices fixed—they may still be bought for much less than their real value, for apart from the National Museums, there is no use for these things in Russia to-day. But there is no bargaining. The fixed price must be paid.

Having spent some time in the shops we took a car to see some of Moscow's new model dwellings which have been erected on the outskirts of the town. The block we saw—from the -outside—compares favourably with those in Stockholm, but the building is not so high. Some of the tenants were taking their afternoon walks in the sur- rounding gardens, which are well laid out. Our guide told us that the telephone and radio formed part of the equipment of these new workmen's flats, but this we did not actually see.- "Considering," as the guide said, "that formerly many of these people lived, in cellars and in holes and corners, their lot is now a -very happy one.' We.also went to the Moscow Central Post Office, a most up-to-date building, efficiently run; the interior much resembled the post offices in large German towns. On the other hand, quantities of letters addressed to pas- sengers on the Carinthia ' at Leningrad were not sic- livered; and these were received by the addressees after they had returned to England.

On our return we noticed, on the banks of the Musk wa a high, wooden structure used as a sun-bathing stand, upon which a large number of people dressed in bathing costumes were sunning themselves.

We saw considerably more traffic in Moscow than in Leningrad. The taxi-cabs there are extremely dirty, and some looked almost as old as many of those on the London streets. We learnt, however, that actually they were comparatively new, but that they had been so badly treated, and the roads were so impossible, that their life was very short.

We discussed the servant problem with our guide. It is apparently still possible to employ servants in the U.S.S.R., although they are not known by that name. Employers pay a regular contribution for health insurance, and at the age of forty-five to fifty servants may retire they so desire upon a pension provided by the State. If a servant is unsatisfactory he may be dismissed after the usual formal notice has been given.

I think we saw as much as was humanly possible of Moscow in one day, and upon returning to the hotel for dinner we were frankly puzzled by what we had seen. This lightning glimpse of a novel political experiment in the working leaves the observer with the conviction that only a foreigner knowing Russian perfectly, and with the ability to conceal that fact, can get at the truth. The crowds which greeted us did not appear hostile, yet it cannot be said that they were friendly. The guides Placed at our disposal by the Russian authorities (as they are placed at the disposal of etiery foreign visitor, with or without his knowledge, no matter whether - he may go to Russia under official auspices or not) • are civil and courteous. But their answers to 'direct questions are certainly evasive.

After the " banquet " of the evening we sat on tlie first-floor balcony of the hotel, and watched the curious crowd (which had increased in numbers during the evening) assembled to witness our departure.