As people recalled Lenin

THEY KNEW HIM — Reminis-
censes of Foreign Contempor-
aries (Progress Publishers,
Moscow, 1968) Distributed by
Progress Books, Toronto,
price $1.50.

Dialogue, challenge, interview:
the tempestuous times from
Lenin’s return to Petrograd in
1917 to his death in 1924 have
been recaptured in this- collec-
tion of writings of 40 North
American and European person-
alities who knew Lenin, Their
personal reactions depict many
reactions: the surprise at his
personal modesty, yet his inci-
siveness, his steel will as a revo-
lutionary, his powers of
intellect — his generosity and
‘complete humanity — so much
the opposite to that which the
world was accustomed in a
leader, but so much a greater
man than the world had yet
known.

William T. Goode, correspon-
dent for the Manchester Guar-

OWian wrote: that he had met
‘many people in many countries
that the world called great. Not
about any of them, he wrote,
can I say what I can say right-
fully about Lenin:

He was a man,

take him for all in all, .

I shall not look upon his
like again.

French trade union leader,
Gaston Monmousseau, says:

“T had imagined Lenin as a

, giant, an unusual person with a
gaze that would make anybody
flinch.

“Yet on entering his study I
saw a man outwardly in no way
differing from other people:
baldheaded with a small reddish
beard-and a kind smile in which
there was not even a hint of
superiority or condescension to
those around him.”

“... FIRST IMPRESSION

Robert Minor, American Com-
munist, tells of his first glimpse:
“When Lenin was pointed out to
me, my whole sense of propor-
tion, so to speak, was upset.
Lenin turned out to be a short
modest-looking man,. dressed
very simply, with an ordinary
cap, and without even the top-
boots which were very much
worn at the time. I was struck
by the animation of his features,
the way that they changed when
he was engaged in conversa-
tion.”

Minor once sent a 12-year old
youngster with a letter to the
Kremlin, explaining that he
must deliver it'at once to Lenin,
wait for a reply, and come back
right away. The lad was off
quickly, but to Minor’s: dismay,
returned many hours Iater.

“Oh,” said the youngster, “I’ve
been talking to Comrade Lenin.”

It turned out that the boy had
refused to give the letter to any-
one but Lenin: he had waited
till the end of a meeting to-see
Lenin, and then Lenin had kept
him for some time asking about

how the children of fallen Red

Army men were being looked

after.

Minor wrote explicitly about
how Lenin worked, and how he
organized his time. “Hexknew
hew to make the other fellow
talk while he did the listening;
he avanted to get in touch with
people from abroad; he wanted
to know what was happening,
and what were the moods of

. the workers. See a
= a, 1 yer m i
Pe ee

Be

“I once made quite a faux pas:
In my surprise at Lenin finding
time to see me and settle in a
few minutes a question which I
could not get other people to
settle in as many days, I-ex-
claimed: ‘Comrade Lenin, ‘you
have more time than anyone in
all Moscow’. Of course I did not
mean this literally, but Lenin
raised his eyebrows. ‘No, Com-
rade Minor,’ he said, ‘I have no
more time than other people’.”

SPOKE TO ALL

Many of these contemporaries
who write in this slim volume
of reminiscences, tell again and
again, how on going to his
study, Lenin turned directly to-
wards them in his own arm-
chair, broke the ice, set them at
complete ease, and started them
talking. The speakers said that
his piercing blue eyes took in
everything that they had to say.

Often at congresses he was
surrounded by many ‘people,
with petitions, enquiries, pro-
posals, and pet schemes. Lenin
heard everyone out. He spoke to
all, including the young people,

always as an ‘equal among
equals, never presuming on his
position, but always arguing

cleariy and lucidly, gaining his
authority from his interpreta-
tion and his answers to prob-
lems.

Today we reject authoritarian-
ism, but certainly not authority.
Louise Bryant, American jour-
nalist, made this distinction in
her Mirrows of Moscow, pub-
lished in 1923:

“Whatever inward storms
arose he was impressive because
of his. outward serenity, be-
cause of his calm . . . Without
any fuss he took power, faced
world opposition, civil war, di-
sease, defeat and even success.
Without fuss he retired for a
space, and without fuss he was
returned again. His quiet author-
itativeness inspired more confi-
dence than could any amount of
pomp.”

His warmth towards people
never failed him, but it did not
give him false sentiment. He was
capable of tearing. an. incorrect

position to shreds — but with-
out malice.

CONVINCED HEARERS
Terracini, an Italian comrade,

- tells of the manner in which his

political theses were crushed in
an almost accusatory speech at
the third meeting of the Comin-
term.

“Lenin, while speaking, did
not stand still, but moved about
with his eyes scanning the large
audience — and each time his
eyes came to rest on me — and
was not embittering or humilia-
ting, but inspired me and gave
me courage. He was like the
surgeon, who, to cure the pa-
tient, must somehow cut up the
body. I found that I concentrat-
ed on the brilliantly argued and
clear-cut lesson of Marxism in
practice which was argued be-
fore me. '

“At the end of the session I
found myself face to face with
Lenin, who spoke to me with a
calm and friendly smile, ‘“‘Com-
rade Terracini, we must be
shrewd and wise,” he said.

Today the tinsel of the image- :

makers has become‘ more sus-

pect than ever. At that time Al-

bert Rhys Williams, American
progressive journalist, succintly
summed up the “word artists”
that “dazzle and mesmerize the
people, blinding them to the ug-
ly realities.”

STAMP OF SINCERITY

“Lenin is the very opposite:
the stamp of sincerity is on all
his public utterances. Lenin is
lacking in the usual outfit of the
statesman-politician—bluff, glit-
tering verbiage and success-psy-
chology. One felt that he could
not fool others even if he desired
to. And for the same reasons
that he could not fool. himself:
his scientific attitude of mind,
his passion for the facts.

“These he weighed, sifted, and
assayed. Then he utilized them
as a strategist, a master chemist
working in social elements, a
mathematician. He would ap-
proach a subject in this way:
‘Now the facts. that count for us
are these: one, two, three, four—
and the factors against us are
these .. .’ ‘Are there any others?’
he would ask, and proceed with
the calculation of his problem.”

HIGH SPIRIT

Something of his personality
emerges from the writings of
Finnish friends with whom he
stayed in the summer of 1917,
when he was journeying through
Finland on his return to Petro-
grad. Although he was in danger
of constant~arrest Kustaa Rovio
writes, ‘“f never for a moment
saw him in the least nervous. He
was always in high spirits.
Whenever he heard anything
amusing he laughed  whole-
heartedly. At the same time he
worked regularly and assiduous-
ly.” His simple habits, which
stayed with him all his life,
prevailed. When his “landlord”
wanted to bring home dinners
from the co-operative dining-
room, Lenin demurred: ‘‘There is
a gas stove here, and I can boil
water for eggs and for tea. That
is sufficient ”

They Knew Lenin might even
more appropriately have been
entitled: We Knew Lenin. For in
the words of the friends of this
time, a picture of a warm human
personality emerges. In telling
us of this personality, the book
is-invaluable.

UNREPENTANT AGGRESSORS:
An Examination of West Ger-
man Policies by D. N. Pritt;
Seven Seas Publishers, Berlin;
distributed in’ Canada by Pro-
gress Books, Toronto. 235 pages;
$1.50.

Since the September elections,
and the coming to power of the
Social Democrats in alliance
with the Free Democrats, West
German policy has been marked
by a welcome note of sobriety.
This has been reflected in the
opening of high level diplomatic
talks with the Soviet Union, and
with People’s Poland, and most
recently by the unprecedented
meeting of Premier Wijli Stoph
of the G.D.R. and Chancellor
Willy Brandt of the Federal Re-
public in Erfurt.

However, it is important to
examine thesg. developments
themselves with a certain note
of sobriety lest there should
arise ideas that a lasting detente
in Europe is already won.

This is what makes the book
under review still so timely

even though it was written in

the autumn of 1968 before the
most recent developments.

D. N. Pritt, Q.C. a former La-
bor Member of Parliament for
Hammersmith, has for decades
placed his great legal talents at
the service of the people. 35
years ago he won world renown
as the chairman of the Reich-
stag Fire Inquiry Commission
which informed the world of the
role of Hitlerism in Germany at

. that time.

The present book. is a fact-
filled restatement of the sys-
tematic violation of the Potsdam
Agreement which has _ taken
place in West Germany since
World War II. He tells of the
Nazis in the government: in the

army, the police, the courts, and .

in the schools poisoning the
minds of the young; he traces
the history of West German
foreign policy through a quarter
century with its constant de-
mands for the restoration of the
1937 borders, at the expense of
the peoples of the Soviet Union,
Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the
German . Democratic Republic.
He tells of the unrelenting pres-
sure for nuclear weapons: and
of the vast encouragement given
by West Germany’s imperialist
rulers to the new Nazi party —
the so-called National Democra-
tic Party..There is 4 particularly
illuminating chapter on _ the
emergency laws passed in. 1968,
with Social Democratic compli-
city, which provide the “legal”

basis for the restoration of fas-
“cism. ;

In‘ all this he repeatedly gives
us useful reminders of the
checkered past of Willy Brandt,
as, for example, that gentleman
defense of the appointment of

old Nazis to the GFR’s dip
matic corps, when he _ him
was foreign minister in coalll
with the Christian Democl
Said Brandt on Sept. 12, 19
“Anybody who was able to
resent the Third Reich as !
ly as the Weimar Republic
the German Federal Republi¢
loyally as the Third Ret
should have no difficulty in
resenting to the world
changing development of °
democratic Germany. There
been no break, only the expl
sion of a developing policy:
But the “changing develd

ments” changed more
Brandt had thought, and
German people have _ prov

more “democratic” than he ™}j
ticipated. (

Pritt’s book is a report | ft
only of black deeds, it is als?
report on the mounting, #
courageous. struggle of mas") ;
of West German people agai ;
militarism, revanchism and ik
Nazism. Paying full tribute | |
the profound: impact of the
man Democratic Republic —! |
first state of peace and soc |
on German soil—he also tells") |
of the leading role in the fig
for democracy played by imPU |
tant sections of the West {
man trade union movement, i !
ably the metal workers: W
have been decisive in fort!
modifications of policy in eh
Social Democratic leader
He speaks of the new an
couraging participation of Ss!
ents in the movement ag@)
war, He recounts the long
of the West German Com
ists for legality, ending with
formation of the German
munist Party as a legally
tioning party just as the P|
was going to press. be

He concludes; ‘‘What is 1
done to avert the danget
West Germany? The resp
bility rests primarily, of C° A
on the people of West Germ@s) |
but it rests on others too. ive (
Britain cannot remain pass (
just relying on West Germal if
position and on the strenet
the peace-loving states and ig
ples, even though that strene,
is far greater than it was 19) og)
1939. We owe an impel@
duty to ourselves and to hum
ity to play our full part, a
exercise all possible pressulé
our government and parliam
at present committed to t we
port of NATO and thus of
Germany in their costly pal
dangerous anti-Socialist
cies.” dul)

What Pritt says of the ~ |
of the British people, oe of
said equally of the peoP 90!
Canada who have lost 60:0". if
their sons in this centuly i) |
wars which: began from
soil. (N.C.)

Friends
parts
“many happy returns’ to Paul
beson on his 72nd birthday on
9. Great athlete, singer of wor
nown, Paul Robeson was among |
first heralds of the black liberate ai
movement in the U.S.A. and @ Poy
erful voice for peace, internatl?
ism and :
world. Canadians welcomed hint
his visits here time and agaif ‘
today we wish him health and
Piness on his birthday as one 9
cwn.

PAUL ROBESON IS 72 |

{I
m@
pind.

Re |

and admirers fro
of the world are wis

a,
id 1 JI
the |

(

; é
social progress 1% 9 }).
d

hop |
fo)

pwn,

DAG