Chapter I: WAS in Russia at the beginning of the war and during the

first months of conflict, and I witnessed the superb enthusiasm with which she rose to fight. Again I was in Russia last year, when, owing to the general shortage of shells west and east, Germany was able to turn her superiority to account by retaking Galicia and ravaging Poland, and I saw the humiliation almost amounting to despair of Russia then. And therefore returning once more to Russia in June, 1916, I could form a fairly just idea of the spirit of Russia to-day.

Last autumn, returning from Russia, I was bound to say I found Russia pessimistic, and though it is really bad form to be pessimistic, personally I certainly felt so myself. But all has gone well in the intervening period, and when I reached Russia this year I found her remarkably cheerful. My impression is that the Russians have settled down to a long war. It may last three or four years more, but they do not intend to worry. After the period of depression they are brightly optimistic again. Perhaps some are too optimistic and rely on mysterious prophecies as to the war finishing by Christmas, or think that the German people will revolt and give us an easy victory against a divided kingdom. One thing may be observed: the great work of French and English on the western front is now fully reported in the Russian Press. There are on an average two or three columns about us in the Russian newspaper. The Havas Agency is quoted, the _Times_, the _Manchester Guardian_, the _Westminster Gazette_, and other papers, very fully. It is possible for an Englishman in Russia to form a fair idea of each day’s news, so the Russian also can grasp it. That is a splendid improvement on last year when we got only those laconic non-committal communiqués which our smart English journalists can cause to blossom with occult significance for our English newspapers, but which in very truth translated into Russian merely gave the impression that we were doing nothing.

Russia feels us closer. The distance across is not so great. Day by day every one feels that we are all working happily together for one end and with one interest.

The visits of the journalists and the parliamentarians to the West have also helped a great deal. The journalists wrote their impressions very fully and expressed themselves with great enthusiasm. Their contributions on the subject lingered on throughout the summer. And now they are collecting their articles and re-issuing them in book form. Nabokof’s “From Militant England” has already had considerable success. Lectures have also been given. The members of the Duma and the Senate came back imbued with our enthusiasm, Radical and Conservative alike, and what they saw of our work was luminous in debate. On the whole the Russians have become much more warm and friendly towards us. They are obtaining a better understanding of our ideals, our character and national determination.

After the defeats of last autumn there sprang up a sort of intellectual sect, the _porazhentsi_, people who believe in defeat. These held that Russia stood to gain more by being beaten than by winning--a conclusion that the Russian soul is more ready to accept than we should be. Brusilof’s victories seem, however, to have dissipated this doctrine for the time being, and the _porazhentsi_ are little heard of this autumn.

Allied to this, however, has been a more important movement in favour of a self-dependent Russia. Why should Russia struggle out of German commercial bondage merely to fall into British hands? Why cannot she manufacture for herself, be enough unto herself in all departments? This sentiment has been very widespread. Russia has obtained the impression that the striving toward Russian friendship going on for many years before the war has been primarily with the idea of capturing Russian trade. Whereas as a matter of fact the impulse for friendship came first of all from literary and artistic England, then from England as a whole, and the business men were the camp-followers.

The question of Russia and trade needs very careful treatment in the Press. The phrase “exploiting Russia after the war” is obnoxious and almost devoid of real meaning. Many small merchants will be led to try and _exploit_ Russia after the war and will simply burn their fingers. All trade with Russia must be carefully arranged on broad principles to benefit both countries equally as before the war. Russia is the great producing country of the world and she needs a world market for her products--that Britain can obtain for her and that will be for the health of Russia and of the world. In return we shall send much to Russia, but not haphazard, and not shoddy dump, I hope.

Russian trade of all kinds is in a bad way just now and it is a trying time for Russian merchants--especially when they read frequently in their newspapers “Britain’s Record Month of Trade,” and the like. I think these joyful telegrams about our trade should be accompanied by an explanatory note to the effect that the greater part of that so-called trade is a matter of war materials and necessities. The figures really represent our tremendous activity in the Allied cause. War is a material waste, and every moment it is prolonged we lose heavily _materially_. And in this material sense we lose more than Russia loses. We have had more to lose. Our trade figures represent the height of our temperature in the war-fever.

Russia is suffering internally through the fact that she has had only two open ports of value--Archangel and Vladivostock--and she cannot import the manufactures she needs. The railways and the ships are needed for the transport of munitions and food for the Army. The Army comes first, the war comes first, and everything else must give way. The people in the background have a real share in the privations of the war. Disorganisation amounts at times to dislocation, owing to war needs. But the Russians bear things cheerily. All manner of new economic phenomena appear, and the Russians try measure after measure to remedy the troubles.

Practically every man of military age throughout the vast empire is either fighting or training. Before the war many had used influence to avoid military service, had obtained medical exemption on the slightest grounds. But there has been a thorough revision, and large numbers have been recovered. You see the new troops marching and drilling on the open places of the large towns, in camps on the steppes, and as the train takes you through the country you see boy-Cossacks prancing about on their ponies and practising with their lances.

Russia is altogether in the war and for the war. She is doing her utmost. And her spirit is good. It is well English people should feel that to-day. And from us should go out to this great people, suffering and struggling as we are, a great fellow-feeling of gratitude and generous affection.

X

RUSSIAN MONEY

BEFORE the war for £10 you received 94 roubles, but now you receive 150. Last year after the great Russian retreat the exchange stood at over 160, but banks refused to give more than a nominal exchange. And in order to stop traffic abroad and foreign speculation in Russian money it was forbidden by law for any one to take more than 500 roubles out of the country. Now, however, the new value of the rouble seems to have been accepted, and banks generally give the due exchange value. Although the rouble has slightly improved it is not anticipated that the paper money will ever regain its guaranteed gold exchange. Each Russian note is in the form of a certificate that the State Bank will pay in exchange for it a certain quantity of gold. That certificate has little value to-day, and it is an open secret that the Government buys gold at a rate which assumes a lower value for the rouble. People who have hoards of gold coinage--and they are many in Russia, for the people are disinclined to use banks--are keeping their gold, and their action is justified by the privileges which are already accorded those who can pay the Government in coin. It is expected by many that at the end of the war the rouble will be assigned a lower gold value.

One obvious effect of the depreciation of the rouble has been that all real estate and material belongings have increased in money value. If you have an estate worth 94,000 roubles before the war, it is now worth 150,000 roubles, and you are lucky if your fortune was in this comparatively more real form, of land. People, on the other hand, who were in debt have found the actual weight of the debt diminishing as money lost value. This has been particularly noticeable in the case of people who have mortgaged property. Suddenly it has been possible to sell the property at a high figure, pay off the debt, and still retain an unexpectedly large margin.

My friends the M.s have long wished to sell their large house in Vladikavkaz, but have held its value at what was in the old days an absurdly high figure. People used to laugh when the price was mentioned. But this year, “as if by miracle,” to use my friends’ phrase, a purchaser turned up, agreed to their price and completed the transaction in six hours. He was pleased and they were pleased. “What sort of a man was he?” I asked. “Oh, a sort of a Tartar,” they replied. He made a long way the better bargain, for he understood to what extent the rouble had lost value. On the other hand my friends paid off a big debt with these depreciated roubles, and there also they gained.

The people who have made money by the war are busy buying land and houses. This is reproachfully called land speculation, but is in reality commonsense action on the part of those who wish to make fast their wealth. When I paid a visit to Kislovodsk in the Caucasus, an extremely popular watering place in the mountains, I found a perfect rage of buying and selling property, brought about by this elementary change in values.

The public are still exhorted to pay for their railway tickets in gold, but are less inclined to do so than ever. There is reason to believe that there are a number of millions of gold coins being hoarded in the country. Friends have shown me their private supplies. When one reads of burglaries, there is often a mention of several hundreds of roubles in gold being stolen.

In the southern districts of the Empire German agents have appeared, offering 15 roubles paper for 10 roubles gold. In this way Germany is said to have collected a considerable amount of Russian gold. The traffic was discovered by the police in Russian Central Asia, where men were found to be carrying this gold into Persia and thence to Turkey and Germany in small hand-bags. Many arrests were made, including that of M. Poteliakhof, a rich Bokhara Jew and dealer in cotton, who was found to be deep in this nefarious trade.

Russia has no gold in circulation, but also she has no silver and no copper. Russian silver coinage became last year, at least in popular estimation, worth its weight in silver, and people began hoarding it; copper also was hoarded, and after the retreat from the Carpathians there were a series of small-change panics in the towns in the background. Many shops were sacked because the shopkeepers refused to give change; people travelled free on the trams because the conductors could not change their rouble notes. On other occasions you were obliged to accept sticky postage stamps as change. Thorough Government action swiftly followed, and paper tokens for all the small coins were introduced. Postage stamps without gummy backs were issued for 10, 15 and 20 copecks, a shilling note (50 copecks) was issued, and slips were printed for 1, 2, 3 and 5 copecks. How filthy this money became may be imagined. People gave it to beggars saying, “I give you this not because I pity your state, but because the money is so dirty.” Still this new paper was accepted without riots, and the people soon realised that it was more convenient than “sounding” money, and that five roubles’ worth of it could be put in a small purse without adding a considerable weight to one’s pockets. Thoughtful people welcomed it as teaching the ignorant that money had no value in itself, but only as a token of exchange. To-day one never sees a silver piece in Russia. All is being hoarded.

Perhaps, however, the war and the substitution of paper for coin has taught some people to care less for money. The Russian word is _dengy_, which is really a Tartar word. Indeed, where money is concerned the Russian is a bit of a Tartar and loves to feel the metal between his hands. If a substantial sum is mentioned, he nods his head and exclaims, “That is money!” as if he could see it being emptied out with a joyous clash on the table in front of him. Of course the people who see money that way always see it in small quantities. The Russian business man is crafty over small deals. I imagine his money sense fails him more or less in very large deals and financial operations. To the true financier money must be somewhat of an abstraction and high finance a sort of higher thought.

XI

WITHOUT VODKA, BEER, OR WINE

THERE is a great difference throughout the land, something unmistakable, and you cannot say that it is undefinable, you know at once what it is. Vodka has disappeared. Beer has gone. Wines are sold at the chemists’ only on presentation of a medical certificate endorsed by the police. So far from relaxing, the liquor prohibition vigilance has been increased, and districts to which the Tsar’s original _ukase_ did not apply, such as Russian Central Asia, have been taken in. You see smart officers sitting down to a bottle of _citro_, and it is rather a surprise that they do not grumble. Male complexions generally are becoming less red.

As a result of over two years’ temperance, violent crime has practically disappeared from whole countrysides, and when occasionally some brutality has occurred, the police have managed to bring to book not only the direct offender, but also the person who was secretly brewing the liquor. The spirit of peace has come into the industrial or mining village on the Sunday and Saint’s Day, where formerly there were often scenes of outrageous public hooliganism on the part of whole populations. Money has increased in the pockets of the poor. There is a higher standard of living; butter is being spread on the black bread. Peasant families are enjoying the eggs which formerly they would have sold for the money to buy drink. One of the reasons given for the shortage of food supplies in the great towns is that owing to the fact that the peasants find nothing on which to spend their money they will not sell their produce. Formerly they could buy vodka. Infant mortality is already very much on the decrease. On the whole, children seem better cared for, though Russian peasants are always inclined to be rather careless of these gifts of God. There is an outbreak of “fashions” in the village, and if you ask your cook or serving-maid she will tell you how cottons are being cut this year, though the details seem to have little reference to _modes de Paris_. There is a popular joke that the peasant women make a mistake in the word they employ for fine dresses. “Just look at the _snariadi_ (shells) I am wearing,” when they mean to use the word nariadi, a townspeople’s word for Sunday best.

There would also be much new reading in the village but for the fact that for the peasant there is as yet a dearth of printed matter. Children are sent to cry out to passing trains for newspapers, and one finds the wisps of old papers in one’s carriage and throws them on to the wind. They are eagerly picked up.

It is noticeable that the people are more active, less sluggish, particularly in the towns. There is an unwonted amount of energy in play. The suppression of vodka is good, but it would be absurd to say that the energies unleashed are entirely on the side of good. The old Adam can express itself in many ways. The wrong impulse merely prevented is not excised, it breaks out in another place. There is more gambling, more unrestrained sexual sin. I suppose no Tsar’s _ukase_ could clean up the Nevsky Prospect or Tverskaya, or stop love affairs with other men’s wives. But even if it could the sinful impulse would break out somewhere else with perhaps greater vigour.

I have been over thousands of miles of Russia this year, in town and in village, in the melancholy north and in the passionate south, and I can give authentic witness. There is no noticeable leak of vodka. Except in Archangel city, I saw no drunken man anywhere. There they were drunk with English whisky obtained from the boats in the harbour. The pilot taking boats out always expects a bottle of whisky as well as his three-rouble tip. All manner of people are, as a British captain expressed it, “bumming around for whisky.” I believe it is now probable that ships bound for Archangel will only be allowed to take a limited supply in future. Poor thirsty Russians, one can easily understand the wiles of those who think they can get it at Archangel!

_Shinkarstvo_, or illicit distilling and sale, has, it is true, broken out, as M. Kokofstef predicted when opposing the local option measure before the war. Alcoholic substitutes are prepared and sold in small quantities. There were several hundred prosecutions during the past year. But the police seem to have the suppression of this _shinkarstvo_ well in hand.

Some incurables have taken to methylated spirit, eau de Cologne, furniture polish, and some have died in consequence.

My impression is that enforced temperance in alcoholic drink is going to be permanent in Russia--at least as far as the Tsar’s reign is concerned. National sobriety is one of the ideals of the Tsar. It is not a temporary measure. Licences may be granted after the war on certain conditions, and the rich may have their wines again. But popular drinking is not likely to be reestablished unless some business Government should ever get into power having big alcoholic interests. But business governments are not likely there.

The chief gain to Russia from a military point of view must undoubtedly be held to be the great increase of efficiency in the nation. Their warm sociality always betrayed them heretofore. In Russian character and temperament the elimination of strong drink has not had the effect which it might be expected to have if introduced in this country. Here our efficiency, which is becoming higher than before, would probably be little affected by prohibition, but personal character and outlook on life would be changed beyond doubt.

I have had to answer publicly several letters on the subject of Russian Prohibition and I append one letter and answer as perhaps helpful generally. I am constantly asked to refute false statements concerning the sale of alcoholic liquor in Russia, but as replies take time to write I feel that the many temperance societies might well establish vigilance committees to correct false statements. A reference to the Russian Consul-General in London on the subjects generally elicits a simple confirmation of what I write on the matter.

_To the Editor of The Times._

“SIR,--In your issue of the 8th inst. Mr. Stephen Graham
writes: ‘No wine or beer ... is obtainable in Russia except
clandestinely, as at Archangel.’

“Mr. Graham’s knowledge of Russia is admittedly unique; he may be able
to explain, therefore, what is a puzzle to those who are interested in
the subject.

“I take from your Russian Section of October 28 the following excerpts:

“_Page 6._--‘The Imperial Duma, while generally prohibiting the
consumption of liquors containing alcohol, adopted an indulgent
attitude towards grape wine. On July 14 (27), 1915, the Government
imposed upon grape wine a small excise at the rate of 1 rouble 60
copeck per vedro. In the case of grape wine, consumption amounts to
40,000,000 vedros (120,000,000 gallons).’

* * * * *

“Then, again, referring to mild beer:

* * * * *

“‘This drink is supposed to contain not more than 1-1/2 per cent. of
alcohol, although it is manufactured almost without Excise inspection
and might easily be made stronger. The breweries are earning big
profits from the sale of this beverage, bigger even than their former
profits from beer; the State itself gets nothing.’

* * * * *

“Again, in the Returns of State Revenue, page 14, there is given as
receipts in 1916 from Liquor Excise, 41,322,000 roubles in 1916, as
against 18,084,000 roubles in 1915.

“Again, on page 15.--‘Profits of Liquor Monopoly, 503,904,000 roubles
in 1916, as compared with 30,718,000 roubles in 1915.’

“Can Mr. Graham reconcile the total prohibition which he affirms now
obtains in Russia with these excerpts, or are there some errors in the
figures which can be explained?

“Yours faithfully,
“H---- S. K----”

“----,
“_November 9_.”

The following answer was given:

_To the Editor The Times._

“SIR,--It is quite profitable to consider Mr. K----’s letter
because of the blurred notion of Russian temperance reform which is
prevalent in this country. It is most important that whatever opinion
we may hold regarding enforced temperance or other questions, we
should yet keep a clear picture of the current life of our Allies.

“I am now just six weeks back in England after a four months’ journey
in which I visited places so wide apart in the Russian Empire as
Ekaterina, in the far north, and villages of the Central Caucasian
range, in the south; and I stayed a while in Petrograd and Moscow,
Rostof, Orel, and other considerable cities, and I can say by the
evidence of my eyes that intoxicating liquor has disappeared. The only
drunken men I saw were in Archangel. Officers to-day sit down to talk
over a bottle of _citro_. In the restaurants you are given _kvas_, a
sort of fruity ginger-beer, which in truth is not allowed to have more
than 1-1/2 per cent. of alcohol, and is in no sense a beer.

“The article in the Russian Section is by the Petrograd Correspondent
of _The Times_, and consists chiefly of extracts from an article by
the Russian Professor Migulin. I find the phrase in the translation
is ‘malt beverage,’ and not ‘mild beer,’ as Mr. K---- puts it; and
I think it refers to a beverage something like birch beer as sold
in America, a sort of empty symbol of beer taken not because it is
pleasant but because one must order something with one’s meals. It has
no alcoholic reality, is sold in bottles, and is of a standardised
taste and quality.

“As regards wine, it must be remembered that in the Caucasus, in
Transcaucasia, and in Russian Central Asia there are wine industries,
wine is the local popular drink, not tea as in Russia proper. This
wine is usually kept in skins and sold in pots. There is also a
bottling industry, but the export of this wine from these remote parts
of the Empire to Russia proper has been prohibited except in cases of
specially guaranteed orders.

“I believe British and American and other foreign subjects are
allowed to purchase wine for their private use on the presentation of
a certificate. Professor Migulin appears to be advocating a State
monopoly in the sale of wine on the ground that ‘only on condition
of a State monopoly would it be safe to allow the free circulation
of grape-wine; otherwise under the guise of wine vodka will again
make its appearance.’ For the phrase ‘grape wine’ read ‘grape juice.’
Professor Migulin’s figures are apparently incorrect--the population
of Russia is not consuming a gallon of grape-juice per head in
addition to what it drinks in the way of _citro_, _kvas_, _narzan_,
birch beer, etc.

“As regards the revenue returns, may I make the following remarks:

“1. Although the sale of alcohol in the form of drink has been
abolished, the manufacture continues in perhaps larger quantities.

“Enormous quantities have been exported to France for use in the
manufacture of high explosives, and I do not need to say more than
that on the head of the extensive industrial uses of alcohol.

“2. In the figures of profits of liquor monopoly are included (_a_)
debts recovered; (_b_) sums brought in after the winding-up of big
shops where the accounts were not simple; (_c_) sale of vodka in
Russian Central Asia and Transcaucasia (lately prohibited in both
these districts also); (_d_) sale abroad; (_e_) the sale in Government
shops of Caucasian mineral waters, now very extensive.

“3. Under the heading Liquor Excise is included the tax on mineral
waters, grape-juice, etc., tax on real wine in Central Asia and
Transcaucasia, on wine specially supplied for foreign consumption, on
wines allotted to chemists for medical purposes, etc.

“4. The great increase in the returns is due to the tax on
non-alcoholic drinks and Government sales.

“5. In these revenue returns the classification and nomenclature is
not scientific, and the primary intention is to give a rough guide to
the figures of the Budget.

“I hope these remarks do something to clear away the doubt in the minds
of students of figures and papers. For the rest I can only reiterate
the evidence of my eyes--Russia is without spirits, beer, or wine, and,
if I may add it, she does not feel in any way persecuted or tyrannised
over because of it.

“Your obedient servant,
“STEPHEN GRAHAM.”

XII

GAY LIFE