Chapter V: Part 5

At present the situation is bad. Russia is straining every
nerve to raise an army to oppose the encircling White
Guards. That the army is efficient is demonstrated by the
present location of Soviet forces who have contended with
the Russian White Guard supported by enormous sums of money,
munitions, and even soldiers from the Allies. Naturally,
transportation is inefficient; it was horrible in the last
year of the Czar's regime. Absolute separation from the rest
of the world, combined with the chaotic conditions which
Russia has passed through since the 1917 revolution, plus
the sabotage, which until recently was quite general among
the intelligent classes, including engineers, has resulted
in a decrease in rolling stock. The transportation of the
enormous army which has been raised limits the number of
cars which can be used for food. The cutting off of Siberia,
Finland, the Baltic Provinces, and until recently the
Ukraine, made it necessary to establish new lines of food
transportation. Consequently there has been great suffering
in Petrograd. Of the population of a million, 200,000 are
reported by the board of health to be ill, 100,000 seriously
ill in hospitals or at home, and another 100,000 with
swollen limbs still able to go to the food kitchens.
However, the reports of people dying in the streets are not
true. Whatever food exists is fairly well distributed and
there are food kitchens where anyone can get a fairly good
dinner for 3.50 rubles.

For money one can still obtain many of the luxuries of life.
The children, some 50,000 of whom have been provided with
homes, are splendidly taken care of, and except for the
absence of milk have little to complain of. In the public
schools free lunches are given the children, and one sees in
the faces of the younger generation little of the suffering
which some of the older people have undergone and are
undergoing. Food conditions have improved recently, due to
the suspension of passenger traffic and the retaking of the
Ukraine, where food is plentiful. From 60 to 100 carloads of
food have arrived in Petrograd each day since February 18.

Perhaps it is futile to add that my solution of the Russian
problem is some sort of recognition of the present
government, with the establishment of economic relations and
the sending of every possible assistance to the people. I
have been treated in a wonderful manner by the communist
representatives, though they know that I am no socialist and
though I have admitted to the leaders that my civilian
clothing is a disguise. They have the warmest affection for
America, believe in President Wilson, and are certain that
we are coming to their assistance, and, together with our
engineers, our food, our school-teachers, and our supplies,
they are going to develop in Russia a government which will
emphasize the rights of the common people as no other
government has. I am so convinced of the necessity for us
taking a step immediately to end the suffering of this
wonderful people that I should be willing to stake all I
have in converting ninety out of every hundred American
business men whom I could take to Petrograd for two weeks.

It is needless for me to tell you that most of the stories
that have come from Russia regarding atrocities, horrors,
immorality, are manufactured in Viborg, Helsingfors, or
Stockholm. The horrible massacres planned for last November
were first learned of in Petrograd from the Helsingfors
papers. That anybody could even for a moment believe in the
nationalization of women seems impossible to anyone in
Petrograd. To-day Petrograd is an orderly city--probably the
only city of the world of its size without police. Bill
Shatov, chief of police, and I were at the opera the other
night to hear Chaliapine sing in Boris Gudonov. He excused
himself early because he said there had been a robbery the
previous night, in which a man had lost 5,000 rubles, that
this was the first robbery in several weeks, and that he had
an idea who had done it, and was going to get the men that
night. I feel personally that Petrograd is safer than Paris.
At night there are automobiles, sleighs, and people on the
streets at 12 o'clock to a much greater extent than was true
in Paris when I left five weeks ago.

Most wonderful of all, the great crowd of prostitutes has
disappeared. I have seen not a disreputable woman since I
went to Petrograd, and foreigners who have been there for
the last three months report the same. The policy of the
present government has resulted in eliminating throughout
Russia, I am told, this horrible outgrowth of modern
civilization.

Begging has decreased. I have asked to be taken to the
poorest parts of the city to see how the people in the slums
live, and both the communists and bourgeoisie have held up
their hands and said, "But you fail to understand there are
no such places." There is poverty, but it is scattered and
exists among those of the former poor or of the former rich
who have been unable to adapt themselves to the conditions
which require everyone to do something.

Terrorism has ended. For months there have been no
executions, I am told, and certainly people go to the
theater and church and out on the streets as much as they
would in any city of the world.

(Certain memoranda referred to in the hearing relating to the work of Capt. Pettit in Russia are here printed in full as follows:)

MEMORANDUM

From: W.W. Pettit
To: Ammission, Paris.

(Attention of Mr. Bullitt.)

1. _Mr. Pettit's recent movements_.--On March 18 I left
Helsingfors for Petrograd and remained there until March 28
when I left for Helsingfors, at which place I received a
cable ordering me to report immediately to Paris. On the
29th I left again for Petrograd to secure some baggage I had
left. On the 21st I left Petrograd for Helsingfors. On April
1st I left Helsingfors for Stockholm and in Stockholm I find
a telegram asking me to wait until I receive further orders.

2. _Optimism of present government_.--On the night of the
30th and the afternoon of the 31st I had several hours with
Schklovsky, Tchitcherin's personal representative in
Petrograd. He was disappointed to think I was to return to
Paris, but felt certain that inasmuch as the orders
recalling me had been sent before Mr. Bullitt's arrival,
there was every possibility of my being returned to
Petrograd. He was most optimistic about the future and felt
that the Allies must soon take some definite stand regarding
Russia, and that the result of the Paris negotiations would
almost surely be favorable to the Soviet Government. He said
that the present war conditions and the limited
transportation facilities, with the shortage of food
resulting therefrom, had handicapped his government
enormously, and that everyone hopes that soon the action of
the allied powers will permit the establishment of normal
relations in Russia.

3. _Radios in re Bullitt_.--He has received at least three
radio communications from the American press in which Mr.
Bullitt's activities have been mentioned and this has tended
to encourage him. The last cablegram stated that Mr. Bullitt
was preparing a statement regarding conditions in Russia
which the press anticipated would go far toward dispelling
ignorance and misinformation regarding conditions in Moscow
and Petrograd.

4. _Hungarian situation_.--The Hungarian situation has also
gone far toward encouraging the present Government. Hungary
has proposed a mutual offensive and defensive alliance with
Russia. The fact that the Soviet Government has been
instituted in Hungary without bloodshed up to the present,
and with little opposition on the part of the people, has
also encouraged Schklovsky. He stated that the action of the
Allies in sending troops against Hungary was to be regretted
because of the bloodshed which would probably result.
However, he thought in the long run that the Allies would
find it a suicidal policy to try to suppress the Hungarian
revolution by force.

5. _The Ukraine situation_.--The soviet troops have taken
almost the entire Ukraine and this with the food supplies
which it will provide have strengthened the Soviet
Government. A friend who has recently returned from Peltava,
Ekaterinoslav, Kiev, and other southern cities, states that
food is abundant and cheap. The Soviet Government believes
that the French and Greek troops are withdrawing from Odessa
and going to Sebastopol. They anticipate taking Odessa
within the next few days.

6. _Esthonian situation_.--At least twice within the last
two weeks Esthonia has sent word to the Soviet Government
that it desired peace. The following four points have been
emphasized by the Esthonians: (i) That peace must come
immediately; (2) that the offer must come from the Soviet
Government; (3) that a fair offer will be accepted by the
Esthonians immediately without consultation with France or
England, who are supporting them; (4) that free access to
Esthonian harbors and free use of Esthonian railroads will
be assured the Soviet Government.

7. _The Lithuanian situation_.--It is fairly well understood
that the Lithuanian Government that is fighting the
Bolsheviks is not going to allow itself to be made a tool by
the French and British Governments to invade Russian
territory. The Lithuanian Government is desirous of securing
possession of Lithuanian territory, but beyond that it is
understood it will not go.

8. _The Finnish situation_.--The Soviet Government is in
close touch with the Finnish situation and has little fear
of an invasion of Russia from that direction. The Finnish
Army is without question a third Red; probably a half Red;
possibly two-thirds Red. There is even reported to be a
tendency on a part of certain of the White Guards to oppose
intervention in Russia. One of the Finnish regiments in
Esthonia has returned to Finland, and it is supposed that it
will assist the proposed revolution of the Finns in East
Karelia against the Soviet Government. The Soviet Government
has sent a committee to Helsingfors to arrange economic
relations with Finland, and it is said that this committee
carries threats of reprisals on the part of the Soviet
Government against the Finns in Petrograd unless the treaty
is negotiated. It is said in Petrograd that some of the
Finns have already left Petrograd in anticipation that the
Finnish Government will not be permitted to make any
arrangement with the Soviet Government because of the
attitude of certain of the allied representatives in
Helsingfors.

9. _Improvement in food conditions_.--The suspension of passenger
traffic from March 18 to April 10 has resulted in the Government
bringing to Petrograd 60 to 100 cars of food each day, and one
sees large quantities of food being transported about the city.
At Easter time it is hoped to be able to give 3 pounds of white
bread to the population of Petrograd. There also seems to be a
larger supply of food for private purchase in the city. Mr.
Shiskin has recently been able to buy 3 geese, a sucking pig, 2
splendid legs of veal, and roasts of beef at from 40 to 50 rubles
a pound, which, considering the value of the ruble, is much less
than it sounds. Shiskin has also been able recently to get eggs,
milk, honey, and butter, together with potatoes, carrots, and
cabbage. My bill for food for 11 days with Mr. Shiskin was about
1,300 rubles.

10. _Order in Petrograd_.--About three weeks ago there were
several strikes in factories in Petrograd and Lenin came to
talk to the strikers. Apparently the matter was settled
satisfactorily and the workers were given the same bread
rations that the soldiers receive. At the Putilov works some
400 men struck and part of them were dismissed. Both Shatov
and the director of factories said that there were no
executions, though the population the next morning reported
80 workers shot and that afternoon the rumor had increased
the number to 400. There is practically no robbery in the
city. Shatov left the opera the other night early because he
told me the previous night a man had lost 5,000 rubles and
it was such an exceptional thing to have a robbery that he
was going out personally to investigate the matter, having
some idea as to who was responsible.

11. _Currency plans_.--Zorin tells me that the Soviet
Government has or had printed a new issue of currency which
it is proposed to exchange for the old currency within the
next three months. The details of the plan have not been
completed but he thinks that an exchange of ruble for ruble
will be made up to 3,000; an additional 2,000 will be placed
on deposit in the government bank. That beyond 5,000 only a
small percentage will be allowed to any one, and that a
limit of possibly 15,000 will be placed beyond which no
rubles will be exchanged. Then the plan is, after a certain
period to declare the old ruble valueless. Zorin feels that
as a result of this plan the new ruble will have some value
and that the present situation in the country in which the
farmer has so much paper that he refuses to sell any longer
for money, will be relieved. This exchange would be followed
later on by the issue of still other currency the entire
purpose being the more equal distribution of wealth and the
gradual approach to elimination of currency.

12. _Concessions_.--It is asserted that the northern railway
concession has been signed and Amundsen tells me that all
negotiations were accomplished without the payment of a
single cent of tea money, probably the first instance of the
absence of graft in such negotiations in the history of
Russia. He says that Trepov, through his agent Borisov, at
Moscow, was the greatest opponent of the Norwegian
interests. Trepov was formerly minister of ways and
communications and is reported to have been refused a
similar concession under the Czar's government. Amundsen
claims that Trepov has made every effort to secure this
concession from the Soviet Government. I am attaching a
statement regarding a concession which is supposed to have
been granted to the lumber interests. There are rumors that
other concessions have been granted.

13. _Y.M.C.A._--Recently the Y.M.C.A. secretary arrived in
Petrograd, claiming to have come without authorization from
his superiors. He has been staying at the embassy but
recently went to Moscow at the invitation of Tchitcherin.
Schklovsky tells me that the American has plans for the
establishment of the Y.M.C.A. in Russia which he wanted to
put before the Moscow government. Schklovsky doubted that it
would be feasible to organize in Russia at present a branch
of the International association unless some rather
fundamental modifications were made in their policy.

14. _Treadwell_.--I have twice asked Schklovsky to secure
information regarding Treadwell, and he assures me that he
has taken the matter up with Moscow, but that apparently
they have had no news from Tashkent as yet. He promised to
let me know as soon as anything was heard.

15. _Attitude toward United States_.--The degree of
confidence which the Russians and the soviet officials show
toward our Government is to me a matter of surprise,
considering our activities during the past 18 months. There
seems to be no question in the minds of the officials in
Petrograd whom I have met that we are going to give them an
opportunity to develop a more stable form of government, and
they apparently look upon President Wilson as one who is
going to decide the question on its merits without being
influenced by the enormous pressure of the Russian emigrés
and the French Government. Doubtless part of this attitude
is due to the favorable impression created by Mr. Bullitt,
but much of it must be the result of information which they
have secured from the press. At the present moment the
United States has the opportunity of demonstrating to the
Russian people its friendship and cementing the bonds which
already exist. Russia believes in us, and a little
assistance to Russia in its present crisis will result in
putting the United States in a position in Russia which can
never be overthrown by Germany or any other power.

16. _Social work_.--I have recently sent a cable from
Helsingfors regarding health and sanitary conditions in
Petrograd, a copy of which I am attaching. I have spent the
past two weeks visiting schools and the children's home in
Petrograd. There are 30,000 children for whom homes have
been provided in the past nine months, and preparations are
being made to house 10,000 more. Homes of emigrés are being
taken over and groups of 40 children placed in them under
the care of able instructors; where the children are old
enough they go to school during the daytime. A beautiful
home life has been developed. The children are well fed and
well clothed, and there is a minimum of sickness among them.
At the present time, when so much disease exists in
Petrograd, and when there is so much starvation, the healthy
appearance of these thousands of children, together with the
well-fed condition of children who are not in institutions,
but are receiving free meals in schools, is a demonstration
of the social spirit behind much of the activities of the
present government. I shall send later a more detailed
statement of some of the interesting things I have learned
about this phase of the activities of the new regime.

17. _Conclusion_.--In this rather hastily dictated
memorandum which Mr. Francis is going to take tonight to
Paris I have tried to point out some of the things that have
interested me in Petrograd. Naturally I have emphasized the
brighter side, for the vast amount of absolutely false news
manufactured in Helsingfors and Stockholm and sent out
through the world seems to me to necessitate the emphasizing
of some of the more hopeful features of the present
government. Naturally the character of the Russian people
has not changed to any great extent in 18 months, and there
is doubtless corruption, and there is certainly inefficiency
and ignorance and a hopeless failure to grasp the new
principles motivating the government on the part of many of
the people. A people subjected to the treatment which
Russians have had during the last 200 years can not in one
generation be expected to change very greatly, but
personally I feel the present government has made a vast
improvement on the government of the Czar as I knew it in
1916-17. Without doubt the majority of the people in
Petrograd are opposed to allied intervention or revolution
and wish the present government to be given a fair chance to
work out the salvation of Russia. One of the most hopeful
symptoms of the present government is its willingness to
acknowledge mistakes when they are demonstrated and to adopt
new ideas which are worth while. Personally I am heart and
soul for some action on the part of the United States
Government which will show our sincere intention to permit
the Russian people to solve their own problems with what
assistance they may require from us. STOCKHOLM, April 4
1919.

SOCIAL WORK IN PETROGRAD

The wife of Zinoviev, Madame Lelina, is in charge of the social institutions in the city of Petrograd. This does not include the public schools, which are under another organization. Madame Lelina is a short-haired woman, probably Jewish, of about 45. She has an enormous amount of energy, and is commonly supposed to be doing at least two things at the same time. The morning I met her she was carrying on two interviews and trying to arrange to have me shown some of the social work she is directing. There seemed to be little system about her efforts. Her office was rather disorderly, and her method of work seemed very wasteful of time and effort, and very much like the usual Russian way of doing things. Bill Shatov, formerly organizer of the I.W.W., who is commissar of police for Petrograd and also commissar for one of the northern armies, introduced me to Madame Lelina, and accompanied me the first day on our visits. We were guided by a young woman by the name of Bachrath, who is a university graduate and lawyer, and since the legal profession has fallen into disrepute, has turned her efforts toward social work.

Under her guidance I spent three days visiting institutions. I saw a boarding school for girls, a boarding home for younger children, an institution for the feeble-minded, three of the new homes organized by the Soviet Government, and two small hospitals for children.

The institutions which Madame Lelina is directing are in two groups: First, those which she has taken over from the old Czar regime, and second, those which have been founded in the last 18 months. The new government has been so handicapped by the difficulties of securing food and other supplies, by the sabotage of many of the intelligent classes, and by the necessity of directing every energy toward carrying on hostilities against the bourgeoisie and the Allies, that there has been little opportunity to remodel the institutions inherited from the previous régime, therefore neither the strength nor the weakness of these institutions is to any great extent due to the present régime. Two of the institutions I visited were of this type, one happened to be very good and the other very bad, and in neither case did I feel that Lelina's organization was responsible.

An aristocratic organization under the Czar maintained a boarding school for girls. This has been taken over by the Soviet Government with little change, and the 140 children in this institution are enjoying all the opportunities which a directress trained in France and Germany, with an exceptionally skillful corps of assistants, can give them.

I inquired regarding the changes which the Soviet Government had made in the organization of this school. Some of the girls who were there have been kept, but vacant places have been filled by Madame Lelina's committee, and the institution has been required to take boys into the day school, a plan which is carried out in most of the soviet social and educational work. Much more freedom has been introduced in the management of the institution, and the girls at table talk and walk about, much as though they were in their own homes. The Soviet Government requires that certain girls be permitted membership in the teachers' committee, and the two communists accompanying me pointed to this as a great accomplishment. Privately, the teachers informed me they regarded it as of little significance, and apparently they were entirely out of sympathy with the innovations that the new government has made. Now all the girls are required to work in the kitchen, dining room, or m cleaning their own dormitories, and certain girls are assigned to the kitchen to over-see the use of supplies by the cooks. However, the whole institution, from the uniforms of the girls to the required form in which even hand towels have to be hung, indicates the iron will of the directress. In one class we visited the girls sat at desks and listened to a traditional pedagogue pour out quantities of information on Pushkin's Boris Gudonov. Occasionally the girls were called upon to react, which they did with sentences apparently only partially memorized. The spirit of the institution is behind that of our better institutions in America, and the spirit of the classroom is quite mediaeval.

The greatest objection which the teachers seem to have to soviet activities is the question of sacred pictures and religious observances. The chapel of the school has been closed, but in each room from the corner still hangs the Ikon and at the heads of many of the girls' beds there are still small pictures of the Virgin, much to the disgust of the representatives of the Soviet Government, who in many cases are Jewish, and in practically all cases have renounced any religious connection. Recently the Soviet Party has announced the fact that they as a party are not hostile to any religion, but intend to remain neutral on the subject. The attitude of the commissars apparently is that required religious observances should not be permitted in public institutions, and doubtless some of the inspectors have gone further than was necessary in prohibiting any symbol of the religion which probably most of the children still nominally adhere to.

The second institution I visited, which had been taken over from the old government, was an orphan asylum with some 600 children mostly under 10. It was frightfully crowded, in many places rather dirty, with frequently bad odors from unclean toilets. In one little room some 20 small boys were sleeping and eating, and I found one child of 2 who was not able to walk and was eating in the bed in which he slept.

Ventilation was bad, linen not very clean, a general feeling of repression present, slovenly employees, and, in general, an atmosphere of inefficiency and failure to develop a home spirit which one still finds in some of the worst institutions in America. The instructor who showed me this home realized its horrors, and said that the Government intended to move the children into more adequate quarters as soon as conditions permitted. In summer the children are all taken to the country. In this institution all the older children go out to public schools and there have been no cases of smallpox or typhus in spite of the epidemics the city has had this winter. Forty children were in the hospital with minor complaints. About 10 per cent of the children are usually ill.

The school for feeble-minded occupies a large apartment house and the children are divided into groups of 10 under the direction of two teachers, each group developing home life in one of the large apartments. There is emphasis on handwork. Printing presses, a bookbinding establishment, and woodworking tools are provided. Music and art appreciation are given much time, and some of the work done is very beautiful. This school is largely the result of the efforts of the Soviet Government. Careful records are kept of the children and simple test material has been devised to develop in the more backward children elementary reactions regarding size, shape, form, and color. The greatest difficulty is the impossibility of securing trained workers either for the shops or for the special pedagogical problems of the school. However, an energetic corps of young men and young women are employed, and they are conscious of the size of their problem and are already thinking of the difficulties of sending their students back into industrial life. In many of the activities of the Soviet Government, as well as in these institutions taken over from the old regime, I was dismayed at the inefficiency and ignorance of many of the subordinates. After talking to the leaders and getting some understanding of their ideals, an American expects to see these carried over into practice. One is liable to forget that the Russian people have not greatly changed, and that the same easy-going, inefficient attitude of decades of the previous regime still exists. No one knows this obstacle better than the members of the present regime. They realize that the character of the Russian people is their greatest obstacle, and change in the Russian conception of Government service is a slow process. Far from being discouraged, they point to their accomplishments with pride.

During the last nine months Madame Lelina has taken 30,000 children into Government homes and preparations are made to take 10,000 more during the next three months. The three new institutions which I visited are attractive suburban homes of wealthy emigrés. The Government has taken these over and is putting groups of 40 children in charge of specially selected and trained men and women. The older children go out to school. For the younger children kindergarten activities are provided and much time is spent out of doors. An atmosphere of home life has been developed which is surprising considering the short time the institutions have been organized and the difficulties they have had to contend with. This plan, which I am told is permanent, is a most encouraging feature of Madame Lelina's work.

Requests to have children placed in the Government institutions are turned over to a special corps of investigators. In each house there is what is known as a poor committee which must also approve the requests and the local soviet is required to pass upon the commitment of the child to an institution. The large number of children taken over by the city is due to the number of orphans and half orphans caused by the war and to the impossibility of many poor families providing their children with food during the recent famine. In cases where several children of a family are taken they are placed in the same home. Frequent opportunities for relatives to visit the homes are provided. The amount of sickness has been surprisingly low considering the great amount of disease in Petrograd during the last few months. In one group of 300 children there have been no deaths within the past nine months, and among all the children there have been very few cases of contagious diseases.

The difficulties which Madame Lelina faces are numerous. First, Russia has never had an adequate number of trained workers and many of those who were trained have refused to cooperate with the present regime, and, secondly, though the Soviet Government has adopted the policy of turning over to the children's homes and the schools an adequate supply of food, regardless of the suffering of the adult population, still it has been impossible to get certain items of diet, as, for instance, milk. It is true, however, that among these children one sees few signs of undernourishment or famine, and in general throughout the city the children seem much better nourished than the adult population.

I had planned to visit other institutions but was unable to do so. I was told of a large palace which has been taken over as a home for mothers. Here all women who so desire are sent after childbirth with their children for a period of two months.

The health department, which asserts that there are in addition to the 100,000 bedridden people in the city, another 100,000 who are ill because of undernourishment though able to go to the food kitchens, has been very successful in securing from the local soviets special food supplies to be provided sick persons on doctors' orders. At each food kitchen the board of health has a representative whose business it is to give such special diet as may be possible to undernourished individuals.

(Thereupon, at 12.50 o'clock p.m., the committee adjourned subject to the call of the chairman.)