IN Russia at last! Whichever way I look, I am filled with wonder. It is unlike any other country…From top to bottom they are rousing everybody up….

This Revolution was waiting to take place in Russia for a long time. Preparations have long been in progress; countless numbers of men, known and unknown have given their lives for it, and embraced intolerable suffering.

The cause for revolution is widespread, but it becomes concentrated in certain parts of the world: the skin reddens and breaks into boils in the weaker spots, even though the blood of the whole body is infected. It was in Russia that the destitute and the helpless endured untold hardships at the hands of the rich and the powerful. Hence it is in Russia that this extreme inequality between the two parties has sought a radical solution.

….The Revolution which brought the Tsarist rule to an end took place only in 1917, that is only thirteen years ago. Meanwhile they have had to fight against violent opposition both at home and abroad. They are alone, having to shoulder the burden of a ramshackle political system. The accumulated refuse of former misrule obstructs their path. The storm of civil war which they had to cross to reach the shores of the new age was fanned into fury by the secret and open help of England and America. Their resources are small: they have no credit with foreign merchants. Not having enough industries at home. They are powerless as producers of wealth. Hence they must live through their period of probation by selling their own food. At the same time the wastage of keeping in full trim the most unproductive part of the political machine, namely, the army is indispensable to them, because all the capitalist powers of today are their enemies and their armouries are full to overflowing.

I remember how the Soviet by their disarmament proposals startled the nations who professed love of peace. Because the Soviets do not aim at increasing power that is exclusively national – their task is to fulfill an ideal by building up as efficiently and widely as possible the education and health, the means and substance of the livelihood of the masses – their utmost need is undisturbed peace.

1930