CHAPTER III

Activities of the Russian Soviet Regime and its Sympathizers in the United States*

In order to appreciate the significance of the activities of the Russian Soviet regime and its sympathizers in the United States, a careful study should be made of those chapters of this report which deal with the Russian revolution, and the formation of the Third International. It must also be remembered that the Russian Soviet regime is founded upon the principles of International revolutionary Socialism and is simply an achievement of part of the plan for world-wide social revolution. It is the international character of this great movement which renders the activities of the agents of Soviet Russia in this country, and those who aid and abet them, a real menace to the institutions of this country.

For a number of years prior to the Russian proletarian revolution in 1917 a large number of members of the Social revolutionary party in Russia and the Social Democrats emigrated to the United States, coming in particularly large numbers after the unsuccessful revolution of 1905. Revolutionary organizations were formed in the Russian colony for the purpose of assisting the movement to overthrow the Czar in Russia and also to carry on an extended propaganda among the workers of this country in order to win recruits for the International Revolutionary cause. The activities of these radicals centered largely about the Russian Socialist Federation, which was a branch of the Socialist Party of America.

An official organ was established, published in the Russian language, called the "Novy Mir," which was edited by Nicholas Bucharin, now one of the foremost leaders of the Soviet regime in Russia. It was with this publication that Leon Trotzky was associated while staying in this country. Prior to the overthrow of the Kerensky government in Russia, the plans for the coming proletarian revolution in that country were fully discussed and perfected by revolutionary committees of the Russian Socialist Federation in the United States.

During his stay in America Leon Trotzky, then known as Leon Braunstein, was an active propagandist, delivering numerous See Addendum, Part I.

lectures before radical audiences throughout New York City and elsewhere. He appears to have been particularly welcome to the German Socialist groups at the Labor Temple. in 84th Street and Second Avenue, New York City, and in the Harlem River Casino, 127th Street and Second Avenue. He spoke in both the German and the Russian languages.

On February 2, 1917, in the course of a speech delivered at Beethoven Hall, 210 East 5th Street, New York City, he said:

"You do not want any militarism or any government which is not of any help to the working class, but which is always prepared ready to fire on the working class, and is the enemy of the working class. It is now time that you do away with it once and forever."

On the evening of March 26, 1917, Leon Trotzky delivered his last speech in this country, prior to his departure for Russia, at the Harlem River Casino, New York City. The audience consisted of about 800 German and Russian Socialists. Speaking in Russian, after having delivered an address in German, Trotzky said:

'Those who are going back to Russia are going to push the revolution ahead, and those that remain in the United States should work hand in hand in the revolutionary movement in order to bring about a revolution in the United States."

The admonition here given was fully in accord with the principles of revolutionary Socialism. On the eve of his departure to overthrow the democratic regime of Kerensky, Trotzky urged his comrades to continue their efforts to undermine the institutions of this country, so that a proletarian dictatorship might be erected on these shores. The object thus expressed more than three years ago has never been lost sight of by the leaders of the Russian revolution, and the subsequent conduct of its agents and sympathizers in this country has made perfectly clear their purpose to carry out the injunction thus given.

On March 27, 1917, Trotzky, accompanied by his wife, sailed on a Norwegian liner for Russia.

On the following evening at 534 East 5th Street, New York City, a meeting was held at which a committee was appointed to pass upon the character of Russian revolutionaries and

anarchists, who sought to return to Russia to help the revolution. At this time members of the Russian Socialist Federation, and those identified with the Union of Russian Workers and other anarchistic groups, worked in co-operation. At a meeting of the committee above referred to on the 30th of March, one Schnabel is reported to have said:

"I want to tell you comrades if you know anything about any of our comrades, or that they would do any harm to our movement, don't hesitate to tell us what you know about him. Don't wait until some of these dirty sneaks are sent to Russia to work in our movement and then tell us what you know."

The propaganda carried on by the Russian Socialist Federation met with a ready response from the other Socialist organizations throughout the country. Leon Trotzky was permitted to proceed to Russia, and the events leading up to the November revolution in which he participated have been previously described in this report.

During the early days of the war the machinery for investigation and information of Federal, State and local governments was not thoroughly perfected, and the activities of revolutionary Socialists and of propagandists were not closely followed, attention being centered upon the movements of German agents. For this reason the work of spreading revolutionary propaganda was carried on without attracting much public notice.

Conflicting and contradictory reports from Russia indicated that all was not well with the provisional government. The fall of Kerensky came as an unpleasant surprise to the general public, although those informed of the events transpiring in Russia knew that the weak and vacillating policy which he had adopted of necessity led to such a catastrophe.

The cause of the proletarian revolution was immediately espoused by Socialist and anarchist elements in this country. Their propaganda was aided by a number of newspaper correspondents and writers returning from Russia. Among these the most active were John Reed, Louise Bryant, his wife, and Albert Rhys Williams. John Reed returned to this country to assume the post of Consul-General of the Soviet regime. His activities were somewhat interfered with by the seizure of all his official documents by the Federal authorities; but he immediately

began a campaign in various liberal newspapers, and toured the country making speeches in which he pictured the Russian Soviets as a new social order destined to destroy the "effete" democracies of the western countries. Albert Rhys Williams, during his stay in Russia as a newspaper man, had also become enthusiastic over the revolution, and had joined the International Revolutionary Propaganda Bureau set up by the Soviet regime in Petrograd. He returned to the United States as an avowed propagandist for that regime, writing numerous pamphlets and making many speeches favoring the recognition of the Soviet regime by the United States, painting its great superiority over the principles of government in vogue in this country.

The work of these two propagandists was extremely well received in liberal circules, and added greatly to the number of sympathizers for the Russian revolutionary cause.

At the same time the opinion of the American public was still further clouded by public utterances of certain members of the American Red Cross Commission, as well as some returning members of the Y. M. C. A. These all spoke in the highest terms of the character and ability of Leon Trotzky and Nicolai Lenin, and also of the efficiency of the regime which they had set up. The utterances and writings of these persons were immediately seized upon by revolutionary groups in this country and widely distributed in all languages to the working classes for the purpose of proving that the Soviet regime was in fact a new and higher order of society.

The extremely wide publicity given to all these favorable statements respecting Soviet Russia has made it difficult to counteract the first impression created, and has enabled agitators to carry on revolutionary propaganda with impunity. The Russian revolution had occurred at a moment critical to the allied cause. The collapse of the Eastern front foreshadowed disaster in Flanders and along the banks of the Somme. It was extremely natural, therefore, that the American public was eager to receive information respecting the new regime set up in Russia, in order to determine whether or not it would continue the armed struggle against Imperial Germany. The opportunity thus given to revolutionary Socialists and those "intellectuals" who had espoused their cause to disseminate "information" about Soviet Russia was unlimited.

The opportunity for propaganda was further enlarged by the proletarian revolution which took place in Finland on the 27th of January, 1918. The government which called itself the Provisional Government of the People's Republic of Finland, although of extremely short life, established the first official, though unrecognized, mission in the United States. According to the testimony of Santeri Nuorteva, (who for a number of years had been a leading figure in the Finnish Socialist Federation, having a controlling interest in the "Raivaaja," official organ of that group, published at Fitchburg, Mass.), he received on February 19, 1918, a cablegram from Y. Sirola, asking him to act in the United States as representative of the newly formed Finnish government. (Pages 1535 et seq., stenographic minutes, Committee Hearings.) Mr. Nuorteva accepted the appointment; and although he received no specific instructions, organized the Finnish Information Bureau, with offices located at 299 Broadway, New York City.

It should be stated that the so-called People's Republic of Finland was a proletarian regime based upon the same principles as the Soviet regime of Russia.

An attempt was made to finance Nuorteva's Bureau by his European comrades, through the sending of drafts by messenger outside of the due course of the mails. Whether any money actually reached Mr. Nuorteva the Committee was not able to ascertain. When examined, Mr. Nuorteva stated that none had reached him. One of the messengers, carrying money for the Finnish Information Bureau, was Carl Sandberg, a radical poet. On his arrival in this country he was searched, and the drafts found among his effects for the Finnish Information Bureau were confiscated by the Federal authorities.

This situation reduced Mr. Nuorteva to the necessity of undertaking an active speaking campaign in order to raise money to support his bureau which issued a bulletin to a selected list of educators, members of the United States Congress and other persons of standing. Although Mr. Nuorteva posed before the American people as being solely interested in placing the truth respecting the Finnish revolution before the public, in reality he had constantly in mind the promotion of International revolutionary propaganda.