Russia in 1919

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This book describes the economic, social and political situation Arthur Ransome saw during his visit to Russia in February and March of 1919. Underlining the description of these events is the wrenching famine in Russia caused by the Civil War. In this work Ransome interviews several prominent members of the Soviet government as well as ordinary citizens of Soviet Russia.

While Ransome’s support of the Soviet society is evident in his critical but encouraging look at this new government struggling through a civil war, what is not evident is that Arthur Ransome was a British Secret agent working with MI6! (Biography) Nevertheless, in some ways this only increases the historical value of this work; being an apolitical individual in the search for information.

Note that the author refers to dates before 1918 in the European, not Russian, sense. Before 1918 Russia used the Julian calendar. After 1918 the Soviet government switched Russia to the Gregorian calendar. Thus, when the author refers to the March revolution, in Russia it was the February revolution; and similarly when he refers to the November revolution, in Russia it was the October revolution.

Contents:

Introduction
To Petrograd
Smolni
Petrograd to Moscow
First Days in Moscow
The Executive Committee on the Reply to the Prinkipo Proposal
Kamenev and the Moscow Soviet
An Ex-Capitalist
A Theorist of Revolution
Effects of Isolation
An Evening at the Opera
The Committee of State Constructions
The Executive Committee and the Terror
Notes of Conversations with Lenin
The Supreme Council of Public Economy
The Race with Ruin
A Play of Chekhov
The Centro–Textile
Modification in the Agrarian Programme
Foreign Trade and Munitions of War
The Proposed Delegation from Berne
The Executive Committee on the Rival Parties
Commissariat of Labour
Education
A Bolshevik Fellow of the Royal Society
Digression
The Opposition
The Third International
Last Talk with Lenin
The Journey Out

https://www.marxists.org /

Russia in 1919