A Red Letter Day

Seven years ago* the Kerensky Provisional Government fell and the Bolsheviki seized power on the crest of a wave of slaughter.

In Moscow, the anniversary was celebrated solemnly, ceremoniously, peacefully, for three whole days. The city was draped in cloth of red. Not a street was there that did not exhibit a picture of Lenin, Karl Marx or Trotzky. Red Army and Red Navy recruits took the Red oath of allegiance to the Red Government. Red troops paraded the streets; the Red proletariat applauded. Red orators spoke thus:

Trotzky, Commissar of War: "We are entering on an epoch of aggressive development of American militarism which follows the same policy of expansion as pre-war German militarism. . . . In reality, American capitalism and its militarism are the sole cause of the World's unbalanced state and anarchy. United States militarism is now rising as an offensive, unruly and destructive force, carrying by its advance bloody coups d'etats and commotions. . . .

"World Bolshevism is the sole real serious enemy of imperialism in general and particularly of the aggressive American imperialism. Hence the enmity of the United States toward Soviet Russia."

Lunacharsky, Commissar of Education, artist, litterateur, usually spoken of as a mild-mannered moderate: "I believe the Russian people and their posterity will always acknowledge that the Red Terror was the best page in Soviet history.

"If the revolution has not met with its expected response in Western countries, it has succeeded in Russia and is a living example to all the workers of the World of what can be accomplished by unity of the proletariat. The Bolsheviki do not lack humanitarian feelings, but the methods they employed in the revolution, such as the Red Terror, were absolutely necessary.

"I am sure that the revolution in the Western countries will come."

In London, the Seventh Anniversary was celebrated with Bolshevik pomp at Chesham House, whilom abode of the Imperial Russian Embassy, by Charge d'Affaires and Madame Christian G. Rakovsky.

Invitation had been extended to Premier Baldwin, many officials of the British Foreign Office, the Diplomatic Corps.

The hour of the reception arrived. At the top of the famous staircase where the Tsar's Ambassadors used to receive the elite, stood M. and Mme. Rakovsky in front of a bust of Lenin. The first to arrive was H. G. Wells, followed by G. B. Shaw, Arthur Henderson, George Lansbury, Oswald Mosley, radical son-in-law of Marquis Curzon.

The Diplomatic Corps was represented for the most part by junior officials. Premier Baldwin did not appear. His absence was more than made up for by the presence of typists and laborers.

In place of the gorgeous toilettes and magnificent uniforms worn in the Tsar's time, men and women came in street dress, a few in evening clothes. The fashion among the women was said to be sweater, blouse, skirt.

In Austria, which recognizes Russia, the Russian Ambassador also held a reception. All the foreign diplomats with the exception of those accredited by the U. S. and Rumania were present.

*The government of Russia was seized by the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd (now Leningrad) Soviet on Oct. 25, 1917. Last year, the Bolsheviki replaced the Julian Calendar with the Gregorian and the Bolshevik Bastille Day or Fourth of July was celebrated on Nov. 7.