New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-07-26
Paci6st Agitator and Al
legged German Spy Is
Seized in Finland
Faces Death Penalty
Radical Socialist, if He Es-
capes Shooting, Probably
Will Be Isolated

tBy The lnited fress
Petrograd. July 25.-Nicholas Le-
nine, pacifst agitator, alleged German
spy and fugitive from Petrograd since
July %, has been arrested after the
greatest man hunt Russia ever knew
Lenine was seized at Ozerki, Fin
land, on Tuesday morning. News OF
his apprehension did not reach here
until to-day.
The whole nation has been engaged
in the man hunt since the pacihst
agitator was condemned by the gov
eminent as a paid German agent. In
almost every town in Western Russia
soldiers and townspeople were making
a house-to-house search for the men
who formerly swayed street audiences
in Petrograd. Steklov, Lenine's closest
associate, was the first fruit OF THIS
nationwide search. He was taken IN
custody in a Finnish town.
Denies He Is German Agent
To-day's issue of Maxim Gorky's
newspaper printed letter from Le-
nine denying he was German agent
Information that the Russian Provi-
sional Government had decided to ter
inmate the apparent pro-German &C
tivities Of Nikolai Lenine, the Radical
Socialist leader, by arresting him and
many Of his followers has reached the
Russian Information Bureau here.
These advices indicate Lenine prob
ably will be shot if he is convicted as
p spv working in the interests Of Ge,,
many. but that if not convicted ne VIII
eb isolated for the duration OF the war
This last measure, 1t is explained mere
would be adopted as a precautlon
against the presence Of "a crazy man
in politics at this crisis"
So far as information received by
the bureau shows, no evidence mas
been uncovered in Petrograd TO con-
firm the statements duplicating Lenlhe
as an agent of the German General
staff although the Provisional Gov
ernment's determination to take Lenine
into custody leads Russians here to
I
that he has been guilty of taking Ger
man gold.
Too Dangerous for Russia
It is explained that the Provisional
Government, anxious to avoid any &C
cusation of interference with freedom
of speech or of the press, has hereto
fore hesitated to arrest Lenine, but
that in recent days his activities
reached the point where the officials
determined not to tolerate them any
longer, regarding them as more dam
gerous for Russia and her liberty than
the German armies without"
Lenine, whose right name is Nladi-
mir Hitch Ulianoff, is described by the
Russian Information Bureau as "a man
with a record"-a record which before
the revolution commanded respect
throughout his country.
His book, "The Development OF
Capitalism in Russia" is regarded as
one of the most valuable contributions
to Russian economic literature, and his
articles on agrarian, economic and
scientific problems won him high place
in the estimation Of Socialists and
scientists alike.
In connection with his believed pro-
German activities documents declared
to have been found recently in the
records of the former Emperor
Nicholas's department of police are re-
garded by Russians as significant.
These documents show, according to
information here, that while a Social
ist named Malinovsky was leader of the
Social Democratic faction of the Third
Duma, about FIVE years ago, he was on
the payroll of the Emperor's police.
Presumably leader of the opposition
and elected by the workers to represent
them, he was in reality, according to
this purported evidence, acting for the
Emperor as an agent secretly paid to
confuse and disrupt the opposition.
Lenine's Right-Hand Man
II is recalled by Russians here that
Mainovsky at that time was known as
1enine's right-hsnd man, and the dis
cbvery now of documents indicating
Malinovsky's duplicty is said to have
strengthened the Provisional Govern
ment's suspicion that Lenine and his
followers are in one way or another
connected with the German spies known
to have invaded Russia since the revo-
luton. These are estimated here to
number tens of thousands.
Russians who, endeavoring to be just
to Lenine, are at the same time loyal
to the Provisional Government, profess
to believe Lenine is mentally unbal-
anced, according to the Russian Infor-
\ nation Bureau. Officials of the Provi-
sional Government are said to be ready
TO accept this theory in the absence Of
definite proof that he is spy, and to
be prepared to restrict his punishment
to isolation unless such proof is OBJ
tanned.
Shortly after the revolution Lenine,
returning from exile in Switzerland,
declared his position against the Pro-
visional Government.
Lenine is about fifty years old, Rus
sian born, of an intelligent family long
identified with revolutionary activities.