The Washington times., 1922-04-23
Petrograd d Mournful,
Ruined City; Built for
1000, 600, Now Has
5OO,O 600 Population


ace tenanted appearance. and
1t stands there like shell from
which the soul has departed. Car
ism Is forgotten, completely Grad
icated to the remote past, but,
nevertheless. when II was pro-
posed to remove all the monu-
mcnts of the Romanoff dynasty,
II was the masses who most ener.
getically protested, even going so
far as to demand that the scaffold-
ing erected for this purpose about
the statue OF Nicholas I be de-
molished.
Life, brutal as Il is in this
ruined city, is beginning to reas-
sert itself. I went to the Grand
Thsater and got a glimpse OF the
public Of today. Isadora Duncan,
the pet Of the Soviet government
in Moscow. danced in Petrogrsd
for the first time that evening. and
her dancing Of the 'Internationale'
was greeted with some Kisses, to
which she replied with some dras-
tic words about the bourgeois AIT
idiots.
'-The Duncan also dances the
internationally In Moscow, but
there abe reproves the parquet in
stead Of the gallery for refusing
TO join In the singing. These Ae
only slight nuances, but they
serve TO show the way the wind
ID blowing and to indicate that the
former royal residence stili re-
tsins q greater degree of tempera-
msnt than Moscow.
UPPER CLASSES SCATTER.
'-Thsre are q thousand things In
Russia from which the revolution
is running of like the water from
the sides Of . bathtub. The the.
atsrs in Petrogrsd. like those In
, Moscow. are running on q deficit,
but no one has the courage TO
close them. The people take pride
In them. ne thsy do In the newly
re-opened restaurants, and out OF
sheer pride At any and every
yhanat for the better they very
nearly forget the things that are
lacking.
''Petrogrsd also has its balls.
more elegant than those Of Mes
COW, was told. IN short. Petro-
grad remains the metropolis in
feeling and temperament-a me-
tropoiis with ons-fourth the popu-
iatiou Of Moscow and only about
one-tenth Of the class which for.
nnsrly determined the inner and
outer life Of the capital.
1T is almost Impossible 70 speak
OF the upper classes any longer In
Russia, as they are scattered TO
the four quarters Of Europe. Petro
grad society today II composed Of
the lower and lowest classes. 10 .
greater extent even than in MJs
COW. with the result that the small
remaining fragment OF the intelli-
rentsis clings all the more closely
together.
This class depends for It's news
OF International politics and events
upon living or pertpatetic news
papers-in other words, upon men
who travel and bring back neSs
withheld by the Soviet, sometimes
for obvious reasons. sometimes for
apparently mono at al. For in
stance, eight days after the sp-
pointment OF DR.. Rsthenau As
Germsny's foreign minister the
news had not penetrated TO Pstro-
grad.
IT attsnded one Of these gather
inss of the intsiiissntsis where
the red thread running through
the evenings discussions was
Frances policy. Poincare was at
tackled In every sentence. As far
as I understood. this analysis Of
the situation was based upon the
viewpoint gained from the Eng.
lish Liberal prsss and ipfluenosd
ny Keynes, . few copies Of whcs-
firvt book had Just been brought 10
Russia
the nsre Russia oornprshsnds
what the Versailles treaty and
the policy Of the victorious ccunr
tries rsaIly sisnifies, The stronger
In the conviction that the entente
IL capable Of only one policy 70.
wards Russia: Exploitation