The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-01-14
MEMORIES OF LENIN
.TOLDB BY KRUPSKAYA
Personal "reminiscences of the Leader of the
World Proletarian Revolution
BY NADEzHDA X. KRUPsKAYA

BY NADEZHDA X. KRUPSKAYA
The following are excerpts
from Volume ii of Memories of
Lenin," by his widow and CO.
worker. The book will be made
available soon by International
Publishers.)
AFTER our arrival in Petrograd, I
n saw little of Ilyich Lenin). He
was working. at the Central Com
nittee and in Pravda, and attend
ing meetings.
On April 10 MAY y Ilyich took
part in the May Day demonstration
and spoke both on the Okhta and
on the field of Mars. I did not
hear him as l was so i'll that day I
could not get up. When 1lyich re-
turned l was surprised at his ex-
cited appearance. When we lived
abroad we generally paraded on
May Day, but May Day by police
permission is one thing, and the
May Day of the revolutionary
masses, the masses who had tri-
umphed over tsarisn, was different.
On April 81 1 had to meet Ilyich
at Eanskoys. I had the address,
Stare Nevsky 3, and I walked the
whole length of the Nevsky. A
large workers demonstration came
from the Nevsky Gate. Workers
who were crowding on the sidewalk
greeted the demonstration. Let
us 60" called one young working
woman to another. "Let us go, we
will march all nightP' Another
crowd wearing hats and bowlers
moved towards the workers DEM
onstration; they were greeted by
other people with the same head
gear on the sidewalk. The workers
predominated nearer the Nevsky
Gate, but nearer to Morskaya Street
and Poitseysky Bridge the bowlers
and hats were more numerous. The
story was passing from mouth to
mouth of how Lenin had bribed the
workers with German gold and now
all were following him. I'VE must
beat Lenin!" shouted a stylishly
dressed girl. kill all these scoun-
drels," someone in q bowler roared.
Glass against classl The working
class stood for Lenin.
THE APRIL
CONFERENCE
From April oath to the 18th the
All-Russian Conference, known as
the April Conference, which finally
united the BolshevikS, took place
A hundred ana fifty-one delegates
attended. A new Central Commit
tee was elected. The questions that
were discussed were of extraordi-
nary Importance, viz, the political
situation, the war, preparation for
organizing the Third International,
the national Questi, II, the agrarian
question, and the Party program.
I REMEMBER particularly Ilyich'S
speech on the political situation.
The most outstanding thing in
this speech was the way it clearly
revealed Ilyich's attitude to the
masses, how closely he observed
how the masses lived and what
they thought: "There is no doubs
that, as class, the proletariat and
semi proletariat are not interested
in the war. They are Influenced by
tradition and deception. They still
lack political experience. Therefore,
our task is that of patiently ex-
planning. Our principles remain in
tact, we do not make the .slightes5
compromise; yet we cannot ap-
proach these masses as we APP
proach the social hauvinists. These
elements of the population have
never been socialists, they have not
the slightest conception Of social
ism, they are just awakening to
political life. But their class con-
seriousness is growing and broaden
ing with extraordinary rapidity.
One must know bow to approach
them with explanations, and this is
now the most difficult task, partic-
ularly for party that but yester-
day was underground"
Many of us, myself included
said Ilyich in his speech, have had
occasion to address the masses,
particularly the soldiers, and it
seems to me that even when every
thing is explained to them from
the point of view of class interests,
there is still one thing in our posi-