Evening star., 1937-10-31

dpdi lihent, dS Delltted moderately lmpOr-
tant Commissar exempt from the worst in
conveniences of Moscow's eternal housing
shortage. On the main wall hung conspicuous.
framed and autographed photographs of
Lenin and Stain; until few months ago
photographs of lesser Soviet celebrities had
also hung there, but progressively they had
been taken down and privately burned For
both men, this was an anniversary. On this
day, thirty-two years ago, when the streets of
st. Petersburg echoed to the last rifle fire
from the barricades of the unhappy Revolu-
tion of 1905 Comrades Davidoff and Brodin-
sky had first made acquaintance.
That had been in the police barracks where
several hundred captives from various stormed
barricades had been herded. Then they had
been ardent young men of eighteen, Brodin-
sky tall and cadaverously thin, Davidoff short
and sturdy. equally filled with fiery certitude
In the ultimate triumph of the Cause But
whereas Brodinsky had then belonged to the
Menshevik faction of the recently-splt Social
Democratic Labor Party (as had Trotsky,
whose name nowadays it was safer not to men,
ton, even with curses, Davidoff had cast in
his lot with the few and unpopular Bolshe-
viks.
In the prison train on the long journey to
Siberia, after fierce and interminable argu-
ments in which all their fellow prisoners had
vehemently joined, Tovarishtch Davidoff had
finally convinced Tovarishtch Brodinsky that
Lenin's uncompromising formula could alone
produce the Revolution which should sweep
away traditional society and make possible
the new world of Marx and Engels' Commnn-
Isl Manifesto translated into miraculous fact
In the process they had become sworn friends
For thrty-two years they had remained
sworn friends, Damon and Pythias of the Rev
olution, as they had laughingly often said.
What vicissitudes they had shared together!
Siberia; the rapture of 1917, the incredible
year of Liberation and of Power! The Civil
War, the Famine, the gradual consolidation
OF the precarious Soviet State owe shall all
be hanged in six months" Lenin had said).
the death OF Lenin, the elimination of Trot-
sky, the emergent dictatorship of Stain, the
first and second Five Years Plans! Through
out it all, they had faithfully kept tryst on
this anniversary.
Comrade Davidoff C''Max" to his friend)
was still stocky, but bit heavier Com
rade Brodinsky ('Boris') was still lank
and thin, but bald where once his hair was
wild mop. But essentially they were still the
same; still each looked into honest affection
ate eyes he had trusted since youth. Both, as
Old Bosheviks," survivors of the original
little band around Lenin, were high in the
Party, never deviating by a hairs breadth
from the prescribed Party Line" Both held
important posts. Davidof was minor Com
missar. Brodinsky, more intellectual. had
somehow never got higher than being Direc-
tor in the Bureau of Literary Censorship
There was another tie between them. Seven
teen years ago, in the middle of the Civil War
Davidoff had married Brodinsky's sister
Alexandra Alexandrovna, and was (abnor-
mally in this Communist land where divorce
until recently had been so quick and easy)
still married to her.
Brodinsky lit himself another of his endless
cigarettes. His long thin fingers shook little,
betrayed overstressed nerves. He made no re-
mark. 1t was some time since either had
spoken. boris had always had overstrcssed
nerves, thought his friend from the first days
of the Revolution when he had worked with
Djerdjinsky and the Tcheka it was nothing
remarkably
This anniversary contrasted, significantly
with its predecessors. Constraint weighed on