Moscow to go hungry. 150,000 to 180,000 children got free
meals daily in the schools. Over 10,000 pairs of felt boots
had been given to children who needed them. The number
of libraries had enormously increased. Physically workmen
lived in far worse conditions than in 1912, but as far as their
spiritual welfare was concerned there could be no
comparison. Places like the famous Yar restaurant,
where once the rich went to amuse themselves with
orgies of feeding and drinking and flirting
with gypsies, were now made into working men's clubs
and theatres, where every working man had a right to go.
As for the demand for literature from the provinces, it was
far beyond the utmost efforts of the presses and the paper
stores to supply.



When the party meeting ended, we went back to the lecture
room where the members of the Soviet had already settled
themselves in their places. I was struck at once by the
absence of the general public which in the old days used to
crowd the galleries to overflowing. The political excitement
of the revolution has passed, and today there were no more
spectators than are usually to be found in the gallery of the
House of Commons. The character of the Soviet itself had
not changed. Practically every man sitting on the benches
was obviously a workman and keenly intent on what was
being said. Litvinov practically repeated his speech of last
night, making it, however, a little more demagogic in
character, pointing out that after the Allied victory, the only