kinematographed-a horrible experience when one is first
quite seriously begged (of course by Burov) to assume an
expression of intelligent interest-we had soup, a plate of
meat and cabbage, and tea. Then there is a wagon
bookshop, where, while customers buy books, a
gramophone sings the revolutionary songs of Demian
Bledny, or speaks with the eloquence ofTrotsky or the logic
of Lenin. Other wagons are the living-rooms of the
personnel, divided up according to their duties-political,
military, instructional, and so forth. For the train has not
merely an agitational purpose. It carries with it a staff to
give advice to local authorities, to explain what has not been
understood, and so in every way to bring the ideas of
the Centre quickly to the backwoods of the Republic. It works
also in the opposite direction, helping to make the voice of
the backwoods heard at Moscow. This is illustrated by a
painted pillar-box on one of the wagons, with a slot for
letters, labelled, "For Complaits of Every Kind." Anybody
anywhere who has grievance, thinks he is being unfairly
treated, or has a suggestion to make, can speak with
the Centre in this way. When the train is on a voyage

telegrams announce its arrival beforehand, so that the local
Soviets can make full use of its advantages, arranging meetings,
kinematograph shows, lectures. It arrives, this amazing
picture train, and proceeds to publish and distribute its
newspapers, sell its books (the bookshop, they tell me, is
literally stormed at every stopping place), send books and
posters for forty versts on either side of the line with the
motor-cars which it carries with it, and enliven the