provides. The bureau informs the local Communists where
their services are required, and thus there is a minimum
of wasted energy. The local Communists arrange the
"Saturdayings," and any one else joins in who wants.
These "Saturdayings" are a hardship to none because
they are voluntary, except for members of the Communist
Party, who are considered to have broken the party
discipline if they refrain. But they can avoid the
"Saturdayings" if they wish to by leaving the party. Indeed,
Lenin points, out that the "Saturdayings" are likely to assist
in clearing out of the party those elements which
joined it with the hope of personal gain. He points out that
the privileges of a Communists now consist in doing more
work than other people in the rear, and, on the front, in
having the certainty of being killed when other folk are
merely taken prisoners.


The following are a few examples of the sort of work done
in the "Saturdayings." Briansk hospitals were improperly
heated because of lack of the local transport necessary to
bring them wood. The Communists organized a "Saturdaying,"
in which 900 persons took part, including military specialists
(officers of the old army serving in the new), soldiers, a
chief of staff, workmen and women. Having no horses, they
harnessed themselves to sledges in groups of ten, and brought
in the wood required. At Nijni 800 persons spent their Saturday
afternoon in unloading barges. In the Basman district of
Moscow there was a gigantic "Saturdaying" and "Sundaying"
in which 2,000 persons (in this case all but a little over 500