sight was the army trucks filled with armed soldiers, red handkerchiefs
tied to their bayonets, dashing up and down the streets, ostensibly for the
purpose of protecting the citizens but really for the mere joy of riding
about and being cheered. One of these trucks stands out vividly in my mind:
it contained about twenty soldiers, having in their midst a beautiful
young woman with a red banner, and a young hoodlum astride the engine, a
cigarette in one hand and a sword in the other. The streets were full of
people, or "tovarishchi" (comrades), as they called one another, not only
the sidewalks but in the very center, for the tramways were not running.
Great events were transpiring and every one who could came out to hear and
to see what was going on. There were no newspapers and the street was the
news center. Automobiles came dashing through scattering proclamations
and copies of the _Izvestiia_ (a news-sheet published by a committee of
newspaper men with the authority of the Duma); and as the crowd made a rush
to pick these up it looked for a moment as if the whole world was walking
on its head and feet at the same time. Those who were fortunate enough to
seize a paper ran home with it to read it to the family, those who were not
gathered around one of the many bonfires, made from the wooden imperial
eagles, crowns, and other insignia of royalty, to listen to the reading of
the news, usually by a student. The part played by the students during the
revolution has not received the attention it deserves. When all others were
hiding or excited it was the students who took charge of the leaderless
soldiers, found food for them, collected money for their welfare, and
told them what to do. It was interesting to watch with what deference the
soldiers looked up to them and hung upon their words. This importance was
not wholly lost upon the students, both men and women, and they read the
proclamations as if they were tablets of law handed down from heaven.
After the reading came the discussion. One of the favorite topics was the
comparative bloodlessness of the revolution (something like 169 killed and
1264 wounded) which proved that the Russian Revolution was superior to the