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| Title | One year of revolution |
| Alternative Title | One year of revolution: celebrating the first anniversary of the founding of the Russian Soviet Republic, November 7, 1918 |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Publisher | Socialist Publication Society |
| Place of Creation (TGN) |
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| Date | 1918 |
| Subject.Name (LCNAF) |
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| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English; Russian; German |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Extent | 32 pages: illustrations; 28 cm. |
| Original Item Location | DK265.S62 1918 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b8304499~S11 |
| Original Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/scpamp |
| Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://libraries.uh.edu/branches/special-collections |
| Use and Reproduction | This item is in the public domain and may be used freely. |
| File Name | index.cpd |
| Title | Image 22 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | uhlib_6770052_021.jpg |
| Transcript | That word was like a match tossed into a powder magazine. 'Long live the International!" That phrase could always be depended upon to set fire to an audience. When it fell in broken Russian from the lips of a foreigner it started a conflagration. And with what spirit they sang the International ! Not the way we sing it here with part of the singers guessing at the words and another part guessing at the tune and the majority of us spectators—in Russia every revolutionist is sure of every word and every note and sings it as though his life depended on it. In the Constituent Assembly the Bolsheviki and the Left Social Revolutionists rose to sing the workers' hymn. The Centre Social Revolutionists followed. Then row after row in succession, further and further to the right arose. The stirring strains lifted to his feet every man in this assemblage speaking twenty languages, representing forty nationalities, gathered from over one-sixth the surface of the globe. Not a person, even on the extreme right either dared or was able to retain his seat. But it was not just a hymn for state occasions. To the International individuals and little groups turned in times of stress and grief. In its singing they found strength, an affirmation of the militancy of their faith, a sharpening of the edge of their fighting spirit. When the Vladivostok Soviet fell before the guns of the Checho-Slovaks, those leaders who escaped took to cover like hunted animals. In a moment, the Soviet, so painstakingly built up was shattered into bits and in their hiding places they sat, fearing at any moment the entrance of the White Guards and the noose around their necks. I was taken to a secret retreat of these refugees. As the door was opened for me, along the darkened way there came the low sound of the singing of the International in English. Through all the tragedies and glories of the Revolution the International moves like a holy spirit to cheer and strengthen the fighters. Internationalism is woven throughout the whole texture of the Russian Revolution. The sense of solidarity with all the workers of the world is ever present. Nowhere could one escape from it. The greeting from the Baltic Fleet reproduced in this booklet was written in the main cabin of the "Polar Star," the yacht of the former Czar. It was written by the Central Committee of sixtv sailors, one from each vessel of the fleet. Every paragraph of it breathes this ardent belief in the class consciousness of the International proletariat. When I stood upon the bridge of the battleship "Republica," and the eleven thousand sailors made the turrets ring with their greetings to the American Internationalists— it was a thrilling experience but it was also a humiliating one. For I knew that the faith that they put in our Internationalism had little existence in reality. I felt that they pictured me as a representative of millions of American sailors, soldiers, miners, railroad men, etc., who were on fire with the same flame. It was impossible to avoid feeling unworthy of the great trust. The measure of their faith, of course, is the measure of our job. It is to make the tens of thousands of genuine Internationalists we have grow into tens of millions. 0 Albert Rhys Williams. 20 |