"... One evening I spent at the
house of a Moscow merchant; during tea we asked the eleven people at
the table whether they preferred "Wilhelm or the Bolsheviki." The
vote was ten to one for Wilhelm...
The speculators took advantage of the universal disorganisation to
pile up fortunes, and to spend them in fantastic revelry or the
corruption of Government officials. Foodstuffs and fuel were hoarded,
or secretly sent out of the country to Sweden. In the first four
months of the Revolution, for example, the reserve food-supplies were
almost openly looted from the great Municipal warehouses of
Petrograd, until the two-years' provision of grain had fallen to less
than enough to feed the city for one month.... According to the
official report of the last Minister of Supplies in the Provisional
Government, coffee was bought wholesale in Vladivostok for two rubles
a pound, and the consumer in Petrograd paid thirteen. In all the
stores of the large cities were tons of food and clothing; but only
the rich could buy them.
In a provincial town I knew a merchant family turned
speculator_-maradior_ (bandit, ghoul) the Russians call it. The three
sons had bribed their way out of military service. One gambled in
foodstuffs. Another sold illegal gold from the Lena mines to
mysterious parties in Finland. The third owned a controlling interest
in a chocolate factory, which supplied the local Cooperative
societies-on condition that the Cooperatives furnished him everything
he needed.
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