Here where are the tombs of the Tsars,
our Tsar-the People-shall sleep...." His arm was in a sling, from a
bullet-wound gained in the fighting. He looked at it. "You foreigners
look down on us Russians because so long we tolerated a medi?val
monarchy," said he. "But we saw that the Tsar was not the only tyrant
in the world; capitalism was worse, and in all the countries of the
world capitalism was Emperor.... Russian revolutionary tactics are
best...."
As we left, the workers in the pit, exhausted and running with sweat
in spite of the cold, began to climb wearily out. Across the Red
Square a dark knot of men came hurrying. They swarmed into the pits,
picked up the tools and began digging, digging, without a word....
So, all the long night volunteers of the People relieved each other,
never halting in their driving speed, and the cold light of the dawn
laid bare the great Square, white with snow, and the yawning brown
pits of the Brotherhood Grave, quite finished.
We rose before sunrise, and hurried through the dark streets to
Skobeliev Square. In all the great city not a human being could be
seen; but there was a faint sound of stirring, far and near, like a
deep wind coming. In the pale half-light a little group of men and
women were gathered before the Soviet headquarters, with a sheaf of
gold-lettered red banners-the Central Executive Committee of the
Moscow Soviets.
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