Russia in the Shadows

Wells travels to the newly formed USSR for two weeks in September of 1920 and reports what he sees and hears, and tells of his conversations with Lenin, Gorky and others.

In Russia in the Shadows, H.G. Wells uses the eye and shrewdness of a journalist and the skill of a novelist to supply the reader with a snapshot, a still life of the state of affairs of Russia during this bleak time. It is powerfully written, and remains fascinating throughout - an excellent English language primary source for those who are interested in the opening Soviet era.

During his travels he converses with several notable Russian personalities: Zorin and Zenovieff, Lenin, Bela Kun, Gorky, and even the Pavloff of animal experimentation fame. Notably absent, however, is Trotsky. The reported segments of the conversations are fascinating, but sometimes overly brief. Throughout, Wells' passionate anti-Marxist views collide without clashing with the political figures he encounters, and he is clearly appalled by the narrowness he encounters in some of them.

The conversation with Lenin is saved for the second to last chapter and is the section that many readers will immediately turn to. It is to some degree, a disappointment as Wells' is sparing with the dialogue they exchange. It is possible that a more full version exists elsewhere, but this one does give the reader a fair measure of satisfaction.

This book (at least the Doran edition) also contains several interesting photographs of varied scenes and people, including a fairly foggy one of Wells with Lenin! It does not have an index, however, which is a slight disappointment. Still, whatever flaws the book has are quite minor compared to its merits.

Some notable quotes:

"About two-thirds of the face of Marx is beard, a vast solemn woolly uneventful beard that must have made all normal exercise impossible. It is not the sort of beard that happens to a man, it is a beard cultivated, cherished, and thrust patriarchally upon the world. It is exactly like Das Kapital in its inane abundance, and the human part of the face looks over it owlishly as if it looked to see how the growth impressed mankind... A gnawing desire grew in me to see Karl Marx shaved. Some day, if I am spared, I will take up shears and a razor against Das Kapital; I will write The Shaving of Karl Marx" (Russia in the Shadows, 83).

"Russia to-day (sic) stands more in the need of men of the foreman and works-manager class than she does of medicaments or food. The ordinary work in the Government offices of Russia is shockingly done; the slackness and inaccuracy are indescribable. Everybody seems to be working in a muddle of unsorted papers and cigarette ends" (ibid, 115).

"Lenin has a pleasant, quick-changing, brownish face, with a lively smile and a habit (due perhaps to some defect in focussing) of screwing up one eye as he pauses in his talk; he is not very like the photographs you see of him because he is one of those people whose change of expression is more important than their features..." (ibid, 155).

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