Canadian Slavonic Papers

Encounters with Lenin by Nikolay Valentinov; N. V. Volsky; Paul Rosta; Brian Pearce; LeonardSchapiro; Michael KarpovichReview by: R. C. ElwoodCanadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Summer, 1969), pp.289-290Published by: Canadian Association of SlavistsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40866236 .

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BOOK REVIEWS

Encounters with Lenin, Nikolay Valentinov [N. V. Volsky]. Translated from the Russian by Paul Rosta and Brian Pearce. London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1968. Pp. xix, 273. Foreword by Leonard Schapiro and introduction by Michael Karpovich.

Periodically, Soviet publishing houses engage in a typographical binge. This happened in 1955 to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the 1905 Revolution, and in 1967 to mark the semi-centennial of the October Revo- lution. Another publishing spree has already begun to celebrate next year's centenary of Lenin's birth. Soviet readers and western specialists are being deluged with memoirs of Vladimir Ilich, "newly discovered" documents from his pen, and hagiographies by the score. It is doubtful, however, whether any of these rehashes, reprints or reminiscences will contain mate- rial from Nikolay Valentinov's Encounters with Lenin, despite the fact that it has been available in Russian (Vstrechi s Leninym) since 1953. Neither this book, which has been described by the editors of the new, multi- volume Istoriia KPSS as a "gross distortion and a vulgar malignity," nor its author are likely to find favour with Soviet publishers.

N. V. Volsky, who later adopted the nom de plume of Valentinov, was born into a "nest of gentlefolk" in 1879. Like many of his class and genera- tion, he became interested in revolutionary Marxism in the late 1890's and subsequently was attracted by Lenin's Chto delat? and by Iskra's stand against "economism." In January 1904, Volsky left the underground and went to Geneva, which was then the émigré centre of Russian social democracy. For six months he enjoyed Lenin's confidence and patronage and, indeed, served as his "cudgel" against the resident and dissident Mensheviks. In September, however, he quarrelled with the Bolshevik leader over the merits of empiriocriticism and became "a very poor Menshevik" himself. After 1917 he worked as a writer and economist for the new Soviet state before beginning a second period of emigration in 1928. Volsky died in Paris in 1964 - four years before his very valuable and illuminating memoir of his "encounters with Lenin" in 1904 was at last translated into English.

The author correctly notes that: When we read the various descriptions of Lenin's life, his biographies, and most of the memoirs about him, we see him all the time only as the producer of political resolutions, as an organizer of the Bolshevik party .... How he lived outside the political sphere, what his habits were, how he dressed, etc. - none of this finds any place. All the trifles that fill out the life of any man are, as a rule, care- fully excised from descriptions of Lenin's life. The result is a kind of geometrical figure instead of a living one .... This is why, in contrast to other writers of memoirs about him, I would like to talk about some small matters I happen to know of - facts which do not add anything new to the portrait of Lenin as a 'politician', yet which are interesting as a contribution to the portrait of the living, 'non-geometric' Lenin.

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290 REVUE CANADIENNE DES SLAVISTES

The "non-geometric Lenin" to Volsky was a man who was interested in weight-lifting, billiards, gymnastics, skating, collecting mushrooms and, of course, chess, mountain climbing and music. He was a man who was punc- tual and fastidious, who sewed on his buttons and diligently polished his own shoes, and who helped a comrade pull an over-loaded cart across the city of Geneva. During their six-month association, Volsky delved into a number of other "private corners" in Lenin's life: his ideological debt to Chernyshevsky, his fond memories of estate life, his romantic attachments.

Equally interesting are Volsky's observations on "Lenin as a politician." While writing One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, Lenin granted Volsky a walking "audience" every afternoon when he tried out his arguments on his younger protégé. Volsky notes how Lenin's attitude toward the Mensheviks became more extreme as the pamphlet developed, how he felt a definite split was necessary, but then how he moderated his views in the final draft. The Mensheviks' harsh reaction, however, pushed him back to his original position and led directly to the publication of a separate Bolshevik news- paper and to the convocation of a separate Bolshevik congress. Volsky also casts new light on Lenin's "blank incomprehension of a number of episte- mological propositions." On one occasion, the author presented him with four weighty volumes by Mach and Avenarius which Lenin skimmed and then attacked in scurrilous, but less than profound, terms. This negative approach to non-materialistic philosophy resulted in the break between the two men and ultimately in the publication of Lenin's least successful book, Materialism and Empir iocriticism.

Some readers will be bothered by the author's verbatim recollection of conversations that took place over sixty years ago. Perhaps others will be troubled by the anti-Soviet asides which Volsky, like many commentators during the late Stalin era, is inclined to make. Nevertheless, most readers will find this book entertaining, well-written and well-translated, candid and, above all, instructive both on Russian émigré life at the turn of the century and on the "non-geometric" character of the first Soviet leader. It is a pity that Soviet readers will not have a chance to peruse it as well.

[R. C. Elwood, Carleton University]

The Formation of the Ukrainian Republic, Oleh S. Pidhainy, Toronto and New York: New Review Books, 1966. 685 pp.

Mr. Pidhainy's massive and well-documented study of the first year of the Ukrainian revolution, which began timidly and somewhat uncertainly in March 1917, is a welcome addition to what is still a rather limited body of literature on the tragic history of the Ukrainians - the second largest of the Slavic nations. Since it purports to be a historical study, and the author is a historian by training, his introduction is all too brief and too sketchy. Thus, the reader might encounter certain difficulties in following the author's discussion of the rise of the Ukrainian Central Rada, and the subsequent reversals suffered by the Ukrainian national movement, unless

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