nment on the part of many of
the people. A people subjected to the treatment which
Russians have had during the last 200 years can not in one
generation be expected to change very greatly, but
personally I feel the present government has made a vast
improvement on the government of the Czar as I knew it in
1916-17. Without doubt the majority of the people in
Petrograd are opposed to allied intervention or revolution
and wish the present government to be given a fair chance to
work out the salvation of Russia. One of the most hopeful
symptoms of the present government is its willingness to
acknowledge mistakes when they are demonstrated and to adopt
new ideas which are worth while. Personally I am heart and
soul for some action on the part of the United States
Government which will show our sincere intention to permit
the Russian people to solve their own problems with what
assistance they may require from us. STOCKHOLM, April 4
1919.

SOCIAL WORK IN PETROGRAD

The wife of Zinoviev, Madame Lelina, is in charge of the social
institutions in the city of Petrograd. This does not include the
public schools, which are under another organization. Madame Lelina is
a short-haired woman, probably Jewish, of about 45. She has an
enormous amount of energy, and is commonly supposed to be doing at
least two things at the same time. The morning I met her she was
carrying on two interviews and trying to arrange to have me shown some
of the social work she is directing. There seemed to be little system
about her efforts. Her office was rather disorderly, and her method of
work seemed very wasteful of time and effort, and very much like the
usual Russian way of doing things. Bill Shatov, formerly organizer of
the I.W.W., who is commissar of police for Petrograd and also
commissar for one of the northern armies, introduced me to Madame
Lelina, and accompanied me the first day on our visits. We were guided
by a young woman by the name of Bachrath, who is a university graduate
and lawyer, and since the legal profession has fallen into disrepute,
has turned her efforts toward social work.

Under her guidance I spent three days visiting institutions. I saw a
boarding school for girls, a boarding home for younger children, an
institution for the feeble-minded, three of the new homes organized by
the Soviet Government, and two small hospitals for chi