Page 6 - To Dragma October 1930

4 To DRAGMA JA

For anyone who is accustomed to the fairly simple ritual of con- The
tinental travel, Russia seems to offer enough red tape to reach around sain
the world and back, but behold us on an August day a few weeks later, one
in Helsingfors, Finland, awaiting permission from the Soviet Central
Committee in Moscow to have our passports vised by the Russian Consul, are
they having been sent over from home to be examined, then sent back we
to us just as they were without the desired stamp, as of course Russia Th
has no consular representative in the United States. exp
win
We waited a week in Helsingfors, cooling our heels and going to hear abl
the choir in the Greek Church—Finland, of course belonged to Russia up ove
to the time of the Revolution. There we received our vises and departed tha
to Leningrad by a very comfortable night train which arrived at the thin
border in the early hours of the morning. Our luggage was most carefully the
examined by most polite Russian officials, special attention being paid Len
to all written matter, and I had a choice collection of books ranging from Ked
Tolstoi to Trotsky. Nothing was confiscated, and we proceeded on our J-en
way, finally arriving in the former St. Petersburg in time for luncheon rev
which, to our horror, the leisurely Russians eat at three o'clock. y
"A
I am sure Leningrad was one of the world's most fascinating capitals eyen
in the halcyon pre-war days. Now, it is like a "banquet hall deserted." *he
Its beautiful broad streets, stately palaces and extensive parks, seem to wan
demand a population of czars, ambassadors and wealthy aristocrats, uM ea
stead of the simple, poorly-dressed peasants and workers that now swarm »n f
in the streets.

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Looking down the Moskva river you see the famous and historical Kremlin, old time C * f f l H
palace, and now the seat of the Bolshevik government.