More than 700 kilometers of railway from Pskov to Moscow could have been reached in ten or twelve hours before the World War. But in the spring of 1919, Hersman spent a long time on the 700-kilometer railway. Leshinskaya was mixed up to the point of being friends.

Unlike the last time I traveled from Pskov to Moscow, this time the train was not direct, but stop-and-go. There is always a breakdown ahead, either the railroad is faulty or the train is faulty.

"There are counter-revolutionary assassination activities!" Natalie. When Lesinskaya encounters such a situation, she will say to Hersman with righteous indignation. "Most of the engineers who worked on the railroads were dissatisfied with the Soviet government and would sabotage it at the first opportunity."

That's because your trains are always overloaded! Hersmann, of course, knew the reason why the Russian railways always went wrong. Before actively promoting the evacuation of the company's engineers from Russia, he had received reports that the People's Commissar of Railways of the Bolsheviks had issued orders for railway cars to go beyond the prescribed ceiling, to carry as much cargo as possible, and to maintain and repair them with little maintenance.

This was due to the war and mismanagement, which caused very serious losses and damage to locomotives, wagons and railroad tracks. Moreover, the heavy industry of Russia also suffered huge losses in the civil war, and was unable to repair the railways and replenish the losses of railway locomotives. As a result, they can only quench their thirst and use overloading to barely maintain transportation.

This way of quenching thirst does not only exist in the railway sector, but is a common phenomenon. The Bolsheviks inherited a collapsed country that had gone through several years of world war, and because it could not sustain the war, a revolution broke out, and as a result, it fell into an even more brutal civil war. The Bolsheviks won the civil war by squeezing out all the remaining war potential in their jurisdictions by all means. Even if the consequences of doing so would be to seriously damage Russia's future productive forces.

Because of the fear of war, the result was an even more brutal civil war. Because they want to liberate the productive forces, the result is that the level of productivity has seriously regressed. This is Russia now!

Of the various methods adopted by the Bolsheviks to "stimulate potential", the most pernicious was probably the "surplus collection system", in which the peasants had to hand over all their harvest without compensation, except for rations and crops.

Naturally, such a policy was not supported by the peasants, and in order to implement it, machine-gun grain requisition teams were organized to force the peasants to hand over their grain, with the result that the peasants naturally lost their enthusiasm for farming.

When the train stopped due to various accidents, Hersman would get off the train and take a walk around the neighborhood with Natalie, taking the opportunity to observe the situation in the Russian countryside. He also took a Leica portable camera to shoot everywhere, sometimes taking a few shots of Natalie, but most of the time he photographed abandoned land, ruined villages, or Russian peasants starving and begging.

When he arrived in Moscow, he was still filming before waiting for Lenin's reception. He photographed empty shelves in shops, long queues of citizens buying rations of potatoes and brown bread, and factories that closed their doors at some point.

The photographs were not intended to be taken back to Germany for publication in magazines, but were intended to be presented to Comrade Lenin.

"Feradimir. Ilyich, this is for you, I don't think you see any of that in Pravda. ”

Lenin should have known that Hersmann was filming the bad side of Soviet Russia, but he did not let people stop him - Hersmann was not the kind of foreign spy who entered Soviet Russia under the guise of a journalist, he was just a senior German intelligence officer! The Bolsheviks, although they did not know that he was Stasi's "general", knew that he was the head of the German military intelligence service.

Since you invited such a person as a VIP, you are still afraid that he will take "not very good-looking" photos?

But Lenin did not expect Hersmann to show these pictures to himself, at the time of the Kremlin's reception.

Those who attended the meeting, including Kollontai, Krestinsky (who was the People's Commissar of Finance, one of the newly elected Big Five) and Rakovsky were somewhat embarrassed. But Lenin was not displeased, but took the photographs and looked at them very carefully.

"It's a bad situation, and although it doesn't have that in Pravda, I know it's difficult." Lenin's tone sounded heavy, but he quickly added, "But this is a temporary difficulty, because of the war, and once we defeat the White Guards, the situation will soon improve." ”

"It won't be soon, Feradimir. Ilyich, "Hersmann sat on a large, fluffy sofa and talked to Lenin, who was on a sofa next to him, a bit like a television scene in which the leaders of the country receive foreign guests. "You know, Marxism is economics, and you are an expert in it. The devastation suffered by the Russian economy is quite fatal, and it is simply impossible to recover so quickly. If the war had ended tomorrow, Russian industry and agriculture would probably have returned to their 1913 levels by 1929. ”

"Ludwig, I don't think it will be that long, you don't know what Bolshevism is capable of." Colontai interjected, "This can greatly liberate the productive forces." ”

"Why? Positivity? Hersman shrugged, "I think that's idealism!" In the case that the material conditions cannot keep up, can the spirit improve productivity? If this kind of thing can succeed, what is the need for our two countries to cooperate? ”

Lenin handed the photo to the People's Commissar of Finance Nikolai at his side. Nikolaevich. Krestinsky, the latter also looked carefully.

Lenin looked at Hersmann, nodded and said: "Ludwig, you are our friend, and friends should tell the truth to each other." So I agree with you...... Although there is a difference in the 10-year term, it will definitely take us a long time, unless ......"

"Nothing unless!" Hersmann said, "The German revolution will not succeed, let alone the world revolution." In fact, you and I both know very well in our hearts that the future of the Hungarian revolution is not good. For quite a long time to come, Soviet Russia was the only one. ”

Mostly unique! Judging from the current situation, it is good to have this one.

The German revolution, on which high hopes had been pinned, had completely failed - just a few days earlier, the Bavarian Soviet Republic had been suppressed by the Freikorps, without much effort! This shows that in Germany the forces of the reactionaries are overwhelming, and that the reactionaries in Germany are still very smart! The wrist is far higher than that of the leaders of the progressive forces......

However, the "one-only" thing cannot be admitted now, and the banner of world revolution must be held high. Otherwise, how can they incite the foreign working class to make trouble with their government? If they don't make trouble, how can Soviet Russia live in peace?

Hersmann smiled at the silent Lenin and said, "There are some things that you can understand in your heart. He paused, "I took these pictures and brought them to the Kremlin just to illustrate...... The scene in the photograph is not what a socialist country should be. The current Soviet Russia is only ruled by socialist parties, but it is not socialism. It is moving towards socialism, and the way forward is war at the moment. But after the victory in the Civil War, there will be a long period of construction! This is the way for Russia to achieve socialism, and we in Germany are the only ones in the world who are genuinely willing to help Soviet Russia in its construction. That's the foundation of our strategic partnerships! ”

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