Terror.—­The red terror is over.  During the period of its power the extraordinary commission for the suppression of the counter revolution, which was the instrument of the terror, executed about 1,500 persons in Petrograd, 500 in Moscow, and 3,000 in the remainder of the country—­5,000 in all Russia.  These figures agree with those which were brought back from Russia by Maj.  Wardwell, and inasmuch as I have checked them from Soviet, anti-Soviet, and neutral sources I believe them to be approximately correct.  It is worthy of note in this connection that in the white terror in southern Finland alone, according to official figures, Gen. Mannerheim executed without trial 12,000 working men and women.

Order.—­One feels as safe in the streets of Petrograd and Moscow as in the streets of Paris or New York.  On the other hand, the streets of these cities are dismal, because of the closing of retail shops whose functions are now concentrated in a few large nationalized “department stores.”  Petrograd, furthermore, has been deserted by half its population; but Moscow teems with twice the number of inhabitants it contained before the war.  The only noticeable difference in the theaters, opera, and ballet is that they are now run under the direction of the department of education, which prefers classics and sees to it that working men and women and children are given an opportunity to attend the performances and that they are instructed beforehand in the significance and beauties of the productions.

Morals.—­Prostitutes have disappeared from sight, the economic reasons for their career having ceased to exist.  Family life has been absolutely unchanged by the revolution.  I have never heard more genuinely mirthful laughter than when I told Lenin, Tchitcherin, and Litvinov that much of the world believed that women had been “nationalized.”  This lie is so wildly fantastic that they will not even take the trouble to deny it.  Respect for womanhood was never greater than in Russia to-day.  Indeed, the day I reached Petrograd was a holiday in honor of wives and mothers.

Education.—­The achievements of the department of education under Lunacharsky have been very great.  Not only have all the Russian classics been reprinted in editions of three and five million copies and sold at a low price to the people, but thousands of new schools for men, women, and children have been opened in all parts of Russia.  Furthermore, workingmen’s and soldiers’ clubs have been organized in many of the palaces of yesteryear, where the people are instructed by means of moving pictures and lectures.  In the art galleries one meets classes of working men and women being instructed in the beauties of the pictures.  The children’s schools have been entirely reorganized, and an attempt is being made to give every child a good dinner at school every day.  Furthermore, very remarkable schools have been opened for defective and over-nervous children.  On the theory that genius and insanity are closely allied, these children are taught from the first to compose music, paint pictures, sculpt and write poetry, and it is asserted that some very valuable results have been achieved, not only in the way of productions but also in the way of restoring the nervous systems of the children.