I left Petrograd on March 31.  During the past three weeks I have crossed the Finnish border six times and have been approximately two weeks in Petrograd.  I have met Tchitcherin, Litvinov, and most of the important personages in the communist government of Petrograd (including Bill Shatov, chief of police).

Briefly, my opinion of the Russian situation is as follows:  In Petrograd I presume the present communist government has a majority of the working-men behind it, but probably less than half of the total population are members of the communist party.  However, my conclusions are based on conversations with not only communists, but also many opponents of the communist government, members of the aristocracy, business men, and foreigners, and I am persuaded that a large majority of the population of Petrograd if given a choice between the present government and the two alternatives, revolution or foreign intervention, would without hesitation take the present government.  Foreign intervention would unite the population in opposition and would tend to greatly emphasize the present nationalist spirit.  Revolution would result in chaos. (There is nowhere a group of Russians in whom the people I have talked with have confidence.  Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenvitch, Trepov, the despicable hordes of Russian emigrees who haunt the Grand Hotel, Stockholm; the Socithans House, Helsingfors; the offices of the peace commission in Paris, and squabble among themselves as to how the Russian situation shall be solved; all equally fail to find many supporters in Petrograd.) Those with whom I have talked recognize that revolution, did it succeed in developing a strong government, would result in a white terror comparable with that of Finland.  In Finland our consul has a record of 12,500 executions in some 50 districts, out of something like 500 districts, by the White Guard.  In Petrograd I have been repeatedly assured that the total Red executions in Petrograd and Moscow and other cities was at a maximum 3,200.

It may seem somewhat inconsistent for the Russian bourgeoisie to oppose allied intervention and at the same time fail to give whole-hearted support to the present government.  They justify this attitude on the grounds that when the two great problems of food and peace are solved the whole population can turn itself to assisting the present regime in developing a stable efficient government.  They point to the numerous changes which have already been introduced by the present communist government, to the acknowledgment that mistakes have been made to the ease of securing introduction of constructive ideas under the present regime.  All these facts have persuaded many of the thinking people with whom I have talked to look to the present government in possibly a somewhat modified form as the salvation of Russia.

At present the situation is bad.  Russia is straining every nerve to raise an army