240 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
—and this is where Moscow wins our grudging admiration—the
result was produced on M. Herriot as on Catherine II. He saw
only what his hosts intended him to see, and remained com-
pletely ignorant of what was going on a few miles away.
A new phase began on the seventh day of the expedition.
M. Herriot had now reached Moscow. There was the usual
reception at the station, with the difference that instead of
provincial leaders the first men of the regime, headed hy
Litvinov, had come to greet him, and the papers were once
more able to record the enthusiastic reception accorded to the
former French Prime Minister by the Moscow populace.
Here again M. Herriot led the life of a guest of honour,
receiving at the Embassy and attending banquets. His domicile
was in the best rooms of the famous Hotel National, where^
as everybody knows, all the servants and some of the visitors
are employed by the Ogpu. In his honour the ordinarily
deserted bar of the hotel was peopled with well-dressed "repre-
sentatives of the population3* (as recorded by foreigners stay-
ing at Moscow at the time). He was received by Molotov, the
President of the Council of People's Commissaries, and dined
with Maxim Gorki. He was taken to see all the show works of
Russia's armament industry. He had continually to give
expression to his enthusiasm, as, for example, during his visit
to the Institute of Aero and Hydrodynamics. "A number of
academicians and scientific experts surrounds the visitors
and gives the necessary explanations," as the Temps records.
The visitors were also shown the huge propaganda aeroplane,
"Maxim Gorki/5 then in course of construction. On leaving,
Herriot wrote in the Institution's Gold Book: "I have the
greatest admiration for this technically remarkable institution,
for the knowledge of the engineers, for the work done by the
executive officials, and for th^ enthusiasm of the entire per-
sonnel. I trust that this Russian achievement may always
contribute to the happiness of nations in the sphere of work and
peace." He also visited the Museum of the Revolution and was