'THE PRESENT CONDITION OF RUSSIA
mouth. They won, in fact, every seat that they con-
tested.
But although the Moscow Soviet is nominally
sovereign in Moscow, it is really only a body of electors
who choose the Executive Committee of forty, out of
which, in turn, is chosen the Presidium, consisting of
nine men who have all the power. The Moscow Soviet,
as a whole, meets rarely; the Executive Committee is
supposed to meet once a week, but did not meet while
we were in Moscow. The Presidium, on the contrary,
meets daily. Of course, it is easy for the Government to
exercise pressure over the election of the Executive
Committee, and again over the election of the Pre-
sidium. It must be remembered that effective protest
is impossible, owing to the absolutely complete sup-
pression of free speech and free Press. The result is that
the Presidium of the Moscow Soviet consists only of
orthodox Communists.
Kamenev, the President of the Moscow Soviet, in-
formed us that the recall is very frequently employed;
he said that in Moscow there are, on an average,
thirty recalls a month. I asked him what were the
principal reasons for the recall, and he mentioned
four: drinking, going to the front (and being, there-
fore, incapable of performing the duties), change of
politics on the part of the electors, and failure to make
a report to the electors once a fortnight, which all
members of the Soviet are expected to do. It is evident
that the recall affords opportunites for governmental
pressure, but I had no chance of finding out whether it
is used for this purpose.
In country districts the method employed is some-
what different. It is impossible to secure that the village
Soviet shall consist of Communists, because, as a rule,
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