FIVE YEARS AFTER

During the brief lapse of five years since his death, a man who spent the greater part of his life as a mere exile, a prisoner, and rebel chief, has had his name immortalized in the minds of his countrymen. Throughout Russia, especially in the rural districts where peasants view with alarm any change in the seasoned order of crops, his image is often to be seen enshrined on a stone pedestal, illuminated with lighted candles. Out of a patriotic hero has sprung a veritable demi-god.

The memory of Lenin, however, is preserved not only by those who heard him preach the methods of a new government, but also in the history of modern Europe. Even the tremendous magnitude of American intervention in the World War did not wholly overshadow the decision on the part of the German Staff to convoy so dangerous a revolutionist back to his own country from exile. It was that event that marked the beginning of a new Russia, and the subsequent rise of governments elsewhere which felt the need of coping with a remodelled situation.

Five years ago yesterday Lenin died. Since that time Bolshevism has vainly sought a leader who might pick up the reins where they had been dropped. But the man who alone in all Russia had prepared himself for the new scheme of government was not soon to be succeeded. Over a span of five turbulent years, at any rate, his principles have received an acid test, and in some form still prevail.