ABSTRACT
my first experience with Russia came at the end of the First World War when I took a job at the Russian Embassy in Berlin. It was just after the Revolution and I was twenty-three. Being a German, I had lived through the blockade, taken part in the General Strike in January 1918, which was to end all wars, had taken part in revolutionary marches in Unter den Linden and seen at first hand how the police behaved towards the workers. On one occasion I had to run from one of the pursuing policemen in blue uniform, complete with picklehelmet and sabre. I was then in fact a convinced Communist.
