Down Memory Lane

Among the many dubious distinctions enjoyed by Soviet ex-Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov is that of having guessed right about Lenin in 1917. It is a point that Molotov, in his 30 years of steely self-discipline in the service of the egocentric Stalin, seldom boasted about. Last week 67-year-old Molotov gave rein to his long-suppressed Bolshevik pride in an article that took up two-thirds of a page in Pravda.

The occasion for Molotov's burst of reminiscence was the 40th anniversary of his first meeting with Lenin. The milder February Revolution of 1917, sled by the Social-Democrats and the Socialist-Revolutionaries and their allies, had broken out. Most of the leading Bolsheviks were still on their way to Petrograd from places of exile. In their absence Molotov, one of the editors of Pravda, gave out Bolshevik policy: Demand the complete Marxist program forthwith. When the big Bolsheviks arrived, they pooh-poohed the youthful (27) Molotov's naive and uncompromising view. But when Lenin stepped out of his railroad car in the Finland Station, having been transported through Germany in a sealed car, it was seen that Molotov had been right: Lenin demanded "immediate peace [with Germany], bread and land," the whole Marxist book, and a little more besides.

Such Moments. Wrote Molotov last week: "I first came to meet Lenin the day he returned to Petrograd from Switzerland (April 16. 1917). It was an exceptional and unforgettable moment for all of us who were present. We were impatient to see and hear Lenin. Instinctively many of us had, more or less correctly, divined the course the party had to follow. This was assisted by the articles and letters Lenin used to send to Pravda from abroad." Having indicated how things stood between himself and Lenin, Molotov goes on: "In the square outside the station I heard Lenin's first speech, made from an armored car. Such moments are never repeated. Lenin then went to the Kshesinsky Palace and there had "his first talk with us, the Petrograd party officials. We few dozen Bolsheviks listened to Lenin, taking in every remark as it revealed to us in a new light the meaning of the revolutionary events."

Not many of the few dozen Bolsheviks agreed with their leader's violent policy. Said leading Marxist Scholar Plekhanov: "Raving madness." But because Lenin's "April Theses"--put into effect the following October in the Bolshevik coup d'etat --had stood the bitter test of 40 years, Vyacheslav Molotov was claiming, at long last, his right to share Lenin's fame.

The Dumbbell. Nowhere in Molotov's 3,000-word Pravda article was there mention of an earlier claimant to the same honor, whose name today is actually carved beside that of Lenin on the famous tomb in Red Square: Stalin. Since Stalin had long ago seen to it that few witnesses of those early Petrograd days remained alive in Russia, there was no one around to dispute with Molotov his actual relationship with Lenin. But the archives of Leninism still held their verdict. In a letter commenting on Molotov's work, the exiled Lenin wrote: "We have received a stupid letter from the editorial board [i.e., Molotov]. We will not reply. They must be got rid of . . ." Lenin's last word on Molotov: "An incurable dumbbell."

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