grad and worked as a turner in the Putiloff
works. In 1898 he joined the Social Democratic
Party. A year later he was arrested
and exiled. Later he was allowed to return
to Reval, but he was not there long before he
was again arrested and exiled to Siberia. He
is married and has a wife and three children
and a sixty-year-old mother who lives in the
village where he was born, managing a farm.
He reckons that his chief work as President of the Executive Committee is to awaken the peasants and especially the middle class peasantry. Pie wants to bring the villages and towns into closer contact and establish better relationships between the one and the other. He considers his election as President of the Executive Committee proves that the Bolsheviks are anxious to unite the peasants and workers in one solid organisation. When asked one day “ What do you expect from the future ? ” his reply was : “ I am an incorrigible optimist : I am sure we will overcome all misfortunes. I am going a tour of the villages and small towns and I am sure that we shall come to an understanding with each other.” He has a special train in which he travels from one part of the country to another. He speaks quite simply, sometimes to a crowd of children and on other occasions to huge crowds of workmen.
He takes his position as President, not as
