Beau Walsh

Autobiography

Life in Russia as a working class laborer

Yuri, a middle aged Russian peasant labor worker sat talking with his friend Valerie; the year was 1940 and the two men sat together drinking a bottle of vodka while discussing the last thirty years of their lives. Valerie turned to Yuri and said you tell me about the last thirty years and how do you feel about things were and how they are now . All right said Yuri, I ll tell you but it s just between us, you agree; and with the nod of Valerie s head Yuri began.

I was in my late teens when I attended my first Communist party rally, the main speaker was Stalin himself. He was most impressive, he spoke like a common man and it was easy for the crowd to relate to him, he was a true Bolshevik. The revolution had not taken place, it was springtime but we all knew it wouldn t be long before all hell would break loose. Lenin returned from exile that same spring of 1917 and right away planned that we should organize to over through the provisional government and hand over the land to the peasant people.

As we came upon November our party was strong with members, by this time I was part of a team that was assigned to seize control of the main telegraph office in Petrograd. Other teams were given the job of taking control of bridges, government offices and other key facilities in the city. It wasn t long before we formed the new government and took over control. The first thing Lenin did was call for an end to the fighting and war; he then decreed that all of Russia lands belonged to the people, the peasants. Everyone; well not everyone, but most everyone was happy. The common man felt he was getting somewhere. It wasn t long before we began to have more problems. The civil broke out the following march of 1918 and I was called to act in the central red army based here I Petrograd. It was a tough life I the army, we didn t have the of equipment and it seemed that we were always running out of something. We struggled through and finally war victory.

It seemed that everyone was tired of the struggle, the war, and conflicts; but new policy by the Communist party was good. We could now share in the profits once we paid a tax to the government. I was again back working on the family farm and life started looking better.

It was a real shock when Lenin died of a hart attack early in 1924. It wasn t clear who would become the new party leader; some said Stalin while others thought Trotsky. I still liked Stalin, I remembered him from my teenage years and felt he was a man of the people. I now believed I was wrong.

Stalin eventually got rid of Trotsky and everyone else for that matter. He was trough and cruel, he wanted to prove himself right at any cost. We worked ourselves to the bone for the sake of our country but Stalin was relentless. He turned on the common man; he cared more about control and power than the people who killing themselves to make a better life. Sure we have medic s services and pensions but don t get caught saying anything bad about the party or you ll be arrested and accused of anti-Soviet activities. It s the ones in the cities that he has time for now and it seems like we don t count for anything. Anyway I m talking to much and not drinking enough lets have another drink.