BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 18 JAN. 1921
BRACERS 19725. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

Govt. University Peking.1
18.1.21

Beloved

I got 3 letters2 and some press-cuttings from you yesterday, all together. Thank you for them. Your letters sound very sad my Darling. Do believe and feel that my spirit is always with you — I love you unalterably, my Heart’s Comrade3 — your dear gentle ways are constantly in my thoughts. Especially when I get unhappy about Bolshevism and my attitude to it, I long for you — Bolsheviks are in everything the opposite of you — they have left an impression of indelible horror on my mind, and when I find Lansbury and Brailsford and George Young4 taking me to task, feeling nothing of what I felt, I feel a lost soul among aliens. It is no question of being turned reactionary. The Russian people are suffering atrociously, and none of the leading Bolsheviks seemed to me to mind in the very slightest. I felt them totally devoid of every vestige of human kindness — men essentially akin to Winston.5 I do not change my feeling with time. I feel sure you would have felt the same. Dora6 does not, though as far as opinion goes she nearly agrees with me.

Dear One, don’t be sad or lonely.  I must stop now as I am very busy — I love you, my lovely Darling, now and always.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200726.

• 2

  3 letters Not enough information is provided to identify them.

• 3

  Heart’s Comrade For information on the use of the term, see BRACERS 19145, n.12.

• 4

  Lansbury and Brailsford and George Young Reviewers of The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (B&R A34). George Lansbury reviewed the book as “Bertrand Russell on ‘Bolshevism’”, Labour Leader, 18 Nov. 1920. Lansbury had travelled to Russia before BR did. He thought BR too critical, expecting too much too soon because real democracy was rare and difficult to achieve. Henry Noel Brailsford reviewed the book as “A Philosopher on Russia”, Daily News, 1 Dec. 1920. Brailsford travelled to Russia after BR had been there and viewed the Bolsheviks in a much more favourable light than BR did. George Young reviewed the book as “The Jig Saw Puzzle”, Daily Herald, 25 Nov. 1920, writing that it was the best book he had read since Arthur Ransome’s — but he did point out what he thought were contradictory statements by BR. The Ransome book is Six Weeks in Russia in 1919 (London: Allen & Unwin, 1919). Later that year Colette sent BR a copy of Ransome’s next book, The Crisis in Russia (London: Allen & Unwin, 1921); the inscription from her is April 1921 (RL no. 2066). Clippings of all these reviews are in the Russell Archives.

• 5

  Winston Winston Churchill. See BR’s letter of 6 Jan. 1921 (BRACERS 19723, n.9).

• 6

  Dora Dora Black (1894–1986). She and BR were married from 1921 until 1935. For further information on her, see BRACERS 19506, n.3.