Lenin Before He Became the Czar (Encounters With Lenin by Nikolay Valentinov)

The way to pull a heavily loaded handcart is to get between the shafts, push down, and walk. As long as you are on level ground, the going is good. Just as two buckets of water are easier to carry than one, so the pulling of a handcart is work for one man, not two. The author of this memoir tells us that one hot day in Geneva—it was 1904 and his name was then Samsonov—he was making ends meet by hauling oddments. He was young, a Bolshevik, and an exile from Russia. He had come to Geneva to be with Lenin and his circle.

His burden was heavy; he wore by necessity a large winter coat, because the seat of his trousers had parted the one half from the other.

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About the Author

Guy Davenport

The way to pull a heavily loaded handcart is to get between the shafts, push down, and walk. As long as you are on level ground, the going is good. Just as two buckets of water are easier to carry than one, so the pulling of a handcart is work for one man, not two. The author of this memoir tells us that one hot day in Geneva—it was 1904 and his name was then Samsonov—he was making ends meet by hauling oddments. He was young, a Bolshevik, and an exile from Russia. He had come to Geneva to be with Lenin and his circle.

His burden was heavy; he wore by necessity a large winter coat, because the seat of his trousers had parted the one half from the other.