# XXVII: Further South explained — The Bolshevik Myth

> Chapter companion for The Bolshevik Myth by Alexander Berkman.

## What happens

The narrator describes a train journey through southern Russia in August 1920, witnessing devastation, poverty, and the gradual establishment of Soviet rule. In Poltava, a primitive Revkom governs; in Krementchug and Znamenka, market life continues with Soviet money scorned. Pogrom stories and hunted looks among Jews are prevalent. Henry Alsberg loses his purse; the Museum car is mistakenly sent to Kiev. Stranded, the group boards a military supply train, where a Communist commissar espouses Trotsky's 'iron broom' methods and predicts imminent revolution in Western Europe. They reunite with their Expedition in Fastov.

## Themes in this chapter

### Economic Collapse and Survival

The market scene in Znamenka illustrates barter and distrust of Soviet currency; widespread complaints about food shortages and starvation.

### Human Suffering and Dehumanization

Scars from violence, hunted looks in Jewish eyes, and the absence of young people reflect the toll of war and pogroms.

### Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict

Pogroms and the presence of Makhnovtsi (Ukrainian anarchist forces) highlight ongoing ethnic and political violence.

## Character check-ins

### Henry Alsberg

American correspondent traveling with the Expedition; loses his purse containing foreign money in Znamenka.

### Trotsky

Admired by the Communist commissar for his 'iron broom' methods of revolutionary force.

### Unknown Narrator

Narrates the journey, observes conditions, and interacts with the commissar.

## Key lines

> Soviet money is scorned, hardly anyone accepting it, though tsarskiye are in demand and occasionally kerenki are favored.

People refuse Soviet currency, preferring tsarist or Kerensky rubles.

_Illustrates the collapse of the Soviet economy and lack of trust in Bolshevik money._

> More frequently we meet men and women of Jewish type, the look of the hunted in their eyes, and more dreadful become the stories of pogroms that had taken place in the neighborhood.

Jews appear terrified, and tales of nearby pogroms grow increasingly horrific.

_Highlights the ethnic violence and persecution during the Civil War._

> Revolution can conquer only by the generous use of the sword, he believes; morality and sentiment are bourgeois superstitions.

The commissar argues that revolution requires violence and rejects morality as a bourgeois notion.

_Reflects the brutal ideology of some Bolsheviks, echoing Trotsky's methods._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/chapters/xxvii-further-south
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