Sovietskie Barishnee

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The silence had become almost oppressive. The mother came forward and with an agitated voice said: "My mother was horrified. She is of the old Russia; she cannot understand. Some neighbors thought it impertinent, wanting to seem important. This hurt my husband, and we almost gave up the idea entirely. Then I read the Life of Rosa Luxembourg, that brave woman who died for the workers, and I knew I was right." Then, with greater strength, she added fervently that it had come to her that she must dedicate her "own girl child to the same life of sacrifice as Rosa Luxembourg." She handed the baby to Klara Zetkin, who, with the child in her arms, spoke of Rosa Luxembourg* as "my martyred comrade, whose name this child will bear henceforth, that her memory may remain fresh and living among us." Tears sprang to the eyes of many a young girl in the audience, the electric current of emotion was broken, but the interest, tempered by human feelings rising from the heart, grew even more intense.

The child was then passed to Bukharin, the so-called Archbishop of Communism. He took her tenderly but awkwardly. The mother made an instinctive step forward but her husband put out his arm to restrain her. This broke the tension and caused many a ripple of girlish giggles from the audience.

Solemnity, like the pall of night, quickly fell upon the momentary levity as the Priest held the child high in his arms, saying: "I dedicate thee, Rosa, little flower of human life, to the cause of Russian women—Rosa, sweetest of flowers; Luxembourg, honored name of a martyr—beauty and sacrifice." As if in obedience to a magic wand the entire assembly rose, and with the passion of youth and the feeling of age the Internationale was sung—then:

From a corner of the Opera House that no one had noticed broke the strains of Schubert's Ave Maria. The audience sank back in anticipation, the committee on the stage retired to one side, and, having sat fuming at delay in her dressing room, on came Isadora Duncan to the center of the stage where she stayed for a few moments, bent in wonder over the image of a Christ child. Behind her tripped a sweep of dancing children to join the admiration of the miracle which Isadora's art had conjured—then the music swelled and a mystic and dramatic dance began. Among the children was noticed a little blonde eight-year-old girl, Mary Peters, daughter of Karl Peters, Chief of the Cheka, or the Robespierre of the Russian Revolution. Her little red tunic was "like a drop of blood in the spotlight " —a reminder of another side of Communism.