Emmeline acted quickly. She wrote to Lloyd George asking for passports for
herself and WSPU colleagues to undertake, as ‘patriotic British women, loyal
to the national and Allied cause’, a visit to Russia.^3 Helen Crawfurd, ex-
WSPU member and one of the founders of the Women’s Peace crusade, was
furious. ‘Does Mrs. Pankhurst speak for us? Has her voice ever been raised
since this war started on behalf of the workers of this country against the prof-
iteers or exploiters who have taken advantage of this great crisis to rob and
plunder the people? ... SHALL WE NOT SPEAK FOR OURSELVES?’ The
people of Russia, she continued, through their leaders, have appealed to the
common people of every country to let their voices be heard, demanding
peace.^4 Lloyd George, however, welcomed Emmeline’s initiative, and suggested
that she travel under government auspices, as a paid lecturer, although funds
to finance the trip were raised through appeals inBritannia. ‘This is not in any
sense a class mission’, Emmeline explained to the press. ‘We shall not appeal
especially to the Russian women or to the working classes, but to all Russians
irrespective of class or politics. ... We shall work for a closer entente between
the Allies, and, especially, between this country and Russia.’^5 She believed
that the WSPU could make a special appeal to the Russian people because its
members were ‘the real revolutionaries’ who had suspended their revolution
when they realised that their first duty was ‘to preserve our country and to be
loyal to our Allies in the war’. In particular, she claimed that she could repre-
sent the feeling of the mass of the British people much more accurately than
the British pacifists travelling to Russia who represented just a very small
minority.^6 ‘Let me tell you’, Emmeline insisted, ‘that these minority represen-
tatives are going to preach class war and the universal strike. While talking in
favour of peace with the German aggressors, they advocate class war. I want to
say to the Russian people that those who first taught democratic ideas did not
preach the class war.’ In particular, Emmeline believed that it was the German
socialists who had preached ‘discord’ amongst those seeking to reform social
conditions in Russia; it was they who had ‘exploited’ every progressive move-
ment in Europe. ‘They preach internationalism and have denounced
patriotism as a worn-out idea. But they never have lost the idea of Germany
over all. ... It is the Allies’ duty thus to fulfil the principles and uphold the
cause of freedom and liberty of the whole world.’^7 Rather than her views
being labelled as a move to the right, the common assumption of most
socialist historians,^8 we may interpret them as being opposed to the interna-
tional Marxists, especially the Bolsheviks. Emmeline was deeply critical of the
form of socialism advocated by Marxism; the emphasis in Marxism on a mate-
rialist analysis in which political and cultural events are related to the
economic mode of production and its historical development, on social class
relations, class conflict and class consciousness, held no appeal or relevance
for her. The key concern for Emmeline during this time of national crisis was
to unite the Allies in one common purpose, the winning of the war, rather
than to emphasise class divisions and conflict. Once the war was won, women
WAR EMISSARY TO RUSSIA