slightly antagonistic towards her. The two conversed in French, through an
interpreter, but Kerensky vacillated so that it was difficult for Emmeline to
follow a line of argument. Nevertheless, he firmly told the leader of the British
militant women’s suffrage movement that English women could not teach
Russian women anything. He also conveyed the impression to Emmeline that
he had little time for women’s emancipation unless it was for women of the
same ideological persuasion as himself. When, during their conversation, he
spoke also to the interpreter in Russian, which Emmeline could not understand,
she felt uncomfortable. As the two emissaries prepared to leave, Kerensky wrote
a note for Emmeline, proudly telling her as he did so, ‘This is the pen that the
Czar used to sign his documents with.’ The two women found his comment
chilling and boastful.^25
It was something of a relief for Emmeline and Jessie when they travelled to
Moscow since it seemed further away from the hostilities. They loved the city,
especially the Kremlin and the old streets around it; the interior of St. Basil’s
Cathedral evoked from Emmeline the comment that she thought that William
Morris, whose designs she so admired, must have got some of his inspiration
from its fine decoration. On a visit to the Moscow women’s battalion, they
watched the 1,000 women at their drill and felt the weight of their heavy rifles.
Emmeline spoke words of comfort to the sick women soldiers, praising them for
their sacrifice. Then there were invitations to lunch and dinner and to country
houses nearby, and sometimes they met unexpected people, such as Major
Raymond Robins, the brother of Elizabeth. Amid such a busy schedule, they
managed to do a little sightseeing and even some shopping but money was
scarce and so they could only afford a few gramophone records of Russian songs
rather than the needlework that Emmeline so admired. Inevitably, with the
poor quality of scarce food that was available, both Emmeline and Jessie fell ill.
Fearing they had contracted the killer disease of dysentery, a friend obtained
some strong drug from a chemist which was administered, with successful
results. Emmeline, however, never fully recovered her health.
Later in the month, Emmeline and Jessie attended the great congress to
which workers’ and soldiers’ delegates had been summoned, as well as represen-
tatives from most walks of Russian life. They listened to the over-long speeches
and nearly fainted through lack of fresh air. Emmeline, who had never had to
justify her actions to committees of the WSPU, was unimpressed with
Kerensky’s highly emotional oratory as he pleaded, threatened and promised at
great length, in an attempt to assert his authority. Like the audience, Emmeline
was of the view that the Provisional Government could not last and that
Kerensky, who had allowed Lenin, the leading spirit of the Bolsheviks, to return
to Russia and also released other Bolshevik leaders from prison, including Leon
Trotsky, was merely ‘a man of straw’.^26
Travelling on a crowded train back to Petrograd, the two English emissaries
considered themselves fortunate not to have lost any luggage or money. But
once they arrived at their hotel, a perusal of their room soon revealed that a
WAR EMISSARY TO RUSSIA