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Elisa Shua Dusapin

[04/08/202504/08/2025](https://revolutionsnewsstand.com/2025/04/08/the-vladivostok-soviet-and-its-leaders-by-albert-rhys-williams-from-through-the-russian-revolution-boni-and-liveright-publishers-new-york-1921/) [Revolution's Newsstand](https://revolutionsnewsstand.com/author/revnewsstand/) # ‘The Vladivostok Soviet and Its Leaders’ by Albert Rhys Williams from Through the Russian Revolution. Boni and Liveright Publishers, New York. 1921. [](https://revolutionsnewsstand.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/20.-d09fd0b5d180d0b2d18bd0b9-d092d0bbd0b0d0b4d0b8d0b2d0bed181d182d0bed0bad181d0bad0b8d0b9-d181d0bed0b2d0b5d182-d180d0b0d0b1d0bed187d0b8d185-d0b8-d181d0bed0bbd0b4d0b0d182d181d0bad0b8d0b9-.jpg)Leaders of the Vladivostok soviet Albert Rhys Williams traveled across the expanse of Russia during the Revolution. Here, he sees the new order four thousand miles from Petrograd before its overthrow and occupation by imperialist troops. ##### ‘The Vladivostok Soviet and Its Leaders’ by Albert Rhys Williams from Through the Russian Revolution. Boni and Liveright Publishers, New York. 1921. THE limits of the Revolution—what were they? We had seen this Revolution, loosed by the city-workers, drive deeper and deeper down, taking ever lower and lower strata of the people within its grip. When it laid hold of the convicts of Cherm it reached bottom. It could go no further vertically. How far could it reach horizontally? Would it prove the same power here in these far-flung outposts on the Pacific that it was back there upon the Atlantic? Would the Revolution show the same strong pulse beat in these extremities as it did in the heart of Russia? In a world of Soviets we had moved across the great, slow, north-flowing rivers, the Urals, the taiga forests, and the steppes. Trainmen and miners had spoken of their Soviets, peasants and fishermen had greeted us with red banners in the name of theirs. We had conferred with the Soviet of Central Siberia and the Far East Soviet. This whole Amur district was dotted with Soviets. Now, as we stepped from the train at Vladivostok, we were to find a replica of the Soviet we had left at Petrograd, seven thousand miles away. In six months the Soviet had struck its roots deep into the Russian soil, crowded out all rivals, resisted the shock of every attack, and now held undisputed sway from the Arctic Ocean on the north to the Black Sea on the south, from Narva looking upon the Atlantic all the way to Vladivostok here on its promontory looking into the Pacific. Vladivostok is a city built on hills, with streets as steep as Alpine paths. But with an extra horse attached to the _droshky’s_ shafts, we rattled over the cobbles as swiftly as we did along the level wood-paved prospekts of Petrograd. The main highway, _Svetlanskaya,_ lies folded up and down across the hills, flanked by the commercial houses of the French and English, the International Harvester, and the buildings of the new rulers of Russia—the Red Fleet, and the Soviet of Workmen’s Deputies. Massive fortresses frowned from all the hills around, but they were harmless as dove-cotes. In the first days of the war they had been dismantled, and the great guns shipped to the Eastern front. A defenseless city, into which extends a peculiar tongue of water called the _Golden Horn._ Here the Allied battleships, uninvited, rode at anchor. Their flags were a welcome sight to the fleeing émigrés at the end of the long Siberian journey. With a sigh of relief here they settled down. Soon, they believed, the Revolution would be over. Then they would return and take up their old life again in Russia. **A City of Refuge for the Émigrés.** The city was thronged with evicted landowners, dreaming