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ALEXEI IVANOVITCH RYKOV, 46, is the President of the Union Council of People's Commissars, or, roughly speaking, Prime Minister of Russia, the post that was the late Lenin's. Born a peasant, he took a conspicuous part in the revolution. He, mild-mannered, is often seen slouching along the streets to & from the Kremlin in Moscow. He talks fluently in a pleasant manner, is always polite, extremely reserved, but he is neither orator nor scholar, as are many of his comrades. His forte is his presence of mind.
GEORG TCHITCHERIN (cheat-cher-'een), 55, is Commissioner for Foreign Affairs. Onetime aristocrat and diplomat, he threw up his appointment in Berlin in 1905, associated himself with the Socialist movement, was banished from Germany in 1908, since when he has remained an ardent Bolshevist. During the War he was imprisoned in England whence he was expelled in 1917. returning to Russia in January, 1918. As Foreign Commissioner he has been noted for his suave touch and clever diplomacy in the conduct of the foreign affairs.
LEV (LEON) DAVIDOVITCH TROTSKY, 50, a Jew, from early manhood until the revolution braved the perils and vicissitudes that beset all revolutionaries, although he did not join the Communist Party until 1917. Undoubtedly the most brilliant man in Bolshevist circles, even more brilliant, say many, than was Lenin, he is today shorn of power and has been completely excommunicated from the party. Yet, he is not a nonentity; for he is the leader of the opposition and he is uncompromisingly outspoken in his criticism of Stalinism.
After all, Trotsky's contributions to the success of the Bolshevist experiment, insofar as it may be called a success, are considerable—just how considerable it would be difficult precisely to determine.
He was first arrested in 1898 at the age of 19; Tsarist persecution followed. Escaping from Siberia in 1902, he remained abroad until the 1905 revolution broke out. He then returned to Russia, only to be arrested as the Chairman of the Workers' Committee. Railroaded to Siberia, he managed to escape and for ten years lived in foreign lands, coming to the U. S. in 1916.
While in the U. S., Trotsky lived for nearly three months at No. 1522 Vyse Ave., the Bronx, New York City. With him were his wife (sister of Lev Borisovitch Kamenev) and his two small sons. He is said to have eked out a precarious livelihood on $15 a week, which he got for writing brilliant revolutionary articles in the Novy Mir, New York Russian language newspaper. It is possible, however, that Trotsky earned much more, for his coming was advertised widely among the radicals, who organized many a reception for him and, he, brilliant as always, made many a scintillating speech.
When the 1917 revolution broke out, he abandoned the Bronx and embarked for Russia. The British imprisoned him at Halifax, but released him later, and he made his way without further molestation to his native land, where he joined Lenin. In September, 1917, he was elected President of the Petrograd (Leningrad) Soviet; and the next year, as the first Commissar for Foreign Affairs, he conducted the peace negotiations for the Russians at Brest-Litovsk. He refused to sign the treaty that the Germans drew up, resigned and became Commissar for War, in whiqh capacity he organized the Red Army, now said to be the largest in the world.