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1916]
M. SCHINGAREFF
431
Russian face of the eminent cadet deputy, his high and
intelligent forehead, his rather thick lips, and his smile
showing all his strong white teeth. A country doctor,
employed by the "Zemstvo" of one of our central
provinces, he was, from the beginning of the Duma, one
of the most prominent and most esteemed members of
his party. Scrupulously disinterested in his private
life—a noble life without blot or stain—he had
specialised in economic questions, more especially those of
rural interest. His speeches, always admirably padded
and always a little too long, but logical and sincere,
provoked rejoinders which were quite as circumstantial,
as sincere and as well padded, from M. Kokovtzoff.
They were more like academic than political encounters,
discussions of two schools rather than of preconceived
opinions; and these discussions often led to wise and
practical "decrees of the Senate." Steadfast faith in the
Russian people, intense love for this people and for his
country, formed the basis of the political and private
character of this good man. Turguenieff sketched some
of these types in his later novels. The Bolsheviks
murdered him as soon as they could. Schingareff and
another eminent member of his party, M. Kokochkin,
were lying rather seriously ill in a hospital in
Petrograd, when a band of Red Guards broke open the doors
and riddled the two men with bullets in their beds.
MM. Lenin and Trotsky pretended afterwards that it
had been a "mistake."
The banquet at Hasselbaken was most successful.
One of the members of our parliamentary delegation
made a very well-turned speech in which he advocated
the development of the closest economic relations and
the cultivation of feelings of friendship between Sweden
and Russia. The Swedes replied to this in the same
strain. Every one talked quite intimately, and some
journalists who a few short months previously had
hurled their thunder-bolts at Russia, were the first to
display feelings of sympathy towards their Russian
guests. At this banquet I could prove with a certain
I
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