The date: 1921. Since Andreu Nin spoke several languages, the CNT sent him to the Congress of the Red Trade Union International in Moscow: it was the first time he had travelled to Europe.
Location: Moscow. Rumours spread that Nin was fleeing from the police while packing his bags to leave for Russia, thus linking him to the attack on Eduardo Dato.
The anecdote. His attention was drawn to the vivid reminder of the revolution: the palace built by Nicholas I, whose steps led to the hall where congresses were held.
In April 1921, the national plenary of the National Confederation of Labour (CNT) decided to send a delegation to Russia to the Third Congress of the International and to the founding Congress of the Red Trade Union International. As Andrew Ninfuture president of the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) before being assassinated in the Spanish Civil War, spoke several languages, and became the perfect candidate to be part of that commission. It was the first time he had travelled to Europe.
The Spanish political situation was delicate at that time. The assassination of the head of the Government Eduardo Dato in March 1921, victim of anarcho-syndicalist gunmen for having supported Martínez Anido in his action to control the social situation in Barcelona, was followed in July by the disaster of Annual, where the Moroccan troops of Abd el-Krim inflicted a bloody defeat on the Spanish forces with more than ten thousand dead.
The rumour spread quickly in Barcelona that Nin was on the run from the police. The newly elected secretary general of the CNT, who was then packing his bags to leave for Russia, was linked to the attack on Dato because the three gunmen who killed the conservative leader were anarchists. But the truth is that he had nothing to do with the murder, even though he knew its perpetrators.
Upon arrival in Berlin, He hid from the police because the Spanish government had offered a reward of one million pesetas to anyone who arrested those responsible for Dato’s death.The CNT delegates went to Estonia and from there to Petrograd and Moscow with false passports.
At last Andreu Nin set foot on Russian soil. For nine long years he would contemplate the walls of the Kremlin and the vast expanse of Red Square thousands of times.
Upon arrival in Moscow he was accommodated at the Lux Hotel, located on Tverskaya Avenue, near the Kremlin. A dirty, dusty six-story residence with poor heating and food that wasn’t even worth trying.The unrenovated first floor was swarming with cockroaches and even rats. As the kitchens were communal, the smells of all the world’s stoves could be felt in the hotel. Men and women prepared their breakfast or dinner there. Lunch was organised by the Comintern.
Sometimes, there was a queue, and it was not unusual to hear women arguing in different languages, as if it were a Tower of Babel. Nin was one of the 150 people staying there. Every time she entered or left the hotel, she had to show the concierge a card called a “propus,” without which no one could enter the residence.
Unlike the Lux Hotel, the Savoy welcomed many foreigners in its charming restaurant, from diplomats to representatives of English and American shipyards, who paid around four dollars for a meal, equivalent to eighteen million rubles. Such was the gulf between the Russian and American currencies.
Nin was sometimes content to sit at one of the tables in the café-restaurant next to the main door of the Lux, whose nightlife was enlivened by a good orchestra. He often drank tea, as coffee was considered a luxury. On more than one occasion, on his way to the Kremlin, he entered the walled enclosure through the side gate near the Comintern building, instead of through the main entrance on Red Square. He had to pass through a double checkpoint, manned by Red Guards with fixed bayonets.
In front of the huge bell
The first time the anarchist leader stopped in front of the enormous bell, which had been preserved as a useless relic of the past in one of the courtyards. He also looked at the giant cannon that was never fired. And the ostentatious Kremlin Museum, filled with beautiful memories: the Persian throne offered to Boris Godunov, the rich carriages encrusted with precious stones, the countless precious dresses of Catherine the Great and, as a contrast, the instruments of torture used against the enemies of the regime.
His attention was immediately drawn to the crypt of the Archangel Church, one of the three that the Kremlin contained, with the rough sarcophagi of the tsars.. And of course, the vivid reminiscence of the revolution: the great palace built a century ago by Nicholas I, whose steps led to the enormous golden hall where celebrations were held in ancient times.
pomp of major events, including Soviet and international congresses.
EXORBITANT PRICES
►Unlike Petersburg, there were no private hotels in Moscow. In almost no other city in the world was the shortage of rooms so great as here. Nin often rode in a cab to travel the long distances of the city. It was better not to take the trams: they were packed to the rafters and lice that spread typhus were infested inside them. The “iswostschik,” as the cab driver was called, was a typical bearded, smelly man who pulled the reins of a scrawny horse that looked like it was about to fall apart. The price of the ride was four million rubles, equivalent to one dollar. The prices were exorbitant given the depreciation of Russian money in a post-war economy. A suit cost a billion rubles, a pair of shoes two hundred million, and a pound of butter fifteen million. Going to the theater was also very expensive.
