Ransome later recalled that Robins told him that Leon Trotsky was "four times son of a bitch, but the greatest Jew since Jesus. "Beyond him was that sea of men: soldiers in green and grey shirts, workers in collarless ones, or jerseys, others dressed very much like British workmen, peasants in belted red shirts and high top boots.". He told his mother: "However, that may mean that they won't send me on any more of these horrible adventures. Arthur Ransome died on 3rd June, 1967. The book was published by Jonathan Cape, not by Rupert Hart-Daviss own publishing firm. While he was in Petrograd he met Raymond Robins, the brother of Elizabeth Robins, a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union before the war. It contains two rooms on the ground floor, plus scullery hole. He is without conviction or morality. Drivers had moved out of the original road to ground on either side of it not yet churned to mud. Twenty, maybe thirty years ago, I had abortive typhoid, and was going about with it, had it some days before it knocked me over. Please try again. In an article published on 3rd September 1914 where he predicted that at the end of the war: "England will be more English, France more French, and in the East, Russia will be more Russian and less inclined to suppose that civilization as well as the best of everything is made in Paris, London, Vienna and Berlin. Balding, bespectacled, moustache like the proverbial walrus. Ransome was also commissioned to write a series of critical anthologies, The World Story Tellers, that would include his favourite authors. This is a hugely compelling personal history by a great writer. Lockhart's mistress, Maria Zakrveskia, who had nothing to do with the conspiracy, was also taken into custody. Sir Basil Thomson, who now understood the work that Ransome had been doing for the government, over-ruled Leeper. "Despite the prevailing disorders and confusion, thirty-six million cast their secret ballots in parts of the country normal enough to hold elections. Ransome quickly gained the trust of Trotsky, who never imagined that he was passing information back to the British government. Soon afterwards all opposition political groups, including the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and the Constitutional Democratic Party, were banned in Russia. Two fairly healthy, one blind, another lame; both mad, mad as could be. Swallows and Amazons for ever! Arthur Ransome, in full Arthur Michell Ransome, (born January 18, 1884, Leeds, Yorkshire, Englanddied June 3, 1967, Cheadle, near Manchester), English writer best known for the Swallows and Amazons series of children's novels (1930-47), which set the pattern for "holiday adventure" stories. He wrote at the end of the book that after the publication and reprinting of Peter Duck in 1932: Arthur died in 1967, and Evenia died in 1975, nearly eight years later. He was educated in Windermere and Rugby. (If you are enjoying this article, please feel free to share. And my mother, feeling that she had to fill my father's place and determined to carry out his wishes now as when he was alive, told me (though I knew only too well already) of my father's fears for my character and her hopes that from now on I would remember to set a good example to my brothers and sisters." Ransome's mother wrote to her explaining: "You and I hold different views on certain subjects I know, but I want you to feel sure that this will not stand between us now that you are my son's wife. But no violent suppression was attempted. He does not believe that one man can make or stop the revolution. Great book. In a private letter to his mother, Ransome admitted that although he enjoyed the company of a handful of senior Bolsheviks - men like Karl Radek - the rest were "a pig-headed, narrow-minded set of energetic lunatics, energetic as if possessed by seven devils apiece.". Ambassador David R. Francis reported to President Woodrow Wilson that Ransome was closely linked to Karl Radek, one of the key leaders in the Bolshevik government. I've only met about three likeable Bolsheviks and they were mostly likeable because of something extraneous to their Bolshevism. The German attitude merely means that the German Government is wiser than most, and more realistic. Nor are many aware of his affair with (and later marriage to) the one-time private secretary of the Bolshevik leader, Leon Trotsky; and most would be amazed to hear that he was more than once suspected of being a secret agent for either (or even both) the British and the Bolshevik governments. " The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome by Arthur Ransome (1976, Jonathan Cape, London) ISBN 0 224 01245 2. Today he has been on the water with us from 9 to 7 with an interval for lunch. A rather more complex character, in other words, than fans of the gloriously straightforward Walkers and the Blacketts might fondly imagine. Our UK p&p charges are currently 1.25 for combined product weights up to 90gm, 1.85 for combined weights up to 235gm, 2.35 or 3.65 for combined weights up to 400gm (dependent on volume), 3.65 for combined weights up to 1.85kg, and 8.95 for combined weights up to 8.0kg. A year later, by now working for the Guardian, he left Russia with Evgenia again, for Estonia this time, with some two million roubles in diamonds and pearls for the Bolshevik cause abroad. It included seven chapters "Exercises for General Health", "Muscular", "Breathing", "Smoking", "Food", "Drinking" and "Sleep". Could you please wire out. If you are in Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the USA or an EU member state, you can place online orders with a combined product weight of 1.85kg or less. When I first learned that Ransome had worked for MI6 during and after WWI it seemed dashing and mysterious, but in fact it appears that he was fundamentally someone who looked after his own interests, and that in addition to being an apologist for the Bolsheviks he smuggled money out of Russia for them (3 million rubles, at one point), married Trotsky's secretary, and treated his daughter by his first wife very badly. He is best known for writing and illustrating the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. But if we can stop Germany then there will be peace for ever. Cyril wrote to Edith just before they got married: "I like you to be independent and think for yourself. We aim to complement Wikipedia, with articles focussed on Arthur Ransome and his works rather than . As is often the way when consummate storytellers come to recount their lives, "The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome" offers something of a selective and carefully constructed story which, whilst charmingly written, nevertheless at times owes more to imaginative invention and the narrative imperative than it does to actual historical fact. " "He was extremely well informed, intimate with the Bolsheviks and masterly in summing up a situation," he said. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. As well as Ransome, Pares and Williams, other members included Hamilton Fyfe of the Daily News and Morgan Philips Price of the Manchester Guardian.After visiting the Russian Army on the frontline Ransome reported: "Looking back now I seem to have seen nothing, but I did in fact see a great deal of that long-drawn-out front, and of the men who, ill-armed, ill-supplied, were holding it against an enemy who, even if his anxiety to fight was not greater than the Russians', was infinitely better equipped. Ransome later wrote: "I have been learning ever since how much I lost in him. It is now clear that the war will be decided by social rather than political pressure. His influence was the one constant steadying factor. Over 40 Books Could you please wire out. It was extremely inconclusive, in the fashion of modern history, about Ransome's role and motivation in Russia, due to the loss of so many relevant papers - but it painted a vivid portrait of several episodes in his life. He had, I remember, a thorough contempt for men who dressed well, or the least conventionally. His interview with Vorovsky appeared in the Daily News on 19th December, 1917. No serious offence was taken. His Edwardian origins shining through no doubt. "Sometimes, when I had the better of an argument and his feelings were more than usually outraged, he would jump out of the water and beat himself dry like an angry gorilla. "In early 1909 Ransome met Ivy Constance Walker in the flat rented by his friend, Ralph Courtney. It is make-believe such as all children have indulged in: even children who have not yet been so fortunate as to have a lake and a boat and an island but only a back garden amongst the semis of suburbia. The New York Times denounced Ransome as being the "mouthpiece of the Bolsheviki" and announced that they would no longer be publishing his articles in their newspaper. Xenophon Kalamatiano, who was working for the American Secret Service, was also arrested. His books are TAME by comparison. Among such enemies are our political adversaries, as well as bandits, speculators and other criminals who undermine the foundations of the Soviet Government. The start of the Red Terror changed attitudes towards Arthur Ransome in the United States. Lola Kinel met Ransome on a train during the summer of 1917. I found the information about Arthur Ransome in this book intriguing - a self-centered and idiosyncratic Englishman who lived part of his life at the heart of the Russian revolution. The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome At Kronstadt all power is in the hands of the revolutionary sailors, of red soldiers and of workers. It is impossible for people who have not lived here to know with what joy we write of the new Russian Government. But in the summer of 1918, MI6 recruited him in Stockholm, essentially because British intelligence recognised that there was no one who knew the leaders of the revolution better. Edith Ransome met Richards and agreed that her son should work for the young publisher: "She called on Mr Richards and was charmed by him. I will not say whom I obtained my revolver. Two bullets entered his body and it was too dangerous to remove them. On 4th April he was arrested by the police under the terms of the Defence of the Realm Act. 1136565, Post: The Hayloft, Coal Gate, Broughton-in-Furness, CUMBRIA, LA20 6BP I used to pick them up gingerly in my gloved hand and wrap them in a piece of newspaper. ", While in England he wrote Six Weeks in Russia (1919), an account of the revolution and an explanation for the signing of the Brest-Litovsk. He complained that in a raid on his flat in Petrograd they had destroyed "my collection of newspapers, every copy of every paper issued in Petrograd from February 1917 to February 1918, an absolutely priceless and irreplaceable collection". This did not last. A new book was published every year. Unfortunately, for me the people and politics of the Russian revolution overpowers the biography of Ransome himself, and I got bogged down and confused by who was with which faction and how they were interacting with other factions. Every Government in Europe is feeling the pressure of democracy from below. I am spending the whole time here working on my book and I am waiting for you to arrive." The great Dutch illustrator, Louis Raemakers, was recruited to provide the highly emotionally drawings that appeared in the pamphlet. He had, I remember, a thorough contempt for men who dressed well, or the least conventionally. Ransome contacted his spymaster, Robert Bruce Lockhart, to help him and Evgenia Shelepina, to escape from Russia to Estonia by providing the necessary papers. You are deposed from being an uncle or anything decent. This involved recruiting Britain's leading writers to write pamphlets that supported the war effort. He disapproved of Joseph Stalin taking power and interpreted events as the "peasants" taking over from the "intellectuals". He wrote to his mother: "I can't cross a room without nearly collapsing and the day before yesterday I fainted in the street.The Russian RevolutionRansome was so ill that in October 1917 he left Russia. . Ransome wrote: "Women and girls, mostly well-dressed, were enjoying the excitement. Swallows and Armenians: Arthur Ransome's forgotten inspirations According to Roland Chambers, the author of The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransome (2009): "Douglas had a strong case. Last week the National Archives released papers proving that England's best-behaved children's author was a spy and possibly a double agent during the Russian revolution; that he wrote pro-Bolshevik articles for liberal newspapers and married Trotsky's private secretary. "Lenin was bitterly disappointed with the result as he hoped it would legitimize the Russian Revolution. He disliked boarding school and did not do well in his studies. "My position was immediately behind and above the presidium, looking down on Trotsky's muscular shoulders and great head and the occasional gestures of his curiously small hands," he wrote. But it was inevitable that at some point or another somebody would take him seriously, and when it happened, no one was more astonished than Ransome himself. Ransome was found not guilty of libel and the publicity the book received meant that it was now going to be a bestseller. As the earth rattled on the lid of the coffin I stood horrified at myself, knowing that with my real sorrow, because I had liked and admired my father, was mixed a feeling of relief. They brought with them into the hot, damp July' evening in Petrograd something of the old vigour of the front; something of the vivid contrast there has always been between the front and the rear. Arthur Ransome - Wikipedia The series affected a whole generation's view of holidays, helped to create the national image of the English Lake District and added Ransome's name to the select list of classic British children's authors. In a statement to the police she confessed to trying to kill Lenin. He told me he was on his way to address a Trade Union meeting. She also insisted on retaining Ransome's library as part of the deal. The pamphlet was published in July 1918. Ransome argued in his autobiography: "Radek had been born in Poland and spoke Polish (badly as his wife used to say, because he had talked too much German in exile), Russian (with a remarkably Polish accent) and French with the greatest difficulty. Book condition as described. I have not been able to work. The autobiography of Arthur Ransome - amazon.com Ransome sincerely hoped that the Bolshevik revolution would sweep away the many injustices of the old regime and offer a brighter future to the country's downtrodden poor. (c) Arthur Ransome Trust, 2022 As a political journalist he travelled to Egypt and China; as an essayist he wrote his highly-regarded Rod and Line series of fishing essays and numerous other articles. On either side of the processions, long strings of men and women walk along holding hands the whole town is hung with flags, banners and inscriptions. His work was so vital to British interests that the Secret Intelligence Service offered to cover all his costs. He wrote to a friend: "She knows only too well how to hurt most painfully. Terror is an absolute necessity during times of revolution. After a three-day trial, the jury took just over two hours to return its verdict. That is the thought in the minds of the Russian workmen today. This did not last. Ross also wanted to gain revenge on Lord Alfred Douglas, who he considered had destroyed Wilde. Interesting but ultimately unsatisfying life of Arthur Ransome. Beside it stood a sentinel, who was a workman from the Red Guard in ordinary clothes, with a rifle and bandolier over his overcoat. Plainly he dislikes Ransome, and it shows. Inside soldiers lolling about In the main room I found four men. If there had been any corruption, it had been Wilde's corruption of Douglas. "Douglas's counsel went on to argue that Wilde was "a shameless predator who had deprived an innocent boy not only of his inheritance, but of his chastity". He gave me his blessing, and made things easy for me, at least as far as Stockholm, by entrusting the diplomatic bag to me to deliver to the Legation there. Go to more detailed information about the Literary Estate and copyright. He was tall, dressed in a Russian military coat, though without insignia, and a fur cap. They go off quite silently here in the middle of the night, carrying their little tin kettles, and for all the world like puzzled children going off to school for the first time. In later years, Chambers says, nothing infuriated Ransome more than a suggestion that he had been even so much as a socialist, let alone a Bolshevik. Xenophon Kalamatiano, who was working for the American Secret Service, was also arrested. At the same time, however, Ransome undeniably was serving the revolutionaries' cause: he once arrived in Sweden with three million roubles in a Bolshevik diplomatic bag, travelling with a British passport for himself and Evgenia and papers given him by Radek (when he left Russia he was wearing a Bolshevik uniform; arriving in Sweden, he sported a British one). It recognizes the real factors and is moved by them. According to Jon Henley the "children's books had sold more than a million copies by the time the last was published, and have sold many millions more since.". The water-supply was still working, so Thomson was having his bath as usual. "What was happening in Russia was simply a final transfer of power to the class in whose name the Revolution had been launched." Two events saved the day. I send you my love, and I hope and pray that you and Arthur may have many years of peace and happiness in store. He wants to go into the country for six months to write a hook. The only way to prevent a Russian from talking is to cut out his tongue.". He has a striking head, a very broad, high forehead above lively eyes, a fine cut nose and a small cavalier beard. The basis of character is will power, and my will became utterly subject to yours. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 22, 2010. It is to the Russian Revolution that German democracy looks, and it is the recognition of that fact that compels the German Government to accept the Russian principles as a basis for negotiation. via Facebook, Twitter and our e-newsletter, Artefacts: Accessibility | Cookies | Copyright | PrivacyFundraising Promise | Fundraising Complaints | Shop Terms of SaleTerms & Conditions | Sitemap | Admin, Arthur Ransome Trust He saw nothing wrong in my determination some day to write books for myself, and to the dismay of my mother did everything he could to help me. I didn't ask Ernest what time it was when he came to bed - I myself read it till 11, and got to within seven chapters of the end. He does not believe that one man can make or stop the revolution. Our Military Attach in Bucharest was Colonel Thomson, who blamed himself a good deal for his share in bringing Roumania into the war. Ransome's autobiography described . They all say the same thing. It contains two rooms on the ground floor, plus scullery hole. Lockhart held Ransome in high esteem, having become friends with him when the two of them were living at the Elite Hotel in Moscow. His foot was cut off. Doesn't the maid ever dust here?". She is cruel." Roger Wardale, The World of Arthur Ransome. He told them that he was a close friend of Lenin and that he would be very angry if they killed him. He wrote in The Daily News: "In five days' time the Constituent Assembly meets. On 3rd June 1904, Dora wrote in her diary: "Last Saturday Mr Ransome came to dinner. ", Colonel Alfred Knox, the British Military Attach at the embassy, had no idea that Ransome was working as a British agent. "Have a look," said Thomson and I lifted the carpet to see that the floor of the car was covered with bottles of champagne. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. I send you my love, and I hope and pray that you and Arthur may have many years of peace and happiness in store. He appears to have been very closely in touch with all the Bolshevik leaders, and is perfectly frank about what they told him. He wrote to a friend: "The streets are full of soldiers. Ross wanted Ransome's book to help rehabilitate Wilde's reputation. It was estimated that over 200,000 took part in the march. I was much better able to understand the grimness with which those of my friends who knew Russia best were looking into the future. She daren't touch my desk," he said with the air of a fanatic threatened with some danger. His own Bohemianism was not a pose but seemed real. Arthur Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, arranged for the papers to be sent to Russia. Ariadna Tyrkova commented: "Prince Lvov had always held aloof from a purely political life. And he never apologised. "The Red TerrorAfter the assassination attempt on Lenin the authorities became more hostile to foreigners living in Russia. He regularly spent large parts of the year reporting from Petrograd and Moscow throughout the entire period of the Russian Revolution and the Civil War that followed. He persuaded the Swedish authorities to expel Ransome and Shelepina from the country, along with eleven others, on the grounds that they were revolutionary Bolsheviks. If we make no move it seems possible that the Germans will ask the Russians to help them in enforcing the Russian peace terms on the Allies. He previously wrote to tell me that they have a number of old photographs and, ' a collection of most books by and about Arthur Ransome. But there are also longer answers. The time he spends in Russia leading up to, during and after the revolution is filled with interesting detail. I asked whether then M. Trotsky considered the German offer as a joint victory of the Russian and German democracies. He had his definite policy, and his firmness in his own position was the best curb on other, more mercurial people. His interview with Vorovsky appeared in the Daily News on 19th December, 1917. "Ransome also reported on the Kornilov Revolt: "Last night I saw the cavalry regiment just arrived from the front to support the Government riding from the station. Ivy told him that her mother was an unstable lunatic and her father was a sadist: "From all this fantastic horror I was to rescue her and I could see no other way before me." The British government had established the secret War Propaganda Bureau on the outbreak of the First World War. They are writing it amid the slinging of mud from all the meaner spirits in their country, in yours and in my own. However, Colonel Norman Thwaites of the War Office who had good connections to the intelligence community wrote: "Mr. Ransome is a man chiefly interested in himself and the lady referred to. ", Ransome was friends with Zelda Kahan, a member of the the Social Democratic Federation (SDF). Since Richards's business was overstretched and understaffed, he was soon given more responsible work: calling in sample bindings, ordering paper, learning the bibliographic language so essential to his trade. ", Ransome now returned to London where he hoped to find a newspaper willing to employ him to report on the war. Or, Thirty Years on the Bowery; An Autobiography (English) (as Author) Ranous, Dora Knowlton, . Like most people, I only really knew Arthur Ransome as the author of the Swallows & Amazons series. . ", On 2nd September, 1918, Bolshevik newspapers splashed on their front pages the discovery of an Anglo-French conspiracy that involved undercover agents and diplomats. Ivy rejected his proposal and demanded one third of his income. A year ago it seemed that only militarism could end the war. Ransome benefited from Williams's encyclopedic knowledge of Russian history, his journalistic contacts and also from a friendship with Williams's wife, Ariadna Tyrkova, the first female representative elected to the Russian parliament, or State Duma, and a passionate advocate of constitutional reform. on the Internet. "He said he was going in order to write a guidebook to St Petersburg and to research Russian fairytales," Chambers says. ", As Nicholas was supreme command of the Russian Army he was linked to the country's military failures and there was a strong decline support for the Tsar Nicholas II in Russia. "In December 1914 Ransome returned to Petrograd. I had resolved to kill Lenin long ago. He claims, as has already been reported to you, to be the official historian of the Bolshevik movement. Ransome immediate accepted the offer and told Scott that because of his Bolshevik contacts would be of help to British citizens in the country: "Except under a Trotsky regime I think I could probably be of use to British subjects in Russia, should any of them get into difficulties or want to get out. Secker settled out of court and sold the copyright of the book to Methuen. Campbell read from a letter written by Douglas: "I remember the sweetness of asking Oscar for money. He had his definite policy, and his firmness in his own position was the best curb on other, more mercurial people. This is one of the best biographies I've ever read. During the period of pre-Revolutionary conspiracy he was not the party organizing centre, and in the broad area of the revolution, in spite of his vast authority amongst the SRs, Chernov proved bankrupt as a political leader. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness. Our aim is to fight against the enemies of the Soviet Government and the new order of life. Ransome sincerely hoped that the Bolshevik revolution would sweep away the many injustices of the old regime and offer a brighter future to the country's downtrodden poor. Ransome met Harold Williams and his wife, Ariadna Tyrkova, in Russia in 1914. "Colonel Alfred Knox, the British Military Attach at the embassy, had no idea that Ransome was working as a British agent. Here "for good or evil was a man who, at least for a moment, had his hand on the rudder of the world". Matters would eventually reach a head. Arthur Ransome's "secret life" is apparently one of them. In Williams's company Ransome discussed not only politics, but philosophy, history and literature, sought out his advice on every subject and listened in amazement as he spoke in any one of the forty-two different languages used in Russia at that time. Following the disastrous swimming lesson, he had taken himself, using his own pocket money, to the Leeds public baths, where he taught himself the backstroke in secret, only to be told when announcing the fact at breakfast that he was a liar. ", Ransome friends at Rugby included Morgan Philips Price, Richard H. Tawney, Percy Wyndham Lewis, Harry Ricardo and Edward Taylor Scott, the son of C.P. This pamphlet attempted to give credence to the idea that the German Army had systematically tortured Belgian civilians. Robins, he concluded, was by far the superior specimen. I spent 11 years at hard labour. I have allowed myself to keep my wife's times rather than my own. Ransome arrived in Moscow on 22nd October. This pamphlet attempted to give credence to the idea that the German Army had systematically tortured Belgian civilians. He said that his articles were `nothing but Bolshevik propaganda' and added: "personally, I cannot understand the Daily News or any other paper being prepared to pay for the rubbish he telegraphs.". He was followed by other leaders and representatives of the army and the fleet and spoke in greeting. George Alexander Hill, a British spy, met Ransome during this period and commented on him in his autobiography, Go Spy the Land (1933): "A tall, lanky, bony individual, with a shock of sandy hair, usually unkempt, and the eyes of a small inqquisitive and rather mischievous boy. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. This information would prove so valuable that he would eventually find himself on Mansfield Cumming's payroll. Altogether, it will be very much too much of a good thing if, after having worked as I have, and been as useful as I possibly could, I am now to be attacked in such a way that I cannot defend myself except by a highly undesirable exposition (to persons who have no right to know) of what, though not officially secret service work (because I was unpaid) amounted to the same thing." The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome: Ransome, Arthur (Editor Rupert Arthur Ransome was, in the mid-twentieth century, what J.K. Rowling is today: author of a series of childrens books which shaped the imagination of a generation. The Germans have been forced by democratic pressure to throw aside their grandiose plans of conquest and to accept a peace in which there is neither conqueror nor conquered.". He gave me his blessing, and made things easy for me, at least as far as Stockholm, by entrusting the diplomatic bag to me to deliver to the Legation there. Ransome walked along with the crowd that were hemmed in by mounted Cossacks armed with whips and sabres. I came back to Petrograd full of admiration for the Russian soldiers who were holding the front without enough weapons to go round. Ransome will do this to perfection, if not by writing, then at least by talking to people. Discover more authors you'll love listening to on Audible. The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome, Arthur Ransomes autobiography, ended in 1932, but was published on 9 September 1976, after both Arthur and Evgenia had died. His foot was cut off. There is way too much speculation in this book, the Security Service documents are out there and offer some insight but Chambers seems to draw too many conclusions from documents that are not conclusive. According to Roland Chambers, his biographer, "Ransome handled every sort of menial task: wrapping books, fetching staff lunches from the local public houses, filling in labels, checking invoices and saving on postage by delivering parcels on foot.
