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Show MINSK: AN INCUBATOR OF BOLSHEVISM One of the least Interesting among Itusslnn cities In Its physical aspects, Minsk tins an economic history thnt helps In understanding how bolshcvlsui spread so readily among tho Ilusslnu people. Tho Induftrlnl history of Minsk whcro tho Poles nnd tho bolsheviks met to discuss pence terms. Is especially espe-cially significant In view of present conditions In Itussln. It was one of tho centers whero Ideas long germl noted which blossomed forth so suddenly sud-denly Into bolshcvlsm undor the hothouse hot-house Influences of war distress. There, In the early nineties of tho Inst century, n group of dllettnntes formed n Working Mnn's union, later more accurately tcrniuri tho Union for struggle, rromuigntion or literature, smuggled Into tho country or printed In fecret. wns n innjor activity of this group In Minsk. Few worklngmen bo-longed bo-longed to It. In the courso of five years these groups, working In Moscow, St. Petersburg Pe-tersburg and Minsk, hnd accumulated a number of followers, few of whom ngreed. They gno wide publicity to tho doctrines of Mnrx, mixed I ltd Is-crltnlnntely Is-crltnlnntely with every variety of rod Icnllsm, nntlvo and Imported. With such n diversity of nlms little wns accomplished, and It wns with the hope of formulating n definite program pro-gram fhnt the Un'on for Struggle and a committee of tho Jewish bund held their notable convention nt Minsk In ; 1803. From thnt meeting nroso the , C.wtlnl T1..wi.,-til.. lnHf.l.. ...- ...pull, iLiuiniftiii, iitiimuK .iiens pnrty. Minsk Is built upon the Svlslotck river, nearly BOO miles southwest of Moscow by rail, nnd hns n population of 10r,000. fully hnlf of whom nre .Tows. It wns the capltnl of tho old Itusslnn government of Minsk, which Included some of tho least fertllo and lonst developed regions of tho foJIen empire. Tlio nnnnnl fnlr. hold In Mnrch. fur-nbdiod fur-nbdiod the cldof event In tho town's life Its trade, mnlnly In corn, lumber lum-ber and leather, gained perceptibly whon It became tho Intersection point of tho railway from Moscow to Warsaw War-saw nnd that from Llbnu to Kharkov Formerly it mnlntolned n municipal pawnshop. ' |