"I suppose it is a common temptation for writers, in dealing with an illustrious figure whom they met first in a period of obscurity to pretend that they realized at first sight that here was a Man of Destiny, and it is difficult not to modify one's first, spontaneous judgment of such a man in the light of his later fame. To be honest I must admit that I cannot remember just when and where I first met Lenin, though I believe it was at a meeting in Bern. I already knew who he was and the position he represented, but he made no personal, physical impression upon me at the time. Lenin had no exterior characteristics that would lead one to single him out among the revolutionary figures of his day-in fact, of all the Russian revolutionary leaders, he seemed, externally, the most colourless. Nor did his speeches at this time impress me, either by their manner or by their content. Trotsky, whom I met later, was a far more brilliant and effective orator, though certain of his mannerisms and his general self-consciousness were to irritate me at times. Later, and particularly at the Zimmerwald conferences after 1914, where I had an opportunity to know and observe him more closely, I realized how shrewd and incisive was Lenin's mind. But though he was a master polemicist-and frequently an unscrupulous one-he had none of the characteristics of a demagogue. It was in this latter capacity that Zinoviev served him so well. At Zimmerwald, and later in Soviet Russia, Lenin's approach to tactical problems, like his approach to life itself, seemed to me very often a primitive one. I have often wondered since if this impression was correct whether he was inherently primitive in his intellectual and emotional makeup or had so trained himself to concentrate his attention upon one problem, or even one aspect of a problem, as to convey that impression. This concentration and ruthless singleness of purpose were undoubtedly the secret of his success or if one may use the word-his genius."