George Seldes: Speaking Truth To Power In his autobiography, Three SOBs, Seldes relates an interesting tale in chapter 22 of this book, “Lenin Speaks of His American Mentors.” Seldes was in Moscow for the fifth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. He was one of the few American journalists who met V. I. Lenin and spent personal face-time with him. Lenin discussed the tremendous impact two Americans had had upon him. First, the Socialist politician and writer Daniel De Leon, who had shaped Lenin’s interpretation of Marxism, and second, former U. S. Senator Richard Pettigrew, author of Triumphant Plutocracy, which Lenin was presently reading. Seldes made a note of the title of this work, which he wanted to promptly obtain when returning to America. Seldes put down the title as