The Book a n d th e Au th or

Wh t a is the t ut h r aRussia ?
bo u t vi si tor s Bu t t he extre m e bi a s a n d
.

R e c en t develop m en ts in Europe i gnoran c e whi c h he found fi n a lly

have obv iou sly plac e d t he S ovie t drove h im t o wri t e RU SS I A WI T H O U T
Union in a key po si t ion in t he grow I L LU S I O N S .

in g t en sion be tw een the fasc i st Ax i s I n h is work and on h is va cations

a n d o th er world po w ers Everyone is . S loan sa w al most every phase o f t he
won d e r in g abo ut t hi s g reat e xpan se va ried a c t ivi ty t h r o u ho ut t he Union
g .

o f l a n d w i t h it s m illion s o f people Bu t t hi s is nei t her a travel book nor

every day for years ab sol ut ely con,
an autobiography I t is a very hone st
.

t r a d ic to ry reports : Th e R evol ut ion att e m p t t o asse ss t he achieve m en ts

be tr a yed—S oc iali sm bein g b u il t . and t he fa il u r e s t he g ood f eatu r e s
,

D i ctat orship—D e m oc racy Fa m ine

. a n d t he b a d o f t hi s n e w sy st e m O u r
, .

—a fa r hi gher l ivin g standard t h a n c on fu sion our skep t i c i sm our qu e s

, ,

t h e Ru ssi a n s have ever kno wn I n . t ions w e r e h is I s i t soc iali sm ? I s

, .

e ffi c ien cy sabo t a g e b ure au cr a cy

, ,
t here fr eedom ? Were t he tri a l s bona
r a pi dly in cre a sin
g prod u ct ion ever , fi d e ? D oe s i t di f
f er in any vi t a l r e

in cr easin g po p ul ar suppo r t m ore and ,

spe c t f r o m t he fasc i st r e g i m e s? All

m ore d e m oc r a cy . the se S loan di scusse s qu i t e pr a c t i ~

Pa t S lo a n a youn g C a m br i dg e
,
cally , al way s m a king co m p ari son s
e cono m i st d e c i d e d in 1 9 3 2 to fi nd a n d c on t rast s w i t h h is nat ive En
, g
out for hi m sel f For t he be tt er p art
. l a nd I n t he l i g h t o f p r e sen t day de
.
-

o f seven yea r s he l ive d w orke d v e l o m e n ts t he t e st i m ony o f a non

, , p ,

tr aveled in t he H e did no t soc i a li st w i th no a x e t o g rind and

pl a n t o wr i t e a book be cau se he fel t w i th no pre con c eive d Utopi an

t h a t too m u ch h a d alre a dy been —
vi sions is i m port n t a n d in t hi s in
,
a

wr i tten by biased and ill in formed -

stan c e tho r ou g hl y ab sorbin g .
 R u ss1 a
W I T H O UT I L L US

b y P a t S lo a n

M O D E RN A GE B O O K S , INC .

NE W Y ORK
 C O PYRI G HT 1 b
93 9 y P AT SLOAN

P UBL I S H E D B Y M OD E R N AGE B OO K S I NC , .

Al l r ig h ts in th is book ar e r ese rv e d , a n d it m a y

he re p r od uc e d in wh ol e or in pa r t with ou t

wr itten per m ission f r om th e h ol d er of

th ese r ig h ts
. For in for ma tion

a d dress t h e u bl ish e rs.

p

P R IN TE D I N TH E UN ITE D ST ATE S O F AM E R I CA
 C on t en t s

Introduction b y H a r r y F
. Wor d
0

Why I Went to Russia

Student D ormi t ory
I Work as a Teacher
Room of M y O wn
Soviet Family
I Trave l
Pro l etarian Tourist
Peasant Cottage and Soviet Rest H ome
Erivan to D n iepr ost r oi
Perspective from Engl and
Return to the
O n B eing Ill and Trade U nion O rganizer
-

I Trave l Again
Is This Socialism ?
This O ne Party Business
-

D iscredited Politicians
E nemies f t he People
o

“
The D isill usione d ”

C onclusion : Why I v e C ome Bac k

’

Index
 I n t r od u ct ion

1 1
‘
h a ppe ne d that l i k e Pat S l oan I went to R u ssi a in S e pt embe r
so
—
,

1 93 I n o t l i k e him t o teach but t o p ursue an inquiry in m y o w n p r o

,

fession a l fi eld I had be e n there in the summe r o f 1 9 2 4 t o fi nd ou t

. .

whethe r t he de fende rs o f ca p ita l istic society were right in sa y ing that

the N E P ( N e w E conom ic Po l icy ) m eant the ine vita b l e r eturn t o
ca p ital ism I went again to st a y unti l the s p rin g o f 1 9 3 2 to fi nd o u t
.
, ,

what ma k es the e con om ic machine r u n an d the cu l tu ra l l ife deve l o p

when p rofit is ru l e d o ut .

This tas k required that w e l ive with the pe o pl e in orde r to unde r

stand their attitudes For a short e r pe riod Mrs Ward an d I du pl i
. .

ca te d man y o f Mr S l oan s e x p e riences We l ive d with a Soviet fami ly

’
. .

o f the fo rme r m idd l e c l ass in a factor dwe ll ing house o n a co ll ective

y , ,

farm in a sa nitarium and i n a rest home with pe o pl e o f a ll sorts and

, ,

conditions from all ove r the S oviet U n ion We know that sometimes .

th e barn is the best pl ace t o sl ee p .

We sa t in the various k in ds o f grou p meetings through which

Soviet citize ns p artici p ate in and de ve l o p the pe opl es control o f a ll ’

their common a ff airs—with industria l work e rs pe asa nts students , , ,

inte ll e ctuals E ve r ywhe re w e as k ed an d were as k e d th e question that

.

M r S l oan discusse s S ome o f the pl aces an d some o f the pe o pl e h e

. .

mentions w e g ot t o kn ow even m ore in timate ly Through cl ose .

friends I kn ew we ll the working o f the T e c h n icu m where h e taught .

I n wide l y di ffe rent parts o f th e S oviet U n ion in cl uding those where ,

sma ll e r nation al ities l ive w e be ca me acquainte d with the workings o f

,

th e labor unions in o n e o f which M r S l oan se rved

, . .

We natural ly had o u r fair share o f the discom forts and un pl easant

nesses o f that p e riod We sa w a s those e ducators in Moscow w h o
.
,
“
counse l e d u s where t o g o said the y wante d us t o se e the worst as ,

we ll as the best o f S oviet l ife And w e a l so sa w a fair sam pl e o f what

”
.

l ies in between To read Mr S l oan s descri ptions an d j udgments is

. .
’

t o vivid ly l ive over again the ex pe riences o f that p e ri od .

vu
viii R U S SI A WI T H O U T ILL USIONS
From this background I can assure the readers of this b ook that it
—
gives them some t hing this country badly needs a t rue accoun t of
li fe and work in the Soviet U nion I mean t r ue in the full sense o f
.

that term not merely in its record of fact s but also in its in t erpretat ion
,

o f their meaning .It is the combinat ion o f skill in fact finding wi t h

insigh t into what lies behind the facts that makes Mr Sloan s b ook more .
’

va l uable to American readers than so me more pretentious volumes .

The reader will discover this if he will reflect occasionally on the

brie f sentences which often conclude the de scrip t ion o f a factual situa
tion and ligh t up the whole scene like a power ful searc hlight on a
dark nigh t For instance the statement about t he feeling t he people
,

—
have that e verything government economic resources plant and
, ,

—
organ i zat i on cultural ins t it u t ions belongs to them ; the sta t emen t
,

about the meaning of the fight against bureaucracy ; or the judgment

that many commenta t ors have gone ast ray because they looked from
t he top down instead of from the bottom up which means that if one s ,
’

e o bulks bigger than the social need he simply cannot like o r under
g ,

stand Sovie t life .

From my personal contacts wi t h the disillusioned wri t ers o n Rus

sia I am convince d t hat Mr Sloan h as correct ly analyzed the cau ses
, .

that led some of them to falsi fy and threw t he work of others com
,

l e t el o u t o f perspective I would therefore suggest to any w h

p y . o

accep t ed the findings o f these writers willingly or regre t fully that

, ,

they ask themselves whether they too did not expect too much did ,

not disregard the historical background did not judge the Soviet ,

U nion as though it were t he U ni t ed Stat es To those who will reply .

that all this simply means that Mr Sloan and myself happened to
.

have the same poin t of view I would suggest that they ac quaint them
selves wi t h the findings o f Sidney and Beatrice Webb whose com ,

e t e n c e as investigators is be y ond question

p .

In his discussion of the recent trials and p urge Mr Sloan he l ps u s .

to understand the causes that produced this series o f events H aving .

seen t hese forces at work in their early stages I am led to conclude ,

that his a ssessment is correct N o judgment o f the w a y the situation is

.

handled is worth any t hing which doe s not take into account the to t al
historic backgroun d .
 IN TR ODU CTION ix
D oubtless t he part Mr Sloan s discussion which will be hardest
of .
’

“
for Americans to understand is that which deals wi t h This O ne
”
Party Business It takes an e ffort for an American even when he
.
,

is living in the Soviet U nion t o realize that when p rivate ownership

,

o f ec o nomic resources and t h e economic machine is abolished and the ,

struggle for profit is ended a di fferent worl d begins t o emerge A

,
.

new economic order requires and creates new po li t ica l forms just as ,

capi t alism did when it appeared at t he end o f the feudal peri od Th e .

change in the object o f poli t ical organization requ ires a co r responding

change in its machine ry Whether t his is de m . ocra t ic is n ot determined
by whe ther it is a one two or multipl e party system but by the w a y
, ,

it operates by whe t her it does or does not express the peoples power
,
’
.

At this crucial p oint t here is a worl d o f di fference between the on e

party system o f Russia and that o f Italy or Germany .

I hope that those w h o read this book will get others t o read it O ne .

o f t he things th e people of the U nited S t ates most need is a correct

understanding of wha t is now going o n in the Soviet U nion and on ,

the b a sis of that the right relationship between their Gove rnment and
t hat o f Ru ssia The future of our democracy the future o f democracy
.
,

in the world very largely depends upon this The Soviet U nion is
,
.

now a great power a grea t er power than the ol d Ru ssia ever wa s

, ,

and it is the first socialist state in history I do n ot thin k that Mr

. .

Sloan overestimates its capacities and p ossibilities In 1 9 2 4 on ly tw o .

,

years after the l ast battl es o f the C i vi l War and the foreign in te rv e n
—
tion o nly tw o years after the famine these had cause d I c on sid —
ered the amount o f social organiza t ion accomplished throughout that
vast territory on e o f the great achievements in human histo ry I n .

“
1 93 1 3 2
-
, the third and decisive year o f the fi rst Five Year Plan I -
,

recorded a similar judgment for the gains o f the intervenin g seven

years which culmina t ed in the success ful development o f socia l eco
,

nomic planning for and by a vast population— another of the great

changes that the wiseacres always sa y can never be made I thought .

then and I stil l think on the basis o f what I hear and read concern
, ,

ing the gains in prod u c t ion and th e rise in t he s t andard o f living and
cul t ure in the l ast se ven years that the people o f t he Soviets are not
,

chasing a wil l o the wisp when they proclaim their intention t o

-
’
- -
X R USSIA WIT H O UT ILL USIONS
overtake and surp ass t he U nite d States the most efficient nation
,

o f t he world in economic production .

It is the iron y o f current history that the Tories o f Great B ritain

w h o want most to destroy the Soviet U nion have n ow t o l oo k t o her
,

for their O wn safety It makes strange reading t o find their p ress

.

proclaiming that all the governments which have renounced w a r as

an instrument o f national policy naturally belong together and tha t ,

the record o f the Soviet U nion shows that it has done this O ur need .

for collabo ration is of a di fferent k ind If governmen t O f by and

.
, ,

for t he people is not to pe rish for a time from this part of the earth ,

o u r democ racy m u st be e xtended from the politica l to the economic

realm The Soviets started wi t h economic democracy and are now
.

d eveloping the appropriate democra t ic machinery in the political field .

E ach has much to learn from the other It is not a quest ion of imita
.

tion but o f developing basic principles and techniques in a manner

congenial to the di ff ering historic background .

D espite this difference there are some striking likenesses between th e

people of t he U nite d States and the people o f the Soviet U nion They .

both have a genuine feeling for democracy in terms of social equali ty ;

they bo t h prize and seek technical e fficiency ; they are both vast cos
m op ol ita n populations that stand between the West and the East with
an influence on both ; they both have the varie d continental resources
t hat make possible the immediate development of a planned and plan
ning social economy China is the only other nat ion that possesses
.

similar characteristics for a ff ecting the fu ture If these peoples could

.

come to work together each in its own way going in t he general

,

direct ion O f a completely so cialized democracy they would determine

,

t he course o f mankind for the next period Of history .

H ARR Y F WAR D
. .
Wit h ou t I ll u si ons
 C HAPTE R I

Wh y I W en t to R u ssi a

TH E subject o f Russia has been a controve rsial on e for very m a ny

’
years Be fore 1 9 1 7 the glamour an d romance of the Tsar s court
.
,

the gilde d churches and a mystical m u jih steeped in the spiritual

,

fai t h o f H oly R u ssia waged constant war in t he minds o f English

‘ ’

men with that other conception o f Russia as a land o f famine o f ,

appalling oppression and Siberian exile B ut since 1 9 1 7 this con.

t r o v e r sy h a s intensified More boo k s have appe ared on Russia since

.

1 9 1 7 than on any other foreign country And th ose who l ike myself
.
, ,

have grown to maturity during the post War period have always -
,

heard t he word Ru ssia mentioned with an unusual intensity whether ,

o f enthusiasm or horror .

At the age O f eleven in the first year after the War I w a s on

, ,

ho l iday with m y parents on the west coast o f Scotland I can remem .

ber people in our hotel S peaking about Russia I stil l can see a .

smallish man with spectacles a mustache and hai r j ust turning

, , ,

gray telling us how the B olsheviks employe d Chinese t o de vise

,

Special tortures for their victims and how they skinned p eople s
,
’

hands in boiling water This w a s just as we were going out for a

.

day s fishing I remember it as vividly a s I remember a y ear o r t w o

’
.
,

earlier a coo k at a hotel where we were staying describing how t he

,

Germans were so brutal that they even crucifie d a l ittl e k itten

“ ”
.

H undreds o f thousands of chll dr e n at t hat time must have had their

hair st and on end at such tales o f Russia And yet just a year later .
, ,

Councils of Act ion were set u p all over B ritain by the L abor move
ment to deter the Government from any furthe r acts o f intervention
against the Soviets Millions o f working class chi l dren must have
.
-

heard their fathers talk of Russia with res pe ct an d enthusiasm From .

2 R USSIA WITHO U T ILLUSIONS
t hat time to this tw o opp osing p oints O f view on R ussia have co n

tin n ed to be expre sse d .

The next time that I w a s gi ven particu l ar cause to thin k about

Russia was ten y ears later My su pervisor in C ambridge w as inter
.

e st e d in t hat country though he never spoke o f it t o us unle ss w e

,

too k the ini t ia t ive But on on e occasion when he wa s organizing the

.

“ ”
showing o f a Russian film I w a s asked to help and Mother or
, , ,
“
Potemkin was shown in the Malting H ouse School It w a s im pos
,
”
.

sible to cover the great skylight windows at all e ff ectively the ,

screen was wrinkled and there w a s an enormous crowd in a ve ry

,

small and badly ventilated Space I remember that I did not see much
.

o f the film but spent most o f my time in the fresh air outside
,
.

It was in N orth Wal es early in 1 9 3 0 that my interest in Russia

, ,

became more strongly aroused At that time the C hristian Protest

.

Movement was campaigning the country and a meeting w as held ,

in the Powys H all o f the U niversity C o l lege at B angor where I was ,

assistant lecturer in E conomics The ca se against Russia w a s put

.

with such bitterness and such a disregard it appeared for any kind , ,

o f accuracy , t hat I put S everal questions at the meeting and later

organized a debate on the subj ect in the town From this time I .

felt a personal interest in a coun t ry which was being so furiously

condemned and y et which had apparentl y already won the respect
,

o f quite large numbers o f people I visit ed the Soviet Embassy in

.

L ondon t o obtain in formation o n the treatment o f religion in

R ussia and in the sp ring of 1 93 1 d u ring the Easter vacation paid
, , ,

in y fi rst visit to M oscow as a tou ri st hoping to find wor k in orde r ,

to ret u rn t here to l ive to sample everyday li fe in the aut u mn

, , .

—
Like mos t Engli sh and American visitors and there were already
qui t e a fe w a t that time—m y fi rst approach w a s to the e ditor O f t he
Mosc ow N ew s a paper with which I had become acquainted since
,

the mee t ing in the Powys H all Anna L ouise Strong w a s not ve r y
.

” —
sympa t he t ic H ave you any experience O f j ournal ism ?
“
N O I had
” —
.
,

t o con fess t hat I had not What do you do in Engl a nd ? I tol d

“
.
 WHY I WENT TO R USSIA 3
her that I was a unive rsity l ecturer Then you had better se e Mrs . .

”
B orodin at the T ech n icum o f Foreign L anguages an d she rang ,

Up promise d t o send me round at once and p ut me on my w a y

, , .

I n 1 9 3 1 it w as n ot hard for a foreigner with any qualifications

that might be use fu l to the t o fi nd work It w a s harder .

t o ob t ain living accommodation but that Mrs Borodin tol d me

, , .
,

co u ld be arranged M y a cademic qualifica tions were deeme d ade

.

quate for teaching the English l anguage t o Soviet students I w as .

given a pape r stating that fr om September onward I woul d be a

mem ber o f the sta fi o f the T ech n icu m This pap er O btained a visa: .

for me a few months l ater without the delay that is usual under
such circumstances .

All t his incidentall y takes ve ry l ittle time t o put on pape r I n

, ,
.

fact however it too k many l ong hours O f waiting for appointments

, ,

before that simple doc ument w a s obtained Mrs B orodin w a s I

‘ ’
. .
,

found an extremely busy woman and my fi rst visit to Moscow in

, , ,

the spring o f 1 93 1 w as spent t o a considerable ext ent in wai t ing

,

in line for interviews in ca l ling for t he p recious document that

,

would bring me a v isa , and in being tol d to come again tomorrow .

As my main aim w a s to get a j ob and a s I had n o other busine ss in

,

M oscow I did not mind the de l ay It w as rather amusing I can

, . .

understand the ea pe r a t ion however o f certain penniless immi

, ,

grants w h o had paid n o p reliminary visit be forehand had lande d in ,

Mo sc ow in search o f a j ob and with very li t tle m oney and were ,

k ept hopping from o n e organization t o another and back again

wh il e h a r d worke d o flicia ls too k the necessary steps to find them
'

suitable j obs There w as n o shortage o f work but it w a s n ot always

.
,

easy a s some foreigners failed to realize t o place each newcomer

, ,

in just the j ob to which he or she might be most suited Particularly .

true is this because many o f the foreigne r s had n o qualifications at

all to speak o f and obtained their jobs in the Soviet U nion only by
sheer blu ff After all even in my O wn case a C ambridge First in
.
, ,

Economics w as n ot necessaril y a g uarantee that I shoul d be a go od

4 R USSIA WITH OUT ILL USION S
teacher o f the English l an guage And it certainly did suggest that I
.

might sa y things about economics that woul d definitely not be con

sistent wi th So viet views o f this science ! All t he same t eachers of ,

— —
English were required I had a university degree I was appointed .

Today l ook ing back o n my fi rst mon t hs in t he

,
I
realize how exceedingly fortunate I was to start my career as a
Soviet worke r in the sphere o f education For by working among .
,

students I Obtained from the fi rst an insight into what was new in
,

the Soviet sy stem and what kind of a younger generation wa s grow

,

ing up in the new e r a O f Five Year Plans In this respe ct I can

-
.

claim to have h a d an expe rience which not a single o n e of ou r news

pape r correspondents has enj oyed ; and I establishe d a contact with
the ri sing generation which even factory workers did not have to
the same extent It h as been said that a community can be judged by
.

the way in which it ca res for its children ; equally true I think , ,

would it be to sa y that a community can be judged by its students .

M y fi r st contact with th e w a s with its students ; and a s

a resu l t I Obtained fi rst hand cont a ct with the new wholly Soviet
-
, ,

risin g generation .

From September 1 93 1 to the en d o f 1 9 3 2 I worked in the

, ,

Then I returned to this count r y for six months In July .

,

1 9 3
3, having been O ff ered a temporar y j ob for two months in
Moscow I went back Pe rmanent work was O ffere d me and I
, .
,

stayed with on l y on e m onth s holiday in England till June 1 93 6

,
’
, , .

Again in the summer o f 1 93 7 I paid a mon t h s visit to Leningrad

, ,
’

and Moscow wi th a grou p o f visitors from this count ry .

When I returned to E ngland in the middl e O f 1 9 3 6 there w as ,

on e thing which I did not intend to do This w a s to write a book

.

‘ ‘ ’
o n my expe riences o f my life in Russia I thought that such
’
.

boo ks had already been greatly overdone Peopl e w h o lived in .

Russia for anything from fi ve days to fi ve y ears seemed to write

books on their expe riences an d I did not pe rsonally fee l that
‘
,
’
 C HAPTE R I I

S tu d e n t D or m it or y

IN S EPTEM B E R 1 9 3 1 , it w as still a l ittl e da ring t o go t o Ru ssia

, .

‘
A rel ative even cal l ed it courageous o f me to go t o work in Moscow
’
.

The vast influx o f foreign visitors w a s still just beginning and gr ew

steadil y during the fo ll owing years When I arranged to work at the
.

T e ch n ic u m o f Foreign L anguages a s a teacher of E nglish I w a s ,

not S o much interested in the work o f teaching a s in the people whom

I w a s t o teach the organization o f the institution in which I would
,

work an d in genera l the ru nning of the country in which I w a s to

,

l ive I was considerably l e ss in terested in the teaching o f English

.

as such than I had been in teaching economics in N ort h Wales I .

was also it must be admitted ra t her l ess qualified to teach English

, ,

than to teach the economics of capitalism .

O wing to the fact that it w a s still a rather unusual thing to go

to l ive in the I was asked b y a large num be r o f people t o
write to them o f my impressions As a result I ty pe d a series o f
.

letters ( with ca rbon copies ) during my fi rst months in Moscow ,

and these were circulated t o friends and relatives in B ri t ain Thanks

.

to the fact that copies o f these l etters remain in my possession I can ,

recapture to some extent my fi rst impressions on arriva l in the

Sovie t U n i on in 1 9 3 1 .

What were these fi rst impre ssions ? A wooden arch across a rail
way line laid on sand an d on the arch w a s inscribed the l egend
, ,
“
Workers of all L ands U nite ! And then the C ustoms H ouse at
”
,

Stolpce which at that time w a s made entirely of w ood Then as

, .
,

now it w a s necessary to wait qui t e a long time for the Moscow

,

train C u stoms o fficials polite ly but ve r y thoroughly searche d through

.

the baggage of each p a ssenger The y appeare d particularly interested

.

6
 STUDE N T DOR M IT O R Y 7

in any p rint ed matter and their l engt hy perusal o f eve ry illustrated

,

magazine seemed hardly t o be entirely a matter o f duty When the .

C ustoms investigation was over there w a s time to explore t he vast ,

waiting room and restaurant wi t h a bu ff et and artifi cial pal m ,

trees At the bu ffet was some rather fly bl own food ; a few people
.
-

sa t at ta bles o r l ounged about and near t h e en t rance a dist inct whi ff

,

o f the toilet w a s noticeable guiding the foreigner w h o read no

,

Russian t o the right door along a corridor A single visit t o this .

toilet wa s enough t o justi fy all the ca ustic comments o n Soviet sani

t a t io n that have ever been made by foreigners : Plugs that di d not

pull plugs that did pull and pulled right Off plugs that pulled with
, ,

n o water t o follow ove rfl owing fluids swam ping the floo r, dirty
,

seats and a smell apparently completel y uncombated by any form

,

o f disinfectant Such toilets I was t o find were n ot uncommon

.
, ,

throughout Sovie t te rritory during the ye a rs 1 9 3 1 1 9 3 2 1 93 3 , , ,

and even today But I was also t o find that bit by bit here a littl e
.
, ,

and there a l ittle steps were being taken t o improve conditions For
, .

example in 1 93 7 a brand new tiled lavatory w a s opened in the Park

,
-

o f C ulture and Rest in Moscow It had Grecian columns at the .

entrance and lines forme d outside it o n th e fi rst days after its

,

O pening Young men came ou t and friends in the l ine calle d o ut

.

t o them
“
What s it li k e ?
,
” “
’
Magnificent came the reply L ava
”
, .

tories in the have played an important part in forming t he

impressions o f foreign visitors and more wil l be said o n this subj ect
,

l ater on .

At l ast the train for M oscow a r rived We t ook ou r pl aces and .

,

in o n e respect at any rate I found traveling more pleasant t han in

, ,

th e rest o f Europ e There w a s room for every one to l ie down at

.

night The seats however were har d as in Poland and Switze r

.
, , ,

land n ot soft as in o u r trains ; but compensation for this w a s the

,

fact that mattresses could be hired for the night .

B efore crossing the frontier I had purch ase d a certain am ount o f

,

food I had anticipate d high p rices a n d even a shortage on the

.
8 R USSIA WITH OUT ILL USION S
j ourne y Actu ally while prices were comparatively high the food in
.
, ,

t h e dining c a r proved quite pala t able and I found t hat I need not ,

have bo u ght s u pplies at t he last s t op in Poland O ne t hing how ever .

, ,

did require remedying This was the English version o f t he menu

.

in the dining car While the food w a s above my expecta t ions ” the
.

menu was cert ainly not E ve r ything was being done t o make the
.

foreigner feel at home Therefore every dish was described not onl y
.

in Russian but in German and English as well Reading thro u gh .

t he English version I found it t o be alm ost meaningless since most

, ,

o f the English translations appeared to consis t of a few English

W ords t og et h e r w ith Russian words printed in L a t in script and a
'

few German ones thrown in ! My desperation reached i t s zenit h ,

however when I came u po n this deligh t ful dish Surgeons dif

, ,

”
fe r e n t .

As a po t ential teache r of English in the I fel t that this

was the signal to st art work I called the waiter went through the
.
,

men u dish by dish and by the end had t urned out some t hing a ppr oxi
,

mating to a bill of fare that any English visitor might be expected

to understand Admi t tedly our translations were a li t tle clumsy in
.

“
many respects I have always felt that my eru dite Sturgeon pre
.

”
pared in various ways missed something of the appetizing slickness
“ ”
of Surgeons di fferent but at any rate it saved the nai ve visitor
,

from confirming his s u spicions Of cannibalism o n the very t hreshol d

o f Soviet territory !

O ne of the fi rst words that eve ry foreigner l earns in Russia is

c e e h a ss
y It means. l iterally ‘
within the hour is usua l ly translate d ,
’

‘
presently and in fact means some fu ture moment when t he Speaker
,
’

—
thinks fi t if he o r she does not forget in the meantime ! Much has
been written of this Russian word c eychoss, but not more I think , ,

than of the Spanish m a fi a n a To the town bred Englishman such .

-

words indicating a vague and indefinite postponement are ex a spe r a t

, ,

ing But it is not necessa r y to go to Russia o r to Spain t o find that

.

same spirit that same lack o f a sense o f t he urgency o f time N obody

, .
 STUDE NT DOR MIT O R Y 9

who has ever travele d in the H ighlands O f Scotland or in Ire l and , ,

can honestly be surprise d when he is confronted in a country with ,

a vast peasantry with e eyc ha ss o r m a fi a n a

,
.

—
The fact which w e must recognize and E nglishmen abroad are
notori ously unable t o recognize anything that exp lains wh y foreign
countries di ff er from their ow n —is that throughout the worl d the
victory o f clock time over su n time is n ot compl ete In a smal l
- - .

territory like B ritain with its 1 5 0 years Of industrialism almost

, ,

every one tells time by the cloc k The sense o f time is so develope d
.

that only in places l ike remote parts o f the Sc ot t ish H ighlands and
Ire l and does one today find the lack of time sense that is so common -

in Spain and Russia In countries like Russia and Spain h owever

.
, ,

where even today the vast majority of the p eople l ive by working on
the soil and still measure tim e by the su n the sense O f the clock ,

has still n ot be come universa l even in the towns This is why in

, .

Russian films the movement is so often t oo slow for the English o r

American sp ectator while just right for the Russians It is for the .

same reason that in Moscow a foreign business man may be kept

waiting for days t o accomplish business that in L ondon he might , ,

conclude in a matter o f hours The frequent use o f the te rm .

c e e h a ss is a symptom that even today the peasant attitude to time

y
s t i l l survives t o some extent even in the towns ; though in the seven
years that I have known the cl ock time h a s been making -

progress and punctuality tod ay is a slightly m ore common virtue

,

than it was in 1 93 1 E ven today ho w ever a foreigner may be

.
, ,

exasperated by having to wait far l onger than he O r sh e considers

reasonable polite businesslike or wi t hin the hour
, ,
‘
, .
’

O n arri ving in Moscow in September 1 9 3 1 I w a s met at the, ,

station by two students sent from the Te ch n icu m They too k me to .

M rs Borodin s O ffi ce into which much to the disgust o f the people

’
.
, ,

waiting outside I w a s admitted wi t hout having to do time in the

,

‘
line I was told that presently I should be taken by the studen ts to
.
’

their dormi t ory where it had been arranged that I should l ive I n
, .
I O R USSIA WITH O UT IL L USION S
the meantime an American teacher w as asked t o ta k e me home for
a meal which she did I arrived at the Te ch n icu m about
,
.

‘
A M ; I returne d for lunch abo u t 1 : 3 0 ; presen tly I w as to be taken ’
. .

to t he dormitory ; actually I w a s taken there at P M Already . .

I had learned the meaning of the word eeyeha ss .

’

‘
Mrs Borodin o r B orodin a the director o f the Te ch n icu m had
.
, ,
’
,

a small o ffice protected from a crowded little ante room by a glass -

part i t ion The small ante ro om w as always crammed wi t h peo pl e

.
-

wait ing for interviews ; the telephon e w a s continually ringing ; an d

a hara sse d secre t ary communicated with her chie f through a smal l
window in the partition which could be l oc k ed on the inside when
Borodina coul d stand no further interru ptions If for o n e moment .

the secreta ry left h er pést a s sent ry visitors n ot only p ushed their

,

heads through the l ittl e window till it w a s slamme d shut and bol ted
o n the inside but t hey al so would crowd into the O ffice unti l B orodina
, ,

in desperation l oc ke d the door H aving seen during my fi r st day s

, .

in Moscow and man y times since how every Soviet o fficial is con
, ,

sta n tl y besieged with applicants for attention I have never been one
,

of those w h o grumble at the inaccessibility O f more high l y placed

o fficials in the Soviet State w h o are not available to be interviewed by
every foreign visitor w h o thinks that Stalin or Kalinin might be
‘
democratic enough t o sp are him a fe w minutes of private conver
’

sation .

I had been told in April when my j ob w as arranged that I shoul d

have precisel y the same conditions as R u ssian teachers with the on e ,

’
important exception o f a foreigner s ration book This concessi on -
.

‘
w a s being m a de at the time to all foreign specia l ists so that the y
’

shou l d n ot experience t oo great a change from the diet t o which

they were accustomed in their ow n countries I had al so been tol d .

that the m ost di fficult problem of al l would be t o find a room But .

at all costs a bed somewhere w a s guaranteed When I arrived I .

found that no room had been found but a bed w a s avai l able for me
,
 STUDENT DOR MIT O R Y II
‘
in a Students do rmito ry and p r ese ntly I was ta k en h om e t o see
’
,
’

m y new quarters .

We travele d by taxi and on arrival at the gate o f the S tudents

,
’

dormitory a m y sterious delay took place The taxi was dismisse d ; m y

,
.

student companions whisp ered excitedly among themselves O ne o f .

them then dived into the dormitory and two others and myse l f were
-

le ft waiting on the pavement After some time the student returned

.
,

w e were t old to come in and I w a s taken to a room At that time I

,
.

never understood the reason for that myste rious delay It later dawned .

o n me t hat not only had no room eve r been procured for me but ,

apparen t ly up t o my arrival there had been n o bed either I strongly .

suspect that du ring those minutes while we waited on the pave

m ent outside the dormitory ou r emissary hastily cleare d somebody
,

o u t o f a bed to make room for me and t hat when we entere d and I

,

found a bed available for my personal occupation the law ful oc c u ,

pant had j u st a few minutes previously been asked t o vacate it in

order to make room for the new English teacher Certainly in our .
,

room two brothers from the U kraine shared a bed I have reason
, .

to suspect that this was generosity on their part and wi t hout it I ,

should have been bedless Borodina had evidently told the st udents
.

to make room for me in t he dormitory somehow They did so . .

The students dormitory w a s quite a new building covered in

’
,

pale yellow plaster six stories high and standing some way bac k
, ,

from the road At some future date there would be gardens round it
.
,

b ut at present it had to be approached over the roughest ground and ,

in the winter a pathway o f planks was necessary to prevent wading

t hrough water and mud which was in some places qui t e a foot deep .

I was taken up to the top floor ( there was n o elevator ) to a room

in a corridor o f some thirty similar rooms Each room had a window .

the full length o f the outer wall and five o r six beds were placed
,

roun d the ro om with on e under the window In the midd l e there .

w a s a table there were a few chairs and o n e l arge wardrobe cup

, ,
I 2 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
board Peo ple kept their pe rsonal belongings in suitca ses and boxes
.

under their beds .

A t one end of ou r corridor w a s a l avatory and downstairs there ,

was a l arge dining room where three meals were serve d daily Abo u t .

o n e thousand students were house d in this dormito ry all o f them ,

receiving t hei r accommodation free o f charge together with stipen ds ,

from t he State which at that time amounted to about forty o r fi fty

,

rubles a month O f t his mone y a p ayment o f twen ty three rubles

.
-

mon t hly provide d th ree mea l s a day se rved in th e dormitory itse l f

o r in a dining roo m cl ose to the T e ch n ic u m N ot only t he studen ts .
,

but I myself and se veral other teachers living there paid n o rent .

My expe riences o f sanitation noted at the frontier were to some

ext ent repeated in this dormit ory The l avatory accommod ation here .

was uni q ue A row of fi ve water cl osets along o n e wall faced a row

.

of washbasins along the o pposite wall with n o partitions o f any k ind ,

between Bo t h women an d men students inhabit e d our floor and it

.
,

was us u al when women were using the lavatories for th em to l oc k

the door so that n o men could enter ; and vice versa A few wooden .

partitions wou l d have made al l this unnecessa ry I t was cert ainly .

waste ful when a pe rson o f one se x using on e water closet l ocked

the door and kept everyone from t he use of the other four un t i l he
o r she ultimately emerge d N ot infrequen tly would those locked .

o u t bang upon the door C a l mly from inside a voice would say
.
,

“
C eyc ha ss— c e yc ha ss ’ .

Plumbing t oo w as hardly up t o the required standard As we

, , .

were on the t Op floor we suffered particularly in this respe ct ; since

,

on man y occasions a ll the water was be ing drawn by th e l ower

floors the cisterns did not fill up a s so on as they were emp t ied with
, ,

f —
unsa t is actory results And o f course a fact immortalized by Sir
.
,

—
Walter Citrine there were n o plugs in the washbasins I n this .

ma tt er however criticism on o u r part is S impl y a S ign Of ou r own

, ,

provincial ism For as I di scovered during my stay in t he

.
,

t he Russians have no respect for the habit of washing in standing

I 4
. R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSION S

activity that a real l y

, so p iece of work l i k e this ha s r e per
fi rst -cla ss
c u ssio n s throughout the industry far be yo nd its ow n p articula r marb l e

columns and tile d walls .

I have said that meals c ost the students twenty three rubles a -

mon t h Wh at kin d o f fo od w a s supplied for these meals ? Even with

.

my o wn middle class sta ndards o f feeding in England I found the

-
,

food adequate in quantity though somewhat lac king in variety From .

notes made at the time I reproduce a typ ica l menu Breakfast : most .

O ften ha sha ( the Russian equiva l ent of ou r p orridge ) made from ,

barle y and other grain e ither boile d fried or with milk As a ru l e

, , , .
,

fo r brea k fast there would be smal l pieces o f meat o r egg mixed

,

with this ha sha O r sometimes excellent cream cheeses wo uld take

.
, ,

the place o f th e ha s/ m o r a co l d herring which had to be eaten with

, ,

the fingers since on l y S poons were su pplied at break fast though

, ,

knives and for ks app eared at the midday meal Sometimes w e .

wou l d have a hard boile d egg o r a cutlet ( a word use d in t he

-
‘ ’

to cover pract ically everything simila r t o ou r rissole ) and , ,

o n the worst days simply bread and jam or bread and butter In
, .

addition to these things there w as a l ways a glass o f well sugared tea -

( except when sugar ran short and sweets took its p l ace ) unlimited ,

blac k bread an d a good sl ice o f white For midday dinner : al ways

, .

broth containing a variety o f veget a bl es but main l y cabbage and

, , ,

‘ ’
sometimes made with barley ; a meat course o f cutlets o r veal with ,

very occasional l y beef m u tton o r pork ; or sometimes a purely

, , , ,

vegetarian dish such as macaroni potatoes and a hard boiled egg ;

, , ,
-

or , o n a ve r y bad day potatoes and gravy only Suppe r : like break

, .

fast but with sou p sometimes featuring as the main dish a n d quite
, ,

O ft en a sweet in th e form o f c om péte , which at t hat time in the

usu a l ly consiste d o f about three rather tasteless cherries
swimming I n some st ill more tastele ss j uice Fresh fruit w a s also .

provided occasional ly a n d cou l d be bought as an extra From an .

Engl ish middl e c l ass point o f view there w a s a considerable l a ck o f

-
 STUDE NT DOR MIT O R Y 5

adequate fr ui t eggs butter or mil k ; whil e o n the o ther hand sour

, , ,

cream quite O ften app eared either in soup o r a s a sweet

,
.

The abse nce o f knives and forks at breakfast even when the ,

food to be eaten took the form o f a recal citrant herring w a s some ,

what disturbing t o a foreigner I can imagine certain visitors to the

.

over the past S ix years writing almost a whole chapter o n

th is matter alone In such a chapter the l ow cultural l eve l O f the
.

Russian s an d the awfu l op pression o f the Soviet Government would

—
be p ortr ay e d in detail round this striking incident th e l ack o f a
kn ife or fork t o eat a break fast herring in a students dormitory ’
.

This and myriads o f othe r deficiencies such a s those o f sanitation

,

a l ready mentioned have been t he main theme o f many b oo ks

,
.

But w hy we r e knives and forks not se r ved for breakfast as we l l

a s for dinne r in o u r dormi t ory ? The answer I think w a s pure ly , ,

an administrative on e Since in the . there w a s already n o

unemployment an d the work ing day w a s l imite d t o eight hours most ,

organizations were se riously understaffed The m ore washing u p .

-

there w as to do the more di fficu l t became the administ ration o f ou r

,

dormitory S o al l made sacrifices as consumers t o enable the strict

.

en forcement o f the e ight hour day for al l a s work ers O ne other

- .

obse rvation is worth making here The cutl ery in ou r do rmitory at

.

that time w as hard l y o f the quality that t o day is obtaine d in o u r o w n

Woolworth stores I remembe r e fforts t o eat my brea k fast herring
.

with a spoo n They resulte d in the Spoon b r eaking be fore it had

.

severed the he rring ! H ere again there w a s a n explana t ion Through .

o u t the dining rooms and restaurants were being ope ned o n

a vast scale The. w a s j ust be ginning t o build up its o w n
metal industry The pe a santry a s a whol e had never use d m od ern
.

cutl e r y The growing demand for knives forks a n d Spoons w as far

.
, ,

ahead o f what the metallurgical indust ry co uld adequately supply ,

and as a result w e had a pe riod o f makeshift cutlery som e O f which ,

col l apse d before making a ny e ff ect on the foo d it wa s meant to cut .

It is wort h mentionin g that in t he years that have f ollowed tough

, ,
1 6 R U S S I A W I T H O U T I LL U S I O N S
cu tle ry and tender meat have steadily replaced the tender cu tl ery
w hi c h was often de feate d by ra t her tough meat during the first
Five Ye ar Plan
-
.

It sho u ld be said here that in di scussing t he kind of food available

in t he then and now it is essential to recognize the tastes
,

and cus t oms o f the people be fore passing judgmen t For example .
,

if an Englishman goes to France and demands eggs and bacon for

break fas t he will be met with a blank re fusa l in all b u t the largest
,

o f the hotels whi c h c a t er to foreign visitors Yet it wo uld hardly be

.

correct to label the Fren c h people as starving beca u se they do not

have a bacon and egg break fas t like t he English middle class Simi
- -
.

l a r l y visi t ors to t he
,
have only t oo frequen t ly been horrified
at t he prevalence o f bl ack bread and c abbage soup in the diet of t he
R u ssians It is usually ass u med t hat t hey eat such t hings only because
.

t he y cannot get anything better t ho u gh I know from my own ,

experience tha t this is not so .

In a very short visit t o the D avid Lo w appreciat ed

this point and immort alized i t in one O f his cartoons w here he shows ,

Ru ssians act u ally asking for m or e c abbage soup ! In my own e xpe ri

en c e I have repeatedly sat down at t able with Soviet citizens and
regularly chosen whatever sou p was O ffered as an alternative to the
cabbage Bu t I have rarely seen a Russian when given the c hoice
.
, ,

take any so u p b u t cabbage soup when tha t was available And S imi .

l a r l y wi t h regard to bla c k bread I have found t hat many R u ssians

,

prefer this to whi t e tho u gh wi t h a rising standard o f li fe i t is

, , ,

becoming increasingly fashionable t o eat white bread— a tendency

which from the point o f view of healthy diet is not wholly to be
, ,

welcomed .

At t his p oint I wish to quote a passage from a letter wri t ten from
Moscow at t he end of September 1 93 1 For while i t was true then
, .
,

it is almost e qu ally applicable a t the prese nt time seven years lat er , .

I had been sent a cu tt ing from a newspaper in which D r H ayden .

G u est made the remark tha t hardly does anyone ever smile in
 STUDE NT DOR MIT O R Y m
Russia I had seen the same statement elsewhere and felt that this
. ,

bo gy a t any rate could be S lain outright At that time I wrote and I

.
,

can confirm it today

I can only exp lain this comment by the p ossibi l ity that for the
fi rst t ime in their lives when they came t o Russia the se people
really l ooked at other people s faces and realized that when in
’
,

repose the human face is rarely smiling If you walk along .

O xford Street or go t o L imehouse you will not ice that people

,

smile only when they have something t o smile at and when ,

—
there is no thing to smile a t for example when S itting in buses
,

o r walking along the street — pe ople do not smile I n Russia as .

,

in E ngland people certainly do n ot wander about t he St reets

,

grinning but I am quite sure that they la u gh as much as any

,

o n e else and cert ainl y the students S how no less S igns of being
,

j oy ful and happy than students in Bri t ain If you could hear the
.

l aughter and Singing which makes it impossible to do any work

in this building except when there is nobody else in the room ,

you would se e the absurdity O f s u ch statements that the p eople

are solemn strained and never smile
, , .

Even today such remar ks still creep int o the columns of our
press and I therefore feel t hat such a p oint dese rves mention
, .
 C HA PTE R I I I

I W or k a s a Te a ch e r

I M U ST n ow sa y something about ou r T e ch nicu m and its students .

The T e ch n icu m o f Foreign L anguages in Mo scow woul d corr e

S p o n d to a technical college in England which in addition t o its
, ,

c l asses o n its ow n premises sent teachers t o all kinds of other organi

,

z a t io n s that wante d courses in foreign languages ; it w a s in fact a , ,

center for the coo rdinating o f language teaching throughout the city .

Al l students received t heir training free o f charge and t h e full time -

Students were pai d while studying receiving free accommodation

,

in the dormitory Most O f t hese studen t s were drawn from t h e ranks

.

o f the working p opulation .At that time it sho u ld be remembered

, ,

represe ntatives o f th e old property ownin g classes sons and daughters

-
,

o f people w h o had been landlords and capit alists were St ill dis
,

qualified from the universities and technical co ll eges and on on e ,

occasion on e o f my students was expelled when his fa ther w a s

deported from his native village as a hu l a h Most of the St u dents
.

had worked for a living had S tudied free of charge in evening classes
, ,

and in this w a y had qua lified for entry to the T e ch n icu m Because .

they were wor king people and many o f them from dis t ant parts o f
the count r y their travelin g expense s were paid at vacation time to
,
-

enable them t o ret u rn home without se rious financial sacrifice .

In every class there were both men a n d women and from the ,

st a rt I was impresse d by the real equali t y which existed be tween the

sexes both among the St udents and among t he teachers The girl
,
.

studen t s took i t for grante d that t hey would all have careers and
were rather S hoc k ed to le a rn that in Britain many women contem
plated working a t a j ob only until marriage An d when I told t hem
.

that in many English towns women are n ot a l lowed to teach a ft er

1 8
 I W OR K A s A TEA C HE R 1 9
‘
they marry the y were a ppal le d at this medieval custom and pr o
,
’

teste d that it w as onl y eithe r very y oung women o r women with ,

ch ildren o f their ow n w h o were l ikely t o be able t o establish contact

,

wi t h the young min ds that they were su ppose d t o teach Among the .

studen ts them se l ves I never ce a se d t o notice a complete equality and

—
comradeshi p this is the only word that reall y describes it that —
e verybody accepted as a matter o f course There was n o se gregation .

o f the sexes as in most unive rsities in this country In the same .

dorm ito ry in rooms o n the same floor men an d women lived with
, , ,

s pe cial rooms for the married couples But I never sa w a n y fam ili .

a r ity that could be frowned o n e ven by a puritan observer And in .

class t here was none O f that nonsense that is the traditi on at C am

bridge—t hat the men shoul d Stamp when the women enter the
lecture room ; nor w a s there that constant flirting in the passages
which had been a characteristic o f coll ege l ife at Bangor In Cam .

bridge I believe there is S till a universi t y lecturer w h o refuses t o

, ,

to l erate a woman in the l ecture room Such barbarity amaze d the

‘
.
’

Russians when I told them o f it .

N ext t o sex equal i ty I w a s Struck b y the existence o f rea l national

equality I n e ve ry class there were Ru ssians Jews and pe ople o f other
.
, ,

nationalities of the In our room in the dormitory ( which

was a random choice ) we had tw o Ukrainian brothers a Russian ,

Sailor a Jew and an Armenian The significance o f the fact that

, , .

Russians and Jews studied in the same classroom in Moscow and

too k this for granted cannot be fully comprehended without realizing
,

the position t hat existe d in tsarist Russia I only began to appreciate .

t his personally when a Jewish woman teacher with whom I ex

changed lessons described how S h e took her degree in St Peters .

burg be fore the Revolution AS a Jewess she was n ot allowed to

.
,

live in the capi t al as a student but there w a s a way o u t of th e diffi

,

cu l ty She had to register with the police a s a prostitute receive the

.
,
‘ ’ ’
yellow ticket o r prostitute s passport an d unde r those conditions
‘

, ,

on ly w a s S he able to live in the capital and study at the universi t y .

20 R USSI A W I THO UT ILL USIONS
Such obscene forms o f national oppression immediately abolished by ,

the Russian Revolution are to day being revived—e ven some t imes in
,

—
more O bscene form s in N azi Germ a ny In the . t oday it
is a criminal o ffense to insult anyone o n the grounds o f race or
nationality and a certain gentleman w h o some time a g o told a
,

“ ”
fellow member o f Parliament to g o back t o Polan d would under
-
,

Soviet law have been subj ecte d to criminal p roceedings

, .

In their relations with myse l f and with other foreigners I never ,

saw the slightest trace o f national feeling Peop le were proud o f .

t heir nationality or race whe ther Russian or Jewish Armenian or

, ,

U krainian And foreigners were exp ected to be proud of their own

.

nationality too The Soviet youth that I met never con fused nati on
, .

ality with government ; the y a l ways professe d friendliness t o the

peoples of all countries whi l e regarding the governments o f capitalist
,

countries a s potential enemies N ever did I hear a Soviet ci t izen say

.

he did not like the Poles or the Germans or the Jews ; in fact all
, , ,

o f these generalizations about pe oples and races which are so com

mon among ourselves in Britain seemed t o have become extinct In .

thei r place w a s a l ively interest in the lives o f the working people

o f al l countries as distinct from their governments and from their
,

employers .

The orga nization O f the Students during this fi rst year and a half
that I was in the w a s still o n rather crude collectivist lines .

‘ ’
The students were organize d into brigades and each brigade com ,

e t e d wi t h the others for the best results which fostered a very

p ,

heal t hy team Spirit At that time however there was o n e serious

.
, ,

weakness While brigade compe t e d against brigade there was very

. ,

li tt le check on the indivi dual progre ss of each student wi t hin each

group As a resul t the be st member of each group woul d usually
.
,

tend to answer for t he brigade as a whole and each group woul d ,

therefore be marked according to th e achievements o f its best mem

ber O n the o t her hand at the end o f each term t he teacher had t o
give the characteristics —
.
, ,

‘
excellent good fair weak very weak
’
, , , ,
2 2 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
M y particular j ob during this pe riod wa s t o give the S tudents
p ractica l experience in th e use o f Engl ish A l ready in their second .
,

term they began t o have conversation lessons ; and I at that time

, ,

Still kn owing ve ry l ittle Russian conducted the c l asses entire l y in

,

Engl ish I was amazed at the w a y in which the se y oung Soviet citi
.

zens most ly with illiterate parents and a bac k ground o f t h e most

,

e l ementary e ducation were able t o start spea king in a compl etely

,

foreign language during t heir second term at col l ege And it w a s .

not as i f they had been Sp ending all their time l earning the l an
g uage be cause even in a school o f languages the number o f other
,

subj ects taught in the is always su fficient t o give an ade

quat e general e ducation as well as a spe cialize d on e These students .

Specializing on l anguages Obtained a much fuller general education

than I did in Cambridge where I spe cialized in economics and never
,

touched on an y other subj ect .

An dré Gide commenting on the l earning O f l anguages in the

,

writes a s fol l ows

E very student is ob l iged t o l earn a foreign l an g uage French .

has be en complete l y abandoned It is English and especiall y .

,

German that they are suppo sed to know I expresse d m y su r

,
.

prise that they S hould Speak them so badly ; in ou r countries a

fi ft h form schoolboy k nows more
- .

O ne o f the students w e questioned gave us the fol l owing ex

“
planation ( in Russian and Je f L ast translated it for u s) : A
,

few years a g o German y and the U nited States still had some
thing t o teach us on a few points But n ow w e have nothing .

more t o l earn from foreigners S o wh y shoul d w e spea k their .

” 1
language ?

This was quoted by Gide as e vidence o f a kind o f su

p i it
er or
y c om

pl ex
”
deve l oping in the
' 1 A nd r é G ide ,
B a ck fr om th e
 I W OR K AS A TEACHE R 2 3

N ow I do n ot know exactly the type o f student with whom

André Gide had this conversa tion I do n ot know t o what exten t
.

t he translation o f Jef L ast an d the memory o f André Gide have

distorte d the original But I do know : first from m y ow n expe ri
.
,

ence that the powers S hown by young Russians to l earn English in

,

a few months surpasse d anything I have seen in England where

y oung p eople have Studied foreign l anguages When André Gide .

“ ”
compares unfavorably with ou r countries in thi s
respect— whatever may be the posit ion in France —it could on l y be
ignorance that le d him t o incl ude England if he meant to do so .

Secondly I know that y oung peopl e in the

,
w h o specializ e
in languages usually have some O bj ect in view It is not customary .

for students in any country unless they are endowed with an u n

,

earned income t o choose their subj ects quite apart from their future
,

careers D uring the fi rst Five Year Plan there were a large num
.
-

ber o f j obs for translators and interp reters especially in English and
,

German because this was important t o the technical deve l opmen t

,

O f the country But this particular need began t o decl ine steadi ly
.

after 1 9 3 3 and students then proposing t o Study languages for thei r

,

future careers did so mainly in order to become teachers A young .

engineering Student m ight in these circumstances quite justifiably

, ,

have spoken as Gide describes with regard to his ow n l ess urgen t

need t o study l anguages tod ay as comp a re d with se vera l years

When Gide says th at French has been completely abandoned ,

he is again falling in t o fal se exaggeration It is perfectly true that

.

French cease d a fter the Revolution to be the fi rst foreign lan g uage
taught in the schools ; German and English tended to take its place .

But it was not and h as ne ver been completely aband oned It is

, , .

quite natural in any country that the main foreign languages learned
at any time S hould be th ose o f the greatest practica l use In tsarist .

Russia French w as fashionabl e at Court and the tastes o f the Court

,

considerably influence d the educational system Since the Revolutio n .

2 4 R USSI A W I TH OUT ILLUSIONS
far more practical assistance has been needed by the from
the great industrial countries o f America and Germany As a result .

the English and German languages became popular André G ide s .

’

student was pro bably only stating t his truth to the e ff ect that they
,

no longer needed the technical help from America and Germany

that they had previously re q uired and therefore it was no longer so
,

necessary as it had been that people S hould quali fy in these l anguages

as translators and interpreters .

To suggest however that the Soviet St udents o n l y interest in

, ,
’

foreign languages is purely ma t erial with a view to a j ob woul d be

, ,

utterly false In my own expe rience I met Student a fter studen t who
.
,

when the purel y tech ica l work of learning was finished for the day
n ,

sa t down to read so me book in a foreign language usually some ,

classic purely for the joy of reading li t erature in a foreign tongu e

, .

When again w e recall that the se Students are mainly drawn from
, ,

the working masses o f the p opulation w e can only be impressed at

,

their eagerness to learn .

Throughout Soviet education I found that great emphasis was

l aid on pract ical as well as theoretical study In the sphere o f Ia n .

guages this took the form o f conversation classes and in mine all ,

the proc eedings took place in English While I was personally not .

so interested in teaching English from the linguistic poin t of view ,

these conversation lesso ns were o f the greatest interest for i t was ,

po ssible to discuss all k inds o f quest ions o f a poli t ica l economic and ,

social character O ne fact however repeatedly Struck me from the

.
, ,

fi rst — ir was ext remely hard to di scover any t hing controversial about
which to hold a di scu ssion because on all maj or questions there
, , ,

w a s apparen tly complete agreement Was this the result of a ruth

.

less dicta t orship from above or was it a reflection o f t he actual con

,

dit io n s o f li fe in which t here no longer were any maj or issues divid

ing people against each ot her ? O f this more will be said anon .

It seems t o be generally believe d in Britain— and certain visit ors

t o the have done a great deal to further the acceptance of
 1 W OR K AS A TEACHE R 2 5

this view— that the Soviet citizen has an excessively unfavorable

impression o f li v ing conditions in other countri es whi l e o v e r esti
mating the j oys of life in t he I had ample op p ortunity t o
test such a view in my conversations wit h students My genera l .

impression was from the very first that there was very littl e mis
, ,

conception on their par t as to conditions abroad H ere again l et .

, ,

m e quote from a letter written at the end o f Se ptember 1 93 1 ,

O ne f the most sa tisfacto ry conve r sation l essons was when I

o

ask e d the studen t s each to sp eak n a comparison f conditions

o o

here and abroad In this discussion to which I p rsonall y con

.
,
e

tributed nothing some interesting di ff erences of Opinion oc

‘
,

curred For example one girl said that it was easier to get an
.
,

education abroad because here it was only easy if o n e was a

member of the working class This was se verely criticized by
.

the rest of the group who rightly pointe d ou t that it was ve r y

,

hard for the members of the work ing class to get e ducate d else
where and as t hey constitute d the majority of the p opulation
,

this w a s t he bet t er country in that respect Very little emphasis .

w a s laid on the standard of life anywhere but it was e m p h a t i ,

cally p om te d out that the w o rking man in capitalist countries

could be sacked at the whim o f an empl oye r whereas here this
was n ot so C onsiderable emphasis o f course w as laid on the
.
, ,

p resent crisis .

In genera l during my stay in the

, I did not find any
tendency to think that in every respect the, was better ,

o ff than other countries Rather I found genuine puzzlement o n

.

th e part o f Soviet citizens a s to why in technically advanced coun

,

tries there S hould be su c h a scourge as unemployment Time and

, .

again when workin g in M oscow and later when traveling I w a s

, ,

asked whether it was true as the press reported that t here were
, ,

bread lines in N ew York wh ile grain w a s being deliberatel y de

2 6 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
s troyed Such re ports in the Soviet p ress ap peared almost inc r edib l e
.

t o the readers ; for this happened at the same time that the U S A . . .

w a s being given constant pu bl ic ity as the country most advanced tech

'

n ica l l
y .The ordinar y Soviet citizen could not understand w h y a
te c hnically advanced country S hou l d have unemployment and hunger
a n d should deliberately destroy f ood C om paring t he press o f both
.

countries I am convinced that the people o f the

, as a whol e
get a completer view O f worl d a ff airs outside their ow n country than
t h e people o f o t her countries are able to do at t he present t ime .

In comparison with Cambridge and Bangor both the Students ,

a n d teachers in Moscow played a far more active p art in running

their educational institution than I had ever imagined possible B oth .

a t the T e c h n ic u m a ri d the Institute of Modern L anguages at which

I taught later peri odica l meetings o f S tudents and teachers wou l d be

,

held to discuss the work o f the institution I remember on e meeting

.

where the director made a long speech on the weaknesses in ou r

work then teachers contributed their O pinions and students a l so I n
, , .

this way in an atmosphere o f frank discussion questions were

, ,

thrashe d ou t concerning ou r work The director did not hesitate t o

.

c ri t icize teachers and students ; the S tudents did not hesitate t o

c riticize th e administration and the teachers ; and the teachers freel y

cri t icized administration and Students In addition t o such general

.

meetings the Students and teachers o f each group use d frequentl y

,

t o discuss the progress o f their work and i f S tudents did not l ike a
,

p articular teacher they asked for h is o r her removal O n a number o f

, .

o ccasm n s the students went t o the management and said that a

c ertain teach er w a s not interesting had n ot the right approach to

,

the students o r w a s in some other w a y unsuitable In Soviet insti

, .

t u t io n s I found the teacher w a s n o t considered infallib l e ; I w on

, ,

dered how man y O f ou r C ambridge or Bangor lecturers could have

S tood the test o f Student criticism that w e expe rienced in Moscow .

E very one in a Soviet higher e ducational insti t ution is organized in

a trade union -
There is a union for the Students a n d o n e for the
.
 I W OR K A S A TEACHE R 2 7

teachers An d it is the trade u nion which organi zes pe riodical meet

.
-

ings to discuss the work o f the organ ization Then in addition a .

, ,

considerable number o f ou r Students were members o f the Ko m

Somol or Young C ommunist L eague and some teachers and some
, ,

Students were members O f the C ommunist Party N O distinction .

o f an y k ind w as made b etween the Part y and non Part y students

-

and teachers except that th e former in addition to their regu l ar

, ,

work had their Part y meetings and at these meetings the a ffairs
, ,

o f the institution as we ll as po l itical and nationa l questions were

, ,

discusse d It was the job of the Pa r ty group in ou r organization t o

.

p rovide a satisfactory l ead in al l genera l meetings and I found that , ,

a s a rule Part y mem be rs were regarde d with the greatest respect

, ,

a s being the most active and most conscientious O f ou r fellow

workers .

Besides meetings a t w hich the a ffairs o f the institution were dis

,

cusse d a p owerful weapon o f criticism was the wall newspaper in

,
-
,

which each class and t he Students a s a whole wrote their views on

both political and l oca l i ssues In the Soviet wall newspaper which
.
— -

hangs on the wall like a glorifi ed notice board with articl es writte n ,

by a ll membe rs f the organization

o w h o —
have anything to say l ie s
a powerful weapon against bureaucracy And in contrast with .
,

Bangor where I had p reviousl y taught I found that the students,

were pe rmitt ed t o discuss ful l y both po l itical questions and the merits
o f thei r various teachers in this p a per An interesting contrast b y
.
,

the w a y with Bangor ; for at this time a whol e issue o f the col l ege
,

magazine which had dared t o depart from the traditional contents ,

consisting main l y of trivia l anecdotes had been banned because it

,

deal t with maj or pol itica l probl ems o f the day ! In M oscow I found , ,

it was considered not on l y desirab l e but necessa ry that Students

Shou l d expre ss their views on current pol itica l questions and that the y ,

S hou l d a l so voice their fee l ings on the running o f their schoo l and
the me rits o f their teachers The k ind of thing which wa s not al l owed
.
2 8 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
to be discusse d in a British university s S tudent magazine appeared ’

t o be the main su bject mat t er of t he wall newspapers o f Moscow -

.

As a teacher wit h bo t h fu ll time students and a number of evening

,
-

classes I met a considerable variety o f people as students In the

,
.

T e c h n ic u m I had the ordinary full t ime s t udent drawn from the -

ranks of the workers an d peasants ; in evening classes I taught o ffice

workers so that I met a ra t her more representa t ive variety of citi
,

zens t han ei t her a worker in a factory on the on e hand o r a foreign , ,

newspaper correspondent o n the o t her .

In pe rsonal contact with the di ff erent types of student I found ,

that they had o n e thing in common which I had never found in

Britain This was a sen se of common ownership of their whole
.

'
coun t ry its fi elds and factories i t s Shops and i t s places of recrea t ion
, , , .

In disc u ssing the Five Year Plan the b u ilding o f the great D n iep r o
-
,

S t r o i dam the collecti viza t ion of agriculture my students Spoke of

, ,
‘
what we were doing wi t h our co u ntry They seemed to be as per
’ ‘ ’
.

so n a lly interested in the building o f D n ie r o st r o i as an Englishman

p
is in laying out his garden But t his se n se Of the common ownership
.

o f the country cert ainly varied in degree from erson t o person The
p .

ordinary worker and peasant st u dents I found t ook t he Soviet system , ,

for granted as t heir own But a certain number of my Students in the

.

evening classes many of whom were o ffice workers still c l early

, ,

harbore d longings for a Paris or a L ondon in which the old superior

sta t us o f the O ffice worker remained and in which they coul d Still fancy
that the manual workers were t heir natural in ferio r s To these the .
,

government was O ften t hey not we

‘ ‘
,
’
.
’

When I returned to L ondon in 1 93 6 I happened to visit Cam ,

bridge where I had a conversation with an economist of world

,

renown This was at the time o f the trial o f Kamenev and Zinoviev
. .

“
There s no t hing le ft of t he Revol ut ion in Russia now he said
’ ”
, ,

“
t hey re just b u ilding factories There s nothing revol u tionary in
’
.
’

buil ding and running factories Apparently to t his eminent econ

”
.

o m ist the only w a

y to continue the revo l ution w a s to have permanent
 CHAPTE R IV

R oo m o f My O wn

I L I V E D in the Students dormitory for t w o months But it did not

’
.

a gree with me .
—
With m y own pe rsonal background having been
brought up to enj oy a certain amount o f privacy with a room to ,

—
myself l ife in a smal l room with fi ve other people became too diffi
cult I wanted a room In every conversation lesson when I wanted
. .
,

to give an example I found myself aut omatically inventing sentences

,
’

all o f which centere d round the on e great problem : a room o f my

o w n ! In feeling the need for a S ingle room I was experiencing so me,

thing that was not felt at any rate to anything like the same degree
, ,

b y my Soviet roommates The D ean o f C anterbury tells a Story of

.

h ow in o n e hote l he asked his guide how sh e liked her room

“ ’
I t s too .

big sh e replied As sh e had just sai d it w a s like the o n e the D ean

,
”
.

himself O ccupied and a s this room w a s not in t he D ean s view at all

, ,
’
,

l arge he asked her what S he meant O h well was the reply it

“ ” “
, .
, , ,

wou l d be al l right if there were three o r four o f us in it ”

.

Al ways remember in considering Russian housing standards that

’
the norm o f housing today a s be fore the Revolution is t he peasant s
small wooden cottage ; and in such cottages while there may be on e ,

o r t w o rooms ,
there is never privacy in ou r S ense and there is n o ,

desire for such privacy As housing increases such an appreciation o f

.
,

privacy will develop ; but in n o country h as it ever developed before

the economic possibilities were ava il a ble for providing more Space for
living In the meantime most o f the S tudents with whom I shared
.

would certainly have felt acutely lonely if living on their own I did .

n ot fee l like this a n d a crisis came o n e night when

, arriving home ,

about midnight I found the room in intense heat—there w a s very

—
,

o od centr a l heating and the windows a ll shut O n as k ing why

g .

3 0
 R OOM OF M Y OWN 3 1

nob ody wou l d open the window I w a s tol d that the sai l or had
,

influenza had a temperature and demande d that the windo w be

, ,

kept closed I protested gave a lecture o n the desirability o f fresh

.
,

air in the struggle against flu germs and threatened the whole lot ,

with flu if they did n ot at once let some fresh air into the r oo m .

U nfortunately everybody pre ferre d to defend the patient s vie w ’

rather than accept mine an d in t he end I moved into another room

,

where someone generous as usual agreed t o swap be ds with me I

, ,
.

warned him o f the flu germs but this did not cause him the slightest
,

distress N or I believe did an y o f them get flu S O I inserte d an

.
, ,
.
.

advertisement in the Moscow e v en in g pa pe r and after much wait s

ing moved to another p art o f Moscow to a room o f my o wn ,

.

—
My la ndlady was a ca shier in a hairdresser s shop on e o f the ’

Shops belonging to the Moscow H airdressing Trust She earne d .

about 1 5 0 rubles a month and had t w o room s o f a three room apart

,
-

ment with the use o f the k itchen and l avatory The third roo m wa s
,
.

occupied by a man on an ol d age pension w h o professed to be a

-

—
teacher of English but never in the course o f nearl y a year did he
, ,

dare to try h is English in my p rese nce B esides my landlady there .

,

were her daughter and her mother O f the three two Slept in the .
,

l argest room and on e in the kitchen p easant fashion on a mattress ,

-
,

laid o n an enormous wooden chest T O enter my room I had to pass

—
.

through their room o n e o f the facts o f life t o which on e has t o

become acclimatized as a lodger in Mosco w and will have t o for ,

many yea r s to come .

The extent o f the housing S hortage may be illustrated not on l y b y

the dearth o f l iving quarters but o f accomm odation for o u r educationa l
work a s well Though o u r T echn icu m had its ow n premi ses most
.
,

o f my evening cl asses were taken in al l kinds o f places As every .

educational institution l acked the full number O f classrooms that it

required it w a s usual after office hours t o take over various public
,

buildings for ou r own p urposes A great dea l o f my teaching work

.

was underta k en in the building o f the C ommissa riat o f E ducation

3 2 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
a fter o ffice hours were over and I also had classes in vario u s other
,

public Ofli c es As Soviet office hours u s u ally finish at 5 : 0 0 or 5 : 3 0

.

P M
. . t his w as possible ; bu t some t imes if people were working lat e
, ,

or had some kind o f meeting a fter work w a s over the arrival of o u r ,

teachers and students was n ot al t oge t her welcome .

At t hat time whil e housing was in general even a Sligh tly more
,

acu t e problem than it is now the foreigner wi t h a foreign Special

,

iS t S ra t ion book was a much sought a ft er tenant It was usual to pay

’
- -
.

a rent o f abou t a hundre d ru bles a mon t h tho u gh no written agree ,

men t would ever be S igned to t hat e ffect In addition the landlady .

woul d take charge of t he ra t ion book and do t he shopping for the

-

tenan t and for herse l f and obtain anything extra she co u ld s u c h as ,

English lessons for the daughter for example I moved ou t o f this

, .

room some ten months lat er when I nearly lost my ra t ion book -

,
—
altogether because my landlady or her Sister as both denied it I ,

never di scovered who was really responsible had been rubbing out ~ -

the en t ries which were made in pencil and helping themselves again
and again to ext ra supplies It was a very expedient thing for t hem t o
.

do in the circumstances but I hardly felt that it was worth je opa r diz
,

ing my rations by running such risks particularly as they already ,

obtained a considerable supply o f products that I did not personally

require .

N O written agreement was ever signed with regard to such rooms ,

‘
owing to the fact that to l et a room for rent is Speculation and any ,
’

person doing this legally Speaking was guilty o f a criminal O ff ense

, , .

H owever owing to t he tremendous problem o f finding housing

,

accommodation for every one in Moscow a certain amount of Spec ‘

,

u l a t io n o f this kind w as winked at while the rent charged to the

’
,

householder was considerably increased if a lodger was present O ne .

device sometimes used by the l ocal authorities was Simply to c on fi s

cate any rooms that people might let on the ground that they
obviously had enough Space for themselves anyway Such is one o f .
 R OOM OF M Y O WN 33

t he acute prob l ems f the transition from capitalism to socia l ism in

o

a co u n t ry with a housing short age .

In my n e w lodgings I sa w something o f the struggle which was

going on be t ween the younger genera tion and t he O lder people w h o did
not approve o f the S oviet system My landlady was not of working .

class origin and t here fore was extremely vague in conversation as to

what her an t e c eden t s were She was personally not too well disposed
.
-

‘
toward the Sovie t Government fo r t o her t he Government was they ,
’

‘
not we She O ft en told me how much be t ter li fe had been before
.
’ ‘
,
’

t ho u gh i t was never quite clear whe t her t his re ferred to a fe w years

previously or be fore the Revol u tion She usually helped to indicate .

both I think b u t when pressed to be precise failed completely The

, ,
.

daughter aged about fi fteen went regularly to school I t was part

, ,
.

o f my arrangement that in addi t ion to t he exorbitant rent which I

,

had t o pay I was to give her lesso ns in English This has borne fruit
, .
,

fo r S h e is now a fully fle dg e d student in the M oscow Institute o f

-

Modern L anguages paid by t he Sta t e while Studying and in this way

, ,

contrib u ting t o the family income At the same time this ambi t ious .

mo ther made her daughter have music lessons and for ten months I ,

use d t o hear the same tune somebody s Turkish march hammered

,
’
,

out in the next room whenever the girl was home from school She .

a l so learne d German bu t she proved most able at English The

, .

music lessons by now I hope have been finally abandone d

, , .

Serious confl icts O ften too k p lace between mothe r and daughter A .

crisis developed at Easter 1 9 3 2 when t he mother dyed some eggs

, ,

for break fast The daughter having gradually been making u p her
.
,

mind that she did n ot believe in God re fused to eat one of these eggs , ,

and the atmosphere was Strained for S everal days I believe it was .

about this time that S he also re fuse d to be taken to church l eading ,

t o ano t her family crisis .

As fa r as I coul d se e the conflict within the family too k very

,

much the same form that S imilar conflicts t ake in Britain at some
Stage when children are growing u p and feel that they must assert
34 R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSIONS
their independence My l andlady wa s the worst typ e o f mother to
.

face such a conflict a s she cou ld not yield anyt hing t o her daughter
without a great deal o f nagging H owever in this respect the da ugh
.
,

t e r w a s probably well Off compared with a similar child waging a

-

S imilar struggl e for emanci pation in England ; for sh e had the whol e
o f society with her and the community o f the school gave her a S trong

m oral backing against the domination o f th e mother As far a s I .

’
know once the mother had recognized her daughter s right to an
,

independent li fe things im proved and famil y relations became much

, ,

more friendly again .

In a letter written in February 1 93 2 I reproduced the kind O f

, ,

three cornered argument concerning living conditions th at was very

-

p revalent in that and many other families during this period O n the .

r son w h o I think wou l d have

o n e han d there was my landlad
y a pe , , ,

been rather embitt ered under an y regime ; and on the other hand ,

h er daughter And in between m ore o r l ess keeping the balance wa s

.
, ,

the grandmother This conversation t oo k p lace in the month o f

.

February always a bad time o f year as far as foo d p roducts are

,

concerned in every country In Britain however the greater scarcity

.
, ,

S imply shows itse l f in rather higher prices In Moscow at that time .

it took the form o f a complete disappearance o f ce rtain products from

the market for days at a time It w a s on on e o f these days when
.

things that w e urgently wanted were n ot on sa l e that the following

conversation took place I re p roduce it word for word from a l etter
.

written at the time

—
LA NDLADY : I went t the sho p t day n cheese n o eggs
o o o , .

L ife gets worse and wo se B efore w cou l d buy e verything ;

r .
, e

n ow nothing .

M YSE L F ( n ods sym pa the tic a lly ) : Indeed .

LANDLADY : B efore the Revolution there were fruit ca kes , ,

e verything and look at the p e a sa nts I know on e w h o is on ly .

allowed a hundred grams o f sugar O h life is bad .

, .
 R OOM OF M Y OWN 35

! At this sta g e t he da u g ht er , w ho ha s be e n as ee l p, is w a k
by the ta l kin g She is post R e v ol u tion , bor n
en e d .
-
in
DA UG H TE R : N O, Mamma , n o ; it s not true Things
’
were n ot .

better before The worke rs an d pe a sants coul dn t have the se

.
’

t hings The y work ed S ixteen hou r s the y had bad houses

.
,

( )
e t c . , e tc .

—
LANDL ADY : Y ou be quiet ; you we r en t there you don t ’ ’

know .

DA U GHTE R : Y es I do y ou ve forgotten
, ,
’
.

LANDLADY ( tur nin g to m e a g a in ) : In the shops there were

be auti fu l th ings
DA UG H TE R : Yes but you cou l dn t buy them ; onl y the bour
,
’

e oisie could buy them

g .

LANDLA DY ( on a n e w ta ck ) Wh y is it l ik e this ? The news

papers are full o f const r uction construction construction Why , , .

is there nothing ? We build factories but w e have nothing to eat , .

G R A ND M A ( in ter ve nin g for fir st t im e ) : But you can t do ’

both thin gs at once build factories a nd supp l y all the othe r

,

things .

LANDLA DY : Ah She s been ta l ke d to by my brother ( he s in

,
’ ’

the Part y ) and now she s becoming a C ommunist ( On a n o ther

’
.

t e c h a g a in ) And l oo k at all the engineers that there are now .

I coul d even be a d octor in three year s while be fore it w a s ,

necessa ry to study for S ix and if y ou Study for three you can be

, ,

an engineer If you can mend a be l l you can cal l yoursel f

.
,

an electrical engineer An d the school s are bad ; the children

.

’
don t learn to write even
DA U G H TE R : It s n ot true everyone can now g o to sch oo l
’
, ,

while be fore the workers and peasan t s weren t able to ’

.

LANDLADY : O h that s what they tell you at sch ool You

,
’
.

’
don t remembe r .

M YSE L F : But they cann ot do every thing perfec tly at once ,

can they ? I t s necessary t o buil d the factories in order to produce

’
3 6 R USSI A WI TH OUT ILLUSIONS
more and to teach everyone a little before there are enough
, ,

teachers to give every one a good educa t ion .

a u se fr o m G r a n d m a a nd D a u h ter
! pp
A l g J
LANDLADY : It gets worse and worse .

G R A ND MA DA U G H TE R and M YSE L F : But it wil l get better

, , .

LA NDLADY : Yes when we are all dead

, .

An interesting commentary on t his conversation is the fact that ,

in 1 9 3 7 when I was back in Moscow I visi t ed this family again The

, .

mo t her told me how well they were now living : the daughter w a s
r eceiving a s t ipend at the university and thin s were improving from
, g
month to mon t h I n ee d hardly say that I did no t remind her of her
.

a t ti tu de in 1 9 3 2 .

S u ch conversations as this occ u rring often enough at that time

, ,

could easily be used unscrupulously by a hostile reporter The essen .

tial fact was that even in this small family o p inions were divided .

The mother in t his family certainly judged things from middle class -

standards The fact that she paid money in order to have a music
.

teacher and a German teacher for her daughter S hows that not only
as compare d wi t h the Russian worker but even with the contem
p or a r
y B ri t ish worker S h e had middle class S tandards and ambitions
,
-
.

As we get closer to the working pe ople we find the actual achieve

,

ments o f the Revolution more clearly appreciated and the sacrifices

o f the fi rst Five Year Plan more readily undertaken
-
.

It might be thought that when the landlady s daughter calm ly ’

tol d her how the workers and peasants live d before the Revolution ,

‘
this w a s just the result o f propaganda absorbed at school Perha ps
’
.

it was bu t I have made extensive inquiries S ince that time as to h ow

,

the mass of the people actually did live in tsarist Russia and I ca n ,

confidently sa y that nowhere in the did I find people pre

senting tsarist conditions in an und uly unfavorable light ! uite the .

reverse It was not o n Soviet territory but in Britain that I learned

.

how bad conditions had been under tsarism I l earned from reading.
3 8 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
But we knew tha t on l y b y raising p roduction cou l d we sa tisfy ou r
needs and that there was n o other wa y o f doin g it That is why the .

figures o f the first F ive Year Plan were a ve ry rea l p romise o f future
-

benefits ; and th e amount o f sacrifice pe op l e wi ll undergo in their

!

O wn interests is vastly greater than the sacrifice they wil l undertake

for someb o dy else The working people in the
. regarded the
F iv e Year Plan as the businessman regards h is business O f cou rse
- “ ”
.
,

said Sta l in t o Roy H oward in order t o build something n ew o n e

“
,

must economize accumu l ate resources reduce one s consumption for

, ,
’

the time and borrow from others If on e wants to build a house on e

, .
,

saves up money cuts down consum ption for a time ; othe rwise the
,

house would neve r be bui l t How much more true is this when it is
.

a matter o f building a n ew human soc iety ? We had to cut down

consumption somewhat for a time collect the necessary resources , ,
” 1
and exert great e ffort .

While there w a s a real fo od Shortage during t hese yea r s because

o f the rapid introduction o f collective farming
( of which more will
be said l ater ) the general impression of shortage w a s far greater than
,

the actual S ituation j ustified My landlady for example would bitterly

.
, ,

com plaint hat S he could not buy a new pair of shoes For days on end .

she would go to the Shops in the early hours wait in line and even , ,

t hen the Stoc k was sol d ou t b y the time S h e reache d the counter Yet .

figures S howed that over seventy million pairs of leather footwear

were being produced annually as com p ared with some twenty million
before th e Revolution Th e boot and Shoe S hortage went with a
.

vastly increased produc t ion But whereas before 1 9 1 7 tens of millions

.

of peasants had worn t he traditional sanda l s of plai t ed birch bark ,

t oday they were becoming conscious o f the nee d for modern footwear
and were buying it For my landlady for myse l f and for every
.
, ,

person who had pre viously had the resources to buy boots and shoe s
when we wanted this period w as on e o f the m ost intense discomfort
,
.

T o us it meant a fall in ou r stan dard o f life t o have t o l ine u p fo r a

1
S ov iet Un ion, 1 93 6 .
 R OOM O F MY OWN 39
pa i r o f Sh oes but for those who had never worn l eathe r foo twear at
,

al l the achievement f the ownership o f such things even at the cost

, o ,

O f lining up was a Ste p forward It w a s these p eople the vast mass

, .
,

of t h population that carried the country through the fi r st Five

e ,

Y ea r Plan whi l e grumbl ing as much as anyone at the tem pora r y

,

diflic u l ti s But t o some peop l e main l y the ol d middl e class peo pl e

e .
,
-

and many f the inte ll ectu als the di fficulties o f l ife were so great
o ,

that some f them reso l ved at all c osts and b y an y possibl e means t o
o

overthrow the Government .

Another chara cteristic examp l e o f shortage at this time w a s that

o f soap It was almost imp ossib l e t o walk into a shop and buy a piece
.

o f soap The S tocks were bought up a s soon as the y arrived But when
. .

I visite d the public bathhouse I used to be surprise d to se e soap be ing

,

used with a lavishness that it would be hard to find in B ritain The .

Russian enjoys his bath In huge chambers with rows o f benches he

.
, ,

will Spend several hours l athering and r e l athering and sweating it

,
-
,

o fl in a Steamy room just next t o the boiler At the ve r time that it

’
y .

seemed impossible to wal k into a Shop and find a cake o f soap score s ,

o f Ru ssians were lathering themselves time and time again in these

steam y bathhouses I am convince d that th e bathing habit w as o n the

.

increase an d n ot on the dec l ine during that pe r iod Fi g ures S how .

that the production o f soap increase d considerabl y B ut a rapid l y .

rising demand if n ot met by an equally rapi d increase in suppl y

, ,
‘
creates a S hortage with the result that a l l wh o had p revi ousl y been
,
’

free t o purchase so ap whenever they wanted were furious at the

S hortage of soap and resented the sa crifi ce .

It was through seeing things in use o n a va st sca l e o f which there

appeare d to be the m ost acute shortage that I began t o rea l ize that
the progress of the w as not t o be j udged by what I person
ally felt o r what my l andlady felt or what a foreign correspo ndent
, ,

l ike Eugene Lyons o r Malcolm Muggeridge felt about the condi t ions
o f l ife Against every difficu l ty which faced us p ersonally w e had t o
.

balance the slow advance in the Standard of l ife o f mil l ions Twi c e a s .
 R USSI A W ITHOUT ILLUSION S
much soap as a hundred thousand pe ople use in a daily bath wil l give
two million people a good ho t bath once in ten days T o the hundred
.

tho u sand which include d mysel f and my landlady the vast increase
, ,

in mass consumption ca u sed acute sacrifice To the millions w h o

.

were be c oming acc u stomed to t he use of soap however this denoted

, ,

a step forward in living and cultural standards O ur comprehension

.

of the depends always on the way we l oo k at things : from

be l ow upward or from the upp er tenth down
,
‘ ’
.
 C H APTE R V

S ov i e t Fa m il y

SOON after moving into a room of my own I was sent a newspaper ,

c lipp i ng from L ondon from the D a il y Ma il This cli pping read as

, .

follows :

H ere as everywhere in Russia it was evident that family l ife

, , ,

as we know i t had been abolished The m other s a l l w or k in the

, .

f if
a c t or e s or se v e n o r e ig h t h ou r s a h il dr en s en d
da y p an d th e ir c

th e ir t im e in l a r g e k in d e r g a r te n s, be in g t r a in e d fr o m ba byh o od

in th e e l e m e n ta r y pr in c ipl es of B o l she vism fi t e v e r y S ov ie t .

w e v isite d the sm a l le st c hildr e n w er e in v a r ia bl r a ded

n u r se r
y , y p a

to i g R e d c h or u se s
s n
f
or ou r e difica tio n .

In my comment on this cl ipping I pointed out at the time that it

gave the impression t hat in England women with children never
worked and t hat the children are well cared for when their mothers
do work N ow it is true that more women work in the
. than
in Britain According to the la t est figures some 3 5 pe r cent o f the
.

occupied popula t ion in the are women whereas in B ritain ,

the corresponding figure is 2 8 per cent Considering the f u ss that is .

made by visitors however we shoul d expe ct that the n u mber of

, ,

women working in t he was considerably more in excess of

the Brit ish figure than it actually is and when we ask how many o f ,

these working women in Britain have anywhere to leave their chi l

dren when t hey are a t work t he answer is almost al w ays that they
,

have nowhere I t is a fact t hat in man y towns in B ri t ain today there

.

is only a single nurse ry schoo l if that and it is O ften reserved for the
, ,

ill egitimate children o f t he area because their mothers must work

“

4 1
4 2 R USSI A W I TH OUT ILLUSIONS
to kee p them ! In the
”
o n the other hand the overwhe l m
,

ing maj ority Of working women know that their children none o f ,

whom is illegitimate are in good hands while they are at work and
, ,

it is not a question o f giving li tt le Jenny from down the road a fe w

pence t o take out the baby while mother is away A direct reflection
.

o f this situation is the fact t hat in my ow n experience I have been

, ,

S hocke d on returning t o L ondon after living in Moscow t o see S O

many dirty children playing in the streets In Moscow I have never
.

seen children looking S O uncare d for as I can se e any day in working

class dist ricts of L ondon Where is the family broken up ? In a country
.

where 3 5 per cent o f the working popula t ion consist s of women and
where there are kindergart ens and nursery schools for the over
whelming majority of their children while they are at work or a ,

country where 2 8 per cent o f the working population consists o f

women and where it is only in exceptional cases t hat there is an y
k ind o f creche o r kindergart en available to care for their children ?
I personally feel that family re l ationships are likely to be better in
the where a l most every mother has the same opport unity o f
having her children well care d for during the day as the well to do - -

mothers enj oy in B ritain when they can a fford a n u rse .

I am rather amused by t he fact that i t is precisely that class in

British society who can afford t o pay nursemaids to look a fter their
children who talk most about the glories o f family li fe In my own
.

y outh a paid nurse l oo ked a fter me from morn till night and m y ,

parents saw me just that hour or t w o during the day t hat it gave
them pleasure t o se e me A family is indeed a pleasurable thing t o
.

parents w ho can pa y Somebod y else to do all the d r udgery and unin

t e r e st in g domestic work but it is not so much fun for the working
,

class housewife at any time and S till less if she has to work for at
,

l east eight hou r s a day in addition In the . the working day

is eight hours at the maximum whereas in B ri t ain a working woman
,

may have to work for far longer than this and hardly ever se e h er
ow n childre n except t o do work fo r them .
 SOVIET FAMILY 43

Ah ,
the reader may sa y but how about a ll this easy divorce
,

tha t we hear so much about in the U S S R D oe s n ot that l ead to . . .

”
promiscuity and the brea kup o f the fami l y ?
N ow the marriage l aws of t h e are b a se d on the idea that
if people do not love on e another the y shoul d not be c om pe l led to l ive
toge ther I know that this is considered in cert ain circles to spell
.

disaster for marriage as an institution ; but if this is so then al l that ,

ha s ever been written about marriage being base d o n love can go into
the wastepaper basket once and for all For it happens strangely .
,

enough that in the

,
marri age is considered as an institution
that ought to be founded on human l ove and not on l ega l and eco
nomic co m pulsion Women have equal rights with men equa l pay
.
,

for equa l work paid holidays for two months before and t w o mon t hs
,

after childbirth ; il l egitimacy has been abolished and every father is ,

bound by law to contribute a quart er of his earnings to the mother

o f his child whether he lives with her o r not And in the
, .

it is considere d that these facts save women for the fi rst time in ,

histo ry from bargaining away their persona l freedom for the e co

,

nomic security that t oo often , is obtained in ou r country only by

,

marriage .

D oes such a system the abol ition o f il l egitimacy the encourage

, ,

ment o f motherhood and the easine ss o f divorce l ead t o a degenera

, ,

tion into sexual promiscuity ? I very much do u bt it I very much doubt .

i f the younger generation in the is any more promiscuous

than the younger generation in Britain ; but there is this di ff er
ence In the
. every young woman is self supporting is free -
,

from the danger o f unemployment and h as n o need t o se ek a husband

,

in order to find economic securi t y Such a race o f young women are

.

l ess likely not more l ikely to give them selves to men from economic
, ,

motives This reflects itself today in the

. in the decl ine o f
prostitution It is impossibl e in the center o f L ondon for a man t o
.

wal k home at night without the like l ihood that he wi ll be accosted ,

“ ”
H ullo darl ing from the S hadow of some door or even o pen ly on
, ,
 R USSI A W ITHO UT ILLUSIONS
the pavement I kn ow that when I made this Statement on on e occa
.

S ion in a provincial town I was fla tly told I w a s lying by a certain

,

lad y in the audience If my readers disbelieve me let them take a

.
,

walk after P M through Piccadilly L eicester Square and

. .
, ,

Regent Street any evening and they wil l find that I am right And .

in their own provincia l towns if they g o to the corresponding streets

,

they will find the sam e In Moscow in S harp contrast wit h L ondon
.
, ,

I have been out o f doors at al l hours o f the evening and never once
have I been accosted in the streets .

I wi ll n ot say however that prostitution in the

, ,
has
already been complete l y abolished It is estimated that Moscow today .

has some four hu ndred prostitutes a s compared with twenty thousand

before the Revolution D uring the years O f scarcity a refined sort o f
.

pros t itution part icularly with foreign visitors still continued O n on e

, , .

occasion I w a s in a room in on e o f M oscow s l argest h otel s catering ’

”
to foreigners The phone rang : H ullo said a woman s voice in
.
“
,
’

English does Mr Smith live there ? N O I replied The question

“
, .
” “ ”
, .

’
was repeate d twice Rather annoye d I said Who s there ; what do
.
,

y ou want ? This is a Russian lady wh o Speaks English came the

” “ ”
,

reply I replied that I was the G P U and put down the receiver
. . . . .

S u ch incidents a s this may Still occur but prostitution on th e mass ,

scale on which it exists in L ondon and Paris Berlin and Tokio has , , ,

al ready been wiped ou t And a s the Standard o f living rises I am

.
,

convinced that not only al l traces o f prostitution but of marriages o f ,

—
convenience which aft er all are the same thing clothed in a more
, ,

—
respectable garb wil l disa ppear complete l y .

It is wort h remarking that on this q uestion Frederick Enge ls , ,

( c-o founder of Communism with Karl Ma r x

) did not an t icipa te an
im m e dia te transformation o f human moral s the moment the revo
l ut ion took place .

What we may anticipate about the adjustment o f sexua l re l a

tions after th e im p ending downfall O f cap ita list produc tion is
4 6 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
in the pub l ic opinion
be ing fashioned I remember how
is .
,
‘
o n o n e occasion I returned home l ate at night t o find a Comradel y
,

Court in session o n the stairs o f ou r b l oc k O f flats A meeting o f the

’
.

inhabitants o f the house wa s p assing judgment on a certain neighbor

who in a fit o f drun k enness had assau l te d a neighbor The man w as
, , .

publicly reprimanded before all th e inhabitants o f th e bl oc k and ,

there the matter ended Similar ste ps are taken in houses and fac
.

tories to dea l with domestic quarre l s when they S how signs o f reach
ing a magnitude which in England would cal l for a magistrate O n .

a recent occasion in Moscow a woman with a young child murdere d

her husband out o f jealousy H e had gi ven her good cause for jea l
.

ous
y She
. k illed him She was brought
. u p be fore the Moscow court .

'
The court decide d th at this woman had an excellent record both in ,

her home li fe and in her work She had met with seri ous p rovoca t ion
.

and had committed a ve ry se rious o ff ense If this woman were n ow .

isolated from soc iety it was not l ikely in an y w a y t o improve her a s

,

a citizen It was decided that S he S hou l d remain at her j ob while

.
,

her trade union w a s asked to p ay Spe cia l attention to her to see that
-

sh e S houl d find a way o f reorganizing her l ife satisfactoril y The .

experiment I understand proved a complete succe ss

, , .

It may ap pear somewhat Strange to a reader in B ritain or America

to hear that in the the trade union t o which a murderess -

happene d to b el ong was entrusted by a court o f law to ta ke care o f

her character in the future But under Soviet conditions where the
.
,

trade unions are the largest ma ss organizations o f town dwell ers and
- -

where they pla y an active and positive p art in running the life O f the
community such a function that O f moral supe rvision o f their mem
, ,

bers is quite normal It is the task o f the Soviet trade unions not only
,
.
-

to care for the interests o f their members by controlling the socia l

insurance funds put at their disposa l b y the State or ensuring that ,

the safety regulati o ns in the factories are applied adequately but in ,

— —
eve r y Sphere o f life mate rial moral an d cultural to assist their
, ,

members to become more usefu l citizens If in the a cit .

,
 SOVIET FAMILY 47

ize n is trie d for any o ffense it is the duty f the trade union n ot on ly
,
o -

t o pay any expenses which may arise ou t o f the case but in addition ,

to a ssist the court in the re form of the pe rson conce rned if foun d ,

guilty In the case o f a se rious o ffense the pe r son may be de p rived o f

.

l ibert y and sent t o a labor camp I n such circumstances he or she wil l

.

l ose trade union membership But a common treatment of less serious

-
.

O ffenses lies in the im p osition o f what is ca ll e d Strangely enough, ,

“
force d labor When condemne d t o forced l abor a Soviet citizen
”
.
,

retains his or her liberty but a regular deduction is made from wages
,

a s a sort o f instalment system fine

-
I n addition and this is the most
.
,

im p ortant part o f the treatment the trade union org anization at t he

,
-

individual s particular p l ace o f work must pay S pe cia l attention to this

’

person s a ffairs and see that every thing is done t o e l iminate such
’

personal characteristics as l ead to th e committing of an anti soc ia l act -

.

From 1 9 1 7 to the p resent time much propaganda h a s been carried

on t o the e ff ect that in the there are n o l onger moral
standards . N othing coul d be more misleading Whereas in Britain .

o u r mora l standards have been formed and crysta ll ize d in a l ega l

sy stem which is consistent with the existing ty p e o f prope rt y rel a

tions in the
, the ol d conventions and laws were thrown
overboard with the Revo l uti on Typical o f this w as the new S tatus
.

given to women and the resulting e ffect o n marriage Soviet marriage .

is a m u tua l contract The di ssolution o f a Soviet marriage is almost

.
,

though nowadays n ot quite a s S imple as marriage itsel f Bu t the

, .

responsibility o f fathers for their chi l dren whether born wi thin or

,

outside legal wedl oc k is strict l y enforced The aim o f Soviet l aw is

, .

t o sa feguard the interests o f chi l dren ; t o protect women from ex l oi

p
t a t ion by men for S exua l purpo ses ; and t o provide that both father

and moth er share equally the responsibility o f parenthood in so far ,

a s the State itself cannot yet shoulder all responsibi l ity It is al so .

considered as shown from expe rience that in the inte rests o f the
, ,

children themse l ves some sort o f family life is desirabl e and therefo r e ,

a Stable fami l y l ife is strongl y encouraged .

4 8 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
It shoul d be mentioned here however that Soviet family life is, ,

base d on the idea o f complete sex e quali t y B i t by bit the ext ra bur .

dens Ou the women are being removed by means o f social insurance ,

public services in the form o f creches kindergartens and dining ,

rooms and the opportuni t y for all women to receive equal pay wi t h
,

men for equal work While the legal restrictions on pe r sonal liberty
.

‘
are small public opinion may in any c ase of u n com r a de ly behavior
, ,
’
,

take St ern measures against an o ffender In the a pe rson is .

not confined to formal resort to the law if su ff ering say from bad , ,

treatment a t t he hands O f another If a woman is maltreated by her .

husband for example a complaint to the trade union organizer at

, ,
-

'
his place o f w or k m a y and O ft en is su fficient to mob ilize public
, ,

opinion in her defense If a serious S i t ua t ion arises i t may still not be

.

‘
su fli c ie n tl y grave for legal proceedings Many factory Comradely .

C ourts have been held to deal wi t h individuals wh o are behaving in

’

an u n co m r a de l y way in their private life j ust as many are held on ,

industrial mat t ers concerned with factory organization .

In the early years o f the Revolution there w a s of course a bitter , ,

conflict between the new standards and the old Today with a new .
,

generation growing up the new are conquering ; but upholders Of

,

the old are still alive and often vocal I have described t he way in
,
.

which my landlady Spok e o n economic a ffairs She was equally .

caustic about the schools and the manners of mod ern children Bitter .

conflicts with her daughter resulted But that daughter later bring .
,

ing up her own children under Soviet conditions woul d not be faced ,

with those conflicts of principle which divided her and her mother .

In Britain today parents complain about the callousness of th e rising

genera t ion D omestic conflict in middle class families between par
.
-

ents and children appears to be considerably greater than it was in

the days o f ! u een V ictoria This I think is because middle class
.
, ,
-

youth today senses social maladjustments which their elders often

will not admit Conflict results And in the
. after the Revo
.

l u tion such conflicts develope d in the most acute form When mem
, .
 SOVIET FAMILY 49

ha s of some families find themse l ves on di fferent sides o f the barri

cades in street fighting many other families are likely to be di vided
,

against t hemselves intellectually and m orally t o an extreme degree .

Today wi t h a new race of parents as well as children such conflicts

, ,

are on the decline Young Soviet parents have the same outlook as
.

their children The family of the Soviet U nion is becoming an inst i

.

t u t ion as uni t e d in its outl ook as was the middle class V ic t orian -

family at the end of t he last centu r y But whereas the V ictorian .

middle class family was base d on class inequality on the domination

-
,

o f the middle class over the wage earne rs of the fa t her ove r the
-
,

family and of B ritain over the rest of the world the new Soviet
, ,

family is united on principles which will l ast much longer S ince t he y ,

—
do not genera t e further c o n flic t the principles of eq u ality of citizen
ship between all who work ; of equality o f father mo t her and chil , ,

dren ( all being citizens of a socialist republic ) and of equality of al l

nations and nationali t ies within the U nion o f Soviet Republics In the .

famil y with which I live d and which I have described this new ,

uni t y had not yet expresse d i t self Among other pe ople whom I met
.
,

I saw this sense of common interest between all members o f the

family already in exist en c e .

As a man I know tha t however I deal with this subject I S hall

, ,

express t he posi t ion inadequately Fo r it is the women and not t he

.

men w h o S ince t he Revolu t ion have become emancipated in the

, ,

Sphere o f sex and family I happen to know several English women

.

w h o have worked fo r many years in the and who have now

returned to England They have told me how aft er living in the
.
,

Soviet U nion they now cannot forget in England that they are
,

women In t he Soviet U nion they were ci t izens ; in England they

.

are women N O man can fully ap p reciate wha t th is means any m ore
.

than an Englishman can appreciate in th e wha t is felt by a

Jew or an Indian or a N egro who goes to live there for the first
time The essen t ially new features of the Soviet family l ie not in the
.

p opularization o f birth control or laws l e g alizing or making ill ega l

5 O R USSIA W ITHOUT ILLUSIONS
abortion but in the basic fact o f eve ry da y l ife that women are citizen s
,

like men and n ot a separate category earning lower wages excluded

, , ,

from a vast r ange o f occupations and re fused admission to a large

,

number o f social institutions The new family re l ations arising from

.

such equal i ty are sti l l far from fully develope d Already however .
, ,

certain features of the new type o f family are discernible .

I have sometimes heard apprehension expresse d not inside the ,

but in this country at the fact that families may Still employ
,

domestic assistance if they wish to do so T o some this a prxa rs to .

‘
Spell the pe rpetuation of class In th e S oviet U nion on the othe r
.
’
,

hand I have neve r heard such a view exp ressed for the ordina r y
, ,

reaction of people whom I met was simpl y this : I f anyone needs

domestic help and is ready to p ay for it at trade union rates w hy -
,

”
should he not have it ? But the domestic workers trade union is n ot ’
-

quite so comp l acent about it For in a country where labor is short

.
,

personal service is considered l ess socially use ful than many other
’
occupations An d the domestic worke r s union therefore does its
.

utmost to quali fy its members for more socially u se ful work The .

result is that most domestic work ers consist o f women w h o are t oo

ol d to train for any other j ob o r peasant girls who seize o n this
,

occupation on fi rst coming to town becau se the employer is obliged

,

t o p rovide Sl eeping accommodation and the present housing S hortage

,

ma k es this important N O sooner does such a girl Start work than S he

.

’
is approached by the domestic workers union to become a member .

And n o sooner does S he j oin than she is asked to attend e vening

cl asses t o rai se her qua l ifi cations for more S killed and be t ter paid
work Fo r this purpo se every Soviet domestic worker is guaranteed
.

two full e venings o ff in six days in addition t o the regular on e day

,

Off in every six .

The e ffect that this has on the p ersonalities o f the domestic work ers
can wel l be imagine d They regard them se lves as citizens equal with
.
,

everyone else inc l udin g their employers and kn ow that i f they raise
, ,

their qualifications successful l y there is nothing t o stop them within ,

 SOVIET FAMILY 51

a e sonab l e pe riod from earning wages a s good a s those o f the

r a ,

p eop l e w h o empl oy them I personall y know o f one exam pl e a girl

.
,

who fi rst came to Moscow a s a domesti c wor k e r in 1 9 3 2 whom I

,

sa w in 1 9 3 7 when I w a s bac k in the o n a tour When S he

.

fi rst came to town S he had the barest o f e l ementary educations and

,

wa s what an English em ployer wou l d have ca ll e d a stu p id girl

“
.

In Englan d o r America she w ou l d have gone from o n e domestic job

to another without the s l ightest ho pe O f ever rising t o something
better But when I saw her in 1 9 3 7 at the apartment where she had
.
,

p reviously been employed S he told me : I ve given up this wor k

,
“’

n ow I m in a l aboratory and study ing t o become an engineer !

’ ”
.
 C HA PTE R VI

I Tr a v el

WOR K I N G and l iving in Moscow had given me a considerabl e in

sight into the dai l y life o f a S oviet city But M oscow w a s the capital
.
,

an d I was interested in seeing how life was being lived in other p arts
o f the country O n this su bject on e constan tly received the most
.

varied reports There were t hose w h o said that Moscow being the
.
,
i

center was far bett e r OE in every respect than the rest o f the
,

and I frequently heard quite the opposite— that because o f ,

the overcrowding and the strain on the transport system Moscow wa s ,

not nearly S O wel l off as far as ordinary eve ryday goo ds were con
cerned as many provincia l towns I wishe d t o trave l about the coun
.

try and decide such questions for m yse l f .

Among my p rivate pupils there were two geologists man and ,

wi fe who were contemplating an expe dition to the Altai mountains

,

during the summer In pre vious summers instead of using the vaca
.
,

tion for a holiday they had been combining work with leisure and
, ,

had on se veral occasi ons traveled to remote parts o f the

adding new mountains and glaciers to the ma p and making important ,

geological discoveries For this summer a return visit to Altai w a s

.

being planned and I was invited t o j oin the expedition Un for

, .

t u n a t e ly h owever the plans fel l through

, , a n d the expedition w a s
,

cancele d .

By the end o f June I had saved almost three thou sand rubles
from my year s work and calc u lated t hat I could easily travel con
’

t in u o u sl y for two or t hree mon t hs on this money I did no t want t o.

travel as a foreign tourist bu t as a S o viet worker Staying in Sovie t ,

hotels and touris t hostels rather t han in the hotels of In t o u rist which ,

were more expe nsive and in which I shoul d mee t only peopl e from
,

52
54. R USSIA W ITHOUT ILLUSIONS
p articul a r excursion I made a Special arrangement with the S ociety
,

b y which in my ca p acity f correspondent o f the N w L d I was

, o e ea er ,

given a l etter o f introduction to a ll tourist bases ; while at the sa me

time for the p urp ose o f wal k ing t hrough the C aucasus I l inked Up
, ,

for that period with one o f the Society s organized grou p s ’

.

I pl anned m y route roughl y as follows : From Mosco w I wa s t o

go b y boat down the Moscow Rive r to Gorky then having stay ed
, , ,

a day O r t w o and having changed Steamers down the V o l ga to ,

S t alingrad From there I intended t o travel by train to the great

.

State farms o f Gigant an d Ver bl u d and thence to Rostov From , .

there I wo ul d take t he train to N a l tchik in the N orth C aucasus j oin ,

an O rganized grou p of tourists and thence p art l y o n foot through

, , ,

the C aucasus to the Black Sea coast From there I vaguely in t ended .

to visit T iflis capita l of Georgia ; Erivan capita l o f Armenia ; and

, ,

t hen to return across the Georgian military road t o th e N orth C au

casus Visit t h e oil fields of Grozn y and then fin d m y way back north
, , ,

t hrough Rostov Kharkov D n ieprostr oi to Moscow At every o n e

, , ,
.

o f the p l aces here mentioned there w a s a tourist base where I coul d

Stay ; whi l e I wou l d travel in the trains in the R u sssia n manner not ,

enj oying the p rivil ege o f getting m y bookings made through I n

tourist .

For the purp ose o f traveling I t ook wit h me as little luggage as

possible A ruc ksack wi t h an aluminium teapot slung on at the back
.
, ,

was all my baggage The rucksack will appear to the reader to be

.

qui t e useful ; t he teap ot perhaps not S O necessary B u t the traveler

, ,
.

in Russian trains w h o doe s not have his teapot is l acking one of the
necessit ies Of life for in every Russian railroad Station there is a
,

boiler const an t ly supplying hot water to the tea making traveler and -
,

there are few travelers who do not carry their teapo t s with them ,

re freshing t hemselves at one s t ation after anothe r with glasses of tea .

At the same t ime peasants sell their produce at every station whether ,

i t be garden produce ( such as fruit ) dairy produce ( milk and cheese ,

and curds ) o r freshly roasted chicken or cooked fish caught from

, ,
 1 TRAVEL 55

the l oca l rivers ; o r bread o r buns baked from thei r ow n flour by the ,

pe asants in their homes At this time I found that on the ban ks o f the
.

Vo lga it was po ssible to O btain a considerab ly greater variety o f bread

than in Moscow and whereas in Moscow even the whitest bread su g
,

gested o u r English whole wheat in the V olga t owns o n t his trip I

-
,

w a s frequently able to O btain real white bread .

The fi rs t days o f this j ourney were mainly a rest from the city .

From Moscow to Gorky too k us about four days in a sma ll p add l e

steamer on a winding course most o f the time between grassy ban k s
, ,

with flat fi elds S tretch ing away to the dim distance Sometimes at a .
,

Sharp bend in t he river we would almost run aground and o n on e

, ,

occasion we stru c k a sandbank and it took se veral hours o f p ushing

with poles and tugging with a little motor l aunch unti l we at l ast
got o ff O n this part o f the journey there were very few passengers ;
.

a woman doctor an d her tw o daughters on vacation and a s far as I , ,

remember on l y on e or two other persons were on board

, .

After Moscow the town o f Gorky ( at o n e time N izhni N ovgorod ) -

appeare d like an overgrown village N ow this term is u se d with a .

keen sense of what it signifies for Mu sc ov rt es even toda y use this ,

term in spe aking about Moscow O n a high promontory overlooking .

,

the wide sweep of the great Volga and the O ka which j oins it here ,

sta nds the ol d Kremlin of N izhni N ovgorod Along o n e S ide is a -

.

promenade crowded every evening by the inhabitan t s of Gorky both

, ,

o l d and young From this promontory there is a vie w which extends

.

for tens o f miles in every direction and across the river the new , , ,

— —
automobile plant a t that time just beginning t o operate together
!

wi t h a n u mber o f other factories o f a new industrial town Beyond .

the factories could be seen new bloc ks o f apartments just comp l eted , ,

o r St il l in proc ess o f erection .

O n arr ival I at once went to the tourist base and boo ke d my bed
, .

For a fixe d charge to u rists were provided with a bed in a dormitory

and t hree meals the meals being obtained in a neighbori ng resta n
,

rant While on the on e hand the town had its streetcar line o n the
.
, , ,
56 R USSI A W ITHOUT ILLUSIONS
o t her on e wa s S truc k by the fact that practicall y all the roads with
, ,

few exceptions were s t ill cobbled and in that very hot weather
, , , ,

exceedingl y dusty In the older p art o f the town there was Still l itt le
.

o r n o S ign o f new construction ; all the new bu ilding seeme d to be

c oncentrate d across the water round t he automobile plant and other

,

factories where a new town was coming into existence

,
.

I did not have more than an evening and t he following morning

in Gorky as I had to catch the Steamer to S t alin grad or wait for
,

ano t her t hree days The Steamers on the V olga as on the Moscow
.
,

a n d the O ka were paddle driven ; but those o f the Volga were con
,
-

side rably larger in size than o n the smaller rivers O n the uppe r dec k .

t here were fi r st and se cond class cabins while below t here was the
-
,

‘
third class accommodation which served in e ffect as the local bus
-
,

l ine between the towns and villages on the V olga The third cl ass
’
.
-

accommodation w a s for this reason almost as crowde d as the Moscow

streetcars with peasants traveling from town t o village or from
, ,

Vi l lage to town with their sac ks and chickens and O ften with a
, ,

whole family in attendance U sually among t he travelers there were

.

several musical instruments and e venings were S pent in singin g and

,

dancing .

In comparing here the ty pe o f steamer on the V olga and o n the

M oscow and o t her smaller rivers I u se t he past tense I do this .

because in the interv al between 1 9 3 2 when I made that j ourney , ,

and the time O f writing considerable changes have taken place

,
.

To day the Moscow River is deeper than it w a s in 1 93 2 The MOS .

c ow Volga C anal n ow brings water in t o the channel o f the M oscow

-

River that pre viously never came within fi fty miles o f Moscow As .

a result new ri ver craft is replacing the ol d The new ships o n the
- .

M oscow R iver suited for the whole l ength o f the canal and for the
,

deepened river from Moscow t o Gorky are vastly supe rior to that ,

little ship on which I traveled in 1 9 3 2 The craft o n the Volga is .

also undergoing change so that all t hat is here written dates con
,

side r a bl y But so does everything written about the U S S R

. . . .
 ‘
I TR AVEL 57

C ertain readers may be surp rised at my re ference t o fi rst se cond , ,

and third class on the Steamers When I add that in the train services
.

of the the same te rms are also sometimes use d certain o f ,

you may exclaim O h but I thought classes had been abolished in

,
“
,

the Let me therefore at this point explain that when it

, ,

is said that classes have been abolished in the this means

that the division o f society into landlords employers and work in g , ,

people has been abolished Today every Soviet citizen works for a
.

living o r is the depe ndent o f someone w ho work s for a living o r ,

lives o n a pension acquired through p ast years o f work o r through ,

being a housewife o f a worker now deceased Apart from this social .

‘
use of the t erm c l ass we in B r itain talk o f fi rst and third class r ai l
’
-

way travel classes in school s and S O o n ; in these contexts t he word

, ,

has nothing whatever to do with cl a sses in the soc iological or p olitical

S ense o f the t erm .

It may be remark e d here that in the the provision o f

di fferent classes o f S teamer travel is on a p ar wi t h the selling o f
goo ds o f di ff erent qualities in the sho ps Contrary to much that has .

been said and written about s ocialism the does not aim at
,

standardizing tastes o r incomes ; it is aiming at the greatest po ssible

variety o f human consumption an d at satis fying the m os t varie d

tastes B u t it can achieve t his only by developing production to a
.

vastly greater extent than at present and to do this it is necessa r y t o

,

give the maximum incentive by paying p e opl e m or e for more im /

portant work At present the most important thing is to Stimulate

.

every one t o increase h is skill since there is a great S hortage o f Skilled

,

workers o f all kinds Some day it may be nece ssary to give peo ple a
.

special S timulus to do the uninteresting unskille d work when every , ,

o n e p refe r s and has the capacity for something more qualified But .

in the meantime the slogan is : To each according to his work

“ ”
.

According to their earnings and tastes people may have a t w o ruble -

seat at a theater or a ten rub l e seat ; a hundred ruble coat o r a fi v e

- -

‘
hundred rub l e coat ; a hard seat in a train where they can sleep
-
’
58 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
wit ho ut a m ar trs
s s; -
qn un g be d .

e ver to supp ose tha t every one w ill alway s want the sam e qual ity of

much as to w hat kind of thing i

s most comforta ble and many p re fe r
,

A num ber o f v in t ors to t h e U S S R wit h whom I am ac q uainted

’

ha v t ra vele d on th e V olga boa ts They ha ve be en very sh ocked at

e .

w ed b E th el h fa nn im t h o u h in h er ca se it w as n ot a ri ve r boa t
pr
y g
bart a bont o n t he C a sp h n Sa th a t r ou se d h e r T o t h o& w h o a re u na c .

c os tum e d t o l ia n tra v el on the one ha nd, a n d to th ird-cl ass or

St e era ge tr a v el on boa rd ship on the ot her , t he third clam on t he

befor e I mill e d on t he Vol ga

third cl a m a cc om mod a tion did not
, the -

st r h m e as being too ba d for it a ctua ll y cor r as p on ds in t h e na t u re

, ,

of its t ra flig t o t h e st r ee tca r s a n d su bu r ha n m il w a ys o f h i csc ow i tself .

I n t he t hir d cla s o f a Volg a st m m er you ha ve t h e sa me t ra fi c be

Le t me ex pla i n Why su ch overcr owdin g exists There is no foreign .

'
v s it or to h fms cow who is n ot im pt es c d by t h e c r ow de d st reet ca r s,
a nd no tr av e l er in the un l ess he ob ta ins his tic k ets through
I n tmrrist o r a n ot h e r o r i
a n za t on
g i t ha t r ec eives preference ca n be su re
,

of n c t ha vi ng to w a it m lin e for sev er a l da ys in or de r t o obt a in a

t ich t . I re me mbe r h ow , a fter my trip t hrou gh the C a u ca m s which

I dex r ibe l a ter , fell ow -t ot n ists ha d to boo k t h e ir pla ces in t he t ra in

ba ck t o h i cscow som e three or fou r da ys in advance The train s

were .

ca rrying t heir ma ximum l oa d a ll t he time N ow this difi culty in .

obta in ing t icke ts mea ns a con sidera bl e in cm se in discom fort for the
t r a v e l e r B ut—a n d t his is t he impor tant poin t—it is be tter to travel
.
 1 TR AVEL 59

at a And thr ou ghout the

ll
.
,
bot h l oca l ly a n d for l on g dis
ta nces the re has been a phenome na l growt h o f tra v elin g sin c e t he
,

bil lion pa ssenger miles -

in 1 9 1 3 to ov er fi ft y-t wo in 1 93 2 . TM

ha ppen in Brita in , but in B r itish In dia it doe s , an d I

60 R U S S I A WI T H O U T I L L U S I O N S

which I wou l d recommend t o the tourist visiting t he fo r

three weeks o r a mon t h The reason is that though always in sigh t
.
,

of land there is not much opportu nity to go ashore—there may be

,

enough t ime for a rapid wal k around a town o r village when the boat
stops or for a short swim but not more The tim e is better Spent on
, , .

land if you are on only a short visit .

In t he summer o f 1 9 3 2 Stalingrad like Gorky presente d a series

, , ,

o f sharp contras t s O n the one hand there were the usual Russian
.

st reets cobble stoned and dusty and the on e o r two st orie d w ooden
,
-
,
-

houses so typical of ol d Russia and even o f t he hithert o .

O n the ot her hand there were three story brick and st one buildings
-

to which t w o more stories were being added ; a street here would be

torn up concre t e was replacing the asphalt ; and while o n one occa
,

sion I saw a camel use d for transpo rt new st ree t car lines were being
,

lai d and the ci ty boundaries ext ended As in Gorky the grea t est .
,

construc t ion was taking place no t in the ol d cen t er of the town b u t

o n the outskirts in the new indust rial cen t er that was a product o f
,

the Five Year Plan I paid a visit to the tractor plant and t o t he
-

—
buildings surrounding it fi n e blocks o f modern apartments laid out ,

wi t h ample space for gardens and greene ry between the buildings .

It was at Stalingrad that interestin g light w as thrown on the

housing question for me from the Russian worker— ‘
peasa nt point of ’

view As in every new Soviet town the building o f new apart ments
.
,

had not kept pace wit h the rapid growth o f the working pop ula t ion ,

and as a result there were whol e settl ements in the surrounding

country which the workers had built themse l ves Sir Wa l ter C itrine .
,

o n a visit t o D n ie r o h es describes his o wn p ersona l investigations

p g ,

”
of
“
What V isitors are N ot Shown .

We had n ot far to walk R ight b y the mode r n ap artment

.

houses there wa s on e hovel standing by itsel f It was j ust dread .

fu l to l ook at N ot more than a shed with pieces of tattered

.
62 R USSI A WI THOUT ILLUSIONS
qua l ifications at his j ob The tw o children would go t o schoo l and
.

begin to demand that the family find a better place t o l ive in And .
,

bit by bit that proud housewi fe herself woul d fee l the need for
,

something more solid more rainproof and altogether bet ter than
, ,

the little h u t that they had built themselves I te l l this st ory not .
,

because I want in any way t o just ify the bad housing which u n
doubtedly exists i n the but because I want t o show that in ,

an y country we can j udge the housing o f the people o nly according

,

to existing standards and if those s t andards are improving as fast

,

as materia l resou rces allow then there will not be any great dis
,

satis faction wi t h existing condit ions B u t on the other hand in the

.
, ,

i t must always be remembered t ha t i t is only dissatis fac t ion

that spurs on progre ss If t he workers in Stalingrad pre ferred to live
.

in hovels then at factory meetings when they di scussed how t o

,

spend mone y they would put other things first and housing would
,

come late on the list The more th e people felt discontented with
.

t heir housing the more they wo u ld deman d that more funds should
go to housing const r uc t ion And in my own experien ce in t he .

I found tha t t he p u blic demand for housing still comes

fairly fa r down on the list of increased amenities desired I am .

pretty sure that at t he present moment new schools theaters and , ,

h OSp it a l s are regarded a s more wort hy of the expenditure o f re sources

than new ho u ses .

From Stalingrad I traveled by Slow train to the great State farm

at Gigant This farm was an experiment in large scale farming
.
-

-
,
—
too large scale as it t urned ou t for by the time I visi t ed i t t he ,

farm had already been split in t o four di fferent administra t ive areas ,

which later became four completely distinct farms At that time t he .

y ield per acre was very low I remember in t he train from Stalingrad
.
,

t o Gigant sharing a compart ment with four pea sant women Con
,
.

versation is never lacking on a Russian train and as t he train ambled ,

through the co u n t ryside t he women began t o talk of the prospects

,
”
o f the harvest
“
There will be little bread on e sa id l oo k at t h ose
.
, ,
 I T R A V E L 63

fi el ds —weeds wee ds weeds

, , .
” “
Yes said another the men won t , ,
’

’
do any work now they re in the collective ; they think they can
leave i t all to us So i t went on And this was not the only con
”
. .

versation o f that kind which I heard t hat late summer and early
autumn The harvest was going to be a bad one because the new
.

collective an d Sta t e farms w ere working badly ; it was partly due t o

l aziness part ly to inexperience and part ly to deliberate sabotage and
, ,

organized opposition on the part of the better o ff peasantry - .

At Gigant I st ayed as usual at a tourist base organized by the

Socie ty of Proletarian Tourism There were a number o f other .

visitors to the great Gigant mainly industrial workers from the

,

towns and o n one day d u ring our visit we set ou t to do a day s

,
’

voluntary work ( t he R u ssian su bbor tm k ) at harvesting The fi rst

'
.

su bbo t m lz by the way was organized in the early days o f t he R e v ol u

’

, ,

tion when a ft er an exceptional fal l o f snow the workers mobilized

, ,

themselves in their Spare time to clea r t he streets O n this occasion .

L enin personally participated in t he work of cl earing the snow from

the grounds of the Kremlin From that day to this volunta r y work
.
,

o n a free da has remained an important means o f meeting emergen

y
cies in the
Al t ho u gh on certain parts of t he farm I saw combines at work ,

o n o t hers the harv esting was being done by hand with scythes and ,

we worke d that day on raking together the scythed wheat O bviously .

there was a serious dislocation between the scale o f the farm o n the
one hand and the quantity o f modern machinery in good repair
and wi t h capable ope rators o n the other As a result t his vast .
,

‘
mechanized a g ricultural unit was in fact only part ly mechanized ;
’

much of the work was still being done most primit ively by hand .

In t he cen t er o f Gigant there was a small square O n one side .

several blocks of modern apartments ; on the other the administrative

o ffi ces a l arge department store ( only later on to be adequately
,

stocke d with goods ) and a great club movie and theater for the
, , , ,

entert ainment o f the workers In the e vening I at t ended a movie

.
64 R USSI A WITHOUT ILLUSIONS ,

with t he youth o f Gigant and sa w an amusing So viet comedy about

,

a young worker W i th an inven t ion and a bureaucrat determined t o

steal from h im all credit and financial gain from the invention ; a
l ove in t erest t hat did not as in a capitalist film end happily ever
,
‘
,

aft er and a good deal O f happy kno ckabout fun In an English

,
’
.

village one can also see films ; but this great movie and theater and ,

the blocks O f apartments rising up in the plains where there had been
,

no human habitation before while in the nearest village there were

,

only one st ory wooden houses showe d a rapidity and a scale of

-
,

change such as the has alone known over the past ten y ears .

From Gigant I went o n t o Ve r bl u d ano ther State farm now, ,

r un purely fo r experimental purp oses and thence to Rostov It is

, .

interest ing here to note t he change in the status Of these great State
farms since th e year 1 9 3 2 At t hat time it was st ill though t t hat the
.

giant State farm would become on e of the Soviet U nion s chief ’

sources o f grain C ollectivization was adopted rather as a t ransit ory

.

form O f organization to acclima t ize the peasants to large scale farm -

ing methods prior t o the universal in t rod u ction O f a State farming sys
tem Today it is the collective farms that have proved their worth
.
,

and the S t ate farms have either been divided u p their territory being ,

handed over for the use O f the nearest collectives or else t hey are ,

being run a s model farms mainly as research stations and for t he

,

education o f t he local collective farmers N O longer are they expe cted

.

t o be t h e main source O f grain ; the collectives have proved t o be by

far t he most satisfac t ory form Of large scale farming enterprise in

-

the What is the explanation O f this change in emphasis ?

Why have collective farms been recognized as the best type O f large
scale farm in presen t conditions in the
The explanation lies I t hink en t irely in the psychology O f the
, ,

peasant and in the necessi ty for the Soviet S t ate i n Its policy to
,

satis fy t he nee ds o f t he producers in order t hat product ion shall be

increased The peasants received the land by decree in 1 9 1 7 The
. .

‘
l and technically speaking w a s nationalized ; act u ally it was placed
, ,
’
 I TRAVEL 65

at the dispo sa l o f the pe asa nts for thei r ow n u se the l anded estates
,

for t he most part being divided up by t he ru ral soviets according t o

the needs of the local peasa ntry Collecti vization means the pool
.

ing o f t hese land holdings ; but the pe a sants retain their use o f the
-

land for themselves ; there is n o ques t ion o f th eir becoming agri

cultural laborers working for wages And in p ractice it is this form
.
, ,

O f holding that has had t he widest appeal .

N ow this is part icu larly interesting for the following reasons : In

the S t ate farm as in th e State factory the workers receive wages
, ,

according to the work the y do Whateve r th e weather may be the

.
,

workers receive fixed rates o f wages for given amounts O f work .

They are t here fore insure d against any su ffering from poo r har
ves t s In t his way the State farm provides a se curity o f income for
.

its workers which the Ol d individua l peasant househol d neve r e m

—
j oyed ; and which the collective farmers do not enj oy S ince their
—
income is a share of the harvest an d a bad h a r vest however much ,

labor is spent on procuring it brings in a small er income p e r head

,

than a large one It is in Spite O f this advantage o f the State farm

.

over t he collective a s far as se curity goes that the collective farms

have prove d t o be the most popular an d most e fficient form O f large
scale c ommunal farming an d have n ow been made practically uni
versal even to t he extent O f dividing up certain State farm lands
among t he collectives .

My v isit to Rostov was on the whole uneventful I rather r e .

garded it as a stopping place between the rural areas o f the N ort h

Caucasus and my visit to the moun t ains and only Spent a day in the
ci ty Rostov was striking however in t his respect that after Mosc ow
.
, , , ,

Gorky and t he to w ns on the V olga it gave the impression O f a

, ,

E u ropean ci ty and did not have the semi village aspect O f the Rus
-

sian towns farther east and nort h Rostov also boasted a magnificent
.

public garden more beauti ful than any public park I had seen else
,

where in the
The to u rist base in Rostov was very cro w ded Since t h e city was a
,
66 R USSI A WI THOUT ILLUSIONS
junction for travelers passing from the 0 0 6 5 O f the N orth t o their
summer holidays in the South There were numerous visitors from
.

Moscow and L eningrad on their way t o the Crimea and t he Cau

casus and in addition there were grou ps O f worker tourists from
,

other centers w h o were Vl smn g certain o f the towns O f t he U nion .

Most o f these visitors had a day or t w o extra to wait in Rostov

owing to the in t ense di ffi culty in obtaining long distance rai l way -

tickets Fortunately by stressing my importance as a correspondent

.
,

o f a foreign paper ,I w as able t o obtain a certain degree o f p refe r

ence for which I fought r uth l ess l y .

From Rostov I trave l e d by train t o Kisl ovodsk perha ps the most ,

renowned o f the mountain resorts in the C aucasus Today this town .

is a center fo r rest homes and sanatoriums ; before the Revo l ution it

w a s also a health resort but o f a rather di ff erent k ind
, .

Stephen Graham thus describ es it in 1 9 1 6 :

An unhealthy Spot this Kisl ovodsk the air o f its l itt l e streets
,

heavy with the Odor o f decay and dirt It is in a valle y and .

there are glorious m oors and hills about it But on e never sees .

an y visitor on the hills The visitors kee p t o the lea fy p rome

.

n ades in the park within hearing o f the music o f t he bandstands

,

a n d in reach o f the café and the ice cream bar The women are .

m ostl y in white but more coarse O f feature than in most places

,

in Russia— th e faces O f women on a low l evel o f intelligence o f ,

‘
t h e sort wh o p ride themse lves o n being
’
interesting t o men .

The y wear their diamonds in the afternoon 1

In 1 93 2 I did not see any women wearing diamonds The faces .

O f the women dresse d in white w h o were Spending a holiday at the

, ,
“
numero u s rest homes and sanatoriums were n ot faces of people on
a low level of intelligence O n the contrary t hey were the faces
”
.

o f people who had r e spo n sflail itie s w h o di d wor k of social im p ort ance
,

1 p
S t e h en Gr a ha m , Russia in 1 91 6
 I TRAVEL 67

and realize d this And most important o f all the hil l s round
.
, ,

Kislovodsk were no l onger deserte d by the visi t ors but their natural
,

beauty w a s enj oyed t o the fu l l O n the hil l sides above Kisl ovo dsk
.

I met peop l e walking and climbing l eaving the l itt l e town in the
,

valley for the air o f the mountains The unhealthy spot o f 1 9 1 6 had
.

become more healthy Visitors who se on l y haunt had be en ice cream

.
-

bars and ban dstands were learning to enjoy the wildness O f sweep
ing hillsides But they were not even the same pe opl e ; for today it is
.

wor kin g people w h o spend holidays in Kisl ovodsk E ven the moun
.

ta ins have become the p rop erty o f the work ing peopl e .
 CH A PT E R V II

“ ”
P r ol e t a r ia n Tou r ist

As F A R as Kisl ovod sk I had been traveling o n my own as an indi

,

v idual
. H ence forth for some time I was to be a member o f an
, ,

o rganized group From Kislovodsk I wanted to W al k to N a ltchik

.
,

a t hree day walk through the mountains and the guides of

-
,

ad vise d me not to go alone There happene d to be t hree other pe o

.

ple wanting to do this same walk ; so an impromptu gro u p of four

was formed including a printer from Mo scow a teacher from the
, ,

t own o f O r djon ikidze in the Caucasus and another wh ose pro ,

fe ssion I forget From the base we were given s u pplies for twenty
.

four hours We were tol d where we should find further bases o n

.

t he w a y and Off we went

, .

For tho se w h o enjoy a holiday on foot in unspoiled country but ,

w h o like to fee l that there IS an organization in the vicinity which

has host els for the use o f tourists the Caucas u s du r ing the past
,

ten years o f Soviet developmen t has become ideal E very nigh t as .

,

members o f w e were able to find somewhere to sleep .

In on e little village it was a schoo lho u se and a t another it w a s on,

the premises o f a new State dairy just recently erected ( t he manager

‘
o f the dairy w a s delighted to S how us round ; w e tasted the milk ’

generously ) At each stop w e were able to O btain butter and eggs

.

and o t her thin gs necessary to the refreshment o f th e inner man .

D uring our walk in the heat o f th e day we woul d sometimes come

across a herdsman on horseback with sour goats milk in a S heepskin ’
-

bottle at his side and with this we wo u ld re fresh ourselves

, .

The town o f N a lt chik capital o f Kabardino Ba l ka r ia is one o f

,
-
,

t he main s tarting points for tourists in ihe Caucasus It it from here .

t hat the expe ditions to Mount Elbrus make their Start with a day s ’

68
7 0 R USSI A WI THOUT ILLUSIONS
area and the Soviet authori t ies had not yet entire l y succeeded in
,

s t imulating in eve ryone the desire for a peace fu l occupation though , ,

as elsewhere there were already more than enough p eaceful oc c u

,

a t io n s to o round
p g .

I ts organization of a network o f tourist bases so that it was possi ,

ble to walk from T ibe r da o n the north of the Caucasus range t o

Kutais on the south having a p l ace to sleep in com p arative com
,

fort on every night of the journey sa ys something for the enterp rise ,

of for this w as no Switzerland with its mountain rail

ways and funiculars It was completely undevelope d country from
.

the tourist p oint of view and yet every night on this mountain hike
,

we slept in a tourist base received a hot evening and a hot morning

,

meal and had enough provisions to carry us t hrough the day Some
, .

days maize bread and the ve ry salty white cheese that is so common
in the Caucasus together with a hard boi l ed egg were all we had
,
-
,

t o choose from O n one rather amusing occasion when we stayed

.
,

in on e place for twen ty four hou rs we were fed con t inuously on

-
,

beans According to t he conditions promise d by

. we were
‘ ’
guarantee d one three course meal dinner every day At the best
-
, , .

this would consist o f s oup meat and fr uit o r c om péte H owever in

‘
'
.
, , ,

o n e outlying base o u r dinne r consisted of a first course o f beans

ve r y good brown beans and I personally asked for nothing better

, .

When we expressed our readiness for the second course we were

immediately served wi t h another helping o f beans on a clean plate !
Finally be fore retiring to bed we had a delicious supper o f the
, ,

same beans again B efore we l eft the manager o f the base asked u s
.
,

to wri t e an appreciation in th e visitors book U nfortunately I can

‘ ’ ’
.

not remember the trib u te we paid to him and his beans but it w as ,

certainly an apt one And t he specialist on cul t ure can draw his o w n
.

conclusions from t he fact that at a tourist base in the C aucasus clean

pla t es were served wi t h a second helping of beans !
O n this Caucasian holiday I h ad the ple a sant feeling for a short
time during my tour that we were all foreigners toge ther To trave l .
 “
PR OL ETAR IAN TO UR IST ”
7 1

alone in anothe r country with out knowing the l anguage rea l l y we ll

bec omes somewhat o f a mental strain and during m y three months
,

o f travel m y nerves felt a certain S train from the fact that I hard ly

ever had an opportuni ty o f speaking the English l anguage at all .

B ut during this trip through the C aucasus the Ru ssians were al so

,

faced with di ffi culties in ma k ing t hemselves understo od O n one .

memorable occasion somewhere on the Sl opes of Elbrus w e wanted

, ,

t o buy some eggs We found it quite impossibl e t o explain what

.

—
W e wanted t o on e of the l ocal p easants until I most accustomed of
a ll to having to resort t o strange devices t o make mysel f under

—
stood started flapping my arms and cack l ing in the classical man
ner o f a hen that has laid an egg Fortunately w e were j ust in time
.

t o keep the peasant from slaughtering a young cockerel for our

benefit Aft er that I gave up trying to be an interp reter from Russian

.

into Georgian a n d the other languages with which we had t o deal .

I n the C aucasus t here a r e a number o f different nationalities living

today in peace ful relations with each other For th e greater part of
.

o u r tou r we were in the Georgian Soviet Republic but in the national

,

territories through which w e passe d the local l anguage was not

Georgian and Georgian w a s only the second l an g uage taught in the
,

schools It was in this connect ion that I had a revealing conversation

.

wi t h a peasant in on e o f the villages at which w e stop pe d H e was .

an ol d revolutionary had fought in the w a r against foreign in t er

,

v e n t io n
, and was now a member o f his village sovi et But he had .

o n e serious criticism : the ch il dren were not learning Russian in the

school in his village First they l earned their ow n language then

.
, ,

they l earne d Georgian ( the l anguage o f th e U nion Republic o f

which they were a part ) but there w a s n o Russian teacher ! Be fore
,

the Revolution t he main grievance o f all t he peoples of the Caucasu s

had been that the central government o f the Ru ssian empire tried
t o russi fy them an d to force the Russian l anguage o n them t o the

detriment o f their ow n native tongue The Soviet Government r e

.

verse d this po licy giving to every nation and even to eve ry national
,
7 2 R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSIONS
group th e right t o spea k and write and educate its children in its
o w n tongue N ow as a direct result of this freedom for each nati on
.
,

to learn in its own language I found a peasant in a small nationality

,

in the Caucasus actually demanding that his son sho u ld learn Rus
sian As he put it : If he doesn t learn Ru ssian t hen he can only
.
“ ’
,

move about in ou r own Republic But he may wan t t o trave l al l

.

over the U nion for which Russian is essential That is why we are
, .

”
asking them to se nd us a Russian teacher for o u r school .

While in N orth Wal es I fre quently came across students wh o

seriously su ffere d from the fact t hat they were force d to s t udy and
—
to pass their exam i nati ons in English a foreign language to many
o f them . The resentment whi c h t his arouses has m u ch t o do with the
existence o f a Welsh nationalist movemen t After working in the .

I sympathize with t he Welsh people a s I never did while

working in Wales I now se e that t hey have a right to demand that
.

t heir children shall be educated in t heir ow n tongue instead of hav

ing English t hrust Upon t hem A fter my expe ri ence in the
.

I am now also pretty sure that once this right w as in principle

,

conceded there would be a developmen t o f Welsh cul ture far greater

,

than has previously taken place w hile at t he same time there w oul d
,

be a genuine demand that English also be ta u ght so t hat Welsh ,

people coul d travel w i t h t he fa c ility o f the English wherever the

English language is spoken But when t he demand came from the
.

Welsh to learn English a s a second language in their o wn in t eres ts ,

the whole situation woul d be di ff erent from t hat which exis t s t oday ;
thousands of Welsh pe ople su ff er seriously because they are forced ,

in order to obtain a university degree to pass examinations in a lan

,

guage o t her t han their ow n mother tongue The has solved

.

t his problem and today t he pe ople in every nat ional area are de
,

manding to be taught Russian beca u se o f the international character

o f t his language throughout the Soviet terri t ory .

While in Svanetia we Spent se veral evenings in discussion dancing , ,

and music At o n e of the tourist bas es a woman scientist from T ifi is

.
 ”
“
PR O LE TAR IA N TO UR IST 73
w as S taying She was combining her vacation wi th work as a guide
.

for thus obtaining board and l odging free o f charge We .

Spe n t o n e whole evening with her discussing the ol d cust oms o f the
,

dist rict including th e appalling conditions impose d on the women

,
.

D uring the last days o f pregnancy and for se veral wee ks after ch ild
birth women in this district had according to ancient custom to
, ,

‘
retire from socie ty t o bury themse l ves in cold cellars as things u n
clean Accordin g to custom in cert ain districts a woman had to
.
’

spend fort y days in such a dungeon after giving birth t o a child .

O nly with the coming o f the Revol ution w a s an end put to such con
dit ion s t hrough th e opening of modern materni t y clinics But it had .

be en a hard st ruggle ; among the ol d people even today the ancient

p rejudices remained Bit by bit the knowledge o f mod ern medicine
.

and m od ern education were penetrating the darkness o f centuries ;

scientific workers from the towns came t o these places with health
propaganda Schools were being opened Women were rapidly learn
. .

ing to use t heir new found equality with men .

Ano ther evening w as spent in dancing and sin g ing in the l ocal
village cl u b Among those present there were on e or t wo Georgians
.

with magnificen t voices who sang national songs late int o t he night
, .

There was al so dancing : Georgian dances waltzes and an attempt , ,

‘
on the part of a few o f ourselves to demonstrate Western dancing ’

t o t he Georgians .

I have mentioned the woman scientist w h o acte d as a guide while

w e were in Svane t ia H er fi rst name incidentally w a s Tamara ; her
.
, ,

other name I do not remember About tw o wee k s later I was in

.

Ti flis capital of Georg ia Immediately o n arrival I called a t the

, .

general po st o ffice to pick up my mail I had a rucksack on my back

.
,

and as I c ame out o f t he post office an elderly woman st opped me

and asked : H ave you been t o Svanetia ? I replie d that I had D id
“ ”
.

you meet a young woman calle d Tamara working as a guide at ,

o n e o f th e hostels ? ”
I did ” “
O h how is she ? She has
.
,

not wri tt en to me for wee ks and I am ge t ting worried She is m y

, .
74 R USSI A W I TH O UT ILLUSIONS
daughter A pparent l y the mother had sim pl y ta ken a chance that
.

someone with a rucksack in T iflis had p robably been through Svanetia

and seen her daughter She was right Incidentally this st ory brings
. .
,

home the fact that in the people are notoriously bad cor
—
respondents a fact I am const an t ly having to tell people in this
country when they do not hear from friends and even organizations
in th e Soviet U nion Whereas in Britain it is customary t o a ckn ow l
.

edge l etters in the

, I have seldom heard of a letter being
acknowledged unless there was some p osmv e reply t o be made t o it .

From Svanetia we de scended bit by bi t to the Black Sea coast .

Most of the time W e were walking but on the l ast day o f o u r j o u rne y
,

we were provided with a buggy to take us t o Kutais whence we ,

traveled by train to the sea This descent to the se a was throu gh

.

country o f an entirely di fferent charac t er from t hat of the northern

slopes of the Caucasus We had crossed a frontier between N orth
.

and South ; pine trees and grassy slo pes had given way t o vineyards
and dry hillsides ; everywhere t here was fruit peasants selling it at ,

the en d o f their gardens or o n the roa ds ; and trees heavy wi t h

,

fr uit hung over the roadside The crossing from the northern slopes
.

o f the Caucasus to the South was like a j ourney from Switzerland

to the South o f France or Spain ; only the change O ver was not more
t han a mat ter o f two days walking ’
.

D uring this tour I was much impressed by the st amina of the

women members of the group There were four of them ; they were
.

all considerably worse shod for mountain walking than the men ;
y et on no occasion did they Show the slightest signs o f lagging o r in ,

any wa y appear unequal to the men in walking or climbing Par .

t ic u l a r ly interest ing to me as a foreigner was the fa c t t hat t he t w o

, ,

girls age d about t w enty three w h o were workers i n a chemical

,
-
,

factory had a paid holiday of six weeks and a six hour day when
, ,
-

at work This was beca u se they were on an occupa t ion considered

.

bad for the heal t h B o t h of t hem were studying in evening classes

.
,

and anticipated be c oming qualified technicians within a few years .

 ”
“
PR OLE TAR IAN TO UR IST 75
B oth al so had rec eived gr ants from their facto ry in orde r t o assist
, ,

them to spen d their vacation traveling .

Wi t h Batum I Ws somewhat disappointed This ol d seap ort

a .

had by 1 9 3 2 change d very l ittl e indee d from pre revolutionary days -

,

whereas its companion town n the C aspian Sea Baku had devel o , ,

oped t remendousl y This w as due mainly to the comparativ im

. e

portance f Baku as an o il center whereas at B atum there w s

o ,
a

j ust n e refinery But the country round Batum w s superb and

o . a ,

aft er one night in t he town we finishe d ou r tour at Zely n n i Muis o

( )
’
Green Bay which, w a s just a half hour s railroad trip along the -

coast O n this beautiful bay a whol e settlement had been O rganized

.

as a tourist center Several villas at one time belonging t o the well

.
,

to do O f Russia had been turned into sleeping places for the tourists
-
, .

In addi t ion a large camping ground had been laid ou t and many
, ,

o f the tourists slept in tents From the base itself with its wide
.
,

dining room veranda it was just t hree minutes walk t o the sea
-
,
’
,

o f which w e had a magnificent view through semi tropical trees -

.

Green Bay is famous for two t hings It has one of the world s .
’

fi nest botanical gardens and it is also j u st near here t hat there are
,

vas t tea plantations steadily increasing from y ear to year where the
, ,

today obtains a great part of its ow n home grown tea In -

.

the botanical gardens much is being done to adap t foreign plants

to Soviet conditions and experiments are being made in adapting
,

different flora fo r commercial use .

The botani c al gardens more or less merge into the tea plantations
which stretch over a range of little hills as far as the eye can se e .

Excursi ons from the tourist base to the t ea gardens were often
organized and t o my deligh t at the tea factory in the center of
, , ,

the plantat i on where the leaves are sorted drie d and packed I dis , , ,

covered a tea taster w h o spoke English and who had se rve d his
apprenticeship in L ondon H is admiration for the tea tasters o f L on
.

don wa s quite touching and under his charge a group of young

,
7 6 R USSIA WITH O UT ILLUSION S
So viet citizens were learning his craft and always being to l d that
the L ondon standard was that at which they must aim !
It was at Green Bay that ou r litt le group o f ten wh o together had
,

crossed the Caucasus broke up The tour gave us t hree days at

, .

Green Bay be fore returning to Moscow possibly in order t o ensure

,

that people shoul d receive railroad tickets in good time E ven so .

,

certain m embe r s O f the group returned home l ate because they had
to wai t more than t hree days before obtaining their re t urn tickets
to M oscow So full were the trains with va cationists at this time o f
.

year that it was ind eed a prob l em t o find a pl ace in a long distance -

t ra i n
.

It is h a rd t o realize the extent t o which vacation travel h as be

come an accepted thing among the ordinary working people of the
While still in Moscow I w a s not a littl e surp rise d when
I found that my l andlady an d her daughter were planning a visit to
the Crimea for a month during t he summer My landlady actually
.

received a two wee ks paid vacation and w a s taking another two

’
,

—
weeks at her ow n cost common practice in the Although
sh e w a s by n o means a person with high earnings S h e ca lmly decided
,

’
that sh e an d her daughter should make the t hree days j ourney t o the
—
Crimea and three days back a far longer j ourney than an English
man makes when he p ays a visit t o the South o f France .

It is also interesting t o note that whi l e I knew them the grand ,

mother also had a vacation Through my l andlady s brot he r it w a s

.
’

arranged that she should g o for a fortnight to a rest home connec t ed

with the electrical workers union—n ot o f course free o f charge
’
, , ,

as S h e herself was not a membe r o f the union I mention these details

.

because in England it is hard to imagine people in similar circum

stances going any great dist ance for a vacation though possibly they
,

might have a week at the seaside very occasionally Certainly in .

,

the people of corresponding economic p osition h ave vastly

greater vacatio n oppo rtunities than their fellow wor kers in this
country and they make ful l use o f them
,
.
 C HA PTE R VI I I

P e a sa n t C ot t a g e a nd S ov i e t R e st H om e

OUR group disperse d and again I w as on m y ow n I had heard .

much o f the beauties o f the Black Sea coast and particularly o f

N ovii A fon which I had been t old I must visi t An American friend
, .

in Moscow had given me the name of a peasant living here in a ,

p rimitive wooden cotta ge on the ve ry edge of t he se a while not far ,

Off was the great N ovii Afon monastery now convert ed int o a rest
,

home for workers from all parts of the I sta yed with the
peasant family for about a wee k .

It was on e of those hal f p easant half worker families that are

-
,
-

still so very common in the Man and wife had their lit tle
tobacco plantation which fully occupie d them in the summer ; while
in the win t er the h u sband worked in a local whale factory where
‘ ’

blubber was extrac t ed from W hales ca u ght in the Black Sea Besides .

their tobacco they had a c o w The family included three small

.

children in additi on t o the father and mother .

The cot t age w a s entirely home made bu il t o f wood plastered

-
, ,

with clay thatche d and whitewashed There was one indoor room
,
.
,

whi t ewashed and spotlessl y clean wi t h a smoo th earth floor ; and a

,

large t hat c hed ou t house fitted with table and chairs and wi t h Open
, ,

sides like a veranda In this outho use the t obacco w as hung up to dry
. .

The first im portant lesson that I learned while I was staying in

this cottage had t o do wit h building technique and housing condi
tions in the Soviet U nion For I sa w at fi rst hand the basic st and
.

ard which t he mass o f t he people h a d hi t herto accepted as normal ;

and t his t hrew new light on condi t ions in the towns I have men .

t ion e d earlier how the finish o n so many o f the new buildings was ,

in 1 93 2 extremely rough It w as only by living in this cot t age on

, .

7 8
 P E A SA N T C OTT A G E A N D SO VI E T H O M E 79
t he Black Sea coast that I realized wh y
a ceiling falling down in
a M oscow dormitory was not taken by the students coming mainly ,

from worker and peasant families as any t hing but a natural calamity
,
.

This cottage was barely complete when I arrived for some of the ,

W hitewashing was finished while I was living there O ne dark night .

there came a fierce thunderstorm Above the noise of the thunder

.
,

which was su fficient to keep me awake there suddenly arose a loud ,

wailing within the cottage itself and somewhat alarmed I went to

, , ,

investigate Mother and father were contemplating their new ceil

.

in g most of which lay in a pile o f dust on the floor and mo t her w a s

, ,

at the same time try ing to comfort three frightened infants The .

storm blew over We slept till morning And by the time I got up
. .

mother and fa t her were already rep l astering their ceiling as if noth ing
unusual had occurred .

I n making comments o n the new buildings o f the peri od o f the

fi rst Five Year Plan I always bore this incident in mind for the
-
, ,

builders of the new houses in Moscow were none other than the
same pe a sants w h o for generations had built their ow n cottages
and plast ered them wi t h mud While m ode rn methods o f building
.

were be ing introduced t he ol d l eve l O f technique st ill lingered and

, ,

as a result it w a s not a rare thing t o find a building of modern

Western design with the plaster work inside not much bet t er exe
cu t e d than that o f the ordinary p easant cot t age in the Village .

Another illust rat i on o f such a contrast which I shall always r e

member was a b u ilding j ob in Moscow in 1 9 3 7 A conveyor w a s .

taking bricks continuously from the ground level t o the fi fth floor
where t he bric klayers were working This from the t echnica l point
.
,

o f View
, was a considerable advance on the building methods used
in B ri t ain even today But at the same time two people were
.
, ,

carrying eigh t bricks o n —

a tray wi t h handles at each end a j ob that
would have been done b y on e B riti sh workman with a hod or a
wheelbarrow !
My peasant host quite often grumbled and gr umbled with con ,
80 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
side r a bl ebitterness And his main grouch w as t hat the whal e factory
.

for which he had worked during the winter still owed him a con
side r a bl e sum in wages which he had not received Such Stories .
,

i t is to be n oted woul d del ight any hostile 0 1 t of the

,

as examples of the exploitation of the workers in the Soviet U ni on .

Such a story I may sa y shocked me considerably S o I inquired

, , .

exactly how it came about t hat this State factory had not paid its
workers My h ost then went int o a long story o f ine fficiency in
.
,

which t he manager o f the fa c t o r y had squandere d the funds in va ri

o u s uneconomic ways and the Commissariat o f Finance had re fuse d
,

it any furt her advances Then he made this comment characteristic

.
,

o f t he
“ ’
It s o u r own fault ; we did not put a stop t o what
was going on We h a d mee t ings but we did not do anything about
.
,

.
’
—
it I t s our o wn fault we re to blame I was not quite sure if my
” ’
.

ears recorded correctly ; a working man with arrea r s o f wages due , ,

saying that he and his fellow workers were to blame for this awful
state o f a ffairs But presse d by me to put the blame on the State he
.
,

firmly replied N o it s not the State that s to blame they ve lo st a

“
, ,
’ ’
,
’

lot of money over us already ; i t s our fault We have the power and ’
.
,

if we don t se e that things g o all right t hen we re to blame

’ ”
,
’
.

S u ch a point of view from a man who was half worker an d hal f

,
-

peasant not a member o f t he Communist Party and politically

, ,

not at all advanced brings home more clearly than any amo u n t of
,

description O f th e formal st ructure o f Soviet industry the n e w sense

o f ownership and respo nsibili ty that exists among th e working people

o f the They may grumble and gripe th ey may condemn ,

t his o r that o fficial o r group o f o fficials ; but however strong their

condemnat i on i s we are making the grea t est p ossible mistake i f
,

we ass u me that s u ch condemna t ion in the slightest degree represents

an a t tac k o n the S oviet syst em or the Soviet Government In the .

I have always heard people grumble as openly a s in B ritain ;

but with this di fference that in the they knew that
,

—
grumbling w a s a means o f chan g ing condition s crit icizing a bad
 P EASANT C OTT AG E AN D SOVI E T H OM E 81

administrator at a meeting w a s the fi rst step to getting him replaced ;

whereas in B ri t ain pe ople tend to grumble as a safety valve for their
emotions when they feel that existing evils cannot be remedied This .

w a s my second import ant lesso n at N ovii A fon .

It w a s while staying at this pe asant cottage that I paid a visit t o

the rest home an d asked to see the manage r The manager o r rath er
.
,

manageress on hearing that I w a s writing about my travels for a

,

foreign paper at once invite d me t o come and try the re gim e for a
,

few days As I wrote a description o f it at the time what follows

.
,

is not based o n memory but on my notes .

The N ovii Afon rest home had been Open for only a year The .

building had had a somewhat checkered career U nti l 1 9 2 4 it had .

been a monaste ry inhabi t e d by three or four hundred monks It was .

then t aken over by the State for cultural purposes and for some ,

time w a s u se d as a vacation hotel and later as a hostel for the tou r ist
society , In 1 9 3 1 it was opene d as a rest home wi t h ,

accommoda t ion for some 7 5 0 visitors at a time ; and a new hotel

w a s built by the seashore .

The monastery buildin gs are on a steep hillside approached from ,

the sea t hrough avenues o f cypress O n the hills all roun d are olive
.

and fruit trees The building it sel f is in the form o f a square with
.
,

a terrace in front and a magnificent V iew ; inside there is a court

yard wi t h a church in the middle This church is today a club for
, .

the Visitors wit h a library movie Stage and a gr and piano The
, , , , .

wa l ls are richly decorate d with pain t ings and several ex monks act
,
-

a s guides , explaining these pain t ings to visitors Th e dining hall .

,

rather resembling the dining hall of some English college was als o ,

decorated with paintings o f the saints ; and the place o f four hun
dred monks w as now taken four times a day by 7 5 0 visitors to the
, ,

rest home .

The day s timetable w as roughly this At nine in the morning the

’
.

break fast bell was rung and the doo rs o f the dining room Opened .

Before this however a number of the visitors ha d been for a swim

, , ,
82 R USSIA W I TH OUT ILLUSIONS
or playe d a game o f tennis or volleyball in the grounds of t he
monastery D uring the morning swimming w a s the favori t e pastime
.
, .

Then at t hree o cl ock there was dinner ( consisting of three courses )

,
’
,

a ft er whi c h according to the rule in every Soviet rest home and sana
,

‘
t oriu m there was the dead hour corresponding to the Spanish
,
’
-

siest a— when it w a s strictly forbidden to make any noise in the

vicini ty o f t he building I f you wanted you could go for a walk
.
,

an excursion read or wri t e o r otherwise amuse yourself ; but you

, ,

were not permitte d to behave in any way that would disturb those
o t her perhaps more sensible p eople who went to bed At five o clock
, ,
.
’

there was tea and then in the cool of t he evening excursions were
, ,

frequently organiz ed to so me place in the l ocali ty : up one o f the

small mountains in the neighborhood to a S t ate farm or t o other , ,

places of general interest Then after an evening dip if you felt .

, ,

like it you came back to the rest home for supper at eight ; there
,

followed a movie dancing o r a concert in the evening

, ,
.

I n accordance with Soviet heal t h p olicy which s t resse s the fact ,

that it is better to keep pe ople in good health than to let them get ill
and then cure them every visitor to the rest home started o ff wi t h
,

a medical examination O n the basis o f this they were advised as t o

.

what the y shoul d and should no t do in the course o f their vacation ,

though it S hould be said no comp u lsion whatever w as exercise d in

, ,
’
the case o f those who sa w fit to ignore th e docto r s advice .

Accommodation at this rest home was grante d t o individuals

through their trade unions Many unions had places permanently
- .

booked and then allotted these places t o their members according

,

to their respe ctive nee ds The rest home itself charged a fixe d rate o f
.

two hundre d rubles a month for all visitors In some cases the visi .

tors paid the full amount ; in others everything including the fare ,

there and back was paid by their trade union ou t o f its so cial in su r
,
-

ance funds In other intermedia t e cases according to the conditions

. ,

o f each indivi dual applicant t he unions paid part o f the cost while ,

th e applicant bore the res t personally I may add here t hat su bse .
 P E ASA N T C OTT AG E AN D SOVI E T H OM E 83

quent experience in th e showed me h ow this system worked

from the p oint of view o f the indivi dual worker In every trade .

union committee in every Soviet org anization there is an elect ed

, ,

‘
socia l insurance delega t e whose j ob it is t o supervise the giving o f
’

assistance to all who are ill or in nee d o f sanatorium trea t ment or a

good rest O n the basis of the recommendations o f such a delegate
.
,

and the position o f the individual worker passes to rest homes are ,

distributed The principle on which distribu t ion is base d includes

.

both the need o f the part icul ar individual his o r her earnings and , ,

the number o f dependents Thus a low paid worker wi t h no de

.
,
-

pendents may receive a free pass while workers with higher wages
,

may have something to pay A worker with severa l depe ndents

.
,

however may receive not only a free pass pe rsonally to a rest home
, ,

but in addition assis t ance in order to send children to a summer

camp The trade union committee considers each case on its meri t s
.
-
,

taking into consideration the posi t ion of the applicant .

It would be a mistake to suggest that even tod ay there is adequate

accommodation in t he Soviet rest homes for everyone who would like
to go Actually some tw o million peopl e a year are spe nding vaca
.
,

tions in rest homes at the present time but this is still under 1 0 pe r
,

cen t of the wage earning population O n the other hand however

-
.
, ,

it wo u ld be quite mistaken to a ssume that t he two million that go

to rest homes are the only Soviet citizens w h o enj oy a vacation away
from home The . caters for abo u t two million vacationists
a year in addition to those w h o spend their vacations in rest homes
, .

F u rt her t here are hundreds o f tho u sands of Soviet workers and pos
, ,

sibl millions who travel somewhere on their w through no spe cial

y , o n ,

organization during their vacations Finally w e must realize that

, .
,

in the where the number o f industrial workers has been

more than do u bled in a few years there is a very cl ose connection
between the workers and the peasantry A considerable maj ority .

o f the Soviet industrial po pu lation still have intimate ties with the

villages and a country co t tage a s well a s accommodation in the

84 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
ci ties V ery often o ne relative r emains in the vil l age when others
.

go t o town and the ol d country home is use d by the family during

,

vacation time Therefore the t w o million that S pend their vaca tions
.

in rest homes each year a r e only a small part o f the total n u mber o f
working pe ople enjoyin g vacati o ns ou t o f town .

From N ovii Afon I traveled by steamer back to Ba t um and t hence

t o Ti flis a n d E rivan the capi t als o f Soviet Georgi a and Soviet
,

Armenia respectively O f all the places I visited on t his trip Erivan

.
,

more than any other symbolizes for me the years o f the first Five
Year Plan This ca pi tal o f Soviet Armenia under the shad ow o f
.
,

Mount Ararat Oii which the Pe rs ian and Turkish border runs was
, ,

in course o f reconstruction ; or loo king at old Erivan one might

, ,

almost sa y const r uction I stayed for four days in Sovie t E rivan

, .

and then found my w a y northwards by Ti flis and the Georgian

,

mili t ary roa d t he o il fi e l ds o f Grozny Kharkov and the biggest dam

, ,

o f the fi rst Five Year Plan -

D n ie pr ost r Oi But o f all t hese places
, .

t he sharp contrast of the n ew and the old wa s nowhere so c l ear as in

E rivan .
86 R USSIA W ITHOUT ILLUSIONS
there was cle a rly great enthusiasm for the building up o f a new
Soviet Armenia and I understood t his enthusia sm when I reached
,

E rivan a city in the making

, .

T o the south Mount Ararat stands mauve against a cloudless

,

sky with just a few traces of snow on the higher of i t s two pea ks .

O n all sides dry hills stretch far away to the horizon Round E ri van .

itself there are green vineyards for there is water here drawn from
, ,

the river that runs past o n e side o f t he town The casual B ritish .

‘
visit or to Pe rsia or Turkey is stru ck by t he picturesqu e hou ses of ’

‘
the natives ; fi a t r oo fe d m u d h ut s wi t hout even a chimney built
’
4
, ,

higgledy piggledy a l bn g the sides o f tra c ks on the s t eep slopes of hill

-

sides But not one of t hese visi t ors would ever dream o f person all y
.

l iving in such condi t ions And t he same visito r s usually deeply resent
.
‘

an y attempt to p ull down the pict uresqu e ol d dwellings and replace

them wi t h new bl ocks of modern apart men t s In E rivan the con .

trast between old and new was particularly vivid O n a hillside .

,

wi t h a magnificent view o f Mount Arara t was the old town of one ,

story mud huts some o f them hal f u nderground B u t even here I

, .

found a contrast t hat Showe d the trend of events Among t he mud .

huts st oo d an electrical trans former bringing elec t ric light even t o ,

these backward dwellings I co u ld repeat t he words o f Sir Walter

.

C itrine on his travels in t he t hat eve ry place we have

visited so fa r whe t her it be a farm or a worker s dwelling had
,
’
,

ele c t ric light inst alled and generously u sed because i t was so cheap
,
” 1
.

In the center o f what was to become the new Erivan the roads
were torn up and across piles o f debris and building ma t erials a
, , ,

triumphal arch had been erected at the entrance to Erivan s main ’

bo u levard O n the right were new o ffi ces ; on the left a four story
.
,
-

b u ilding under construction ; an d behind the entrance t o a park at , ,

o n e time t he private garden o f one O f the richest men in old Erivan .

Alongside the railroad a number o f new factories had already

been completed S ince 1 9 2 8 and I Spe nt a day visiting these factories
, .

1
Op . c it .
,
p . 21 9 .
 ERIVAN T o D N I E P R O S T R OI 87

The workers mainly Armenians came from all countries o f the

, ,

world t o which Armenians had emigrated be fore t he Revolution .

Also there were a number o f Gree ks and Turks Persians and Jews
, , ,

w h o had immigrated not so long before Asked how they liked .

Soviet Armenia every one that I Spoke t o was favorable as com

, ,

pare d with the conditions the y had l e ft behind them in Greece ,

Turke y and other Black Sea and Mediterranean countries This

, .

w a s in 1 93 2 and as I have already shown it was in n o way a favor

,

able year for t he

O ne of the foremen at on e o f the factories invite d me to come
t o h is apartment in the evening H e like others had live d in a o n e
.
, ,

room flat roo fe d mud hut till a year o r so ago N ow he and his
-
.

famil y wife and two daugh t ers had a bright two room apartment
, ,
-

with its own kitchen on the ground floor o f one of the new blocks .

And there were a number o f such new bloc ks plastered in various

colors —red blue and green in pastel S hades— making the new
,

, , ,
’
E rivan workers dwellings quite the most attractive that I had seen
during my travels O f course there were still far from enough o f
.
,

them but b u ilding w a s continuing e very where

, .

I w a s tol d at the tourist base that I m u st certainly pay a visit t o

E t ch m ia t zin famous for its old monastery and cathedral the r e
, ,

l ig iou s capital o f Armenia There was a b u s service from Erivan ; so

.

I went there for a day t o view t he cathedral look round the mon ,

ast er y and form an impression

,
E t ch m ia t zin was not like E rivan
.
, ,

a city in t he course o f reconstruction In its external appearance it .

cannot have di ff ered much from the same to w n twenty or fort y

y ears previously except that the number o f monks had considerably
,

declined in the pe riod since the Revolution While waiting for t he .

bus I met a young scientist occupie d on arch aeological research in

, ,

the neighborhoo d w h o was living temporarily in the tower o f a

,

church where he had q uite a presentable li ttle room H e too k the .

trouble t o S how me round and on e passage in ou r conversa tion wil l

,

not easily escape my memory .

 88 R USSI A W I THO UT ILLUSIONS
I was asking about the monast ery and whether the peopl e were a s
religious a s they used to be H e casually remarke d that religion had
.

greatly lost its influence nowadays an d tha t even the monks t hem
“
,

’ ” “ ” “
selves now don t all believe in God Then w hy I aske d do
.
, ,

t he y remain monks ?
” “
Ah well you see th e re are many Armenians
, ,

living abroad wh o stil l be lieve in G od and send money to keep the ,

”
m onastery going !
This S tory was part icularl y significant at that time when foreign
currency coul d purchase things in T or gsin at far lower prices t han
in t he ordinary sho ps It w as amusing to reflect that a numbe r of
.

Ar menian monks w e fe con t inuing their life in a monastery in g od

“

l ess because of the Government s policy o f le t ting t hem ’

receive T o r g sin money from their fellow believers in o t her countries .

S ince the closing of t he T o r gsin shops it is po ssible tha t many o f

t hese m onks may have taken to use ful work .

I must not mention T o r gsin without explaining t his ingenious

form o f S t ate trading which rose to it s zenith during the period o f
t h e fi rst Five Yea r Plan D uring this perio d there were many for
-
.

e igners working in the There were also foreign tourist s ,

a n d a s the existing rate o f exchange was extremely un favorable t o

,

foreigners a S pecial State trust for trade with foreigners w as formed

,

‘
c alled T o r g sin an abbreviation o f the Russian words meaning trade
,

w ith foreigne r s At T o r g sin it w a s possible to purchase go ods with

’
.

foreign c u rrency at specially favorable p ri ces and even to obtain

certain things —
!
often im po rte d spe cially for T o r gsin sale— which
were not available in the ordinary S hops at all Though the new .

t y p e o f S hop w as fi rst opened only for trade wi t h tourists its cus ,

t om rapidly developed extending to all foreigners who had fore i gn

,

currency and then bit by bit t o al l Soviet citizens who received

, , ,

presents in money from rela tives abroad Final ly when the success .
,

o f this partic u lar form of trade had establish e d i t sel f as a means of

raising foreign currency ( a sort of internal export trade a s fa r as

t h e State w a s concerned ) T or gsin starte d t o accept gold S ilver
, , ,
9 0 R USSIA W ITHOUT ILLUSIONS
for t hose necessities by raising in eve r y po ssible way the necessa ry
, ,

supplies of foreign currency It was a trading de vice which in i ts

.

immediate incidence was certainly ine q ui ta ble but which provided ,

the only basis for equity in the long run— a higher level o f the
produc t ive forces o f the As o n e w h o ve r y rarely purchase d
anything in T o r gsin my O wn view is that t he average Russian w a s
,

far less embit t ered that some people co u ld purchase a t T o r gsin than
the average Bri t ish worker is embittered that some people can pur
chase goods a t Selfridges Fullers o r eat at Simpsons They were
, , .

far less embit tered b ecau se they knew t hat T o r gsin was tempo ra r y
and serve d a soc ially use ful p u rpose whereas no working pe rso n in ,

Bri t ain today can see a socially u se ful p u rpose in permanently selling
high q uality l u xuries to a small proport ion of the population while
-

many nece ssities are still lacking to t he mass of the people .

In the the possession of foreign currency was as much

an acciden t as t he inheri t ance o f large unearned fortunes is in this
country today In both cases beca u se o f advantages as a rule in n o
.
, ,

w a y connected with their pe rsonal work for the community certain ,

individuals enjoyed certain privileges B ut in the case o f T or gsin .

the privilege was only tempora ry S ince stoc ks of gol d and silver ,

dwindle away when Spent whereas st ocks and Shares if their ow n

, ,

ers are lucky remain And the purpose o f T or gsin was clearly in
, .

the social in t erest while the same cannot be said of perpetuating

,

unearned incomes from st ocks and shares .

Eugene Lyons in Assig n m e n t in Utopia makes much of certain

, ,

stories of horrible tortures by the G P U to ext ract foreign cur . . .

ren ey gold and S i l ver from Soviet citizens Personally I never

, ,
.
,

heard from a So v iet ci t izen any such story ; though I did hear o f
these tort u res from an Englishman w h o had heard them from
‘ ’

Eugene Lyons Two recent books o n the

. on e by Ivan

S ol o n e v ich whose present oc cupation consist s ‘ o f anti Soviet

1 “ ” “
-

ac t ivi t ies and another by Maurice E delmann G P U Ju stic e, give

,
”
, . . .

1
S ee p age 22 0
 ER IVAN T O D N I E P R O S T R O I 9 1

fi r st- hand accounts of how people have been treated when arreste d
by the G P U In neither of these books is there any suggestion o f
. . .

deliberate atrocities o f any kind though S ol on e vich alleges callous

,

trea t ment when prisoners were being transported l ong dis t ances by
rail These fi rst hand accounts on e of which is openly hostile give
.
-
, ,

n o credence to the torture stories such as L yons retails in c on sid

c rable detail An d I have p ersonally met Russians who have se rved

.

time and whose relatives have been held for examination In none
,
.

o f these cases have I heard a single story o f torture or serious mal

treatment o f prisoners O f course some prison officials are doubt

.
,

l ess harder hearted than others in the as elsewhere Isola t ed .

cases of deliberate maltreatment may arise but all the evidence that ,

I have had goes to S how that any such maltreatment of prisoners

is accidental and contrary to n ot part of the Soviet prison system
, , ,
.

While in E ri van I came nearer than at any other time in my

l ife to becoming a film star ! O ne evening on my way back to the
tourist base a young man came up to me aske d me if I l ived i n ,

E rivan and said that I had j u st the face that they were wanting
,

for a new film ! I told him that I was an Englishman on vacation ,

which seemed considerably to increase his enthusiasm I was asked .

to call t he next morning at the o ffi ce of the Armenian film trust .

After an hour or so o f waiting while the producer l iberated himsel f

from ano t her job I was l ooked a t— feeling rather like an animal
,

—
in a Show and it was decided to t ry me Apparentl y the part for .

which my looks had cast me was t hat of a young peasant leader of

a partisan detachment in a film of the Civil War This had a par .

t ic u l a r appe al to them because the film was about the war against
,

B ri t ish interven t ion and the idea that a British citizen should play
,

the part of t he peasant leader strongly appealed to the imagination ,

mine as well as t heirs .

The main thing it appe ared was t hat I should be able to creep
, ,

round the walls o f houses with a revolve r in my hand and look

su fficien tly brave and fierce while sniping at the enemy I w a s r e .
9 2 R USSIA W ITHOUT ILLUSIONS
hearsed for about an hour ; but try as I might I did not give the
, ,

producer th e sa t is faction o f feeling t hat I was quite sui t ed to the

part In spite o f long hair mustache and rather unshaved appear
.
, ,

ance when it ca me t o scou t ing round the corner o f houses to sur

,

prise the enemy I apparently still showe d too great signs of Bri t ish
academic de t achment and a fter an hour s t ri al I was told that they
, ,
’

“ ”
w ould let me know But I kn ew already that the producer was
.

definitely not enchanted by my per formance !

H owever I had my con solation A film w a s in course of pro
, .

duction ( also about t he B ritish interven t ion ) in which Indian troops

.

were to be portraye d in occupation of E rivan So I w a s commis .

sio n e d to be an Indian soldier and stayed u p a whole night for the

,

purpose My act w a s a simple one I was to Stand on sentry d ut y

. .

outside a build i ng which had a brass pla t e o n the door labeled English
“

”
H eadquarters I had to march up and down once or twice and as
.
, ,

a loving couple passe d by I was to turn my head ever so sligh t ly

,

and smil e to mysel f Aft er on e o r two attempts the act w a s appar

.

en t ly adequate and I was shot twice on this little scene What the
,
‘ ’
.

rest o f the film was like I do not kn ow I was promised photographs .

o f my scene but they never arrived Perhaps even to this day there
.
, ,

is a film circ ulating in the in which I participate as an

’
Indian soldier in the army o f intervention I don t know . .

But talking about photographs—I at any rate do know that I

appear in the in C o n str u c t ion In that pub l ication there .

is a t w o page photograph of the crowd at the opening o f the

-

D n iep r ostr o i D am which we are coming t o in a moment In the

,
.

middle o f that crowd I am clearly visible just a s I w a s on that ,

t our and hardly distinguishable from the rest o f the crowd except
,

fo r t he black hair and mustache which attrac t ed t he fi l m prod ucers

o f E rivan .

O n my way bac k north I Stoppe d at T iflis capital o f Soviet ,

Georgia H ere again but less sharply than in Erivan w a s the con
.
, ,

trast between O ld and new ; but there w a s n ot th e same ubiquitous

94. R USSI A W ITHOUT ILLUSIONS
time and though the O il industry w a s over fu l fi ll in g its p l anned
,
-

ou t put and was considered to be o n e o f t he leading industries in the

country as far as e fficiency was concerned he was far from satisfied ,

wi t h the way it w a s being run At that time his criticism w a s that

.

tremendous waste was allowed to go on unchec ked O il was being .

wasted by products were not being refined as they should be r e

,
-
,

so u rces were running to waste Also he had had some unfortunate

.
,

experience wi t h t he treatment of an imported cracking plant from

the U S A The plant was su ffe ri ng from wear and tear t o a much
. . .

greater extent than would ever be allowed in t he and he

complained bi t terly th at in a few years the equipment woul d be
ruined .

Su c h complaints were common from foreigners working in the

during t hat pe riod and to a less extent are heard even
,

today In practically eve ry Sphere of industry new machinery was

.

being import ed t he latest methods from abroad were being intro

,

du ce d and foreign specialist s c ame to put t he n e w e quipmen t in

,

working order But t his w as not easy The R u ssians and other
. .

workers o f the Soviet rep u blics were not acc u stomed to su c h ma

chinery ; there was in many cases a natural dist r ust o f foreign en gi
meers because of the ac t ive host ili ty of their governments towards
the and it o ften happened tha t t he foreign expe rt found
his advice being s t eadily ignored Fac t s t hat have come t o light since
.

t hose years tend to S how t hat there were many delibe rate a t temp t s
in o fficial qu arters to ens u re that t he advice of foreign specialists
w a s ignore d as a means o f weakening Soviet industry The Ameri .

can engineer Littl epa g e s revealing experiences described in the

’

S a tu r d a y E v e n in g P ost published in confirma t ion of t he findings

of the P ia ta kov trial show us today that W
,

,
hat many O f us thought t o
be a natural result o f the backwardness of t he coun t ry in assimila t ing
new machine ry was not en t irely what it seemed The very fact t hat .

the workers were inexperienced t hat many o f them came direct from
,

the peasantry and had had no experience whatever with m odern

 ERIVAN T o D N I E P R O S T R O I
95
mechanical methods and the natural suspicion on the part o f S oviet
,

o fficials and workers toward foreign engineers were taken by us t o ,

explain many o f the ine fficiencies and practical di fficulties o f that

time Tod ay l ooking back on that pe riod and with the e vi dence o f
.
, ,

a number o f im p ortant trials at ou r diSposa l we can se e that whil e ,

those obj ective di fficulties were responsible for much the y were ,

being magnified by certain pe ople in order deliberatel y to hold u p

the industrial de velopment o f the Official stub bornne ss in
certain cases wa s purp osely cal culated to ma k e p l ans g o wrong t o ,

destroy new machinery and to hol d u p the industrial progress o f the

,

country .

From Grozn y I returned through Khark ov t o D n iepr ost r oi and ,

thence to Moscow Kharkov has on e feature which is outstanding

. .

This is the architectural ensemb l e that h a s been created on the

D zerz hinsky Square with the Palace o f Indust ry as its center At
,
.

o n e end o f what wil l be o n e o f the l argest p ublic squares in the

world there stands a gigantic bui l ding or rather a S eries o f build

,

ings linked together by bridges at the fi fth and even higher stories
, ,

which for beauty o f design and lightness o f structure is on e o f the

finest creations of post War architecture Incidentally it is about the
-
.
,

only example in the o f a really successfu l a veritably ou t ,

standing achievement in m odern architectural design An d beside .

,

this great new building certain ol d buildings have been r e c on di

,

t io n e d and other new structures have arisen In 1 93 2 only the main .

bloc k w a s complete In 1 9 3 6 when I w a s in Kharkov the n u mber

.

o f buildings round this Square had considerably increase d but the ,

j ob was not y et completed in its entirety From the architectural .

p oint of view more satisfactory buildings seemed to have been built

in Khark ov than in Moscow o r Le ningrad prior t o 1 9 3 2 It is worthy .

o f a visit because o f its new buildings alone .

From Kharkov I went on t o D n iepr ostr oi and happene d t o arri ve

j ust in time fo r the o fficial opening As it happened there w as a
.

special excursion o f foreign newspa pe r correspondents to D n i ep r ostr oi

9 6 R USSI A W I THO UT ILLUSIONS
for th e occasion an occasion which has S ince been commemorated i n
,

more t han one book about this peri od in the H ere is a

description from Eugene Lyons Assig n m e n t in Ut opia giving an
’

impression o f this excursion and the general condition o f the country

at this time

F ood di fficulties in southern Russia were fast reaching famine

proportions Ruthlessness in killin g doses w a s therefore pre
.

scribed for the U kraine and N orthern Caucasus an area with ,

some fort y million inhabitants the area of 1 0 0 pe r cent col

,
“

”
l e c t iviza t ion . We talke d of lit tle else than t he hunger
an d terror about which we did not write or wrote in misty ,

circumlocutions .

Against this background of muted despair the celebration of ,

the o ffi cial opening of D n iespr ostr oi in the heart o f the district
,

soon to be devastate d by man made famine had an edge o f the

-
,

grotesque Several carloads o f foreigners and high government

.

o flic ia ls went in a Special train from Moscow t o the new hydro

‘

elec t ric station Practically a ll the resident foreign corre

.

'

S p o n de n t s and a batch arrive d on special assignment

,
were in ,

o u r part y.

Lyons then goes on t refer to the insanity

o a junket to hunger
o f
land the correspondents chaperone d by Officia l hallelujah shouters
,
-
,

t o dedicate a mechanical mammoth among wheat fields abandone d

to weeds ; o f a holiday t o glori fy an electric station built in large

part wi th coerced labor and p roducing electric po wer for factories
”
not yet in existence .

This pas sage by Eugene Lyons is interesting for it S hows in a ,

concentrated form all t he bitterness o f one w h o discovered on reach

ing the that it w a s not a U topia First o f all on his descrip
.
,

tion o f t he food di fficulties N ow I had been traveling continuously

.

for nearly t hree months in sou t hern Russia before I arri ved at
“ ”
9 8 R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSIONS
pose d the S oviet Government and its policy and agents de l iberately ,

sent into the from outside to stir up discontent These .

forces acting togethe r in addition to the inexperience o f the peasants

,

themselves at discipline d collective work and modern farming meth

o ds led t o a foo d c risis the greatest since 1
‘

, , 9 2 1 .

When Lyons jeers at the construction of an e l ectri c station buil t

“

in l arge part with coe rce d labor and producing electric power for
factories n ot yet in existence he is stil l further distortin g the issue
”
,
.

First o f a l l no factories in that area cou l d be o pe rate d at all without

,

a source o f power The electric st ation had there fore to be i n working

.

orde r be fore the completion of the factories or the factories would ,

have had t o awai t the completion o f t he station When L yons refers .

to
“
facto ri es not yet in existence he is misleading the reader N ew
”
, .

factories were already in existence at the time o f our visi t though ,

not yet in full working order We spe nt an afternoon visiting such

.

new plants O n the other hand however w e did not find any plant
.
, ,

in full working order In a great new works just built W

. e found a , ,

few workers hanging about in each workshop We were told it w as .

the free day T o amuse the foreigners a group o f three young

‘
.
’
,

work ers started putting pieces of metal in a small furnace and then
dipp ing them in water to give the impression that something was
going on In th e meantime a man in a crane high above our heads
.

was pointing at them and winking at us in a wa y t hat destroyed any

belief on the part o f t he visitors that serious work w a s in progress .

But the building w a s there and some mon t hs l ater work began
,

seriously .

T oo often have gibes been made by foreigners in the at

t he opening o f new enterprise s be fore t hey are in full working order .

N ot only does this happen in the but in o u r own country as

well I can imagine certain foreigners having seen a ship launched
.
,

in t he jeering because i t did not at once sail away under

i t s own steam It is t he same thing with factories and electric stations
. .

In Bri t ain as well as in the the o fficial opening day is not

 ERIVAN T O D N I E P R O S T R OI 99

usually the day on which an y new enterp rise starts t o work at full
capacity .

The return j ourney to Moscow in the Special train which brought

Government o flicia ls and foreign correspondents to the o pening o f
D n iep r ost r o i w a s my on l y experience of close personal contact wi t h
the correspondents o f foreign newspape rs in Moscow as a collective
group Strangely enough I never met Eugene L yons th ough I Spent
.
,

much time in the company o f Malcol m Muggeridge w ho was t hen ,

correspondent for the Ma n c he ster Gu a r dia n As far as I remember .

,

Muggeridge spent that j ourney a l ternately in the company of Chol

l e rt on o f the D a il y Te l e g r a ph and Eugene Lyons w h o regale d ,

him wi t h a t rocity stories famine stories and st ories of G P U tor

, , . . .

tures ; and the rest o f the time wi t h myse l f and cert ain others w h o
were more friendly in t heir attitude to t he e ven in the
face of severe di fficulties in the coun t ryside Together wi t h Mug .

geridge there w a s John H u ghes an English j ournalist who only a

, ,

few weeks later was killed in my presence in a streetcar accident .

Get t ing on a trolley la t e at night be ing a fraid of missing the last

,

one home John fell and the car passe d over on e leg The ambulance
, , .

was quick in coming but loss of bl oo d was t oo great for him to

,

recover .

I well remember Mr Chollerton wi t h his flashing eyes and dark

.
,

beard glee fully retailing on e story after another o f cases o f graft

,

and burea u cracy wit h which he had personally come in contact .

Malcolm Muggeridge is described by L yons as o n e o f the most “

”
gullible o n this journey meaning o n e o f those least ready to accept
,

stories about the collapse of the Soviet regime My ow n experience .

was t he reverse o f this for o n that j o u rney I found Muggeridge

,

consist en t ly condemning eve rything Soviet wi t h t hat same bitter “

ne ss o f his brillian t book which is praise d by L yons and which as , ,

Lyons said was written as a revenge against his own import e d cer
,
“

tain t ies Muggeridge like Lyons entered the

.
”
, ,
with n o
conception o f the problems being tackled in that vast country and ,
I OO R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSION S

expe cted I t hink to find something l ik e what England wou l d be

, ,

a fter t w enty yea r s o f peace ful socialist development Such people .

were rapidl y disillusioned ; even today they are likel y t o be disill u

sio n e d and po ssibly fo r some years t o come
, .

And I must con fess t ha t I t oo at that time w a s far from happy

, , ,

a bout the food situation Lyons an d Mugge ri dge undoubtedly exa g

.

gerate the position and attribute the lowest motives to a Government

w hich w a s doing its utmost to cOp e with a very di ffi cult problem But .

the fact remains that there w a s a ve r y bad harvest a food shortage , ,

a n d conditions almo t o f civil w a r in certain districts where the

s
p easa n t s had revolted under the l eadership o f the enemies o f c oll e c

t iviza t ion It is only more recently in the trials o f the past t w o yea r s
.
, ,

t hat facts have been brought to light S howing that even high up in

t h e Soviet State there were smal l grou ps o f individuals deliberate l y

working t o foster such revolts in those years It has now been made .

clear tha t during that period the enemies o f the State were not only
the rich pe asants but in a number o f cases State officials w h o in their
, ,

pro fessed stru ggle against the ku la ks did their utmost to cause a n ta g
,

o n ism between peasants and State thus lessening the prestige of the
,

Soviet Sta te among the peasan t ry .

H aving traveled on my ow n for several months having com e face ,

to face with the di fficul t ies as wel l as the achievements o f this pe ri od ,

it w a s not inspiring to return to Moscow with a group o f foreign

correspondents most o f whom were bitterly hostile to the U S S R . . .

and whose conversation in the main reflected this bitterness And .

while we were all agreed a s to the acutene ss o f the foo d situation I ,

found that there was a fundamenta l barri er between us The y had .

none o f them expe rienced the day to day life an d work o f a Soviet
- -

inst it ut ion whereas I had been working wit h t he y ounger generation

,

in the Soviet educationa l system and kn ew the Soviet peo ple in their
ordinary working lives What is more I found that most o f these
.
,

corres pondents though living in a countr y where the facto ry had

,

b ecome a cen t er o f civic life a s wel l as a pl ace o f work were n o more

'
,
 CH A P T E R X

P e rsp e c ti v e fr om En g l a n d

I R ET U R N E D t o L ondon just before the beginning of 1 93 3 At the .

time o f l e aving I had strongly mixed feelings about li fe in the

O n the one hand I was more than impressed by many o f
,

the very great achievements tha t had been accompl ished The work .

ing people appeared t o me to be better o ff t han their fellow workers in

B ri tain in a number of vi t al respects There was n o unemployment in
.

the every man and woman was there fore sec u re There w a s .

an admirable system o f social insurance by which all workers o ff ,

wor k through illness receive d their pay from the socia l insurance
f u nd In the case of women benefits extended to four months full
.
,
’

pay when o ff work through child bearing this period being ext ended
-
,

’
o n doctor s orders All working pe ople irrespective o f sex or age
.
, ,

received the same pay for similar work This I felt was a particu l arly .
, ,

great achievement as fa r as t he women and young worke r s were

concerned Then again the hours of work were only seven a day
"

.
, , ,

with paid vacations of at least two weeks a year for al l workers In .

these respects at any rate th e workers o f the could righ t ly

claim to enjoy condi t ions better than in any other country o f the
world .

O n t he other h and in cert ain respects the

, was pa rt icu
l a r l y depressing in 1 93 2 Especially o f course with regard to the
.
, ,

food situation which was bad and which showe d n o S igns of im

, ,

proving until the harvest o f 1 9 3 3 and even then an improvement

,

w a s in no w a y guaranteed I le ft the . in D ecember 1 93 2 , ,

at a time o f strict rationing when even the goods allotted on the

,

ration card were not always available The basic diet o f bread and .

tea and cabbage soup w a s guaranteed but everything in addition t o ,

1 02
 P E R SP E CTI V E FR O M E N G LAN D I O3

this wa s to some extent a l uxury suppl ies o f which were never

, , ,

constan t Another nega t ive fea t ure was housing a problem in the
.
,

solution of which the Soviet U nion w a s still fa r behind Britain and ,

one that showed no signs of being S olved in under ten years at l east .

—
Finall y there was the q u estion of clothing for in quality if not in ,

warmth the clo t hes of the people o f the

, in 1 93 2 certainly
compared un favorably with Britain at that time To what extent did .

these negative features offset th e positive ones ? To what extent were

the positive features no longer of account because these nega t ive fea
tures had more than o ffset them ? These quest ions were still u n
answered by me when I l eft Moscow for L ondon on D ecember 2 6 ,

1
93 2 .

Fortunately I have preserved from that time certain impressions

written on arriving in L ondon after Spending a year in M oscow .

Soon after my arrival I had an opport unity to travel about the co u n

t ry and t o make comparisons and contrasts with my journey through
t he during t he previous a ut umn In the course o f this time .

I was able to see the more in perspective than had even

been possible when I was on Soviet territory I give here some of .

the experiences comparisons an d conclusions which followed m y

, ,

departure from the at that time .

M y fi rst impression o n crossing the frontier on my way back to

Lo ndon was the servility of the waiter in the Polish restaurant ,

together with the vast stoc ks o f fo o d for sale In Moscow the waiters .

in restauran t s were fa r from e ffi cient b u t they were never servile

, .

And now I found a wai t er in tailcoat bowing and scraping be fore ,

me dusting the sea t that I was to sit upon with a snow white table
,
-

napkin and in fac t begging for a tip I did not like it And then in
, , , . .
,

the train traveling thro u gh Poland the attendant comes along t here
, , ,

is more obse qu io u s bowing and scraping Are you al l right S ir ?

“
.
,

N ic e carriage sir ; I shall be traveling with you sir and more

,
”
, ,

begging for t ips ! In t he t he a ttendan t s in t he train had been

very friendly t hey bro u ght mat t resses and made up be ds for a fixe d
,
1 04 R USSI A W ITHOUT ILLUSIONS
payment they chatte d about the weather the food Shortage
, ,
about , or

the Five Year Plan or about the time o f arrival o f the train But
-
, .

never did they bow o r scrape never did they do their job with one
,

eye on that trouser pocket from which a tip at some stage might be
expected to emerge In t he S oviet trains eve rything w as a lit tle grimy ;
.

in place of snow white napkins in the dining ca r the cloths were a

-

l i t tle soiled ; and yet I found I pre ferred the rough and ready friendship
,

o f the Sovie t attendan t s to this servility The servility shocked me I had

. .

n ot realized previously that it existed .

I n L ondon pe rhaps I was most st r uck in the fi rst inst ance by t he

,

quan t ity of goods for sale In every shop S tocks and stocks o f good s
.
,

in contrast to Moscow where every new consignment was imme

dia t ely bo u ght up Why were the st ocks all owed to lie in the L ondon
.

shops for so long ? L ooking at t he people I co u ld see t h e reason was

not that everyone had su fficient of everything that was on sale ; for
there were people who were obvio u sly poo r and I was amazed one ,

evening to se e in Sou t hamp t on Row an old man digging in a garbage

can for something to eat ! When later on I men t ioned this to so me
, ,

working peo ple a ho t el employee told me how o u tside t he big hotels

, ,

in L ondon old people every night salvage provisions from the garbage
,

cans And yet visi t ors to t he

. where t here was an a c u te food
short age were commenting on s u ch things happening as if they only
happened on the terri t ory o f t he Soviet U nion Which I aske d m y .
,

sel f was the greater crime : to have stocks o f goods available and
,
‘

people salvaging food from garbage cans because of their povert y o r ,

t o level everyone down to a cert ain degree o f sacrifice beca u se there

were not enough s u pplies t o go round ? Which was the bet t er system ,

one which allowe d milk t o be made into buttons while malnu t ri t ion
was publicly admitted or a syst em in which eve ry drop of milk was
,

being used as foo d while eve r y possible thing was being done to
in c rease t he supplies O f milk ? These q u est ion s—questions which had
,

never oc curred t o me in the — now crowded thro u gh my

mind .
1 06 R USSIA WITH OUT ILL USION S
cow s theaters S how more of the world s classics than the theaters o f
’ ’

any o t her capital I was intereste d t o sample once again what the
.

‘
L ondon t heater world provides And I saw a revue It w a s not of . .
’
,

,
—
course politi ca l propaganda it was sexual propaganda in which ,

some scores of women advertised their l egs thighs and breasts for , ,

some three hours on end I had seen that kind o f thing before and i t
.
,

had never shocke d me N ow after a year in Moscow I was shocked

.
, , .

Such sexual displays are not st aged in the State t heaters of the
This is on e o f the e ffects o f State censo rship A heal t hy .

theater is the resu l t; And it is well worth remembering that many of

those L ondon chorus girls who display their legs so beautifully on
the stage when the y are in luck and have a j ob are constrained to sell
t heir legs in another way when they are not in luck and have n o
theater j ob to keep them going ; whereas in Moscow in the theatrical
world as e l sewhere there is n o unemployment
, , .

O n several occasions I happened to pass t hro u gh the center o f

L ondon late in the evening I was accosted This hadn t happened
. .
’

in Moscow And then I started to travel about the country I very

. .

soon realized that L ondon is not Britain ; and that the prosperity of
L ondon appears l ike a flourishing oasis when compared wi t h the
destitute areas o f Tyneside and South Wales ; or with industrial
centers l ike Manchester or a seapo rt such as L iverp ool I shall never
,
.

forget the impression o f poverty which I received when arri ving at

L iverpool and on leaving the station had several hungry looking
, , ,

men clu t ching for my bag to earn a few coppers as uno fficial porters .

I t gave m e the same uncanny fee l ing that I expe ri enced in London
shortly after my return when I sa w a procession o f S ix able bodied -

men unemployed walking down the gutter S inging Welsh songs

, , ,

while on e o f them co l lected from t he public whatever they cared t o

give Or p assing along on e of L ondon s main thoroughfares se eing
.
,
’
,

a man S it t ing on the p avement cap beside him with a note pointing
, ,

o u t that he had served his country during the Great War C ert ain .
 P E R SP E CTIV E FR O M E N G LA N D I O7

critics make much o f th e beggars in the But at any rate I

can sa y never in th e
,
did I se e a beggar carry ing such a
S ign as this : 1 9 1 8 1 9 2 1 : I fought for the Soviets This is what I
“ - .

”
am now .

While on Tyneside I happened to visit an unemploye d center an ,

untidy little shed in Jarrow where a few men daily mended their
S hoes and thus I was told by the warden preserved their sel f respect
, ,
-
.

Much has been written o f the degradation Of the Russian pe asant ,

but I wa s forced by circumstances to compare these British working

men preserving their sel f res pe ct in Jarrow with the Russian p easant
-

grumbling that t here was going to be another bad harvest ; and t he

greater self respect I found not in Jarrow on Tyne but in the
-
,
- -
,

And then the young people O ne O f the things that shocked me on

.

returning to L ondon was t he dirtiness of the children in the working

cl ass distric t s and the fact that they were playing in the streets In .

M o scow it was a rare t hing to find children playing in the streets ,

and a rarer thing to se e children with dirty faces and that uncared for -

look so common here In Moscow wherever there were children

.
, ,

little plots of waste land w ere being made into green playgrounds for
them Backyards of blocks of flats were being arranged so that the
.

children could feel at home there E very green square in the city was
.

a pu blic squ ar e ; large gardens had been thrown open to the children
of the people And then in L ondon children who in Moscow wo u l d
.
,

st il l be in sch ool were a l ready working for a living C hildren were .

employed as bellboys in expensive hotels and with n o limitation t o ,

their working day Children ran errands for shopkeepers wi t h n o

.

training for more S kille d work and their only prosp ect was that of
,

being sacked at the age when they became insurable against unem
p l oyment And discharged just at the insurab l e age they cou l d not
.
, ,

even hope t o obtain the meager insurance benefits which ol de r work

e rs enj oy ed And in M oscow in contrast : the p rohibition o f the
.
,
1 08 R USSIA WITH O UT ILLUSIONS
em pl oyment o f juveniles school to the age o f seventeen o r eighteen
, ,

even though it did mea n working eve ry school building for t w o S hift s .

Which of these I ask ed myself w a s the civilization o f the future ?

, ,

It may be noted by t he reader that so far in my reactions to British

conditions on my return from the I compared the
with Britain But in doing this I now recognized that I w as paying
.

the greatest u nsolicited testimonia l to the An d i f e ve ry

enemy o f the Soviet U nion w h o toda y unb l u shingly compares Mos
c ow and L ondon rea l ize d t h e significance o f this such comparisons ,

would forthwith cease For wh o be fore 1 9 1 7 e ver dreamt o f c om

.

parin g detail b y detail M oscow with L ondon ? N obody ever dreamt

, ,

o f doing such a thing any more t han they compare the workers
,
’

l iving conditions in Bombay an d L ondon Shan ghai and L ondon o r, ,

Tokio and L ondon at the present time There is on e irrefutable proof

.

that the progress between 1 9 1 7 an d recent years is phe

n o m en a l ; it is that t o day Moscow can actually Stand comparison

with London whereas be fore 1 9 1 7 nobody ever dreamt o f com

,

paring a town in the Russian empire and on e in Great Britain in the

same brea t h I must point ou t here that I made all my fi rst c om
.

parisons between M OSCOW and L ondon be fore I realized the historica l

outrage that I w as committing in so doing .

When I went to the in 1 93 1 I had no more knowledge

,

o f tsarist Russia than the ordinary Englishman h a s today o f India

o r China ; and if any t hing considerably less Fo r while India and

,
.
,

China exist t oday in the contempo rary worl d and there fore do find , ,

some reflec t ion in our press tsarist Russia has been dead since 1 9 1 7
,

dead and almost forgotten My ow n reactions on Soviet territory

,
.
,

like those o f most English visitors were automatically to compare

,

M oscow wi t h L ondon t he ,
with Bri t ain and draw conclu ,

sions accordingly And as Shown here my conclusions were sub

.
, ,

st a n tia l l y favorable t o the social syste m while recognizing ,

that in many respects it still fel l S hort o f what ha d been attained in

other countries which had a hundred y ea rs o f in dustrial ization to
I I O R USSIA WITH O UT ILLUSIONS
1 9 1 7 w as a certain E J D illon In 1 9 2 8 he returned t o the
. . .

on a visit an d in these words he sums u p his impressions

,

O utsiders ca nnot realize t he vastness f t he upheaval e ffected o

b y the O ctober Revo l ution O ne must have lived and worked in .

the l and under the tsa ri st regime and n e must have resided , o

t here again after the upheaval in order to compare use fully the
tw states What happened in O ctobe r 1 9 1 7 was not mere l y
o .
, ,

the substitution o f on e government for another or one set of ,

ins t itutions for a n othe r It was a swe eping organic change in

n

every branch of life public and private in the reciprocal rela

, ,

tions of persons and groups in laws in e t hics in education , , , ,

social aims land tenure and in the people s outloo k upon life
,
-
,
’

1
and death .

O n arriving in L eningrad a fter more t han ten yea r s absence ’

,

D illon w s Struc k l ike many foreign visitors by t he somewhat drab

a , ,

loo k of this once gaudily decorated cit y The stucco f the buildings
“
. o ,

many of which were erected by I t alian architects and were from the ,

o ut set wholly unsuited to the nort hern climate is rapidly pee l ing ,

o ff. But on the other hand certain favorable features were also ,

immedia t ely not iceable : O ne o f the fi rst things that claime d my

“

no t ice was t he absence O f begga r s w ho in old times were always a n d

every where wi t h us O ne of the few I now detected singled me out
.
,

followed me discreetly And how oft en from foreigners visiting

the for t he fi rst time and even in my ow n case when I fi rst ,

went there have I heard crit icisms because in the

,
under
so c ialism there are still beggars on the streets O n this matter t he
‘ ’
.

react ions o f Sir Bernard Pares are also of interest for he too returned ,

to the Soviet U nion a fter years of absence H e t oo is st ruck not by the .

,

r e se n c e but by the absence of beggars compared wi t h t sarist Russia

p .

“ ” “
I might add he writes on returning from Moscow in 1 93 6 that
, ,

1 E .
J . D ill o n, R ussia To-d a y a nd Y e s te r d a y .
 P E R S P E CTI VE FR O M E N G LA N D I I I
'

a ll t h e old signs f pauperism

o in Moscow—often so obtrusive a s for , ,

instance the dist orted and misshapen limbs that were Stretche d ou t
,

—
to n e by the beggars lying at the gates of the churche s have dis
o

appeared al together ”
.
1

But pe rhaps the most illuminating p icture o f the position o f tsarist

Russia in this respect is painted by Stephen Graham who k new ,

Russia pri or to 1 9 1 7 better than most Englishmen In 1 1 Va g a bon d .

in the C a u c asu s ( a b o o k written in 1 9 1 1 ) he describes conditions

as he saw them when p assing through Moscow

At the Khit ry market on e may often see men and women

with only one cotton garment between t heir bodies and t he cruel
cold How they live is incomprehensible ; they are certainly a
.

di ff erent order o f being from anything in England And the .

beggars ! They say there are fi fty thousand o f them The city .

bel ongs to them ; i f the city rats own the drains they own the ,

streets They are moreover an essential part o f the city ; the y

.
, ,

are in perfect harmony wit h it ; take away the beggars and you
woul d destroy something vital I have been told the beggars .

have nothing t o fear from the authorities The beggar is a holy .

institution ; he keeps down the rate of wages in the factories ; he

is a pillar of the Church for he continually suggests charity ; he
,

—
is necessary to t he secret police where else could they hide their
Spies ?

And today when foreigners by chance se e a S ingle s t ray example

,

o f this type o f citizen without fi ft y thousand of whom Moscow would

,

‘
l ose something Vi t al t hey only too frequently use the presence of
,
’

such a S ingle surv ival of t he past t o cri t icize t he new system I know .

because I did it myself I learned t he t r u thl y only aft er returning to

.

1
S ir B er n a r d P a r e s M oscow
, A d mit: a C r itic
.
1 1 2 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
England and reading for the first time o f the poverty o f the p eople
in t sarist Russia .

—
And then there is the q uestion o f housing always and rightly a , ,

matter for adverse comment by Visi t ors from more advance d coun
tries Bu t here again it is absol ut ely impossible t oday in th e
.

to imagine the kind o f housing that exist ed under tsarism H ere .

,

too in 1 9 1 1 S t ephen Graham made a thorough explora t ion o f the

, ,

byways o f Moscow with horri fying res ults For example here is a .
,

description of a floph ou se whi c h he visi t ed at that time

’

The do ss hou se was owned by a merchant who made a hand

some profit out of it I am told S O well he migh t ! The a ecom
, .

m o da tio n was n il Straw to sleep upon N O chairs beyond three

. .

park seats Two rooms lit by two j ets o f gas in each A small
. .

lava t ory that might even make a beggar faint Men and women .

slep t in t he same room tho u gh they were for the most part so
, , ,

degraded t hat it scarcely occurre d to on e that they were of di f

fe r e n t sex .

And this description o f a floph ou se I have had confirmed from

other quarters as q u ite accurate even for a very great part o f the
workers barracks attached to their place o f work before t he Revo
‘ ’ ’

l u t ion In Moscow after my return in the middle o f 1 9 3 3 I heard

.

something o f pre revolutionary worke r s housing from a certain Miss

-
’

Saunders who worked for an English fi rm in Russia prior to 1 9 1 7

,
.

She described to me dormitories built of egg boxes in which men and

—
women Slept together on S traw and boards and this w as for an
English firm !
And yet when in Mo scow be t ween the au t umn o f 1 93 1 and the
end of 1 9 3 2 I took t he universal inst allation o f elec t ric light for
,
-

granted ! And I cri t icized severely if ever I sa w a beggar a drunkard , ,

or a dirty toilet But all the same such protests are ri ght not wrong ;
.
, ,

beca u se it is by such pe rsist ent protest that the Revolution is O ver

coming these relics o f t he past .
1 1 4. R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSIONS
citizen overcome with drink the visitor who knew tsarist Russia is ,

im p r essse d in quite the reverse aspect H e misses that drunkenness .

which w a s so common in the Olden times Stephen Graham on on e .

occasion asked a peasant how much vodka his village consumed .

The p easant s reply w as a s fol l ows : N O on e knows— thousands o f

’

bottles ; for even the priest is dru nken Today even in the procession .

he was drunk ; some people sa y he onl y kee ps the holiday so that he

can go t o o u r houses and drink and not pay for it ”
And t hen at .
1

Christmas when S t ephen Graham happe ned t o be traveling by train

, ,

the engine dri ve r also celebrated even during the cou rse of the
-
.

j ourney A t about three o cloc k t he engine driver who was so dru nk

“
.
’
-
,

that he coul d not stand u p w a s lifted into the engine and he set the ,

” 2
t r ain going .

The consumption o f vodka in tsarist Russia ran somewhat in

inverse proportion to the amount Spent on education O n this matter .

D illon provides some enlightening facts In R u ssia To da y a n d Yes .

-

t or da y he describes the case o f a certain r ural district :

An officia l report to which I had access narrated cases l ike

the following : In the entire P or kh o v ski district thirty po unds
“

a year is spent in schools S ix cantons contributing small sums t o ,

this total and the remaining twenty three subscribing nothing

,
-

at all In se veral villages o f that district ( I am speaking o f

.

places within t w o or three hours o f the capit al ) there is n ot a

m a n w om a n or c hil d w h o c a n r e a d or w r ite and every time
, , ,

an o fficial document is received from the Peasant Board ( or

e l sewhere ) a Specia l messenger has to be dispatched to a neigh
boring town to seek for someone t o deci p her it ! O fficial report
”
.

of G P S a zon off ] And yet in that sa me district t here are

. . .

se v e n hu nd r e d ta v er n : an d pu bl ic - h ou se s w ith a
y ea r ly tu r n

ov er o
f tw o m ill ion ru bl es.

1
S t ph
e en Gr a ha m ,
Und iscov e r e d R u ssia .

2
A Va g a b ond in th e C a u ca su s .
 P E R S P E CTI V E FR O M E N G L A N D 1 1 5

I n contrast with this Soviet l eaders have bo asted that the p roduc
,

tion o f vodka is the only thing that the Five Year Plans have not -

increased ; whereas the number of school children ha s risen from -

about eight million in tsarist Russi a t o O ver thirty mi ll ion at the time
o f writing .

So far these quotations deal mainl y with l ife in the towns It is .

worth while here to add something o n the village l ife of tsarist Russia ,

for to this day in B ritain there are many people l iving emigrants ,

from the Russia o f t he tsars who remember such conditions in all

,

their horrible de t ail It was o n e such pe rson a Jew l iving in N ew

.
,

castle upon Tyne who fi rst drew my attention in 1 9 3 3 t o the con

- -
,

dition s of li fe under tsarism in the rural areas .

E J D illon writing in the For tnig htl y R ev iew from 1 8 8 9 to

. .
,

1 8 9 2 as E B La n in describes conditions then I t should be added

. .
, .

here that between 1 8 9 2 and 1 9 1 7 nothing was done fundamentally

to alter the conditions o f p roduction and distribution in the Russian
countryside .

Famine in Russia ! wrote La n in } is periodical li k e the snows ,

o r ra t her it is perennial like the Siberian plague To be scien .

tifi ca l l y accurate one should distinguish two different varieties

,

o f it— the provincial and the national ; the former termed g ol od

o v ha or the li tt le hunger and t he latter o l od o r the great h u n
g ,

ger N ot a year ever elapse s in which ext reme distress in some

.

province or provinces of the Empire do not assume the dim en

Si ons of a famine while rarely a decade passes away in which t he
, ‘

local mis fort une does not ripen into the nationa l calamity .

But unless the famine area is large enough t o a ffect very

appreciably t he wheat exports accounts of these g ol od ov hcts se l
,

dom find their way into the foreign press or else they are ,

a l luded to as instances of the kind of wild exaggeration indulged

in by the enemies o f Ru ssia .
1 1 6 R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSIONS
Famine in tsarist Russia then w a s as common as it is in In dia and
China t oday but it received little attention in ou r press
, .

Since the Revo l ution o f 1 9 1 7 eve ry Sign of a recurrence o f this

pre revolutionary malady has been headlined by o u r newspapers a s
-

‘
a direct result o f B olshe vism A S triking illustration o f the diHe r e n t
.
’

approach to the question o f fo od S hortage in t he and in

neighboring non Soviet territory w as displayed in the O bser v er on
-

N ovem ber 6 1 9 3 3 O n the subj ect o f the Soviet U nion the follow
, .

ing pa ssa ge ap peared

The S hortage o f foo d which ha s been chronic in Russia S ince

the Five Year Plan se t in and which caused the adoption o f a
-
,

nation wide rationing system for the town population has now
-
,

entered upon a S tage o f mark edly greater stringency .

And in a l etter in the correspondence columns

, , on t he same day
there appeared th e fol l owing :

In March o f this year I w as a member o f a relief commission

in th e famine distric ts o f C arpathia that strange province in ha b ,

it e d by Russian peasants which forms a wedge between the

frontiers o f Poland Rumania and H unga r y and which belongs
, , , ,

no on e exac tly knows why to Czechoslovakia The men

, .
,

during their military service had actually ea t en meat , .

Since however their return t o their villages man y had seen

, , ,

meat ! ]
n o more .

From 1 9 1 7 t o 1 93 8 the B ritish publ ic have been told o f famines

in Russia But how many headlines have told them t hat the Russian
.

peasants in C zechoslovakia have live d under famin e conditions at

any t ime since the creation o f Czech oslovakia as an indepe ndent
state ? It is in comparison with the past condition o f Russia ; the con

dit ion s in India C hina and Ja p an today ; a n d even the condi t ions in
,
 CHAP T E R XI

R e tu r n to t h e

IN J U N E 1 93 3 after just S ix months in England I returne d to

, ,

Moscow at the invitation o f H ermann H abicht o f the American

‘
O pen Road tourist agency Though by this time practically every
’
.

foreign business o ffice had been closed the O pen Road wa s al lowed ,

to continue its work as it w a s not a pr ofi t making concern and w a s -

recognized as performing very use ful work in gi ving assistance t o

tourists Fo r whereas the ordinary tourist arrives in Moscow and
.

then proceeds to make appointments and fix up interviews and visits ,

it was our j ob t o arrange in advance all the requirements of ou r

touris t s so that they usually save d severa l day s o f preparatory tele
phoning and the fixing o f appointments But tourists wh o are promise d .

‘
personal se rvice can be ve ry exacting ; and I must sa y that my
’

sympathy and admiration for the Intourist guides was grea t ly e n

hanced a fter personally working with the type o f pe rson with whom
they had t o deal .

A cert ain American gent l eman had purchase d at the Soviet book
shop in N ew York a copy o f an English Russian dictiona ry O wing -
.

t o faulty binding about twenty pages were missing I was asked to se e .

what could be done about it Within three hou r s I wa s able to place

.

in his hands a new copy having exchange d his incomplete copy at

,

the State publishing house This wa s on e o f my most ra p id acts o f

.

‘
personal service .
’

Am ong the grou ps of tou ri sts orga nized by the O pen Road a ,

hard y annua l is the Sherwood Eddy group which consists of deans ,

o f colleges ,
l iberal senators and a various a ssortment of progressive
,

busine ss men teachers and ministers When the E ddy group arrived
, , .

in M oscow they were put in th e N ew Moscow H otel in Sp ite of

, ,

1 1 8
 R ETURN T O T H E 1 1 9

the fact t hat Sherwood E ddy had Special l y as k ed for the Savo y At .

the moment the Savoy H ote l w as ful l L ater on however after a .

, ,

few days in the N ew M oscow w e were tol d that the whole group
,
‘
coul d be transferred if the y wished t o the more aristocratic Savoy
, ,
’
.

They did wish and I w a s responsible for the removal When every
,
.

thing had be en accomplishe d and I had at l ast shepherded them a ll

to thei r rooms and had gone to the dining room for some re fresh
ment a lady membe r o f the p arty dre w me aside and said : Mr
,
“
.

Sloan I have a room with a bathroom but n o toilet I a bsolutely

, , .

must have a toilet P l ease arrange this S o back I went to the hall
.
”
.

porter explaine d what was require d and the lady received her room
, , ,

her bath a n d her toilet Such w a s my experience o f p roviding per

, .
‘

’
sonal service for the tourist in Moscow .

I do n ot kn ow W hether peopl e s obse rvation devel ops to an a bn or

’
-
m

ma l extent when they visit the o r whether they ask ques

tions just for the sake o f asking but I wou l d not be an Intourist
,

guide for anything O nly l ast summer while I w a s l eading a group

.

“
o f tourists I w a s asked the following question : Mr Sloan I saw a .
,

m ilitiaman tak e a l ittl e book like a notebook from his pocket t oday .

Can you tell me what wo u ld be in that book ? And on ano t her occa
sion visi t ing an ol d palace that w a s now a museum and havin g
, ,

already had the most exhaustive explanations by the guide on e o f t he ,

tourists asked : And can you te ll me please what kind of w ood t he

“
, ,

”
floor is made o f?
I remembe r reading not so l ong ago a letter to an English news
paper from a l ady who had been to Russia She com plained bitterl y .

that she w a s not free to g o where she liked As an example S he .

described how when visiting a museum S he had got tired and wanted
, ,

to go home But S he w a s not al lowe d to go alone She w a s forced t o

. .

sit in the ves t ibule for half an hour waiting for the others to finish
,

their tour of the museum because the g uide wa s apparently so afrai d

,

that S he might se e something that S he shouldn t see ! And in his ’

,

artic l es on h is experiences as a trade union de l egate the French min

-
,
I 20 R USSIA WITHO UT ILLUSIONS
’
e rs O fficial Klebe r L egay gave a s an exampl e o f h is lac k o f freedom
, ,

in M oscow the fact that on the occasion o f t he great May D ay

,

demonstration his party had to walk twenty minutes to get into the
,

Red Square which was actually just fi ve minu t es from the hote l AS
, .

o n e who h a s work ed with tourists my sympathy l ies entirely wi t h

,

the guide w h o would n ot l et an English lady with no knowledge o f ,

Russian start ou t alone to try to find her wa y back to her hotel I f

, .

the lady had got lost it wa s the guide and not sh e w h o would have
,

aft erwards had to Shoulder the blame And as for Le g a y s complaint

.
’

that he was not allowed to enter t he Red Square from the wrong end
when a military parade and demonstration were t o pass through i t ,

I can tell him how I had to wal k miles ou t o f my way on C oronation

D ay in L ondon not because over a mil l ion people were demon
,

st r a t in g but because quite a S hort royal p rocession w a s t o p ass along

,

many of the main streets o f the city .

Be fore my wor k with the O pen Road was concl uded I was aske d ,

to stay on in M oscow at a pe rmanent job I accepted and remained .

t here for the following three years These years were eventfu l ones
.
,

fo r a t t he same time tha t fascism came to power in Germany the ,

Soviet U nion began to progress in its internal a ff airs at a rat e hi t hert o

unknown I had not been back long before it became clear t hat the
.

harvest had been a record one In fact the main problem o f that
.
,

au t umn was not the ga t hering o f t he harvest so much as the storing

and the transporting of the grain Grana ri es were filled t o ov e r flow
.

ing collective farming had proved itself but th e storage and trans
, ,

port facilities had now become the weakest link H owever supp lies .
,

o f grain were now adequate to meet the needs o f the popu l ation

without any longer a feeling of shortage and in the t hree years that
,

followed I sa w the successive aboli t ion of rationing o f bread and other

products and the final a bolition in February 1 9 3 6 o f T o r g sin From
, , .

t hat t ime on there were fixed prices for all goo ds and possessors o f ,

foreign currency no longer enj oyed the privi l ege o f b uying cheap S O .

angry were cert ain embassies when the Tor gsin store s were cl osed
] 2 2 R USSIA WITH O UT ILLUSIONS
ish e d j
o b And
. when the Moscow Subwa y w as fina lly opened thou ,

s ands o f ci t izens knew that they themselves had helped t o build it ,

a n d this made it all the more their very ow n Wh en people called the .

Moscow Metro the best in the world I wa s S ke ptical at fi rst O nly

“ ”
, .

w he n I again sa w the London o n e and made comparisons did I see ,

t hat the description w a s entirely jus t ified The Mo scow Metro with .
,

its columns o f marb l e beauti ful lighting and fawn colored coaches
, ,
-

is certainly a work o f art Some may think that the use o f marble on
.

a n under round railway is extravagant Yet what place in M cow

g . os

is more universally -used ? And by the time the other lines of the
Me t ro are bu ilt the whole surface o f Moscow will also have changed
, .

It must always be remembered that in the n o job is

c ompleted without having contribu t ed something t o t he genera l

d evelopment o f technique Many workers o n the Metro const ruction
.

were absolutely unskille d when they fi rst sta rt e d working there I .

k now a coal m iner from Australia w h o n ot only trained Soviet work

e r s in the art o f tunne l ing but him self obtained a free course in
,

S tone maso nry when the n e w stations were decorated with marb l e

c olumns and tiled walls Every on e o f those workers w h o learne d a

. ,

c raft o n the Metro construction carries that k nowledge with him into

o t her jobs t hus raising the leve l o f technique in other places

, .

When I fi rst went t o Moscow in 1 93 1 the shops were conspicuous ,

for everything but stocks o f goods Busts o f L enin red bunting and
.
, ,

w ooden cheeses were displayed where under o t her condi t ions o n e , ,

w ould have exp ected t o find goods for sale I remember on o n e occa .

sion a woman f ri end telling me that S he had be e n del ig h t e d to see

’

c a ul iflo w e r s in a sho p window —- this w a s in 1

93 2 a very bad year ,

for vege t ables O n going into the shop t o inquire the price she w a s
.

told They re n ot for sale they re only for S how But from th e end
,
“ ’
,
’ ”
.

of 1
93 2 when
,
Soviet l eaders stated that more a t tention would n ow

be paid t o consume r s goods the s u pplies s t eadily began to increase

’
,
.

’
A sen sational event w as the reopening o f Moscow s largest depart
ment store stocked entirely with Sovie t prod uc t s The store now com .
 R ETURN T O T H E 1 2 3

pared quite favorably with a depart ment store in England and al l ,

its wares were o f Soviet manufacture Remember that p ri or t o 1 9 2 8

.

the Soviet U nion had no mass p roduction o f consumers goods at a ll ’

.

That is w hy the achievement o f five or S ix yea r s was thrilling to al l

o f u s w h o had live d t here through the whole o r p art o f that period .

And with the opening o f t his shop and the successive opening o f
,

new S ho ps throu ghout the ci ty it w a s made c l ear that there w a s n o

,

truth whateve r in the legend that Socialism l eads to standardization .

While there wa s general shortage there w as a l so a l ack o f variety .

But n o sooner did the l eve l o f p rod uction rise than a greater variety
O f goods began to appe ar on the mark et ti ll b y 1 9 3 6 a single bread
, ,

sho p in Mosc ow boasted over a hundred varieties o f bread True in .

,

the there is not and never wil l be that variety whose on l y

, ,

cause is the number o f competing firms each p roducing what is in ,

fact the same product But the fact that human tastes do and should
, .
, ,

di ffer h as a l ways been recognized in the The Soviet l eaders

have a l ways made it c l ear that they conside r that efficient so cialism
shoul d produce a great varie ty o f products so as t o all ow the citizen
,

the very widest choice in pl anning h is pe rso nal consum ption .

The abolition o f rationing w as carried ou t by degrees from 1 9 3 3

‘
on . N ew commercial S hops were opene d b y th e State se l ling goo ds
’
,

at high prices Th en as the rationing o f each p roduct came to an

.
,

end the price o f such goods in the commercial S ho ps w a s l owered by

,

Government decree When bread rationing wa s abo l ished t he new

.
,

price for bread w a s fixe d at hal f way be tween what had been the
-

rationed and what had been the unrati oned price In order t o com .

pensa te people for the rise in the price o f their minimum consumption
o f bread the Government at the same time decreed a unive rsal in
,

crease o f wages to cover the ri se i n the price o f bread a s compared wi t h

the rationed pri ces .

Can you imagine a Si tuat i on i n which overnight the prices of a

, ,

numbe r o f di ff erent goo ds in all S hops are reduced by anything from

1 0 t o 2 5 pe r cent ? Can you imagine this ha pp ening and n ot a single
1 2 4 R USSIA WITH O UT ILLUSIONS
p erson in the shopkee p ing business bein g in any way upset by such an
occurrence ? Because this is what h as happened n several occasions o

since 1 93 3 in the It pl eases the housewive s and other con

sumers and the people wh o run the shops have an in crease in t heir
,

turn over AS the shops are all State concerns the whole financial
-
.
,

loss is borne by t h State itself which issues the decree l owering

e

p rices H aving seen such a thing happen n several occasions I can

. o ,

s
ee no t hing t prevent it happening again and again as the leve l o f
o

production is raised This means that the

. al one of all coun
tries has solved the p roblem of steadily raising wages and lowe ring
prices at the same time that production is increased thus ensuring t o ,

th e people a permanently rising standard o f li fe It seems in e vita bl e.

o

that as a result o f this process a time must be reached in the long

, ,

run when wages are so high and prices so l ow that money no longer
limits the consumption o f any citizen or group of citizens That st ate .

o f society will conform to Marx s own forecast of communism when

’
,

each will receive according to his needs becau se there will be enough
o f every t hing for all .

In the summer o f 1 9 3 5 I spen t my vacation in a peasant s cott age ’

near Moscow It is sometimes thought that Soviet workers spend all

.

their vacations in rest homes or o n organized tou r s and in an earlier ,

—
chapter I have already mentioned that t his is not s that as a matter
o

o f fact only about 1 0 pe r cent o f the people are catered fo r in t his

way at the present time I felt that I wanted t o Spend my vacation

.

away from people and while I co u ld have obtained a pass for a rest
,

home I preferred to go into the country not fa r from Moscow

,
.

The cottage where I staye d was surrounded by forest There were .

three villages each within t w o miles and a railroad station abou t three
miles away There w a s only o n e road from the Station leading t o on e
.

of t he village s— the other roads were S imply rough tracks o f eart h

‘ ’

and stone navigable fo r carts or tract ors but certainly not sui table
, ,

for automobile tra ffic At on e time this area had been completely
.

overgrown wi t h forest but each village had gradually carved out for
,
 1 2 6 R USSIA WITH O UT ILLUSIONS
amount of work they do the col l ective farmers receive a Share o f,

t h e tota l product o f the farm which is divide d each year among the,

membe rs according to the work they do This division is made part ly .

in goods and partly in money O btaine d by the collective for the sale
o f its produc t s Each p easant family has the right t o use o r t o sell the
.

S hare o f the product which it receives Before the sharing takes place .
,

‘
the collective must pay its taxes pay the local State owned machine ,
-

and t ractor St a t ions ’

for use o f machinery hired during the
year and set aside a certain part o f its income fo r the next year s seed
,
’

fund fodder etc a n d the capi t al development o f the farm i t sel f

, ,
.
, .

The smallest o f the three villages appeared to have an excellent

S pirit and I w a s told t hat the collective w a s producin g very go od
,

r esults Productivity was already well ahead o f what it had been

.

under the old strip system It was when visiting this particular village
.

to buy eggs that I heard all the woes o f an O ld peasant woman o f

about seventy three years o f age a victim of rheum atism She a n d her
-
, .

husband were members o f the collective farm and had their o w n little
vegetable garden a cow and fowls as well She received a pension
, .

from the State because o f her age ; and their son was in the Red
Army But work on the collective farm wa s not a t all what it shou l d
.

be Today sh e told me I w a s in the fields for ten hours but even

.
“ ”
,
“
,

t hen I had not earne d a work day ” -

.

‘
N ow the work day on the collective farm is roughly calculated
-
’

o n the basis o f what an ordinary healthy unskilled person can do in

eight hours The norm o f work is calculat ed in every collective farm

.

according t o l ocal conditions workers being credite d wit h more ,

work days for more ski l led work and more work day s if they com
- -

l e t e more than th e allotted norm during the day The grievance of

p .

t his ol d woman w a s that as a rheumatic old age pensioner o f seventy -

three S he could n ot accomplish t he norm for eight hours in a pe riod

o f ten hours work in the fields For her this w a s un fortunate but it
’
.
,

actually showed that th e norm wa s p robabl y a very reasonable on e ,

fo r a healthy man o r woman o f normal working age wo uld certainl y

 R ETURN T O T H E 1 2 7

have been credited with at least one work da y for eight hours o f -

such work .

As eve rywhere else in the worl d very much in the Soviet U nion
,
‘
depends on pe rsonne l When we tal k o f socialism w e are far t oo
.
,
’

inclined to think o f a State machine which does every thing wi t h a

dul l uni formity But in practice the State machine depends o n the
.

human beings that run it and there fore such a uniformity even i f it
, ,

were desirable is impossible ; and fortunate l y so because it certainly

, ,

would not be desirable O ne collective farm may achieve start lingly

.

good results in a few years while another j us t next to it may lag

, , ,

behind AS a ru le i f w e eliminate such factors as the presence o f com

.

peting interests such as smal l industria l concerns in the village these

, ,

di fference s are directly traceable to the leadership that the collective

farmers have elected to their administration .

Where a chairman o f a col lective farm is energetic and inspires

confidence nothing can prevent the work o f the collective from pro
,

gressing At on e farm I visited in the vicinity o f Moscow the chair~

.

man had been in o ffice for se ven years and the fa rm was steadily ,

‘
increasing its output I w as proudly S hown th e wall newspaper
.
-
,
’

regularl y issued by the management and found a threat to ce rtain ,

members that i f the y did not S to p slacking in their work they might
be expel l ed from the col l ective H ave the y been expelled ? I asked
“
.
”

( the newspape r was so me wee k s o l d )

“
N O o f course not was the
.
, ,

lau ghing reply o f a grou p o f peasants Why ? Are they working .

better ? O f course they are was th e answer In this case the chair
” “ ”
,
.

man wa s obviously a n able fellow the S pirit o f the collec t ive was
,

good and it w a s n ot a difficult t hing t o discipline recalcitrant mem

,

bers w ho were n ot taking their work se riously enough .

But in another collective that I visite d there w a s n ot the same

Spirit o f co-o peration This w as quite close t o where I w a s Staying
.
,

and I myself was struc k by the pe rsonality o f a certain individual

w h o l ived in a t w o story wooden house in the forest much l arger
-
,

than the ordinary peasant s cottage and some distance from the
’
1 2 8 R USSIA WITH OUT ILL USIONS
village H e happened t o be a member o f the collective farm that wa s
.

not doing so well an d on e evening I w a s invited t o supper where I

,

found that the chairman o f the l ocal soviet and the chairman o f the
collective fa rm were a l so guests O ur host displayed an intense inter
.

est in England and in my own attitude to t he and did not

strike me as being himsel f part icularl y fri endly to his ow n Govern
ment When we came to discuss the col l ective farm he told me
.
,
“ ”
between ourselves that he had j oined it to avoid taxa t ion and that
he did not intend to do any work .

L ater o n talking with on e of the Villagers I learned something

.
,

o f t his man 5 history H e had been an o fficer in the tsarist arm y and
.

had bo u gh t this house of his just after the Revolution when he settled
‘
o n t he land more or l ess as a landlord gone peasant H e was not ’
- -
.

considere d to be particularly friendly to the Soviets but he was the ,

kind of person w h o always seemed to manage to keep within the law

and to keep on good terms wi t h the members o f the l oca l soviet ,

and Since collectivization with the l ocal collective farm administra

, ,

tion By occasionally entertaining them he apparen t ly hope d to be a

.

purely nominal collective farmer thus avoiding taxation which is

, ,

heavie r on individual than it is on collective farmers and be fore I ,

l eft I heard t hat he had made some sort of contract by which he

would be respo nsible for supplying the use o f a horse and cart to the
collective which wou l d count as his con t ribution
, .

N ow this was in the year 1 9 3 5 When w e read o f arrests of anti

.

Soviet elements in the w e are at t his great distance away

, ,

o ften inclined t o think that this is on some fi ctitious charge because ,

we assume far t oo easily that the survivals o f the ol d ruling class are
now extinct Actually as far as this individual is concerned I have
.
, ,

not t he slightest doubt o f his hostility to the Soviet system But if this .

hostility is not active he remains at liberty I am further convinced

,
.

that his regular entertaining of the chairman o f the local soviet and
o f the collective farm could q uite reasonably be define d as bribery .

I f he had t o serve a prison sentence for petty bribery to o fficials I ,

1 3 0 R USSIA WITH O UT ILL USIONS
t he cumula t ive resu l ts the activity of a particular pe rson or group
o f
at some stage converge and reveal a method behind the se ries ; th e
alarm is sounded an investigation follows witne sses are called from
, ,

all along the line o f events and an enem y is exposed These c on

, .

sidera t ions are particu l arly relevant to the period S ince m y return t o
the in 1 9 3 3 for it is precisely in this period that there has
,

taken place an all U nion round up O f enemies as a result o f certain

- -

events t hat threw l ight on what was going on H ave my ex oflice r in .

-

that Soviet Village and the friends he entertained been arrested o r ,

are they still at liberty ? I do not know If the y are Still at l iberty
.
,

this is simply because in that part icular area those individuals have
not yet arouse d su fficient Suspicion t o cause the ir neighbo rs t o demand
an investiga t ion into their activities and as al l over the U S S R
, , . . .

they enjoy for the time being the benefit of the doubt .

I happene d on this vacation t o be almost next d oor to a Pionee r

’
camp organize d by one o f Moscow s factories for the children o f its
,

work ers At this cam p there were about seventy children at a time
.
,

and t w o or three groups o f seventy each Stayed at camp for a fort

night during the summer The children were in more or less equa l
.

numbe r s of girl s and boys w h o spent the daytime together but S le pt

,

in separate buildings .

The sta ff o f the cam p consisted of kitchen and domestic workers ,

o n e O r two teachers from the sch o ol which catered for most o f the

ch il dren o f t he worke r s in t he factory that ran the camp and severa l ,

Young C ommunists from the factory w h o in their spare time , ,

worked wi t h t he Pioneer organization in the school These young .

people were responsible for organizing the activit ies o f the camp and
giving leadership to the children In addi t ion there were a doctor and
.

nurse responsible for the health o f the chi l dren during their period
,

in camp .

My fi rst acquaintance with the chil dren was when they came
down to t he stream for a swim the day after their arr ival After that .

I was fre qu ently a guest at the camp and sa w something o f its pr o

 R ETURN T o TH E 1
3 1

gram from morning till nightfall If on e is t o draw a contrast be

.

t ween such vacation cam ps in the and those which exist in

this country for working class chi l dren the fi rst di fference l ies in the
-
,

universali t y o f the system o f cam ps in t he toda y There is .

n o large factory in the which has not a cam p for the chil
dren o f its workers and no smal l concern which does n ot Share a
,

camp with some other fac t ory C hildren s camps are a p art o f the
.
’

general s t ructure o f the And secondly I should say that ,

w hereas organize d games are the center o f activity o f camps in this

country in the
, organized games play a part b ut are fa r ,

from predominating in the activi t ies o f the Soviet children In t he .

Pioneer camps which I have visi t ed the artistic and intellectua l de

v e l o m e n t o f the children h a s always been stressed quite as much a s
p
their physica l development C amp newspa pers literary and dramatic
.
,

circles groups of y oung natural ists and young artist s - al l these r e

,

c e iv e a s much attention a s swimming physical cul ture and games

, ,
.

While most ac t ivities are carrie d on in grou ps the opportunity for ,

each individual chil d t o develop any particular personal interest is

very great indeed and while I have visited Pioneer camps on a n u m
,

ber o f occasions I have never seen a child l ook bor e d or uninterest ed

,

in what w a s going on .

Particu l arl y import ant in the training o f Soviet children is the

active participat ion o f the Young C ommunists those who have them,

selves just graduated from school and are still su fficiently cl ose to
chi l dhood to understan d the interests o f the youngsters and to be able
t o lead thei r activities in a wa y which app eals to them In every Soviet .

school there is a Ko nu or g ( Komsomo l O rganizer Young

Communist O rganizer ) usua l ly sent by a neighboring factory whose
, ,

work it is t o organize the children s leisure time activities At the

’
-
.

Pioneer camps the same Kom sor gs are present usually o n e young ,

man and one young woman in each camp ; here also they are r e sp o n
sib l e for leading the camp social ac t ivities and the various group
activities o f the children In the
. the young children look to
1 3 2 R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSIONS
those o eighteen to twen ty fi ve for friendly l eadership in their
f from -

o u t o f school activities ; instead o f as is usual here

- -
, there being an ,

almost insurmountable gap between school children o n the on e hand

and t he young p eople w h o have just sta r ted working for a living on
the ot her .

While bac k in the from 1 93 3 to 1 93 6 I had considerable

personal expe rience with Soviet trade unionism For some time I was
-
.

‘
editor o f a wa ll newspaper and also a trade union organizer Du ring
-
’
- .

this period I also had a quite intimate experience with the work ing
o f the Soviet social in urance system As trade union organizer I-saw
s .

how it a pplied t o m y fel l ow workers and as on e who had to go to

,

the h ospital for four wee ks I sa w how it applied to mysel f This visit .

to the hospital w a s incidentally a direct result o f my vacation in the

, ,

country which I have just been describing O n on e or two oc casions .

- —
unwisely I know when I was out walking in the forest I drank ,

from streams I l ater discovered that man y o f these S treams passe d

.

through vil l ages and a few days a fter returning to Moscow I started
, ,

t o run a temperature and found that I had contracted typhoid I .

obtained , in this way fi rst hand information on the Soviet treatm ent
,
-

o f the sic k a n d o n the o p eration o f t he social insurance sy stem .

 34 . R USSIA WITH O UT IL LUSIONS
allowed t o bring books and fr uit and any other food that wa s pe r
m itt e d by the doctors but there certain l y w as n o need to have any
,

thing brought in from outside .

The general atmosphere o f the hospital wa s on e o f great in for

m a l ity and friendliness O n th e one hand there was certainly n ot
.

that s t arch y cleanliness which on e finds in hospitals in this country ,

b u t there appeared t o be a general e fficiency and adequa t e care o f

patients that was all that cou l d be desired The nurses as fa r as I .
,

could j u dge were considerably l ess skilled t han the hospital nurses
,

here but there were more nurses and d octors t o a given number o f
,

patients with the result that the nurses pe rsonal respo nsibility w a s
,
’

less .

O ne o f the nu rses happened to be a Baptist and started p roselytizing

me from t he moment that sh e heard that I was a foreigner She w a s .

particularly interested to know to what extent the Baptists flo u rished

in B ritain and gave l ong l ectures on religion to me and her fellow
nurses and anyone that would l isten to her N one o f the Russians .

bothered to argue with her though many o f t he nurses were forma l

,

adherents o f the Russian O rthodox Church in which they had been ,

brought up .

I t was interest ing to note that the Baptist nurse in her missionary
work was just a s hard on the Russian O rthodox C hurch as any Bol
shevi k ever w a s O h well that s not real religion tha t s false r e
“
.
, ,
’
,
’

lig ion was her answer to any remark which referred t o the O rthod ox
”
,

Church As far as I could make out there wa s nothing in Soviet

.
,

legislation that ir n ta te d her except that she wou l d have liked the
Baptists to have t he same monopoly o f the people s minds a s the ’

R u ssian O rt hodox Church had enj oyed before the Revol ution .

The nurses hours worked ou t at an average o f eight pe r day on a

’

shift roughly ( as far as I can recollect ) a s follows : First day 7 A M , . .

to 7 P M ; second day 7 P M to t hird day 7 A M ; fourth day 7

. .
,
. .
, . .
,

A M
. . t o 7 P M ; fi fth day 7 P M .t o sixth day 7 A M,
There
. . .
, . .

were twenty four hours free t o every twe l ve hours o f work night
-
,
 ON BEING ILL 1 35

s hifts and day shi fts alternating so that night work ca me once every
three days I asked the nurses how this arrangement suited them
.
,

a n d the y a ll a pp e a red t o find it very satisfactory N o nurse is re .

quired to live in a Soviet hospital ; so that t heir hours o f persona l

l iberty were very considerable compared with ou r own Al so there .
,

w a s no nee d for nurses to be unmarried ; in fact al l the nurses whom ,

I met were marri ed and some o f them had fami l ies

, .

Restric t ions on patients were at a minimum C onva l escents are .

a t com pl ete freedom t o walk about The only fault I had to fi nd

.

in this respect w a s that n o doubt because o f the oldne ss o f the build

,

ing there w a s no reading room or other place where w e could com

,
-

fo r t a bl y spe nd ou r time outside the ward itsel f .

From the moment that I wa s taken t o the hospita l visitors cal l ed ,

o n me from my place o f work N ot on l y w a s this a p rivate act o f

.

friendship but the trade union organizer is expected as part o f his

,
-
,

o r her du t ies to see that an y membe r w h o is ill is p rope rl y ca re d for

, .

I there fore received notes askin g if there w a s anything I needed ,

a n d I had only t o a sk for it to get it .

I w a s in the hospital for four wee ks Then I w a s release d with .

instructions t o k eep awa y from work for an other t w o weeks What .

happene d t o my wages during this period ? In the when a

worker is ill he receives h is pay from the s ocial insurance fund a d
,

ministered by the trade unions But in order to get this money the
-
.
,

‘
worker must present a doctor s certificate ( known a s a sickness
’

bulletin ) stating t he pe riod during which he is o ff wor k the name

’
,

o f the illne ss and the number o f days until the do ctor wi l l next se e
,

him O n each successive visit the bulletin is signed up to date and

.
,

be fore the patient can g o back t o work the bulletin must be a ecom ,

a n ie d wi t h the stamp o f the clinic and a statement that he may return

p
t o work .

From the moment that I w a s told not t o work I had a bulletin ,

in m y posse ssion This was ini t ialed by the doctor each time he sa w
.

me an d al so by the hospi ta l When I ca me out I had to visit the

.
,
1
3 6 R U S S I A WITH OUT ILLUSIONS
clinic before I w a s a l lowed t o return t o work Al t oge t her I w a s .

o ff work fo r six wee ks and on presen t ing my b u lletin

,
I received 7 5 ,

per cent o f my pay for the first week plus full pay for t he remaining
five As I had been fe d in hospi t al and treated free o f charge I
.
,

actuall y made money by going t o the h OSpita l l I had almost six

weeks wages t o sp end on a pe ri o d o f convalescence o f two weeks
’
.

Such treatment l et me repeat was in no way excep t ional but is the

, , ,

typical treatment o f al l Soviet workers who are taken ill .

I have mentioned that the trade union organizer is responsibl e

-

for seeing t o the wel fa re o f workers who are ill Suppose for example
.
, ,

that I had n ot gone t o the hospital but had been o ff work and tol d
to sta y at home My insurance money would not have been due till
.

I presented my bul l etin on returning to work In the meant i me I .

would have needed money It is the job o f the trade union to make
.
-

the necessa ry advances to workers in such condit ions and otherwise

to see to thei r welfare In order that this j ob may be e fficiently car
.

ried ou t the union members in every organization elect a social

,

insurance delegate .

It w a s not l ong after I returned to work that ou r trade union -

organizer retired from ofiice I w a s nominated a s her successor a nd

.

w a s elected unanimo u sly at a genera l meeting o f all members in o u r

gro up T h e work o f trade union organizer consists in a Soviet enter
.
-
,

prise in directing the work o f the trade union group o r branch ( In

,
-
.

the all workers in t he same organization are in the same

union ; so that there is a separate group o r branch in every place o f
work and usually for every department in each enterp rise ) My day .

to day tasks consist ed in taking up the case o f any worker w h o needed

-

a ssistance— w h o w a s dissatisfied with his or h e r housing conditions

and needed new accommoda tion who coul d not find a sui t able
,

creche or kindergarten for a child w ho wanted t o take Special e v e

,

ning classes o r attend an evening school o f some kind wh o had com ,

plaints against anyone o n the administration w h o w a s dissatisfied ,

with workin g conditions or the qua l ity o f material s supplied and in , ,

1 3 8 R U S S I A WI T H O U T ILLUSIONS
must n ot thin k that I w as personal ly occu pied in carrying ou t al l the
responsibi l ities out l ined As organizer it w as on e o f my functions
.

t o se e that they were a ll performed adequate ly but this meant tha t I ,

had to mobilize other members o f th e union to he l p t o do the work .

In fact the Soviet trade union is the organization which cares for
-

the interest s of the individual worke r and o f production in the inter

est o f all the workers as a whole The organizer has to se e t hat all
.

the various functions are adequately carried ou t and all th e workers in ,

any en t erp rise are expected to assist by sharing the various funct i ons .

O f course e very issue did not arise every day O n l y once for .
,

exam pl e did I have a fellow worker in exceptional l y urgent need

,

o f new housing accommodation This was when she divorce d her

.

husband and I w as able t o ensure that sh e would be the fi rst to ob

,

tain a room o f her own when the administration became possesse d

o f some new apartment houses Again it w a s not every day that a
.

co l league would want accommodation for a child in creche o r k inder

garten ; and when someone wante d some Special form o f evening
classes once it had been arranged there w as n o more t o do in the
, ,

matter for the time being at any rate And so with most requests
,
“
.
,

for help or complaints the matter w a s usually settled for the indi
, ,

vidual case concerned and w e heard n o more about it

,
.

E very yea r a new collective agreement had to be signed with the

administration This meant that the rates o f pay o f every worker
.

had to be overhauled ; ta king into account the general scales worked

o u t by the higher commit t ees in the union w e had t o app l y and,

adjust them to ou r ow n pa rticul ar condi t ions N o col l ective agree .

ment w a s drawn up wi t hout a general discussion o f the ol d and new

rates o f wages by all the worke rs so that there w a s never a single
,

individua l w h o did not k now w hy he earned what he did and how

he coul d earn more if he desired B ut the collective agreement n ot
.

only fixed the wage rates for the coming year The discussion on .

the new agreement invariably surveyed the whol e economic and

‘
soc ia l life o f the organization during the year and the wall news -
,
 ON B E I N G ILL 1 39
pa per wa s a forum in which such matters were fully expl ored : T o
’

what extent had t he administration fulfilled its obligations to p r o

—
vide adequate comfort for the sta ff H ad the bu ff et a n d dining
room been r un a s agreed at the beginning o f the y a P We r e the
e r —
children o f workers receiving adequate creche and k indergarten
a c c o m m o da t io n P— Was the administration paying enough attention
t o the matter o f safe ty devices and ventilation ? All the se matters
‘
were discussed in detail b y al l w h o wished t o contribute to the wall
newspa pe r And on the basis o f such discussion the new collective
.
’

agreement would be drawn up and signed .

The trade union committee in eve ry organization h as considerable

-

funds at its disposal The membership dues are fixed at I pe r cent

.

o f earnings for al l workers but in addition the employing organi

,

z a t io n h a s t o make certain contributions t o the trade union funds -

,

and t he whole o f the State contributions to social insurance pass

through the hands o f the trade unions E very year we had a dis -
.

c u ssio n o n the trade union committee o f o u r budget for the coming

-

year N ot only did w e allot su ffi cient sums for insurance benefits

.
,

but we spent in addition considerable sums on education sport enter , ,

t a in m e n t allowances to workers with large families ( in the w a of

, y
free creches o r kindergartens for their children ) children s play ,
’

grounds passes to rest homes and sa natoriums and so on While t he

, , .

total sum available w a s fixed on the basis o f the members c on tr ibu ’

tions to gether with the additional contribution paid by the administra

tion the spending o f this money w as entirely in the hands o f ou r
,

o w n committee whose j ob it w as t o allot it so a s t o provide the

,

greatest possible benefits for ou r fellow worke r s .

When a worker a s ke d for a pass t o a rest home or for new housing

accommodation it wa s ou r job always t o take into account the par
,

t ic ul a r merits o f the ca se If a worke r require d a new apartment

.
,

it w as ou r job t o k now the size o f that work e r s famil y and the

‘ ’

work er s record at his job B oth these things would be ta k en into

’
.

account in all otting accomm odation A good and e ffi cient work er .

‘
1 4 0 R USSIA WITH O UT ILL USIONS
wou l d certain ly receive preference ove r an inefficient work er o f the
sa me famil y p osition but a worker with children would get p re fer
,

ence over a m ore e ffi cient or responsible on e wit hout children A .

woman worker wi t h children invariab l y receive d p re ference over

others w ho did n ot shar e that respo nsibility So that as far as wages
.
,

were concerned each w a s p aid according to h is work but wi t h

,
“ ”
,

social services o f every kind the question o f need wa s always given

se rious consideration .

It may be asked in what way the trade union w a s able anyway -

, ,

t o put housing accomm odation at the disposa l o f p art icula r workers .

It is there fore necessary to mention here that most Soviet organi

za tio n s owing t o t h e acute shortage of housing
, ta k e eve ry oppor ,

t u n ity o f building o r acquiring accomm o dation for the u se o f their

employees and wheneve r any such accomm odation is acquired it is

, ,

for the trade union to press for the distribution o f it accordin g to the
-

nee ds o f its members .

I do n ot wish it to be thought that in the pe opl e are

superhuman Actually they are very human Therefore it wo ul d be
.
, .

wrong to expe ct that eve ry trade union organizer o r commi t tee

-

a l ways did j ust what w a s best for the membe r s and never erred a
l ittle in its o wn favor against the interests of the ran k and file There .

are however more opportunities for the ran k and file to express
, ,

their di sapprova l than e l sewhere and t hey do so I well remember

, .

an occasion when at the T e ch n icu m o f Foreign L anguages t he trade

union committee having ob t ained two passes t o a rest home presented
, ,

t hem to one of its members o n the administration o f the organization ,

for himsel f and his wife .

At the meeting at which this decision w a s announced there w a s

a highly explosive discussion The committee maintained that a notice
.

had been up for t hree weeks inviting applications for these passes
and t ha t only this on e individual had applied asking for the second ,

p a ss for his wife Since there were n o other applications h is request

.
,

had been granted O n t he other hand on e teacher afte r a nother stood

.
,
 R USSIA WITH O UT ILL USI ONS
to demands for streetcar l ines in certain districts and the r e arranging -

o f the streetcar sto s for t h e opening o f new shops in cert ain areas
p, ,

—
and for housing construction all these mat ters were raised in l ong
l ists o f instructions which every one a ssisted in drawing up These .

instructions t hen form the mandate o f the e l ected candida t e and it ,

is his o r her j ob in the Soviet to see that the various inst r uct ions are
carried out .

I have mentioned that while in o ffice as trade union organizer it

-

w a s my job to arrange the defense o f ou r courier w h o had been

accuse d o f the ft T h e story deserves re l ating in fu l l It was cus
. .

t o m a ry for o u r courier to bring our wages each fortnight from the

cashier to save us having to l ine up at the pay desk O ne day after

.
,

o u r wages had been brought and distributed a s usual th e cashier rang

,

up to sa y that fi ve hundred rubles were missing and that she was

convince d that she had given them to ou r courier b y mistake The .

—
courie r denie d it and the cashier w h o w a s personal ly responsib l e
,

—
for all money p assing through her hands decided to issue a writ .

I f sh e cou l d prove that ou r courier had stolen the money then the ,

responsibility for repayment would n o longer rest on her ; otherwise

she would have to find the money and repay it in monthly instal l
ment s to the organization employing her .

As trade union organizer I had to se e that the c ourier received all

-
,

the necessa ry help to defend he rself because ou r group w a s con

,

v in c e d o f her innocence .

I obtained a member o f the Collegium o f D efense Counsels w ho

went into al l the detai l s o f the accusation and on the day o f the
,

case we al l troo pe d along to the People s Court There were as is

’
.
,

customary in t he People s C ourt a j udge and t w o assistant judges

’
,
.

( These are now elected by universal ballot ) The

. atmosphere o f th e

c ourt w a s o n e o f complete informality and friendliness The t hree.

j udges sa t on a dais be hind a table covere d with re d cl oth The court .

room w a s like any ordinary work ing class meeting h all N obody
-
.

wore uniform and the litigants stood up and argue d in front o f the
,
 ON BEING ILL 1 43

jud ge s tabl e O ft en interru pt ing on e another sometimes interrupting

’
, ,

the judge .

I do not know how many times t he B ritish o ff ense o f contem pt o f

court is committed in the Soviet courts daily I have heard a p risoner .
,

se rv e d with a short sentence for attempted robbe ry when drun k ,

carry o n the following backtalk with the judge :

Judge : D isgraceful behaving like th at in the middle o f the night !
Accuse d : It w a sn t the midd l e of the night it wa s onl y twe l ve
’
,

o cloc k
’
.

Judge : Y es it wa s the midd l e o f the night .

First the cashier put her ca se ; t hen ou r defense counse l spo k e

, ,

and the courier gave her O wn account o f the day s events The ’
.

manager o f o u r de partment spo k e on the courier s general character ’

and the lack o f e vidence and a representative o f the em ploying

,

organ i zat i on spoke claiming that while he w as disinterested as be

,

t ween the courie r and the cashier a ll he require d w as a decision ,

from the court that on e or the other or both shou l d r epay the miss , ,

ing su m within a given period .

After every one had said all that they wanted and nobody wished
t o express any further views the courier w a s given the l ast word , ,

and the judges retire d t o consider their verdict It w a s that the .

courier was innocent and that within a given period the cashier
, , ,

must find the su m that had been l ost and repay it in instal l ments t o
the employing organization .

I should mention that whil e w e were waiting for ou r case t o come

up we sa t through an interesting alimony case A very attractive
, .

young girl carry ing a baby cl aimed alimony from a married man
, ,

w h o with his wi fe sa t o n t h e s a me bench in front of the judges

, ,

table The man denied ever l iving wi t h the girl but a troop o f
.
,

women living in apartments c l ose by that o f the girl bore witness

, ,

that this man had frequently visite d th é girl in her home in the eve
nings and that sh e had never been known to be on intimate terms
,

wi th othe r men She was always a good girl until he came a l ong
“
.
”
,
 R U S S I A WI T H O U T I L L U S I O N S
.

said on e o f the women witnesses pointing to the man The others

, .

nodde d their agreement in chorus And this evidence w a s considered

.

adequate by the court t o give the girl a l imony 2 5 pe r cent of th e ,

man s earnings t o assist in bringing up the child H ard on the man

’
, .
,

I felt but the women from ou r organization staunchl y uphe l d the

,

verdict and were convinced that the man was the father o f the child .

Which all goes to show that while there is not anything like the
,

same legal rigidity about the Soviet marriage l aw as there is in

B ri t ain it does not pay for a man to become t oo intimate with a
,

woman in the — a t —
any rate before witnesse s if he is not
ready to shoulder the possible responsibility for the upbringing o f a
c h fld .

A considerable part of my trade union work apart from the direct

-
,

care o f the welfare o f ou r members lay in the developing of p r o

,

du ct iv e e fiic ie n cy within our organization When the Sta khanov .

movement develope d in the Soviet coal mines we in a Soviet o ffi ce ,

a l so conside red ways and means by which we emu l ating Sta khanov , ,

could introduce improvements in ou r work Almost every month we .

hel d production meetings to consider the way in which w e were

carrying o n our work and in these meetings there w a s often ve ry
,

plain speaking In the . pe ople are much more outspoken at

meetings t han they are in England While it makes discussions more
.

heated and may give the impression o f much less c onsideration for
’
other people s feelings I am convinced having become accustomed
, ,

to it that it induces a very much healthier atmosphere in every organi

,

za t io n than o u r o w n system o f p olite restraint in which no under ,

l ing ever dare sa y boo t o a pe rson higher up in the administrative

“ ”

scale Wh ile in this country resentment in factories and o ffices takes

. .

the form of continual underground whisperings occasionally expl od ,

ing into o pen refusa l s to work and strikes in the t here is

,

pl ain spea k ing all along and n o w orker is afraid t o criticize some
,

on e in a superior positi on .

A gr eat deal o f con fusion h a s been caused in this country by the

 1 4 6 R USSIA WITH O UT ILLUSIONS
are theirs ; the standard o f life in the can today be raised
only by increasing production because there are n o l onger employers
,

at the exp ense of whose profits wages can be raised and this makes ,

every branch o f eve r y trade union interest ed in increasi ng e ffi ciency

-

in its ow n enterp rise It is in this light that w e must consider the

.

recent Stakh anov movement for increasing the prod u ctivity o f labor
throughout Soviet industry .

Much has been said and written t o misrepresent this movement

—
by the workers for improved methods o f work a movement which
was quite natural in a country where every worker felt that raised
p roduction meant a higher standard of life al l round C ertain critics .
’

have compare d t his movement with a speed up under capitalism but-

,

such a comparison is false for a num be r o f reasons First in the .

,

eve ry work er knows that increase d production benefits

n ot only himself personally through higher earnings but the com

munity as a whole through more p roducts and there fore leads to ,

lowe r p rices In contrast no worke r under capita l ism can be c on fi

.
,

dent that increase d output will not l ead rapidly t o cuts in wa ge

rates ; furthe r that overprod uction will not soo ner or later put him
,
‘ ’

o r h is fellow workers o u t o f a j ob Again under capitalism no worker

.
,

can be sure that increasing output will not foster a general crisis in
which the whol e working p opu l ation will su ffer .

Second ly it h a s usua l ly been overlooke d by t he critics t hat the

,

Sta khanov movement is in n o sense comparable to speed up because -

it does n ot demand the expenditure o f more energy on the job but ,

rathe r a reorganization o f the meth o d o f work so that it is per

forme d more e ffi cientl y Further the initiative in such a movement
.
,

came from a rank and fi l e worker Al exe i Sta khanov personally r e

- -
.

organized th e method of work O f himself and a number o f colleagues

in such a wa y that output wa s p henomena ll y increase d If we examine .

the form o f reorgan ization which Sta khanov introduced we find that ,

‘
it was sixn ply the appl ication o f the ol d princi pl e o f division o f labor ’
 ON BEING ILL 1 47

resul ting in incre a sed e fficiency al l round B ut it wa s a ran k and

.
-

fi l e work er w h o introduce d the change—beca use the ran ks gain b y

inc r e a se d production in the
Certain trade unionists have been rathe r sh ocke d t o find that in
-

the today strikes are looked upon as unjustifiable attac ks o n

the community But when we consider Soviet organization it be
.
,

comes clear that where workers are producing for the community
and not for the profit o f a private employe r strikes are bound to be ,

hostile acts to the whole o f the rest o f the po p ulation So long in t he .

,

as private capitalists continue d t o employ l abor the trade ,

unions encourage d strikes in those enterpri ses t o ensure that the

workers received their due But when concerns had all been taken
.

over by the State and the trade unions given representation on the
-

administrative authorities throughout the State economic system ,

strikes were n o longer encouraged In a coal mine owned by a private

.

company t he workers at any time could improve their ow n position

at the expense of the employers profi t s But when the coal mine be
’
.

came public prope rt y an y attempt o f the miners in o n e pit to better

,

their ow n conditions by stri k e action meant that ( a ) they were with

holding coal from the community and ( b ) were t ry ing to force the
State to give to them a greater share in the national income than
cou l d be obtained by peace ful negotiation between their ow n union ,

othe r unions an d the State authorities

, .

O bviously under such conditions to hold up p roduction is t o ho l d

, ,

up the community and b l ac kmail your fellow workers S oviet workers .

realize this The y know from their own experience that the only way
.

t o raise living stan dards 1 8 t o i ncrease p roduction and therefore the ,

Soviet trade un i ons and their members are toda y interested in raising
-

the productivity o f labor as ra p id l y as possib l e .

I have had the oppo rtu nity to Spe a k with a number o f S t a khano vite
work ers I was p articul arly interested in fi nding out th e e ffect o f the
.

St a kha n ov movement on em p loyment O n o ne occ a sion I a s ked three

.
1 48 R USSIA WITH O UT ILLUSIONS
S ta khanovites working in three di fferent industrie s whe the r their
increased ou tput did n ot l ead t o unempl oy ment for somebody I n a ll .

three case s their answe r was in the negative but each answer w a s a ,

di ff erent on e according to the p articul ar conditio n s o f the ind ustry

concerned .

When I ask ed a c oal mine r whether the S ta k hanov movement did

n ot p ut some miners ou t o f wor k he repl ied that in his p it t hey had
,

whol e gall eries n ot being work ed because o f the shortage o f l abor .

The econom y o f l abor p roduce d by Sta khanovism wou l d enable

more o f these g a ll er ies to be wor ked A woman l umber worker from
.

a sa wmil l said that there was so much work to be done that the
Sta khanov movement wou l d increase output and nobody woul d l ose
h is j ob A wor k e r from a c l othing factory to l d me t hat in her factory
.

the y had al ways had a rese rve o f work to do beyond what could be
tackl ed by the existing sta ff The Sta khanov movement w a s ma k ing
.

it possib l e t o perform some o f this ext r a wor k with which the factory
had hitherto been unab l e to co pe .

E very Sta khanovite by increasing the p roductivity o f l abor is

, ,

ab l e t o earn higher wages But under Soviet conditi ons this does not
.

mean the creation of a category o f high income workers divorced -

from the rest becau se the Soviet trade unions ma k e a po int of seeing
,
-

that every Stakhanovite worker every innovator in p roduction meth

,

o ds shal l devote part o f h is o r her time t o teaching othe r wor k ers t o

,

use the sa me methods It is significant that Sta khanov himse l f hav

.
,

ing revolutionized production methods in h is ow n p it then did a ,

tou r o f other pits showing them h ow t o do l i kewise H e wa s then .

sent to the Industrial Academy t o Study and wi ll l ater return to ,

indust ry a s the manager o f a pit o r to ta k e on some other highly

responsible job In this w a y a rank and fi l e work er showing initiative
.
- -
, ,

may be come the manager o f a large facto r y or director of a trus t

within five years And in the meantime his innovations are adopted
.

by l arge numbe r s o f other workers whose incomes rise accordingly .

At the same time a s a r esu l t o f the incre a se d output the prices o f

, ,
 CH A P T E R XI II

I Tr a v el A g a i n

IN MAY , 1 6
93 , I was o ffered an oppo rtunity t o tr ave l for three
wee ks or a month in order to write up my experiences for radio
broadcasts in English I did not intend to se t ou t on such an ambitious
.

tour a s in 1 9 3 2 but planned to visit Kiev and Kharkov present and

, ,

former capitals o f th e Soviet U kraine ; on e or t w o collective farm

villages ; an d from D niepropetrovsk t o attempt to find a ce r tain
‘ ’
collective farm theater which I knew t o be working in that district ,

and on e o f whose performe r s I happened t o kn ow Again I travel ed .

o n my ow n ,
my only introduction being a paper stating that I was
a correspondent for the Mosco w Radio Center collecting material
‘ ’

for broadcast s From the Radio Cen t er I received a traveling allow

.

ance o f seven ru bles a day for be d ; ten rubles I think it w a s for , ,

f ood ; and in addition would be paid on my r eturn for anything

w ri tten a s a result o f my j ourney .

I had very much hope d to be able t o see the May D ay demon

st r a t io n s in Kiev H owever when I went t o the railway station to
.
,

obtain a t icket on April 2 7 I found that people had been wai t ing
,

to boo k seats for se veral days O utside t he boo k ing offi ce there was
.

a line from six in the morning Most o f the people in the line were
.

trying t o get tickets for Kiev in order t o spend the May D ay

holidays there with friends ; a few were going on business Each .

morning about hal f the line obtained tickets each day the book ,

ings were for on e day farther ahead and by the time I w a s able to ,

obtain a ticket it w a s for leaving Moscow on May 4 My May D ay .

t here fore had to be spen t in Moscow .

Already in an earlier chapter this question o f Soviet trave l ha s

, ,

been discussed Though by 1 93 6 conside rable improvement had

.

been e ff ected it w a s stil l n ot easy t o boo k tickets on l ong distance

,
-

1 5 0
 I TRAV E L AGAIN I S I

trains without severa l days notice I decide d t o boo k for Kiev muc h
’
.

t oo l ate to get a tic k et fo r May D ay O ther peo pl e had made t he .

sa me mista k e H owever once the May D ay r ush w as over and the

.
,

natives o f Kiev wh o had been visiting Moscow had returned home ,

there w a s less o f a crowd and I had n o di fficu l ty in obtaining m y

,

tic k et for May 4 .

C oming from Moscow I found the ol d city o f Kiev particu larly

,

attractive in two respe cts First a s compared with Moscow it a ppeared

.
,

a s a green city E very where there se emed to be trees much more

.
,

restfu l on a hot day than Moscow And second l y Kiev w a s buil t on

.
,

hills overlooking the great D nieper River which l ike the D on and , ,

Vol ga rea l ly is a river and n ot j ust a glorified stream like the rive r
,

a t Moscow at any rate unti l n ew waters were adde d to it by t h e

,

M oscow V olga C ana l

- .

The shops and people o f Kiev a l so b ore a more l ivel y aspect tha n
those o f Moscow a fact which im p resse d me about a l l the U krainian
,

towns that I visite d on that tour Some time l ater meeting some .
,

o n e in Moscow wh o had arrived at O dessa and trave l ed north I w a s ,

tol d that M oscow a ppeared most de p ressing after the southern towns .

This was news for in 1 93 3 I had been tol d that the towns o f th e
,

Southern U kraine had l ooked p articularly de p resse d compared wi th

M oscow B ut so rapid are the changes in the
. that such
things cease to ca use surprise C erta inly in 1 9 3 6 I found more a p
.

p arent gaie ty and brighte r shops and streets in Kiev Khark ov and , ,

D niepropetrovsk than in Moscow Moscow w a s growing prosperous

.
,

but the U kraine appeared t o be more prosperous still .

Yet it wa s in Kiev that I met the only unemployed work er t hat

I have ever met during fi v e y ears in the H e w a s S itting in
a par k and so w a s I C onversa tion began and when I a sked t he
.
,

ine vitable question that is always a s k ed early in the ( I n

tourist guides usually dro p bric ks by asking this question o f tourists

”
l ivin g on income from investments ! ) Where do you work ? th e
“

reply t o my comp l ete ast onishment wa s I m unem ploy ed

,
“ ”
,
’
.
1 52 R USSIA WITH O UT ILLUSI ONS
Wh at mean ? I asked
do yo u
”
.

“
I m looking for work was the answe r
’
, .

”
But isn t there any work here ?
’

N ot what I want w a s the re ply

”
, .

What is your spe cia l ity ? ”

“ ’ ”
I m a chau ffeur .

’ ”
Aren t there a n y j obs going here ?
O h yes plenty but I want a job as a cha u fi eu r
, , ,
’
.

H ow did you leave your old j ob ? ”

I just le ft it I t w a s in a small town and I found it rather du ll

.
,
”
so I came here .

“
Could you get your ol d j ob bac k i f you went bac k there ? ”

” ’
Yes but I don t want to
, .

Where are you l iving ? ”

Wi t h an uncle .

Why don t you take some other job til l the on e y ou want turns u p ?
’ ”

“ ’ ”
I don t want t o .

O f recent years the city of Kiev has taken the l ead in work on
behalf o f children T w o institutions particularly attracted my atten
.

tion Their exampl e is now being followed all over the

.

but in bo t h cases I t hink I am right in saying the initiator was

, ,

Kiev First there was the Palace o f the Pioneers situated in an ol d

.
, ,

p rivate house not far from the river and just bordering on on e o f the
city park s In Kharkov in the very cente r of the city in o n e o f the
.
, ,
‘
o l d pre revolutionary
-
palaces there is a simi l ar Palace o f Pioneers
,
’
.

I went through both The y are simil ar in the general p rinciples on

.

which they are run .

The Palace o f Pioneers is an institution exclusive l y for chil dren ,

t o enable them in their spare time to pursue their hobbies with ade
’
quate equipment and instruction As o n e whose childhood s main .

’
hobby wa s collecting birds eggs summer a fter summer I must admit ,

that I w a s filled wit h en vy at the p ossibilities for a member o f the

Young N atura l ists Group se riously t o study bio l ogy and natural
’
1 54 R USS I A W ITH O UT ILL USION S
c harge and when I aske d what w a s done t o pe rsuade the chi l dren
,

t o perform here she simply rep l ied :

“
They come and o ffer t o recite ,

‘
d ance and sing The good ones w e form into an active wh o regu
.
’

”
l a r l y help us in ou r work Memories o f my ow n school days came
.

back At no stage in my education could I remember children v ol

.

u n t a r il congregating to hear one f their number voluntarily tell

y o

stories from t he classics B ut in the children are taught

.

to l ove l ite rature n ot uncom p rehending t o l earn l ong stri ps o f it

, , ,

b y heart .

The other institut i on in Kiev which I had some opportunity o f

‘
v isiting w a s a series o f Pioneer O utposts in so me o f the apartment
’

h ouses O f the city I happened t o make the acquaintance o f the head

.

mistress o f a ten year school ( school catering for children from the
-

a ges o f 8 t o and among other things sh e t o ok me round to

s ome of the pioneer outposts organized in bl ocks of apart ments from

w hich children went to her school In the where all sc hools .

a r e S t ate schoo l s the children attend whatever schoo l is neares t t o

,

t heir home o r in certain cases the schoo l attache d t o the factory

, , ,

w here their p arents are empl oyed Th e purpose o f the pioneer ou t .

post is to provide in every bloc k o f apartments playroom and o ut

, ,

doo r playground for the children l iving in that building The out .

post takes the form o f a clubroom and nursery indoors and a pl ay ,

g round and p ossibly a bit o f garden outside D well ers in the house .

may themselves voluntarily participate in the administration of such

o utposts and in addition a l ocal factory or the school will provide
, ,

voluntary wor k e rs drawn usually from the Young C ommunist

,

League wh o give so many hou rs a week to organizing games for

,

the children .

I shall for a l ong t ime remembe r a conve r sation with an old Jewish
woman in on e o f these houses She must have been nearl y seventy .

‘
years ol d and voluntarily worke d as manager o f the pioneer ou t
,
’

post in h er block receiving financial help from th e H ouse Com

,

m ittee and the sch ool and t he practica l aid o f a Young Communist
,
 1 TRAV E L A GAIN 1 55

from a neighboring factory As a Jewe ss th e n ew regime o f course

.
,

meant more t o her than to a Russian wom a n o f the same s oc ia l

standing for in Kie v before the Revolution a s in N azi Germa ny
, ,

today n o Jew coul d ever be sure that he woul d n ot be the victim

,

o f a p ogrom o r other forms o f pe rsecution .

“
And the chi l dren Why before the Revol ution they had nowhere
.
,

t o pla y except the streets ! And then during the civi l w a r things

were so diflicu l t we sti ll couldn t a ff ord to spend much o n ou r ’

,

children But n ow l oo k at them A whole roo m in this bloc k o f

. .

—
apartments which the y can call their o wn their own garden and
thei r own playground in the y ard There s n o nee d n ow for them to .
’

play on the streets And if their p arents are busy o r go ou t

.
, ,

they know that i f they te ll whoe ver s in charge o f the pioneer ou t ’

post then their children wil l be looked after while they are away
, .

O f course we ve j ust begun to have these outp osts—we re the

’ ’

—
fi rst city to organize them but other towns are n ow following ou r
exam pl e an d we want t o make them unive rsal
,
”
.

From Kiev I traveled down the D nieper by boat on my w a y to

C h a pa ev ka a col lective farm that had w on considerabl e fame during
,

the past year o r so for its enterprising activities T o get there from .

Kiev I had t o travel by boat by train and in the early hours O f the
, , ,

morning on foo t I wa s at once given hospitality by the col lective

, .
,

put up in on e o f the members cottages and shown round the farm ’

,

by the chairman C h a pa e v ka had now its o wn movie and theater in

.

a building that once had been a church A sports Stadium was being .

l aid ou t in the center o f the vil lage ; there w a s a pioneer club a ,

bat hhouse a restaurant ; and a rest home was be ing const r ucted at
,

which members cou l d s pend their t w o wee ks paid vacation now ’

,

enj oye d by l a w by al l collective farmers .

I happened t o arrive at C ha pa ev ka on a Sunday which in the ,

Soviet villages is still the day off The club s footba l l team had gone
.
’

’
to play a r ailroad workers team some miles away and the railroad ,

workers had sent a specia l train for them In the afternoon the vil .
 1 56 R USS IA W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
l age band pl ayed the veranda of the club and in the evening there
on ,

wa s a movie Close by the farm there wa s a gliding school which

.
,

had some full time students and at which a number o f the younger
-
,

collec t ive farmers studied gliding in their Spare time The farm a l so .

had an apiary school attached to it at which about seventy students ,

paid o u t o f t he funds of their own collective farms were studying ,

t he theo ry and practice o f beekeeping This Sunday happened to be

.

a notable occasion as the collective had j u st w on a s a premium its , ,

o w n fire engine and the fire engine was due t o arrive that a ft ernoon
, .

When it appeared the whole village turned ou t to meet i t and a

, ,

demonstrat i on o f i t s capacity was at once held in order to show that

it was capable o f soaking the roof of the c l ub the highest building ,

in the village .

B esides looking round the farm at C ha pa evka I also visite d the

school where the school leaving age had already been raised to
,
-

seventeen Most o f the children in th e advanced group those of

.
,

sixteen or se venteen intended to go on to the university I personally

,
.

met Red Army commanders engineers and agricultural specialists

, ,

among those children each on e exercising personal choice o f a

,

caree r An d these were the children o f peasants o f peo ple who had
.
,

as a whole been illiterate p rior to 1 9 1 7 !

In C ha pa e v ka the collective farm community w a s working wel l .

The pe ople were already enj oying the fruits o f a considerably greater
productivity than they had previously known ; large S ums were going
into social S ervices of a k ind hi t herto unknown in the village ; in
stead o f leisure and the vod ka bottle being synonymous as in the
o l d days t hey already had their S ports club and stadium
,
movie and ,

local dramatic club village band evening classes ; and the children of
, ,

th e Vil lage were going to school t o th e age o f se venteen Each year .

technical improvements in production were be ing introduced and ,

everyone fel t tha t his community w a s a progressing on e o ffering ,

every member an opportunity for a risin g standard o f l ife and for

improving h is or her ow n kn owledge and culture .
1 58 R USS I A W ITH OUT ILL USION S
pe ople s interest in other countries
’
that wherever you go y ou , so , ,

are questioned by ol d and young al ik e in p rivate and in pub l ic ; all ,

“
a r e interested and n obody is a fraid t o a sk a question such a s D O
,

pe ople live better in England than here o r worse ? ”

,

I am in a position to contrast this with Po l and and Germany ,

for in June 1 9 3 6 I returned t o England by land and stoppe d o n e

, ,

night in Warsaw While t here I had conversations with several

.

pe ople and a s soon as I mentione d that I had come from Moscow

, ,

t hey showe d a tremendous interest A student and an unemployed .

worker bo t h ask ed questions about Soviet li fe wi t h t he greatest inter

est but repeatedly interjec t ed such remarks as : You know w e
,
“
,
’
mustn t ask such questions here We mustn t talk about such things.
’
.

But people are interested ; we know tha t big t hings are happe ning
”
over there In each case they would only mention the
.

when nob ody was about C on t rast t his with the Soviet colle ct ive
.

farmers full o f interest in things abroad and not a hesitant question

in a public cro ss examination o f mysel f on the village green
-
.

Again passing through Germany in t he railway carriage there

, ,

happened t o be a man and wife middle class business pe ople N o ,

-
.

sooner did I say that I came from Moscow than the man became
agi t a t ed and went into the corri dor In the meantime his wi fe t alked .

in Russian telling me sh e was a Jewess who had lived outside Russia

,

for nearly t wen ty years O ur friends are all Germans she t old
“
.
”
,

“ ‘ ’
me so I am all right But none of them like him and things are
,
.
,

getting more and more di fficult Is i t t ru e tha t Russia has no unem

.

ployment ? They say w e have none here but i t s a lie The husband
” ’
.

did not disagree wi t h his wi fe but seemed afraid sh e wo u ld be over

,

heard as S he told me h ow e ven their own middle class friends hated -

the present regime If anyone came along the corridor her husband
.
,

st ood in the doorway o f ou r compartment as if afraid that we should

even be se en tal king together Contrast this with the Soviet trains
.

where people chatter continuously and all the time in crowds , , ,

clamor for information about the rest o f the worl d Is it true when
“
.
 1 TRAV E L AGAIN 1 59

our ne wspa pe rs sa y that they destroy goods to k ee p u p p rices whi l e

peopl e g o without ? How do they eat and dress in Engl and it s
” “ — ’

” “
a very rich country isn t it ? Wh y don t the work ers have a revo
,
’ ’

”
l ut ion a s w e did ?
I do n ot want t o sugge st h owever that in the
, , there are
n o t things abo ut which p eop l e p refer n ot t o argue After the t ri a l o f .

Kamenev and Zinoviev for exampl e a ce rtain English person whom

, ,

I k now w ho had been trave l in g in Ru ssia referred to the em

,
“
,

”
ba r r a sse d silence when sh e started t o ask questions on this subj ect .

Rather the same sort o f si l ence I imagine as wou l d have arisen

, ,

in an English fi rst cl ass railway carriage at the time o f the abdica

-

tion if a foreigner had been so rude as t o Sta rt tal k ing abo ut the
re l ations between E dward VIII and Mr s Simpso n ; o r a sk ing .

whe t her the program o f the C ommunist Party w a s n ot r ea l ly the

onl y w a y ou t o f the worl d crisis ! It m ust be recognize d that there are
certain things in eve ry community which people ta k e for granted T o .

chal lenge such accepte d p rincipl es is to reveal onesel f as an a l ien ,

wit h the resul t that embarra ssment is caused al l r ound T o reveal .

yourself as sy mpathetic t o Trots ky ists in the today is a s

outrageous a violation o f acce pted standards a s it wou l d be to express
C ommunist sympathies at a week end pa rty at Cl iveden ! In both
-

communities public opinion wil l n ot tolerate certain kinds o f views ,

views which have shown themse l ves t o be fundamental ly opposed t o

the securi ty o f the particular pub l ic concerned .

I was particularly st ruck during this tour with the appearance of

a small indust ria l town which w as not the ca p ita l o f a repub l ic and

which exce p t for its industry had n o attraction for the tourist This
, , .

w as D niepropetrovs k whose main bo u l evard at night had that same

,

l ight and gay aspect that I had n oted in Kiev and which I l ate r found
al so in Kharkov O f cour se in the
.
, the State shops burni ng
State e l ectricity remain lighte d al l night and this g reatly adds t o the
,

gaiety o f the towns after dark D nie pro petrovs k had on e magnificent
.

Park o f C ul t ure a n d Rest sl o p ing down to the ri ver and anothe r

, ,
1 60 R USSI A W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
great new p ark had just recently been o pe ned near the center of the
town which when the trees have grown up will be extremely pleas
, ,

ant But I did not come here to se e the town ; I came to find t he
.

whereabouts o f the German collective farm theater which I kn ew

to be working somewhere in this province .

Fortuna t ely the manager of t he theater who was in charge o f the

business side o f its affairs was in town and I found her at the o ffice
,

o f the Theater Trust N o sooner did I tell her that I knew her
.

English colleague Joan Ro dke r and that I wanted to visit the theat er
while it was on tour t han I was immediately invited to g o with her
that night by train We would be met a t a country station by a car
.

from the theater and then I could travel with t hem fo r two or t hree
,

days This was just the kind of thing I wanted and o ff we went
.
, .

When w e speak o f a traveling theater in this country w e usually ,

have in mind some fairly l arge pro fessional theatrical company on

tou r Such companies travel from place to place by train carry with
.
,

them vast wardrobes and scenery and have modern and well ,

equipped t heaters to visit in each town They do not visit the vil .

lages ; the para p hernalia of the ordinary t heatrica l company would

be ra t he r too bulky for a village institute N ow in the the.

roads between villages are far from good and hard tracks through t he ,

fi elds are often the only means of transport I may add that when I .

w as in the Caucasus in 1 9 3 2 in wet weather the local bus tra ffic was
,

‘ ’
entirely held up Buses consisted o f t r ucks with planks set across
.
,

them for seats Roads consisted o f tracks through the fields ; when
.

there was much rain the road was impassable O n this occasion we .

were kept waiting for a whole day as t he garage manager did not
know when there would be a bus And when we did st art the mud
.
,

w a s so bad that at c ertain points we le ft t he road altogether and drove

through maize and sunflowers S ix feet high .

A village theater then must have equipment such as can be car

, ,

ried on one or two truc ks These trucks have a lso to transport t he

.

actors and musicians from pl ace to p lace In fine weather as I ex .

,
1 62 R USSI A W ITHOUT ILL USIONS
st udied in the drama schoo l at D niepropetrovsk and n ow were full ,

time actors In this way ordinary peasant people were becoming

.

qualifi ed actors in a few years In this connection I might mention

.

that in 1 93 6 I w as p resent in Mo scow at a competition o f collective

farm thea t ers which came from all parts of the The aver
age standard w a s above that o f ou r ordinary English repertory com
pan y y et the actors in t he best of these theaters were just young
,

working men and women In one group from the Gorky province
.
, ,

no ac t or w as over twenty three years o f age They had started as a

-
.

fac t o r y dramatic club at the Gorky Automobile Plant As they had .

sh owed great talent partly as a result of the professional assist ance

,

t hat ama t eur grou ps obtain in t he thro u gh agreement with

the trade union o f theater workers they were O ff ere d the opp or
-
,

‘
t u n ity to become a S tudio t hat is a full time student theater train
’
-
, ,

ing to become fully qualified and from t hat they graduated into a
,

full time pro fe ssional theater Such developments are not ex cep
-
.

t io n a l in the for this is simply on e o f the ways in which

the talent latent in the people is stimulated developed and used , , .

In this particular district that I was now visiting there was con
side r a bl e varia t ion from village t o village in the club facili t ies avail

able Some clubs had no electric lighting so t he theater had to carry

.
,

its ow n generator Some had a well const ructed stage o t hers were
.
-
,

just barns wi t h a rather primi t ive plat form O ne modern t heater .

building was actually in course o f construction and it w a s intended ,

in the future t o se tt le the group permanently t here and to bring the

neighboring farmers t o the t heater rather than take the theater t o
o n e village a fter the other in the immediate vicinity But in the case .

o f more distant villages the theater would still have to o o n tour

g ,

a n d it woul d thus combine work o n it s own premi ses wi t h touring ,

according to the needs o f more dist ant villages .

O n t his journey of 1 9 3 6 there was o n e very great di fference from

my previous long journey in the summe r and autumn o f 1 93 2 N ow .

n obody spoke o f lack o f bread nobody S poke o f bad harvests nobody

, ,
 I TR AV E L AGAIN 1 63

tal ked with doubtfu l words about the n e w col lective sy stem o f farm
in g Every where I went in town o r vil l age p eople too k the co l
.
, ,

l ct v farm system for granted Were there an y individ u al peasants

e i e .
?

Yes in most villages there were stil l a handful o f families that had
,

not yet for some reason o r other j oine d the collectives In some cases .

they actually wanted to j oin but the collectives were not t oo ready
,

to admit new membe rs aft er all their di ffi culties were over and t he y
were rapidly going ahead The Government h a s had to instruct
.

eve ry collec t ive to accept those wishing to join not to exclude any
,
‘

body because o f his past op position to collectivization .

I returned to Moscow and a fter ano ther month having prepare d

, ,

an d delivere d se veral radio tal ks on my travels I returned to England

,

at the beginning o f June From here I w a s able once again to reflect

.

o n the difl er e n c e s bet w een the sys t em o f societ which I had le ft

’
y
and the s ociety in which I was born I was also able to make some
.

s t udy of the Soviet system historically and t o consider i t theore t ically .

Was this new system Socialism o r was it something else ? Was it a

,

o n e Party dictatorship a s contrasted wi t h a free democracy in B ritain ?

-

Was there really no inte l lectual freedom in the o r w a s this

j u st a myth create d in B ritain by people w h o did not understand o r

understood only t oo well and who therefore misled o t hers as to
,

the nature o f the Soviet system ? Finally what were the pros and
,

cons of the Soviet as compared with our o w n socia l system and what ,

w a s the significance of Soviet experience l ike l y t o be in a worl d

constantl y threa t ened with war and re peated economic crises ? These
were q u estions which I felt fully able to answer only after I had
once again returned to B ritain had read something more o f Soviet
,

theory in the light o f my experiences o f it in practice and had once ,

again r e valued English institutions in the light o f my expe riences o n

-

Soviet territo r y .

It is wi t h some o f these problems that I shall now deal in the

c hapters that follow .
 CH A P T E R XIV

I s Th is S oc ia l i sm ?

I S UP P OS E on e o f the commonest questions ask ed about the

“
is this : Is it rea ll y Socialism ? A rat her strange question but a
”
,

natural one considering that wel l over half the anti Soviet p r opa
,
-

ganda at the present fim e consists in attempts to demonstrate on the ,

basis o f this or that sti l l backward feature of the that a fter

al l the Ru ssian Revolution has failed t o p roduce a socialist system o f
S o c I C ty.

N ow in 93 when
1 I 1fi rst went to Russia I assumed that I w as
,

going t o a socialist country After I had lived there for some time
.
,

howeve r I found that Soviet people did not consider that their coun
,

try was yet completely socialist O n the on e hand they had a Com
.

m u n ist government but on the other the economic system was still
,

fa r from being completely socialized and it was still the period o f ,

‘ —
socialist const ruction o f transition to a completely socialis t organi
’

za t io n o f society .

In an earlier chapter I have described my impressions on return

ing t o L ondon in 1 9 3 3 aft e r just over a year in Mosc ow I als o .

drew a number o f comparisons with tsarist Russia showing the ex ,

tent to which in S ixteen years the coun t ry had been trans formed
, ,
.

But I did not in that chapter survey the tremendous diffi cul t ies with
which the Soviet Government was faced in a t taining such achieve
ments in so short a period of time When t oday we glibly tal k o f .

twen ty one ye ars of the R u ssian Revolution w e are t oo o ften in

-
,

c l in e d to ignore t he di ffic u l t ies wi t h which it has been faced during

’
this pe riod When w e go so far as to identify today s achievements
.

with those o f twen ty one years of socialism w e are st ill fart her
“
-
”
,

from the mark Socialism in its most p ri m i t i ve form ha s been in

.
, ,

1 64
1 66 R USSIA WITH O UT ILLUSIONS
on this matte r o f socia l ist distribution The dist r ibution o f the means .

o f consumption at any period is merely the consequence o f the dis

tribution o f the conditions o f product ion themselves In the fi rst

”

s t age of communist society within the c o—

.

“
operative commonweal t h
base d on the socia l ownership o f the means o f p roduction writes ”
,

Marx t he individual producer receives bac k again from soc iety

,
“
,

with deductions exactly W hat he g ives What he h a s given to society

, .

is h is individual amount o f labor What w e have t o deal wi t h

. .

here is a communist society not as if it had de v e l ope d on its own

,

foundations but on the contrary as it em e r g e s from capi t alist

, , ,

society O nly l ater o n as a result of tremendous economic progress

.
’
, ,

wil l the principle to each according to his wor be replaced by the

“

“
communist principle to each according t o his need

In a highe r phase o f communist society after the enslaving ,

subordin ation of individuals unde r division o f labor and there ,

with al so the antithesis between mental and physical labor has ,

vanished ; afte r labor from a mere means o f li fe has itsel f be

, ,

come the prime necessity o f l ife ; after the productive forces have
a l so increased wit h the al l round development o f the indi vidual
-
,

and al l the springs o f c o op erative wealth flow more a bu n d

-

a n tl
y
—only t hen can the narrow hor izon o f bourgeois right be

fully left behind and society inscribe on its banners : from each
according to his ability to each according t o his need
, .

Wh en the new constitution the was adopted on D eo f

c e m be r 5 1 93 6 ,
numerous comments were made in ou r press con
,

‘
ce r ning the al l eged abandonment of communist principles embodied ’

“
in Article 1 1 8 which states : Citizens o f the
,
have the
right t o work—the right t o receive guaranteed work with payment
fo r thei r work in accorda nce with its quantity and quality It will .

be seen from ou r quotations from Marx and Engels t hat these found
e rs o f c ommunist theory did not expe ct in the early stages o f S ocia l ,
 I s THIS SOCIALISM ? 1 67

ism , any more than this Reading through thei r remark s o n

.

communist soc iety in its early Stages we can se e that they conceived ,

o f a socia l order ve ry like that which exists in the today :

Public ownership of the means o f producti on l eading t o a situation ,

“
in which all members o f society are encourage d to develop main ,

tain and exert their capacities in al l p ossibl e directions I n the

”
.

chapte r s which have prece ded this on e w e have seen how in the ,

such a system is be coming a reality D istribution h as begun .

t o be organize d between ci t izens according to their contribution that ,

is their labor Finally it is t o day clear that in the

, .
, tw o

p rocesses a re taking place which must inevitably lead to t hat higher

“

”
phase o f which Marx wrote .

O n the on e hand mechaniza t ion is rapidly taking place Move

,
.

ments like tha t of S t akhanov are turning manua l workers into brain
workers and heavy j obs into mechanize d processes Simultaneousl y .

the raising o f the school leaving age is creating a generation o f cu l

-

t u r e d educated and technically qualifie d pe ople Some 4 0 p e r cent

, ,
.

o f Soviet you t h have tod ay had some form o f unive rsity o r technica l

education This means that tedious and heavy j obs are graduall y
.

being mechanized demanding a higher l evel o f intelligence Work is

,
.

thus becoming interesting in itself and even unskilled work through , ,

socialist compe t ition is given something o f t he excitement o f t h e

,

Sports ground In these ways l abor is ceasing t o be merely a means

.
“

t o l ive and becoming in teresting enough t o be t he prime nece ssi ty

“

o f l ife .At t he same time the increase d mechanizati on and educa

tion is going hand in hand with an increase d productivity As I have
- -
.

pointed out earlier rising W ages and falling prices are taking place
,

simultaneously Such a process n ow in operation throughout the

.
,

ca n in the long run lead onl y t o the kind o f soc iety Marx

foresaw as th e highest phase o f communist socie ty

“
.

I have s o —
far shown what I mean by social ism the first phase
o f commun ist soc iety in which the means o f production become social

p rope rty I have also S hown that in the

. t here is nothing t o
1 68 R USS I A W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
stop a steady development to that higher phase described b y Marx
thro ugh simultaneo u sly raising pro duction and the material and cul
tural level o f the people and by making all work interesting It
, .

Still remains to point out not only that was the Soviet Government
faced with a particularly backward country in 1 9 1 7 details of which ,

we have already discussed but that the p ractica l problems wi t h which

,

it was faced seemed alm ost insuperable Th e miracle o f the Russian

.

Revolution is not t ha t in twen ty years it has just achieved the out

l ines o f a soc ialist system b u t t hat it has survived at al l And when
, .

critics of the p r ese fi t year o f enlightenment still find overcrowd ed

dwellings in Moscow and proclaim their horror let them take into
, ,

account t he facts which follow for these facts are as vital to an

,

understanding of Soviet problems as are the facts about tsa rist Russia
described in Chapter X ( pp 1 0 2 .

In 1 9 1 7 Russia o n e of t he most backward countri es i n Europe

, ,

w as feeling t he disast rous e ffects of three y ears o f war Already the .

economic system was creaking ominously lines were forming out ,

side the shops in every town and the desire o f the peopl e for peace
,

w as rapidly gaining ground It was in this si t uation when n o other

.
,

government would give the people peace that the Soviets seized ,

power under the l eadership o f the B olshevi k pa rty in O ctober 1 9 1 7 , .

The Soviet Government in one o f its first decrees nationalized

, ,

the land and the peasa nt soviets were empo wered to divide t he great
,

est ates according t o local nee ds But the primitive househol d sys
.

tem o f cultivation in the main remained Th e Soviet Government .

also appealed t o the whole world for immediate peace without in ,

de m n itie s o r a n n ex a t ion s ; but this appeal w a s ignored and war c o n

'

t in u e d
. And o n the pretext o f defending their property interests
, ,

o n e government after another g ave support t o rebellions by Russian

’
generals against the Soviets ; and a small internal prope rty owners -

rebellion be came a war o f armed intervention ( We have j u st w it .

n esse d t he same thing in S p ain ) Ten foreign armies ope rated o n

.

Soviet soi l The combination o f ruthless wa r with the problem o f

.
1 7 0 R USS I A W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
house s is t o bu il d t hem B ut t o bui l d houses for 1 7 0 mi llion peopl e
.

the po pulation is incre a sing by three mil l ions a y e ar—requires va st

resources o f buil ding mate rials and skilled l abor ; and p roduction in
the in 1 92 8 w a s just slightly ahead o f 1 9 1 3 and the gen ,

eral l eve l o f technique w a s n ot much higher t h a n under tsarism .

—
Faced with this p roblem the p roblem of providing adequate su p
pl ies o f building materials modern transp ort and factories that , ,

could produce consumers goods on a scale hitherto un known in

’

—
Russia the S oviet Government had fi rst of all t o l ay the fou n da
.

tions o f a heavy industry Y ou cannot bui l d houses without having

.

building mate rials stee l and concrete ; you cannot produce boots
, ,

and shoes without l eather boot and S h oe factories and skille d ope r
, ,

atives The fi rst Five Year Plan aimed in industry primari l y at

.
-
, ,

building up the supplies o f the m e a n s of pr odu c tion as the only means

o f raising the standard o f l ife o f the who l e peop l e .

But while this industrial problem wa s comparative l y spea king a , ,

simple o n e in Spite o f th e backwardness of the coun t ry because

,
—
a l ready by 1 9 2 8 practically al l o f the ind ustrial enterprises o f the
country were under State control an d run n socialist lines the
o —
p roblem o f agriculture was a vastl y more se rious o n e Although w e .

were accustomed t o Speak of the a s a socialist country in

1 92 8 it must be remembered that until that year the meth ods o f

,

land cultivation had remained as they were p rior to 1 9 1 4 The Revo .

~

l ut ion had handed ove r the l anded est ates t o the peasa nts and these ,

estates had in most cases been divi de d among the peasant families
( though in a few,
cases the y had been turned
,
into large scale State -

farms ) From 1 9 1 7 t o 1 9 2 7 the system o f cultivation based o n family

.
,

holdings each equippe d with the most pii m itive instrumen t s r e ,

mained If p rior t o 1 9 1 7 Ru ssia had been a l and o f famines in which

.
,

the g ol odov ka occurred in some district o r other every year the Soviet ,

system prior to 1 9 2 8 h a d not fun da m m ta lly altere d that primitive

, ,

agriculture which in itself perpetuate d the recurrence o f famines

, ,
.

What the Soviet system did wa s t o dist rib ute the product of the land
 IS THIS SOCIALISM ? 1 7 1

more equitab ly but a more equitable distribution o f p overty does not

,

solve the problem o f abolishin g pove r ty al together A completely .

new type o f farming had t o be introduced M odern large scale agri .

-

culture with modern machinery scientific know l edge and in st r u

, ,

ments chemical ferti l izers and rotation o f cro ps selective breeding

, ,

o f l ivest oc k and so o n had t o rep l ace the o l d methods

, .

N ow the Soviet authori t ies cou l d stimulate large scale a gii cul -

ture in eit her of t w o ways They could do as other governments had

.

done and subsidize their larger farmers ( those peasants w h o were

rather better o ff than their neighbors called ku l a ks in Russia ) e n
, ,

courage them to extend their holdings and empl oy m ore labor and ,

t h u s become the big farmers o f the country using modern methods ,

o f cul t ivation But already the large farmers had shown themselves
.

time and again t o be the enemies of a socialist government and it ,

was clear t hat if agriculture got into their hands they woul d not
onl y oppose all l abor legislation o n behalf o f the Soviet country
labo rer but woul d more and more use their power t o withhold sup
,

plies from the Government in order to force concessions to the i r

o w n capitalist class in the countryside Therefore the Soviet a u th or i
.

t i es decided on the only possible alternative : t o foster l arge scale -

farming not by encouraging the rich peasants t o become richer b u t ,

by encouraging the vast maj ori ty of t he peasants w h o were poor t o

pool their land and resources thus set t ing up large scal e c o—
,
operative -

farms It could then o ffer assistance to these collective farms in the

.

form o f machine ry scientific advisers fertilizers an d training in

, , ,

modern farming methods The original Five Year Plan foresaw

.
-

the collec t iviza t ion o f over 3 0 pe r cent o f the agriculture o f t he

country in which large scale c o O perative farms woul d till the soi l
,
- -

by modern methods At the same time p rojects were prepared for

.

large scale State farms run o n the same lines as factori es such a s
-
, ,

Gigant and Ve r bl u d in the N orth Cauca sus which have been ,

described earlier in this book .

The p lan for the gra dual col l ectivization o f a gricul ture howeve r , ,
1 7 2 R USSI A WITH OUT ILL USIONS
did n ot g o smoothly Fo r this was n o ordinary economic plan of
.

peace ful reconst r uction ; it wa s a plan which if successfully carried,

through meant an end t o p ri vate ca p italism in the country side and

, ,

which was t herefore strongly op pose d by the richer pe asants or

ku l a ks, wh o sa w nothing but l oss to themse l ves as a result o f pool
ing their re sources with those of their poore r neighbors in the new
co l lective farms When the p ropaganda campaign for collectivization
.

w as unde r wa y th e ku l a /
, es in the villages real ize d that they too , ,

must mobi l ize their forces if this n ew move b y the Government

o n which the y had ne v e r l oo ke d to o favorabl y from the time when

it stated its determination t o establish socialism throughout the coun

—
try wa s to be resisted Resistance was organized n ot l imiting itse l f
.
,

simply t o activities o f a prop aganda character but in many places ,

a ssuming the form o f arme d resistance by the ku l a ks and wha t ever

support they could muster in their villages It cannot be over e m pha .
-

sized that such a conflict w as just as inevitable a s the wa r of 1 9 1 8

t o 1 9 2 1 had been when the l andlords and emp l oyers work ed wi t h
,

foreign states to put an end t o the Soviet system In the period fol .

lowing 1 9 2 8 when the State mobilized its propagandists t o carr y

,

through col l ectivization and the ku l ok: mobilize d a l l whom they

,

co uld to resist foreign agents were sent into the U kraine on a con
,

side r a bl e scale t o assist the ku l a ki in preventing the success ful achieve

ment o f collec t ivization Intervention was repeated And the very

‘
.
’
.

me t hods adopted b y the ku la k oppo sition t o co l lectivization compelled

retaliatory me a sures being taken Ku l ok families were deported in
.

hundre ds o f thousands and se t to work on construction j obs far from

thei r native villages and for a time certain agric u ltural are a s were
,

in a state almost o f armed warfare .

B ut the most se rious result o f ku l a k opposition to col lective farm

ing was the mass slaughter o f cattl e Rather than face col l ectiv iza
.

tion rich peasants kille d their cattl e an d incite d their p oorer

,

neighbors so metimes successfull y t o do l ikewise And when the

, , .

n e w co ll ectives were organized the y had n ot a l w ays the necessary

,
1 74 . R USS IA W ITHOUT ILL USIONS
country with its in dustries already bui l t a n d with surplus ca pacity
,

lying idle could never mobilize th e whol e pe opl e for reconstruction

,

a s the has done with its vast undevelope d natural re sou r ces
and with a backward industrial and agraria n system Such a vi ew .

appears to me t o be quite erroneou s For if we examine the problems

.
,

with which the has been face d for the past twen ty years it ,

is hard to imagine an y o n e o f them that would not have been made

lighter i f the country had been more advanced materially and c ul
t u r a l l y A more 0 r l e ss illiterate popula t ion in 1 is now more
.
. 9 7
1 or

l ess literate But if it had been l itera t e then how rapidly would the
.
,

e duca t ional system have been developed for the use o f eve ry adult ! The
fact that the country has vast natural resources is an a sset but there ,

is no a sset in the fact that these resources were completely untouched

in the main and that the means of exploiting them factories and
,
—
—
mines and farming machinery have had to be provi ded under the
Soviet system it self If the . had had th e resources at i t s dis
p osal that B ritain has t o day for its people it could have introduced a
,

six hour day instead of an eight hour day in 1 9 1 7 paid vacations o f

- -
,

at least a month instead o f a fortnight and it would have been able ,

to provide better food ho u sing and clo t hing in twenty years than ha s
, ,

actua l ly been the case All t he e vidence goes t o S how that the ba c k
.

w a r dn ess o f t he country has been the main obstacle to the successes

—
of t he new system not that i t has fost ered these successes .

And even t oday t he previous backwardness o f Russia still shows

itself in certain aspe cts o f living condit ions The appalling overcrowd .

ing in the towns of the is not something caused by the

Revolution ; it is a survival which has cert ainly been intensified to
,

some exte nt by the rapid growth o f the town population But such a .

rapid growth of the town population h as itself been necessary t o

deve l op that industry which alone will make possible a real improve
ment o f housing conditions Therefore when w e survey the develop
.
,

’
ments o f the as the world s first soc ialist country let u s ,

a l ways be ar in mind that in 1 9 1 7 it w a s o n e o f the world s most

’
 IS THIS SOCIALISM ? 1 75
backward countries and that socialism is in its in fancy and even n ow
,

ha s been in full working order in town and count r y for a pe riod o f

on ly fi ve years .

I n the future pe opl e wi l l l oo k bac k on these fi rst twenty y ears o f

‘
the Soviet system a s the prim itive pe riod when soc ialist organization
' ’

w as being attempted for the fi rst time They will look back at the
.

develo pments o f the fi rst twenty years o f the Soviet Republic as a

period o f innovation and change in which t he new sy stem w as bein g
introduced against all k inds o f obstac l es and a hostile worl d The y
.

wil l regard such th ings as the seven hour day and two weeks vacation
-
’

as just the fi r st so cial improvements which the new kind o f govern

ment w as able to introduce These are matters which w e must a l
.

ways bear in mind for otherwise w e l ose ou r pers pe ctive o f what is

,

occurring .
 CH A P T E R XV

Th i s On e P a r ty B u sin e ss
-

IN THE there is only on e politica l party I k ne w this be fore .

I went there and I was interested to see to what extent such a o n e

,

part y system could in any way be claimed to be democratic D uring

.
.

m y fi rst year o n Soviet t erritory I discusse d the question o f the one

,

party system probably more than any o t her subject H ow can you have
“
.

democracy with only on e political party ? I would ask And the

”
.

answe r would be Why shou l d we have more than on e party ? O ur

“

party is a part y of the working class and we have a working class

,
-

State We don t want part ies of the capitalists working to overt hrow
.
’

”
o u r socialist State All right I wo u ld grant this But how about
.
,
“
.

di ff erences in view among the workers themselves ? Surely you may

have di fferent work ing class points o f view which could express them
-

selves through di ff erent political parties ? ” “

Al l those di fferences can
be settled wi t hin o u r party and t h e Soviet S t a t e wi t hout any nee d t o
build up separate political parties on s u ch issues I was dissa t isfied ;
”
.

I firmly believe d t hat a time would come when some sort o f non ‘

’
con formist movement would develop breaking away from the ,

domination o f on e pol itical part y I t was only the experience o f living

.

and working under Soviet condit ions and then returning to se e those
o f England again th at changed my mind on this point .

The grea t est con fusion concerning the on e party system in the -

ari ses I believe from a misunderstanding o f what that

, ,

party is It is not a parliamentary part y at all and I began to real ize

.
,

this only a s time passe d and a s I saw the party in action and th e
attitude o f ordinary people toward it Most revealing o f a l l I suppose
.
, ,

w a s the party cleansing t hat took place in the autumn o f 1 9 3 3 and

‘ ’
,

at which I was present N ow the Communist Party o f the Soviet

.

1 7 6
1 7 8 R USS I A W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
statement o f his allegations and the matter w as adj ourne d fo r a
,

special inquiry In other cases the quest ion o f a p erson s morals might
.
’

be raise d i f he or S he w a s considered by anyone to be leading a dis

so lute life for public opinion h as its standards in the
, as

e l sewhere and demands exempla r y lives from Communists O r .

,

final ly behavior at his place o f work l ac k o f responsibility a domi

, , ,

neering atti tude to subordinates laziness—all these things might be

,

brought forward .

O f particular se riousness ( in 1 93 3 ) wa s dishonesty by an indi

vidua l as t o his or her past political acti vities I never heard a word .

‘
o f criticism o f a C omm u nist w h o at th e
’
cleansing gave a full and
, ,

detailed account o f h is past activities even if he had been at o n e time

,

definitely hosti l e t o the Revolution S o l ong as he told his s t ory

.

s t raightforwardly n o questions were asked But a s soon as a pe rson.

appeared vague an d t o be hiding something t hen he was at once ,

subjected t o the most ruthless cross examination bo t h by the audi

-

ence and by the Cl eansing C ommission itself In the polit

.

ical dishonesty is considered o n e o f the m ost discreditable pe rsonal

att r ibutes T o give false in formation about one s ow n past career is
.
’

considere d a s damning as to give false testimonials in this coun try on

a pplying for a j ob A p i ty some o f ou r ow n politicians w h o consist
.

‘
ently give themselves false testimonials are not subject t o t hat’

popular form o f examination which is use d in the U S S R . . .

T o th ose w h o l ived through the Russian Revolution w h o saw ,

othe r p o l itical parties suppresse d because the y tried to seize po wer by

force when they no longer could hope to do so by lega l democ r atic
means th e prestige o f the B olshevik Party grew as the prestige o f
,

these othe r parties declined And a s early as 1 9 2 1 L enin introduced

.

‘
t he party cleansing a s a means o f ensu r ing that within the party
’
,

that professe d to be the leadership o f the whole working popula t ion ,

p eople should n ot be able to make careers for themselves wh o did not

command the full respect o f their fellow working cit izens It w a s as .

a result o f the good leadership o f the party and o f the possibili ty ,

 THIS ON E PA RTY - BU SIN ESS 1 79
‘
through the cleansing for the genera l public t o decide w h o should
,
’

be in such a party that the people o f the

,
began t o regard
the part y like the State as ours in a new way and did their utmost
,
‘
,
’
,

to strengthen it as th eir ow n organization o f leadershi p .

I n Bri t ain today if w e had a working class pa r ty that subjected it s -

mem be rship to such public and democratic control the membe rship ,

would be reduce d to on e tenth o f what it is but its quality would be

-
,
-

such that when it then put up candidates in national and local elec
tions peopl e would at least know that these individuals had been
,

—
publicly approved as the most wort h y working citizen s a knowledge
which we unfortunately do n ot have t o da y concerning either par
l ia m e n t a r y o r local candidates .

I found Soviet citizens referring with en thusi a sm not only t o ou r ‘

‘
party and ou r governmen t but time and again to our Stalin in
’ ‘
,
’ ’

the most enthusiastic terms in w or ds a l m ost nauseating t o the ear

,
~

o f the intellectual traine d in the tradition o f Western arliamentary

p
democracy And I must admit that it took me some time before I
.

could adjust myself to this particu l ar k ind o f adulation o f the leader

‘
,
’

to use the phrase o f Sidney and Beatrice Webb It was only after .

re turning to England in 1 93 6 that I sa w this part icular aspect o f

Soviet li fe in perspective .

—
F rst and this is the point which I emphasize in S ov iet B e m oe
i
r a c y written during my fi rst year in England after fi ve years in the
,

—there is no doubt that di ff erences of language cause con

side r a bl e misunderstanding It is not o nly Stalin the leader o f the
.
,

w h o finds himself made the obj ect o f all kinds o f adulatory

phrases from the mass o f the people E ven cert ain socialist leaders in .

countries with a strongly often vi olently anti socialist gove rnment

, ,
-

and bureaucracy have the same experience Jawaharlal N ehru leader

, .
,

o f the Congress Socialists o f India writes a s follows : ,

M y very popularity and the brave addresses that came my

w a y, ful l ( a s is, indeed the cust om
, o f al l such addre sses in
1 80 R USS I A W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
I ndia ) of choice and flowe r y language and extravagant conceits ,

became subjects for raillery in the circle o f my family and in

timate friends The high sounding and pompous words and
.
-

titles that were often used for all those prominent in the N ational
movement were pic k e d out by my wife and sisters and others
,

an d bandied about irreverently I was addre sse d as Bharat Bhu .

‘ ‘
shan ( Jewel o f T ya g a m u rt i ( O Embodiment o f Sac
and this light hearted treatment soothed me
-

In face o f t his r e fn e m be r two things : First that the l angua ges o f

, ,

the are much close r to t h ose o f India than to that o f

England ; secondly that if the C ongress S ocialist Party ever becomes
,

the governing pa r ty in India and p urs u es a popular poli cy then the ,

adoration o f N ehru great as it is today in the face o f every kind o f

,

offi cial op position is going t o increase a thousand fold Transfer the

,
.

scene t o the and you get a picture o f the atti t ude o f the
people t o Stalin today and you see that such phrases are n o a rt ifi cia l ity
,

but the exp ression o f the p eople s feeling abou t a leader whose popu
’

l a r ity is base d entirely on the policy that he represents .

There is n o evidence that Stalin any more than N ehru enj oys , ,

being the subj ect o f mass a fl e ction expresse d in highly decorative

’

l anguage L ion F eu chtw a n g er wh o discusse d this as well as ot her

.
,

matters with Stalin writes : It is manifestly irksome to S t alin to be

“
,

” 2
idolized as he is and from time to time he makes fun o f it
,
And .

I remember on e o f Stalin s Speeches in which he ri dicules those

’

people w h o instead o f getting on with their work send letters of

, ,

greeting to the l eaders couched in the most loyal te rms .

‘
Such w a s my explana t ion o f this adula t ion of Stalin at first on ’

returning from t he in 1 9 3 6 H owever having seen more .

,

of a ffai r s in this coun t ry by now I feel that in s t ressing this linguistic

,

explanation I neglected another more import ant fac t This is t he .

1 J a w a h a r l a l N e h r u : A n A u to biog r a p izy .

2 Lion Fe u htw
c a ng e r , Mor cow , 1 93 7 .
1 82 R USS I A W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
do not tell us that only the masses are eternal nor do our Bri t ish
'

democratic l eaders It has taken a Stalin t o realize this and to say i t ;

.

th i s is i t self ample reason wh y the masses should respect S t alin as

they do .

There are few questions which have been put to me more o ft en

“
since returning to England from the than this one : Can
a Soviet citizen get up in a par k in Russia and attack S t alin as a
Bri t ish citizen can attack Chamberlain in H yde Park ? To the British
”

democrat this all t oo often seems to be the key question Actually it .

is beside t he point My answer is : First that a Soviet citizen certainl y

.
,

could not get up in a Soviet park and attack S t alin without the gen
eral public p u tting him to flight H e would in fact meet wi t h the
.
, ,

kind o f reception t hat Mosley receives today in the streets of L ondon ,

but a thousand times more fierce and wi t h this di fference t hat in

,
—
the the militia would support the public rather than de fend
a speaker t hat the p u blic had no desire to hear .

Suppose the B ritish pe ople should in t he future e l ect a government

controlled by a progressive party that at once introduced an eight
hour work ing day vacations wit h pay free medica l treatment for all
, ,

worke r s and full pay for those who were unemploye d through no
,

fault of their ow n Such a government such a party and the leaders

.
, ,

of such a party would command the active support of the ove rwhe l m
ing mass o f the Bri t ish people They would regard such a govern
.

‘ ’
ment as theirs in a way in which they have regarded no govern
ment hithert o An example of this is the Pop u lar Front in France
.

where though by no means al l these progre ssive proposals have been

,

carried ou t and though reactionary influences are a l so working hard

even wi thin the Popular Front the people regard a Popular Front
,
‘ ’
government as theirs in a new w a y to such an extent that some o f
,

t he richest men in France are financing schemes to overthrow such a

government by force to repeat the example o f Spain
, .

N ow at the sa me time that such a government passes its pr ogr es

sive legislation it will meet with ever more serious resistance by the
 TH IS O N E PA RTY B U SI N ESS
-
1 83

rich empl oyers In France the government alone w a s not able t o

.

enforce the forty hour week ; it require d s t rikes by the workers in

-

t he factories to ensure that the new laws would be applied In this .

way any such government attacking the big property interests on be

,

half o f the vast maj ori ty o f the p opulation finds that j ust a s its active
,

suppo rters among the masses rapidly increase so t oo its enemies more , ,

and more resort to sabotage and even preparations for armed rebellion
against it As the situation becomes more serious those progressive
.
,

leaders who really resp ect the ranks of the pe op l e and appeal to the
pe ople t o defend their rights inevi t ably gain in prestige ; those w ho
,

have no faith in the masses find that the mas se s have l ess and l ess
fait h in them B it by bit poli t ical groups who find their mass s u pport
.

declining resort to violent action in a last attempt to kee p power in

their hands O n doing t his violating the democracy which they may
.
,

even have supporte d at a previous stage they become outlaws And , .

so a o n e party system may develop in which the p eople s party like

’
-
, ,

the State is regarded by the people as their s, and the l eade rs o f this
,

party and t he government become popular fi gures with the over

whelming support o f the masses of the population behind them It is .

in this way precisely that S t alin h a s achieve d his present po pulari t y

in the An d it is as a result of such a process that attacks o n
such a government and leadership in public parks become in the view ,

o f the people acts hostile to their democracy

, .

But this does not mean that al l criticism and possibility o f criticism
disappear O n the contrary in the
. today there is more r uth
l ess cri t icism o f bad administration than anywhere in the worl d The .

pe ople wholeheartedly suppor t t h e p resent Government and its p o l icy

because t hey se e that it works in their ow n personal interests B u t .

precisel y because o f this they are strongly critical of every act which
distorts that po l icy and thus reacts against the public interest And for .

this reason in the Soviet pre ss on e can read t oday the most harrowing
, ,

sto ri es o f ine fficiency abuses o f power and bureaucracy

, , .

H e r e aga in howeve r l et us be cl ear on one point I do n ot kn ow

, , .
1 84 R USSI A W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
how often I have had quoted to me ext rac t s from the Soviet press to
t he e ff ect that say in a cert ain factory 7 0 pe r cent of t he output is
, ,

unfi t for use Is this I am asked really true o f the

.
, ,
at the
presen t time ? And I answer that if it appeared in the Soviet pre ss it ,

most cert ainly is But let us make no mistake about this sit u a t ion ; let
.

us not assume that because such things happe n in Soviet factories

, ,

therefore these factories are n ecessarily much less e ffi cient than fac
tories under capi t alism In ou r co u ntry t oo e ven in aircra ft factories
.
, ,

duri ng a peri od o f vast armamen t development t here are times when ,

pe r cent o f the p roduct is scrap But under sys t em there is no

7 0 o u r .

freedom o f criticism for such things A fi rm t hat is producing bad

goods doe s not publish the fact—o r there woul d be a slump in its
.

shares A shop th at sells adulterated prod u cts can get away with it
.

unle ss the case is taken to court But in the . if you suspect

that a certain S t ate shop is serving y ou wit h ad u lterated products ,

you can write to the press about it ; you are free to cri t i c i ze and make
known your criticisms .

‘
It is frequently obj ecte d by non Comm u nist socialist s that in the
-
’

today there is in fact a dic t atorship by the C ommunist

Part y because it not only domina t es t he State b u t the trade unions ,
-

and every o ther popular organization But how does it dominate ‘

.
’

these o r ganizations ? O nly by winning po pular support for candidates

for o ffi ce who are party members In no o t her way can t he part y gain
‘

a maj ority on the l eading committees o f these various organizations .

And there is no t hing in any way harmful o r undemocratic in this .

When we in B ritain have such a po pular political part y that sa y 8 0 , ,

e r cent o f the working population recognize that this party has really
p
succeeded in enro l ling the very best representatives of the working
people w e too shall be reaching a similar posi t ion t o tha t which exists
,

in the We shall find t hat such a p arty will control the

government and that th e mass o f the people having benefi t ed from
, ,

its policy will support candidates o f this party not only in local elec
,

tions and nationa l one s but in the trade unions the co operative so
,
-
,
-
1 86 R USS I A W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
e r n m en tdecision in th e is taken except a s a result o f a
constan t accumul ation o f information local decisions and r e com , ,

m en da tion s which show that such a centra l decision in such and such ,

circumst ances is nece ssary, .

Some people would have us be lieve that Stalin personally decides

all questions o f Soviet po l icy ; but on e of t he outstanding meri t s o f
Stalin a s a leader is t ha t when giving a lead he has a genius for pu t
, ,

ting forward a policy that meets th e nee ds o f the mass o f the people .

And as Stalin himsel f h a s repeatedly pointed ou t n o directive from ,

any l eading committ ee is o f t he sligh t est use unless it is based o n t he

experi ence o f the ordinary rank and fi l e pe ople w h o do the prac t ical
- -

work There fore S t alin wo u ld be the l ast pe rson to claim for any
.
,

lead that he gave on any issue tha t he was doing anything more than
,

voicing a commonl y felt and commonly expressed feeling o f the

whole pe ople Every decision in the Soviet State results from expres
.

sions o f opinion by ordinary working people in trade union and pro -

‘
duction meet in gs in wall newspape rs and in th e press in in st r u c
,
-
’
,

tions to local soviets an d in letters o f complaint t o the Soviet Con t rol

,

Commission to the Supreme Counci l t o the deputies in the S u preme

, ,

C o u ncil and t o the party leadership It is as a result o f this constant

, .

stream o f cri t icism and demands from the ran ks o f the people t ha t
l eading committees throughout t he make their decisions .

And as S talin has pointed ou t i f a leading committee makes a de

, ,

c isio n that does not meet the nee ds o f t h e people o n the job such a ,

decision w il l be inope rative and furt her decisions will have to be

,

made The . is such an organic uni ty t hat every measure is

t he product o f the collective commen t s of thousands o f people ; every
measure can be carried o u t in practice only when it has the e fl e c tiv e ’

and ac t ive agreement o f millions The role o f the party is simply to

.

concen t rate t he work o f leadership to some extent in order to pre, ,

serve a un ified working class policy In order to do this the party

-
.
,

must enroll the very best people from t he ran ks o f the workers for ,

only in t hat way can i ts prestige be prese rved .

 THIS O N E -
PA RTY BU SI N ESS 1 87

But with such a system parliamentary politics as we know th e

,

game cease to exis t For once we have a uni t ed people behind a

.
, ,

single leadership working for a common aim t here is no l onger a

, ,

basis for di fferent parties figh t ing one ano t her .

When I first went t o the I tried to visualize a future

development in t o parties according to di ff erences of opinion wi t hin
,

the working pop u lation i t self B u t today having lived t here I simply
.
, ,

cannot see t his happening For in order to form a political part y it is

.
,

essential to have some b a sic common interest You cannot organize .

a political party on a single issue for the simple reaso n that the people
w h o w ork together on that issue may be comple t ely at variance on
another You can organize a party o f empl oye r s against a party of
.

’
workers You may have di ff erent employers parties representing
.

—
fundamentally opposed economic in t erests e xport industries v er su s
home indus t ries demanding pro t ection for example You may have
, .

a workers party standing for c o opera t ion with t he employers But

’
-
.

when you have lived t hrough a pe riod in which all the workers and
peasants have united and have put an end to capi t alism entirely t hen ,

there are no longe r those pe rmanent sources o f conflict that can be

the foundation fo r permanent p olit ical parties .

In the S oviet U nion today there are some people who think that
wages are t oo unequ al ; there are o t hers who may think they are too
equal ; there are some who t hink that t he l a w prohibi t ing abortion
which was introduced some t ime ago was wrong ; others t hink i t was
premature ; others t hink it should have been introduce d earlier Some .

people may like t he model statutes for collective farms adopted at a

conference of the most outstanding collective farmers ; others may
thin k these model statutes are so much nonsense ; but I challenge
anyone anywhere to form a permanent pol itic a l par ty uni t ing one
section of the popula t ion in the on a whole seri es o f s u ch
issues so as to have a concrete politica l platform and a po sitive policy
,

against another section o f the people You can always draw u p an

.

‘
opposition program
’
by op p osing everything in an existing po licy .
1 88 R USSI A W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
But such a program can never win support in any country unle ss it
shows the mass o f the peopl e that t hey can unite on this program and
all gain some t hing from i t In the . tod ay eve rybody is gain
ing from t he present po l icy o f t he existing government ; they wish to
accelera t e the progre ss that is being made not to fight the govern
,

ment t hat is making such progress because some like on e side o f its
policy and othe rs another and some dislike on e measure and othe rs
,

ano t her .

U nder such conditions it is for the workers and peasants and intel
l e ctu a l s in t heir ow n collec t ives their trade unions in the party and
.
-
, , ,

in le tt ers and statements to the party in t he soviets local and na

, ,

t io n a l in letters and interviews wi t h their deputies local and na

, ,

t io n a l in their t rade union and fac t ory press in their local press and
,
-
,

in the na t ional newspapers to p u t forward constantly their views and

,

t heir demands and their suggest ions as to how progress can be accel
c rated toward a better life for all .

‘
I n such a system what role can an opposition party play but t hat ’

o f a disintegrator o f public en t husiasm and action an obs t ruct or o f

,

progress .

And it is with this point t ha t I want to proc eed to the next qu es

tion to which I am giving far more S pace than it S houl d ever have
,

merited I do this n ot be cause o f the e ssential importance o f the

.
,

question itsel f but because of the amount made of it in the press in

,

th e rest o f th e worl d Y ou will guess t hat I a l lude t o th e Sovi et

.

trials .
1
9 0 R USS IA W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
L abor Party in Britain today display in referring to t he names f o

M c D on l d and Thomas It was precisely as t he discredi t ed ex

a a .

—
leaders that these people were regarded people w ere now if w ho
anything given too high and responsible post s by the Government and
were trusted t oo much not too lit t le , .

I may say therefore that at the ve r y be ginning of the present decade

, ,

I found the Tro t skys and Zinovievs in t he being regarded

as the Ma c D on a l ds and Thomases of the Revolu t io n They already .

had no popular suppo rt And even discon t ented people with fe w

.
,

excep t ions appeare d quite convince d that their lot wo uld cert ainly
,

not have been better under the leadership of Trotsky and Bukharin ,

o r Kamenev and Zinoviev .

Wh y it may be asked were the se people so regarded ? H ow did it

, ,

come about that public opinion regarded them as rather irresponsible ,

rathe r unreliable indivi duals as compared with the existing leader

ship ? The answer lies in their past history in the internal his t ory of
,

the Russan Revolution of which we in Britain kn ow all too li tt le

, ,

and o f which I began to read only when living on Soviet terri t ory .

Viewe d from England the Russian Revolution appeared to be led by

,

L enin and Trot sky Kamenev and Zinoviev We saw the most vocal
,
.

pe rsonali t ies those who appeare d most on plat forms and wro t e the
,

most striking manifest os and pamphlets We did not know o f the .

internal conflicts within that leadership o f the questions that were

,

constant ly being fought out in the leading ran ks of t he party itself ;

we knew no more of these things than we know tod ay t he details o f
t he internal political conflicts within Franco s Spain It was t hose ’
.

individuals w h o spoke loudest and wrote most whose names became

known ; while th ose who performe d the da ily work of quietly or
‘
g a n iz in
g the people in the process o f the Revolution were unknown
’
soldiers t o the rest o f the world .

N ow it happened that before the Revo l ution t he central leader

, ,

ship o f the party was situate d abroad among the emigrants under the
,

leadership o f L e n in H ere the centra l commit tee o f t h e party drew

.
 DISCR EDITED POLITICIA N S 1 9 1

up i t s manifestos and p repa red its p ublications t o be smuggled into

Russia and among the writers occu pied in this work Kamenev and
,

Zinoviev and Bu kharin be came we l l known at that time Trotsky .

,

also in exile abroad and a violent opponent of L enin and Bolshevism

,
,

also became wel l known for his writings and S pe eches .

In 1 9 1 7 the Bo l shevi k em ig r e s followed L enin back to Russia

'
.

Trotsky also returned t o Russia putting forward his own version of ,

r evolutionar y pro p aganda while bitterly opposing the Bolshe viks .

O nl y in July 1 9 1 7 when the prestige of the Bolsheviks was rising

, ,

rapidl y did Trotsky join their ranks As the year went on and the
,
.

time for drastic action drew nearer Lenin began his propaganda for ,

an armed u p rising as the only way to avert t he imposi t ion of a mili

tary dictatorship in the interests o f the prope rty owners And by .
,

O ctober 1 9 1 7 the position had become cri t ical The central com
, ,
.

m ittee o f the Bolshevik Part y decide d upon an arme d uprising in

Petrograd ; Kamenev and Zinoviev o n the centra l committee oppose d
such a decision and when defeate d gave full publicity in the press to
,

t heir opposition and thus t o the se cret decision it self L enin de

, .

“
n ou n c e d them in the strongest term s in spite o f his former relations
wi t h these former comrades and demande d their expu l sion from the
”

part y L et Messrs Kamenev and Zinoviev found their own p arty

.
“
.

from the dozens o f diso rien t ate d pe ople he wrote the workers will
”
, ,

” 1
not jo i n such a party And in a letter written shortly afterward
.

he remarked that t he only way to restore the workers party to

“ ’

heal t h is to ri d ourselves of a doz en or so Spineless intellectuals to

” “
,

rally the ranks o f the revolutionaries to go forth to meet great and ,

momento u s ta sks and to march hand in hand with the r e v olu tiona r y
” 2
w or k e r s Al ready in 1 9 1 7 when t he party became face d with
.
, ,

practical tasks and the centra l committee w a s n o l onger main l y con

cerned with issuing p ropaganda for smuggling into Russia L enin ,

1 N . P op ov ,
H istor y of th e
2 P . K e r zh ent zev , Life of Len in .
1 9 2 R USS IA W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
pointe d out the undesirability o f having a dozen o r S o spinele ss inte l
lectuals in th e leadershi p
”
.

N ow among t he intellectuals in the leade r ship certain individua ls ,

had t heir o w n theories of the Revolution which di d n ot correspond

t o th ose o f the part y Trotsky for example though he j oined the
.
, ,

pa r ty never gave u p his ol d view that socialism could never be

,

achieve d in Russia al one owing to the fact that the vast maj ority o f
,

peasants in the population would al ways be an anti socialist force -

.

S ocialism in Ru ssia in Trotsky s view could only come as a result

,
’
,

o f receiving help fr o ni a socialist revolution in the rest o f E u r ope

'

‘
Trotsky also had always opposed the Bolshevik conception of dem o
cratic central ism by which al l decisions of leading p arty committees
,
’

were binding on the membership Somewhere up above ve ry very

“
.
, ,

high up someone is locking someb ody up somewhere replacing some

, ,

body throttling somebo dy Someon e is proclaiming himself some b ody

, .

—and as a result on the committee s tower a flag makes its t riu m

, ,
’

‘
phant appearance bearing the in scription : orth odoxy centralism p o , ,

l it ic a l struggle Thus wrote Trotsky o f the B olshe v ik party in Our

.
’

P ol itic a l Ta sks over ten y ears be fore the Revolution Such a denun .

c ia t io n cou l d hardly have been more strongly worded against the

tsarist autocracy and similar denunciati ons in alm ost the same
, ,

words repeatedly flow from the pen o f Trotsky today no longer

, ,

against the B olshevik party under L enin s l eadership but against t he ’

,

Soviet Sta t e under Stalin .

Al ready in 1 9 1 8 Trotsky s view o f the Revol ution le d him t o

, ,
’

op pose the signing o f p eace w ith Germany But the Soviet soldiers .

w ould not fi ght the Germans advanced and only just in time did
, ,

L enin and Stalin win a maj ority o n the centra l committe e o f the
party in favor o f pe ace at any price And at that time Bu kha r in .
,

Rade k and a numbe r of others who have recently been tried su p

, ,

port ed Trotsky against L enin and Sta l in N ot only did they do t his .

‘
but they forme d their ow n Le ft C ommu nist group accuse d L enin ’
,

o f ri ght wing tendencies

-
and pl otted wi t h the Social Revolution,
1 94. R USSI A W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
the trade union movement to the wor k o f training millions o f
-
,

trade union mem bers an d to the Re p ub l ic

-
, .
’

Indeed ! wrote L enin ] what is go od about Trotsky ? N ot his,

theses but in his spe e c hes

, his pr odu ction pr opa g a n d a is u n
,

doubtedly good and use ful H ad he ta ken a p ractical business“

.
,

like part in the work o f t he trade —

”
union commission as a ,

Speaker and writer C omrade Trotsky would undoubtedl y

have done use ful work 2
.

Already at this t im b L enin a n d the l eadership of the party are

, ,

finding that the professional Spea k er and writer when he start s pro ,

du cin g his o w n theories instead o f doing practica l work along lines

already agreed upon may become a disruptive force And at this t ime
, .

the party needed pe opl e t o do concrete work not to issue manifestos , .

A t on e time we needed declarations manifestos and decrees ,

! wro t e L enin ] We have quite

. enough o f these At o n e time we .

needed these things i n order to S how the people how and what
we want to build what new an d hi t hert o unseen things we are
,

striving for But ca n w e continue showing the peop l e what we

.

want to build ? N o Even the simplest worker will begin to sneer

.

a t us and say : What s the use o f y our keeping on showing us

“ ’

wha t you want to build ? Show us that you can build If you .

”
can t build your w a y is n ot ours and you can go to hell ! An d
’
, ,

2
he will be right .

N ow the most able speakers and writers when in addition they ,

have a personal longing f power may become t horns in t he flesh of

or ,

any practical committ ee that has to undertake concre t e and urgent

t asks Al ready in 1 9 1 7 L enin wro t e in scorn o f a dozen or so Spine
.
“

l ess intellectuals and in 1 9 2 1 he pointed out h w Trotsky s Spe eches

”
,
o
’

1 Le nin, S el ected Wor ks

, Vol ix . .

2
b
I id .
 DISCR EDITED POLITICIA N S 1 95

and p ropaganda were useful that he w a s an exce ll ent sp ea k er and

,

writer b u t that his re l uctance to adopt a business l ike a pp roach o n

,
‘ -
’

a committee made him a danger even to the Republic itsel f In equally .

Strong words at that time he condemned Bu kharin an d forecast that ,

the more he defends his deviation from C ommunism

“
the m ore
deplorable will be the fruits o f his obstinacy ” 1
Whi l e these conflicts
.

were well known to the Sovie t people they were never fol l owed cl osely
,

abroad With the result that Tro ts ky B u kharin and others l ost p res
.
, ,

tige rapidly on Soviet te rritory whi l e abroad thei r reputations die d

,

hard .

It is frequently alleged tod ay that most o f the o r igina l membe rs

o f the central committee o f the Bolshevik Party a s it w a s in 1 9 1 7 , ,

are n ow dead While a number have died natural deaths it is a fact

.
,

that a number o f them have since been exiled and a certain number
shot Prior to 1 9 1 7 th e leadership o f the Bolshevi k Party that ope rated
.

abroad consisted main l y o f propagandists writers a n d spe a k ers They

, , .

were not the pe ople who at the constant risk o f thei r liberty and of
,

their l ives were doing the day to day work o f organizing the work
,
- -

ers and peasants inside Russia Stalin w a s o n e o f these l atter w h o only

.
,

very occasionally was abroad a s a delegate t o a conference and who ,

a l most the whole of his time w a s working inside the Russian Empire
o r in exile in Siberia Stalin never w a s o n e of that group o f s eakers
.
p
and writers w h o lived for l ong periods abroad
A l ready in 1 9 1 7 L enin p oints ou t that the spinele ss inte ll ectuals ”

must be replaced by rea l revol utionaries in the l eadershi p o f the party .

And later he shows that it is practica l work that is now necessary the ,

time for writing p rograms and manifestos is over And as an inevi .

,

table result o f this ch a nge the inte l lectual s find that their dominance
,

is on the decline ; working class Bolshe viks are taking their place in
-

leading positions Those intel l ectuals wh o were su fficientl y communist

.

t o recognize the necessity o f this felt only satisfaction as the leadership

o f the party became more representative o f the working pe ople But .

1 b
I id .
1 9 6 R USSI A W ITH OUT ILL USIONS
all those intellectual s such as Trotsky in p articular w h o had al way s
, ,

put person a l presti ge before part y discipline resented i t bitterly While , .

Voroshilov metal worker Bolshe v ik since 1 90 3 was elec t e d t o the

, , ,

central committee in 1 9 2 1 as a result of his superb leadership in the

civil war and Ka gan ovitch leather worker was elec t ed in 1 9 2 4 as a
, , ,

re sult of his outstanding organizing ability the prest ige of those rather ,

se l f centered intellec t uals who were repeatedly S howing t hemselves to

-
,

be extremely undisciplined and unreliable in their j udgment steadily ,

dec l ine d B it by bit the respect for S t alin V oroshilov Kalinin Ku ibi
.
, , ,

sh e v Kirov O r djon ikidze Molotov among the mass o f the pe op l e

, , , ,

grew ; and the support for Trotsky Bu kharin Kamenev Zinoviev , , , ,

and Radek waned While these la t ter continue d t o be admired for

.

their brilli a nt journal ism it was th e former group that was respe cte d
,

for its so und politica l judgment base d on the closest analysis o f the
,

immediate situation with which the country was fa ced together wi t h ,

an intense conviction that L enin was right in his be l ief that socialism
could be organize d even in on e country if the revolution in the West
did not mature immediate ly .

I remember a Story told me b y an interp reter w ho had o ffi ciated at

se veral se ssions of the Communist International o f how Trotsky on ce ,

made a spe ech in Russian and then volun t eered t o make his own
translation in t o French H e spoke fo r twice a s l ong to the French
.

delegation as he did in Russian ! And in d m er ic cm Te sta m e n t J oseph

Freeman gives a p icture o f Trotsky s final appearance in the C om ’

m u n ist International when he had been overwhelmingly de feated

,

within the Bol she vik Party o f the after months nay years , , ,

o f heated discu ssion Freeman describes h ow pe o pl e came t o hear

.

Trotsky as if to see a great actor E ven his enemies were thrille d at .

the show which they were going to see E ven though the overwhelming .

maj ority were against Trotsky his brilliant oratory w as a perform,

an ce to whi c h they l ooked forward This was the last stand o f a .

bril l iant intellectual an individualist t o the core a man incapable of

, ,

co l lective and disciplined work and a man wh o had been steadily ,

 9 8 R USSI A W ITHOUT ILL USIONS
In the case o f T u ka che vsky however the argument here applies
, ,

with certain adj u stmen t s For T u ka ch e vsky w a s not a work ing class
.
-

revolutionary but an ex nobleman H e had been a tsarist o ffi cer ; he

-
.

was promoted to high po sitions in the Red Army for his military
knowledge and ability and not for his political judgment And even
, .
,

when he was Assist ant Commissar for D e fen se it was always a well ,

known fact that the Government and t he Commissar for D e fense ,

V oroshilov determined policy ; Tu ka ch e v sky never enjoyed a posi t ion

,

o f poli t ical leadership But s u ppose that T u ka ch e v sk ambitions were ’

s
.
y
political and not merely mili t ary ; then surely nothing coul d be more
galling for this ex arist ocrat a very able man constan tly t o be under
-
, ,

the authority o f ordinary working people constantly unable t o swing ,

policy in the direction in which he would have liked t o swing it And .

if in his work he came int o fre quent contact with German generals o f
his ow n class is it not possible that he might consider tha t c o operation
,
-

with them held o u t better prospects for the kind o f career he desired
than continuing loyally to s u pport the Soviet Government ?
As for Yagoda he never pretended to be a poli t ical leader H e rose
,
.

from the ranks of the and as has now been shown he did so
part ly by criminal means H e had N apoleonic ambitions o f his o w n
. .

H e found allies in the politically disgru ntle d an d in others w h o shared

his ambitions and so he t oo got drawn into the ne twork o f conspiracy
,

which cen t ered on all t hose people who because o f their lack o f mass ,

support could se e the possibility of achieving power only through vio

,

l ent means I t is this factor which was the basis of uni ty for all the
.

conspirators Whether it was Kamenev or Bukharin ol d oppositionists

.
,

within the Bolshevik leadership the ol d U krainian N ationalist G r in ko

, ,

o r the o l d police Sp y Ze l e n sky ; whether it w a s the mili t ary N ap o leon

T u ka c h e v sky wi t h his plans to c o operate with Reichswehr generals

,
-

or t he careerist Yagoda — all these peopl e were united Each of them .

was convince d that he could achieve that political power which he

personally desire d only by conspiracy against the Soviet State O n that .

b a sis a united front was formed of the most heterogeneous e l ements ,

 DISCR EDITED POLITICIA N S 1 99
‘
from Ol d B olsheviks t o N azi and Japane se agents They had a
’
.

‘
united front against t he Soviet Government ; whereas i f they had
’

succeeded the y l ater would have annih ila t ed each other in their st r ug
,

gle for supremacy B ut the y did n ot succeed ; their pl ot wa s nip pe d in

.

the bud .
 CH A P T E R XVI I

En e m i e s o f t h e P e op l e

TH E l ine demarcation between a discredited l eader o f any po l itica l

of

movement a n d an enemy o f that movement is a narro w on e An y .

leader whose own persona l desire for power is stronger than his l oyal ty
t o the movement an d w h o is therefore not ready to accept democratic
,

decisions against himsel f is a potential enemy o f the movement which

,

he l eads For when he is beaten in democratic discussion his desire for

.
, ,

pe r sona l po wer wil l cause him inevitably t o O ppose a decision against

—
himsel f eith er by becoming an enemy o f the movement working ,

from outside o r a disrupter of t he movement working from within

, ,
.

In Trotsky w e se e the enemy working from outside in Bukharin dis ,

r u t in
p g from within At no.stage did Trotsky o r Bu k harin ever re sort
to force when they felt they could get what they wanted by democra t ic
means B ut so soon a s public opinion n o l onger supported them then
.
,

they had t o give in or resort t o viol ence .

In this respect the a ctions o f Trotsky an d Bu k harin in the

are analogous to t he actions o f Franco in Spain The Spanish fascists .

did n ot attempt a force d se izure of power so l ong as there w a s the

remotest hope o f a victory at the elections B ut when they saw that
.

their prestige had so fallen that they were never again likely t o w in
an election then t hey resorted to armed rebellion But for the Trotsky
,
.

ists in the as for the F r a n c o ists in Spain the realization that

,

they had not enough mass support t o be e l ecte d t o power also meant
tha t t he y knew they would have still l ess ma ss suppo rt within the
country for an arme d se izure o f p ower Therefore in both cases
.
, ,

unable t o rely on popu l ar S upport they were forced by circumstances

,

to go elsewhere to se e k alli a n ces with the most militant fore ign ene
,

mies o f their own country abroad In both cases th e Berlin Rome

.
-

2 00
2 02 R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSION S
‘
l owers avowe d duty to work for such a revol uti on Surely then we
’
.
’
, ,

must ex pect Trotsky and h is fol lowers t o be working t o mobilize

p eop l e o n Soviet territory to do eve ry thing possible to weaken the

Soviet Sta te And in doing this are not these people m e n t i n g the
.
,

fullest support o f H itl er and of Japan w h o have the same immediate

,

aim as they have ?

If we examine the re p orts o f the tria l s we find that the kind o f ,

activi t ies which have been carried on against the Sovie t State are just
th ose t hat a group of people is forced to carry on when it n o longer
has mass support The ydid every thing they could to weaken the Soviet
.

State including spying for foreign powers and wrecking inside the
,

Soviet U nion plotting and carrying ou t terrorist acts against Soviet

,

l eade rs attem pting in eve r y w a y to di sorga nize the

, and t o
lowe r the m ora l e o f the people .

Sensationa l paragrap hs and headl ines have app eared in this country
‘
about the alleged confessions in the Soviet court It wil l be remem
’
.

bered that the same things were said in 1 9 3 3 about the Metro V ickers -

engineers but not an atom o f evidence has ever been p rovided even
, ,

after they returned home t o suggest that the findings o f the court were
,

anything but j ust And with regard to the more recent trials it wil l
.
, ,

be noted that not a single press corresp ondent who was prese nt at the
trials has suggested that they were anything but straightforward Al l .

the doubt on the genuineness o f the trials h a s be en cast not by t he ,

tri al s themse l ves o r t hose p resent at them but by newspaper art icl es
, , ,

written a thousa nd miles away and S pecifica l l y ca l cu l ated to sow

,

confusion in the minds o f the p eople o f other countries I am con .

vin ce d that n o newsp ape r corres po ndent pre sent at the recent tr ial s

wa s l eft any more in doubt than Mr A J Cummings w a s l e ft in . . .

doubt by the Metro Vickers Tria l of 1 93 3

-
.

Tw o questions may now a rise in the mind of the reade r O n the .

o n e hand you may as k h o w it ca me about i f these pe opl e we re so ,

ambitious a n d so unreliable that the y he l d responsible positions for so

,

l ong If in 1 92 1 Bu kharin admitted that he and othe r s had known

.
, ,
 ENEMIES O F THE P E OPL E 2 03

o plot to kidnap L enin how was it that such people were tolera t e d
f th e ,

in the highest positions in the Bolshe vik Party afterward ? And ano t her
question which arises is this : Can it not be said that if these people had
been more free to cri t icize the Soviet Government openly they wou l d ,

not have re sorted to conspiratorial methods ? These questions wi ll now

occupy us .

E very po lit ical movement which is fi ghting for adherents is unab l e

to select its membe rs as carefully as it would like And this is in cr ea s .

in g ly true the more a politica l party is base d o n democra t ic principles

and works to strengthen its ties with t he masses o f the pe ople A n d .

the Russian B olshevik Party throughout its hist ory was always ready
, ,

’
to admit to membership anyone who accepted the party s program and
rules and w h o worke d as a loyal member of the organization Time .

and again when particular members have merit e d exp u lsion and have
,

actually been expelled they have later been r e admitted so soon as

,
-

t hey expressed their willingness in future to abide loyally by the de

c ision s o f the party Such tolerance it should be realized is inevitable
.
, ,

in any democratic organization for no democratic movement can ,

a ff ord to exclude from i t s ranks peopl e wh o profess to be i t s whol e

hearted support ers .

It has been suggeste d t hat for twenty years L enin and Stalin toler
ated enemies within the party Remember that p rior t o 1 9 1 7 there
.
, ,

was a member o f the centra l c ommittee Malinovsky w h o w a s a , ,

tsarist spy But so long as he acted l ike a good B ol shevik and hid his
.

Spying there was every reason why L enin Stalin and other leaders
, , ,

not knowing that he w as a spy shou l d have tolerated and even w el

,

comed his contribution to the work o f the central committee After .

t he Revolution time and time again the leadership showe d i t self u n

, ,

willing to do any t hing that would lead to the expulsion of people with
great abili ty so long as t hey appeared to work l oyally for t he part y
, .

In fact the Bolshevik Party ha s tolerated people whom i t had every

,

reason to consider unreliab l e to a fa r greater extent and for a fa r

,
2 04
. R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSION S
longer t ime than work l ass p arties are accustomed t o do unde r
ing- c
capitalism .

The second question which is frequent ly a sk e d is whether these

people if they had enjoyed freedom o f propagan da woul d not have
, ,

confined their activities t o p ropaganda an d n ot resorted to force The .

answer is I think first ly that freedom o f p ropaganda in n o way pre

, , ,

vents a determine d minor ity from resorting t o force if it kno ws t hat

its p ropaganda alone will never w in it p ower T o ta k e the recen t
.

example o f Spain Genera l Franco did not organ ize his rebellion be
,

cause the fascists were deprived o f freedom o f propaganda ; ac t ual ly ,

the fascists had complete freedom o f propaganda until they precipita t e d

t he rebe l lion The fascists started the rebellion when they realized t hat
.
,

whatever their propaganda they woul d never again be able to win mass
,

su pport against the Popular Front .

And this paral l e l applies equally t o the The accuse d in

t h e recent trial s had for man y years given u p o pen anti Government -

propaganda because the y knew not onl y that they had no hope o f
winning m a ss support but that their popularity woul d actual ly decl ine
if they came ou t open l y as enemies o f pop ular decisions There fore .

their p ropaganda t o o k t h e form o f pr o Soviet and p r o pa rt y sta te

- -

ments the be t ter to get themselves trusted to be put in positions where

, ,

t heir conspiracy for t he se izure o f p ower could be strengthened The .

issue is therefore not o n e o f freedom or l ack o f freedom for p r opa

ganda ; it is the issue o f whether a pa rticular group has or ha s no t any , ,

hope o f achieving power by democratic means by winning maj ority

,

support through completely ope n and l egal activities The question o f .

permit t ing or prohibi t ing propaganda is n ot the decisive on e .

It has sometimes been argue d that the exp ulsion o f Trots ky from
‘
wa s a dictatorial act by S t alin
’
the party and then from the .

And that the breaking up o f t he Trot sky ist organizati on w as a S imilar

act o f dic tatorship And yet i f w e reflect a lit t le w e se e that every
.
, ,

democrat ic organization t akes S imilar ste ps when faced with activities

which the overwhe lming maj ority of the mem be rs consider disr uptive .
2 06 R USSIA WIT H O UT ILL USIONS
tive was for t he organizations o f the pe ople to suppress the opp osition .

This was done .

But t h e leaders o f the opposition remained at libert y And just as .

,

empl oyers in any industrial dispute will es t ablish close contact with
those workers who are weak trade unionist s in order to win them as -

strikebreakers so too in S oviet a ffairs the foreign states hostile t o the

,

aimed at est ablishing contact not with t he strongest and ,

m os t consistent revolutionaries but wit h t he weaklings the waverers

, , ,

wi t h those w h o had never been reliable leaders from the workers ’

point of vie w An d su ch people if they were disgru ntled at being

.
,

oust ed from o ffi ce if they were determi ned to con t inue their struggl e
,

for power against a leadership which they despised and i f t hey knew ,

that they had no mass s u pport to back them up within the country ,

could fall an easy p rey to such approaches It is in this way and n o .

other that socialists in the fight against tsarism became t he direct allies
o f fascism in the fight against socialism It is in ext ermina t ing these.

people t hat the Shows a mili t ary ru t hlessness for it regards ,

them as the advance guard of fascism in it s war on Sovie t inde

p en den c e .

A great dea l has been made in the press of other countries of the
‘
number of people arrest ed or condemned as enemies of the pe ople in ’

the I do not t hink however that a sober approach to t he

, ,

question l eads one to feel tha t the numbers have been part icularly
large When fo r example the D a ily H e r a l d referred to the arrest of
.
, ,

fo u r hundred railroad workers and Sir Walter Citrine S howed con

‘ ’

side r a b l e distress at the arres t of several trade union o fli c ia l s t hey might

-
,

have told the whole Story As far as the railway workers were con
.

cerned the D a ily H er a l d did not make it clear that these were not
,

‘
workers at all in t h e sense in which w e use the term here but o fli
’
, ,

c ia l s Furt her it did not mention the fact that they almost all formed
.
,

part o f the group who came into the from Manchuria a t t he

time o f the purchase o f the Chine se Eastern Railway by th e Japanese .

O n that railroad there worked a considerable number o f Ru ssians .

 ENEMIES OF THE P E OPL E 2 07

The y were mainly people who had emigrated from Russia at the time
o f the Revolu t ion and inte rvention When the Japanese bought the .

railway they made it a condition that the

,
shoul d repa t riate
the Russians employed on it And o f these Russians so me four h u n
.
, ,

dred were later discovered to be working fo r anti Soviet organizations -

abroad If the D a ily H e r a l d had told the whole of this story the im
.
,

p ression on the B ritish reader might have been a little d i fferent .

When Sir Walter C itrine is dist urbe d that certain trade union offi -

cia l s have been arreste d in the his dismay at an y rate should

not be due to surp rise For where afte r all woul d enem i es of th e
.
, ,

Soviet State working from wit hin place some o f their people i f not in
, ,

the trade union movement itself ? If in Britain the Economic L eague

-
, ,

finds it to its advantage to establish close contact with certain trade

union leaders then surely in the
, t oo agents o f H itler an d
, ,

o f Japan are not going to ignore the trade unions o r the Bolshevik -
,

Party o r any o f t he important de p artments of State either And when

, .

people sa y that this conspiracy is alarmingly widespread becau se it has

apparently touched p ractically every department of Soviet l ife we ,

should not be surp rise d O nce such a conspiracy exists which is now
.
,

generally admitted obviousl y the conspirators will try t o obtain con

,

tacts in every organization .

When in this l ight w e read that some thousand o r so or even tw o ,

o r three o r four thousand peop l e or even more out o f a total p opu la ,

tion o f nearly 1 8 0 million have been arrested and tried for various
,

o ff enses against the State I do not thin k w e should be alarme d by the

,

fi gures given particularly when the people arrested are o fficials If in

, .
,

the today hundreds o f thousands o f rank and fi l e workers

,
- -

were being arrested by the o flicia l s a s is happening in fa scist countries

, ,

then there might be good reason for friends o f socia l ism to be dis
t u r be d .

In describing conditions in a village near Mo scow I pointed ou t ,

the kind o f petty bribery and intrigue which even t o day peopl e wh o , ,

were once in th e ol d ruling class of Russia may ca rry on An d ju st as .

2 08 R U SSI A W IT HO U T IL L US I O N S
the initiator o f such moves may be a member o f the ol d ruling cl ass ,

so t oo t here may be many instigators o f ill fee l ing against the G ov -

e r n m en t among th ose smaller o fficials wh o at on e time having e n ,

joyed positions that fully satisfie d their feeling o f sel f im portance for -
,

some reason o r other usually through their ow n deficiencies have

, ,

been removed from their po sts We constantly read in the So v iet pre ss
.

o f rank and fi l e workers being promote d t o be managers o f factori e s

- -

and heads o f S t ate trusts But for every pe rson promoted there is some
.

body else wh o is removed from a responsible posi t i on and demoted in

status For some reason ou r newspapers always report the demotion s
.
,

but they never seem to notice the promotions .

When pe ople are removed from their po sts for inefficiency i f they ,

are ambitio u s and conceite d individuals wh o do n ot recognize that the

fault l ies in themse l ves they may well put down their dismissal to a
,

bureaucratic State that cannot apprecia t e their genius and may then ,

j oin with other people with similar grudges in trying to overthrow t his
State that rem oves them from responsible j obs on l y t o place able rank
and fi l e rs in their place Among such people in Soviet o ffi c ia l dom
-
.
, ,

there are many po ssible allies for those l eading oppositionists at the top .

A certain amount o f surp rise and even uneasiness has been caused ,

I think by t he com paratively large numbe r o f Jews am ong t he l ead

,

ing accuse d in t he recent trials an d al so the number o f im port ant

,

o ffi cials in the smaller republics of the U nion In certain quarte r s this .

has been inte rp reted a s the result o f a return to Russian imperialist

methods to a growth o f anti Semitism and a pe rse cution of the
,
-
,

smaller nati ons The obvious answer t o this o f course is that working
. , ,

— —
class Jews for example the Ka ga no v itch brothers are being p r o
,

moted at the same time that Jewish counter revolutionaries are b e ing -

shot In the smaller republics whi l e a number of leaders have been

. ,

arrested n ew pe ople from th e ran ks o f these same nationalities have

,

been elected t o fill their places But the puzzl e remains why so many
.

l eaders o f the small nationalities were involved in these c onspiracies .

The probl em I thin k becomes clear when we realize the nature of

, ,
2 1 0 R USSIA WITH OUT IL LUSION S
‘ ‘
the B ritish press a s a ru t hless dictatorship using Moscow methods
’ ’

t o eliminate the best elemen t s in t he Fren c h people becau se they hap

pene d to threaten to become personal rivals to the present government .

The Soviet trials cannot be underst ood except in the ligh t of t he

p ast internal politica l hist ory o f the and o f current world
events The very fact that aggressive fascism exists in the worl d today
.

gave a hope to certa in types of Soviet citizen that they would never
have had in a worl d where peace was guaranteed This means among
.
,

other things that the part icular problem of the

,
.
a conspiracy
o n t his scale twenty years after the Revolution is not a problem
,

likely to occur in other countries on such a scale when they t oo

, ,

reach a so cialist form o f government For as socialism ext ends

.

t hroughout the world two things m u st happen : on the one hand the
, ,

middle class itself will become more convinced that as between fascism
and socialism the l atter is pre ferable with the result that middle
,

class opposition to the idea of a workers government wil l tend to

’

decline bo t h inside and ou t side working class politica l organizations

,
-
.

And se condly the gradual ext ension o f socialism to other countries

,

wil l make the possibility o f counter revolution base d on t he armies o f

-

imperialist powers ever more remote As a result the Soviet trials

.
,

m u st be taken as a reflection of a very specifi c historical stage when ,

the socialist and capi t alist worlds are existing side by side and they ,

need not necessarily be repeated in the experience o f all countries in a

transi t ion from capi t alism to socialism Though on the other hand
.
, ,

it would be wrong to deny the possibility o f such a recurrence as w e ,

should al l realize that in eve ry country the forces o f socialism and

, ,

democracy are likely to have to conquer not only by the ballot box -
,

but even a fter a ballot victory is w on they are likely to have to face
,

sabotage and consp iracy in most o f the forms in which it h a s appeared

in the
 C H A P T E R XVI I I

Th e D isil l u sion e d

S I N C E I returned from the in the midd l e o f 1 93 6 there ,

have appeared a numbe r of very critica l boo k s on the many

o f which profess to be by people who became disillusioned by life in

the Soviet U nion having previously been staunch Communists The

,
.

b ooks of Andrew Smith Fred Beal and Eugene Lyons all fall into
, ,

this category N ow I do not want t o cast unfair aspersions o n the

.

sincerity o f these people but I am convinced from reading their boo ks

,

tha t t hey are e ithe r insincere or that they went to the

,
with
a wholly unreal istic approach to what they were going to see In the .

case of Andrew Smith who claims to have been a C ommunist for

,

years and t o have gone to the simp l y out of sheer e n th u si

asm the fact is that he insisted on going to the Soviet U nion only
,

when he had been discharged from his job as secretary o f the Slova k
Workers Society in America for ine ffi ciency and u n com ra dely be
’

havior Apparently he had repeatedly been removed from posts for

.

incompetence and the,

w a s a solution to his o w n economic
’
problems Similarly a reading of Fre d B eal s account of how he went
.
,

to the against the instructions o f the Communist Party of

which he w a s a member shows that it was his own personal caprice
,

and not any firm polit ical convic t ion that took him there .

And t hese t hree writers in Opening t heir books each displays a fan
t a st ic approach t o the country that t hey were visiting In 1 trave l
93 0 .

ing to the Soviet fron t ier with a group o f American workers Andrew ,

Smi t h adopted the role of ad v iser Some members of the group wishe d
.

to make purchases in L ondon Copenhagen and H elsingfors Smi t h

, , .

“
urged them n ot to buy in a capitalistic country but t o wait unti l they
2 1 1
2 1 2 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSION S

got t o the Soviet U nion where they could buy mo r e cheapl y

, .
” 1

E very time I saw the hammer and sickle floating in the breeze I
felt a l um p in my throat he says N ow Smith had a l ready been
”
, .

to t he as a delegate An d in 1 93 0 n o person a nywhere in

.

the world be lieved that prices were l ower in the than e l se

where even if he had not as Smith had been there It is there fore
, , , .

hard to be l ieve that S mith rea l ly went t o th e be l ieving that

prices were lower t here than elsewhere and the l ump in the throat
“
,
”

at the hammer and sic kle must a l so be taken with a grain of sa lt The .

whole book is written to revea l the smashing o f Smith s il l usions ‘ ’ ’

by his expe riences I p ersonally cannot believe that he was really so

.

ill informed o r emotional about the

-
be fore he wen t there a s
he makes ou t any more than I can believe a great deal o f what he say s
a fterward .

O n her husband s ow n admissi on Mrs Smith showed an ext r a or di

’
.

nary cynicism immediately after their arriva l on S oviet territory At .

the frontier station they did not like t he food which w a s provided .

“ ” “
Andrew says Mrs Smi t h why don t you eat ? You are in the
,
.
,
’

workers paradise N ow I have met many visitors t o the

’
.

who were disappointed in this or that feature of Soviet l ife but when ,

ever I met someone w h o within a fe w hou r s o f entering the

‘
was making sarcastic remarks abo ut the work ers paradise I knew ’
,
’

that that pe rson w a s not in t erested in get t ing at the truth Such .

phrases as this did not re veal an objective attitude or even that o f ,

the enth u siast but that of the cynical opponent

,
.

And when Smith tells us that when I was in the H ote l Europe
with the delegation the shee t s were changed daily just in order t o
”

point o u t that o n his second visit the shee ts were not changed daily I ,

find myself becoming stil l more incredulous The very idea t hat in .

any Sovie t hotel in 1 93 0 bed linen w a s changed daily is so com

pl e tel
y fantas t ic that I am amaze d that Smith has th e audaci t y t o tel l

such a st ory Yet he tells it in order t o demonstrate that the delegates

.

A n d w S m ith I W
1
re So i t W k
,
as a v e or er .
2 1 4
. R USSIA WITH OUT ILL USION S
possibly have survived wit hout s u ffering the most bi t ter disill u sion .

Then wit h th e bad feat u res of t he Soviet syst em portraye d with that
,

same utter lac k of balance that was first displayed in describing the
e ffect of the red stars on t he re d army caps a book l ike Assig n m e n t ,

in Ut opia w a s inevitable .

S o far I have referre d to three disil lu sioned communists or com

m u n ist sym p a t hizers who in the years 1 9 2 8 to 1 9 3 0 went to the
, ,

from the U S A to live for some time These however are

. . . .
, ,

not the only kind of di sillusioned commentators to enj oy considerable

pub l icity o f recent years O f celebrities the most outstanding case of
.
,

disillusion is that of the great French writer André Gide who for ,

three years declare d my admira t ion my l ove for the

“
, ,

wi thout go i ng there When he actually visited th e Soviet U nion his

.
,

disappointment was ra t her l ike that o f a man who has fallen in love
through letters and p hotographs a ri sing from an advertise ment in an
‘
agony column and then finds on marriage that the lady was not up
’
,

to the standard he had expe cted .

The essence I think o f André G ide s dissatisfaction with the

, ,
’

lies in this : The is not the kind o f country in which

Gide co u ld be really happy beca u se it is run for the improvement of
,

the material and cult u ral conditions of the vast mass of ordinary
people ; it is not a worl d for intellec t ual epicureans When Gide bit .

t e r l y complains that
“
what is delicio u s is swamped by what is com
mon that is by what is most abundant
, ,
”
he ignores the fact t hat ,
1
,

for the mass o f working people in eve ry country of the world includ ,

ing B ritain France and the

, ,
th e main problem today is to

be guaranteed a hu n da n ce The pursuit o f the delicious is only pos

.

sible when abundance is guaranteed T o André Gide never having .

,

l acked abundance the pursuit of the delicious h a s been the occ upation
,

o f a li fetime When the working people in the world have also

.

achieve d abundance they t oo will become mainly interested in the

,

pursuit o f the delicious .

1
Gid e ,
op . c it .
 “
THE DISILLUSIONED ”
2 1 5

And y et at the same time as he complains we find Gide going ,

’
into wholehearted ecstasies over the dining hall the workmen s club , ,

their l odgings and all things that have been done for their comfort
, ,

their instr uction and their p leasure And when we read o f a

”
.
“

l ittl e outdoo r theater the a udito ri um o f which is packed with some

,

fi ve hundred spectators l istening in religious S ilence to an actor wh o

,

is reci t ing P u shkin w e may well ask whether in the cultural sphere
”
,

at any rate something o f the delicious is not after al l reaching the

,

masses o f the p eople for the fi rst time .

‘
When Gide complains of the l ac k of the delicious in the ’

I am reminde d o f a story I heard some time ago of a certain membe r

o f the Fabian Society who claimed to be a l ife long socialist O n o n e
-
.

o ccasion in the course o f a discussion an acq u aintance was arguing

, ,

that however peacefully a socialist government might be elected the

, ,

transi t ion to so cialism even in B ri t ain was bound to meet with diffi
c ul t ies during the period of change People wou l d have to go without
.

luxuries like grape fruit for breakfast in the morning O h but I

,
“
.
,

’
don t want socialism if it means that I ve got to go without my grape
’

frui t sa id the Fabian !

,
”

But p articularly w a s André Gide upset by what appeared to him

t o be a l ack of freedom in the Soviet U nion
“
When the revoluti o n .

is t riumphant installed and established art runs a terrible danger

, , ,

a danger almost as great as under the worst fascist oppression—the

”
danger of orth odoxy An d t o bear this out he tells about Artist X
.
, , .
,

with whom he spent some time w h o said : In the days of m y y outh

“
,

w e were recommended certain boo ks and advised against others ; and

natura l ly it wa s to the l atter that w e were drawn The great di ffer .

ence t o day is that the young people read onl y what they are r e com
mende d t o read and have no desire t o read an ything else This
,
”
.

statement I think exp resses the whol e o f G ide s view o f freedom

, ,
‘ ’ ’

in the but it is in my view an answer t o n ot a c on fi rm a

, , ,

tion o f his own criticism

, .

How does it come about that under tsarism y oung peopl e did n ot
2 1 6 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSION S
r ead the recommended boo ks whereas now t hey do read them and
,

no t hing else ? Ha s the youth o f Ru ssia degenerated ? O r have the

new authorities created by the Revolution so organized life t hat the
, ,

y oung people harbor no l onger t ha t dis t rust toward authori t y which

t hey fe l t unde r t he old system and which so many representatives o f
,

B ritish y outh fee l today wi t h regard to existing conventions tradi ,

t ions an d au t hority in this coun t ry ? I believe these questions raise

,

t h e vi t al poin t I n the . today with a State authority that

,

O ffers you t h an opportunity for t he c ompletest individual develop

ment there is not that distrust o f au t hority which exis t s in a society

,

t orn by in t ernal conflicts Agreement between the People and

.

Authority base d on community o f interest s resul t s in the conformism

,
‘
,
’

o f which Gide complains .

In t he end it all boils down to this : In the capitalist worl d today ,

w ith illusions S hattered by the last war and fear of the next there is ,

a growing distrust of all existing authority N on con formity spreads .

-

in such a set t ing and many non con formists begin to value this non
,
-

c on formity in i t self as being desirable The fac t that capi t alist tra
.

dit io n s and conventions are becoming obsolete leads certain people ,

part ic u larly among the intellec t uals to look upon all tradition and
,

conven t ion as bad In this category we must plac eAndré Gide

. .

B u t no society has ever progressed wit hou t working ou t its ow n

t radi t ions and conventions And in t he . today there is not
the slightest doubt that new standards and new conventions are taking
t h e place of the old ones The . is not and cannot be a con
v e n t io n less society ; it m u st inevitably be come a society in which
-

c onventions are determined by the whole working population o f the

c ountry and t hese conventions will develop according t o the material

,

a n d cultural standards of the people .

This S hows it self not only in everyday life but in art and lette r s .

G ide in his book refers with some justifiable pride to the fact that
, ,

in h is ow n writings he struck out on an indepe ndent line :

2 1 8 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
I t is I believe this fundamental fact that in the
, , more
than in any o ther country of the world t he writer and art ist are
called upo n to be active citizens and not to isolate t hemselves from
,

socie ty that caused Gide such disappoin t ment In reje c t ing his own
, .

class and its stan dards Gide in fa c t rej ected all social s tandards H e
, .

did n ot appreciate th e fact that th e only pr a c t ica l alternative before

him was that much vaster class—the people who work And in the .

he found these people t oo interested in providing mate ria l

abundance at the moment t o worry abo ut all those delicious things
which he personally finds to be nece ssities of li fe And when he came .

face to face with a society in which authors are li t erally expe c ted to
take seriously the commen t s o f ordinary working people on t heir
—
writings toge t her wi t h every t hing else which goes with such a
—
society Gide exclaimed alas ! tha t he do u bted whether in any o t her
,
“

country o f the worl d even H itler s Germany though t be less free

,
’
, ,

more bowed down more fearfu l ! terrorized ] more vassalized

,
”
, .

And from a certain standpoint this statement by Gide a s a direct

reflec t ion o f his own persona l position is correct In N azi Germany .

—
toda y there woul d be nothing to prevent Gide if he had an unearne d
income— from writing aest hetic essays for small grou ps o f adorers so ,

l ong a s he did not tread on the toes o f the N azi authorities But in t he .

Gi de would have to work for a living And he could only .

be a pro fessional writer if he wrote the kind of thing that Soviet

citizens demand Yes as compared wi t h the non popular writer under
.
,
-

capit alism w h o happens to have private means the non pop u lar w ri ter ,
-

in the is unfre e But against this w e must se t t he fact that

.

millions o f Soviet citizens today are reading for t he fi rst time the
’
world s greatest classics They are al so reading new books by Soviet
.

authors and their growing knowledge o f t he classics is causing them

,

to demand an ever bet t er st andard from their o w n writers Young .

Soviet ci t izens born o f working class families are having opport un i

,
-
,
‘
ties in their wall newspapers and evening classes to express them
-
’

selves in writing And young people are g rowing u p wh ose literary

.
 “
TH E DISILL USIONED ”
2 1 9

genius h as am ple o pportuni ty t o deve l op even though the y and t heir ,

families have n o financial means other than what they earn by their
work This is the great gain w on by the masses at the expense o f
.

those wh o unde r capitalism with p rivate means can develop a n on

, , ,

popular l iterature without an y sen se o f socia l respo nsibility whatever

, ,

“
with n o need t o be concerned abo ut the impression your words may
ma ke .
”

The reader may fee l that in m y desire t o ex pose the attitude behind
,

the disillusionment o f André Gide I am evading the bas i c question ,

so often raised o n this matter : What is the doing today in

the field o f art and architecture l iterature and music ? H as it justified
,

itself in these fiel ds or not ? I answer Yes it ha s What it has

“
, , .

done is t o pl ace at the disp osa l o f the people on a greater scale t han
ever before the world s gre atest artistic works Secondly it has given
’
.
,

to the peopl e a greate r opportunity than ever be fore t o develop their

o w n creative capacities and when develope d t o use them productively
, , .
,

The So viet record for winning p r izes at internationa l musica l festi

vals and contests proves this I am convinced t hat these t w o tendencies
.

are the guarantee that th e Soviet system wi ll produce the greatest crop
o f artists that the world has ever known .

Besides books by those who profess to have been disil l usioned by

their visits to t he of recent years a number o f other boo ks ,

have appeared recen t ly which at first sight give the same impression
, , .

For example w e have t he case of Sir Walter Citrine w h o because

, ,

he is a trade un i on leader is generally assumed to be a socialist ;

-
,

though as a holder of a knighthood there is equal reason to supp ose

, ,

that he is not And in his eve ryday work it is wel l known that he is
.
, ,

much more concerned with opposition t o the C ommunist Party than

t o the policy o f the N ational Government When such a p erson w h o .
,

is a fter al l n o foo l goes t o th e, w e must n ot exp ect an u n

biased description o f what he sees For he must realize pe rfectly cor
.
,

r e ct l
y, that anything he says in favor o f the Sovi et U nion is bound to
reac t indirectly in favor o f the C ommunist Party o f ou r own country
, , .
2 20 R USSIA WITH O UT ILL USION S

C i t rine at any rate did not go to the with illusions and o n ,

returning he did his utmost to present the in the worst

p ossible light .

Any ill u si ons which the present reader may have as t o the impar
t ia l ity o f Sir Walter w ll be dispelled by the following quotation
i
“
taken at random from his book I S ear c h for Tr u th in Ru ssia : I ,

could se e the outside lavatories N earby several pigsties were built into
.

the gable end o f the house Whether these had been put there by the
-
.

tenants or not I do not know but the pigs were having a fine ol d
, ,

t ime O f course in England t oo w e can se e outside l avatories within

.
, ,

sight o f p igst ies and this has nothing whatever to do with whe t her
,

the pigs are having a good time or not B ut the w a y in which Sir .

Wal ter relates the incident certainly smashes any illusion that any
o n e may have had as to his impartiality o r even h is desire t o give a ,

fair picture o f the Soviet U nion .

M ore sensational is a recent b ook by Ivan S ol on e vich a born Rus ,

sian wh o only recently esca pe d from a Soviet labor cam p I gather

,
.

that for some reason o r other certain people are incline d t o take
, ,
!

this book as more au t hentic than many others I supp ose because the ,

author s fa t her was the son o f a peasant

’ “ ”
and the author himself 1

had never been a millionaire be fore the Revolution But th is does not .

mean that he was ever in favor o f the Re volution O n the contrary he .

,
“
remained in the only because when the White Russian ,

army evacua t ed from O dessa I was laid up with typhus Although ”

,
.

S ol o n e vich w a s not himsel f a ri ch man he w as apparently a great ,

friend of a Mr s E . a member o f a rich and well known Pol ish

.
,
-

” “
family and Freddie
, on e o f ou r Moscow acquaintances be
, ,

”
longing t o a foreign legation There fore it is unreasonable to regard
.

“ ”
S ol on e vich as being anything but a typical Russian White whose
sol e misfortune was that instead o f be ing ab l e to leave t he country
,

with th e other en ng r és he misse d h is chance H is life in the

,
.

seems t o have be en devote d t o try ing t o devise means for going

1
1 . S ol on ev ich , R ussia in C h a ins .
2 22 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSION S
‘ ’ ‘ ’
in which the arch villain is the Active The Active here described
-
.
,

I should explain is all t hose active members o f Soviet society who

,

play their p art in the running o f the trade unions and other organi -

z a t io n s As a trade union organizer I was part o f the Ac t ive ; so was

-
‘ ’
.
,

th e trade union committee t hat I described which distributed passes

-

to a rest home in a way not en t irely in the interests o f t he membe rs .

If I take this incident u niversalize it and deny the exist ence of any
, ,

h onest officials in t he then I present you with the picture

pa i nted by Mr S ol on e vich O bviously such a picture is untrue Ac
. .
, .

cording to S ol on e v ic h so great is t he internal disinte g ration o f the

,

Soviet U nion that there has been a fall in industrial and agricultural
“

”
production since 1 9 3 4 Mr S ol on ev ich is the only person that
. .

knows about t his fall and w hen I was back in the ,

l ast
summer everyone was satisfied that the leve l o f producti on was stead
,

ily rising as it had been doing when I le ft It seems that peopl e who
,
.

are once opposed t o t he Soviet system start to create a fantasy worl d

of their own in which everything is permanently going from bad
,

t o worse on Soviet terri t ory Mr Sol on e v ich does n ot explain how if

. .
,

t he country is in the appalling condi t ion that he pa i nts it has ever been ,

able to survive N or does he explain how it is that the standard o f li fe

.

is steadily rising H e simply denies these facts Such a person is no

. .

more tru t hful because he has been in the till 1 9 3 4 than any
othe r Russian e m ig r e whose present occupation consist s in his
“ ' ”

“ ”
anti Soviet activities as Mr S ol on e v ich puts it Whether Mr
-
,
. . .

“
S ol on e v ic h escaped in 1 9 1 8 or in 1 9 3 8 I do not think his impres ,

”
sions would be any di fferent from what they are .

There is on e test which readers should apply to every boo k a bout

t he First i f it is by someone who lived in Russia be fore the
,

Revolution it is to ask : H ow did the Revolution a ffect him pe r

,

so n a ll y ? And if he was benefited by the Revolution at the fi rst it is ,

always worth while asking whe t her since then he has su ffered some , ,

serious poli t ical de fea t ? Secondly if an author went to the ,

from outside then l et u s a sk : H ad he any particular reason for dis

,
 “
TH E DISILLUSION ED ”
2 2 3
l i king C ommunism and there fore for deliberately portraying S o vi et
,

conditions unfavorably ? D id he know anything about what conditions

were l ike under tsarism ? And finally always be suspicious o f a critic
, ,

w ho writes o f nothing but bad features of the Soviet system and w ho ,

never stop s t o as k : What were things li ke before ? — Why are they

a s they are ? — What is be ing done t o improve them ? I bel ieve that
i f these l ast t hree questions are aske d with regard to eve ry criticism
that is made today o f the and is based on fact we shall find
,

that most o f the criticisms melt away We shall obse rve that the ve r y
.

fau l ts that are being criticized a s fun damental t o th e system are things
that the Soviet people under the very noses of ou r c ri t ics are doing
, ,

their utmost t o elimin ate The . has had socialism in operation

for five whole years in town and country The fact that features of
.

tsarist Russia still survive is not the surprising fact ; the miracle is that
socia l ism has been est ablished and can now g o ahead from year to
year This at any rate is how I se e it having gone t o the
.
, , ,

wit h no anti C ommunist axe to grind and n o pr o Soviet illusions

- -
.
 C H A P T E R XIX

C on cl u si on : Wh y I ’
ve C o m e B a ck

IN SUMM I N G u p the achievements and shortcomings o f the

t o date we must always bear in mind the fact that the Soviet U nion
,

has never yet enjoye d that peace and security from the danger o f
further attack for which it has always hope d The world is still divided .

today a s in 1 9 1 7 into a ri imperialist and a socialist camp though the

, , ,

emphasis has shi fted at the p resent time t o an immediate cleavage

between fascism and democracy In such a worl d the danger of a
.

further assault on the Soviet frontiers is an immediate on e the oper ,

ation o f foreign agents on Soviet territor y is an undisputed fact and ,

Soviet policy is there fore not that o f a socialist government in condi

tions of peace and security but o f o n e which knows that it is su r
rounded by enemies and is ready to de fend its frontiers in a worl d
already at war .

But in Spite o f its i so l ation the has succeeded in setting

t he world an examp l e in a number o f respects Fi r st of a l l it has .
,

succeeded in establishing a social system in which inequalities o f sex ,

race and na t ionality have been elimina t ed I t h a s set up a society in

,
.

.
—
which citizens are judged by their work all must work t here is ,

work for all Each person may develop his o r her capacities to t he
.

full thro u gh free education and having develope d them there is an

,

opport unity to use them Citizens according to their abili t y rise t o

.
, ,

the highest posts in the country The Supreme C oun c il of t he

.

consist s o f indivi duals electe d for their merits at w or k N o So v iet .

‘ ’
Member of Parliament has fought an election on his wi fe s inherited
’

wealth There is no H ouse o f L ords in which there is only a full

,

attendance when a progressive law in the interest s o f the working

,

people has to be obstructed In the

, . p eopl e do n ot see their
2 2 4
22 6 R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSION S
Ah it h as been said but Russia h as all the natural resources
, ,

necessary to a self contained country ; it is the size o f the

-

not its economic and socia l system that explains the fact that it does ,

n ot need more terri t ory Y e s but did the tsarist government which
”
.
, ,

had even more territory at its disposal reason like that ? N o as an , ,

imperialist government it w a s constantl y t ry ing to extend the boun da

ries o f the Russian Empire just as the B ritish and German Japanese
, ,

an d French imperialist governments have wanted more territory and ,

gone to war to get it It is the new type o f government in the

.

that does not want more territory because it is organized on new ,

lines ; the S ize of the country in which this government has been se t
up is not the decisive factor .

I have here summed up what as a result o f my ow n expe rience I , ,

believe to be the undisputed assets o f the Soviet system t o date These .

assets may be ignored— it wil l be noticed that critics o f the

rarely refer to them—but they are the basic gains o f the Ru ssian
Revolution For these gains al one I thin k the new system is wort h
.
, ,

defending from those who wish it il l ; and many wil l think that for
these things alone the sa me system is worth fighting for in other
parts o f the worl d .

What then are the main S hortcomings o f the Soviet system up to

, ,

the pre sent time ? In what ways does the lag behind the rest
o f the world ? In answer to this q u estion I must quite frankly sa y

that in my view taking area for area and taking similar p op ul a

, , ,

tions I cannot se e that th e

,
is in any but a l eading position
in the world today in all respects We may fi nd that lavatories are .

backward compared with England though not with France ; tha t the ,

people are worse shod than in B ri tain but better shod than in the ,

British Empire a s a wh ole ; t hat housing per head is worse than in

this country but certainly n ot worse than the average for the whole
,

o f Europe excluding Soviet territory And in making comparisons

, .
, ,

I have already shown how completely unscientific it is t o u se England

alone as a measuring rod If we do this however we must recognize
.
, ,
 CON C LU SION : WHY I
’
V E C OME BACK 22 7
that in the fi v e res pects which I have mentione d th e ha s ,

even surp a ssed this country .

In the course o f writing this book I receive d a l etter in whi ch

,

there app eared th e foll owing p a r agrap h

I had a l ong tal k over the wee k end with a man extreme ly
inte r est e d in Russia and well dis posed toward it H is questions
,
-
.

“
were : When shall w e be able to cease making excuses for
R u ssia— valid excuses but stil l excu ses ? When wi ll the e xp e r i
,

ment be able t o stand o n i ts ow n merit and not nee d interna l

propaganda which gives Russians a somewhat distorted View o f
their ow n country and of others ? When wil l the Soviet Govern
ment be able to let its citizens go abroad freely without fear o f ,

compa r ison wit h conditions in capitalist countries ? H ow soon

will it be be fore the essentia l worth o f the regime in Russi a will
be so obvious to Russians that there will be n o more question
o f sabotage Trotskyism or the necessity for secret po lice ? In
, ,

fact when will Russia be like C msa r s wife ?

,
’

‘ ’
This letter so admirably sums up all that is usually called negative
in the Soviet balance sheet that I shall n ow take it a s my text fo r it ,

exp resses a ve ry common view particularly among the British middle

,

class y et a p oint o f View which is se riously out o f touch with the

,

reality o f the situation We have t o realize that the

. can
” —
“
not and will never be like C aesar s wife above suspicion— to that
’

section at least of world op i nion which o n Soviet territory has been , ,

deprived of all power To big financiers and business men to land

.
,

lords and private newspape r owners the is anathema and

, ,

must always be anathema for it has succeeded wi t hou t t heir c o

,

operation it has dispensed wi t h their services it has deprived them

, ,

o f the right to live on ren t s and profi t s and to rule the country To .

t hese people the g r e a t e r the progress o f the

, the l e ss they will
like it Therefore they will continue their po licy of try ing to weaken
.
,
22 8 R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSION S
the o f t r ying t o discredit it and they wil l try if possib l e
, , ,

to annihila t e it .

And this applies n ot only t o the big financiers and business men
, ,

l andlords and millionaire newspaper proprietors ; it applies equally

,

t o all those within the progressive and democratic movements w h o ,

even today prefer to wage war against Communists because they fee l
,

tha t this is in their ow n personal interest s than to work t ogether with

t hem In 1 93 6 Sir Walter Citrine could find pigs and lavatories
.

su flic ie n tly near togeth r to make the comments quoted in the las t
e
chap t er This was 1 9 3 6 But by 1 94 6 whatever the rate o f progre ss
. .
,

in the may be nobody can guarantee that nowhere will

,

pigs and lavatories be wit hin full view o f each other as they are on ,

many English farms today And if this is so then Sir Walter Citrine
.
,

in 1 94 6 can write these same phrases with the same aim o f dis ,

crediting the Again Sir Walter saw workers demolishing

,

“
o l d buildings in Moscow We sa w men an d women cr a w l in g ov er
.

m a sse s of de br is in the work o f demolition and street widening ! my -

But in 1 94 6 ol d buildings will still be having to be de m ol

ish e d to make way for new and in 1 9 5 6 also ! So long as every
,

process is St ill not completely mechanized and people still work on ,

the demolition o f buildings men like Sir Walter will be able t o

,

wri t e about crawling over masses o f debris Therefore let us fully

“ ”
.

recognize that whatever the progress o f the there wil l

always be p eopl e wh o will try to discred it it so long a s capitalism ,

lasts in the rest o f the world .

And as is shown by these examples there wil l always be some

, ,

thing or other which can be presented in a light hostile to the

by t h ose w h o are so inclined There fore it will alway s be necessa ry
.

t o reply t o such criticisms so long a s the worl d is di vided into tw o

,

fundamentally opposed systems .

I t is not in my V iew the citizens o f the w h o receive a

”
somewhat distorted view There is undoubtedly parti sanship on
.

both sides ; but a s I have sh own in an earlier chapter the distortion ,

2 3 0 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSION S
in other way s for importing goods or se rvices o f u se t o the Republic .

As the ordinary workers and pe asan ts never did travel abroad any
way this prohibition is no restriction on their freedom
, .

O nly when we se e the world a s be ing divide d into tw o systems ,

socialism and capit alism ; and only when we realize the tremendous
obstacles placed in the way of Soviet citizens going abroad by the
capitalist States themselves can w e appreciate that such a problem
, ,

like that o f propaganda is a reciproca l one What the

, . does
today when su r r ou n de d by a capit alist world has n o connection what
.

ever with what it m ight do if it were not surrounded in this way In .

my View t he demands made by many liberals who are friendly crit ics
,

of t he are demands which the itself would fulfil l

immediately if it were no longer threatened by the states of which
,

those liberal critics are themse l ves responsible citizens .

Finally when will the

,
be such a land of mil k and honey
that there wil l be no more question o f sabotage Trotskyism or the
, ,

necessity for secret police ? And the answer again as in the case o f
, ,

the previous two questions is : N ever so long as the world is divided

,

into th e and capitalist states T o ask that there should n o

.

longer be sabotage or t he necessity for secret po lice is t o ask that there

,

shoul d not be anyone on Soviet terri t ory working in the interests o f

states wh ose aim is to wipe out the Soviet U nion Theoretically we
.
,

might assume such a tremendous internal progress that no furt her

cause of human disgrun t lement existed on Soviet territory and such
a sealing o f the frontiers that no foreign agent could ever again enter
the U nder such conditions and such conditions only woul d
, ,

all danger o f sabotage and espionage be eliminated B ut in practice .

,

whatever the l iving conditions o f the people in the may be ,

the obj ective existence o f states hostile to the makes espionage

and sabotage inevitable and the Soviet S ecret se rvice there fore a n ec es
sit
y.

As far as concerns the possibili ty o f such enemies finding a ll ies on

Soviet territo ry itself and among the ranks o f So vi et citizens every ,
 CON CLU SION : WHY I
’
V E COM E BACK 2 3 1

rise in the material and cultural leve l of the people l essens th e ob

e ct i v e causes that may give rise to discontent and diminishes stil l
j
further any possibility o f m a ss opposition to t he Soviet Government .

But this is not at al l t r ue o f the discontent of people w h o S till t oday

are not concerned with the mate ri al and cul t ural welfare o f the
masses but with power for themselves An ex— . land l ord and his so n ,

a on e time factory owner and his descendants a on e time ku l a k and

-
,
-

his children a political l eader who has become discredite d a factory

, ,

manager who has been removed from his post and does not accept this
a s just but puts it down to an unjust bureaucracy a collective farm
,

president who h as been replaced by an abler and younger man and

w h o harbors a grievance as a result — al l these types of pe ople exist
in the today ; they will exist for a ve ry long pe ri od of y ears
t o come and e very o n e o f them is a possible ally for a foreign power
,

in certain circumstances if his animosity tu rns against the Soviet State

,

to s u ch an extent that he wil l be ready t o work by all means for its

overt hrow .

U ntil every possible cause of human disgruntlement has been

—
removed o n Soviet soil a n achievement which will not be fulfil l e d
this side o f the Millennium ( or to put it materialistically the highest
, ,

—
stage o f Communist soc iety ) there will be human grievances And .

of the citizens wi t h gri evances it is inevitable that so me at least wil l, ,

turn their rancor against the State itsel f And so l ong as across the
.
,

frontiers there are armies preparing to march against the

,
'

some o f these disgruntled citizens will have a hope for revenge against
the S t a t e which t hey feel has done them an injusti c e a hope of
, ,
—
achieving a power tha t now is beyond their reach And o f these people
.

a certa in proportion will always be ready to turn their thoughts int o

actions and to work for the weakening o f the Soviet system There .

fore a n imper fect St ate o f society and o f human nat u re coupled wi t h

, ,

the en c irclement o f the by hos t ile st ates is the ab sol u te guar

,

an t ee that sabotage and espionage will continue in t he future .

O nly when the no longer has external enemies wil l

2 3 2 R USSIA WITH OUT ILLUSION S
interna l enemies n o l onger have hope In th ose days when the .

h as no l onger t o de fend itself from an attack from outside ,

—
peop l e with grievances within the country and all causes o f human
disgrun t lement even then are not likely t o have been completely wipe d
o u t—W il l have not the slightest hope o f finding allies against the

Sta t e U nder such conditions sabotage would p romise n o hope what

.

ever to the sa boteu r and there would be n o foreign power for whom
,

espionage would be useful O nly under these conditions conditions

.
,

approaching to th ose o f worl d socialism can w e expect sabotage and ,

espionage to be eliminated completely .

Therefore on every point in my friend s l etter my answer can be ’

s u mme d up in the words o f the fi rst C onstitution o f the

which was adopted in 1 9 2 4 when the various Soviet Repub l ics forme d
their U n i on : Since t he formation o f the Soviet Republics the coun
“

t ri es o f the world have split into t w o camps : the camp o f C apitalism

”
and the camp o f Socialism .

In answer to my friend s final point then as to when the new

’
, ,

“ ”
system will be able to stand on its merit my answer is : It can ,

st and on its own merit today before t he vast masses of the laboring
people of all countries But never will it stand on its merit before the
.

millionaire financiers landlords and business men w h o rule these

, ,

other countries And for t his reason the people o f other countries will
.

never be fully informed of the successes o f the Soviet system so l ong

as they are being daily influence d by the press o f the millionaire s
that is until they have also achieved socialism But even then when
,
.
,

a worl d so cialis t community is attained this system will never be ,

“
like C aesar s wi fe The essence o f a world socialis t community wil l
”’
.

be not i t s perfect i on b u t i t s impe rfection For only imperfec t ion can

.

ac t as a driving force for progress when the profit mot ive has been
elimina t ed Criticism and di ssatisfaction wi t h what is will be th e
.

main Spur to prog ress just a s is the case in the

,
today But .

cri t icism o f this kind will aim n ot at restoring the ol d but at perfecting
the new .
2 34 R USSIA WITHOUT ILLUSION S
Yet if as I believe the
, ,
has solved the main socia l and e co
nomic prob l ems of the twentieth cen t ury it is of vita l importance
,

that the fac t s be made known not only in Britain but in every country
o f t he world B ut powerful interests are at work in every country t o
.

suppress these facts Therefore e very person with fi r st hand know l

.
,
-

edge must make that knowledge known must tell the worl d of that
,

country where unemployment has been abolished where the standard

,

o f life is steadily rising from year to year as production increases and

,

where not a single citi zen man woman or child—can gain anything
— , ,

whatever from wa r or th e p re p aration for wa r .

 INDEX

AB ORTI ON, 5 0, 87 B o r o d in a Mr B or od in, 3 , 9,

—
1 , s. Io
‘
a ctiv es, 2 2 2
’
bu o r g e o isie see c a it a l ists p
a dul ti n f l a d e
‘
a o
’
o e r s, 1 7 9 80
- Br a z il , 1 1 7
ag ent f ign 9 8 s, or e , ,
1 8 -
9 9 9, 2 00 -1 , 2 06 b d rea ,
1 4, 2 5, 5 5, 62 , 1 02 , 1 2 3, 1 62

7 b ib y
r er ,
1 2 8, 2 07 ; see a l so sa btg o a e

ag r ci ultu r e, 1 7 7
0 -
3, 222 ; s ee a l so c ol
“
b r ig a d es,
’
20

l ect iv e f ar m s, har v t
e s s, S t at e fa r m s B r it a in ( E ng l a n d ) ,
2 , 4 6 ,
-
8 -
9, 1 -
3 4,
al im o ny , 4 3, 1 4 3 44
-
2 8, 4 6 -
9) 5 97 7 5 )
A m e r ic a — se e U S A . . .
79
-
81 1
85 , 98, 1 1 3, I 1 5
'
1 71
A m er ica n Testa m ent, 1 96 1 34 " 1 8 -
5 5 91 1 631 1 7 6) I 7 9»
A n ti-D fi h r ing , 1 65 1 8 1 -8 2 , 1 8 4 -8 5 , 1 90 , 1 97 , 2 07 , 2 09

A r a r a t, 8 4 , 8 6 1 0, 2 1 4, 2 2 0, 2 2 6, 22 9, 2 33
ar ch it ec r e, 9 5 ,tu 2 1 9; se e a lso u
b il d b d r oa c a st in g —se e ra d io
in g( s ) buil di ng ( ) s ,
1 3, 2 8 , 60 , 7 8 -9, 8 6 -7 , 1 1 0,

A r isto cr a ts, 221 1 2 1 ,

1 70, 22 8
A rm e n i a , 54 , 84 87 , -
20 9 B uk h a r in 1 8 9- 9 3 , 1 9 5 98 ,
- 2 00 -02

—
,

a r my se e R e d A r my ; se e a l s o in t er bu u rea c r a cy , 2 7 , 6 4 , 99, 1 4 1 , 2 08 ; se e

v e n t io n a ls o sa btg o a e

a r r e st s, 1 2 8, 2 0 6 -7 ; se e a l so t r ia l s

a rt , a r tis s, t 1 31 , 1 5 3, 2 1 5 et s e q . C A BB A G E S OUP, 1 4 ,
1 6, 1 02

A ssig n m e nt in Ut op ia , 37, 90 , 96, ca g ou l a r d s, 2 09

2 1 3
-
1 4 C a m b r idg e ,
2 -
3, 1 9, 22 ,
2 6, 1 97 , 2 33
cam p s, c h il d r e n s,
’
pi o n ee r , 8 3, 1 3 3
0 - 1

“
BACK FR OM T HE b — la or s ee p i r so ns

2 1 4
-
1 9 Ca n t bu y D
er r ,
ea n o f, 30
b a n d it s, 6 9 -7 0 ca p it a l ism , 1 4 6, 1 6 6, 1 7 1 -
72 , 2 1 7, 22 5,
B a ng o r ,
2 ,
1 9, 2 6 -7 22 7
-
2 8, 2 3 0, 2 32
B a p tist s ,
1 34 p it li t
ca a s s, 1 8, 2 5, 44 ,
1 6 9, 1 87 , 2 30
b a th s. 1 3 . 3 9. 1 55 C p th i
ar a a, 1 1 6
B a tu m ) 6 9 : 84 C p ia S
as n ea , 5 8, 7 5
B e a l , Fr e d , 2 1 1 ,
2 1 3 c ey ch a ss, 8 -1 0, 1 2

b eg g a r s, 1 0 6 -7 , 1 1 0 -1 1 , 1 73 C h a m b e r l a in ,
N .
,
1 4 5, 1 81
B e r l in 4 4 2 0 1 2 2 9 C h a p a ev k a , 1 5 5 57
-

—
, , ,

B e r l in -R om e-T o k io a x is, 2 0 1 c h a r a ct e r se e p e r so n a l i ty
b i th
r c on r o l ,
- t 49 ch em ic al Wor k e r s, 74
B l a ck S ea 5 4 7 4 7 7 -9 8 7 . 97 c h il d r en , 3 3, 4 1 -
3. 4 6 -
9, 7 1 8 3, I O7

B ol sh ev ism—se e C ommunism
. , , , , ,

1 3 8 -4 0 , 56
- -
5,
1 1 1 2 1 1 3 32
0 1 52
p—
, ,

B om b 1 08 ch i l d r e n s
’
ca m ca m ps
b t—
ay, s se e

oo s se e sh oe s C h in a , 1 0 8 -0 9 , 1 1 6 -1 7

2 35
2 3 6 I N DEx

C h inese E a ste r n R a il w a y, 206 a l so sa b ot a g e, t r ia l s

C h o l l e r ton Mr 9 9 ,
.
, c o n st i tuti on, 1 6 6, 2 32
ch u r c h e s, 3 3, 8 1 , 87, 1 1 1 ,
1 34 , 1 55 ; c o r r es p o n d en t s, p r e ss, 4, 2 8 , 5 6 , 99
s e e a l so m on k p s, t
r ie s s , r el ig io n 1 01 2 02 ; s e e a l so fo r e i g n e r s, p r es s
8 9—
,

c in e m a ( film s an d m ovies ) , 9, 6 3 , 8 1 , u p ti
co r r on, 1 2 - see a l so bri b e ry,

91 , 1 55
-1
56 bu u y btg
r ea cr a c , sa o a e

C it r in e, S ir W .
, 6 0 -6 1 ,
8 6, 1 09 , 1 4 5, C u il
o f A ti
nc s o c o n, 1

1 81 2 0 6 -0 7 , 2 1 9, 2 2 0, 22 8 u l df
co n se 4 e e n se , 1 2
—
, ,

ci vil wa r se e wa r u t m d ly 4 6 9
co r s, co ra e -

—
,

c l a sses, e v e n in g see e v en ing cl a sses - l a w, 4 6 , 1 2 -

4 44 ,
1 84 ; see a l so

s S OCia l s 3 6: 1 98 ) 2 0 94 0 ; tri lsa

se e a l so c a p it t
a l is s, l a n dl or ds, m id cr ec h e s, 4 2, 4 8, 1 3 6, 1 8 -
3 39
dl e c l a s s, w o r ki g n c l a ss cr im e. 1 9, 32 , 4 6 -
7. 1 2 8 -2 9. 1 42
-
44 .

of tr avel 55 9 ,
-
22 1 -2 2 ; se e a l so co ut ti
r s, r a ls

C l e a nsing ,
C om m ission, 1 77 C r im e a , 6 6, 7 6
cl e an sin g p , a r ty , 1 77 79
-
c r itic ism, 1 2 , 2 6 -7 , 3 4 -5 , 7 9 -8 1 , 1 4 5 4 6,
-

c l in ic s- se e h e a l th s e r v ices 1 -
7 7 7 9, 1 8 3, 22 3, 22 5, 22 7 et s e q .

c l othin g , 1 0 3, 7 3 741 - C r itiqu e o f th e G oth a P r og r a mme,

cl ub s, 81 , 1 5 5 5 6, 1 6 1
-
, 72 1 1 6 5 -6
co al 1 22, 1 4 7 -4 8 , 22 5 C umm ing s A J , , . . 2 02

c o ll ec tiv e a g r e em en t , 1 37 3 9
- C u stom s, 6 -7
co l l ect i e v fa r m s, 6 3 -5 , 1 00 , 1 2 0, 1 2 5
-2
9, cutl e ry , 1 5
1 -
55 57 . 1 6 1 -6 3 . 1 7 1 -7 2 . 1 87 , 2 3! Cz ech osl o v k ia a , 1 1 6 -1 7
c o mm e r cia l sh o p s, 1 2 2 -2 3
C om m issa r ( ia t ) s of D AI LY HERALD , ”
2 0 6 -O7

D e fe nse, 1 98 D a il y Ma il , 4 1

Ed u ti ca on, 31 , 1 61 D a il y Tel eg r a p h, 99 , 1 0 9
Fin a nce , 8 0 g
d a nc in . 5 6 . 7 2 -3 . 1 5 3
Food I n dustry , 1 73 D ea n o f C a nt e r bu y r , 30
H om e T r a de, 8 9 d e fe nce co u n se l , 1 42
Ju ti d emoc r a cy , 63, 76 et

—
s c e, 20 1 I o, 2 5, 1 1 s eq , .

comm on o w n e r shi p , sen se oi see 2 00 et s eq , . 2 1 7, 2 24

p p ro e r ty , p ub l ic de puti es to S up r em e S o ie v t , 1 86
C om mun ism ( B ol sh evism ) , 4 4, 1 1 6, d ict a t or sh i p ,
1 6 3 , X V, 2 04 et s e q.

1 95 . 22 3 D il l on, E .
J .
,
1 1 0, 1 1 4
-
1 5
Le ft, ”
1 92 d in in g r oom s ( r es a tu r a nts ) , 7 8,- 1 4
C om mun ist I nte r n a tion a l, 1 96 1 5. 1 03 . 1 31 .
1 55
P a r ty . 2 7 . 35 . 80 . 1 5 9. x6 4 , 1 6 8. p
d isci l in e, 1 8
3 , 22 1

2 1 1 , 2 1 9, 2 3 1 ,
C h a p te r s X V, X VI , disc u ssion , 2 4 6,
-
1 3 8, 1 4 0, 1 44 , 1 8 -
5 5 9,
XVI I 1 77 ; se e a l so c r it ic ism , fr e e d o m ,
S oc ie y , 5 7 , t 1 2 4, 1 6 6, 2 31 m e et in g s

pt
co m e it io n, 2 0-2 1 , 1 62 ,
1 67 d ist r i buti o n, 83, 1 4 0, 1 6 6 -6 7 , 1 0
7 7
- 1

con s p ir a cy , 1 8 -
9 99 , 2 0 2 -0 3 ci see d iv ision of la b or , 1 8 -
4 4 9, 1 66
2 3 8 INDEX
G e o r g ia 5 4 7 1 7 3 8 4 2 08 0 9 - Hom e T r a de, C ommissa r ia t of —
G eo r g ia n l a ngu a ge —
. . . . . see

se e l a n gu a ges C omm issa r ia s t

G e r m a ny 2 0 2 2 1 2 0 1 5 4 5 5 1 5 7 5 8
, , , ,
-
,
-
,
‘
h ood ed m e n,
’
2 0 9-1 0
-
98, 8, 6 h os i pt a l s, 3 3 3 6,
—79
-
1 7 3, 1 92 93 , 1 2 1 22 1 22 5
G e r m a n l a ngu a g e—see l a n gu a ges t
h o s el s, tud t
s en , 1 1 -1
5, 30 1 ,

G id e An d r é 2 2 3 1 09 2 1 4 1 9
, ,
-
, ,
- to u it 5 r s ,
2 -3 , 63, 6 5 -6 , Ch a p .

G ig a nt 5 4 6 2 4 1 2 1 1 7 1 -
V I I . 8 7 . 93
—s
, , , ,

G o d, b li e ef in e e ch u r ch e s, r eli gi on h ote l s, 1 2 , 5 2 -3 , 1 1 8 -1 9, 2 1 2 - 1 3
G oe bb l e s, 201 u b
h o r s o f l a o r , 3 1 -2 , 3 6 -7 , 4 2 , 7 4 , 1 02 ,

g o l o d, g o lo d o vk a ,
1 1 5, 1 70 ; se e a lso 1 2 6 -2 7 , 1 3 4 -3 5 , 1 7 4 , 1 8 2 , 2 2 5

fa m in e Ho u se of Lo r d s, 5 22

G o r ky ( N izh n i N ovgo r od ) -
, 5 4 5 , 60 ,
- ho ui s ng , -
3 3, 5 3,
0 2 -
6 0 -2
, 7 8 -
9, 8 6 , 1 0 5 ,
6 5, 1 62 1 1 2 .
1 2 4 -2 5 . 1 3 8 . 1 6 9-7 0. 1 7 3 -7 4 .

gv o e r nm e n t ( s) ,
fo r e i g n, 20 ; se e a l so 2 1 2

in t v
er e n tio n H o w a r d, R oy , 3 8
S o iet, v 2 8, 32
-
3, 37, 80, 1 00 , ug
H h es, o h n , 99 J
1 0 9- 1 0 , 1 4 1 , 1 4 4 4 6,
-
1 6 4 -6 5 , XVI ,

XV I I I LLE G I T I MA C Y , 4 1 - 3
m u n ic i p a l, 1 4 1 ; s ee a l s o S o ie v t s il l it e r a cy , 2 2 , 1 1 4 , 1 5 6 , 1 7 3 -7 4
G P . . U , 44 , 9 . 0 -1 , 99 ; se e a l so p r ison s,
—
il l n e ss s e e h e a l t h s e r ic e s v
t r ia l s im m ig r a n t s to 3
G P . . U J u stice, 90 - 1
.
im p e r ia l ism , 2 0 8, 2 2 4, 22 6; s ee a ls o

Gr a ha m ,
p
S t e h e n, 6 6 , 1 1 1 -1 2 t v ti
in er en on

( 3 r e ece , 8 6 - 7 in ce ntiv e, 2 1 , 57 ; s e e a l s o com p titi e on ,

G r een B a y, 7 5 w g a es

G r ee n Tr ut s ,
1 2 1 ; s ee a l so ga r d en s I n d ia , 5 9, 1 0 8 -0 9, 1 1 6 , 1 7 9-80 , 2 0 8 -0 9

G r in ko, 1 98
ut
I n d s r ia l A c a d emy , 1 4 8
G r o z ny 5 4 8 4 9 3 9 5 . . . .
in efiid e n cy s 9 3 '4 s 1 2 9) I 3 9 4'0 s '

Guest D r H a y de n 1 6 7 - 2 0 8 ; se e a l so e f c ie n cy fi
Guid e s — u lity—
.
, ,

se e in t e r p r et e r s in eq a se e e qu a l ity
in itia ti v e, 1 4 8 -
49
H AB I C HT, H .
,
1 1 8 I n stitute of Mo d er n L a ngu a g e s, 2 6,
h a ve t
r s s, 6 2 -3 , 6 5 , 8 5 , 9 6 -7 , 1 00 , 1 02 33
—
,

1 07, 1 2 0 , 1 6 2 , 1 7 2 -7 3 in s u r a n ce s e e soc ia l in s u r a nce

h ea l h t vic 3 7
se r e s, ,
6 9, 7 2 -3 , 8 2 , 1 02 ,
in t e l l e ct u a l s, 8 -
3 9, 1 88, 1 91
-
92 , 1
-
9 5 97 ,
1 30, Ch p XI I a .
, 1 61 , 22 5 2 0 8 -0 9 , Ch a p . XVI I I
h e a lt h r e sort s, 6 6 -7 , 8 1 -4 in t per r et e r s, 2 3
h is t o r y, 1 89 et s e q . int e r v e nti on , 91 , 6 -
9 7, 1 6 8, 1 7 1 -
72
H istor y o f th e 1 91 I n to u itr s , 52
-
3, 1 1 3, 1 1 8 -1 9
H itl e r , 2 01 ,
2 07 , 2 1 8 1 S e a r ch for Tr u th in R u ssia , 6 1 , 8 6,
h ol id a y s, 1 8 , 4 3 , 5 8 -9, 6 6 , Ch a p . V II ,
1 0 9, 2 2 0 ; s e e a l so S ir W . C it r in e
8 3 -4 . 1 02 . 1 2 4. 1 31 . 1 5 5 56.
-
1 74 I W as a S ov iet Wor ker , 2 1 2 -1
3
 INDEX 2 39
J APAN , 1 08 -0
9, 1 1 6 -1 7 , 1 8 -
9 99, 2 01 G e rm an , 8, 22 -
4 , 3 3, 1 61
02 ,
2 06 , 22 5
-2 6 R u ssia n , 7 9,
-
22 , 7 0 -2

J e w s. 1 9
-2 0. 4 9. 1 1 5. 1 54 5 5.
- 1 5 8. 201 . La n in, E . B .
,
1 1 5
2 0 8 -0 9 la v a to r ie s —s ee sa n i a t ti on

iu d g e s. - l ea d e r s, a t it t ud to, 7 9 83
-

—
1 42 43 e 1

ju t i ut jud g e s, p r iso n s Le ft C o m m u n ist s 92

-

—
s ce s ee co r s, , ,
1 93
t r ia l s Leg a y , K .
,
1 1 9 20

Le n in . 9 3 . 1 22 .
1 57. 1 6 9. 1 78
-
9 5.
KA B AR D I N O - B ALKAR I A , 6 8 - 9 2 0 2 -0 3

K a g a nov itc h , 1 8 5, 1 9 5 96 , 2 0 8
-
Le n in a k h a n , 8 5
K a l in in , 1 0, 1 85, 1 9 5 96
-
Le n in g r a d , 4 , 6 5 - 6 , 9 5 , 1 1 0

K a m e n e v, 2 8, 1 5 9, 1 8 9- 9 1 , 1 93 , 1 6
9 98
-
b —
l i e r ty se e fr e e d o m
Ka s bk e 93 Life o f Le n in, 1 91
—
,

ha sh a , 1 4 l ife, st a n d a r d o f s ee s a n d a r d o f t life
k e r zh en tze v ,
1 91 l it e r a t u r e, 2 4, 1 3 3
0 - 1
,
1 5 3 54 ,
- Cha p .

K h a r k ov. 5 4 . 8 4 . 9 5 . 1 -
5 5 3. 1
0 59 XVI I I
K ie v 1 5 0 0 2 , 1 5 9
,
-
Litt l p g e a e, J .
, 94
ki n d e r g a r t e n s, 4 1 -
2 , 4 8, 1 3 6, 1 8 -
3 39 ; l iv t ck
es o ,
1 72
-
73
se e a l so c h ild r e n Lo n d o n , 2 ,
2 8, 4 1 -4 , 5 9, 7 5 6,
- 1 0 2 -0 9,

K ir o v , 1 96 1 2 0, 1 64 , 1 82 , 2 05, 2 1 1 , 22 9
K isl ov o d sk , 6 6 -9 Lo w , D a id , v 1 6
K oms o m ol , 2 6 -7 , 1 31 , 1 -
54 5 5 ; see a ls o Ly on s. E u g e ne. 3 7 . 3 9. 90 . 6 -1
9 . 99 00 .
y o thu 2 1 1 ,
2 1 3
K u ib ish ev , 1 96
ba l a / 8, - 1
MA C D ON A LD
es , 1 1 00 , 1 7 1 -
72 , 201 , 2 0
3 3 , J . R .
, 1 8 9 -90
Ku ta is 7 0 , 7 4 ,
Ma ch in e T r a ct or S t tia o n s, 1 2 6
Mal in ov sky 2 0 3
LAB OR C A MP S — p se e i
r so n s
m ln a ut ition ,
,

di ision v of — v
d i ision of la b
r 1 04
se e or
Ma n ch e ster G u a r d ia n , 99
fo r ce d , 4 6 -7
— M a n c h u r ia 2 0 6
u
h o r s o f see h o u r s of la b or
Ma nn in E th e l 5 8
,

p ro du t i ity—
c v see p r od u tivity
c
m a r r ia g
, ,

-
a l so family ,
34 3 5 ;
sh o r a t g 48; e, 1 se e a sol u m ne
e, 1 se e

pl oy m e n t sex

l a n dl a dy , 3 5 , 3 8 9 , 7 6 , 1 8 9 1 - -
Ma rx Ma rx ism , , 44 , 1 2 3
-2
4, 1 6 5 -6 8 ,

l a n dl o r d s, 1 8 , 5 7 , 1 2 8 , 1 6 9,
I 73
7 2 8,
-
22

2 - 2 Ma y D ay , 1 1 9
-2 0
, 1 0
5 5
- 1
3 3
0

l a nd, n a t io n a li a t ion z o f, 2 8 64 5, - m e a l s, 1 2 ,
1 4 6, 5 5 , 7 0, 8 1
- -2
; se e a l so

1 22
foo d
71 , 5
lan gu a g e s,
7 , 7 9 80 1 -
2 1 - m ec h a n iza t io n, 2 8 , 6 3, 93, 95, 1 67, 1 71 ,

E ng l ish , 3 -4 , 8 , 2 2 -4 , 3 1 -3 , 7 0 -2 22 8

Fr en ch , 2 2 -3 , 1 9 6 m e d icin e — see h ea l h t
G eo r g ia n , 7 1 m e et in g s, 2 7, 3 1 -2
,
1 37, 1 42, 1 44 , 1 86 ;
2 4 0 INDEX
s ee a l so cr i ti i m c s ,
di sc u ssion, f u
ree n r se r ie s — se e c r ech es

dom u n r se s, 1 34 3 5
-

t
m e a l in d uty s r , 1 5 6
-

Metr o , 3 4 , 5 9, 1 2 1
1 - -2 2 OB S ERV ER, ”
1 1 6
Met r o -V i
c e r s t r ia l,k 2 0 2 -0 3 o flic e w or k er , 2 8, 1 2 1

m id d l e c l a ss, 6 -
3 7, 4 8 -
9, 2 0 8 -0 9 fi
o f c ia l s, 3, 1 0, 8 0, 94 -5 , 1 00, 1 2 -
7 9,
Mik oy a n , 1 2 -
7 73 I 47
m il itia , 1 1 3 ,
1 1 9, 1 4 1 ,
2 05 O il s 7 59
m in o r it ie s, 2 05 ; see a l so J ew s, na Ok a , 5 5 -6
t ion a l q es u ti on Op e n R oa d, 1 1 8 et se q .

Mol otov ,
1 85, 1 9 5 96
-
( S oviet T ou r ist Age ncy ) ,
m on a ste r ies, m o n k s, 81 , 8 7 -8 5 3, 6 3, 6 8 et s e q.

m o r a l s, 1 9
-
2 0, Ch a p V ,
1 77 78 ;
-
see Or dj on ik id ze ( p l a ce ) , 6 8, 93
a l so m a r r ia g e, fa m ily , p r os tituti o n, O r djo n ik id ze , S e r g o, 1 95 6
-

sex Or ig in o f th eFa m ily , 4 5

MOS COW ,
2, 3s
61 7 1 I 9s O r th o d ox u
C h r ch , 1 3 4
4 2 . 4 4. 6
4 . 5 1 -6
. 5
8 -
9. 6 6 . 6 8 -
9. 7 6 . t
Or h o d oxy , 2 1 5
-
1 6
8 5 . 9 3 . 95 . et 1 8 Ou r P ol itica l Ta sks 1 92
ow n e r sh ip p ub l ic—
79 .
1 00 -0 1 .
1 03 2 . ,

1 1 8 et seq , . 1 4 1 ,
1 5 5
0 - 1
,
1 53, 1 5 8, s e e p r op e r ty
, , p ub
1 6 3 -6 4 , 1 6 8, 2 01 ,
2 07 , 2 1 2 -
1 3 l ic
M oscow A d mits a Cr itic 1 1 1 ,

Moscow N ew s 2 , PALA C E OF PI ONEER S

Moscow 1 9 3 7 1 8 0 se e P io n ee r s

Mo scow Un d e r gr ou n d—see Met r o

, ,

P a r es S ir B er n a r d 1 1 0 -1 1
, ,

Mo scow -Vol g a C a n a l 5 6 1 5 1 P a r is 2 8 4 4
p k —s g d
, , , ,

m ot h e r h o od , 4 3, 4 5, 73; se e a l so ar s ee ar en s

fa m ily , h e a l th se r vice s, soc ia l in P k f Cultu

ar s o r e a nd R es t , 6 -7 , 1 53 4 ,
-

u s r a n ce, w om e n 1 59
Mug g e r id g e. M . 3 9. 9 9 p a r lia me n t , 1 9
-2 0, 1 7 6, 1 7 9, 1 85, 1 87 ,
mu i s c, 5 6, 6 6, 7 3 , 8 1 1 5 3 54 ,
- 1 61 2 1 9 2 24

P a rty C omm unist—see C ommunist

, ,

N A LT C HI K, 5 4 , 6 8 -9 P a rty
t
n a io n a l q e st io n s, 1 8 -
9, u 7 1 -2 , 1 6 3, cl e an sin g— se e cl ea n sin g
224 -2 6; se e a l so J ew s sy s e t m, 1 63 , Ch a p X V
—
.

N a zis se e fa sc ism , G e r m a ny , Hi l er t p e a ce a n d w a r ,
1 6 9, 1 92 , 2 2 4 , 22 - 2
9 3
N eh r u , J .
,
1 7 9 80
- p e a sa n t s 9 1 5 » s 1
2 89 37) 6 0,
N e w Ec o nom ic P ol icy , 1 69 6 2 -5 , 7 8 -8 1
, 9 6 -8
,
1 07 , 1 1 3, 1 24

N ew Lea d er , 5 4 e t se q , 5 6, 63, 7 1 -3 , 87 , 2 1
—
1
. 1 1 1 7
p p
n ew s a e r s se e p r e ss , w a l l -n ew s p ens io n s, 57, 1 2 6
p p a er s P e r sia , 8 4, 8 7
N ew Yo r k
5 , 5 9, 2 1 1 8 p e r so n a li ty 3 3, 1 05

—
, ,

N izh ni-N o v og r o d se e Go r ky P et r og r a d ( S t P eter sbu r g ) .

, 1 9, 1 91
v
N o ii A fo n , 7 7 , 8 1 , 84 P ia t a k ov , 94
2 4 2 INDEX
g oo d s, 8 S t Ua
- 1 04 , 1 22 tS ,
3 9, 33)
la b or, 5 0, 5 7 8,
-
1 2 1 ; se e a l so 1 5 8, 22 5
u ne p
m l oy m en t su bb otn ihs, 63, 1 2 1

m ate r ia l s, 1 2 1 S up r em e C ou ncil , 1 86
Slo va k W k e or rs S ocie y , t 2 1 1 S v a n ti e a, 6 9, 7 3 , 7 4
S m ith , A n d r ew, 2 1 1 -1 3 S wi tz e r l a n d, 7 , 6 9 , 7 0 , 7 4

so a p , 40
S oc h i, 7 7 TAX E S , 1 2 6, 1 2 8
S oc ia l ism, 5 7 , 1 00 , 1 1 0 , 1 2 3, 1 2 7, 1 6 5, t e a c h e r s, C h a pt
I I I , 3 2 , 7 1 -7 2 , 1 3 0
er

Ch a er pt
I V, 1 7 3 -4 , X 1 80, 1 92 ,
1 96 , T e ch n icia n o f Fo r e ig n La ng a e s
, 3,
ug
2 0 6 - 1 0, 2 1 5, 22 3, 22 9, 2 32
-
34 9. 1 0. 1 8. 2 6. 2 8. 3 1 . 1 40
S oc ia l I n s ua r n c e, 37, 1 02 , 1 35 th t e a er , 63, 1 0 5 -6 , 1 3 1 , 1 50, 1
-
5 3 5, 1 59
37 ; s e e a l so h e a l th se rv ice s 62 , 2 1 5
S ocia l R e v lution a r ies, T iflis. 5 4 . 7 2 . 7 4 . 7 7 . 8 4 . 8 5 . 92
—
o 1 92
S oc ie y t f P l et a r ia n To u r is m ti p 1 03

t—
o ro see s,

t oil e s se e s a nit tion a

S ol o n ev ich , I .
, 90 , 91 , 2 2 0, 2 2 2 k
T o io, 4 4 , 1 0 8 , 201 , 22 9
v
S o iet s, 6 4 , 7 1 , 1 2 8, 1 4 1 -2
,
1 64 , 1 6 8, T o r g sin , 8 8 90 , -
1 2 0-1 , 2 1 3
1 8 5 -8 6 to u r ist s, fo r e i g n, 52 , 1 1 8 -2 0 ; se e a l so

C o nt r ol C omm ission 1 86 fo r e i g n er s

—
,

e l e ct io n s to se e e l ec ti on s S o ie v t— e s e

G v o er n m en t— see gv o er n m en t t r a de u n io n s, 2 6 , 4 6 -7 , 5 0 , 7 6 , 8 2 -8 3 ,
l oc a l , 1 2 8, 1 4 1 -
42 1 32 1 1 3 5 4 '2 s
'
1 6 2 3 1 84 1 1 8 6 1

S ov iet D e m ocr a cy, 1 79 1 88, 1 93 , 2 04 -

7, 22 1

S p a in . 9. 7 4 . 1 57. 1 82 . 1 0
9 . 2 00 -1
. 2 04 . t r a in s — ta p se e r ns ort

2 09 t r a n s or p t 20 , 1

S p e cta tor , 1 05 o v e r c r ow d e d, 52 , 8 - 6
5 5 9, 5 -6 6

sp ul ti 3 2
ec a o n, r a il w a y s 5 9i 7 os 1 1 41
sp d p 46
ee -
u ,
1

Sp ts 3 or 1 1 1
ro ad . 60 . 93 . 1 24 . 1 60 . 1 73
S tak h n vi m a o s ,
1 44 , 4 6
1 -
4 9, 1 6 7 t t 55 56
s r ee c a r , -
,
6 0, 1 42
S t a l in , 1 0 , 3 8 , 97 , 1 79
-
8 2 ,
1 8 5 6,
-8
1 8 9, ubu b a 5 9
s r n,

I 95 9 6 s "
2 01 ) 2 0 3) 2 04 w at 56 59 er , -

S t a l ing r a d , 5 4 , 5 6 , 6 0-2 t r ia l s, 2 8 , 94 -
5, 1 00, 1 2 9
st a n d a r d iz ion, 5 7 , 1 2 3 , at 1 65 T r ots y ( ism ) , k 1 5 9, 1 8 9-97 , 2 00-2 , 204

st a n d a r d o f l ife, 2 5 , 3 7 9,
- 1 02 -3 , 1 -
4 7 9, 6, 22 7, 2 30
1 5 6, 1 6 9-7 0, 22 5 T r d, 1 4 u 1

tt
s a e t r a d in g , 8 8 -
90 ; se e a lso sh o ps z
t a r ism, 1 9
-2 1
, 2 3 , 3 4 5 , 5 9,
- 1 0 8 -1 6,
tt
s a e fa r m s, 54 , 6 2 -
5, 82 , 1 7 0-2 64 .
7 3 . 2 0 3 . 2 0 9.
1 I 2 1 5. 22 5
st i p e n d s, 1 2 , 3 3, 1 2 5, 1 56 T uk a ch ev sky , 1 98
S to l p ie , 6 T uk r ey, 8 4 -6
st r i k e s, 1 4 7, 1 83 , 205

S t r on g , A n n a Lo ise, u 2 UKRA I NE ,
1 1 , Cha p . X III ,
1 7 2 , 2 09
 INDEX 2 43
u ne m pl oy m en t ,
1 5, 2 5
-2 6, 8 5 , 1 02 ,
1 06 W bb e , 8 . a nd B .
,
1 79
7, 1 4 6, 1 51 ,
1 5 8, 1 82 , 22 5 w om e n) 1 9: 62 ) 6 6: 1 02 )

ui t d (
n o n s, ra e see t r a de u n io n s ) 1 05. 1 1 2 1 4 0. I S7
u iv iti —
.

n er s es se e ed u ti ca on, t e a ch e r s, Wo r d f
r om N ow h er e, 2 1 3
tud t
s en s
‘
w or k d y 2 6 57
- a ,
’
1 ,
1

22 ,
2 6, 1 0 9, 2 1 1 ,
2 1 4 w or k er s m m itt
’
co e e s, 1 45 46
-

wor k er s t l
’
45 con r o ,
1

VA GA B OND IN T HE C AU w or k i g cl
n 4 2 a sse s, ,
0, 2 4
-2
5, 28, 3 5
C A S US ,
1 1 1 -1 2, 1 1 4 3 6. 5 3 . 6 5 - 6 7 . 7 6. 1 07 . 1 2 5
-
2 6. 1 4 6
V e r b ud,l 54 , 64 1 4 9. 1 6 -
7 77. 1 85. 1 8 8. 2 04 -
5
Vod k a, 1 1 5, 3
-1 1 56 w o r in k g ho u rs —s e e ho u rs of wor k
V olg a . 5 4 5 9. 6 5 .
-
51 w or k in t e l l e ct u l— a s ee in t e l l e ct u a ls

—
1 e r s,

V o l g a - Mos c ow Ca na l se e Moscow man l—s e e w o r in g c l a ss

u a k
V ol g a C a nal fi c e—see o th ee -w o r e r s
of k
V o r o sh il o v 1 8 5, 1 98 k
w r e c in g se e sa o g e — b ta
—
,

Wg a e-e a r n e r s se e w or in k g la c ss w r it e r s, 1 90 , 1 9 4 -9 5 , C h a t e r VI I I ; p X
Wag e s. 3 1 . 57. 1 02 .
1 2 3
-
2 6. 3 5.1 s ee a l so c o r r e s o n d e n s, in t e l l ect u p t
1 8 -
3 3 9. 1 4 6. 1 4 8. 1 50. 1 57. 1 6 5 -6 7 . a l s, l i t era t u re

1 87 , 22 5
w a it e r s a nd wa i t r e sse s, 1 0 3 - 5 YA G OD A 1 9 8
Y oung C omm un ists—se e
,

W a l e s, 2 ,
6, 7 2 , 1 06 K oms om ol
wa ll -
n ew s p ap e r s, 2 7, 1 2 7, 1 32 , 1 3 8 3 9,
-
yo uth . 4 . 3 3 34 .
-
4 8 -
4 9. 6 3 64
-
.
1 07 -
8.
8 6, 8 5 6. 61 67 .
- -
1 4 1 , 1 2 1 1 3 2
0 .
1 5 3 54 . 1 1 .
1 2 1 5
w a r, c i il ,v 2 8 -2 9, 9 1 , 97 , 1 00 , 1 72 ; s ee 2 1 8 -1 9 ; s ee a l s o s tud t en s

a ls o p ea c e
W a r sa w , 1 58 ZE LE N S KY , 1 98
w a te r t r a ns o r t p — ta ns ort p Z e ly o n n i Muis
t—
s ee r , 75
w as e see in ef fi ciency Z ino ie v v ,
2 8, 1 5 9, 1 8 9-92 , 1 93 , 1 96