AN ESTIMATE OF AN ESTIMATE OF RUSSIA

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24904, 18 June 1946, Page 4

AN ESTIMATE OF AN ESTIMATE OF RUSSIA

U,S.S.R.

In this article in the “Sydney Morning Herald” Mr H. A. FREUND, author of “Russia from A to Z," comments on the series of articles (recently reprinted here) in which Mr J. J. Maloney set out the impressions he had formed during his two years’ service as Australian H Minister to Moscow. (Published by Arrangement.)

Mr Maloney’s outspoken criticism of living conditions in the Soviet Union, of which the duel with Mr Thornton was an inevitable concomitant, has aroused passions in wide circles of our community which are apt to ’blur our judgment. Why is it Jhat people are getting excited about living conditions in faroff Russia? Why do we find it important to know what part of the worker’s goes for purchasing the prime necessities of life, what percentage of citizens live in bourgeois comfort, how many are living proletarian lives, and to what extent slave labour is employed? Why are we so keen to find out what the freedoms granted by the Constitution mean in practice and how the 99 per cent, consent in Soviet elections is being reached? The reason is that, while we study other countries mostly for the sake of knowledge, Russia is the. subject-matter of debate for the sake of action. She has become the symbol for what people are looking for or for what they dislike. Mr Maloney’s speeches and writings are documents of a searching study of Soviet conditions, undertaken by a man who set out to get at the bottom of things. He has done a thorough job. His figures are a Valuable complement of results laid down in the works of economists and other observers which he has brought up to date jjnd which fit in perfectly with the statements of previous students. They would have become clearer if the question of the foreign exchange value of the rouble had not been brought in, since the rouble as a purely domestic currency has no external market value and does not therefore provide a measure by which to judge prices. The rate fixed by the Soviet Government at which diplomats and other foreigners can buy roubles against their home currencies is entirely arbitrary. It has no relation to a foreign economy whatever, and is of no interest to the Soviet citizen who lives on roubles. There is no doubt of the sincerity of Mr Maloney in his investigations. It reminds one of the study of another Labour man. Sir Walter Citrine, “I Search for Truth in Russia,” the fruit of a journey undertaken 10 years earlier, when living conditions were admittedly high in the Soviet Union, shortly after the abolition of rationing. Comparisons Sir Walter revealed what amount of dirt, what number of dilapidated houses, of neglected households, what scarcity of living space and lavatory accommodation he nad found in the Soviet Union. He measured the lack of comfort by the standards of that race which forced the w.c. upon a world of primitive hygiene. An inspection of the backyards of our planet and, even worse, of the larders of humanity, will reveal that Russia is by far above the lowest levels. Mr Maloney has in mind the abundance of food of Australian war-time “austerity" which by far surpassed in calories the standards of eastern Europe at their best. It is prima facie an unrealistic proposition to credit the Soviet Union with anything like adequate living conditions, if for no other reason than that the productivity per head of the Russian labourer is much lower than that of his opposite number in other progressive countries. To give only one example: the Soviet ironworker produced in 1937 86 kilograms of pig iron, against 183

kilograms in Britain, 189 in France. 234 in Germany, and 292 in the United States. Whatever the increase in produc. tivity may have been since then, that the Russian worker still lags behind the West can easily be guessed from Marshal Stalin’s pre-election speech of February 9, when he put the vision of three five-year plans before his electors. He declared these to be necessary to catch up in productivity with the most advanced countries. How can one expect the Russian worker to be better off, if one addi that first priority has belonged ever since 1928 to the creation of heavy industries at the expense of consumers’ goods and that the current Five Year Plan carries on in the same tradition! But here important qualification! must be made in the praise of Mr Maloney’s presentation. If the Russian worker is living a life of frugality, measured by our standards, that does not mean that he is unhappy. The common man in Russia has little opportunity of comparing his position with western standards. There is a background of semi-serfdom and next-to-starvation in his ancestry against which present austerity appears ai affluence. People are less exacting in their demands on the amenities of life. They also are told from morning till night how well thfcy are off. They certainly believe that conditions abroad are much worse than their own. In addition, Soviet life has become ever so much richer in spiritual values for the common man than it had ever been before. Among the component! which make for human happiness material conditions are essential, but they are not all. Ivan citizen to-day is in full discussion. There is a very broad scope for it in the frequent village meeting! ' of collective farmers and in the ago semblies of factory workers at their place of work. They are restricted irt scope and must not transgress limit! rigidly enforced by partv and police. But local matters are widely discussed and political education, however onesidea. is being imparted. Not having seen the working of political freedom, the broad mass of’ Soviet people are convinced that they enjoy it, whatever the higher intelligentsia may feel about it Foreign Policy Another point is Soviet foreign policy, where grave doubts as to the correctness of Mr Maloney’s vision are aroused. To attribute aims of boundless expansion to the Soviet Union in the imperialistic fashion is hardly warranted by the evidence at hand. The crisis in the present international' discussion is due to the fact that a “have?not” country has forced its way up to the topmost level where it finds itself confronted with the two super “haves.” The obvious difficulty i of meeting such a situation is not created by Russian demands only. It is not the Russian statesmen only who are handling the rapiers of diplomacy with their gloves off. The international issues are complicated by two historical mementoes! on the Russian side of the inglorious record of western politics in the interwar years, on the western side of Cominternism. These reminiscence! make for an atmosphere of fear which is not diminished by the double-edged weapon of the atomic bomb. The situation is tpo complex to be attributed merely to Russian greed. To do justice to the Soviet Union one must have two souls in one's breast. There is much that repels in the Soviet system, but there are compensations. The historical record of ’ this unique experiment in human.-' organisation is overwhelming, both in heroic achievement and in tragic blunI der and violence; • '