THE CLUE TO RUSSIA

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 63, 8 December 1920, Page 7

THE CLUE TO RUSSIA

• ECONOMIC FAILURE OF BOLSHEVISM. "The truth about Soviot Russia (and I have recently spent two months in Mosoow and Petrograd, prying into conditions there and cross-examining leading administrators) embraces two dominant facts, one of whicn proves highly unpalatable to Capital, while Labour will have great difficulty in swallowing the other," writes Arthur E. Copping in tho "Contemporary Review." "In the first place, the Bolsheviks are nicely behaved enthusiasts, zealous to serve Russia and humanity. On the other hand, Bolshevism (i.e., Socialism) is an abject, hopeless economic failure. From which, at the outset, tho reader gets an inkling that the truth about Soviet lius. sia, instead of being uniform:-' in hue and texture, is* a motley. Wherefor, large sections of public opinion will bo unprepared to receive it.

"Many efficient, prominent, and devoted servants of tho Bolshevik Government are non-Bolshcviks. Tho great mass of the Russian people, while looking with dismay upon the fruits of Bolshevism, are whole-hearted supporters of tho Bolshevik Government. Leading Bolsheviks, when 1 questioned them on the point, estimated tho number of Bolsheviks in Russia at nearly one million—a total largely composed of recruits who, following a natural tendency, have joined tho parly because it is in power. Another inquiry drew a statement that tho population, of Soviet Russia is over 150,000,000. Thus only an insignificant percentage is Bolshevik. In other words, aa overwhelming preponderance favours capitalism and private onterpri-.e.

"I might go further and say that ccr. tainly some of the million Bolsheviks— and all, I think, of the English Socialist"! who have recently visited Moscow and Petrograd—agre« that private enterprise and a modified form of capitalism must be restored in Russia. For the economic failure of Bolshevism is patent—State machinery doling out an inadequate supply of black bread and breaking down more or less completely in all other directions, so that citizens live amid the ruins of the old civilisation, with no new on,o arising to take its place—a nightmaro experience. Yet those same citizens stand united behind the Bolshevik Government ind at its bidding aro willing to lay down their lives. Moreover, despite tho widespread semi-starvation and privations innumerable, a sustaining spirit of optimism is noticeable in Russia.

"What an illogical jumble of incongruities! Yes, until onei Rets the clue. "The Revolution and Bolshevism, sometimes confused as synonymous, nro totally distinct phenomena. The Revolution, which was apparently some centuries overdue, must hs regarded ns permanent and irrevocable: while Bolshevism, which may very woll ho some centuries ahend. of its time (though tha date of thedevil's onchainment remains unknown) is merely transitory and accidental. In other wo'rds. the soul of Russia is wrapped up in the Revolution, "That jrrcat muster of million?—unsophisticated, poorly educated and in come respects unco.ith, 'but devout, childlike, and -lovable—are conscious of their newly-acquired political freedom. All attacks from without, though they may bo intended in->rrly ns blows atfninst Bolshevism, are interpreted by Russia as hostile to the Revolution. Townsfolk and peasants alike find heart to endure any temporary economic tribulation so long ns the busbear of Tsardom is kept at buy. The Bolshevik Government, with its Red Army "of seme three, million men, lins tiroved an unfailing defence of tha Revolution and therefore the Bolshevik Onvernment. in spite, of its infatuated attempt to reconstruct human society, has received, and is still receiving, the eupport of a united Russia."