BOLSHEVO: A CONVICT TOWN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 37, 6 November 1937, Page 15

BOLSHEVO: A CONVICT TOWN

A Soviet Success

I visited Bolshevo, writes Andre Gide in. "Return from the U.S.S.R." At first it was only a village/ abruptly sprung from the soil by ojrder, six years ago, I believe, on the initiative of Gprki. To-day, it is quite .an important town. It possesses this peculiarity: all its inhabitants are former criminals: thieves, even assassins. . This idea dominated the formation and constitution of the town: that criminals are victims, stray sheep, and that a iational re-edueation 'can make exCellent Soviet citizens of them. Bolshevo pfoves this. The town is prosperous. Factories were erected which soon be- ' came model factories. All the inhabitants of Bolshevo, without any other guidance than their , own, become henceforth zealous, peacef ul and orderly workers, particularly careful of .good manners and desirous to learn; that is why all are placed at their disposal. It was not only their factories that they invited me to admire, but their meeting-place, their club, library, all their equipment which leaves nothing to be desired. You woiild search in' vain on the faces of these ex-criminals, in their appeaTance

or language, for any trace of their pasl life. Nothing is mor© edifying, T©* assuring and» eneouraging than thii visit. It leaves you with the impression that crimes may be imputed, not to the man who " commits them, but to the society which dyives them to commit them. First oue, then another, was invited to speak, to confess his former crimes, to relate how he - beeame coaverted, how he succeeded in recognising the excellence of th© new fegime, and what personal satisf action he experieneed at being part of it. Stringely enough, it brought to my mind the memory of those edifying confessione which I had heard at Thoun, two years ago, at a great meeting of the , members of the Oxford Group. "I was a sinner and unhappy ; I did wrong, but now I have repented; I am saved; I am happy." All somewha# simple and naive, and 'from the viewr point of the psychologist, leaving much to be desired. Nevertheless, Bolshevo remains on'e of the most extraordinary successes of which the new Soviet state can boast. I do not know whether man would be so pliable is other countries.