COMMUNIST RUSSIA

Hokitika Guardian, 25 June 1921, Page 4

COMMUNIST RUSSIA

The pathetic belief that Russia, under the Bolshevist regime, is a paradise for the worker is still held by some Australians ; not long ago, indeed the Commonwealth Government was asked to place a ship at the disposal of a number of optimists who fondly hoped to better themselves by emigrating to that distressful country. Distant hills seem greenest, and those who admire the Bolshevist system from afar off simply r efuse to allow that it may have a dark side. To them all criticism is ta’nted, and anyone who suggests that the lot of the worker has not been improved in Russia is accused of uttering the usutd “capitalist slanders.” Yet a body of evidence is accumulating which cannot be dismissed in this airy fashion. It gains authority from its source, for it is supplied, not by opponents of Bolshevism, but by witnesses who, though very willing to see the best in Bolshevism, cannot close their eyes to its defects, and are constrained to admit that for ono reason or another it has not succeeded in fulfilling its grandiose promises. The latest to bear testimony is Mr Arthur Ransome, who certainly must be acquitted of anti-Bolshevik bias. Hjb attitude has always been that every country has the right to choose its own form of government with out interference from without, and that Bolshevism must not be condemned until it has had a fair trial. In 1919 ho spent some time in Russia, and his defence of Bolshevism was interesting, if not wholly convincing. He has recently paid another visit, and his observations, recorded in “The Crisis in Russia'” give a very gloomy picture of the conditions obtaining there. He argues of course, that the failures of Bolshevism are due to causes beyond the control of the Government. But that begs the question. Failure is inherent in a system which. since it is founded on wholesale destruction, must inevitably antagonise outside opinion, and must deprive the Government of that domestic co-operation without which no experiment in communism can succeed. As far as material things are concerned Mr Ransome notes that on the whole the peasant eats rather more than he did before the war; the inference (supported by subsequent chapters), is that the city Worker eats less. Moreover, the peasant, relatively fortunate though he he, has no matches, no salt, no clothes, no hoots, no tools. The most frequent excuse for keeping children from school is that they have nothing to wear. The shortage is due to the complete breakdown of transport, and to the general collapse of industry which has followed the Revolution. Mr Ransome upbraids the Allies for this. Their blockade erf Russia off from supplies of manufactured goods, and particularly machinery, therefore if Bolshevism has brought misery and not content to Russia the Allies are in a great measure to blame. But. 'surd> that argument is rather far-fetched. Mr Ransome would have the Allies fall upon the neck of the Soviet Government and view with ope another in furnishing Russia’s wants! Mr Ransome forgets that the Allies have genuine grudges against Bolshevist Russia. Russia’s defection was a serious blow to the Allies. There is very strong ground for suspicion that some of the Bolshevist leaders were in Germany’s pay. Russia repudiated her foreign debts, and this hurt, not merely tho capitalist, but, especially in the case of France many thousands of small investors who had put their savings into tho Russian loans. And, as if this were not enough, the Soviet Government made no secret of its intention to endeavour to bring about revolution in those very conntries which Mr Ransome thinks should have come to its aid. Propaganda was ceaseless; it has been definitely established that intransigoant elements in France. Britain, and America have been subsidised by the Bolsheviks. In the circumstances was it reasonable to expect that the Allies should feel incumbent on them to help the Soviet’ in its self-imposed task of realising the millennium ? ’Why should they cultivate friendly relations with a Government whose avowed object was to spread tbe revolution to their own lands? Were they not, rather fully justified in segregating Russia as far as possible. However Mr Ransome does not claim that the sole responsibility for Russia’s plight rests with tbe Allies. The Russians themselves have contributed Dit. A fatal apathy has descended upon them; they will not work. Mr Ransome quotes some remarkable figures to show how labour has deteriorated. Under the Bolshevik system there ha« been “an appalling crescendo” of work-

in g time lost. Tn the transport services, where the need for on or cry is most a onto, tlif 1 lark of it is most conspicuous. The labour of a workman produces now only a quarter of what it did in 101 ft, and last year every employee was absent on the average of one day out of three. The reason is that they go foraging. and find trading in food, though prohibited by law. much rhore profitable than work. There is a huge army of clandestine food speculators. and though the revolution proclaimed that it was going to abolish the parasitic classes, of whom the unproductive middleman is a sneeies, it has actually increased them beyond all "reckoning. Practically every Russian is now a food-speculator, ns opportunity allows. To remedy this in-j difsTrial stagnation industrial ronserintion has been introdueed, though with dubious results. Those who envy the hnpnv 'Russian should reflect t 1 ’” avoid registration or to absent one self from work for any reason, save illhealth is an nfFenee. (lareless or uneconomical work is punished. Instigation to any of these tfffcnccs is regarded even more seriously than the offence itself. Payment depepds upon production ; in fixing wages the quality of the workman is taken into account. 1 Rut industrial conscription is only one of many strnng fruits of freedom in Russia. Various pretences have Iwon dronned. The All-Russian executive, the nominal Parliament, has fallen info * desuetude. Lenin has franklv ndmittc-i that the so-called dictatorship of the proletariat actually oonsiste in "the dictatorship of its determined and cnns ,r "- ous minority.” This minority hv P\ way. is ludicrously insignificant. Tn all Russia’s millions there are only so v '

600,000 professed communists. Discussion in the committees is a mere farce , majorities are “not always legitimately obtained.” The activities and the arrests of the Extraordinary Commission are arbitrary to a degree; most of the ordinary safeguards of democracy have disappeared. Mr Ransome excuses this state of affairs by pointing out that in any countty which is threatened by a crisis consitutional, guarantees go by the board, and that no matter what form of government were in power it would have to adopt the same restrictive and coercive measures. That may be so, but while these methods prevail it is idle to talk of emancipated Russia. The most that the apologist can say is that these conditions aro only temporary. When will they end? No one ventures to prophesy. The Government lias a programme of gradual reconstruction, hut so far very little progress has been made. The principal achievement of Bolshevism has been destructive. It has swept away one tyranny only to replace it hv another even greater. It hiis smashed one system and is unable to clear away the debris. Instead of inaugurating a new era of well-being it has reduced Russia to a condition which even a sympathetic observer acknowledges to he in many respects deplorable. Air Ransome sees no sign of any general improvement, nor does he believe that any is possible until certain economic problems are solved, which c a nnot be solved with Russia’s existing resources. As a result .of the experiment. Russia’s Inst, state i« no better than her first: in some ways it is a good deal worse. The one gleam of hope lies in the capitalist countries of the west, which can supply Russia with tho where-withal to repair her stricken mechanism. Rut if Lenin and his associates had had their will those countries would by now he replicas of Russia and impotent to help themselves, let alone others. The Bolsheviks must now recognise that there is something to he said after all for the capitalist organisation of society—at any rate outside Russia.