The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1927. SOVIET RUSSIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1927. SOVIET RUSSIA.

I “ Bolshevist Russia, ” a recent pnhli--1 cation, according to a reviewer, is a most illuminating document, by ProIfessor Anton Karlgrcn, who has excellent (|ualifications for reporting on the I conditions prevailing in that unhappy country. He occupies the chair of SlaIvonie in the University of Copenhagen and is a frequent visitor to RtisIsia. Also, he dees not rely solely on his own observations, but supplements ithehi hy reference to official publications of the Soviet, and statements of I the commissars. Dealing first with “the supreme power of the proleI tariat,” of which so much is 1. '■''d, he ‘ shows that this is merely an pty I phrase. Russia is ruled hy a few dictutors, who control a small but well disiplined Communist party. Admi.s- ---' sion to its ranks is a jealously restricted privilege. Its feeders are the IComsosols, or unions of Communist children, whose ages range from seven years. Even if this be included in tho 'total, the Communists number less than three per cent, of the population of Russia. Russia is governed hy a bureaucracy of the most over-hearing ! type, and the strictest regimentation is practised. Permits arc constantly required, and to obtain them the applicant must fill in dozens of forms, visit several offices, and pay taxes over and over again. The much-boomed “amazing advance in industry” is another myth. Actually industry is in a deplorable state. Tlio workers arc miserably fed and miserably housed, and are incapable of increasing production. “Russian industry has been living on the inheritance left behind hy Tsardom.” The plant has worn out, and nothing has been done to replace it. The only establishments which present even the appearance of efficiency are a few exhibition works, that are shown to foreign Labour delegations. In the factories under State management, the officials are incompetent and corrupt, and the overhead expenses are enormous. 'When, upon the breakdown of Government control, the “Xep’’ or new economic policy was introduced, private traders immediately captured an overwhelming proportion of the business. Though they make huge profits, they can easily undersell the Government concerns. They do not have to maintain an army of greedy parasites. The plight of the peasantry is wretched. True, they own tho land, but they owned seventy-five percent .of the cultivated soil before the revolution, and their harvest was not subject to confiscation. They have retaliated against the policy of requisitioning, by growing only enough for their own needs, with the result that the cultivated laud has diminished hy three-quarters. Many of them have neither horses or machinery, and have to till the fields laboriously by the most primitive methods. The last chapter discusses the much vaunted educational system. Professor Karlgreu quotes a very outspoken admission hy Lunacharsky, one of the commissars, to the effect that it has broken down. The schools are bad. and the proletariat derives little benefit from them. A\ ith the intellectual classes massacred, or in exile, the universities have deteriorated. Culture and scholarship have perished in Russia, along with liberty.