RUSSIA’S ADVANCE

Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1932, Page 6

RUSSIA’S ADVANCE

NOT DUE TO COMMUNISM

EVILS OF TSARDOM

WELLINGTON, October 5

There is no true Communism in Russia to-day, according to Dr J. H. Rughbrooke, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance. Instead there is State Capitalism. The only - relic of Communism that has been retained is State control of imports and exports.

In addressing the members 6f the New Zealand Club on the subject of Russia, Dr Ruskbrooke, who arrived yesterday in the Monowai and was the guest of honour at a club luncheon, spoke with the authority of. one who has made no fewer than six visits to the land of tlie Soviets since the Revolution .

“What I have to say rests op personal experience,” he said. “I want to give you a point of view from which to study the question of Russia. If there is one department of human affairs in which one does well to be sceptical, it is that! conerning reports from Russia. Almost all of these reports are coloured either Red or White. A lot are not only coloured but constitute simple, downright lying.” ® 1

' COUNTRY’S EVIL PAST. The first tiling to be borne in mind, proceeded Dr Rushbrooke, was Russia’s past,' which was largely .evil. For centuries the country had been ruled under the autocratic government of the Romanoffs —one of the most firmly-established tyrannies in the world, so deeply rooted that men despaired of seeing, the end of it. .Miserable had been the fate of those who had tried to bring about a change. They had been exiled, banished from tlie country, or put to death. , For many years reformers had done their best, but they had failed. In IDOS the Duma was established, .but it also failed, and autocracy returned with undiminished strength. Tyranny denied the rights ,a n( J privileges enjoyd in free countries, and power virtually was held by those who had , the ear of the Tsar. Also there was the Eastern Orthodox. Church —the most defective of all the establishments of Christianity. This Church boasted that it had never had a Reformation, yet it was the Church that most needed it. That which was its boast was its shame. The Church was so firmly welded with the State, that it had no independence at all and was almost a department of the State, ft stcod against democratic freedom and the demand for democratic education. Whatever reform had come about, whatever the nature of the revolution, those who took part would have ’.'been compelled to come into, col--1 s‘oa with the Church. It v, as important to remember that when considering the anti-God movement that had grown up in Russia. HOW LENIN'TRIUMPHED. It was necesssary to. recall the conditions under which Communism took over the government of Russia. The country was war-weary and drained 'f its strength. When the army and the people repudiated Tsardom, Kerensky declared that Russia, . could not continue the. war and desired to make peace. The Allies insisted that. Russia should remain in the war—one of the worst political blunders ever made. Kerensky did so, but this, gave the their chance. Lenin offered peace—immediate peace at anv price—as his bait, and seized control. By itself the Marxian programme would never have had a chance. “If we were to sum up the whole position, as it stands to-day we would have to make allowances for the Bolshevik Party,” continued Dr Rushlirooke. ■ “We would have to recognise that many members of the party are . not the pure devils they are supposed to lie, that many are men with : d?als. But the Bolshevist’s ideal of man is a rriopled man—not a true man but an economic machine. Ti e finer liings have been struck aside. Bolshevism has done something to widen the lives of the.' Russian people, but it has not provided a full life.” LENIN’S PERSONAL NATURE. Though Lenin was ruthless in dealing with political opposition and in furthering the beliefs for which he stood, personally he was one of the kindest of human beings,” Dr Rushbrooke said. He led a life of selfabnegation and never “feathered his own nest.” The speaker had seen him only in death—lying wrapped in a dressing gown on a couch •under a glass dome in that strange tomb in Red Square. In life he was an utterly selfless man • It was a mistake to say that all tlioso who had followed Lenin were out to outrage the conscience of human; -'. They were following a light, such .is it was and had achieved, a certain measure of success on the material side with! the Five-year Plan, though lie did not believe that this was such a success as was made out. Th question was not the number of mar chines turned cut but whether those miuhines would work. , Engineers hac told him that many of the machines would not work. NOT COMMUNISM’S SUCCESS. Further, it was not to be said tha J such a success as had been achieved was the result of Communist theory 01 practice. On the contrary, almost every success had been accompanied bv a retreat from Communism; In the courge of the efforts to riuso, production, Communism had had to )s( sacrificed. The policy of equal w/IgeF for all had had to he sacrificed Change after change had had to I be made, until there were many different