RUSSIAN MARRIAGE LAW.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1926, Page 6

RUSSIAN MARRIAGE LAW.

JA V, »□> JA-JA J.VJL ZXXVXV IZXVTXL. JJA VV . The history of Soviet rule in Russia has been, on the whole, true to type. Revolutions throughout history have, usually begun as a revolt against class privilege and an effete autocracy. They have usually ended in a.despotism worse than’ the one supplanted, which in its turn.is overthrown. So in Russia, the rise of the proletariat to power was to mean the sharing by the. many of the privileges and profits. hitherto held by the few. For a time, such were the resources of the country,'sufficient reward was found for .distribution among spe : cial beneficiaries, and while this was happening the Soviet was growing stronger. As its power developed there became apparent a movement to effect a break with social traditions which have been respected for centuries by the Christian nations. It will be remembered that the members of the British Conservative Party who visited Russia this year, and endeavoured to keep an open mind in regard to its system of government, felt obliged to utter a protest against the blasphemous attacks upon religion which the Soviet openly abetted. It was not only an offence to the sentiment of other Christian nations, but was also regarded in many quarters in Russia itself as- an official trespass upon ancient private privileges. Public opinion having been' emasculated in Russia, it is not perhaps surprising that the Soviet should now attack the institution of marriage. Whatever may be the opinion of that institution, whether as a sacrament or a contract, in any discussion aS to the possibility of changing its form or altering its responsibilities, it has always been admitted that its fundamental justification is the rights of the family. The strongest objection to divorce to-day, apart from the religious one, is that it opens the way to the sacrifice of the interest of the children. The family, since civilisation began, has been the unit of. the tribe or State and the mainspring of its social and economic activities. All this the Soviet proposes to tear up, and to substitute therefor what can only be described as a State dispensation for promiscuous conduct. Except in those cases where the marriage tie is a matter of personal volition, the contact between parents ami family will be severed completely. The adults are to be mere propagators and their offspring wards of the State. A more complete official discharge from the responsibilities, which the institution of marriage was designed to safeguard, it would be difficult to conceive. How the Russian nation will accommodate itself to this new degradation remains to be seen. It is to be hoped that it will even yet refuse to tolerate the introduction of a social order based upon the hideous ■travesty of civilisation which is known as “ft