Faith and Works in Soviet Russia

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 775, 28 May 1954, Page 9

Faith and Works in Soviet Russia

\W HAT is life in Russia really like? That's a question everyone has asked at one ‘time or another, and during the next two months listeners are to have an unusual opportunity of hearing a first-hand account by a young New Zealander who has been there. He is Norris Collins, a Christchurch railway worker who visited Russia as a member of ,a party of New Zealand trade unionists. His talks, 1 Went to Russia, will be heard from YA and YZ stations at 9.15 p.m. on Thursdays, starting on June 3. Mr. Collins does not claim to have a full or intimate knowledge of Russian life. He was there for only just over a month, and his main contacts were with union officials, factory workers and the like. He visited only four cities and was in only two of the 16 republics. But he believes he saw more than any ordinary tourist, diplomat or correspondent is able to see; that in general he was shown an average picture of industry and of the other phases of Russian life he did see; and that he can speak of many things, both good and bad, with assurance. "Being working men we knew what to look for in our own particular spheres," says Mr. Collins, and in his first talk he gets right down to the question of work, wages and the cost of living. How are wages fixed? Do they ever lag behind when prices rise? How much do they vary in the same sort of job and between one sort of job and another-between a_ clerical worker and a labourer, a watersider and a doctor? What part do trade unions play, and is union membership. voluntary or compulsory? How hard do people work? These are some of the questions Mr. Collins will discuss.

From there Mr. Collins goes on to speak of working conditions and social services for the worker. Facilities for attention to workers’ health were, he says, one of the most impressive features of his visit. He visited "palaces of culture,"

and in his. talk about these discusses also the Young Pioneer youth movement and the work being done by and for children. He has much to say about building and rebuilding programmes.

But perhaps there will be widest interest in what Mr. Collins says about the practice of religion in the Soviet Union for, a Christian himself, he claims to have had as many opportunities of visiting cathedrals and churches, and meeting priests, pastors and church officers, as any other trade union delegate who has visited the Soviet Union. He says much about the position of children and youth in relation to the Church, and discusses restrictions on church activity and the relationship between Church and State. At a cemetery in Leningrad he saw the mass graves of 600,000 people killed in the defence of the city, all of whom had been given Christian burial; and in Moscow he spoke, through an inter- | preter, at. a service in the Baptist Church.