SOVIET GIRLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 23, 28 January 1922, Page 17

SOVIET GIRLS.

Dy A RECENT VISITOR TO RUSSIA. d le To talk of Soviet Girls is to talk of 10 the Russian girl in general, because at "'ileaet three-fourths of the women of ' ! Russia are at present employed in the n numerous .offices of the Soviet Governlt | ment. l 'l You meet an ex-maid of honour to u> | the late Empress working side by sida with a former milliner's assistant, or a ■"l highly cultured middle-aged woman with at least six languages at her com- * mand calling the little messenger wit'i ;t shawl-covered head tovarish (comrade) a and meekly taking orders from some '' young Communist girl of the very '■ humblest extraction. They one and all help to bring more and more muddle and confusion into ■ the intricate, bureaucratic Bolshevik . Government. ' Whatever difference of opinion there . may be ac to their efficiency, the verdict on their personal appearance is v " unanimous—nearly all of them are ; ' beautiful. I would not be afraid to say that the Moscow women are without a doubt the most beautiful in the world. It is a perfectly natural beauty—the beauty of expression, of fine carriage and free . movement (due probably to the absence ' of corsets), a beauty that triumphs : - over a total lack of the moet elemeng f tary toilet accessories. {c For the past three years no clothes v )s could be boiight, neither were there ■'. fashion papers. ■ During that time tlie Russian girl has t0 been living as best she could, saM ?( j shoes, sans hats, sans hair-pins, powder- _ puffs, lip-salvo, and the hundred-and-one little things which the Western damsel considers essential to her appearance. And yet the Soviet Girl, in jj] spite of all those difficulties, manage* ■ somehow to give an impression of ■jj, emartno-ss and to keep up a semblance j s of style and faehion. Ed How she does it is a mystery anj he certainly epeaks well for .Vr ingenuity tn SP'i resourcefulness. of I admired one particularly b.-coming he frock which to mc seemed very much to what my women friends at home call a as coat frock. , rv "That,' , my companion informed mc, h' c j 'is an okl tapestry curtain cited in ell I with its own cord and tassel." onj "But the hat; surely that never ac began life on the furniture?'' ice She examined it with the eye of an ye ?xpprt. "The cardboard foundation i , * pa appropriated from the office where she ;ill works, and the covering is an ern;ed broidered towel. In the old day?,' , she mi explained with n sigh, "our towete were pa more handeoinelv worked than our P frock*." nd The Russian girl, aristocratic or lis I Communist, in a chronic of on l.oin« in love; .-he feels that her life is being wasted if she finds herself, for a of time, without a lover. UK J ove i≤ as necessary to her as the air he ' site breathe?. The "conversation durhe. ■ injr office hours is all oi love and up llovera; the chief, in fact the only, hapn~ pinese'in their lives , is to love and be h<. loved. „ , They are so simple, so childlike, go he uncomplex in their love, and vet their ;». devotion and T-elf-sacrifice are un>ls limited. AV'hen the lover fails or or deserts her it is sad indeed. re 1 venture to say that there have been ;a more of suicide from disappointed "i love than from all the hunger and prir- vat ion of the pa=t three years.—"Daily in Mail.' ,