CHANGING RUSSIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 22, 26 January 1935, Page 15

CHANGING RUSSIA.

BOURGEOISIE REVIVALS.

FINE LIVING AND SNOBBERY,

WARSAW, December 18

At a "stag"' dinner party in one of the palatial foreign representations in Warsaw a Moscow diplomat entertained his Warsaw colleagues with a vivid account of every-day life in the Soviet capital. Having lived in Moscow for many years, his observations are valued here. He reported that life there has greatly changed during the last three years, and that this change is becoming more rapid and more noticeable during the last months.

"Orthodox Bolshevism is becoming more liberal, and it is no longer the policy of the Kremlin to hold periodical 'cheestkas' (purges) and expel large numbers of Communists from the party because of bourgeoisie inclinations," he said. "The Bolshevik has developed a love for power, good food and a comfortable home to live in. 'Opportunism'— the ambition to have a career—which was a short time ago denounced as one of the worst features of capitalism, is to-day rife in Russia. In fact, a new aristocracy is being born with all the inherent snobbishness which one encounters in some other countries.

"A few weeks ago Moscow held its first dog show since the revolution, One chief of a foreign misuion bought a thoroughbred dog, and the man who sold it to him said that if a man had such a pedigree it would have been sufficient grounds to exile him in Solovki. This dog, reared by the Moscow police department, has strong bourgeoisie inclinations. He is savage toward ill-dressed visitors, and is polite toward the bourgeoisie. He is a typical product of present-day Russia, where even the dogs are snobbish.

"Only two years ago in Moscow one could walk through the city and notice the tragic effect the Soviet regime had on the Russian women. They looked drab, ill-dressed. To wear a hat was the mark of a foreigner. There was not a vestige of the coquetry so obvious on the streets of foreign cities. The women had no style, no cosmetics, no beauty parlours. They only had their sex, unemphasised, unenhanced and un--glorified.

"To-day the Russian woman has returned to her heritage of beauty. And what is more, for a woman to be attractive and well dressed is no longer a certain sign that she is a member the G. P. U. This year, for the first time, the life of the diplomatic colony in Moscow became gay.- It was possible for us to invite women to our parties and expect them to appear as women appear a.t functions abroad. "It was only eighteen months ago that it wi\s'impossible to mail A fashion magazine to Russia. It was considered highly bourgeoisie and classed in the same category as counter-revolutionary literature. To-day the Russians are publishing style magazines. Jazz was legalised in Russia only a few months ago. Formerly it.-was a diplomatic privilege. Even the Pravda has written about the benefits of light music. "Bridge is almost completely unknown in Russia, but poker, which was introduced by American newspaper men, has become'very popular." One of the courses at this dinner was "blini," a Russian pancake made of yeast and buckwheat flour, Which, in prerevoluton days, was served with the best Astrakhan caviar. The visitor remarked the "blini" is also being served now in Russian restaurants for the first time since the revolution.

"It is the hope of every diplomat in Moscow some day to have the opportunity to see Stalin," the diplomat said. "If I were granted this privilege I have only two questions I should like to ask. The firfet is: How does he intend to solve the problem of the Russian peasant? The seeond: How will he prevent the development of a new aristocracy? These, in my opinion, are the two most actual questions in Russia to-day."