RUSSIAN LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 62, 10 September 1924, Page 5

RUSSIAN LIFE

UNDER SOVIET RULE

OVERCROWDED MOSCOW

"A CITY OF BUREAUCRATS."

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPTMGHT.)

(AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, -Bth September. The "Daily Chronicle" has commenced a series of dispatches from its Russian special correspondent, who has spent months mixing with all classes. The correspondent tolls how a handful of determined men have- held 140 millions ,in fear and subjection, and says Russia is the Tibet of Europe. All Russians are .strangely sensitive. ,"Wo are not civilised," they keep, saying. The worst period was in 1920-21. when a complete stoppage was (threatened. There was lio regular water supply, and hardly any sanitation. The free ration of the State, consisting of wormeaten herrings and portions of bread, were doled out to the last month. Things are much better now, though Moscow is still the most expensive place in the world for a foreigner. Hot baths : cost 7s. The hotels are fairly clean and comfortable, but are run very inefficiently, as the managers are Communists, chosen for their party loyalty. Everybody wants to live in Moscow. Few remain in the provinces except from sheer necessity. There were two and a half million people in Moscow before the war. The population has since increased enormously, and the overcrowding is appalling. Five or more people are frequently herded in one room. The shop windows are full of brightly-coloured caricatures of religious things. They are revolting to a religious man, but artistic quality is not Jacking in these blasphemous productions; The State is all-powerful everywhere. Moscow resembles London during the war. All the hotels and big blocks of buildings are taken by the Government Departments. It is a city of bureaucrats.