NEW MORALITY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 91, 14 October 1935, Page 4

NEW MORALITY

i CHANGES IN RUSSIA

FAMILY LIFE AS THE IDEAL

I : : ■ , I! '' FOE TRUE CITIZENS I'

j In the Soviet Union divorce is abso- ' Mtely "free." But the social conse- j quences of this freedom are now caus- ' i ing much uneasiness in high places, , t writes A. T. Chorlertonin the- "Daily ; . Telegraph." : : By Stalin's orders, a moral reaction is being preached. Legal sanctions J are, therefore, to be expected at any moment. ■-~,- - ; You cannot get a Soviet divorce on , your wedding day, but that is still the ' •' only restriction. "Zags," the register ; office where births, deaths, marriages, , , and divorces are "signed for" with , ■ equal-speed and lack of ceremony, i ; vv-ill marry'you any time up to 4 p.m., ; ..-. when it closes, and divorce you next ', : morning at 10, when it reopens. • ; , ■•:■• This is six. weeks quicker than in » Reno, Nevada, and the fee is only 6d , s (three paper roubles, the same as for , ■marriage), which also covers the cost ' , ';of the^ official-post-card, informing your , r wife' or '* Husband of the accomplished ' .fact. '' He or she need not be warned . in advance of your intention. There , : are no rules about residence or domi- ■ , bile/ ~Ypucan get,a divorce anywhere .; 1 on Soveit territory between the • de- ' ">' par't'urk of /two-, trains. . : ■ FOR SIX MONTHS. 1 :,. The Divorce Clerk for my ward, a ' ■ pleasant/poorly-clad girl under twenty, tells me that she may, and usually ' does, advise a drunken applicant or ! 'a hysteric'to go Home and think it 5 over first. If in a given case she sus- .? pects some;; flagrant social abuse, she 1 ■ i^nowjinstructed to report the matter privately to the Public Prosecutor. But she 'xsahnot refuse divorce. That is still the law. •; ! Moreover, the' law, as ft stands' makes ■no distinction/between registered martiage and unregistered, cohabitation, provided that neither, party is still on the books as : married to somebody else,';vjj^t present; the sole .practical Rdvahtage of .registering your union, is fas^S^^lieedpnpt ithen, produce. witn^sses^tQ; pro'yeypur living together; i£t .to&fthi.'separating, you quarrel with < yo^r; Ipartner over the division of •] rptom-sp3ce;.,aii<i furniture, or if you . ilaim alimony,' . This may be claimed by eitherr'sex, but its operation is ' limited |6six months, and as a rule it s is granted)in.oases of infirmity only., . The legal fights of the child are in no way affected by "the relations of its parents. The child; belongs to itself. ( There is no such thing as illegitimacy 1 , in Soviet law. ' : ] Custody of the child, if disputed, is usually given to the mother unless she , ( is a criminal or a "class enemy," and , the father is expected to pay up to. j on^third of his wage or salary for itsj maintenance to the age of eighteen— , and "above that if there is more than , oh? child. -~4- similar claim may be ' '■ made on the mother if the father has , the custody. But; such, matters are all. dealt with not by "Zags," which is . a'rhereVregister office, but quite separ- ' ■ately by-the ordinary People's Court, and they in no way affect the absolute right';.of divorce of every man and < woman. , . : • ' ] STILL THE LAW. , < ;-, This is still the law of Red Russia, 1 and in practice it results in two £ idivorcesfor every five marriages regis- < ■tered. ■'^hoiisands more would1 cer- ' .tainly seek divorce if they were able j itf find "a separate room; they cannot ( accept staying on in the same room ( afterwards, and perhaps, risking their ( former partner bringing in a new wife ( ■or .huiband.V: ■On .the other hand, ' <£ewer marriages would break down if 1 city people were'hot forced to live twd '<■ and ; ,three ima room. V. / ; : ( Some-- tvo-o-thirds of the " divorcing 1 .cougjes^have children, but barely 10 i perreent^bt.'them make adequate arrangemlemsvfor their maintenance b&> fore they;:separate. The gravest prob- . lem of free divorce is the growing num- j ber, pf children "deserted by . -their x parents,' In 1933 there.were 142,000 j prosecutions for such offences in.. the ' "RSFSR^/^the Russian half of ,;the ' .S.R3';albne, increased in 1934 .to l *)O.OfJD.' v';■ y <:■>::.! "■:,'.•■ .. ' -' ] Commissar;:of.'Justice : Krilenko has J «>w'draried "a decree making the mini- f mum'penalty for. child desertion one ' year's imprisonment, instead .of six months.',,'; . ..,-■ . . ■ ' My information is that, under a com- ] irfg amendment to the Civil Code, ' divorce: will remain relatively: easy, ' but evary case'will have to be examined -Ipor the People's Court in the , presence of both parties, if they wish to attend, instead of being automatic- I ally "registered" without examination , t on the'demkn,d of oneparty. [■ Meanwhile, a great number of men ■who register a marriage solely in order ■] t» get^the"hesitating\ girl's companion- ; ihip and secure divorce immediately \ SfterwardSf and' Others taking undue : advantage of what the Soviet Press , Utill describes as "the most perfect law ; Jp-the world," are beingpfosecuted for j ,*sexual hooliganism," including many . Communists, no longer shielded by ' iheir party ticket. . The "party line"— >that system of 'slogans having more ! than'the force) of Jaw by which' Russia ' is steered^ from . abPve—has been | phange'd^sb as to uphold, instead of ' belittling, "family life." ' "! tVIbEAL PROGRESS. ' There cani writes "Pfavda," the offiicial party organ, be no Communist moral code., • The right to break a marriage is absolute. ; But "true love, j £o prettily described by the poets?' . marks after .all.; a great moral pro- ; • gress, and must be the only incentive . to marriage in Russia. ■ .- ■• On a recent visit to .the "Zags" of my residential ward, now managed by ! fhe "ex"-Ogpu,' I found the whole atmosphere there changing ahead of . the law. It is no longer housed in , the rather squalid local police station, . Vhere nice young couples on their | way to register their marriage vows ; risked' bumping into battered and ; incoherent- people brought in to be ; charged. The new premises, a tiny . grjbund-floor-flat—are relatively clean. Walls have been repapered in an ugly ■ cement colour, with a dark beige ( frieze, and hung with clean, enlarged photographs of Lenin, Stalin, and War Cdmmissar Voroshilof. The old crude ■ posters have been discarded. A neat bronze chandelier and a drugget car- ( pot have been installed, and sickly : geraniums are on the windowsill. ; Marriages and divorces are register- ■ ed at two identical tables in the same • neat, stuffy little room, marriages by ; a slatternly young woman, divorces by '. xne fresh/young girl already mentioned. . While I- sat in a corner watching . proceedings an official woman guide :. led in a score of solemn middle-class. : tourists from Scandinavia and massed : them round the marriage table. They had that superior "parish-visiting look" : so readily, assumed by trippers to Red , RUssia; and it was impossible to divine what was/their'main interest in that pjace. ' - , ■ * ;The marriage clerk, in a bitter but resigned aside,'said to the guide: "You - bring them every1 day. Why cannot you bring fewer at one time? One suffocates here." Then to. the young couple she was joining: "They all have to see this. Abroad marriage is so complicated."

Unabashed, the guide'proceeded to lecture her flock on the Soviet way of marriage, then shepherded them straight out to the adjoining room

where births and deaths are registered,) without letting them notice the! divorce table. -This seemed to me to be highly significant of the new "party line" as applied to propaganda for foreigners. RIGHT OF ALL. Meanwhile at that divorce table a quiet, grim old workman, in grey canvas, top boots, was saying over and over again to the fresh young clerk, "The law compels you to register my divorce." There was a deadlock. ' The trouble was this: The young wife he had married in May had stolen things from the factory, and had gone off to Tula without leaving an address. It did n^t seem to'matter'much whether or.no she got the postcard advising her that she had been divorced, but some-address-had to be given, and the bitter old husband objected, on principle, to having'that postcard sent to his own tenement. For a second time he was. turned .., away,. complaining, "You haveVnpt. the- right to refuse." Such are the'unexpected bureaucratic obstacles to free divorce. : When, they instituted free divorce the Old Bolsheviks were certainly inspired by ideals,.and it would be unfair to .suggest'any cynical motive on their part now that, iry their declining: years, they'are curtailing a right of which many of them have made full use. In the last two decades they have lived, and have driven Old Russia, through several epochs. In their feverish- youth, fighting to smash the narrow Tsarist autocracy by every means, sincerely believed that • the proletarian (Karl Marx's "class-war" version. of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Noble Savage") was by nature .virtuous, .and was only corrupted; by;-the capitalist system of exploitationv -...Once. \self-interest had been uprooted, free love, they said,' would work. It■ did-not. And today's official "Investia"- tries to explain its failure as a "damnable hang-over from capitalist society/ asserting that in pre-revo-lutionary Russia only 1.9 per cent, of marriages. 'were based on sentiment.