SOME PHASES

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 126, 23 November 1935, Page 30

SOME PHASES

HTJSSIAN REVOLUTION

MORE OF MR. CHAMBERLIN'S

BOOK

(By "Quivis.") Since the review in this column last week of Mr. W. H. Chamberlin's "History of the Russian Revolution, 1917----3921," was written, the mail- arrived ■with copies of English newspapers contaming long .references to this book. They confirm my conviction of the greatness of this account or one of the most extraordinary epochs in the world's history. I may be forgiven therefore, if I quote at some little length from what F.A.V. has to say of it in the "Manchester Guardian," of October 10, under the heading "A Clear View of the Russian Revolution":— A vast literature and an abundance of legend bar? crown up round the. period of .Russian history that began with the fall of the KomanoTs in March, 1917, and ended with the introduction of the New Economic Policy four years later. , Into these four years the most prodigious events ivere gathered in unparalleled profusion and contrasting variety. A country Inhabited by some one hundred and sixty million people was transformed, broken up, scoured by war, famine, and civil commotion, pulled together again and retransformed. . . . Mr. Chamberlin gathers in the whole vast material and kneads it together in a narrative that is fair to all, objective without be--1 Ing cold, human without being sentimental, vivid —almost photographically so—and yet profound, precise, and yet moving. The reader ■will be held as though spellbound throughout the thousand pages or more of these two volumes. In simple and serene language, without rnetoric and adornment, the scene is disclosed, and the actors are revealed in a steady clear, and penetrating light. ... ■ In_his last chapter he summarises the Revolution In a few pages of clear and concentrated prose. He passes no final judgment. His book leaves the reader deeply Impressed, as though he had witnessed some terrible and yet grandiose natural cataclysm that had brought the heavens down and torn up the world by Its roots. • ■ ■ • • THE TEST OF GREATNESS. That is exactly my impression and for a writer to convey to his reader all that he thinks and feels, to make the reader see as the writer sees, is the supreme achievement and the ultimate test of literature. The whole work is a monumental masterpiece worthy of-th& mightiness of the theme. One could only wish that it were within the reach of the ordinary reader, but the. price-^42s in London — will be prohibitive. One can only wish again that as soon as possible a cheap edition will be issued so that this story of the Russian Revolution may be as widely read as it deserves. In a different, but even more effective way.it equals in value Carlyle's "History of the. Fjrench Revolution." for unlike Carlyle it needs no companion in ordinary language to clarify the transcendentalism of the Sage of Chelsea. The agony of Russia in the four years of the Revolution; needs . no studied heightening of effect. It is there for the eye to see. Here is a long passage from the end of Mr. Chamberlin's chapter in the second volume on "The Revolution and Daily Life," and one • must apologise to the author for stealing so much from his book, but there is a peculiar urgency in publishing the truth, about Russia «is a country meriting sympathy rather than reprobation-: — '■ ■ ' THE BROAD PANORAMA. As one surveys the broad panorama of Russian life during the period of social upheaval and civil strife three circumstances stand out with special' Vividness. First, is the probably unparalleled physical suffering of all classes of the population, caused partly by the unloosing of the fiercest passions, partly by the merciless ravages of cold, hunger and epidemic disease. Second, is the prodigious uprooting of innumerable human existences. Never before in history, perhaps, did so many people feel conscious of having what they regarded as the solid ground suddenly crumble and disappear from beneath their feet. The peasants wero less affected than the city people in their daily lite. Yet they also must have often felt that the world had gone completely topsy-turvy. For the first time they were given the idea that the Government regarded wealth as a crime and poverty as a virtue. Instead of the scanty savings of pre-War roubles, which had extensive purchasing power", they found themselves In the possession of enormous sums of paper ■ money, ( which" they were mostly too Illiterate to count, but which bought them little or DotElng. 5 They saw a new type of ruler; the city worker who was sent out to govern a country might be good or bad as an administrator; but he was certainly different in many of his habits and background from the pre-War Marshal of the Nobility. Finally, the Russian Bevolutlon was one of the greatest explosions of hatred, or rather hatreds, old and new, organised and Instinctive, some of them causes, some of them 'results of the Revolution, ever witnessed in history! There was hatred of man against man."'of class' against class, of race against race. First of all there was the overwhelming hatred of the majority of the 'Russian people, wh» formerly lived, in poverty; Ignorance, and filth, for anyone who possessed property -education* OT, Dr"din ß- I' was. by exploiting and fanning this sentiment that the Communists could hold a certain part of the poorer classes even when material conditions under their rule were most desperate. The peasant hated the city, which, as he felt, robbed him ,ot his products and gave him nothing in return. The hulfstamd town-worker,-if his sympathies were with the Communists, hated'tte "kulak," the well£h«°,,nn aSII m,Wh,? wa.a -holdlnS back W" bread. The non-polltlcally-mlnded worker hated the b%t WlJ ich he trie<i-to, bigL from the village; * w 8 Jm ne<i vnd mlserabl<^''bourgeolste" cherished bitter hatred for the masses and more especially for Communists and Jews. The traditional Russian anti-Semitism flared up In this IS°™L ? e and h(ltred I" ferocious .pogroms ln ? u any Places where the Soviet regime was overthrown and In continual bitter gibes where the Soviets were still in power. Traditional racial feuds In the Caucasus-and Central Asia found expression ln outbursts of pillage and murder. Amid all this welter of wild passion the Comnunist leaders, sustained by fanatical faith in the ultimate victory of their cause, not only in Russia, but in the whole world, moved steaoily and remorselessly towards their goals. Amid all the chaos of those wild years a discerning eye could see the features of the new dictatorship that was establishing itself in tna place of the old, could piece out the dim outlines of new TuUnc, classes, new economic forms, new waj-s of life. SIMPLICITY OF STYLE. The simplicity of the style will be" noted, and there are scores of passages like this, each phase of the Revolution being summarised at the end of the chapter. The effectiveness of this method can be felt. Of picturesque detail, vivid, almost photographic, there are examples on almost every page. Here is one of the horrors of the grim years of the Revolution:— The spread of typhus was enormously facilitated by the huge movements of troops and refugees all over Russia, by. the acute shortage of aoap, by the under-nouri'shment which made people especially susceptible to the disease. A well-known Soviet writer,, Seraflmovitch, tells In "Pravda" how hosts of fugitives from the advance of Tudenltch's Army ln the autumn of 1919 fled Into the forests near Lake Pelpus and died in great numbers of typhus because there was no one to cure for them; how. when the clothes of the Bashkir soldiers of the Red Army were, disinfected, a pile of what looked like. grey sand two inches high remained on the floor of the disinfecting room. On closer examination the "sand" was found to consist of lice. THE FINAL CHAPTER. With this quotation one must bid a reluctant farewell to a very precious pair of volumes. The final chapter. "The Revolution in Retrospect," should be reprinted separately as a pamphlet to reassure those, like the authorities in New Zealand, who still continue to treat Russia as an outcast among the nations and make access difficult, and to convince enthusiastic Communists in "Western countries of the gradualness of change- where conditions are normal. In Russia conditions were quite abnormal and even then the sacrifice was terrific. One has only to read Mr. Chamberlin's history to doubt whether the price in Western countries would not be too great for the purchase. As Mr. Chamberlin says: "In history, as in natural science, there are no miracles. There is only the working out of the law of cause and effect,"'