EVENTS IN RUSSIA

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 135, 4 December 1937, Page 16

EVENTS IN RUSSIA

MASSES APPEASED

MORE GOODS PRODUCED

Behind and beneath the sound and the fury of the sensational events that occurred inside the U.S.S.R.in the last year there are certain facts, and "facts are -stubborn things," as Lenin said, writes Walter Duranty from Moscow to the "New York Times." . .

It is a fact that many "Old Communists" opposed, the. Stalinist regime, for one reason or another,. It is a fact that they were a small but high-placed minority in the Communist. Party. It is a fact that young Qommuriists^ who were low- or middle-placed, but. the great majority of the Communist Party, were vigorously pro-Stalin. It is a fact that the; non-party population was not only exhausted by the prodigious strain of the.recent years and bewildered by. the. quarrels, of its-Com-munist Party rulers, but, speaking generally, was dissatisfied by not getting what it wanted and had been promised and had worked for.

It. is a fact : that "outside" enemies of the Stalinist regime, Germans, Japanese, and Trotskyists, attempted to co-operate with the same Old Communist malcontents in Russia-to utilise popular dissatisfaction • to ■ -upset; the Stalinist .regime. It is a fact that young Communists—and the Stalinist regime itself—were able to use numerical superiority to crush foreign and some Old Communist conspicacies and submerge or neutralise popular dissatisfaction in a flood of patriotic sentiment. ' :'■'■'■

Last, but not least, it is a fact that all these preceding facts and the furore of the shootings and the general excitement. which they provoked date back to 1936 and were consequences of a situation'that no longer exists. ' " '■ '■'■ "' • ■

Today the non-party' masses have changed from dissatisfaction to appr©-. bation, or, in ' other words, they ars getting what they wanted and had bsen promised. They are getting pier:. iftil food and an increased' supply of consumer goods,' which r the; gremlin; knows, and which" has strengthened, the Kremlin's Hand enormously.. Collectivisation undoubtedly has begun, to bear fruit, despite" the heavy cost of its establishment in r the years from 1929 to 1933. : . . .;. LOCAL PRODUCTION. The fruit includes not' merely a great increase in the national food supply, but a revival of the petty local production of -consumer goods, which was almost totally eliminated during those years of stress.J Without wishing to /deprecate 'the successes of Soviet industrialisation, it must' never be forgotten that fully three-quarters of the goods consumed by the Tsarist population of Russia'were produceil within 20 miles of the: pla'ce of consumption— that is to say, they-were products of local handicraft'or "petty industry. The average Russian townlet or village had 80 per cent.'economic independence. Salt, kerosene^ tea; metal, tools, utensils, needles, and thread were necessity, imports—glass, textiles, sugar, paper, or hooks and. other manufactures fell in the category of "luxury articles," which only a minority of the population could afford. Even so, more than half the, peasants had clay or wooden utensils, with perhaps a single iron cooking vessel, tallow dips instead of kerosene, and -nothing else "imported" save a knife/chopper, and the allessehtial salt. ..-.■.'.":■■•'■■ ."'■' "■:' "' '. : The rest were local products, whose manufacture, though. greatly diminished during the . "militant Communism" of 1918-21, was revived under the New Economic Policy from the. autumn, of 1921 to the: end of 1927, only to disappear completely in the period of 1928-33, which witnessed : the policy's annihilation and the forceful introduction of the collective. farm 'system. In those years Nep's private traders and producers .were forced out of business and raw-materials for local handicraft—if and where it'was allowed to persist—were reduced to a minimum. Village blacksmiths, potters, wooden knife, fork, spoon, and bowl makers were suppressed as "kulak" profiteers. Weavers and tanners, makers "of leather or felt boots, had no material to work with. • • - ■' . . ' At the beginning. T>f 1933 when collectivisation at last' began to develop successfully villages and small' towns in the U.S.S.R. were for the most part devoid of any consumer. goods whatever and what they had formerly manufactured themselves were almost completely used up. Since ■ then the Soviet boasts,... perhaps correctly, that the production of consumer goods has increased anywhere from ten to fifty fold in various branches. . • - • ONLY A FRACTION OF WHOLE. But. this ' mean? that, big-scale factory production was only a. fraction of the requirements of the .Russian population, whose needs are still, far from satisfied. .In, the last two or three years, however,, local production .has received a big impetus under the aegis of collective farms. Brick kilns, sawmills, smithies,..potters, and-the cooperative manufacture of felt and leather shoes, homespun clothing; carts, and furniture—all • have ■ begun _to flourish with • a corresponding: reduction of the ■ demand on cities and the overburdened-transport system.-

Once again ■ villages are approaching economic independence; and today it is significant that their main demand consists of agricultural machinery and tools, bicycles, radios, electric light, cinemas, clocks, watches, glass,, and such luxury products as the peasant never conceived, like rayon; silk, sports equipment, ready-made shoes, clothing, chinaware, and, last but not least, textbooks and other, literature. .

All this may. sound unimportant, but it counts far more in Russia, which retains the old Asiatic disregard for the value of human-life, than the execution of twenty ranking generals, 100 formerly high-placed officials, or 1000 local big-wigs accused, as "enemies of the people." '

Russians en masse, .like the masses in other countries, believe what they are .told and are content with .little. They want enough to c.at, wear, keep ■warm, and be .relatively, .comfortable with a Certain degree of entertainment. Except the "Old. Communists," .who are a. very small minority.. and . +he "Young Stalinists," who include . all that is "up and coming".'in Russia, the masses are not much . interested in politics provided they get what they think they need as they are now, beginning to get. . .

Many "Old Communists" opposed the Stalinist regime ' because, the "Young Communists" were for.it-^the rest of the population has judged by results and feels a let down-, of ;the former strain and increased comfort, and satisfaction. That is the answer, to. the Russian riddle in a nutshell.