A WAR OF AGGRESSION?

Evening Star, Issue 22514, 5 December 1936, Page 13

A WAR OF AGGRESSION?

SOVIET RUSSIA'S PLANS BOLSHEVIKS DESIRE PEACE With the implications of the FrancoSoviet pact, a new emphasis on the lied Army manoeuvres, and the intensification of German suspicions of her Bolshevist neighbour, the Soviet _ Union has once again become an object of keenest concern throughout Europe (says a writer in the ‘ Daily Telegraph’). To-day it is not so much as a social experiment that she commandos attention, but as a military Power. It was M. Litvinoff, Russia’s spokesman, who said that peace is indivisible. In the imbroglio of world politics today the Soviet Union is destined by her place on the map to be a powerful factor for peace or war. Russia, disintegrating, disembowelled by war, revolution, and famine, was one thing; the Soviet Union, economically progressive, sprawling solidly across the top of the world, is another. The strengthening of her armed forces and the modernising of her technical equipment have been no secret. Rather has it been a matter for organised display and no little boasting. Speeches for internal consumption and newspaper reports for export claim for the Red Army a place amongst the best fighting forces of the world. THE WORKERS’ BACKING.

I never yet met a member of the Communist party who did not impress upon me his readiness to die for ths “ cause,” and of the Red Army nearly 50 per cent, are “ Party Members.” Their enthusiasm, which often reaches the pitch of a religious fervour, seems to me of more moment when assessing the military strength of the country than bald statistics or rehearsed manoeuvres. If the Soviet Government were to go to war without a solid, whole-hearted backing from the people, then all this impressive increase of technical equipment would, of course, be valueless.

In so far as one may Judge these matters from personal contact with the ordinary Soviet worker, I believe it would have that backing. I do not' pretendl that all opposition —open or secret—has withered) and died in the blaze of enthusiasm which one finds to-day in the completely socialised regions. But the general atmosphere is one of contentment with the present and an almost hysterical belief in the future. An American composer has pointed, out that modern Soviet music is written almost exclusively' in the major key; a significant indication, he* claims, of the spirit of buoyant optimism which is breathed by the new generation. I believe that the large majority, of this new generation would stand behind Stalin whatever he might choose to do, Lenin was deified; Stalin has been given the status of a fairy godmother, and every improvement in transport, agriculture, or industry is ascribed—not without some justification—to him. Improved living conditions and, above all, an adequate supply of food have done much to soothe the political malcontent, more perhaps even than the; intensive propaganda, which penetrates every sphere or life, even into creches and schools, though this is still a tremendously potent factory in SovieV life. With this highly efficient machinery foe propaganda, and the growing air of contentment to be, found in the greater part of the Union, the Government could, I feel sure, declare war, secure in the belief that the people would be behind them—a people shaped in body and mind to that purpose. NO MERE LIP SERVICE, For the good Bolshevist has given ample proof that his faith does not stop at mere lip service; he-has shown bis readiness to fit himself by his own efforts for the task of furthering the “cause.” Clubs have been formed at factory and collective farm for civilian parachute jumpers—-'16,000 jumps from aeroplanes and 800,000 from parachute towers were made in 1935.

There is the League of the “ Friends of Aviation and Chemistry,” in which millions are trained) “ How to act with up-to-date military knowledge in time of war”; there are millions of members of the “Ready for Labour and Defence ” physical culture league, all carrying out their voluntary Service in a spirit of submission of the individual to the State. Even mountain climbing is now a State enterprise, designed' to toughen the body and l steel the character. X spent seven days in the Caucasus with a party of “Shockworkers ” from a factory at Rostov-on-Don. It was the last expedition for that season of 25-50 “ shock-workers ” and Red Army soldiers, who, sponsored and equipped l by the State, made the ascent of Mount Elberus or Mount Kazbek every week. They were not climbing just because they liked l ' to climb, but because the Soviet Union and perhaps later world Communism would need meij who had succeeded in getting to the top. ’They said so—all of them—in three and) a-half hours l of speeches,' in the little mountain hut at the foot of Kazbek, when the climb was over. They all spoke of their readiness' for defence, but not one talked of Soviet aggression. I never heard tell of it from lieningrad to_ Arinenia; I never read of it in a Soviet newspaper. But can Germany, Japan, • and her. other neighbours believe that this preoccupation with things military is not intended for ultimate aggression? The Soviet Union in its present stage of social and) economic development could gain nothing by war. Pour months of travel—unshepherded and I believe unwatched—convinced me that all her money, time, and energy is still urgently needed to cope with internal problems. The two-fold l task the Soviet Government has set itself—-of fostering a national spirit amongst the various races of the Union and at the same time of socialising them under a virtual dictatorship from Moscow- —is one that will still require many years of patient application to bring it to a successful conclusion.

I travelled over the greater part of the Georgian Military Highway in the back of a motor Horry with a local “ kulak,” recently dispossessed of most of his worldly goods. His strictures on Soviet administration were not always just, but they were typical of the mentality of many other trans-Caucasians with whom I came in contact. “We are different down here,” he said. “ We were Christian in the fourth century, we had l a culture of our own 1,000 years ago—Russia still has none. Let them keep their new ideas for their own people—they like them!” Moscow intends that they, too, shall like them G.P.U. TERRORS, The G.P.U. with the terrors —real and fictitious—which are its stock-in-trade, has been singularly unsuccessful in these outlying parts. They have found that the roots of the national conservative pride run too_ deep. The new policy of improving living conditions for the socialised worker and

making life more attractive for him is, however, proving more efficacious. But it is a long process. It needs time —and peace. Even in the now successfully socialised districts there are still long-term and vital job® to be done. Because the average Soviet citizen, after comparing his present life with his desperate existence of a few years back, concludes tbat his house is now in order, we must not be led to suppose that the industrial andl economic progress of their country is yet as solid as it is spectacular. And so we are led to the conclusion that, for all its apparent preoccupation with military affairs, for/ all the support it may expect from the people in the event of • invasion* the Soviet Government does not contemplate a war of aggression. Indeed, why should