NATIONAL SPIRIT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20678, 31 January 1942, Page 7

NATIONAL SPIRIT

RUSSIA IN ARMS HATRED OF INVADER NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT In this article, a Russian correspondent of The Times, London, explains the national spirit that is responsible for Russia’s wonderful resistance of the Nazi war machine. The Russian, lie contends, will sacrifice life and property to thwart an invader because "ultimate truth interests and concerns him more that practical material achievement.” What makes the Russians fight as they do? Why, unlike other Europeans, do they destroy their own property, their own homes, burn their own forests in a determined attempt to beat the invader? That is perhaps what has puzzled the observer most about the war on the Eastern front.

Apparently the Germans have been puzzled and surprised themselves, and not a little worried. They complain that there is something different and uncanny about the Russians; the Russians do not know the rules of the game, and will not play; the Russians fight and die fighting, lose ground and lese machines, but still fight back. Russia never inherited that glorification of the military art which was the heritage of Western Europe from the Greeks and Romans. The Slavs were peaceful shepherds, husbandmen and traders, who suffered much at the hands of warlike neighbours and savage nomads sweeping over them with fire and sword because they happened to live on the main highways, where moved the periodic migrations of people from East to West. Throwing All In While Western Europe applauded and honoured its knights in shining armour and sang the praises of the brave and gallant soldiers who valiantly defended their castles and, went far afield to reduce other proud knights and conquer their peoples, the Russian Slavs learned to hate war because they were the victims of the most savage and ruthless warriors of all time, the Mongols of Ghengis Khan and his successors.

The Russians had no castles, no handsome armoured tilting knights; war for them was not a contest of skill between generals and noblemen on whose failure or success depended merely the transient allegiance to just another knight or king. The Russians learned of war only through the invasion of savage hordes who cut and burned their way across the Russian land. Is it any wonder they truly hate war and loathe the invader?

• The Russian has sufficient contempt for his own life as well as the enemy’s, and for his own property, to sacrifice all in his attempt to destroy an invader. Western Europe is so small and crowded; the European is always in intimate contact with men’s own achievements and the beauty, wealth and comfort accumulated by centuries of effort. He realises how long it has taken to build them up and cannot imagine life without them. The Nomad Pioneer Can one picture Englishmen burning down Canterbury or their Houses of Parliament? They would fight for them until they Jay in ruins, yes; but to set them alight or destroy them merely to impede the enemy or deny him possession, that they would never do. Kiev is just as ancient as Canterbury and holds historic treasures as dear to Russia. Yet the Russians did not hesitate to destroy and burn it to thwart the invader.

Why? Because the Russian’s horizon has not been hemmed in by a valuable human heritage and effort which are the product of a concentrated and crowded civilisation. He has been primarily a nomad pioneer living with limitless and natural horizons. It is not the product of human toil and art that has impressed him, but the immensity and power of Natiu'e. For centuries he strained every effort to eke out a bare subsistence, and only too often the fruits of his labour were destroyed by hard Nature or cruel man, and he moved on somewhere else to start all over again. It was not the sort of environment and influence calculated to produce a high respect for material property.

The Russian, to whom the span of human existence seems relatively so unimportant and ineffectual, values even life cheaply, whereas his brooding spirit is for ever prodding for the ultimate truth, which interests and concerns him more than practical, material achievement. Tremendous Energy The tremendous energy the nation has displayed since the revolution in construction, as in fighting the Hun, is due primarily to the overthrow of an alien caste and an artificial system which has chained the people. Today the Russians are acting not as devotees of the theory of Marxian Communism, but as a nation whose natural, pent-up genius has been suddenly released. Surely such people, and such a land, must have a profound influence on the world. The individual consciousness and respect for life and property of the Anglo-Saxon must complement the Russian ideals of mass social justice before a happy equilibrium between individual and social man can be established. That is the great problem of to-morrow. And that is why it is important these great people should understand one another. Their world task and ideals are complementary and not opposed. In Russian fervour for social justice coupled with AngloSaxon balanced judgment and patience lies one of the great hopes of building a saner world after the war.