THE NEW RUSSIA.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 5 September 1932, Page 8

THE NEW RUSSIA.

LECTURE AT NAPIER. , KEEN INTEREST IN GREAT EXPERIMENT. POSITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN. “The New Russia” was the subiect of a lecture given by Mr. ,J. A. EradlsfoTti, tutor of the W.E.A., in the Napier Athenaeum. It was evident from the attention with which the lecture and discussion were followed that interest in the Soviet experiment is very keen at present. Appealing for a dispassionate consideration of the facts, Mr. Brailsfordgave some readings from Maurice Hindus ’ 11 Red Bread, ’ ; showing vividily the effects of the revolution oh the

social me ox rural Russia. One of thepleasiag features was the way in. which infants were cared for in clean, creches with trained attendants and abundance of toys. These conditions might not be as favourable as those in the best homes, but, compared with the squalor of a muzhik's hut, with its dirt and flißs and pigs and hens, certainly represented a great advance. By these and other measures the health of Russian infants had been improved' and already some years ago a decline in the infantile mortality rate Irom.25 per cent to 12 or 13 per cent had been recorded in Moscow and Leningrad. Kindegartens were being established in great numbers and nearly all children in Russia now got some • schooling. Leading educationists such, as Professor John Dewey gave very high praise to the Russian methods of education. They maintained the interest of children by making them feel that they were always part of the • community; sometimes the boys and girls got part of their education in factories. Communist Propaganda. Universities were open to tlie ablest workers and scientific research received liberal support and encouragement. A drawback to the .education system, in the lecturer's opinion, was that Communist propaganda was constantly. forced upon the children. To ■ the growing youth of Russia an enormous advantage was that there had been employment for everybody during the past two years. ; Many phases of the new Russian life were revealed in readings from. 1 “Red Dread,'' telling of a girl Vera, . who, at the age of 18, had been made livestock expert and director, of social - 1 work on a big collective farm. Here • 1 was an instance of the women's freedom to rise to hny post of responsibility. They had become heads' of great State departments, engineers, . ship's officers, generals and one an ambassador. Vera scorned any woman who would live on a' man's earnings rather than make her own living. She insisted on fidelity and seif-eontrol, but was not all concerned about legal marriage. She could not understand how girls in capitalist countries could endure living for their own pleasure ■ without any high social purpose, and she regarded their church-going and religion as a form of self-indulgence. This, said the lecturer, was the outcome of the education she had received in anti-religious ideas. Though divorce was still very easy,being granted on the application of one party, there was a strain of Puritanism in the Communist regime. In Fighting Mood. The attitude of Communists towards Ithcir opponents was exemplified (by the girl Vera. She had learned to shoot and declared she would not hesi- - tate to use a bayonet or any other - weapon against fc “bourgeois enemy. She refused to regard witu any pity the “kulaks," or well-to-do farmers, a million of whom (according to Hindus) -had been dispossessed for retusjJXcr t ( o join collective fetrms c.nd Ixnd been banished with their families to - cold and barren regions. Mr. Brailsford also dealt with the Five Year Plan, the Soviet collective - farms the position of the workers, and the growth of the co-operatives. In conclusion, he suggested that Russia’s great contribution to the - world might not be in her attempt to establish Communism, the pure principles of - which had already been, largely abandoned, but rather :n bridging the gap between East ana West. The Soviets had taken over a land on which the gulf between the luxuryoi the nobles and the poverty of the peasants had been wide as that between the wealthiest Britons and the poorest Indian peasants. They were trying to bridge the gap by a sharing of wealth and of culture. This vast gkp between the poverty of the east and the wealth of the west threatened our civilisation. Russia was the greatest melting pot m which the faces of .east and west were mingled. If the nap could be bridged, not only but spiritually, Russm. might in this be doing her great service to mankind. . The lecture was illustrated with slides lent by Dr. J. D. Salmond, of Dunedin, who visited Russia last year. .