SOME IMPRESSION OF A VISITOR TO MOSCOW

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 71, 25 March 1936, Page 16

SOME IMPRESSION OF A VISITOR TO MOSCOW

rjMlE SONG on everone’s lips in Moscow this year was Happy Fellows,” tho theme song from a recent Soviet .film of the same name. " To its lilting refrain 115,000 athletes, marched past Stalin on July 1, and everyone remarked how the old revolutionary tunes gave place to the new air. write Geffrey Trease. This is symbolic of the way in which life in Moscow is expanding, opening cut like a spring flower which feels tho first warmth of tho strengthening sun. The first Five-Year Plan is past —and its results are beginning to be seen. People are no longor preoccupied with building up heavy industry, their eyes are now set on the actual goods which can be produced for their enjoyment. Tho period of strict selfdenial is past. Every week, almost, sees tho disappearance of a closed shop or restaurant and its replacement by one which is open to all—and fairly stuffed with goods. Tho Mostorg general stores and tho Gastronom food stores are thronged with customers. There are queues at the cash-desks and more queses at tho counters. Everyone is rushing to buy, and everyone tells us proudly and delightedly: “A year or two ago we could get nono of these things. You should have seen the shops then—rows and rows of empty shelves.” This improvement is reflected in the gay life of the boulevards. New cafes and soft-drink kiosks have been opened—one cafe devoted exclusively to all those fascinating varieties : of ice cream at which the Russians excel. The Eskimo Pie, beloved of British youth, has made its first ’ appearance ' this summer, and become a prime favourite. After dusk, a free open-air cinema begins. Young Communists organise folk-dancing to an accordeon. Thoso who want quieter amusement sit at chess and draughts, or reading books and magazines. A]l these things can be borrowed gratis on the spot,

by simply depositing a trade union card or passport. Jazz is sweeping the Soviet Union. A visiting English band- sailed in the same ship with mo. They woro going out to tour tho country on a most favourable contract. But it was painful to hear then practising tho “Internationale” for tho first time. “Dear me.” said an English lady to mo on the deck, ‘ ‘ what . a mess they’re making of ‘God bless tho Prince of Wales!’” Russian youth approaches jazz -with tho same seriousness as it tackles all other new and unknown things. “Yes,” said a-friend of mine in Leningrad, “the trade union secretary camo round tho office a few months back and said: 'All. must learn to dance by May Ist!’” That, of course, was an exaggeration, but it contained a certain truth. Russians have a passion for doing things wholesale and well, if they do thorn’at all. It was in this spirit they held their first great carnival. It was planned for July st.h, the evo of Constitution Day. Cold wet weather caused its postponement to July 8th —but, alas, tho tveather was no warmer. Tho youth of Moscow was undaunted. . The Soviet had never had a carnival before. It must take place, it must be a triumphant success. “There are no obstacles which Bolsheviks cannot conquer.” I was ono of over 100,000 who bocked to tho Central Park of Culture and Rest that night. Although the new Metro relieved the pressure on the buses and trams, it was very like’getting to Wembley for a Cup final., p listened every moment, with a morbid interest, for the sound of my ribs cracking. It wa s worth it. The huge park was ablaze with lights. .Flags-and streamers, Chinese lanterns and fairy lamps, searchlights and fireworks/ combined to make a kaleidoscope of colours. Immense and weird beasts —grasshoppers and tortoises in in-

Russian Youth Has Passion For Sport And Gay Life Of The Boulevards Prevails As The Second Five-Year Plan Takes Shape

credible hues—stood among the bower-beds, cunningly flood-lit, and great globes, painted as faces, revolved to turn their vacuous grins. on all indifferently. Dozens of bands were scattered throughout tho park ploying everything from jazz to the folk tunes of the Caucasus and Central Asia. Just a week before we had witnessed an equally significant event —the great sports parade. It was announced that 110,000 athletes would march past Lenin’s Tomb. Actually, the number was 5,000 more. White, white and blue, white and scarlet—they passed in ■ their endless ranks, thousands of -bronzed bare arms and legs swinging in-time. Here a - detachment of tennis players raised their racquets in salute, here the oarsmen marched with oars aloft and boats shouldered,, here tho para-chute-jumpers: carried their miniature parachutes like gaily coloured umbrellas, and the gliding enthusiasts lifted model aeroplanes above their heads. Boxing, swimming, football, running—almost every sport but cricket had its representatives. Tho cyclists (who had disgraced themselves on May Day by falling off!) rode by in perfect order, 10,000 of them,’ riding twenty abreast. • > - This passion for sport is not confined to Moscow. It has leapt, like a forest-fire, to every corner of the Union. It was in a Leningrad tramcar that I saw a ramo of “futbol” announced between that city and Tiflis. For that game the Tiflis players were coming five days’ journey, right from the threshold of Asia to the shores of the Baltic. Modern Russia is experiencing something like a renaissance of her own. New goods, new luxuries and pleasures, are appearing every month—things which the Western European of the middle classes takes for granted; but things which the people here have never known. What is it to London if a new cafe with chromium furjiiture and a jazz band is opened! To Moscow it is a triumph, a fresh advance towards a brighter and more comfortable life for all.