MISERY OF RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18335, 27 February 1923, Page 8

MISERY OF RUSSIA.

THE MOSCOW STUDENTS. The Isvestiu publishes further shocking details of the 1 conditions of life among the Moscow students, writes the Helsingfors correspondent of a London paper. Of the 800 students at the Institute of Medicinal Pedagogy, founded by the Bolsheviks in December, 1920, the greater number are homeless; they sleep in railway stations, lofts, vaults, and even round fires in the open , air. The men students cl earn their daily bread by acting as gocds porters at the stations, which brings in 10,000.000 roubles a day, as night watchmen (4,000,000 roubles a day), and so on,; while the women students go out to work as washerwomen and charwomen. ; 'In, answer tc a circular inquiry as to their means, most of tho students stated that they lived on about 30,000,000 roubles a monthwhich suggests that few f have tho good fortune to obtain such lucrative posts as those mentioned above they subsist on black bread, and cannot buy themselves a - book. One student, when asked the source of his income, replied: "Stealing." ' ~ , .At the same time the students have to pay heavily for pursuing their studies, • in particular for the corpses which i they obtain from ; the hospitals for dis- ; section, They complain that the hos- ' pitals carry on a regular speculation in corpses, charging as a rule 10,000,000 or 15.000, roubles, but raising the prce ' if few corpses are available, to 60,000,000 » or 70,000,000 roubles. The students sit and listen to lectures on hygiene , and psychology in a state of filth and dressed ; in rags. 1 ; « The following sketch of life in a rural district of Hussia is contributed to the Pravda:— - ' > v > " The village Soviets work very/ irregularly. The Soviet in our village is typical. When the food tax was being collected the Soviet was continually at work. Who knew •when' some • responsible Communist, some kind of superior, might not , suddenly drop down on the Soviet and see that it was doing nothing? Now the; food tax is collected, ■; and everyone is ? rest- : ing. The Soviet's session-house is generally shut.. . ■ :7V v ,\ , But all - the same, the : Soviet . some- ; times, meets. The president sits in a ; corner under ' Lenin's portrait. This hangs in the place where the images ,of the . saints. used to be■ displayed. ' When the . members get too excited and contradict the; president he lifts a warning finger, . points at Lenin's portrait, and observes: , ' That man , there is over us. He has the power; he wishes what I say.'. This has i a good effect. The opposition cast r.neasy glanccs the portrait and mutter; 4Oh ; sell, ftU right/ li , - • ' k' "-' t; ) v' 1 " S'- . •