IN DARKEST RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18861, 8 November 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

IN DARKEST RUSSIA.

LIFE UNDER SOVIET RULE. MIDDLE-CLASS MISERY. APPALLING OVER-CROWDING.

DISEASE AND POVERTY.

A graphic description of the conditions of. life in the Russian town 3 is given by Mr. Lancelot Lawton, the Daily Chronicle correspondent who has lately visited that country for the purpose of gaining firsthand information regarding social conditions under the Soviet rule. " The overcrowding," he says, "is appalling, and the bourgeoisie class are living a veritable life in death. To save fuel, it is common for several families to herd together, with their piles of furniture, in a single flat. Sick and healthy sleep together in the same beds. Owing to inadequate water supplies and bad sanitary conditions disease is rampant, and only ten per cent. , . of the town is free from tuberculosis. But such is the virility of the Russian people, that the population is increasing. " Soon after I-arrived in Russia," Mr. Lawton writes, " I met a man belonging to the intelligent class, who said to me: - 'I am dead. ... I have beta doad for several years.' Later I met m*ny individuals of the same type, all \ fora spoke in the same fatalistic strain: We are dying a slow death,' or ' We are in decay.' I visited-an old acquaintance in Leningrad, a member of the fallen aristocracy. Two portraits, one of an official wearing decorations, the other of a lady in Court dress, were hung upon the wall. These portraits were all that was left of the family possessions. "Besides the living apartments there was a second room in which was a little Btove which served as a kitchen, this room, too, was hi an indescribable state of filth, and, save for a few logs strewn in a disorderly fashion, the floor was quite empty. My old acquaintance received me in a dirty, threadbare dressing gown; his wife wore a garment which hung together by stitches, and her hands were coarse and red. ' I don't like a half life, she said, to me; 'better to go down completely.' »

Many Hopes and Fears. " It was Easter time, and my impo\erisbed hosts insisted on dispensing some modest hospitality in the d : f * sh ™ ed Russian way. Two aged ex-officials came. When they took off their overcoats I saw that they were wearing decorations of the Tsar's time; a rather foolish little re minder of the days that had gone. The conversation," says Mr. Lawton, was pathetic. An attempt had been made to assasinate Zinoviev. The Red garrison of Petrograd was in mutiny. The workers too, were revolting, and they were sick of it all. Things would happen soon. A French army was coming . . . Petrograd was a vast prison. How was it possible to escape ... by water? How to get a visa? . . . but no use to try. Aimed boats patrolled the sea and fired on refugees. time there was an organis--1 at ion which got .people "out" for a big sum. Was it still in existence ? Had the visitor heard of the gallant ex-officer at the head of a gang of desperate men who robbed and murdered Communists in Leningrad-—only Communists, for one day after holding up a lady in the streets, he made profuse apologies to her and returned a purse he had taken, saying, I did not know that you were of the bourgeoisie class.'. N

o-." For Women Must Woik. " After the meal," Mr. Lawton continues, '" the son, a young man of 24, who had been a student in the Military Lyceum in the Tsar's time, brought out his old uniform, which had been carefully - preserved, and showed it to me; ho offered- to accompany me back to my hotel thinking that perhaps I might feel nervous in the empty streets. Before I left two visitors called —a lady who was the niece of a former Minister and her husband, who had been a well-known banker and one of Russia's wealthiest men. ' I can't get work,' the latter said to nie. ' My wife has employment in a Government office, where she does a little trans"lation and makes a couple of pounds a month; that is all we've got to live on and support two children.' This case is by no means rare in Russia; the women ... find a little work while the men stay idle at home." Later, Mr. Lawton visited another old friend —formerly one of Russia s bestknown artists. The building in which he lived had been one of Leningrad's handsomest blocks of flats; but it was hardly recognisable again. It was as neglected and .as filthy as the lowest slum; the stench was horrible. On one floor lived a number of proletarian university students. Except perhaps in a Chinese city, never had the writer seen worse sanitary conditions. His friend and his wife and two children had removed to one small room. Honors of Leningrad. As far as accommodation is concerned, Leningrad is more fortunate, than other towns in Russia; for, the population having declined, plenty of room is available. But in winter, owing te> the shortage and expense of fuel, it is impossible to heat a whole flat; hence many people are compelled to huddle together in one room, where a stove is kept alight. Leningrad suffers from other inconveniences. Water supply is only available in tho centre of the town; it is moreover a supply under low pressure, and does not always reach the upper stories of the houses. In the outlying parts water is supplied from unprotected Sewage and refuse is dumped into the river and often refuse is thrown out

at back doors into yards, and left there to rot. In Moscow and other cities the overcrowding is appalling. It is not uncommon to find several families occupying a single flat; frequently one small apartment serves as a living as well as a sleeping room, and is loaded up with furniture, including several beds and all the Htter of domestic life. The kitchen is shared by all the tenants in the house; sometimes as many as five primus stoves are going at the same time. In each room a small, crude, heating ptovo has been built out of brick, covered with rough clay. This stove is called a bourgeouyka, a lady bourgeoisie. Washhouses are. out of repair, and washing has to l>e done and dried in the living rooms. Baths are a luxury; a very large proportion of the population has little, if any, underclothing and no bed sheets, for linen is scarce.

Overcrowded Hospitals. The hospitals are overcrowded, and so great is the need of housirg room that healthy people are often forced to sleep in the same bed as sick people. Typhus has to a large extent disappeared, but malaria is again raging—the number of cases at tho time of Mr. Lawton's visit was estimated at six millions. There is a shortage of medicines of all kinds, particularly quinine. Tuberculosis has spread to an alarming extent; in particular it is devastating the town population, only 10 per cent, of which is considered to lie free from it. In Leningrad alone 20,000 cases have been registered, and the official records are admitted to be incomplete. Heart,and nervous disorders, too, aje widely prevalent; it is plain to see by the number of petty disputes which take place in the streets that the nerves of the v ■ population are on edge, while the number of prematurely white-haired pedple is startling. Yet, in spite of the heavy morj ....tality, the wretched sanitary conditions, ; and the epidemics, the virility of tho Rus- . sian people asserts itself. The population is-increasing at the rate of two millions a year, and -for {} le first time in Russian there arc more births than deaths w the extent of 35 per cent.

Mr. Lawton proceeds:— The --yhola population, it is true, have to submit to conditions such as I have described; but whereas the proletarian enjoys compensating privileges, the bourgeoisie has none. Consider the economic realities of the situation: the workers get 60 or 70 per cent, of pre-war wages; in some few industries they earn the equivalent of and even more than pre-war wages. But iho intelligent classes are receiving half as much and in a good many cases five or six times less than in pre-war days; while the cost of living has gone up immensely since then. Common foodstuffs are twice, and all other commodities at least five or six, times as dear. " The average salary for an intelligent occupation does not work* out at more than 15s per week; in some cases it is even much less. Professors are the worst paid members of the community. The average salary received by them is not more than l4s weekly ; but should they happen to be men of distinction and work themselves to death, giving extra lectures and writing books or articles, they may double and perhaps treble this amount.

Prosperous " Specialists."

" The best-paid people are the so-called specialists in the State Departments. Here salaries range from £44 to £88 per month: some instances having been discovered where as much as £145 was being received, and by a Communist, too! Of course even-one became a specialist of some sort, and the Government offices were filled with experts who were experts in little else but lying. Recently it was discovered that 30 per cent, of the officials came under the description of "specialist."

Hardly a week passes without the wages of the intelligent classes being reduced and thousands thrown out of employment. Such a state of insolvency has been reached, in fact, that numerous Government officials no longer receive the wages regularly. In such circumstances it is surprising that one rarely comes across an individual with enthusiasm left for his work ?"

Unsaleable Treasures. Mr. Lawton's narrative continues: —"No one thinks of to-morrow, no one dreams of putting by a farthing for the future— ' there is no future,' people say. And they are right. For where, in Russia is a man not of the proletarian class to get employment ? On tho one hand the State, threatened with bankruptcy, is dismissing officials wholesale, while, on tho other, it wages a relentless war against private trade and enterprise. " How can people possibly live under these conditions ? it will be asked. The answer is that they do not live as we understand living. Thousands have to be content with a diet of blWk bread and potatoes. I speak here of the bourgeoisie class only: the hunger among the peasantry is chronic: and widespread. A good many people have still a few saleable articles left; the markets and secondhand shops are full of all kinds of family treasures, from safety razors and sets of brushes to rare old china and expensive furs. But money is scarce, and it is becoming more and more difficult to find buyers. What will happen when there is nothing left to sell or when buyers can't be found no one knows. . . And no one cares, too much.

" Never for a single moment is the bourgeoisie class left in peace. The life of every member of it is carefully investigated and tabulated by the State; and this information is constantly added to and verified. I have before me, as I write, on elaborate form used recently for such purpose. To set out its questions hit full would need a column of space; the ti-holc life of the individual to whom it is addressed is probed to the bottom;'and at the same time much intimate information is sought concerning his relatives, his wife, his children, his parents, and his sisters and brothers.

" Here are some of the numerous points dealt with in tho document:—Social position, financial iiH.ans, employment held, political views, ai'd party allegiance, military services, rewards and punishments. The period covered is divided into three stages: (1) until the first revolution; (2) until the Bolshevik revolution ; (3) 'from the latter until now. Upon the answers to these questions depends whether or not an individual is written down as of tho bourgeoisie class. Should he happen to be so labelled, then he is constantly harassed and his existence is precarious in the ex- | treme."

For tho children of the bourgeoisie class life is described as just as hopeless. In tho universities and schools the same probing into the lives and antecedents of the stndents is constantly taking place; and always tho investigation i 3 entrusted to committees composed of students who are Communists. Not long it was decided to expel 30,000 students of tho bourgeoisie class from the 'adversities.