THROUGH SOVIET RUSSIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20604, 1 July 1930, Page 8

THROUGH SOVIET RUSSIA

PARTING IMPRESSIONS.

j r A GREAT. EXPERIMENT 4 M WORLD'S GREATEST GAMBLE." AMBITIOUS FIVE-YEAR PLAN.

BT MAX IUt'ERAY.

(Copyright.) No. VII. Itfr. M 'irrav'ji series of articles 0:1 Soviet Kuseia « concluded to-day. He gives an account of the remainder of his remarkable f raiiway journey irorn Moscow to Manchuria and supplements it with some observations on the ways of t>j«> Soviet and the " greatest ramble the world has ever known." Three of the four Western Europeans on the train are Danes, returning to Pekin from home leave. There is also a Frenchwoman v.hci goes to great pains over her make-up, here in Siberia. She is taking <> little dog with her and she wears a red dress and I have never seen woman less in harmony with her surroundings. , The woman says she would not take the principal meal of the day in the dining car, hut the little dog likes it, so she goes with him and she insists upon having a chair for hirri at the tabl<;. The Russians look at the little dog with very mixed feelings. I was told by this woman that, in her cabin she had been carrying a full bottle of brandy for medicinal reasons, and yesterday afternoou a Russian came along to her compartment to ask her what she did in the worlci to justify all the fine clothes she had. Then he saw the brandy and said that he would like a drink oi it, so she gave him permission and he went off to his companions with the bottle. When he came back later to have his question answered, he brought the empty bottle with him- The Russians write about her daily in their Train Gazette. The Last of the Eggs. It is Sunday and the last of the eggs have Leer/ eaten. We have to-day wild birds of a sort that I have not tasted before. They had been cooked at some previous date and wtre taken on the train at one of. the stations and warmed up in our kitchen. One Russian said to an- • other at lunch time to-day that he could not eat this food that was cooked specially for the tourists in Continental fashion. We have passed the one-time fashionable resort of Irkutsk, on Lake Baikal. The lake, as we run beside it, is an expanse of unbroken ice. Horse sleighs go out over its ice till they meet the skyline. Here and there are black dots where men or women are sitting over holes in the ice, fishing. By the beaches the ice resembles breakers poised in the act of crashing on to the sand. The glare from it is painful. We are approaching the Manchurian border. Mongolians people the plains we come to. They wander about after their great herds of horses, pitching their tents where the conditions seem best. We halt at places where there is little hut the water for the train and the rolling windswept plains. We pass a. train load of military cars, nine of them rcd-cross waggonsPreparing for May Day. Everywhere people arc preparing now for the first of May. At the entrance to every railway station there is a man putting up red banners and a picture of Len : n making a speech. night we halted beside a largesited military barracks. There was a company of soldiers drawn up beside the train and addressing them was a Chinese general. A standard bearer with a red flag stood at attention behind him. He spoke eloquently in Russian of the way j in which Russia had received him. They did not imprison him, and shoot hirn, ,as some other people he could mention might have done. He pointed toward the border. The general's speech was fjunc'tuated by the military band; after a particularly eloquent outburst they would pky a fewbars cf inspiring music and even-body would cheer and l;he little general would begin again. So eloquent did he become that, by the time we left, there was scarcely a word of his between the outbursts of patriotic music. I have produced the receipt for the money I changed when I came into Russia and have been permitted to change the remaining roubles back again at the same rate o( exchange, and now, as we approach the border,'l try to assess my impressions of the Soviet Union. I came to it feeling that I wa3 to come into contact with a great experiment and I have done that Great Gamble of Communism. Stripped of intrigue arid self-deceiving and vain boasting, the Soviet system remains a great experiment. But it has impressed me as a structure propped up where it is weakest by subterfuge and make-believe, with the authors insisting that the masterpiece be viewed from a distance. They insist on its perfection, as if to admit me flaw would lead to a hunt for others. I leave Russia wondering whether tie structure will stand or fall. I feel that I have been in contact with the greatest gamble the world lias ever fcnowri. Food and clothing and lives, arid Russia itself, are staked by a man who savs that, he can remake Russia in five years. There is (he :winor gamble that Russia cam bring Comnuiiism to the rest of the world in the meantime and trie money in this sphere i> invested at so much for a strike, so rntch for a street riot with shooting and so much for a mutiny on a warship in the name of Communism. ]f tiie first an l greater gamble succeeds, they believe that the second is a foreroue conclusion add in that I believe that J agree with them, If upon the foundations I have sei-n they are able to build a great and J rosperous equality, Communism will merit the consideration of us all. Hoping lor a Miracle. But I have seen no prosperity and no equality —excepting that every man has an, equal right to pry into the affairs of his neighbour and even that right is not used equally. There are capitalists here in words and intrigue instead of pounds and dollars and these have not even the restraining fear of bankruptcy. Mr. Stalin may be man of (he highest principle and all powerful. He is all-powerful, it seems. But in a vast country such us this, a man is apt, to hear more often than to see for himself. It requires a big man indeed to soe over the Kremlin wall. The other day a famous Russian surgeon was called upon to explain his misdeeds to ft workers' committee and in his rage he did bo. The chairman said. "Thank you, comrade, I congratulate you. You are the first doctor, or scientist, we have examined who has been able to express himself." There are many who are unable to express themselves in this country where this is vital and some who ere able to do it, too well. I leave Russia, hoping that in five years p miracle will have come to pas 3,