RUSSIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 14

RUSSIA

Sir, —Your correspondent, Alice J. Greville, concludes her letter on Russia as follows: "Under the tvranny of the Tsars 92 per cent, of the 'Russian population was illiterate, utterly ignorant: today all Russian children ran at least read and write." In a book entitled "Russia Unveiled,"- the author gives extracts from the Soviet's own papers and these are extracts therefrom. On page 140. " Soviet statistics give the striking figure of 60.4 as the percentage' for illiteracy in the population as a whole (Izvestia, July 11, 1929), speaking of the peasantry in the Ukraine, and similar remetrks hold good over all Russia. The Rabochaza Gazette says: "As he has absolutely nothing to read, and is oven obliged to give back his lesson book, the peasant can only just scrawl his name after a year's study, and twelve months later has completely forgotten all he ever knew." On page 143 he quotes from the Triad, November 13, 1926, as follows: "A teacher only receives two-thirds of a workman's average wage, hardly more than half the miserable pittance he earned in Tsarist times. There is an insufficient number of schools, of materials as well as teachers, whose salaries are, quite inadequate. The children are short of clothes and shoes; their food is bad; they leave school before their time is up. Sometimes one teacher lias to instruct a class containing 120 to 160 pupils. There are fewer schools than in Tsarist times, and 50 per cent, more scholars, etc." Oil page 153, again quoting from the Triad of July 10, 1929: " Millions of workmen's children of pre-school age are growing up uncared for and totally deprived of the necessary teaching. . . The little creatures are either left to themselves to grow up in the gutter or, in cases where their parents look after them, do not usually benefit from supervision, hut on the contrary are entirely corrupted by it. In other words, very few receive any attention at,'all." 213, Parnell Road. J. Thorn'M.