RUSSIA AND EUROPE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25210, 24 May 1945, Page 3

RUSSIA AND EUROPE

THE SHAPING OF SOVIET SOCIETY MEASURES TO ENSURE SECURITY

By a Diplomatic Correspondent of the Times of London

No. 11. In tho second of his articles on a recent visit to Russia, the correspondent describes the working of the Soviet system. Soon after our Dakota left the frozen Volga and flew southward over Makhach Kala a blizzard sprang up against us from across the Caspian. We were in a grey flood of snow, streaming past us across our route so swiftly and giddily that we seemed to be no longer making headway, but sliding sideways, upstream, up the swift flood ; and we were glad to touch down at a military airfield a long distance from Baku, which we should have reached.

In the evening officers and men wandered into the reading room to sit at a long bare table and read Pravda and Red Star. Behind them the bookshelves were'tightly packed with about 20 copies each of the "History of the All-Union Communist Party," Lenin's complete works, and Stalin's collected speeches, together with many volumes of Marx and Engels. A lectern, rather like a red conning-tower, stood in a corner, and I was told that once or twice a week all ranks were given discourses on the bases of MarxLeninism.

The little room was a symbol amid all the upheaval of war. Party instruction has lately been intensified throughout the Soviet Union, and at the same time a stronger emphasis has been put on the predominant role of the party under Stalin's leadership as the chief directing force within the State. Changes War has Brought The public imagination, in Russia as much as abroad, has been caught by the great developments evolved during the war—tho new freedom for religion, the exaltation of patriotism, the granting of extremely high pay and many precious privileges to leading officers and officials, the sharpening of distinctions between ranks, and the decided increase in rewards and incentives for the intelligent and the industrious generally. Such changes will almost certainly shape Soviet society for many years to come. The sons and daughters of highranking officers and officials are having an easier time and a better start in life than the families of most unskilled and semi-skilled workers. A reservoir of talent is forming, at and near the top, from which some—though by no means all—of the leaders and State representatives of tomorrow are likely to he drawn.

The changes are substantial; but they are in no way fundamental. These exalted rank-holders do not constitute a new class in any rigid or exclusive sense. They remain, rank-holders, holdtheir rewards and privileges on trust from the State. There is no security of tenure, no stepping into a father's shoes, and —need it be said? —no alteration in the supremacy of the State, under the leadership of the party, as the employer and organiser of labour. • Marshal Stalin's Authority

All the developments have taken place within the limits of increasing the efficiency of the State. No amount of medals or orders saves a man from loss of office or banishment ii he becomes self-satisfied or careless. The State draws and will continue to draw the greater part of its administrative strength by quick promotions from even the lowest ranks. Where does power in the State ultimately lie? Marshal Stalin's authority is obviously beyond all question in his four-fold position as commander-in-chief, •chairman of the Council of State Defence (the Soviet War Cabinet), chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and leader of the party.

Behind him is the Politburo, the party's cabinet, and the larger Central Committee of the party, which privately discusses all policies and to which —foreign representatives in Moscow assert —all problems involving points of principle are referred. Major decisions on the highest level can be taken straightaway, since the leaders of State and the leaders of party are the same; but inanv who have dealings with nppermiddle or middle ranks believe that this need to refer everything back explains a Soviet official's usual reluctance to express an opinion on a new point and also the frequent slowness of negotiation. Discipline in the Party I could not help recalling Lamb's unkind description of a Scotsman: "You are never admitted to see his ideas in their growth—if, indeed, they do grow, and are not rather put together on principles of clockwork. He does not find, but bring, lie cannot compromise or understand middle action's. There can be but a right and a wrong.file conclusion, at any rate, is apt-—"You must speak upon the square with him."

In emphasising afresh the need for ideological training and understanding, the Central Committee has turned its attention first of all to the ranks of the party itseli. Discipline is being tightened. Since 1939, and especially since 1941, entry into the party had been easier than ever before. Against the 1,600,000 members in 1939 there were 5.700,(300 in January of this year, in spite of the heavy losses of members at the front.

[ From articles now published in the I party magazines it appears that officers and men of the Red Army wore enrolled as members because of military prowess or because of a genuine desire on their part to become members before going into battles from which they might not return. Local administrations or factory teams were similarly enrolled in groups on the strength of their proven work for the State. The old lengthy probationary period was cut down or waived altogether. Highor Political Education Word has now gone round that those large-handed methods will no longer do. Regional and other party organisations are now told to scrutinise their lists, , and many of the quickly enrolled mem- ' ber.s have already been put hack to be probationers, "candidates." Unity to the party ia to be gained once more, as it always used to be gained, only after individual proof of powers of leadership and understanding of the Marx-Leninist political science. The party's tasks are seen most obviously in the liberated areas of the Union, where political reconstruction goes hand in hand with industrial. "The party cadres," it was stated in a recent issue of Bolshevik, "must . . . overcome any sentiment of bourgeois nationalism, private ownership, and hostility to the collective farm system instilled by the German invaders." Tn the rest of the Union there is certainly little need for any such job of conversion or reconversion. The people are united ns never before, and fully understand that without Soviet construction before the war and Soviet organisation and drive during it victory would not now be at hand. Lovo of country is strong, but it is Soviet patriotism which is increasingly exalted, devotion to a system as well 'as to country. What the parly leaders are launching is more like a scheme of higher political education, to make sure that Soviet policy is fully grasped on ideological lines after the period of great changes, both at home and abroad, which may N e perplexing to the orthodox. _ What is being taught? Party magazines declare, or ad*»jit, that it is some-

thing more complex than over before. It arises from tho old fundamental contention that the Soviet system is ahead of all othor political and economic systems, the .example which others will follow or approach; but it is mixed with a sharp insistence on the realities of tho world. The strength of tho . jvict system will bo shown, it is said, even more clearly in the peace, when the individualist countries may be landed with large-scale unemployment during the difficulties of transition. Even so, and even though the same years will almost certainly bring oconomic difficulties throughout Europe and other parts of the world, there can be (in Stalin's words) no "easy parrot-like repetition" of somo of the old Communist watchwords. The example will bo loudly and skilfully proclaimed, but the war has brought many bitter lessons on the strength of nationalism and has corrected many pleasant assumptions that the workers must automatically be on the Soviet side. What did the German workers do when given arms? Although most European countries are believed to be moving toward Socialism, insistence is placed on Lenin's later teaching that they will approach the goal by different routes. The chief requisite is to ensure the removal of the last "Fascist elements" —denounced as potential disturbers of the peace and, equally, as barriers in the way of social progress—and the Soviet t'nio will certainly use its influence in that task. In conversation Russians always return to the prime need of promoting ;he security of the Soviet Union, bv making sure that its influence is elective in the world out u> and by preserving the alliance with the large allied Powers. (To bp concluded) Tho first article appeared on Tuesday.