SOCIAL SIDE OF RUSSIA

NZ Truth, Issue 579, 22 July 1916, Page 7

SOCIAL SIDE OF RUSSIA

DISTINCTIVE SECTIONS OF SOCIETY A DISSERTATION ON THE VARIOUS DIVISIONS The Intelligent and Its Aims and Methods German ■". Kultur " and Culture Compared — The Psychology of the Slav. — Its Misinterpretation the Hun's initial Mistake

Russia, our great ally, is very much m the eye of the world at the present moment, owing to its magnificent his-tory-making and victorious advance. It is timely, therefore, that some correct information concerning this vast, mysterious country — which is so little known, and less understood, by the average person m Western Europe, and much less by the people of New Zealand — should be placed before ' our readers', and, as the writer of the following article is a true Russian, it is his intention to place before the people of this country a correct insight Into the life and affairs of this nation, which is driving a wedge into the very vitals of our Hun enemies. The readers qf "Truth" will herein find thq truth and not the wild, fantastic imaginings of mere tourist explorers who have simply' cantered over a portion of the Tsar's wide dominions. To begin with, the population of Russia is officially divided into five clatsses. These are the nobility, the merchants, the clergy, the small tradespeople, and the peasants. In practice, however, there is a sixth class — the intellectual. The intellectual class is recruited from all the other classes, though chiefly from the latter two. It includes the students of the ten Universities, the lesser professors, teachers, officials, •etc., followers of the liberal professions— m fact, anyone who 'reads or writes, and, therefore, imagines that he also thinks. But it is the students who really give life to the Intellectual, and makes it a class apart. It is this union of the educated middle-class youth of Russia which for years has provided it with material for anarchistic and revolutionary novel's and plays. Before the revolution of a few years ago, the University course was unlimited, the lectures costing only £2 yearly, and students were exempt from military service. Nowadays the course Is limited to six years, the annual fee is £6, and only certain students are exempt from military service. • These changes— the repressive measures adopted at the time of the revolution, and, especially the national reforms since instituted— have had their due effect m ; CURBING THE TURBULENCE of the intellectual class, and of Inducing its members to devote the enthusiasm of their youth to practical ideas. To understand, and, therefore, sympathise with this student class, one must remember that the German system of "kultur" has been m force at the Russian Universities for years. That German professors and German influence have been paramount among a body of quite 40,000 virile young men and women. The Moscow University had 10,000 students, that of Petrograd about 8500, while even the smallest of the ten Russian Universities had quite 1300. Above all, however, one must realise what "kultur". really implies. "Kultur," literally translated, "is culture," but the ideas expressed -by the former differ so widely, from those symbolised by the latter word that All languages have been compelled to grant hospitality to the German form — kultur. One of the f undamently differences between them is the fact that booklearning alone can never confer culture on a man, whereas it can confer kultur. Culture is something deeper than the mere capacity of storing the mind with the sayings or writings of other men; it is the power — and the results of that power — of passing tho knowledge gained by others through tho crucible of one's own brain and individuality that one may, both consciously and Bub-epnscloualy, select those precious . grains which are best suited to aid In the building up of one's own character. Culture uses all knowledge, but only as a means to broaden the" character, refine the mind, and elevate the intellect. Kultur. on the other hand, merely demands that n man shall swallow as much book-learning as his brain can possibly hold — the greater the quantity, the greater tho man— and quite forgets the inconvenient fact that brains, like stomachs, have detlnlt" limits to » THEIR DIGESTIVE POWERS. Dyspepsia Is now recognised as tho parent of practically all the ordinary ills of mankind. In the same manner, undigested knowledge, or dyspepsia of the brain, is the parent of practically all the evil and stupidity m tho world. Our bodies live, not by what wo eat. but by what we digest, and the same rul- j ing applies to our brains. For some generations "kultur" haa controlled tho education of all the i youth of Germany, and the world la i now being edi Hod with its results. Ycl it is an undobted fact that a German boy or girl of 11 or 12 la better educated—that is. more crammed— than an English boy or girl of similar age. German boys of H or 12 years of age often do the work required of the Oxford student, their I-atln course being nearly finished at that ago. But we roust not, however, forget that Germany has mom schoolboy suicides than any other two countries In the world. At the Russian Universities the vonng men and women receive* an in* comparably better education, from the book-learning standpoint, than Is given, for instance, to th« youth of England, but it is kultur education. And when one remembers that the majority of these 40.000 young men and women students came from widely scattered villages— for Ru.ssla Is essentially a land of vast spaces interspersed with villages her towns being comparatively few and far between — that they had fought their way through the secondary schools and secured their diplomas before REACHING THE MECCA of their educutlonal desires, and that there was no hope that more than a fraction of their* would ever secure Ujo professional posia. or openings, for which they were training and sirlvlmr. often In i»o U I rent poverty. aw can easily understand the effect the University "Uultur" curriculum would luive on them. Again "kultur" breeds menial concoU, Tho overfed feeling of a stuffed bralu \n uncomfortable, but the knowledjco thai there are many people, whole nations In fact. w »o have not that stuffed frellnK «lven v great st-nso at self- satisfaction which mpldly di--

velops into an understanding of one's I superiority to the common herd, and, j therefore, of course, one is above the ' laws that govern them. The effect of all this on the intellectual class is well illustrated m Chekov*s words, who wrote: In Russia at present there are not many people who do any real work. The great majority of the intellectual class I know is m search of nothing, accomplishes nothing, and is not yet capable of real work. They call themselves the IntelligensrJa (or intellectual class): they treat the peasants as if they were animals. They only talk science; they are all serious, they all wear a severe expression; they talk philosophy, and m the meantime the overwhelming majority of them, 99 out of 100, live like savages, abusing each other so that they come to blows immediately; they eat disgusting food, sleep m dirt and bad air ... everywhere there is damp and moral squalor. But Chekov was rather unfair. Many of the people he alludes to could not help living m damp and dirt. They were appallingly poor. It was not unusual -for a student to tutor a couple of hours daily m return for just a meal of tea, bread .and Jam. This "moral squalor!" Well, if by virtue of one's brain, or ita overfeeding, one Is above the laws of one's fellows,, it is always the moral laws one treads first underfoot. Philosophy is invariably a pitfall to the over-educated and under-developed brain, and the student class did not escape their fato. In turn they accepted blindly, and ravod over Schelling, Hegel, Saint Simon, Fourier, Comte, Marx, Neo-Kantism, etc. Practically all were atheists. Indeed, at one time atheism was the hallmark of the Intellectuals. A rugged and hard materialism was their only steadfast belief, together with a passion for sincerity that took the form of preferring rudeness to courtesy. Another peculiarity of "kultur" is that it must give its disciples a fetish to worship. It also probably acts as a safety-valve for the dyspeptic gas. In Germany, its people were given not only militarism, but the State as an Idol and object of adoration. But it would hardly have suited the future imperialistic and globlstic aims of the race of Attila, to have inculcated such obedience and love of government, law, and order m the youth of a country they were bo carefully and systematically EARMARKING FOR* THEIR OWN. Therefore, since the "kultur" system imperatively demands its safety- valve, the Russian Intellectuals were given the fetish of "The People," and wore, moreover, gently led to believe that they had evolved it all by themselves. At the Bame time, acting on the principle of "divide and conquer," German Interests m the Russian bureaucracy made life rather Joyful for the people In general, and the intellectuals m particular, and thus all the elements for internal disorganisation and un eventual revolution were provldod. The Germans forgot one thing, however" — the Slav nature. -Whereas, before the revolution, Chekov's words fittingly described one section of the "lntelligenzia," it did not by any means describe them all. True, they all accepted "The People" fetish, which gradually come to mean, as the kulturiats had Intended it should, the country itself, resistance and hatred of the existing order of things, and a determination to secure a change. According to their temperamentH and the stage of their "kultur" infection, the membors of the intellectual class took different paths towards their common goal. Nekrasov. their typical poet, thus described them: From those who exult and foolishly chatter ami dye their handa In blood, lead me away to the camn of those who are perishing for the great cause of love. And, indeed, a large majority of the Intellectuals worked honestly and wholeheartedly for THE "CAUSE OF LOVR;" Many of them took the "fetish" fieriously as a. call of humanity, and kiiv> ] their lives to their work umoug the people. Some had held clauses for the peasants; others put on peasant dross and lived among them, teaching and helping them to live. Since, m iho8«? days, attendance at the University Uhtures was not compulsory, and there were no examinations save the Htate examination, which gave the right of entering the service of the Govern- j ment, of which they did not approve, these devoted souls gradually wllppetl from tho Influence of their "kultu.* profesors and gave their loving Slav hearts full play. Dostoievsky gives a rather extravagant, but still truthful, picture of this section— tho greater— of the intelllßenzla. He says: I tell you the lnteUi&enzia of Russia is the best and possesses the most pleasing qualities of nny In the world. You may travel tho whole world over, yot you will find nothing to resemble it, for it la a jewel which, though insufficiently valued, Is striking In ita beauty. And the life esMeneo of that inteUigenzla Is its sensitiveness of conscience. Cio where you will — to America. France, Kngland, even to Patagon la—and preach there, the tenets that personal happiness Is unlawful, and that love. egoUm, and the Ilka are sins, and everyone will turn away from you and will cry out, "How can personal happlne*a be unlawful?" But the Russian Intellectual will understand you. He will reach out to you In soul. And why no? Because from tho moment of his rising In the mornIng ho feels tpiawlriffN and reproaches of conscience, and atari* , thlnhtnK In a philosophic manner. For Instance. ■hould he tuke a crust of bread into his hands, he will see ft picture of life as It is lived on the plantations. "Grain, a commodity WORKICD BY SLAVES!" Yes, tho intellectual hunt;*™ for

the people, he seeks n road whereby he may draw nearer to them, and become one with the great silent masses which for a thousand years have borne Russian history upon their backs. For, apart from tho. people the Russian intellectual cannot exist. For example, look at what he is doing now. ftook at the care and'conscientiousness with which he pur- , sues his quest for the truth in* general, and for the truth which lies enshrined m the peasantry, the populace m particular, while rejecting those things whi6h constitute the pride and the joy of the ordinary mortal. ' And the sources from -which our intelli- i genzia receives, and has always received, its recruits are the villages, the marshes, and the blackloam plains of Russia, and it is owing to that fact that our intelli- ' genzia possesses a conscience, and that it feels ashamed to live m forgetf ulness of the peasant. For it is from the peasant that our intelligenzia has borrowed its foVmula of "Life according to truth." . In Russia love rules. We believe m love as m a mysterious force which can shatter every barrier, and establish a new life which shall be devoid of all "outgrowths of economic contradictions." For m head and heart e,very Russian intellectual cherishes an image of that life. If anything had ever brought us true inspiration, it has been that ideal of a life on lines of justice, a life founded upon love for one's neighbor, a life which shall recognise no formula save those dictated by the heart. Yet Dostrlevsky, like Chekov, also knew the other sections of the intelligenzia end thundered against their "anarchic individualism." In his famous character; Rnskolnlkov, he pilloried them, and demonstrated that only through personal suffering and punishment could they learn the true meaning of life. But after the inevitable revolutions and the various changes it brought about, those of the intellectual clusb that remained as the nucleus of that of to-day, and learned by bitter experience that "kultur" tenets cannot be swallowed whole, that all knowledge must be sifted for Its grains of gold, and then the sound, clean, windswept minds of the Russian youth began to study the V TRUE MEANING OP CULTURE. The male intellectual still lets his hair flow long, while the girl student cuts hers short They still have their cliques and circles, with all their rigid rules, squabbles, and hero worship. They still think they are the critics of the world par excellence and that they aro above mere clvllian-mado laws of courtesy, for are they not artists? But they are young, and these are but the faults of • early, •'youth, especially of artistic and temperamental youth. Who has not seen the Rowing tie and paint-bedaubed jacket of the budding French artist or the ink-smeared lingers and ostentatious portfolio of the young English writer? In one way, at least, the intelllgenzia have rendered a service to all mankind— their treatment of the'women among them. There is no difference whatever made between m*n and women of the intelligenzia. All are absolutely equal. The Government of Russia has been peculiarly modern In many respects as regards its women. The Biuno University courso Is open to both men and women, and if the latter pass the State examinations they receive their degrees and are appointed as teachers to posts of all kinds, even professorships m tho men's colleges, without regard to their sex. Also, at the end of 20 years' ser-

vice, a woman teacher receives a pension which, on her death, is paid to her husband! The camaraderie of the intelligenzia has had its due effect m enabling the sexes to appreciate and understand one another. The number of CLEVER AND BRILLIANT WOMEN members of the intelligenzia has been more than remarkable, and to-day tho Duma talks of admitting women to juries. Women do not willingly overfeed their brains, so "kultur" cannot permeate them as it does a man — unless, of course, they have been bred from babyhood on the 'system, as have the German women. Wqmen have an instinctive desire to "be sure." and an intuitive reasoning power that saves them much mental toil. It was, therefore, natural that the greater body of those members of the Intelligenzia who gave themselves whole-heartedly to the daily service of the people were women, and that their work boro honest fruit which was of use to the realm. In view of this fact, it is interesting to note that shortly after the late Russian revolution Higher Schools of Justice were instituted for women students m Moscow, and daily they are beginning to bo more and more accepted as advocates and 'lawyers. FLussia is young, not so much m yea%s as m what we call progress, education, and culture, but she has a great spirit, and, now that this cleansing war has como to consolidate the nation and purge it of the baneful "kultur" influence a groat future lies before it. Much of that future will be due to the Intellectual class, or Intelligenzia, even to those members who took the secret paths— for, ut least, thoy believed they worn serving their country, anil that belief, if suffered for, m itself is a gain to the spiritual inheritance of a nation.