The Russian Viewpoint

Southland Times, Issue 22813, 12 February 1936, Page 5

The Russian Viewpoint

THE USE OF COSMETICS. A new beauty salon was opened in tlie heart of Moscow to-day—one in a chain of cosmetic shops opening throughout the Soviet Union as a result of a vast Government campaign to popularize the use of cosmetics (wrote a correspondent of the New York Times on December 7). Flappers from Soviet factories and collective farms are in the throes of this exciting movement to beautify themselves as do the girls of other countries. And, in fact, it is easier to buy a lipstick in Moscow to-day than it is to purchase an alarm clock. The campaign, however, is not confined to the women. Men also are encouraged to make themselves more presentable, and the proper employment of toilet water is now as much a part of a soldier’s duty in the Red Army as is the study of how to adjust a gas mask properly. The cosmetics trust is managed by the petite, dark-haired wife of V. V. Molotoff, Premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. She was recently decorated for the good work she had done in the field. Mrs Molotoff, known as Zhemzhuzina, has long contended that Russians should be educated to beautify themselves. Carved Parquet Walls. The new beauty shops have been designed by interior decorators. It was necessary to fight one’s way in to see the carved parquet walls, along which are arrayed vases on pink marble stands, in the Moscow shop to-day. Another feature of this shop is its indirect lighting. The newspapers are featuring cosmetic advertisements. The whole drive is part of the Kremlin’s plan to encourage the people to look better and dress better. The hardships endured by the Soviet populace since the Bolshevist revolution—the civil war and the sacrifices necessary to carry out the Five-Year Plans—brought about a situation in which the people lost all interest in their personal appearance and until last year the Soviet people were probably the worst dressed in the Western world.

With its increasing strength economically and politically the Soviet Government is now able to indulge the population in what previously were described as “bourgeois luxuries.”