EXTRAORDINARY MISERY

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1933, Page 9

EXTRAORDINARY MISERY

HAKSSHIP IN RUSSIA. VISITING WRITER'S VIEWS. Auckland, Feb. 19. Declaring that the Bolshevik experiment in Russia is doomed to failure, mainly owing to the impossibility of winning the peasantry over, to .the new ideas, Mr. Salomon Poliakoff, a Russian author and dramatist, who is visiting Auckland in the course of a world tour, stated that whatever the* solution of Russia’s present troubles, it would mean the end of Communism. Mr. Poliakoff has resided in Paris since the Russian revolution, and has been engaged in journalism for several years. “From .the opinions I have heard concerning conditions in Russia, I can see it is very difficult for people here to understand just what is happening there,” said Mr. Poliakoff. lam a political exile. I live in Paris, and not in Moscow, and that shows I am not an admirer of the Bolshevik regime. However, I try to be impartial. “It cannot be denied that at the beginning the movement, especially in the minds of Lenin, Trotsky ‘and other leaders, was intended to improve the state of the Russian people, to make them richer and happier. It ■is true that the Soviet Government put into the Five Year Plan very much,enthusiasm and work, and a tremendous lot of money. That was the intention, but after 15 years of tremendous effort what is the situation of the country,-for that is the sole test of the success, or failure, of the Bolshevik endeavours? MISERY AND HARDSHIP.

“Although I am an anti-Bolshevik, I would, for the sake of the Russian people, like to be able to say that the situation has improved in comparison with pre-revolution times, but I am sorry to say that is not the case. There is in Russia extraordinary misery, want and hardship. “The Five Year Plan has exhausted workers and the peasants, and in return has given them nothing but doubtful consolation in the, knowledge that many magnificent factories have been built. These factories represent the last word in technical perfection. For. instance, what is the use of a factory able to produce 15,000 motor-cars daily if there will not be the economic necessity nor the roads ori which to run them for the next 50 years? What also, is the use of the huge and" remarkably well-equipped power-station on the Dneiper if for 100 miles around there are no factories to use the electricity generated? \. It was pointed out by M. Poliakoffthat after all this effort the immediate needs of the population in boots and in living necessities were not yet satisfied. There was no country in the world where the people were so miserably clothed, fed and housed. He wondered whether any European worker or peasant would stand such a life. ON VERGE OF STARVATION. His view was that the greatest mistake the Bolsheviks had made was in imagining they could alter the character of the Russian peasant The attempt to make Communists of the Russian peasants, who were largely in the majority, was the boldest dream of the Bolsheviks, and it had proved a dismal failure. The reason was that the Russian peasant was extremely individualistic, with a deep sense of property. The passive but stubborn resistance of the peasants to Communistic agriculture, meant the doom of the Communistic regime. That was why Russia was not producing sufficient wheat to feed her people whereas formerly she was regarded as the source of the wheat supply for many countries. The people of the cities were on the verge of starvation. “Russia must adjust herself to the feeling and needs of the peasantry, added Mr. Poliakoff. “Without them there is no possible hope for the continued existence of the Soviet regime. What form the inevitable change will take I do not dare to- prophesy. The only thing I am sure of is that sooner or later the peasant has to be given the right to work freely and to dispose of his goods as he thinks best. When that is done it is the end of Communism.”