The Wanganui Chronicle. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1945. M. MOLOTOV’S SPEECH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 265, 9 November 1945, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1945. M. MOLOTOV’S SPEECH

'JTIE speech delivered by M. Molotov on the occasion o£ the Soviet celebrations commemorating the twenty-eighth anniversary of the October Revolution naturally concentrated the attention of the Russian people upon their achievements since that outstanding event.

M. Molotov did not mention the fact that the work of that revolution in setting up the present regime had not been undone, lie took it for granted that its work was of a permanent nature. Nor did he review the changes that had occurred both in doctrine and policy since the Bolshevik Party had attained to an ascendancy. He rightly stressed the part which Russia had played in defeating Germany. He paid no compliments to those nations which had taken part in that event, but he could be excused the omission. Rusisa has suffered severely: all the years of denial practised with a view to increasing the capital investment of the country in order to lift the standard of living of the mass of the people, were in vain. The determination that the German people shall make some partial restitution of this Joss was indeed expressed in moderate terms, and the denial that revenge shall be inflicted upon the beaten foe augurs well for the future.

The regime is starting again upon the path of endeavour to build anew that which has been destroyed by the operations of war. In this it is to be hoped that success crowns their efforts. It will be necessary to lift the standard of living of the people of Russia, and to achieve that result much quicker than would otherwise have been the case had not the Russian soldiery moved out of purelv Soviet territory and seen English and American and French soldiers and made contact with them. The Russian whose isolation has been broken down by the war will have some disturbing thoughts engaging his mind from now on. He will have at least some material on which to base comparisons. Those comparisons are not all favourable to Russia. The regime is therefore on trial as it never was before.

The Russian people know that the victorious Red Army could not have been so victorious but for the material assistance provided by the capitalist countries of America and the United Kingdom. The technical efficiency of those countries has been demonstrated in convincing ways which must have left their mark. “Russian technique must be raised to equal that of the rest of the world,” said M. Molotov. “Millions of people are returning home to peaceful work. Millions will be needed by factories, enterprises, collective farms and by our motherland, which is now embarking on a solution of new problems of Socialist construction. The Russian people are more closely gathered round their party than ever before. The people now march forward under an organised holy, under the leadership of the party of Lenin and Stalin. The Russians’ contact with other nations during the war will widen their horizon.” The immediate association of ideas of discipline under one party and wider horizons carries with it implications. There is no challenge to be tolerated to the dominance of that Party because of those wider mental horizons.

The question to be asked is: “Will the Russian door close again on her people as it did after the Revolution, shutting out from view the developments ?:at are proceeding in other countries?

Nothing in M. Molotov’s speech should give the world cause for alarm. It is the speech of an isolationist. He sees Russia as a vast country with much work to do and desiring that peace shall prevail in order that such work shall be executed in the earliest possible time. The Regime has a very real interest in maintaining peace. Wars tend to the overthrow of regimes and the Bolshevist regime may prove to be no exception to this oft-recurring development. Some day it will have to stand the test of comparison with other regimes, and the war has brought that day appreciably closer. Molotov knows this and calls upon the people to attack the task of rehabilitation with “Bolshevik vigour.” This is his task: to lead his people in an economic attack which shall be so successful that no other way of living shall appeal to them. In the field of research the Russians have already achieved much, but it is doubtful, despite their achievements, whether they can compare with the accomplishments of America and Britain. Russia started twenty-eight years ago from a point far back compared with America and Britain, but it threw off one handicap: it repudiated its debt and so made a present to itself of the whole of the capital of the country without any interest burden being attached thereto. It confiscated the Lena goldfields after they had been equipped by the concessionaires, and it sold the art treasures that, had been stored up inside Russia over the centuries. Despite these advantages Russia before the war suffered an acute housingshortage, it endured a low standard of living, and its social amenities and services, despite much publicising, were below those of the western countries. For the purposes of prestige foreigners were confined to conducted tours and Russian subjects were unable to travel abroad. The extent to which Russian accomplishments sre to be attributed to the special nature of the economic and political set-up and in how far the low standard of living was due to the same cause is not easily to be determined, for it is hard to say to what extent the backwardness of the country twenty-eight years ago and the advantage of repudiation and expropriation 'have affected the final result. The war disturbed a picture that was already complicated. Despite the difficulties, however, it is clear that a great deal of good work was accomplished, and Russia can be depended upon to do again tliat which she previously completed and then to surpass those achievements.