RUSSIA TO-DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18405, 12 August 1931, Page 3

RUSSIA TO-DAY.

VISITOR’S IMPRESSIONS. POSITION OF FOREIGNERS. WOMEN AND COMMUNISM. (Leon Kirel in Spectator.) Some Impressions of a recent visit by one who knew the country fairly well in the old days may be of some interest. During the first few days it seemed that everything had undergone a fundamental change, but one soon began to realLe that the new face only concealed the spirit, methods and outlook of the old Russia. Most of the astonishing innovations of the Bolshevik regime have their roots in old principles and practices. The policy of collectivism is a return to conditions of not so long ago. It is only about twenty years ago that Stolypin introduced peasant proprietorship. Before that the Land Was Owned Corporately by the vilage community. It is true that the present campaign to collectivise the land deprives the members of the collective farm of nearly all the limited Ina* virtual initiative they possessed under the old system. But Ihe principle of collective ownership and exploitation by the community was a dominant feature of Russia’s social structure until comparatively recently. It is generally believed that social and class distinctions have been entirely abolished. In theory social distinctions at least have been swept away, but they are dying hard. Class distinctions —perhaps categories is a better word—are in some ways more definite than in the old days. But the fact that the worker is privileged in almost every way has not made him In social intercourse the equal of those who through superior education and intellect hold posts of authority or responsibility. These can nearly always be Distinguished by Certain Refinements of dress and manner, even though they be of genuine proletarian origin. One need only visit the theatres, travel on long-distance expresses, or spend a few days at one of the Black Sea holiday resorts to realise that even under Communism there are still social superiors and inferiors. One will notice that in the theatres the better seats are filled with a more or less white-collared and silkstockinged crowd, which holds aloof from the shirt-s.eeved and kerchiefed section of'the audience. It is very rare to find a genuine workman travelling in a sleeping-car, and what is perhaps even more striking is that there is obviously some attempt made to segregate passengers in those trains which consist entirely of "hard,” or old third-class, carriages. It should be explained that even for these trains tickets are issued for specific seats, and there is no doubt, after some experience of travelling in “hard” carriages, that the ticket offices manage to arrange that the i belter-class passengers have the cleanest compartments and that the Peasantry Is Herded by Itself. On the coast of the Black Sea, which somebody has called the “Red Riviera,” one might almost imagine oneself back in pre-war days. In the best hotels—and some quite decent ones still exist—the guests are typical of the old petty bourgeois merchants, subordinate officials and superior commercial clerks. The workers have their own hostels and rest homes, and by mutual consent each class seems more or less to keep to its own part of the bathing beach.

The foreigner’s position in Russia is peculiar. He is at once a privileged guest and an “untouchable.” He can have practically no social intercourse with a Russian, for no Rusisan dare visit or be visited by a foreigner except on official business. It is impossible to be more than a mere casual acquaintance with any Russian to-day. On the other hand, everything is done to make the foreign visitor as comfortable as possible. He is not expected to put up with the conditions that. are good enough for the natives. In a great many provincial hotels there are rooms absolutely reserved for foreigners, and no Russian, however respectable, is allowed to use them; in many hotels there are also special dining rooms “for foreigners only,” and, of course, in Leningrad and Moscow the Best Hotels are Reserved entirely for foreigners. The foreigner, if he has proper credentials from Moscow—and it is practically impossible to travel into the provinces without—can buy any luxuries and extras in the way of food that are available. In the bigger towns there are special shops for foreigners alone where all sorts of exotic luxuries are for sale. The really extraordinary thing about it is that this preferential treatment of foreigners docs not seem to cause any ill-feeling among the people. A foreigner may sit down in a public restaurant to a meal including white bread, butter and such like delicacies, and should a Rusisan near by ask whether he cannot have some butter to eat with his black bread he is told that it is only for foreigners. “So that citizen is a foreigner. It is perfectly understood,” he will probably say. In the old days there were at a rough guess some fifteen to twenty thousand foreigners helping to run Rusia’s industries. To-day there are at least three thousand American, German and other engineers and experts and about ten thousand foreign workmen. The Government is engaging moi*e every month, but they hope sooner or later to be able to get on without outside assistance. Foreigners Had To Be Taken On at Erst because the plans for new Industries provided for new plants on a scale far beyond the capacity and experience of the native engineers to tackle. For the same reasons that made so many foreign specialists necessary in the old days it is likely that they will have to be retained indefinitely. It is not only a question of training and experience. It is almost equally a matter of character. The Russian engineer may lie a very good engineer, but as the manager of a big plant lie fails for Hie following reasons:—He has a constitutional inability to say "No” convincingly but not violently, lie is loth to take a responsible. decision, ami to a considerable extent lie still suffers from the old tradition that inhibited the intellectual worker from dirtying his hands. Jhe foreigners. especially the

Americans, carry on as they would do at home, show a great deal of patience with the workmen, whom they treat more as if they were enthusiastic but inexperienced boys than as grown 'men, and the workmen respond. The average Rusian manager directs things from his office and spends a far greater part of his time in compiling statistics and reports than’ in supervising the actual work. The Americans have often Saved the Russians from Themselves. Here Is a typical example. There are two enormous new works, one in the north and the other in the south. Both are designed for the manufacture of agricultural machinery. In the north the authorities decided to build the works unaided; the other has been built and the machinery installed under American supervision. The northern factory is being constructed of inferior bricks and mortar and was to be roofed principally with timber. The southern plant is to all intents and purposes as good and well found as if it were in America. The buildings are made of reinforced concrete and Hie roofs of iron and steel. The plans for Hie northern plant provided for concrete and all the rest of of it, but the material could not be supplied, partly owing to the general shortage, partly to the breakdown of transport. Had there been Americans In charge they would have held I lie work up until they got what they required. The Russian engineers dare not. They must complete Hie buildings by the specified time, whatever happens, and use local material if none oilier be available. If they tried to stand out against the central authorities they would most probably be imprisoned or worse for sabotage.

Another Vivid Impression one gets in Rusia is of the place women are taking in industry. About one-third of the industrial workers are women, and women even work as bricklayers, navvies, and at all sorts of coolie work. So far they do not seem to have invaded the professions to a greater degree than in most other countries, but the younger generation is showing great keenness in studying at the technical schools and universities, where of course they have exactly the same rights as their brothers. As recruits for Communism the girls give an impression of greater enthusiasm tlian the youths. The Bolshevik leaders have always admitted that Russia will not be 100 per cent. Communist until Hie bourgeois instincts for home, Jjmily, and personal possessions have been eradicated. It is still to be proved whether this instinct is being destroyed or only temporarily in abeyance in tile rising gene/.'tion, particularly in the female porl<»n of it. in this direction a» least it is a fair assumption that the women have far more to say than the men.

“No fear, that’s a dry district, and we don’t want another experience like this,” said a delegate to the annual meeting of the New Zealand Boxing Association at Ashburton, when an application from the Walrarapa Association for the championships next year was being considered. Eventually New Plymouth was selected for th« next championships.