East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1919-06-20

Whose Isnd Appeal Civilization WIN Newspaper Next Week

day life. IL ia here that he searches for the
unknown while trying to discover a deeper
sense In everyday reality. unheeded
by an ordinary observer. Everything that
happens is for Andreyev a problem. psyche
logical ana philosophical: or. rather. ne looks
AT the smallest occurrence as a manifestation
OF one single problem. which torments his
soul-the' problem of human aloofness. soli-
tariness In the midst .ot most conventional
phenomena of everyday socia bility. Here are.
for instance. four partners playing bridge in
their club. in winter and summer, in spring
and In autumn" They think they know eacn
other quite WELL but they never learn. nor
wish to learn. anything about each others In
ternal hfe-about. so to say. the human side OF
theme Some day one of the four dies unex-
peetedly during the game. His place will be
taken BY another. 1t dawns upon his part
ners that the dying man will never know how
good were the cards he got at the moment of
his apopiexy. This is the least tragic among
leonid Andreyev's tales. but his problem is
there The dominating feature OF his writings
Is woetul fear OF solitude and an eager yearu-
ing for human solidsrity-moraI. not ecs-
nonieaL Like Diogeaes Of old days. Andreyev
is always in search of a 'nan' for linking
and cemenurg factors In the human being.
He mostly misses them. but he is never too tired
20 ask for them again and again. This is hts
last refuge. One will him recur to it also
in TITS appeal to the Allies, 1ar its realistic
Is frcn Lecn,d Andreyevs customary
symbolism.
Let US come to another point which also
may throw sidelight for a better understand.
ing of the appeal-ths attitude OF both An
dreyev and Cork toward the worlds 1t
Is particularly during this that the great
divergence of views between the two prominent
novelists has manifested itself. They took
opposite sides, thus representing two currents
of public opinion in Russia. which quite cor
responds tie same manifestations of public
thought in all fighting countries.
Cork q -Defeatist.
Maxim Cork has become or. rather. has re-
manned. what he formerly had hesn-a "de-
featist" The dread of victory ana the desire
for defeat in is not attitude among
certain group of Russian socialists and In
teliectuals We can trace it not only to the
Russo-Japanese hut even to the Crirnean War.
Russian ."defeatism" is not produced by anti
patriotic or anti-mItarist propa sanda of later
times; 1t is rather result of secular struggle
against autocracy. Our intellectuals have too
often confounded the form of state which
they were decided to destroy with the state
itself. Thus a queer kind of patriotism has
evolved in Russia. bound to give place to
more normal manifestation of ones love for
his country under better conditions. Mr.. Le-
nine has as yet found enough of this tradi-
tional "defeatisnr' in order to base upon it his
Eolshevist aspirations. This is how he de-
scribes the Bolshevist attitude toward the war
at its very beginning October lD:-"1n the
actual state of affairs It is impossible from
the point Of view OF the international prole-
tariat to say which would be the lesser evil
for socIalisnn-an Austro-German defeat
cs,eat But for -
Russian SociaI-Democr.:A there can be =.
ioubt- that the Ie---r evD would be
iefeat of the TsarisI monarchy. We
.annoi ignore the fact that this that issue
'f tie military op.rzuons stu facilitate or
ender diffi t,It our of liberation
n Rsssia. .,rj we cay yes. hrpe for th-
efekt 81 Russi. heeatse 1t ,w!I facilitate the
atsI hal victory or Russia"
This extremist view has met with indig-
ant protest the part of prominent
eaders- of Russian socialism and ana rch:sm.
ucE Georges Plekhanov Peter Kropot-
in. 3ourtsev. AIexinsky and othsrz Says
one who does not deliberately
lose bib eyes can fail 20 understand why no
nan who has :iie progress of humanity at
cart and who does not allow his ideas to be
bscured by interest. habit sophistry could
ossibly hesitate. We cannot but desire the
nal defeat of Germany. We cannot even re-
lain neutral Under the present circumstances
eutrality means ompIicity" Russia. even
lie socialistic Russia. even the working class,
as not with Lenine but with KropotBin. A
erman socialist organ publishes the following
statement from Russia written in
ctober l914:-
"a great majority of Russian citizens. and
nong them many Social Democrats are con-
iced that Germany Is waging aggressive
ar while Russia is defending herself from
German invasion The war is be-
'nning more and more popular in Russia. -
II