The New York herald., 1922-10-08

kN~~N
achievements Of all the publishing agencies
Of the republic and their plans for the fall
season. The plans are very ambitious and
on a rather staggering scale. AS for the
past performances. they are after all per-
haps more than what one could expect. in
view of the prevailing industrial condi-
tions. AS one reads the various bibliog-
raphies and examines the volumes which
find their way from different parts Of Rus
sia into this country one has lively sense
Of the initiation Of busy reconstruction
period.
Naturally enough the supplement gives
the greatest amount Of space to the Gosiz-
dat Estate Publishing House). An inter-
view with its director is printed here, in
which he states that the shift to the new
economic policy of private enterprise has
not had the expected effect on the publish
ing trade. Private publishers have not
supplanted the States organization. As a
matter of fact the activities Of the Gosizdat
are on the increase. This he accounts for
by the fact that in the publishing business
the necessary capital is larger than what
private persons in Russia can invest and
the returns on the investment are slow.
The attitude Of the Gosizdat toward such
private publishers as exist is not, on the
whole, unfriendly. In carrying out its own
extensive projects it goes so far as to
farm out among the more substantial its
surplus work At the same time Ii gives
no support to such private firms as seek
large profits by putting out unwholesome
trash for popular consumption.
II.
The Communists. however. are thor
oughly alarmed by the advent of private
publishers. In speech delivered by Zino-
view before the All-Russian Conference OF
the Communist party and reported in
Izuestiya August 3. the number Of such
private firms in Moscow is estimated at
s37 and in Petrograd as S3 The Soviet
leader must have based his figures on a
very generous Interpretation Of the term
publisher" treating publishers of maya
zines on a par with publishing houses. He
views this situation with apprehension
In a single year." he says. referring to
these facts. "the bourgeoisie has succeeded
in outfianking US and IN scoring a definite
victory" Further he declares himself in
agreement with the opinion of an outside
observer to the effect that literature in
Russia lis freeing itself from the Dictator
ship of the proletariat and is often poisoned
by quite explicit hatred for the Soviet
power" To counteract the influence Of
the bourgeois publications the eleventh
convention OF the Communist party passed
a resolution regarding the necessity for
broadening out the publishing activities OF
the party. Specifically they plan TO issue
a great deal Of anti-religious and MARKHAM
literature. In the first half of the current
year the party agency. known as the Red
Virgin Soil Publishing House. issued ia
titles, 1.7S3,s00 copies in all
Turning to the achievements and prof.
ects OF the Gosizdat. one finds first of all
that it is coping with the tremendous task
OF providing textbooks that will satisfy
the new educational requirements. 1t must
be remembered that the elementary and
secondary schools of the usual type have
been nominally replaced in Russia by the
so-called work schools" Here textbooks
OF the ordinary variety are unnecessary
inasmuch as the pupil theoretically speak
ing. learns not through instruction, but
through actual experience. The books re-
quired in such a system are reference
works, METEOROLOGICAL manuals for the use
Of the teaching staff. and popular science