San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-24
A PRACTICAL RUSSIAN

Most nations, like most individuals.
have particular characteristic that
stands out above others. Prominently,
the Russians are known as "drear1er.."
They tend to project vast ideals. plan
them and then consider the act of plan
ming the same as having done. At least.
that is the characteristic one finds often
est in Russian literature. which is the
only ground for the study of national
characteristics at long range.
! Perhaps this characteristic Of evading
practical difficulties is the result of the
( old autocratic regime, or the autocracy
. arose in the beginning from the practi-
! cal inability of the people. Whatever
was the cause or the effect, dreams OF
. happier days have grown out of prison
and exile. 3 In spite of this, and in spite
of years in Siberia and in solitary con-
. finement,. Alexis Ivanovitch Rykov, the
new premier of Russia who succeeds
. Nikolai Lenin, is declared to be a prac-
teal man.
A brief history is given of him by Pax
ton Hibben in Current History. "Rykov
is forty-three years old Since his early
. manhood he has been devoted to the
{ cause of building a new Russia on the
ashes of czarism. He was born and spent
I, his childhood in Saratov, where his faith
! er. a peasant from the Province of Viatka
/. was then settled. Like I.enin. Rykoy
was driven into active revolutionary
! work by the implacable pursuit of the
$ Cars police. Though he had merely
dabbled in the theories Of liberalism
in his school days. as an opponent o.
Nine. Rreshko Breshkovskaya, his horne
was suddenly invaded by secret police
agents and searched, and he was forbid
den to attend the universities at either
+ Pctrograd or Moscow. Shortly there
after, one of his intimate personal friends
Balmashov. was hanged for the assassi
nation of the minister of education. Boga
licvpov. and during May Day demon
stration of the younger opponents o
czarist rule Rylov was beaten into ;
state of Inconsistencies and left 70
dead by band of the BLACK Hun
dreds,' the reactionary organizatio,
sworn to prevent any modernization O
e ehN cbtONialiN ~ III f\uSSld.
Forbidden to matriculate in eithe
( of the leading universities Of Russia
Rykov. in 1900, was compelled 10 attcn
the University of Kazan, where h
studied engineering. He definitely al
lied himself with the organized rcvolr
tionary movement by joining the Socia
Democratic Labor Party. step whic
led to his arrest within six months. an
his sentence to nine months solitary cor
finement. He spent total of eirl
years of his life either in prison-for til
most part IN solitary confincment-or
exile, on political charges. He escape
three times. ard his escape from til
q Plethora prison across the frozen Arct
Ocean, five hundred miles by sledge i
the dead of winter is still historic anon
,hc alumni of The university of exile
Russia
pylsov's policy. now that he is hea
o. the Soviet government, is outline
as an effort to adjust the finances
both agricultural and industrial intcres
in Russia and 10 Che world at larg
Less Interested IN the theoretical aspcc
OF con mun::rl than in co-operativcs Al
the Use of modified capitaiisfic method