The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-02-26


of generations
Life yet will blossom, innocent
and wise,
And thou, my planet, shall be
cleansed of lamentations,
A jade-green star in the moon
silvered skies"
IT HUS wrote the Soviet Minister
4 of Education, Anatol Lunach-
arsky, in those remote days
when a revolution was only a
vague goal and when he could not
believe that in his own lifetime
a day would come when he would
be torn from his quiet study and
forced to put his dreams into prac-
tice, or as near into practice as
dreams ever reach.
Reality is revolving and disap-
pointing to any artist, but Luna
charsky possesses enough recuper-
alive powers to overcome his ar
tistic sensitiveness. If he had not
had enough also of that saving
grace Of fanaticism which marks
all leaders, he would have lacked
the enthusiasm which has carried
him thru every battle for culture
which he has had to wage since
the dramatic crash of Carbon.
Only once did he actually lose heart
and Lenin overcame that attack OF
panic by showering responsibility
upon him. Given responsibility he
showed more courage than men Of
coarser grain.
Lunacharskv's battles in the
Ave years he has been in Office
have not been concerned with bull
let's. "Illiteracy," he told me once,
as the great curse Of Russia; we
must fight illiteracy like the
plague. This delicate poet, who in
appearance is more like scholarly
Frenchman than a Russian, who
HIS the manners and elegance OF
dnother age, has left off compos-
ing sonnets to fight ignorance,
superstition, drunkenness, prelu-
dice, disease, dirt. And he has
been more bitterly attacked than
any other official of the new Rus
sian government.
With practically nothing at his
disposal he had to plan and execute
a vast educational campaign, That
is why his achievements are so
extraordinary. When Feodore
Chaliapin was here last winter,
winning the hearts of America by
his sweet and wonderful voice, he
and I talked a good deal about
Lunacharsky and the difficulties
which confronted him. Remember,
said Chaliapin, ''if you have no
pens and no paper and no ink, you
cannot write; if you have no wood
you cannot make a fire-in Russia
all these things were literally true.
Under such circumstances, no mat
ter how willing the government
might be, art and education must
suffer with the rest"
Eliminated IIliteracy.
/ will not 60 into figures here,
but one can get an idea of what
Lunacharsky has done. He has
practically eliminated adult illit-
eracy from the cities, he has es-
tablished thousands Of schools.
Only a very few Of them, to be
sure, are up to the required mark,
but every school opened is an
achievement. And there is not
single part Of Russia, however, re-
mote or however dark, where a
school has not been started.
But establishing and maintain
ing schools and universities was
only a part of the work allotted to
Lunacharsky. He had to build
new theaters, keep up the standard
of the old and show himself worthy
of that great responsibility Lenin
bestowed upon him when he made
him guardian of all the art treas
ures of Russia.
If Nikolai Lenin had been a
mediocrity, he would never have
appointed Lunacharsky guardian
of the art of Russia, and Russian
art would now be scattered to the
four winds. swallowed up in pri-
vate collections or enriching the
pockets of spectators. A medioc-
rity will not admit his limitations
even if he is aware of them. but
lenin somehow understands that a
man cannot spend his life studying
Rolitical economy and carrying on
revolutionary propaganda, and at
the same time be an art connois-
seur. What is more remarkable is
that he allowed Lunacharsky to
tell him so.
When the Red and White forces
were struggling for the possession
of the Kremlin in 1917, wire to
Petrograd announced that the
beautiful and fantastic church of
Vassili Blazhinie on the Red
Square had been RACED to the
ground. Lunacharsky, poet, schol-
ar, playwright and revolutionist,
as well as friend and follower Of
Lenin, wrote an open letter to the
press in which he gave vent to
his horror He stated: what is
taking place in Moscow is hor-
rible and irreparable misfortunel"
He wrote another letter to Lenin,
renouncing all connection with the
revolution. And he took to his bed,
i'll with shock and disappointment.
Lenin did not accept his resigna-