The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-19
By MAXIM GORKI.

TRANSLATED by IhaddeuS KadWanSkl.
in the past two or three years the
writer has with increasing fire.
quency heard remarks from the rank
and file workers scattered over the
immense territory of the Soviet
Union, the general sense of which
can be summed up in the following
phrase: eve are toiling in vain:
rushing around. and accomplish
ing nothing"
In my judgment, statements of
this character are the result of
n.eagre and limited knowledge Of
the realities of the situation; the re-
suit of an insufficiently broad, and
therefore, an incorrect estimation of
the whole stream of creative work
which has been done and is being
done by those very rank and file
workers who complain that they are
accomplishing nothing"
Only on rare occasions can these
complaints be understood as an ex-
preston of WEAKNESS; for the most
part they express the disproportion
between what an active human being
wants to do, and the little, compare
lively speaking, he actually accom-
llishes. Few understand that the
'little" accomplished during the
short period of six years, appears
little" only in comparison with the
colossal tasks which the workers
and peasants government has set for
itself; but essentially. as the first
steps in the direction of the great
goal, this "little" represents solid
foundation for the new state-a
foundation laid so deep that it is
difficult to conceive of any force
capable of blasting it. This stipend
Gus, although still sketchy achieve
ment, ought not to cause an attitude
Of depression. Such feeling does
exist, however, and seems to be
growing.
1t is quite evident that its growth
is fostered by a whole series of very
important causes, which hamper the
greater success, of creative work.
For example, the base hatred of the
international bourgeoisie against the
nation that refuses to slave for them
also contributes to the growth of
this depression; the general condi-
tions Of life and work Of an, active
Soviet worker, all the trash and rub
bish, all the dust, unavoidable at
the destruction of the things of the
past, familiar and beloved TO many,
the muddiness of the social soil ere
ated through ages by the petty-bour-
geoisie of the world that was.
THIS enormous mass of age-old
dust, hanging over life like gray
cloud, prevents many of the build
crs of the new state from seeing
clearly their own virile and heroic
work. Moreover, there are quite a
number Of people whom / may call
professional spectators; they APP
prehend life exclusively with their
eyes, it represents for them merely
a spectacle and not creative proc
ess. Among this class of humanity
I reckon those "genere-writers" who
write more or less lovingly and zeal
ously of the invincibility of the old
standards, and how man is sucked
down into their muddy depths. For
them the trivial dust of life appears
cosmic, and they are unable to pierce
through it's veil and see the new
man or the work that he is accom-
plishing. There are also those peo-
pie who are eager to enjoy the feast
days of life without sharing in the
hard drudgery of its week days. Such
people, among whom there are quite
a number of the electromagnetic
temporarily niasqueraoing as Com
munists," such people, eagerly point
ing out the untidiness and disorder
Of the stormy torrent of life, obscure
the clear working day with the trash
Of their critical maunderings, with
their alarmist clamor and paniclSy
whisperings. All this thickens the