The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-09-15
TOLSTOY----A REBEL
ARTIST OUT OF PAST

words seems to be in direct contact
with the lives of the people he pic
lures. Living through his sentences,
you can see the pleasure-seeking
nobleman, the more serious, crop
ing, questioning, self-distrustful man
Of leisure, wandering through life
without purpose or aim. There is
the peasant, toiling, living his
simple life interspersed with sins
and momentary pleasures, the ar
my officer, the countess, the love-
lorn aristocrat moving unalterably
towards her doom. Always the
troubles and problems of the mas
ses, their toiling life used every
where as a backdrop to the aimless
life of the nobility. The petty of
ficials, the bureaucrats, that drab
curtain of the mind-the church,
the oppressive hand of the czarist
regime; his was a complete and
realistic picture of the Russia of
the czars. His view was wide, I'M
derstanding, sympathetic, filled with
social content.
Tolstoy stands as a great man
of the past, a heritage of czarist
Russia to the masses of the Soviet
Union.
II.
A new spirit prevails in Tolstoy's
Aland today. The centenary of the
birth of one of old Russia's greatest
novelists sees a workers and peas
ants government in power, the eyes
of the working masses turned in the
direction of a new ideal, the con-
centrated energy Of its best men
directed towards the construction of
a Classics and just society Czarist
Russia has died. A new society and
culture has taken its place.
Tolstoy himself said that the mas
ses understand good art, that no
training is needed to understand
it. And the Russian masses have
understood this master out of the
past, in whose works are incorpor-
ated so much of their own expert
ences and suffering. The workers
and peasants government has de-
voted the entire week to the celebra-
ton of the hundreth year of Toll
stoy's life.
The Tolstoy jubilee committee has
been working on the centenary cele-
bration for the last few years. The
celebration which has taken place
in the Soviet Union during the last
week is symptomatic of the spirit |
of the new society. Throughout the
land the masses attended meetings |
and special performances where his
life and work were described and
some of his plays shown. The sig
nificance of Tolstoy the artist and
Tolstoy the man was discussed and
clarified. For on both scores, to a |
great extent, does Tolstoy belong
to the masses Of the Soviet Union.
AS social rebel, denouncing the
society of classes and it's oppression
of the laboring masses; as a great |
writer, one of the best of the old
Russia. And the Soviet Union, con-
trary to the belief of its enemies
and the viciously inacculate writer
in last Sundays New York Times,
has not destroyed or renounced all
that belonged to its ancestor. 1t
has destroyed what is bad out of the
old Russia and taken the good for
its own use. That is always the
privilege of a new society, and it
can accomplish great things by a
rational and good choice.
This celebration has not simply
used the birth of Tolstoy to honor
dead statue, but has used it to
educate the masses, to further in
still the impetus for constructive
work in the building of a socialist
state. What greater honor could
have been given to Tolstoy than to
build a modern school dedicated to
him in his village of Yasnaya Poly |
ana, where children born in a new
state will be trained in the princip-
les of Communism. Or the building
of modern hospital and clinic to
look after the health of the peas
ants in that vicinity where he wrote
his novels. What could be more
symptomatic than this honoring of
a great novelist of Russia's past, of
the unbreakable impetus to push
ahead, to educate, to build a thriv-
ing and healthy culture on the basis
of healthy social organization.
Enemies of the Soviet Union
abound There is a hostile capital
list world. But the Soviet Union
uses its heritages of the past, Gre
ates new means, patiently continues
it constructive work, carries on its