Evening star., 1928-11-18

10 answer. observers nave pierced tht
Gordon Sanitaire" md have come out
to write of what they saw. Some OF
their answers are unacceptable to oul
ways of thinking. others are made
ridiculous only by every day which finds
the red flag still waving over tn.
Kremlin And the hardest part of it
for capitalist and for sociologist alike
is to explain away the Russian peasant
When the BolShevik party rode into
power in its 10 days." the astute OBJ
servers remarked that it was the peas
aa5 who would ride them out again
when the eXpeditiOnary forces under
Kolchak and Denikin and Wrangel en-
gagged the red army on IS fronts, the
same wise men bet that the peasants
would flock to their standards against
the new uSurperS. When Lenin an
nounced the ~ E. P, it was the cue
for the conclusion that the peasant had
won and that the foolish experiment
was over Finally, when Trotsky and
his extremist followers were expelled
from the party last March, swing to
newspaper headlines. and again the
peasant was credited with ultimate tri-
umph over his deSpoilers. Two weeks
later Stain announced the new rural
tax law. sleeper than any since 1918,
refused to repudiete the forced requi-
eitionS" of last Winter, and the world
missed its guess again.
Western Expectations Upset.
1t is in large part this Russian peas
snt, 125,000000 strong, who has upset
the expectations of the Western world.
The French Revolution was followed by
a chaos of political change fortunate
for the sociologist of revolution in that
it gives an almost unlimited basis for
prediction, but Russia has so far failed
to fit into any of the academic cate
Eories prepared for it. least of all into
that of the Small-landed-propri re-
public that seemed so possible 1t is
IL years since 1917. and the Communist
party still rules Russia. and there is no
peasant uprising. A national economy
IL being executed which openly asserts
the economic and political SubServience
c. the agricultural peasantry to the in
dustrial proletariat. It is hard to tell
whether this oeaSantry is near 80 or
30 per cent of all Russia
In Moscow, in the Office o. the Liaison
Bureau Of NarkorZem, the peoples
cCmmlSSariat for land, 4 hard-faced
Quiet official will point to graphs and
figures on the wall and tell you that
state farming. co-operatives, collectives
and communeS are the reasons. In the
corridor of one of the students dormi-
tories down by the Moscow River there
are any number of thin, shabby young
people with burning eyes who can prove
that Marks labor theory # value ex-
plains it with such an eager conviction
as the JeSuits must have Used with a
simple Paraguayan.
Prof. Williams, brilliant American
egronomical expert, who afie~ lifetime
OF work in Russia, old in years and
broken in health, gave the Russian
newspapers their best news story Of the
Summer by joining the Communist
party. told me Of tractors end fertiliz-
ers, rotation of crops and better stock
breeding. I went out into the south of
Russia and saw these things for week
on week around me, drove a tractor.
rode with boatload Of Sou LII American
sheep coming up the Volga. I walked
for two months on earth SC black that
1t looked like coal dust; I lived with
students in agricultural schools and with
trained experts in a government station
and on state farm of $50 600 acres.
But I was no nearer an adequate un-
derstanding of what it was all about
than before I went to Russia until I
saw and talked and lived with a Rus
sian peasant
Peasant Still Remarkable.
The Slavophils excited Russian polit-
1cal speculation for a half century with
the thesis that the Russian peasant was
an entirely remarkable sort of person
They were outShouted, their theories
are generally forgotten in Russia or
else laughed at, but the peasant remains
TO Westerner a highly remarkable
person. He is as unlike anything in
America or Western Europe as Rus
sian village, huddled-up thatt he'd houses
with massive stucco church set in the
middle Of vast expanse OF miles and
miles OF fields and meadowland. is un-
ike neatly parceled New England val
ley or plain of scattered, red-tiled
houses in Normandy. One can observe
nm, talk to him, even measure him.
and this is all being done for the first
time, without appreciating the differ
ence. This difference may perhaps con-
slSt In the fact that he is alive. in a
social sense, for the first time in CEN
turies
On one state farm in the Volga re-
glon, near Saratov a producers, meet
ing is held every evening A producers
meeting is not, as one might suppose. a
ritual; it is business. The hard boiled
farm manager, straight-built young
peasants son. with a commanding.
1roSV-pltten quality OF face, sits at one
eno OF table and plans the next DAVIS
work. There are 100 oxen, 80 tractors
ana 10 horses to be used tomorrow.
1naTe are so many men, So many Wom-
en- and SO many farm hands. On the
other side of his ledger there is rye to
be harvested, perhaps 800 acres; there
are three steam threShing machines to
be tuned up and put into working con-
clifton; there are pigs to be herded and
orlVen 10 miles away to another part of
the farm This work must be planned:
Lnere must be no waste OF effort nor of
opportunity
Opposite him sit the other important
people IN the room, the peasants who
are chosen by the farm workers to rep
resent Their interests in this planning
session that goes on every night. There
are otherS IN the room, but they do not
seem TO count. The neat little book
keeper, a discreet, unpretentious man.
VINO writes with a medieval script the
managers S curt. brutal notices sits at
a taple facing his assistant, a bearded
German from Riga, who is like any old
retainer of an institution big enough
10 gather barnacles. They are parts of
the room, like the tiny little French
CLOCK on the wall, its intricately twisted
pehdQium the only symbol of all that
was mere before, or like the huge red
banner in the corner. its fraterna. in
Scrlptlon from the workers Of Saratol
hidden by the lottery announcements
and advertisements pinned upon it.
The peasants key the room. They
sit there, stolid and immovable, patient
tired, tremendous. Long hair. tai
leather boots, blue eyes and red, rec
cheeks under their boards, they smoke
cigarettes which they roll deftly out Of
newspaper. Their faces are young
childish, and yet 50 quiet that one grow.
nervous watching them The swine.
herd on one end is perfect Byzantine
His hair Gfoops to the sides from un.
der the visor Of his cap, his mustaches