Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-25

it was merely question of time and
gradual change before ordinary living
would be at least approximately as COM
Portable as elsewhere In Europe.
Many explanations are given for this
state Of things to which. doubtless, a
variety OF causes contribute. Last year 3
crop was bad. The dear old peasant,
blamed for so much since 1917, Is eat
ing too much! Population is increasing
as only Russian populations can. The
government Is raking and scraping to-
gether everything 1t can lay its hands
on for export in order to build up the
credits for indispensable imports-raw
cotton, for instance-and provide the
necessary millions for carrying out the
grandoise industrial projects included
in the much talked-of "6ve-year-plan."
Still another factor is the falling of
In production due to the PEASANTS fall
ure to plant, as result of the govern
ment's increasing exactions against
those peasants who are more success
full than their neighbors-a reaction,
amounting almost to an unconscious
strike" which recalls the similar stu
alton in the early days of the revolu-
ton.
Swing to Left Seen.
And this brings us to another side Of
this increased difficulty in ordinary liv-
ing-the heightened tension and recru-
descence of fear which burdens the
present-day air. There has been, It
would appear. after many words and
much bewilderment In the minds OF
distant spectators, definite swing to
the left"
During the Stain Trotsky Eight it
seemed to those who had only the pub
lished words of the principals to Judge
from that Stain stood for a certain
amount of expedient compromise with
the rest of the world, while Trotsky
was holding out for simon-pure Boil
shevik orthodoxy, which made the poor
est peasants the norm down to which
their more capable neighbors were to
be pounded, while the world revolu-
ton was TO go on more or less forever,
if 1t took the last Russian.
One is told by we'll informed observ-
ers here that the fight was so per cent
personal, and that Trotsky took the
line he did largely because the battle
had to be fought on some sort of ideo-
logical basis, and he took the only pro-
gram available. However that may be,
once Trotsky was disposed Of Stain
seems to have taken over the opposi-
tons program, to such an extent. at
least. that when Radek and his asso-
ciates crept back into the fold few
weeks ago. they explained. not without
a characteristic sardonic humor, that
there was every reason for their SO
doing. inasmuch as all theological basis
for difference ct opinion had disap-
peared!
Socialism in Villages Sought
This swing to the "left'-the oppo-
site of what seemed to be happening in
1923-however much it may be q mat
ter of preference on the part Of the
present leaders, is undoubtedly forced
on them to some extent. The instinc-
tive forces of private initiative are 50
much stronger than the instructive
forces toward collectivism that if Com
munism is to be realized in any real
sense the former must necessarily from
time to time be artificially and agrees
sively checked.
The main theoretical objective at
present las distinguished from the con-
crete campaign of industrialization
which occupies the attention Of most
visitors from abroad is to carry Social
ism to the village: to stamp out private
enterprise as effectually there as it was
stamped out in the towns before the
days of the "EEP.'
This campaign takes various forms.
Huge grain factories" of which one at
least is already delivering its crop, are
to be eveloped-immense farms. run
just as if they were factories, with q
central management. telephones, trac-
tors, etc. and the farm laborers en-
tories" will raise nothing but grain and
rot attempt to be homes. Then there
are the collective farms" consisting of
group of normal peasant homes, CEN
tered around communal barns, storage
sheds. and so on, which will turn over
to the state an agreed-on percentage Of
the crop in return for loans of money
and tractors. tested seeds, expert advice.
The "kulaks" tfists) of more pros
porous farmers. and sometimes even the
middle" peasants. are being pounded
meanwhile with forced acquisitions and
taxes laid not only on what they visibly
own but on what the tax collectors SUBJ
Jectively feel they may have kept out
OF sight. This latter sort of tax laying
offers a wide and varied opportunity for
utilizing petty jealousies and setting one
section OF the village against the other,
and while I have seen nothing of it,
and indeed have had no chance this
time to get down into the deep country
at all. one gathers from those who have
that the atmosphere in many neighbor-
hoods is far from what could be de-
scribed as healthy or normal.
The petty general combings and
qualifications" which have taken place
during the last year or so and deprived
thousands of unoffending people of
work, and in large number of cases of
their political rights-which includes the
right to join labor unions and thus to
make use of the cheaper government
StnrnS-hoNo hFOIlnhf liefrare - ~
who were at least contriving to get
along, and uneasiness and uncertainty
to all who, whatever their willingness
to work, accept the present and loyalty
play the game, are, nevertheless. de-
scended from the former propertied
class.
Arrests and perquisitions, deporta-
lions to more or less remote parts of the
union, are, indeed so frequent and so
senseless that the neutral observer,
trying to figure out what it is all about,
sometimes wonders whether these &C
tivities are really the result OF orders
from or suspicious of those at the top,
or whether the secret police has not
perhaps been developed to such a top
heavy extent that, like many other or
CARNATIONS in a similar role, it feels
that 1t must keep doing something in
order to justify its own existence.
Cake and Wine for Parties.
write all the above with reluctance,
knowing how easily people at distance
believe the worst about Russia and how
little they realize how much of every
day human life-in Russia as In any
other country-goes on as usual, what
ever the politics or the behavior Of the
government. The Summer sun still
shines. the swimming is good, the Rus
sian countryside is just as wistfully
charming as ever, young people fall in
love, babies sleep peacefully in the parks,
and when somebody's names day"
comes along the Russian contrives, as
only Russians can, to get together cakes
and sweets, and even wine, although
mere bread may be scarce the day after