Evening star., 1929-10-06
COMMUNIST TELLS
OF RUSSIAN VISIT
Observations DisiIIu sion
Frenchman After Stay
of 18 Months.
BY PAUL MARION.

eieht years an outstanding figure in the
French Communist party and chief Of
the political agitation and propaganda
section. tells Of his disillusionment after
IS months in Soviet Russia.
PARIS, October (NAN.A).-A
French Communist making ready for
his first journey to the United States
of Soviet Russia is always moved by a
sense OF deep enthusiasm mingled with
feelings of curiosity. It should not be
to find in Russia a form of promised
land where communism has come into
its own.
The naive mysticism of the pilgrims
of 1919 and 1920 has fallen to the
ground. For long time the militant
Communist has known both by what
the bolshevistS have written and by
what he has had to admit as truthful
in the criticisms of their adversaries
that the Soviet regime has not got be-
yond the period of socialistic construc-
ton. And he knows that this regime
is struggling in sea Of immense eco
nomic and political difficulties.
The Frenchman, however, strongly
believes that a better kind of social
state is rising in Russia along two
great parallel roads, the first being the
development of socialized industry axd
Of agriculture that industry is leading
with it toward collective forms of activ-
ity: and the second the fact that the
bulk of the workmen and of the
peasants and the greater proportion of
the technical and intellectual employees
are taking an increasingly active share
in the bolsheViSt regime and conSe-
Quently in the movement toward pure
socialism.
The French Socialist knows, too, that
the dictatorship of the proletariat holds
good in the United States of Soviet
Russia, but he thinks that this dicta-
torship is based on the support of the
great majority of the population and
is only opposed to the belated represent
atives of the former regime, the net
men. the small bourgeois of towns. the
well-to-do peasants. etc. He believes
that the dictatorship of the proletariat
identifies itself completely with Soviet
democracy, which he considers the only
real democracy.
Arrives With Delegations.
It must be recognized that at the
moment of his arrival and for a month
afterward, or even longer If he does not
learn Russian and does not stray be-
yond the Communist circles our pilgrim
delegate is not deceived.
arrived in Russia in November,
1927. with a large number of labor
delegations invited to see with their own
eyes the progress accomplished after 10
years of revolution, and for some weeks
7 lived through hours Of Joy, happiness
and enthusiasm.
At the station in Moscow each group
Of newcomers was received by crowd
Of Russian workmen with prolonged
cheering. Speeches expressive Of the
warmeSt welcome were exchanged,
broken by more cheering.
What did 1t matter to us later. after
we had driven away in motor cars with
the cheers still In our ears, that the
walters at the hotel where we were
staying seemed to embody misery and
servility. found out afterward that
they received $32 month.
Thereafter an extraordinary life
opened before us. Every day without
a minutes respite We visited, under the
leadership Of women interpreters, who.
I must confess, were extremely friendly
and obliginR, factories. clubs, chtldrens
institutions, houses Of rest, Sanator1a,
schools, public establishments, barracks
and even prisons.
Later I learned that unSind and
critical tongues used to describe these
enormous rounds as tours OF the Little
Red Cook. Agency. We ourselves. now
ever, In those days were far from en-
OCI tdl1141S oAN4A NAoA SoPSSS~NA
Excellent Impressions.
At the "Ano" Motor Works Zone Of
the five or six factories in Moscow
equipped according to European stand
ards) we lived through moment OF
emotion when an old.
workman who could speak
a little French said to us. pointing to
the walls, the furnaces, the machines
fAOlc fhof living ohnIlt'
Thanks to the october revolution
all this belongs to us. and we are
working twice as hard as in the time
of the bourgeois. Look: here are the
bonds in the industrial loan that l
have Just bought. All my comrades
have invested in the loan, too, because
we want to develop our industry. We
rely on you to defend our conquestS."
Wherever we went the impressions
lent I did not know then that our
tour had been carefully regulated,
planned out and prepared, and what
efforts and stage managing the recep-
ton of foreigners involved in any
establishment. Children in kindergar-
tens and schools, men and women in
factories, sick people in hospitals, SOL
diers in their barracks and even pris-
oners in their gaols all seemed de-
lighted to live in the gentle Russia of
the Soviets 10 years after the revolu-
ton of october.
1 have retained vivid mental pic
lures of the visit. Here is one of them.
French delegates were visiting a huge
building called THE House of the Peas
ant" Suddenly they came into an
enormous hall. Some real Russian
peasants we're there, of whom, it, ap-
peared, 500 were lodged from week to
week In the building. They were read
ing or having read to them technical
and agricultural newspapers and maga-
zines.
In a corner an old, bearded
moujik was looking at pictures of
model farms and of modern plows. He
was listening with the greatest atten-
ton to a civil servant, who was ex-
planning the working of these plows
Our interpreter joined in the conversa-
ton, and then, turning to us, said:
You see that man; he Is a delegate
from his village cooperative society.
He is going to order several Of these
plows, and the necessary credits for
the purchase will be allowed him."
Another Illustration.
Another picture: An industrial in
surance office. officials were receiving
in the friendliest spirit workmen come
to draw various sums of money. A
dressed woman approached
one Of the paying-out windows. She
had papers in her hand and spoke to
an employe. We asked what the mat
ter was, and our interpreter, after
speaking to the employe and looking
at a book the latter had shown her,
said to us enthusiastically, waving the
book In the air, This woman has
come to draw money due her husband,
who was injured in his employment.
He was hurt only fortnight ago, and
his compensation has already been set
tied. Our struggle against bureaucracy
is really giving splendid results"
In the Moscow Soviet, in an immense
hall, representatives of factories, shops