The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1930-01-03
MOSCOW LETTER
By EUGENE LYONS

Oy GONE1NE LII O1NO
United Press Staff Correspondent.
Moscow.-The worlds strangest
parliament-the central executive
committee of the Soviet Union,
known more briefly by its initials
as the All-Union ZIK-is in session
in the main ball room of the great
palace in the Kremlin as these
lines are written.
Some 500 men and women, OLD
and young, drawn from all sections
of this vast land and from all
groups in its patchwork of races
and cultures, are packed close on
straight wooden benches where
once there was imperial brilliance.
Even after IL years they look a
little like intruders and some of
them-perhaps they are in a large
city for the first time in their lives
seem absolutely scared.
Huge square pillars of white
marble, thickly embellished with
gold work, grow ito a richly in
laid vaulted roof of white and gold.
Immense clusters of light set all
the ornaments of the ball room "a
blaze. But from each of the pillars
protrudes two large black radio
horns to carry the voice of speak
ers on the high rostrum built a.
cross the front end of the chamber.
The portrait of Lenin smiles down
upon the gathering over the ros-
trum and far off on the opposite
wall is the severe fact of Karl
Marx.
Strange, unique-these words do
not begin to convey the flavor of
this extraordinary governmental
body. It's every meeting is a new
shock to the foreign observer, tho
he may have lived here for years.
Inevitably he calls to mind the
starched dignity of an American
Senate, the German Reichstag, the
House of Commons-the sense of
social eminence, worldly success,
sartorial responsibility of national
legislative gatherings in the be-
nighted capitalist world.
Inevitably he compares it with
the assembly in the Kremlin. From
the space fenced off on one side
for journalists diplomats and 9TH
er guests, he looks out upon the
huddled mass of Soviet parliament
tarians. Rough-hewn faces of mer
and women from the mills anc
fields. Faces ingrained with soot
and CRIME. Stolid expressionles'
faces of peasant women framed il
cotton head-kerchiefs. Beturbanet
| grey bearded faces from the Ash
| attic deserts. Monaghan faces from
northern Siberia. Scarcely ANYONE
has bothered 10 shave for the grea
occasion and men rub the thicl
stubble meditatively as Kalinil
calls the session to order.
Il A peasant woman, dull-eyed an'
rather scared, tries 10 follow Ry
kov's exposition of the plans TO
industrializing the land. She rep
resents perhaps 100000 peasant
: like herself. Rykov speaks simpl
forcefully, like a first-rate schoc
teacher. But the effort is too muc
D for this legislator. Interest lag
and dies and her strained expires
!, sion relaxes. She takes out pc
i knife, pares her nails, smiling hal
e PLY, just as Rykov unrolls a fe'
7 more billiard rubles' worth Q
e plans.
Two youthful parliamentarianl
boy and girl, thinking themselve
e unobserved, hold hands and loo
u into each others eyes, for all tn
S world as though they were in
movie theatre, as the intricacies
s the agrarian policy are being e.
e pounded.
d But it is not fair to the xix
( single out individuals here an
% there. In its entirety the gatherin
II is extremely impressive. The ind
q vidual delegates may have difficu
e. ty in understanding; some obv
ously do not try to follow Il
1 speakers too closely. But the a
az sembly as a whole does follow ar
at does understand.