Evening star., 1931-06-16
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
1. c. M.

LENIN. ny d. s. Mirsky. Boston: Lit
tie. Brown q Co.
The hermit kingdom" concrete of
certain political theory and government
policy, belongs definitely to the past.
Vice seas no longer otter the isolation
tainS no longer stand guard against In
tfuslon upon cherished privacy. The
modern miracle Of the air has bridged
the waters and leyeled the heights,
knitting the wide world into q system
OF almost instant communication and
revelation. Political shut-ins are clearly
obsolete.
Not so, however, in the domain Of the
mind. The case Is far otherwise here.
Individual hermit kingdoms" are still
2 commonplace in this realm, where
doors close, seemingly Of their own ac-
cord. against Whatever is new, unfa-
miliar strange. Bad, indeed. this. in
the long run, for the personal "king-
dom" itself. Fatal, nothing less in the
long run, for the quality and force of
that huge bulk Of public opinion"
which actually makes democratic gov
ernments like our own. Which un-
makes them, too-unless the hidden
Kingdom OF the great average mind con-
sents TO open up as old Korea and 9TH
ers OF that earlier exclusive order were
finally constrained to do.
1t Is q daunting business, especially
today, this trying to know more, which
Is the obligatory Job now facing every
one. Daunting. because modern move
ments are so great so complex. Be-
cause vital changes come and 60 so
swiftly to make way for still more vital
ones. Daunting, because there are, yet,
only. the same number Of hours in the
day with which to meet the herculean
task Of knowing more" There must
be more reading more studying. a
prompter loosening up Of the mind,
reader seizure OF facts in their own
essence, in their own relationships and
conclusions. All this, to take the place
OF that common practice of Inulling
momentous things around in our own
prepossessions and prejudices and un-
information-of making this futile
process the substance and support of
what is grayely dubbed my opinion"
on any subject under the sun.
Time TO open up the hidden kingdom
Of the mind. Time to find out some-
thing about almost any immediate mat
ter Of Importance. And suppose we be-
gin with one Of the two events that will
forever marx the early years Of the
twentieth century as pivotal points in
world history.
Capitalism, socialism, communism,
bolsheviSm. This in rsugh accounting,
shows the ordered registration of that
fundamental discomfort of the many
over the inequalities of condition exist
ing among men. Regardless Of the in
finite variety in personal capacity with
ffe ~ aud
these at the bottom expend what there
is Of themselves in dull resentment or
in such flares Of activity as futile hatred
suggests. The poor against the rich.
The many against the few. An old
story. Old as the world.
This succession of 'isms" embodies
the theories Of amelioration, varying
theories, which have been projected
from vast amount Of study and hope
toward practice has been sporsdi es-
sentially unorganized, and without pa
litical authority or promise. All. save
the last. Bolshevism crossed the Rubi-
con of speculation into the land OF
actual ordeal and trial. The heart Of
bclshevism, that which sets it off from
those other budgets of social and politi-
cal reform. Is ''the will to revolution
In plain speaking it Is the will to stop
lSbGIiklk 70 lOIlk bdlhS 1EOIIl LkiC b~P
To do something instead. To lift from
its crouching. as one man. the huge and
irresistible bulk of Russian peasantry
and poverty and degradation. For this
mass to stand up all at once, upon its
feet. And just to see what would
happen to that thin scum Of authority
of autocracy. ct the top. Just try It.
Do the thing. And it was done. Lenin
did it. -
Lenin brought bolshevism into the
world in 1908 A baby in the cradle
vet. just born indeed, as the life CT ma.
tions counts. A gargantuan child, OF
strange behaviors, upon whom the
whole world is looking with interest and
some concern. However. nation. like
man, must accept the discipline CT
life. or submit to it. Russia Is no ex-
ception. A hundred years in this par
ticular experiment Of proletariat rule
will pass as an hour Of the night. to
this struggling and unframed country.
And at the end OF its first real school
ing 1t will be something so different
from its present form and claim that
recognition of its obstreperous baby
hood will be impossible. and undesirable.
All that is far away. Let US take the
chances being offered so freely right
now to find out, a little at least, OF one
CT another Of the prime movers in this
wondrous and problematical new day
for Russia.
Here opportunity for US comes in
life of Lenin, founder Of bolshevism.
No, not the first one to appear, per-
haps not the second. Yet. special cir
cumstances make claim here that have
not, so far, been so clearly registered.
The author, D. s. Mirsky, is himself a
Russian. Compact Of the soil of that
country through long ancestral lines,
reared within its own ways OF life, mott
waited throughout his youth by its own
outlook and national ambitions. A Rus
sian Of the privileged class, of the IA
yored ones IN that huge autocracy. A
distinct advantage in the study OF Rus
sian character and Russian politics,
provided only that the writer is strict
ly unbiased onlooker where his country
Is, from the standpoint Of his order.
being annihilated, being sacrificed TO
alien principles of equality and democ-
racy. The fair observation o. this man
and his dispassionate judgment cannot
be challenged.
Gradually, under his good insight and
excellent appraisals, through his inter-
esting narrative power as well, there
emerges from the unimpreSsive outer
Lenin the man Of achievement. The
one who to the future will stand to-
ward Russia as certain other great fg-
ures stand in historic judgment toward
other countries and other great human
problems. This, whether the present
experiment move forward or sink into
apparent failure. For. in either case, it
is human movement as natural and
inevitable as was the slow rise of man
himself out Of the slime of forgotten
ages. And fer this stage of Russian
history. Lenin Is the chief leader
But Mr.. Mirsky's book does not say
this Instead II follows the manifest