The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-02-24
RUSSIA RISING FROM PIT
MiSeries of Serfdom Are, Vanishing

scribably horrible Lighthouses" a
few of which still we're extant
when I arrived.
The rest crowded into horrible
holes, which gradually, because of
lack Of means, now are being re-
placed by modern living quarters
They were worked inhuman
hours, underpaid. beaten and de-
nOerately KEEP in ignorance.
TINE outside world was aware
4 Of Russia only through its
highly developed class of cultured
writer's, musicians, artists.
1t could have no real concep-
ton of how primitive were Rus
Sia's teeming millions of people.
In areas as large as France or
Germany, millions lived as in the
middle ages, scratching the
ground with sticks, dinly if at
all aware of such things as news
papers, locomotives, iron plows;
millions who did not dare to
aspire to pair of real boots.
AS late as 1917 peasants were
won and lost by their landlords
IN card games.
And above this mass was a rul-
ing class whose chief concern was
to prevent it from stirring into
revolt.
The nagaika, a whip, the
strands of which are weighted
with lead, was. the symbol of gov
eminent.
TINE contrasts between spend
Il thrift luxury and the misery
below were more startling than
anywhere in the world.
One still hears tales of orgies
in Moscow and st. Petersburg
which sound like inventions of
Edgar Allan Poe.
Such IS the primordial state
from which Russia seeks to lift
itself. Such is the human ma
terial upon which advanced eco
nomic and social ideas are being
tested.
This is the background of the
five-year plan, which, contrary to
popular supposition, is not merely
an economic project.
1t emissions changes in peoples
ways of life, in literacy, housing,
education, as far-reaching as in
industry.
The past still is to be met with
everywhere. But there is'a ire
mendous amount that is new.
Village libraries, hospitals,
schools, clubs, radios, workers
recreation centers and night
schools, are not calculated to i'm
press an American. Only when
considered against the background
or Russia's past do they seem like
miracles.
TITO construct a vast industry
l. in a backward feudal land,
and to do so with little or no
foreign capital, would seem in
itself task to frighten any gov
eminent.
The Soviets in addition must
teach millions to read and write
and live in approximately civilized
fashion.
They must modernize and So
cialize a gigantic agriculture.
In brief, they must crowd into a
few decades changes which in
other countries were spread over
centuries.
To measure Russian with west
European or American yardsticks
is, therefore, futile. Without an
appreciation of its heritage from
czardom, any judgment on what
is transpiring here becomes mere
gibberish.
IRON the standpoint of the
4 Communists the backward
ness of the population is not en-
tlrely a negative factor. 1t has
provided them with human ma
terial that is cheap, plentiful,
meek, childishly credulous, with
profound fear Of the class which
holds the whip.
But in the practical jobs of
building industry, of regimenting
labor forces and organizing new
social institutions, the new regime
struggles against inertia and
ignorance carried over from the
past.
To any one who knows the
typical Russian Of the pre-
revolutionary epoch, oxlike, but
slow and dawdling in his labor,
with tendency to postpone and
shrug his shoulders, it is con-
slant marvel that so much is being
accomplished.