Evening star., 1931-12-20
Reckless Experiments Impair Schools
In Russia's War Against Illiteracy
Continued From Third Page

Continued From Third Page
III Of the Soviet educational system.
Consider facts like these:
In 1923 the Soviet government ban
ished wholesale several hundred uni
versity professors, sending them abroad,
without the right of ever returning
to the Soviet Union" That was done
not because the professors were guilty
Of any 'counter-revoMtiona activ-
ties in that case. they would have
landed in the hands of the o. G. P. u,
the Secret Police. and not abroad. but
merely because they were suspected Of
mot sylnpathizing with the Soviet re-
Glme"
Still worse, last Winter the Soviets
smashed at one stroke the Russian
Academy of Sciences i'll Leningrad-an
institution in which. since the eight
eenth century. RuSsias best scientists
and scholars have assembled. Some
one discovered in its building the Shoul-
der straps of grand duke long since
deadl and a few documents Of the
CzariSt Secret Police about whose
presence the academicians had never
notified the Soviet government tappar-
emily In the confusion of 1917 they
were dumped there by some one and
forgotten.
Grand -ducal shoulder straps are
hardly sufficient to start a counter
revolution" with vet. in most brutal
invectives the Soviet press branded
the academy as den OF old reaction
aries. An investigation was carried
on, over l20 aCademicians were ex-
PEELED. among them some of the most
outstanding Russian historians Of our
age. Some were tried and condemned
to prison terms.
Brutality More Frequent.
Such cases of brutality have become
especially frequent since 1929. when A.
LunacharSky, who had held the post
of the commiSSar Of education for
twelve years, was replaced by A Bub-
nov A superlatively bad but ambitious
poet, Lunacharsky at the same time
was a soft and kind man who often
tried-most unSucceSsfully-to miti
gate the policy Of his radical comrades
His successor, Bubnov, formerly served
in the Commissariat of War; and he
has fully trsnsplanted into the educa-
tional domain all Of its brutal, soldlerly
methods,
Such is the negative side of the
balance sheet Of the Soviet educational
system
In order to understand the underly-
Ing cause of this claShing contrast be-
tween it's constructive and the destruc-
tive sides. one has to bear in mind that
communism. which, of course, is the
alter ego of the Soviet government, is
not merely political or economic
doctrine: it is in the literal sense OF
the word. materialistic religion with
sacred dogmaS, morals and philosophy
Of life all its own.
Take the attitude Of Communists
toward science. Ideologists of COM
munism do not recognize the freedom
of scientific thought. Pure, impartial
science does not exist; like anything
else it is bound to be either bourgeois
or prOletarian IS the official
formula. And the Soviet government
encourages energetically the subordina-
ton of scientific discipline, from neuro-
logy to astronomy, to the Marxist and
feminist method.
How can there be MarXist or un-
Marxist astronomy or mathematics?
With the irritation Of fanatics, Com
muniSts answer that such sciences can
and will be Marxist, although the
Marxist thought has not yet worked
them out" Moreover, they add, in
order to have a right to exist, scientific
disciplines must harmonic with the
teachings of Marx and Lenin.' In
other words, Marx and Lenin are the
Scriptures-all the truth lies therein.
. All this is being preached in
earnest by such leaders of Communist
thought. More than one eminent Rus
sian scholar and scientist has paid
heavy price for raising his voice against
this pitiful obscurantism.
Scientific Roll Lost.
Small wonder that Russia has lost
its former role as a notable scientific
center. Only comparatively few sci
entists and professors have embraced
Communism and thus become men,
bers of the privileged order. The ma
jority, who have not, are a much-suf-
fering lot. Having to blame this or
that mistake on some one the Soviet
government from time to time. shoots
few of them as "sabotaging technical
experts" tor, besides their usual work,
they often are employed as experts for
various governmental institutions). Be-
sides, as men inherited from the old
regime" they always were looked at
With suspicion (as the case OF the
aca6emy proves.
q rule, IN the place Of the old