Evening star., 1932-11-06
Fifteen Years of Red Russia.

cOmpletlOn OF n1teen years OF SOVIET
Russia. Throughout the Union of So
cialist Republics" preparations have
been made to celebrate the event with
appropriate ceremonies. For the most
part these festivities will center about
tangible monuments of accomplishment,
most of them completed during the past
few years. These include new school
houses and educational and scientific
institutions; the great concrete crescent
of the Dnieprostroy DAM the huge new
productive plants. number of them
like the great steel ganglia of Magni-
togorsk and Kuznetsk, rearing their
throbbing bulks in places where, few
years back, the winds Of the steppe
blew across wilderness: the new so
cialist cities" sprung up with their
homes and parks and boulevards where
formerly stretched the open plain; the
towering silos of the collective farms,
and the long lines Of tractors streaming
over the farmland.
1t is a pretty picture of apparent
progress and regeneration that the
Bolshevik masters Of Russia paint after
a decade and a half Of autocratic con-
troll of vast area approximately one
seventh of the earth's surface, with
upward of one hundred and fifty mil
lion inhabitants. The continuity OF
control by the Communist party, as
compared with the endless succession Of
cabinets, administrations and rulers in
other lands, is often misinterpreted as
proof of unusual political stability in
an unstable world 1t Is proof of some
thing, but not Of the virtue invoked
by Soviet supporters. 1t has been
achieved by a terrorism and sup
preston of fundamental liberties that
have few parallels In recorded history
The price has been heavy and the mil
lions who have suffered most at the
hands of their own rulers are by a
tragic irony obliged to listen in silence
to the panegyrics broadcast by monop-
olized governmental press. This ability
to present favorable report to poorly
informed world is one of the most sub
stantial achievements of the Bolshevik
dictatorship BY the same token, 1t Is
a source Of wonderment to those con-
versant with actual conditions that
these fantastic claims should be &C
cepted at face value.
But there are certain facts which
speak in defiance of censorship. The
recent expulsion of some two dozen
prominent members of the Communist
party, including Zinoviev and Kama
nev, revealed an internal dissension at
complete variance with the public pro-
testations Of unity and triumphant
achievement These old-line revolution
lists were silenced, in the Soviet style,
because they warned Stain Of the fail
ure of collectivization and the dangers
attaching to continued oppression OF
the peasantry. Bolshevik liberalism is
an article for export only-springes to
catch bourgeois woodcocks. And no
mention is made of the eight hundred
additional members who were lately
expelled for similar reasons.
That the five-year plan has broken
down is matter of public knowledge,
admitted even by friendly observers OF
the Russian scene. The array of COM
pleted plants and factories standing
idle and unproductive is menacing and
impressive Others, built IN inacces-
sible wildernesses, await the arrival OF
non-existent supplies. Workers engage
in endless conferences, while machinery
rusts and deteriorates. The railroads
are in hopeless muddle. and wrecks,
resulting in appalling casualties, are
frequent. The hapless engineer, if he
survives, is usually shot. Official re-
ports list idle factories under the cap
ton, Withdrawn from use for national
conservation" The ruble-par value.
fifty-one cents-is worth about three
cents in Moscow and less than two
cents in the Ukraine In its dire need
of sound money, the government has
been obliged to open shops in Moscow,
where Soviet currency is not accepted
and supplies may be purchased only for
foreign exchange, notably American
dollars This is probably the only
known instance of government dis
eliminating against its own currency.
Americas foremost authority on the
Soviet adventure, the Rev. DR.. Ed
mund A. Walsh Of Georgetown Uni
versity was recently asked his opinion
of the probable longevity Of the bol-
shevist system. He replied:
The very warmth of bolshevik propa-
ganda at this or any time is
fair index of the proportionate seri-
business of affairs behind the scenes.
That is a phenomenon well known
to experienced observers and stu
dents of the Soviet state. Russia is
probably the only land that can con-
tinue indefinitely in state Of chronic
crisis and the Russian people the only
race capable Of enduring such pro-
longed oppression. They outlived the
Mongolian invaders and survived the
twenty-nine years Of chaos called "The
Times of Trouble; they survived Ivan
the Terrible and Peter the Great. They
will probably outlive the bolshevik.
Time is not of the essence Of any
problem for your true Russian.