The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-10-06
BY WALTER ID. HICKMAN

NOTABLE visitors to Indianapolis
IN this week have focused at
tention upon present day Russia
and the demand for books on Soviet
Russia are keeping the book shops
and the library busy.
In one day this week we had
two interesting woman of inter-
national reputation as visitors and
both have focused attention upon
present day Russia.
One did it by what she has
written and the other by including
In her program announcements
songs of the Soviet. The writer was
Trina Skariatina, former Russian
Countess and author of First to Go
Back published by the Bobbs-
Merrill Company of this city.
The singer is lisa Kremer, who
appeared in recital under the
auspices of the Indianapolis IGOR
branch of the national organiza-
ton interested in the founding and
maintenance of Jewish Socialist
Society republic in eastern Siberia.
These two interesting personah-
ties naturally arouse ones interest
in Soviet Russia. Countess Skaria-
tina approaches the problems and
conditions in Soviet Russia in a
direct way in First to Go Back"
In this book I particularly was in
terested in part three which re-
counted her journey last year
Tho CO1riaf TTvoiOYo
In the beginning of this section,
the former countess accompanied
by her American husband. takes you
on a train journey out of Moscow
into the industrial center of the
SovietS.
She travelled over the same rails
that took her as a child with her
father, a general in the Russian I'M
perial army, and she writes that
she felt like ghost" returning to
old scenes.
It is this minute and I think
accurate detail in linking the per-
Sonal past of the author with the
changes under the Soviets which
makes this book an important pub
LEGATION upon a country regarding
which there is such a vast difference
of opinion.
Personally, I believe that I have
the right to read. digest and tell
you about everything 1 encounter on
the subject.
She records while going through
Ukrainian villages of today - The
contract between the settlements of
Ukrainia and those Of Great Russia
to the north has always been amaz-
ing, for the northern villages were
and still are dirty. dilapidated, and
full of misery and Squalor. But what
struck me this time particularly
was the very apparent industrializa-
ton of Ukrainia. New factories,
new workers settlements, new grain
elevators, appear all along the way
as the train cuts through the coun-
try and in all directions one sees
intensive excavation work going on
and many new buildings under
construction"
Here is an example of an OBJ
servation of travel that has weight
and has a right to be considered.
While in Russia this time, the
author went through many places
of the late car and found many
of them transformed in sanatoriums
and rest homes.
Again, the author is able to create
Old Russia while giving an ac-
curate picture of present-day Russia.
That is the real value of this book
the comparisons of the old and
new.
And you will find that the au-
thors husband tells his side OF the
story in the same book. That is diff
ferent.
This book deserves to be read.
Have been aSked-What one book
do you find that most people are
reading? I judge that this question
applies to new fiction. Three times
yesterday at a luncheon I attended
at the Indianapolis Athletic Club ]
heard seven people out of twelve
discuss Anthony Adverse" by Her
vey Allen. 1 think that will answer
the question.
n
Also many letters have been
reaching my desk for authentic new
books on Germany. I am in the
middle of a number of new ones
and several more are in the mail
Will answer that question as soon
as I digest a few more of them
Burns Mantle in his THE Best
Plays of 1e32-l933" names the ter
best as Both Your Houses" Din
ner at Eight" when Ladies Meet,
Design for Living" Biography,
Allen Corn" we, the People,
zone Sunday Afternoon" Pigeons
and People and The Late Christie
pher Bean"