Evening star., 1933-12-10
Is Red Youth Awakening?
Keeping Young Demozades
BIZ COUNT CARLO sroRzA,

Former Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs.
|yY YHAT is happening In Germany,
NA/ as regards the education Of
wv youth, can be compared only
to . storm at the height Of
its frenzy. Everything Is
shaken; no one knows Is yet what viii
come Of It, :
In Russia 1t is rather like the icy
silence following an earthquake which
has made O rift, to all appearances rn-
bridgeable. with the past.
Turgeniev, In one Of his famous
novels, "Fathers and Sons" broached
the problem Of the solution of con-
tinuity between two generations. But
what he described. what horrifed him
so years ago, was less than nothing in
comparison with the gulf created be-
tween the people Of 1917 and the boys
Of 1888.
Never before In history has trouble 20
deep brought within the family such
elements Of mutual incomprehensiou
and discord. To the inevitable differ
ences existing between fathers and SONS
In their sense Of values, the Kremlin
leaders, little by little, but always more
distinctly, have added . reasoned ac-
tion toward the training Of Q new youth
entirely severed from the past and en-
VA O1y ASVObC4 W SOvAGt 40ACs
Russian youth played an important
part In the preparation Of the revolu-
ton. In all the liberal movements dur
ing the nineteenth century, from the
Nihilists to the Social Democrats, one
could have found young men. Under
the old rule the words student" and
revolutionary" were almost inter-
changeable. The daring and the spirit
of sacrifice of Russian youth In its
struggle against Czarist autocracy
astonished the world.
Youths Chiefly Watchers.
However, one cannot say that youth
took an active share in the revolution
itself. In 1917 the conflict was between
generations Of mature men. The young
men, for the major part youths Of DEM
ocratic tendencies, watched with some
perplexity the efforts Of the Bolsheviks
to seize power by force. They began by
waiting expectantly. But the political
neutrality Of youth came to an end at
the beginning of the civil war. the he
roic and patriotic" nature Of which
necessarily appealed to them. The mass
catch-words Of the Bolsheviks and did
not hesitate to join the ranks Of the
Red army, then led by Trotsky, on all
the fronts where Bolshevlsm fought
against the Whites
These young people had received
scarcely any education at all during the |
troubled years of the war and the revo-
luton. They were uncouth, If not
coarse, presumptuous. sure OF them |
selves. They ha6 developed in one di-
rection only. But they believed; they
were optimistic and vibrant. They
worked in the enthusiasm of illusion. |
rTyt,a ,o1y lav1fa1 nf foetS had |
not yet broken their faith, nor shaken |
their trust in the wisdom and sincerity |
of their leaders. A splendid future |
seemed to open before them. They |
were to regenerate Russia-and not only |
for Russia's sake; they were to save and |
lead-the world.
The young Russians believed their |
ideas and feelings were new; what in
reality was happening, with them was
a new crisis of the messianic mania. as |
it had happened so many times before
in the annals of Muscovite history.
Never was q class, an aristocracy or Q
dynasty given a treatment of fiattery
more constant, cleverer, more intoxi-
eating than that by means Of which
the Bolshevik leaders succeeded in :
drawing TO themselves the whole of
Russian youth. Was it not the salt Of
the earth? Was it not the freest? Did
it not have the broadest future ahead?
Russian youth naively believed all
that-believed it all the more readily
because, in q way, 1t alone was gaining
by the great Russian up
heaval.
Italian Leaders Mature.
In Fascist Italy the ofncial hymn is
Giovanezza'-"Youth," but that Is
Ill ~ "a 1eadare ~, TfoIu |
are mature men; Signor Mussolini is q
high posts have been the
goal of of1icers-reserve ofhcers-who
went through the war. It Is rather q
youth.
In Russia, no. Not only are most OF
the Russian leaders under so; what
matters most is that all Of them have
always been most careful to make ample
room everywhere for the young. |
In Russia the young do not. as In
Western Europe, have to mark time for
long years before they have access to
even the least responsible post. They
are placed upon the staff Of o regime
and, on condition that they do not
question the principles on which 1t is
based, they become essential factors OF
mature men who, in the normal Sc
quence of events would be filling high
posts today, has been decimated, exiled
or kept down in minor bureaucratic
jobs; thus vacuum has occurred, q
violent suction has drawn the men
under 80 to the fore.
The "Komsomol"-th Union Of
Communist Youth-has on its roster
some 3.500,000 young Russians aged
from Is to %, all sons of authentic |
proletarians. Any son of an intellec-
tual, priest or kulak e. rich or for
merly rich peasant) is excluded from
the Komsomol even If he Is intellectu-
ally very gifted-especially, shall say?
One of the delusions-and cruelties-of
the Kremlin leaders is that education
must be weapon to be offered only to
true proletarians.
When, while discussing this point with
Communists abroad, pointed out that
with their rule some Of the purest
apostles Of social emancipation Of the
poor-for instance, Prince Kropotkin-
would never have been able to write
their powerful books, the only answer
got was a plying smile.
Communism Religion.
Truly, communism is religion; be-
cause, like all religions, 1t possesses
,uch a degree of intellectual certainties'
and of contempt for critics who are
outside the holy pale Of the faithful.
AL the same, many things happen in
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