The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-04

No. 2, 1888. English Edition Of the
Organ of the International Union
of Revolutionary Writers. IS Cents.
BY WALTER SNOW
Not since Jack London wrote his
best Alaskan stories has any fiction
about the Far North approached the
intensely human and picturesque
Odyssey of ''Vasska, Red PARTISAN, q
novelette-length extract of new
Soviet novel by r. Fralsrman, W.ilc4l
is the feature piece of international
Literature" No. 2.
We meet the pig-tailed Vasska
waking up in his tish-odorous, Man
churian hut in the dim half-light Of
Winters morning. A simple minded
Cilvak tribesman, scratching his
fleas, unaware OF the outside world
OF his miserable poverty, .grieved only
because he was Swindled out OF his
best sled dog. We follow VaSska on a
lonely hunt for "cross fox, the color
of forest twilight" meet his fellow
villagers; become aware OF the ex-
ploitation of these tribesmen by
Czarist traders, but understand why
the Gilyak plumbers on gropingly in
ignorance. He hears that the Red
Partisans are fighting the Japanese
but knows nothing about the causes
Of the conflict.
There is another long hunt, told
with such mastery selection OF
graphic details as to make any eX-
Woodsrnan homesick for pair OF
skis, a Winchester and a fox trail
across the wilderness forests. No less
absorbing is Vasskas encounter with
the Red Partisans led by his fisher
man friend, Makarov, the Gilyak's
battles with the japanese as a men,
Der of the skiing corps and his evo-
luton into a Bolshevik organizer.
Narrated without any exaggerated
heroics, this story will become a new
revolutionary classic.
Other Stories and Poems
But it occupies only "a pages Of
this hefty, 100 page cornucopia. fus-
sac Hayashi contributes little gem
OF ain emotional story, "Cocoons,"
about Japanese school boys and a
working class mother whose life was
being arawn away like the silk from
cocoons. P. Pavlenko gives us a dy-
manic picture of Karl Marx in Lon
don during the Commune days; Har-
old Heslop, a tale of English miners,
and v. Stavsky, story Of an OGPU
agent tracking down q numbering
Sabotager.
"Our Spring." one of two poems by
Langston Hughes, ranks with the
very best of his revolutionary lyrics.
One cannot even discuss it without
being tempted to quote the entire
piece; it is flawless, emotional, tri-
umphant. Another American, Hugo
Gellert, contributes seven of his il
Illustrations to Marks Capital done
with rugged power and perfect
craftsmanship.
Ten Critical Articles
Space limitations forbid any de-
tailed discussion of the ten critical
articles, the three photographs OF
Soviet authors (AleXey Tolstoy, Vera
Inber and Alexander Serafimovich)
the six letters from writers in CAPT
talist countries including Granville
Hicks, Fielding Burke, Edwin Seaver,
and comprehensive summary of the
English literary situation by Harold
Heslop), and the profusely illustrate
ed, 34-column chronicle section,
which is the most complete survey OF
literary events ever at
tempted in any magazine and really
a whole periodical in itself. Generous
space is given to the American cul-
tural front.
Walt Cannon, formerly on the New
who is serving as Sergei Di-
namov's assistant in compiling this
magazine, wrote the present reviewer
that he wished this issue was more
in scope, that it had
more variety and sparkle. He prom
lses that the third number, already
made up, will be greatly improved.
Americans Sparsely Represented
Although the current issue does not
equal the remarkable No. /; although
a couple OF the minor fiction pieces
are somewhat sketcfy and there are
no new contributions by I. Babel and
Bella lilies, or none of those eagerly
awaited critical articles by Dinamoy,
the magazine surpasses any of the
1882 numbers. True, the Soviet Life
section Is rather weak; American
writer's are sparsely represented (but
the third issue will be so per cent
American number) and there are no
German or French authors present.
except for short letter from Andre
Glide.
Yet Ilya Ehrenburg, in a we'll
rounded, compact article, gives a Sc
ries Of cinematic pictures contrast-
ing the cultural fertility Of the So
Wet Union with the pessimistic ste
rility of France. There is an x-ray
analysis of the self-disrobed Chalia-
pin by M. Koltsov; an epochal sur
ley OF "Fascism and Literature" by
Anne Elistratova, which is q COM
,lete book and 20 years condensed in
\ single article; and scholarly studies
If MARX on Esthetics'' and Engels
IN Literature"
NAZI KILLS 2; GETS 4 YEARS
VIENNA Ca,>t U>s,, xx~...,