The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-08-30
MAKING NEW MEN
How the Soviet Union Handles
Problems of the Maladjusted
By Maxim GOrky

:. The following article by the great
literary shock-brigader Of the U.
S. S. r. first appeared in "Pravda,"
central organ of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union.
PART II
Out of the ranks of laWbreakers
in Is years there were Salvaged in
the colonies and communes of the
OGPU thousands of highly qualified
workers and more than 100 agronom-
lists, engineers, physicians and tech
nicians. In the bourgeois countries
such thing is impossible.
There, for relatively trivial in
fringements of the law, considering
the size of bourgeois enterprises, per-
sons with such talent as, for ex-
ample, the writer o. Henry can abb
solutely perish. 1t is entirely prob
able that had the bourgeois tsar's
government not murdered the revo-
lutionary Nikolas Kibalchik, the in
vention of the airplane would have
been announced in Russia 20 years
ahead of Europe.
Into the building of the Baltic
White Sea Canal there WE'RE drafted
thousands of men, dangerous to So
ciety in various ways and all imbued
with class antagonism towards the
dictatorship Of the proletariat and
socialist construction generally. In
this mass of folk thieves, hooligans
and kulaks (the latter being invet-
crate proprietors and exploiters of
the peasantry) predominated. One
must remember that the kulaks are
really the same parasites which at
one time the liberal-populistic and
democratic press so ably and so bril-
liantly pilloried. Nowadays, the for
mer democrats yelp and whine, like
dogs, over the lost proprietor, that is,
over the bitter fate of those very ku-
laks and parasites whom they were
taught to hate by Glieb Uspenski,
Saltikoy-Shchedrin, and other hon.
est teachers about the truth of life.
Hypocrisy of Bourgeois Critics
They yelp and whine, these be-
yond-the- border democrats, and they
lie and blaspheme, merely because
they themselves missed the opportu-
nifty to join the parasites Of all cali
bers in the exploitation of the work.
er-peasant masses. But, since they
did not succeed then, they will never
succeed now, for the kulak by this
time is learning to become an honest
laborer, while they, the emigres, are
doomed to die out soon.
How does the process of recon-
structing the new socially dangerous,
but potentially socially useful people
on the Baltic White Sea Canal show
itself, and what are the measures
employed?
The nondescript army of law
breakers, vandals and enemies are
told: "It is necessary to connect via
canal the Baltic and the White Seas.
You must construct waterway 227
kilometers long, and you will have
to work in the woods. in the swamps,
tear doW.l scanite cliffs, change the
course of turbulent rivers, and lift
their waters up by means of sluices
to a height of 103 meters.
ut will be necessary for you to dig
up more than 80 million cubic meters
of earth. All this work will have to
be done in the shortest possible
time. You will receive good food,
good raiment, good barracks, and
you will have club-quarters and Gin
emas. The government does not
promise you anything beyond that.
Your own work will prove your
worth"
Criminals Saw the Light
The army Of prospective wrestlers
with nature, not being of a homo
geneous social origin, could not all
be of one mood. But it SO happens
that in the OGPU's correction camps
they teach not only reading and writ
ing, but also political wisdom Man
is by nature quick-witted and it is
very seldom that stupidity is condi-
toned by ones physical makeup.
More often than not, it is the result
of bourgeois class violence.
Among the tens of thousands, there
were many who at once grasped the
Importance Of such work for the
state, and the physically healthy
were eager to exert themselves. The
wildly flowing rivers and the swamps
Of Karelia, her fields and woods COW
cred with huge boulders-here was
something to struggle against.
There were those who began to
see through the whole stupidity Of
man fighting against man, that it
was only disposition developed un-
der the conditions of bourgeois liv-
ing, and they likewise sensed the stu
pidity of working for capitalism, a
system which only perpetuates poy-
erty. There were in this army also
saboteurs under 10-year sentence.
One Of them, an old man of so, de-
clared at the trial: IF intervention
lists appeared at this minute, I would
Join them gladly" In the past this
man solved many an intricate tech
meal problem and made for himself
quite a name and competence. In his
cwn words: II lived we'll, with every
desire gratified."
Old Man Acquired New Vision
This man was to serve a 10-year
sentence, but after spending in the
camp only two years, in the spring
of 1888 he wrote the following in his
notebook: "In the Karelian woods
in the barracks OF the technical
workers, I first learned the meaning
OF real work and what it means to
be an engineer who has behind him
the persistent energy Of mass OF