Evening star., 1934-11-18

author of Poor Folk 1.-THE Insulted
and Injured" 1.-The House of the |
Dead" (his experiences as a political
prisoner in Siberia), Crime and Pun
ishment," "The Idiot" and "The |
brothers Karamazov" he ranks among
the foremost novelists Of catastrophe.
"Dostoevsky's work, like Shake
speares, addresses itself to several
levels of intelligence. 1t engages the |
mature mind by its psychological wiz
ardry and its wrestling with funda-
mental moral and religious problems,
but it also makes, by reason of its !
emotionalism and melodrama, more
elementary appeal"
y x y X
LITTLE ERA IN OLD RUSSIA. BY |
Trina Skariatina. With Illustra-
tions by LIE Roy Baldridge. In
dianapolis: The Bobbs- Merrill |
Co.
BROUGHT up in old Russia, exiled !
~ by the Revolution, after seeing 1t
destroy the world she knew, then |
from a distance seeing a new world
grow from the ashes of the old, and,
with her American husband, going |
back to view the changes, Trina |
Skariatina, former Russian countess, |
has now written four books about her
Russian life during an era OF up
heaval and complete change Her
former books are "A World Can End"
"A World Begins" and First to Go
Back" In Little Era in Old Russia"
she tells of her girlhood in the Cars
Russia, where for people of her class
life was genial and, if not free from
care, at least relatively easy, while
for children it was almost a fairy
land. Ironically. at her birth in the
luxury of a handsome home near the
Winter palace in St. Petersburg, she
was christened Trina, which in Greek
means Peace" The nickname Era,
or Little Era, was soon adopted by
every one in the family. Recollec-
tions are vivaciously recorded of
nursery and drawing room, of visits
of the friendly doctor and of her
mothers friends, of trip to France,
where she was very ill., of her first
confession, of Christmas and other
holidays, playmates, Winter sports,
Summer on the country estate and
up. The doings of the older men,
bers of the family are woven, Sec
ondarily of course, into the story, so
that vital and authentic picture is
given of the life of the aristocracy
in those days which have ended for
ever. Trina Skariatina is no self.
pitier. She writes effectively and
joyously of those happy days, with
no sentimentality and with practical
acceptance of the fact that they are
over. Of all her books, this is the
| pleaSantest to read.
THE TRAVELLERS RUSSIA. BY
Burton Holmes. New York: G. P.
Putnam'S Sons.
IN the late Spring and early Sum-
mer of 1884 Burton Holmes made
a 2l-day tour of part of Russia, with
lectures in mind, so his camera went
with him. This book is a by-product
OF the trip, and some of the pictures
he took appear in it. In the pages
no one will expect to find analysis
of "RuSsia's Iron Age" such as Will
liam Henry Chamberlin gives in his
book Of that title. Burton Holmes
Travelled, with girl guide, to Mos
! COW, Kharkov. with its biggest office
building in Europe, Petrograd and
the Crimea just as you or 1 might
travel, except perhaps with more
acutely seeing eyes. For that very
reason his story has interest, the
same interest which holds his large
lecture audiences from year to year.
To these audiences the book is dedi-
Gated.
THE RED FLAG. BY F. Britten
Austin, Philadelphia: J. B. Lip
pincott Co.
r ED has been the symbol of revolt
long before Soviet Russia adopted
the red flag with the hammer and the
sickle. To be sure, in medieval and
some modern poetry it has also been
the symbol of love. but love is often
a revolutionary affair. Mr.. Austin has
done an interesting and informative
piece of work, though not a work of
deep research, in this sketchy history
of revolutionary movements through
/
1920 BIC, revolution was promoted
by "all too numerous Semitic nomads"
and was recorded by Ipuwer, council
lor to the Pharaoh. Rome suffered
many revoltS, one of the most dra-
matte of which was that of the gladi-
ators under Spartacus. The first
large-Scale experiment in State So
cialism" was invented by China during
the reign of Shen Tsung. sixth EN-
peror of the Sung dynasty, about 1869
AID. Mr.. Austin continues with ac-
counts of more modern revolutions,
the bloody French revolution, the
milder Italian one under the leader
ship of Garibaldi, the Russian revolu-
ton beginning in 1917 and the pro-
longed Chinese revolution, which
seems likely to go on for the rest of
this century. His final chapter is en-
titled "The World Is Red" but his
narrative shows that history has its
ebb and flow and that 1.-The red flag"
has never become permanent. If it
wins, it rapidly fades.
X X X
LIVE TO TELL. The Russian Ad-
ventures of an American Socialist.
BY Jacob H. Rubin Indianapolis:
The Bobbs-Merrill Co.
PORN Russian Jew, a naturalized
American citizen, Socialist, Mr..
Rubin returned to Russia in 1890.
He was thrown into prison by the
Denikin Whites, on his release was in
Odessa when the Reds entered, and
became one of their enthusiastic and
trusted advisers. In Moscow his en-
thusiasm continued as he saw evil
dences that the new regime was work.
ing; "a golden haze hung over this
capital of the Soviet Union, this CEN
ter of hope for mankind" He met
Stain Oenin was still living) while
dining at the apartment of promi-
nent "comrade," who boasted that he
got six rations, one for each committee
meeting he attended every day. But
Mr.. Rubin is a factualist, not a
dreamer. He began to have doubts,
whose onset he tells about in one of