The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-13
Reviewed by
NICHOLAS WTRTH

Reviewed by
NICHOLAS WTRTH
THE fight against chaos is Enren-
bourg's theme. On "wastelands,"
cities and huge steel plants are be-
ing built, It is an uphill fight With
hundreds Of thousands Of men par
ticipating to build socialism. It is
mans fight against nature and ma
ture yields a few yards every day.
To Kusnetsk where a giant" is
under construction come men leav-
ing behind an environment which
had become a part of their lives. In
Kusnetsk these men forget the past
and forge new point Of view.
Among the many who come here
is Kolka, bored. simless youth.
who becomes a man Of brain and
will. Here Vaska. the son Of a ku-
lax, finds the Young Communist
League. which becomes to him the
guide in reconstructing his life out
Of the past. He comes to under
stand why he is building, why he is
suffering. He lives in mortal fear
that his parentage will be discov-
cred and that he will be expelled
from the League He has forged
documents.
AT night I lay and thought:
What If they suddenly find me
out? was afraid they would ex-
pei me from the Young Commu-
mist League. Where could go?
You see. Kolka. I lost one family.
Now they are driving me out Of the
other"
Volodia Safonov comes to Kus-
netsk chiefly because he is in love
with Trina, who teaches the chill
dren Of the workmen Here "the
eXpropriates were also building the
plant, but they built with anguish
and bitterness. None of them was
guilty of anything, but they we're
members Of class which was
guilty OF everything"
There are many other charac-
tiers and they move through the
pages OF Elrenbourg's book. some
consciously. others again By
greater will than their own with
but one aim. the success OF the
Five Year Plan.
LUXEMBOURG deals with indi-
II viduals, yet he does not isolate
them from the rest Of the popula-
ton. The lives Of Kolka, Trina. Vo-
lodia influence the lives Of others,
and in turn their lives are mott
waited by the struggles of all the
people at the construction works.
Even Volodia who belongs to an
epoch of the past and who is out
Of place among the people here,
wavers between his own cynicism
and the solidly rooted hope Of the
men struggling for the future. He
is in continual search after the
nom existent and Is at all times de-
stroying that which is within his
grasp, that which gives JOY to most
people working at Kusnetsk. His
nihilism leads Tolia to sabotage
and himself to suicide.
But even under capitalism Vo-
lodis would die by his own hands.
for he is not rooted in life. In the
chaos which generates the energy
for greater achievements than the
world has ever known, he yesrns
for the past which he believes has
been peaceful and more conducive
for living. Kolka the connter1oart
Of Volodia, who expresses the phi
losophy of the revolutionary work
ing class, is moulded out Of the very
life which is the only hope Of hui
man kind. And because Of this
Kolka is convincing while Volodia
f1utters aimlessly in and out Of the
pages Of Ehrenbourg's novel.
luxembourg treats his characters
in terms of their intimate personal
problems. His approach is interest
ing. for these problems of be-
havior in society are essentially new
problems, which are being solved
by the continual striving after or
der. In chaos q new social order is
born. In this chaos people find
new elements In love, In birth and
in death.
KUSNETSK is but stopping
II place. From here men push for
ward TO Mondy-Bash and from
Mondy- Bash on TO Temir-Tau.