Evening star., 1939-10-15

but as the advocates of lying, de-
eeit, theft, rapine and plundering.
If anybody thinks Of going into
treaty ties with parasites, this re-
sembles trees efforts to conclude
to its own advantage an agreements
with mistletoe"
when he declares that stain, as his
biography proves, has never been far
seeing, except on the vulgar plane of
personal relationship when preservation
of his power was at stake" This lack Of
foresight or long view" can hardly ap-
ply to the man who put over the success
sive and fairly successful Five-Year
Plans, who developed Trotsky's program
for collectivization of agriculture and is
now engaged in the dangerous adventure
of trying to restore the Baltic provinces,
indirectly at least, to the homeland.
Distorted though it is, the picture
painted by Souvarine, with its rich
background of historical and personal
incidents, does bring out many of the
Stain characteristics. An understand
ing Of these attributes and Stains
peculiarly cold-blooded. cynical methods
gives an understanding of the events of
the past few years, even the past few
weeks.
AS listed by Souvarine, Stains funda-
mental characteristics are: First,
will to power" disproportionate to the
will to know" ignoring various forms
Of intellectual activity: second, narrow
realism, eficacious within strict limits,
a temper Of mind inherited from his
peasant ancestors; third, a religious edu-
cation overlaid with travesty of Marx
ism consisting of elementary formulas
learned by heart like catechism. and
finally, an oriental dexterity in intrigue,
unscrupulousness, lack of sensitiveness in
personal relations and scorn of men and
Of human life
It is difficult if not impossible for a
non-C Communist American to understand
ruler like Stain, who has lived all
his life in an unfamiliar and seemingly
contradictory country such as Russia.
Souvarine, an intellectual Marxist with
European background, has been able
to trace in Stains adventurous career
from his. birth in the Georgian village
of Gori in 1879 to his present absolutism
In the Kremlin, the crimson thread of
conspirator who has used revolutionary
tactics to build up his personal power.
The most understandable American
comparison, If it can be imagined is
that Of successful political boss i'm
bued with fanatical religious urge to
remake his country, or the world, to
his own pattern.
A True Revolutionary.
Stain is true revolutionary in the
Cromwell. Robespierre and Lenin tradi-
tions. Hitler and Mussolini were brought
to the top by crises, just as Napoleon
rose from the French Revolution. Stain
became revolutionary when he was II
years old, a student in the Orthodox
Theological Seminary at Tiflis, where his
mother had enrolled him in the hope he
would become a priest. ut is curious
coincidence that Hitlers mother wanted
him to be pastor0 BY the time Stain
was 10 he was accepted as a revolution
ary apprentice, first known as Sosso and
later as Koba. He did not take the name
Stain, meaning "steel," until much later
in his career. His course in his earlier
years, according to Souvarine, consisted
of staying In the background, even when
his lieutenant, Kamo. was robbing the
state bank treasury van of $4,000 to
supply funds for the underground activi-
ties of the Social Democratic party. Yet
his connection with this affair was so
close that he was temporarily expelled
from the organization.
This appropriation" occurred in 1907
BY that time he already had police rec
ord for revolutionary activity. He had
been imprisoned In 1902 for organizing
a workers demonstration in Batum and
in 1908 he was exiled to Eastern Siberia
for three years. He escaped the next
year and returned to his revolutionary
activity He was able to avoid arrest for
the next four years, but in 1908 was
again exiled for three years. Again he
escaped the following year and returned
to Southern Russia, where he was re-
arrested and sentenced to six years.
Within year he escaped and went to
st. Petersburg, where he was arrested
after few months liberty and sent to-
the Vologda province for another three
years. He escaped against within the
year and was exiled again In 1912 Guard
over political prisoners was light and
he again escaped.
During brief interval Of freedom in
the latter part Of 1912 and the early
part Of 1918 he was able to direct the
Bolshevik campaign for State Duma
CParliament) and to be an editor of two
revolutionary journals. But he was ar
rested in March, 1913, and sent to a
prison camp within the Arctic Circle.
This time he was unable to gain his
freedom until February, 1917. after the
first provisional government had over
thrown the monarchy.
These years Of underground Russian
activity explain much Of Stains later