Evening star., 1942-07-26

Behind the grinding fury Of the
German drive toward the Caspian Sea
a great historical question is being re-
vived and steadily becomes more crucial.
Is Russia to maintain its hard-won
position as a significant force In western
civilization or is it to be thrown back
to the landlocked, isolated, arrested
status from which 1t only began to
emerge as recently as the reign Of Peter
the Great?
For Russia the issues Of this war are
very different and infinitely more vital
than those confronted by the United
States.
Whatever the ultimate outcome, few
really believe that the status of this
country as a great power is seriously
endangered. An Axis victory would mean
for us incalculable loss of prestige, re-
duction of our effective political influence
to the New World, severe economic con-
traction and possibly permanent mill
tarization as prelude to later struggle
against Nazified Europe. But defeat
would not mean enforced return to our
StdCuS Ol Two CCutullcS dkU.
Precisely that is the stake for Russia.
For the Germans have now made clear
that If this colossal empire is beaten 1t
will be permanently dismembered. The
western frontier will In that event be
thrown back the best part of q thousand
miles and deprived Of all except frozen
Arctic seaboard. And in the Far East,
where Japan awaits the psychological
moment to strike, the whole Siberian
nttoral and its hinterland for perhaps
another thousand miles would be SIM
ilarly detached from the control of
Moscow.
Resistance to Death.
So Russia fights. If not for existence,
at least for all the gains which have
accrued to her during the last two CEN
turtles of westernization Those gains
mark the difference between powerful,
potentially progressive industrial nation
and primitive, poverty stricken, per-
manently uninfuential backwoods So
ciety. Small wonder that the resistance
Is everywhere to the DEATH and that
Russians Of every shade of political
thought are unanimous In their support
OF the Communist regime which today
fights not so much for that theology as
for Russia.
Until the start Of the present smashing
offensive much of the German conquest
in Russia. particularly in the south, en-
braced territory which has been Russian
for. less than 200 years. Long after the
discovery of America the entire Black
Sea, for instance. was a lake within the
Ottoman Empire. As late as 1868 the
Turks were planning q canal to link the
Volga and Don Rivers across that criti-
cal strip of land just west of Stalingrad
which is now 50 prominently in the news
Even in the west the Muscovite from
tiers were, until the 18th century, in some
places not far on the European side OF
last winters German line of occupation
Prior to Peter the Great, indeed. nc
Russian ruler thought in terms of Euro
pean expansion, or even visualized hi,
country as being part Of Europe. This
forceful czar, who founded st. Peters.
burg (now LeningraO as his "windov
on the Baltic" first made Russia force
to be considered by western civilizat ton
Push More Effective.
For the last two centuries, however
the Russian push to the west has proved
far more effective than the counterin,
German "Drang mach Osten" The Cri
mea, Ukraine, White Russia, Finland
the Baltic States, Poland and Bessarabis
were all gradually made subject to ex.
| pounding Russian nationalism. Not unit
1917 was there any recession in the Slavi
| pressure against Western Europe.
| And the recession, under Communism
proved only temporary. The attack or
Finland in 1910. the short-ived agree.
ment with Hitler whereby Russia agar
moved west, were sure indications that
Stain also was working In the tradition
Of Peter the Great It was the clash
between those rival expansionist policies
which last summer made war between
the two relationships even more in
evitable than was the case with the
German and Russian autocracies in 1914
That it will this time be war to a