Askov American., 1943-08-12
Realism on Russia

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To read most of the material
written on Russia nowadays
would consume all of ones time.
Reading only what the aulogiStS
write one would be strong for
Russia and its economic system.
Reading only what the eulogists
tors say a person would oppose
the Russian system.
Harry Elmer Barnes, histo-
rian and educator, seeks to clar-
ify the picture in an article he
wrote, Realism on Russia"
which was published in The
Progressive, and is here repro
duced:
The fuss over the moving-picture,
Mission to Moscow, and Max East
mans article on Russia in the July
Readers Digest, have brought to a
head vast body of fuzzy thinking
about the Soviet Union and its great
leader, Josef Stain. We have had
every conceivable picture of Stain,
from an incredible monster, merging
Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Ivan the
Terrible, and AL Capone, to that of
gentle liberal fusing, as it were,
Thomas jefferson and Harry Emer-
son FoSdick. Soviet Russia filters
from an iridescent Utopia to hell on
earth. 1t is time for a little realism.
have slight confidence in any
of those who have developed high
blood pressure about the Soviet Union
and Uncle Joe, whether extreme
eulogists or violent detractors.
Perhaps, least of all, do have Sc
rious regard for the opinions of the
renegades, now headed by Max East
man-thoSe who once held up Rus
sia to our gaze as the one hope of
mankind and now outdo Harry Jung
and Betty Dilling in denouncing it.
There is nobody like renegade, when
it comes to sweating out fury and
fiction.
Mission to Moscow.
Nor can one have much more con-
f1dence in the expository genius and
enticing fables of those who have
manufactured synthetic Soviet
Union and Stain for purposes of
expediency, to solidify the United
Nations and make our collaboration
with the formerly maligned Boleshe-
viks more palatable. This has culmi-
mated in the picture, Mission to Mos
COW.
While this movie does stick closer
10 history than most films of its kind,
the impression that it seeks to give is
that the Soviet Union is really the
United States of the Old World
becoming more sensible and less So
cia1istic with every passing day
Stain becomes the remarkable crea-
ture that has resulted from an ap-
parent telescoping of Abraham Lin
coin and Dwight L. Moody This has
produced such transcendent humor
as the observation of a Great Lakes
captain to professor friend of mine
that "Stalin is fine Christian gen.
feman."
Equally wide of the truth, I say
with some sorrow, are the 'pure OF
heart Socialists of the old school
m our country, who depart amaz-
ingly from their usual sanity and
realism in their reactions to Uncle
Joe and his land. They bewail the
fact that Stain has not conducted
his Russian experiment as Norman
Thomas might lead an LID sympos.
Ium on the standard of living at the
Hotel Woodstock in New York City
By so doing, they only confess theil
utter inability to understand the tech.
nique, strategy, and realities of :
social revolution. They are closer tt
Wngpong than to world upheaval.
While have boundless admiration
tr John Dewey, l cannot bring my.
self to believe that his greatest talen
lies In pentrating analysis of tangle!
of legal evidence. On the unfortunate
Mexican expedition, he fell into thu
hands of Trotskyites, some of whom
had, to my own knowledge, earlier
derided him in even obscene terms
Apparently, he is still in their tolls.
1t would seem that, in the evolu.
ton of Soviet Russia, the successive
leaders were almost ideally suitee
for the roles they were destined tt
play. Lenin was great mentality
powerful dialectician, a master
planner of revolution, statesman
and strategist of social change, of tn,
highest talents.
Stalin's Creation.
Trotsky was an able organizer, ane
enthusiast who could inflame hi.
followers, and the builder of the Ree
Army which put down counter-revo