The Wyandotte news-herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1943-1963, 1945-08-27

EOgdT SlOW, whose People Ol
Our Side" was Book of the Month
Club dividend, has a new and in
formative book out, The Pattern
of Soviet Power"
AS war correspondent for the
Saturday Evening Post, Mr.. Snow
was in Stalingrad when the Ger
mans were halted at the point Of
their deepest penetration into Rus
STA. He travelled all over the Soviet
Union and was one Of the Ameri-
cans permitted to visit Poland and
the Eastern front. The Pattern
of Soviet Power" grew from his
first-hand observations.
The aim of this book is To clarity
for Americans, Russia's aims in the
post war world. The author reports
the program the Soyiets have for
mulated in Poland, the Balkans,
Germany and on their Monaghan
frontier. He describes the Russian
plan for de-Hitlerizing Nazi Ger
many and the measures taken TO
prevent the creation Of an antago-
nistic Poland. He discusses the re-
lationship between the Soviet Union
and the Kuomingtang Government.
and he has several interesting
chapters on the personalities Of
Russia's political leaders.
Since the war, the Soviet Union
has set up a number of military
academies modelled after the Old
Cadet Establishments, and called
Suvorov schools, after the cele-
brated military genius of that
name. Only orphans of Red Army
heroes and sons Of high officers
are admitted. AT one of these
schools, Mr.. Snow asked a number
Of cadets why they thought Russia
was winning the war. Without ex-
ception, they all answered TO this
effect: Because Germany was the
aggreSsor and our country was in
vaded. Our people are fighting for
their Fatherland against enslave-
ment. Our cause is just" That did
not sound, comments Snow, as if
they were being trained for pur-
poses Of conquest or aggression.
A unique idea for anthology was
conceived by Sterling North and
Clip Boutell-one made up of stor-
les. poems and plays in which the
devil, in one form or another, plays
a leading role. Called Speak of the
Devil" the selections in this volume
range from pertinent excerpts from
Dante'S Divine Comedy" and Mil
tons Paradise Lost" to such mod
ern American stories as The Devil
and Daniel Webster" by Stephen
Vincent Benet and Bottle Party"
by John Collier.
Incidental bit of information we
picked up from The Mode in Hats
and Headdresses" by R. Turner Will
cox: Boards were in favor in an
cient Greece up TO the time of Alex
ander the Great. Fearing that
soldiers beard might serve as a
handle to the enemy in warfare,
he ordered cleanshaven faces for
his army-and thereby started
new vogue.
Typewriters were a rarity in the
days of Leo Tolstoy; the great mas
ter wrote all of his extensive works
in longhand. His handwriting was
almost indecipherable: his wife was
the only person who could make 1t
out. 1t was her lot to copy in her
own neat handwriting everything
he did. Usually, he would so revise
her copy that it had TO be re-done.
In the case of his major opus, WAR
and Peace" Countess Tolstoy made
no less than seven copies.
This remarkable example of wife
ly devotion is described In Tikhon
Polner's Biography, "Tolstoy and
His Wife," a discerning portrait of
one of the most important men of
his age.
Tolstoy was a complicated char
acter. whose moods varied from ex-
treme gaiety to moroseness. In his
youth. he gambled away most of
his family estate. He was celebrated
as q writer before he was twenty.
seven. Always he was passionately
intense about whatever he under
| took. whether 1t was farming. fol-