Evening star., 1952-02-01

IOu4411COo VI dPPCeSA dAANC 40 Ala
Ievitable where there is no compe-
Itition.
Most shop fronts have not been
ALTERED since the revolution. The
Isigns above them, usually Of let
tiers painted on glass, say simply
I"chemist" or bread" or "hair-
Idresser." What little advertising
there is takes very direct form.
I"Use SOAP" smoke cigarettes, -
|"world peace" or "save money"
Inside, the shops make little ef-
fort to beguile the customer. They
Iare foored with plain wood, and
rather dark by our standards. In
Imost shops and banks, the at
Itendants count and add up the bill
lon an abacuS.
Goods Shoddy But Adequate.
The quality of the goods is that
lof prewar Japan-shoddy, but
adequate.
One effect of state ownership
land the absence of competition is
THAT the government has no ef-
Elective way of estimating demand
lin advance.
saw huge queues struggling for
1.-THE most unexpected things. The
Longest, which coiled right round
a block was waiting to enter the
smallest of shops. People in the
queue were all holding the shoul-
ders of their next-ahead. They
were guarded by soldiers and mill
tiamen, against the efforts of a
group of independent housewives
who were trying to jump the
queue.
Every time the shop door
opened, the irregulars made. a
dash for it; every time they were
broken UP by the police.
At last the women who would
not queue were seized by the
wrists and taken away.
Wanted Lace for Curtains"
I asked q bystander what neces-
sity of life these people wanted.
His answer: Lace for curtains"
An exception to the monotonous
unpretentiousness of the shops is
the MoStorg-a department store
several stories high.
Since there always Is a queue
waiting for this shop to open. I
visited it at about 10:30.
\ A Russian approached my COM
lpanion and told her that it was
uncultured to smoke.
Mems suits were thin and baggy
made, like many things in Rus
sia, in the Western style Of the
'twenties.
Women's dresses were drab,
tubular creations Of a muddy pat
tern.
When I regained the street I
lfound that somebody. deceived by
the opulence Of my suit. had cut
open my coat pocket with a razor.
The most novel Soviet shop is
the commission shop. To this peo-
pie bring goods they want to sell
in the shop at a price agreed
not without discussion-between
themselves and the manager.
When the article is sold, the shop
||hands over the proceeds. less z
per cent.
Wonderful China Offered.
I saw for sale, at low prices,
wonderful Sevres, Meissen, Dres-
den, Fulda and Wedgwood china.
|of q quality which would be placed
lin museums in the West (and per-
haps was until the end OF the
war;.
The commission shops were al
ways thronged. Among the goods
they sold, the cameras = chiefly
German Leicas-caused most ex-
citement.
The furniture, when good, was
foreign, including magnificent
English clocks of the 18th century
Among the iewelry ] found mag
niflcent pieces Of faberge.
The silver was good and cheap
saw q set Of early 18th CEN
| Itury knives and forks on sale for
| I$8 .5O-the pictures bad and ex-
pensive.
The reversal of our scale OF
values was striking. A Dresden
tea set cost as much as picture
which could not be given away In
London.
Nothing In Russia, except per-
haps the ruined churches, gave
one a greater feeling Of social
earthquake than these commits
sion shops, full of wartime loot
from the West and the wreckage
lof leisured class.
Bookshops Thronged.
Bookshops were full Of Gus
toners, in spite of the high price
of books. Books form one outlet
for the suppressed imitation which
IRussia's enormous program OF
capital works is causing: They
Iare q method of storing wealth
and a man with q library is
counted rich.
Communist works written since
the revolution which do not toe
the Stalinist line are unobtain-
able. The writings of many revo-
llutionaries who wrote under the
Tsars are for sale. though they
would today be considered ideo-
logically most impure.
II converted into dollars at the
lofhcial rate. prices would give
lpicture unfair to the Russians
8 pence for q newspaper, sos. fol-