Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-03-11

war. To history 1t was like a fiaS
with oppression. The following
November it was to vanish in the
thunder of a Bolshevik betrayal.
The first Russian revolution of
1917-the February revolution"
by the old Russian calendar
had nothing to do with Bolshe-
vism. Bolshevik leaders played
no part in it. 1t was what they
chose to call the bourgeois" Or
middle class capitalist-revolu-
ton. a rising of all the people
from mobiles to peasants.
Unready for Freedom
Had it been permitted to live
and develop, the February revo-
luton which overthrow Car
Nicholas II might have pro-
duced new Russian. freed from
his fear and suspicion of the
West. his ages old superstitious
reverence for absolute power.
Instead. a Bolshevik counter
revolution in November installed
totalitarianiSm by force. With 40
years to develop, that revolution
produced what the Kremlin to-
day calls the new Soviet man. "
Ivan. unready for freedom,
succumbed to his perennial
habit of submisSon. The new
Soviet man" is the image of the
ancient Russian. Strong, tenaci-
Gus, enduring and long suffer-
ing. he is-like his ancestor
imperviouS to misery around
him but worried about misery
far away. He will work until he
drops for glorification of the
Motherland. He is deeply patrio-
tic. but his patriotism is a
mystic love of the soil rather
than respect for government
or a system.
New" Man Stirring
Today his government is more
state capitalist, in harsh sense
of the term. than it is Commun-
list or MARKHAM Socialist. Its lop-
sided economy, bent on indus
trial and military might above
all, faces new crises. The new
Soviet man" is stirring, not so
much because of oppression as
because of vague misgivings. His
leaders, so long infallible as
Car and Stain. today are
lesser men commanding neither
awe nor respect,
Russians never revolted
against a system. They rose in
anger when burdens became too
great. From Ivan the Terrible
to Khrushchev the Commonplace
the story has been the same.
When rulers feared the burden
might be unbearable. they re-
Taxed oppression. From relaxa-
ton came uprisings. from up
rislngs. new oppression.
What makes Russians what
they are? Probably it's their his
tory-a chronicle of unending
tragedy-and their deep sense
of identification with their past
Mysterious for Years
Their first great tragedy oc-
Cured seven centuries ago, when
hordes from Asia swept across
Russia all the way to Kiev. then
the fountain of Slav culture
From then. the center Of Russian
life shifted toward Moscow. Its
grand princes intrigued servilely
with the Asian conquerors. who
left the Russians with a habit OF
total autocracy and a suspicion
of outside ideas. The Russians
never shook of the influence
Through the ages Russia
wrapped herself in mystery. Ever
in the enlightened 10Th and 20th
centuries, occasional travellers
returning from Russia were like
adventurers from another world
full of Wondrous tales of a cruel
and battling land.
we are poor with the accu-
INFLATED poverty of 1000 years.
once wrote Leon Trotsky. later
an architect of the Bolshevik
betrayal. They were poor from
1000 years of great and small
wars. intrigues, hero saints and
legendary devils. suspicion and
fear, want and barbarism. Theil
history was pockmarked by in
vading hordes from Asia ano
predatory enemies from the
west. history of vast super
stition. deep mysticism, mas:
ignorance.
= 1t was a history finally domi-