The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1958-01-10
Behind the Curtain -.
'Rowdies' Show Dissension
In Red Controlled Countries
BY Erik Won KuehneIt-L eddihn

By Erik Won KuehneltL eddihn
LANS, TYROL, Austria = Everybody reading the
press of the Soviet Union orsof The satellite countries,
will be struck by the recurrent complaint about the
mounting wave of "roWdyism" and holliganism in these
nations.
In the last weeks, arrests of more than a hundred
such "rowdieS" have been made in Czechoslovakla, In
cities like Prague and Moravska Ostrava. We know a
great deal less about the precise extent of police mea-
sures in the Soviet Union itself, and this for the simple
reason that reports about crimes, suicides and convic-
tons are strictly banned from the columns of the Soviet
press. Such news would probably detract from the pic
ture of a paradise in the USSR. Still, the very problem
of an ~indomitably vicious and aggressive youth is such
that it cannot be completely huShed up.
All this "rowdyism" in the Soviet orbit, neverthe-
less, is a rather complex affair. There is a genuine prob
lem of juvenile crime and dissolution which stems pi:
marty from the curious and selfdeteafing attempt OF
the Communists to preach necessarily Christian s'hie.
without which no society can go on TO svrvving) and at
the same time, TO fight religion without a letup.
It is virtuously impossible to demand from young
people to work hard, efficiently and conscientiously, to
be a responsible person, to refrain from lying, cheating.
deceivlng, gambling, drinking, and committing excuses
in the moral order only because it is bad socially or
retards the victory of socialism.
An appeal for a moral life will only be successful
If it can evoke a great idealistic enthusiasm; if it moves
the head and the heart; The young East European is far
too intelligent to accept a whole code of behavior on a
purely political basis. The example the red bosses have
set them is d~eplorable. The ethics of men who assassin
ate, torture, exile and Jail each other are anything but
inspiring.
The scarcity of a religious education, its elimination
from most schools has produced sad results in the
OluICu DtdtCo. IL l. " uIlIlCul W lludSuuC WHd LIE
youth must be like in countries where even the name Of
God has no place in public life, where godlessness is a
virtue and parental authority had been undermined.
Yet, curiously enough, this liberation of youth
from the "shackles of religious superstition has not won
them over to some sort of red idealism, has not in the
least generated in them a feeling of gratitude for their
seducers. The youth in the Soviet orbit feels instinc-
lively that their degradation deprives them of the real
beauty of life. The youngsters of Budapest, though edu-
Gated in Communist schools, have demonstrated to the
world that they rather die than live in a Red World.
Whatever they had learned in their paramilitary train
ing, they have used against their masters who had
taught them to despise their parents and to practice
free love-.
1t would be idle TO maintain that the Hungarian
under the bsrrase Of Red propassnda they have not
terribly neglected their religious practices. Yet, on the
other hand, it is equally evident that they hate their
new life" that they fell profoundly unhappy and that
they had risen in wrath against their "Iiberators" and
enaneipafors.
Thinking men and women, for any length of time,
cannot exist without an explanation as to the where
from" and the "WheTeto" of this world. Reading con-
temporary Russian novels, | constantly encounter
these searching questions for the meaning of life.
What is fafe?" is a question reapPesring again
and again. Marxism has no answer for these philoso-
phieal and theological problems.
Neither has agnoshcism so rampant in the West
ern World. Or Mr.. Deweyts prasmatie Instrumentation
prevalent i'm so many an American college or uniyer.
All these verities do not dispose of the problem
of "roWdyism' Cast of the Iron Curtain. Over there jul
venile crime exists. Yet side on side with juenile de-
generecy, we also find the political. opposition of intelli-
gent youngsters VINO vigorously demonstrate against
the Government.
The Communists now are applying the old Nazi
trick by sticking the selfsame label on both groups:
the criminals and the enemies of their theology. In
Nazi times they both landed in the same concentration
camps thus creating the impression that people behind
barbed wires and watch towers are nothing but COM
mon criminals.
There is absolutely no doubt THAT the demonsfra.
tions of young Czeehs against their government in the
days Of the anniversary Of the Hungarian Revolution.
had nothing to do with juvenile delinquency. Their
motives were political. e
This was %obliquely admitted by the Red Czech
press which calls them criminals but constantly hints
at the "bad Polish example, set by the rioting Warsaw
students. All which proves that Orwel's 1894" was
an erroneous piece of prophecy. The degradation and
poisoning of the human mind with a wicked education
and propaganda have very definite limits. Even the
Young cannot be led entirely astrav