BERNARD LEVIN IN MOSCOW
SIR,—May someone whose experience of MoscO, in the years 1934 and 1935 was precisely the 0111' as Bernard Levin's in 1960 weigh in belatedly °Ili this discussion? Fair's fair, and you have publishe, so many letters telling Mr. Levin he's no travelle' —in any sense. What has impressed me in Bernard Levin's reports is that nothing seems to have changed since the Thirties—except that apparently the slogan is trw„ how much better it is than last year, whereas I was there in the autumn of 1934 and again 111 the autumn of 1935 the cry was that Russia was 'in a state of transition.' But whatever the slogan. the conditions are 'obviously the same----thc,, wretchedly stocked shops, the drab crowds on 111` streets (and at the theatre) the black-exchange street' accosting, and the quite fantastic, the it-has-to-hce experienced-to-be-believed inefficiency and bureau' cracy. This has been remarked upon by other travellers than Bernard Levin and myself. In support of Bernard Levin's observations an,d experiences, I would say that on my second visit. to the USSR I travelled very extensively on ,„11 'consulate visa' which permitted me to go free.14 wherever I chose—except to Turkestan, for whic`" a special permit was then required and which via' refused, and I went illegally—and with a London; born Russian girl Communist. Like Mr. Levin, was appalled by the poverty everywhere and hY,, the intensity of the class-structure of this so-Cal socialist society. In Moscow my attention was ca, tinually drawn with iiride to blocks of 'our workers' dwellings,' but you had to visit one of our workel living in such a block to discover that a five-rooinc" flat usually housed five families. It is very strange to be to be writing about the USSR now, some twenty-five years later, confir111,; ing that if Mr. Levin is a faithful reporter—whiel; I for one don't doubt—nothing has changed. even the lack of fruits and vegetables (but there, was cabbage in my time—lorry-loads of it!) the almost indescribable drear. Mr. Levin entitlea his last words on the subject 'From Moscow with Alacrity': I concluded my own account of Russ's
with the words, 'Quoth the Raven . s faithfully, (This iviANT418 and
(This correspondence is now closed.—Edit°('
Spectator.)
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