Correspondence
[We have just received this article from Mr. Ivy Lee, our New York correspondent, who is visiting Moscow for the third time since 1927. Mr. Lee is on his way to Japan vid Siberia to attend the meeting of the Institute of Pacific Relations as one of the American delegates. The regular letter from our Moscow coire- spondent is held over till next week.—En. Spectator.]
Moscow Avran TWELVE Mormrs. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—There are but three primary topics of discussion in Moscow to-day : (1) The Five Year Plan of Industrialization' (2) The effort to socialize farming in the villages ; and (8) The new five-day week. Relations with England, relations with the United States, the possibility of war with China or anybody else, the controversies within the Communist Party—all such topics are but secondary and academic. The others are real and vital and being followed with almost religious fervour. This is in great contrast to the situation when the writer visited Russia a little more than two years ago, and again last year. In May, 1927, the struggle within the Party was the chief subject of discussion. The break with England was considered inevitable. There was great eagerness to develop normal relations with the United States. Private traders had Considerable freedom. The peasants were exerting great pressure upon the Government for greater opportunity for individualistic development. It looked to many as if the swing to "the right" might be pronounced and early.
One year later the atmosphere was surcharged with a fear- of-war obsession. Many of the most responsible men in the Government undoubtedly believed that Poland was planning a war against Russia, Poland to have the backing of Great Britain and France. It seemed absurd to one coming from the outside world, but it was real in Moscow, at least—and what Moscow thinks, the Soviet Union thinks. The Opposition within the Party had not been placated, and the minds of the ruling elements were much perturbed over that.
Now all is changed. One no longer hears the Foreign Office complain of a conspiracy among the Western nations to make war on Russia. The situation in Manchuria is not regarded too seriously. Russia knows China cannot fight, and that what is going on is but a series of gestures. It is not con- sidered here that the Nanking Government is to be the last Government in China. But Russia will not negotiate with the Nanking Government over the Chinese Eastern Railway until the status quo ante has been restored. The Soviet Government maintains that the Russian manager of the railway must be reinstated before the general subject can be discussed on its merits. It would appear that Russia recognizes that ultimately the Chinese Eastern Railway will probably go back , to Chinese hands, but not until full indemnity has been paid for Russia's claims on account of her investment in that property.
Relations with England are regarded as of interest rather than great importance—the Soviets feel that their diplomacy has won the first innings in the insistence that ambassadors shall be exchanged before the substance of the disputes between the two countries are considered. The nego- tiations that will follow will undoubtedly be prolonged, and it would appear to be the determination of the Russian Government that there shall be no agreement to pay Tsarist debts or make reparation for private property seized, unless there is simultaneously an agreement to provide a substantial credit to the Soviet Gisvernment. Meanwhile the most popular Ballet at the Grand Opera House in Moscow is The Red Poppy, a mild satire on the English in China. Relations with the United States are hardly discussed except in a business sense. But there is a large group of American engineers here rendering technical assistance either on account of contracts for goods purchases or through direct employment by the Government. Diplomatically and politically, however, the United States appears to have ceased to be an object of primary interest to the Soviet Government. A year ago there was an almost appealing yearning for recognition by the United States. Whether the impression one gathers now is sound or not, there is certainly not the same evidence of that eagerness. "We have now shown we can live without foreign capital," one prominent Communist expressed it to me, "and while we want the capital we are prepared to do without it." Hence an attitude of independence toward the United States, and possible American loans, which was distinctly lacking last year. Russia is now absorbed in internal affairs, giving relatively little thought to the outside world. There is no doubt that those responsible for the conduct of Russian affairs have staked everything on the success of the Five Year Plan of Industrialization. The Party is milted in support of it. All the members of the Opposition —except Trotsky and Rakovsky—have recanted. There is no longer an inner struggle. The country has drawn in its belt, made up its mind to pay the price, and accelerated the tempo of industrialization to the utmost. "Within five years, Russia will have the biggest tractor plant, the biggest paper mills, the biggest of many other industries in the world ! " Such is the assertion of an industrial Com- munist. "A great dream," one observes. "But it is no dream," replies the Conununist, "it is a fact—and it now looks as if the Plan will be completed in less than five years." Of course, it is all at great cost. Everything exportable is being requisitioned to create a foreign trade balance with which to buy the indispensable machines. It is very difficult now to get bacon, sugar, cheese, in Moscow—they are export- able goods, not to speak of a host of manufactured articles. The cost of living mounts. Inflation of the currency goes on, although flat prices and a flat rate of exchange are main- tained by the banks and authorities. One is told that all the sacrifices will be paid for in the success of the Five Year Plan—when all Russia will be mechanized. Orthodox economists may shake their heads—but a Socialist State can do things upon a basis that would be impossible for a bourgeois country. What would be currency inflation elsewhere is but sound finance here !
The whole dream of mechanization is finding its supreme test in the effort to socialize farming. The leading cinema director of Russia, Eisenstein, has just exhibited here a propaganda picture, "The Old and the New," contrasting the antiquated capitalist methods of farming with the great achievements to be realized through community farming. The picture is widely advertized on posters, por- traying a giant bull with a cross section of his interior shown as a machine. The chief motif of the picture is : "Tractors, tractors, tractors ! " Heaven will be here when there are enough tractors, and the farmers unite their energies to work together and not as individuals. Pure milk will flow like rivers, abundant harvests will make life new.
The farmers do not accept the new doctrine without a struggle. The peasant has a weapon in the shape of a single match which is a constant menace to the community farm. Cases of arson are very frequent. Likewise there is much assassination of Government and Party agents seeking to organize community farms. But these are not revolutionary acts, they are merely protests—in the peculiarly Russian style—against the activities of the Government. The same peasants would doubtless fight hard to uphold the existence of the Government against any known alternative. And many competent and disinterested observers believe the Government will succeed in its efforts to win the villagers over to socialized farming. It will be a bitter fight, however, and the next six months will probably tell the tale. Just at the moment the whole country is tremendously excited over the transition to the five-day week, and the abolition of Sunday. These lines are written on a Sunday, and while regular services are being held in the churches, every shop, office, factory and business and Government establishment is open. Sunday is a bourgeois institution, and has gone with the destruction of the famous shrine of the Iberian Virgin between the arches leading to the Red
Square. All this, of course, means a revolution in the social life and habits_ of the people. Every business and industry must arrange to give each officer and employee one day oft in every five. The machines must never stop, offices must never close. The plan only started on October 1st, and the people are getting adjusted to it. Communists tell one that the idea has been met with the greatest enthusiasm throughout the country, and the idea is said to be but three months old—having originated in the brain of a journalist. In three months it had the sanction of a Government decree 1 And already one hears talk of a dream of a four-day week. But it is admitted that that is only a dream.
Several superficial impressions strike one in visiting Moscow after a year's interval. The people seem healthier, happier and to walk with more spring and energy. On the whole, the people appear better dressed—not that they are well dressed, but there are more new clothes in evidence. There is an enormous amount of new building and repairs going on, not only in Moscow, but one sees it in towns and villages along the railway. In Moscow, a huge new brick structure is being erected to house the Government offices. A large number of new workmen's apartment houses are being built on the co-operative principle, to be paid for in small instalments extended over twenty or thirty years. The streets are being slowly paved, and the sewerage system of the city is being brought up to date. Meanwhile, the dictatorship of the Proletariat is largely in the hands of one man, Stalin, whose power is undiminished and unquestioned. Though not in the Government, he is head of the Party, and no one denies that Government in Russia is an instrument of the Party—Stalin's policy is toward the Left, unmistakably, relentlessly. There is no spirit of compromise with either foreign Governments or foreign capital. The Communists are proud of what they have done. They apologize for nothing. They want peace, they want friendship with other countries, but when it comes to principles, they say, "negotiations with foreign countries have got to be quite as much on the basis of our principles as on theirs."
One has a feeling here that the Russians have about given up any idea of the effectiveness of Bolshevik propaganda among Western nations. They are quite frank in stating that in so far as Asiatic countries are concerned they consider that the very existence of the Soviet Government constitutes an incentive to countries like China and India to throw off the foreign yokes that bind them. One gathers that less interest is taken now in the Comintern—or Third Inter- national. No member of the Government is now active in the International.
Rykoff, Prime Minister, has retired from the Executive Committee. Stalin remains a nominal member but is not active. The only active connecting link is Molotoff, member of both the Politburo and the Executive Committee of the International. Bukharin is out of the Comintern, as well as of the Politburo. When one recalls the days when the International was run actively by Bukharin, Radek and Zinovieff with the backing of Lenin, and now, when the Comintern is regarded as of receding interest, it is possible to see the extent to which a sense of reality—at least with reference to the practicability of effective Western propa- ganda—has asserted itself. But here again is evidence that Russia, finding it impossible to revolutionize the world, has seriously and earnestly concentrated effort upon saving herself.
Meanwhile the great forces of life, more powerful than any Government, continue to exert themselves. These forces are, in the long run, as irresistible as the tides. To what extent Bolshevik economic efforts will be shown to have been in conformity with fundamentals, and thus become a per- manent success, or to what extent these dreams and plans will be shown to be in hopeless conflict with those elemental forces of human nature of which all economics are but an expression, time will tell. In the meantime, one is impressed with the force of an observation a well-informed foreign diplomat is said to have made upon leaving the country recently, "Russia is not a country—it is a thesis," and that " thesis " represents one-sixth of the world's' area, and nearly one-tenth of its population, a rich territory and a vigorous people with which the rest of the world must live on some sort of terms. The challenge to statesmanship is to bring it about that these terms shall represent progress for all mankind.
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