The Soviet Union and the West
In a speech to peasant leaders last week, M. Kalinin, President of the Supreme Soviet, dwelt on two factors affecting the Soviet Union's attitude to the outside world. The first, her fear of attack from abroad, is one of the permanent factors in Russian policy ; and M. Kalinin insisted that, despite thz advantages she has gained from her victories, the Soviet Union as the only Socialist State in the world is still exposed to the danger of attack from her capitalist enemies. Unless the Russian illusion can be removed it will con- tinue to exercise 'a disastrous effect on her foreign policy, leading her to concentrate on consolidating her strategical position, even at the cost of forfeiting the confidence and trust of her Allies, which in fact constitute the greatest bulwark of her security. The second factor is the profound impression made on the Soviet troops by their contact with Western Europe ; M. Kalinin denounced those returning soldiers who are unable to conceal their admiration for the superior " culture " of the countries they invaded, especially Germany, and insisted that this petit bourgeois virus must be extir- pated at all costs. This is an interesting admission. What M. Kalinin here means by " culture " is, of course, the technical superiority of the West, and especially its abundance of consumption goods which are articles of luxury in the Soviet Union. For the Russian soldier in Germany this superiority was symbolised above all by wrist watches and the lace curtains of the typical German middle- class home. It will be difficult to emancipate his mind from the idea of Western Europe as a land flowing with milk and honey ; and many Soviet soldiers are showing a certain reluctance to leave the centres of bourgeois corruption for the paradise of Socialism. There are some Soviet leaders who believe that the proper answer to this
problem is to concentrate on the production of consumption goods and on a vast programme of mass education to raise the educational level of their people. There are others, unfortunately, who think that to retire into complete isolation, behind a devastated frontier belt, is the best protection against the military and intellectual dangers of the West.
