The Russian Workers' Republic. By H. N. Brailsford. (G. Allen
and Unwin. 6s. net.)—Mr. Brailsford spent two months in Russia last autumn and stayed a fortnight in the small pro- vincial town of Vladimir. He says that he was not personally conducted the whole time by a Bolshevik and that he had some private talk with opponents of the despotism. He is strongly biased in favour of the Bolsheviks and makes the most of their educational schemes, but he does not pretend that they are anything but an infinitesimal minority ruling by terror and guile, so that the word " Republic " in the title is a misnomer. " The broad fact is to-day that the peasantry alone lives in comparative comfort and is well fed. Industry is dwindling and the industrial proletariat lives on half-rations." Mr. Braila- ford does not believe that Russia can export anything at present, except flax. He is alternately hopeful and pessimistic. " I have never," he says, " felt so little confidence in my own con- clusions." We prefer such an altitude to the dogmatic assur- ances of others, but Mr. Brailaford's hesitation is significant of the bad impression that the slave-state produced on a most sympathetic observer.
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