A Yankee at the Court of " King Rykov
U.S.S.R.: a World Enigma. By Ivy Lee. (Ernest Benn. Os.) THE Anglo-Saxon capitalist is a ram avis in Moscow nowadays, and all the more interest, therefore, attaches to the impres- sions of Mr. Ivy Lee, the well-known American publicist, set forth in his little book about his ten days' visit to Moscow this spring, which had been published for private circulation earlier in the year. Mr. Lee is one of the greatest authorities in the United States on publicity and propaganda, and has business connexions with many of the leading capitalist organizations in that country.
To write something worth while about Russia, after a ten days' visit, is a task which would have appalled most people. Mr. Rykov, the Prime Minister of Russia, said to the author
So you are assuming to get an idea of Russia in ten days as head of the Russian Government, have spent all my life here. I am in daily contact with the men who are supposed to know all about Russia. Yet, only last week we had reported to us for the first time the existence of a new tribe of Russian people of whom none of us had ever before heard."
And yet Mr. Lee has produced a very readable and unprejudiced account of present-day Moscow and the powers behind the scenes there. One of the drawbacks of visiting Russia is that most travellers are ignorant of the Russian language, and are consequently very much in the hands of their interpreters, and only see and hear what their hosts desire. It is to be hoped that some English journalists will follow Mr. Lee's example in the near future, for it is impossible that two of the greatest Empires in the world can remain permanently isolated from one another.
The best way of going to Moscow is to do as Mr. Ivy Lee did, and fly from Berlin, but the passport formalities are consider- able, and getting out of Russia is even more difficult than getting in. The most up-to-date thing in Moscow is its telephone service, and the telephone operators, when answering your call, instead of saying " Number please," give you the number of the operator, so that the subscriber can make complaints if the service is not satisfactory. The Russian Government certainly deserves credit for its efforts at simpli- fying the Russian alphabet, with its thirty-six letters. Six of the old letters have already been removed, and it is hoped yet further to simplify the language, which is good news to all Russian students.
Mr. Lee does right to point out how regrettable was the state of affairs before the break between Russia and Great Britain, when there were no direct correspondents of the English Press in Russia, and the British Press was practically without direct news from Moscow. The American Press is represented by eight correspondents, and American opiniOn is, therefore, much better provided with information about Russia than was the British newspaper-reading public, before the break. The German Press, with ten correspondents in Moscow, is exceptionally well represented. Italy has three correspondents, and France only one. The most interesting man in Russia, according to Mr. Lee, is Karl Radek, whom he regards as the Russian counterpart of Mr. J. L. Garvin. Radek occupies a position of great influence as president of the Chinese University in Moscow, at which some six hundred Chinese are in residence.
We have always regarded the best means of fighting Communist propaganda to be the removal of the causes of social unrest in this country. If we could abolish the slums, and establish a prosperous class of peasant proprietors on the land, we should have done more to offset Communist propaganda than by the merely negative action of breaking-off relations with Russia. In his talk with Mr. Lee, Radek explains why it is that the Bolshevists are unable to carry on successful propaganda in America :—
" How can you expect us to make successful propaganda against 23,000,000 motor cars ? We know your work. g men are well employed and at high wages ; if there were oppression and trouble in America, perhaps our propaganda could make some headway, but at the present time anyone who thinks we expect anything a the -United States is to be laughed at."
The author seems to think that one of the greatest dangers which faces Western Society is the possibility of Bolshevist — •
Russia, excommunicated by some of the Western Powers, with a grievance against Western society, drawing closer to the nations of Asia.. Germany probably has as. much to fear from Russian propaganda as any nation, by reason of her proximity to that country, and immediately after the War Bolshevist views undoubtedly made some headway there, but to-day Germany does not fear Communism. The official German viewpoint, 'and it is one to which the Spectator largely subscribeS; is that the attempt to isolate Russia- from the Western nations is- dangerous; because it tends- to- push her to the East; rather than draw her towards the West. Mr. Lee writes :— " The Germans do net- believe that Bolshevism can flourish in well-organized communities, where the people are prosperous ; and that its only chance is in distressed ceuntries."
Mr. Lee came away convinced that the present Soviet regime is there to . stay, In considering his rernarks, one must always reniember that he only saw what the Russian Government wished. him to see. He was convinced that the present tendency in Russia is " away from Communism and towards Capitalism."' He is of the opinion that every forward- looking man should visit Russia and study her problems on the spot, advice which we cordially endorse.
As a successful business man, Mr. Lee's remarks on how Bolshevism has been -killed in America deserve attention :- " It has been done by producing such a state of prosperity that everybody is at work at high wages, everyone has a chance to own some property and, having owned that property, he doei not want to give it up.
, " ' How has radicalism been driven out of the United States Steel Corporation ? Has it not been done by making the workers stock- holders and self-respecting property-owning citizens of the country ? Is there not a law ofbiolOgy upon which many physicians base their practice of medicine, namely, that the purpose of medicine is to build up the body, so that the body may fight off the disease ? "
Everyone interested in the future of Europe, whether lie believes in Great Britain's policy of refusing to have direct relations with the Soviet Government or no, should read Mr. Lee's book ; it will give him much food for thought. And if it inspires us to go to the root causes of social unrest in Great Britain, and to seek to eradicate them, it will have served a useful purpose.
J.
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