The Mind and Face of Bolshevism
The Mind and Face of Bolshevism. By Rene Feltip-Miller. (Putnam and Sons. 21s.)
IT has been said by a close observer of movements in Great Britain that to the wage-earner who is genuinely affected by the Russian Revolution Bolshevism has become a religion. There is a great deal of truth in that. The present writer has talked with men who were unwilling (though probably also unable) to argue about Bolshevism but who felt quite sincerely that a new light had come into the world. These men were ignorant ; but there was no doubt that they had been caught up by a passion that lifted them out of themselves. It was a case of ecstasy, in the strict Greek sense of a man standing outside himself. They felt somehow that they were raised by wings or were walking on air. It is notoriously difficult to reason with men in such a frame of mind which is both fanatical and fantastic. They seriously believe that they have a revelation that has been denied to their benighted interlocutor.
It would be an excellent thing if those who have such thoughts—or more strictly, we should say, such feelings—could read this book by Herr Rene Fiilop-Miller. He comes to the study of Bolshevism from a new angle. He tells us that it has been discussed to the point of tedium as a political institution and that the results of the study are barren. We heartily agree, for the political claims of the Bolshevists are grotesque.
They say in effect "-We are the creators of the only Communist State in the world. Alone we did it. Noms' we will teach the rest of the world, by force if not by persuasion, to follow our lead." How heroic it sounds ! But as a matter of simple fact there has never been a Communist State in Russia. Bolshevism failed from the moment it was born ; it was beaten by the peasants. Lenin before his death acknowledged his failure. If, therefore, there is something worth study in the Soviet system it is not the political side of it.
The value of Herr Ffiliip-Miller's book is that he shows us precisely the " cultural " ideas which are guiding Bolshevism. Allowance must be made for the fact that cultural," in our sense, is not the exact equivalent of the German Kunio., and often when the translators are necessarily unable to use any other word it may be a trifle misleading. The aim of the Bolshevists—the cultural and spiritual aim, let us say, in order to be comprehensive—is to produce a new type of man, a man who has freed himself from the control of individu- alism and individualistic religion and becomes what the author calls a collective man." It is assumed, evidently, that the collective man, living out his life in purely mechan- istic conditions, will be a representative of the whole people. Unhappily for this theory the idea which has been imposed upon the mass (probably upon only a small part of the mass) is merely the ideal of a handful of Soviet rulers. If the people, as such, ever succeed in reforming Russia they will have achieved democracy—which the Soviet ridicules. Then, we admit, the collective man might be the type of the nation. But when we are told—not by Herr Ffilop-Miller, of course—that the collective man has already emerged even while there is a despotism at Moscow, it is necessary to point out that there has been a terrible crash in the logic.
We are reminded of Mr. Kapek's fascinating play, called in English The Insect Play. Probably Mr. Kapek wrote the play as a satire on Nature, but certainly as it was presented in London it was in the main a satire on a highly mechanized modern State. You saw the physical motions of the labourers reduced to the most scientific point of economy. Walking to and from their work they marched to the tap of drums and to loudly reiterated numbers, " One, two, three, four ! " Everything seemed to have been thought out ; everything redundant had been removed. Surely such a perfectly contrived society could never perish ! And then, and then— these human creatures, who had the form of busy ants in a heap, learnt that a rival human ant-heap had refused to give way in a dispute as to rights of passage over a particular blade of grass. And there was war ! The perfectly mechanized society, which we had watched entranced, with its wonderful economy, its drum taps, its shouted numbers, and its over- whelming application of science, was swept away, was annihilated.
That, though not necessarily in so catastrophic a manner, is likely to be the fate of a nation which sets up a God of Mechanization. As the peasants defeated Bolshevism so will the " soul-encumbered individual creature " impede a culture which has not anything truly spiritual in it. A traveller in Russia once told the present writer that he came across a woman who was plodding wearily day after day on foot across the steppes in order to attend some religious festival. He asked her if she was not lonely. She looked surprised at the question and said with perfect simplicity : " No ; my soul goes with me." The Soviet mechanists who are, as they believe, evolving the " collective man " are really returning to a primitive conception. They are not advancing but going back. In an intensely interesting passage Herr Fillop-Miller argues that the reason for this is that the Renaissance did not really touch Russia. The greater part of Europe rediscovered the idealistic methods of the exact sciences, with the art and politics intimately connected with them, and thus a new world was created, and, above all, a great theory of autonomous personality. In contradistinction to this the Bolshevists, confident but only partially informed, are trying to deify the mass. The theory of the collective man is a slave theory. Herr Ffilop-Miller believes, and he is very likely right, that the serf complex of the Russian people is appearing in a new form. The mass theory necessarily minimizes the importance of personality, yet it is difficult to imagine a revolution in which personality has played a greater part than in the Russian Revolution. Apparently, the Bolshevist thinkers would get over that difficulty by saying that Lenin was an extreme type. The phrase " extreme type " is in itself a verbal contradiction, but it is only by some such contradiction that one can hope to explain the Bolshevist confusion.
This book shows in detail, with a profusion of most interesting photographs, how the mechanistic theory applies itself to decorative design, to literature, to monumental art which is largely propagandist, to the theatre, to music, and to education. At present there is an attempt to exalt American methods of mass production, but the Slav evidently breaks down hopelessly in the use of methods which, as the Americans would say, he does not begin to understand.
Consider the fantastic outcome of the Bolshevist theory in architecture. Stone and wood have been written off as bourgeois, and so metal, concrete, and glass have been taking their place, and we can only advise our readers to get this book and look at the curious photographs of structures of iron, glass, and concrete set up to interpret the modern soul of Russia. Consider, again, the attempt to interpret the industrial soul of Russia by symphonies of factory steam- whistles which are organized in some industrial quarters. A conductor controls the orchestra from a high roof. It is not easy, we are told, to recognize even the " Internationale " as played by this music. Let us acknowledge, however, that although, as some one has said, " Russia roofed in would be Bedlam," there is genius which often leaves us ashamed. If literary genius is now in fetters, there is at least genius in decoration, dancing, and dramatic production.
This is a revealing book which everyone should read. But it makes us believe more firmly than ever that Russia cannot succeed till the " soul-encumbered individual creature " has tacitly and unknowingly—for that will probably be the way of it—disposed of a monstrous theory.
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