A LE'rrEa FROM Moscow.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—The winter has so far been exceptionally severe, with the thermometer almost constantly below zero (Fahrenheit). 3loseow is also hibernating politically : although the elections of local Soviets are in full swing throughout the whole Union, these are arousing but little public interest here. The Trotsky opposition having been temporarily subjugated, there is now no open political conflict, and however significant the slow
war of positions " waged in the villages between the Com- munist Party and the " Koulaks " (rich peasants) may be for the whole future politico-economic structure of Russia, the present elections are, as ever, made from above.
The one absorbing political topic is the " threat of war," which is provoking passionate discussions among Commu- nists and has even attracted the uneasy attention of the man in the street (usually far too occupied by the struggle for life to follow politics). This " imminent danger " of war with Poland and the Baltic States, with England as the deus ex machine, has been widely advertised by responsible members of the Administration, notably by the War Minister Voroshilof, who has just, insisted on the need to " militarize the entire _Russian people ." at the annual conference of the League for Aviation and Chemical Warfare. This organization, which bears a marked resemblance to the pre-War German Flotten- verein, has over two million members and has already pre- sented 169 planes to the Red Army.
Communist leaders doubtless feel that even a small war might, at this moment, suffice to overturn the precarious financial edifice they have so painfully built up ; and the Anglophobia of many is such that they believe the British Government capable of anything. There are, however, reasons for suspecting that this war scare is being deliberately fostered in order to turn public attention away from low wages and rising prices—also with a view to strengthening the Red Army.
The Red Staff seems to have insisted on the need for regular periods of training for Reservists and on more adequate military preparation in schools and Universities. Almost every form of competitive sport is encouraged to this end, and great popular enthusiasm is provoked by such tests of endurance as the Moscow-Oslo ski race at the end of last month. Students who have been through a cadet course will in future be allowed to serve for a reduced period as " volunteers " on the pre-War German system, on condition that they attend the School for N.C.O.'s, and will doubtless form a new class of reserve officers. Hitherto the officers and men of the Red Army have been dressed alike, but the new officers' uniforms are now beginning to be worn in public. These are : for the Air Force, dark blue tunics and breeches and high boots ; for Cavalry and Artillery, light blue tunics and breeches ; for Infantry, dark blue tunics and rather narrow trousers. This is a further sign that the Red Army Staff is not satisfied with proletarian discipline and the efficiency of proletarian officers, and of its desire to re-create in Russia an officer type.
Respect for the officer as such" is one of the morals to be drawn from The Turbiniks (by Bulgakof), the most successful new play of the Moscow theatrical season. And that is pro- bably one reason why, to everyone's astonishment, the Censorship allowed it to be given. For the first time since the Revolution White officers are therein staged, not as monsters of cruelty or cowardice, but as normal, rather gallant gentlemen faced by a situation which is beyond their control and understanding. Like Galsworthy's characters, the Turbinik family, small squires from Ukraine, are social types rather than marked personalities. But the perfect acting and sympathetic interpretation of the Art Theatre, where the play has been running to full houses for over three months, has given them life and a charm which was perhaps not foreseen by the authorities. These, however, were Prompt to seize the occasion. " I've known White officers just like these," a Communist Party leader declared to me : Russia needs the services of such splendid young men as these," said another Minister. The original (censored) title of this play was The 'White Guard ; and under the circum- stances it is not surprising that another theatre has just pro- dueed a skit on it called The Piebald Guard.
The other sensation of the season is the Communist Meyer- hold's production of Gogol's sacrosanct Revisor (the Govern- ment Inspector) in an entirely new, witty and boisterous manner. This play has been regarded for over half a century as a flawless mirror held up to Russian nature. Its characters as social types are as familiar to Russians as Sam Weller or Pecksniff are to Englishmen. And a traditional method of staging and acting it exists at least as absolute and im- peccable as a Comedie Francaise rendering of Tartufe. Meyer- hold—by a dexterous use of expressionistic gesture and clowning, delightful to Russians with their innate love of pantomime, by introducing on the pretext of Gogol's first draft of the play new dumb characters who serve as comic witnesses and foils to the protagonists, and by substituting delightful waxworks for the living actors when these are ‘‘ struck dead " by the discovery that they have been duped by a drunken student and that the real " Revisor " is about to arrive—has achieved a succes de scandale which is replenishing the coffers of his theatre and has set the critics by the ears. For once the cleavage is not entirely political ; many thread- bare members of the old Intelligentsia loudly applaud this jest ; while some Communists—like certain British Labour leaders, conservative in everything but polities—cannot conceal their indignation at this " blasphemous production." In any case, it seems unfortunate that Meyerhold should be forced to put his new wine into old bottles by the lack of suitable modern plays.
On January 21st the State Opera produced Boris, with a new scene orchestrated by a professor of the Moscow Conser- vatoire and based on Moussorgsky's original score discovered in Leningrad last year. This new scene is made the centre of the whole opera, and shows a crowd outside the Church of St. Basil asking the Czar for bread. He pauses on the steps of the Church, but cannot help them. This production emphasizes crowds as a central motive. Individual action, including the Czar's, takes place at the back of the stage with a false proscenium ; the crowd (over 200 persons) is on the " apron " and faces the audience. In the Coronation scene ikons are for the first tune brought on to a Russian stage.—I am, Sir, &c., Youn Moscow CORRESPONDENT.
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