Russia To-day
BY LEON KIRIL.
SOME impressions of a recent visit by one who knew the country fairly well in the old days may be of some interest. During the first few days it seemed that everything had undergone a fundamental change, but one soon began to realize that the new face only concealed the spirit, methods and outlook of the old Russia. Most of the astonishing innovations of the Bolshevik regime have their roots in old principles and practices. The policy of collectivism is a return to conditions of not so long ago. It is only about twenty years ago that Stolypin introduced peasant proprietorship. Before that the land was owned corporately by the village community. It is true that the present campaign to collectivize the land deprives the members of the collective farm of nearly all the limited individual initiative they possessed under the old system. But the principle of collective ownership and exploitation by the community was a dominant feature of Russia's social structure until comparatively recently.
It 'is generally believed that social and class dis- tinctions have been entirely abolished. In theory social distinctions at least have been swept away, but they are dying hard. Class distinctions—perhaps categories is a, better word—are in some ways more definite than in the old days. But the fact that the worker is privileged in almost every way has not made him in social intercourse the equal of those who through superior education and intellect hold posts of authority or responsibility. These can nearly always be distinguished by certain refinements of dress and manner, even though they be of genuine proletarian origin. One need only visit the theatres, travel on long-distance expresses, or spend a few days at one of the Black Sea holiday resorts, to realize that even under Communism there are still social superiors and inferiors.
One will notice that in the theatres the better seats are filled with a more or less white-collared and silk- stockinged crowd, which holds aloof from the shirt- sleeved and kerchiefed section of the audience. It is very rare to find a genuine workman travelling in a sleeping car, and what is perhaps even more striking is that there is obviously some attempt made to segregate passengers in those trains which consist entirely of " hard," or old third-class, carriages. It should be ex- plained that even for these trains tickets are issued for specific seats, and there is no doubt, after some experience of travelling " hard carriages, that the ticket offices manage to arrange that the better-class passengers have the cleanest compartments and that the peasantry is herded by itself.
On the coast of the Black Sea, which somebody has called the " Red Riviera," one might almost imagine oneself back in the pre-War days. In the best hotels-- and some quite decent ones still exist—the guests are typical of the old petty bourgeois merchants, subordinate officials and superior commercial clerks. The workers have their own hostels and rest homes, and by mutual consent each class seems more or less to keep to its own part of the bathing beach.
The foreigner's position in Russia is peculiar. He is at once a privileged guest and an " untouchable." He can have practically no social intercourse with a Russian, for no Russian dare visit or be visited by a foreigner except on official business. It is impossible to be more than a mere casual acquaintance with any Russian to-day. On the other hand, everything is done to make the foreign visitor as comfortable as possible. He is not expected to put up with the conditions that are good enough for the natives. In a great many pro- vincial hotels there are rooms absolutely reserved for foreigners, and no Russian, however respectable, is allowed to use them ; in many hotels there are also special dining rooms " for foreigners only," and, of course, in Leningrad and Moscow the best hotels are reserved entirely for foreigners. The foreigner, if he has proper credentials from Moscow—and it is practically impossible to travel into the provinces without—can buy any luxuries and extras in the way of food that are available. In the bigger towns there are special shops for foreigners alone where all sorts of exotic luxuries are for sale.
The really extraordinary thing about it is that this preferential treatment of foreigners does not seem to cause any ill-feeling among the people. A foreigner may sit down in a public restaurant to a meal including white bread, butter and such like delicacies, and should a Russian nearby ask whether he cannot have some butter to eat with his black bread he is told that is only for foreigners. " So that citizen is a foreigner. It is perfectly understood," he will probably say.
In the old days there were at a rough guess some fifteen to twenty thousand foreigners helping to run Russia's industries. To-day there are at least three thousand American, German and other engineers and experts and about ten thousand foreign workmen. The Government is engaging more every month, but they hope sooner or later to be able to get on without outside assistance. Foreigners had to be taken on at first because the plans for new industries provided for new plants on a scale far beyond the capacity and experience of the native engineers to tackle. For the same reasons that made so many foreign specialists necessary in the old days it is likely that they will have to be retained in- definitely. It is not only a question of training and experience. It is almost equally a matter of character. The Russian engineer may be a very good engineer, but as the manager of a big plant he fails for the following reasons. He has a constitutional inability to say " No " convincingly but not violently, he is loth to take a responsible decision, and to a considerable extent he still suffers from the old tradition that inhibited the intellectual worker from dirtying his hands. The foreigners, especially the Americans, carry on as they would do at home, show a great deal of patience with the workmen, whom they treat more as if they were enthus- iastic but inexperienced boys than as grown men, and the workmen respond. The average Russian manager directs things from his office and spends a far greater part of his time in compiling statistics and reports than in supervising the actual work.
The Americans have often saved the Russians from themselves. Here is a typical example. There are two enormous new works, one in the North the other in the South. Both are designed for the manufacture of agricultural machinery. In the North the authorities decided to build the works unaided ; the other has been built and the machinery installed under American supervision. The Northern factory is being constructed of inferior bricks and mortar and was to be roofed prin- cipally with timber. The Southern plant is to all intents and purposes as good and well found as if it were in America. The buildings are made of reinforced concrete and the roofs of iron and steel. The -.plans .for the Northern plant provided for concrete and all the rest of it, but the material could not be supplied partly owing to the general shortage, partly to the breakdown of transport. Had there been Americans in charge they would have held the work up till they got what they required. The Russian engineers dare not.. They must complete the buildings by the specified time whatever happens and use local material if none other be .available. If they tried to stand out against -the .central authorities they would most probably be imprisoned or worse for sabotage.
Another vivid impression one gets in Rusin is of the place women are taking in industry.- - About one-third of the industrial workers are women - and- 'women even work as bricklayers, navvies and at' all Sorts of coolie work. So far they do not seem to have invaded the professions to a greater degree than in most other countries, but the younger generation is showing great keenness. studying at the technical schools and universities, where of course they have exactly the same rights as their brothers. As recruits for communism the girls give an impression of greater enthusiasm than the youths. The Bolshevik leaders have always admitted that Russia will not be one hundred per cent.. communist until the bourgeois instincts for home, family, and personal possessions have been eradicated. It is still to be proved whether this instinct is being destroyed or only temporarily in abeyance in the rising generation, particularly in the female portion of it. In this direction at least it is a fair assumption that the women have far more to say than the men.
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