Victory of the Spirit
Moscow '41. By Alexander Werth. (Hamish Hamilton. los. 6d Mn. WERTH spent July, August and. September, ix, in Moscow. He had spent his boyhood in St. Petersburg and spoke Russian perfectly. He has a deep love for Russia—not Russia as a place where some particular "inn" has been put into practice, but Russia as a country where ordinary men and' women and children laugh and love and fight and play and Work much as they do in other parts of the world. That alone would be enough to promise a first-rate book about those three exciting months.
But Mr. Werth brings more to his task than that. He had seen the fail of France. He had watched France—once the champion of European freedom and western culture—make _one last desperate effort to pull herself together and then grow cynical and tired, until Munich was a victory—a -victory which led inexorably to the fall of Paris and the establishment of the Vichy Government. Mr. Werth nowhere explicitly draws the obvious contrast between Russia and France, but it is implicit throughout his book. Why did Russia succeed where France had failed? It is no answer to say that Russia had- lost territory equal in size to the whole of France before- she succeeded in stopping the German army. France of 1940 would never have Stopped the German army if she had had the whole of Asia to retreat into ; she was defeated as soon as the Germans brotte -through at Sedan. The answer lies in the teeming, vigorous purposeful life of Moscow which is the theme of Mr. Werth's book.
Yet those three months were months of almost continuous retreat for the Russian armies. At the beginning of July the Germans had scarcely set foot in Russia proper. By the beginning of October they had. crossed the- Dnieper and occupied most 'of the Ukraine ; they were hammering at the gates of Leningrad ; and they were advancing steadily on Moscow along the Smolensk highway. The prospects were gloomy and the news bad almost without interruption. But it was during those months that the greatness of Russia, as reflected in the daily life of Moscow, showed itself to best advantage. Theoair-raids were unpleasant rather than serious, and grumbling (magnified by, foreigners into the first open signs of a break) became more frequent. But normal life in Moscow carried on. The university opened r.nd impudentlY announced its curriculum for the Coming year ; the parks were full of workers and their families making the most of their off- time ; the trams (" compared with which a tin of sardines is just a vacuum ") still rattled noisily through the streets as though nothing were amiss ;. and the theatres—the superb Moscow theatres which put all other capitals to 'shame—put on new pieces and played to houses more crowded, if possible, than ever. It is true that food was short and cigarettes and vodka almost impossible to get. The Muscovites did not like it, any more than sensible people anywhere like ,what is involved in war ; but the Germans had invaded- their country and hardship had to be endured until they were flung out again. This Must be one of the most human books written about Soviet Russia. It does not set out to grind an axe, it tells a story. And as Mr. Werth points out, there is no longer 's dividing line -between " Russia " and "Soviet." The experimental stage IS
passed. Russia has taken the experiment in her stride and absorbed it. Many of the evil trimmings of Czarist days have gone and the old lovable; argumentative, easy-going Russia has acquired a unity and self-confidence and purpose which alone made possible the breaking of the German onslaught. Mr. Werth points out the significance of this, the Most important part of the revolution, for the future of Europe.
GODFREY WILKINSON.
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