ROAD TO LIFE
By Anton Makarenko
Road to Life (Stanley Nott, 7s. 6d.) is the story of the Gorki colony of young delinquents about which Eck made his famous film. Anton Makarenko is the founder and head of that remarkable institution, and his modest, good- humoured account of how he triumphed over personal failures, poverty and official neglect deserves reading for several reasons. It is a good story. It is a useful record of a social experiment. As a commentary on Bolshevik adminis- tration, with its Tehehovian mixture of idealism,- humour, incompetence and brutish endurance, it is of real value. Starting with a handful of street savages who understood nothing but force, housed in dilapidated buildings, having to beg or wangle supplies from pompous officials, Makarenko's task of creating useful citizens seemed impos, sible. Where else but in Russia would one find the head of a reformatory hav- ing to accept grain stolen by his boys ? Yet he finally inculcated a sense of honour in them, until the boys them- selves were the strongest defenders of the communal tradition of work and decency.
Previous page
