Old and New Russia

The Dissolution of an Empire. By Meriel Buchanan. (John Murray. 15s.) Red Russia. By Theodor Seibert, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul. (Allen and Unwin. 15s.) THE reader of books on Russia (whose name must be legion, if we may judge from the generosity with which publishers cater for his tastes) will surely find something to his fancy in the present bunch. First, a volume of reminiscences by the daughter of the last British Ambassador to Tsarist Russia ; then two studies, one enthusiastic, the other as emphatically hostile, of the present regime; and finally a handbook which its author describes as a contribution to an "up-to-date Baedeker of European revolutions," impartial and well- balanced, though unfortunately lacking in the meticulous accuracy proper to Herr Baedeker's publications.

A book whose leitmotif is sentimental regret for the past easily turns to bitterness ; and there are many bitter reflexions in The Dissolution of an Empire. The fall of the Romanov dynasty was a tragedy in virtue of the enormity of the collapse and the number of human lives involved in it. But Miss Buchanan's story reads more like a grim comedy of errors—the Milner mission reporting at the beginning of 1917 that the morale of the Russian army had never been higher ; Albert Thomas greeting the overthrow of the dynasty in March of the same year as "la plus radieuse, la plus riante, la moms sang- tante des revolutions"; Mr. Lloyd George, reluctant for political reasons to admit the dethroned Tsar to England, advising the King in April that "the danger to the Imperial family was grossly exaggerated " ; the extraordinary prevari- cations of our subsequent policy towards Denikin, Kolchak and the other " White " adventurers, whom in the not unnatural judgement of most Russians we "supported so long as they looked like being successful and then dropped them.' Miss Buchanan writes with obvious feeling ; but considering the stirring events in which she was an observer, sometimes almost a participant, there is disappointingly little in her book which we have not previously read elsewhere.

The authors of Red Russia and Soviet Russia and the World have one point in common. They have no regrets for the ancien regime; and though they differ widely about present and future, neither envisages as desirable or remotely possible any shadow of return to the past. But here—save that they are both first-rate writers—the resemblance ceases. Herr Seibert has lived in Soviet Russia as a journalist for four years and knows well both the country and its language. Professor nobb is a trained economist, but his actual experience of con- temporary Russia is limited to a few visits and remains super- ficial. Herr Seibert's book is the more ambitious and, so long as he sticks to the narrative of things seen, it is of the highest value. His description of the famous Shachty trial, or of a session of the Tsik (the Red Parliament), or of a more everyday affair such as the meeting of a House Committee, makes the reader feel that he has himself assisted at these events and obtained a real insight into the minds of those present. For these things alone this book well repays study.

But Herr Seibert has, unfortunately, an uncritical mind, which easily falls a victim to prejudice. He relates, for example, three cases of trials of Russians for complicity with foreigners in espionage and "sabotage." In two cases the foreigners concerned were Germans, and Herr Seibert unhesitatingly dismisses the whole affair as a trumped-up charge. In the third, the foreigners were Englishmen-- members of the British Mission ; and here Herr Seibert has no difficulty in believing in the guilt of the accused. Yet the evidence in all three cases was precisely the same : confessions extorted from the defendants by methods known to the Ogpu.

Equally crude instances of prejudice occur again and again in his denunciations of the Bolsheviks. He insists repeatedly on the" pharisaical" quality of official Soviet pronouncements, as if he supposed that the public utterances of the spokesmen of the capitalist Governments were always models of candour and sincerity. He makes the shattering discovery (with exclamation marks) that, if the trade barriers which shut off

Soviet Russia from the world were suddenly thrown down, "the markets would be flooded with foreign goods," "Russian factories would have to close down," and there would be "a complete collapse of national production " ; and it does not appear to occur to him that this state of affairs, far from being specially damning to the Bolsheviks, exists in every country on the continent of Europe, with the partial exception of Germany.

Professor Dobb, on the other hand, goes to the root of the economic situation and disposes at once of the current nonsense about "Russian dumping."

"Russia is not an exporter of capital and is not likely to become one. . . . Hence she has no economic reason for an export surplus. She is hardly likely to amuse herself giving goods away in order to annoy the rest of the world. The sole intention of her exports is to acquire imports ; and she is likely to continue to be as much a market for the products of other countries as an invader of their markets.

As regards Russia's economic development, Professor Dobb is conclusive. The weakness of his book, which will lead

many readers to treat him as hopelessly biassed, is that,

instead of frankly admitting the darker sides of the Soviet regime described by Herr Seibert, he either ignores them or

tries to defend them by transparent sophistries.

The author of New Russia apologizes in his preface for the

" imperfections " of a book "hastily issued." The critic can only add that such an apology, though amply justified, neither explains nor excuses. A handbook giving a clear

account of the rise and present constitution of the Soviet regime might have been an extremely useful production ;

and it would have been a pleasure to praise a work by M. de Monzie, who has been distinguished in French politics by a sane attitude to the Russian problem. But except for the general plan, which is excellent, it is difficult to believe that M. de Monzie has devoted much personal attention to the present volume. It can searcely be he who is responsible for calling the famous Genoa conference of 1922 the "Geneva conference," or for a dozen other " howlers " scarcely less glaring.