This column first appeared in the Victoria Daily Times on Nov. 22, 1941.
The big surprise of the war has been the Russians and their staying power; 180聽million of them, all patriots, all brave, all determined and not a Quisling among them. Many people wonder how that great shapeless, overflowing country 鈥� 80 per cent illiterate in 1917 鈥� could ever become the coherent, intelligent, corporate state it is in聽1941.
There must be a reason. We remember that the first thing they did after the revolution was to teach their people to read and write. Their first social-service objective was to care for their children. Children were fed even if the older people went short, and the children were happy with music and dancing, folk songs and athletic games. Even the violent critics of the revolutionists had to admit that the new regime were doing something for their youth.
I have beside me a little red book called New Russia鈥檚 Primer, which has been used in the schools of Russia now for many years. It is written by an imaginative engineer, M. Ilin, who is the author of other textbooks.
This little book shows something of the ideas given to the young Russians, which I believe helps to explain their hardihood in this colossal struggle. Ilin made the Five Year Plan into a great adventure, calculated to call out these loyalties in the young people that have hitherto been associated with war.
It begins with a story to show what happens to a country when it works without a plan. And on that we need not dwell. We know about glutted markets and surpluses and unemployment. Then having pictured the confusion and misery attendant on booms and slumps, it proceeds to show how the resources of their country can be harnessed and developed to lift the burden from the people for their use and pleasure.
In one of the early chapters, the book speaks about their great resources.
鈥淥f finished goods,鈥� it says, 鈥渨e have little, but of raw materials we have as much as we wish. Forests contain beams, rafters and ties. Peat swamps are electric current. Clay will make bricks. But first we must have exploring parties. During the first 10 years following 1919, 379 expeditions went out to locate wealth.
鈥淏eyond Karelia, they found a huge mountain of valuable minerals, nephelyte for glass, apatite for fertilizer. At Kara-Kum they found strange hills with sulphur in abundance 鈥� now we do not need to buy in Italy, for we use our own sulphur in making paper and rubber. In Siberia, the scouts found rich deposits of soda with which we can make soap. Of raw materials we have plenty, and in time we will force even the wind to work for us.鈥�
鈥淓very child must be a scout,鈥� another chapter says, 鈥測ou, too, can form expeditions with your teacher鈥檚 help and discover the locality in which you live. We must own our country. We have great unowned forests, unowned steppes and unowned mines.鈥�
The book contains an exciting story of the great dam on the Dnieper and the battle the engineers had with that mighty river 鈥� their failures and successes, the breakthrough of the water and at last the victory 鈥� 10 turbines each possessing 90,000 horsepower.
But all of the book is not concerned with wheels and bolts and sand and coal. There is a section entitled New People, which says: 鈥淲e need factories to refine our people. We need schools, universities, libraries, cottage reading-rooms. We need books and newspapers. We must eradicate drunkenness. We must close shops of alcohol, and replace saloons with theatres and moving pictures, with clubs and rest-houses.
鈥淲e must root out ignorance and uncouthness. We must change ourselves and become worthy of a better life. And this better life will not come as a miracle; we must ourselves create it. But to create it we need knowledge, strong hands and strong minds.鈥�
Then follows a list of the things the children can do to bring about this new order, with a report of a pioneers鈥� meeting.
鈥淭he children of Zherdevsky gathered and planted apple seeds and started a fruit orchard. Next year they will supply every household with valuable cuttings. On the outskirts of Moscow there is a children鈥檚 city with a macadam road 300 metres long, with apple trees planted on each side.鈥�
The students are then directed to some practical activities. 鈥淭o聽discover beds of lime and phosphorus; to gather useful junk; rags, ropes wool, bones, scraps of metal. Build radios and loudspeakers 鈥� not one school should be without a loudspeaker. To gather ashes for fertilizing fields. Kill 10聽marmots a year in the regions infested by these animals. Catch and destroy mice and rats. Build birdhouses 鈥� birds are our allies, they will help us destroy parasites. And two good laying hens to the possession of every household. Plant two trees each year.鈥�
The whole spirit of the book is one of enthusiastic co-operation. It has all the glamour of a radio serial, only it is definitely related to the life around them. I am quite sure there was no need to plead with the young Russians not to destroy property on Halloween, for the whole country has become their country. And that, perhaps, is the secret of their unity and their evident determination to save their country from the hands of the spoiler.
I turned from this buoyant book with its cheerful exuberance to read again what Cora Hind had to say about Russia, where she travelled in 1936. In her book called Seeing For Myself, she speaks about the collective farm called Gigant, which is near Rostov.
This is her summary: 鈥淚t is amazing to see what has been done. There is plenty to criticize in cultural methods, enormous waste and wreck of machinery, and other things, but something gigantic has been worked out under great handicaps, and it is small wonder that the men and women who have had a hand in doing it are proud of their efforts.鈥�
In other parts of her book, Hind speaks about the equality of the Russian women, the responsible positions filled by them in every sort of activity; and the pride all the people take in their country鈥檚 advancement. Her book makes good reading now, but sad, too, for now, unfortunately, the scene has changed. These brave plans have been interrupted.
The great Dn茅iprostroy has been destroyed by the people who built it, and the earth is scorched and barren. There is darkness where once there was light, and sorrow where once there was hope and laughter. Russia has felt the cold blight of Hitler鈥檚 new order, but stands now bravely fighting for her own dear land and for the causes of human liberty everywhere.
It seems to be a time for clear thinking about Russia, and while we are about it, let us get this matter of religion straightened out, too. It makes me indignant to hear radio speakers bracket Hitler and Stalin now, when one is our enemy and one is our ally.
We have been wrong in believing that religion has disappeared from Russia.
The Soviet government certainly did suppress the Russian Orthodox Church, and seized two million acres of the monastery lands, 1,000 church farms and 2,000 other buildings.
But by 1921, Lenin saw that the peasants were displeased over this and he began to tolerate religious worship. There were always certain evangelical sects in Russia who went about their business unmolested 鈥� Seventh Day Adventists, Baptists and others. Persecution has done much to separate the false and true, and many earnest priests of the old church continue to proclaim the Gospel of Christ in the fields, and in the huts of the people.
Some of the young have wondered if Marxist doctrines really supply the full need of the heart and it is true that today, in their great hour of testing, churches are filled with reverent worshippers.
These are strange days when the old landmarks disappear and accounts must be written off and forgotten. God remains steadfast and unshakable, but our human conception of God changes.
Let us be slow to judge the deeper thoughts of any people. Who among us can set himself up as a spiritual thermometer? This seems like a good time to strop wrangling over who鈥檚 right, and concentrate on what鈥檚 right.
