Propaganda and Censorship Keep True Soviet Picture From American Observers, "Forward" Editor Says
Cahan, Abraham
Propaganda and Censorship Keep True Soviet Picture FromAmerican Observers, "Forward" Editor Says By Abraham Cahan, a! 'ii a i. thought in this country ia strongly tinctured withpro-Soviet...
...Noris there anything striking in thefact that in some of these casesit has reached a point where anindorsement of Bolshevism haspractically come to be regarded asan integral part of a Socialist program...
...He has destroyed politically, and in some instances in a literal sense, absolutely every member of Lenin's old guard, every one of themen, who played an importantpart under that leader, replacing them by a group of his own henchmen...
...No one took their retraction seriously...
...The queues In front of the cooperative stores are longer thanever...
...When the Five Year Plan was first conceived the other influential leaders whom he had not yet unhorsed opposed it as strenuously as they dared...
...They had no organic connection with the roots of the system as an economic, political and moral entity...
...The people re afraid of their own shadows...
...Boys will be boys...
...At present Russia is writhing in the throes of an economic tragedyrecalling the catastrophe of 1921that forced Lenin to abandon his military communism for the NepNew Economic Policy...
...Others are non-partl-san, but obviously not In a positionto tell the full truth...
...The American public has buta vague idea of these things...
...Of late oneor two of the Sundny papers and weekly magazines have publishedsome striking articles presentingthe other side, but so far thesehave been swamped in the usualsea of pro-Soviet matter...
...In addition, there is somethingwhich was comparatively littleknown under the old regime.There is a passion for spyingupon one's friends and for informing against them to the Gpu (secret police) which Is partly a mater of self-preservation and party one of the methods of getting n In the world and which is eneretically encouraged by the Gpu, the most powerful and influentialranch of the government...
...A man of twenty-fiveho looks like fifty and has losthis teeth through scurvy, the result of malnutrition, or dead horseslying by the roadside—sights ofthis sort are too common to attract attention...
...America's distress is often urged asevidence of Russia's happiness...
...What used to be"parlor-Socialism" and "parlor-anarchism" has become parlorCommunism...
...Some of the German orEnglish newspapermen, for example, have been known to presenta good deal of the unadorned truthregarding the Russia of today,though some had to leave thecountry as a consequence...
...Also, that theentire Five Year Plan is a colossalsuccess...
...The very latest decree signedby Stalin and his Prime MinisterMolotoff implies a return toLenin's Nep of 1921...
...If it Is, then Attila andTamerlane were Socialists...
...HeIs a man of Indomitable courageand remarkable astuteness, effective in building up a political ma chine and in destroying one's rivalsrather than a Judge of mass psychology and one who can appraisea historical situation...
...Only a very few get enough to eat while a new pairof shoes or a cotton suit is a lux-ury of which only members of theRed Army and of the GPU (secretpolice) and people belonging tothe upper crust of the CommunistParty are assured...
...Somehow, the American press has beenless fortunate in this respect.Rome American correspondents inRussia display a pro-Stalin attitude pure and simple...
...Uniersal suspicion and distrust ofntimate friends, including yourwn children, are rife...
...Free speech has been o ruthlessly stamped out thatne looks back to the censoredewspapers and publishing of prear times with yearning...
...Those of our American comades who declare for Sovietiam ue to what they get throughources in English will discover ome day that their attitude la ased on inadequate and one-sided aterial...
...They had nothing to do with the essence of Bolshevism...
...If there are twoantagonistic points of view, then,If the foreign student has ampleaccess to both sides, he may beable to reach a conclusion...
...Are they sure theyknow how the Russian people fareunder it...
...One reason is thatthe Russian government, whichspends millions of dollars on pressagent work in every country, hasbeen giving special attention to itspublicity-machinery in the UnitedStates, with an eye to commercialcredit...
...SovietRussia, however, as a subject ofstudy, is, with extremely few exceptions, not a case in point.Owing to special circumstances, afair acquaintance with it is practically forbidden fruit to them.There is not a European countrybut is infinitely better Informedabout Soviet Russia than we arc.Wo get floods of publicity literature and an avalanche of propaganda tracts under all guises, butvery little that would help us knowwhat is really going on under theBolshevist rule...
...In Russia one hears words likethis at every turn, and in numerous Instances there ia the ring of genuine faith and ardor to them.On one such occasion I ventured to ask by what right their partyacrificed a whole living generation to the welfare of one stillunborn...
...The Youth and the G. P. A. It cannot, be denied that theres a considerable amount of reliious ecstasy for that cause, butt Is mechanical and the "regulation thing" Is infinitely more widepread...
...overflowingwith it, in fact...
...Hundreds of thepeople living near the frontiers fleeto the neighboring countries risking the bullets of the borderguards rather than continue theirIntolerable existence at home.Hundreds of thousands of ruralfamilies have been torn apart anddestroyed by the Communist"shock brigades" of the collectivisation department...
...The average apitalistic newspaper is a model f truthfulness and decency by omparison...
...It is for the benefit of the next generation and for the entire future of humanity we are doing it," they Bay...
...Nor have American business interests been slow in returning the compliment...
...Anythingthat might be interpreted as anunfriendly attitude toward theSoviets is regarded as an unwisepolicy for our press to pursue.This by the way, has probably beenone factor in bringing about thepro-Soviet and parlor-Communistfad, which Is followed by a considerable section of our intelligentsia...
...The promise,however, is extremely significant...
...People stand for hours walt-ing for a chance to buy a dozenpotatoes or a pound of salt and very often returning home empty-handed...
...That was before theadoption of the Five Year Plan...
...That this tendencyshould affect some of our youngercomrades was to be expected...
...This had been declared acrime and it was punished in a most cruel manner...
...To which I received the retort that the young generation f today is far from feeling unhappy...
...The plan ia almost wholly devoted to the building of basic industries on a giganticscale...
...The Five Year Plan A number of the things I saw during my three months' stay in Russia in 1927 aroused my admiration, but these were all minor features...
...The slt- uation, which is the direct result of Stalin's system of compulsory collectivization of farms, ruthlessly dispossessing and exiling millions of hard-working and efficientpeasants, is of the gravest nature.The Russian people is a people intatters and in the grip of famineand dire misery...
...Those praiseworthy details arestill there, but in matters of supreme importance, including thedaily needs of the people, things have been going from bad toworse...
...If now andthen a cable of theirs tends toshow that not all is gold that glitters in the official Soviet reports,a subsequent paragraph or twomay contain an unexpected interpretation calculated to undo the"mischief...
...Whetherthey will be equal to fulfilling theengagement in the near future Ismore than doubtful...
...Americana will passJudgment upon a most complicatedsituation in a country whose lifeand language are Greek to them.True, the destinies of a foreignland may be open to us throwhthe medium of books, periodicals,acounts and discussions by competent observers...
...This rule wasrecently replaced by one accordingto which the farm collectives areto provide every peasant familywith a cow and some chickens toown as private property...
...In a recent series of articles the Com-omolskaya Pravda, official organf the Young Communist League, resented a picture of life among the young people of that vast oranization in a spirit of anxiety, ex and money being the prevailing interests, while duties arehirked and professions of fervor are mere cant...
...It is an open secretthat men like Rykoff, Lenin'sprime minister, and Bucbarin, his leading associate as theorist andInterpreter of his doctrine, andseveral other founders of the present regime, regard the collectivisation scheme and the whole Five Year Plan as a very unfortunate venture, but they are all completely out of the picture...
...I say "trying to build," becausehis plans and methods are a dismal failure, and all the Tamerlanelike horrors of his system are asfruitless as they are senseless...
...that Its sense of working or their cause, the greatest Inistory...
...Propaganda and Censorship Keep True Soviet Picture FromAmerican Observers, "Forward" Editor Says By Abraham Cahan, a! 'ii a i. thought in this country ia strongly tinctured withpro-Soviet sympathy...
...Allone hears is that the Russianpeasantry has been merging theirfarms in the collectives of theirown free will, that the plan hasbeen a huge success, and that thefarmers are happy...
...Nor is the average member of the Russian Comunist Party less human than his younger comrade...
...As a result of th« boundless publicity bestowed upon it, even some hard-headed Americans have succumbed to the impression that Stalin Is duplicating the great industries of America over night...
...I have not the faintestdoubt of Stalin's sincerity, butwhat he is trying to build is notSocialism...
...That the "Interesting Russianexperiment" la achieving Socialismthe young, American comrade nowbelieves more readily than hemight if the failure of Capitalismwas not quite so obvious...
...The Press and Russia Foreign correspondents in Moscow are, as a rule, not much givento dwelling on the seamy side ofSoviet reality, but there are exceptions...
...Those in a position tostudy Russian facts at close range without being afraid to speaktheir minds, are convinced that the scheme Is a most woeful mistake...
...He is nota thinker, of course...
...Aa a matter of fact RussianCommunists no longer deny theharrowing misery which their"building of Socialism" Is entailing on the population...
...Carecrism"r the process of feathering one'sest by means of intriguing, timeerving, foot-licking and falseretenses of every variety, is comon in that party...
...One of these bore uponpeasants who tried to retain private possession of a goat or somechickens, part of their own property...
...Do our pro-Soviet comradesthink they are correctly informedregarding the regime of whichthey approve...
...This hetreated as an act of disloyalty "to the party," forcing them to make a public "retraction" and otherwise to debase themselves before him...
...Near the Breaking Point There is a limit to endurance.The mood of the Russian masseshas become so alarming that somemonumental changes of policyhave been made quite abruptly.The whole tide of brutal collectivi sation has come to a sudden stopand some of the inhuman decreesof a year or two ago have beenreversed...
...Is a source of joy which ther people fail to realize...
...The Five Year Plan has received no end of sensational advertising as a magic performance that is turning the impossible Into a reality...
...The official press—there Is no ther—Is full of the cheapest andost glaring falsehoods and ofauseating flattery of the Bigoss, Joseph Stalin...
Vol. 13 • May 1932 • No. 20
