Soviet Federalism Reformed?

...By Solomon M. Schwarz C»-A»ttilr, Management m Soviet Industry II Wfpm 0 KM ALLY • f*oer*tion, the Soviet Union is mi actually it centralised state, and its central ism, I h was shown ia my preceding article ("Soviet neutralism in Flux," New Leader, May 20, 1944), has -asetly increased in the last two decades...

...If a growth of federalism were really envisaged, the Arst step would necessarily consist in increasing the independence of the Union Republics in annthsr Acid, namely thnt of national economy and finance, while foreign affairs snd military matters to which th* competence of the federal government naturally extends, would come last...

...No less gfgvsacaat are the changes relating to national defense: at present "every Union Republic possesses its own Re nabHean military formations...

...The record of the more than 19,000 Japanese-Americans who have left the relocation centers for normal homes and jobs have fully demonstrated their loyalty...

...Loyalty of Japanese-Americans Contrary to a widely-held belief, there has not been one proved case of sabotage or espionage by a Japanese-American, either in this country or Hawaii, since the beginning of the war, Carey McWilliams, former Commissioner of Immigration of the State of California, states in a pamphlet, What About Our Japanese-Americans?, published by the Public Affairs Committee, Inc., and The American Council, Institute of Pacific Relations...

...But what are they ? As we have seen, the constitutional reform obstructs rather than facilitates th* inner-political goals of the dictatorship...

...As further confirmation of the loyalty of the Japanese-Americans in relocation centers and of the potentialities of the relocation program for democracy, Mr...

...If the line is to be drawn upon the principle that regions with a predominant Ukrainian population are to be included in the Soviet Union, then Grubeshov and Holm will probably not remain Polish (the case of Zamostie is not so clear...

...In the American press it was conjectured that by "riding th* Red Army Into single Republican armies, Soivtt Government was trying to safeguard the Ifctfttortal system, to avert possible pressure from the army upon the government, aiuflhatTt was thus acting upon the maxim: "divide and rule...

...by segregating the officer corps as a privileged group isolated from the soldiers, snd by trying to draw the active elements of the army Into the Communist Party and th* Communist Youth league...

...During this war some ef-f**h* have been made to create army units of various ¦¦tamallties, probably for the purpose of stepping up *• »**ic training by resorting to the n*tive language mtbt soldiers...

...J* HE reasons for the reform of the Commissariat of »kn**nse are not so clear...

...The military "formations" of the "old" Union Republics will probably remain in embryo (it is of course not accidentia...

...But on Feb-WEj l, 1944, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted 4 inform which seemed rather federalists in its nature...

...Since th* government nevertheless enacted this reform, its motives must obviously be sought in foreign policy...

...The assumption that the reform of February 1 wss not prompted by any desire to establish democratic federalism is corroborated by another fact...

...Actually, according to Mr...

...Th* Soviet Government had suggested that the lasso-Polish frontier be determined according to the Curaon Lin* with possible modification to the east, t...

...McWilliams points to facts such as the following: There sre now more then 8,000 Japanese-Americans in the Army...

...they would consider a federation ef the Soviet type a* • farm . ef government depreciating their nationnl independence, and as an attempt ap** it...

...Some of them, like Sergeants Kszuo Komoto and Fred Nishitsujii, hsve been cited for gallantry...

...This example is a convincing proof that the reform waa not an outgrowth of needs Inherent in the development of the Union Republics, but that it was prompted fry ether metises...

...McWilliams reveals...

...J^tsn now on the single Union Republics ran negotiate n*)fe foreign powers independently, conclude "agree-nwnu," and nacuaagl envoys and eounsuls...

...There are no such units front, and th* "First Ukrainian Army," "Second wk**lnian Array," "Baltic Army" which have appeared * th« official communique* since the second half of last t*»r are nothing but new denominations for armies otherwise do not di§er from other nrmies...

...McWilliams, only a small proportion of this group may be regarded as disloyal...

...From now both men keep in their Republics in the same time the office of the first secretary of Party's Central Committee and that of the chief of the Government...

...In reality, the federal system, despite all the obstacles, haa taken Arm root in only one domain si national life, that of national culture...

...IN connection with the reform of February 1 the almost forgotten letter which Stalin wrote to I<enin on June 12, 1920, becomes up-to-date...

...What are they...

...conducted drives for the Red Cross...

...organized volunteers foi virtoiy committees...

...In this sphere the Soviet Union can pride itself on having achieved considerable success...

...The two appointments speak for themselves...

...the letter was pub lished in the footnotes to volume 25 of the 2nd edition of Lenin's Works, and aeeuis not to have been republished since...

...Yet there is no question of relaxing the grip of centralisation in national economy...

...It is a summary of the results of two years of intimate study of the issues raised by the evacuation, relocation, and segregation of Japanese Americans...

...This conjecture...

...Young Nisei-American-born citizens of Japanese-itnmigrsnt psrentage—are "moving out into th* main stream of American life . . . and, in many fields, sre demonstrating an alert awareness of the kind of world in which they live...

...mad* radio transcriptions for the OWI...

...The Japanese-Americans who are now being re-aettled and given employment in various parts of the country are men and women who have proved their -loyalty beyond any question, Mr...

...But the very question of joining all Ukrainian territories to the USSR is more easily raised by the government of Kiev than by that of Moscow, the latter being hot too popular in the part of the Ukraine beyond the Russian frontiers...

...In both rases these posts were occupied by new men: in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic by the first secretsty of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party, Nikita Kin uslii hnv, and in the Bielorussian Soviet Republic by the first secretary of the Bielorussian Communist Party, Ponomaienko...

...I<enm had just drawn "the draft of theses on the problems of nationalities and colonies" for the Second Congress of the Comintern...

...and, within th* limitations of detention, have done all in their power to further the war effort...

...within these limits federalism is set a "transitional form" but a generally acknowledged principle...

...Is this*ft sharp turn toward federalism after hL th*sin of systematic and persistent efforts toward eoitrahsation...

...Almost on the morrow after the Ukranian Foreign Commissariat was formed, and Alexander Kornechuk was appointed Commissar, it was reported in the foreign press that in her future negotiations with Poland, the Soviet Ukraine was going to demand a modification ef the Curson Line so that Grubeshov, Holm and Za-awetie, all lying to the west of the line, would be included in the Soviet Ukraine...

...And in the way of * hypothesis Stalls speak* ef "a fntnre Soviet Germany, Poland, Hungary, Finland...

...that the new law uses the rather vague term "formations" avoiding the term "armies...

...The pamphlet concludes that "if the relocation program is ended at an early date, with most of the evacuees relocated outside the centers, the program itself will show constructive results despite the hardships, expense, and needless suffering which it hss involved...

...What About Our Japanese-Americans...

...A democratic change in the direction of federalism, if sincere, would have started from a different point...

...Th* id** naturally suggests itself that now, tee, the retreat from "the Soviet centralised type of federation" has been motivated by a desire to facilitate th* rapprochement between the Soviet Union and aew Soviet and "popular" republic...

...The division of the army along the vertical line would certainly work against this purpose, therefore there must have been other motives for the reorganization of the Commissariat of Defense...

...in favor of Poland...

...And yet, if there is a need of increasing the autonomous rights of the Union-Republics in foreign matters, it Arst objective should be foreign trade...

...Second, alter the evacuation of some 110,000 persons of Japanese descent to relocation centers, the War Relocation Authority sifted out the so-called "disloyal" elements and segregated them at Tule Lake...

...The recent reform is perhaps best illuminated by the fact that the transformation of the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs into a Union-Republican body was not followed by a corresponding reorganization of the Commissariat of Foreign Trad...

...The dictatorship in looking ahead, and bracing itaelf, for it is well aware thst however rudimentary the beginnings of true democratic federalism in Russia, however limited the recent reform, this reform will inspire democratic feeling in the nstion...

...Sergeant Ben Kuroki has taken part In over twenty live combat flights over Europe snd wears the Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters...

...The pamphlet is ilust rated by Taro Vashima, noted anti-fascist artist...

...An attempt to shift the line t* the west is naturally more convenient for the Ukrain-Uns than it would be for Moscow...

...The Soviet Government of •sorse doe* not really mean to break up its army Into Atteen Republican armies...

...As was shown before, Soviet federalism was conceived nMcely as a transitional form on the road to complete centralisation...

...The dictatorial government seeks guarantees agshist auch possible democratic pressure by dividing th* army not along vertical lines (into Republican armies), but along horizontal one*, i.e...

...Hut they tell another tale, too...

...The reform is probably meant not lor them, but for possible new membere of the Soviet I'nion...

...With regard to the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs the answer is clear: by granting to the Union Republics the right to negotiate with foreign power* the Soviet Union has facilitated its own diplomatic maneuvres...

...Upon becoming Soviet republics, thee* nation* ps see suing their own at*tea, ami**, finances, will hardly eonoont to mtsWieh with Soviet Russia th* form ef federation that waa iamti toted in Bashkiria or ia th* Ukraine: fur...

...assms unfounded: the creation of Repuoilcan armies in which the tie* between private saieaira ami esmmsnders •re closer, is apt to increase rather than avert the danger arising to a dictatorship frees a popular army, especially during the first period after the war...

...What is the meaning of ej| this...

...Supreme Soviet, the heads of governments were instantly replaced in the two Union-Republics, for which the reform had a special significance, in the Ukraine and Bielorussis...

...by Carey McWilliams is the ninety-first in the series of popular, factual, ten-cent pamphlets on current economic and social problems published by the Public Affairs Committee, Inc nonprofit, educational organization, at 80 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y...

...This is important since it is evident that we shall never solve any of these problems until we have solved all of them...

...McWilliams concludes, "that the Japanese problem, which has echoed on the west coast for nearly fifty years,'has now ceased to be a local snd hss become a national p i.litem . . . definitely related to the problem ef the other racial minorities...

...In his speech Molotov mentioned "mill-fc*F formations of various nationalities" such as the "Uftuaniftn, Latvian, Estonian, Georgian, Azerbaids-JW«n, Kazakhstanian, and others" but "up till now "•to coold not really expand...

...fg viitue of this reform the People's Commissariats W f>sfeos* and of Foreign Affairs were transformed Sp All-Union into Union-Republican Commissariats...

...Americans of Japanese ancestry have been "screened'1 more than once to test their loyalty: First, the FBI kept a close check on "dangerous individuals" for, at least several years prior to Pearl Harbor, and such persons were promptly arrested oti December 7, both in Hawaii and on the mainland, and placed in special detention camps...

...After the reform was adopted by the...

...It rrestes new bridgeheads for the democrstlc movement which will inevitably sweep through Russia after this war for liberation ends...

...The evacuees inside th* centers hsve purchased war bonds...

...It is a healthy sign for America, Mr...

...Stalin, then at the Southern front, expressed his views on the draft in a lengthy letter in which he emphasized that "the Soviet centralistir type of federation" could be applied "without much friction'' to nationalities which had been living in old Russia, and which "had either had no Mates of their own, or had lost them long ago " Hut "this is not true in regard to nationalities which had not been part and parcel of old Russia, which enjoyed independent existence, befit out their •wn stales, and which, naeeld they become Soviet ¦ssntss, weuhf hive to ostablteh ***** form ef national rousts*** with Soviet Boasis" (this waa mrhV ton st • moment whoa almost the day before them existed a Bavarian and a Hungarian Soviet rimah lie...