The New Pan-Slavism

...Certain old types of communal property, such as the Russian mir or the Serb zadruga may have' predisposed the peasant to a more willing acceptance of communal or cooperative farming...

...Moscow indicated that this democratic government when constituted should enter into diplomatic negotiations with the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, which is only second in size to the Russian republic, and that Poland and the Ukrainian Republics would solve the problem of boundaries...

...In a way they have hit upon a remarkable solution, because if there is any social movement in Europe that' stands out now as completely successful, that is indeed the cooperative movement...

...Slavic or otherwise, to tha Great-Rasaiaajeaasnp, as tased to be the case under the Curist r^ejjgvmas...

...ThIS formal endowing of the several republics with the light of self-determination in the military and diplomatic spheres, while more than a bit overstated from the standpoint of what will actually take place, indeed looks like the ultimate terminal of the develop-¦sent which das initiated by Stalin many years ago when he was the Commissar for Nationalities...

...In Russia," they said, " our social system is truly social, and is embodied in the village Commune, in which the land is not the property of any particular peasant or peasant family, but communal property, and the Commune administers the land by making proper allotments among the several families constituting 9he Commune in accord with 'equalized land-use...

...In western Europe cupitalism and class struggles reigned...

...This Is a real anarchist philosophy...

...In an article called "The Economic Staje of Slav Countries" by Or...

...The heavy industries and the public utilities will be owned by the state, but there will be s considerable residuum of private smell scale enterprise, such ss in farming, the "tone" to the whole to be given by the thick stratum of the consumer-cooperative economy, probably destined to be the most progressive portion of the economy of that satellite state of tl.e U.S.S.R...

...In other words, this constitutional reform aimed in the first place at rounding out the solution of the problem of nationalities in Russia and in the second et giving form to the organization of a Soviet sphere of influence beyond the original V.S.S.K...

...F,rank Munk, the conviction is expressed that Russia and Russia alone matter...

...Of all the Slavic nationalities, the Czechs have been most closely interwined with private capitalism...

...It may even be that private capitalism will not be able to reestablish Itself anywhere on the continent of Europe, but certainly a large alio* ef the Continent of Europe extending to the west ef Russia will no longer be able to harbor the economic system which characterize-^ Europe during the 19th century and until a few years ago...

...This was held proof that the Russian peasants were social-istically inclined...

...Now Russia is the leading nation of Europe, and the Czechs being a very realistic and clever people have already adjusted themselves to the new situation...

...By teaching them how to cooperate as procedure, because in the village Commune the scope of its cooperation was yet limited to the administration of the land available and under it the peasant continued to cultivate the strips of land allotted to him as an individual and he was the sole owner of the results of his individual toll...

...Accordingly, the impoverished peasants and factory workers, living in primitive and crude industrial environment reminiscent of the days of Chartism in England, are inclined toward* mora radical solutions than are those in the west...

...The leader of the Commune or head officer was not remunerated, and he never sought office because office was more a burden than a boon...

...Russia had two systems of industry as distinct from agriculture: one domiciled in big cities in the shape of large factories under the organization of large-scale capitalism...

...This is the outline of s new kind of Pan-Slavism: Russia united with the Poles and tha Czechs, againat their hereditary racial enemy...

...This brings up the political theory of the Narodniki...

...insofsr at least aa the dominion* are eon-' **remd, we are dealing with political entities ef long J. il pan¦*I I¦ rill over a hundred years—and the several dominions ere cemented to th* mother country ¦awry "W their common loyalty to the Crown...

...Now that capitalism is for them definitely "out," they seem to be hitting upon this home-grown, pre-Marxian Socialism as the only type of social organization that may possibly survive in the close vicinity of Moscow...

...for many decades these peasant producers were successful in competing against the products of the urban factories...

...It can be attested to not only by democratic cooperators, but also by Dr...

...For the most part it was represented by foreign interests or by non-indigenous groups smong the population . Thus, large scale private enterprise has never enjoyed the prestige or played a role similar to that of private business, in the United States or in England...

...And, thirdly, Russia is an anti-capitalistic state, and states adjoining Russia will certainly not feel comfortable in their relations with Russia if they continue to preserve capitalism as their basic economic system...

...Moscow has brusquely rejected sny cooperation with the Polish Government-in-Exile and has indicated a determination to set up a pro-Soviet "democratic" government of Poland, since the Polish Government ia accused of fascist tendencies...

...This courtship continued to no effect, so that in 1940 Robert Ley, the head of the Labor Front, said in a speech that the Nazis had to destroy the cooperative movement since they could not win it over...

...If you are underground your contact with the enemy is only intermittent...

...in th* British Com* mi h iistsh...

...In Czechoslovakia, for instance, which for the moment appears to be the most willing satellite of Soviet Russia, there will not be an exclusively cooperative economy but also a state socialistic one...

...ss s afhsis...

...It so churned up all the existing property rights that it is quite impossible to restore even approximately to the original owners what has been taken away from them either because they were Jews or because some Nazi chieftain coveted their property...

...Russia already possesses the military strength snd, aa tha* amp* of* aha well aJa* passaas a mora and mere aeswie^'sUssmtefcwT t*sd* far thm>nsfihmry strength...

...atoaady the Xfttm* with Siberia farm th* asses important industrial region of Asia, Japan not excluded...

...Capitalism has never really become acclimatized in the Slav countries...

...Not among the Russians—they have abandoned it with Sovietism—but among the western Slavs who had shared in the individualistic traditions of western Europe, including private capitalism...

...The- constitutional change decree by the Supreme Soviet aimed at something else, at solving problems closer at hand, geographically and in point of time, than anything pertaining to a future World Liague...

...Taa violent varMl Attack on Bulgaria made from Russia would heaps to attest to an inclusion of the Bal-*»•'» in this new sphere of influence...

...And aa one looks »t the whole thins...

...The railroads must be administered, if not by private industry then by the federal government...

...Not every industry can be brought under the cooperative principle—the railroads for example...

...I don't believe the Russians are much concerned with the allocation of votes in any future World Parliament, because they know only too well that what counts is demonstrated power, and Russia has demonstrated that she is the greatest power in the European continent...

...Russia has already r»tabli*had herself ss leading power in Europe...

...Ley's testimonial is a fine testimonial indeed...

...Starting with the non-governmental conception of the laeal Chan mo no, the Narodniki postulated voluntary J^P*sa|iasamamap^nmi^^C msasjej^ajlm^ OaHRsMRs^MmT ^^Ji^n^m*)*^ tanialll "r riear up to aa entity that would ambaaw a* ef Baeeia, net as a uatvinaad state but as a ssrviee institution to ths Communes hi the laaaffllaa...

...He speaks of tha Slavic nation*, the poorest countries in Europe, and he goes on as follows: "Economic exploitation has been rampant until very recent years, and id some ef the countries, e. g., Poland and parte of Yugoslavia, has continued until the present...

...In the political sense the philosophy of the Narodniki was an anarchist philosophy—the philosophy of nongovernment...

...But the 1939 situation no longer exists...

...I think oat shof«Mi1al tea fartoeknu one...

...Does not this sudden discovery of affection for the mir betoken a rebirth of the Russian Narod-nichesto...

...They were the left-wing of the so-called Slavophilts...

...Insofar aa there is hope that in that part of the world the civilizational values resting upon s respect for the individual will not be completely lost, that hope rests in the cooperative movement...

...with a cool eye and with a minimum * •motional reaction, it would seem like a very plau-»ih'e forecast of things to come...

...Likewise, the Russian peasants were engaged in handicrafts...

...But the Narodniki continued, "We must proceed to improve the situation and to teach the Russian peasants to practice a rounded-out system of socialism...

...The Narodniks in Russia were the original Socialist intellectuals who preceded the Marxists...

...First, it aimed to crystallize the constitution of the Soviet Union itself, insofar as it is composed of a large somber of diverse ethnic groups, and second, it aimed at bringing about a sort of an organisation of the national communities that border on the west of the Soviet Union...

...Likewise with industries producing producers' goods such aa iron and steel...

...Bat there la a vast difference between the Pan-Slarism of the year 1944 and the Pan-Slavism ef 185) or 1178 of Nicholas I, Alexander II, and «beir sfagbpiirh, because this reborn Pan-Slavism Is beset-«h a socialist internal order and eschews the subjugation of any of the ethnic groans as ¦¦<*, rfajatsi...

...But the consumers' cooperative movements have gone beyond mere "distribution," and have also developed their own productive establishments in the sphere of articles for consumer use...

...Robert Ley, the head of the Labor Front in Germany...

...Second, Europe is now being destroyed so thoroughly by allied bombing that its economic restoration will demand strictly coordinated and highly integrated programs of action which only governments institute, not "free" private enterprise...

...What is the economic order likely to emerge after the war in Central and Eastern Europe most closely adjoining Russia T It seems that private capitalism ia already dead over the greater part ef Europe...

...If Europe had continued as in 1939 the internal regime in Czechoslovakia would have continued to resemble closely that of Britain and Sweden...

...When the Nazis took over Germany they cracked down upon the trade unions, but chose to court the cooperatives...

...the other, in which some four or five million peasants were engaged, was carried on in the peasant's cottages during the long winters where the peasant manufactured a number of consumer goods of importance...

...and so this Czech economist is bringing up a kind of social ideology which originally had its home in Russia, the so-called Narodnik ideology, which means a Socialistic Populism...

...The constitutional change fits into this program of sealing with a state which, as every symptom indicates, is designed to be a satellite state of the U.S.S.R...

...For the Commune was not at all looked upon as a govermental entity...

...Munk, highly sophisticated Csech economist, has adopted the Narodnik idea...

...The Union of Polish Patriots in Moscow forecasted the annexation of East Prussis, Upper Silesia, snd Pomerania to Poland, and declared that such a Poland would become united with the UJLS.R, as- wet...

...So to sum it all up, I would say it seems likely that while the Pan-Slavism of the 19th century is now finding it* rebirth in the U.S.S.R.'* solution of it* own ethnic problems and of the problem of constructing a lasting sphere of influence, so on the socio-economic side we shall perhaps witness to the west of Russis, s rebirth of this "neo-Nsrodnichesto" in the shape of the cooperative movement...

...In tha 8o*i«t Union the means most depended on to hold th* _____llemsisti together, whsterer the sentimental tie of * i main Soviet patriotism, is the tough structural-iron work of the Communist Party in each of the six-tees federated republics as well as in the U.S.S.S...

...This movement drawing support from a devoted membership will simultaneously be able to fling back the charge that it ia a springboard far eaprkaBat anti-Soviet intrigue or a Typhoid Mary fpr * aapbfaW imperialism seeking to postpone the dap of raahjuftg far its own Inner contradictions...

...We might even sssume that nothing of the kind has been finally decided .upon, but surely what i* intended i* to have at least a satellite Poland, And in such a situation a Ukrainian Soviet Republic endowed with the power ef making its own foreign policies would sppesr to be a -fsgmi convenient instrument in negotiating with Pahjpd than the whole U.S.S.R., a gigantic mass as compared with Poland...

...And now since Russia alone matters, it therefore behooves the Czechs to talk like a Slavic people not only on the literary or intellectual plane, but on the economic plane as well...

...We aeed not assume that the intention is to incorporate a Polish Soviet Republic into the U.S.S.R...

...Why T First of all capitalism was killed by National Socialism...

...I THINK that these states which see themselves becoming satellites of Russia, such as Czechoslovakia, realize that private rapitalsim is through, and wishing, as they do, to preserve their internal independence, that is to have a way of life of their own rather than to be forcibly brought under the Moscow pattern of life, they have now hit up on cooperative Socialism as the only kind of an alternative institution that they could possibly get away with under Soviet hegemony...

...However, they were not allowed to achieve their desideratum in this "soft" way so far as the four or five millions of the workers' cooperators were concerned...

...The Commune was responsible for the taxes, snd when it fell in arrears the government would send soldiers to administer corporal punishment, and the elder received punishment while the muscles of tha soldier* were still fresh, so that nobody sought office and therefore you could not think of tha Commune as • governmental entity...

...It is a philosophy of extreme local self-determination...

...Not much needs to be ssid under the heading of rounding out the solution of the problem of nationalities, which is probably the greatest contribution that Russia kas made, greater indeed than her "Communism...

...So Dr...

...The New Pan-Slavism By Selig Perlman jnpHB 3u*r«m- ****** h*a gi*.,ted to Mr* »f toe X ^ffittorTwWtory a*^el7 a*^th**sP^*r7of *mtr«.*M«s*m1e» tlemm ah* esd t*rta*dsB»*nf tk* rfjjM eg* saeansiea, of an* of the _¦ -¦ ¦ssifcal^saa^rdkssl aav — " assuml ii till III I jf^gMM|F**il-mahaffbiy w awtmpi ubswals . TWa •%aw* smiem baa bean compared with th* Brit-i*h aVapire toi Its aelf-governing dominion...

...Thus for a period of seven or eight years these cooperatives had continued their resistance to the Nazi power, and it takes more perseverance to continue resistance when one is not underground...

...I don't think that Moscow intended to create the eeovietioa that Russia has become analagous to tbjuMtfnh Empire and in consequence should be snaps* to sixteen rote* in some future World Parliament...

...They took pride in Russia on the alleged ground that the Russian social institutions were superior to the contemporary social institutions of western Europe...

...sp with Czechoslovakia in s corn-men defensive front ef Slavdom againat Germany's Drang sack 0*Un...