The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 22, 1926, Page 10

The Soviet Union in 1926 By Wm. Z. Foster The following are extracts from a pamphlet by Wm. Z. Foster on “Russian Workers and Work- shops in 1926.” The pamphlet will be on sale shortly. It gwes a clear and vivid picture of the successful efforts of the working masses of the Soviet Union to build up a socialist economy. ~ The author of the pamphlet, having spent several months in. Russia, is well equipped to give the readers of the New Magazine an interesting and instructive story of present day Soviet Russia, * * * A Revolutionary Trial in Ekaterinoslav. , | the evening, after the co-operative conven- tion, we proposed to pay a round of visits to the Workers’ Clubs, which are playing an im- portant role these days in the Soviet Union. But first we dropped in for-an hour or so to attend a trial of counter-revolutionists then in progress. As we approached the place we found a crowd of at least a thousand people striving for admis- sidn. The trial was taking place in a theater, which was evidently chosen for its spaciousness. The place was packed from pit to gallery. The court was being held on the stage, the whole being draped with red. Many a play had been shown upon this stage, but this time it was the scene of an actual drama from real life. The defendants were four, a priest, a worker, an intellectual, and a nondescript NEPman. They had been recently arrested and were ac- cused of having organized progroms against the Jews and generally acting as murderous agents of ezardom in pre-revolutionary days. The evi- dence against them was overwhelming. Wit- ness after witness testified against them, show- ing graphically how their villanous activities had resulted in the death of many people, the Ekat- erinoslavy pogroms organized by them having been among the worst of their kind in old Russia. The prisoners sat stolid, apparently crushed by the damning stories that poured from the lips of the witnesses. It was a vivid recital of revolu- tionary heroism on the one hand and of counter- reyolutionary treachery on the other. On either side ofthe prisoners stood Red Army soldiers with naked swords. The massed crowd of work- ers listened breathlessly to the stories of the murders committed by the prisoners. In the early days of the revolution such rats as these four would have been given short shrift and an early firing squad; but now, with the workers uncontested masters of the situation, they would probably be let off with short sentences. We did not remain till the end of the trial. From time to time trials of such murderers and spies, who were a prominent prop of the ezarist regime, take place in various cities in Soviet Russia, as fast as some chance or other brings about the exposure of these vermin. A few weeks before, in Moscow, we attended the trial of one Krott, a provocatuer in Irkutsk be- fore the world war. At the same time, in the very next room, two ex-czarist officers were being tried and convicted of brutally murdering a sol- dier in°t913. Little did these two worthies think when they cold-bloodedly shot down that peasant lad 13 years before that the day would come when they would have to face a Workers’ Court and make amends for their crime. They were given two and three years apiece in jail. The workers, victorious in the revolution, are in- clined to be merciful even to such unspeakable creatures now that their fangs are drawn and they ean do but little harm. Workers’ Clubs. [MPORTANT institutions in the various cities of Soviet Russia are the Workers’ Clubs. These are the real social centers of the workers. There is nothing comparable to them in capitalist coun, tries. They are equipped with innumerable de- partments for the education and entertainment of the workers, such as libraries, schools, thea- ters, gymnasiums, chess rooms, billiard rooms, rifle ranges, ete. They are maintained by the unions, either by individual unions where these are large enough, or otherwise by a combination of unions. They are tremendously popular. They exist in all the industrial centers and are rapidly on the increase. Tomsky, the head of the All-Russian Trade Union Central Committee, recently stated that during the past two years the number of these clubs has increased 120, per cent. Uusually the workers pay small member- ship dues, 10 or 15 cents per month. The clubs as a rule are located in great mansions or other ' splendid buildings that were formerly the palaces of the rich. ane In Ekaterinoslav. we visited three of such clubs: that of the metal workers, that of the building trades, and a general Workers’ Club. All are splendid institutions: They were so thronged with workers that it was often difficult to thread our way through the innumerable rooms and departments. All three have big ‘theaters and that night were running moving picture shows: “The metal: workers’ club, enor- mously popular, is located in the steel mill dis- trict. The building workers have outgrown their present establishment and are’ building a mag- nificent structure hard by. The generel workers’ club, with 4,000 members, is located in a former capitalist club house. The furnishings are rich and luxurious. Leningrad. From Moscow to Leningrad is about 450 miles. The last time I traveled it was in 1921. H then took 20 hours on a dilapidated train. Now our party covered it in 12 hours on a train up- to-date in all essentials. As we approached the city the smoke pouring from the forest of factory stacks showed that Leningrad is also experienc- ing the revival of industry common throughout Soviet Russia. In 1921, the many factories, now humming busily, were closed and dead. The city, which, in 1917, numbered 2,000,000 inhabitants, had been reduced to 800,000, principally because the workers, confronted with industrial paralysis, had fled into the country to escape the famine. Now the city is rapidly recovering. It numbers approximately 1,450,000 people and is steadily increasing. The Nevsky Prospect was alive with activity; whereas in 1921 it was a bare streak of desolation, all the shops being closed and the walls a-tatter with the remnants of proclama- tions posted up during the previous years of revo- lutionary struggle. We were met at the depot by Ugaroff, secretary of the Leningrad Trades Council, and a body of other trade union leaders. We were whisked wby hg ease the Hotel Europe: This isthe big- »gest hotel.in: Leningrad. yituigepatronized: prin- cipally by diplomats, miscellaneous foreigners and local NEP-men. These elements are given the privilege of paying very freely for what they get. The profits of the hotel go to repair and build homes for the workers in Leningrad. The general manager was formerly a machinist. Smolny. WE had only three days to spend in Leningrad so had to utilize our time. Our guide, Hour- wich, was a wonder at his trade and a dramat- ically revolutionary figure such as one can only find in Soviet Russia. He had been a soldier in the struggle against Yudenitch,“an agitator, a president of a trust, a representative of the Actors’ Union, ete. He was literally saturated with the history of the revolution and he knew Leningrad and all its institutions like a book. Before going to the factories, we decided to visit those three famous revolutionary centers, Smolny, the Winter Palace, and the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. The Smolny Institute was the headquarters of the workers’ forces in the revolutionary strug- gle against Kerensky. It was there they arrived at the historic decision to seize power from the Kerensky government. While we were visiting the place a meeting of peasant delegates was in progress in the very hall where this decision was made, and they insisted upon our speaking to them. Formerly Smolny was .a seminary ‘for daughters of the nobility.. Now it is the head- quarters of the Leningrad: Communist. Party. Many, of those whom we encountered praised the accuracy of John Reed’s book, “Ten Days That Shook the World,” which portrays the stirring events that centered around this birthplace of the revolution. An interesting feature of this historic build- ing is dhe room in which Lenin lived and worked in the early revolutionary days. It is a very plain room in a building filled with luxurious quarters. Every square foot of the high walls was covered with wreaths of red flowers sent by worker’. organizations from all over Russia in honor ofthe great leader, Lenin. Another interesting place in Smolny was the “House of the Peasants.” This is a:network of living rooms and offices. Here the peasants come from all the surrounding country. to present their grievances and taxes, land division, ete. In the last two years 37,000 peas-Jin this horrible dungeon for’many days for the. ants passed through this “house,” of whom 8,000 used the hotel accommodations, which eost only 5 cents per day per person. It is only one of the many vital centers of contact with the peas- ants that the Russian workers have established. The Winter Palace. T’HIS great palace, home of the: czars since Peter the Great, was built in 1785. It was burned in 1887 and later rebuilt. It is located on the banks of the Neva. It was in the vast courtyard of this palace that took place the slaughter:on Bloody Sunday in 1905, when the priest, Gapon, led thousands of workers to the palace to ask the czar for redress of their griev- ances. It was also the scene of the orgies of the’ decadent Russian royalty. It is fitted out in ostentatious splendor, but it lacks the oriental gorgeousness and barbaric garishness of the MfK- cow palaces. Now the whole palace is a museuff. One large section is a museum of revolution history. This contains pictures, documents, and rélics of all the struggles against autocracy, from the uprising-of the Decemberists, a century ago, to the overthrow of the Kerensky government in 1917. There is a “life-sized” reproduction of a cell in the Schlusselberg fortress, with seven wax figures of prisoners. The cell is constructed of material taken from the old fortress. There are numberless pictures of strikes, executions, terrorist acts, of prison scenes, underground party life, of workers’ leaders, of revolutionary struggles, ete. A visit through this section of the museum is an education in the long and bitter struggle of the Russian workers for emancipa- tion. . The luxurious living rooms of the palace re main just as they were. before the revolution. They are a vast treasure-house of rich objects of art. Even in the heat of the revolutionary strug- gle little was stolen; a close check-up is possible because of the existence of books, apparently designed to prevent thievery by the former serv- ants, which contain detailed diagrams of each room and exact descriptions and locations of every object in théhi: “Only 4° few" pictures,’ of particularly hated menibers of the “royalty, show- ed any mutilation. Everything was intact. The clock and calendar in the room of Alexander II indicated the exact minute when he was killed, 3:34 p. m., March 31st, 1881. It was in the spa cious and rich apartments of Nicholas II tha’ Kerensky maintained the headquarters of hi government. The St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress. THIS infamous prison, often halled “the cradle of the revolution” because so many of the workers’ leaders were confined there, sprawls on the banks of the Neva opposite the Winter Pal- ace. Its tall, needle-like spire is the highest built point in Soviet Russia. The fortress was -eon- structed by Peter the Great in 1703. The first political prisoner to be kept there was the son of Peter the Great, whom the latter wanted to get rid of. For more than 200 years thereafter the fortress was used to confine political prisoners. At this place were executed the Decembersits’ rebels 100 years ago. The prison was used espec- ially to incarcerate the revolutionary youth. It has been described as a great spider which lived on the blood of the best youth of Russia. We visited the cells of Kropotkin, Gorky, Trotsky, and many others who had been active in the struggle upward of the Russian working class. The St. Peter and St. Paul fortress was an especially horrible prison. All the prisoners were kept in solitary confinement. To prevent them from communicating with each other, the en- gineers made the walls of solid stone three feet thick. But this was in vain. Even the slightest tapping of one’s finger nail on the wall is audi- ble in the next cell. The prisoners talked with each other through a sort of Morse code, in spite of the harshest punishments for so doing. This was their only relief. The place was tomblike in its silence. Even the corridors, where the guards walked, were heavily carpeted to kill all sound. The prisoners could hear no noise from outside, except the distant toling of a bell every hour, which was a special torture for them. With nothing to do, many prisoners went mad. A hor- ror was “the Judas,” a peep-hole in the door through which the guards spied upon the prison- ers. Many prisoners rotted from scurvy for lack of fresh food. The dark cell was a terrible place. Completely bereft of light, almost without air, and cold in winter, prsioners ‘were kept eo get ca hee ee em is ee et a ae l- F —— om ase oc ® = me of 6 Me OF , ew AN Of 4 St eee Oe a oe en ee ee ee ee ae. = da = & &- « Ke & > ee ee ee, ee ee ee ee, en ee ee