Russia (1950s)

missiles. No European nation is more modern yet more primitive. No society is more materialistic nor more devout. Additionally, this is the the Russian Orthodox faith. In its early days here, communism fought the churches, but now more subtle controls are used for persecutions only made faith stronger. Religions have been tolerated, but no believer in God can be a communist. Scorn of religion as something for the old and infirm is cultivated. Though no government has been more revolutionary in the country and in its people, old times and customs continue today in Russia more than in most lands. The Soviet Union is an immense land mass straddling Europe and Asia, but the good farmlands lie in a comparatively small belt. To the north lie forests and Arctic grasslands. Most of Russia proper is a vast plane, a flat land that extends to unbroken horizons in all directions. Through this flat plane flow slowm moving rivers. The rivers form a natural travel network knit together by canals to provide cheap, slow transportation. Following the rivers, the Vikings came from the north and seized the Russian plain to establish trade with the Byzantine Empire. From the Byzantine came some of the architectural styles of Russia and from the Vikings came early rulers or Tars. Along the rivers, most Russian cities grew up around the forts or Kremlands built by the early rulers. In rural Russia, peasant did in feudal days which ended only a hundred years ago and still mark the profile of the society. Peasants cling of doing things that were handed down to them. Of all the people of Russia, peasants have resisted communism most. not in organized revolts, but in stubborn individual refusal to change. At first, communism largely let the peasants alone, but with the first of the 5-year plans in 1928, collectivization of farms was started. The farms were taken by the state and put together into big collective farms. These are worked by peasants who are simply farm laborers who get a share in the profits according to the hours of work put in from stations. Farm machines are sent out to the fields. In this way, the big farm machines are directly under the management of communists. This puts all the farm work under close communist supervision. Farm work, as almost all labor in Russia, is done equally by women. To spur on agricultural, goals are established and publicized with signs. Beat American production in eggs, butter, pork, and the like, they proclaim. In spite of the goals and controls, Russian agriculture remains extensively primitive and occasionally good. In rural Russia, the past resists change. The peasants will even assemble without required licenses to hold country dances. [Music] [Music] Russian cities tell a different story. In them, we see the profile of communist society set amid the splendor of the SARS. Russian Orthodox churches cut the skyline of Moscow. Building it are the great palaces of the Tsars who ruled this land until 1917. As the capital of Russia, Moscow has been the goal of foreign invaders. These cannon were left after Napoleon's invasion in 1812. The Nazi invasion of the Second World War almost reached the Kremlin walls. A visitor to Moscow today sees a modern city with wide streets swarming with reasonably well-dressed people. All the shops, stores, and buildings are stateowned, even to the shoe stands and the soft drink stands. Goomb or the government department store is a tremendous three-story building of open corridors where up to 200,000 people shop a day. People of the many races of the Soviet Union. In the little shops that crowd the corridors of Goo, you can find anything that's for sale in Russia. The goods are of inferior quality and the prices are high. Surprisingly, there is an emphasis on the modern and on style in Russian shops, something quite new in this communist land. The abacus is used for figuring. Few cash registers are seen, but the overall impression of Goomb is bigness. Bigness is part of the profile of Russia. You can see it in the subways built during the 1930s, partly by members of the Komal. Youth who want to become full-fledged communists. The subways are the pride of Russians today. This ornate splendor seems out of place with a modern transportation system. The Mosva or Moscow River is still important to Moscow's transportation as it has been for centuries. The heavy traffic on Moscow streets tells us much of the society. Military trucks and buses dominate. Private cars can be afforded only by scientists, movie stars, high government officials, and other privileged members of Soviet society. The trains are modern and they have been extremely important to the development of modern Russia. The great inland empire requires good overland travel and the rail network has grown steadily until very recent years. Some reports say their trains are very slow and certainly for fast transportation the Russians have turned to the air. Their modern jets are proudly displayed. Pride in their technology is part of the people of Russia and the technology is excellent. The machine tools upon which any technology must depend are first rate. Products from this technology are displayed in great halls. These buses and trucks are shown to the public not to sell them as would be the case in America but to show the people how much their society has achieved. This pride in achievements of their society is typical. The Russians proclaim the world's largest ferris wheel. The largest cannon ever made, though it was never fired. the largest bell ever cast. Even many of the average Russians will take the time to direct a photographer not to take pictures of the poor buildings, just of the new good ones. But there is much in the profile the people of Russia cannot be proud of. Despite the facelifting that has been going on, Russian cities are crowded with slums. Block after block of fire traps are homes for the workers. Slum clearance is underway with clumsy machines. The work is slow, the workmanship poor. In a construction crew, we can see the basic element of communist organization. This crew elects a representative to a council or Soviet of construction crews in the city. That Soviet sends a representative to a larger Soviet and so forth to the top Soviet. None of these people are communists as only four in every 100 adults can belong to the party. The workmanship is so poor the buildings begin to crumble in 3 to 6 years. Women work a full day. Their babies are left in nursery schools, their children in schools or camps. During the summer months, Pioneer camps are open to children from 8 to 13 years. In 80,000 of these camps, sports and games are mixed with the study of communism. One of the purposes is to select the children who have no faith which will stand against their loyalty to the state. Those chosen will be well educated. They will be watched carefully for years and may in time be permitted to join the communist party. Of course, more of these children will receive good educations than will be communists. Well-educated women and men are needed for the technology being built. Their colleges and universities such as the University of Moscow where more than 20,000 attend classes each year are doing remarkable work in training, especially in foreign languages and the sciences. Despite these efforts to train youth, the Soviet Union has problems with juvenile delinquency. Some articles are written about how to handle it. But not too much is published. Because all mass publications, even duplicating machines, are stateowned or licensed. Only news considered good for the people is published by Pravda. The state exercises complete control over all mass communication methods in Russia. Whether press or broadcasting, no freedom in this area exists. In recreation, freedom is allowed the people of Russia. Parks such as Gorki Park have amusement centers to rival our own. And you find informal games, almost like folk games that remind us these simple people are mostly peasants who have been moved to the city to work. Since Stalin in Russia, artists are allowed greater freedom, though still guided by the state. Now, Russian artists can use naturalism, caricature, and even humor in their work. Performances at the Bojoy Theater rival the technological achievements of this society. In the theater, music, opera, and the ballet, the great traditions of Russian performers have been maintained. And in some of these fields, their work is the finest in the [Music] world. Tolerance for religion has extended beyond the Russian Orthodox faith. Jews are allowed to worship. So are the Protestant faiths. But no worshipper can ever become a communist nor hold any position of trust in society. There are fewer churches than in pre-communist Russia, but they are [Music] crowded. The official faith of today's Russia is modern state communism. Daily the stones in the heart of the Kremlin are trampled by thousands of feet. The lines in Red Square stretch a half mile. Red Square is the heart of Russia and not only Russia but the satellite nations as well. In the countries occupied by Russian troops during World War II, communist governments were established. East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, part of Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Albania have been dominated by the policies of the Kremlin, but each to a different degree. In Poland, for example, the strength of traditions, as with the Russian peasants, has resisted changes. Warsaw was 80% destroyed during the war and is being rebuilt exactly as it was where possible. Each new building is a copy of the building that was destroyed. A Roman Catholic people, the Poles have refused to give up their faith. They worship openly despite the tendency of new communist governments to condemn any who go to church as disloyal. Even those in military uniform go to church openly in Poland. Western influences are found in Poland, particularly in the student clubs associated with the University of Warsaw. Western jazz and American dances are exceedingly popular. Some of these students led in riots to gain more freedom from Russia for Poland. The profile in Czechoslovakia is different. In 1946, Prague was a relatively gay city. Now its streets are dominated by loudspeakers, blaring Russian propaganda. You find almost no Western publications. Newspapers, magazines, and books sold here are communist. As for the churches in Czechoslovakia, the pattern is more typically communistic. Some Jewish synagogues are closed or used by the state as museums. The people who attend the churches do so as if outcasts, not wanting to be seen. Hanging over the beautiful skyline of the city is the dominating statue of the Russian communist leaders. At the head is Stalin who led the Soviet Union when the policy of domination of satellites founded this new empire. But in Russia, Stalin has been downgraded. The top Soviet now ruling this land has gone through many changes since Stalin's death. Malanchov, Molotov, Beria, Zhukov, rose and fell. Each had his followers. Slowly Kruef came to the four, emerging as Stalin did through control of the Communist Party and through temporary alliances with such men as Bulganin. The might of these men who head the top Soviet is almost beyond conception. For truly the hand of this man is the mightiest in the history of the world. Within his grasp is power greater than that of the tars. How he will exercise it will depend in part on our own knowledge of the communist world, our own wisdom and our own faith in our own ideals. In the wealth of Soviet politics, one of these men may become the third saint of atheistic communism, whose heart is in red square in the moselum, wherein lie the bodies of Lenin and Stalin in glass coffins for all to see. This is the most closely guarded spot in all Russia. In many ways, this mosselum in red square is the symbol as well as the heart of communism. The great lines that vile by the two saints of modern communism move amid the clinging splendor of the culture these revolutionaries tried so hard to change. [Music]