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| Title | What has become of the Russian Revolution |
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| Contributor (Local) |
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| Publisher | International Review |
| Place of Creation (TGN) |
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| Date | 1937 |
| Subject.Topical (LCSH) |
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| Subject.Topical (Local) |
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| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
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| Original Item Extent | 63 pages; 22 cm |
| Original Item Location | HN523.Y8613 1937 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b8304536~S11 |
| Original Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/scpamp |
| Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://libraries.uh.edu/branches/special-collections |
| Use and Reproduction | In Copyright: This item is protected by copyright. Copyright to this resource is held by the creator or current rights holder, and the resource is provided here for educational purposes. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without permission of the copyright owner. Users assume full responsibility for any infringement of copyright or related rights. |
| File Name | index.cpd |
| Title | Image 31 |
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| File Name | uhlib_2209396_030.jpg |
| Transcript | And what shall we say of "cultural work" that consists in propagating the last decree of the authorities in so-called "workers' " clubs, where nobody has the right to express an opinion that in any way deviates from the official orthodoxy of the moment? That is perhaps security against "heresy" but not "social security." The nursery schools are called "children's gardens," though the garden is usually missing and the recreation yards are not even expected to be there. All mothers, except the very poor, have to pay for the chance of leaving their children in the Soviet nursery schools. Yet the State-employer has the gall to put the upkeep of these nursery schools under the heading of "social security." We find under the same heading the upkeep of institutions for foundlings, orphans, and the "creches," where the mother of the poor family—and only the poor mother—leaves her infant during her hours of work in the factory. In the USSR, more than elsewhere, the worker's wife is obliged by want to follow her husband into the factory. It is just a bit cruel to describe as "emancipation" the need of a mother of a worker family to do piece work or to labor at the belt during the nursing of her baby. A part of the budget for public education is also covered by "social security." Education—even elementary schooling—is, in fact, free only in a very relative sense. Parents have to pay for pupils' books and stationery. And because the books thus bought by the pupils'- parents became, at the end of the school year, the "socialist" property of the school, no less than a special decree, signed by Stalin on August 7, 1935, was necessary to make these books the legal property of the persons who paid for them. From the Izviestia of August 8, 1935, we learn that the State did a fine business in the sale of books. In the elementary schools, for example, the books were paid for at the rate of 5 roubles per pupil, who received for his money only 3 roubles' worth of books. In the Moscow secondary schools pupils pay 24 roubles and more a year. In spite of that, there is often one book for 3 to 5 pupils (the same Izviestia). Yet under Tsarism books and stationery were free in the primary schools. Included in the section of expenses for "social security" are scholarships, which, as we know, are far from being distributed equally and benefit finally only a very small part of the population, the elements destined to fill the big positions. No, it is quite clear that the second third of the budget for "social security" cannot be recognized as a real "salary supplement," unless we adopt the same stand toward similar swindles perpetrated elsewhere. III.—The condition of public health in the USSR is deplorable. According to the Izviestia of February 6, 1936, the Commissar of Public Health of the Pan-Russian Republic of Soviets, Kaminski, declared that in the hospitals of Moscow—which is in a favorable situation—there were only 6.3 beds for every thousand inhabitants, while in 1913 there were 7.4. "For children," he said, "matters are even worse. Only 3% of the beds needed can be provided for the children." We again quote the Izviestia (February 28, 1936) : " . . . though there are in the USSR more than 300,000 children suffering from rachitis, paralysis and similar defects, there is no institution to take care of them. In Moscow in particular the existence of 5,000 of such children is officially 29 |