Title | What has become of the Russian Revolution |
Creator (LCNAF) |
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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 |
Type (DCMI) |
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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 46 |
Format (IMT) |
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File Name | uhlib_2209396_045.jpg |
Transcript | constraint, this moral servitude, because the youth, those younger than 30- 35, who form 60% of the population, and are its most active section, have never known any other regime. Shaped mentally in the total ignorance of anything different but what is about them, the youth has nothing to compare its life with. To a great extent, the youth is free from doubt. Those addicted to critical thought, keep their qualms to themselves, for doubt is heresy and makes one liable to heavy punishment. The youth is made to believe that everything in their life that is not convenient is a left-over from Tsarism, while everything acceptable is a gift handed down from above by the new regime. There do exist free minds. But they must keep quiet. The G.P.U. never gives them time to find an echo around them. People do laugh in Russia. Merriment is not entirely gone. The youth born under the regime, ignorant of anything that is not Stalinism, having more or less faith in the promise of future happiness that all societies in movement inscribe on their palaces—the youth does have its moments of gayety. Human beings tend to laugh no matter where they are. They have a physiologic need for laughter. There is laughter in prison cellars, in barracks, in trenches. There is gayety also in the obligatory Soviet demonstrations. No Elections Neither factory directors, nor judges, nor the public prosecutors, nor the heads of the armed forces, nor any officials, are elected. They are all named from above and remain absolute masters in their domains. They form a self-recruited hierarchy. Neither are the trade-union and Party officials elected. At all steps of the ladder, they are chosen and proposed to the organization assemblies by the higher organs of the trade-unions or the Party. No one has the right to organize outside of the official bodies. In the latter there is, however, no hope of expressing one's viewpoint. Any attempt at independent organization is qualified as treason or plotting. Immediately after Kirov's assassination, the plenum of the central committee of the Party decided to establish the secret vote, direct elections and equality of representation (for city and country) for the Soviets. This reform is not what it seems to be when regarded naively. Without the right of presenting other programs and other candidates than those named by the government, we shall continue to have here the same farce. Indeed the new arrangement will be of advantage to the government. Studying the negative ballots it will be able to find out exactly how many malcontents are found in any region. This system has been practiced for a number of years in Fascist Italy and in Hitler's Germany. The direct election of delegates to the different Soviet congresses could only become important if the latter played a part in the direction of the country and if they were chosen freely from among the various political tendencies. The new constitution gives the peasants the same representation as the city dwellers. According to the very complicated system practiced before, the countryside representation was about three times as small as that of the cities. 44 |