Communism -- Soviet Union; Goldman, Emma, 1869-1940; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921 -- Personal narratives, American
To the casual observer it may indeed appear that the Bolsheviki have
accomplished wonders in this field. They have organized more schools
than existed under the Tsar, and they have made them accessible to the
masses. This is true of the larger cities. But in the provinces the
existing schools met the opposition of the local Bolsheviki, who closed
most of them on the alleged ground of counter-revolutionary activities,
or because of lack of Communist teachers. While, then, in the large
centres the percentage of children attending schools and the number of
higher educational institutions is greater than in the past, the same
does not apply to the rest of Russia. Still, so far as quantity is
concerned, the Bolsheviki deserve credit for their educational work and
the general diffusion of education.
In the case of the theatres no reservations have been made. All were
permitted to continue their performances when factories were shut down
for want of fuel. The opera, ballet, and; Lunacharsky’s plays were
elaborately staged, and the _Proletcult_--organized to advance
proletarian culture--was generously subsidized even when the famine was
at its height. It is also true that the Government printing presses were
kept busy day and night manufacturing propaganda literature and issuing
the old classics. At the same time the imagists and futurists gathered
unmolested in Café Domino and other places. The palaces and museums were
kept up in admirable condition. In any other starved, blockaded, and
attacked country all this would have been a very commendable showing.
In Russia, however, two revolutions had taken place. To be sure, the
February Revolution was not far-reaching. Still, it brought about
political changes without which there might not have been an October. It
also released great cultural forces from the prisons and Siberia--a
valuable element without which the educational work of the Bolsheviki
could not have been undertaken.
It was the October Revolution which struck deepest into the vitals of
Russia. It uprooted the old values and cleared the ground for new
conceptions and forms of life. Inasmuch as the Bolsheviki became the
sole medium of articulating and interpreting the promise of the
Revolution, the earnest student will not be content merely with the
increase of schools, the continuation of the ballet, or the good
condition of the museums. He will want to know whether education,
culture, and art in Bolshevik Russia symbolize the spirit of the
Revolution, whether they serve to quicken the imagination and broaden
the horizon; above all, whether they have released and helped to apply
the latent qualities of the masses.
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