The family life of most Communist leaders would probably find favor in the eyes of the Bishop of New York, and we can imagine that Cotton Mather, if he returned to the flesh and visited Moscow, would hurry to Trotzky, slap him untheologically on the back, and say, “Thou art a man.” There was something ascetic and impersonal in the way Lenin used to live. There is something reminiscent of Christian self-abnegation in Chicherin’s, Bukharin’s, Radek’s disdain for good clothes. A Communist is required to contribute to the party treasury all the salary he earns above $95 a month. And even if his writings bring him a supplementary income he must not spend it for luxuries. The Communists are the shock troops of the Soviet régime. They must be like athletes in training. They must not consume mental and spiritual ice creams and pastries. Alexandra Kollontai, now Soviet ambassador in Christiania, stands for the utmost freedom in sexual relations. But a review in the official press of her book, “Love Among Laboring Bees,” stigmatizes her views on the subject as “prostitution” and “intellectual tomfoolery.” “It is imperative,” reads the last sentence of the criticism, “to guard against the harmful influence of Comrade Kollontai.” This is the attitude which in other countries leads to the appointment of vice censors. Russia, fortunately, is too advanced to subject itself to such a humiliation. Only the lives of Communists are censored. In respect to the great mass of the people the Bolsheviks content themselves with preaching. Trotzky’s sermons will certainly do the people no harm. Russians have barely a trace of puritanism. Take the instance of their famous, many-ply “mother” oaths. Beside them the worst product of the British navvy looks pale. Says Trotzky: “One would have to consult philologists, linguists, and folk-lore experts to find out whether any other people has such unrestrained, filthy, and disgusting oaths as we have. As far as I know, there is no other.” The Communists have initiated an anti-swearing campaign. In some factories the workers themselves decided to fine any one who used an “expression.” Wherever one goes, in industrial plants, in beer saloons, in clubs, one sees the colored “Don’t Swear” poster. Even in the army, where curses once found their most fertile field, they are becoming increasingly rare.