Show THE WHEAT T AND EMERALDS New Russia Puts Past Behind Her Her Her-Halliburton Halliburton Doubts People Will Be Forever Satisfied With Wheat Holds Emeralds as Big a Part of Life as Bread I 4 j 4 4 I t 2 i 4 4 1 Y r a t it I I t 4 A Z These phot photographs graphs by Richard Halliburton Hailiburton illustrate the metamorphosis which has bas o overcome St. St Petersburg since the formation of the tho communist government 1 1 Soviet workers make themselves at home homo in to the parks and palaces which once belonged exclusively to royalty 2 Symbolic of the old Russia they know nothing about are arc the statues around which these young Soviets gather 3 A group of Russian students By RICHARD HALLIBURTON Author of The uThe Royal Road to Romance Etc THE most important story JL in the world today today and and the most interesting is is Rus Rus- sia This is not a phrase from the Soviet propaganda book nor the outburst of a parlor pink It is my own opinion and no one could be more thoroughly American nor more of a champion of the right to live and pursue happiness happiness happiness hap hap- in ones one's own manner contrary to the Soviet system system tem tern than myself Riding into Leningrad from the airport I passed along streets turned upside down with pavement construction and walled with scaffolding scaffolding scaffolding folding behind which new factories and apartments were rising ten stories stories sto sto- sto ries high My motor car had to plow through dense throngs of busy hurrying pedestrians for in inthe inthe inthe the fury of the new enthusiasm work goes on 24 hours a day The noise nois of the traffic the concrete mixers the steam-rollers steam the steel riveters was deafening deafening and and sweet It took me a full day to dig down under all this mass of steel trucks and swarming workers who are building Leningrad to find what I really had come to see see St. St St. Peters Peters- Peters Peters- burg Aristocracy Built Culture The capital of old Russia was one of the noblest most beautiful cities on earth It had spaciousness dignity leisure wealth power Peter Peter Pe Pe- ter the Great who built it on marsh Islands at the head of the tho Gull Gulf of Finland had no less vigor and Imagination than the workers worker's councilmen councilmen coun coun- dilmen of today With a wave of his hand he swept aside all obstacles obstacles cles des to create public squares of enormous area and surround them with public buildings that are the largest and most-lavish most in to Europe The richest class of people in the world during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries the Russian nobility flocked to St. St Petersburg Each noble tried to outdo his neIghbor neighbor neighbor neigh neIgh- bor in to the construction of palaces and in to his show of splendor In Inthis Inthis Inthis this competition the czars kept wellin well welt in to front spending money and gathering gathering gathering gath gath- ering treasures to an extent incomprehensible incomprehensible incomprehensible to us today The resulting magnificence built on the anguish and enslavement of the masses shone with wilh a blinding light The Russian aristocracy developed developed developed de de- de- de taste culture I tion They became distinguished throughout all other countries for their regal manners their extravagance extravagance extravagance gance their Incomparably beautiful women and lordly men The greatest greatest greatest great great- est collection a of pictures pictures outsIde outside the Louvre found their way to the Hermitage Hermitage Her Her- gallery the music of kovsky and despite despite de de- spite his radical tendencies flowed from every orchestra The art of dancing ballet became a n Russian monopoly St. St Isaacs Isaac's cathedral an architectural wonder v of the first magnitude rose from rom the marsh marsh- lands Summer palaces were built to rival Versailles s in to splendor Emeralds Emeralds Emeralds Em Em- big as hen eggs glittered from the crowns of Russian queens In the art and the grace of at fine living St. St Petersburg right up to 1914 led the great capitals of the earth Splendor Recalls Czars All this is gone utterly Irretrievably irretrievably irretrievably ably vanished Leningrad hates hales defames jeers at what she used tobe to tobe tobe be just as the revengeful and fisted bloody peasant women jeered at Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine because like the czars she had starved them in to order order order or or- der to create Immortal grandeur On my first night in to Leningrad I went to the Marinsky theater to see seea a ballet The Hunchbacked Horse I felt a real surge of excitement This theater was almost holy ground Here the most exalted of the old regime gathered to hear glorious Russian music and watch incomparable Russian dancing To attend the Marinsky the n nobility donned their richest jewels their whitest gloves their most lavish gowns and un uniforms Here the czar and czarina with their son and daughters came frequently to sit in in the Imperial box A more glittering glittering glit gilt royal gathering has not been seen elsewhere No theater have I ever seen as beautiful as the Marinsky The walls are covered with yellow damask damask damask dam dam- ask and each seat in to the orchestra is an individual arm chair upholstered upholstered upholstered with the same rich silk At Atthe Atthe Atthe the back is the Imperial box and on the sides the smaller boxes of the grand dukes The decoration has faded very little since they sat there Into this regal auditorium the new masses were pouring Some had on onno onno onno no coats some had shirts but no neckties only hall hah the men had shaved that day Not one woman wore anything but the plainest cheapest sack like dress Not a jewel not a flower not a graceful attitude not a beautiful ul person A sailor and his girl sat on one side of me rue Two slovenly students in to colorless wool blouses sat behind next them two women with gold teeth who were probably street-car street conductors or brick layers From the Imperial box leaned six laborers labor labor- ers probably from the shoe factory factory fac fac- factory tory eating pastry The musicians in the orchestra wore wool shirts and no neckties No class consciousness consciousness consciousness con con- anywhere anywhere and and indeed why should there be bel Everybody present was a peasant farmer or ora ora ora a factory worker or a soldier or a sailor There is no other class left lefi leftin leftIn in to Russia All others have been exiled or exterminated The ballet I am happy to report report report re re- re- re port was superlatively good Here is one czarist art the proletarians have not let die Magnificent costumes costumes costumes cos cos- and color and light and skill flashed from tram the stage for lor four lour hours The audience ate apples all during the performance Otherwise they were well behaved Satisfied With Barest Necessities The violent transformation of Leningrad Len ingrad from imperial to proletarian is evident on every side The ducal palaces run-down run and woe woebegone are now workers' workers apartments The palace where Prince Felix murdered is a house of culture and rest for teachers The great suburban estates have been turned Into pleasure grounds where the workers go to escape the desperately desperately desperately des des- crowded quarters in to which they live The old Prospect now called the Prospect a of October 25 once one of the smartest and richest rich est streets in to the world Is now one of the dingiest True three times as many people parade it as before before before be be- fore but they are dressed in sacks Instead of furs and have to spend instead of gold roubles The shops that tha t once offered only the best and the most beautiful ul are arenow arenow arenow now poverty stricken half halt empty and displaying only the cheapest and most unattractive goods No Individual shop keeping is allowed Every place is state owned and ald state supplied Taste and quality are incredibly bad There are book bookstores bookstores bookstores stores but only revolutionary histories histories his his- tories and treatises can be bought There are cinema houses houses but but only political Soviet glorifying films can ean be shown It seems to me that the Soviets discourage their people from having having haying hav hay ing anything more than the barest necessities Clothes flowers m motor mo motor mo- mo tor cars simple romantic entertainment entertainment entertainment entertain entertain- ment are considered dangerously revolutionary counter-revolutionary In the hands of private Individuals There is very little mo money ey among the workers to t buy these things with and any accumulation accumulation accumulation ac ac- ac- ac of money is a capital crime And Arid if it if the Russians did have the money there Is almost nothing on which to spend it In one fur shop I bought a skin sheep-skin Cossack hat It cost Soviet rou you bles The average monthly pay for fora a worker is roubles My good German camera was stolen out of my hotel and I tried to buy another one There was not a single stogie camera except a few Russian imitations to fo be bought in to all Leningrad On an island in to the Neva river stands the Fortress of Peter and Paul built by Peter the Great to protect his newly founded capital This place is held in to particular disfavor disfavor dis dis- disfavor dis- dis favor by the Soviets for to its I prison were sentenced the political enemies now heroes of the former government All they did was to throw a bomb under the czars czar's carriage carriage carriage car car- and blow a few of the royal family to bits which as we know now was a pious and glorious act of rebellion against the capitalistic system As Asa a prison however the place Is unspeakable and the agonies endured endured endured en en- dured there in the name of political political political cal faith helped drive the liberal- liberal minded people of the country into thirsty blood revolt Tombs of the Tyrants Another reason the Soviets dislike dislike dis dis dislike like the fortress is that Its church shelters the tombs of all the czars from the time of Peter the Great to Alexander the father of the last Romanoff Large groups of workers workers work work- ers era are led through this church church- now ugly and and stripped of all the splendor it once knew knew- and shown the tombs of their mortal mortal mortal mor mor- tal enemies the czars The accompanying accompanying accompanying ac ac- ac- ac companying lecture in to brief Is this Here lie the devilish tyrants who fought against the demands of the workers Let us be thankful that tha t the are dead andall and andall all the corrupt Russian capitalists with them On another day I visited two of the most celebrated summer pal palO aces aces and Selo The former is famous for tor its it fountains fountains fountains foun foun- which h when they play create a scene of extravagant loveliness and luxury Here the czars and their courts danced and wore their emerald crowns In Selo Se Sc lo 10 Catherine lived in to imperial splendor amid her 50 dr drawing drawing- wing wing- i rooms her rooms walled wailed with amber amber amber am am- amI I ber with silver with priceless mur mar als Here she received in to her gold and crystal ballroom dined with witha a hundred dukes In to her banquet hall hail of jade and lapis These two monuments to czarist glory are now museums used to teach the modern proletariat how criminal and shocking were the days and ways of the This all seefus seems to me to be as ns lopsided a system as was the previous previous previous pre pre- one Formerly a few lew people had too much cake and too many emeralds while the masses starved for tor wheat Now the masses all aU have wheat and no emeralds But Butman Butman Butman man cannot live by bread alone The supply of emeralds is just as vital as the supply of wheat if lifo life is to be worth living living the the purely decorative and esthetic is as necessary sary as the useful and practical In Leningrad alas the emeralds have all been trampled underfoot Only the wheat remains e 0 D Bell U Sj Service |