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Show INSTALLMENT FIFTEEN The thing I liked best of all about the Soviet Union, and it is one we would do well to copy, is the intelligently intelli-gently decent Russian attitude toward minority races. They are helped without being patronized, and they have developed self-respect and an understandable gratitude. If they have no real freedom, neither do the Russians. While this Soviet racial-colonial policy may not be so good as our handling of the Philippine Islands, it is infinitely better than our bungling bun-gling and thoughtless treatment of the Negro. We fly south out of Siberia, down into the ancient Oriental peoples now ruled by the Soviet Union. Suddenly we are crossing a huge blue lake. It is so big that when land drops away behind us we still cannot see the shore ahead. When it does appear, we see the beginning begin-ning of a rolling desert. On our left a chain of blue, snow-capped mountains rises like a fence. Geologically, Geo-logically, they seem about as old , - , - ! J. ' , ' v Al files'';''' ' i Entire factories have been moved , from one part of Russia to another. as our Rockies. On the eas,t side I of this fence is China. I We enter Kazakstan, of which I Alma-Ata is the capital. The Kazak I people are part of the savage no-I no-I madic tribes who for a thousand I years have pressed against Europe I and once formed a part of the I armies of Genghis Khan and Tamer-1 Tamer-1 lane and Atilla's Huns. I When Europe invented the rifle, I they sank from the status of a ter-I ter-I rible menace to that of a constant-I constant-I ly harassing threat. I In the past few centuries the Rus-I Rus-I sian people have been pouring I through the Urals to colonize Si-I Si-I bcria. The Russians had to struggle I with these savage Mongolian nom-I nom-I ads. whose culture was only a little I higher than that of our American In-I In-I dians. They battled the equivalent I of Geronimo and Sitting Bull and I they have their Custers who made I valiant Last Stands, but who finally, I after a series of border wars, I opened the continent to the White I Man. We penned our Indians up in I reservations. The Russians found I another solution as we shall see. I We step out onto Alma-Ata air-I air-I port at the base of the foothills into I a country exactly like that around I Boulder, Colorado, or Colorado I Springs. The trees, the scenery, I even the weeds ore the same, j The prominent Russians and the I prominent Kazaks wear immaculate I white raw silk suits. Alma-Ata, like I Denver, is on nn irrigated plain I with mountains rising in the back-I back-I ground. We pass through cornfields, I where sun flowers grow along the Irrigation ditches again exactly I like Colorado. The farm houses are I of sun-baked brick, made of clay I and straw the adobe of our South-I South-I West. I This Soviet Denver is a sprawl-1 sprawl-1 lng Russian town, which before the 1 war had 180,000 people and now I has 400.000. I That evening after the customary I banquet we go to the local opera, I where they give a performance I based on an old Kazak folk tale. 1 The actors are all Kazaks as are I the words, music and costumes. I It Is a beautiful show, and gives us I vivid idea of what these people I once were like. The costumes are I Clearly derived from the Chinese I 'id a musician picks out a haunting I Oriental tunc on what looks like a 1 Chinese banjo while a pair of twin I K;i?ak boys sing. 1 All of their culture came over the I mountains with them but it is rre-I rre-I I'lvrd only here in the opera, fur I He clothing of these we see in the j ti rets is not ictuK'?qiie. but IS 0 I dr.ib composite of clr.in patches In-I In-I diMiiigiiii-i'dblc from the rest of the I Wirt t'nirn. I Next morning they lake us tr a I drive out through the Ungated river Ucy, past pink adobe houses like those of New Mexico (lacking only 1 the strings of red peppers) to a great Soviet experimental station one of four in the Kazakstan Republic. Kazakstan Ka-zakstan Is four-f.fihs the size of all Europe exclusive of Russia, but it is largely arid like our American dust-bowl. This is a fruit farm, where under irrigation they raise apricots, peaches, cherries and plums. They are keenly interested in the plum, which they recently brought here from Canada, and is already producing pro-ducing more than twenty-five pounds of fruit per tree. In this particular orchard they use the most modern pipe system of subterranean irrigation. irriga-tion. They are proudest of their vineyards; in 1914 they had 3.000 hectares of land in grapes. Now they have 30,000. Workers on this state farm get only 300 roubles a month in salary, but at the end of the season they get a produce dividend of about 700 kilograms (roughly 1,500 pounds) of vegetables, which includes corn, melons and pumpkins. Then each has his own irrigated garden plot-about plot-about a quarter of an acre for each worker. They may sell the produce dividend on the free market, at prices lower than the Moscow free market. The director gets 1,700 roubles a month and pays monthly 35 roubles for two large rooms in a big house he shares with someone else. The rent, he says, is figured on the basis of 1 rouble, 30 kopeks, per square meter of dwelling space. In American Amer-ican figures, this is about 10 cents a square yard. Eisenstein is of German-Jewish origin. He is a short, fast-thinking, friendly little man. He and his start wear colored polo shirts with short sleeves In the Hollywood manner, and Eisenstein wears a well-cut white linen suit. He Is filming the life of Ivan the Terrible. Ivan is one of the newly resurrected Soviet heroes. Eisenstein Eisen-stein speaks fluent English, with a slight but agreeable accent. The name of the President-Premier of Kazakstan is Nutras Un-dasinov. Un-dasinov. He is a pleasant, kindly old Comanche or Sioux, who except for his European clothes, might be the dignified tribal chief you would meet on any Indian reservation. Most of his cabinet ministers are also Kazaks, but there are a few blue-eyed, blond Russians present The Russians, however, are in the background. The Kazaks tell us the people racially belong to the Turkoman-Mongol Turkoman-Mongol group, and fought for Independence Inde-pendence as early as the twelfth century, when the southeastern part of the present republic was under the rule of the Chinese Seventh Dynasty. Later they adopted the Mohammedan religion. The title of the hereditary ruler was the Khan as in Kublai Khan and Genghis Khan. The Mohammedan religion is still popular many people go to the mosque. But Kazakstan Is now one of the Soviet republics and has a great measure of Independence; recently it was given the right of a separate foreign minister. Joyce, turning to the premier says, "You say now this Is an independent independ-ent republic; well, tell us about some of the conflicts you've had with the central government." The premier says there haven't been many conflicts, and lets It rest at that. "You say that you have the right to send ministers to other countries; who will you send them to? Will you send one to America?" A big Russian down at the end of the table, hitherto silent, now tactfully tact-fully leans forward and suggests that such ministers will be sent to those countries most useful to them commercially. Joyce turns back to the premier. "Are you going to send one to America Amer-ica or not?" Of course, that would be decided In Moscow, the premier explains. The premier explains at the time of the 1017 Revolution the people were 93 per cent Illiterate. Today illiteracy Is gone, and the Soviets have built many theaters and schools. Natirally. the people are grateful, so why should there be any disputes with the Moscow government? govern-ment? The premier explains that the people elect delegates to a regional Soviet, who send delegates to the Kazakstan Soviet, who chose him as premier. "All right. Now ask him how Stalin got his job; wo want to understand un-derstand it Ask him that." I The handsome Russian down at the end of the t.ihle leans forward ar.d explain smoothly and briefly the Intrirnrirs of the Soviet dec-: dec-: tnr.il system. He dlrl it politely and I there was no feeling that he was hni'hiea the premier nrlc; only helping him over the hard plares. i Likewise when we ask how many ref. gees nre here, it Is the alert ! and friendlv Russian who tells us j that a million ere still here, al though many have already gone back to the reoccupled territory. They now present Eric with a complete Kazak costume which consists con-sists of a gold-embroidered robe more gorgeous than anything I have seen this side of a Shriner's convention. con-vention. But its crowning glory is a hood of red velvet, with ear flaps the size of soup plates, and the whole, including the ear flaps, is lined with silver fox fur. The party they gave us at the hotel that night was the most pleasant pleas-ant we attended in the Soviet Union. It was the most informal. The dinner din-ner was elaborate as usual, but It wasn't stiff. The local notables were easy, friendly notables. There is an attractive girl she teaches dancing at the local academy acad-emy and she speaks fairly fluent good English but curiously awkward. awk-ward. She explains she learned It from books and until now has never spoken with an American or an Englishman. There are vice premiers, councilors council-ors and members of the local government, gov-ernment, some Russian and some Kazak. There are also half a dozen stars from the local opera all Kazaks. Ka-zaks. There are twin boys In their teens, who sang last night, now resplendent re-splendent In twin Tuxedos, of which they are very proud. There is a Kazak girl of about twenty, who danced the role of the Oriental princess with the cruel father. She could be any of the pretty Indian girls who, when Indians had oil money, were sought after by sororities sorori-ties at the University of Kansas. Then there are two older artists women in their forties, who, except ex-cept that they look like sisters-in-law of Madame Chiang Kai-shek, could be any of the Russian artists who have entertained us in the other towns. Their evening dresses are just as good, they have as many gold teeth, but In addition they wear beautiful Oriental jewelry set with precious stones old Kazak workmanship work-manship worthy of a museum. Most of all, we liked them as people. peo-ple. They were gentle and friendly, friend-ly, and obviously had never been warned against foreigners. Almost the same thing could be said of the Russians. That invisible barrier of tension and suspicion which separates sepa-rates Russians from all foreigners had been slowly dissolving since we left Moscow. Here in Kazakstan, it disappeared entirely. We have now left Kazakstan and enter the neighboring Socialist Soviet So-viet Republic of Uzbekistan, whose capital is the ancient Mohammedan city of Tashkent. I am riding in the caboose plane with the correspondents. corre-spondents. The buffet service is as good as in the plane ahead. It even includes fresh strawberries, taken on at Alma-Ata. Dick Lauterbach pays a visit to the toilet and returns shaking his head. " "I'll never get used to them. Five thousand feet above a howling desert des-ert they serve us strawberries, caviar cavi-ar and champagne, and then I go back there and find nobody has remembered re-membered to empty the chemical bucket for three days." The crowd of airport-greeters, as at Alma-Ata, are wearing white silk suits. Again half are Russian and half local Orientals. The local boys are known as Uzbeks. The jackets fit J. J : :V' 1 ; iti i . V V v i ' J- "':; :'. :; i , V v ! U l I I HI 111 i nil i i i American nilsNlnn to Russia In 1041 Included Grn. James II. Hums and William L. Halt. of all Russian white silk suits button but-ton up to the collarbone and have high turned-down collars like the Chinese. They wear caps of the same white pongee silk. The cap, incidentally, is a relic of revolutionary days and was symbolic sym-bolic of the working class, since only bourgeois exploiters wore felt hats. Recently, the government began making felt hats, explaining that in the new Russia, they nerd no lunger be regarded as a badge of shame. However, ell the old-time Bolsheviks Bolshe-viks still cling to cars. Nesterov al'Auys wears c.nc. Mi!;c Kalugm . wore one. And. of com. sc. Stalin, ;n all his pictures. As a hall-mark of the old Bolshevik aristocracy, the cap is probably politically safer than the lint. , ! ITO BE CONTINCLD) |