Show AN AMERICAN SEES RUSSIA Ivy Leo Lee J ee after aCter a short visit to Rus Rus- cia sla has written a book giving his impressions He attempts to sup sup- support support support port no theory and simply gives his impressions which summarized I are as follows Russa is a country of oC contrasts and contradictions One cannot be there long however without realizing that no conclusions can be reached concerning anything in Russia unless one brings to his rescue a sense of oC proportion If It one takes seriously and literally every every- everything everything thing that Is said and done in Rus flue Russia sia sla the situation seems perfectly hopeless On the other hand one Is con con- confronted confronted fronted constantly with the tho thought that the Russian people are a very lovable people They have haye been through terrible afflictions No matter who or what may be bo the cause of oC their present difficulties certain it is that the mass of the people themselves are the chief sufferers And they are human be be- beings ings Ings of oC them And It was Edmund Burk Bus who said You cannot indict a people My general impressions of or Rus flue Russia ala sia might be expressed under the following three headings The present soviet regime in Russia is there to stay No Igns signs of oC any instability are visible and one gathered no apprehension or 01 sug sug- suggestion suggestion of oC instability from any of or the information or communications I 1 was able to obtain It seemed equally clear that any practical al at- alternative to the present regime would be worse All Alt the old personnel which might conceivably constitute the th basis of oC an alternative has either been killed left leCt the country volun volun- voluntarily arlly ow 01 oia been driven out of oC Rus flue Russ sia s a. a The alternative e would be to move toward anarchy The situation is changing dally daily almost before ones one's very eyes Theories are being tested by facts and purposes being subjected to the acid tests tests of ot results The great masses of oC the people people and and Russia lussia should be bo thought of oC as asa asa asa a mess mass more than as a n collection of oC individuals Is Is slowly waking up up from the long sleep imposed upon it by a thousand years of oC oCr repression r oppression ignorance and backwardness It must be remembered that the he titanic forces let loose by tho th reformation and later by b the French Drench revolution in Europe pass pass- passed passed ed over Russia Rissia without Influencing It t. t Russia though dressed in some of or the garments of or the twentieth t century Is In its Ils mental spiritual and political state stale very much where western Europe was in tho the sixteenth century In other words the he burden upon tho the new Russia is iso isto isto to o arouse itself front from Its long age age Iong slumber and to emerge into prop prop- proper er or relationship with the twentieth tw I century world almost overnight |