LTE:
GUIDE TO GOOD READING
7 Quiet in the Kremlin’ shows
why Soviet Union wants peace
A SHARP-EYED Frenchman of
the 19th century by the name of
De Tocqueville traveled through
the frontiersman’s country that is
now the United States and report-
ed on the virile, homespun New
World of that day. His observa-
tions are still remembered for he
answered questions Europeans
asked of the virtually. unknown
land across the Atlantic,
I am somehow reminded of. him
by George Marion’s. new . book,
All Quiet in the Kremlin (Fair-
play Publishers, $3.50), obtainable
here at the People’s Cooperative
Bookstore, 337 West Pender.
The wheel of history has turned
and now a man from America
has crossed the Atlantic east-
ward and the description is that
of.a 20th century New World.
And a memorable job he has done.
He has given us a slice of the
most important story of our time,
the story of the Socialist Soviet
Jand which certainly is not, as he
illustrates, Churchill’s “enigma,
wrapped in a mystery.”
ON THE SCREEN
There is no enigma, there is no
mystery. “All I saw,” Marion re-
ports, “was a strangely tenacious
people doing a simply staggering
job of a kind and in a way quite
inconceivable to our country.” He
sought to understand that job
and assigned himself to capture
“the spirit of the thing.”
He could have marshalled’ the
statistics to describe the miracles
of reconstruction he witnessed.
But he clothed with flesh and
blood, the statistics which are
but the arithmetical shorthand for
the achievements of human be-
ings. :
. You’ve heard the itall tales that
travelers in Russia are unable
to bulge an inch without a hard-
eye figure in a trenchcoat at their
elbows. The myth dies hard, for
the New World’s enemies spend
millions to Keep it alive. Marion
on this own, appears to ‘have fairly
pleaded for somebody to accom-
any him somewhere, anywhere.
Hie got there and where he wanted
to go was this choice, And he got
‘City Lights’ revival shows —
Chaplin at his satirical best
GENUINE ARTISTRY is al-
ways appreciated by the people,
and so I almost missed getting in
to see City Lights in time for this
review, because of the line-up of
people waiting to see this famous
20 year-old Charles Chaplin film,
now showing at the Plaza.
Tt may appear paradoxical to
say so, but the essence of Charlie
Chaplin’s great appeal is the subt-
lety with which he accents the
simple truths of life in our society,
and the unity and deceptive sim-
plicity of his stories. City Lights
dazzles with its revelation of the
cruelty of capitalist reality; and
at the same time it warms our
hearts with its humanity, and
stirs us again and again to the
laughter of pure delight. It is a
great human document,
*
The art of Charlie Chaplin is
too well known and of too finely
woven a fabric for one to attempt
to analyse briefly the source of
the humor in the episodes that
together gompose this picture.
One has to see it. But the power
of the picture ,this reviewer be-
lieves, is its inescapable state-
ment of truths—that to see in
the generosity of the rich any-'
thing but a drunken debauch, or
to believe that human sympathy
stems from any but the common
people is gross illusion; that in
our hearts we stand with the un-
pretentious and simple and
against the self-important and
calculating. f
As in all Ciaarlie Chaplin pro-
ductions there is a uniformly
high standard of acting that per-
fectly supplements in its res-
traint the finished artistry of
Charlie’s unique talent. Charles
Chaplin as author, actor director
and producer is undoubtedly the
greatest artist that filmdom has,
yet produced.—Elizabeth Scott.
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_ Marion describes,
around,
* * *
WHAT HE SAW he tells you
in a crisp, lucid, colloquial prose.
He takes you into the homes and
among the machines of the work-
ers in the Stalingrad Tractor
Factory; he gives you the details
of the joyful, creative life on the
fruitful collectives. His first-hand
account of Stalingrad’s amazing
reconstruction is a masterpice of
reporting,
Cherkassova, the peasant
mother, will stay with you a long
time, this simple, indomitable
woman who sparked: the recon-
struction of that city of heroes.
What she did became news
throughout the USSR. For, as the
author says, “In Russia, man-
bites-dog is not news.” News there
is when someone starts to build
something or builds something
“faster and better than anyone
else has done.”
Oherkassova’s formula was very
simple: join me in_ rebuilding
Stalingrad on our own time after
working hours, And they did. It
is an epic of free, voluntary labor
that stands unmatched in all
man’s history.
The Cherkassov movement
sparked the reconstruction of the
devastated areas and today there
are no devastated areas,
* * *
THIS BOOK answers many of
the, questions millions in North
Amrica ask. Why has Soviet Rus-
sia been able in so brief a time to
become the unquestioned power
that she is? The dramatic facts
here destroy Hitler's enormous
lie of slave labor. No people, in
all history, could ever have been
forced to do the job Marion des-
cribes,
* “T observed,” Marion concludes,
“throughout my stay in’ Russia
that not just the Communists but
the great majority of the com-
mon people are convinced that
something new and heroic is
under construction in the Soviet
Union.” .
To read this book is to under-
stand why the Soviets are so
earnest about peace, “The people
talk peace, and things are just
as quiet in the Kremlin where
they are not mounting anti-air-
craft guns in panicky preparation
for war, but are only gilding the
minarets of the old’ cathedrals
and putting fresh green paint on
the walls.” That they are willing
and abundantly able to defend
the happy, creative, aspiring life
is proved in
these pages. But their profoundest
wish is a world at peace, as the
author shows. ‘
“All Quiet in the Kremlin,” is
a distinct contribution to peace
for which the author merits ut-
most support, Personally I could
have taken more of it: I wish the
author had related, in greater de-
tail, the magnificent role of the
Communist party there and its
close, intimate relations with the
masses, and taken time to des-
cribe the electoral process, shown,
say, how a Soviet in a given area
works. Many readers would have
liked more details of trade union
life. R
* x *
I WISH the author—for ‘the
sake of those. Americans who do
-not yet understand — had des-
cribed more of the socialist basis’
upon which the Soviet achieve-
ments rest. But he’s the author,
and I’m the reader: what I got
was a vivid, moving, dramatic ac-
count of man’s greatest achieve-
ment as seen by an American
traveler. And Marion, the gifted
reporter, has caught “the spirit.
of it’ in his pages. —- JOSEPH
NORTH.
@
Contributes to new paper
Paul Robeson, the man whose name means fighting for freedom
on six continents, thinks a new Negro newspaper named FREEDOM,
launched in New York last 3
Yovember, has a bright future.
Which
explains why, in addition to the business of keeping up his repertoire
as a concert singer, continuing, his reading of drama, studying lang-
uages (now it is Chinese, of which he has a reading and speaking
knowledge), and acting as one of the leaders of the world peace move-
ment and as a leader of the Pr ogressive Fariy, Robeson has undertaken.
to write 2 4olumn in FREEDOM,
ALAN MAX HAS LAST WORD
Truman’s music critique
‘measure of U.S. culture |
EVER SINCE U.S. President Harry Truman sent a letter
in his own handwriting to WASHINGTON POST music critic Paul
Hume last Deceniar 6, threatening to beat him up for criticising the
indifferent vocal talents of Truman’s daugater Margaret, who has
‘been an aspiring opera singer since her father became president, American
and Canadian newspapers have been com|nenting on the unprecedented
action.
presidential letter aids in part:
According to the WASHINGTON DAILY NEWS; the
“I have just read your lousy review buried in the hack pages.
You sound like a frustrated old man who never made a success, an
eight-ulcer man on a four-ulcer job, and all four ulcers working.
“T never met you, but if I do you'll need a new nose and plenty
of beefsteak, and perhaps a supporter below.”
While editorial writers and columnists wrote at length about the
president’s letter in subsequent weeks, it remained for Alan Max of
the NEW YORK DAILY WORKER to say the final word on the
controversial missive.
CULTURAL STANDARDS. in
the United States were raised to
a new high with publication of
President Truman’s penetrating
letter offering a punch.in the nose
to a critic of his daughter's con- ~
cert style.
Constructive in tone, serious in
purpose and revealing a deep
study of the subject, Truman’s
letter is certain to rank with the
writings of G. B. Shaw and Don-
ald Tovey on music.’
Observers were especially struck
by the manner in which Truman,
as befitting the head of a govern-
ment, retained an objective view
throughout the controversy, and
‘did not permit. family consider-
ation to warp His judgment. -
The thoughtful analysis of
music by the head of the lead-
ing political party in the United
States was particularly striking
when compared with the docu-
“ment of the Communist Party of
the Soviet 'Union in 1948 on musi-
cal work in that country.
Where the Soviet Union dicta-
torially informed music critics
that the people expect them to
“base their criticism on objective
principles,” Truman
Washington critic ‘that “I have
just read your lousy review ...
told’ the
We eget his sparkling analysis below.
you sound like a frustrated old
man who never made a success,
an eight-uleer man on a four-ulcer
job, and all four ulcers working. 4
The reference to the “ulcer” is
particularly learned. The ulcer is
evidently a type of musical instru-
ment, now obsolete, and akin to
the dulcimer. ;
The Soviet Union, in brutal
fashion, told: Soviet composers that
the people~expect them to study
the classical composers, including
Russian opera, “outstanding in its
inner content, its wealth of mel-
ody and breadth <-of range, its’
peoples and the fine, beautiful,
clear musical form.” .
Compare» this with . ‘Truman's
move to bring forward democrati-
cally the best in the musical
world with his words: “IE never
met you, but if I do, you'll need
a new nose and plenty © of beef-
steak, and — perhaps a Supporter
é below. " :
The phrase. “a, supporter below”
clearly refers.to the way French
horns’ often give support to the
violins in symphonic music.
It is ,of course, highly reassur-_
ing to see this proof of even tem-.
-per and complete’ self-control on
the part. of a man who holds the
atom-bomb in his hands,
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 12, 1951 — Page 10