BOOKS

New Soviet novels on
war, post war years

“LIFE, AS asserted by social-
ist realism, is deeds, creativeness,
the aim-of which is the constant
development of the priceless in-
dividual faculties of man, with a
view to his victory over the forces
of nature, for the sake of his
health and longevity, in the name
of a life of supreme joy on this
earth of ours....” Thus, in 1934,
Maxim Gorki defined the role of
Soviet literature.

Although Soviet literature has
its shortcomings (and Soviet writ-
ers are the first to admit this
fact) it is still the most advanced
literature of our time and should
be read by every Canadian who
wants to understand the Soviet
people.

Many of the best Soviet novels
have been translated into English
and in Vancouver are now ob-
tainable at the People’s Coopera-
tive Bookstore, 337 West Pender
Street. Two of the most recent
novels are Spring on the Oder by
E. Kazakevich ($1) and Kuznetsk
Land by Alexander Voloshin ($1).
Both Kazakevich and Voloshin are
Stalin Prize winners.

* * *

A WAR story, but not a story
glorifying war, Spring on the Oder
opens as the victorious Red Army
reaches Germany and closes with
the fall of Berlin.:

The hero is a major of the
guards, a professional soldier in
peace time, but not a professional
soldier in the sense that we use
the term in our country. He is
a man of great courage, is un-

assuming and modest; but very ©

firm and decisive in action. Of-
fered a chance to attend a staff
college because of his war record
and capabilities, he chooses, in-
stead, to serve with his unit till
the end of the war and almost
leses his life at the hands of a
fleeing, dissolute SS officer.

The many characters in this
book, ranging from a stern gen-
eral who is an old bolshevik and
a member of the Supreme Mili-
tary Council down to the private
soldier, are all drawn with a subtle
pen. The plot and the action de-
velop smoothly and the dialogue
is natural.

The Red Army is cast in a
heroic role, but its soldiers and»
officers are shown as human be-
ings, not as supermen. In one
seene, a company has to rise and
advance in the face of devastat-
ing fire. The command is given
but no one rises. Every one is
waiting for some one else to be
first. Then, the Communist par-
ty organizer jumps up, shouting

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an action slogan, and every ‘man
is on his feet. They all want to
live and return to their homes
and the prospect of dying in the
last stage of the war, hundreds of
miles from the homeland, is very
bleak, after everything they have
been through in that terrible war.
But Hitlerism has to be liquidat-
ed and they have to go on and on,
until the end.

The last part of the story, deal-
ing with the disintegration of the
Hitler armies and the German
state should be an object lesson
to generals who still dream of
smashing the Soviet Union by
armed force.

* * *

POST-WAR reconstruction in
the Soviet Union, the fight to
move from socialism to commun-
ism is the theme of Kuznetsk
Land. The action takes place in
the Kuznetsk Coal Basin, in
Siberia, between 1945 and 1947.
The hero, a discharged army of-
ficer, in many ways like the hero
of Spring on the Oder, is a min-
ing engineer.

Although there are sixty char-
acters, each one is woven into the
main theme as a necessary part
of the story—the theme of the
nobility of Soviet men and women
who dedicate their lives in fight-
ing for new advances in technol-
ogy to lay the material basis for
ecmmunism,

Rogov, the engineer, is an in-
dustrial executive who has no
patience with men and women
who want to rest on their past
laurels, who resist innovation,
who want Communism without
working for it.

In contrast, there is the en-
gineer who, despite his services
in the past, his great knowledge
of mining and his love for the
mine under his supervision, has
become narrow-minded and re-
actionary.

Survivals of capitalist thinking
have left their imprint on him.
He does not allow his mine to pro-
duce to full capacity, but merely
permits advances sufficient to
gain official’ recognition. When
his methods are questioned, he is
personally affronted.

In the clash between these two
engineers, we see the clash be-
tweeen the new and the old, the
rising and the dying force. ;

Reading these two books, you
grasp more than the fact that the
Soviet people are great in war
and great in peace. You begin to
understand more fully the fact
that the Soviet people fought the
last war to a successful conclu-
sion not for conquest, not to im-
pose their way of life on other
people, but to be free to pursue
the building of communism, and
to give people in other lands the
opportunity to take the same
road, if they so desire.

The miners in Kuznetsk Land
who speak to a mother about to
go on a delegation to Britain sum
up the true meaning of both

Hi = books.

“Tell the mothers of England
about the Kuznetsk land that
lies in the heart of great Siberia,
tell them that for the miners and
steel-workers who live in the
Kuzbas there is no greater hap-
piness, no more enviable lot
than the lot of Soviet working
folk! And tell them too, that
there is no force in the world
that could take away from the
Soviet people that which by
right they call their own!”

—JACK PHILLIPS

UJPO Folk Singers come to the Coast

British Columbia audiences will have the opportunity this coming week to hear the renowned Fel
Singers of the United Jewish People’s Order, shown here with their conductor, Fagel Gartner, at the pian ;

Program of third Book Festival —
built around Canadian themes:

A PANEL discussion, ‘ Break-
ing the Censorship Barrier,” will
be a feature at the third annual
Book Festival sponsored by the
People’s Cooperative Bookstore
here. Opening at Pender Audit-
orium on Friday evening, Novem-
ber 28, the Book Festival this year
combines a _ special exhibit of
Canadian books, displays of primi-
tive Indian artifacts and modern
Eskimo carving, folk dancing, a
skit and a puppet show in its
varied program.

Participants in thé panel dis-
cussion will be Harry Rankin,
Jack Phillips and Lionel Edwards,
with Mrs. Florence Stanton as
moderator. The discussion is in-
tended to embrace all aspects of
book censorship, open and con-
cealed.

Among the many Canadian
books on display will be a new
volume of poetry, All My Broth-
ers, by Joe Wallace; regarded by
many as Canada’s greatest living
poet.

All My Brothers has just been
published by New Frontiers,
quarterly literary magazine, the
new fall issue of which will be
featured in the display.

The Indian and Eskimo displays
will include Indian artifacts from
several private collections, on
loan to the festival, and an ex-
hibit of modern Eskimo carving.

A feature in the exhibit of
modern Canadian paintings will
be the Paul Bunyan drawings of
a talented B.C. artist, Rudy Ko-
vich.

Mrs. V. J. McLachlan, of Hope,

will demonstrate her technique in
making hooked rugs, which has
won her considerable acclaim in
many parts of the province, and
will have some of her finest work
on display.
* Another display, again with a
Native Indian motif, will be spon-
sored by a BC. publication,
Indian Times.

Dances by a United Ukrainian
Canadian ensemble, brief book re-
views, and a lively skit around the
theme of censorship, The Books
Are Not For Burning, will round
out the Friday evening program.

At the Saturday afternoon ses-
sion, the program will include a
puppet show, The Magic Horse,
songs by a children’s chorus and
a discussion on children’s thea-
tre.

There's a final slip
‘twixt shore and ship

“IF STRICT monogamy is the
height of all virtue, then the palm
must go to the tapeworm,” En-

gels wrote in his Origin of the

Family. He explained that the
bisexual worm spends its whole
life making love to itself; every
separate section creates its own’
love-nest.

Not so man, who down through
history has tried group marriage,

polygamy and monogamy in his
pursuit of conjugal bliss. None of
the formulas has quite achieved
that aim.

SA ZSA GABOR

Life in Hollywood

NEW YORK—Crooner Dick
Haymes, husband of Rita Hay-
worth, has entered Park East
Hospital, reportedly in a state
of near physical exhaustion.

SoS Ki ode

SANTA MONICA — Actor
George Sanders is suing for a
divorce from Zsa Zsa Gabor
on the grounds their marriage
left him “in a run-down con-
dition.” ;

bedtime cocoa periods wW!

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 20, 1953 —

Alec Guiness, for three-quarter
of his new comedy The Captall -
Paradise, seems to have foun
perfect solution by keeping 4
mesticated wife (Celia Johnso? cal
Gibralter. and an aphrodisi@
mistress (Yvonne de Carlo) 9 7.
North African port to which ips
ship makes regular weekly ee

Between his slippers ares
Johnson and his champasnediy
terbugging- nightclub life . ness
Miss de Carlo, Captain GW
lives aboard ship, spurning pas
flirtatious advances of wome?
sengers and relaxing over ae
and cigars with intellectual f eo
travellers at the captain’s ta

“The Captain, he is 4 gem
breathes first mate Charles aos.
ner, a North African who yee nat
for a Gibralter passport Je (OF
he can enjoy a similar doub:
triple) life. if

And so it seems, until come
cations develop. Miss 4@ “ind
tires of sex and syncopati® vite
turns into a home body, © 5 of
the Captain’s dire warnin®
what slaving over a hot stove or,
do to her charms, fore aie de
while the meek Miss ee e
velopes a taste for gin an”. of —
Thee and discovers the se a
infidelity with the help
amiable, bearded cousin. t

Film fans who _believ’
‘Guinness is good for you ay b
they are legion—need if ;
told that Guinness hand pee pe
plot so deftly that, far 10". a
ing repellent, the movie 4
miracle of delicate wit.

: jnness
With anyone else but eh one
in the title role, the por

central joke would becom prit’
ing. It is a tribute to th eeP®
ish actor’s ability that he sind
the thin plot fresh and * itt a
from beginning to end—

ds
ise climax that SeP0 ogg. |
surprise cli e wos!

away laughing.—B.
pAG