‘by PHYLLIS ROSNER

BERLIN

4 TRE population of East Ger-
: many in these past few

Weeks has been subjected to a
Nore than usually intense bar-
tage of propaganda.

There have~-been inspired
‘| *borts of strikes in the fac-
7 ies and~in the ‘universities
7 ‘Mot one of them true), forged
“Opies of the Socialist Unity
darty paper Neues Deutschland
Minted in West Berlin, have
€n circulated.
Last week the president of
W@ West Berlin parliament
| himselt led the call for demon-
7 ators to march to the sector
dont at Brandenburg Gate.
pias (the German-language
| ae of America station cen-
} 2d in West Berlin) and other
‘7, SSt Berlin radio stations for
. Ys on end broadcast highly
stdentious news at half-hour-
7) intervals on Hungary, coupl-
; 4 § them with the usual attacks
| oa the German Democratic Re-
: Aublic, its government, the So-
“Fist Unity party and its
Aders,
Jn the universities leaflets
wmhing from West Berlin were
Sttibuted to try — not with-
Ut effect entirely — to work
ccling among the students
fet the compulsory study of
Mssian and Marxism.
a The numerous espionage and
7, {tet service groups with their
qh; dquarters in West Berlin
' “Ve been very active.
nest German papers con-
ing to write about “liberat-
mn ‘their brothers in the East-
et of the country and in
Ge

recent. debate in the West
Dok an parliament, the
ean for Dr. Adenauer’s
ieee Democratic Union
t Y called for United Na-
- troops to occupy the Ger-
2 Democratic Republic.

*

nO far the people have with-
Sy; this barrage and. they
The ikely to continue to do so.
politically conscious
them supporting the
be ment are very much on
~B don €rt, the neutrals and op-
Th ®nts of the regime still
a: June the memory of the riots of
TV %up) 1953 when within a
cy Ple of hours Soviet troops
qs, *estored order.
} vig’ though 50,000 of the So-
; Bre cPation forces in East
thei fe have returned to
“tro Omeland, there are still
contingents here. If
Were to be trouble they
Once again be speedily
Ng Scene and with every

J amo,

Soviet troops are in Eastern
BAY under’ international
~®Ment. The Soviet Union

silt IE ETT) eT ae a

East Ger

He doesn’t want his factory to go back to Krupps

and the German Democratic
Republic have repeatedly pro-
posed withdrawal of all occu-
pation troops from Germany.
Until agreement is reached and
the West withdraw its huge
troops concentrations from the
federal republic, the Soviet
troops will remain in the Ger-
man Democratic Republic.

June 1953 was, however, not
only a shock for many of the
East German people but also
for the government and the So-
cialist Unity party. Since that
period real efforts have been
made to correct many of the
mistakes made in trying to im-
plement the decision to create
socialism here at far too rapid
a tempo,

Living standards in the re-
public are far higher than in
all other East European coun-
tries, with the possible excep-
tion of Czechoslovakia.

Both the quantity and the
quality of consumer goods are
constantly improving, but sup-
plies are still very erratic at
times. Currently, the country
is suffering from lack of raw
materials, particularly steel,
coke and coal, and the effects
of a very hard winter on soft-
coal (lignite) production.

Although nobody has any
doubt that it is the working
class and its party (a fusion of
the Communist and Social
Democratic parties) that have
the real say here, the intellec-
tuals and middle class, the
farmers and the craftsmen fee!
they have a place in society.

It is generally recognised, in-
deed, that craftsmen live bet-

ter here than they do in West-
ern Germany, Private traders
and factory owners also live
well on the whole. Some pri-
vate firms employ up to 300
workers and under a scheme
inaugurated this year many of
them are concluding agree-
ments for, State loans.

There can be no talk of there
having been forced collectivis-
ation of the land, At the mom-

ent agricultural production. co-
operatives control just over a
fifth of the arable land. Com-
pulsory deliveries to the state

Stalin's
WoW is Stalin’s literary heri-
tage assessed in the Soviet

Union today, nearly four years
after his death?

This question is answered
by a leading article in the Sep-
tember issue of Kommunist,
theoretical and political jour-
nal of the central committee
of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union.

“In examining this ques-
tion,” the. article says, “it
should first of all be said that
it would be wrong to interp-
ret the criticism of the per-
sonality cult as rejection of
the works of Stalin, who is
an important Marxist theore-
tician.

“Being for a long time gen-
eral secretary of the Commu-
nist party’s central committee

it happen in
many too?

by farmers have been reduced
and in many instances arrears
cancelled.

Since June 1953 the Ger-
man Democratic Republic has
continuously taken steps to in-
crease the people’s say in the
running of the country. The
tempo varies,’ but in recent
months the process has been
very much accelerated.

To mention just a few ex-
amples. A new penal code is
being prepared. 35,000 people
have been released from jail in
the past months, legislation is
being prepared to grant more
autonomy to local authorities
and, for the first time, the rele-
vant bills are having a first
and second reading. They have
been discussed throughout the
country and more than 700
amendments submitted as a re-
sult of these ddiscussions.

Discussions are shortly to be
held with the worker on how
they can participate to a far
greater degree in the running
of the nationally owned fac-
tories, the trade union move-
ment is paying much more at-
tention to their members’ prob-
lems, visas for travel abroad—
and not only Eastwards—are
much easier to obtain.

The Republic’s strength,
however, lies very much in the
fact that the government and
party leadership is not split.

In contrast to some East
European states, in the Ger-
man Democratic Republic there
has always been a number of
political parties representing
the middle-class, the farmers,
craftsmen and other sections
of Germany. It has understand-
parties are not, however,
countenanced.

With that one condition —
and a very understandable one
it is too — that they shall not
be working against socialism,
these parties, with varying
degrees of success, represent
their members’ special inter-
ests at all levels of public and
political life, right up to cab-
inet level. :

The presence of West Ber-
lin in the heart of the German
Democratic Republic, and the
fact that the “Golden West”
runs along the borders of the
republic make this one of the

nerve centres of Europe.

West Berlin is used as a cold
war centre against this part
of Germany. It is understand-
ably made the authorities of
the German Democratic ~- Re-
public extremely spy consc-
ious and sometimes rather
jumpy.

On the other hand, the fact
that if one really wants to
leave East Germany all one
has to do is to get into the un-
derground or overhead rail-
way (incidentally, the traffic
is both ways), acted as a brake
on the over-zealous officials.

Millions of Germans cross
the borders every: year to visit
friends and relatives. Very
often East Germans return
here from such a visit, still
grumbling about what they
can’t get here, but deeply
thankful for what they do get,
including wonderful opportun-
ities for their children to learn
and develop.

After all, the “Golden West”
in this case also means con-
scription (there is none in
East Germany), it means an
army officered by Nazi gen-
erals and Hitler concentration
camp guards. This is not what
they want.

Nor do they want their fac-
tories to back to their old
owners, the Krupps and the
Flicks, or the land to go back
to the Junkers.

Many of them are, in fact,
ready to defend these changes
against any attempt, including
armed intervention. These are
some of the factors which en-
title one to say it won’t hap-
pen here.

literary heritage

Stalin delivered reports of the
central committee at party
congresses. These reports,
which are important party
documents, substantiated the
policy of the Communist
party, generalised the exper-
ience of building socialism in
the USSR.

“Many of Stalin’s works, es-
pecially those written in the
early period after Lenin’s
death, played a great part in
defending. Leninism against
any .and all of its distorters;
in the ideological struggle of
the party against Trotskyites,
the right opportunists, the
bourgeois nationalists.

“It is sufficient to mention
such works as The Founda-
tions of Leninism (1924), On
the Problems of Leninism
(1926), On the Industrialisa-

tion of the Country and the
Right Danger in the CPSU
(1928), The Right Deviation in
the CPSU (1929) and others.

“At the same time it should
be borne in mind that in some
of Stalin’s works, especially
in those which were written
during the period of the cur-
rency of the personality cult,
there are, besides valuable
thoughts and materials, er-
roneous and controversial
propositions. Some of Stalin’s
works suffer from schemat-
ism, and reflect the author’s
subjective approach to the as-
sessment of separate facts and
events.

“Consequently, from Stal-

~in’s works all that is useful

should be taken and the er-
roneous propositions should
be criticized...”

NOVEMBER 23, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 11

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