Russia

Undigested Theory
Soviet Understanding. By Richard Terrell. (Heinemann, 7s. 6d.)
Reviewed by Ci. BENNIGSEN
This is a plea for the understanding of Russian Communism. The author, obviously a very young man, is in revolt against the nominalist-liberal mentality of his oW21 ctiiintry : he is a Marxist, but his convictions are based not upon any deep study-as he tells us he has read "some significant passages of Das Kenna] and a' few works of Engels, Lenin and Stalin." then " the usual collection of books about. Marxism." So we must view his " Marxism " as the result of the working of the subconscious mind of a youthful enthusiast rather than that of a student of social problems.
Mr. Terrell has shocked certain critics by the following declaration: " Whew! see a tired, hungry, workman, badly housed, fed and warmed, in Italy 1 burn with a terrible rage and hatred of Fascism. When I see a tired hungry workman, badly housed. fed and warmed in the Soviet Union I do not burn with rage at all. In other words, I am not interested in the state of things as they are when I see them so much as in the direction in which these things are moving."
Though the idea as such is correct, the author fails to prove that the direction in which things are moving in the communist state is the right one. He fails in his attempt to explain the causes of the communist revolution in Russia, which is due to his lack of knowledge of Russian history and social conditions. To vindicate Marx's faith in a proletarian revolution Mr. Terrell credits the Russian peasant with a proletarian nature.
Unable to study the people because of ignorance of his language, a fact he frankly admits, the writer pictures life not as it is, but as he imagines it to be on the strength of some books upon Russia, the choice of which is rather one-sided.