"Art and Drama in particular must be for the people' formed one of the numerous slogans when the Communists came into power. This slogan, -also constituted the unaccomplished. aim of the Monarchists. Both have ignobly failed in their endeavours to make the people understand either one or the other, the real cause of the failure being, of course, blind devotion to symbol lism, on the one hand and crass ignorance of the population, on the other. Just as it is impossible to gather grapes from thistles, so it is equally ridiculous to expect the peasant or workman of Russia to possess the slightest conception of modern art or drama especially under the trying circumstances of life at present and more particularly under the weight of the "prod-na log" or tax in kind. Intelligence, education, intellectual penetration and a love for art and drama are necessary accom-pushments in order to understand and appreciate the interpretation of the great masters or modern aspirants. However, the Communists possess the quality of determination and the class of drama and art that is being staged by them in order to "reach" the masses is good, as also is the educational work which they pursue. As propaganda this work is probably more valuable and as the Communist is directing his attention to the younger generation exclusively he might succeed and, if he should, he- certainly will be more than compensated for his failure to convert the older generation. Star ballet daneers, blase dramatists and reckless futurists will never succeed in dislodging the peasant from his life of lethargy or even raise the workman to the level of artistic intelligence. The most such dramatists and artists can do' in the matter of art and drama is to. write a}out the peasant and not for the peasant. The masses of Russia can be educated only by means of the cinematograph and the cleaner the pictures are morally the better the success.
THE UNYIELDING PEASANT, With respect to the agrarian question of Russia, the peasant institution known as the "village commune" still remains notwithstanding the attempts on the part of both the Tsay government and the Communists to ~djssolve it. The Tsar government fought the commune system of the peasants as its policy was directed at the division of land into small holdings which the Tsar government wished to avoid for two reasons, namely, io thwart all further encroachments into the lands of the State and the wealthy landowners and nobility, and also to provide a working population for Russia's ever-growing industrial life, as the principle of dividing tha existing holdings into silt. smaller holdings kept the peasant population on the soil. The Communists also are striving to break up the peasant's system of "vil-Tage commune," not, however, on account of any fear to part with lands which have long since been nationalized and "given" to the peasant, nor is their object being aimed at any economic amelioration of the peasant; it is simply an attempt to rid themselves of this old stereotyped village custom as it constitutes a political force impervious to coercion, against which force the Commu-rusts have been spending all their efforts without success and so the village communes still exist. However, the fate of Russian peasant life with its crystallized. traditions, superstitions and predominating influences of the village elders who form the bulwark of the village communes is already sealed because the changes that are now sweeping Russia as the result of the revolution are foreing agrarian reformation and the Russian village will succumb to the influence of the modern agricultural tractor resulting in the establishment of independent farms. The Communists are now striving to achieve this; they will succeed and civilization will be indebted to them for there is scarcely a more distressing pic: ture to behold in these modern times of ours than a dilapidated Russian village with its worn out peasants and their insipid monotonous and dejected mode of life, held in bondage for centuries by a priest-ridden religion.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.