The Soviet Government has created a Special All-Russian Commission for Combating TIliteracy. Whis body hag issued a propaganda textbook entitled, "Down with Illiteracy! ABC for Grown= ups," especially intended for the instruction of the working classes. On the cover page is a picture representing a classroom, with a copy of the official Bolshevist journal "Pravda" hanging upon the blackboard and a gray-haired peasant pupil reciting to a teacher who is apparently a crippled Red Guard. The first lesson begins: 'We are no slaves—We are no lords.' On every page are laudatory passages praising the Soviet Government: 'The Soviets are the people's alarm bell'; the Soviets bear freedom to the world.' Interspersed with these plans, however, are pointed allusions to the distress of the people—'Thou hast not enough to eat, but thou art no slave;' 'We are given factories, but there is no work, there is no ore, there is no fuel'; We are given fields, but there are no ploughs and spades. The volume concludes with a workmen's anthem beginning Proletarians of all countries, unite! Ours is the power, ours is the authority, Ours the might!
The Conservative Berlin daily Dui? informs us that the me-lanchaly, long drawn-out Russian folk-song of tradition has been displaced since the Revolution by snappy, lively quatrains, usually called chastushki,* which are similar to the' topical improvizations of the peasants of Southern Europe They deal. with current conditions and local incidents. Rather significantly, they almost invariably criticize the existing Government. A free translation of some of the more quotable Lenin, Trotekii, Lunacharskii, And Zinoviev with Kolentai, Roam through the villages and shout; Give! Give! Give?
Lenin asked Trotskii: Where did you get that hay!" Trotskii answered Lenin: 'I took it from the peasants."
I'm sitting on a parel Under it is a jug of wine. My husband is a Commissar And I'm a profiteer!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.