Shooting has
ceased. There are few robberies. Prostitution has disappeared from
sight. Family life has been unchanged by the revolution, the canard in
regard to "nationalization of women" notwithstanding. (Appendix, p.
58.)
The theaters, opera, and ballet are performing as in peace. Thousands
of new schools have been opened in all parts of Russia and the Soviet
Government seems to have done more for the education of the Russian
people in a year and a half than czardom did in 50 years. (Appendix,
p. 59.)
POLITICAL SITUATION
The Soviet form of government is firmly established. Perhaps the most
striking fact in Russia today is the general support which is given
the government by the people in spite of their starvation. Indeed, the
people lay the blame for their distress wholly on the blockade and on
the governments which maintain it. The Soviet form of government seems
to have become to the Russian people the symbol of their revolution.
Unquestionably it is a form of government which lends itself to gross
abuse and tyranny but it meets the demand of the moment in Russia and
it has acquired so great a hold on the imagination of the common
people that the women are ready to starve and the young men to die for
it.
The position of the communist party (formerly Bolsheviki) is also very
strong. Blockade and intervention have caused the chief opposition
parties, the right social revolutionaries and the menshiviki, to give
temporary support to the communists.
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