question_answer 7)

Compare the passages written by Shaukat Usmani and Rabindranath Tagore. Read them in relation to Sources C, D and E.  

Source C Dreams and Realities of a Soviet Childhood in 1933 Dear grandfather Kalinin .... My family is large, there are four children. We don't have a father - he died, fighting for the worker's cause, and my mother... is ailing... I want to study very much, but I cannot go to school. I had some old boots, but they are completely torn and no one can mend them. My mother is sick, we have no money and no bread, but I want to study very much... there stands before us the task of studying, studying and studying. That is what Vladimir Ilich Lenin said. But I have to stop going to school. We have no relatives and there is no one to help us, so I have to go to work in a factory, to prevent the family from starving. Dear grandfather, I am 13,1 study well and have no bad reports. I am in Class 5 ... Letter of 1933 from a 13-year-old worker to Kalinin, Soviet President From: V. Sokolov (ed), Obshchestvo I Vlast, v 1930-ye gody (Moscow, 1997).

   

Source D Official view of the opposition to collectivisation and the government response 'From the second half of February of this year, in various regions of the Ukraine... mass insurrections of the peasantry have taken place, caused by distortions of the Party's line by a section of the lower ranks of the Party and the Soviet apparatus in the course of the introduction of collectivisation and preparatory work for the spring harvest, Within a short time, large scale activities from the above-mentioned regions carried over into neighbouring areas.... and the most aggressive insurrections have taken place near the border. The greater part of the peasant insurrections have been linked with outright demands for the return of collectivised stocks of grain, livestock and tools ... Between 1st February and 15th March, 25,000 have been arrested ... 656 have been executed, 3,673 have been imprisoned in labour camps and 5,580 exiled ...' Report of KM Karlson, President of the State Police Administration of the Ukraine to the Central Committee of the Communist Party, on 19 March 1930. From: V. Sokolov (ed), Obshchestvo I Vlast, v 1930-ye gody

 

Source E This is a letter written by a peasant who did not want to join the collective farm. To the newspaper Krestianskaia Gazeta (Peasant Newspaper)... 'I am a natural working peasant born in 1879 ... there are 6 members in my family, my wife was born in 1881, my son is 16, two daughters 19, all three go to school, my sister is 71. From 1932, heavy taxes have been levied on me that I have found impossible. From 1935, local authorities have increased the taxes on me ... and I was unable to handle them and all my property was registered: my horse, cow, caif, sheep with lambs, all my implements, furniture and my reserve of wood for repair of buildings and they sold the lot for the taxes. In 1936, they sold two of my buildings ... the kolkhoz bought them. In 1937, of two huts  had, one was sold and one was confiscated ....' Afanasii Dedorovich Frebenev, an independent cultivator. From : V. Sokolov (ed), Obshchestvo I Vlast, v 1930-ye gody

  (a) What did Indians find impressive about the USSR?   (b) What did the writers fail to notice?  

Answer:

(a)At the time when both wrote these passages, India was ruled with an iron hand by the British. There were vast caste and class differences and the people were ignorant and backward. They were impressed by the fact that all persons in Russia were treated equally In spite of them not being very prosperous, they were happily going about their work. Asians and Europeans mingled freely in Russia, whereas it was unthinkable in India at that time. (b)What the two writers failed to notice was that essentially the people were not free to do as they liked. The Bolsheviks ruled like dictators and followed repressive policies to develop the nation quickly. The hard lives and poor working conditions of the people went unnoticed by these travelers.