THE NEW ERA SERIES
THE REAL RUSSIA, by George Lansbury.
Mr. Lansbury, whose sincerity and honesty no just-minded person would question, went to Russia for the express purpose of seeing for himself to what extent the first great experiment in practical socialism has been justified by its results.
This book is a record of his impressions. In his introduction the author summarizes the general spirit prevalent in Soviet Russia. He then goes on to deal in turn with the system of workshop control, the Trade Unions and the attitude of the workers to the so-called “ industrial conscription ” he describes the conditions of Public Health, the favoured treatment shown to the children and the absence of religious persecution ; gives accounts of his interviews with Lenin and Madame Lenin, Krassin, Kropotkin, Lunacharsky and others and of his visit to the British prisoners ; and discusses such questions as the system of justice, food control, education and the position of the co-operative movement.
No one, of course, could have learnt everything about the present state of Russia in the course of a few weeks ; but no man living was better qualified to investigate and to set forth the facts than the author of this book. Mr. Lansbury may be trusted to have observed accurately and to have written truthfully.
