want to bother about strategic points? We
have no quarrel with the Fins or the Letts or
with the Poles. All we want is to live at
peace with all nations. We must do business
with them and they with us, we do not need
armaments unless we want to rob each other,
and Soviet Russia wishes to rob nobody but
only to live out her own life.”
Lunacharsky, the Education Minister, is well known throughout the world as one of the leading educationalists. Given the chance, Russia, I am sure, is going to show us how to educate and train children, but it will take many years to get her system going. Our comrade has evolved his new system from nothing. Most of the educationalists who served under the Czar ran away or stayed to sabotage. He is definitely showing that it is possible to create an organisation, even in the midst of war and revolution, and in spite of the hostility of those who should teach. During my interview he was surrounded by his children. I ought to add he is not only Education Minister ; he is also in charge of all historic buildings, churches and palaces in Russia, and it is to him we owe the fact that all these are to be preserved and kept up by the nation. He is no “ iconoclast ” ; he thinks the past has lots to teach us and that we must hand on knowledge unimpaired and amplified to our children.
