RUSSIA MAKES ELECTIONS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your article " Russia Makes Elections " was advertised on posters as " Russia's Mock .Election." Yet, in the article itself you say that " it would be a mistake to suppose that the vote is a mere sham," and go on to say that " from the over- whelming vote of confidence M. Stalin will receive on Sunday, he may well conclude that Russia is ready for anything under his leadership."
Now with these two sentences I do not disagree. But I do disagree with the rest of the article, which tries to show that the U.S.S.R. is not a democracy. And it seems that the whole trouble is due to a confusion, the fact that you measure Soviet democracy by our own parliathentary system, which in no sense is typical of democratic institutions.
The usual form of democratic society is one in which the members are united for a common aim. In such societies the executives are elected as the best representatives of the members, to lead the work of the society. The parliamentary system, in which rival parties fight each other for power, is an exception to the general rule, and only exists because society is divided into conflicting interests, each trying to dominate the other. In my view the more healthy democracy is the society united in a common aim ; rather than the society torn by conflicting interests. The parliamentary State is the latter type ; the Soviet State is of the former.
Given this - basic difference, the present elections in the U.S.S.R. must be compared with, in English conditions, the election of the Executive Committee of a Trade Union, by a ballot of the members, at a time when leadership and rank- and-file are agreed on policy. In such circumstances all elections take on an atmosphere of united celebration and enthusiasm.
As to the arrests—I am surprised that you again bring up this matter when " Dictator Chautemps " is now doing the same as " Dictator Stalin " has been doing over the past year ; and when the democratic government of Czechoslovakia has arrested over 600 people accused of being Nazi agents in a period of a month. Surely, in face of this evidence of Nazi intrigue, you do not still doubt that certain people in the U.S.S.R. had been drawn into the same net as many French and Czech citizens at the present time ?
Anyway, every democratic organisation always enjoys the right to expel or otherwise restrain members who try to disrupt its activities. In the U.S.S.R. nobody is arrested unless shown to be actively, by undemocratic means, trying to overthrow the State. And when you say at the end of your article that certain " methods are essential to any dictatorship which, willingly or unwillingly, is preparing for war " ; it is well worth bearing in mind that the same methods are essential also to any Democracy which, willingly or unwillingly, finds itself in a war situation.—Yours, &c., PAT SLOAN.
22 St. George's Mansions, Red Lion Square, London, W.C.r.
[It may be that the usual form of a democratic society is one in which the members are united for a common aim. The question is whether the aim is to be agreed on after free discussion of alternatives, and free criticism of an existing executive, or whether the determining factors are to be mass propaganda, a censored press, a secret police and concen- tration camps or worse for opponents of the regime.—En. The Spectator.]
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