[John G.

Wright]
Humanism in One Country
(August 1935)

From New
International, Vol.2
No.5,
August
1935,
p.171.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde OCallaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism
On-Line (ETOL).

Another Columbus on the Humanist Horizon

IN ITS leading article, Pravda (June 21, 1935) hails the dawn of Soviet Humanism. First
came the great lover, Joseph Stalin, then came the dawn :
The teachers of the ruthless class struggle Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin are all
great lovers of humanity, the great humanists of the proletariat ... The dawn of the new
Renaissance has already risen over mankind. It is being newly established in the Soviet
land ... It engenders heroes and titans ... This, the wonderful dawn of a new humanity ...
But it does not come by itself ... Cherishing the human being has become the most
important, the primary task of socialist construction, and this new epoch of world history
was discovered and underscored by comrade Stalins speeches on the need of lovingly
cherishing the human being, on the value of new cadres the supreme value of
emancipated humanity ... With revolutionary intransigeance, with redoubled class
vigilance, burning out all the weeds that are alien to his class, the Bolshevik is dutybound
preciously and lovingly to nurse the budding and new human being, assuring to the latter
the full measure of a free, happy and rational life ... The great Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics raises high over the world the banner of humanism. ... (Our Italics)
Humanizing the Foetus
The first Bolshevik crusade under the banner of humanism, with Stalin-Lorenzo the
Magnificent at the head, was launched against abortion. In the self-same issue
ofPravda, A Mother Speaks (in two columns). She is Taisya Platonovna Fomenko, age
46, with five children, all living. Her oldest daughter, age 21, married a physician ten years
older. One year married, and already pregnant. Husband away on vacation. The daughter,
in tears over her discovery: I dont want to! I dont want it! ... I want to study ... I havent
begun to live yet! So the mother speaks, and the question is, what to do? It is up to the
father. Will he be willing to be the father to his own child? But let the mother speak for
herself:

I do not dwell on this point at such length because I wish to arouse interest in my
daughter. But because her case is very typical. That is just how we get so many abortions.
Take my own case. I had four children. And all girls. And I am a rural teacher, earning
very little. And my husband not meaning to cast aspersions on the male sex is not a
helpmate but a burden. He doesnt drink, he doesnt smoke, nor is he unfaithful, but he is
a loafer, and refuses to work.
So there am I with four kids, when hopes for a fifth arrive. So my girl friends say to me,
Whats the idea,? You ought to be ashamed of multiplying the poor! And, do you think
anything good will come from your children? Well raise the money for you, and you go
and have an abortion. Dont bring shame upon our profession.
So I took the money. And I walked on foot to the city, 17 versts away. I came to the
Polyclinic. The physician there a woman. She examined me, and gave me permission.
Says she, Well, four are alive. Thats enough. Seemed even to approve. Gave me a slip
with instructions where to go. So I started walking around with the instructions. Ashamed
was I to lift my eyes and look into peoples faces, as I walked around the different offices.
When I was about to give birth everybody was so polite to me. But now I was walking
the road of shame. I walked and walked and then I spat on it. I came back home and gave
the money back to my friends. And, if you please, I gave birth to a son. My only one! How
sorry I would have been had I aborted him. Now he is 8 years old. Such a solid gentleman
... etc. etc.
And in conclusion the mother insists that men are responsible: ... the root of abortion lies
in
the
male.
Humanism on the Threshold of Class Society
But even the Humanist Dawn is not all roses. It has its somber shades, if not clouds. From
the back pages, and obscure corners of the Pravda, we learn:
Rostov on the Don, June 10. On June 10 the school sessions in the rural schools came
to a close. However, the teachers in many districts are unable to take their leave because
they have failed to receive their wages and their vacation money. Arrears in pay to the
teachers in the region amount to 665,000 roubles ... (Pravda, June 11, 1935.)
N. Tagil, May 27 (by telegraph). The workers of the central electric station at the Ural
railroad car plant, division of the Zentrenergostroy Trust, have not received wages for two
months. The arrears for April and the first half of May already amount to 500,000 roubles.
Telegram sent to V.Z.S.P.S. received no answer. Ask your assistance.
Partorg of
Central
Electric
Station,
Yakovlev (Pravda, May 28, 1936)

Leningrad, May 27. The Bureau of the Leningrad District Committee, CPSU (Bolshevik)
passed a resolution on the question of the revolting facts recently uncovered in several
enterprises relating to chiseling on the workers pay, and also violations of labor laws.
Chiseling assumed particularly large scope in the knit goods factory, Krasnoye
Znamya [Red Banner], the textile plant, M. Gorki and the glass factory,Bely Bychok. For
the month of January [!] 1935, 300 cases of chiseling were revealed at the
factory, Krasnoye Znamya, and at the Gorki plant 50 cases. At the Bely Bychok plant
overtime work is assigned without the permission of the Organs for the Protection of
Labor, and it is paid for at the same rate as ordinary labor ... (Pravda, May 28.)
If these facts seep into the pages of Pravda, what must be the actual state of affairs?
Anyway, the humanists of Pravda issue a stern warning that all cases of chiseling and
holding back pay, to say nothing of increasing the length of the working day will be
brought to justice!!! The managers of the above-named factories received a censure.
Nothing could be more humanitarian, in the Stalinist sense, that is.
J.G.W.
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