THE STRUGGLE OF THE NATIONALITIES 107
those who attempted locally to bring about a compromise
between Communism and the national-cultural movements of
the peoples and races. It is significant that Moscow saw in the
local universities, academies of science, etc., only a means of
putting the local languages at the service of Communism. In
this respect the experiences of eminent foreign visitors to the
Jewish Scientific Institute at Kiev, quoted elsewhere, speak
clearly.
Simultaneously, the local Communists of nationalist ten-
dencies at Kiev, Minsk and elsewhere were attempting to do
justice to the national individuality of their peoples within the
framework of the Communist State. Inevitably, in the auto-
nomous Soviet republics, local and national peculiarities came
in practice to be strongly emphasized, and in this respect local
Communists even co-operated with former bourgeois elements.
Despite all the obstacles interposed by Moscow, local cultural
life began to develop. Above all, schools were built. As these
steps were taken under the leadership of local Communists
and indeed simply expressed their desires, and were certainly
not due to intrigues by mysterious counter-revolutionary
circles (as has been maintained more recently), no resistance
could for the time being be offered by Moscow. There is
no doubt that throughout this period Moscow had to simulate
a satisfaction which it was far from feeling. It had already
recognized that this stressing of the national dement stood
in contradiction to pure Communism, which is a super-
national order. Wherever it was possible the influence of
national forces was opposed. Some time ago a German author
discovered that the boasted nationalities policy of Moscow
aimed at anything but the cherishing of the national-cultural
interests of the various peoples and races within the territory
of the Soviet Union. The national desires of the local popula-
tions were considered up to a certain point only because it
was impossible to disregard them.
The famine, with all its attendant phenomena, changed this