272 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
due also to the activities of the so-called "Friends of Soviet
Russia/' at whose head is Mr. Bernard Shaw.1
As far as the attitude of Italy towards the Soviet Union is
concerned, it is partly dictated by considerations different from
those of England, France and Germany, Italy and the Head
of its Government see, naturally, in Russia an important
factor, if not a competitor, in their desire to obtain economical,
cultural and political influence in the East. Rome has not yet
forgotten the powerful and frequently decisive part formerly
played by Russia in that sphere. Italy's one desire, therefore,
is to free its trade, shipping and politics from Russian interfer-
ence. The best means to this end is thought to consist in friendly
relations with Soviet Russia, so long as she is so preoccupied
by internal troubles that she cannot be a rival to Italy in the
Near East. The firmly established dictatorship makes a Com-
munist danger almost impossible and extinguishes in the
Bolsheviks any desire to carry on subterranean intrigues in
Italy. Hence this unnatural friendship between Communism
and Fascism which existed for a long time.
If the two Governments had been true to their philosophies,
they would have been obliged to turn and rend each other.
The fact is that the attitude of each country was inspired
exclusively by political calculation. It should be pointed out
that Italy can take up such an attitude more easily than other
states on account of her distance from Russia, her isolated
position, etc. For years Italian support has been one of the
chief political and also moral pillars of Soviet policy, and this
is confirmed by the attitude which was taken up by the greatei
part of the Italian press with regard to the famine.
In the United States the supposed interests of trade and
1 Letters written by Englishmen, seeking to refute all unfavourable
reports about the Soviet Union, and in particular about the famine, con-
stantly appear in the English newspapers. Englishmen, who do not speai
a word of Russian^ are continually being escorted through the Soviei
IJnionj and then report with astonishment on the extraordinary achieve-
ments of the Soviet State.