EPILOGUE 3I5
the Communists must employ in future in their revo-
utionary work in the different states, it has been clear th
these tactics are already being vigorously pursued in varioi
countries.
In some countries—above all in France—a second princif
proclaimed by Dimitrov, the formation of a Left or conce
tration bloc with the Socialists and the bourgeois parties
the Left, has been successfully realized. This developme
has materially- extended Moscow's opportunity for proi
ganda. Hundreds of non-Communist papers in France a
elsewhere are now busy praising and glorifying the achie1
ments of Moscow, entirely out of consideration for ti
Communist ally.
I am obliged to dwell upon this point, because it has mi
the endeavours to ascertain the real position of the vict
of want in the Soviet State vastly more difficult than befi
Quite independently of any fight "for peace" or "aga
Fascism," numerous papers in the bourgeois countries wl
in themselves have nothing to do with ComrQunism (tl
should be distinguished from the camouflaged Commu
papers) now propagate the familiar Soviet Russian catchwo
For example, those which declare the abolition of all ration c
to be the proof of a great economic improvement, and w:
represent the Soviet Union as the only state which has so
the nationalities question uf an ideal manner.
And how have things been going lately in the Soviet St
Perhaps I have been wrong, and the forecast of the New ]
Times correspondents in the autumn of 1934 that in the fol
ing year, thanks to the surplus of corn, famine woul<
avoided, has been right? To-day I am able to say that
New York Times correspondents now themselves admit
terrible distress of the peasants in the Russian agricul
regions—and not only in 1933 and 1934, but also quite 1*
at the end of the summer of 1935. In a telegram dated Ji
1935, Mr. Denny reported that according to reliable re