ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to study the elements of Russian life, such as industrial efficiency, business administration, banking, accounting, and public finance, which may throw some light on the question whether the revolution can continue in its present phase. Americans living in Russia for five or ten years develop strikingly contrasting views concerning the Soviet Union. If the Soviet government achieved nothing else, it set up a civilization which affords a foil and a contrast to the west. The Soviet régime has given us a new perspective on our own problems. Though the Russians are suffering, the west is getting the benefit of their failures and successes. The Soviet Union contains about one-sixth of the world's area, about one-tenth of the world's population, incalculable resources, and a climate varying from arctic to sub-tropical. The Soviet revolution seeks not merely economic freedom but freedom in the several aspects of life. The struggle for freedom is part of an historic process.
