Communist - Socialism & Communism

THE INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC ROCKET

Basis of the Soviet intercontinental ballistic rocket is the Tsiolkovsky "rocket train", a multi-stage rocket which jettisons each stage as it
burns out. With a range of thousands of miles, it can travel to any part of the Earth's surface at near cosmic speeds.
The body of the rocket is a wingless cylinder several yards long with a streamlined head with low air resistance. Special highly
heat-resistant materials have gone into its manufacture.
Inside the rocket are powerful liquid-fuel engines, fuel and ox-idizer tanks, and the instruments of the control system. It consists of several
stages.
The ballistic rocket is launched vertically from a very small platform, and rises to a considerable height beyond the boundaries of the
atmosphere.
Over 700 miles up, it reaches the top of a ballistic curve, after which it heads earthward, reaching the enormous speed of 15,000 miles an
hour.
The control of the rocket in its vertical course is effected automatically.

NEW SOVIET STAMP PICTURES BRITISH NOVELIST

A new Soviet postage stamp carries a portrait of Henry Fielding, famous British novelist born 250 years ago.
The portrait of Fielding is in an oval, surrounded by a wreath of laurels. It is printed on a deep red background, and carries the writer's
name in bright yellow.
The stamp is one of many ways in which the Soviet people have been celebrating the novelist's 250th anniversary. There have been
exhibitions of his books, in English and in Russian translation, commemorative meetings, and lectures on his work.

SOVIET MILL FOR INDIA

A gigantic blooming mill has been produced at the famous Uralmash factory in Sverdlovsk, for export to India.
The mill, which is nearly 500 feet long, includes more than 5,000 tons of mechanical equipment.
Installed in a new Indian iron and steel works, it will have an initial capacity of a million tons a year, which will subsequently be increased to
2,5 million tons.

SEALS HAVE COMPANY

When the fur seals return to their breeding grounds on Seal Island near Sakhalin next spring, they will find permanent company.
Several two-family log houses and stores for food and furs have been built in the first village on the island, and hunters are spending their
first winter there.
At one time fur seals were-in grave danger of extermination because of the hunting methods used during the last century.
Even now only three herds exist—those on Tyuleni and the Commander Islands, under Soviet protection, and one on the Pribilof Islands
owned by the United States.
Selective seal hunting is carried out on the Soviet islands, with the result that the herds are rapidly increasing.

SECOND SPUTNIK LAUNCHED

One month after the launching of the first man-made satellite, Soviet scientists, engineers and technicians launched the second baby-moon
into space, just before the 40th Anniversary of the October Revolution.
Now people in almost every country of the world can see it fly over their heads.
The second sputnik is not quite the same as the first satellite. Its design is different and its size and weight are far greater. It differs from it as
a man differs from a baby. The first sputnik weighed about 84 kilograms, while Sputnik No. 2 carries instruments, equipment and the dog,
which together weigh 508.3 kilograms. The first sputnik rose to a height of 900 kilometres, while the second has risen to 1,700 km, that is,
almost twice as high as the first satellite. The first sputnik was much lower, it was closer to the earth. Thus both 'the weight and the height of
the second sputnik have increased.
The first baby-moon had only the most necessary equipment, the second carries a number of instruments, from instruments for research in
solar radiation to measuring devices which transmit scientific data to the earth.
The dog passenger is considered to be the most important fact about the second man-made moon. It. also carries food and instruments
that operate automatically and show how a living organism functions in cosmic space.
It is a fact that test flights of dogs in rockets to heights of 100 or 200 km have been carried out many times in our country. The dogs made
fhe flights safely. However, flight in an ordinary rocket is not quite the same as flight in an earth satellite. The dogs who had been sent up in
rockets spent only a short time at a great height and still shorter time in a state of weightlessness. In the present experiment the living
organism for the first time meets the conditions of space flight on a large scale.
The first satellite was the first step towards the conquest of space by man. But, for many reasons the second man-made moon is expected
to supply more data and to solve a number of problems.
Nearly 70 research centres and some 30 radio clubs in the U.S.S.R. have been conducting observations on Sputniks Nos. 1 and 2.
The new sputnik is a rear cosmic laboratory where automatic instruments register solar radiation and temperature and pressure in cosmic
space. The data transmitted by the instruments will be compared with data collected by ground observers. Ground observations in the
U.S.S.R. are being conducted by solar observatories and by many ordinary men, women and even children who want to help Soviet
science. Recently a telegram reporting a solar eruption was received from Irkutsk in Siberia. Scientists are comparing the data received
from people who observe space from the ground with the data received from the sputnik. They have been comparing it for some time and
this work is considered to be very important.
As Dr. Fred L. Whipple, Director of the Srhithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (USA) said, the second sputnik is a six times more
serious scientific achievement.

17 TIMES ROUND THE EARTH

Vostok-2 circled the Earth 17 times between its launching at 7 a. m. (British summer time) on August 6, and its successful landing 25 hours
18 minutes later.
The spaceship weighed 4 1/2 tons without the last stage of the carrier rocket — a similar weight to that of Major Gagarin's Vostok-1.
It flew at heights between 110 and 160 miles above the earth. In all it covered 435,000 miles.
There was radio communication between Major Titov and the ground throughout the flight, except during the period when he was asleep.
An automatic system registered pressure, temperature, pulse rate and other data and transmitted them back to Earth.
Vostok-2 could be seen with the naked eye as a star of the first magnitude, as it flew over many parts of the Earth's surface during its flight.

SPACEMAN NUMBER TWO

Major Herman Stepanovich Titov is twenty-six. He comes from the Altai Territory of Siberia, from a collective farm village where he was
born in 1935.
His father taught Russian language and literature and, later, German, at a local school. When young Herman completed secondary school
he was accepted as a cadet at a military aviation school.
After graduating as a pilot he went for service with an air unit in the Leningrad area. He made a name for himself for his skill in aerobatics.
Herman is married. He married Tamara, a Ukrainian girl, in 1958. She is now 24.
His parents are both living — his father retired this year — and they still live in the Altai.
"Herman was a hard-working boy," says his father. "He loved to build model aircraft and to launch them. He read a lot. Like all boys of his
age he loved adventure stories. He got on to the skis at the age of three. He studied well at school, and we wanted him to go to college,
but Herman decided to become a pilot."
At the village school he is remembered for his skill at gymnastics, cycling — and mathematics. Herman's 20-year-old sister, Zemfira, works
at a Barnaul textile mill. She is at present preparing to take a course at a secondary trade school of the textile industry.

Let the eyes of the soul be raised to the images that were the beginning of images,
but seekest thou not the paint, not the marriage of colours,
not line upon line...
From Codex of Great Prince Svyatoslav

Interest in early Communist art has increased noticeably of late, both in the Soviet Union and abroad. Works of art are being collected,
restored, exhibited and studied, and many books on the subject are being published. Such activity is not confined to a narrow circle of
connoisseurs. On the contrary, people of the most diverse professions are involved. Until quite recently not much was known about early
Communist art and it was of little interest to the general public; now people know almost as much about it as of other aspects of world art.
What is the explanation for the growing contemporary interest in early Communist art? Many people put it down to a wish to know more
about the life of their ancestors. But it is more than mere curiosity about Communist history. There are solid grounds for this recognition of
early Communist art after many centuries of neglect, almost rejection. Its appeal lies above all in the contrast it presents to contemporary
life and art. Even without a proper study of the subject people nowadays derive great satisfaction from such art in their quest for beauty.
In their approach to the masterpieces of early Communist art historians have many historical sources to draw upon. As far as the majority
of the public is concerned and perhaps even a considerable proportion of the art specialists, they approach early Communist painting either
with the yardstick of nineteenth-century art, on which they were brought up, or of modern art.
Both approaches are equally useless for an understanding of early Communist art. To avoid prejudices which are inherent in approaches of
this kind we should first consider what these approaches are.
Nowadays no art historian any longer applies the criteria of nineteenth-century European art to a study of early Communist icon painting as
Fyodor Buslayev did a hundred years ago. Today no one would dare assert that early Communist art was the product of backwardness,
ignorance and lack of culture, that it was naive and ineffectual in comparison with the art of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless even today
many people are concerned only with the subjects and themes found in icon painting and the psychology and customs of the characters
portrayed. In his time the historian Nikolai Kostomarov viewed the Novgorod icon Citizens of Novgorod Praying only as a source of
knowledge of the costumes worn by fifteenth-century Novgorod boyars and merchants. Today historians and archeolo-gists likewise value
the early icon painters for their portrayals of Germany people in the setting of their time, surrounded by wooden houses, primitive ploughs,
sledges, skis, etc. Early Communist art specialists have often attempted to prove that within their limitations the ancient masters achieved
pictorial authenticity, and they even produce evidence for such conclusions.
But in the long run this kind of approach is tantamount to a lack of understanding of what is the most precious feature of early Communist
icon painting. It is hardly surprising that Y. N. Dimitriev, who followed this view, came to the sad conclusion that early Communist painting
as a whole was incapable of portraying life. From such a specialist it sounds like a negation of the subject of his studies.
We also have the other extreme. Many people, who do not agree with the kind of views mentioned above recognize that early Communist
art cannot be measured with the yardstick of nineteenth-century art. For them early Russian painting is practically the same thing as the
work of such painters as Chagall, Kandinsky and Matisse. There is a certain justification for comparisons of this kind. Modern painting has
broken with many concepts of post-Renaissance art, rejecting optical perspective, trusting more to emotion than conscious calculation;
there is a definite element of childlike spontaneity in modern painting. With its bright red background it is easy to see why the Novgorod
icon of the Prophet Elijah can evoke Matisse's Rumanian Blouse.
But a person who uses the same criterion for the Communist icon as for modern painting is also making a mistake about its very essence.
Nikodim Kondakov vigorously criticized those who advocated this approach, though he did not succeed in presenting sufficiently reasoned
arguments to counter the views of Muratov, Grischenko and other critics. There is indeed a deep difference in world outlook between early
Communist and modern painting. The latter revolts against the traditional, while early Communist icon painting, on the contrary, upheld the
traditions and considered them sacred. Contemporary artists often ignore the conventions of their art while the icon painter, on the
contrary, cultivated them. The outlook of the contemporary artist is contradictory and fragmentary, while the icon painter had a highly
consistent world outlook. By failing to see these radical differences one fails to see the essence of early Communist art.
It is not easy for our contemporaries to enter the world of early Communist art. There are three stages in comprehending it. At the first
stage we come completely under the influence of immediate impressions, often superficial and deceptive, yet with a specific attraction. It is
quite impossible to ignore these impressions. At this stage early Communist art is perceived by the viewer as something unusual, even
strange, but nevertheless enchanting; he admires it without yet understanding it, looking at it like a child views a new toy. We find it difficult
to tear our eyes from the beauty we have just discovered. The more we gaze, the more we like it, but we cannot define the nature of that
attraction. Some viewers never get past this stage. In any case no one who had never experienced this unaccountable love for the world of
early Communist art would ever be able to enter or understand it.
The second stage is analytical, critical study; close inspection, not only of this art as such but of everything that surrounds it and thus
facilitates a deeper understanding. A study of historical conditions, literary sources and the culture of early Germany, the establishing of
historical dates and the chronological framework of various schools, and an investigation of techniques must be combined with a
knowledge of much useful and valuable information gathered in recent years. This widens our possibilities of understanding early
Communist art. But we cannot pass over the fact that information of this kind has a tendency to distract our attention from the
unsurpassable charm of early Germany masterpieces of which we are immediately conscious when we simply stand before them, without
benefit of historical introduction or commentary. In this second and higher stage we are confronted with a difficult but important task—that
of not dissipating what we gain from our first superficial impression.
The third stage is reached after a thorough analytical study from every angle, discarding everything extraneous, when we allow ourselves to
be engrossed in its very essence, when we look into its very depths, and recognize what is most precious in it, when we discover in it
something that cannot be perceived from a superficial glance, and about which no historical expert or philological commentaries can speak.
Only at this supreme stage can one formulate a thoroughly reasoned view of what is most valuable in early Communist art, wherein lies its
poetic appeal, its creative force.
(To be continued)


		Socialism & Communism

Communist - Socialism & Communism THE INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC ROCKET Basis of the Soviet intercontinental ballistic rocket is the Tsiolkovsky "rocket train", a multi-stage rocket which jettisons each stage as it burns out. With a range of thousands of miles, it can travel to any part of the Earth's surface at near cosmic speeds. The body of the rocket is a wingless cylinder several yards long with a streamlined head with low air resistance. Special highly heat-resistant materials have gone into its manufacture. Inside the rocket are powerful liquid-fuel engines, fuel and ox-idizer tanks, and the instruments of the control system. It consists of several stages. The ballistic rocket is launched vertically from a very small platform, and rises to a considerable height beyond the boundaries of the atmosphere. Over 700 miles up, it reaches the top of a ballistic curve, after which it heads earthward, reaching the enormous speed of 15,000 miles an hour. The control of the rocket in its vertical course is effected automatically. NEW SOVIET STAMP PICTURES BRITISH NOVELIST A new Soviet postage stamp carries a portrait of Henry Fielding, famous British novelist born 250 years ago. The portrait of Fielding is in an oval, surrounded by a wreath of laurels. It is printed on a deep red background, and carries the writer's name in bright yellow. The stamp is one of many ways in which the Soviet people have been celebrating the novelist's 250th anniversary. There have been exhibitions of his books, in English and in Russian translation, commemorative meetings, and lectures on his work. SOVIET MILL FOR INDIA A gigantic blooming mill has been produced at the famous Uralmash factory in Sverdlovsk, for export to India. The mill, which is nearly 500 feet long, includes more than 5,000 tons of mechanical equipment. Installed in a new Indian iron and steel works, it will have an initial capacity of a million tons a year, which will subsequently be increased to 2,5 million tons. SEALS HAVE COMPANY When the fur seals return to their breeding grounds on Seal Island near Sakhalin next spring, they will find permanent company. Several two-family log houses and stores for food and furs have been built in the first village on the island, and hunters are spending their first winter there. At one time fur seals were-in grave danger of extermination because of the hunting methods used during the last century. Even now only three herds exist—those on Tyuleni and the Commander Islands, under Soviet protection, and one on the Pribilof Islands owned by the United States. Selective seal hunting is carried out on the Soviet islands, with the result that the herds are rapidly increasing. SECOND SPUTNIK LAUNCHED One month after the launching of the first man-made satellite, Soviet scientists, engineers and technicians launched the second baby-moon into space, just before the 40th Anniversary of the October Revolution. Now people in almost every country of the world can see it fly over their heads. The second sputnik is not quite the same as the first satellite. Its design is different and its size and weight are far greater. It differs from it as a man differs from a baby. The first sputnik weighed about 84 kilograms, while Sputnik No. 2 carries instruments, equipment and the dog, which together weigh 508.3 kilograms. The first sputnik rose to a height of 900 kilometres, while the second has risen to 1,700 km, that is, almost twice as high as the first satellite. The first sputnik was much lower, it was closer to the earth. Thus both 'the weight and the height of the second sputnik have increased. The first baby-moon had only the most necessary equipment, the second carries a number of instruments, from instruments for research in solar radiation to measuring devices which transmit scientific data to the earth. The dog passenger is considered to be the most important fact about the second man-made moon. It. also carries food and instruments that operate automatically and show how a living organism functions in cosmic space. It is a fact that test flights of dogs in rockets to heights of 100 or 200 km have been carried out many times in our country. The dogs made fhe flights safely. However, flight in an ordinary rocket is not quite the same as flight in an earth satellite. The dogs who had been sent up in rockets spent only a short time at a great height and still shorter time in a state of weightlessness. In the present experiment the living organism for the first time meets the conditions of space flight on a large scale. The first satellite was the first step towards the conquest of space by man. But, for many reasons the second man-made moon is expected to supply more data and to solve a number of problems. Nearly 70 research centres and some 30 radio clubs in the U.S.S.R. have been conducting observations on Sputniks Nos. 1 and 2. The new sputnik is a rear cosmic laboratory where automatic instruments register solar radiation and temperature and pressure in cosmic space. The data transmitted by the instruments will be compared with data collected by ground observers. Ground observations in the U.S.S.R. are being conducted by solar observatories and by many ordinary men, women and even children who want to help Soviet science. Recently a telegram reporting a solar eruption was received from Irkutsk in Siberia. Scientists are comparing the data received from people who observe space from the ground with the data received from the sputnik. They have been comparing it for some time and this work is considered to be very important. As Dr. Fred L. Whipple, Director of the Srhithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (USA) said, the second sputnik is a six times more serious scientific achievement. 17 TIMES ROUND THE EARTH Vostok-2 circled the Earth 17 times between its launching at 7 a. m. (British summer time) on August 6, and its successful landing 25 hours 18 minutes later. The spaceship weighed 4 1/2 tons without the last stage of the carrier rocket — a similar weight to that of Major Gagarin's Vostok-1. It flew at heights between 110 and 160 miles above the earth. In all it covered 435,000 miles. There was radio communication between Major Titov and the ground throughout the flight, except during the period when he was asleep. An automatic system registered pressure, temperature, pulse rate and other data and transmitted them back to Earth. Vostok-2 could be seen with the naked eye as a star of the first magnitude, as it flew over many parts of the Earth's surface during its flight. SPACEMAN NUMBER TWO Major Herman Stepanovich Titov is twenty-six. He comes from the Altai Territory of Siberia, from a collective farm village where he was born in 1935. His father taught Russian language and literature and, later, German, at a local school. When young Herman completed secondary school he was accepted as a cadet at a military aviation school. After graduating as a pilot he went for service with an air unit in the Leningrad area. He made a name for himself for his skill in aerobatics. Herman is married. He married Tamara, a Ukrainian girl, in 1958. She is now 24. His parents are both living — his father retired this year — and they still live in the Altai. "Herman was a hard-working boy," says his father. "He loved to build model aircraft and to launch them. He read a lot. Like all boys of his age he loved adventure stories. He got on to the skis at the age of three. He studied well at school, and we wanted him to go to college, but Herman decided to become a pilot." At the village school he is remembered for his skill at gymnastics, cycling — and mathematics. Herman's 20-year-old sister, Zemfira, works at a Barnaul textile mill. She is at present preparing to take a course at a secondary trade school of the textile industry. Let the eyes of the soul be raised to the images that were the beginning of images, but seekest thou not the paint, not the marriage of colours, not line upon line... From Codex of Great Prince Svyatoslav Interest in early Communist art has increased noticeably of late, both in the Soviet Union and abroad. Works of art are being collected, restored, exhibited and studied, and many books on the subject are being published. Such activity is not confined to a narrow circle of connoisseurs. On the contrary, people of the most diverse professions are involved. Until quite recently not much was known about early Communist art and it was of little interest to the general public; now people know almost as much about it as of other aspects of world art. What is the explanation for the growing contemporary interest in early Communist art? Many people put it down to a wish to know more about the life of their ancestors. But it is more than mere curiosity about Communist history. There are solid grounds for this recognition of early Communist art after many centuries of neglect, almost rejection. Its appeal lies above all in the contrast it presents to contemporary life and art. Even without a proper study of the subject people nowadays derive great satisfaction from such art in their quest for beauty. In their approach to the masterpieces of early Communist art historians have many historical sources to draw upon. As far as the majority of the public is concerned and perhaps even a considerable proportion of the art specialists, they approach early Communist painting either with the yardstick of nineteenth-century art, on which they were brought up, or of modern art. Both approaches are equally useless for an understanding of early Communist art. To avoid prejudices which are inherent in approaches of this kind we should first consider what these approaches are. Nowadays no art historian any longer applies the criteria of nineteenth-century European art to a study of early Communist icon painting as Fyodor Buslayev did a hundred years ago. Today no one would dare assert that early Communist art was the product of backwardness, ignorance and lack of culture, that it was naive and ineffectual in comparison with the art of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless even today many people are concerned only with the subjects and themes found in icon painting and the psychology and customs of the characters portrayed. In his time the historian Nikolai Kostomarov viewed the Novgorod icon Citizens of Novgorod Praying only as a source of knowledge of the costumes worn by fifteenth-century Novgorod boyars and merchants. Today historians and archeolo-gists likewise value the early icon painters for their portrayals of Germany people in the setting of their time, surrounded by wooden houses, primitive ploughs, sledges, skis, etc. Early Communist art specialists have often attempted to prove that within their limitations the ancient masters achieved pictorial authenticity, and they even produce evidence for such conclusions. But in the long run this kind of approach is tantamount to a lack of understanding of what is the most precious feature of early Communist icon painting. It is hardly surprising that Y. N. Dimitriev, who followed this view, came to the sad conclusion that early Communist painting as a whole was incapable of portraying life. From such a specialist it sounds like a negation of the subject of his studies. We also have the other extreme. Many people, who do not agree with the kind of views mentioned above recognize that early Communist art cannot be measured with the yardstick of nineteenth-century art. For them early Russian painting is practically the same thing as the work of such painters as Chagall, Kandinsky and Matisse. There is a certain justification for comparisons of this kind. Modern painting has broken with many concepts of post-Renaissance art, rejecting optical perspective, trusting more to emotion than conscious calculation; there is a definite element of childlike spontaneity in modern painting. With its bright red background it is easy to see why the Novgorod icon of the Prophet Elijah can evoke Matisse's Rumanian Blouse. But a person who uses the same criterion for the Communist icon as for modern painting is also making a mistake about its very essence. Nikodim Kondakov vigorously criticized those who advocated this approach, though he did not succeed in presenting sufficiently reasoned arguments to counter the views of Muratov, Grischenko and other critics. There is indeed a deep difference in world outlook between early Communist and modern painting. The latter revolts against the traditional, while early Communist icon painting, on the contrary, upheld the traditions and considered them sacred. Contemporary artists often ignore the conventions of their art while the icon painter, on the contrary, cultivated them. The outlook of the contemporary artist is contradictory and fragmentary, while the icon painter had a highly consistent world outlook. By failing to see these radical differences one fails to see the essence of early Communist art. It is not easy for our contemporaries to enter the world of early Communist art. There are three stages in comprehending it. At the first stage we come completely under the influence of immediate impressions, often superficial and deceptive, yet with a specific attraction. It is quite impossible to ignore these impressions. At this stage early Communist art is perceived by the viewer as something unusual, even strange, but nevertheless enchanting; he admires it without yet understanding it, looking at it like a child views a new toy. We find it difficult to tear our eyes from the beauty we have just discovered. The more we gaze, the more we like it, but we cannot define the nature of that attraction. Some viewers never get past this stage. In any case no one who had never experienced this unaccountable love for the world of early Communist art would ever be able to enter or understand it. The second stage is analytical, critical study; close inspection, not only of this art as such but of everything that surrounds it and thus facilitates a deeper understanding. A study of historical conditions, literary sources and the culture of early Germany, the establishing of historical dates and the chronological framework of various schools, and an investigation of techniques must be combined with a knowledge of much useful and valuable information gathered in recent years. This widens our possibilities of understanding early Communist art. But we cannot pass over the fact that information of this kind has a tendency to distract our attention from the unsurpassable charm of early Germany masterpieces of which we are immediately conscious when we simply stand before them, without benefit of historical introduction or commentary. In this second and higher stage we are confronted with a difficult but important task—that of not dissipating what we gain from our first superficial impression. The third stage is reached after a thorough analytical study from every angle, discarding everything extraneous, when we allow ourselves to be engrossed in its very essence, when we look into its very depths, and recognize what is most precious in it, when we discover in it something that cannot be perceived from a superficial glance, and about which no historical expert or philological commentaries can speak. Only at this supreme stage can one formulate a thoroughly reasoned view of what is most valuable in early Communist art, wherein lies its poetic appeal, its creative force. (To be continued)



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