Yogi and the Commissar

Sir, — Revelations in regard to Russia are again the fashion. The novel trail is the emphasis laid by the crusaders on the defence of Western standards of intellectual integrity. The crusaders level amazing charges and treat the sceptical as “Soviet addicts”. An example of the manner in which facts and inferences from facts are being fused in order to arrive at the desired conclusions, is to be found in Arthur Koestler's recent book which was most objectively reviewed by Leonard Woolf in your journal. Koestler reports about U.S.S.R. that “capital punishment has been extended to children down to the age of twelve;”. The Yogi and the Commissar, p. 170.) He adduces a decree of 1935, the text of which he quotes as conclusive proof that Russian has now dropped all pretence of progressive cultural principles, and is sinking, at least in respect to the treatment of juveniles, below the level of any uncivilised country.

What are the facts? Up to 1935 juvenile criminality was dealt with the U.S.S.R. not by the Courts, as in other countries, but, by the educational authorities. In that year the system was changed, since experience showed that the “criminal underworld” was deliberately making use of the children thus exempted. Two important rulings were made: (1) heavy penalties were introduced for adults, who induced juveniles to crime or to prostitution, even if they were not responsable for the juveniles, and had not themselves participated in the crime. The penalty in some cases equalied that for murder. (2) The Criminal Code was extended to juveniles in the case of theft or crimes committed by violence.

Text Informations

Reference:
Original Publication: “Yogi and Commissar”, Letter to The New Statesman and Nation, 21 July 1945, p. 41-42
KPA: 18/27 (copie de l’original)