COUNT TOLSTOY IN UNION TALK TELLS OF RUSSIAN CHAOS

Introduced by Professor Leo Wiener and speaking before a large audience in the Living Room of the Union last night, Count Ilya Tolstoy described vividly the present conditions in Russia which have arisen from the Bolshevist regime and gave what he thought would have been his father's answer to the problems confronting Russia had he been alive today.

Count Tolstoy opened his speech by explaining how the present chaos in Russia was the result of many years of struggling for liberty, and mentioned the revolutions of 1825, 1861, 1905, 1907, and finally that of 1917. As the result of these outbursts the peasantry were liberated and were given land and freedom. "Yet", said Count Tolstoy, "even after a hundred years of struggle for liberty the peasants have gained nothing, for they are now under the dictation of the Bolsheviki, which is a slavery much worse than the slavery of the old Czars."

Believes War Greatest Evil

"I believe", said Count Tolstoy, "that war is the greatest evil of man-kind, I believe that war is a crime, and I believe that evil will never bring any good results. Revolution being the child of the war had to turn into evil. It turned into Bolshevism, which means civil war and destruction". There are two kinds of Bolshevists, Count Tolstoy, continued, the leaders and the crowd. Of the leaders, he said: "Some of them may be honest people, but if they are, they are dreamers and fanatics--the kind of fanatics that are on the verge of insanity.

Then he went on to describe vividly the conditions resulting from Bolshevism. While wages have been raised to ridiculous heights, the workingmen are doing from one-eighth to one-thirtieth the amount of work they did before the revolution. The only thing in which Bolshevism has been really successful is in printing money; they are now printing 15 billion rubles a day. The chief difficulty now in printing money, said Count Tolstoy, is the short-ago of paper. Russia is also suffering from a large decrease in birth-rate and increase in death-rate.

"Bolshevism will be finally over-thrown", declared Count Tolstoy, "thanks to the passive resistance of the peasantry." The Russian peasant has become stuffed with paper money and has refused to give his wheat in exchange for it. This has resulted in the Bolshevists confiscating and nationalizing the wheat. Now the peasants will fight for their wheat, will hide it, will burn it, but will never give it to the Bolsheviki.

Count Tolstoy concluded by speaking of his father's moral resurrection, which changed all his understanding of life. He was troubled by two questions, the first being the existence of God and the second the will of God. The answer to the first question h efound in the souls of the simple Russian peasantry, and the second he found in the New Teetament, the teachings of which are based entirely on love and are opposed to violence. His father, said Count Tolstoy, would have been opposed to war, revolution, and Bolshevism, because they are based on violence while he would have been opposed to communism, because it is based on hate.