Progress by Paradox

In the old-fashioned opinions of Karl Marx and Nikolai Lenin no dictatorship could count on getting enough votes if the ballot were secret. This fallacy Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini have exploded with secret ballot after secret ballot in 'which they always poll better than 90%. Last week Joseph Stalin decided that it will now be all right for the Soviet Union to have secret ballots too.

As fixed by Lenin, Soviet tradition provides for voting by show of hands in the local Soviets. These elect higher Soviets which vote similarly by show of hands clear up through the All-Union Congress of Soviets (see above). Since in Russia it takes uncommon courage to get up in meeting and oppose the Communist Party, Comrade Lenin considered his system almost perfect. To make it utterly perfect he wrote into the Soviet Constitution that the vote of one presumably radical "proletarian" or factory worker shall equal the votes of five presumably reactionary Russian peasants, thus assuring the so-called "Dictatorship of the Proletariat." It was time, Dictator Stalin felt last week, to change the Constitution.

Comrade Stalin's pleasure was made known by Comrade Mussabekov, President of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. In the Soviet Union there are seven such Federal republics and seven such puppet Presidents. Said President Mussabekov, addressing the All-Union Congress of Soviets: "I believe our beloved country is now virtually rid of Capitalist elements. Consequently we can advance to a new stage in the development of Socialism: the secret ballot, direct elections and equalization of the voting rights of peasants and proletarians."

Since all these rights have been commonplace in Capitalist countries for generations, observers found President Mussabekov's proposal for Soviet progress mildly paradoxical. Another great stride was taken some years ago when piece work, abolished in Russia after the Revolution, was restored by Stalin. Last week Soviet editors soon got wind of popular rumors that "free speech" is going to be granted along with the secret ballot. Promptly scotching these rumors, State newsorgans stated that Russians will not be granted free speech--the one thing no dictator dares to grant.

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