“If I learned nothing else, I learned to be immensely suspicions of all generalized views about Russia; even if they accord with the state of affairs in 1922 or 1925, they may have little relevancy to 1928, and perhaps be of only antiquarian meaning by 1933. As foreigners resident in the country frequently put it to me, Russia lives in all its internal problems and policies from hand to mouth; only in foreign politics is there consistency and unity.”
“I have never seen anywhere in the world such a large proportion of intelligent, happy and intelligently occupied children.”
“The other impression I would record came from a non-official visit to a House of Popular Culture. Here was a fine new building in the factory quarter, surrounded by recreation grounds, provided with one large theater, four smalled assembly halls, fifty rooms for club-meetings, recreation and games headquarters for trade unions, costing two million dollars, frequented daily–or rather, nightly–by five thousand persons as a daily average. Built and controlled, perhaps, by the government? No, but by the voluntary efforts fo the trade unions, who tax themselves 2 percent of their wages to afford their collective life these facilities. The House is staffed and managed by its own elected officers. The contrast with the comparative inactivity of our own working men and with the quasi-philanthropic quality of similar enterprises in my own country left a painful impression.”
Impressions of Soviet Russia
John Dewey/November 20, 1928
https://newrepublic.com/article/104706/impressions-soviet-russia
John Dewey’s whole book is available via :
https://books.google.com/books/about/Impressions_of_Soviet_Russia_and_the_Rev.html