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Arms of the USSR

The designing of the arms of the Soviet state was a task of outstanding importance since it had to be a coat of arms that differed substantially in its im- plication from anything that had ever been in the arms of capital- ist states.

The office of the Council of People’s Commissars received a design for the arms done in water colors. It was round in shape and bore the same em- blems as the present coat of arms, but through the centre ran a long, unsheathed sword. The sword seemed to cover the entire design.

Vladimir Ilyich was in his of- fice talking to several comrades.

“What’s that, a coat of arms? Let’s have a look at it!” He bent over the desk and peered closely at the drawing. We all stood round Vladimir Ilyich, interested to see this design for a coat of arms that had beea sent in by an engraver employed at Goz- nak, the printing works that pro- duced. banknotes.

Outwardly the arms had been well done. Tie rays of the rising sun, surrounded by a semicircle of sheaves of wheat gleamed against a red background; the hammer and sickle stood out clearly in this semi-circle but the entire design was dominated by the sharpened steel blade that ran right through it from bottom to top, as though to put everyone on his guard.

“Interesting!” exclaimed Vla- dimir Ilyich. “The idea is there, but what is the sword for?”

“We are battling, we are fight- ing and will continue ‘to fight until we have consolidated the dictatorship of the proletariat and have driven the Whiteguards

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and interventionists out of our country, but that does not mean that war, war lords and violence will ever take the lead with us. We do not need any conquests. A policy of conquest is alien to us; we are not attacking but are defending ourselves against internal and external enemies; our war is defensive and the sword is not our emblem. We must hold it firmly to protect our proletarian state as long as we have enemies, as long as we are attacked, as long as we are threatened, but that does not mean forever.”

“Socialism will triumph in all countries, there is no doubt about that. The brotherhood of the peoples will be proclaimed and will become reality through- out the world, and we do not need the sword. It is not our em- blem.” Vladimir Ilyich repeated.

“We must remove the sword from the arms of our socialist state,” he continued. He took a black-lead pencil with a sharp point and made the proof-read- er’s sign for “delete” over the sword.

When the sketch was return- ed without the sword we de- cided to show it to the sculptor Andreyev: He drew it again, made the sheaves of grain thick- er, made the gleaming rays of the sun stand out more clearly and, in general, produced the entire coat of arms in relief, making it more expressive.

The coat of arms of the RSFSR was approved at the very beginning of 1918. —tTaken from The Arms of. the

Soviet State, from the book The October: Storm and After. Progress Books, Tor- onto.

Editor—MAURICE RUSH

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1970—PAGE 4

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Opening the door

Trudeau will soon journey to the USSR in what appears to be the first serious step taken by Canada to widen trade relations, and technical and scientific information exchanges with the Soviet Union. :

It is what the Communist Party and other progressive forces in Canadian society have been advocating.

Some efforts to mar Trudeau’s trip were made with the stage-managed Dotsenko letter to the Soviet Govern- ment, and through efforts to breathe life into the Gouzenko corpse. These efforts seem to have fizzled, and the air is all the cleaner for that.

Hitherto the official propaganda was that the Soviet Union had nothing to give or sell us. The idea of socialist backwardness is assiduously cultivated in the capitalist press.

The fact is that socialist planning has been an outstanding success, en- abling socialist society to outpace capi- talist society in annual rates of ‘devel- opmen. Instead of reflecting a crisis, the changes taking place in the econo- mic life of the Soviet Union arise as a result of success.

The economic reforms of recent years are consciously taken to extend and re- fine the socialist control of the produc- tive forces. They are part of the pro- cess of socialist advance, in which the economic laws are brought into full play and harmony in order to improve the quality of life of the people. This has always been the case.

The capitalist world faces real diffi- culties today in trying to cover up this

basic truth by depicting the economic _ life of the USSR as a series of errors,

a position more and more untenable in face of the enormous developments in the Soviet Union.

Trudeau is going to the Soviet Union not because the Soviet Union needs us, but because Canada and the Soviet Union each have something to contri- bute to the other in the spirit of peace, friendship and mutual advantage. So- viet know-how in the Arctic is being sought. because it is indispensable for Canada’s Arctic development, and everyone knows it, ~

It’s a- good beginning. It is encour- aging for those of us who have advo- cated it for so long. Let’s work to ex-

-pand it to cover every front,

Soak the rich instead

The Economie Council of Canada is noted for writing things it thinks people would like to hear. Its latest report is a departure from the soft soap approach. According to the capi- talist press the Council is reeommend- ing deterrent fees and a cutback in educational spending.

It wouldn’t take a great deal of bril- liance to figure that this is the ECC’s contribution to back up the Trudeau austerity program, which is creating mass unemployment and is ruining the farmers.

Deterrent fees are an extra tax on the poor designed to deny people medi- cal care rather than solve the problem of providing it. That’s capitalism. More and better education is required in to-

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-ures of the insurance

day’s world. Education is a right. 1H Council attacks this principle. —_| Rising costs are given as the reasi)) There is need for a great deal of ‘el ging into the claims made by the he before they are accepted as the truly But, and this exposes the deceit as W®) as anything, the Council had noth! to say about profiteering as a cals for rising costs. dai Just a few days ago the capitali) press reported that penicillin tape range from $11.10 a hundred to $2.00 il hundred —and the doctors give HS prescriptions for the most expensiv’) Tranquilizers range from nearly 9% | hundred to $2 a hundred. And so. 0m: i This is an example of scandald) profiteering which is ‘costing the a tims many millions of dollars, and the” health. ‘ Another source of funds for people needs is the nearly two billion dolla spent each year on armaments. — ' Canada needs a people’s governmel which would have: agencies bring ! reports on how to improve the life ® the people, not on how to widen pove and discrimination.

Speak up Trudeau! |

In the Middle East the picture h® been transformed from the bright hoP*} of peace to the grim menace of a W4 which threatens the world.

King Hussein is doing what he’s sul” posed to do—frustrating a peace Sé F tlement. Once again the UAR has calle the bluff of Washington and Tel AVY by stating that it would, given fi committments against Israeli attack) agree to withdraw its defense missile

It’s time that the Trudeau govel™ ment came out behind the UAR’s pea® initiatives and the implementation the UN decisions.

Dangerous thoughts! |

Charles Lynch, political commenti tor for the capitalist media, is mad 4

the private insurance companies. Freé |

enterprise is OK, until it costs y money, he has discovered. Low incom people who need cheap medicare al auto insurance discovered that fact long ago.

It seems that Mr. Lynch was doilé |

some research on the subject of auto mobile insurance when the Manitoba scheme was hitting stormy weather.

The auto insurance company with which Mr. Lynch does his insuring se?

him a notice fining him: because of tw? |

infractions of the law. : The private insurance companies, it

seems, can triple any fine the law im |

poses on you for traffic infractions. 59 Mr. Lynch’s pocket will be lightened by $102 which will go into the profit fig company. ‘

The Ontario Department of Tran% port gives over a “driving abstract’ t0 the insurance company which reveals all infractions of the law. That is, thé government of Ontario spends the tax payers’ money to do a stoolpigeoning job for private business. Anywhy, it has made Charles Lynch into a socialist. He says he’d sooner pay his money into the public treasury than to a private insurance company:

What’s this world coming to? = apes