Sovietana

Enticing, exciting and authoritative books on Soviet Russia are beginning to appear in quantities, notably from the presses of a new firm: International Publishers, Manhattan. Ready this week is International's 855-page Guide-Book to the Soviet Union ($5), the first such book to appear in English since Baedeker's Russia of 1914. Smart folk will note Moscow's Savoy Hotel, Leningrad's Hotel d' Europe, and that taxis have a fixed tariff in Moscow but must be bargained for in Leningrad. Map fiends will revel in hundreds of renamed towns, and the heretofore seldom seen Russian spelling of the nation's name: Soyus Sotsialisticheskekh Sovietskikh Respublik ("Union of Socialist Soviet Republics"). Tourists will pore over well-thought-out-schedules for "Seeing Moscow in Eight Days" or Leningrad in seven.

Strictly presenting the official Soviet viewpoint are three more International books: 1) The Illustrated History of the Russian Revolution, Vol. I ($2.75), a striking picture book, but so biased that it does not contain a single photograph of famed Leon Trotsky, who is now exiled and disgraced; 2) Leninism by Josef Stalin ($2.50), the doctrines of the "Father of Soviet Russia" expounded by the present Dictator; and 3) The New Theatre and Cinema of Soviet Russia ($6), a vivid mingling of Spartan text and exuberant pictures, displaying the only world-known and world-admired Soviet Art.

Battling with these books' of pure Soviet origin are three others: 1) The Real Situation in Russia by Leon Trotsky,* presenting the exiled Jew Militarist's passionate case against Gentile Dictator Stalin; 2) Incredible Siberia* wherein a Chicago Daily News correspondent hears U.S. drummers' jokes told in ultima thule smoking cars; and 3) The Mind and Face of Bolshevism/- still the latest and most potent Teutonic indictment of Soviet culture. Flayed in the latter book is the famed epic poem of Bolshevism, 150 Million, .by Comrade Poet Maiakovski.

Excerpts:

Down with the world of Romanticism! ...

Your soul!

Steam, compressed air, electricity!

As for the almsgivers, the navel-gazers,

Let the ax dance over their bald pates!

Slay! Slay!

Bravo: and skulls are good for ash trays!

Onward!

* Harcourt, Brace ($2.50).

* By Junius B. Wood-- Dial Press ($4).

/- By Rene Fulop-Miller -- Knopf ($6).