(5 of 5)
In Russia alone of all the nations in Europe people live a little better than they used to live. Last month one of TIME'S correspondents who crossed the U. S. S. R. returning to the U. S. wrote: "Moscow was very much as it used to be. I smelled that the moment our plane had wheeled into the spacious airport. . . . The whole country has a distinct, fetid odor of its own. . . . People looked better fed than a few years ago, better clad (especially with regard to overcoats and footwear), and they seem to be a little better housed too. There were fewer queues outside the food stores, shops and warehouses appeared better stocked than in 1932, and street begging had considerably decreased. However, people in rags, with indescribably dirty hands and faces, often covered with pocks and scars, are far from uncommon.
"Street traffic in Moscow has improved tremendously. ... I was amazed at the number and excellence of taxicabs and private motor cars which circulate now in the Soviet metropolis. . . .
"I did not notice any change whatever in the expression of people's faces. . . . Whether their faces were stolid or keen, arrogant or subdued, not one of them looked happy. Those radiant, laughing faces which you see exhibited in so many Soviet propaganda pamphlets are sheer humbug. The people of Russia don't look like that. They look uniformly disgruntled and unhappy. It is plainly written on their faces that they lead joyless lives."