Life, 1917-10-04 · page 13 of 44
Life — October 4, 1917 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes post-revolutionary Russia's struggle to establish order and discipline. The main text argues that despite abolishing authority, Russians discovered they couldn't function without hierarchical management—soldiers needed commanders, factories needed managers. The cartoons mock Russian incompetence: 1. **Top cartoon**: A near-sighted old lady (Russia) knitting for soldiers, using yarn described as "the best I've ever had"—suggesting Russia is oblivious to its own failures. 2. **Bottom cartoon**: A mother can't get her cat to open its mouth after giving it molasses candy—a domestic analogy for Russia's inability to control its population. The satire suggests Russia's revolutionary ideals collided with practical necessity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: 537 At School to Russia c T may be that the greatest service Russia is to do the world is to teach it not to be a fool. Time was when she was expected to do a big bear's part in beating Ger- many. And she did it for a while, but that detail of her usefulness has not been working well lately. But since, just in time, she caught her pro-German con- spirators and fired her Czar, she has been giving a won- derful exhibition of the kinds of democracy and democratic behavior that is not safe in this world. The common run of Russians seemed to think that they had abolished authority and could get along without it. They had abolished it, but their efforts to do without it have not been encour:ging. As soon as they had bowed out authority and established it that one man was just as good as another and should not take orders from him, they began to be walloped by every general they came up against. For military purposes there have to be bosses. Those Rus- sians who needed to find that out are discovering it. In peace, too, they would have discovered, not quite so soon, but promptly, that bosses are necessary, for Russia cannot be fed and clothed, any more than she can fight, without a manage- ment that has authority and can enforce it. It is necessary that somebody should have not only brains and training, but power to keep order and command obedience. Russia has plenty of food and materials and workmen, but we read that her industrial and transportation systems have broken HRimen — down, and people are starving because provisions cannot be Near-Sighted Old Lady (knitting for the soldiers): TH1s brought to them. Of course they are. We read that even before the revolution the workmen in the factories agreed together that they were all as good as their managers, and NEW YARN I'M USING IS THE BEST I'VE EVER HAD should all receive managers’ wages. nd they did for a while, because the need for their work was urgent, but presently, of course, the factories shut down. So we read of Russian soldiers who allowed that it was VE HER SOME GET HER MOUTH OP! ” MY MOLASSES CANDY AND SHE CAN'T “HIS ACTIVITIES COVERED A WIDE RANGE" comicbooks.com