The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations present The Pacific Story. This is the story of the Pacific, the drama of the millions of people who live around this greatest sea, where the United States is now committed to a long-term policy of securing the peace. This is the background story of the events in the Pacific and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. Tonight's Pacific Story comes to you with drama of the past and present and commentary by Dr. Robert Gordon Sproul, president of the University of California and scholar of Russian affairs. The Buryat Mongols, a Soviet minority. When a man's in trouble, he's interested in how the other fellow got out of it. Today, many of the peoples of the Pacific are in trouble, and that's why they're interested in what happened to the Buryat Mongols. The Buryat Mongols live in Siberia, around Lake Baikal, about 1,400 miles inland from the Pacific. For centuries, they had a rough time of it. Today, they have their own government and they're prosperous. That's what's important to the other peoples of the Pacific. Why should the French rule us? This is a native of French Indochina. We have been under Dutch rule 350 years. We want to be free. This is a native of the Netherlands Indies. We have been liberated, but what kind of government will we have in Korea? This is a Korean. And there are the people of Thailand, who for 600 years were free and then during the war were puppets of the Japanese. These and the many other peoples of Asia are all groping for the way out of their troubles. And they wonder about the Buryat Mongols. There are only about 750,000 Buryat Mongols, but they fought for their freedom and they won it. The Buryats were oppressed for centuries. The terrorist Russians have robbed us and outraged us. The terrorist Russians have invaded our country. By what right do they demand tribute of us? They have swindled us of our furs. They have taken our cattle and our money. And now they would force us to build roads for them and to transport our own goods for them. We will never be slaves for the Russians. With their vodka, they have made drunkards of our people. They have held our people for ransom and even sold us into slavery. They have built their forts for strongholds, but we will not be crushed by them. We will ride against the Russians. Against the Russians! Now with the Russians! But the Buryats could not prevail against the Russians. The Cossacks came in greater and greater numbers and the Buryats were put down. All Buryat Mongols will be expelled from the river valleys of the Angara, the Liana, and the Selenga. These lands will be resettled by Russian peasants. Are we to have no rights in our own lands? You will still have your Noyans. Our Noyans? No, they exploit us. They are your tribal chief. They have increased their own wealth at our expense. We will deal only with your Noyans. Under the Russians, the Buryat Noyans became even stronger than they were before. The Tsarists supported them. Most of them became Tsarist officials and large landowners. And the lot of the Buryat Mongols became worse. There is reason to be encouraged. Some Russians took the side of the Buryats. The Russian peasants who have been brought out here to resettle their lands are also oppressed. The Tsarists regard them the same as you Buryats. Besides that, there are all of us political prisoners. Exiled out here from Russia and Europe. So we have some strength. You Buryats, the Russian peasants, and us political prisoners. Together we can be strong. The Tsarists explored and exploited the lands of the Buryats. The upper classes of the Buryats grew rich, and the poor grew poorer, and the oppressed grew together. When the rumblings of the revolution of 1905 reached Buryat Mongolia, the downtrodden carted up and carried it to those who oppressed them. Stupid! Stop this blubbering, brothers! Now, which one of you wishes to speak? That one. Here, there. You? Yes, we have come to ask... Speak up! Speak so that you can be heard. We of this committee have come to talk about the land. Ha, ha, ha. Again. Yes, and to ask for... The matter of the land has been settled. The land was ours before you Tsarists came. We ask that we be given the land that we... In the interest of the mother country, it is necessary that we preserve the relations that now exist. But this is our land. It is the duty of all of us to serve the mother country. Whose mother country? Russia is your country, not ours. Dear, we will permit no such talk from those of your station. It is a question of who... What you ask for is only part of the general Mongol question. What is that? Some excitement outside. I can tell you what it is. There's a whole mob coming here. There are rebels and you... They are peasants like us. Russian peasants as well as couriers and workers, workers and students. Look, that prisoner, the historian from Petrograd is leading them. You are annoying. You are one of us, our tribal chief. Why are you not with us instead of against us with the Tsarists? Laugh at us. The troops are coming, the troops are coming. The soldiers? Yes, the Russians, the Russians. Well, the revolution of 1905 was put down. But the flame was not put out. The Boryats watched and waited. They resisted the efforts to make them fight in World War I. And they were ripe for the revolution of 1917. We demand national self-government. We demand redistribution of the land. The socialist revolution spread from European Russia eastward across the wilderness of Siberia. And the Boryat Mongols were free. By this declaration of the rights of the peoples of Russia, signed this 15th day of November in the year 1917 by Nikolai Lenin and Joseph Stalin, the equality and the sovereignty of the peoples of Russia are guaranteed. The peoples of Russia will have the right of self-determination, including the right to secede from Russia and form an independent state. The national minorities and the ethnic groups of Russia will have the right to free development. The Soviets took over eastern Siberia. But before a year had passed, the counterrevolution started. American, British, and Japanese intervention troops landed at Vladivostok. And the White Russians, with the support of the Japanese, dominated Boryat Mongolia. A detachment of Japanese and White Russians is on the way here. Looking for revolutionary leaders? Yes. Someone in the village must have informed them of the Russian and Boryat leaders here. Could it have been the Noyan? The Noyan is a reactionary. So is the Lama. Someone has informed. Hurry. We must warn the leaders and get them out of the village at once. What of the partisans? You warn them. I will warn the leaders. The White Russians and the Japanese will shoot them like dogs. Yes. Now let me get my coat out. Hurry. Hurry. They're on their way here now. Are you a sack at my house? It's a Japanese officer. He has an entire platoon with him. Come. The back door. Yes. Quickly. See anyone? No. Come on. Hurry. Hurry now. Good luck. Good luck to you. Come in. Come in. Come in. Come in. The White Russians are coming in. And the Japanese are here looking for you. Come in. They are here in the village. Get your coat out. You must get out at once. How did they know? Someone informed. There is no time to talk. Get your coat on. I saw a Japanese officer with a whole platoon. Have the others been warned? They are being warned now. Here. Let me help you. Yes. Thanks. Come now. Who is it? You will open the door. It is a Japanese officer. Do you have a back door? No. Open the door. Climb out of that back window. There is no shot. Here. Take this gun. Get on that side of the door. I will cover this side of the door. No. No. Let them come in. Break down the door. Shoot, Khamenev. Shoot. No. No. I will not shoot. I will. They have come to kill us. You are Khamenev. What do you wish? It is Khamenev. Look out, Khamenev. Look out. The guns. They are going. Quiet. Fire. Leave them there. Set fire to the place at once. Yes, sir. Now, the next house. No one is to escape alive. And set every house on fire. The Japanese and white Russians killed every Buryat Mongol, every Red Russian, every partisan, even the defenseless people. Then they burned the village to the ground. They will never cross us. Never. Kill the Japanese. The partisans who escaped rallied in the wilderness. The farm workers who also had been outraged joined them. They gained new force. Destroy the Japanese. Kill the Japanese. From the smoldering villages that had been pyres for all who resisted, from the Great Plains where the farm workers had been oppressed, rose the strength of the Buryat rebellion. It is our own chiefs, the Niyans, who are helping the Tsarists and the Japanese against us. They are not only collecting tribute from us for the Tsar, they are also extorting money and property from us for themselves. The Niyans are traitors. Come with all those who have joined the Tsarists against us. A messenger, a messenger is coming. Look. It is the sentry with the message. Quiet, quiet all of you. What is the sentry? A Red Army is marching into Siberia. The word has just come. A Red Army is headed this way? Yes, for Verkhnudinsk. How strong? The message only said that it was coming, that we should prepare. Hear all of you. Hear this. A Red Army is marching into Siberia and is headed here for Verkhnudinsk. Hurrah! By the time the Red Army reached Buryat Mongolia, the partisans were deployed and waiting for them. They swept like a scythe against the Tsarist White Guards and the Japanese. From their rear, from their flanks, from every direction, the Buryat Mongols and the Russian peasants slashed into the lines of the Tsarists as the Red Army drove into them from the front. Take the Niyans. Throw not one Niyan into the sea. Take all who have joined the White Guards against us. Get the traitors. Get all the traitors. White Russian and Japanese, Niyan, Lama, Reactionary. It all fell before the fury of the Buryat Mongols and the Russian workers and peasants. Verkhnudinsk has been captured. Verkhnudinsk has been captured. Verkhnudinsk, which was to become Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryat Mongolia, had been taken. And all Buryat Mongolia cleared of the enemy. The people of Buryat Mongolia, for centuries oppressed, had freed themselves. But not quite. Baron Ungern has seized Urga in Outer Mongolia and is developing it as a base for operations against us. Baron Ungern fitted out a counterrevolutionary force and marched across the border. The Red Army and the Buryat Mongols and the Russian workers and peasants who had taken Verkhnudinsk, waited for him. Baron Ungern, your forces have been completely wiped out. Do you have anything to say? This is your last moment to speak, so that generations to come may profit by your experience. Ready. Aim. Fire! The Buryat Mongolian people were free. They had been promised by Soviet Russia that they would have the right of self-determination, that they could become a part of Soviet Russia, or they could secede from Russia and form an independent state. In May 1923, Buryat Mongolia became the Buryat Mongolian Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic. And Verkhnudinsk became its capital. Under our new constitution, the Buryat Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is a socialist state of workers and peasants. All power in the Buryat Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic belongs to the toilers of the city and of the village. The Buryat Mongols had paid for their freedom with their blood and with their lives. They had struggled unceasingly against poverty and economic exploitation. And they had won. Freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly are guaranteed by law. For centuries, the people of Buryat Mongolia had been exploited for the mother country. Now they went to work for themselves. We will build a village here where the last one was burned and its people killed by the white guard of the Japanese. They built villages, thousands of them. And the nomads and the semi-nomads who had wandered from meadow to meadow the year around with their cattle and with all their earthly belongings settled down. Now we have houses to live in. The peasants became collective farmers. And we have warm bounds for our cattle. Livestock is the most important product of Buryat Mongolia. We have schools to send out children to. We even have hospitals. The nature of the life of the Buryats changed. They began to develop their own culture. After the first ten years, they had developed such unity of purpose that they could undertake to make Buryat Mongolia the largest livestock center in the East. Stalin personally urged them on. It must be our objective to make all members of collective farms well-to-do people. Labor, which was once considered a heavy and shameful burden, is a deed of honor, of fame, and of heroism. The Buryat Mongols knuckled down. They had their own republic. They had their own government. They were working for themselves. For your achievements in the raising of stock, I award you the Order of Lenin. Thank you. For your achievements in the raising of wheat, I award you the Red Banner of Labor. Thank you. Where once only rye had grown, now there was wheat. In the South East times, it was said that only rye could be grown here. It was said that wheat and vegetables would always have to be grown elsewhere and brought here. But see the wheat we have grown. Today, more wheat than any other grain is grown in Buryat Mongolia. And hundreds of times as many vegetables are now grown here as in the days of the Tsaps. Most of those who won honors came from the depths of the masses, from among the Buryat and Russian peasants and workers. With their efforts working together, they changed the economy of Buryat Mongolia, the agriculture which for so long had been virtually ignored, they developed. We use tractors wherever we can. Thousands of tractors broke the soil and disc and harrowed it. The peasants who had used only the crudest tools and the cowherds who had used none became experts with farm machinery. This is one of our big pressing machines. We also use big combines. This is how we have been able to increase our production. To boost the production still more, the young were educated to be agricultural experts, agronomists, mechanical technicians. To raise better and more livestock, veterinarians, medical assistants, and specialists in cattle breeding were trained. Veterinary hospitals and service centers opened. Meat and milk stations established. Today Buryat Mongolia is one of the major livestock regions of the Soviet Union. In the last quarter century, we have made the progress of our whole century. Look at our cattle. And behind the raising of livestock, there is the development of Buryat Mongolia's rich resources, which in the days of its hours was all but ignored. Before the revolution, there was no industry in any real sense in Buryat Mongolia. There were only a few enterprises, and these average lives in a dozen workers each. Today, thousands of our people work in industry. Gold mines are now in operation all over the Vitan Plateau. Gold, where for centuries the nomads grazed their herds. And the Jito gold mines, which were given up in the days of its hours, we have now reopened. And our prospectors have discovered still more gold in the basin of the Upper Angara River. From the mines came not only gold, but tungsten and tin and graphite. Industries rose in the wilderness. On the streets of the villages, Buryats learned to ride bicycles. And in their homes, they listened to radios and phonographs. Music Buryat Mongolia has become the doorway between the Soviet West and the Soviet East. The Trans-Siberian Railway runs through it, connects with its bustling capital, Ulen Ude, and the system of highways and waterways connects with districts all through the strategic lake-by-crawl region. But it's not this that is of importance to the other minority peoples of Asia. They have their eyes on Buryat Mongolia for another reason. Music It is how the Buryat Mongols have solved their problem that is of interest to us. This is an Indonesian, a native of the East Indies. The Buryats struggled as we have struggled. The Soviet Russians removed the obstacles that were holding the Buryats back. What were these obstacles? The minority peoples of Asia and the Pacific all know them. Most important, the Soviets freed the Buryats from the old order of Tsarism. The Soviets also removed all the legal and social and economic obstacles which had been used to hold down the Buryats. The Buryats were then not only permitted to work out their own progress, but were actively helped. The Indonesians have their eyes on Buryat Mongolia, and so do the Annamites of French Indochina, the Koreans, the Burmans, the Malayans, and the peoples of Central Asia. The Soviets have encouraged the national pride of the Buryats. The peoples of Central Asia look on. The Soviets have helped them assert their independence. The children are brought up to speak their own Buryat language. In high school, the elements of Russian are taught, and in university, Russian is compulsory. But to the Buryats, their own language is always first. And even the Russian children in Buryat Mongolia are taught the Buryat language. The minority peoples of Asia and the Pacific have watched the liberation of the Buryat Mongolian people and the making of their autonomous socialist Soviet republic. And as they wrestle with their own problems, they see in this saga special political meaning. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] This is the story of the Buryat Mongols and what happened to them in their struggle for freedom. To tell the significance of Russia's handling of this minority people, the National Broadcasting Company presents Dr. Robert Gordon Sproul, president of the University of California and scholar of Russian Affairs. The next voice you hear will be that of Dr. Sproul. We take you now to San Francisco. The major diplomatic problem and opportunity of the world today is Russia. It is urgently necessary, therefore, that we Americans put forth every effort of study, of tolerance, of goodwill, even of personality to get along with the Russians and bring them into the world order as our friends and as the friends of peace and justice. We need to do much more than we are doing to understand the Soviet republics and to comprehend the facts of Soviet institutions. Perhaps I can add a few of these facts to the interesting story we have just been told of one of the USSR's successes, namely the handling of minority peoples. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is as much a melting pot as our own Union. It is not a nation of one race, but of 175 different peoples who speak 175 different languages. Yet these diversities have not led to disruption. They have, on the contrary, produced a high order of patriotism and national solidarity. This has been due in large measure, I believe, to the way in which the rights and opportunities of minorities like the Buryat Mongols, for example, have been protected, not absolutely, but relative to other citizens of the USSR. The prime originator of the racial policies of the Soviet Union was its first commissar of nationalities, Joseph Stalin. He abolished all racial disabilities. He announced as the very first of his war aims the abolition of all racial exclusiveness. It was the purpose of Stalin to construct a communist state. Manifestly, one of the obstacles to this objective was nationalism. He sought, therefore, to solve the problem of nationalism by the creation of 16 constituent republics, each of which has a preponderant nationality. For national minorities inside these constituent republics, such as the Buryat Mongols, he established national autonomous Soviet republics. All the republics, constituent and otherwise, receive cultural autonomy and various degrees of political autonomy. The Communist Party, with strict and rigid discipline, governs all the republics, whose communist officials must queue to the party line, which naturally does not permit secession, whatever may have been promised to the Buryat Mongols when they were liberated. Communists claim that the constituent republics have independence within the Soviet Union. What the other republics have is something less. Just as there are different varieties of autonomy in the Soviet Union, there are differences in the status of peoples in the British Empire, in the Dutch possessions, in the French colonies, and in China. American policy in the Philippines and Russian policy in the Asiatic borderlands naturally encourages more and more liberal treatment in certain areas. It is evident that enlightened statesmanship should clear the road to autonomy for numerous Asiatic peoples. Thank you, Dr. Robert Gordon Sproul. The National Broadcasting Company presents The Pacific Story You have been listening to The Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations, to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross-currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. May I repeat, for a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. The principal voice was that of John Wald. Programs in this series of particular interest to servicemen and women are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company.
