COMMUNISM AND EDUCATION

a commodity which can be sold for one price or another, and thus becomes the possession of the person with the longest purse. A work of genius, a thing with infinite social significance, and one whose essential nature is that of a collective creation, can be purchased by a Russian named Kolupayev or by an American named Morgan, and the buyer is then entitled to change it or to destroy it as fancy dictates. If Tretyakov, the famous Moscow merchant, had one fine day made up his mind to burn down his picture gallery instead of presenting it to the town of Moscow, there was no law in capitalist society by which he could have been called to account. As a result of the private purchase and sale of works of art, rare books, manuscripts, etc., many of them are rendered inaccessible to the broad masses of the people, and these rarities become the exclusive possessions of members of the exploiting class. The Soviet Republic has declared all works of art, collections, etc., to be social property, and it removes every obstacle to their social utilisation. The same purpose is served by the decrees aiming at the withdrawal from private ownership of great libraries, so that these also have become social property.