A SOVIET TRIUMPH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 59, 29 May 1942, Page 3

A SOVIET TRIUMPH

SHIFTING OF INDUSTRY "LEAPFROG" POLICY SUCCEEDS The Russians are mounting an allout productive drive which, would be impressive under any circumstances, and this is astonishing: in view of the German occupation and ravage of Russia's important industrial areas in the west. It can now be stated definitely that the "leapfrog" policy in shiftr ing Russian industry is being successful. The "Economist" describes' two stages in this evacuation of industry first from areas of actual warfare —Leningrad, Moscow and! the Ukraine. In these regions factories were In many cases split up; where production of immediate importance tofthe front was concerned, skeleton factories were left on the spot hut valuable equipment was transferred to the rear and the skeleton factories fitted with old tools previously used for scrap; and as the industries concerned had been steadily modernising equipment in recent years considerable reserves of old machinery seem to have been available. The; "mother factory" thus reorganised attempted, to maintain the flow of arms and munitions to nearby fronts while better-equipped "daughter factories" were cdi far to the rear. The Russian newspaper "Pravda" reports instances in Avhich splitting up one original factory has given birth to three new ones. There have been four main reception areas: (1) The Volga region, Avitli its centre in and about Kuibyshev (light industry); (2) the Southern Urals (heavy armaments); (;i) the Kuznetsk Basin (machine tools); and (4) Siberia and the Soviet Far East. On the whole, it seems that winter has given tire Russians an opportunity not only to. score military successes, but also to achieve a less spectacular but not less great feat of economic organisation. The bulk of evacuated Russian industries have had time to settle down and; resume production.