Unenviable State of Russian Farmer

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 200, 12 November 1927, Page 25 (Supplement)

Unenviable State of Russian Farmer

OPPRESSED BY SOVIET lack of machinery Despite the fact that production 18 up to pre-war figures all is not well with the Russian farmer, according to a special representative of the “Financial Times.’' Kussian agriculture, after the severe tbaek which it suffered in 1913 and subsequent years during its fierce r uggie with Communism, has now rejCvered, the Russian Government havdecided in 1925 not to interfere hifi er the peasants’ method of usiness. The peasant is now free to T >- 0r i, old-fashioned way, and, : n * cs to some excellent harvests durh.o *924-25-26. he has succeeded in Juaing up his livestock to pre-war * . an( * * s to reap the well-de-harvest of approximately a •miiar quantity as was produced in Pr ;-»ar days. one considers the extraordinary , mculties which the peasant in Russia ‘••IS to contend against, and the almost waplete absence of necessary imple;n>nts and capital, one can but admire “•tenacity with which lie has manTU 1 ? to scrape through. In the sea “ "—order and thorough mismanage®tnt which prevails under Soviet u «. the uneducated yet sturdy peasis compelled to carry the burden ‘the whole country, including its exhsive Communistic experiments, on B “road shoulders. Cultivated Area Jhe area under cultivation iri 1912 •..(..laured about v 000,000 dessiatina (1 "•tsiatin, 2.7 acres,, and the present area S cultivation is estimated at " dessiatins. in regard to live“enres are as follow tin mllHorscs .. 2777 C£tlle .. .. .V ll y 49.4 55. U sheep ... 770 52.0 V. 13.'0 15.7 ab !a P r S am °unted in pre-war days to S;i., , rom ' thousand million poods tl pood, in im. s Ipdnst 4 t> thousand million poods . e i. These results of course are exS £? d ’ «l»eclally if one considers ttimcultieb with which the peasant

had to battle. . To put the case of Russian agriculture in a nutshell it amount to this: The peasant has done all that is possible to get the maximum out of the soil and his surroundings without any appreciable investment of capital or implements. The Russian Government which controls the purchasing of and trading in all materials, and is therefore responsible for the supply of agricultural machinery and tools has done remarkably little to assist the peasant. . . A great deal of propaganda is being made about the Russian output of agricultural machinery, but so far very scanty results have been obtained on account of the absence of suitable plant. In regard to imports, only £4,400,000 worth of machinery has been brought into the country, as against £5.000,000 worth in pre-war days. The present iigure of imports represents about half the pre-war quantity on account of an approximate increase of 50 per cent, in the value of this kind of machinery. Keeping the Peasant Poor For some very obvious reason the State institutions object to any peasant becoming prosperous, even in the miserable conditions in which he is situated to-day, and banks and credit institutions have special instructions with regard to both the indigent peasant class and those who have shown themselves worthy of help. The policy is call ••tin- support of the proletariat, under which the Government allocates to the local Soviets and credit institutions certain funds to be utilised as credits to the poorest peasantry only. The managers of the credit institutions will be completely bewildered by averv strict regulation, which stipulates that the amount of credits to be allowed to the proletarian peasant is to be dependent on the amount of his rienosits in the bank. This ini nfies on the one hand that the good-for-nothing is to be excluded from the benefit of credits, and yet at the s-imc time the Government distinctly stipulates that the struggling agriculturist who merits encouragement is - | CI Tt obvious that in these circumstances nothing but an estiange"v %T£?»lT ‘anWs ?? best SU'rated by the fact tl , at uotwithstandmg the 8 was unable to efiieientlv collect the goods from the peasantry or to organise an export of ; grain and agricultural produce.