LIFE IN RUSSIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 August 1938, Page 7

LIFE IN RUSSIA

FIVE FREE DAYS EVERY MONTH TAXATION VERY LIGHT Five days the Russian works, and on the sixth he walks in the streets. In Russia the weeks are six days long. In each month there are five free days— : the sixth, twelfth, eighteenth, twentyfourth and thirtieth —which compensate for the abolition of the Sabbath. The overcrowded steets, with pedestrians overflowing the sidewalks, are a striking feature of city life in Russia. The Muscovite stays out of his one or two-room living quarters as much as possible. The average Russian family is entitled to only 107 square feet of living space per person in the overcrowded cities, a space about 11 feet long and 10 feet wide. That permits a couple a large room. Restaurants and cafes, therefore, are crowded on the night before the free day, the Soviet Saturday night. The next day the streets are thronged. This applies to the masses. The up- 1 per class Soviet citizen, the well-paid official, writer, artist, actor or playwright, has an apartment of several rooms, an automobile, perhaps a country house and the money for an evening’s entertainment in an expensive restaurant. The influx of peasants to the cities due to famine and industrialisation drives caused a housing shortage with which Soviet authorities still are coping ineffectually. Moscow, a city built for 1,009,000 inhabitants, has nearly 4,000,000. Last year only 5,167,720 square feet of living space was added in new buildings, or enough for 48,000 persons. The plan called for 10,764,000 square feet, which would have accommodated 100,000 persons. Whatever the lot of the Soviet citizen —his Press tells him he is leading a prosperous life —he is spared the burdens of high rents and taxation. Rent is only a few roubles per square yard of floor space so that the Russian pays an average of only 4.3 per cent of his earnings for his cramped room. His only tax is on his income and that is almost negligible. The Government collects most of its revenue from the turnover on its sales of everything from radios to radishes. With living space so cramped, the Soviet citizen, would lack room if he desired to conspire against his Government, since, presumably, it takes three to make a conspiracy. Conspirators could hardly meet in the ordinary oneroom dwelling without their plotting becoming known.