SOVIET INDUSTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1941, Page 3

SOVIET INDUSTRY

GREAT EASTWARD TREK amazing changes. HIGHLY-ORGANISED SCHEMES. A long journey through Russia becomes particularly interesting, in the light of the Russian claim, repeated by M. Lozovsky, the Assistant-Foreign Commissar, at a press conference, that the bulk of the factory equipment had been evacuated from the occupied zones, states a staff correspondent of the “Sydney Morning Herald.” _ Machinery and equipment are being moved at an astonishing rate. In the course of a long journey I watched, day after day, a procession of trains, some composed of 50 cars, piled nigh with machines, motor-cars, factory equipment, and electrical installations flash past on the way to new industrial centres. . „ In addition I saw at many junctions innumerable carloads of similar equipment being shunted ready for dispatch in other trains. At the same time I watched train loads of factoiy workers pass by. industrial centres. A great industrial machine was created in the Urals, even before the outbreak of war, but new industrial centres are springing up in cities and towns throughout the country. At a few places I halted side by side with these workers, with a chance of Personal contact. I found whole families housed in trains that have been dispatched to the latest centres of industrial production, thus providing factory units by means of which theie will be no difficulty in establishing an immediate organisation. In many cases a whole train was devoted to families who had worked side by side for years. From what I gathered this is in no sense an indiscriminate evacuation of people threatened by the enemy, but a highly-organised transplanting of great sections of the industrial population to a destination where they can be used with the greatest efficiency. They were carried with the bulk of their possessions, and had been efficiently directed and provided with food for a journey which, in some cases, might be a matter of weeks. One of their most marked characteristics was their cheerfulness, which seemed to suggest that they were not seriously perturbed by the enforced breaking up of their homes. The children, particularly, acted as though they were making a holiday journey. CITIES SPRINGING UP. As I travelled eastward, I found abundant evidence in the cities and towns at which we stopped of factories waiting to receive both workers and machines. It was evident in the larger towns that many factories had been completed only recently, while, it was obvious that the numerous unfinished structures which are commonplace sights were designed for industrial purposes. The most significant fact, however, is the growth of industry in places which would not be found even in the best maps, because, until lately, they were little more than villages. Their existence is emphasised in the eastern areas, where there is no black-out, by the sudden appearance of a bril-liantly-lighted town not known by name even to experienced Russian travellers. We counted many such ■ towns in these lighted areas, but there must have been many more in areas which, because of their proximity to the war zone, are subject to black-out. . Their sudden mushroomlike development is a substantial aid to the auth- , orities in solving the population problem at the larger centres, which are already beginning to feel the strain of ■ a sudden addition to their . industrial growth. Sverdlovsk, for instance, has had to make almost overnight provision to deal with a doubled popula- . tion. It now has a population of one million, and appears a hive of indus- . try. Agricultural workers in Russia will , work this year even during the depth of winter, which is usually regarded ' as a period of enforced leisure on ' farms. As a sequel-to Stalin’s command in a speech on November 7, on the anniversary of the revolution, that every farm must produce'more next season, a newspaper and radio campaign has been launched to educate all units of agriculture in their additional obligations, and to whip up enthusiasm for an increased effort. TRAINING OF PEASANTS. It is hoped that by planting more extensive areas, and increasing efficiency in all sections, farm labour will offset the loss of production from agricultural areas occupied by the Germans. An organisation is already preparing throughout the country to supervise and stimulate the effort. Important units of this will be the village intelligentsia —the doctor, schoolmaster, etc., who will be expected to explain to the peasants the State’s requirement to do everything to assist by organisation or other means in attaining the objective. Under the Soviet farming system, a central tractor station supplies the machinery needs of a number of farms. The stations are staffed by experts, who have been enjoined by newspapers and the radio to exert additional effort and ingenuity in preparing machinery for the additional strain which will be imposed in the coming spring. “Izvestia” points out that these experts not only have to use their greatest mechanical skill in carrying out overhauls, but frequently also have to devise material for work from their own resources, because of the drain of war on the normal sourc.es of supply. x . Efforts have already begun to increase the number of women capable of carrying out the mechanical farm labour. It is expected that by the spring a new trained army of women tractor drivers will be ready to take over the machines from the men. In some villages women and teachers are organising bands of girls to receive tuition. 1 One teacher who has already completed her course .is spending her long vacations working on farms as a tractor driver.