FINN'S EXPERIENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 220, 17 September 1938, Page 14

FINN'S EXPERIENCE.

WORK IN SOVIET RUSSIA.

PERMISSION TO LEAVE REFUSED.

HELSIXGFORS. The personal experiences of one of the 3000 Finns who left America for Russia in WHO-32, and later escaped to Finland, were told by Ernest Johanson, 37 vears old. Ho migrated with his parents to America in 1911 when he was a small buy. An expert in aviation motors, he decided to try his luck in Russia in 10;>2 after lie had been unemployed for more than a vear.

He signed a contract for three years for .">OO rubles a month and an additional C2O, which was paid into his bank account in New York. After working in aviation factory No. 40 in Leningrad for two years he was informed his pay had been raised to 700 rubles a month, but he would ,#• longer receive dollars. Ho applied for jiermission to leave Russia and was refused.

"Our factory produced 70 motors each month, and of this number 30 could not he used, ' said Jolianson. "I was chief tester. The reason for the percentage of spoiled motors was sabotage, lioidcs poor materials the factory frequently received plans nnd specifications troin higher Government organisations which were intentionally incorrect. '"In the construction of aviation motors and other products for army use fclie Soviet Government uses the shadow factory system, each plant completing only a part of the article beinj; manufncturcd. Very often we received shipments of motor parts which could not he assembled and had to return them. Blame for Sabotage. "It is almost impossible to fix the blame for this sabotage. They call it wrecking' in Russia. Our factory was trying to produce a straight eight motor, an adaptation of the Curtiss and Liberty motors. The Russians are still Using thousands of the old Liberty motors which they bought in America at the end of the war. "One of the largest aviation motor factories in Russia is called the Secret Factory. It was built in Perm for the Soviet Government by the Pratt and \\ hitney Motor Company, which sent 140 specialist to get the factory operat-

I met some of these Americans on my vacations, which I spent fishing in Karelia. They told me the factory "was established in Perm because a large aluminium plant was alreadv located there. Since the aviation plant was erected a number of smaller factories manufacturing kitchen utensils were built to use the waste materials from the aviation works. In the Pratt and Whitney factory there are 4000 Russians employed making 14-cvlinder, 900 h.p. motors, for the Red army. The total production ranges from eight to 28 motors a month. Twenty-eight was the record number."

Johanson owes his escape from Russia to his wife. She remained with her parents in Finland, and successfullv petitioned the Finnish Foreign Ministry to assist him in obtaining his visa to leave .Russia.