The Dominion. FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1933. STRESS IN SOVIET RUSSIA

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 147, 17 March 1933, Page 10

The Dominion. FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1933. STRESS IN SOVIET RUSSIA

• — z It has been suggested that the arrests of Englishmen and others in Moscow on charges of sabotage represent an attempt to divert the Russian masses from their own sore grievances and rally tnem to the Soviet by the appearance of a threat against the State, inat is as it may be, but the fact that the Russian peasantry and proletariat are in dire straits cannot be denied. Indeed it is officially a mi e . Famine is once again stalking the steppes, and cannot be kept out of the towns. The mass of the people can obtain no white bread, no butter, and little meat-—items of diet that are considered necessities in other countries. The shortage is due to muddlement and mismanagement on the collective farms and to the stubbornness and disaffection of individual peasants. Areas under grain last year were down by about 8 per cent, and yields were low owing to careless Chiefly responsible for “go-slow” on the land held by individua. is the scarcity of manufactured goods which the peasants were promised in return for their produce. They have no incentive to work, ine towns are bare of all the little things, the peasants need what the economists call "consumers’ goods” or, in other words, pots and pans, small tools and boots and nails and coats, and so on. Dissatisfaction from the same cause no doubt affected the temper of the workers on the State farms where the difficulties were increased by the inexperience, blundering or lack of ability of the farm managers. Hence Soviet agriculture has failed in two ways, to feed the home population adequately and to supply a surplus for export, the latter being necessary to pay for the imports of capital goods. Phus a serious hole has been made, in the Five-Year Plan, enlarged by comparative failures in large-scale industry. These . shortages were not so marked in quantity as were the shortcomings in quality.. The general position was Such, however, as to cause the authorities to call a halt with the second Five-Year Plan and devote the current year at least to reorganisation, consolidation and the increase of efficiency. Once again it is the peasants who are the key to the position and the Moscow Government has decided they must be placated. The decision was widely expected by close observers of the Russian situation but it was delayed and ivas finally delivered in January, not by Stalin, as might have been expected, but by Molotov, president of the Council of People’s Commissars. The old system of State requisitions of grain quotas from the farms dealt a double blow to the peasant.; it took too much from them and at what they considered too low a price. This onerous levy is to be replaced by a graduated tax in kind and, with the right to dispose of the remainder of their produce with comparative freedom, it is hoped to remove most of the. peasants’ grievances and so give them an inducement to renew their efforts. But it would not be much use spurring on the peasants if there were nothing on which to spend the surplus from their labours. Therefore the authorities have decided to inveigle the peasants by concentrating on the rapid development of light industry and dangle the output before these mulish people. Carrots for the donkeys. Not that this decision has been reached easily or is necessarily.final. Last year there was a good deal of hesitation in the high counsels of the Soviet. Various concessions were made to individual freedom and private initiative, and some were withdrawn as an offence against the tenets of Communism. But necessity has once again forced the dictators to give ground. It is not only.the peasants who are stubborn because they can see no reward in labour, but the' proletariat is grumbling at short rations. Complete socialisation must therefore be again postponed while the Soviet wrestles with refractory human nature.