LUMBER DRIVE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11913, 6 April 1933, Page 4

LUMBER DRIVE

SUMMARY DRAFTING IN RUSSIA ARCHANGEL, Feb. 18 All peasants in the northern region numbering thousands, have been summarily drafted for one month’s labour in the lumber camps in an effort by the Soviet Government to prevent failure of the timber export for 193334

Admitting that recent bad work in the cutting and transport of lumber threatens imminent danger to this important phase of the second Five-Year-Plan, the northern region Communist party claimed a 31-day period beginning February 7 and ending jMarch 30 as a- month for “Stalin’s March to the Forests.”

All able-bodied peasants, individuals and colloetivists, in the whole northern region, covering 1,119,000 square kilometres stretching-from the White Sea to the Urals and southward to the Vologda district, will he mobilized for compulsory work. During this period, the party’s order. reading like a war-time decree, directs women and children to carryon the work of the villages which will be stripped of men, and declares thatthose peasants who refuse sendee, in the forests will be considered traitors and dealt- with accordingly. The peasant? required to The peasants will be required to ■supply their own horses. They will be formed into brigades, each headed by a trusty appointee. At the.) same time 70 per cent of the membership of the whole northern region party organisation of •10.000 Young Communists were ord-cz-ecl in the forests .to supervise and co-ordinate the work of the. drafted peasants.

The order specified that the present rate of timber cutting must- be doubled and the rate of transportation tripled in order to fulfil 90 and 75 per cent respectively of the plan for these phases of .work by the end of the drive. There was no mention of pay for the peasants, but the order said provision must be made for feeding them .

The party coinmitte prefaced the order: “The northern region is one of the most important sectors, in the fulfilment of the second Five-Year Plan, especially in the matter of export. But we failed to complete the production planned in the last quarter of 1932 and work during the first month of this year was very unsatisfactory. “Because of this, direct danger threatens our export plan not only for .1933 but also for 19-34. Such a situation is intolerable. 'The problem must be solved by February. The northern region, 52- per cent of which consists of forest land, Kad_ an bffieial population in 1931 £OO. Soviet- Russia exported 5,009,83 l tons of lumber in 1932 as compared with 6,083,221 tons in the. previous year.