SOVIET WAR MACHINE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3399, 28 July 1932, Page 6

SOVIET WAR MACHINE

SCHOOL WORK. SPORT MILITARISED. "How do you account for the smallness of your standing army in view of your assertions that the peace of the Soviet Union is continually theratened by its capitalistic neighbours?" asked Mr. Elias Tobenkin, former Russian correspondent of the New York Herald Tribune of an important Soviet official in Moscow. He replied laconically: "The Red army is not an army of soldiers, but of officers, commanders, as we call them. Our soldiers are the whole of the Russian people." "The answer was not a flourish, but a statement of fact. The Soviet Union has undergone a military revolution as thorough as the political, social and economic transformation. "In the Soviet Union every citizen is familiar with some branch of military science and war tactics; 60,000,000 children under 17 years of age receive military training in connection with their school work; 60,000 military 'circles' are conducted by the Osoaviachim, the Soviet Union's national security society for the training of workers, clerks and office holders.

"The Osoaviachim has 12,000,000 members. Every factory, every agricultural collective has its military club. The universities are schools of army tactics. Sport has been militarised. "The Comsomols, or League of Communist Youth, has 5,000,000 members between the ages of 16 and 23 who are given specialised courses in addition to the regular military training required of all school and factory youths. Their training so nearly) approximates that of the regular soldier that they are usually spoken of as the country's 'junior army.' "Women, 2,000,000 of them, are being prepared in case of war to take the place of men on the farms, in industry, in commerce, and as city officials. And 250,000 are training for regular army service; in 1930 fifty women were admitted to the higher military academies to study for the positions of officer or commander.

"Because of the lack of proper railroad facilities the Soviet Government is developing aviation to a high degree. In the past year 150,000,000 roubles (about 75,000,000 dollars) was spent 'on aviation and by the end of 1932 the air routes of the country are expected to reach 69,270 miles. "A body of 100,000 men has been trained to give instruction to the people in methods of defending themselves against chemical and poisongas warfare. Moreover, there is widespread military standardisation of all objects that can be used both in war and peace. Thus, the boots sold to the peasant are of a type used in the army. "The Soviet Government's own estimate of its military strength and fitness was recently given by L. M. Kaganovich, a member of the allpowerful Poliburo, and next to Joseph Stalin and Premier Molotov, the strongest man in the Communist Party of Russia. " 'To our enemies at home and abroad,' Kaganovich said, 'we wish to state that our army is growing and becoming stronger day by day. It consists of the working class, of the collectivised farm labourers, of the poor peasants. Our organised forces include 11,000,000 members of trade unions, 9,000,000 members of voluntary defence organisations, more than 1,000,000 delegates to the Soviets 5,000,000 members <oi the League of Communist Youth, and 4,000,000 pioneers. The leaders of this army are 2,000,000 members of the Communist Party, the best organised proletarian party in the world.' "