RUSSIAN BREAD BASKET

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4957, 18 February 1937, Page 2

RUSSIAN BREAD BASKET

o IMPORTANCE OF THE UKRAINE. A PROSPEROUS REGION. The importance of the Ukraine to Soviet economy, as revealed in 1936 production reports, makes comprehensible the announced determination of Soviet leaders to defend this prosperous region at any cost (says the Christian Science Monitor). These reports make it apparent that loss of the Ukraine would be almost fatal to Soviet progress. The Soviet Union's dependence upon Ukraine agriculture is shown by the fact that in a bad crop year the Ukraine increased its cereal grain harvest by 22 per cent, over that of 1935, its flax harvest by 17 per cent., its sugar-beet crops by 12 per cent., and doubled the output of its new

cotton fields. These gains contrasted with insufficient harvests over a large part of the country. Without the increased grain crops of the: Ukraine, the Soviet Union would be short of food this year. The peasant population has proved more progressive and adaptable than in any other section. After the revolution the Government confiscated 30,000,000 acres belonging to landlords and in the period 1928-32 took from "kulaks"—the better-to-do peasants—another 20,000,000 acres. This land, combined with small holdings, has been organised into 650 State farms, directly operated by the State, and 27,400 collective farms, in which 98 per cent, of the peasants are now working. To these Ukranian farms , the Government leased in 1936, through its machine-tractor stations, ' 62,200 tractors, 14,160 combines, 25,000 seeding machines, 29.0C0 threshing machines, and 14,000 motor trucks. Cows and calves were sold on credit to 950,000 collective peasant house-

holds. The number of horned cattle increased during the: year by 24 per cent., cows by 14 per cent., pigs by 61 per cent., sheep and goats by 34 per cent., and horses by 11 per cent. The Ukraine has helped more thani any other region to overcome theacute shortage of domestic animalsOfficial reports give major credit for the favourable "Ukrainian harvest to "the work of hundreds of thousands of women collective peasants," whose work in the fields has surpassed that of the men. The rapid progress of mechanised agriculture is indicated by the fact that combines were used this year to harvest 10,800,000 acres, as compared with 3,450,000 acres last year. While the Ukraine is the "breadbasket" of the Soviet Union, especially important in bad crop years, its industrial importance is almost equally great. In nine months of 1936 the Ukraine produced 5,400,000 tons of steel, 12,875,000 tons of pig-iron, and 50,000,000 tons of coal. It is offi-

cially stated that in some months of 1936 the Ukraine's output of pig-iron exceeded that of Britain and Prance the output of steel 1 exceeded that of France, and any one of half a dozen Ukrainian iron foundries exceeded the total production of Poland. Capital investments in Ukrainian I industry continue to exceed those in most other regions. The Ukraine I produces more than its share of traci tors, heavy machines, metallurgical j products, turbines, locomotives, agricultural combines, and electricalmechanical products. Steel, iron, aluminium, and other industries completed during 1936 have finally ab- ! sorbed the power generated by the I great Dneiproges dam, and several ' other large water-power projects have been started or completed.

The Ukraine has recovered rapidly from the famine period of 1931-33, when this region was the principal victim of Moscow's dispute with the peasants, Ukrainian peasants actively participated in the rebellion against collectivisation; when they refused to grow more than enough grain for their own needs, Communists officials forcibly seized their grain, and many peasants starved. Moscow's agricultural policy since 1933 permits peasants a more substantial share in the profits of their labour. The State is still unable to meet the demand for manufactured goods, although the supply is better than in any year since 1927. The shortage of clothing is especially acute. But the peasants, remembering famine years, accept the shortage of manufactured goods more cheerfully. And the Communists continue ruthlessly to suppress opposition wherever it appears. The annual report of A. Kossior, chairman of the Ukrainian Communist Party, laconically observes: "Ukrainian nationalists and Trotskyists have been liquidated."