RUSSIA’S DISMAL POVERTY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 3 April 1926, Page 11

RUSSIA’S DISMAL POVERTY

TIIOTSK VS DA MAO INO ADMISSION

The actual eil'ceis on L’tissian life on ill; 1 Soviet experiments in nationalisation and Communism are strikingly set forth in it valmiiilt* memorandum by Dr. K. Lukoil', ltased on up-to-dau Soviet documents and entitled "The Soviets in 102f>." Trotsky is quoted on the lltissinu nationalised imlttst rites its follows: t The best of the undertakings we have nationalised; the bad ones we leased to private The result of this is that the hud undertakings, in the liitnds of private business men. produce Letter goods. j Soviet (doth and Soviet Loots were found to lie "imrealialde and of interior quality." Xo others can he bought, and wages were in !02."> only £2 .Is. a month, or about IDs a week. Detail prices were 111 per cent. abo-.e pre-war prices, or much higher than thev are here. I

.As to tin* general condition of the ]ieo|de, this evidence of M. I’reolira/.hensky. tin* Soviet Financial K.\|>er!. is in marked contrast with the fairy tales told l»v lied British Trade Unionists:

Oi: returning from l*]ui'o|u* to Sovietdoiii tlie lirst impressions gained are our poverty ami the inequality of the standard of living. We are extremely poor; nmeli poorer than Western Europe; our shabbiness, our poverty, bad clothing. nnpaved streets, miserable buildings—all this meets the eve lirst of all on crossing tin.' frontier. The same feeling remains while driving through the streets of Moscow.

Those who have tin; etlYontery to toll the British miners that the remedy for tlieir troubles is nationalisation should note that the “Soviet coal administration was compelled to dismiss some 8,8.000 miners in April ID2.V Unemployment is increasin';, and even the Soviet authorities could not hide that fuel. Their figures admit a rise from :>!)!)..V)r in March to 013*000 in July and over a million at the end of 102f>.