THROUGH SOVIET RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20599, 25 June 1930, Page 8

THROUGH SOVIET RUSSIA.

BY MAX SIURRAT.

♦ (FAITH IN FARM TRACTORS. [THE WAR AGAINST RELIGION, J / ' """ • (COUNTRY'S NATURAL WEALTH. PLANS FOR DEVELOPMENT.

• » (Copyright.) No. 111. "Mr. Murray's articles on Soviet Russia hre continued In to-day's instalment he makes a further reference to the extraordinary faith placed by the people in the farm tractor, and speaks of the part taken by children in the carrying out of the antixeligion propaganda. Tho question of industrial development 'is also touched upon. Wherever there is anti-religion propaganda''in tho land of tho Soviet there is nlinost certain to be shown a farm tractor rolling over one or more priests. There Is one poster of a tractor going into the barn, and three priests jumping out I through the, roof. Everywhere it is shown las tho substitute for religion—as the new religion. It may be easy for the people cf Moscow to worship a thing that pro Jnises to bring them bread. Farmers in Australia, Now Zealand. Canada and the United States know how valuable a farm tractor is in wide spaces. •But they would bo amazed to see tho store that is set by a tractor in Russia. In Russia there are millions of horses, and at present I believo there are less than EO,OOO motor vehicles. Such is the perversity of the Russians Sthat the anti-religion propaganda seems to Ho nothing but fill the churches that remain. At Easter I visited many of these land saw long queues of people moving toward tho doors, taking their food to ho blessed. There is propaganda now to say that the anti-religioi) propaganda is being (conducted on the wrong lines. Procession Round a Church. I went into a church. There was no disturbance there, and only faintly from outside came the sound of five hundred children who were marching round tho church (carrying anti-religion banners and chanting. The children alone enjoy processions and demonstrations in these ■ days in ' Russia., Everybody else is tired of them. Dowd 'by the river the wall of a church that had been closed was being used as a screen for an anti-religion film, which >vas being shown in the open air. There ,\ycre about a hundred spectators.

I walked along the embankment under the grim walls of the Kremlin. The gates are as well guarded, now that the new regime lives in its palaces, as in the days of the Tsars. Nobody goes in without a pass and propaganda has complete control of the nciws of what goes on inside. The public only knows that those who Kit in the places of the Tsars are perfect, who have a perfect plan for the reconstruction of Russia. If anything goes jwrong it is the fault' of some underling jwho has been entrusted with the carrying out of a perfect plan, and the propaganda pays of him that he has betrayed the State. An American engineer who had taken tractors to the forests near the "White Sea told me that he had seen many Russian engineers there who had failed to find some plan for the industrialisation perfect. Some had arrived in their summer clothing. He had seen some fall exhausted in the snow. But how to be ruthless may jwell be a lesson learned from the old Regime. /' "Persecution Mania."

There is a disease prevalent in Russia iXvhich ,is called "persecution mania." This also may be as a result of the relentless propaganda. Most people in Russia are afraid, but few of them know where the danger to them lies. People who spoke to me looked about to see who was within earshot. Most of them consider it a danger to be seen in the company of foreigners. To me their actions seemed theatrical. But perhaps they know the .ways of their country better than I. The whole of Moscow strikes me as not nntheatrical—the secret police, the sudden entry/upon the scene of house committees',' the banishment of people from offices. The difference is that in Russia the villain does not come to life to take the final curtain.

Before Moscow can seriously cater for tourists, more hotels must bo built. There are no vacancies here at the Grand Hotel. Almost every room is taken by an engineer, or the representative of some foreign engineering firm. They are the men Who, under the Soviet Government, are reconstructing Russia under the Five [Tear Plan.

Engineers From Abroad. Thpre are engineers from almost every important country in the world, but the majority of them are German, Austrian, Italian, or from the United States. The number of English engineers is relatively email. They are treated very well, because everything in the future of Russia seems to depend on these several thousand specialists from abroad. . The newest houses in Moscow have been ' specially constructed for the engineers. The first dwellings on the sites of the great new factories are theirs. They are highly paid, and are permitted to serld at least half their salaries out of the country, without these being affected ,Ly the exchange. They have laid the foundations of a factory which is to produce 140,000 motortars a year. In the Ural Mountains they have begun to erect an iron and steel plant that will be ready in three years to produce 16,000,000 tons of steel a year, .which is more than the annual output of the whole of Germany. Artificial silk factories and cotton spinning plants are being erected on a scale never before contemplated.

Great Natural Resources. It is as :if for the first tinio Russia realised what raw materials she has waiting to be exploited. She has oil and coal, iron and forests, wheat belts and water power. All tho propaganda for tho I'ivo Year Plan is designed to make tho nation excited at the prospect of the .wealth that is about to be exploited. In all the other great countries there is over-production in almost every commodity, and Russia is hungry. It should be/exciting to the people to know that this hunger is soon to come to an end. But I did not find tho people excited in that ,way. It must be surely that they cannot realise what is happening, or perhaps it is they do not believe it. Their propaganda has led them astray before. (To be continued.)