THROUGH SOVIET RUSSIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20602, 28 June 1930, Page 10

THROUGH SOVIET RUSSIA

MOSCOW TO SIBERIA 1 .

[LONG MONOTONOUS JOURNEY SCENES BY THE WAY.. LIFE/OF THE PEASANTS.

BY MAX -MCRIUY. (Copyright.) No. V.

In to-day's instalment of his articles on •conditions in Russia Mr. Murray describes the first portion of his railway journey from Moscow to Manchuria by way of Siberia. The story throws interesting sidelights on iho lot of'those who live under the rule of tlia Soviet. The sleeping cars of the transsiberian 'train are very good, but if you had never travelled a long distance by train before, • this journey from Europe across Siberia to Manchuria would bo irksome in the Jb'est train in the world. But, as I have said, the carriages are good. A director of Wagon-Lits, Ltd., told me, before I left London, that the Soviet Government owed his company £503,000 for sleeping cars. And the train bumps over tho light rails at a speed that 'does not. live up to tho appearance of tbo cars. Three days ago we left Moscow, and at the moment wo aro running a day behind time. At daylight the morning after ,we left, wo stopped and tlion came back to a little wayside station 300 miles from Moscow. The conductor told us that ,we would be there till seven o'clock that evening. There had been a smash on our line. lie did not know where or .when, but he had heard that half-a-mile pf line was torn up. I went for a walk in the forest through iho snow with a Hungarian engineer who shared my sleeping compartment. He .was on his way to tho Urals to build .waterworks in connection with the great iron and steel plant that is to supply 16,000,000 tons of steel a year. Complaint of Hard Times. The snow was a carpet under the trees, but the air was marvellously warm. Peasants had taken off their shoes and were sitting barefooted on logs in the sun. One old man, sitting in the sun with his wife and a great number of children, stopped us to say that tho present were hard times. There were no products. The pillage store was closed when we walked through the streets. When we came back to tho train the passengers were lying in the sun on a strip of turf, from which the snow had melted. Most of them wero asleep. 'There were other people who were not travelling asleep on the platform and others were asleep in the waiting-room. (There seeriied to be little else to do. Tho Hungarian engineer told me that lie had been in Russia for four years. This breakdown would causo him to miss his train to tho Ural River and he must wait two days for another. I discovered that he had brought food with him in case of accidents such as this. * When this engineer left the main line he had still two days' journey before him in a train with hard seats and no restaurant car. Ho will be joined at Sverdlovsk by two hundred American engineers, .who aro making the same journey. Three Germau women on this train aro also going there. A village is being built for them on the site of the works. Train Makes Another Start. A little while before sunset the train Started again and a little later the engineer say. three of his steam shovels — iwhich, weeks ago, he had despatched from the region of the Black Sea l —shunted off on to a side track. . In the dusk we halted at a village and the peasant women came along tne train selling milk and eggs. The passengers in the third-class live on what they can buy in this way—generally it is black bread and milk and eggs now and then. There is boiling water to be had from ,great troughs at all the stoppingplaces and with this they partially cook their eggs. The entire village' turned out to meet us. One young man, wearing high leather boots and rubber over-shoes, detached himself from-a group and solemnly played airs on a concertina. Peasant girls walked up and down the line arm in arm and sang folk songs. Each in her heavy boots and dress and shawl exactly like the other. Presently the boys and girls began to dance'together in the light of the single .wayside lamp and the dust they raised was tremendous, nor did they dance gaily, but with deadly earnestness. After we left I looked back and could still see their dust rising up under the light. All the next day the line was shut in by the forests, which seemed to go on endlessly, .without a break in the monotony. Woman Unnerved by Journey. At night one of the German women rushed iiito our cabin. During the day 1 had noticed that the journey was getting on her nerves. She said that she did not believe that her husband would be .where they were taking her and that the had prepared to kill herself. She was carrying the cord from her dressinggown. The other women came and took lier away and locked her in their compartment.' Two of them slept in the same compartment with her that night, because cue was afraid to be with her alone. At Perm we crossed tho largest arm of tho Volga. The ice was just be--, ginning to break and it lay on the water in a vast stretch of motionless grey. These rivers are the greatest asset of I Russia. The towns by the rivers are greater than the towns by the railways. The smaller houses of Perm come up to the river ready made. Lumbermen build them on/the great rafts of logs and live in them during the journey. Then they sell them in the town and build another house, for the next trip. When we passed through, the river had not yet permitted the town to wake to activity. The waiting-rooms of the station were crowded with peasants. They were lying on tho seats, or on the iloor, with their bundles beside them, or Under them. Poverty of the Peasants. ■jMliuy of tho peasants were so poorly that lying so, they resembled heaps of rags or skins. There was a cripple, /with one arm and one leg, lying where ho had fallen drunk in the cntrango. He could not get up again, but drank from a bottle of vodka and abused [those who were laughing at him. Tho air was full of tho smell of human bodies. •/■ ' At each of the stopping places people have • come to tho restaurant car to endeavour to buy cigarettes. There seem to be nono outside Moscow. The prico of • cigarettes on tho train is 50 per cent, higher than in the shops. These people seem willing to pay, but whether they are ablo to buy them or not I do not know. Since wo left Moscow we have had n State coach attached to tho rear of the traiii. I would not have expected to eco one in Russia. Some important personage of tho party is making a tour. Late this afternoon wo stopped at, a village and an old woman went selling milk to the roar coach. Th<i attendant presently, told the peasant woman that tho important traveller wanted her to como inside. * Sho shook her head nervously and began to leave, but tho attendant took her arm. ' Come on," he said, " ho won't take your milk. J3ho was ushered in clutching tho bottle. .(To bo continued.)