RUSSIA REVISITED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20870, 9 November 1929, Page 26

RUSSIA REVISITED.

VAST PLANNING. GOVERNMENT OR PEASANTS. Written for the Otago Daily Times by Donald Grant. L What a contrast the Russia of August, 1929. provides to the Russia I saw in 1922!. In 1922 Soviet Russia was at her lowest level. Years of counter-revolution, of foreign invasions and of civil war had culminated in widespread famine and death. The calamitous state of existence at that time in the Soviet' Union beggared description. Now, seven years later, I. find, a new'Russia, full of life, hope, work, plans, joy, vigour, youth, enthusiasm, devotion. There is also struggle conflict, divergence of opinion, repression, ruthlessneas, cruelty, and fear. As over, Russia is the land of paradoses: *• The land of limitless possibilities -as well as of limitless contradictions.’’ I want to describe the Russia of August, 1919, as I saw it and experienced it. TAR AND HONEY! *’ A tpoontul of tar in a barrel of honey, responded our interpreter during an interview one day when wc had pointed out the failure of the Russians to look after certain details. They are not good at taking care of the details—not vet. That weakness is “ the fly in the ointment,” or the tar in the honey, as the Russian puts it! An example! , I went to have an interview with one of the chief officials in the “Gosplan”— the planning department of. the Soviet Union, with offices and staff equal in size to those of the League of Nations. I had the address, and. with the help of the interpreter, speedily found the place. But the Gosplan had just changed to another address. In characteristic Russian fashion, no intimation had been left behind of the new address to which they had moved. Nobody, high or low, had looked after that detail. Consequently, I lost an hour in the search for the new address. It was on this occasion that the interpreter referred to the spoonful of tar. ONE-SEVENTH OF THE GLOBE. I have mentioned the Gosplan. It is in many ways the most significant factor 111 present-day development of the boviet Union. I must now write about it. But first of all notice a few facts. the obsolete name Russia tends still to make na think of that country between the white Sea and the Black Sea between Poland and the Ural Mountains, ihat area is only a small part of the prosent Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Jhe Soviet Government rules over the ,„ L ar f. a Poland to Vladivostok, i' E . Pa . c 'fic Oe«an; from the Arctic Circle to the Himalayas. The area of this united territory is over 8,000,000 3 q 999 r nnr leS - (T !’, e United States lias ..‘jjaiysrajSfrsstfais autonomous areas. There are 182 different peoples and 149 different dialects and he g sS p S ° me ° f thc territories under the soviet Government are ro distant inaccessible that they have not yet been and Ug Secular; ! " e With the immunising Union 8 pr °B ramrae of the . k? > j Pamirs, for instance, that loftv tableland country to the north of India hr? S °f V i! ets have not yet been able to wifg ß nomad tribes there into line A fournnHs P ut P obcb t and their processes. w “°m I know was going to aimed P ?/ a *? nitl ? ry part * which imed at making the journey to the nW rB mT june o£ this year by aeroplane. The army sent out an exploring aeroplane from Turkestan. It arrived all ,n t he Pamirs. But it could not leave again because the altitude of the plateau is so high that the air is too rare for an aeroplane to take off in the limited space available. irJnn citi ? B .of the Soviet j hc v r populations, are:—Mos--W' Leningrad 1,614,000. Kiev 513,000. Baku 432,000, and Odessa 420,000. SOVIET STATISTICS. These few facta give a basis for an attempt to estimate the magnitude of the plans which seek to,determine for thc Volo ye 2, r peri ?. d October. 1927. to October, 1032, the policy and programme of the total national industry and agriculture, as well as for capital investment and the development of constructive enterprises throughout the entire Soviet Union. These plans for industry, agriculture, and for constructive enterprises are based upon the facts and figures collect ' during the period 1925-29. “But th Histics of Soviet Russia are inaccu. arc meant for propaganda,” is wlm jmc people eay, Well! One cannot prevent people saying that and even believing that. But the Soviet leaders are not to fool themselves by making detailed plana for the complete economic mC' of the union for five years upon a basis of inaccurate statistics. In an interview with one of the chief men in the Gosplan, the opinions of Friederich Pollok, the German statistical and of Bey, an American writer on social economics, . were quoted to us by Mr Weissberg, of the Gosplan, as follows: Most accurate statistics,” statistics “ the most reliable and the most correct in the whole world.” The same Gosplan expert said: ‘Our statistics are not impeccable, but if they were far wrong that would wreck our plans for guiding the nation’s economics.”' He also out that more exacting demands are made upon the Soviet’s _ statistical department than is the case in other countries. The exP anation of this is in the fact that the plans for 1930 need the 1929 statistics before the end of 102 P. The statistics in book form of the years 1921 or 1022 are valueless almost for the plans of 1029. Statistical information comes in to Moscow every day by telegraph from all parts of the Soviet Union. The corresponding figures are at once marked in upon the complete statistical chart of the union in the statistician’s office. Very recent information is in this way available, and most of the 1929 figures can be used as a basis for further planning for 1030.