RUSSIAN DREAM CITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22066, 23 September 1933, Page 12

RUSSIAN DREAM CITY

A PRETENTIOUS FAILURE LONDON, September 13. The huge iron and steel works at Magnitogorsk, lauded in as a majestic symbol of the industrialisation of Russia, appear, judging by an official report, to be a pretentious failure. The report has been made by the Commissar of Heavy Industry, M. _ Ordzhonokidze, who has ordered the dismissal of 2400 superfluous employees, reports the Moscow correspondent of the “ Manchester Guardian.” Magnitogorsk was projected as th« first of Russia’s “ Socialist cities,” avoiding the ills of capitalist cities. M. Ordzhonokidze found not one permanent house completed. Sewerage was lacking, and there were evidences of great neglect and dirt in workers’ barracks. The workers were disgracefully cheated of bread rations. He criticised a large number of parts of plant, started but which combined with inefficiency and indiscipline on the part of the workers leads to frequent destructive accidents. Only 49 per cent, of the quota of pigiron was, produced during the last six months. The whole plant was cumbered with rubbish.