SOVIET RUSSIA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17174, 26 October 1926, Page 4

SOVIET RUSSIA

DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS WAGES £3 A MONTH SYDNEY, Oct. 12. Remarkable stories of conditions in modern Russia were told by a Russian and bis wife who reached Sydney by the Tango Marti yesterday. They had lived in New Zealand for fifteen years, and in 1923 decided to take a trip to their native land. They reached Moscow without trouble, but found when they came to return that they could not get passports, because they were not Communists, and because they refused to join any branch of the Communist organisations. For nearly a year they petitioned in vain for passports. They were 'doscly watched, but in May last managed to get across the border to Manchuria.

“We walked for three days and three nights across mountainous country,” said the man. “My wife was with me all the time. We had to camp as best we could, and carry what we could in the way of goods and baggage, but got past the guards.” His wife, a frail-looking little woman, declared that she was no worse for the ordeal. Things were so bad in Russia, she said, that she was glad to get out, and that made the terrible hardships of tile three bleak, hungry days and nights worth while.

‘I was afraid of the guards,” she said. “They are posted at every part of the fiontier, and have instructions to shoot at sight. All travellers are expected to present their passports at certain points. We did not have a Communist passport. I had many anxious waits whilst my husband went ahead on the look-out for guards.”

(T' R RISNC r R ESTO'R ED. The man, who in New Zealand was a bush worker, and farmer, declared that eonditiofis in Russia from a working man’s point of view were deplorable. There was no freedom, and one form of tyranny had been exchanged for another. The Communist International at Moscow was largely composed of men who had been imprisoned in Siberia in the old days. There was a sort of freemasonry among these men, with the result that unless a man had formerly been in gaol, lie was unlikely to find favor with the Central Government. There was considerable unemployment in all parts, and the Soviet Government did practically nothing for the unemployed. There was no national scheme for their sustenance, and many were in a deplorable condition. The country was too poor to permit of any such schemes being put into operation. Jobs went by the favor of the Communists, who controlled the unions, which, in turn, controlled the factories. Wages averaged: about £3 per month. Food prices were! about twice what they were before the: war, and consequently the standard of living was very low. The currency, however, declared the Russian, had been stabilised. Early this year, the Government had succeeded by a new issue of notes in getting something like a decent system of exchange, and it was now possible to do business without. carrying a roll of notes like a .swag. The, only section of the people which seemed to be working out ils salvation was the peasantry. The people of the farms bad, in many eases, remained on their holdings. The only difference to them was that where they formerly paid a. rental to the revenues of the Duke or Arch-duke who ruled them, they now paid a heavier tax to the Commissar, wlk> represented the Central Government in Moscow.

QUEER MARRIAGE LAWS. “The marriage laws of the country, ’’ be laughed, “were a. source of great, amusement to my wily mid me. It'

explained that the procedure now was for a man and a woman to go to a magistrate, a. Commissar, or a registrar, and explain that they wanted to be married. They produced their birth certificates, no witnesses were required. Their names were entered in a register and that wu« the ceremony. The cost was 3/*. If after a couple of months the couple tired of each other the ceremony could be, annulled on merely verbal application to the Commissar, and payment of another 3/-. If one of the parties decided that he or she could not live with the other, verbal application was again made by tho aggrieved party to the Commissar, with, of course, another 3/-. If at the end of a month the applicant -were still of opinion that lie or she had a grievance, tho marriage was automatically annulled. The father, however, was obliged to pay for the upkeep of the child of tlie marriage. This was collected by the State, a,-, an automatic part of the taxation. The State also saw to the upkeep of the children. Religions education in Russia had practically vanished, coving to the Communist ban on religion.