HARD WINTER FOR SOVIET

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17918, 24 October 1932, Page 11

HARD WINTER FOR SOVIET

GRAIN RIOTS IN FIELD PASSIVE RESISTANCE BY PEASANTRY MOSCOW, Sept. 19. Passive resistance against Communist policies bv the great mass of Soviet peasantry has threatened this country with one of the hardest winters since the famine period. Despite decrees intended to placate them, the Soviet farmers whether in collectives or as private owners, continue to checkmate the Kremlin’s desperate moves to obtain enough food for its fast-expanding industrial population and for- its' exports. Several misfortunes not discounted by the Five-Year Plan have operated to deepen peasant discontent and deplete Russia’s resources of food and goods. First, the world economic crisis and the, fall of prices forced Moscow to export -far more of its goods than it had planned, practically wiping out the margin for home consumption. FARMERS SULLEN Second, serious droughts in crucial agricultural areas in 1931 reduced the available food and-made it necessary for the Government , reluctantly bur, firmly to use strong methods to extract products from the ’peasants. The sullen farmers, having been promised a cessation of such methods, became more sullen yet. Third) the acute war danger which developed in the Far East last winter necessitated a concentration of men, materials and food in Eastern Siberia which intensified the economic strain. Industrial forces which might have been used, to produce , goods for consumption were diverted to the manufacture of war supplies. The full pressure of these developments is being -felt more sharply at this time, with the outlook for improvement after the new harvest not too bright. Partly because of objective conditions, such as the lack of seed and even more so because of low morale, the sowings and the harvest this year have fallen far short of expectations. REFRAIN FROM WORK A. foreign diplomat just returned from an extensive trip through Ukraine and White Russia summed up the situation with the statement that the Soviet regime is confronted with "a hundred any twenty million sabotagers. The phrase is obviously an exaggeration, but contains more than a grain of truth. Perhaps it would he closer to the facts to saythat tens of millions of peasants are engaged, consciously or unconsciously, in a campaign of non-co-operation.