INVINCIBLE RUSSIA.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 938, 12 February 1917, Page 6

INVINCIBLE RUSSIA.

HER ECONOMIC MIGHT.

THE ALL-ABSORBING SLAV. A year ago to-day, writes a correspondent in a recent exchange, Russia was in the midst of an economic crisis of portentous possibilities. ' Millions of destitute refugees from | Poland and Lithuania heavily taxed \ the resources of the nation. A vast army in retreat was getting ready to go info winter quarters, with its food and ammunition supply in a state of chaos and demoralisation. The country's transportation lines were in indescribable disorder; the Government was on the verge of collapse. To-day Russia is in some respects one of the strongest members of the Entente Alliance. It is, at least, now universally recognised that Russia is herself invincible. The latent capacities of the Slavic Empire have been revealed in the past year as neve] - before. The economic might of Russia has shown itself to be as colossal as it is primeval, and it is in this economic domain that the secret of Russia's military and economic si length during this war—which has so greatly puzzled the rest of the world—is to be found. An enormous disaster is to Russia a direct cause of renewed vitality. It would not be overstating the case to describe as such a disaster the Hood of refugees that resulted from the staggering blow delivered to Russia in 1915 by the Teutonic Powers—a tide of 13,000,000 human beings, coming from Courland, Poland, Lithuania, and Polyessie, and speaking a dozen various tongues, home-; less, moneyless, half-naked, and halfstarved. Yet this disaster, from a purely economic point of view, has been of inestimable benefit to lhe| welfare of the nation.

A Vast Economic Change. In order to appreciate this strange phenomenon, one should bear in mind Russia's economic geography. Industrially and commercially there were two distinct parts of Russia before the war. One was the undeveloped, backward part; the other, the developed and progressive section. The former comprised the vast majority of Russia's area, the boundless country east of the Dnieper. The latter embraced the Baltic and Polish provinces, Lithuania, and Volhynia. This section, bordering upon Western Europe, inhabited by the industrious Germans, Poles, Letts, and Jews, was the most advanced part of the empire. Within its limits the Pale of Settlement for the Jews existed. Li ban, Riga, Vilna, Warsaw, Lodz, Kieif, Odessa are some of the great commercial and industrial centres that were built up by the races inhabiting the now invaded section of Russia. But the Teutonic invasion has set these enterprising elements of the population moving eastward, to the sections rich in agricultural and latent industrial resources. The merchants, manufacturers, bankers, brokers, engineers, agents, salesmen, skilful artisans, who have constituted the very foundation and soil on which western Russia prospered, were compelled by the enemy to go to the banks of the Volga and Ural, where labour is cheap, material abundant, but initiative and energy lacking for the industrial development of the country. v Of the lastnamed elements the newcomers had plenty. Experienced, more intelligent and shrewder than the native population, tired by the ambition of rebuilding their ruined fortunesin a new and stimulating environment, the millions' of refugees that spread over Russia last year are proving a veritable godsend to the backward parts of the country. Already their accomplishments have been noteworthy. They are considered here as the dynamo that was destined to set in motion the slumbering economic forces of a giant empire. According to records kept by the All Russian Zemstvo Union, 2,147,000 war refugees, representing only those that have been traced by the various social organisations, have settled in the interior of Russia for good. Thus, for instance, there were 101,371 such permanent settlers in the province of Kharkov. They were all emigrants from the invaded territory. More than 18,000 of them were Poles. More than (iOOO were Letts. There were about 8000 Jews, who by force of circumstances were allowed to come to a province that was outside the pale. Thus has blessing come from disaster to Hussia. A large body of live and energetic people were unwittingly put to work in the economically sluggish parts of the country. Commerce and industry are already beginning to appear where two years ago there was stagnation and idleness. The economic development of Russia has been made considerably easier and nearer by the Teuton blow in Poland. The Russian Raih\avs.

Another step in the same direclion was made in the* course of the p:tsl year by the Minister of Communications. When he was appointed Minister toward the end of 1915, he announced as the chief item on his programme tiie building of a new and extensive railroad and canal system. Trepoif believes in private railroad construction, and repeatedly encouraged investors to build railways ia Russia. No one expected the' new Minister in these, critical days for Ihe world, In plunge Russia into a vast enterprise. But in an unusual manner for Russia the new Minister did it, and without delay. lie elaborated early in the year a railroad programme which called for the construction of about 30,000 miles of railway, and for the improvement and building of hundreds of thousands of miles of waterways. Russia undertook the realisation of this stupendous task immediately. Plans were laid and work was begun on Ihe construction of several important lines some months ago. These new lines, reaching out from the heart of European Russia to the White, Bailie, and Black Seas, are to tap the hidden resources of Russia. They are being laid in the rich timber, coal and iron sections of the country. In Siberia new lines, con-

nccting the Trans-Siberian railroad with the Arctic Ocean and the southern steppes, are provided for. To finance this undertaking, rarely paralleled in its_ vastness, Russia had to resort to special railway loans. The initial loan, issued last September, was perhaps the most remarkable financial surprise in Russian annals. The loan called for only 350,000.000 roubles, or, say, .5175.000000. Its size is the best proof of the facjt that even the Government heads responsible for its appearance were not too sanguine about its success. Well, that loan was more than four times over-subscribed.

Is Russia Prosperous? This is significant of the abundance of money in Russia, and of the faith the nation has in its economic future. Nineteen hundred and sixteen was characterised by one of the most extensive economic discussions in Russian journalism. Not a paper or magazine of note failed to contribute something to the question debated. "Is the War Making Russia Prosperous?" was the general heading under which many valuable contributions were made. It was in the "Busskovc Slovo" of Moscow that Prince Eugene Troubelzkoy came out early in the year with a startling article in which he showed that the Russian village, the backbone of Russia's economic power, was enjoying unprecedented prosperity. Many were the financial and economic writers who took up this amazing discovery for analysis. Their conclusions were almost always alike. There is a super-abundance of money in rural Russia. Whence did it come? First of all, it is the result of the ban oft alcohol. The Russian peasant has no vodka on which to spend his swings. His earnings, due to the fact that the mobilisations took millions out from the labour market, rose considerably. The average agricultural labourer's pay at present is two and a-half times as large as before the war. The Government's allowance to the wives and children of the soldiers is another big factor in the situation. The mobilisation of the industrial resources of the country for the successful prosecution of the war resulted in employing large numbers of peasant women and in the erection of new establishments. All this meant money to Hie peasantry. But, in addition to this, there was the constant rise of the price of bread. The Russian peasant was receiving two-third times as much for his agricultural products as two years ago. And he has no opportunity to spend his large receipts. The savings banks of the country, therefore, assumed an important position as the mirror of the prosperity of the village. The rise in the deposits of the country's savings banks since the beginning of the war exceeds three billion roubles to-day. Six hundred million roubles were added this yeai to the deposits of these banks in one single month.