THE TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 229, 28 September 1931, Page 10

THE TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIA

THE INDUSTRIAL PLANTS OF KHARKOFF 11,000 OFFICE WORKERS CONTROL KHARKOFF INDUSTRY By Colonel Edwin S. George. PUBLISHED IN THE DETROIT SATURDAY NIGHT. ARTICLE V. In this article the reader is introduced into the efforts being made in the Ukraine to industrialise Russia. Here the Five Year Plan is being implemented, a plan which will affect the lives of 160,000,000 people directly and will doubtless have wide repercussions throughout the countries of the world.

What was this topsy turvy land that I was in, in which all social order seemed so strange? A land wherein the waiters sat and smoked cigarettes while waiting upon you. Where you were introduced to so and so, the work-man-manager in charge, for example, of the restaurant, and who shook hands with all the other waiter-workmen when he entered. No one in particular supervising and keeping things in order but more like a crew operating without a commanding officer. The following day I carried out my programme of visiting the industrial plants. By far the largest structure in Kharkoff is the Palace of Industry, a tremendous building, or series of connecting buildings, covering at least the equal of two city blocks, and 8-10 14 stories in height. Herein are located the offices of the 11,000 workers iu control of all the industrial enterprises throughout the Ukraine, both shop and land. Additional buildings are being constructed, a large one for the offices of the planning department alone, also a hotel and large apartment buildings for the workers. A very substantial evidence of the colossal programme that Russia is undertaking. In a suburb of the city a new industrial centre is being developed, covering an area of 21 square kilometres. Here is located an extensive new tractor plant which 16,000 men have been engaged in building. The machinery is now being installed, mostly of American and German make, and the plant is supposed to be in operation by July 1. It will give employment to from 10,000 to 11,000 men making farm tractors, this in addition to those manufactured in another large plant in Stalingrad—tractors with which to mechanise their great collective farms. Quite near at hand is an agricultural implement plant employing 10,000 to 12,000 workmen, operating in three shifts per day, producing tilling and harvesting machinery. Just adjoining this plant is a factory employing 12,000 to 14,000 men engaged in the manufacturing of electric motors and other electrical equipment. A locomotive plant is also quite near and it was stated that here 15,000 men were employed. All these activities have, of course, produced a tremendous increase in thd population of Kharkoff, likewise a lack of sufficient housing facilities. It is freely admitted that in eight-room apartments, formerly occupied by one family, now four families must live. In this same new industrial district large apartment houses, one after another, are being built —four and five stories high, containing two and threeroom apartments to house the workmen. The industrialisation of Russia has resulted in many of the peasants having migrated, or having been brought to the cities to man the new manufacturing plants. The readjustment of living conditions is one of the very important problems to be dealt with. Not dealt with by individual property owners anxious to build apartments for rental as an investment, but all carried on by the state; private ownership of property is a thing of the past. The fixing of the rentals is also an interesting detail. The price for an apartment is not the same to any and all. The workman’s rental is based on his income and the rent increase is not in exact ratio to that of his salary, but the percentage of increase is much greater as the salary becomes greater. Thus you may have two workmen occupying identical apartments, and the one paying twice or more the rental of the other. As these things were explained to me, I ofteft marvelled at the mind that conceived and put into operation so intricate and extensive a plan affecting the lives of 160,000,000 people. I often wondered whether it is all accepted by the people submissively, passively or with enthusiasm as to the final result. The latter condition was often evident. Of the other, I am unable to judge, and they may well reason that it cannot be worse than in the past, but having their hopes aroused to the point of expected realisation, God help Russia if the five-year plan does not succeed. The night of the second day in Kharkoff I left for Dnieprostroy, where is being constructed one of the largest hydro-electric power plants in the world, the largest in Europe and only exceeded in America. It is about 200 miles south of Kharkoff and lies between extensive iron mines, 60 miles to the westward, and the coal mines of the Dombas, 100 miles to the east. Also IDniepropetrovsky, a city of blast furnaces and foundries, the steel heart of the Ukraine, is about 60 miles away. The course of the Dnieper River is obstructed for a distance of 40 miles by huge rocks, the turbulent current forcing its way through the boulders and over several cataracts. This enormous unharnessed horse power of the past is now to be utilised by the Soviet Government as a national asset, by the construction of a great dam—a dam nearly a half mile in length and 170 feet high. The level of the river will be raised approximately 140 feet. The power plant will contain nine penstocks each 71 metres in diameter (approximately 25 feet) and with a water head of 37 metres (122 feet) in height. Each turbine will deliver 90,000 horsepower, or a total of over 800,000 h.p., The cost of the project is the equivalent of 100,000,000 dollars. When I inquired the production cost per kilowatt hour I was informed that all costs considered, interest on original investment, upkeep, etc., it would not exceed threefourths of a kopeck per k.w. hour, or the equivalent of three-eighths of a cent in our money—incredibly cheap. A vast industrial combine is being founded in connection with this power plant, a new city being established at this great source of power. Locks of three lifts will ultimately elevate ships around the dam, for by the flooding of the river above, and the completion of

the contemplated dredging below, it will enable ships of 19-foot draft to ascend the Dnieper River from the Black Sea to this new industrial centre and for many miles beyond. One of the roost interesting days I have experienced in a long time was here at this great construction project. It is well under way, in fact is to be completed by December 1, 1931. The penstocks and turbines are now being installed by a firm from Newport News, U.S.A., and the gigantic generator by the> General Electric Co. This entire engineering feat has been planned by and is under the supervision of Col. Hugh L. Cooper, of New York, and a corps of able American assistants, also augmented by Russian engineers. Col. Cooper, to whom I had a letter of introduction, was at the time in the U.S.A. I met, however, Prof. Vadeneer, the chief Russian engineer, also Engineer Alexander, the latter accompanying me on my inspection of the project. I spent several hours in examining the power plant and dam, walking across its entire length. Engineer Alexander was most painstaking, explaining every detail and answering my many questions, all through the medium of an excellent interpreter, a young Russian associated with the engineering department, and who spoke English very well. Mr Alexander had complimented me upon my keen interest in every detail. I replied that it was just the kind of undertaking that would excite an American’s admiration and interest. I might also have added that the job of the American engineers was to. plan and supervise the construction of great engineering projects such as this great dam and power plant. That they would achieve their object, and that the desired energy would be produced, was unquestioned. However, the building up of the industries, the marketing of their products, the mastering of the economic complications involved—this was the task of the Russians. How well they will succeed with this far more intricate problem remains to be seen for the governing factors are not as accurately computed and established as stress and strain, construction and expansion, tensile and compression strength, etc. When leaving I was requested to express my impression of the project to Prof. Vadeneer. I recall well my remark, for the thought had come to me while walking on the trestle constructed over the towering pier buttresses of the dam, high above the rushing waters of the river below: “To me it represents the concentration of the potential energy of the Russian people intelligently directed; a virile people, long a sleeping giant, now awakento their latent possibilities and heritage. ’ ’ (To be continued.)