Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-12-27
SOVIET RUSSIA HAS
YEAR Of BATTLING

5 MOSCOW, Nov. 24.-(By the Asso-
ciated Press.)-Nineteen hundred
and twenty-one has been a year of
diplomatic and economic battling for
Soviet Russia. 1t brought the aban-
donment of the government monop-
oily of domestic trading and gradual
reversion to capitalistic methods.
tempered in such a way as prevent
dangerous splits in the small COM
munistic group which dominates the
government. But the trade for 1921
has been many times what it was
in 1920, and the re-openihg of shops
on the old capitalistic basis has Of
forded an opportunity to sell in a le-
gal way manufactured articles which
are in great demand.
Hampered by the triple desire to
establish trade relations with impor
tant foreign powers, to protect the
Third International, whose head
quarters are in Russia and to hold
the communistic party in Russia in
tact, Lenine and his associates were
| in a precarious situation even before
| the drought produced widespread
! famine in the Volga area.
Krassin managed to negotiate
trade agreements with England, Ger
many and several minor powers,
| but the foreign trade commissions
which came to Russia failed to find
| the large supplies which Bolshevist
| leaders had heralded throughout the
| world. The concession plan which
krassipe and his associates had de-
vised did not appeal to foreign in
Vestors. Confidence was lacking. Old
| owners had no desire to invest more
money in factories which had been
taken away from them and other
foreigners could not be induced to
take factories whose title was
clouded.
| The Bolshevist government lacked
the gold necessary 10 buy abroad
and! could not find creditors. The
| government announced it would
make import and export business,
/ possible for individuals and corpora
tons, under government control.
This belated statement came in Oc-
! tober. Commissions are working out
customs tariffs and 1922 probably
will see far larger export and
import trade if the government
makes good it's promise to release
| it's grip on foreign business.
! Leslie Urquhart, a British mining
man, who attempted to obtain con-
| cessions to work the mining proper
! ties which he controlled lin Russia
before the Bolshevist regime, said it
would be impossible for him to oper-
ate in Russia until the government
stops the activities of the Cheka,
| Or secret service, which he insists
is stronger than the central govern
| ment with which concessions are
negotiated.
/ The Cheka always has had an i'm
| pCrtant part in directing foreign
| trade arrangements. Many commits
| sioners selected by the Foreign Trade
| Council have not been permitted to
! leave Russia. Foreigners are una
| Bile to understand the relations be-
| tween the Cheka, which operates un-
| der Umslicht, and the so-called CEN
trail government. 1t is not clear
whether there is dual government
or whether the men who are gener-
ally recognized as heads of the gov
. eminent use the Cheka and thus
avoid direct blame for acts which
meet with public disapproval.
| Official figures for the foreign
trade Of Russia during the first nine
months Of this year show that the
exports totalled roughly 100000 tons.
These exports were chiefly raw ma
| terials or partly manufactured arti-
cles, such as timber, railway ties,
leather, fur, tar, bristles, hair, ashes
tos and graphite. Thirty-three per
cent of the exports went to England.
Forty-siX per cent, chiefly wood and
flax, went to Latvia for expectation
to various countries. The value of
goods exported abroad from January
/ until August 81, was about $1,140.-
mn