Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-12-24
LEAVES, GRASS
USED BY SLAVS
To MAKE FLOUR
Peasants Of Ludogovka In
No Mood for Celebrating
Fourth Anniversary of So
Wet Regime.
(By The Associated Press.)


LudogoyIa, Tartar Republic, Dec,
23.-The fourth anniversary of the
establishment of the soviet repub-
lie in Russia found this peasant
village of 500 people in no mood
for celebrating. Foodless and
cherries, the starving population
could have no heart for any sort
of iubilation, even if it knew what
the political maneuyers at Moscow
mean, Like most Russian peasants,
the unhappy folks of LudogoVka
have neither the learning nor the
will to study politics. Bread, wood
and warm clothing are their three
desires. They haven't enough OF
any Of these. ---.
Winter has laid its first heavy
coating of snow on the flat pral-
ries, and the peasants have started,
grim faced, on their endurance
test to see how many can survive
the six months of cold and priVa-
ton. Many Of the younger children
have been deemed so completely
underfed by the doctors in the en-
pIov of the American rleief admin
istration that they will be given
one good hot meal a day,
Typical Peasant Village.
Ludogovka is a typical peasant
village of the poorer class. 1t is
sixty miles from Kazan and many
miles from the Volga, and railway
communication. Implanted log
houses are scattered along a main
street. The houses generally nave
Two rooms. Some have three.
Frequently the animal sheds are
built against the houses for
warmth. Many or the stables are
at the back end of long vegetaple
gardens which yielded few potatoes
and cabbages this year because OIL
the drought The stables are
CHIEFLY deserted. There is no Tor
a ge, no grain for the animals WhlGh
have survived UP to this time on the
drv stubble which will soon be uA-
der several feet of snow.
Russia doesn't have blizzards
such as are known in America. IN
late October or early November the
SHOWS begin and continue gently
nearly every day until the earth IS
covered to a depth of three OF
four feet.
There Arc No Horses.
This winter will not bring us
round Of winter sports
and recreations. There are no
horses to draw the troikas ana
Jingle the bells which ordinarily |
enliven Russian highways through
the short days and long nights OF
frost.
The home Of Ivan Icanovich Pc
troff is typical of the most poverty
stricken houses visited by the cor
respondent. Petroff is a farmer,
as practically all the villagers are.
He has the use of several dissia-
tines of land, more than he was
able to cultivate because of lack of |
animals and seed. He had once |
been sturdy giant, over SIX reel
tall. But his ragged trousers snow
his legs have shrunken to mere
bones and his scraggly beard can
not conceal the emaciation and sal
lowness of his face. His wife IS
lying, i'll above a large masonry
stove. A gangling, hollow-eyeg |
boy of 16 stands listlessly ana
gapes at the strangers. A nttie
girl OF eight, who is getting the
American meals and two others
slightly older, who were not deslg--
mated for the foreign food, STAND
near their mother.
The furnishings of the room are
almost nil. 1t has the smell Oh
poverty and neglect. In good sea-
sons Russian peasant houses are
seldom clean. They are never ven
tilated, But the smell of cabbage |
soup and tea make themselves OIL
fensive in normal years.
When asked what the family had |
to eat, Petroff pointed to two
loaves of green bread which lay on
the stove and said there had been
nothing else for his family in ten
days. He threw open an adjoining
room and pointed to a pile of the
improyised flour" out of Whlch
the bread was made. 1t was moth
ing but ground up grass, leaves,
sunflower seed and other trash OF
a similar character.
Nothing To Buy.
The visitors offered him money.
He took it unwillingly and asked:
"But what shall / 7~do with it?
There is nothing to buy in TINS
village and ! can't go in search Oh
food. Neither can my family"
One of the American relief work
ers thereupon offered to buy some
flour in a village many miles away:
throughout the remote villages of
the Tartar republic and the Sama-
ra government American workers
have found the same lack OF food