The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-04-23
FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS OF
RUSSIA'S ECONOMIC LIFE.
Speech of Krzyzanowsk before the Eighth AlRussian
Congress of Soviets held in Moscow in December 1920

! anthracite mining, it will be neces'
sary, not to reestablish a former IN
dustry, but to create new one. Ever
if, at the beginning, we should con-
tinue to work the Donets Basin on
the old lines, we would come up
against another difficulty of trans
port. To carry coal such long dis
tances as to the Moscow and Petro-
grad centres of industry, is a mat
ter of great difficulty. 1t is, there
fore, necessary that the industrial
centres utilize the local sources OF
fuel. Our reserves of peat are ire
mendous. The deposits of peat in
crease every year to an extent repre-
senting five billion poods per an
mum. This is exclusive of our peat
marshes in the North. Peat cannot
be carried long distances. Local elec-
tric stations could be built where the
peat would be turned into electric
energy and transmitted along a ra-
dius of two hundred versts, Il 'verst
66 miles) and with improved methods
even four hundred versts, wherever
it may be required.
The Great Problem.
Apart from peat, wood waste etc..
could be turned into electrical ener-
gy. The fears that the utilization Of
wood fuel may be harmful for our
forest economy are groundless. Our
forest reserves are colossal. We do
not utilize even a small portion of
our annual growth of timber.
Our other difficult from. is that
of the food supply, which equally re-
ouires exceptional measures. Russia
produces about four billion pools Of
corn, the greater part Of which is
grown on our periphery, such as
Ukraine. Northern Caucasus, Middle
Volga. and Siberia. Very little corn
is produced in our industrial centers,
and food has to be carried across
long distances, which greatly taxes
our transport. The non-productlon OF
cereals in Central and North Russia
is due to causes which may be over
come. Our reserves of arabic land
are enormous. Out of two billion
dessiatins Il dessiatin-2.7 acres) OF
land, we have up to now utilized not
more than one hundred and three
million; this is because Of the imita-
tions of peasant labor, which could
not physically handle such .tremen-
dous areas. -.
The treatment of the land witt
tractors and electrical ploughs be-
comes an urgent matter.
The disposition of our main sour
ces of supply of fuel and food creates
a situation where the crisis in tht
transport involves a fuel and fooI
crisis.
It is evident that, for the present
we shall be obliged to fall back, II
the Center and in the North, chiefl!
upon Donets coal and Southern ant
Southeastern grain. We are, there
fore. faced with the problem of i'm
proving our transport and bringmt
it into a state of efficiency, so tina
it may be able to cope with the dit
ficult tasks before it.
The waterways Of Russia may b
divided into two parts. In the East
there is the Volga and in the West
the Dnieper. Our network Of rail
WAYS, although considerable, is never
theless weak, and we are lace
with the enormous problem OF ex
tending this network still furthe
/ and also of improving the carryinl
capacity of the railways. The radi
cal solution of the problem, as prac
ticed abroad is the construction o
special trunk lines for purposes o
freight only. In view of our presen
conditions, such a course is imprac
ticable and the most economics
method wold be to adapt some o
| our railways for such trunk lines b
| means Of electrification. Such
course, which would not involve an
large work of reconstruction OF tn