Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-11-13
SOVIET PLANS
To OPEN vOLGA
DURING SPRING
River Service Has Been
Slowly Disorganized;
Was F reight Highway.
Government Will Try
to Restore Traffic on
Famous Waterway.

Suizran. on the Volga, Nov. 70
(By the Associated Press. THE res
toration of the shipping of the Volga
the greatest commercial highway OF
Russia, is one of the tasks for the
spring confronting the soviet govern
ment, together with that Of providing
seed grain and food until midsummer
for the entire population of the regions
bordering the river.
This task is linked to and is as i'm
portant as the restoration of overseas
shipping in the Baltic and Black seas,
the saving of the Baku oil fields, the
Caspian fisheries Of sturgeon and ca
war, or the speeding up of the railway
systems.
Important River
Little Mother Volga. 2,305 miles
long the largest river of Europe, nav
igable almost from the very gates of
Moscow, down to the Caspian sea,
means more to Russia than the Mis-
sissippi to the United States, because
of the fewer railways in Russia.
The Volga shipping was the best and
most highly organized artery of com
merce of the old empire. Up and down
its ways were floated grain. fish. pc
troleum, salt and timber. More than
the railways, it was freight and pas
senger highway. More than 1000 oil
burning steamers piled up and down its
channels.
Magnificent 25-knot passenger
steamers went from Niznl-Novgorod to
Astlakhan, and there passengers and
freight were transshipped to the Cas-
plan, and thence to Baku, the business
center of the Caucasus and Persia, or
to Krasnovodsk, the landing port for
Turkestan 1t was Il world of inland
commerce Of Great Russia quite un-
known to western Europe.
Frozen Part of Year
Now the big famine has called at
tention to the Volga. Frozen from
November to April, she will then again
assert herself, unless another drought
cripples her slow moving waters. Like
the Missouri, but more particularly the
Mississippi, the Volga has her moods.
she changes her channels. and carries
big quantities of black and brown earth
which she deposits here and there, to
the dismay of the pilots. In prewar
days dredging machines kept her chan
nels open, but since the general war
and during the revolutions, these
dredgers haven't been so busy.
Another factor has been the gradual
disorganization of the steamer serv-
ices, with unrepaired engines and in
competent or dissatisfied crews. Under
the soviet control, no fares were paid !
until September last, and neither cap 4
ia nor crew have for many months re-
ceived either pay or fo2d. And so it |
has gone, until from Coco and odd |
steamers daily on the river, there are
but an odd hundred In Astrakhan, the |
correspondent waited three days to get |.
q berth. Thousands of refugees |
perish from hunger while waiting for |
boats.
Restore Charges
One step toward improving the serv-
ice has been the recent re-establish-
ment of fares SO profits may be
earned.
The communist commissary aboard
the vessels, ostensibly to control the
captain, appears to devote most of his
time to private trade and doesn't n
terfere seriously IN the running of the
vessel.
When the steamers are turned back
to their original company owners, as
is possible, it is expected that Volga
traffic may get in the way of function
Ing again. D..