The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-12
Especial DAILY WORKER
Correspondence
By WILLIAM F. KRUSE.

ny W 1LA@A%A-'A i n II I tDAAs
IN this Gland of million lakes" every
one of the thousands of streams is
a potential power-house, mine Of
white coal" There are now less
than a dozen centers to be dignified
by the name of cities, the largest Of
them, Petrosavodsk, with population
of less than $4,000. The next in line,
Kemj, has less than 10000, the rest
range between one and five thousand.
But practically all of the towns are
lighted by electricity and much of the
power to drive their machinery is also
devolved from white COAL" from
hydro-electric power. The stations
are for the most part very small, how
ever, a few hundred horsepower, so
that even Petrosavodsk now draws its
power and light from three tiny sta
tions along the little river running
through the town.
The future will have a different
story to tell--so we are confidently
assured by the comrades heading the
! Council of Peoples Commis5ars and
the Council for National .sEconomy
Comrade Guhling, who heads the
former, and Comrade Alderman who
is deputy chief of the latter, are both
trained civil engineers-and both
Communists of long standing. Their
pride and joy right now is conferred
on the first of the big power and in
naturalization projects now nearing
completion at Kondopora, about 40
miles from the capital.
THIS work is called "Kondostroi."
1t is not in the class of "Volkhovs-
troi" now already in full operation
near Leningrad, nor Of "Dniepers-
troi" just beginning in the Ukraine
but for the Karelian field it is
relatively just as big and important
as these its big brothers in the gen
eral electrification plan Of the Soviet
Union. The work, to be finished early
next year, will deliver an initial out
put of 5000 h. p, which will be used
chiefly on the spot by the paper mill
now being built simultaneously. This
will have an initial production of l Z
million pools of print paper annually.
In the case of both power house and
factory, three walls are of permanent
concrete and glass, while the fourth
is temporary wall of brick which
will be knocked out when the first
installation has paid the way for the
building of the second. This will raise
the production of power to $4,000 h.
p. and the production Of paper pro-
portionately.
The work presents interesting en-
gineering problems, reversing as it
will the direction of the discharge
from three big lakes.
A mile of old channel between Lake
Sandal and its smaller neighbor Lake
Mig has been enlarged and made
permanent, and four versts of rock
faced canal have been cut to divert
the water into one of the many big
bays of Lake Omega, on the shores
of which the Kondorpora paper mills
and power house are being built The
big Omega is % meters lower than
Lake Mig and this drop, taken via
the canal through the turbines of the
power houses at the outlet, will gem
crate 5000 h. p. This will be ample
for all needs of the first battery of
pulp mills.
But some II versts away from
Lake Sandal lies Lake Syn, still
higher and with still greater volume
OF water. By cutting a canal to con-
meet the two big lakes and damming
up the Syn River which now serves
as the outlet of Lake Syn, they will
get new source of $4,000 to 10000
h. p.
THE latest methods of reinforced
concrete construction are being
employed in this work, depending on
the season. Between 1900 and 1000
men are working day and night, and
all branches of the big undertaking
are going forward in unison. One
section of this great army is build
ing the power houses, another is dis
tributing mixed concrete via the
towering overhead system to the
waiting forms of the paper mills,
sluice gates and new concrete rail
road at the lake head, still another
is facing the sides of che forty foot
deep canal with rub5le stone and
shooting liquid cement between the
stones with compressed air guns. And
finally the semi-circular track is
already being laid for the big steam
shovel which will eat away the tenn
porary earth dam now holding back
the lake, retreating along it's track
back toward the new shore line as it