The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-04-02
Bv L. KONONENKO.
Am No Longer An Old Woman"


.MY features may be old But don't look at
lu them My heart is young / am no
longer an old woman. l am Young Commu-
MIST"
With truly youthful heat the old peasant
woman, Alexandra Versunina, uus exclaimed
in greeting the Putilov workers who had
come to the Kriush collective farm.
An entertainment was held in the church to
bind together the peasant communards of
Kriush and the workers of the Red Putilov
factory Behind Versunina and over the
transept there were stretched simple placards
on red cloth:
Through the big collective farm to So
cOlism."
"The rich need god to enslave the
workers."
The first thing which visitor to Kriush
sees is crimson flag on the dome of the
church and, next to it, radio antenna.
The Pulse of Life&Beats Strongly.
Two years ago, there was no poorer vii
lage than Kriush in the Balashovsk district.
Sixty per cent of the inhabitants were poor
farmers or farm hands. Poverty, ignorance,
dirt. In September, 1928, the first change
took place in Kriush. Half of the farms or
ganized company for working the land in
common This was the first harbinger of
vember, 1929, all the 302 poor and mi Idle
farms of the villages formed an artel. And
by December 81, 1929, Kriush accepted the
rules of a commune.
Every day the collective farm grows strong
er, and its material situation improves
Here are some figures. They speak for them
selves. The harvest in 1929 outside the
collective farm rye 5000 centners; wheat,
76S ceutners oats, $50 centners. But in 1928
1929 in the collective farm it was: rye, 1902
centners wheat 5,575 centners; oats, 1926
centners. What a difference for one year!
And the saleable surplus increased by five
times in a year.
The pulse of life beats strongly. he people
of Kriush are building a good big school.
They are completing the construction of
cattle yard, they are building brick factory.
In spring they will build two large houses as
common living quarters. They have already
thought over the plans of new socialist vii
lage. They have built grain dryer They have
acquired fifty hives of bees. They have put
down an orchard covering rs hectares.
There is a tractor column at Krush for
three villages. 1t has 70 tractors, "a tractor
ploughs, $40 harrows, rs drills.
The young people study in tractor courses.
chldren's creche was organized in the
for thirty young comrades. There is public
bake house, and in the fields, during work time
there is common board.
The commune is growing, Strengthening,
ripening like good apple. And there is. more
to follow Only year and half have passed
since the birth of the collective farm. 1t has
scarcely had time to get on its feet and make
its first few steps.
And what will it be when the people of
Kriush are able to manage their collective
farm according to all the principles of agri-
cultural science, when they exert their creative
forces to the full when they organize labor
and life as they ought to be organized, when
they acquire the necessary knowledge.
Learning to Read.
In Kriush there used to be 70 per cent of
illiterates. A terrible figure. 1t is only re-
Gently that the people of Kriush have been
able to learn to read. In the collective farm
there are five points where adults are instruct
ed, and $50 people are learning to read Half
of them are women. They study by shifts,
willingly and stubbornly.
Nina, the Pioneer, little fair-haired girl,
relates the following about her fifty year old
mother who is learning to read and write.
well, how is she getting on?"