Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-06
Russia Races to Crisis


fusing to plant crops that would afford
q surplus for sale. The Pravda, official
organ OF the Communist party, reported
| village of1cials homes burned, agents
shot from. ambush, Soviet grain stores
fired and attacks on police. At Novo-
Sibirsk there were bloody riots, and at
PSkov, the town n which Nicholas II
signed away the vast empire of the
RomanoffS, the peasants entered the
city, stormed the local government
buildings and set them afire. The kulak
also melted many poor peasants to join
him in violence by telling them the gov
eminent planned to violate the graves
of their fathers by converting cemeteries
into grain fields.
But the kulak's campaign Of violence
was less devastating than his economic
assaults. In 1929 the peasants in the
Coubas region were scheduled to SOW
900 acres; but put In only $1,000.
And the kulak struck still another
blow at the food supply by instigating
q general killing and selling of farm
animals. Conhscatory taxes on the in
crease of privately owned live stock
made it, almost as profitable to kill and
sell the animals as to hold them for
breeding purposes.
Orgy Of Slaughter Inaugurated.
So the kulak began an orgy Of slaugh-
ter and induced the small farmer to
join in It by advising him that only
tractors would be used on the coming
communeS and that it would be wiser
to kill his draft horses and have the
personal benefit Of their hides. The
willy rich peasant also urged his poorer
neighbor to kill and eat or sell his
cows and pigs, as they would only be-
come common property after he had
Joined the commune. AS result there
ensued general slaughter of live stock
that JeopardiZed the meat supply of the
nation and threatened the efficiency of
the anticipated commune by producing
a shortage of horses. Still another
method of harassing the government,
injuring agriculture and giving the
colectivized farms weak start was the
general selling or eating of seed grain.
The reprisalS of the government we're
swift and sure whenever they could Sc
cure evidence against offending kulaks.
One day last Fall the Moscow press re-
ported 80 executions of rebellious ku-
laks and throughout the Autumn al
most every day brought news of several
convicted peasants facing firing squads.
They confiscated the land of those
kulaks who had hidden grain, burned it
or killed cattle.
The kulaks' resistance brought the
Soviets grain policy to crisis 1t was
evident that the kulaks, after the bitter
struggle Of the Autumn, would put In
only enough grain to meet their own
needs for the coming year and that the
establishment of collectivized farms
therefore had to be speeded. The gov
eminent was forced to meet the prob
lem OF the land, for continued depend
ence upon the kulak would only in
crease his power.
Half of Farms Became COmmunized.
So, spurred on by the unexpected
success Of the f1ve-year plan and
pressed by the urgency of the situation,
the decree Of the first of the year was
issued, with the result announced in
the resolutions of March IS that over
half Of Russia S farms were communized,
and the kulak no longer was a vital
factor in supplying the nations food.
The commune that is the goal of the
Soviets differs from the ortel and the
semi-communtst1c practices that existed
among the peasants of the CzariSt vii
lagos. 1t functions on pure commu-
nistic theory and in its ideal form u
on a vast scale. A model commune
now being worked out by the Moscow
Agricultural Academy is to be a new
city of 100000 persons, cultivating $780,
600 acres Of land. Ali property, land,
live stock, home and farm implements
are TO be owned in common. There
shops.
All the residents will be fed from
community Kitchens. eating in COM
munal mess halls, and baths will be
taken in communal bath houses.
the communeS already organized and
those now being brought together are
not, OF course, specially constructed
cities, but union of a score Of vii
lagos. Where a single village exists as
an ortel it forms an excellent nucleus
ior the larger unit. All the privately
heIo land and all the property of ortelS
in the district are merged. The land,
homes, pigs, live stock, horses and all
other personal property is turned over
70 the group to be owned in common.
Scheme to Avoid Politics.
A manager then is appointed-usu-
vlcisSltudes of local politics. reliable
set OF bookkeeping installed, an agri-
cultural adviser employed and the
project operated. on the basis of a mod
ern factory The farm is then worked,
in theory, with tractors and in accord
ance with scientific methods.
The immediate ability of the freshly
organized communes to supply the ma
ton with normal amount of grain
Tor the coming year is problematical,
despite optimistic predictions from the
hreml1n. The economic value of these
organizations lies In their opportunity
to utilize tractors in working at one
sweep land that once was divided into
several small farms. But the growth of
the communes has outrun the number
OF tractors available, so that two-thirds
OF the new collectivized farms must be
worked by the old methods of horses
and oxen. And even this animal power
is not up to standard, due to the ex-
tensiVe slaughtering Of live stock Since
the vigorous war on him, the kulak cam
not be counted on to supply the deficit.
The leaders have gambled the food
J supply of the country upon the prompt
success OF their plan.
With the advent of this scheme, the
Russian peasant, for generations en-
sl~ved, must abandon the brief fling
he enjoyed for IL years as an individ-
, ual and smother the centuries-old hope
to have home and a plot of ground
that is his own. He gives up his irde-
pendence, but he is compensated, so he
Is told, by greater cultural advantages
The Cars brought his freedom with
5 vodka and green-domed churches and
/. now the Communists purchase it with
} radio, a tractor and a chance to lump
rope in community gymnasium.
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