The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-10-17

lay clothes. Here is the Arno Plant
automobile manufacturer. In 1921,
when I first visited it, it was standing
still, now it has grown into an enor-
nous plant; 1t is already putting out
thousands of automobiles trucks
mainly. Soviet type; while year
from now its production will reach
$4,000 trucks. Next to it is Dynamo
another huge electrical plant. en-
ploying over 10000 workers, quad
rupled in size and capacity within
the last few years, and still expand
ing. A whole new city has grown up
around this section of MoscoW-neW
plants, Workmen's homes, clubs, tech
meal Institutes. Nearby is my fami-
liar Ragas plant, now called Wat
All Union Autogenous Trust. In
1928 this was an empty lot. Today
almost a dozen acres. are covered by
handsome buildings, housing the
latest machinery, working "a hours a
day every day in the year Except
legal holidays and planning addi-
tional buildings and equipment. to
satisfy the demand. Come visit LIZ
next year." the plant director said to
me, we shall clean up all this muck
around the buildings Of them
are on the point of conpletion-and
put down lawns and flower beds!"---
We visit another Wat plant, at Ros-
tokino, at the other end of the town.
I saw it completed in 1926, a bit of
a plant then. Now it has become a
huge establishment. So it is with
other plants in Moscow = electrical
plants, (Electrozavod), metallurgical
Hammer and Sickle, rubber (ths
famous Bogair). clothing and shoe
plants, furniture plants, etc., etc.
old and brand new, huge establish
ments, employing thousands of work
men, operating two and three shifts
a day, $50 days year. The popula-
ton of Moscow is near three million
now; in 1921 it was less than two
million!
Dnicprostroy
We arrive at Alexandrovsk in the
wee hours of the morning; this is the
railway station nearest to Dniepro-
story. 1t was formerly called zapo-
rojye and was the headquarters of
the Ukrainian Cossacks; a sort of
natural fortress with the impossible
Dnieper protecting. the place; from
here the Cossacks carried on their
depredations over a wide territory,
coming back to zaporojye with their
booty. Now zaporojye-A lexandrovsk
is peaceful, sunny town, basking
in the glory of nearby Dnieprostroy.
To throw dam across the Dnieper
here at the Porogi (rapids) in the
heart of the former Cossack country,
was an old dream of Russian en-
gineers. Already under the old re-
gime surveys and investigations were
carried out, the tsarist government
considering it of military Importance
to raise the waters of the Drieper
in order to make it navigable river;
but the project never got beyond
that stage. 1t was left for the Boil
sheviks to bring the project to reali-
cation, not at all out of military con-
siderations, but in order to tap vast
amount of power for the rapidly
growing Soviet industries. Already in
1920 Krzhizhanovsky in his plans
for the identification in the Soviet
Union named Dnieprostroy as one of
the chief sources of electric power;
and Lenin heartily supported Krzhiz-
hanovsky-for to Lenin, as you will
recall, electricity plus Soviet power
equal Socialism. r. sat
Cossack Country
Work on Dnieprostroy is now near
ing completion; it, comprises dam
of magnificent proportions and
beauty, a power. station to house nine
turbogenerators OF. 10000 h. p. each,
and lock canal to permit ships to
pass above the rapids. The raising
of the river level some IS feet will
flood territory, fifty miles in extent,
and will provide. sufficient storage
capacity to permit uninterrupted
operation of the plant. With the dam
and power station as the center,
whole new industrial city is rising all
around; an aluminium plant, chem
ical and rnetallurgical plants are
projected here on a, scale unknown In
Russia, or in Europe for that matter,
to take up practically the entire
power generated; a number Of build
ings are already rising above the
foundations a year or two the
hum of machinery, the whistle OF
passing. ships and trains will. have
replaced what was short time ago
robbers nest and an impossible
barrier. Dnieprostroy was to be COM
pleted, according to original plans, in
1888, but the Fiye-Year Plan has
FASTENED construction, so that 1t will
be completed at the end of 1882; and
part of the power plant, I was told
may be in operation this yearl
was so impressed by Dnieprostroy
its sweep and magnificent dimen-
sions, by the industrial undertakings
projected in the immediate proM-
nifty, by the vast and daring scope OF
the whole layout-that I accepted
this as a symbol of the growing
might of the Soviet Union, as a mile
stone on the road to universal Com
munism. And Dnieprostroy Is but OH.