Evening star., 1932-02-11

| their studies, the government still ex-
poets that by the end Of the f1ve-year
plan it will have 10000 university
trained women engineers.
Figures for the number OF women IN
the Soviet Union who are training for
regular army service are unavailable
for 1881. But in the year previous,
undergoing just such training In the
various military schools conducted py
the Osoaviachim. About 10000 Wom-
en- took up general military training.
Fifty-five thousand qualified as rife
experts and machine gunners. Forty
: thousand more specialized in quarter
masters problems and similar military
organization work Something over
10 900 women specialized in war chem
istry, while the remainder took up ar
tillery and aviation.
Exactly so women entered higner
military academies and colleges IN l93O.
In the Soviet Union are tnousan9s
of women who fought side by sloe
with men during the civil wars wnlcii nud
followed the advent OF Lenn ana
Trotsky into ofice These women vet.
Grams today form the nucleus sabout
whom the women training for active
warfare frequently group themselves,
precisely as the men undergoing sucfi
military training group themselves
about the officers; of the reserve and
the discharged Red Army soldiers.
Battalion Still Exists.
The battalion of woman soldiers or
ganized during the KerenSky regime Ior
continued participation of Russia In the
World War still has number OF mem.
bers, but these are carefully kept out OF
the ranks Of Bolshevist woman soldiers.
The women who served under the
provisional government are looked upon
as bourgeois" and unworthy the con-
fidence Of the proletariat.
The cities in the Soviet Union wnere
women's military organizations nave
achieved more than local renoWn are
Petrograd, which has famous COM
pany of woman snipers composed eX-
clusively of the workers OF single
rubber factory, and Moscow. which has
recently graduated the first corps OF
militarized woman telegraph and tele-
phone operators.
other cities which have attained dis
tinction are Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk'
whose sniping companies are among
the best-trained in the union. In Omsk
the Osoaviachim maintains q woman
college for the training Of shooting IN
structors most of the graduates OF TINS
institution being used to organize ana
train the women Of Siberia and Mon
0olia. up to the Chinese boundary.
Special attention also is given to the
women of the Soviet East, the Manom-
medan women, who are citizens OF the
Bolshevist Republic These had only
recently taken off their wells and
thrown overheard other medieval super
stitions They make excellent fighters.
Feminine Training Camps.
Camps for Summer training and
Fall maneuvers for this womap's vol,
unteer army Of 250000 are maintained
bv the Osoaviachim. jointly with the
camps for men, in the vicinity OF nos
trorna Riazan, Ufo and Novosibirsk.
The training at these camps last one
to two months. After the women have
attained proficiency in their military
training they are organized into mixed
divisions. the proportion being about 81
per cent women to 70 per cent men
soldiers.
One of the most important duties OF
the women volunteer soldiers IN the
Soviet Union is inland policing and IN
land military intelligence. In ADDITION
to millions of former land owners. Ior-
mer army and civilian officials and lor-
mer merchants who have been killed,
ey1led or QeCldSS6Q. lIlS oldllil ASSAAiS
bv its collectivization policy has in the
last three years antagonized millions OF
so-called kulaks or rich peasants. 1t IS
these peasants, burning with resentment
over confiscation of their land and the
loss of their homes, who are considered
a serious war menace by the Soviet.
The Soviet fears that if foreign enemy
once sets foot on Soviet soil these out
lawed peasants may flock to its stand
ard to revenge themselves.
The women soldiers are trained to be
always on guard against any peasant
&ho falls into the group of the mall
contents. They are required to report
to the secret service authorities every
suspicious move of such neighbor,
every unguarded utterance. They are
trained especially to keep watch over
factories and storehouses to see that
these are not tampered with or de-
stroyed by the enemy within.
The women in the border provinces
are charged with the additional duty OF
keeping up a steady vigilance over the
Soviet border, which is 10000 kilometers
long and lends itself to incursions by
foreign foes, whether Of the bandit or
the accommodating type.
(Copyright. 1882. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, 1nc)