The daily worker., 1932-11-05

in order that the spring food waters
might be held, and the dam be ir
readiness to supply water to the tur-
bines, that sluices be fixed between
the piers. The Americans warned the
Soviet engineers that this was an i'm
possible undertaking. And again the
Soviet workers and engineers put all
their force to the task, and achieved
the impossible. Many heroes of labor
arose in this struggle. Such one Is
Kozub, a great ex-peasant, of whom
his comrades speak with a mixture of
amusement and enthusiasm for his
terrific featS.
Kozub came to DnieproStroi as an
unskilled laborer, at the very begin
ming of its construction. He had beer
/ working as a sailor on one of the
ships which ply on the Dnieper. On
the construction of the dam, he was
employed as crane banksman
Under the tuition of the American
specialists, he learned quickly, and
became saskatchewan for a sec
ton of the dam. When the difficult
task of lowering the temporary
sluice-gates into position came to be
tackled, Kozub was given the job. He
invented a method of driving the
sluiceS down by. using a crane as a
sort of huge pile -driver, which ham
nered the structure into position, by
dropping a great mass of concrete
upon it. Perched perilously on the
edge of the sluice, Kozub would sig
nal directions to the crane driver.
More than once he was hurled twenty
feet or more into the icy water. But
Kozub only laughed at these mishapS.
His first sluice took eight or nine
days to fix. But he worked at his
task, improving his methods, some
times staying on the job for two days
at a time, until the fixing of a sluice
took only eight hours.
co KOzUB carried out his task for
y socialist construction. A few
months ago, he joined the Commu-
mist Party, declaring that he recog-
nized the leadership of the Party in
the carrying out of the mighty work
which has inspired his life with en-
thusiasm. OF such stuff are the
shock -brigaders of socialism made;
this is what socialist construction
makes out of "illiterate peasants =.
with no technical skilI' OF whom Mr..
H. G. Wells speaks in disdain.
When spring, 1882, came, the dam
was so far completed that the flood
waters Of the Dniepr found them
selves unable to make their usual
wild dash through the rapids at
Kitchkas, the site Of Dnieprostroi.
Water and ice-fioes were piled up
behind the great wall Of concrete,
until the level of the river above the
dam had risen scores Of feet. The
Landscape above, the dam was
changed. A great lake appeared
where formerly there had been a
valley in the Steppe. When the ice
broke, some young engineers set off
in motor launch to explore the lake
which they had created. They came
to a far-away village. What have
you done?" the old peasants asked
them. when the ice broke, the
Dniepr used to roar. Now he only
whispers"
But, down at the dam, the Dniepr
was far from whispering. The great
river was making one final effort to
break down the barrier which checked
! its ancient rush to the sea, and har-
messed its forces in the service Of So
cialist construction. The dam held the
innumerable tons of ice and water,
but, at one end, where the power
station stands, the fight with the
flood was going through its last
stages. The great tubes under the
turbine house had been completed to
take the flow of water which was to
drive the generators. The giant
rotorS had been installed, and above
them, two generators were already
complete and connected up for their
preliminary tests.
IT is COMPLETED
So the shock -brigaders fulfilled
their pledge, and the first current
was generated at Dnieprostroi on
May /, 1882. These are no longer
what the sceptical Mr.. H. g. Wells
called sketches and beginnings" The
/ NlSlOtl OI lIlG OTGdIIl6I Ill UIl6 fAIeIIl-
lin," that which Mr.. Wells called "the
Utopia of the electricians" is reality
on the banks of the Dniepr in the
land of socialist construction.
SOCIALISM
ACCOMPLISHED IT.
Socialism can do these things, even
If it has to begin with half-h -hterate
peasants as workers. True, SIS per
cent of the builders of Dnieprostroi
were peasants by origin and 20 per
cent of them came straight from the
villages. But Dnieprostroi has trained
twenty thousand skilled construction
al workers. 1t has trained scores Of
engineers from the working class.
These Soviet engineers have devel-
oped a new technique. They have
done things which the Americans set
down as impossible" Now, with all
their experience and skill won by
struggle with the Dniepr, they are
going on to harness the Volga.
The electric sun rises over the
Soviet Union, from Europe to the
Far East, as the sun of socialism
rises. 1t cannot rise over the rest
of the world until the fogs of CAPT