Evening star., 1933-01-15


no food"
Side by side with the problem of un-
employment In Soviet Russia stands its
paradoxical twin. "bezrabochitza." or
lack Of workers. "Bezrabochitza" is the
direct outgrowth of the huge gulf that
exists between the ideal and the actual
ity of the five-year plan. The "Gesplan, "
or Government Planning Commits
sion, had thought that 10000 techni-
clans. $4,000 mechanics and $4,000
agrarian workers would be sufficient to
carry the plan into realization. Ex-
perience showed them that more than
10000 engineers. mechanics and
agrarian workers, plus 100000 skilled
laborerS were needed. Serious short
ages in these ranks still exist, even
though drastic changes in technical
school curricula were made through the
organization of night schools and the
turning out in one or two years oi
"half-baked" young engineers with lit
tie background or general education.
Sick benefits and unemployment in
surance, almost primary tenets in any
Socia}istic philosophy, are tragic joke
in Soviet Russia. No insurance is
granted a worker unless he has beer
employed in one Office, farm or factory
AOA dS lCdoI LWO yCdIS. anu ILLS
ton alone removed 10 per cent of all
Soviet workers from the laws benef-
icence. Where the law does apply the
stipend Is small and the care given the
sick worker is appallingly indiffe ferent
In Kiey I came across the case of q
woman who. during nine years of labor
in knitting mill at 49 rubles month
had developed an almost hopeless cast
CT tuberculosis. / had to promise II
pay $50 rubles monthly and pull every
wire within my reach to get this woman
admitted to sanatorium. She wa!
awarded unemployment insurance TX
the amount of Is rubles, or one-thir1
of her salary. I visited her once. The
hall and lobby of the sanatorium were
clean and spacious How wonderful,
thought, as looked about me- "Hov
glad I am that I could find the pool
woman so lovely and clean a home!'
Then I passed through the lobby, left
behind me the clean, inspiring en-
trance to the house Of health-anc
changed my mind
Lump of Bread on Table.
I found my friend with three Other
woman patients in a dark, ill-smelline
room. Their bedding was dirty, the
bed was a table. and upon it one lumI
Of black bread, one-half teaspoonful oil
butter, one teaspoonful of sugar and q
half glass of milk. That, my friend
explained to me, was her ration of food
for the entire day, with the exception
Of bowl of soup at dinner time
went to the head physician. Look
here" said. I'm paying this institu-
ton $50 rubles month for the care
of this woman. The least you can do
is feed her" But the physician ex-
planned that the Board of Health con-
tributes 81 kopecks day for each pa
tient, no more and no less. My agree
ment to pay $50 rubles month had
been a very profitable venture-for the
sanatorium.
In Moscow met Mrs B., univer-
sity graduate, who knows French and
German f1uently, who spends her DAYS
at an Office filing papers for IS rubles
month. had known her in the old
days, when her husband had been a
respected engineer and her brothers
were attending the Naval Academy at
Petrograd. Now her husband was
dead, and she and her frail daughter
were living in dark little room, cloth
ing themselves in rags and eating mea-
ger, wretched food. My brothers are
in New York" Mrs B. told me- lone
Is an artist. They are all well off, but
am afraid to let them help me. The
o. G. P. U. will think I am accepting
the dollars to speculate with" I urged
her to forget her fear and accept the
dollars, but her face became so suf-
fused with horror at the thought that
I desisted. She would rather let her
sickly 17-year-old daughter learn the
bricklaying trade. She will be a
worker, and at least she will have a
bigger ration of bread!" Last Fall,
she told me, she had been i'll with
pneumonia for 10 weeks, and had re-
ceived not one ruble during that time
They sent a doctor free of charge,
she said. That was the whole of my
sick benefits"
Cited Case of Girl, 18.
In Moscow, too, followed the swift
tragedy which overcame N, an ex-
tremely beautiful and clever girl of
18, who was working part time for a
publishing house while she studied at
the school of journalism. Through ac-
cident she lost some illustrations for a
book upon which she was working Her
Superiors sWooped down upon her as if
J..
Afraid to tell her father, who held a
responsible government position as a
scientist, the girl time and again faced
her accusers at star chamber meetings
and was subjected to cruel mental
third degrees. She was finally SEN
fenced to pay asfine Of $50 rubles The
persistent persecution. the inability to
raise funds to pay the fine and the
fear of her parents finding out what
she had done unhinged the sensitive
girls mind.
N became violent, and her fathers
first inkling Of what had happened
came when she was brought home In
that condition. Red tape blocked her
removal to psychopathic ward until
her father. using all his influence and
pledging his entire salary of 800 ru-
bles a month, managed to get her adj
mitted to the sanatorium connected
with the Kremlin. The girl was not
granted one ruble Of insurance. A pc
tit,on was filed with the "Yacheika, y
or governing board, Of the publishing
house where she had worked. but ]
left Russia before the hearing was
held.
Supreme immediate control Of work