The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-28
by Burck

near the gate. Fakhradov spoke to
them in the Tyurkish language. He
asked where the chairman of the
farm could be found. They smiled
as they pointed to narrow path
between rows of vines. We followed
the path to vegetable garden,
where some women were engaged in
cultivating.
The chairman" of the collective
farm turned out to be a middle
aged woman, rather vivacious, who
spoke fluent Tyurkish when adj
dressing Fakhradov and broken
Russian when talking to me. We
took a long walk through the fields,
gardens, orchards and vineyards
making up the farm. OF course we
covered only small part of the
$50 hectares (about $50 acres which
make up the land cultivated by this
particular collective group. But we
spent there several hours, during
which the chairman" Fatima
Zainachova, treated us to some of
the red cherries which had ripened
in the orchard and furnished us
with good deal of information
about the farm and about herself.
Her own story was rather snort,
though. She was of a peasant fam
lily, forty-five years old now. At
the age of nine she had lost her
father and since then she had had
to work hard all the time, first as
a servant girl, and, later on, as an
agricultural laborer on the very
estate which now forms a part of
the collective farm of which she is
chairman. After the establishment
of Soviet Aserbaijan she was among
the first women who threw off their
wells. She also learned to read and
write the latinized Tyurkish alpha
bet. In 1881 she succeeded in get
/ ting together number of poor
peasant women whom she won over
for the idea of organizing collec-
tive farm. With the aid of the local
Soviet the idea was materialized.
The collective farm was organized,
although at first only the women
of the household joined. The men
were Skeptical of the whole bust
ness or frankly hostile. But the will
of the women prevailed in the end,
and now the husbands are in the
farm, too.
The men, chairman" Fatima in
formed us, do not scott any more at
the idea, because the farm has
turned out to be quite a scuccess.
Their collective farm now unites
$50 households, about TOO people.
1t has 100 hectares of land under
vineyards, 30 hectares of vegetable
gardens, 80 hectares under grain
crops, besides orchards, pastures,
and individual plots. Last year the
earnings distributed by the farm
per work-day per worker were: 2
Kilograms of grapes, IL kilograms
of grains, and ITO rubles in money,
besides fruits and vegetables.
The former poor peasants have
become fairly well-to-do and they
/ lead a much more comfortable life
than they ever dared to dream of
in the days when most of the fruit
! of their toll went to the landlord,
or usurer, or trader They have now
a nursery where the women can
leave their babies under the care
of trained nurses during the day
when they work in the fields or
vineyards or gardens. They have
a school for the older children right
on the farm. Most of the house
holds owns cows and sheep.
Fatime Zainachova took us to
what may be called the residential
section of the collective farm. The
road was beautiful lane, with tall
trees on both sides and small houses
hidden behind the trees. Some OF
these houses looked rather old
they were of clay bricks reinforced
with straw But there were quite a
number of houses with neat ap-
pearance, which seemed to have
been recently built.