The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-29

full" the chauffeur went on with
the story Word was Immediately
sent to to city, and thousands of
workers volunteered to come to Lok
Batan to help in tanning the gusher
and saving the oil For about a
week we worked day and night put
ting up steel constructions to stop
the gusher and digging and cement
ing reservoirs in the ground to save
the escaping oil. You have never
seen such enthusiasm and such self
sacrifice as the workers displayed
in those days until the gusher was
well under control. That was a
victory, I'll tell you a real victory. F."
Now Lok Batan is one of the main
oil fields near Baku,
WE WENT back up the winding
" mountain road towards the city.
1t was evening when we saw at last
the myriads of lights in the huge
'semicircle of the city bordering on
the black darkness of the sea.
The streets we're alive with lights
and people. The Seashore Boulevard
was filed with the sounds of ORR
entail and Western music, coming
from the many shore-restaurants.
and youthful laughter. The Boule-
ward was a mass of promenading
humanity. mostly youth. Here again
all the numerous nationalities in
habiting Baku were represented.
Here were students of both sexes.
office workers, workers from the oil
fields and oil refinerieS, workers of
the machine building plants, of the
textile mills, of the food industries,
of leather and clothing factories, of
all the various industries which have
grown up in Baku since the first
Five Year Plan has been inaugu-
rated.
When I was taking my leave of
my new acquaintance, Sadikhov
regretted that the opera season was
over and 1 could not enjoy the first
Tyurk opera. He suggested that we
meet in the morning, and he'll ar
range for visit to the Medical IN
stitute.
THE next morning the visit to the
Medical Institute took place, and
l had lonk talk with the director
I had long talk with the director Of
the Institute, Husseinov, and Dean
of Instruction Edigarov. The Insti-
tute which was first organized in
1919 with 100 students had 1910 stu
dents in 1884, and of these about
900 studied in the Tyurk language
group. Of the Tyurk students, $50
were women, which, considering the
status of women among the MoSlem
TURKS before the revolution. is a
vivid indication OF the great trans
formation wrought during the years
of Soviet power Most of the stu
dents in the Institute at the time
767 to be eXact-were workers or
children of workers, and $50 were
children of peasants, members of
collective farms.
1haG evening When | parted With
my chance acquaintance before leav-
ing Baku, he again spoke enthusi-
astically of the great strides made
by once backward Aserbaiian which
now occupies an important place in
the Soviet Union. For besides being
the greatest oil producing republic
in the Union, it is rapidly develop
ing industrially in other fields, as
machine building, textiles based on
the cotton production, silk, food,
clothing, etc. I pointed out that,
judging by the Soviet press. there
are quite a number Of republics &C.
cupying an important place in the
Soviet Union, and all of them had
been backward before
eyes, that's true" he summed up
thoughtfully. The October So
cialist Revolution has called to new
life and developed many formerly
backward nationalities. This is
what we call the national policy of
the Soviet Union"