The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-29
A Chance Acquaintance In Baku

"Of course you couldn't see much
in a day. But, from what you have
seen, doesn't Baku impress you as
lively, modern and rather beau
tiful city?"
readily agreed.
"Well, it hasn't always been that
way. You must know that Baku,
although its beginnings are lost in
the mist of long past centuries, is
in effect new city. Most of the
things you see around you, from
the asphalt of the pavements to the
tops of many of its oil derricks and
tall factory chimneys, to its trans
and electric railways, to its thea
tres, Schools, palaces of culture, to
its modern cottages and apartment
houses, to the very trees in its
parks and boulevards, are all new.
Take, for instance, the matter of
schools. There had not been much
chance even for Russians to get a
proper education in Baku before
the Revolution. The Cars satraps
and the capitalist city fathers did
not think much of education for
the people. AS for the Tyurk pop
ulation, the only kind of education
available, and that only for the
chosen few, was the kind provided
by the mullahs in the Moslem me-
dressa's where they had been
taught to read the Koran in Ara
bic script. Now, as you have prob
ably seen, we have adopted the
Latin alphabet, we have in the city
of Baku hundreds of schools for
Tyurk children, beside Russian,
Armenian, Jewish and other
schools; we have a university and
other institutions of higher learn
ing, we have about ten scientific
research institutes in Baku alone.
He looked at his watch. II made
an appointment" he explained, ito
meet my wife around here on the
boulevard, and it's about time now,
If you care to join u.s." he added.
Il may be able to arrange to get a
car for a drive around the city"
KNOWING the difficulties of get
II ting around in strange city
and, particularly of getting a car
for that purpose, I gladly accepted
the invitation.
Soon we were driving in an open
"GAz" automobile CGAz" is the
name of the Cork automobile
plant) to the newly developed oil
fields of Lok Batan. Sadikhov with
his young wife sat in the back of
the car. sat in the front with the
chauffeur.
Lok Batan became famous all
over the Soviet Union few years
ago when dispatches from Baku
brought the story of gushers spout
ing forth oil at the rate Of fifteen
to twenty thousand tons day.
The story was something as fol-
lows
Scientists had long ago suggested
that there might be rich oil de-
posts in the territory where Lok
Batan Is situated at present. But
there had been no definite proof of
the fact. Some of the private own
ers of the land had tried to bore
for oil, but none had appeared and
in the end they had given up in
disgust, But things began to move
differently when we took matters in
hand" the chauffeur explained.
I'VE" meant the workers who be-
came masters of the land and the
Oil fields after the capitalists and
foreign interventionists had been
sent scurrying abroad by the VIC
torious revolution. The Soviet oil
trust of Aserbaijan installed modern
deep-boring machinery until one
day oil started to gush forth from
bore-hole number one. 1t gushed
forth with such tremendous force
that it overturned the derricks and
the installations around it. ut was
sight at once terrible and beauti-