Evening star., 1938-05-22
BY JOSEPH BARNES.

~ lev Ukraine.-1n the Ukraine, the
"breadbox of Russia" spring SOW
N ing is in full swing. Some SO, 900
tractors are at work on the black
soil. Last year this soil produced more
than 20 per cent of all the grain grown in
the Soviet Union, and the results of this
years harvest may help to decide not only
Immediate Soviet plans but also the ques-
ton of war or peace in Eastern Europe
The Ukraine is not only Russas chief
granary. it is also one of the apples of
Adolf Hitler's eye. 1t is almost as large as
Germany and Austria combined. Seen
from train windows or from the still muddy
roads which cross its treeless farms, it is
a crowded region. with little of the elbow
room" which Hitler has promised to the
German people. But in 1918, when Ger
mans occupied the whole Ukraine, they
learned about its SOIL Its wheat and its
rye, as we'll as its coal and its iron, have
been openly claimed by Hitler as essential
to the destiny of the German nation.
Record in 1897.
The Soviets have other plans for the
Ukraine and some of them are more than
plans. Last years grain harvest in the
Ukraine was 2340o,0OO tons. an all-time
record Exactly 96.2 per cent of all the
farms in the republic have been collectiv-
lied and 80 per cent of them are served by
> the tractors and combines with which the
Communists have apparently won their
long and costly struggle to make collectiv-
ization popular with Russia's tradition
minded peasants.
This years sowing is tagging behind last
years figures. Bolshevik editorials blame
it on bad organization and on failure to
liquidate the consequences of sabotage"
Farm managers. more quietly, refer to the
late spring and the usual difficulties in OBJ
tanning spare parts for tractors and other
farm machinery.
Well-to-Do Country.
None of this materially changes the i'm
preston of prosperity given by the Ukrai-
nian countryside this spring. The Ukraine
escaped the worst effects of the 1886
drought, and last year harvested more
grain than the warehouses could hold or
lowing the apparent victory of collectlvlza-
. ton over peasant resistance and strength
ened by the acknowledged Soviet plan to
make the Ukraine impregnabe against the
German "Drang mach Osten" has brought
the peasants of South Russia consider
able down payment on the promissory note
which the Bolsheviks gave them 20 years
ago.
This prosperity is to be seen in new tiled
roofs. new barns and silos. new roads, new
schools. In Kiev itself, and in the smaller
.towns strung out along the railroad, 1t is
to be found in an abundance Of food for
sale. and in an assortment of manufactured
goods which is greater than country dis
tricts have known since 1913.
Individual Profits Up.
For the Ukraine as a whole collective
farmers earned IS per cent more grain last
year for every working day than in 1885.
and 25 per cent more cash. These are Off
cial figures. but they are confirmed rather
than questioned by the general appearance
of the landscape and by examination OF
individual farms.
One of the latter is the Vassilev Col
lective Farm, formerly the village of Demi-
dov 80 miles from this city on new paved
road. 1t was organized in 1929, when only
10 peasant families joined it. 1t was not
until 1888 that it had weathered the storm
of class war in the countryside enough to
start building 1t was renamed for local
school teacher, Communist organizer
killed in 1881 by the "kulaks," or wealthier
peasants. Now it has BIT peasant families,
all but 13 in the village.
They Diversity Crops
, The 4,52O acres are spread over the
slightly rolling land to the west OF klev,
through which any German army would
march on a successful invasion of the
Ukraine. They give no impression OF being
a"model" a farm. The produce is more diver
sified than would be possible for farm
located farther from big city, but its
dairy and track garden products have been
made saleable only by the recent construc-
ton Of the road.
Flax, cotton, tobacco and sugar beets are
the crops with which the Sovlets have
tried to break up the former complete de-
pendence of the Ukraine on grain harvests
OF these only the first is grown by the
Vassiliev farm. but fax profits have already
made possible the construction OF two
special buildings for processing the crop. A
small piggery, approximately 200 horses in
a stud farm and 100 acres recently planted
to fruit trees have also been added to the
wheat and rye which are the basis OF the
farms economy
Orphans and Aged Aided.
The population of the Vassiliev farm is
1,144 persons. living in BIT family units,
with 525, both men and women, officially
listed as workers OF the children. $50 are
students at a 10-year school in new
building. The others are old persons. in
.valids and orphans, living in the farms
"patronat," with 2 per cent of the farms
income set aside for them every year.
How do the others manage their joint
earnings under Socialist agriculture7 They
work on the farm in brigades. The work