Evening star., 1941-08-10
Harvest Bottle

Behind a screen of propaganda
military communiques whose sensa-
tional claims suggest the joint ad-
visership of Baron Munchausen, the
titanic struggle between the Russian
and German armies goes on with
the outcome still uncertain
However, even though the Russian
armies should be defeated in the next
few weeks, the Soviet Union will have
won another battle-the battle of
this years harvest. Seemingly Moth
ing can prevent the attainment of
this notable victory.
Shortly after the Germans began
their blitz attack in late June, the
grain fields of RuSSia's far south, to-
ward the Caucasus, became ripe.
Instantly a vast army of tractors
and harvester combines, . largely
operated by women, went to work.
literally racing against time. AS the
weeks passed, this mechanical agri-
cultural battle front swept steadily
northward as green fields changed
to yellow and gold At present, har-
Vesting is in full swing throughout
the Ukraine, RuSsia's traditional
bread basket. A, month hence, the
harvest of North Central Russia
should likewise be in. Everywhere
the precious grains are being shipped
far to the eastward, we'll beyond the
range of any likely German in
curslons, leaving for the potential
victors only the baroness of stubble
fields.
1t is we'll known that capture of
Russia S harvest was one of the main
German objectives. The reason why
the Wehrmacht delivered its hardest
blow in the center toward Moscow
was not merely to split the Russian
armies at their middle point and
capture the Soviet capital, but also
to force bloodlesS evacuation of
the Ukraine, thereby getting the
still unburnable green harvest with
out trampling down the crops and
otherwise diSrupting the harvest, as
a direct attack on the Ukraine would
have done. This German agricul-
tural objective has failed completely,
owing to the magnificent fight put
up by the Russian armies, which
stood up to the Germans on the
Soviet borders instead of retreating
far into the interior.
How great is Germany's lost prize
can be gagged by the fact that last
years Soviet grain crop amounted
TO the tremendous total of 4,43O 900. =
200 bushels-more than one fourth
OF the average annual production
Tor the entire world. And the indi-
cations are that this years crop will
be still larger. What this would
nave meant to strictly rationed Ger
many and its half-Starved European
Vassals can be imagined. But this
alluring hope now is vain one.
Amazing reports from various
european sources tell of a mass mi
grafton of the civilian populations
OF the Ukraine and Central Russia
eastward toward the Urals. This
gigantic exodus, said to involve fully
25,OOO,O00, will leave nothing behind
Tor the Germans when the destruc-
ton squads have done their work.
But, with the garnered harvest
awaiting them, the refugees should
not face famine during the coming
winter, and their productive labor,
II necessary, can be used to build up
new center of resistance along the
Urals and in Siberia, like that in
Western China after a similar mass
migration.
Such shifts of populations stagger
our Western imagination. ONLY
Oriental or semi Oriental peoples
presumably are capable of carving
them out. In Soviet Russia the task
is rendered easier by the fact that
individuals own nothing except
their personal belongings, so the
abandonment of state-owned lands
and dwellings involves no personal
sacrifice. 1t is in the Soviet Union
that the "Scorched earth" policy
first adopted by Free China may be
pushed to its grimly logical con-
| clusion