The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-11-21


 carry on anti-Tascist and Anti-Nazi propaganda after the world-shaking sovlet-Nazl pact was signed in Au- gust, 1889.
 spoke in Moscow to Soviet Clti- Eens and foreigners who had attends cd antl-NaM meetings iia the months that followed the formal friendship pact. They told me that the tone of these talks differed little from the sentiments expressed by Maxim Litvinov in the years whom he vair- ly tried to organize o world front against Adolf Hitler.
 Did the stalin government make full use of the 2i months thus gained or did it throw the breath- ing space away by Q half.hearted rearmAment policy like the Cham- berlaii government after Munich?
 Made Full Use 0f Time
 The evidence of this war shows that the SovletS made full use of the respite and, given another year, might well have made themselves invinclbie.
 The greatest weakness of the so- viet Union as a military power has been its shortage of skilled workers and engineers when it tried to ex- pand arms production.
 The Sovlets took over 0 country which in many respects was four centuries behind the United States and Britain. They had to teach 70 per cent of the people to read and write before they could initiate them to the mysteries of modern chemis- try, mathematics and the slide rule.
 Successive five-year plans essen- tially were an attempt to concen- trate the limited skill available on the creation of heavy industry which ls indispensable to 6 modern mili- tary power.
 After the les0.3T purges, how- ever, the Soviet government par- tially relaxed this concentrated ef- fort and transferred some Of it's limited technical resources to the production of consumers goods, which the people had done without since Lenin's new economic policy was abandoned.
 The changeover did not last long, however. With the outbreak of the European war in September, 1889, the output of goods considered lux ur!es was curtaiicd. Further cur- taiinient followed the Finnish war, and as the time approached when Hitler would strike, the Russians were concentrating all available skill and energy in war preparations.
 Technical Purposes
 This concentration explains some of the technical surprises tho So- vlets have been able to spring. Tn aircraft industry, brilliant Commiss sar A. I. shakhurin, who is under 3S, created an organization which produced two remarkable new planes, the MICS fighter and the stormvik attack bomber, both of which have employed successfully against tanks.
 The Russians also have made great progress in other fields of arms production. During the Spanish Civil War, foreign arms engineers learned that Soviet machine guns had the highest rate of fire in the world. These guns subsequently, were improved. Thirty and 50 calibre ma chine guns are used on Soviet planes the lghtest and most compact nla- chine guns I have seen, and any country would be glad to have them,
 Another field in which the Rus sians used the respite to work sur- prises was that of the transport,
 Foreign observers have been sur- prised by the rolling stock available. Those who traveied by train from Moscow to Kuibyshev were parti- cuiarly impressed by the new ioco- motives along the way.
 The army used the breathing space to eliminate weaknesses un- covered during the Finnish war Marshal Semyon Timoshenko was given a free hand to introduce wholesale the reforms he had pre- viously tried In the Kiev military district. The most important ot these has given officers and men greater freedom of action. The ini- tiatlve of Russian units during the present war has been the result.
 The progress Russia was making helps explain why Hitler attacked when he did. Russia was the biggest item on the program of expansion outlined in Mein Kampf. There fore, Hitler must have felt it wal necessary to strike before the So- viets became too strong.