Evening star., 1942-02-19
Moscow Plants Left
In Evacuation Now
Making Munitions
Workers Trained on Spot;
Are Comprised Mostly
Of Women and Girls
BY A. T. STEELE,


Chicago Daily News.
MOSCOW, Feb. 19.-Big indus
trialist establishments in the Mos
COW region are still humming with
activity despite the transfer of huge
amounts Of equipment and tens of
thousands Of workers to the Volga,
the Urals and the Steppes Of Gen.
trail Asia.
But 1t is new kind of activity.
The workers and machines, which
Joined the great migration during
Moscow's dangerous days, have not
returned, nor is 1t at all probable
that they will. Abandoned factory
sites and such equipment as was
left behind now are devoted almost
exclusively to the production of
munitions.
Correspondents were taken yester-
day to see what was formerly one of
the largest industrial plants of the
Moscow region. Before the war 1t
manufactured electrical machinery.
Now 1t is turning out shells, gre
nades, mortars and other imple-
ments Of war.
Inside one Of its giant worksheds
We found a line Of 20 tanks, dam
aged IN the battle for Moscow,
undergoing rebuilding and repair.
In almost every department wom-
en- and girls were preponderant.
They made molds for shell castings;
they operated stamping machines
and lathes; they poured hot metal,
ground it, polished it and drilled
1t. They did just about every job
that Is normally performed by men.
Youthful Plant Manager.
Only at the electric furnaces,
where streams of molten steel cas-
caded forth in showers Of sparks,
were the workers exclusively men.
Red pennants decorated the ma
chimes Of stakhanovites (shock
workers who produce above normal.
On one massive lathe, tended by
a frail 20-year-old girl, stood a flag
bearing the figure "345 per cent"
indicating that she had exceeded
her quota of production by three
and a half times.
VASTLY Bril-, the stocky, square,
Jawed, blond manager of this con-
verted industry, told us something
about the wartime history of his
plant. Bril- is very characteristic
product of the Bolshevik revolution.
Son OF peasant, veteran of the
civil war and graduate of
military technical academy, he is,
OF course, also a member of the
Communist party. And like almost
every other industrial executive
have met in Russia, he is extraor-
dinarily youthful. He gave his age
as Al and said he was earning a
salary of 1000 rubles monthly
equivalent of about $3.50 at the
offlcial rate of exchange.
Bril- said the bulk of the ma
ehinery and 40 per cent of the per-
sonnel had been transplanted to
a new location in the Urals, where
there are nearer sources of steel
and copper and probably will re-
main there. 1t took three and a
half months, according to Bril-, to
complete the transfer from the time
of dismantling of machinery to the
resumption of production at the new
site. ....e
New Workers Trained.
Meanwhile, the working staff of
the transplanted plant had been
greatly augmented by additions of
new workers trained on the spot,
he said. Machines and workmen
remaining in Moscow had to be
adapted to the new task of manu-
featuring implements of war. More
workers were modified and trained
and the staff of the plant now
contains so per cent more women
than before the war.
The plant operates at full ca
pacity "a hours daily. The average
worker does daily stretch of 10
or II hours and is paid extra for
the time put in above the legal
eight-hour day. Earnings of work.
ers in this plant range from $50
rubles ($100) to 300 rubles (s15O
monthly, according to Bril-.
Asked If the materials were ade-
quate, Bril- remarked with a laugh
that he thought they would last
long enough to accomplish Hitlers
downfall. The plant is still draw
ing on its reserves.
Like most munitions factories in
Moscow region, this big enterprise
maintains liaison with the front.
Occasionally committee from the
factory visits the front to give pres
ents, make pep talks and tell the
troops how the workers are backing
them up. These visits are recipro-
Gated by delegations of soldiers.
May Never Return.
What will happen to this and 9TH
er evacuated enterprises after the
war it Is hard to say, but in most
cases it is highly unlikely that the
transferred portions will ever be
brought back. Industrial migra-
tion is one-way trek. 1t has long
been the policy of the government
to concentrate basic industries deep
IN the rear. The exigencies of the
war have greatly accelerated this
long-range process, which has al
ready begun some years ago.
Tuesdays edict by the Council
OF Peoples Commissions, which pro-
vides for the taking over of dwelling
places evacuated by the transferred
workers, confirms the permanency
OF the governments policy. This
edict allots 100, 900, 900 rubles to pro-
vide help for workers in settling in
their new locations and requires
them to dispose of the contents of
their former. apartments.