Evening star., 1943-11-09
Rebuilding Russio

keDulIoln9 kuSSlo
Short Of going there TO see it,
perhaps the best way to visualize
the destruction wrought in Russia
since June, 1e4l. Is to imagine the
United States devastated, north and
south, all the way from the Atlantic
seaboard to the Mississippi, It's in
dustries smashed, Its power dams
blown up, its agricultural equip
ment destroyed, its transportation
facilities wrecked, and its key cities
cities like Pittsburgh-largely re-
duced to blackened ruins. incapable
of supporting any truly self-sustain-
ing productive life.
This is what has happened to that
vast area OF Russia where for more
than two years millions of men have
been locked in what will probably
be remembered for generations as
the biggest and most violent battle
In the history Of the world. Since
June, l94l. the firepower of two
mighty armies has been in play
there, shattering everything in its
path eastward from the prevar
frontier all along line extending
for over 1000 miles from Leningrad
In the north and down from there
past Moscow, voronezh and Stalin-
grad into the heart Of the Caucasus.
Here thousands Of pieces of opposing
artillery have been necessarily an
swering each other. Here, bombs
have fallen in such quantities and
with such destructive force as to
defy estimates. Here, apart from
the men themselves and their small
arms, tanks and mines and rocket
guns and weapons Of every descrip-
ton have been efficiently laying
waste the land, so that in some
places not even a tree is left living.
And what has not been destroyed
in this way, has been destroyed
through the scorched-earth policy
first by the Russians when they
were trading space for time, and
now by the Nazis in their desperate
night westward.
The physical plant of Russia, in
short. has suffered more wreckase
in this war than that of any other
country, though the day may come
when Germany may sustain a SINH
lar loss from our mounting air
offensive, assuming that the Nazis
do not collapse before then. In
fact, so great has been the destruc-
ton and general disorganization
that the Russian people will very
probably be kept busy for years with
the task OF rebuilding and reorder-
ing-a task in some ways as great
as the development programs car
ried out in the time between the
Revolution and the attack by Hitler.
And In meeting it, the Russians will
have to lean heavily on the un-
scathed United States, on our en-
gineering facilities, on our machine
tools, on our durable goods produc-
ton. on our capacity to turn out
equipment of every kind needed to
re-establish large-scale Industrial
processes and restore life to cities.
AS result Of the continuing Nazi
retreat, the time may be not distant
when some of the actual reconstruc-
ton can begin, and with this in
mind, W. Averell Hartman, our new
Ambassador to the Soviet Union, has
just announced that he and his staff
will start working Immediately on q
program designed to shorten the
time when equipment needed from
the United States can be made
available" In thus helping to put
Russia back on It's feet, he rightly
observes, the American people will
be helping themselves, even from a
narrow dollars-and-cents point of
view. But far more important than
that. such cooperation will be very
good business from the point of view
OF promoting a lasting Russian
American friendship, upon which
the future peace and stability Of the
whole world must largely depend.