Montana labor news., 1945-06-28
SOVIET DEMOCRACY
AS TOLD BY
ARTHUR DAVIES

Prompted by que tions from his Amer
lean and Canadian readers, many OF the
aspects and fundamental concepts Of
Soviet Democracy are discussed by Ray
mond Arthur Davies, Canadian news
paper and radio correspondent in Mos
COW, in an article which appears in the
July issue of Soviet Russia Today just
off the press. Mr. Davies article, in part,
follows:
Soviet democracy isn't our American
or British present day democracy This
is perfectly evident to any observer Of
the Soviet scene. Nor are the Russians
trying to make it appear So But they
repeat time and again that the very
fact that the Soviet Union and America,
Canada and Britain have democracy,
even though of differing types, creates
the basis for unity in dealing with anti
democratic forces, and for solving post
was problems in a way favorable to the
further development of democracy in
general.
Recently the Supreme Soviet of the
great white marble hall in the Kremlin.
The delegates sit in groups representing
their republics. There are Usbek and
Tadzhik women in typical native garb,
Mongol officers. young men and women
from the provinces. The report on the
buget proceeds The reporter is Finance
Commissar zverev. But what sort of
budget is it? It is not at all like the
budgets we hear of in Congress or in
Parliament. It is more like the budget
of a business organization. 1t Is the
budget of business" organization, you
suddenly realize with start; an organi-
zation which is the Soviet Union. These
people, you think with surprise, are the
organizers and managers of the vast
country they Iun, its railways, its mines
It's factories and its farms.
The budget has number of items
which do not, indeed cannot, appear in
the budget of our countries. Thus, the
first major item deals with receipts
from state-owned enterprises and or
ganizations" This is the major item Of
receipts in the budget They form
nearly half of the funds necessary to
cover the total l945 budget of 307.9 bill
lion rlbles, In fact, they almost entirely
suffice for the military purposes OF the /
1945 budget, for which the 1879 billion |
ruble expenditure is the highest in Soviet |
history.
The speaker goes into considerable de-
tail in outlining plans for expanding
production OF consumers goods Nor does
he fail to criticize severely branches OF
industry that have not produced high
quality goods, nor to demand immediate
changes for the better
Delegates from the whole country
speak. Have they the opportunity to
express criticism and differences, to make
requests, to plead the case of their con-
stituencies? Listen to A. A. Kuznotsov,
a deputy from Leningrad. Il must cr1ti-
cize number of peoples commlssariate
and industrial directorates that do not
insure the scale of reconstruction and
aid which Leningrad must and can have.
Thus the supply Of fuel has been insult
ricient luring 1914 and the first quarter
of this year, creating a strain on the
operation of our industries and munich
pal enterprises But this doesn't seem
to bother the petroleum supply leaders
and the coal supply authorities"
Kumetsov also roundly criticized the
commissariats of non-ferTous metals,
heavy machine building, and others. He
was not the only delegate to express dis
content with the work of the state ap-
paratus Many asked for increases in
monetary grants to their republics and
provinces, and some of these requests
we're included in the revised budget as
finally adopted.
so much for the Supreme Soviet
which, after ALL is at the top OF Soviet
democracy But how is it below? To
understand the operation of some of the
more unusual aspects of Soviet democ-
racy this correspondent has had to re-
cast his concept of democracy as whole,