Evening star., 1947-12-21

ore than a pious promise voiced for
lid mean that the slashing of the
wages; new money, new promises
on the future-for new work.
But for how long will even the
younger Russians continue to work
for promises? At what point
must the government begin to de-
liver? When must it put things
into the shops for the people to
spend their money on?
Kremlin Worries
These are the questions which
probably worry the Kremlin above
all others and on which future
Soviet policy is likely to hinge.
The Kremlin's anxiety can be pic
tured as pretty much that of any
big boss who has just imposed a
drastic wage cut on his workers. In
the Soviet Union it is the govern
ment who is the one, big employer
for which every one works. Despite
all their Communist preachings, the
Soviets haven't abolished the profit
motive. They have made it a gov
eminent monopoly.
Out of the profits" which the
Kremlin sweats from the labor o1
the Russian multitudes comes the
capital with which to build up the
heavy war potential industries
Since the Kremlin measures Rus.
sla's security by its industria
strength, the Soviet government has
consistently sought to extract the
monopolist proflt-What the traffic
will bear-for heavy industries
leaving the Russian people as little
as they will scrape along on anc
still produce.
People Sometimes Balk
The entire Soviet economy re-
wolves around this constant struggle
over how Russia's production is to
be divided, between guns" or but
ter" between the Kremlin's take
for the expansion of heavy indus
tries and what is left for the
civilians. Generalizations about
Russia are extremely risky, and yet
l believe it can be safely stated that
most things that happen in the
Soviet Union reflect the efforts of
the Kremlin to bridge this gap be-
tween the disproportionate invest
ment in heavy industries and the
small allowance for lifting the liv-
ing standards of the people. When
This gap was widest in the past
here was the tightest police state
oppression; when the gap has been
narrow. the Soviet regime has been
most liberal"
The secret police, propaganda,
purges, war scares-real and made
might be considered as
whips to drive the Russian worker
on to greater efforts for less pay
less real pay in the goods that can
be bought.
Periodically, however, there seems
to come time when the whips are
not good enough. The Russian
people balk-not in open rebellion
but by slackening on the job. Their
productivity drops; men and women
quit work to search for something
better. Incentive lags: There
to be limit to the sweat
ing which even the Russian people
will take.
In the past at least. whenever this
point of strain was reached the
Kremlin has relaxed it's take for
heavy industries and increased con-
sumer goods output. And at such
times the Kremlin has simultane-
ously relaxed all across the board
both at home and abroad. Just as
the Kremlin tightens up all along
the line when it tightens, it relaxes
in similar totalitarian style.
Real Test to Come
1t is against that perspective that
the depreciation of the ruble should
be examined. Since the end of the
war, Russia has been in the grip of a
great profit-taking drive by the
Kremlin, which has been seeking the
utmost exactions to rebuild the in
dustries destroyed during the war
Over the last year or more there
have been numerous reports from
the Soviet Union which have in
dicated that the Kremlin's take
may well be too onerous. One recent
article in Pravda, for example, COM
planned that one-half of the new re-
cruits in mining were quitting be-
cause of poor living conditions. The
currency change can be taken as
further confirmation that the Krem-
lin senses that it is nearing-if it
hasn't got there-the straining point
in its current revolutionary" drive
1t may be that a decision has
been taken to expand con-
sumer goods production but that its
is being held up for
of timing. More likely
the depreciation of the rubie rep
resents an attempt by the more in
transigeant "revolutionists" in the
Politbureau to hold the line" of
profit-taking somewhat longer. In
its immediate effects, the currency
reform is likely to force more people
into the labor market and to work
harder in order to earn new money
to buy food and other essentials
The real test will come once new
money has been earned and there
still is nothing to buy. Will the
Russian people then shrug and think
why work so hard?"
1t is this fact, that the Soviet de-