Evening star., 1950-07-30

Before the role of climate in
history was understood, 1t was
thought that Russia's chief
need was ice-free seaports. She
lacks those. too, but even more
serious is her lack of a deep
enough breath of sea air. That
is, she lacks moisture. She does
not take back from the sea as
much moisture as she sends to
it. Her handsome rivers are
parching her.
Lacks Moisture
Why does she not get mois-
ture? Because the rain bearing
winds are shut off by mountains
on the south and east, by dis
tance on the west and by a
blanket Of dry cold air in the
north. Warm winds coming in
from the Gulf Stream enrich
Western Europe by dropping
most of their rain before they
reach Russia. That is why Cen
tral Asia is slowly becoming
desert. The heart of this parch-
ing area is Russia. Winds come
into Russia-terrible winds in
deed, but they are dry and they
take up more water than they
bring. The sea then is robbing
the land when it should be re-
paying it.
Closely tied up with this
aridity are the Russian rivers.
They are Europe's largest, and
at first glance seem we'll To-
Gated. However. they are de-
f1clent in year. r-'round volume
and most of them are ice
bound for months. When they
are in water they are generally
at flood stage. When full in
non-f1ood time, they are frozen,
often 6 feet deep.
VolSa Lacks something
The Volga is certainly one of
the best known of rivers. and
the song of its boatmen is world
famous. But what were they
doing when they created that
groaning. ghostly rhythm? They
were not occupying themselves
with heavy-laden vessels on a
deep stream. Instead, they were
dragging small boats along a
course which is considered navi-
gable If in certain crucial places
it has 2 feet of water. The
Volga watershed is twice as
large as that Of the Danube, but
it carries less than half the
Danube's water. Among the
worlds chief working rivers, ii
is among the feeblest in the es-
Sential thing, namely, the run
of of water. For instance, the
runoff for each square mile of
its drainage basin is only 212
inches yearly. That of our Co.
lumbia River is 26 inches and of
the Tennessee 10 inches. And
it is icebound for months. It is
typically Russian for another
reason. 1t has a dead end. It
flows into the Caspian Sea,
which is 70 feet below sea level
and is now shrinking with
startling rapidity. (Meteorolo-
gists doubt that this will con-
tinue indefinitely, as that sea
has a puzzling record over the
centuries. However, an arid ma
ton cannot survive a series of
parching years merely by re-
minding itself that over period
of centuries the average rain
tall was higher than at the time
of a particularly disastrous
group of years.)
Today the level of the Caspian
Sea is lower than at any time
since the government began
keeping records on it in 1880.
tPrestatistical estimates on its
fluctuations are based on land
marks. such as a village, once
known to be on the waters edge,
but now far inlandO The sit
uation has been getting worse
since 1888. During that time
the volume of the Volga has also
steadily diminished.
This general aridity in Russia,
where rainfall averages less than
18 inches-semidesert by our
standards-has caused two Sc
we're famines in Communist
times. In 1921 drought caused
the death of 5,250,000 persons.
Another such disaster occurred
in 1898, and a lesser one in 1888.
OF course, in each case America,
history's foremost exponent of
the dubious art OF clasping the
stunned serpent to ones bosom,
rushed in relief supplies!
1s SL.k &c E~@I