The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-11-16
Comment On
World Events


A housewife Of Moscow, Mrs.
Lozneva, can often see her name in
the papers these weeks. It is re-
ported that more and more people
in Moscow and everywhere are fol-
lowing her example.
Apparently Mrs. Lozneva got
tired Of waiting until the admins
tration undertook the necessary re-
pairs in the house where she lived
and moved that the inhabitants
themselves repair it. The Commun-
ist party and the administration re-
ceived this idea with enthusiasm.
Lodgers "collectives" are now bur-
dened with the Socialist obliga-
ton" to repair, and care for, their
houses and thereby to save the
town administrations expense and
trouble. The same method is also
finding application in workers
barracks or Communal dwellings" q"
Public utility work, road mend
ing and reconstruction is increas-
ingly devolving on the citizens
always, as Izvestia says, "in order
to save public money" So-called
voskresniks Sunday work. are ar
ranged, i.e., the people are COM
PEELED to work as unpaid public
utility workers on Sundays.
:. !. 4
The same method is employed in
the countryside. In Daghestan
(Caucasus), 142 club houses were
built in 1949 by means of "volun-
tary labor contributions" Of the
people. The method would be ap-
piled more widely still but-as a
correspondent of Izvestia in the
Kursk oblast sadly admits-there
is shortage Of building materials.
These materials have always been
in short supply but have become
especially rare lately: the building
of dwelling houses is tagging sew
erely as a consequence.
Voluntary" unpaid work is now
a new feature of the Soviet regime.
The "voskresniks" and "subbot-
niks" (work on Saturdays were
invented in the years Immediately
following on the October Revolu-
tion of 1917. However, it is fact
that in the last months unpaid COM
pulsory work has assumed unpre-
cedented proportions.
Things have gone so far that in
a number of plants the repairs of
the premises are executed son the
free initiative" of the workers. As
one of such plants Trud mentions
the "Rosselmash", one of the great
est and most modern factories of
agricultural equipment in the en-
tire USSR.
At the same time the Soviet
press does not tire of enlarging on
the great might of the USSR and
the powerful progress of its econ
omy. The present industrial out
put is said to exceed that of 1910
by SO percent.
Despite this economic prosper
ity" the citizens must sacrifice
their free time, without remuner-
alton to repair houses for which
they pay rent to the state, mend
roads and sidewalks and even re-
pair their places of work. Other
wise their houses would fall down
on their heads and they would have
to work on premises where the|
windows have no glasses, as Trud
from many places, or-as
in the aforesaid Rosselmash-the
roof leaks so that snow and rainl
penetrate into the working rooms.
The management has, of course, mol
time to deal with such "details;
it is busy fulfilling plans.
There is some evidence that the
Soviet citizens understand that
this state of things is due to thel
of attention, money, man
power and material resources to-
wards ornaments although the
word armament" appears in the
Soviet press only when the situa-
ton in the Capitalist countries" is
Observation-Disclosures from Be-
mind the Iron Curtain, compiled byl
Baltic Review, Stockholm.