Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-06-10
By EARL n. voss

OTdIlldtlC evidence OF the nigh
competence and speed with which
the Soviet Union is building its
economic aid program has reached
Washington il recently published
reports by Indian water develop
ment engineers who toured Soviet
multi-purpose dam projects last
year.
India sent Is of its best-qualified
dam builders to see what the Soviet
Union is doing in water utilization.
At their head was Kanwar Sain, a
United States trained engineer
considered one of the outstanding
men in his field. Mr.. Sain and
his associates found much to learn,
not only in dam building, but in
the planning and financing tech
nlqueS developed under the Com
munist system.
Dam construction in Russia is
given a different emphasis than in
the United States. Here multi
purpose projects are primarily for
Hood control and irrigation. Hydro
electric power is almost incidental.
1t is included where the public VS.,
private power controversy does not
intrude, but it is often omitted
where power development would be
physically practical but not politi-
cally feasible. In the USSR, how
ever, Hood control is not much of
a problem-there is too little rain
fall. Dams are built primarily for
hydroelectric power and for nayi-
cation OF a great network of inland
waterways. Irrigation is included
where feasible
The Soviet system of power dis
trlbution from thermal plants. first
plotted by Lenin. is one that some
United States engineers recon-
mended here in 1852. The Reds are
building thermal power plants at
the source of low-grade coal and
peat. then dispatching the power
by high-voltage wires to far-off
Industries. This is more efficient
than setting up the power plants
near the Industries, and using rail-
roads to carry the bulky coal and
peat crosS-country. This emphasis
on power lines instead of railroad
cars was turned down in the United
States because it would require
heavy governmental financing.
See Worlds Largest
The Indian engineers were taken
to see the giant Kuihyshev hydro
electric power station on the River
Volga. The dam has been COM
pleted and the first generator was
installed late last year. When all
II OF the KuibyShev dams genera
tors are in place. it will be the
worlds largest hydropower plant.
with capacity of 81 million kilo-
watts and an annual production of
10 billion kilowatt hours. A AGO.
O0O-volt, 600-mile power line will
link some Of the dams power to
Moscow.
The Kuibyshev power dam out
put will be slightly larger than that
of the United States present world
record holder. the Grand Coulee
Dam on the Columbia River in
Washington State. Its capacity is
Just under million kilowatts.
The Kremlin has already or
dered the start of work on two
other dams which will break. their
own worlds record. The Stain
grad hydroelectric station is to have
a capacity of 2.3 million kilowatts
and II billion kilowatt hours. Last
year Soviet engineers broke ground
on a still larger one-with 3-mil-
hon-kilowatt capacity-on the An
CARA River. near the town of Bratsk
in Eastern Siberia.
The Kuibyshev and Stalingrad
power stations will boost total So
Wet power output by Is per cent to
an estimated total of ZIG billion
kilowatt hours per year. The United
States power output in 1865 was 600
billion kilowatt hours.
Izvestia, the Soviet government
newspaper recently told of plans for
national power production of IL to
Is trillion kilowatt hours year
hydro. thermal and atomic-by the
year 1000. That is 1920 times the
present American output. 1t would
saturate a power grid stretching
from the Baltic to the Pacific and
from the Arctic Ocean to Central
Asia.
lndions Are Impressed
This kind of visionary talk, prob
ably hyperbolic but still impress