Foreign News: Problems

For some months now Russia has been in the grip of “a wave of strikes.” These movements have been of a dual nature: 1) active resistance by cessation of work on the part of industrial workers; 2) passive resistance by the peasants, who cannot buy manufactured goods until prices fall.

The dangers of the situation to Sovietism (it is no longer possible to speak of Communism in Russia), are well appreciated by the Government, or more precisely by the Polit-Buro, the holy of holies in the Communist Party.

First, the industrial strikers, who are clamoring for wages due to them since last August, have it in their power to paralyze the Government by a complete stoppage of work. Even the Pravda, Moscow Communist Journal, declared that the situation was distressing, and that the trouble was likely to be aggravated unless firmly handled. In some cases the workers demanded not only their overdue pay, but deposits in industrial banks as a guarantee for regular wages in future.

Second, the peasants, who were said to be very discontented, can, if they choose, attack the Government by refusing to pay taxes and declining to sow more than enough grain for their own needs. The peasants’ discontent is enhanced by their inability to buy from the industrial and commercial population who in turn are thus deprived of a market.

To deal with these dangers, the Government proposed a program: The industries are to be further concentrated —i. e., factories, which are producing goods that can be manufactured in other factories, are to be closed. This will mean a further swelling of the unemployed who already number about 800,000. On the other hand, the economy involved will, it was argued, reduce the cost of living. It is thus hoped that, by facing the situation squarely, and by warning the men that, although individual hardships cannot be avoided, the remedial measures are for the general good, the financial and economic problems of the country can be solved. Naturally the Government was riot anxious to increase unemployment during the severity of a Russian winter, but in taking measures to do so, they showed both confidence in the workers and courage in their own convictions.

With the peasants the Government is even more concerned, because they represent the vast majority of the population. The establishment of land banks to aid them, and the reform of the cooperative associations on the pre-revolutionary model were the measures brought forward. The principal feature of the reform of the cooperatives is that it will restore voluntary membership and will complete for the peasants that economic freedom laid down for them in the N. E. P. (New Economic Policy) formulated by M. Lenin, President of the People’s Commissaries.