1
10
THE .HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5,
1936.
RUSSIA-2
WHAT I SAW IN by Sir Walter
Citrine
General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress General Council.
E went to the Kirov works, formerly known as the Putlloy, factory, well known. In pre-Revolutionary days for armaments manufacture, We drove through the Kirov, district again, passing once more some wretched property of the old wooden housca, many of them still occupied, and saw several queues of drab women waiting with jugs, fars and bottles out- side the co-operative stores.
It was now 11 am, it we saw, in addition to these queues, many workers standing waiting to buy vegetables and fruit which were offered from street cars. Some people were buying from hawkers' barrows, and it was hard for me to reconcile myself to the idea that these were State depots
We turned off from the main road into a side street and found ourselves outside the Kirov factory. There was some waste and opposite
the factory, and the management had made an effort to
make a green border
of grass and treco
ог
down this road. We
- were admitted into
the factory after a guard, armed
with
rifle and bayonet,
WAGES and
had satisfied himself na to our credentials.
We crossed a fairly large squate and my attention was called to the gardena which had been put there. In every part of the factory, where- ever possible, a green fringe had been introduced and trees planted round the walls of the factory, no as to shade its crudities from the eye.
went to an office and met the nsstaut commercial director, who was a member of the Commanist The head director was Party. away on sick leave. He said that they now employed 30,000 people, of whom 8,000 were women.
Their technical staff, including foremen, was approximately 3,000. or 10 per cent. of the total. They
making tractors,
heavy were machinery, some locomotives and wagons, and they had built a few They experimental motor-cars. had eight categories of workers. the and since the Revolution factory had enormously increased in area, probably by 50 per cont They had their own State terms helping to supply the workers with the food they needed.
The averago' earnings were 250 roubles per month for the manual workers and 470 roubles for tech- niçal people. About 50 per cent. of the workers were very young people, many of whom came from the peasantry.
S we were
discussing
A carnings. I asked what
salary was. I was told that he, as n member of the Communist Party, for merly had been allowed 800 roubles per month as a maxiinum.
Next month, however, due to a recent decision, he wag to receive 1,000 roubles. The chief constructional engineer, who was not a party man. received 1.809 roubles a month, as did also the chief draughts- taan. The ordinary draughtsmen were *in Ave categoriza, the average earnings in the third or middle categories belug about 500 roubles
Workers on general unskilled work, which could not be put on a plete basis, received about 100 roubles a month. Even they were given lask work and some of them received up to 400 roubles.
We went on to discuss shift work and 1 wan informed that the hours were:-
Firal Shift On.m.4 p.
Second Shift 4 p.m.-12 midnight. Third Shift 12 midnight-8 n.tu.
I en-
. One hour was taken for mcats. Under the five-day week, there was always que rest day on the sixth day. quired whether these employed on shift work received any extra payment for this. I found that the evening shift received an extra 12) per cent. after 10 p.m. and also the night shift. This is included in the earnings which I have given
The true comparison with our British earnings would be not day. work only, but rotating shift-workers Britain 1s on piecework while in usually paid from 25 per cent. to 33 per cent higher than the day rates,
Then we had a long discusalon as to how the undertaking was financed. It was
WELFARE
Consequently,
dificulties was that in the middle of the Five Year Plan they had to pay far higher for their electricity than they had calculated. they hnd to raine the prices of the com- modities Aupplled by the factory. although these were supposed to be fixed by the State Planning Commis
Aion.
We spent several, houre looking round the different departments of the factory. My general impression was that the workers were working very burd, particularly in those departments where the conveyer system and very great mechanization were in operation. The speed of some of these girls be wildered me. They dashed about on electrically driven trucks at a reckles
pace.
Like most Trado Unionists, I have an instinctive dislike of bonus systems, plecework, and the rest of the para- hornalla which characterises the speeding up of operations in modern Industry.
Well, here it was in the Soviet Union, They tell me that everybody who can be put on plecework here is paid on the basis of results.
10
The management had done every
could do thing possible they mechanise the processes in accordance with the latest American practice. Ventilation, too, was as good as 1 could be. But nothing could make con. titions really agreeable in such a place. The Improvement in output will even- tually reflect Itself. no doubt, in a higher standard of life for the people. Still, I hope that when we arrive at The Socialist State, it will be to find something which comes much neuror to Ruskin's conception of joy in work than seems to be possiblo here.
As I looked at some of these people working in the fierce heet at break- neck speed, I felt that they were sparred on with the knowledge that they were waging, a war with poverty. Everywhere I could see exhortations to increase output. Those who succeed in doing so are regarded as heroes and llut, no doubt, also provides a great alimulus.
some
WAS glad to get out into the fresh air once again. As we crossed the yard to visit one of the social centres of the factory. I came across some peasant women digging away vigorously, laying out
new gardens.
They were working as hard as any navvies I have seen in England. We passed them and came to a And restaurant and library, and later in spected a large recreation-room. Every dapartinent had its own restaurant and they were quite good on the whole. I brought away with me severnk menus. The fare varied fron quarter of a rouble to 1.80 roubles. Some very plain cakes were priced at 25 k. or three-quarters of à rouble. which at our official rate of exchange would work out at 25. 8d. to tie foreigner Clearly the value of the rouble is very different from the off- Buch a cake in Eng-
cial exchange. most confusing because it seemed that some figures were in cur rent roubles, which they frankly ad- mitted had depreciated during the period of the Five Year Plan.
T
I capital was calcu- lated in 1028 roubles which were of higher The commercial director said value. that last year they had about 3,000,000 cent. roubles
Fifty surplus.
per
Binte was al to the of this bank and the undertaking had no The remalb- further claim on it. ing 20 per cent was.at the disposal of the Director to utilise for welfare work. Fifteen per cent. of the pay roll in this works was paid as an average to the Social Insurance Fund, but the actual percentage varked from depart ment to department.
The capital required was supplied by the State. 1. pointed out that under this system it was impossible for out- alders to ascertain whether the indus- tries word. Doonomile or not, as tho capital charges were concealed in this ways
land would cost 2d, or 3d. at tho very highest. On this ratio, the internal value of the rouble would be some- where between 3d. and 4.
Next we visited the crèches, situated in old wooden buildings We ap proached by a delected avenue of slush and fith which we were assured would be asphalted next year.
These buildings were quite unsuit able for the purpose, but the best had been made of them, and the interior. had been completely redecorated. There were picasant rooms for the children. who were happy-looking and quite well cared for.
Then we went to a sort of polytechnic for those children whose parents were at work. This was used, I think, only during out-of-school hours. There were boys working at carpentry, others German, others
· learning
reading studiously, others learning photo. graphy.
One rather frail-looking little fel- low was reading a fairy tale illustrated Most of the by coloured pictures. other boys were poring over some aclentine or utilitarian treatise other.
or
It is not so long ago Anes it used
The Director- said that one of the to be regarded as bourgeois education –
to teach children fairy tales, and I was glad to see this welcome change. We went into another room and saw somo little girls dancing to a tut played by one of item on the plane. They were all very poorly clad, but they seemed happy and full of life
I was later told that this Institute could only deal with 600 children a day, so goodness knows what happened to the other children whose parents were among the 30,000 workers emi- played at the factory. The Social Int surance Funds subsidised this work to the extent of 400,000 roubles a year.
N
EXT we went to the Leningrad Hall of Cul- ture with seating capa-. elty Tuż 2,000 people in the great Hall.
all, fitted with It lon nagriificent wooden tipp seats and built so this everyone can obtain a splendid view of the slage. The Moscow Art Theatre. players were there this week, and the prices for admission were from 3 to 10 roubles per seat. There were many ante-robins in which cultural work was being carried on.
We saw some deligbitul tle girls being taught ballet dancing. They had already been under training for twelve monlits, and they were still doing exercises, twisting and tossing their little bodies into every conceivable position to induce grace and flexibility.
We went to the cinema there for about half an hour, where a fillin-a Hungarian Imported product, called Peter "was being shown. I thought it was decidedly second-mate, but the people thoroughly enjoyed it. The charge here was 1 rouble, and it seems 10 the general charge for the cheaper seats.
bo
The cinema was fitted with tip-up wooden chairs, and I was told that no- where in Russia do they have the ሲ። An our upholstered seals, such
British cinemat. surprisingly comfortable.
I found the arts Our guides claimed that they were more hygienic than upholstered
they seats, but amiled when I asked them did they their own apply that principle to
*Some people were buying from hawkers' barrows, and it was hard for me to reconcile myself to the idea that these were State depots."
homes. The seals in the Leningrad Opera House were well upholstered, no why not the cinemas?
After this we went through the Uni versal Stores, immediately facing the Hall of Culture, and exploded the myth about the 500 to the fund roubles exchange. The goods displayed here were fantastically high in price, taken at the official rate of exchange. A string of beads which would cont about 1 in London was here priced at 0.80 roubles, which works out at about 24. what ladies' artificial silk blouses, and not very good quality at that. priced at 43.48 rouble, would cost about £7 12, at the lleial mte
We were interested in peering in at the shop windows in the Nevsky Pros pect. It was supposed to be called the October Prosper but nobiały seeingd to take any notice of the new pame, White bread we found priced at 2.20 'roubles a kilo, which worked out, nt the official rate, ni about 78. Gd.
The stops on the Nevsity were far more commodious and earried mult more extensive stocks than any we had Acen up to now. We saw many small rates where people were drinking beer and volita. Both cafes and people looked rather dowdy and we were nazed at the number of cracker window panes, due. I was lufarned, to the shortage of glass in Russia
In the poorer districts there were few shops and these were definitely inferior to that we now on the Nevsky Pros pect, but then you always expect to ind the best shops in the principe". virects of the city,
Bam
UT the people? What am I to say? I could natay-they are well dressed or even better dressed than when I was here last.
The one exception which made me doubt this generalination was at the Opera, where I mw far more colour than I had seen on the streets. I saw no trners of food shortage, and the people must have been buying more food than In 1025, when there were scarcely any shops open at all.
Sir Walter Citrine's diary, jront which the above is an extract, will be pub Hahed on July 6 by Mesars. George Routledge and Sons, under the title. "Search for Truth in Russia."
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