Factories and Electricity

First and Largest Tractor Factory

Located in the Tractorstroy community, just outside of Stalingrad, is the largest and the first tractor plant of the U. S. S. R.

It was established to help solve the agricultural problem. The plan of the factory was worked out by Russian and American engineers. Around the giant plant has sprung up a new city-new apartments, schools, a theatre, and stores. Tractorstroy is one of the three plants planned for tractor production, and even though production is now going on, expansion work is still in progress to fulfill the requirements of the original plan.

Some months the production averaged from sixtyfive to seventy-five machines per day. The plant, however, was originally planned to produce 150 per day. The greatest record so far has been ninetyfive. Since my return from Russia I have learned that the production record has increased and is almost up to the desired quota. Lack of skilled labor, damage done by the Ramzin plot (a plan to sabotage the Five Year Plan instigated by Professor Leonid Ramzin), and lack of confidence have beenthe three most important factors in the failure to reach the full production quota sooner.

Because of labor shortage it was necessary to select workers from any source possible, many of them coming from the villages. When production first started, thirty per cent of the workers never had done factory work before, which made it necessary to give special courses in factory technic. A large per cent are women, all of whom receive the same wage as the men when doing the same kind of work. This prevails throughout the U. S. S. R, and instigated the motto: "Equal pay for equal work."

In addition to the different technical schools of the plant, all of which give both day and night courses, there is an elementary school. When the plant first opened eighty per cent of the workers were illiterate. This percentage has been greatly reduced by the establishment of schools, but most of the workers continue to study some course. It is not uncommon for some of the better educated workers to act as teachers.

The average wage is 120 to 150 rubles per month. The lowest wage for unskilled labor is seventy rubles, whereas the skilled workers earn beyond 400 rubles.

Piece work was introduced to establish greater production and to meet the demands for tractors. One might question the ethics of using piece workunder Sovietism. The Soviets use the same methods as the capitalists in making a production quota, holding the heads of departments responsible for the result and an accounting of expenditures. But their purpose is different than the capitalists.

They are following none other than the profound teachings of Marx by including in their society this part of the bourgeois system, which Marx realized was inevitable from an economical and political standpoint, since a communist society evolves directly from the "womb of capitalism."

At present the concentration is on time, but ultimately, when the industrialization of the country nears completion, the workers will have more leisure with the same or more wages because industry will be operated by socialist principles-production for social needs only. Even now the seven hour day is universal in all the Soviet industries. Furthermore, there can be no overproduction resulting in a crisis, as in capitalist countries, for if anything near overproduction would be reached, the hours of employment would be cut down without loss of wages to the workers.

Under socialism there is a plan and an aim to do the most good for the most people, whereas under capitalism there is no plan and the individual capitalists direct things to benefit themselves. There iscompetition in the U. S. S. R., too, but differing from the kind we are accustomed to. It is called socialistic competition, not the destructive kind used by the capitalists, but for the purpose of completing their industrial plan ahead of time and increasing the present supply of goods. This socialist competition is among groups of workers and departments in various factories to see which can produce the most and best products in the shortest possible time. In some of the factories visited I saw banners displayed in the winning departments where this kind of competition had taken place.

Throughout the entire tractor plant the usual seven hour day is in effect, although in some departments the work-day is only six hours or less depending on the kind of work.

These questions were asked the plant manager and answered as follows: Q. "Was piece work the order of the government or was it taken up by the workers?" Ans. "The All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions passed upon this plan." Q. "Does the plant manager have complete power over the workers?" Ans. "Yes. He is appointed by the government."

All the hiring is done by a special shop committee. Workers can be laid off by the shop foreman though in some cases discharges are handled by theshop committee. When a worker thinks he has been dismissed unjustly he has the right to appeal his case to the Supreme Court, a right prevailing throughout the Soviet Union. Imagine taking such a case to the Supreme Court of the United States!

I found nearly all the machinery used in the plant was from Germany and America. In the steel, forge, mold, and metal pouring departments white workers are employed. In America this is quite the contrary since negroes usually do this work and are exploited in every possible way. Quite a number of foreign workers are employed here, too, the majority being Germans and Americans.

One American followed me all over the place eager to explain everything for the sake of conversing in English. He was a tool repairman hailing from Toledo. He appeared to be satisfied with his job and said an increase in salary was offered him, but not needing it, he had turned it down. Imagine anyone turning down a wage increase I He reasoned that he was already receiving enough money to live comfortably on, and, since at the beginning of his employment several wage increases had been granted, he felt he was being treated squarely.

The Largest Agricultural Implement Factory

The city of Rostov has something to be proud of other than clean streets, beautiful parks, and excellent stores, for it is here that the largest agricultural implement plant, employing 18,000 workers, is located. There are two other smaller plants of this same type under construction in the U. S. S. R., one being in Alexandriya about a day's train ride west from Rostov. Construction on the Rostov plant began in July, 1927, and production was established in January, 1931. This large plant alone manufactured one-and-a-half times more than was produced in the pre-World War times. The minimum wage at the beginning of production was fifty-two rubles per month, the average in 1931 amounted to 100 rubles per month, 350 rubles being the highest wage paid workers in the plant at the time.

I found, generally speaking, the Russian worker to be slower than the American, but at Rostov, in particular, each worker seemed to be "full of pep." The girls operating some of the machines were performing so rapidly that if one wanted to compare their speed with that of the American machine operators, it would easily surpass the latter.

Will Lenin's Plan Come True?

It is said that Lenin was making plans for the electrification of Russia before the Revolution had been won. What a man! Perhaps the Five Year Plan was conceived in Lenin's brain at that time,too. Who knows? At least it is logical to believe that his electrification idea may be partly included in the present electrical construction work now going on in Russia.

On the Dnieper river, near the center of the Ukrainian Republic, a new city called Dnieperstroy has sprung up almost over night. The bigger project here is the construction of one of the largest electric stations of the Five Year Plan. Already there are almost 50,000 people living in this community and the full figure at the end of the five years is estimated to run up to 60,000. Besides the huge hydro-electric station, there is a chemical plant manufacturing chlorine and caustic soda, an aluminum, and a metallurgical plant.

The dam which is under construction is 830 meters in length (nearly one-half mile) and will have a power station containing nine turbines. This darn on the Dnieper, it is estimated, will provide not less" than 850,000 horsepower. This can be increased by a further diversion of the river waters and with a reserve of steam power. Each turbine has a capacity of producing approximately 90,000 horsepower or 65,000 kilowatts. The electricity supplied by the Dnieperstroy electric station is to be produced cheaper than any other station in the Soviet Union, the cost being only one penny for eight kilowatthours. In addition to the power station a four gate canal is included in this gigantic undertaking, thus making the river navigable from this point, which it never was previously.

While I was watching some workers assembling the first turbine, an American engineer came up and began telling me everything about it. Then he took me over to the edge of the dam and pointed to a group of Russian women cleaning out a pit some several hundred feet, below us.

"These women," he said, "work harder and faster than any of the American workers I have had experience with. Just last week they helped in the concrete pouring with a will that beat anything that I have ever seen before. If this is the spirit of new Russia it is bound to win."

On the side of the river where the power station is being erected are many homes of American engineers and technicians. It is a little community in itself. The attractive brick and wooden bungalows gives the effect of a new subdivision so common in America. On the other side, where the canal is being built, street after street of new apartments are under construction.

My hotel was on this side and it was only partly finished in the interior as well as the exterior. At night I had to use my flashlight to find my roomsince the long hall which led to it was not equipped with electric lights. For my meals it was necessary to go half a block from the hotel over an unpaved and sometimes muddy street. The restaurant was in a basement of an unfinished apartment building. The manager of this restaurant always saw to it that the table where my interpreter and I ate was given good service. Often more food was brought than we could eat, and when we left he would ask both of us if we had enough.

Russia, like no other country, is changing every day. What was a plan yesterday is an actual thing today. Cities spring up in unthought of places and are soon thriving communities, but they are not the sort that pass out of existence after the rush is over, as our boom towns. There is a purpose behind every project undertaken in Russia that gives permanency to everything.

Since my visit to the Dnieper hydro-electric station the work was seeded up and the opening was celebrated on May, 1932. For a while progress was disappointing and things were beginning to point towards failure. Work was given a set back partly because of the damage done by the Ramzin plot as had been the experience of the Tractorstroy plant. An emergency session of the Communist Party Committee was called, and, with the help ofthe trade union, a study was made to determine wherein the trouble lay.

A plan was worked out whereby the Party recommended from three to four times more concrete to be poured than the engineers' original estimate. Other meetings with the trade union, government director, and the Party resulted in the opinion that over five times the amount of concrete could be laid. With the help of the communist members and the Young Communist League in donating their labor and working extra hours, not five times more than the estimate of concrete was laid, but six times, and a month later, seven times ! With the maintenance of such efforts it is not surprising the opening date of the Dnieper plant was such an early one. And with the F. Y. P. calling for forty-one more electric stations it looks like Lenin's plan will come true.

Chapter Twelve