Electric power must be utilized for the cultivation of land. The practical realization of this problem has been started on the fields of the electric power transmission department. This Fall we succeeded in tilling the ground by means of a power-driven plow.
In order to build up the rural industries, practical work must be carried on, simultaneously with that which is being done on the particularly important lands, also on such lands as will not be the bone of contention between the proletariat and the peasantry.
What lands are these? The swampy areas, the forest-covered lands, those districts where the people are starving, the dry lands, the scarcely populated districts, etc.
These are the brief outlines of the program. The foundations of absolutely all of the development of rural industry mentioned have been laid down. The practical steps for the materialization of the plans have to some extent already been, or are being, undertaken.
All of this work the Supreme Council of National Economy had to carry out under extremely difficult conditions. Prior to that, a considerable part of the sources of raw material for the rural industries has been completely torn away from the Soviet Republic. Another serious hindrance was the insufficient number of already existing organizations, which would be capable of fulfilling the tasks outlined by the Council. A considerable amount of harm has been done to this work by interdepartmental friction.
But difficult as the present conditions may be, and no matter how strong is the desire of the former ruling classes to turn back the tide of life, this is impossible and can never take place.
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION OF AGRICULTURE.
NATIONALIZATION OF AGRICULTURE
C—FROM “ECONOMIC LIFE,” Nov. 7, 1919.
The nationalization of agriculture is one of the most complicated problems of the Socialist Revolution, and perhaps in no other country is this problem as complex as in Soviet Russia.