ONE OF THE MANY TRAINS CIRCULATING SOVIET PROPAGANDA THROUGHOUT RUSSIA
In the Orel Government there were 391 of these communes, covering 39,000 dessiatins,[[B]] with a population of 29,000 people. In the province of Moghilev there were 225, with more than 11,000 people and 40,000 dessiatins of land. In the Vitebsk government there were 214, covering 60,000 dessiatins of land with a population of 60,000. In the province of Novgorod there were 72, with 11,376 inhabitants and 22,253 dessiatins. In Kaluga 150, with 6,500 inhabitants, covering 12,000 dessiatins. Officials estimated that this number would be doubled before the end of 1919. In the Petrograd Government 830 communes were organized, with 17,000 dessiatins and 15,313 inhabitants, all of whom were laborers. In Tula there were 78, with 5,465 workers, and 8,554 dessiatins of land.
[B]. A dessiatin is approximately 2.7 acres.
LABOR LAWS
The Soviet Russian Code of Labor Laws passed by the Russian Central Executive Committee in 1919 covers the whole field of Russian labor activities. To workers in other countries some of the provisions will appear drastic, but it must be remembered that Russia is still an armed camp and that the war has disorganized industry, transportation and almost every other form of endeavor. I was informed that every effort was being made under these laws to coordinate the productive forces of the country with a view to securing the highest possible production for the pressing needs of the Russian people. When the war stops, as it no doubt will in the immediate future, Soviet Russia will be faced with the problem of diverting into productive channels its three million soldiers, as well as other millions now engaged directly or indirectly in the war. Just as we had our “Work or Fight” measures in this country for the purpose of utilizing the nation’s human energy in a profitable way in time of stress, so in Soviet Russia every effort is being made to place the workers where the greatest results to the nation as a whole will accrue.
In connection with the passage of these labor laws, it must be borne in mind that the working people in Soviet Russia enjoy much more control at the present time than do the same class of people in possibly any other country. One must take into consideration the fact that these laws were initiated by the unions themselves or their representatives, who shared jointly with the political side of the Government the responsibility for maintaining the new order. Many of the former so-called bourgeoisie of the old regime, I was informed, have spent the past two years doing nothing but live by speculation and they stir up trouble on the slightest pretext against the new Government. It was primarily to reach recalcitrants of this character that the compulsory provisions were inserted in the code. The result of the passage of these laws did not, so far as I could judge, diminish the enthusiasm of the Russian workers for the new order, but on the other hand their energy seems to have been stimulated, no doubt because they were beginning to feel that through their various organizations this step had been taken for the express purpose of forcing into production every man and woman in the country capable of producing and helping to reconstruct Russia.
Article I of the code deals with compulsory labor. It provides that all citizens of the Soviet Republic, with the following exceptions, are subject to compulsory labor:
First, persons under sixteen years of age; second, all persons over fifty years of age; third, persons who have become incapacitated by injury or illness; fourth, women for a period of eight weeks before and eight weeks after confinement.