CIENTISTS assert that the,re-

sults of man’s action on,,the
nature of our planet may be com-
pared with the action of geological
factors. The vast areas of culti-
vated soils whose original struc-
ture has been altered, the network
of irgation canals that have
brought life to deserts, the opening
up of new lands by the clearing of
forests—all this is the work of hu-
man being, the work of human

hands.

But this activity in transforming
the face of the earth has proceeded
in the first place slowly, in the
second place spontaneously, and
in the third place very often to
man's detriment instead of to his
benefit. The clearing of forests
has caused rivers to grow shallow,
irrational ploughing has deprived
the soil of its fertility, incorrect
pasturage of livestock ‘has resulted
in a spread of desert sands pre-
viously held in check by grass.
Look at the field in the United
States ruined by erosion, at the
advance of the sands in Algena.

But now, finally, man has risen

to a level of social development
when his action on nature becomes
not a slow process but a rapid one,
hot spontaneous but rational, when
it ‘works not to his detriment but
to his benefit. When it becomes
not’a self-seeking enterprise under-
taken by lone individuals but a
‘ sweepingly organized and_scien-
- tifically substantiated, socially use-
ful application of collective forces
of social reason.

®
Where do we find this planned,

‘scientific, organized action on na-
ture that brings happiness to man?
We find it only where the people
have taken their destiny into their
own hands, where they are

‘real masters of their country, where
they work not for the prosperity
of the few but for the happiness
of all. We find this in the Soviet
Union, the country in which the
great socialist revolution took place
thirty-three years ago and where
the most just and most progressive
social system in history has tri-

umphed.
he October Revolution, the

inspirers and organizers of which
~ were Lenin and Stalin, made the
precious treasurer of science an

technology the property of all the
working people; it unchained the
initiative of the people and armed

them for the struggle to master~
During the ©

the forces of nature. During
Stalin five-year plan periods it has

béen organized with especial vigor. -

Today, in the postwar years, We

are witnessing a drive to regenerate —

the land that is unprecedented in
the history of mankind, a drive
for the further development of the
produictive forces of the USSR.

Two years ago, at Stalin’s in-
itiative, the government of the
USSR and the Communist party
adopted a sweeping plan for an
offensive on drought.

This plan envisages the planting
of forest shelter belts to put an
end to the disastrous action of
drought, and on such a scale that
in fifteen years the area occupied
by these belts in the European
part of the USSR alone will be,
equal to the area of England,
France, Italy
zium taken together. —

The Soviet people are enthusi-
astically carrying out this Stalin
plan. In 1948 and 1949 some
1,500,000 acres of forest were
planted and sown. _ This year,
1950, will see 1,700,000 acres
planted, instead of the 950,000

acres originally planned, There is

Holland and Bel-

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3 Pogat he anetan
‘Green lines
of peace’

in the USSR

eT ek Ee

every reason to assume that the
plan for the transformation of the
drought-afflicted steppes will be
fulfilled ahead of time,

o /

Today we are on the threshold .

of a new series of undertakings on
an even grander scale, also a com-
ponent part of this great plan for
the transformation of nature. —

‘A decision has been adopted to
build two new hydro-electric sta-
tions on the Volga, at Kuibyshev
and at Stalingrad. They will be
the largest in the world; the capac-
ity of the Kuibyshev station will
be about 2,000,000 kilowatts, or
much more than that of the Dnie-
per hydro-electric _ station; the
Stalingrad station will have a ca-
pacity of not less than 1,700,000
kilowatts.
generate electric energy for indus-
trial and agricultural purposes.

The water of the Volga River
will be raised up to nrigate and
supply water to huge areas in the

-Trans-Volga and Caspian districts

that today are arid. The con-
struction jobs will be carried
through in an unprecendented brief
time; the Kuibyshev stations wil
go into operation at full capacity
in 1955, and the Stalingrad sta-
tion in 1956.

In 1956-57 new works will be

completed on another great river—

the Dnieper. Another powerful
hydro-electric station will be con-
structed at Kakhovka and will
help to irngate the dry steppe

“lands in the southern Ukraine and
-jorthern Crimea.

In the eastern section of the
soundless Soviet Union—in Cen-
ral Asia, construction of the Main
Turkmenian Canal will be launch-
sd. Here the scope of man’s
\ction on nature will be such that
it can really be likened to a geo-

These stations will

a4

JOSEPH STALIN

By NIKOLAI
MIKHAILOV

ogical factor.

During 1951-57 the waters of
the mighty Amu-Darya River wil
be turned westward. A new can-
al nearly 700 miles long will car-
ry them through the Kara-Kum,
one of the world’s largest sand
deserts. Here these waters will
irrigate and revive tracts on which
‘only meagre thorny plants grow
today. :

The hot, sun-baked desert will
give way to broad and flourishing
fields of cotton, fruit orchards and
lush pasture lands; new towns and
rural settlements will arise.

Over an expanses stretching
from the Great Russian Plain to
the foothills of the Central Asian

~ mountains the entire face of the

earth will be altered.

More than 60,000,000 acres of
dry steppes and deserts will re-
ceive water from those major rivers
of the USSR—the Volga, the
Dnieper and the Amu-Darya.

This will be regenerated land, rich

(

TUT

and fertile land. From this land
the Soviet men will reap countless
fruits. And he will reap them in
a matter of some five or seven
years. .

e j
What does all this speak of ? Of
the fact that the socialist system,
born as the result of the victory of
the workers and peasants in Oc-
tober, 1917, has brought the coun-

try unprecedented opportunities for
economic development, for ad-

- vancing-the wellbeing and culture -

of the working people of all the
nationalities of the USSR.

Of the fact that the Soviet
people, led by the Communist
“party and Joseph Stalin, having re-
habilitated what was destroyed in
their country by the German fas-
cist invaders, are confidently fol-
lowing the road to communism.

Of the fact that the Soviet
people are utterly occupied with
their peaceful labor aimed at im-
proving life, at developing human
happiness, and that they abhor the
very thought of war, which the
Anglo-American imperialists are
endeavoring to thrust upon the
peoples of the world.

The grand construction works
of Communism which have been
begun in the Soviet Union are con-

struction works of peace—“green
lines of peace,” the Soviet people
call them. ~The Soviet people
want peace, and shoulder to shoul- |

der with all progressive mankind
they will uphold the cause of peace
against the intrigues of the war-
mongers. .

Women find
real equalify

HE great variety of food

to be found in Soviet stores
and restaurants and the real
equality of women in all spher-
es were the features of Soviet
life which most impressed Bri-
tish women who recently made
a three-week tour of the So-
viet Union. The women’s dele-
gation made the tour at the
invitation of the Soviet Wom-
en’s Anti-Fascist Committee.

Following its return to Lon-
don two weeks ago, the dele-
gation held a press conference
at which Miss A. Gould, secre-
tary of the delegation and as-
sistant secretary of the Civil
Service Clerical Association,
challenged A. Jones, ex-editor
of the British Ally, to a public
debate on the motion: “That
the picture of Soviet life is
deliberately misrepresented in
the press of this country.”

(The British Ally was the of-
ficial journal issued by the
British embassy in Moscow for
several years until the British
foreign office recently decided
to cease publication.) ~

At the London press confe-
rence, all members of the dele-
gation expressed their amaze-
ment at the great variety of
food they found in Soviet shops
and restaurants. The Soviet
people today are much better
fed than the British, they de-
clared.

From the moment they
touched Soviet soil they were
absolutely free to see what
they liked and talk with whom
they liked, delegates pointed
out. .In fact, they said, “the
plan of our tour was made by |
us here in Britain.”

They were asked about free-
dom of expression in the So-
viet Union. They replied that
they had broadcast several
times over Moscow Radio with |
completely uncensored scripts,
and that they had spoken at
public meetings and published
articles in local newspapers.
All this was done in complete
freedom, without any censor-
ship.

As for the, Soviet people, they

added, “we were all amazed to
see how freely the boys and
girls in the schools the dele-
“gation visited were criticizing
what they found wrong. So-
viet children are educated to >
become critical people. It
would be unthinkable to res-
trict their freedom of thought
and of expression as soon as
they grow up”, the delegates
stated. oe

The British visitors found
-the stores in Moscow, Kiev
and other towns crammed. with
all types of goods, not only
food, clothing and other goods
for everyday needs, but works
of art, paintings and the like,
which the citizens were buying
all the time.

Actual as well as formal
equality of women with men
has long been a tradition in
the Soviet Union, and women —
there could not understand
that in Britain such equality
did not exist, for example,

with regard to wages. The |

delegation was startled to find
that the director of the famous
Moscow Metro was a woman—
+ a fact unthinkable for the Lon-
don Underground — and that
women. university. professors
were commonplace in the So-
viet Union.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 3, 1950 — PAGE 5

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