make
them, but because we could get them in no other way. In so far as is
possible, we shall have to make ourselves self-supporting, so as
somehow or other to get along even if the blockade, formal or perhaps
willy-nilly (imposed by the inability of the West to supply us), compels
us to postpone cooperation with the rest of Europe. Every day of such
postponement is one in which the resources of Europe are not being used
in the most efficient manner to supply the needs not only of our own
country but of all."

I referred to what he had told me last year about the intended
electrification of Moscow by a station using turf fuel.

"That," he said, "is one of the plans which, in spite of the war, has
gone a very long way towards completion. We have built the station in
the Ryezan Government, on the Shadul peat mosses, about 110 versts from
Moscow. Before the end of May that station should be actually at work.
(It was completed, opened and partially destroyed by a gigantic fire.)
Another station at Kashira in the Tula Government (on the Oka), using
the small coal produced in the Moscow coalfields, will be at work
before the autumn. This year similar stations are being built at
Ivano-Voznesensk and at Nijni-Novgorod. Also, with a view to making the
most economic use of what we already possess, we have finished both
in Petrograd and in Moscow a general unification of all the private
power-stations, which now supply their current to a single main cable.
Similar unification is nearly finished at Tula and at Kostroma. The big
water-power station on the rapids of the Volkhov is finished in so far
as land construction goes, but we can proceed no further until we have
obtained the turbines, which we hope to get from abroad. As you know, we
are basing our plans in general on the assumption that in course of time
we shall supply the whole of Russian industry with electricity, of which
we also hope to make great use in agriculture. That, of course, will
take a great number of years."

[Nothing could have been much more artificial than the industrial
geography of old Russia. The caprice of history had planted great
industrial centers literally at the greatest possible distance from the
sources of their raw materials. There was Moscow bringing its coal from
Donetz, and Petrograd, still further away, having to eke out a living by
importing coal from England. The difficulty of transport alone must
have forced the Russians to consi