supply of manufactured goods which the
Russian peasant was accustomed to receive in exchange for his production
of food. On the whole the peasant himself eats rather more than he did
before the war. But he has no matches, no salt, no clothes, no boots, no
tools. The Communists are trying to put an end to illiteracy in Russia,
and in the villages the most frequent excuse for keeping children from
school is a request to come and see them, when they will be found, as I
have seen them myself, playing naked about the stove, without boots
or anything but a shirt, if that, in which to go and learn to read and
write. Clothes and such things as matches are, however, of less vital
importance than tools, the lack of which is steadily reducing Russia's
actual power of food production. Before the war Russia needed from
abroad huge quantities of agricultural implements, not only machines,
but simple things like axes, sickles, scythes. In 1915 her own
production of these things had fallen to 15.1 per cent. of her already
inadequate peacetime output. In 1917 it had fallen to 2.1 per cent. The
Soviet Government is making efforts to raise it, and is planning
new factories exclusively for the making of these things. But, with
transport in such a condition, a new factory means merely a new demand
for material and fuel which there are neither engines nor wagons to
bring. Meanwhile, all over Russia, spades are worn out, men are plowing
with burnt staves instead of with plowshares, scratching the surface of
the ground, and instead of harrowing with a steel-spiked harrow of
some weight, are brushing the ground with light constructions of wooden
spikes bound together with wattles.

The actual agricultural productive powers of Russia are consequently
sinking. But things are no better if we turn from the rye and corn lands
to the forests. Saws are worn out. Axes are worn out. Even apart from
that, the shortage of transport affects the production of wood fuel,
lack of which reacts on transport and on the factories and so on in a
circle from which nothing but a large import of engines and wagons will
provide an outlet. Timber can be floated down the rivers. Yes, but it
must be brought to the rivers. Surely horses can do that. Yes, but,
horses must be fed, and oats do not grow in the forests. For example,
this spring (1920) the best organized timber production was in Perm
Government. There sixteen thousand horses have been mobilized for
the work,