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From International Press Correspondence, Vol. II No. 4, 13 January 1922, pp. 33–34.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2019). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
In the hunger campaign Soviet Russia, bleeding from the wounds of six years’ war, with its industry and agriculture ruined by these wars, by an iron blockade and by innumerable acts of counter-revolutionary sabotage, has accomplished more than all the foreign relief committees and organizations together.
The Soviet government has provided 10,040,500 poods (approximately 150,000 tons) of seed grain for the winter sowing in addition to large quantities of grain to feed the starving workers and peasants and their children. Only 1,861,000 poods were obtained in foreign countries – mostly purchased by the Soviet government.
These figures are sufficient proof of the successful activity of our Russian comrades in the campaign against the famine. After the arrival of the seed all efforts were turned to the sowing. In many places they worked day and night – when daylight failed by the light of lanterns. The following table gives an indication of the degree to which they were able to attain the objective set beforehand.
|
Government |
|
Seed arrived |
|
Area planned |
|
Area actually |
|
Percentage |
|
Area sowed |
|
Percentage |
|
Samara |
1,909,743 |
8,000,000 |
426,831 |
53.0 |
529,600 |
80.5 |
||||||
|
Simbirsk |
1,125,375 |
500,000 |
235,831 |
47.1 |
445,200 |
62.9 |
||||||
|
Saratov |
2,008,820 |
1,000,000 |
900,080 |
90.0 |
167,600 |
117.2 |
||||||
|
Mari District |
320,000 |
139,956 |
74,177 |
53.0 |
136,000 |
54.5 |
||||||
|
Tchuwash |
557,598 |
174,859 |
14,587 |
88.4 |
138,400 |
104.0 |
||||||
|
Tartar Republic |
2,210,141 |
962,000 |
359,161 |
37.3 |
846,100 |
42.3 |
||||||
|
Ufa |
805,903 |
240,220 |
219,034 |
91.3 |
521,200 |
79.7 |
||||||
|
Votsk |
49,956 |
286,780 |
146,352 |
51.0 |
229,400 |
63.8 |
||||||
|
Viatka |
55,671 |
727,237 |
545,500 |
75.0 |
684,900 |
253.9 |
||||||
|
Astrakhan |
76,500 |
47,830 |
48,500 |
101.4 |
19,100 |
253.9 |
||||||
|
Tsaritsyn |
406,348 |
399,210 |
321,917 |
80.6 |
287,700 |
111.9 |
||||||
|
German Colony |
510,000 |
230,000 |
138,000 |
60.0 |
130,100 |
160.0 |
||||||
|
Bashkir Republic |
185,642 |
125,000 |
34,720 |
19.4 |
151,400 |
16.8 |
||||||
|
Ural |
293,481 |
46,000 |
40,000 |
87.0 |
24,000 |
166.6 |
Thus, thanks to the intensive labor of our Russian comrades the winter sowing was accomplished. The prospects for the spring sowing are, however, not very favorable since the governments which were still able to contribute rather large quantities of seed for the autumn sowing have today only little grain left. According to the figures of the Central Relief Commission the following quantities of grain are urgently needed for the spring sowing:
|
|
|
Poods |
|
Area to be |
|
Oats |
13,410,500 |
577,700 |
||
|
Barley |
1,985,600 |
340,200 |
||
|
Wheat |
12,470,700 |
2,299,000 |
||
|
Buckwheat |
1,512,300 |
205,500 |
||
|
Millet |
1,749,700 |
1,167,400 |
||
|
Lentils |
428,700 |
47,800 |
||
|
Peas |
401,200 |
42,300 |
||
|
Flax |
415,300 |
86,000 |
||
|
Hemp |
479,000 |
47,700 |
||
|
Mustard |
7,800 |
6,800 |
||
|
Sunflower |
416,400 |
228,000 |
||
|
Spelt |
440,000 |
44,000 |
||
|
Corn |
364,800 |
90,000 |
||
|
Total |
33,012,000 |
6,244,000 |
Russia itself can provide only a small portion of the necessary quantity, at most 15,000,000 poods. All the rest must be imported.
Workers and Comrades! Our relief campaign will be only patchwork if we only send food for the immediately necessary need, for the temporary alleviation of the famine. The furnishing of sufficient grain and of machines for an improved cultivation of the soil, which will enable a better crop in the future, is just as important, in fact even more important for the future and for the economic restoration of Soviet Russia. These are the present problems of the relief campaign which are of the greatest importance and which must be neither overlooked nor underestimated. We must do all in our power in order to help here as well and to ship the grain necessary for the spring sowing to Russia as soon as possible.
Last updated on 4 May 2019