Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/42



UCH has been written since the Revolution about the economic exhaustion of Russia. But, from all that one reads or hears in this country, it is obvious that the character and extent of this exhaustion is realised very imperfectly. It is generally supposed that Russia's sufferings were analogous to the strain which can be observed in all the countries at war, though Russia may have been hit a little more severely. But the real destruction of Russia's industry and economic system is ascribed to the rise of the class war, or to the excessive demands of the workers which developed after the Revolution and made the strain intolerable.

This assumption is wrong. The fact is that Russia's industry was well-nigh destroyed before the Revolution; and the character and causes of her economic exhaustion during the war had very little in common with the economic sufferings of other belligerent countries. The other belligerent countries have suffered only from a gradual diminution of their resources in raw materials and foodstuffs, while the technical basis of their economic organisation remains unshaken. Nay more, one of the most striking phenomena of the war is seen in the enormous increase in the productivity of the countries at war. For example, the growth of machinery and plant in this country during the past three years has been absolutely unequalled. Never before was such a rapid increase recorded. In Russia, although as a matter of fact the productivity did greatly increase in the early years of the war, there was no corresponding increase of machinery and plant. Hence the increase in productivity could not but have the effect of wearing out her industries and leading towards a