Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/45

 Rh through the enemy invasion of Western Russia was not even the main factor in bringing about the economic exhaustion of the country. The two other factors mentioned above were even more disastrous. Most important was the second factor: the factor of gradual attrition and wear and tear. Attrition as an economic term is well known, but the world never had such a striking example of it as in the effect of two years of war on Russia's economic life. The isolation of Russia, which practically prevented worn-out machinery from being replaced; the enormously increased demands of the war on factories and railways; and the early breakdown of repair shops—all these contributed to increase depreciation to an almost destructive magnitude.

The railways and means of transport suffered most. The engines, the rolling-stock, and the very rails were being worn out literally before the eyes of the people. There were no rails in stock wherewith to replace those which were worn out; there were not sufficient springs, axles or wheels with which to repair the rolling-stock. And the rate of depreciation on the railways grew yet greater, thanks to the overloading and to the feverish and unskilled handling of the traffic under the strain of war. The locomotives were continually being sent to the shops for repair in ever-increasing numbers; while the rate at which they could be repaired continually diminished. In many cases repairs could not be carried out for lack of some small essential parts like pressure gauges, which, before the war, had mostly been imported from abroad. The yards of the railway works and of the famous Briansky, Kolomensky, and other locomotive factories were packed with hundreds and thousands of broken-down engines, some of which could not be repaired at all, and the rest only very badly and after considerable delays. At a later stage not only the lack of complicated patent parts, but of simple things like springs or even screws or rivets prevented the proper and speedy execution of repairs. Even horseshoes and nails had to be imported from