Page:Michael Farbman - The Russian Revolution & The War (1917).djvu/22

 was a stupendous block of empty trains at their destination. With both lines packed with rolling-stock and fresh trains arriving all the time there was no other way of relieving the block and making room for the new arrivals than to hurl everything over the embankments and scrap enormous quantities of rolling-stock. Vast numbers of railway coaches too were used as shelters for the troops during the winter. But by far the great mass of lost rolling and engine stock was left to the enemy in the retreats, together with vast quantities of food supplies. Eventually the carrying capacity of the railways fell so low that the Government introduced quite a novel scheme: the so-called "goods-traffic weeks." When Petrograd or the front was in danger of hunger or a shortage, the Government would prohibit all passenger traffic in certain zones for a week or a fortnight at a time and use the lines solely for goods and supplies. It is easy to imagine how this clever device influenced the economic situation in Russia.