Page:Yevgeni Alekseyevich Preobrazhensky - Third Anniversary of the Russian October Revolution (1921).djvu/19

 Rh remnants of coal. This was the most difficult time for us, but with the year 1919 there came an improvement. During the summer season of 1919, and up to the summer of 1920, we laid in a stock of 9,000,000 cubes, viz., twice as much as in the previous year. Besides this we recaptured the Donetz coal basin and the Ural and Siberian mines. We hope to obtain from all these mines before the end of the current year about 5,000,000,000 poods of coal. As to oil, over 130,000,000 poods have been sent by boat from Baku along the Volga and by rail from Grozny. By the end of the navigation period this figure will reach 150,000,000 poods of oil. Thus we have a supply of oil and kerosine to last a whole year. The supply of peat has also increased; in 1918 we obtained 58,000,000, poods of peat exclusive of the Ural and the Ukraine. In 1919 the figure was 70,000,000, and in 1920 it was 96,000,000, including the Urals and the Ukraine. Thus it may be seen that the most difficult time is now passed. The output of fuel is increasing and our industry is slowly but surely reviving.

We inherited the railways from Kerensky in a state of decline which continually grew worse. But even here we succeeded in checking the collapse, and in the course of the last month have effected notable improvements. In the spring of 1920, the worst period we ever had, there were over 60 engines damaged out of every 100. By the beginning of the autumn this number was reduced to 58 out of every 100. The state of the railways may appear more clearly from the following figures. By 1st January, 1918, there were 273 engines in a fit and proper con-