Page:Yevgeni Alekseyevich Preobrazhensky - Third Anniversary of the Russian October Revolution (1921).djvu/24

 24 the railways, and deliver the corn levy to feed the workers, he must do it with the consciousness that in the long run he is doing it in his interests and in the interests of the industry of the whole country.

This does not mean that we are going to stop turning out ploughs, scythes, nails, until the railways are put in proper order. We shall continue turning out these obejects as before, only their further development and increase will be held up until all available forces and means have been directed to the foundation of our industries, viz., the railways and water transport.

The supply of food is also increasing every day. The Soviet Government considers it reasonable to take from the peasants their surplus of corn, and supply it to the workers at a fixed rate instead of entrusting this task to speculators. The first year of the Soviet Government, namely from October, 1917, up to August, 1918, 30,000,000 poods of corn was supplied by the Food Commissariat. From the autumn, 1918, to the, autumn, 1919, the supply was 110,000,000 poods.

The following year (autumn 1919 to autumn 1920) the supply was 255,000,000. The levy for the year 1920–1921 is fixed at 454,000,000. The chief centres of supply will be the Kuban and Siberia. In view of the bad harvest in the Central provinces, the levy from these provinces was reduced as compared with the previous year. In spite of the bad harvest, there is every reason to believe that by the autumn of 1921 the levy will yield not less corn than that of the previous year.