BAKU, Azerbaijan

f you want to see what oil without

Rockefeller looks like, come to
Socialist Azerbaijan and its beautiful
capital, Baku. ‘‘Black gold” in Azerbaijan
and Baku is the source of miraculous in-
dustrial, agricultural, scientific and cul-
tural progress. Oil without Rockefeller,
oil with 50 years of socialism, trans-
formed a once backward, oppressed coun-
try of veiled women and 90% illiteracy in-
to an advanced industrial nation with a
flourishing science and culture, a land
in which women play a leading role in
every sphere of life.

Oil without Rockefeller, oil plus So-’
viet power, not only wiped out illiter-
acy; it made it possible for Socialist Azer-
baijan to teach more students than the
combined totals of Iran, Iraq and Turkey
(countries whose oil and other natural
resources are still subject to imperialist
pressures), even though the combined
populations of these countries is 15 times
that of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan, with a population of 5,110,-
000, has a student body of 1,600,000, who
are studying in 5,449 general schools, 79
secondary schools and 13 colleges. It has
100 students in college per 10,000 popula-
tion compared to 79 for the U.S. and 33 for
France. In 1920, the year of the final vic-
tory of the Socialist Revolution, there...
were only 62 persons with a higher educa-
tion in Baku. ;

Oil without Rockefeller makes it possi-
ble for Socialist Azerbaijan to train many
students from 38 countries, most from
Asia, Africa and Latin America. It has
helped to send specialists to aid in con-
struction of a port in Yemen, a power sta-
tion for the Democratic Republic of Viet-
nam, and to aid in prospecting for oil in
Syria, India and Pakistan, as well as in
the study of the earth’s interior in Social-
ist Cuba.

Oil plus socialism has increased the
gross output of Azerbaijanian industry
70 times since 1920 and made it the
world’s expert not only in oil extraction
but the production of oil equipment. Even
the U.S. has purchased license rights for
the use of Azerbaijanian turbo-drills. A
country only 50 years ago almost tatally
illiterate, it now has 27 scientific research
centers, 16,600 scientific workers, 582
Doctors of Science, 5,000 Masters of Sci-
ence and‘54 Academicians. _

@

In 1920 the life expectancy of Azerbai-
jan’s oil workers was 28 years; today it is
72 years, and the mortality rate is consid-
erably lower than in U.S., Britain and
France. We saw pictures in Baku’s His-
tory of Azerbaijan Museum which ex-
plained why Maxim Gorky described the
conditions of Baku oilworkers as the
closest thing to hell on earth.

Baku is a city sitting on an oilwell. In
Baku the oil derrick has joined the crane
as the Soviet symbol in the sky. But as
much of a miracle as its phenomenal in-
dustrial growth is the grace, beauty, the
atmosphere of relaxation and ease which
has accompanied it.

It is hard to think of Baku as.a sweat-
ing industrial giant, It is a giant dressed
up in green, adorned with archways of
shaded trees and cloaked with innumer-
able parks, squares and pavilions. And for
a city steeped in and surrounded by oil the
odor of oil is barely perceptible and only
on occasions near the shores of its bay.
Baku is an extraordinarily beautiful city.
Its thriving, dynamic, socialist present.
blends harmoniously with the charm of its
ancient past (Baku is 1300 years old).
Wide. boulevards lined with towering,

; ?

act eA | é

Oil
without
Rockefeller

By Mike Davidow

_ Sleek, streamlined structures are only a
stone’s throw away from narrow winding
12th century streets that breathe history
at every step.

A modern Academic City is being con-
structed (it is near completion), an 18-
story, 900-room Intourist hotel will be
finished in 1971, and Baku is the 5th Soviet
city to have a beautiful art-gallery-like
subway. But the glories of its past will
remain. The citizens of Baku and parti-

cularly its Young Communists take Part °

_ in frequent subbotniks (days of voluntary
unpaid social labor) to restore and main-
tain ancient buildings and monuments,

Baku, a city little larger than Cleve-
land, has a rich cultural life that includes
‘six professional repertory theaters with
large full-time acting staffs, and opera,
ballet and puppet theaters. All are well

* 20% PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY} JANUARY 28, 1972--PAGE 4:

Patronized by oil worke
generally.

Off sp Coast of Baku, 66
Sea, is the “‘oil city” -Neft aniye i
(built in 1949). It is a siske eae of
comfortable homes, shops, theaters
movies, restaurants, boulevards, hothous-
es, flower gardens, workshops, derricks
and cranes, all Supported by a vast net-
work of trestle-bridges Stretching out

like a huge spider over an area of
kilometers (114 miles). x yh

rs and the people

miles out to

= ® be
Neftyaniye Kamni is the largest of

several such ‘“‘cities on the sea.” They
produce 13 million of Azerbaijan’s annual
20 million tons (about 60%), at a cost three
times less than land-extracted oil and
with a labor productivity 17 times greater.
These sea cities are not only miracles of

engineering, but are tributes to the
ism of Azerbaijan’s oil workers.
iye Kamni is battered by a storm
pian Sea 330 days a year, with W#
high as 45 feet, and lashed by !
hurricanes. Production never cé4
matter how rough the weather, |
firm structure, built on stilts but
out to insure strongest support,
cessfully withstood all the Caspl?
gry assaults for 20 years. a
The 4,500 workers of Neftyaniy®™
ni, 850 of whom are women largell |
ing in research offices and if
jobs, do not live there permanetl
work in three shifts: one works 4

and rests at home in Baku 8 days;
works 9 days and rests for 6, and 0
works 10 and rests 5. They recell
above the pay scale for their job
cation paid on land, plus an additi0
ruble 20 kopecks ($1.20). for Nl
transportation. Special comforta!
homes with 3,800 beds provide te
ers with after-work rest and rel#
Besides being entertained by thel
amateur dramatic groups the w
are frequently visited by promin®
ists, including the famed Bolshl
here as everywhere in the Soviet
Study is the normal companion of!
More than 400 oil workers finished ™
city’s special technical school 7
their qualifications. 7
e I

Oil extraction on the Caspial
brings with it serious problemsi)
were frankly discussed with us by”)
city leaders and heads of the Acad
‘Science, The Caspian, for example),
of the most valuable reservoirs of
is the main source of the Soviet!
most prized fish export, black °
Stringent protective measures al
ly enforced. An extensive netwol?
pensive purification systems’ is”
stant operation to minimize the
effects of oil extraction. The damp
not been fully eliminated but it a
considerably diminished by thes® 4
ures.

Baku’s future is not solely 4
ent on ‘“‘black gold.’’ The city
industries, including 15 large ™
tool plants which manufacture 30%
Soviet Union’s oil equipment. New ye
cal and chemical industries have 7
Baku and in nearby Sumcaid, the?
city. Azerbaijan exports more that,
manufactured articles to 56 covl
Besides oil equipment, they includ®
steel products, tires, silk fabric,
cement, anditsfamous wines. |

Azerbaijan, which has tradill®™
suffered from droughts, has alS%)

‘formed miracles in agriculture. ?

revolutionary Azerbaijan 68.6% of}
belonged to the Czar, 29.6% to lal

and churches, while only 1.8% was")

by working peasants. Today all thé
belongs to its toilers. Today 400 coll A)
and 11 state cotton farms produe
times. the pre-revolutionary outp™
land of the wooden plough is now
by 47,000 tractors, 4,000 grain hat
combines, 1,500 cotton picking ma
and 18,000 trucks and agriculture
chines. A vast irrigation system ™
1,123,500 hectares of land.
Azerbaijan’s most treasured P

» eannot be exported — its beauty. T!

ple of Azerbaijan live in the grand®
snow-topped mountains. They S! ‘s
rapturous songs of their famous 12
tury poet, Nizami. They sing aS.

.- People who know they have really #”
ed their own ancient earth can

they ‘celebrate -50 years of
achievements.

WORLD MAG

SF ee