esc ae _

RICHES ABOUND WHERE
FUROPE AND ASIA MEET

By MONICA WHYTE
Th MOSCOW
FA in py the new circus arriv-
ra 5 capital of the Auto-

a €public of Bashkiria,
litces pometer registered 58
Peto melow zero Fahrenheit.
ui ckly a and animals were

undled into waiting
in ation with one excep-

: ld’ Circus elephant. He just ©
‘be.

fit into anything avail-

0) *
4 Susly Jumbo would have

Walk

from “ea keep his poor feet
iho zing on the Jong trek.
that Pro ie the local factory
mely mapes valenki (high, ex-
‘R0t the m arm, heavy felt boots)
tistory. Ost unusual order in its
ft an el two pairs of valenki to
. This pprant — and fast!
lournati Ory was told us visiting
the Be OY the manager of
aminin® In Ufa while we were
tutally 2 the new and architec-
: _~ Maginative circus build-
U
mii Was founded as a Russian
Today fort in the 16th. century.
800, It is a thriving city of
at sty ae capital of a republic
a dies Europe and Asia.
any acUS is only one of the
ee hew public buildings
tour or 5 80ne up in the past
ferent ee years. Ufa is no dif-
~the b m any other Soviet city

penne crane is the most
Howey ature on its skyline.
Daca. in spite of the furious
a Construction, a serious
Csewhe Shortage exists here as
‘ Te, Primitive log cabins
erable acks still house a consid-
tion Percentage of the popula-
be y, eh all are scheduled to
aster + ec ording to the city’s
The 1evelopment plan.
taj rapucient, worn Ural Moun-
dary ;8¢ forms a natural boun-
ine Europe and Asia.
Rashkitia, €rn Urals run through
in ine public is extremely rich
ig a Wealth and forests. It
er. et by navigable riv-
Dlaing small lakes. Vast, rolling
In ¢ ptold across its expanses.
“from the variety of landscape
the iy Ural Mountains to
u ste —j i
NUsual ae is one of its

iene Bashkir tribes are first
icles hed in 10th century chro-
horses At that time they traded
their 8, furs, honey and wax with
ig Stil] en bors- (Bashkir honey
Soviet Considered the best in the
dic Union.) They were noma-
I6ty, .¢Smen and hunters. In the
the | Su after the defeat of

ongol-Tatars. ; by... Russian

* Not ride, but the prob-

forces, the Bashkirs asked for
protection and swore loyalty to
Tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible) .
Over the succeeding three cen-
turies the character of the land
and its people changed. Russian
peasants fled to Bashkiria in
hopes of escaping feudal oppres-
sion. Mari, Chuvash and others
arrived looking for relative peace
and stability. Forts and towns
were founded. Agriculture was
introduced and the Bashkirs be-
gan to settle down, although the

process took some 300 years. In
the 18th century, Peter the Great
called Bashkiria “the key and the
gate” to the East and Central
Asia. From this period dates the
beginning of mining and metal-
lurgy in the Urals. In the 19th
century, the healthy climate and
invigorating koumiss (fermented
mare’s milk), the native bever-
age, attracted many Russians,
among them Tolstoy and Chek-
hov.

Today Bashkiria is a multina-
tional republic of 3,800,000 peo-
ple. Bashkirs and Tatars form 47
percent of the population in al-
most equal numbers, Russian 43
percent and the balance is made
up by some 30 other nationalities
—including Chuvash, Mari, Uk-
rainians and Jews.

If in the past the horse was a
symbol of the republic, the oil
rig is now. Although oil was dis-
covered in the thirties, it was
not until] the fifties and sixties
that production of “black gold”
really got under way. At the
present time, Bashkiria produces
one-sixth of all the crude petro-
leum extracted in the Sovier
Union and holds pride of place
in the oil refining industry. The
small Bashkir town of Oktyabr-
sky is known far beyond the
borders of the Soviet Union.
This is where the ‘“Druzhba“
(Friendship) pipeline starts.
Through it oil flows west to Po-
land, GDR, Czechoslovakia and
Hungary.

Huramshin Talgat, 37 years
old, is manager of the Novo-
Ufimsky oil refinery outside Ufa.
He started life in the plant 18
years ago as a mechanic, kept on
with his studies at night school
and finally received his engin-
eer’s degree. He is a deputy to
the Supreme Soviet of Bashkiria
and has been the plant’s manag-
er for the past five years. The
oil refinery employs 5,000 work-
ers and trains all its own per-
sonnel at day and night courses.

As already mentioned, Bash-
kiria’s economic development be-
gan mainly in the post-war years.
Large-scale enterprises ‘account

for 90 percent of the gross prod-
uct. In addition to the petroleum
industry, natural gas production
and chemical and metallurgical
industries are the main branches
of the economy.

Before 1917, in spite of the
fact that the Urals were known
as the “foundry of Russia,” agri-
culture was the mainstay of
Bashkiria. However in two
World Wars and the devastating
Civil War which raged over the
territory of the republic, agri-
culture suffered heavy losses. To
use livestock farming as an eX-
ample: Not until 1953 did the
head of livestock reach the pre-
war figure of 1940 and in 1940
the number of livestock had not
yet regained the 1913 figure.

In spite of grave difficulties,
all branches of agriculture are
flourishing today. The gains
made in grain-growing and sugar
beet farming are truly impres-
sive.

While I was in Bashkiria I had
the opportunity of visiting @
town that has not been on the
map-of the Soviet Union for very
long. The first stone of Salavat

‘ was laid in 1949 and the town

was incorporated in 1954. Sala-
vat owes its existence to the
presence of oi] and is one of the
largest refinery centres in the
republic.

The mayor of Salavat is an
energetic engineer in his middle
thirties who is fond of hefting
barbells in his spare time, fre-
quently taking off for various
spots in the world in his capacity
as a weightlifting judge in the in-
ternational category. The mayor
spoke of his town with enthusi-
asm and in concrete statistics:

Salavat has a population of
107,500. The average age is 24.

Over 40- nationalities of the
U.S.S.R. are represented. Some
2,300 babies are born annually
and the overall death rate aver-
ages only 4.1 per 1,000. The town
is fully electrified and all homes
are supplied with heat, hot and
cold running water and a sew-
age system. One-third of the city
budget goes for education and 43
percent for medical services.
There are 13.3 hospital beds per
1,000 people. Every second adult
is involved in some form of edu-
cational classes. “In Canada,”
the mayor said and looked at me,
“there are 920 books per 1,000
population, whereas in Salavat
there are 1,200.” There are nine
libraries, three cinemas and four

palaces of culture. Each inhabi-
tant attends 15 film showings an-
nually (an extremely high aver-
age: In western Europe, which
boasts a high attendance, the fig-
ure is 10 annual visits.) and
7,000 people take part in ama-
teur song, dance, drama, and art
groups. With 23,000 families in
Salavat, there are 20,000 TV sets.

Bashkiria was the first autono-
mous republic to be formed in
the Soviet Union. Lenin signed
the decree on the 21st of March
1919 and the week I was there
marked the republic’s 50th anni-
versary. It was a joyous occa-
sion. The people of Bashkiria
have a right to be proud of their
achievements.

Aim is Palestinian liberation

The following are extracts
from the interview by Jacques
Coubart published in Humanité.
Abou Lotf is a member of the
political bureau of Al Fatah
Yasser Arafat is the president of
the Organization of Liberation
of Palestine.

ABOU LOFT, Al Fatah is a
national liberation movement.
The objectives of this movement
are to liberate Palestinian terri-
tory and to erect a non-denomi-
national Palestinian state in
which Christians, Jews and Mos-
lems without discrimination will
enjoy the same rights.

From 1962, when it was born,
until 1967 our movement carried
on a struggle of political explana-
tion, in order to prepare for arm-
ed struggle. This we began when
the Palestinian people had ex-
hausted the peaceful ways of try-
ing to make their cause under-
stood.

“The state of Israel is not the
result of a normal historic evo-
lution. It is an attempt to exert
pressure, to prevent the evolu-
tion of our region according to
the laws of history and of human
societies.

“This is why the fundamental
solution for the establishment of
peace in the Middle East will

_ only, be realized by the removal

WWOORIES. 2 Fale ta es ip (eh eee
eee “PACIFIC TRIBUNE— MAY. 23, 1969—Page 9
eA Oe COR Nadi he Ry S bs Fey Oe

of the economic, social, political
and military roots of the zionist
ideology, so that history can re-
sume its true course.”

YASSER ARAFAT. “When we
took up arms against zionism,
we did so against a movement
inseparable from world imperial-
ism. As my comrade has put it,
we are not fighting against a race
or a religion. We regard Israel as
the gendarme for imperialism in
the Middle East.

“There is no question that the
state of Israel was constituted
on a religious basis. Clustered
around a military junta, a small
group is today in power. All are
of the Jewish minority of the
west. These contradictions are
inherent in the very creation of
Israel.

“Many Jewish people who
came there were mislead by the
idea of the promised land. This
fact we take into account when
we speak of the solution of the
Palestinian problem. We have
never declared it was necessary
to expel Jews of either western
or eastern origins from Palestine.
That there are among them pro-
gressive elements we know, and
we have greeted them in the re-
solution we adopted in the Cairo
Conference for Aid to the Arab

ad

“At the present stage of our
national struggle we need to
rally all the movements, all the
honest patriotic forces which
are opposed to imperialism and
to zionism.

“That our struggle will be
long, and that this unity must be
achieved for success, we under-
stand very well. In this struggle,
for which we need the support
of progressive forces everywhere
in the world, we also know very
well who our friends are and
who our enemies.

“There is an urgent problem
—that of the people of Gaza.
Even bread is lacking there.
The zionist policy is to oppress
the inhabitants of Gaza and, by
reducing them to starvation,
force them to leave. This is the
first stage of their plans for ex-
pulsion.

“Israel refuses to allow aid to
be sent by the Red Cross of Arab
countries. It can hardly refuse
that aid be sent by the French
people. I ask that they act now,
that they concern themselves
with this humanitarian cause.

“For a political solution based
on the legitimate national rights
of the Arab peoples, including
the Arab people of Palestine, as
well as on the right to existence
of the people and the state of
Israel!”

,

ASIST

Sittin