3. VLADIMIR KUZNETSOV Rank-file Soviet citizen has real voice in affairs In the Soviet Union, all power is in the hands of the workers. It would be natural,, then, that Vladimir Kuznetsoy, Moscow lathe operator, would -have some positive opinions on what's going on about him. Here he is introduced by Ralph Parker, correspondent of the London Daily Worker, in the third of a series of articles on the Kuznetsov family, who could be described as the ‘‘Smiths’’ of Moscow. Parker formerly rep- resented the New York Times in Moscow. Vladimir Kuznetsov likes to refer to himself as a rank-and-file Soviet citizen. of view of a rank-and-file Soviet citizen,”” he says in his blunt, emphatic manner. Let us take him at his own evaluation and consider him as one representing millions of others of his generation. It is a generation whose working life By RALPH PARKER began with the upsurge of Soviet industry 20 years ago. His face is round with a small snub nose, dark eyes and a very wide mouth that smiles easily. He is very articulate and uses his arms to emphasize his speech. Of middle height, his war wound makes him limp slightly. He has a blue serge suit to which to pin his service ribbons when he goes out visiting or for special occasions at the’club. On summer evenings he is generally to be seen in a linen shirt with a touch of embroidery at the throat. Vladimir’s father was a semi-skilled worker who welcomed the revolution unreservedly. In his enthusiasm he began to read attentively and to take an Mterest in the way the country was run. But his lack of qualifications held He worked a turret lathe. He ad never been out of work. He Could easily have changed his Job if he had wanted, as he could now, with so many Mos- Cow firms advertising for new hands, There is something more .than habit and the sense of loyalty ac- quired in twenty years’ association. His social life centers on the fac- tory club, especially now that his Wife has returned to her old job there, And when the war was over and reconversion came it was like Starting all over again, with new Problems raising every week and the same atmosphere of dynamic change, How could an old worker quit then? ' Actually reconversion went much faster than Kuznetsov had expect- fd, one reason being the smart- Ress of the lads coming from the bor Reserve schools. He is full of praise for these youngsters who have learned their Skills on the. latest Soviet-built lathes and begin with a knowledge that he had to acquire by long &xperience, They set a fast pace, he has to admit, though, he adds, it’s the Older hands who work out ways of keeping costs down, using up Scrap and rationalizing production. : Kuznetsoy works an eight-hour 8y, six days a week, with a month's paid holidays and days off or national holidays. Pay day comes every fortnight, and _ it’s then he settles trade union sub- Seriptions and taxes. The atmosphere of constant fort to reach targets, in which he has worked since a lad, and all the evidence he sees of hard- Won success, has made Vladimir very sure of his rights as a Worker, He likes nothing better than an argument about technical matters eae I suspect he is slightly scorn- ul of those who can’t follow him on those subjects. e ne day he came back from an €xhibition of contemporary paint- ng in high indication, There was & picture of a workshop. “You could see the fellow didn’t know jaything at all about automatic athes,” he grunted. It's positively insulting to the Working class to paint like that.” He had written that in the book Roviied at the exhibition for pub- © comments, he said. ae the same time he has 4 emendous respect for anybody €ndowed with special gifts—writ- ts, musicians, painters. Only he €xpects them to work for him Just as he is working for them. Dine has not had very much edu- oe but is very quick to recog- eine Slipshod work and to resent y attempt to pull his leg. ; “Well, that’s the point RALPH PARKER hit back and he was greatly concerned that his three sons should master their trades. Vladimir had been Working 14 years in the same factory, starting there as an apprentice. During the whole of his work- ing life, Kuznetsov has _ been aware of belonging to a collec- tive. If he works well, his ef- fort benefits his mates in the workshop. If badly, if he clocks in late or is suspected of malingering, it’s his fellow workers who show their disapproval, It’s to them he has to account, for the workshop as a whole has pledged itself to cer- tain obligations. It’s difficult to exaggerate the role of the group spirit in keeping people up to the mark in Soviet life. It infuses the whole of social activity with the volunteer spirit. As a rank-and-file Soviet citizen, Viadimir Kuznetsov has a very real say in the running of his_ country. aa European dockers will not unload PARIS U.S. ar An ever-growing peace movement is developing in Europe, high- lighted by refusal of dockers in several Italian and French ports to war materials from the U.S. unload The most recent refusal to unload war equipment came from dock workers’ of the Free Territory of Trieste, at about the same time the General Assembly of Bologna (Italy) Railroad Workers unan- imously resolved to give “‘material and moral] solidarity to the Italian and French dockers and to refuse to carry materials to serve war purposes.” Verona, Italy, rail workers took a similar pledge and prepared to rally the “entire weight of the Italian rail employees’ union be- hind the fight for peace.” German unionists are participat- ing in a ‘Europe-wide peace move- ment, in which workers are re- fusing to manufacture or move weapons for the North Atlantic pact, which they regard as war- inciting. : The movement is strongest in Africa, where arms shipments destined for use by French for- ces attempting to crush the Viet- namese Republic have been sev- erely curtailed and the General. Confederation of Labor has de- creed expulsion for any members helping to transport them. Two U.S. Navy destroyers, the Power and the Steinaker, are moored alongside the Hamburg docks to intimidate longshoremen who have refused to unload U.S. arms shipments to Europe, the Berlin radio charges. In France, 2,000 scientific work- ers, university professors and stu- dents demanded a ban on the use of atomic and bacteriological arms. In Finland, a national peace committee is circulating petitions demanding a peaceful solution to the world’s problems. The Swiss Labor party is con- gentrating all its activities on a Million signatures — peace petition aim CHICAGO The National Labor Conference for Peace has launched a peti- tion campaign for one million Signatures from the ranks of labor calling for the outlawing of atomic weapons of mass de- struction and for immediate cno- ferences between the U.S. and USSR to settle outstanding dif- ferences and end the cold war. The petition drive will reach its climax on April 12, anniver- sary of the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, when a delegation of the peace conference’s na- tional committee in session at Washington will present the sig- natures to President Truman. continuing campaign for the pres-~ ervation of peace. In neighboring Austria, local peace committees are springing up and many industrial plants display posters reading: “This Factory Is For Peace.” The Norwegian committee of peace defenders has denounced “the mad rearming program” and urged all workers in the country to set up factory peace groups. Similar peace organizations are functioning in Great. Britain, Bel- gium, Romania and Hungary, where a recent meeting of the World Federation of Democratic Youth called the’ battle for peace the most important job facing young people today. ‘ world’s: population, they are en- gaged in transforming its two big- ,sest countries from economic backwardness and poverty to ad- |vanced modern development and ‘high standards of living. ~The So- viet Union, which started 30 years ago, has moved a long way along this path. China is only beginning, but the direction is the same. Such work cannot go forward smoothly, of course, unless there is peace to make it possible. If the Soviet-Chinese treaty were ‘a move towards war, all its other pro- visions would make little immed- iate sense. It is clear to ‘any un- biased judgment, however, that —and not the war trend. In fact, even those with a strong prejudice against both countries can find no arguments to prove the con- trary. : China, for example, has been the scene of great civil wars for 30 years—civil wars which involved other nations. China’s disunity tempted Japan to actual aggres- sion, contributing to the Second World War. Today the victory of ithe Chinese revolution has brought time in the memory of most hu- mans. The Russian-Chinese border is 3,400 miles long. The eastern bor- der area, Manchuria, has bred in- ternational wars for 50 years. Jap- an fought Chinese armies in its fields in 1894-95. Czarist Russia Japan landed troops there in 1918. Chinese warlords and Soviet troops clashed on the frontier in 1929. Frem 1931 on, Japan actually oc- cupied and enslaved this rich re- gion. She built it up as a_ base against Russia, invaded the Soviet Union from it in 1939 and 1940, and, was finally expelled by the Red Army in 1945. Today Manchuria is not only Chinese once more but lies on a border as peaceful as that between the U.S. and Canada. The Soviet- Chinese treaty, guaranteeing that both countries wil] repel new. in- vasions by or from Japan, is an assurance that peace will continue. Actually, the assurance of peace and tranquil developments in China (and the USSR) could make both ,into huge markets for construction goods, which the y need. Export of most such goods is now prohibited by the U.S. gov- ernment. If the USSR and China are forced to do without such trade now, according to a United Press dispatch, speeded-up ex- change within the eastern trade bloc “could well eliminate the U.S. as a required factor in the future development of China.’” In other words, not China but the U.S. may be left out on a limb. That’s how much sense the cold war makes in the light of events in Asia; American workers are be- ing laid off in plants throughout market” for their goods abroad yet across the Pacific a virtually unlimited market lies waiting. the treaty strengthens world peace}, peace to that country, for the first | and Japan fought there in 1904-05. | North America because there is “no Sino-Soviet pact links 700 million in peaceful labor By ISRAEL EPSTEIN The Chinese-Soviet treaty, announced from Moscow on February 14 after extensive negotiations between Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, Chinese President Mao Tse-tung and their respective foreign mmisters, is certainly a major event in world history. Directly involved im the treaty are two of the world’s most numerous peoples, 200 million Soviet citizens and almost 500 million citizens’ of Chma. Representing one-third of the ‘U.S. policy knocked into cocked hat’ : SAN FRANCISCO The newly concluded treaty be- tween the Soviet Union and China demonstrates the futility of U.S. foreign policy as it affects the in- terests of the American people themselves, William Mandel, one of the formost American autheori- ties on the Soviet Union, said here last week. (Mapeel, research worker and lecturer and author of two books, A Guide to the Soviet Union and The Soviet Far East and Central Asia, visited Vancouver in 1946, ad- dressing a number of meetings in the city.) Mandel emphasized that the So- viet-China alliance “knocks the whole ‘containment of Russia’ pol- icy into a cocked hat.’ “I agree with Herbert Hoover that despite the Marshall plan the U.S. would be fighting practically without .allies in case of another war.’ WILLIAM MANDEL “New prestige for the USSR” © - He said the alliance will also raise both China’s and the Soviet Union’s prestige to new heights all over Asia. “Extension of a $300 million loan at one percent interest will cer- tainly impress businessmen in Jap- an and elsewhere,” he remarked. He pointed to the fact .that while the Soviet Union was re- linquishing ownership in the _ Manchurian railways and other Manchurian properties, rightly claimed by her as. trophies, Brit- ain retains tremendous invest- ments in India., . The Soviet loan will also have repercussions in Marshall plan countries since it is strictly a loan for purchases with no strings at- tached while Marshall plan loans contain many onerous conditions. such as giving U.S. investors the right to buy up industries. The.U.S., he said, should pur- sue exactly .the same policy to- wards .the Soviet Union and its allies as the Soviet Union follows in its relations with China. This would benefit the U.S. ee- cold war to an end. He recalled that Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin told a visiting U.S. congressional committee in 1945 that the Soviet Union wanted to buy 50,000 U.S. machine tools, 10- 000 locomotives, 150,000 freight — trucks and much other material. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 24, 1950—PAGE Pos onomically, he said, and bring the ~