Constructions of Communism: Rebirth of a city

| New Stalingrad rises from war ruins

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When Gausdrne pick up a can war bases—strung across machine as their purpose, Kiti: these projects have no more sol-

daily paper or slick magazine our vast undeveloped ‘territor- mat in British Columbia to sup- id foundation. They have come

Showing a map of their country ies. Certainly, the only large-
the chances are it is printed to il- scale developments’ they will
lustrate some cold war article, to

Remaking nature
Conquest of
| the Volga

MOSCOW

Two years have passed since
the Soviet government announc-
€d its stupendous plans for con-
Structions on the Middle and
Lower Volga at’ Kuibyshev and
Stalingrad, thus bringing abun-
+, ‘ance and security to one of the
Potentially most fertile areas of

Urope, — ‘

These two construction works
f Communism are links in the
8Teat Volga scheme that means
Tadical’ reconstruction of the
Whole water réute, deepening it,
Shortening it, braking its our-
Tent, confining its floodwaters
@d, finally, uniting it with the
‘Oceans,

The great Volga scheme is a
child of Soviet conception. First
he White Sea-Baltic Canal was
built, providing a northern out-
Jet for the future Volga system.
“hen the Mariinsky Canal, link-
‘Ng the Volga with the Baltic,
Was reconstructed. In 1937 the
Yankoyo Dam-on the Upper

' ‘Olga created the Moscow Sea,
Taising the level of the water 54
feet ana providing safe naviga-
Hon up to the city of Kalinin.

Then the building of the Mos-
©OW-Volga Canal brought over
Million gallons of Volga
ater a day to Moscow. The
2ext stage was the Shcherbakov
,'Ydroelectric development, built
,oWer down on the Volga, creat-
Bore the vast Rybinsk Sea whose
Waters are released systématic-
ally to maintain navigable depth
48 far as the city of Gorky, more
than another 300 miles,

_ After the war construction

Work started on the fourth unit
f the creat Volga project—at
orkj,

The controlled release of the
Waters that are to be damned at
Xuibyshey. will improve ship-
Ding conditions along the fur-
ther course of the river down
sm) Volsk where the Stalingrad
®8 will begin. And the Stalin-
Stad development, in turn, will
vide for unhindered iver
"ansport down to Astrakhan and
© Caspian Sea.
t Thus, from source to mouth
he 8reat river Volga will be re-
“Onstructed by 1955, and the
Sttire Work will have been com-~
fteqd in less than’ 25 years,
Years that included the Second
Worta War and the period of
Post-war reconstruction. '
But navigation is only one of
he problems the great Volga
Moiject is solving.
€ hydroelectric develop-
Ment at Kuibyshev and Stalin-
12d will make it possible to ir-
| Sate and provide a water sup-
oe for some 35 million acres
sf fertile land. The two hydro-
aetic stations now under con-
‘el Uetion here will provide more
Whaticity than Italy or than the
la, Sle of Sweden and Switzer-
a together. |The country will
an at huge quantities of coal, oil
Ste, cther fuel now burned at
_ “88m-power stations,

ply aluminum, Ungava in Que- into being not as part of a plan
read about have only war or bec to supply steel. And the to raise the living standards of

indicate the war bases—Ameri- supplying of the American war new cities being built around the Canadian people, but as part

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of the exploitation of Canadian resources for purposes that constantly threat-
en to embroil the Canadian people in war.

There are still other maps, but not in Canada where no such schemes for

changing the course of rivers, altering climate and opening up great new areas
exist. Those maps have been published for all the world to see,although Can-
adian daily papers have not printed them. What is more, the new seas, the
new canals, the new cities and the great hydro-electric projects shown on
those maps are taking shape. The dream is becoming the reality.
& There is a new city at Stalingrad — spacious new squares, entire streets of
modern apartment houses, magnificent public buildings, new modern plants,
‘parks and gardens — all where ten years ago ‘there was only the rubble left
by those who dreamed of destroying the Soviet Union and instead were them-
: selves destroyed. Soon, within the next three years, there will be a new. sea
at Stalingrad, more than 300 miles long — three times the length of Lake
Okanagan in British ‘Columbia.

Tt is ithe map’ of these projects that inspires the Soviet people, for it has
only the conquest of nature as its purpose and only the peaceful development
of their own resources, only the creation of a higher and more abundant life
\for themselves as its end. The prosperity to be derived from the Constructions
of ‘Communism will be reflected in a thousand ways in the daily lives of the
Soviet people, in their homes, on their tables, in the clothes they wear; at
their work and in their leisure, as it is already ibeing reflected in the price cuts
and plentiful goods resulting from increased production. And the prosperity
‘will be enduring, not only because it is geared to peace but fundamentally be-
cause it is founded in a socialist system in process of transition to commun-
ism. : .

Top left: A view of a housing development on Krasno-
presnenskaya Street in Stalingrad for workers in the Petrov
_plant. °

Centre left: A sanatorium at Kislovodsk in the Caucasus ©
for workers in consumers cooperatives.

Bottom left: An excavator, ‘similar to those used in con-

- struction of the Lenin Canal, loads stone onto a truck dur-
ing construction of the Main Turkmenian Canal, another
of the Constructions of Communism.

Top right: New apartment houses in Stalingrad.

Bottom right: The Square of the Fallen Heroes is one of
the new Stalingrad’s hallowed places.

: PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 5, 1952 ap PAGE 3