Good jobs aplenty, and a good life Nea dd lechstAis sins omebil batts Hly meebo) ooh ny a ol fs te IN SIBERIA By JAMES LEECH Young people from all over the Soviet Union — and from all parts of the Yakut Republic — have flooded into southern Yakutia to be part of the fabulous industrial and social complex being created there. It isn’t as though there are no jobs in easier conditions. The USSR has had full employment since 1930; its socialist system has a job for everyone who wants to work. For the young people I spoke with there were qualities of life involved — not simply employ- ment at high pay. **We built the school with our own hands,”’ 25-year-old Nikolai Kruk told me. It was not just that builders had built a_ school. **What I liked about it,”’ he said, was that there was nothing here; we had to start things anew, and when you start things anew you see the results!” Individual and Collective Nikolai, a member of the Young Communist League, had left Byelorussia where he had worked in a furniture factory near Minsk. He arrived with the first team in April 1975. ‘‘When I first came it was as I expected, a few homes on wheels — and taiga’’ (forest). He smiles about it now. But — “It was very difficult to adjust to the local cli- mate. December 1975 and January 1976 were very difficult,” he admitted. It drops to —40° in this region(Celsius or Fahrenheit, they meet at —40°). It’s been known to go to —S0. “T was asked if I wanted to leave,’ Nikolai recalls. ‘““But I said: ‘No, if I leave I'll never test pose myself. We were talking about the indi- vidual in this vast development which occupies the attention of the whole Soviet Union. The in- dividual came through as being — each one — unique, but still a well-adjusted member of a col- lective. *“We built the school with our own hands, weight-lifter, ** said this bricklayer, spare-time artist. Nikolai Kruk (left) and Leonid Lokotov, building workers. Nastya Pavlova, James Leech, Valery Farin iont: heads of con- struction organizations (back, | to r): Vasily Yevich from Byelorussia and Georgi llyash from Moldavia. BERKAKIT 0) In a visit to Soviet Yakutia, Canadian Tribune editor James Leech asked young workers on a giant industrial project about opportunities for youth in socialist society. *‘But by the first of September 1975 it began operation with a full staff of teachers.’ This *‘building anew’’ was, after all, not an ex- periment, not something tempo- rary. The new railway the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) — is the spine of the whole development. It runs somewhat parallel to and north of the old Trans-Siberian line. It, and the lit- tle BAM running north-south are designed to carry new riches from southern Yakutia and adjacent areas throughout the Soviet Union and to the world, while bringing in a wealth of goods de- manded by a frontier industrial development peopled with edu- cated, cultured men and women. The day the first train came to the ‘‘village’’ of Zolotinka (piece of gold), ‘*was the happiest day of my stay here,’ Nikolai said. *‘I expect to spend about eight more years here, finishing the present project.” Union Pay By contrast, young Canadians working in the government’s 10-month, $l-a-day scheme to oc- cupy unemployed youth or rest- less students in temporary jobs, respond to questions with uncer- tainty. In a recent report their comments betrayed the same ea- gerness to be conquering new worlds as was evident among Soviet youth. But, sadly, they remain untrained, uninformed and largely unmotivated. Many of them will again be unemployed at the end of the experiments. For Soviet youth, free educa- tion, guaranteed employment, and opportunities to test their in- dependence, are topped off by union pay — and in remote,areas, large bonuses. In Yakutia, for example, one gets salary plus a 10% bonus, in- creased by 10% each six months to a maximum 80% of pay. On top PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 25, 1977—Page 8 Map of construction area, showing BAM railway with Trans-Siberian to the south. Pacific coast is at right. i. Tribune photos — James Leech of this is a Yakutian bonus of 40% — but set at 70% in the area of this giant project. So a worker could receive his pay plus 70%. plus 80%! None I met was distainful of the bonuses, but many comments were matter-of-fact. “I personally had the same wage in Moscow,”’ said Yevgeny Evashkina, 39-year-old head of one of the building organizations..- ‘*The tradition here is not to count money. One thing that is signi- ficant,’’ added this former Minis- try of Transport worker who had suffered a heart ailment: “‘We left all our illnesses in Moscow. There’s no time here to be ill,’ he laughed. Part.of Revolution Another comment on motiva- tion came from writer Yevgeny Voevoden, when | talked with him in Leningrad. He detected ‘‘a sort of public contempt for money.’ Challenging Chinese propaganda charges of Soviet socialism becoming bourgeois, Voevoden declared: ‘‘Soviet youth went to Siberia. I believe they could not do otherwise. They were moved to it. It is part of our revolution!”’ In the ‘‘village’’ of Berkakit, Nastya Pavlova, a young Yakut social worker, who had served as a Komsomol (Young Communist League) functionary in her home town far to the north, said she joined BAM when they needed Komsomol leaders in certain trades. ‘‘We believe that the BAM construction is of great impor- tance to us — to the development of the future of the Yakut Re- public,’ she told me earnestly. “There are many trades in which women work in this pro- ject,’ she said. It has to be under- stood that railway building and coal strip mining are not the only pursuits, that the vast job of build- ing and servicing towns full of people provides a variety of jobs, but construction is still central. Many women do finishing work such as painting. “T believe women make up about 50% of the personnel,”’ Nastya said. ‘*They are very ac- tively engaged in the develop- ment of this project.’’ The words, “and some _ believe they 2 = = an oe & 3 Cc — a | 2 2 a beautify,’’ were also translated to me but I never did find out whether it was Nastya, or some- one looking at her, who spoke them. At 25, unattached, she planned to work here three years, then go back up north where, incidental- ly, she was earning as much be- fore coming to the project. Another young Yakut, Valery Fomin, 31, a building engineer and team leader, had worked as a builder on a state collective farm in the far north of Yakutia. ““When I heard of a Yakut or- ganization being formed to take part in this project, I joined,’’ he said. Naturally he came with his family, his wife, a teacher of Rus- sian, and their two children. Val- ery foresaw a fairly settled life for 10 years, then perhaps they’d go north again. ‘* Builders will still be of great importance,’’ he assured me. The crews worked with a rhythm despite early ‘winter’s freeze. The crane-equipped rail car loaded with sections of tracks-on-ties repeatedly hoisted them up, out and down onto the roadbed to be justified and an- chored, then moved on the new rails to the next section. Studies Music Amid these operations I met Gavril Vinokourov, a 25-year-old Yakut from 120 km north of Yakutsk. ‘‘This is where I want to be,”’ he said. Gavril, half of whose brigade is of Yakut nationality, is at BAM with his wife who is a member of the town council. His parents are collective farmers. In the sunny, snowy village of Zolotinka where I had prodded young Nikolai to tell me his story, I also met Leonid Lokotov, the SES aspen. + hme leader of a brigade of 18. men and two women. Leonid, born in Uk raine, has won recognition as a outstanding worker. He is a loc trade union leader among thé builders. “‘’ve been here three years, said Leonid. ‘I came when I wa 29, with my wife and our boy 11: My son is studying at school all at music school!”’ I asked him! repeat. ‘**Music school — it’s here if} Zolotinka,’’? he .explained. seemed a lot to ask, even more ! get, a music school in a place cl! out of the forest just over tw? years ago. ‘““My wife is a medical workée! at a kindergarten,’’ Leonid weil on. “Yes, she’s satisfied with the living conditions.” Some Will Leave : ‘*The members of my team a!) all young people. Some don! want to stay. Some are gettifl married and leaving the area. He went on to say, er | ‘*Four members of my team 4 studying in correspondent courses at the institute in Mi and the higher school Blagoveschensk. All members my team are learning differet trades, and each year take course (on the site). They all now have at least two trades.” As for himself: ‘I think nobod)| can stand aside from this co” struction. The whole country ! pouring ak into it. Being communist; I felt that this is ’ place where my work is m needed. I can’t imagine mys® not being here! We’ll stay till the BAM project is finished.”’