THE

SOVIET
NORTH

—rapid advancement
through planning

By BERT WHYTE
Tribune Staff Correspondent
; MOSCOW

Canadians sing -about “the true
North strong and free” but the fact is
that the strongest and freest true North
exists in the Soviet Union.

Not at all surprising is the state-
ment made by Canadian author Farley
Mowat on his return from a visit to
northern Siberia on Canada’s treat-
ment of our Eskimo citizens: “It’s a
question of blatant exploitation here
versus sincere development in the
Soviet Union . . . The Soviet Union
has provided them (the. northern peo-
ples) with the knowledge needed for
20th century living, without. robbing
them of their culture and heritage.”

The problem of rational development

of the Canadian North is not a new

one, and Ottawa recognized the need
for Canadian-Soviet friendship and co-
operation as far back as the Second
World War. A Canadian Affairs pam-
phlet published by the Wartime Infor-
mation (Vol. 1, No. 12, July 1, 1944)
featured two excellent articles by Vilh-
jalmur Stefansson and Malcolm Ross,
which stated the lines on which such
post-war relations should proceed.

A preface declared: “Canada and the
U.S.S.R., youthful growing countries,
neighbors around an ‘Arctic Mediter-
ranean,’ have an intense interest in
maintaining their wartime coopera-
tion. Intense because they are neigh-
bors and must learn to live as neigh-
bors. Because they face common prob-
lems of reconstruction and growth, for
which a peaceful world is essential.”

Stefansson, Canadian-born authority
on the development of the North and
its resources, veteran of many Arctic
expeditions, wrote:

“Canada and the Soviets have in
common vast frontier territories that
await development. Three undeveloped
regions, the Canadian, the Alaskan and
the Soviet, occupy most of the circum-
ference of the Arctic Mediterranean.
Their colonization, whether on the
North American or the Eurasian side,
will bring us steadily nearer to each
other, until coastal cities, theirs and
ours, dot the shores of the Arctic sea.

“This approach in miles, and the
similarity of methods to meet similar
conditions, ought to prove mediums
for developing the understanding of
one nation by another, a powerful
means towards that sympathy and co-
operative goodwill which come from
our knowledge of how their minds and
hands work and from their correspond-
ing knowledge of us.

“The best way to study this com-
mon problem would be to compare the
plans of Canada and of Alaska for
northward development with those of
the Soviet Union. But this cannot be
done; for as’ yet: the United States has

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 3, 1970-——Page 6

put forward no program for the deve-
lopment of Alaska, nor has Canada
announced such a program for her
northern territories. But the Soviet
Union has a program in her Five Year
Plans which we can study, speculating
on how it might go if North America
were to adopt a similar or a different
approach ...

“What the West was in North Ame-
rica during the second half of the 19th
century, the North is today in the
Soviet Union. The frontier which the
U.S.S.R. is setting out to develop is,
in area, more than either the whole of

Canada er the whole of the United.

States. So the job they are tackling is
bigger than our job could be, with a
quarter of our land developed al-
ready... :

“In proportion to the size of Cana-
da, which is only a third of the Soviet
Union, we may have as. much petro-
leum as they; and as well located, if
not better, for the coming development
of our new North and theirs.

“But they have an element in their

program so strange to us that it is.

doubtful whether we can make use of
methods similar to theirs immediately
following the war. The Soviet Union
plans economic progress as we plan a
war. In the case of the northern fron-
tier, they search for resources, having
in mind that cities will rise to handle
new discoveries. When the discovery
is reported, careful studies are made
immediately; and, if the verdict is
favorable, a commission goes out to
determine what kind of city to build,
just where to place it, and how to ar-
ange for such transportation and other
connections with the outside world as
the projected community may need.
Then the city is built as soon as pos-
sible, and the communications ar-

In 1961 geologists discovered an oil deposit near Shaim, a small town in Wes
Siberia. It soon became apparent that this was one of the largest oil deposits i"
the world. Shown here is the construction of the 1000 km Ust Balyk-Omsk pipelif®
which will carry the crude oil to the large processing centre at Omsk. The wo”!
nts along the route, is scheduled for co™|

which began simultaneously at 22 poi
pletion this year.

ranged. A case in point is Igarka,
- which in 1930 was a village of less
than 100 on the Yenisei, about 50 miles
north of the Arctic Circle. As a result
of definite planning, it had become a
modernly equipped city and port : of
20,000 by the beginning of the war.”

More than a quarter-century has
passed since Stefansson wrote the
above words. The U.S.S.R. has made
giant strides in developing its North-
land; several cities exist within the

Arctic Circle. Yet Canada has failed -

to meet the challenge of the North.
As The Times special supplement on
Canada (Feb. 23, 1970) commented:
“A mere glance at the atlas is suf-
ficient reminder of the staggering size
of Canada’s Arctic and sub-Arctic ter-;
ritories: more than 1.5 million sq., miles
of mountains, forest, lake and tundra.
Yet all this vast wilderness supports
barely 50,000 people. For the most part
thé giant still sleeps, awaiting the day
when man’s developing technology can

_ awaken its full potential.”

Writing in the same supplement, Pat
Carney of the Vancouver Sun notes
that “in spite of a population of only
45,000, the majority either Indian, Es-
kimo or Metis, the biggest social prob-
lem: in the North is unemployment.”

Apparently endorsing Ottawa’s poli-
cy of allowing U.S. monopolies to get
a firm grip on Canada’s natural re-
sources, Carney suggests that the re-
cent voyage of the American 150,000-
ton tanker Manhattan “could accele-
rate the pace of the development” by
transporting .crude oil through the
Northwest Passage to the United
States Atlantic seaboard.”

A passing reference is made to the
fact that “the Manhattan’s appearance
in Arctic waters, flying no flags, raised
the issue of Canada’s sovereignty over
the Arctic channels, and the fact that
her hull was holed by ice aroused
fears of pollution.”

The Canadian magazine, Maclean’s,
devoted almost a whole issue to the
problems of the Northland some years
ago (Oct. 17, 1964). One writer, W. E.
Senior, put it this way:

“Canada is probably the most back-
ward of the Arctic powers. Without
taking account of Russia’s enormous
Arctic research work, Canada lags sad-
ly behind the United States, which has
a much snfaller Arctic territory in
Alaska. There can be little argument
that Canada’s northland—the vast
sweep of land, lake and inland seas ex-
tending from the treeline northward
to the tip of Cape Columbia for almost
2,000 miles—has been allowed to lag
behind the rest of Canada to such an

extent that it is virtually a forelf
land to most Canadians.” i

Some 15 years ago Ottawa spe
$15 million to build a showpiece @,
in the lower Mackenzie district: ‘f
administrative centre was named If
vik and was intended to replacé f
dilapidated village of Aklavik rf
miles away on the other side 2 o
delta. But rents in Inuvik were Joan
with the result that’ the Eskimps i
live in the slums of old Aklavik, WY,
as Maclean’s reported: “The h0 fl
are falling down, ‘the school is dit

_and dilapidated, the ‘ancient and 5 d.

fy ‘hotel’ looks like something er)
a Klondike movie. Indeed, the vi.
village is being eaten away by eee
and eventually will fall into the #
kenzie River. The Aklavik school Bf
only to grade eight, but that is 4 9
as most Eskimo children go anyW i

Ottawa claims that the situation
changed for the better in the past” |

ay!
years, and points with pride to ei
pointment in 1965 of the first not
member of the Council of thé cit!
west Territories, a ‘long-time gil!
servant named Abraham Okp! ‘pst
Okpik himself is aware that thé rhe!
mo people are in danger of losinE
Eskimo Inuk culture, and @%P" pg
this fear in an article he wrol® igh
ago for the Eskimo language M4”
Inuktituk: itt?
“There are only very few Be is)
but there are millions of whit® "ye
like mosquitoes. It is somethin& gh
special and wonderful to be;@ h)