Russia

Roads.—Road communication, so essential for cultural and social development, as well as for transport of goods, is peculiarly bad in Russia. Apart from the fact that the majority of roads are so badly constructed that they become impassable during spring and autumn, just when they are specially needed owing to the blocking of rivers by floating ice, so that neither sledge nor boat communication is possible, they are altogether absent in many districts. It is calculated that the loss to the state through the bad condition of roads is not less than 35o million rubles per year, while a further 200 millions is lost through spring and autumn closure. The number of motor vehicles in Russia in 1927 was estimated at 12,000; this should be compared with the fact that the United States, a smaller country with better railway transport, had more than 23 million motor vehicles in 1928. It is sometimes stated that road and railway construction in Russia is comparatively easy owing to the general low relief. Against this, however, must be set the difficulty for the railways of water supply in the hard winter frosts; in the Baikal section of the trans-Siberian railway and in other regions the frozen subsoil adds to the difficulty. A kindred problem will arise in the marshy tundra regions of both Russia and Siberia, when the railways are extended farther to the north.

Road construction over vast areas labours under this difficulty of a permanently frozen subsoil, which hampers drainage, while deformation due to freezing and subsequent thawing of the sur face ground is another problem, to which is added the disintegrat ing effect of the great summer heat. In the steppe, semi-steppe and desert areas drifting sand and dust are the enemies. The trans-Caspian and Orenburg-Tashkent railways need constant care in this respect and government experimental stations for selecting plants which will prevent sand movement near the lines have been established. The strain on steel lines of severe winter frost followed by intense summer heat is great. The road problem is being attacked with characteristic vigour by the present gov ernment and by the nation at large. A society of "Friends of the Road" has been established and posters illustrating the dangers of bad roads and the advantages of good ones are displayed everywhere in order to encourage local soviets to take action. A special branch of the Academy of Sciences studies the science of road construction in relation to soil and climatic difficulties, see N. I. Prokhorov, Soil Science in the construction of highways in the U.S.S.R. (Leningrad, 1927). Thousands of miles of new road have been laid and in Leningrad province especially and in some other districts, new surfaces have been constructed for old roads. In 1928 a special "road week" on American lines was begun, with wireless, poster and other propaganda throughout the country. The ultimate effects of this national effort may be very great and much volunteer, in addition to government, con struction and repair goes on.

Air Transport.

A very important development since 1923 is the spread of civil aviation, of incalculable importance in a country of such huge land surfaces. Regular services are established between Moscow, Nijni-Novgorod and Kazan, Tashkent and Alma-Ata, Bukhara and Khiva, Sevastopol and Eupatoria, Moscow and Odessa, Odessa and Batum, etc., and

experimental flights to Yakutsk and Vladivostok are being car ried out with a view to a future regular service.

In the last years of the 19th century, the Tsarist government made little effort itself to provide the necessary increased pro vision for education for the masses, and suppressed all private and public initiative in this direction. Secondary education re mained the privilege of the few. The Soviet government considers that the campaign against illiteracy is the most urgent task of the state. A certain section of writers on Russia under the old regime, some Russian, and some foreign, took up the attitude that the peasant was happier and wiser in his illiterate condition. These writers, however, ignored the heavy toll of life and especially child life consequent on this illiteracy; the impossibility of coping with infectious and contagious diseases among the people themselves and among their live stock. In some rural districts the mortality of infants under one year was more than 50%. The lowering of agricultural efficiency consequent on illiteracy cannot be over estimated; in the absence of scientific information the peasant merely relied on trial and error, and on tradition. The enthusiasm of the government for education is supported by the keen enthusi asm of the people themselves and great progress was made between 192o and 1926, the number of literates per i,000 in 1920 was 465 while in 1926 it had reached 567, and progress among women was specially marked. Education among the peasant population, however, lagged markedly, 758 men and 626 women per ',coo of the urban population being literate in 1926 as against 524 men and 274 women among the rural population.

The Commissariat for Education.

The Commissariat for Education has charge of education for children and adults, of science and art, of literature and publications, including the State Publishing Department, of museums, theatres and cinemas. The national minorities also have their own local departments, and education is in the vernacular; this fact has been of enormous importance in spreading literacy. The difficulties of learning to read and write in adult life are serious even if the language used is the mother tongue, and they become insurmountable for most people if a foreign tongue is the instrument of instruction. Initial progress among some nationalities was slow in the absence of a written language and of printed books. But rapid progress in this respect has been made and most minorities are now supplied. The Turkic tribes have adopted the Latin script in place of the Arabic, thereby much reducing the difficulty of learning to read. In some districts, notably the Ukraine, a literature in the mother tongue existed, but had been suppressed by order of the Tsar; in these cases progress has been very rapid; the provision of educational facilities for children of school age in the Ukrainian republic now takes third place in the six republics of the U.S.S.R., though the Ukraine was formerly noted for its illiteracy. In this respect the Transcaucasian Federation occupies first and the White Russian republic second place.