THE REVIVAL OF RUSSIA.*
Da. NANSEN'S work on the Famine Relief Mission has given him a familiarity with the conditions of Bolshevik Russia which it would be hard to equal. The famine is over, but its results have not yet been eradicated any more than those of the Revolution. Russia, in other words, is not yet on her feet, and the image Dr. Nansen would put into our minds is that of a giantess lying prone from anaemia rather than any organic defect, and he prophesies that if a little blood be infused into those veins she will rise stronger than ever. This life blood which will set Russia on her feet and incidentally• help to restore the prosperity of Europe is—commerce. The Western nations need the grain and other food-stuffs and raw material which Russia possesses in (potential) abundance, and Russia needs the manufactured articles, machinery chiefly, for which we find it hard to get a market.
On the surface there seems to be here a perfect balance of supply and demand which is only kept from settling to a uniform level by the prejudices of political parties. But if we look a little closer we shall see that Russia's abundance is only potential, that at present she has only enough surplus wealth to purchase very small quantities of our goods. In other words, it is not ordinary commerce which is needed for her restoration, but commerce accompanied, or preceded, by an act of faith in the paying power of the purchaser. Short term credit, Dr. Nansen calls this, but we find it hard to discover the grounds for his optimism as to its brevity.
For the descriptions he gives us of the conditions in the departments of Transport, Trade, Agriculture, etc., do not produce the impression of a giantess who might rise at any moment. After an illness there is a period of convales- cence in which the wasted tissues have to be built up, a period in which the individual cannot be self-supporting but must live on his capital or on credit. Russia spent her savings in that disastrous experiment Communism, and now she cannot, without external help, both repair the wastage and build up new reserves of vitality.
The information on which Dr. Nansen builds his conclusions was drawn largely from the conversation of Bolshevik states- men or from official figures, so that it is not likely to exaggerate the case for the worse. The great schemes of communal enterprises which were initiated after November, 1917, were all run at a loss and subsidized from the country's reserves. When these were exhausted and the shrunken revenue was inadequate even for current expenses, the schemes of the theorists had to go. Private trading was again sanctioned, and very strenuous attempts are being made to build up a stable currency system. Here is an example of the desperate devices and unsound finance to which the Government was obliged to resort. "It buys corn from the peasants at six to eight dollars the ton, and sells it in Finland for forty-two dollars. The ridiculously low price on the home market is a consequence of the State monopoly, which prevents the peasant from selling his corn direct to the foreign purchaser." Though the profit from this transaction is put to the wholly admirable purpose of forming a gold reserve from which could be issued the new bank-notes in tchervonets, which are only issued against a 100 per cent, covering of gold or stable foreign notes, the lowered purchasing power of the peasant is a regrettable feature of this policy, although it is no doubt. the first step towards stability.
One cannot but agree with Dr. Nansen when he insists that the recovery of Russia is essential to the prosperity of Europe. It would be worth while to create a market there that would ease our own burden of unemployment. Recent events have shown the actual small beginnings of a movement which permits a certain amount of optimism.
• Eustis and Polo% By Frldtjov Hansen, London Allen and Irwin, 158.1
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