The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 21, 1925, Page 8

Letters How We Live. ‘ys. COMRADES: I do not know whether our comrades abroad know how we live. Anyhow I think it is worth while to tell thef about the life of the young Sivash. artillerists. Sivash is a bay, a very swampy place where Wrengel had one of his main strongholds. Our division drove Wrangel out by attacking him from the rear and thus settled his fate. Hence. our division is called the Sivash division. As to our life, I will not waste words over our every-day routine, but will deal with the main features of our life. ISCIPLINE is very strict, but it is secured by continually and at every opportune moment explaining to the Red Army men their rights as well as their obligations, their role as the defenders of the Soviet Union. For this purpose we have, in addition to military training, political education classes two hours daily. During these classes Red Army men study the Soviet constitution, the his- tory of the Soviet power and the his- tory of the Red Army and the civil war. The Red Army men are also taught geography, reading and writing, arith- metic and agriculture. In our artil- lery regiment we have no illiterates, but there are illiterate people in the infantry regiments. They are formed into separate groups or squads and are taught to read and write being set free from drill and other work. S more than half of our regiment consists of Ukrainians they are drafted into separate groups in which they are taught in their own Ukrain- ian language. I suppose you have nothing of the kind in your country. Military subjects are taught only in the Russian language, groups varying from 5 to-® Red: Army men. Red Army men,afe placed into groups ac- cording to their standard of develop- ment. The group system is the best for military training. Definite hours are given to general physical training and to the study of sanitation and physics. N the whole six hours a day are given to study and the rest of the time, if Red Army men are not among the masses they have at their own disposal and may spend it just as they like if they inform their immediate chief. For their recreation there is a club with a number of circles, a school for political education, a dramatic circle, a circle for general education, etc. The club has a library and reading room, it publishes a wall newspaper which does not even spare the com- mander of the regiment if he has been at fault in any way. There i also a military correspondence circle in which all Red Army men who con tribute to the paper belong. In this circle they learn how to write for the newspapers, etc. Once a week there is a dramatic performance in the club, and we also have “youth” socials, “military” socials, etc. The club works for the whole*regiment. We must admit that the club of our regi- ment is. not.as efficient as the clubs of other regiments. ~ N addition to all this we have a Len. in “corner” with various sections in every battalion of the regiment. In these “corners” there are small librar- ies and about 8 different newspapers. Readings and informal talks take place in these “corners,” as well as party, Young Communist and general Red Army meetings. Similar meet- ings are held once a month for the whole regiment. Very frequently (every week) we are taken to the cinema. We also visit the workers in the factory which We also visit Museums and aquariums (there is a ante Nikolaev), This is we are taken away from ‘e do not feel isolated. y which is a prole- ine army is a school, and eral outline of our army | ers’ From young peasants are right when they say: “We must study otherwise we will come back to our villages just as we left them, and what would be the use of that?” And we get a military training and education and become more efficient as we go on. Thus your bourgeoisie will never be able to take us and our Union unawares, There is still much to write about— our economic situation, our short comings, the link between the work- ers and peasants, etc. But I will leave all this for my next letter, that is to say if you are interested in it and if I receive a reply from you. ‘ODAY I want to describe just one more fact. Not so long ago we had in the regiment the trial of the commander of the platoon. He was charged with having compelled a Red Army man to run about 15 minutes wearing an anti-gas mask as a pun- ishment for some misdemeanor. The revolutionary’ military tribunal sen- tenced him for exceeding his powers to 12 months’ solitary confinement. Does it happen in your army that commanders are tried in this fashion? G. Koten, Red Army man of the 15th Artillery regiment. Nikolaev, Ukrainian, S. S. R., Jan 20, 1925. EAR Comrades:—I want to tell you how a working class party member spends his time. 24 hours is a very short time for a worker, for most of us spend 16 hours or more in the factory. Apart from the regular 8 hour day a great deal of time has to be given to social work, and those who are illiterate or semi- literate have to give a considerable amount of time to’ their elementary and political education. We have a time-table for the whole week. On Monday there is a circle of political training. and a Marxist circle for those who are more advanced. In the latter wé ate now studying “Capital,” political economy, the international situation, the situation at home, ete. N Wednesday is the Party Day, which is a great favorite with all the workers. The factory party nucleus organizes these party days. The hall is invariably full to over- flowing with non-party workers who take an interest in the political life of the country. On the remaining days there are: all sorts of sessions, meet- ings in the various literary, economic, political industrial and other com- missions—of course always in accord- ance with the capacities and aims pur- sued. E have regularly described in our official press the Pravda and the Robotchaya Gazetta, the work of the nuclei and commissions of the “Dynamo” works, as well as our conditions of life and industrial achievements, The figures which I give below are taken from one of these notices sent to the Pravda. Very significant are the figures show- ing the results of the campaign in favor of raising the productivity of labor. The results in the casting sec- tion of our factory during the ten months from January to October 1924 were as follows: Annual output of casting Damaged castings. « « Fuel used for smelting Cost of production of 1 kigm. of casting - Total number of workers Output per worker Ditto In chervonetz roubles Earnings of the corporation Average pay per worker: Soviet Editor’s Note:—In view of the in- terest which the workers of western countries take in the life of the Red Army of Soviet Russia, we think that the enclosed information will not be out of place. This interesting docu- ment is the copy of a letter written by a young Red Army soldier to his people at home: * * # A RED ARMY MAN of the crack 9squad of the. N liaison régiment send greetings to the Peasant Young Communist Leaguers of the Dorsk Nucleus. In this letter I want to tell you, who will soon be in the ranks: of the Red Army, about our life and doings in that army. As soon as we arrived at our post we were given our full rations and fitted with cloth uni- forms, We are now full-fledged Red Army men and there is no trace of the village lads who arrived here only a short time ago. We rise to order, we drill, we take care of our rifles and must observe strict cleanliness. After a few days we got accustomed to the new life and to the barracks, we get to know each other and the commanding officers. We give two hours a day to our political education and the remaining hours to the study of special military subjects, for that is our speciality. In the evening we read newspapers, attend lectures, go to the club and are frequently taken to town to theater and excursions, and thus time flies, We have heard all soldiers bay that there is no compar- ison between the czarist and the pres- ent army. What then has -happened? Now we are all equals, the command- ing officers are our comrades, in the ranks we treat them as our command- ers, but when off duty.as our com- rades. We ourselves deal with any shortcomings: or blemishes when we the theater we sit side by side with our officers and talk with them as with comrades Was there anything of this kind in the czarist army? What was the soldier then? There is of course a big difference. mittee of three. This committee sees to it that the code of tabor laws is put into practice and that the protec- tion of labor laws are observed.. The slogan of the “Dynamo” workers is “mass production in accordance with the program, maximum economy in connection with extra expenditure.” N our works factory workers as well as the clerical staff do their share in the organization of labor, by re- ducing amount of damaged goods, concentration and the continuity of operations even by means of three shifts. And what is more they watch carefully everything connected with both time and piece-rates, ete., which are periodically revised and regulated. HE said craft control committees meet periodically in conference to receive reports from engineers, technicians, craft foremen, etc., about the work accomplished. The decis- ions made in connection with these reports are generally business-like , Jan. 1924 “Oct. 1924 29,566: kigms. : 100,400 kigms. 8 pet. $8 pet. 42/2 pet. 23% pet. 67 copeks 25 copeks, 138 108 204 kigms. 925 kigms, 75 rbis. 325 rblis. 6,179 rbis. 9,402 rbis. 4°. 75 ¢. 87 r. 05 c. ‘This includes skilled workers, semi-skilled workers and apprentices. Thus the pay of a skilled worker Is considerably higher. E figures speak for themselves and show what can be done with proper organization, they reflect cred- it on the works production commiss- ion which was appointed by the work- production conference. The organization of the production commission and conference is as fol- lows: Every craft (we have 32) ap- poits a craft productron control com- and to the point. Time will not permit me to give you today a detailed account of the work of the production conference and con- trol committee. This I shall do in my next letter, With proletarian greetings, {. Guinessin, Metal turner of the Dynamo Works. Moscow, Jan. 15, 1925. Red Army Man Writes Home Russia And now, comrades, I am coming to our Red Army request, which is as follows: There are many young people in our village. Instead of strolling about the villages in the evening a village read- ing room should be opened where the villagers can read and learn and or- ganize various study- circles. Com- rades should be drawn into the Young Communist League. We have as yet much to learn; how to organize our farms and our new life. If we do all this we will be richer and wiser and no one will be able to beat us, Study and develop your homesteads, just as we stick to our post and will not allow the enemies of our country to rob us of the fruits of our labor.—Iivan Kozlov, Red Army man. Chicago, Notice! The local DAILY WORKER AGENCY (Thurber Lewis, Agent) has moved to 19 SO. LINCOLN ST. Phone Seeley 3562 Call or write for all Communist Books and Pamphlets The Little Red Library The Workers Monthly The Daily Worker CLEVELAND, OHIO, Co-operate with Dealers in Groceries, Fruits and Vegetables 1195 E. 7ist | Randolph 7059 Owned and controlled by your fellow workingmen The Spring Issue RATIONAL LIVING the workers’ independent health magazine, contains a wealth of good and useful reading matter and is richly illustrated. Its price is 40 cents a copy, but it will be mailed FREE as a sample to any new reader. Editor, DR. B. LIBER Address: RATIONAL LIVING 61 Hamilton Place New York The Walden ‘Book Shop 307 Plymouth Court (Between State and Dearborn dust South of Jackson) _ CHICAGO LEARN ESPERANTO The International Language The following booklets are received The Esperanto WORKERS’ ESPERANTO ASSN,, 525 7th St., Rockford, Ill, “Ido for Workers” (Textbook in German Or Russian)....csserereSOC “An Elementary Grammar” (Hm Bomghtta) sosssssiesssosocecdesessccodscensnneee OO The Workers’ Ido Federation Room 5, 805 James St., N. §., PITTSBURGH, PA, — THE GO-OPERATORS GOMPANY serve on economic.commissions, In| _