Learning on Screenthe Russians Nobody Knows
Series
- Series Name
- The March of Time 12th Year
Issue
Story
- Story No. within this Issue
- 1 / 1
- Summary
- The March of Time synopsis: Commencing on the Black Sea port of Odessa, the film shows the delivery of UNRRA supplies - essential consumer goods such as food, clothing and medicine, as well as the heavy goods neaded for industrial and agricultural rehabilitation to give the Russians a start toward the restoration of their devastated land. Following up the chain of distribution, the film moves into Kiev, in the heart of the region which suffered most from the war. In government rationed food shops, of which Kiev has but one for every two thousand citizens, virtually all available items, except bread and a few costly luxuries, are UNRRA foods, sold at fixed prices. To obtain their allotted food supplies, customers are required to trade always at the same place, and even bread, principal item in the Soviet diet, is sold by the daily rationed weight. As strictly rationed as food, clothing is uncompromisingly utilitarian, produced in makeshift shops carrying on the work of factories destroyed in the war. Here in Kiev is also shown an election of deputies to the Supreme Soviet of the Ukraine, and although for some weeks the newspapers had discussed the relative qualifications of the candidates in the various districts, when voters went to the polls only one name was given - that of the Communist Party’s choice - which they could either leave there or strike out.
Showing the working of the collective farms in the Ukraine, the film explains the system devised to encourage the output of the farm workers by compensation, either in money or a share of the produce. All machinery used on these farms must be rented from a Machine Tractor Station, often serving as many as twenty farms, from which, in return for keeping in repair the tractors, ploughs and reapers, it receives a share of each farm’s output. Throughout the Soviety Union free medical care is provided by the government. When a worker reports sick, his trade union and his doctor are obliged to follow the case through until the patient is able to go back on the job. During the war hundreds of Soviet hospitals were destroyed but with what is left the USSR is attempting to restore to health and usefulness thousands who are suffering from tuberculosis and other diseases growing out of malnutrition, though one of the greatest problems is the care of the hundreds of thousands disabled during the war. Disabled soldiers are supported by the State until they have been rehabilitated and settled in jobs. Lacking modern plant for the manufacture of artificial limbs, all such appliances are slowly and laboriously fashioned by hand, with the result that even the most fortunate sometimes have to wait as long as three years.
Most favoured in the scheme of social welfare are the war orphans in the many children’s homes throughout the country, where they receive as much training, education and fun as an impersonal government can provide. But practically all Soviet children between the ages of seven and fifteen must attend an elementary or secondary school, while qualified pupils receive advanced training at various universities and insitutes. Adult students, many of whom were soldiers in the Red Army, also study branches of science and engineering, and on completion of their training the government will send them out to help in rebuilding homes, industrial plants and other facilities destroyed during the war. Russia’s need for trained minds is limitless, but it is the young who are the first concern of the government - for the Soviet children of today are the Soviet workers of tomorrow. - Researcher Comments
- This story was included in Vol.13 No.10 of the US edition.
- Keywords
- Health and medicine; Agriculture; Social conditions; Social welfare
- Written sources
- The March of Time Promotional Material Lobby Card, Used for synopsis
- Credits:
-
- Production Co.
- Time Inc.
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