Australia-Soviet House

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FACTS ABOUT THE SOVIET UNIONn0 R A RPrepared For Schools—     ■ ‘1-  r-i- n II i»Australia-Soviet House330 Flinders Lane, Melbourne Phone: Cent. 3711THE LANDThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics covers one-sixth of the world. It i$ "^he largest continuous land mass—8,350,000 square trl area. That is nearly three tim es as big as Aus­tralia, whose area is 2.975,000 square miles—not a small place!The distance from Moscow to Vladivostock is fu rther than from Cape York Peninsula to Melbourne. But the people who live in the Soviet Far East are quite near neighbours of ours. It takes only three weeks by ship to come from Vladivostock to Sydney. The development of air transport will reduce that considerably.The frontiers of the U.S.S.R. extend from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and from India to the North Pole. W hen night falls on the W estern frontiers, the sun is already rising in the East. There is eternal w inter on its northernm ost territories; down South it reaches into the sub-tropical zone.From a poverty-ridden agricultural country, the Soviet Union has become in a generation one of the w orld's greatest producers of wealth. Its agriculture has been scientifically de­veloped. Mechanisation and irrigation on a large scale, the com­bination of small farm s into large collective f&rms and the establishm ent of S tate farm s have resulted in a trem endous increase in production. In some cases this has been as much as 200 per cent. Trem endous am ounts of flax, cotton, sugar beets and Kok-sagyz (rubber) are grown in the Soviet Union. It pro­duces more wheat, rye, barley and oats than any other country in the world. ^Its industries, planned and built in the last tw enty years, are second only to those of the United States. Its m ineral resources are abundant. Ten per cent, of the w orld’s petroleum, 12 per cent, of the w orld’s gold, 20 per cent, of the w orld’s iron ore and 40 per cent, of the w orld’s manganese ore come from  the Soviet Union. It is fourth in the w orld for production of coal, and leads in the output of platinum. It ranks high for production of copper, zinc and lead.THE PEOPLEThe last pre-w ar census counted 193,000,000 people living in the Soviet Union. But not all are “Russians.” In fact little  more than half of them  are Russians, while the rest belong to more than  fifty different nationalities and 125 small national groups. One hundred and fifty different languages and dialects are in use.In Central Asia, in the far eastern and the far northernsections, m any peoples were illiterate. Some had never had aw ritten  language of their own. They spoke tongues no one else understood. In many cases, they had no roads, no schools, no communications, no industry and only prim itive agriculture. In 1897, only 24 p^r cent of the Russian people could read and write.From 1917 all this was changed. The Soviet Constitution states: “Equality of rights of citizens of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, irrespective of the ir nationality or race, in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life is an indefeasible law .” ^ .. SSZiijao L: ' / ,  - '  ' _The first thing that the Soviet Government did after the Revolution of 1917 was to teach the people to read and w rite. In tw enty years, 40,000,000 adults w ere taught to read and write. They learned to w rite not only in Russian, but in the ir own lan- guagss—for some of which an alphabet had to be made. In the Soviet Union the different nationalities are encouraged to develop their own literature, songs, arts and handicrafts.AN EXAMPLEBefore 1917, 99 per cent, of the six million Uzbeks could not read or write. Poverty-stricken growers of silk and cotton, they had 10 send all they produced to Russia, for the Tsar would not allow textile mills to be built in Uzbekistan. The women had veiled faces. When they m arried, they were traded off like cattle.Today Uzbekistan’s silk and cotton are spun and woven in its ov/n huge mills. Because of modern methods of irrigation and machinery used on the collective cotton farms, Uzbekistan’s cot­ton planters get the highest yield in the world. Education has made equal strides with industry. Instead of the 15 universities of pie-1917, there are 139. Just before the Second W orld Wc^r, there were 916,000 children attending Uzbek elem entary schools.The women of Uzbekistan no longer w ear veils. As in all the republics of the Soviet Union, they play an equal part w ith men in their nation’s life. Vice-president of the Republic is a woman. Iri the Soviet that governs Uzbekistan, over one hundred of the deputies are women. Many Uzbek women have become indust­rial executives, technicians and engineers. "Uzbekistan has still preserved its national culture, merging the old and the new in music and dancing. It has a notable ballet and opera companies, and an Uzbek woman, Tam ara Khanum, has made the picturesque dances of her people famous throughout the U.S.S.R.As with Uzbekistan, so with the other peoples of the Soviet Union. The ancient culture and handicrafts of Armenia, Georgia, Kirghizia, the Ukraine, and the other nations have been p re­served and developed under the Soviet Government. The out­come of this respect for the nationalities was clearly seen in the recent v ^ r. There were no ‘^ discontented m inorities” to divide the unity of the Soviet people in their fight against the Nazi invaders.GOVERNMENTIn the Soviet Union, every man and woman from  the age of 18, of w hatever race, color or nationality, has the right to vote.The structure of the Soviet Government in some respects resembles our Federal Government. It has two Houses, of which the (Zouncil of the Union has 569 members elected by universal and direct suffrage (like our House of Representatives) on the basis of one m em ber for every 300,000 of the population. The Council of Nationalities has 574 members representing, separate Republics and the 180 different nationalities of the Union. The Supreme Soviet consisting of these two Councils is elected for four years.y ; - - 'OCEANN O R  yn$ $BYE 1 0  R U S S I A N  (U \ 5 . 5 Ri  \  "tjb , *M O S C O W AME/ v  y' C T O B '5 0 V 1 E T5GEORG S.S.R.A Z E R 8 / ^ AM O N G O L I AmA f g h a n i s t a nTHE 16 REPUBLICS OF THE UNION O F  SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICSAUTONOMOUS REPUBLICS IN THE UNION REPUBLICSatar Kalmyk YakutJ^hkir Komi Nakhichevanhuvath North Ossetian Kara-Kalpakabardino-Balknrian U d m u r t  C r im e anR.S.F.S.R.  U K R A I N E  BYELO RU SS IAUz b e k i s t a nT U R K M E N I AT A J I K I S T A NG E O R G I AA R M E N I AA Z E R B A I J A NK A Z A K H S T A NK I R G H I Z I AK A R E L O - F I N NM O L D A V I AL I T H U A N I ALATVIAE S T O N I A. ■ -V- • *The Supreme Soviet has exclusive legislative power. Every Bill, before it becomes law, must be approved by a m ajority of both Houses.The Supreme Soviet, sitting in joint session, elects the P resi­dium and the Council of People’s Commissars (like our Cabinet in function).The Presidium  of the Suprem e Soviet is accountable to the Supreme Soviet and exercises suprem e governm ental authority between the sessions of the latter. It in terprets existing laws and issues decrees; initiates legislation; appoints and dismisses the high command of the armies; ratifies treaties w ith other nations and appoints and recalls ambassadors for the  Soviet Union.The Council of People’s Commissars is the highest executive and adm inistrative body. It is responsible to the Supreme Soviet and to the Presidium. It is composed of the M inisters (called Commissars) of the various federal departm ents such as Defence. Foreign Affairs, Industry, Interior, Justice, Health, etc. It directs and co-ordinates the work of these departm ents, the execution of the State Budget and of the national economic programme.Each of the 16 Union Republics has its own governm ent on the pattern  of the All-Union-Soviet. From  1922, defence and foreign affairs were the responsibility of the central governm ent only, but since February  1, 1944, each of the 16 Union Republics has had its own Commissar of Foreign Affairs and of Defence. Each Republic is now able to m ake its own agreem ents w ith foreign countries, send its Awn ambassadors, and organise its own army, responsible, of course, to the Central Command of the Red Army of the U.S.S.R.EDUCATIONSoviet Children receive public care and education from early childhood until they finish their high school or university studies. N ursery schools are provided for them  until they are four; kin­dergartens from four to seven years old. A fter that, every child m ust go to the “seven-year schools,” which are free, and much like our elerhentary schools.After the “seven-year schools” students go to high schools for special training, and those qualified may go on to a university or an institu te (for technical students). Good students pay no tuition fees. In fact, the governm ent gives them  enough to live on while they are studying.The Soviet Union considers schools so im portant tha t classes were held even in cities under gunfire. Many school children from W estern Russia were evacuated to the East, and universities and institutes from Leningrad and sim ilar “front-line” cities carried on their work beyond the reach of the Nazis. In the State Budget of 1944, more was allotted towards the expenses of education than in the Budget of 1939, although the country was still deep in the war. In 1943 a special Academy was founded for educational research. New types of schools—Suvorov, Ushakov and N akhi­mov schools—were founded in 1943 for w ar orphans, the sons of Red Army men and of guerrilla fighters.The success of the ^ v i e t  education system is shown by the fact tha t not one recruit to the Red Army in recent years has been illiterate, and a considerable num ber have had a full second­ary education.PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORTThese have become ever more popular in the Soviet Union. There are 89 m ajor sports societies, and nearly 63,000 sports groups in them. Sport is organised round the" “Prepared for Labor and Defence” badge, which is aw arded for proficiency in cross-country running, ski-ing, swimming, rowing, shooting, track and field events, and gymnastics. Since it was instituted in 1934, more than 10,000,000 have won the badge. Parachute-jum ping and bicycling are other very popular sports in the U.S.S.R.Games of the nationalities have attracted  many players. There are interesting forms of equestrian sports and w restling from Central Asia, and exciting reindeer races from the North.For the sports societies, fees are very low. Equipm ent and costumes are provided by the society.There are individual and team championship tournam ents in nearly every field of sport. Horse racing‘has a very big following —especially trotting. This year, th e  Moscow Derby attracted  en tran ts from all over the Soviet Union.The great annual Physical Culture Parade through Red Square in Moscow took place this year on August 12, in the presence of G eneral Eisenhower. All the sports societies and national groups take part in this spectacular event.CHILDREN IN THE WAR“Years will pass. You will become adults. And then in the good hour of rest after big and peaceful work, you will rem em ber w ith gladness that^in the terrib le days you did not sit about w ith folded hands, but in every way you could, you helped your country in its difficult and very im portant struggle against man- hating Fascism.^'These are the words of the popular Soviet children’s author, Arkady Gaidar, who w rote “Tim ur and His Comrades,” and who was killed by the Nazis.“Tim ur,” of which a film was made, was such a best-seller in the Soviet Union th a t “Tirnur Brigades” were formed by boys and girls to help the families of soldiers. “T im urites” minded babies, dusted and swept, ran errands, and cleaned house when the m other was working and the father was in the services.The other m ain Soviet youth organisation was form ed years before the w ar—the Pioneers, who are divided into troops and brigades like our Scouts. To the boxing, gymnasium, sports and handicraft of the peace-time years, the Pioneers added m ilitary science during the war. In 1939, there w ere 15 million young people between 10 and 16 in the Pioneers. They have holiday camps and seaside homes, the most famous being Artek, a very beautiful place on the  Crimean coast.There were m any children's activities during the war. for the Soviet authorities knew that besides helping their country, the children would suffer less from the shock of w ar if they were actively engaged in fighting it. So children helped to harvest crops, collected scrap, made gifts for the Red Army, visited the wounded in hospitals, trained as mechanics and radio-men. Many in the w ar areas acted as scouts, and even as guerrilla fighters.MUSIC AND THEATREThe Russian people have always loved music, and in the U.S.S.R. even during the war, there has been great activity in the composition of new music, and the perform ance of classical and modern symphonies, ballets, operas, cantatas and cham ber music. The works of Tchaikowsky, Borodin and Glinka are very fre ­quently performed. There are beautiful and elaborate perform ­ances of their operas and ballets in m any cities.Modern Soviet composers—notably Shostakovick, Prokofieff and K hatchaturian—have won high esteem beyond the U.S.S.R. as well as at home.Soviet ballet is superbly perform ed and staged, in the trad it­ion of Russian ballet known throughout the world. New inspira­tion for dancing has come from the folk dances and music of the many nationalities. K hatchaturian’s ballets “Happiness" and “Gayeneh" are on Arm enian themes.Soviet children's theatres present plays and revues regularly  for large audielices of young people. There are also m any film- theatres, for which special children's films are made. Among the best-loved entertainm ents for children are puppet-shows. This year the Moscow Puppet Theatre perform ed Kipling's Jungle Book stories about Mowgli.Shakespeare is a favorite w ith Russian actors and audiences. Recently, also, a Russian dram atisation of the “Pickwick Papers" had great success in Moscow.AUSTRALIA AND THE U.S.S.R.During the w ar the two countries have become allies and friends. In adm iration for the w ar effort of the Soviet people, A ustralians sent food, medical supplies, and sheepskins. The two countries have exchanged ambassadors, and recently  a new Soviet Minister, Mr. N. M. Lifanov, who is an expert in Far Eastern affairs, arrived in Canberra.The entry  of the U.S.S.R. into the Japanese w ar made us realise more clearly tha t the Soviet Union is a Pacific as well as a European country, and tha t its M aritim e Provinces are not nearly as far from A ustralia as are European countries. A lready it is clear tha t the two countries have a good deal to trade with: A ustralia has approached the U.S.S.R. for 100,000,000 super feet of the tim ber we need so much for home-building; and w ith the reorganisation of the Russian textile industry, th ere is an excel­lent opportunity for A ustralia to supply wouj^iPrffTPiUj^^ trade between the two countries have peace. /* For fu rther .information and p ic ti ire sa b o u t t^^^U.S.i^R.,' enquire at A ustralia-Soviet House, 830 lin d ^ s , i 6 ^ e ,  jMel bourne, C.l. \   ^^

Facts about the Soviet Union : prepared for schools

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Facts about the Soviet Union : prepared for schools

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