From Our Russian Correspondent The Russian people are actually much worse off than they were in pre-revolutionary days.
Pravda (July 2) publishes an enlightening correspondence from the city of Petrozavodsk, capital-of autonomous Karelia.
In this city, surrounded by forests, and possessing the greatest potential power in Europe in waterfalls and rapids, together with mineral ores, permitting the establishment or various industries, the most elementary articles arc unobtainable.
The inhabitants have to journey 300 miles to Leningrad in order to purchase such " luxuries" as chairs, wooden buckets, buttons, combs, wicker baskets.
Ink and glue, which could be manufactured on the spot, are unobtainable, whilst wooden toys are imported from other towns.
Formerly Karelia produced sundry articles from local marbles, and the " Karelian birch," the veneer of which was used for furniture, was famous throughout Russia. All these local industries have now disappeared and nothing is being done to revive them.
The same state of chaos exists in the realm of agriculture. By the middle of June less than half of the lirvesting machines in Russia had been repaired; in certain regions, where the harvest has already begun, hundreds of tractors and harvesting machines are still in repair