Report on Estonia
KUTT, ALEKSANDER
Report on Estonia Relaxation of tension is merely a new means to an old end By Aleksander Kiitt As has been the case in most satellite countries, some changes have taken place in Estonia since...
...People are less fearful of being carried off to slave-labor camps in the middle of the night, arrests in general have sharply declined and many prisoners have been released (although often they are forced to settle in remote regions), and a score of aged Estonians have even been permitted to join their families in the West...
...To make matters worse, spare parts are seldom available, and no immediate improvement is in sight...
...Some effort, too, is being made to appease the fiercely nationalist spirit displayed by the people whenever possible...
...Report on Estonia Relaxation of tension is merely a new means to an old end By Aleksander Kiitt As has been the case in most satellite countries, some changes have taken place in Estonia since Stalin's death...
...But the base prices used to figure these increases were so low that, as in the non-agricultural sector, the improvement of living standards was more symbolic than real...
...buying power...
...Defective material is being used for the manufacture of tractors and agricultural machines, causing frequent breakdowns...
...the rural population has declined over 30 per cent, while the urban population has increased about 63 per cent...
...Similarly, hand tools break and bend at first use...
...During the last three years alone (1954-1956), when industrial output has risen an average of 43 per cent as compared to 1953, worker productivity has gone up 31 per cent...
...According to the latest available data, in the United States, for the period 1951-1953 as compared with 1950, worker productivity increased 17.1 per cent while wages rose 23.7 per cent...
...But while Estonia's industrial production has been boosted to about five times its prewar level—although consumers have benefited but little— even in a relatively good year like 1956 agricultural production barely hit 50 per cent of prewar levels...
...True, the Government's requisitioning prices for agricultural products have increased during the last few years...
...which affects mainly the urban population, is the first since the last effective price reduction on April 1, 1953...
...it appears that the Kremlins new "soft" leaders have gone even further than Stalin in pushing heavy industry at the cost of depriving the people of their proper -hare of national production...
...So, despite the fact that 1956 was a good crop year, combined wages in money and kind for a kolkhoz "norm day" did not quite reach 3.5 rubles— which is equal to 25 cents in U.S...
...The combined traction power of tractors and horses in agriculture is 31 per cent lower than it was before the war...
...The situation is further exacerbated by the incredibly low income of kolkhoz workers as compared to the prewar standards of independent farmers...
...This is not only due to the nearly total collectivization, even though privately owned cows tended on little garden plots that make up 3 per cent of the agricultural land still deliver more than half of all milk...
...Moreover, this increase in real income...
...From the events in Kslmiia...
...Pravda has doubled the space devoted to Estonian art and culture, and Russian officials in Estonia are attempting to learn the language...
...Closer investigation reveals that it is the result of extreme niggardliness where agricultural equipment and material is concerned...
...And while the Government is taking some care of old non-agricultural workers (and a small contingent of state-farm workers), it advises kolkhozes to solve their pension problems by paving old workers one-fifth of the average "norm day" wages...
...The forced development of industry over agriculture has also led to a serious manpower shift...
...But all this is merely a new means to an old end: increased heavy industrial production...
...For example, Moscow is constantly stressing the tremendous benefits achieved under Communism as a result of last year's Soviet legislation raising the wages of low-paid workers, establishing a new pension plan, and abolishing tuition for high-school and university students...
...Thus, the worker's output increased 10 times more than his wages...
...This comes to less than 5 cents daily e\en when computed on the basis of last year's considerably increased level...
...therefore...
...In fact, however, these three much-extolled improvements add up to only a 3.5-per-cent increase for Estonian wage and salary earners...
...In sharp contrast to this yearly advance of less than 1 per cent during the last four years—which still leaves the real income of Estonian industrial workers 70 per cent below prewar levels—stands the increase in productivity...
Vol. 40 • June 1957 • No. 26
