To all this comes another circumstance : The shortage of seed drain. In many villages the peasants use up the seed grain or tne seed potatoes for other purposes. Frequently the government was compelled to requisition the seed grain of the peasants for other gouvernements.
But the distribution has been undertaken by means of the worst sample of Russian organization, so bad, that it could not bp worse even under czarism. Russian bureaucracy is a chapter of its own, but the distribution of the seeds interests us in this connection. The bolshevik paper "The Ural Worker" gives the following picture of the conditions. In an article of May 19, 1920, number 119, the paper writes, under the heading: "It is impossible to delay any longer" :
"To supply the need of seed grain of the farms there is needed According to the reports of the district committees, 2,910,487 pud of grain (1 pud equals 34 Ibs.), outside of vegetable seeds and seed potatoes. But the gouvernement committee has delivered only 26.25% of the seeds, that is, little more than one quarter of the quantity needed. Of this the district Schadrinsky has received 9.5%, the district Irbitsky and Krasnoufimsky 17.5%, but the district Kamischlovsky 51%. How can such an unjust and unequal distribution of the seed be explained?" The writer of the article seeks the reason in the incompetency and lack of good will of the persons on the distribution committee.
As a matter of fact there obtains in the Food Stuffs Committees of the gouvernements (these committees are called "Gubprodkom") a terrible bureaucratism, which in the most intimate manner connects with the system of centralism.
The paper further relates that in the gouvernement of Jekaterinburg in Ural a total of 461,136 pud of seed potatoes were required. Up to May 9 there was available only 10,000 pud, or about 2.2%. But even this insufficient quantity was not divided in a regular way, but it was all sent, with the exception of 2,600 pud, to four districts, while six districts received nothing. Of the remaining 2,600 pud the consumers* society of the commune took 1,000 pud for its own part. (Since the bolshevik victory the consumers* societies in Russia have been made state organs.) The figures quoted show plainly in what position the government finds itself when it comes to ability to deliver and distribute seed grain, particularly seed potatoes.
"I shall not look for the causes of this bankruptcy, bu1 must point out that the 'Gubprodkom' in its present composition has leaders to whom momentary effect is the main thing, instead of organizing the work rationally. The measures adopted by the leaders of the 'gubprodkom' stand far behind the real needs in the place concerned."
(Quoted from the report of a committee of the Food Stuffs Commissariat before the council of the first labor army, of May, 1920, No. 1743.)
The author of the article sought a way out of the dilemma by allowing the collective peasant organizations, the partnerships and the communes, as well as other organizations, to buy the seed grain and the vegetable seeds and seed potatoes in open trade. He refers to the gouvernement of Petrograd, where this remedy was found. In the gouvernement of Petrograd permission has been given to the communal vegetable gardens, the soviet organizations and other organizations to practice free buying of seeds, and better results have been obtained. More than 10,000 dessiatins of land were supplied with seed grain.
From these reports it is evident that the unsatisfactory delivery of seeds and seed grain is an important cause of the unsatisfactory cultivation of the soil.