Part 5

The workers cannot live from the food stuffs that they receive. They are, therefore, compelled to resort to self-help and to smuggle. This is not said in order to paint something in black colors, but only in order to illustrate the situation which arose from a complex of different circumstances. Street railways handle very little traffic in Petrograd, in Moscow they are still scarcer, and at the end of October the whole street car service was suspended. The workers must, consequently, often walk over an hour to their work or their soviet office (if it is a soviet employee) . For lunch they remain in the factory or the bureau. They receive their noon-day meal at the place of work, in the soviet offices or in most of the factories. It consists almost exclusively of soup and "kascha" (mush) . In Moscow this meal is very poor everywhere, but in some places in Charkov comparatively good. For a worker one must consider the meal even quantitatively as insufficient. Besides, they receive other food, the so-called "payok." This also is unsatisfactory. But in the fall, when there are apples or wood at the bureau, then everybody must bring them home on his or her back which may require an hour. When he comes home he is, of course, not able to do anything. And still he lacks every convenience in the house. Having to do everything himself, his whole activity is expended on a lot of petty things, so that he can do very little productive work.