of the officials — all had vanished into the unknown, without leaving a
trace behind.
Recently a German socialistic organ wrote about it, as if it were an
economic miracle: there are no owners, who were formerly in the habit of
receiving much greater profits from Russian factories and works, the
surplus value, however, now remains in the hands of the proletariat
government, the relation of prices between industrial goods and agricultural
products has changed with a sharp turn in the interests of industrial goods
— and in spite of it all, the industry as a whole is a deficit-undertaking
and only manages to exist by the assistance from the State exchequer.
This enigmatical apparition — at all events for the present moment —
is no longer so mysterious when one investigates the substance of the internal
structure of the present day Russian industry, and above all things, its
original capital stock.
5. Tanner-Tannenbaum (in the periodical “Planovoje Choziaistvo”,
i. e., The Plan Economy, Moscow 1927, No. 3, from the article: “The
Rationalisation of Economic Power-Industry”), has fixed the total amount
of power of all primary power-motors (steam-piston machines, steam
turbines, Diesel motors) at 2,500,000 kilowatt, and further, the heating
surface of all steam-boilers at 3,500,000 square meter. According to the
expert opinion of the author of the said article, the statistic investigations
of the chief economic council have resulted in the following percentage
for wear and tear: (i. e., the following number of machines whose length
of service exceed the normally permissible customary use of 25 years):
for steam engines 2500; for combustion motors 33 0; on an average
for all motors... 28 0%. Of the total steam-boiler heating surface 35 %
>f all mounted boilers in actual use, have exceeded the permissible length
>f service (25 years).
According to the calculations of Tanner-Tannenbaum, 50 % of existing
industrial installations worked by heat-power motors, and 53 9% of all
boilers, will exceed the normal length of service in 1930.
In addition to the actual wear, the so-called “moral deterioration”, i. e.
the technical deficiency, is also of great importance. The standards for
‘moral deterioration” ruling in the West, are 30 9%. Such is the condition
of the installations at present, or, at all events, was so a short time ago;
the Bolshevics, however, did not take over the installations in this condition.
What are the losses of the Russian Industry since the revolution?
{n Soviet Russia there is a fairly voluminous literature devoted to this
question. The results of the investigations, however, show a chequered
difference, in spite of the frequently occurring conscientious endeavours
of the investigators to get at the actual figures, so necessary for the cal-
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