U.S.-U.S.S.R. exchange programs; Yakutia

We now present a program prepared in the Soviet Union for listeners in the United States under the Soviet American agreement for cultural exchange. And now for those of you who like travel log was here is the story of the autonomous republic in northern Siberia. It. Is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean while its southern border runs how the Aleutian Island. With more than one million square miles of territory it is half the size of the United States not counting Alaska. The greater part is forest land. Watched by a multitude of the river and now my view of the Bee is the roar and even along the Mississippi. The land that empties into the Arctic Ocean parallel with it how long its long

cars run several mountain ranges. However none of them keep all of the icy winds from the north which is why the climate is so harsh for bidding when to hold sway for seven or eight long months. In January the temperature drops to minus one hundred fifty four degrees Fahrenheit in the region of high gas. Summers in your Kodi are short and warm. Sometimes even hot on some days before my mother may register plus 100 degrees. This large territory has a population of just half a million. Most of them are coots short stocky and somewhat slant eyed their forebears and nomads stop breeding tribes came from somewhere in the south hundreds of years ago next to numbers coming to Russians then event keys to cheese and you kind of ease

as many as 30 nationalities living there. Some of them counting just a few hundred sold. For centuries the natives live. I stopped reading on. The sables Ermine's box and other valuable pelts which they brought in from the Dems fires were purchased by Russian Martians. For that's. What little agriculture they practiced was very primitive and unproductive. Outbreeding was confined to cows and reindeer. Most of these along with the best pasture lands belong to a handful of rich while those who tend to be animals receive the meer.

Industry was practically nonexistent and except for a few gold mines worked by Russians without the aid of machinery. Those IRA's government was interested neither in developing the region nor in improving the people's lives. As one local man once said there were more blind people in you than those who could read and write. But the change for the better began after the Socialist Revolution of 1917. The rich man's herds of stock were confiscated and given to those who bred them. So too with the pastor a few cultivated fields also held by the rich until

then were transferred to peasants with little or no man. The gold mines and commercial firms were nationalized. Under desires him. Yeah he was governed by a handful of indifferent bureaucratic officials appointed by the Czar after the revolution government was vested in elected councils representing the stop leaders cultivators farm laborers and so on. That is the overwhelming majority of the population those who live by their labor. You could hear also elected delegates to the highest legislative bodies of the land at that time called the All-Russian Congress of Soviets and participated in national decision following a request from the court yet one of these congresses it was made an autonomous Socialist Soviet republic in 1922 where the government parliament and constitution of its own. The Constitution gave legal status to the reforms introduced after the revolution and proclaimed complete equality of all

nationalities living in your code. The first problem the autonomous government tackled was road building and developing navigation. Road building was no easy task. Do chiefs lead to the permafrost which embraces all of you often that a new section of road will be buried under icy water seeping through from below. Our new bridge would spread out our hunch up. The workers themselves. But yesterday farm laborers and hunters that know how especially in handling machinery. So Russian specialists came and taught them to sink piles to a depth where the ground never thought. After that the bridge just stopped thinking in summer when the upper layers of earth began to thaw.

Skilled workers came in from all over the country to teach the young codes how to build roads and handle machinery. The first highway linking with you could ski a large Siberian town was finished in 1925. Whether the new trade that our automobile driver came to the Republic suppliers of manufactured goods and food improved with the appearance of roads. Increased food supplies made an enormous difference in the people's lives. Since agriculture was still have very low level medicines and medical equipment books clothing and household goods of all kinds also began to pour in over these roads. Hundreds of doctors teachers and technicians were sent from Moscow Leningrad and other cities to that backward and one's forgotten region. When the first schools hospitals and clinics were built the fight began to wipe out the literacy and the diseases which plague be an atom's. But the task was too

big for the outsiders to tackle. Without the cooperation of the entire population. So every yahoo and Russian who was able to do so began teaching the natives to read and write. They would come around to the earthen huts in which the young could still lived and the following conversation would ensue. Oh those out there come in I mean good day to you all. Oh you know. And where do you hail from. I'm from the settlement. I suppose you've heard that they've opened a school. Oh yeah. Well how old are you. Can you read now. Would you like to learn. Oh yes. Oh oh what does he want. What book Larry. Oh with it make him up that you're on to all get him more fox skins. But just a minute. What if he does not become a hunter.

What if he wants to be a teacher or a judge. And why shouldn't you to learn to read and write. The school runs evening classes for grownups. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to read books and newspapers. Sometime years after Soviet government came nearly all the children you could hear began to attend school free of charge of course. And after finishing school these children of hunters and reindeer breeders went on to college in all parts of the country. This time too at government expense. You could hear soon had its own intellectuals and professionals. Are. Development of the mining industry with its steady jobs and high wages has brought

many improvements in the lives of the local population. The first mining machinery was brought out of the gold fields in the 20s. Since then many new areas have been opened up and equipped with the latest mechanical devices and still more deposits have been found of gold Mica 10 iron ore coal rock salt natural gas oil and in the middle 50s. Diamond Yes. The largest discovery of diamond deposits in the cores here was a world sensation until then. Diamond mining had been almost exclusively confined to Africa. Mining began in 1958 after a road was built at the big diamond fields named Nir and houses went up for the world.

This little settlement has grown into the modern town of Miran. And others like it are springing up around other diamond fields. I which there are dozens in your code here. Because the local population was too sparse to supply all the workers needed to operate these mines. Young men and women came in from other parts of the country. They left their comfortable homes and the attractions of old established towns not only because of the high wages but also because they knew work presented a challenge and they realized its importance to the country. It was like one of those young men wrote to Moscow at the time. We arrived in Miri today. There is nothing but tents here. We too received a tent and beds sleeping bags and a little store. We were

all fixed. Tomorrow we started building the town. And before they knew it the tower was finished. As the mining industry grew more specialists were needed. So colleges to train them are opened in your courts. The capital of the Autonomous Republic. Later a university was I. Went on up scientific personnel were available research institutions were founded. 40 years ago. Martino was a farm laborer. If anyone had told him then that two of his sons would one day be famous scientist and the third one a writer. He simply would not have understood for it he did not even know what the word school and that. He could not even imagine that they would one day live in comfortable apartment houses several storeys high with steam heat and running hot water

bathrooms apostle and sons and the like. Even as late as the 40s almost all the buildings in your quotes the capital of the Autonomous Republic were built of logs. That is because the permafrost makes it impractical to build multi-story brick houses on ordinary foundations. In the summer when the upper layer ever thaws it settles and with it the foundation. Then when winter comes and the water freezes the earth swells and the foundation crumbles. Shortly before the war a Soviet specialists found a solution. Let's build on piles they said and sink the piles deep down to where the ground never thought it was. The idea proved good today that on many

such houses in your code scan other towns in the Republic and more are going up all the time. All the houses have running water although in the winter time it is only hot water to save the pipes from freezing in the bitter cold. The cities are still without gas but not for long with a large natural deposit of gas has recently been discovered 240 miles from your quotes. Yeah it is now a modern town with a handsome apartment houses and public buildings stores long Gray's clinics tailor shops cultural centers moving picture theaters and a big hotel. But what the citizens are most proud of is the concert hall and the two legitimate theaters. This young girl is singing a folk song.

You have good skin is not the only city with the kind of civilized life. I wish the people there did not have the faintest idea of just 40 years ago. Other towns just like it are going up near the diamond mines and the old settlements near the gold fields are also being modernized. John Deere assault on the French journalist wrote as follows after a visit to the old town of narrow in the summer of 1961 I imagined an abandoned practically uninhabited region and a freezing hell fire from the big roads. I dreamt of a difficult expedition full of exciting surprises. Instead I was offered free daily apps rights. Glad to the minute

and all of the civilized services. Nearly all towns in your code are linked by air. The flight from your coats to Moscow takes just a few hours and a line is served by the most comfortable kinds. Prices are comparatively low low enough to permit any hunter or a mine worker to make the trip to Moscow or even to the Black Sea for his vacation. That was the story of the autonomous Soviet republic in Northern.

Eat. This program was distributed by the national educational radio network.