Lasting peace, built on justice and understanding among nations. This is the objective of the United Nations. This is the second program in the United Nations series of the Pacific Story, one of the five special series presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations to further world unity and world peace through understanding. For hundreds of years, the Pacific and the lands it touches have been the scene of struggle, conflict for gain and power, people against people, western nations seeking to dominate and exploit the lands and people, and millions caught in the political and economic cross currents. Today with most of the world's population concentrated around and in the Pacific, the events of the Pacific are a vital world concern. The Pacific Story dedicates this series to the objective of the United Nations, lasting peace built on justice and understanding among nations. Russia looks to the east. Yes, of course. Iran, question? Britain. United States. Oil. United Nations. You comrades can shout about Iran and the United Nations and Britain all you want, but take it from me. Russia today has a problem that stands head and shoulders above all others. Yes. What is that, Karol? Tell us, Karol. It is building. No, I agree with comrade Karol. Rebuilding our bomb-shattered cities is our biggest problem in Russia today. I don't mean merely rebuilding our bomb cities, which is a tremendous problem in itself, but the building of new cities in the east, which Russia faces today as the industrial land and shipping routes of tomorrow. I'll never forget the grim picture I saw in the Russian Donbas just after it was retaken from the Nazis in 1944. The Donbas here once was the Pennsylvania of Russia. Because of the coal deposits? The Stalin origin you see from this hill produced hundreds of thousands of tons of coal. Now the mines are blown up, filled with smashed machinery, with water and dead bodies. I've seen some of what the Germans did to your blast furnaces and factories. This area was rich in iron and chemical deposits. It produced more pig iron and steel than Italy and Poland together. Today, look. Yes, even the farms. We are 2,000 combines, 5,000 tractors. Today these are only wreckage. The farms are cratered from the explosions and the livestock are gone. Yes, and I see they did the same thing with your theaters, schools, hospitals and universities. Nearly 280,000 people were killed. Another 200,000 were shipped off to Germany as slaves. I stood there looking at the heaps of stone, shattered timber, twisted steel. There was destruction everywhere, utter devastation. What the Nazis had done here in the Donbas, they had done in a hundred other places. My friend Chernyf went on. Think of 12 of the large cities in your country. Well, let's say Trenton, Atlantic City, Nashville, Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco, Chicago, Milwaukee, Peoria, Washington, Des Moines at 11, and Cincinnati. Imagine those cities destroyed. Imagine the task you would have in rebuilding them, the factories, the power plants, the public works. Yes, and the libraries, the churches, the railroads, the schools. All of those structures and thousands of others in all those 12 American cities. Imagine them, if you can, in almost total ruins. Then you will have some conception of the gigantic task of rebuilding that faces Russia today. When I revisited the Donbas area hardly more than two years after my first visit, I saw plenty of evidence that Russia can rebuild her cities. Out of the flooded coal mines, they have already mined 15 million tons of coal. Crumbled blasts and open-hot furnaces have already been reconstructed and have produced nearly a million tons of pig iron, steel, and rolled metal. Almost miraculously, electric power stations have already been restored, railroads rebuilt, and schools and universities reopened. Everywhere in old Russia today, one hears discussions by farmers, factory hands, professional men, technicians of the new Russia being built in the Far East. Russia must look to the East. Why do you say must, Comrade Karov? For two big reasons. The first is economic. You mean Russia's old problem of shipping, lack of warm water ports in European Russia, which puts us at the mercy of other nations in the matter of shipping? Yes, we must look to the East for that reason, the warm water ports of the Pacific. But that is not all, for there are vast natural resources in Siberia and eastern Russia. Iron and coal, timber. And practically unexploited. Therein undeveloped Russia are the areas and the resources to mold another first-class nation. And what is the other reason for Russia's looking East? Military and defense. You mean to insure against the possibility of Japan's ever- No, against the whole world. From this day forward, we are living in a new age, the atomic age, an age perhaps of more deadly weapons than we have yet seen. Russia does not want to be hemmed in like the people of other more crowded nations. We desire our cities and industries to be spread out over the largest possible area so that they may not be destroyed in one blow. In building the new Russia in the Far East, as well as in rebuilding the old war-torn Russia, the Soviet is working out an elaborate plan. Community planning is nothing new in Russia. In fact, many of us can remember when Russia started her first five-year plan in 1928. At that time, Russian leaders summoned to them outstanding architects and builders. You see, not only in Russia, but everywhere in the world since the beginning of mankind, it has been the custom for one man to build a house and then for another to come along and build another beside it and then another and so on. Until eventually there was a town or a city. Yes, Mr. Commissar, that is the natural process. Exactly. But now, for economic and social reasons, we propose to plan our cities. And work backwards, as it were, from the city to the house. There will be tremendous advantages in this plan. Yes, of course, many tremendous advantages. Parks, factories, schools will not just spring up willy-nilly. They will be located where they will serve their respective purposes best. For instance, there will be no sanitarium located in an area where unhelpful industrial fumes pollute the air. Nor parks, where it is not possible for great numbers of people to make use of. Nor homes built over swamps or bogs. This will be a boon to the health of the people. Yes, and there are other advantages. Much time will be saved in traveling from home to school, to work, to church and so on, if these institutions are conveniently located in respect to each other. The people will have more time to study, to work and to play. And on the economic side, it will mean much less expense in constructing and operating transportation facilities. It will stop the wasteful use of land and will have, oh, infinite advantages. Such community planning will be man's first attempt efficiently to plan and build cities. In their community planning and building, begun in 1928, the Russians achieved much in the way of improved housing, wider streets, larger parks and recreational facilities, and altogether in creating more attractive cities in which to work and live. However, not even the highest Soviet official would claim that in its initial stages, this community planning was perfect. As I see it, this community planning does not go far enough. In what way, comrade Petrov? As an industrialist, it seems to me that a broader plan should be conceived in respect to industry. A broader plan? Yes. You see, as it is now, the planning provides where, how and under what conditions a factory or plant may be built independently, but not how they may be built collectively. I am not sure I see what you mean. Let me give you an example. Just outside Moscow, side by side, are the two settlements, Optikogorsk and Avyogorov. One represents the optical industry, the other the airplane industry. Yes, that is right. They have no logical connection with each other. With hundreds and thousands of other plants and factories scattered here and there, it makes for irrational use of land, costly and complicated transportation and communication, and general confusion, inefficiency and waste. I think you have a good idea there, comrade Petrov. You mean that instead of mere community planning, it should be extended to include the... That is it. Regional planning. Regional planning. Before the war, Russian planners and builders were beginning to see that far greater efficiencies and benefits might be achieved by carrying community planning a step further to regional planning. The war with its devastation wrought upon Russia drove the lesson home with accentuating force. Almost overlapping the Russian planners' consciousness of a need for regional planning came an awareness of benefits that would be derived from carrying community and regional planning two steps further yet to social economic planning. You say this so-called social economic planning means planning from the nation to the city? Yes. Look, ordinarily how are nations built? By adding towns and villages to states or sections, and then adding the states or sections together, and thus haphazardly forming a nation. Yes. In the social economic planning of Russia, it will first be determined what we have as a nation, and then in turn working back to the cities. But how do you start this process? We already have a nation. We started social economic planning of Russia by first taking an inventory of the national wealth. Do you know that for nearly 20 years the Soviet has been making a vast and systematic geological exploration of all Russian lands, an area equal to about one sixth of the Earth's land surface? Oh, I knew geological explorations were taking place, but I did not know it was quite so vast. Then you probably did not know either that there has been found deposits of coal and oil eight times as great as these previously known to us. No, I did not. And in addition have been found many other mineral resources of all kinds. Well, that is good, but what has it to do with social economic planning? It means that in the future, for one thing, industries will be developed close to the sources of raw material and energy. So as to avoid waste in transportation. Yes, but that's not all. Industry will be distributed more or less evenly over the entire country. To create an industrial and urban culture in backward regions. And also to break down our ancient antagonisms between city and country people. This distribution will also accelerate the industrialization of national sub-republics and regions, and so will enable them to become equal economically as well as lawfully with Russia. Yes, yes, and it will allow specialized production in accordance with natural and cultural resources of each particular region. And at the same time provide a variety of production so that every region may achieve a certain completeness within itself. Music One of the very important phases of social economic planning in Russia is water power. I talked about this with my friend Cherny. We have in our many mighty rivers much potential power. As you know, for some years before the war we were making every effort to harness these rivers. Now that the war is over, our efforts will be redoubled. You are planning the power projects in conformity with social economic planning, of course. Can you cite any examples? There was the famous Dnepr Dam, now destroyed. But which will be reconstructed. Oh, yes. Before it was destroyed, the Dnepr Dam transformed the sleepy little town of Zaporozhye into a modern industrial city of 300,000 inhabitants, largely by the industries its presence created. And the Dnepr Dam was only one of many plans. It was only the first of eight plans, not only for power and navigation, but also for the drainage of over a million acres of swamp land on the upper reaches of the river, and for irrigation of an equal territory of arid steppes in the Crimea. Were any dams planned in the east? In Asiatic Russia. Not only planned, many are already in use. In Central Asia, you see, agriculture is entirely dependent upon irrigation, and hundreds of thousands of acres of steppe lands have been turned into wheat and cotton fields, orchards, vineyards, by the construction of dams on the Chirchik in Uzbekistan and on the Vakhch in Tajikistan. Well, what about water power plans for the Volga? The Volga will provide the power for Russia's most ambitious project. This project will consist of nine dams on the river itself and eight more on its main tributaries. That's a lot of dams. Are these large dams, as we know dams today? One, at the Great Dam at Kubechev, with a capacity of two and four tenths million kilowatts, is one quarter larger than your Grand Coulee, now the most powerful in the world. I learned that the Russians are great believers in central heating, which they incorporate in their planning and building. Eighty-five percent of all buildings in Moscow are heated by centralized heating plants known as TETs. These TETs are sometimes built in isolated areas where fuels such as lignites, peat, and oil shales are found in abundance. The peat bogs near Gorki, for example, give rise to the paper works of Belakna and to a whole new city built to house the employees of these works. Do you realize, Comrade Petrov, that here on the map near Kuznetsk in the heart of Siberia are hidden the world's largest deposits of coal? But coal, when isolated in a region such as Siberia, is valueless. It would cost too much to ship anywhere, but it would be useful, like Russia, for example. Ah, but look again at the map, please. Here at Magnitogorsk in the Euro are deposits of iron, exceedingly rich deposits. Well? Iron ore and coal, Comrade Petrov, make steel. Oh, but, Comrade Vansk, again let me remind you that you are looking at the map in which the coal deposits and the iron ore deposits appear but a few inches apart. In actuality, they are 1,200 miles apart, and there is no means of transportation between them at present. Did it ever occur to you that a railroad might be built? Did it ever occur to you that a railroad would be impractical for the simple reason that it would be carrying coal from Kuznetsk to the iron deposits of Magnitogorsk, where I presume the steel plant would be located? But, Comrade, what would the railroad be carrying back to Kuznetsk? Nothing. Cars would be traveling back empty. You cannot operate an industry and overcome those odds. But did it ever occur to you that steel plants might be constructed at both ends of the railway, at the sources of the coal and the sources of the iron ore? Oh, I see what you mean. Then the cars would be carrying coal one way, iron ore the other way. And so it was that the UKK, Ural Kuznetsk Combinat, resulted in the creation of a basis for heavy industry in Russia's east. As an interesting sidelight, it happened that you were right in your planning, Comrade Vansk, more than right, for the inhabitation of these two remote regions have led to further explorations and further discoveries. But, of course, I cannot take credit for the fact that rich deposits of coal have since been found only 300 miles from Magnitogorsk and that iron ore has also been found in the Altai Mountains beyond Kuznetsk. These discoveries were both just pure luck. At any rate, now both ends of the railroad have become quite independent of each other, both as driving steel centers. And it was the steel of the UKK which furnished the weapons for our gallant defenders at Stalingrad. A question that occurred to me and is probably occurring to you is where and how does agriculture fit into this social economic planning picture. My friend Chernyov was very helpful in not only explaining this phase of the planning, but took me personally on a visit to what he called an MTS. Machine Tractor Station, now what the letters stand for. What is it, a plant where tractors and farm machinery are built? With all these shops and tools and mechanics about, it looks like a small edition of Willow Run. These MTSs are not factories or plants. They are merely maintenance plants, furnishing and servicing tractors and other mother farm equipment for use on the farms in the area. You mean the farms don't have their own tractors and machines, but instead rely upon these we see being serviced here now. That is right. It's the Russian theory that tractors and farm machinery is a job for mechanics and not farmers. And these MTSs are scattered all over the rural area, the length and breadth of Russia. Yes, about 6,000 in all. I see women and children about too and others who don't appear to be engaged in repairing farm machinery. Who are they? Or you'll find all kinds of people around, because the MTSs are also the centers of agriculture sciences and of cultural and political life for the entire region. With such a plan under your Russian social economic planning, food must be something of a problem. Food has been a problem, especially in the northern regions where most of our industrial expansion has been taking place. For until recently it was impossible to grow wheat in the north. Consequently, the shipping cost of wheat was a great burden upon our economy. Until recently. You mean you Russians have now learned to grow wheat in the north? Yes, it required much research and experimentation, but we have developed varieties not only of grain, but also of vegetables and fruit, which will grow in the hard climates of the north and east, even beyond the Arctic Circle. In the south of Russia, on the shores of the Crimea and on the sunny coast of the Black Sea, areas have been set aside as health and vacation resorts. Ah, comrade Karof, I'm glad to see you back with your sergeant in the south. You're looking well. Well, I should be after soaking in so much of that mild sunshine and fresh air. Which resort were you at, comrade? At Sochi on the coast of the Black Sea. Ah, the mountains, the forests, the sulfur springs. You should go there yourself. Yes, yes. Is it a large space? About 40,000 acres. It stretches in length some 25 miles. It is laid out wisely and magnificently. There are different zones, you see, for different types of guests and patients. The climatic therapeutic zone, the climatic prophylactic zone, and the bathing climatic zone. If you need peace and quiet, you go to one zone. If you need life and gaiety, to another zone and so forth. Such a large space must accommodate many people, hmm? About 25,000 trenchants. Is there work to do there? There are farms and orchards and light processing plants and factories where one may work to pay for his board if he is not seriously ill or is a convalescent. But it is light and pleasant work with short hours. Music. It will be done in three stages. First, the investigation. This, I presume, will embrace collecting pertinent data and facts about an area. Correct. The second stage will be the scheme, essentially a land use plan. That is, dividing or defining various areas and sections of a community into zones, industrial, residential, and so forth? That's right. And the third will be the plan. For the actual construction? Yes. It will include only those items of construction that immediately or in the near future will be undertaken, the essential ones. I mean by this, there will also be numerous items, plans for which cannot be drawn up right from the start. But even such future items of construction will have to conform to the original basic scheme. How will this scheme be enforced? Simply enough, by two agencies. First, the city land department, which holds all the land within the city limits. I see. And the municipal building control, which issues all building permits. I see. But what about ownership of buildings? That will go on just as before. In the hands of the city will be all public utilities, means of transportation, and schools. The city will continue also to own many of the dwelling houses, stores, shops, theaters, and so forth. But some will still be owned by the state. As are most industrial buildings and colleges, each city, I suppose, will have an architect planner to aid and advise it. At first, that will not be possible, not until the Soviet is able to train many architect planners. However, there will be absolute cooperation between the state planners and the city officials to guide all community activities toward the full realization of the plan. I visited the municipal headquarters of a typical planned city and made some inquiries of one of the officials I found there. These model cities you've constructed on these tables are very interesting. Yes. Apparently, they are models of different planned communities with various industrial, residential, and recreational zones marked off in different colors. They appear to be different cities simply because they are in different shapes. Actually, they are all three of the models of this city and laid out in different patterns. Oh, yes. I see it is the same terrain. Then you mean that before the city was actually constructed, it was conceived in all these three various patterns. Yes. They are more or less universal patterns at first laid down by the state planners but subsequently rejected. Each for different reasons, eh? Yes. That radial concentric pattern was too feudal, the gridiron pattern too capitalistic, and the ribbon pattern lacked an adequate civic center. Well, what is the general plan or scheme now in use, or is there one? No. After several experiments, it was decided that no set pattern could be prescribed for the ideal Soviet city. In other words, each community site presents its own problems to be worked out individually. What certain principles are still adhered to? Emphatically. We still have our industrial zone, which usually forms the nucleus for the rest of the city to build around. And usually the industrial zone is on flat grounds with the before railroads and on waterways if a waterway is near a town. And the residential zone? That is always located at least one zone removed from the industrial zone. Oh, to get the homes away from the smoke, odors, and noises of industry, I suppose. Yes. And the width of the intervening zone depends upon the character of the industry. Usually schools of a technical or experimental nature are located in the industrial zone too. And I imagine special sites are designated for public parks. Oh, yes. Usually a lakefront or riverfront if one is available. And schools, sanitariums, and so forth? Schools and sanitariums are located there so that they are close to parks and playgrounds. All have their clearly defined places, all part of a master plan. Russia is still nursing her Nazi wounds, but they are healing fast. Many Russian cities are still rubble and ashes, but they are already a building again. In the last two decades, Russia has learned not only how to build, but where to build. She intends to use this knowledge in rebuilding the old Russia and in building the new Russia in the East. Music You have been listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross-currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. May I repeat, for a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. Music The Pacific Story is produced and directed by Arnold Marquis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Palusso. The principal voice was that of true boardman. Music Programs in this series of particular interest to service men and women are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. Ladies and gentlemen, by this time everyone knows the buying of U.S. savings bonds is a measure against inflation. But buying U.S. savings bonds is more than that. It is a means by which we as individuals can ensure our future. Money invested in U.S. savings bonds today means security and happiness tomorrow. Buy U.S. savings bonds and hold them. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is NBC, the national broadcasting company. Music
