XXI.
A MUNITION PLANT.
Another American and I were invited to address a large body of workers employed in a munition plant some fifteen versts from Moscow. We went out by automobile and were given a rousing reception. The workers insisted upon showing us the whole establishment before the meeting began.
The plant is a powder factory, specializing in the making of explosives and filling of shells. It was founded in the days of the Czar, but it did not take on any great size or importance until after the revolution. Its recent growth was due to the danger of invasion, which forced the removal of munition plants generally from the western towns to Moscow and other more inland points. The increased need of the Red Army for munitions, because of the severe civil wars, was also a factor. At present the plant is a very extensive one, comprising scores of great modern buildings scattered over a 300-acre lot, at such distances from each other that the explosion of one building would not touch off the rest. When going at full speed the plant employed about 3500 workers. In these piping times of peace the crew consists of only about 1000.
The first place we visited was the office of the Communist yatchayka, or factory group. In another chapter, dealing with the Communist Party, I have explained the tremendous importance of such groups in Soviet Russia. This one, as usual, was composed of the livest elements among the workers. It published its own plant paper and generally looked after the educational and political activities of the employees. It did not, however, directly interfer with the managing expert from the Supreme Economic Council. The members of the yatchayka were pleased beyond measure at meeting militants from America, and outdid themselves in greeting us. They sat us down to a rattling good meal of black bread, butter, milk, honey, and—pickled herring.
Our meal finished, we were shown about the plant and initiated into some of the mysteries of munition
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