XII.
THE ORGANIZATION OF INDUSTRY.
Being in a state of profound and constant transition, Russian industry is extremely complicated in structure. It varies all the way from the near-feudalistic to the near-communistic. Milyutin, one of Russia’s foremost industrial experts, says there are now five distinct economic systems in operation, viz.: (1) Patriarchic—the greater part of primitive peasant forms, (2) small industrial production, (2) private capitalism, (4) state capitalism, (5) socialism. Here we will deal only with the nationalized industries of the latter two categories, which comprise about 90 per cent of Russia's means of social production and distribution, exclusive of agriculture. They are reasonably regular in form and represent the broad stream of industrial development brought about by the revolution.
The highest and most authoritative industrial body in Russia is the National Council for Labor and Defense. It is composed of the heads of all the Government departments (the Peoples' Commissars) and representatives of the labor unions and industrial, agricultural, and scientific societies. Lenin is the chairman, and Rykov, a prominent economist, the next in authority. The National Council for Labor and Defense is a sort of political-economic cabinet, the chief function of which is to work out and supervise the application of broad industrial and agricultural policies. Every other branch of the social organization for production and distribution stands subordinate to it. It is an outgrowth of the civil war crisis and is taking on more and more importance with the passage of time. It will probably develop into the future economic parliament of Russia.
Next in the scale of industrial organizations and inferior to the National Council for Labor and Defense, stand the several national governmental departments devoted to production and distribution, viz.: Food, Agriculture, Posts, Telephones and Telegraphs, Transportation, and the Supreme Economic Council. They co-operate closely together, sending delegates to each
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