Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III FROM A URAL DIARY One of the richest mining and industrial districts of Russia is located in the Ural Mountains. During the month of September I accompanied an economic mission on a trip through this region, visiting a number of mines and factories and coming in contact with a cross-section of the industrial life of present-day Russia. In this chapter I shall attempt to set down the most salient impressions of this journey, as recorded in my diary. September 5, 1921. The engineer in charge of the Upper Kyshtym plant is a good example of how the young technicians of Russia had to live and work during the revolutionary period. He is a graduate of the Petrograd Technological Institute, where he worked his way through by singing in concerts and opera. At Kyshtym he is not only the chief engineer of the iron works, but also the manufacturer of matches and soap for the cooperatives. In this way he is able to increase the Soviet paiok of thirty-six pounds of flour a month to a point where he can get enough to feed himself and his family. Early in the afternoon we went on to Cheliabinsk, reaching this place late in the evening. We still had time to walk about the station and here, in a little park, we encountered one of the scenes which are so common in Russia at the present time. Many peasants from the famine districts, on their way to seek new homes, were lodged there, cooking, eating and sleeping in the open. In the midst of the refugees some indomitable young Russians were playing the accordion while a large crowd listened attentively. September 6. At seven in the morning we reached the Cheliabinsk mines, which are about twelve versts from the town. Here we found Kiselev, the assistant manager, waiting to accompany us over the mining district. As soon as the... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.