The
blockade by land and sea is the cause of this distress and lack of the
essentials of transportation is its gravest symptom. Only one-fourth
of the locomotives which ran on Russian lines before the war are now
available for use. Furthermore, Soviet Russia is cut off entirely from
all supplies of coal and gasoline. In consequence, transportation by
all steam and electric vehicles is greatly hampered; and
transportation by automobile and by the fleet of gasoline-using Volga
steamers and canal boats is impossible. (Appendix, p. 55.)
As a result of these hindrances to transportation it is possible to
bring from the grain centers to Moscow only 25 carloads of food a day,
instead of the 100 carloads which are essential, and to Petrograd only
15 carloads, instead of the essential 50. In consequence, every man,
woman, and child in Moscow and Petrograd is suffering from slow
starvation. (Appendix, p. 56.)
Mortality is particularly high among new-born children whose mothers
can not suckle them, among newly-delivered mothers, and among the
aged. The entire population, in addition, is exceptionally susceptible
to disease; and a slight illness is apt to result fatally because of
the total lack of medicines. Typhoid, typhus, and smallpox are
epidemic in both Petrograd and Moscow.
Industry, except the production of munitions of war, is largely at a
standstill.
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