THE FLIGHT FROM RUSSIA of starving peasants has stopt, and they have bravely decided to stay in the country and await the next harvest, it is stated in the report of a Special Commission to Russia sent by the Health Committee of the League of Nations. All neutral observers agree that the peasants have used what was left to them of corn for sowing purposes, we read, and prefer to live through the dreadful winter in the hope of seeing meager crops rather than to abandon live seed in the soil tilled by their own hands. The halt of the stampede from the famine districts was due, no doubt, the report tells us, to very great organizing of the Russian administration, which succeeded in mobilizing transport, machinery, etc., in order to throw it all into the affected districts. Therefore, the Commission believes that—

“The main problem of the refugee is that of the return of the peasant of Western origin. There are still very large numbers to be repatriated. Comparing the Russian Soviet establishments for dealing with the mass movements of the population with the best similar establishments on the other side of the frontier, it must be admitted, the report states, that the Russian quarantine stations and barrack arrangements are certainly up to the best standard anywhere in Eastern Europe. Morbidity and mortality in Russian trains (which are unheated) are, however, very high, and it is not rare to see bodies being unloaded from Russian trains in Polish frontier stations.

” Children are apparently being taken care of in a very comprehensive way. The present regime has done its utmost to secure proper conditions, but in view of the difficult state of things in Russia at present, a custom has grown up of voluntarily abandoning the child to the care of the State.”

As summarized by the London Westminster Gazette, the report informs us that the misery of present Russian life was evident in every hospital visited. Nothing struck the Commission so much as the exemplary cleanliness of a big municipal hospital in Moscow, which seemed an oasis amidst a desert of rubbish and untidiness. The staff which had succeeded in keeping this institution in such good order, we are told, was receiving salaries much below the famine level. The nurses were paid 5,000 rubles per month, and got their food only every second day. We read then:

“The situation of these nurses will be accurately appreciated if it is realized that a cake of soap in Moscow costs 8,500 rubles.

“Another instance: a University Professor, by contriving to combine the duties of fourteen different posts, managed to put together a total salary of 400,000 rubles. The monthly value of his food ration (so-called academic food ration—the third best in the series) amounted to, roughly, 1,000,000 rubles. And yet he was unable to purchase the elementary necessaries of life for himself and his average-sized family.

“In spite of such conditions of life, scientific activity in Russia has not ceased. In fact, the Russians are perhaps overdoing themselves in their zeal for establishing laboratories everywhere. In Moscow alone there appear to be twelve municipal bacteriological laboratories, and in the Moscow district there are as many as thirty.

“In conclusion, the Commission suggests the drawing up of a Sanitary Convention and of an Anti-Epidemic Agreement between the Russian Government and the contiguous countries. The People’s Health Commissary exprest his readiness to enter into such negotiations, being particularly emphatic as to his anxiety to conclude such an agreement first of all with Poland.”

The report informs us that the epidemic of cholera, which was responsible for some 140,000 cases during the first five months of last year, ended suddenly in the middle of what is usually the epidemic season. We are told that it is impossible to predict whether or not there will be a recrudescence in the coming summer, but the presence of a regular cycle still on its increase is suspected. It is pointed out, moreover, that—

“The difficult transport situation in Russia assists in the localization of epidemics. Had railway traffic been normal, cholera would have spread westwards. The Russian sanitary authorities have made a study, of this problem. It appears that the big increase of last year had its starting-point at Rostov-on-the-Don. It should be emphasized that the role played by `carriers’ appears to have been very considerable. This is an observation which was made also in Poland.

“As to typhus in Russia, the number of cases in 1919 and 1920 is estimated by Professor Tarassevitch at twenty millions, which must be taken as a starting-point in any attempt to get at the extent of the Eastern endemic focus. The Russians were satisfied that typhus had considerably decreased during 1920, but there were 2,939,000 official notifications in that year—a gigantic figure, especially as the pre-war average never exceeded 150,000.

“The expectations for the present winter had been favorable until typhus made an early appearance among the refugees in the Volga district. This was looked upon as a bad prognostic. According to the most recent information, typhus was spreading all over Russia, the Eastern districts of Poland being also affected.

“The Russian authorities seem to be in no great fear of an extensive outbreak of smallpox. They are confident of being able to check successfully the progress of the disease. The official figures for 1920 gave a total of 168,000 notifications, while the maximum reached in 1921 appears to be below 100,000.”

There is no doubt as to the relationship between famine and the spread of epidemics, according to the report, which states that cholera seems to have been limited almost entirely to the famine districts, and typhus also is mainly restricted to the same provinces. Tho the disorganization of the railway traffic is a boon in disguise, from the Commission’s point of view, it is to be noted that a very considerable and steady migration of refugees is constantly taking place. The refugees in Russia fall into two main classes—war prisoners and civilians. The repatriation of war prisoners need not cause great anxiety, we are told, but the civilian traveler is a dangerous carrier of epidemic disease. The methods adopted by the Commission in collecting the information, we learn, were two-fold. In the first place, they had interviews with the People’s Commissary for Health, and his competent officials; and secondly, they had the benefit of information and advice given by Professor Tarassevitch. Altho much has been said about the danger of the plague spreading from Russia, Professor Tarassevitch assured the Commission that to his knowledge not a single case of plague had been discovered within the frontiers of European Russia. But all the authorities, according to this physician, complained about the indifference of the Chinese authorities to the epidemics of pneumonic plague in Manchuria.

Source: The Literary Digest for February 18, 1922