i8 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
undoubtedly have numbered ten millions or more instead of
"only" four millions.
Several years passed. Lenin's new economic policy brought
with it an improvement in the economic position of the
country, and the danger of famine seemed to be removed for
a long time, if not for ever. In 1929., however, there was a
drastic change of course. Agricultural collectivization began.
Those who were acquainted with the food position in Russia
understood at once that the consequences of this revolution,
carried through all over the country, must involve, at least
temporarily, the gravest rationing difficulties, if not an actual
catastrophe.
On Sunday, December 29,1929, the Neue Zurcher Zeitung
published a letter from myself written to attract public attention
to the danger of a new and acute famine arising in Russia. In
this letter I wrote:
"In view of the poor harvest and the results of Stalin's
experiment a severe food crisis can be foretold with certainty,
in which case the coming spring may bring another catastrophe.
, , . It is the duty of the European public to take the initiative
in order that timely preparations may be made on behalf of the
victims in Russia. If the government should eventually over-
come the difficulties, it would still be better that preparations
should have been made unnecessarily than that responsibility
for the loss of many human lives should be incurred. A first
step, therefore, should be for the various national relief organi-
zations to co-operate on the proved foundation of the Inter-
national Red Cross in order to reach an agreed plan for relief,
and to obtain information on the actual food position in
Russia."
In view, however, of the flattering estimate of the experiments
and the general situation in the Soviet Union published at that
time (in the same manner as to-day) in the press of the non-
Communist states, this suggestion was disregarded. Indeed, it
proved impossible to get the letter printed in German papers