THE CATASTROPHE 73
failure of a new experiment, the so-called mud sowing. Pierre
Berland, the Temps correspondent, wrote in his report on the
summer of 1933 that on a short journey in the Black Sea region
he had been impressed by "the astonishing prevalence of weeds
in the fields."
In the spring of the same year Malcolm Muggeridge came
to the conclusion that there was no hope of things getting
better. In fact, he anticipated their growing worse, because the
winter sowing had been neglected and general conditions in
the country, especially transport conditions—despite every
endeavour on the Government's part to bring about an improve-
ment—would prevent the spring sowing from being a success.
An engineer named Basseches, in a report published in
July 1933 in the Neue Freie Presse, said: "The plan [i.e. the
cultivation area for 1933] &lk short of last year's by no more
than eight million hectares. What counts is the quality of the
cultivation." But even where the work was tackled with energy,
it was impossible that year to clear the fields of the mass of
weeds that had sprung up in the previous years. "It is a task
that will require several years of concentrated effort. One's
general impression is that the quality of the work varies extra-
ordinarily in any given district." These prophets were to be
proved right.
In the autumn of 1933, when the harvest had just been
brought in, a special correspondent of the Kurjer Warszawski,
particularly well informed on Russian affairs, was staying in the
Soviet Union. He summed up the position as follows: "Even
now, before winter has set in, it can be said that the official
optimism, about the new harvest was premature. It appears
that the collectivization of agriculture, and the famine prevalent
in Southern Russia during spring and summer, will have much
worse effects than even the enemies of the regime could have
foretold. The collapse of agriculture in the Ukraine and the
Northern Caucasus is so devastating in its effects that even the
best harvest would not have sufficed to make it good. Greater