96 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
-To some, by an adequate rise in wages, it will be able really to
grant an equivalent for the increased cost of living; others,
with the help of the new system, it can expose to privation and
misery even more than before. This applies particularly to
the lyshentsy, who draw no wages at all and therefore naturally
suffer most from the new rise in the price of bread.
The population is thus doubly menaced by famine and its
consequences. On the one hand are those who do not survive the
critical period, i.e. die of starvation, while on the other are those
who survive the acute crisis, but are in daily peril from disease
and epidemics on account of their undernourished, enfeebled
state. Even if circumstances should favour the 1935 harvest,
so that it equalled that of 1933^ this menace would remain
undiminished. After a passing improvement, which would
aiford Moscow an opportunity for the public display of its
"superfluity and prosperity" propaganda, large masses of the
population, deprived of the necessary minimum of food, would
again be exposed to hunger and distress.
I have attempted to characterize the three periods of the
Russian famine—from the autumn of 1932 to the autumn of
1933, from the autumn of 1933 to the autumn of 1934* %&&
finally from 1934 onwards. My description would be incomplete
if I did not attempt to deal with certain aspects of the tragedy
upon which I have not yet touched.
The first question relates to the number of victims. To
arrive at exact figures is, of course, impossible; this can be done
only in the future, after careful investigations have been made
locally. But it is possible to make an estimate of the losses. In
principle it may be said that, from the point of view of the
relief work for the benefit of those threatened with starvation
in Russia, it does not much matter whether the number of
dead is 5, 6, 8 or 10 millions; it is enough to show that the
figure runs into millions. If sceptics ask that the representatives
of relief organizations shall produce exact figures of the number
of dead, the answer is that it is the fault of the Government,