PROPAGANDA METHODS 221
had what one is tempted to call a brilliant notion. Over-
night the statistical methods of determining the yield were
changed, and instead of the actual yield being taken as the
basis, the total yield was calculated—as explained elsewhere
—on purely hypothetical assumptions.
Thus despite the ruin of agriculture and of cattle-raising on
which all the experts were agreed, the figure of 89,000,000
tons was, they claimed, reached for the latest harvest. The
"splendid" harvest from now on was to be the watchword,
dominating the press, the wireless and the rest, for nearly a year.
The attempt of the Norwegian Prime Minister, Dr. Mo-
winckel, to raise the question of the Russian famine before the
League Council was foiled by the united resistance of a number
of states which were interested in political and economic
co-operation with Russia. At the suggestion of this body he
turned to the international Red Cross Committee. This gave
the Moscow propaganda an opportunity to enter into corre-
spondence with the Red Cross and not only to deny the allega-
tions of famine and distress in Russia in no measured terms,
but to indulge in a truly Bolshevist jest. On March 6, 1933,
Izvestia reported that a proposal to remit the sum of 5,000
dollars to the Indian Red Cross for the victims of the recent
earthquake was tinder consideration. At the same time the
Soviet papers were full of "the terrible famine among the
Indian peasantry." All this was happening at a time whea every
month thousands of ragged and exhausted refugees from Russia
were reaching the Persian and other frontiers.
In the summer of 1934, when prices were rising rapidly
in the towns, the fiction of the 89,000^000 tons harvest could
no longer be maintained. It had to be admitted that a large
part of the coming harvest had been lost With regard to the
outer world, however, the story of great economic progress
and favourable prospects continued to be spread.
Nevertheless, the official representatives of the Soviet State
continue to deny that there was a famine in 1933. In the summer