Gratification came last week to Professor P. I. Preobrajenski, famed Russian geologist. For last week near Perm in the Ural Mountains (the mountain chain which divides European from Asiatic Russia) Professor Preobrajenski discovered oil. Thereupon the Soviet Supreme Economic Council bestowed upon him a reward (a "gratification") of 10,000 rubles (approximately $5,000). The Professor was "gratified" rather than "paid" because of the prevailing theory that services to the Russian state are recompensed by promotion and power rather than by so capitalistic an invention as capital.
Meanwhile Soviet authorities were preparing to spend a...
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