Nothing brings such a thunderous frown to the dark brow of Josef Stalin as reports from the farm front that food production is lagging. Promptly agents of his Gay-Pay-Oo pounce (usually at night) on peasant laggards, ship them off from their ancestral farms to saw wood and split rocks in bleak Siberia. All last year food shortage gripped the Soviet Union, peasant deportations continued, prophesies flew that a peasant "passive strike" might crack the Stalin regime.
In Moscow, last week, relieved State statisticians produced curves and sheaves of figures which made Stalin smile. Apparently...