Baltimore-i Értesítő, 1977 (13. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1977-05-01 / 5. szám

The Soviet Union is now selling gold on Europe’s markets to help finance its enormous trade deficits with hard-currency nations. The closed land is caught in a bind.

In 1975 these deficits were $6.4 billion, in ]?T6 another $5 billion and for 1977 an estimated $3 billion. This total $13*/i billion in these three years alone.

Not including grain, total Soviet imports from the West could increase 24 per cent in 1977. These imports, including grain, could total $15 or $18 billion. In 1976, they were $14.8 billion. The grain imports totaled $3 billion, but this year they should be less than half the $3 because of Russia's record grain harvest.

These Russian grain imports are famous. They are, however, only part of the grim picture. The Soviet has been boasting about its steel industry for years. Yet •hat vital industry is actually ailing and only the West can rescue it.

Russia needs finished steel goods, especially rolled steel. This is used lor motor vehicles, industrial equipment, consumer goods, etc.

The first indication of Russia’s flood of steel orders came from VOEST, the Linz, Austria, state works, which developed the revolutionary oxygen-converter process. This was followed by the Mannesman West German consortium and DEMAG, the French-Belgian consortium. The flood has spread through much of the Italian and British steel industries and even overfowed in Spain.

Clepriv, the orders are not for war materials. The Soviet is ordering no alloys. Construction items predominate; structural shapes, girders, concrete-reinforcement rods, rails, pipe, hydraulic tubes, etc.

The apparent reason? Russia is embarking on vast contruction programs long overdo Md never achieved by its own five-year plans, all of which were failures.

As for payments in gold, the Soviet abruptly discontinued gold production figures when Russia’s newest and largest gold strike started operating. But the most reliable estimate is that Russia is r.ow producing about 30u tons a year. Experts estimate Moscow’s gold reserves, in turn, at l.SOO tons.

Traditionally, Russia is the world’s No. 2 gold producer. Africa has always led. South Africa alone has contributed ebeut 45 per cent of all gold dug — outside Russia — in this century. But the key tc the Soviet’s Increased production is a s vast gold-mining complex in northeast Siberia across the Bering Strait from A'aska.

This operation Is called Dalstroy. In Russian it means the ‘‘Far North Project."

Magadan, at the head of Nagaveyn Bay on ’he forlorn Sea of Okhotsk, is the administrative hub of the complex. It i? a guarded city standing under sheer cliffs

that drei» from the bleak tundras ar.d is sheared by a magnificent natural arbor.

Magadan tics together about 70 large Soviet gold fields stretching to the Arctic Ocean, but concentrated chiefly along the Koiyma River.

Magadan controls about 10,000 mining camps and penal centers. It is now the Soviet’s main area for concentration camps and about 120,000 replacements a year of slave labor pour into there from the Soviet’s Eastern European satellite countries and Russia itself.

The Dalstroy mines operate two shifts of 12 hours each. Accordingly, the Soviet has no problem with costs. In Russian the word for slave labor is "ulonovtsi” and "taiga” is the slave laborer’s barbed wire cage. The mine workers toil in the ulonov- tsi and die in taigas identical to the Nazi horror camps at Belsen, Buchenwald, Dauchau and others.

Refined into bullion, the Soviet converts the gold into Western credits or currency (including American dollars) on Europe's free gold markets in Zurich (the world's largest), London, Amsterdam, etc.

Dalstroy also mines large amounts of platinum. In fact, before the last Italian election, the Kremlin broke the platinum market in Zurich by throwing so much on it. The Kremlin made the sales to give the Italian Communist party precinct workers Italian currency for vote-buying. This is now standard operaiing practice.

Thus the Soviet’s slave-mined gold lets the Kremlin leaders buy what they need in the world — including America’s wheat and Europe’s steel — for practical- ly nothing.

Whether we like if or not "disarmament” is a dirty word for the military- industrial complexes of every country. No one paid any attention to disarmament in the past, but when the nomination of Paul Wamke as arms control chief came up, the halls of the Senate resounded with charges that Mr. Wamke might actually fulfill his function arid come up with some kind of a disarmament treaty.

The thrust of the anti-Wamke debate was that the head of the disarmament talks has no business discussing methods of stopping the arms race.

Somewhere in the Kremlin is Mr. Wamke's counterpart, who is also looked upon with suspicion and contempt by Soviet military leaders and party hawks. His name is Vladimir Wamikovitch and he’s been getting heat from all sides.

At his confirmation hearing the other day he was questioned by the Politburo.

"If you go to Geneva you sell out the Soviet Peoples' Republic.”

"Is not true,” Vladimir protested. “! am looking for a way to stop spiraling

cost of military armaments which is costing our motherland billions of rubles.”

"How do we know United States is not just trying to trick us to disarm so they can destroy us when our guard is down?” “We have enough weapons to kill Americans nine times.”

“!' not enough. They have weapons to kill us 10 times."

Vladimir said, "I hope to reach agreement with U.S. so we can only kill each other seven times.”

"How can y».w do that?"

"They must give up one of their multiwarhead nuciear missiles and we must give up one of ours.”

“But if we each give up one of our multi-headed missiles we will only be able to kill them eight times and they will be able to kill us nine times.”

"Alia, Comrade. It depends which weapon ihey give up. We will ask them to. give up a tnissilt that will kill twice as many people as the one we give up, then we’ll have a "kill-ratio parity."

"Wamikovitch, in 1972 you gave an interview in Pravda in which you said that someday you hoped the Soviet Union and the United States would unilaterally only be able to kill each other five times.

Do you deny it?”

“No, at the time I thought that would be enough. But since ihm Eve changed ray mind. Killing each other five times is — not a safe figure.”

“How can we trust you when you say one thing in 1972 and something else now?”

”1 have the right to change my opinions. When I gave the interview I was not being put in charge of arms control agreement. If I negotiate t. new treaty I would never put Soviet Union in inferior position of only having enough weapons to kill Americans five times.”

“You don’t consider yourself a traitor for wanting to negotiate arms control agreement?”

"No, Comrades. I am Secretary Brezhnev’s choice for this position. It is he, not I, who will eventually decide how many times our two countries can afford to kill each other.”

“We warn you, Vladimir, If you come back from SALT talks without a superior kill ratio over U.S., you will be stripped of your human rights.”

“If you feel that way I won’t go to Geneva.”

"What do you mean won't go? Do you think we want worid to believe Soviet Union is not interested in disarmament treaty? We will confirm you as our negotiator, but we will be watching you every minute so U.S. doesn’t pull the woo! over your eyes."

"Thank you. Comrades. You can’t realize what it means to know you have so much faith in me.”

“Why not? You’re the best man for the inh ”

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