Russian "Gold Rush." (1934)

From the December 1934 issue of the Socialist Standard

The following throws light on Russian development as a power, with the orthodox capitalist interest in world trade. The present position may be contrasted with Lenin’s view as to what the Bolsheviks would do if they were victorious on a world scale, as in the early days they confidently expected to be.

From the “Manchester Guardian’s” Moscow correspondent: —

  A "gold rush” in the Soviet goldfields by farmers become prospectors is envisaged by A. Serebrovski, president of the Gold Administration, in to-day’s “Izvestia.”
   After the harvest the Government is stocking shops in the gold regions with a profusion of goods for fair exchange for miners’ nuggets and dust, for the Government recently reversed its policy of confining prospecting to State trusts, and freelances have already played a considerable part in the year’s sharp rise in gold output. Serebrovski, indeed, emphasises the necessity of encouraging them in every way. (“Manchester Guardian,” September 13th.)

Lenin on Gold : —

  When we conquer on a world scale we shall, I think, use gold for making public lavatories in the streets of the great cities of the world. That would be the most “just” and graphically edifying use of gold for the generations which have not forgotten that for gold ten million people were massacred and thirty million crippled in the “great liberation” war of 1914-1918. (Quoted in “Lenin,” by Ralph Fox.)