LETTER TO MR. ALLEN W. DULLES FROM(Sanitized)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R003700040032-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 12, 2003
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: September 8, 1960
• Content Type: LETTER

STAT
Josef.' Rechd
Approved For Release 2003106117
ML,A len .Dulls ashington
Dear Sir,
I am a chemical and. building engineer,lived before tt:.(,- ;,a r in
Cracov,Poland,and this short my story t
I fled in September 1939 wirh my children to Lvo,wherf; the
Russians came a few days later.To live I had to see for work an it to I
proposed the authorities an invention of mine(Pire-proof) and a?; this
is important for a land where. the most buildings are of wcod,Mr.yE`hrushcs.
invited me to Kiew,where he was the boss at this time,and afterrr-I.rds
I've been invited to Moscow and worked in the Ministry of )efericf- till
8.of July 1941. Ten days later they arrested me already as a spt-..Buut
as they had not a smallest proof against me,so I was senteicea t N W'D
to 8 years hard labor camps and as it finished the have seat me to the
north of Sibiria in exile and finally in June 1957 they freed.,! to go
to Israel.
Here I wrote last year my Memoires "18 years in :3ov,jet--Russta"
As I have been there at the top(I've got 3.000 Rubi a month,whe4 my
typist had only 200 Rbl) and afterwards at the bottom, so y-)u imagine
that I've learned the real life in Russia better than & tourist end even
any foreigner who sits there years and so I showed that the the k.iug in
- naked..
I wrote these memoires in German,beca.use I don't govern ariough
the English(as you can--'l- on this letter)and the manuscript ss r=ow at
Hoffmann and Camps publish} rs in Hamburg.in the beginning )fere gear
a friend of mine,Prof.Dr.A.Tartakower,sent it to Dr.3`oachirn Priinn and
the latter praised it,but said that a translation intoyngItish would
cost much money and so he sent me the c6py back.
But my purpose were to show the english speaking workers how
the real life of a bovjet worker appeare.To give you a sam ale o1" - v wri-
ting I enclose a copy of an article I sent yesterday to a ress .kgency
in Gec many and as to the manuscript I am always to your ftepot i t, i on and
were only happy if it would be published in the USA.
Yours truly
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 ILLE IB
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~conamv
Wheat and Crud-a-011 --The ePg cx o l. Soviet
During the "glorious" Stalin era, the Soviet empire was suffering
literally from hunger, but not everybody. The "New Class" was alway?a well??_,
although perhaps not well-dressed; but the people remained hungry. ?ctatC*W
and bread were and still are the main foods. The fortunate ones were able
to supply themselves with potatoes in the fall, but in order to obtain brad
one had to stand every day in a long line. This was done not only ii the
early morning hours, but also in the early evening hours since therw~ was
always a sufficient supply of bread in the stores. I was not the o ly one
who often left the store without bread.
Better times seemed to have arrived with the "few Era." W Khr+?shster
acted out the play better than Stalin; the latter would have arrested 5 x Ulon
people to cultivate the fallow land, half of whom would have died before har-
vesting time. On the other hand, Khrushchev appealed to the youth, to nat Yna ism
-- and he was successful. Tens of thousands of young people vent to the deserts
of the Kazakh SSR and Siberia, cultivated and sowed the virgin lance and
in 1956, the newly seeded 30 million hectares of land delivered suer an ex-sss
of wheat, that it made the people shout with delight -- finally there wa oa
bread shortage any more
However, there were no silos for storing this harvest, and it .s dif'ionlt
for people in foreign countries to realize how much of it was devc^ed by rats
and mice. But human beings also enjoyed this wheat. Hundreds of
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thousands of tons were sent to Egypt, India, Poland, and other places. Th4
outsiders were always told: "We are exporting everything that we do not need
here." But this is a paradooc of the Soviet economy: While large aunts of
bread were being exported, long rows of people were standing in front cf -.read
stores in the cities and towns of the 1ESR. During these prosperous yearn,
speoifically during the winter of 1956/1957, I was in a large Siberian tcur
of 20,000 inhabitants. Several important small industries were established in
this town. The women there would stand in line many nights for bread, in
a temperature averaging minus 50 degrees Centigrade. Since nobody could stand
in line this way every night, the women agreed that one of them would std
there and represent five other women, who would come and wait in liar ar':und
0800 hours. It was better in the larger cities. However, we are able tc re
now in Soviet newspapers that this year the bread supply situation has become
worse.
I remember very well the announcements made at that time of a Soviet
offensive in the export of crude oil. I would like to say the following
regarding this matter: The production of crude oil has increased t^smsely
during the postwar years. Now deposits have been discovered. Oil i:_ no
being produced in the northeastern area of European Russia, in the as
ASSR (east of the Urals), in northern Siberia, on the shores of the Arctic.
Ocean , and from the bottom of the Caspian Sea. They are practically dro leg
in all their oil. What is the actual cost of this product? Althoug} the hri.b
laborer works in the oil fields at a ridiculously low wage, one must, bear
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mind that the American and British oil syndicates must surrender a Large
amount of the profit to the Arab and Persian owners. However, everyLbia
belongs to the State in the ASSN. Also the wages of the Soviet workor are :_it
any higher than those of the Arab worker. An oil worker in these a-eas a r._ ?,s
on the average 600 rubles per month, or about 24 rubles per day. Let us
be deceived by the official exchange rate, because all this in noth,.ag ney-#,
than a "bluff." The actual value of the exchange can only be deterrAineca ?tn
accordance with the goods that one receives for the exchange. I wou,A like
to mention the following examples: White bread costs 4 rubles, sugar 10 to
11 rubles (depending upon the location), meat 25 rubles, butter 30 rublaw,
of
Everything is priced in kilograms; sometimes some/the goods are not even
available for purchase. However, -there is one item that can always
puroahsed at these workers' stores -- the national drink: Vtg)KA. But the
price for half a liter of 80 proof vodka is 24 rubles. Taking everything 1ur-:, -)
consideration: Does a man work a whole day for half a liter of vodka or fo:r
one kilogram of meat (which he is seldom able to bay)?
This makes it easier to understand vhay the Soviets can compete casi. r
in the world market not only with crude oil, but also with industrial gora.
The export firma do not carry out any kind of calculations. All then do i
learn by means of bribery what the "capitalistic competitor" is askimrr for
his goods, and simply underbid this by 10 - 25 percent. This is their iersiatn
of "peaceful coexistence of both economic system." The situation is alidtai,
to that of the Biblical story of Isaias: "The wolf with the Sheep." Of co u: s*
the "sheep" is peace loving USSR. With the oil dealings, it is mportruet not
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. only to acquire machinery as compensation, as is done in dealings
with Western Europe, but it is also important to disorganize the a:erket
(such as the offer made to India), or for political reasons (Cuba). Im UL U
way, two birds are killed with one stone.
The matter that interests us the most in this writing is the preI.oa.+y
mentioned paradox of the Soviet economy: Although it is generally believ'i
that there is an abundance of wheat and oil in the USSR, the contrary :s
actually true. The private consumer can barely purchase oil products a the
official price. Without going into details, I would like to mention that
all means of transportation belong to the State. The drivers receive trig
tickets and must afterwards account for their use of oil products. Certel-'i
workers, such as the Stakhanovites in mines , gold refineries, and similaw
specialists in all other fields, earn so much that they are able to buy
motorcycles. They pay in advance and wait several months until their aotcr'-
cycle arrives - then they cannot buy any gasoline. But in the Soviet eou-n-tries.,
the people are able to find a way out of a problem such as this. They ao,;;
the gasoline at a such higher price than the official one from truck drivet+e.
How can the truck driver otherwise support his family if he only earns
the average 600 rubles per month?
This leads us to another fundamental question: How does the 3oviett
worker live? The answer to this cannot be found in this article.
Joseph Rechen
[Handwritten note in English:)
Dear Mr Dulles, I would be very thankful if yet wonlc
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