Word: union
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When Ralph and Christine Dull of Brookville, Ohio, arrived in the Ukraine last spring, they thought they knew what to expect. After all, they had visited the Soviet Union six times since 1983 under the auspices of international peace groups. They believed the U.S. was not doing enough to help promote peace and understanding, so they decided to take matters into their own hands. "We felt that it was up to the American people to establish contacts with the Soviets." Now near the end of their sojourn, however, the Dulls are finding that their ideals of cross-cultivation...
...farm), while a Soviet farmer, Viktor Polormarchuk, worked on their spread back in Brookville. (From his letters home, Polormarchuk's wife Valentina reports that her husband is working hard, has lost several pounds and talks about doing some private farming of his own when he returns to the Soviet Union.) "Mikhail Gorbachev's new proposals ((for liberalizing the economy)) fit in exactly with what we think about independent farming," says Ralph Dull. "We were very interested in the changes taking place in Soviet agriculture, and we wanted to be part of that change...
...their cows on long, frayed ropes around the farm's winding roads, trying to supplement their tiny pensions with money from the eventual sale of the cattle. Antiquated tractors wheeze and grunt alongside groups of young women bending painfully in the hot sun. Says Ralph dryly: "In the Soviet Union there are more agricultural supervisors than there are farmers...
Despite its inefficiency, the Ukraina kolkhoz is one of the Soviet Union's most profitable collective farms. It employs more than 7,000 people and earns a profit -- about $4.7 million in 1988 -- on sales of cattle, corn, sugar beets, wheat and other products. Yet mismanagement limits its progress. Dull cites as one example a "specialist system," requiring that people be trained to do only one specific task. Party officials, often without agricultural expertise, constantly monitor to make sure things are done as the party dictates. "Soviet farmers are accustomed to having Big Brother watching over their shoulder," says Dull...
Despite the changes taking place in the Soviet Union, Dull's millennium is still a long way off. "It will take another five years to see real results in increased production," he believes, "The entrenched inefficiency and mismanagement that are part of the Soviet bureaucratic system, however, will take even longer to root...