◆ SpookStack

ter in the well, the washroom was alternately i. . - to over- Howing or completely deserted. When it was filled, three or four persons sometimes crowded around a single basin, one attempt- ing to wash his face, another his feet, a third to cup his hands for a drink and a fourth to fll a water jug. Under these cireum- stances, washing was not a leisurely occasion. The hotel teemed with a melange of people from all parts cf the Soviet Union, and indeed from the whole Communist world. Most of the accommodations were dormitory style, but there were a number of small private rooms into which as many beds as possible were crammed. The overflow slept on the floor and on benches or chairs in the central lobby. Most of the guests appeared to be minor government officials or farmers in town for business purposes in connection with the new lands program. Certainly the hotel was not being used as a transient center for new recruits coming into the region to work on the massive new state farms. These people are quartered in dormitories better equipped to handle the numbers involved. Labor Not Quite Forced Akmolinsk is an overcrowded conmunity thrust into promi-. nence by the great project which it helps to service. We were impressed by the large numbers of young people to be seen on the streets and concluded that young people make up the buik of the new farm Iabor needed in the region. As far as,we could learn, these recruits are not actually dragooned into coming out into this empty prairie land, but they are certainly given every encouragement to do so. In the first place, there is a wage incen- tive: wages offered by the government on a three-year contrae- tual basis are almost double those offered by state farms in the Ukraine. Second, since this is apparently not enough, consider- able pressure is placed on the graduates of agricultural schools to go into the new lands region on the completion of their train- ing. We have no grounds for suggesting that such a move is actually obiigatory, but we concluded that unless a person had a pretty good reason for not doing so, he would be likely to end up in Axmolinsk or Barnaul or one of the other centers serving. the new lands program. Obviously, some pressure is exerted, because the region is not an appealing one in which to invest one's life, or even a few years of it. In retrospect, our stay in Akmolinsk emerges as one of the. most interesting and illuminating experiences of our whole Soviet visit, although while it was in process we felt only frus- tration, annoyance and physical discomfort. It was here that 53