ae rere ATION IN THR SOVIET a oe HON ~ 1675 produce here extracts from an. article in the July 6th issue of the Soviet peper-Hoonomic Gazette, This article has been reproduced in all the important Chinose newspapers = perhaps with the aim of showing a social base for 'Khrushchovito revisionisn,'
‘Pruit and vegetables are transported to Moscow and sold at black market prices. In 5 days nearly 100 spocula tors in fruit and vegetables were detsined..ait present, prices in the city markets are vary often fixed not by the Central Unien of the Consumers! Societies of the USSR, hot by the ministries of trade, bit by epeculators...." A spokesman of the Ministry of Trade said that it is impossible to regulate the prices in the markot, saying that there, the elemontal forces (the capitalist—minded elements in the count yside — Chinese editors' note) are ike masters with full mthority.
"Last year, the Moscow treie organivations concluded with the collective farmers 112 contracts, this year 72 were concluded. The miumber of vagetable stalls has decreased, All this is naturally being taken advantage of by the speculators, who have been able to fleece the buyers owing to price lists not being visible to clients, We wont to the central market one day in June, That day the maximim price for onions was fixed 1 ruble 20 kopeks per kilo, The speculators sold them at 2 rubles per kilo. <A certain Yuldashev brought tomatoes from Tashkent and sold them at 5 to 6 rubles per kilo instead of tho fixed prico of 4 rubles,
"ge had a long talk with tho District Commissioner. He cited facts to show how speculators, with the connivance of the markot controllers, sold vegetables and fruit at exorbitant prices, Tons of citrus fruits, apples, and various kinds of vegetables from Tashkent, Tbilisi, Sukhumi and other placesvent to Moscow and were sold at speculative prices, -All conveniences are created for the profitesrs: market hostels, storage rooms and other facilities are at their servica,
"A lioutonant of tha militia was quoted as saying: 'most of the spo culators have with them certificates for the possession of personal plots, In fact, we do not even have the right to examine if the cortificates are gonuine," Tho article said: "On the one hand,..it serves no purpose to ask tho colleciive farmers who come to regional or provincial market, whore do the potatoes, meat ~ or cabbage which they bring with thom, come from] Obvisusiy, these are the pro= ducts of their labour, But where could, for instance, a certain Kiriya of the Khobss rogion, Georgia, got several hundred kilos of lairel leaves? This is no idle question, Ue peddled his 'soods' thousands of kilometres away from Goorgia — in Kra noyarsk border resion and other Siberian provinces, In ths past year ho 'raalised' almost a ton of laurel leaves at 20 rubles per kilo, 20,000 roubles| Such are the receipts of a roaming speculator,
"\ certain Ilya Molekhin brought to Moscow from the Krasnoyarsk rog~ ion 3 tons of carly cabbags, Who bolieves that he has plucked the cabbage from his own vegotable garden? Some inhavitants in tho outskirts of Moscow and other big cities of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Bylorussia occupy themselves only with growing in their own plots flowers, vegotebles and fruits which are sold at high prices, Marketeering becomes their main profession. And certificates cannot always sarve as documents proving that the traders' prusence at thé market is legitimate, At the ond of May, a group of functionaires from Azerbaijan camo to Moscow to find out who among their population were doing business in tho markets of the capital. Within 5 days, nearly 100 specualtors in fruit and vogotables wero detained, most of whom did not work and chose sPeculation as their profession, But all of them carry certificates for tha possession of per sonal plotee.es
"The Soviet government granted the consumers! Coops immense rights and unlimited possibilites, Sufficiont space is given to them in every market. Tut in what do thoy trade? Mainly canned goods and dried fruits. The plan for _the coop is fulfilled not on purchasod agricultural products but on stocked goods,"