Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 8 – One of the
aspects of Soviet life that survives in parts of Central Asia and that was
resented by most who were involved in it -- the compulsory use of students and
workers in the fields to gather crops – may be about to return to the Russian
Federation, if the ministry for agriculture has its way.
“Given limitations on foreign
citizens entering the Russian Federation at present, the Ministry of Agriculture,
together with the administrations of the subjects of the Russian Federation, is
considering filling their places with internal reserves,” the ministry’s website
says (nazaccent.ru/content/32768-minselhoz-planiruet-zamenit-migrantov-na-polevyh.html).
According
to the ministry, it hopes to attract some 23,000 workers to harvest crops that
might otherwise be lost. It says that students and the unemployed will be used
only when necessary. If the actual number used is that small, it won’t affect
many; but it may very well be that this will open yet another door to the
return to a much-disliked Soviet practice for far more.
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