 of the peaceful sea and the lands and lives it touches and their meaning to us and to the generations to come the pacific story presented by the national broadcasting company and dedicated to a fuller understanding of the vast pacific basin this broadcast series comes to you as another public service with drama of the past and present and commentary by dr h h fisher authority on russia and professor of history stanford university soviet asianics a new human world wash up on soviet asia has developed a strategic stronghold in the land block regions behind the maritime provinces of cyberia there is the ceaseless roar of blast furnaces powerhouses mines factories and manning this incredible development are more than a hundred different peoples who's becks burriettes kalmux yakut turkumans tajiks kirgis during world war one many of these peoples were in open revolt against the russian government today they are fighting in the ranks of the united nations and they bid fair to play an important role in the great pacific era that lies ahead of the republics of soviet asia is the kirgis soviet socialist republic my people have been nomads for centuries this is a kirgis chief we have wondered through central asia money means little to us our wealth is our sheep and cows and yaks we raise bacteria and camels and we use them for beasts of murder look at this kirgis chief and you see he is a mongol he is of a turkic tribe slantide tawny skin sturdy self-reliant his home is in the heart of central asia where the borders of china india and the soviet union meet my people have been here a long time they can remember the time of the rule of the khans before the russian scheme they can remember when people accused as criminals were punished by being thrown down from the khans high death turrets and we remember the days of the tars when the russian scheme took much of our land we say that the tars came us try the cannon more soldiers before the russian wheel upon us yes first they built a fortress in our village and now more and more soldiers are coming they come here like conquerors they will have no mercy on us after the soldiers came and built the fortress then the terrorist officials came whoever among the kirgis were discontent with russians were dealt with at once and then came the tax collectors every man woman and child of you must pay the asak to the tsar these tax will be collected in first and every one of you must pay we received nothing in return for paying the asak only cruelty and force later they took what gold we had and when the war came in 1914 they took our cattle and sheep we have given you robos we're stuck but but the rubles are no good it is money what can we buy with it it will buy nothing you have taken our best land we are hungry we have bought your stock and given you money for it what more can you add we are hungry and here at our feet are thousands of rotting caucuses of our sheep why did they kill our sheep and leave them here along the mountain roads to rot the sheep were slaughtered before the russians had cold storage for them they have taken our lands and our furs and our gold and now our stock are we to have nothing we are leaving us to the mercy of the wind and the cold war in europe was not our war yet in 1916 the tsarist government without consulting any of my people issued an order that all kirgis men between the ages of 1940 by order of his imperial majesty all kirgis men from the age of 19 to the age of 43 are immediately to be conscripted for service in digging trenches and general duty at the battlefront all kirgis males between 19 and 43 will be mobilized i will not go i will fight them before i let them take me why should i go to the battlefront for russia why we are going to start begging us at once at once where did you hear that at the fortress they're sending out russians to count us and to learn our age and pay them they will not take me they've taken all i have but they will not take me i will fight them but i will not go but they have guns and bullets and we have none we have tikes and axes and they are sharp they will come after and let us go after them now yes the officials let us go after them before they come for us so they fortress after every official and soldier to the fortress for the russia it's only because they're out of my people spread through all kirgis yet blood flowed everywhere my people killed the officials and the census takers and the russian colonizers and the russians killed my people wherever they found them the russians tried to mobilize 600 000 kirgis men but they only had trains enough for 7 000 to put down the revolt general am kurapapkin came to kirgisia it is imperative that you netizens of kirgisia know that the shedding of russian blood is punished not only by the execution of the guilty ones but also by the confiscation of the land of those who have proved unworthy general kurapapkin soldiers pressed against my people but they fought on with pike and axe and torch hospitals and schools and churches bridges and railways all were destroyed by my people and the tharist russians drove after us thousands of russians have been brutally murdered and the number of kirgis killed is not known many kirgis were captured and tried by court march of these 347 were sentenced to death but i found it possible to modify the sentence of many of these so that actually only 51 were executed we have confiscated much of the land of the kirgis and driven the kirgisians out this was general kurapapkin's report the tsar the massacre continued until my people were driven into the hills of china and afghanistan we lost 70 of our stock and 30 of our people in the world war what other people lost so much the kirgis revolt had scarcely been put down when tsarist fell in october 1917 immediately the new central soviet government proclaimed the freedom and equality of all people in russia any inequality among the peoples of the soviet union will be harmful it will create discord it will make the uss r v and will play into the hands of hostile enemies and the tsarist imperialists who wish to return to power the uss r must stand for a national life within the soviet republics each with its own language its own national tradition its own land slowly the exiled kirgisians drifted back to the lands they had roamed so many many centuries in 1920 the kirgis soviet republic was established it was bex the turkoman the tajik peoples also established their republics the antagonism between the kirgis and the other asianic provinces was not immediately overcome but the kirgisians like the other peoples of soviet asia set about putting their house in order began the conquest of the desert wastelands oh come on evan get up on the tractor no no come on come on get up on the seat and we will show you how to run it no no no i'm afraid it is like sitting on a horse it will not hurt you it it rose and trembles it is angry no it will do anything you want it to do get out come let me help you up on the seat no no no no this is the way roads are built everywhere we have to build this railroad through the waterless plains and the shifting sands of your kirgisia and we must use machines tractors like this no no no i'm afraid oh there we go evan run away but several days later he came back again he watched the powerful tractors grading and clearing the sand for the turkish railway where this railway was built had been only camel caravans for centuries past that's right evan just sit there quietly on the seat it is an iron monster i will stand here beside you it it shakes and grows now press your foot down on that thing right down there uh this and when you have it down pull this lever this way this one like this my people watched evan and the other shepherds as they learned to run the tractors and other machines and building the railway when evan ever came his fear he became a first class tractor if it does not harm you it will not harm me evan has become very brave he is becoming wiser he is the master of the tractor now evan can handle a tractor under any condition now look out over there evan learned more he learned how to take care of his tractor as well as run it he learned to read a little he was no longer a simple shepherd he began to ask questions is there really water with great boats far on the other side of those mountains what kind of people live there are the boats really as big as our tractor as the days went on evan learned to understand the workings of his tractor he learned why the sand must be graded and cleared from the railway he learned the importance of a railway to him and to my people he became a leader day after day the tractor work went on and when the railway was built through a train brought a lot of supplies to evan's village song was written for evan and these names spread throughout kyrgyzstan as evan learned so have my people learned to live in this new world in the space of a few years the kyrgyzians made the amazing transition from simple nomad life to a modern industrial life those of soviet asia were awakening looking ahead working out their own destiny in the soviet union the central soviet government poured billions of dollars into the development of soviet asia from european russia came and the root crime came millions of peoples people flooding in to develop the untouched resources of this great land i am an electrician i am an engineer i'm a teacher these experts have come to soviet asia to develop our industries and to train our people to lead us out of the past who came found oil and mercury and tin and lead and gold they found coal and copper and water power they found anti-money and they found iron and more and more expert scheme i am an economist i am a chemist i am an architect i am a doctor i'm a metallurgist i am a director of industry we have increased industrial production nearly 280 percent since the first five-year plan and more and more people came to work to build to improve schools were started all over our kyrgyz republic teachers were trained to teach our young superintendent how many schools do we have 1500 elementary schools 119 high schools and three universities and how many of our young people are pupils more than 280 000 my people soak up all the education they can get they thirst for understanding today in the kyrgyz republic we have theaters newspapers magazines libraries motion picture houses all are working toward the end through these channels a national life free from racial prejudice is rising in soviet asia the peoples of soviet asia over whom the russians once ruled now rule over the russians in their republics intermarriage between the russians the kyrgyz the usbex the kazakh the tajiks and all the other peoples of soviet asia is now the custom i have married a russian woman and we have three children this is evan the kyrgyzian who became a leader in clearing the railway with tractors there is no race prejudice between my people and the russians we have the same opportunities as the russians we are all uneven terms the future of the russians in soviet asia and the future of my people and all the peoples of soviet asia are one thus are the peoples of soviet asia tied together the white men and the yellow men the mongoloids and the sloughs tied together in common purpose the same people who in 1916 were at each other's throat thus were they united when in 1940 Hitler has attacked russia Hitler is bombing russian position and that is for driving into russia with all the beauty that is of smashing against leningrad or stuf harkov hitler is driving past small islands on the road to moscow from the heart of soviet asia to help defend european russia came uzbek, kazakh, tajiks, kyrgyz and kyrgyz seasoned cavalrymen born to the saddle who rode like wildfires stop them the Germans are blinding with their courage their contempt for self that the nazis admitted their fearlessness as the nazis drove toward moscow more fighters from soviet asia rushed to the front took their place in the lines in the battle before moscow tanks are coming captain see them through the smoke seven eight ten they're coming down through the gully there comes two more twelve tanks we have got nothing but hunger in that box of gasoline they took my order yes comrade how many are there left uh twenty eight comrade that's all that's left captain twenty eight we must hold the carrier spotted us they're woven fire how and keep your hand grace ready before moscow but as the enemy drove ahead on the other front the industries of european russia were moved back into the impregnable heart of soviet asia where the industries moved millions upon millions of russians workers and war refugees from karkov, leningrad, yev or desa, chevastopol, 20 million immigrants, furos and lake by carl and eastward to where the pacific washes up on the shores of Siberia a new world emerged tens of millions of persons of a hundred different tribes building a new future working as one people powerhouses and blast furnaces and factories new railway here isn't it yes igirgia had no railways before 1917 a new railway why this is like a new world out here it is like your america when it was being settled after your civil war oh our west you mean yes all those people that have come here to our republic are like the pioneers the farmers and workers that built up your country yes and the railroads were built through our west just as you've built them here in igirgia igirgia is the west of asia thousands of miles from the pacific oh who is this coming here oh that is a railroad man hello sir oh hello sir you are lining up another train a special train that an army has broken through to leningrad they have opened the rail traffic to leningrad yes and the kyrgyzh republic is sending a train load of gifts things made in our own factories and products grown on our own land by our own people they have lifted the siege of leningrad well they'll need that train load those people of leningrad they are our people we will get it through to them we must help them in every way we can was the uh home of that trainman back there in europe here in russia this is his home here he has been here since the first world war and he's married to a kyrgyz woman he's one of us we helped build this railroad and today we have railroad connections with china and with iran well that means that kyrgyzh here with all its resources is a strategic base for the allies right in the heart of asia a stronghold both now and after the war oh trains coming mr that's cheering it is a train to leningrad look at all the men on it they are soldiers our soldiers they're going to fight beside the russians at leningrad oh my god that's all you do goodbye goodbye oh what enthusiasm what spirit your people have a new world is forming here a great new world thousands of miles inland from where the pacific washes the shores of Siberia the landlocked peoples of soviet asia are transforming the wastelands into a rich nation which is playing an important part in the fighting of the war and will play an even more important part in the great pacific era of tomorrow and here to tell the underlying meaning of this remarkable development is dr hh fischer traveler and authority on russia and professor of history at stanford university dr fischer 20 years ago in moscow a man came to my office here said the russian doorman is some china man to see you a china man yes and he says he's come a long way because he has something important to tell an american he will not go away until he tells it and i think he will stay here forever the china man saw the american he wasn't a china man though it was easy to see why the russian took him for one he was a cal mc he told me and he had come the long miles to moscow from the hungry steppes that desolate region on the lower volga below the bend near which the city of stolingrad stands he had come because his people were starving and he had heard that in moscow there were americans who had brought food from their far country for the hungry of russia he told me very quietly but at considerable length the bitter story of his people how badly they had fared at the hands of the tsar and how it was no better under the soviet his people who long ago had been the masters of russia for two centuries now were dying of hunger unless the americans could help them their nation would perish the nation did not perish mr hoover's american relief administration brought them food the soviet government in the years that followed gave to the cal mcs what it gave to the other asian peoples of russia first of all a sense of national and racial equality with the western people and secondly access to the great technological achievements of europe and america the cal mcs and their kinsmen forgot the enmity of their fathers against the russians and at moscow as you have just been told and at stolingrad they gave their lives to save the russian land from the pollution of a brutal enemy they gave their lives for that and something more for the right of all the peoples of asia the yellow and the brown and the black through national and racial equality and to equal access to those remarkable contrivances that science has put within the reach of western man for his well-being i do not know what will be the verdict of history on the battle of stolingrad but no american can think of it without reverence and gratitude but if we think of it only in terms of how much it has helped us to defeat our nausea enemies we shall miss its full significance we must think of it in terms of the fundamental issues of the war those fundamental issues as they appear to the youth of china and of the other countries of asia a young chinese writer has summed up in one word emancipation they mean emancipation from foreign aggression from foreign rule from native exploitation they mean the application to all the peoples of east asia of the principles that russia has applied to the eastern peoples of the soviet union the principles of national and racial equality and the end of imperialism they mean what the founder of the new china dr sunyat sen meant by his three principles of the people national independence political democracy and economic and social welfare they mean what our own great emancipator meant by government of the people by the people and for the people how these great principles shall be realized depends in a great measure on how we and russia stand in the face of this struggle for emancipation we realize when we look at the map of asia the almost half of that continent is within the soviet union we can see that russia and china have a long common frontier almost 5 000 miles we can foresee that in the age of air transport now dawning inner asia where russia and china and india meet may regain the place it held before men learned how to cross the sea and ships it is easy to see the geographical significance of these frontiers for the movement of people and good for air it is less easy to apprehend the political significance of another common frontier a frontier of the spirit that joins russia and asia this other frontier comes to light when we realize that asiatic peoples on the whole have accepted soviet culture more easily than the russians themselves the soviet political techniques have proved more effective in china for instance than in europe that soviet economic institutions seem in certain cases to be better suited than the institutions of the west to meet the conditions of asia across this frontier of the spirit russia is expanding not as a new imperialism disguised with fine phrases and not at the expense of the peoples of asia but in unification with them through the adoption of similar political and economic systems all of us who are willing to look beyond our noses and sometimes this is a very disturbing experience should recognize the imminent throughout east asia of the spirit that within a single generation has so transformed the asiatic peoples of russia it is a fact to be taken account of not an occasion for hysterics let us not forget that we are fighting for the right of people to govern themselves in asia as well as in europe and that the peoples of asia are fighting to free themselves not only from japanese warlords but from the servitudes of their own past the emancipation the young chinese writer speaks all that's on the way and every victory over the axis brings it nearer when it comes we must be able to recognize it for what it is we may oppose it at our own great peril we have the great privilege of giving our leadership as russians have done in soviet asia we cannot stand aside thank you dr fischer next week at the same time over most of these stations the national broadcasting company will present another program on the pacific with drama of the past and present and dedicated to a fuller understanding of the vast pacific basin a reprint of tonight's pacific story program is available at the cost of ten cents ten ten cents in stamps or coins to the university of california press berkeley california the address again university of california press berkeley california directed by arnold marquis the musical score is composed and conducted by thomas paluso your narrator gain whitman this program has been presented as a public service by the national broadcasting company and the independent radio stations associated with the nbc network this is the national broadcasting company