861.504/353: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:02 p.m.]
1277. Reference Embassy’s en clair 1275, October 3. In addition to providing the Soviet Government with a system of labor conscription which will insure an annual increment in the labor forces of approximately 1,000,000 young men for Soviet industry the ukase of the Supreme Soviet published today is likewise apparently designed to remedy one of the outstanding deficiencies of Soviet industrial developments; namely, a shortage of skilled labor and foremen. The measures introduced for the compulsory training of skilled workmen are, it is believed, likewise intended to diminish the already disproportionate number of white collar workers and engineers. The decree abolishing free education in the secondary schools and higher institutions of learning is apparently directed towards the same end. The willingness of the Soviet Union to openly adopt a system of compulsory labor and the abolition of certain types of free education which are so completely at variance with the professed principles of the Soviet State constitutes eloquent testimony of the extent to which all other considerations are being subordinated by the Soviet Government to a hurried attempt to prepare the Soviet Union against the possibility of armed attack.