Communal Economy

COMMUNAL ECONOMY arose in the organs of so-called local self-government: city administrations in Russia, municipalities in France and England, and magistrates in Germany, as a result of these organs fulfilling their duties to improve populated areas. These duties are as follows: 1) planning of populated areas and ensuring them with the necessary land spaces; 2) residential construction; 3) ensuring fire safety; 4) water supply to populated areas; 5) cleaning of populated areas; 6) sanitary-hygienic improvement (baths, swimming pools, laundries, cemeteries, crematoria, stadiums); 7) green spaces; 8) outdoor lighting of populated areas; 9) provision of energy to the population (electric, gas, thermal); 10) local means of communication; 11) means of communication and transport (tram, automobile transport, underground transport, animal-drawn transport, steamboat crossings); 12) means of communication (telephone, mail, radio), etc. Not all of the listed areas of improvement are carried out by the forces and means of the C. e. Some of them, such as mail and telephone, are under the jurisdiction of central state authorities; others often become the subject of business activity of private individuals and private companies, such as baths, laundries, trams, electric power stations, gas plants. The history of urban improvement knows three methods for carrying out the tasks facing C. e., and at the same time several organizational forms of development and structure of C. e. These are: 1) assignment of certain duties to house owners; 2) city contracts and concessions; 3) creation by local self-government organs of their own business apparatus, own inventory, and enterprises. The first method is used mainly in small cities with weak financial resources of local organs and is the most primitive and ineffective method in C. e. Usually, house owners are assigned by the city administration or city self-government the duty of keeping yards and adjacent sidewalks and pavements clean, removing filth and garbage from yards, and maintaining lanterns or bulbs for outdoor lighting at their homes. Failure of house owners to fulfill these duties entails punishment, mainly in the form of a monetary fine. In capitalist countries, as a rule, there was a struggle between the other two methods of satisfying the needs of urban improvement, namely—the contract-concession and business methods. Highly developed technology makes it possible to bring urban improvement to a high level, but this is associated with large initial expenditures. Local self-government organs initially usually did not have such means, and the organization of such enterprises—water supply, sewerage, supply of electric power and gas, construction of trams, underground roads, etc.—was therefore transferred to private companies, which subsequently received large incomes from these enterprises. At the same time, a number of abuses were usually observed, such as bribery of municipal council members who voted for the granting of concessions to one or another persons. This contract and concession system in its operational activities sharply violated the interests of urban consumers, striving only for income. Therefore, along with the accumulation of communal economy objects, self-government organs of richer cities gradually began to create their own city enterprises using funds obtained through the issuance of bonds (loans). And public control, and greater flexibility in operation, and service to the population could naturally be manifested to a greater extent precisely in this business method of managing C. e. The struggle of local self-government organs with private companies for control over enterprises serving the needs of the city went on in Europe for the last 50 years and ended in the final victory of city self-governments. C. e. of European cities therefore at present represents great value with the investment of large capital funds (city communication routes, gas plants, water pipes, etc.). Post-war technological development has led to the creation of huge district electric power stations. These giants of electricity production are either again in the hands of private companies without any public control (America), or under state control (England), or at the disposal of the state itself (Bavaria). The cost of electricity supplied by these stations is usually cheaper than that produced at power plants belonging to C. e. The same situation is created in the gas industry. Finally, urban transport from purely urban has begun to turn into inter-city transport, i.e., to go beyond the purely C. e. All these facts show that the development of technology and industry is now going beyond the framework of C. e., and the latter, which was previously a progressive factor, is beginning to turn into a factor that hinders the application of technological achievements in the field of urban improvement. Obviously, a new change in the methods of C. e. work is on the agenda, which is already connected with the general socio-economic reorganization of the entire economy of the state in the direction of its socialization and elimination of private property. In pre-revolutionary Russia, the formation of communal economy and its development followed the same paths as in the West. The state of improvement of our cities was at a low level, which corresponded to the weak inventory of C. e. Within the territory of tsarist Russia, the value of C. e. (enterprises and street improvement) by the time of the revolution did not exceed 2,420 million rubles, including concessionary enterprises. The share of concessionary enterprises can be seen from the following table. Communal enterprises F p Water supply . . . Sewerage . . Electric power stations Gas plants . . . Tram . ... Telephone (1911). . 250 16 150 39 28 o». B K и a a Ч ь & ^{B s} Cfgb 2 я <d Bg B,B to g Si C 8 a o n к в 25,7 1,7 15,4 4,0 - 2,9 25,8 50 100 79 100 Thus, with the general weakness of C. e. in Russia, a significant part of enterprises in cities was under the control of various concessions (usually foreign). The October Revolution changed in Russia the process of formation of C. e. Expropriating private capital and nationalizing enterprises, the Soviet power immediately transferred to the disposal of city and rural councils all enterprises and property of local importance. These enterprises and property constituted the post-revolutionary capital of C. e. in the USSR. This capital now consists of the following objects. 1. Urban lands. 2. Municipalized residential house ownership. 3. Municipalized buildings occupied by trade and industrial enterprises. 4. Buildings occupied by various other institutions. All the listed objects before the revolution were private property. 5. Communal enterprises of public use (water pipes, sewerage, power plants, gas plants, mills, brick factories, slaughterhouses, baths, etc.); part of these enterprises before the revolution was under the control of city self-government organs, and a significant part was the property of private individuals and companies. 6. Structures for the improvement of cities (fire protection, pavements, embankments, bridges, street lighting, green spaces). The number and volume of C. e. objects after the revolution thus became incomparably larger than before the revolution.--As for rural C. e., in Russia before the revolution it essentially did not exist. Such an important branch of C. e. as water supply, in rare cases had a public character in the form of public wells, ponds. Cleaning of populated areas from filth in villages was completely absent. The most that existed in rural volost administrations from C. e. was simple fire-fighting equipment. The revolution enriched the rural councils with a significant amount of municipalized enterprises: mills, oil presses, groat mills, brick and other factories, trade and warehouse premises, gardens, municipalized housing, etc. At the same time, by union legislation, the lower organs of Soviet power are now entrusted with the care of rural improvement, which in villages and villages is expressed in the implementation of sanitary-hygienic measures, measures to combat fires, supervision of roads, cleaning of ponds, etc. For the implementation of these measures, a local budget for the needs of rural improvement is created. The bodies in charge of C. e. in the USSR are the main administrations of C. e. under the people's commissariats of municipal affairs of the union republics and communal departments in the executive committees of oblasts, krais, okrugs, and raions. The activities of these C. e. bodies are in close connection with the activities of health care bodies, and the correctness and timeliness of many measures in C. e. depend on the improvement or deterioration of the sanitary condition of the populated area, the increase or decrease in morbidity and mortality of the population.

Well-organized and implemented Communal Economy can prevent the spread and development of many negative aspects of population concentration, and the destruction and weakening of which is in the interest of health authorities, and the fight against which by health authorities is impossible without properly organized Communal Economy. The installation of water supply and sewerage systems helps in the fight against water-borne epidemics; improvement of housing helps in the fight against infectious diseases, mainly tbc; proper organization of bathhouse and laundry facilities is one of the main measures in the fight against parasitic typhus, etc. Poorly organized and implemented Communal Economy can adversely affect the health of the population: improper design and careless operation of water supply and purification facilities can cause water-borne epidemics; inadequate cleaning and soil contamination contribute to increased morbidity; unregulated traffic increases injuries, etc. Therefore, health authorities are interested in the proper organization of Communal Economy. Activities in the field of Communal Economy are to a large extent of a health-improving and preventive nature. This entails the need for constant joint work of Communal Economy authorities and health authorities, which is expressed as follows: a) in the development of a plan of measures for Communal Economy, b) in the development of legislation for Communal Economy, c) in the development of rules and standards for construction and improvement in the field of Communal Economy, d) in the approval of project plans and construction for Communal Economy, e) in monitoring the implementation of measures and operation of Communal Economy facilities, f) in studying the results of the influence of construction measures for Communal Economy on the populated area and the population living in it, as well as in identifying negative and harmful aspects in the field of Communal Economy, g) in accounting for facilities and measures for Communal Economy. Participating in the work of Communal Economy authorities, health authorities in their activities take into account the measures for Communal Economy and their impact on the health of the population and the populated area and the surrounding territory, taking measures to prevent possible harmful influences and to eliminate negative conditions associated with activities in the field of Communal Economy. Therefore, proper organization of Communal Economy is possible only through the joint activities of Communal Economy authorities and health authorities, in particular through their sanitary organizations. At present, Soviet society and Soviet power have raised the question of reorganizing daily life on socialist principles. In connection with this, the question has arisen about the construction of a new type of housing and cities and the reconstruction of old cities in accordance with the new requirements of life. This task basically lies with the Communal Economy authorities, which must develop a model of a socialist city and carry out the corresponding planning and reconstruction of old cities. The second task of Communal Economy is the maximum application of technical achievements in the field of urban improvement, without which the rebuilding of daily life on new principles is impossible. In connection with these tasks, for the five-year plan, an amount of 1,854 million rubles is allocated for communal construction, excluding residential construction, which is 40% of the expenditures on residential construction, whereas normal expenditures for communal construction are usually calculated at 25-30% of residential construction. For individual items, expenditures for Communal Economy are planned to be made in the following amounts. Water supply....

335.3 » » San.-hyg. measures ...

E. Bragin, L. Gerue.