Because the railways were nationalized first, and because of their vital importance to the general economic life of the nation, let us consider how the nationalization of railroad transportation worked out. The following table is taken from the report of the Commissar of Ways and Communications: Working Gross Working Expenses Wages and Profit and Year Receipts Expenses per Verst Salaries Loss (rubles) (rubles) (rubles) (rubles) (rubles) 1916 1,350,000,000 1,210,000,000 1,700 650,000,000 +140,000,000 1917 1,400,000,000 3,300,000,000 46,000 2,300,000,000 -1,900,000,000 1918 1,500,000,000 9,500,000,000 44,000 8,000,000,000 -8,000,000,000 These figures indicate that the nationalization of railways during the nine months of 1918 was characterized by a condition which no country in the world could stand for a very long time. This official table affords no scintilla of a suggestion that nationalization was succeeding any better than the anarcho-Syndicalist management which preceded it. The enormous increase in operating cost, the almost stationary receipts, and the resulting colossal deficit require no comment. At least on the financial side the nationalization policy cannot be said to have been a success, a fact which was frankly admitted by the _Severnaya Communa_, March 26, 1919. To see a profit of 140 million rubles transformed into a loss of 8 billion rubles is surely a serious matter. Let us, however, adopt another test than that of finance, namely, the service test, and see whether that presents us with a more favorable result: According to the official report of the Commissar of Ways and Communications, there were in operation on October 1, 1917--that is, shortly before the Bolshevist _coup d’état_--52,597 versts[45] of railroad line in operation; on October 1, 1918, there were in operation 21,800 versts, a decrease of 30,797. On October 1, 1917, there were in working order 15,732 locomotives; on October 1, 1918, the number had dwindled to 5,037, a decrease of 10,695. On October 1, 1917, the number of freight cars in working condition was 521,591; on October 1, 1918, the number was 227,274, a decrease of 294,317. [45] One verst equals .663 mile, roughly, about two-thirds of a mile.