New Russia

"The taking of Moscow would doubtless have a great political import, but it could never be a decisive act for the whole war. The control of the Donets Basin, however, is decisive." This statement by a Berlin spokesman may have been partly apology for the way the German drive on Moscow stalled last week. But it was also partly true.

The Donets Basin is more important strategically than Moscow, and last week the Germans were trying hard to take the Donets Basin. They captured Taganrog, on the approaches to Rostov-on-Don.

They took Stalino, an important steel center 75 miles to the north. They reached Kharkov, hub of the eastern Ukraine as Pittsburgh is of western Pennsylvania.

They renewed attacks on the Crimea.

The Russians complained that Italian, Hungarian and Rumanian forces had swelled German ranks to such an extent that the enemy enjoyed great superiority in numbers. The sending of Marshal Semi-on Timoshenko to this front suggested how badly things were going.

It was not necessarily true that taking the Donets Basin would be decisive. But it would make a great difference. It would mean that the old industrial Russia would have been pretty completely crushed--nearly as completely as the old industrial China was crushed when Tientsin, the Shanghai-Nanking-Hankow triangle and Canton were taken.

Now the new Russia--the upper Volga, the Urals, the basin of the great River Ob in Siberia--would have to take over its own defense. This was an unfinished, incomplete Russia. It would need outside help. But it might be able to deliver some surprises. Certainly the Germans would not win their decision if this Russia stood.

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