(SANITIZED)SOVIET PROPAGANDA (SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-01043R004000060002-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 347
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: April 1, 2014
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 10, 1959
• Content Type: REPORT

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INFORMATION REPORT INFORMATION REPOR1
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
18, U.S.0 Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
50X1 -HUM
COUNTRY
SUBJECT Soviet Propaganda
DATE OF
INFO.
PLACE &
DATE ACQ
REPORT
DATE DISTR. 10 November 1959 50X1 -HUM
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NO. PAGES
REFERENCES RD 50X1 -HUM
SOURCE EVALUATIONS ARE DEFINITIVE. A
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a. Nigher Idncation in the UNSR, Soviet Booklet No. 51, Professor y.
Telyutin, 60 pages, London, .Thne 1959.
b. Co-Operatives in the Soviet Union, Soviet News Booklet lio. 36, Israel
k. Triathlon, Y) pages, London, kovvmsber 1958.
c. Social S_,.1.mir1ithe USSR Soviet Booklet Na. 50, A. lochkurov,
39 pages, London, WIT 1959.
d.. OnthOvercomirs_Cul. the Individual and Its Conaequence, Soviet
News Booklet No. 20, Resolution of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the 'Soviet Union, 32 pages, 30 Jim 1956.
e. If the Alms Race Were Stopped, Soviet News Booklet No. 32, Professor
I. Rubinstein, ifoficejlcon. 1 33. pages, London, July 1958.
f. The USSR - 100 Questions Answered, Soviet Booklet No. 401 5th edition,
198 Pages, London, November 1958.
Soviet Planet Into Space, Soviet Booklet No. 48, 42 pages, London, 1959.
h. The Land of Soviets - A Soviet Famaily Budffet, ii. Tatarakaya,
A. Ouryanov, IPoreign Languages Publishing Rouse, 36 pages, Moscow 1957.
1. New Steps for Peace by Socialist Countries - Meeting of the Political.
Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Treaty Organization 24 Nay 1958, '
Soviet Thews Booklet No. 31, 36 pages, London, Nay 1958.
j. Bringing Sestet Schools Still Closer to Life, Soviet Booklet No. 10i.,
24 Mos, London, December 1958.
ST
ARMY X NAVY
X I AIR # I X I FBI
I I AEC I I USIA I X I ICA 1
(Note: Washington distribution Indicated by ??X"; Field distribution by *?*".)
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INFORMATION REPORT
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k. Great Plan of the Soviet Union - Target Figures for the Economic
Deve.lopinent of the USSR from 1959 to 1965, Soviet Booklet No. 491
62 pages, London, May 1959.
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The attached documents -ars UNCLASSIFIED when detached from this cover sheet.
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On Overcoming the STAT
Cult of the Individual
and Its Consequences
Resolution of the
Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the
Soviet Union
30th June 1956
SOVIET NEWS BOOKLET No. 20
STAT
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ON OVERCOMING THE CULT
OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND ITS
CONSEQUENCES
Resolution of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
June 30, 1956
1THE central committee of the Communist Party
? of the Soviet Union notes with satisfaction that the
decisions of the historic 20th Congress of the C.P.S.U.
have been welcomed entirely and -supported whole-
heartedly by our party as a whole, by the entire Soviet
people, by the fraternal communist and workers' parties.
by working people of the great community of socialist
nations, and by millions of people in the capitalist and
colonial countries. And this is quite understandable,
for the 20th Party Congress, marking as it did a new
stage in the creative development of Marxism-Leninism.
gave a thorough-going analysis of the present inter-
national situation both at home and in the world,
equipped the Communist Party and the Soviet people as
a whole with a magnificent plan for the continued effort
for building communism, and opened up new prospects
for united action of all working-class parties in averting
the danger of war, and on behalf of the interests of
labour.
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The Soviet people, carrying out the decisions of the 20th
Congress, are gaining more and more outstanding achieve-
ments in every aspect of the country's political, economic and
cultural life under the leadership of the Communist Party. The
Soviet people have rallied still more closely behind the Com-
munist Party and are showing a wealth of constructive
initiative in their efforts to accomplish the tasks set before
them by the 20th Congress.
The pcnod which has passed since the congress was held has
shown also the great and vital importance of its decisions for
the international communist and labour movement, for the
struggle of all progressive forces to strengthen world peace.
The important theoretical theses the congress laid down on the
peaceful co-existence of states with different social systems, on
the possibility of preventing wars in modern times, on the
multiplicity of forms of the transition of nations to socialism
are having a favourable effect on the international situation,
promoting the relaxation of tension, greater unity of action
of all the forces working for peace and democracy, and
the strengthening of the positions of the world socialist system.
While the Soviet people and the working people of the
people's democracies and of the world as a whole have met the
historic decisions of the 20th Congress of the C.P.S.U. with
great enthusiasm and with a new upsurge of constructive
initiative and revolutionary energy, they have caused alarm
and irritation in the camp of the enemies of the working class.
Reactionary circles in the United States and in some other
capitalist powers obviously feel uneasy about the great pro-
grammc to strengthen peace which the 20th Congress of the
C.P.S.U. has charted. Their uneasiness increases as this
programme is being put into operation, vigorously and
consistently.
Why arc the enemies of communism and socialism making
most of their attacks on the shortcomings about which the
4
central committee of our party told the 20th Congress of the
C.P.S.U. ? The reason they are doing so is to divert the
attention of the working class and its parties from the main
issues which were raised at the 20th Party Congress and which
were meant to clear the way to further progress being made
in the cause of peace, socialism and working-class unity.
The decisions of the 20th Party Congress and the foreign
and home policy of the Soviet government have created con-
fusion in imperialist quarters in the United States and some
other countries.
The bold and consistent foreign policy of the U.S.S.R.,
directed towards ensuring peace and co-operation between
nations regardless of their social systems, is winning support
from the great masses of the people in all countries of the
world, extending the front of peaceloving nations and causing
a profound crisis in the cold war policy, a policy of building
up military blocs and stockpiling arms. It is no accident that
it is the imperialist elements in the United States that have
been making the greatest fuss over the efforts made in the
U.S.S.R. to combat the cult of the individual. The existence
of negative factors arising from the cult of the individual was
profitable for them in order to fight socialism with these facts
at their disposal. Now that our party is boldly overcoming
the consequences of the cult of the individual, the imperialists
see in it a factor making for our country's faster progress
towards communism, and weakening the positions of
capitalism.
The ideologists of capitalism, in an effort to undermine the
great power of attraction of the decisions of the 20th Congress
of the C.P.S.U. and their influence on the broadest masses of
the people, are resorting to all manner of tricks and ruses to
distract the attention of the working people from the pro-
gressive and inspiring ideas the socialist world puts forward
before humanity.
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1
The bourgeois press has lately launched a largescale cam-
paign of anti-Soviet slander, which the reactionary circles are
trying to justify by some of the facts connected with the cult
of the individual of I. V. Stalin denounced by the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union. The sponsors of this campaign are
exerting every effort to "trouble the waters," to conceal the
fact that what is meant is a stage the Soviet Union has passed
through in its development; they are out to suppress and
misrepresent the fact that in the years that have passed since
Stalin's death the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and
the Soviet government have been acting with exceptional
perseverance and resolution to remove the after-effects of the
cult of the individual, and have been making steady progress
in solving new problems for the sake of strengthening peace,
and building communism, in the interest of the people at large.
Bourgeois ideologists, in launching their campaign of slander,
are trying to cast a slur once more, and again to no avail,
on the great ideas of Marxism-Leninism, to shake the trust
the working people have in the world's first socialist country?
the U.S.S.R.?and to sow confusion in the ranks of the inter-
national communist and labour movement.
Historical experience indicates that the opponents of inter-
national proletarian unity have in the past attempted more than
once to take advantage of what they believed to be opportune
moments for undermining the international unity of the com-
munist and workers' parties, for dividing the international
labour movement, for weakening the forces of socialism But
each time the communist and workers' parties have discerned
the intrigues of the enemies of socialism, have rallied their
ranks still more closely, demonstrating their unshakable
political unity, and their unbreakable loyalty to the ideas of
Marxism-Leninism.
The fraternal communist and workers' parties have detected
6
this move of the enemies of socialism in good time, too, and
arc giving it a fitting rebuff. It would be incorrect, on the
other hand, to shut one's eyes to the fact that some of our
friends abroad are still not quite clear on the cult of the
individual and its consequences and arc sometimes giving
incorrect interpretations to some of the points connected with
the cult of the individual.
The party bases its criticism of the cult of the individual
on the principles of Marxism-Leninism. For over three years
our party has been waging a constant fight against the cult
of the person of J. V. Stalin, and persistently overcoming its
harmful consequences. It is only natural that this question
should have entered as an important item into the deliberations
of the 20th Congress of the C.P.S.U. and its decisions. The
Congress recognised that the central committee had taken
perfectly correct and timely action against the cult of the
individual which, as long as it was widespread, belittled the
role of the party and the masses, whittled down the role of
collective leadership in the party and often led to serious
omissions in its work, and to gross violations of socialist
law. The congress instructed the central committee to carry
out consistently the measures for removing wholly and entirely
the cult of the individual, foreign to Marxism-Leninism, for
removing its consequences in every aspect of party, govern-
mental and ideological activity, and for strict enforcement of
the standards of party life and of the principles of collective
party leadership elaborated by the great Lenin.
In combating the cult of the individual the party guides
itself by the well-known theses of Marxism-Leninism on the
role of the masses, of parties and individuals in history, and on
the impermissibility of a cult of the person of a political
leader, however great his merits may be Karl Marx, the
founder of scientific communism, emphasising his revulsion for
" any cult of the individual," declared that he and Friedrich
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ontei the 2eirr=eintt sf ,...mmmunsns "ca condition
7urcr, ezr?.7e1curg g? ee DDT?=mrwcaping of
...intheinfres wernfd eethalxvrr. ant cif Ir.." iK.crf Afe71 and
ffte_frirk"?rqf. V? eL , F EZ-.11, Pages
Inuldhrig op oar Calmnum= Farr" V. L Lenin was
_rr=saczialife the a='t-Ita..?_,= wocepoori of the
" hetes" and the"atair," &cxing the counter-
of ne?fthmf &ner o the =ism a t.:x people. " The
? -of of r-grfrq-v.:" said V. L Lenin, "creates
laIrrethinvs' irrrq-Tr EtCy fe?z& t!=za a fore= of the greatest
=xus- (Preece, Va.
r2ziazthe arsdca of czic?atthg the colt of the person
of I. V. the commir.ee of the CPS.U. acted
as the assca=pdets thaz the cult of the individual contradicted
theesven= of the soth.list syvent and was becoming a brake
ors the way of i..ro-A,e of Soviet democracy and of the
ad-ra=e of Savi= society towards communism.
The Mtn' Col,--ers of the party, on the central committee's
inimnve. fotand it necessary to speak openly and boldly about
the grave oamequeoces of the cult of the individual, of the
resiocs mistskes nude in the latter period of Stalin's life, and
to appeal to the party as a whole to put an end, through corn-
bi=d efforts, to everything that the cult of the individual had
'rvotight in its train. In doing so the central committee realised
that the frank admission of the errors made would give rise to
certain negative features and excesses which the enemies could
use. The bold and ruthless self-criticism in matters arising
from the cult of the individual has been fresh, ample evidence
of the strength and vitality of our party and of the Soviet
socialist system. It can be said with confidence that none of
the ruling parties in capitalist countries would ever have
ventured to do anything like this. Quite the reverse, they
would have tried to pass over in silence and to hide from the
people facts as unpleasant as these. But the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union, reared as it is on the revolutionary prin-
ciples of Marxism-Leninism, has spoken the whole truth,
however bitter it might have been. The party took this step on
its own initiative, guiding itself by considerations of principle.
It believed that even if its action against the Stalin cult caused
some momentary difficulties, it would be of enormous value in
the long run from the point of view of the basic interests and
ultimate goals of the working class. Sure guarantees are
thereby created against things like the cult of the individual
reappearing in our party or in our country ever again, and
also for the leadership of the party and the country being
effected collectively, through enforcing the Marxist-Leninist
policy, in conditions of full-scale party democracy, with the
active and constructive participation of millions of working
people and with the utmost development of Soviet democracy.
By taking a determined stand against the cult of the
individual and its consequences, and by oponly criticising the
errors it caused, the party has once more demonstrated its
loyalty to the immortal principles of Marxism-Leninism, its
loyalty to the interests of the people, its concern for providing
the best possible conditions for the development of party and
Soviet democracy in the interest of the successful building of
communism in this country. The central committee of the
C.P.S.U. places on record the fact that the discussions on the
cult of the individual and its consequences by party organisa-
tions and at general meetings of working people have been
marked by a great measure of activity, shown both by the party
membership and by non-party people, and that the C.P.S.0
central committee's line has been welcomed and supported
wholly and entirely both by the party and by the people.
The facts of the violations of socialist law and other errors
connected with the cult of the individual of J. V. Stalin,
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which thc party has made public, naturally create a feeling of
bitterness and deep regret. But the Soviet people realise that
the condemnation of the cult of the individual was indispen-
sable for the building of communism in which they are all play-
ing their full part. The Soviet people have seen the party
taking persistent practical steps for the past few years to remove
the after-effects of the cult of the individual in every field of
party, governmental, economic and cultural development
Thanks to this effort, the party, which no longer has its internal
forces bound by anything, has drawn still closer to the people
and has today developed its creative activity more than ever
before.
10
110W, indeed, could it happen that the cult of the
2. person of Stalin, with all the attendant adverse con-
sequences, could have appeared and gained currency in con-
ditions of the Soviet system ?
This question should be examined against the background
of the objective, concrete historical conditions under which
socialism was built in the U.S.S.R. and also some subjective
factors arising from Stalin's personal qualities.
The October Socialist Revolution has gone down in history
as a classic example of a revolutionary transformation of
capitalist society under the leadership of the working class.
The example of the heroic struggle of the Bolshevik Party, of
the world's first socialist state, the U.S.S.R., is something from
which the communist parties of other lands, indeed all progres-
sive and democratic forces, arc learning how to solve the
fundamental social problems generated by modem social
development. Throughout the nearly forty years that have
gone into building socialist society, the working people of
this country have accumulated a wealth of experience, which is
being studied and assimilated by the working people of other
socialist nations, creatively and in keeping with their specific
conditions.
This was the first experience history has ever known of
building a socialist society which was taking shape through the
quest for and practical proving of many truths which until
then were known to socialists only in general outline,
theoretically. For over a quarter of a century the Soviet
Union was the only country blazing the path to socialism
for mankind. It was like a besieged fortress in capitalist
encirclement. The enemies of the Soviet Union both in the
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West and in the East, continued to plot new "crusades"
against the U.S.S.R. after the failure of the fourteen-power
intervention of 1918-20. Thc enemies sent large numbers of
spies and wreckers into the U.S.S.R., trying by every means
at their disposal to destroy the world's first socialist state.
The threat of renewed imperialist aggression against the
U.S.S.R increased particularly after fascism's advent to power
in Germany in 1933, which proclaimed its purpose to be that
of destroying communism, that of destroying the Soviet Union,
the world's first state of working people. Everyone remembers
the establishment of what was called the "anti-Comintern
pact" and the " Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis," which were actively
supported by the forces of international reaction as a whole.
With a threat of a new war growing more and more evident,
and with the western powers cold-shouldering the measures the
Soviet Union more than once proposed to put fascism in a
straitjacket and organise collective security, the Soviet Union
had to exert every effort for strengthening its defences and
countering the intrigues of the hostile capitalist encirclement.
The party had to teach the people as a whole to be always
vigilant and prepared to face enemies from without.
The intrigues of international reaction were all the more
dangerous since there was a bitter class struggle going on
within the country for a long time to see "who beats whom?"
After Lenin's death, hostile trends began gaining currency in
the party: Trotskyitcs, right-wing opportunists and bourgeois
nationalists whose stand was one of opposition to Lenin's
theory about the possibility of the victory of socialism in one
country, a stand which would in fact have led to the restor-
ation of capitalism in the U.S.S.R. The party launched a
ruthless struggle against those enemies of Leninism.
In carrying out Lenin's behests, the Communist Party steered
a course towards the country's socialist industrialisation, collec-
tivising agriculture and making a cultural revolution. The
12
Soviet people and the Communist Party have had to o% cream
unimaginable difficulties and obstacles in solving these supreme
problems of building a socialist society in a single country
Our country had to overcome its age-old backwardness and
reshape the national economy as a whole along new, socialist
lines, within the historically shortest period of time, and with-
out any economic assistance whatsoever from outside.
This complicated international and internal situation called
for iron discipline, tireless enhancement of vigilance, stringent
centralisation of leadership, which could not but have had
an adverse effect on the development of some democratic
forms. In the bitter struggle against the whole world of
imperialism our country had to accept some limitations to
democracy, which were justified logically by our people's
struggle for socialism in conditions of capitalist encirclement.
But even at that time the party and the people regarded
these limitations as temporary and due to be removed as the
strength of the Soviet state grew and the forces of democracy
and peace developed throughout the world. The people made
these temporary sacrifices conscientiously, seeing the Soviet
social system make progress day by day.
All these difficulties on the way to socialism have been over-
come by the Soviet people under the leadership of the Com-
munist Party and its central committee, which consistently
pursued Lenin's general line.
The victory of socialism in this country, faced as it as with
hostile encirclement and the ever present threat of attack from
without, was a historic exploit of the Soviet people. Through
carrying out its first five-year plans, the economically backward
country made a giant leap ahead in its economic and cultural
development, thanks to the strenuous and heroic efforts of
the people and the party. With the progress achieved in
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socialist construction the living standards of the working people
were raised and unemployment abolished once and for all.
A thorough cultural revolution took place. Within a short
space of time the Soviet people produced great numbers of
technicians who rose to the level of world technological
progress and brought Soviet science and technology to one
of the leading places in the world. It was the great party
of communists that was the inspiring and organising force
behind these victories. By the example of the U.S.S.R. the
working people of the whole world have seen for themselves
that the workers and peasants, once they have taken power into
their own hands, can build and develop successfully, without
any capitalists and landowners, their own socialist state, repre-
senting and defending the interests of the people at large.
All this has played a great and inspiring role in increasing the
influence of the communist and workers' parties in all the
countries of the world.
J. V. Stalin, who held the post of general secretary of
the party's central committee for a long period, worked
actively in common with other leaders of the party to put
into effect Lenin's behests. Ile was faithful to Marxism-
Leninism, and as a theorist and an organiser of high calibre
he led the party's fight against the Trotskyites, right-wing
opportunists, and bourgeois nationalists, against the intrigues of
capitalists from without. It was in this political and ideological
fight that Stalin earned great authority and popularity. But
there was a mistaken practice of associating all our great
victories with his name. The achievements gained by the
Communist Party and by the Soviet Union, the eulogies of
Stalin made him dizzy That being the situation, the cult of
the person of Stalin was being gradually built up.
Some of J. V. Stalin's individual qualities, which were
regarded as negative yet by V. I. Lenin, contributed in great
measure to building up the cult of the individual. Towards
14
the end of 1922 Lenin said in a letter to the coming party
congress:
" Comrade Stalin, after taking over the post of general
secretary, accumulated in his hands immeasurable power, and
I am not certain whether he will be always able to use this
power with the required care." In addition to this letter,
writing early in January 1923, V. I. Lenin reverted to some of
Stalin's individual qualities, intolerable in a leader. "Stalin is
excessively rude," Lenin wrote, "and this defect, which can
be freely tolerated in our midst and in contacts among us,
communists, becomes a defect which cannot be tolerated in
one holding the post of general secretary. I therefore propose
to the comrades to consider the method by which to remove
Stalin from his post, and to select another man for it who,
above all, would differ from Stalin in only one quality, namely,
greater tolerance, greater loyalty, greater politeness and a more
considerate attitude towards the comrades, a less capricious
temper, etc"
These letters of Lenin's were brought to the knowledge of
the delegations to the 13th Party Congress which met soon
after Lenin died. After discussing these documents it was
recognised as desirable to leave Stalin in the position of
general secretary on the understanding, however, that he would
heed the critical remarks of V. 1. Lenin and draw all the proper
conclusions from them.
Having retained the post of general secretary of the central
committee, Stalin did take into account the critical remarks
of Vladimir Ilyieh during the period immediately following
his death. Later on, however, Stalin, having overestimated his
own merits beyond all measure, came to believe in his own
infallibility. He began transferring some of the limitations on
party and Soviet democracy, unavoidable in conditions of a
bitter struggle against the class enemy and its agents, and
subsequently during the war against the Nazi invaders, into
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the standards of party and governmental life, grossly flouting
the Leninist principles of leadership. Plenary meetings of the
central committee and congresses of the party were held
irregularly and later were not held at all for many years.
Stalin, in fact, was above criticism.
Great harm to the cause of socialist construction, and the
development of democracy inside the party and the state was
caused by Stalin's erroneous formula alleging that, with the
advance of the Soviet Union to socialism, the class struggle
would grow increasingly sharp. This formula, which is true
only for certain stages of the transition period, when the ques-
tion of "who will win ? " was being decided, when a persistent
class struggle for the construction of the foundations of
socialism was proceeding, was advanced to the foreground in
1937, at a time when socialism had already triumphed in our
country, when the exploiting classes and their economic base
had been eliminated. In practice, this erroneous theoretical
formula was used to justify gross violations of socialist law
and mass repressions.
It is precisely in these conditions that, among other things,
a special status was created for the state security organs, which
enjoyed tremendous trust because they had rendered
undoubted services to the people and the country in defending
the gains of the revolution. For a long time the state security
organs justified this trust and their special status evoked no
danger. The situation changed after Stalin's personal control
over them had been gradually superseded for control by the
party and the government, and the usual exercise of the stan-
dards of justice was not infrequently replaced by his individual
decisions. The situation became still more aggravated when
the criminal gang of the agent of international imperialism.
Beria, got to the head of the state security organs. Serious
violations of Soviet law and mass repressions then occurred.
As a result of the machinations of our enemies, many honest
16
communists and non-party people had been slandered and
suffered, although completely innocent.
The 20th Party Congress and the entire policy of the central
committee after Stalin's death are vivid evidence of the fact
that inside the central committee of the party there was a
Leninist core of leaders who correctly understood the pressing
needs in the spheres both of home and foreign policy One
cannot say that no counter-measures were taken against the
negative phenomena that were associated with the cult of the
individual and impeded the advance of socialism. Moreover.
there were definite periods during the war, for example, when
Stalin's individual actions were sharply restricted, when the
negative consequences of lawlessness, arbitrariness, etc., were
substantially reduced.
It is known that precisely during the war members of the
central committee as well as outstanding Soviet military leaders
took control of definite sections of activity in the rear and at
the front, independently took decisions, and by their organisa-
tional, political, economic and military work, together with
local party and government organisations, secured the victory
of the Soviet people in the war. After the victory, the negative
consequences of the cult of the individual again became
strongly manifest.
Immediately after Stalin's death the Leninist core of the
central committee took the path of vigorous struggle against
the cult of the individual and its grave consequences.
The question may arise: Why then had these people not
come out openly against Stalin and removed him from leader-
ship? In the prevailing conditions this could not be done
The facts unquestionably show that Stalin was guilty of many
unlawful acts that were committed particularly in the last
period of his life. However, one must not forget at the same
time that the Soviet people knew Stalin as a man always
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acting in the defence of the U.S.S.R. against the machinations
of the enemies, and working for the cause of socialism. In
this work he at times applied unseemly methods, and violated
the Leninist principles and standards of party life. Herein
was the tragedy of Stalin. And all this together made difficult
the struggle against the lawless actions that were then being
committed, because the successes in building socialism and
strengthening the U.S.S.R. were, in the atmosphere of the cult
of the individual, ascribed to Stalin.
Any opposition to him under these circumstances would not
have been understood by the people, and it was not at all a
matter of lack of personal courage. It is clear that any-
one who in these circumstances would have come out against
Stalin would have got no support from the people. What is
more, such opposition would have been evaluated, in those
circumstances, as being against the cause of building socialism,
as an extremely dangerous threat to the unity of the party and
the whole state in conditions of capitalist encirclement.
Moreover, the achievements of the working people of the
Soviet Union under the leadership of the Communist Party
instilled legitimate pride in the heart of every Soviet man
and created an atmosphere in which individual errors and
shortcomings seemed less important against the background of
nEthe tremendous achievements, and the negative consequences
4`.0
? of these errors were rapidly compensated by the immensely
growing vital forces of the party and Soviet society.
It should also be borne in mind that many facts about
wrong actions of Stalin, particularly in the sphere of violating
Soviet law, became known only lately, already after Stalin's
death, chiefly in connection with the exposure of Beria's gang
and the establishment of party control over the security organs.
Such arc the chief conditions and reasons that resulted in
the cult of J. V. Stalin's personality coming into being
18
and spreading. All this, of course, explains, but by no
mean justifies, the cult of J. V. Stalin's personality and its
consequences, which have been so sharply and justly con-
demned by our party.
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" THE cult of the individual, unquestionably, did grave
? harm to the causc of the Communist Party, to Soviet
society. But it would be a great mistake to draw conclusions
about some changes having taken place in the social system
of the U.S.S.R. from the fact that in the past there was the
cult of tho individual, or to see a source of this cult in the
nature of the Soviet social system. Both conclusions arc
utterly wrong, as this is not in accordance with reality and is
contrary to the facts.
Notwithstanding all the evil done to the party and the
people by the cult of Stalin's personality, he could not, and
did not change the nature of our social system. No cult of
the individual could change the nature of the socialist state,
which is based on social ownership of the means of produc-
tion, the alliance of the working class and the peasantry,
and friendship between the peoples, although this cult did
cause serious harm to the development of socialist democracy
and the promotion of the creative initiative of millions of
people.
To think that one personality, even such a great one as
Stalin, could change our social and political system is to lapse
into profound contradiction with the facts, with Marxism, with
truth, is to lapse into idealism. This would mean ascribing
to an individual such excessive, supernatural powers as the
ability to change a system of society and, moreover, such a
social system in which the many-million strong masses of the
working people arc the decisive force.
As is known, the nature of a social and political system is
determined by its mode of production, by who owns the means
20
of production in society, by which class wields political pouer
The whole world knows that in our country, as a result of
the October Revolution and the triumph of socialism, a
socialist mode of production has been established, that it is
now already almost 40 years that power has belonged to the
working class and the peasantry. Thanks to this the social
system is growing stronger from year to year, and its pro-
ductive forces are growing. Even our ill-wishers cannot fail
to recognise this fact.
The cult of the individual, as is known, resulted in some
serious errors being made in the direction of various branches
of activity of the party and the Soviet state, both in the
domestic life of the Soviet Union and in its foreign policy
Among other things, one can point out serious errors com-
mitted by Stalin in the direction of agriculture, in organising
the country's preparedness to rebuff the fascist invaders, and
gross arbitrariness that led to the conflict in the relations
with Yugoslavia in the postwar period. These errors harmed
the development of individual aspects of the life of the Soviet
state, and especially, in the last years of J. V. Stalin's life,
impaired the development of Soviet society, but, naturally,
did not divert it from the correct road of advancement to
communism.
Our enemies allege that the cult of Stalin's personality was
engendered not by definite historical conditions that have now
lapsed into the past, but by the Soviet system itself, by, in
their opinion, its undemocratic nature, etc. Such slanderous
assertions are refuted by the entire history of the develop-
ment of the Soviet state. The Soviets as a new democratic
form of state power came into being as a result of the revolu-
tionary creative activity of the broadest masses of the people
who rose in struggle for freedom. They have been and remain
organs of genuine people's power. It is precisely the Soviet
system that has made it possible to tap the tremendous
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creative energy of the people. It brought into motion
inexhaustible forces inherent in the masses of the people, drew
millions of people into conscientious administration of the
state, into active, creative participation in the construction of
socialism. In a brief historical period, the Soviet state emerged
victorious from the severest trials, stood the test in the fire of
the Second World War.
When the last exploiting classes were eliminated in our
country, when socialism became the dominant system in the
entire national economy, and the international position of our
country altered fundamentally, the bounds of Soviet democracy
expanded immeasurably and are continuing to expand. In con-
trast to any bourgeois democracy, Soviet democracy not only
proclaims but materially ensures all members of society without
exception the right to work, education, rest and recreation,
to participation in state affairs, freedom of speech, press and
conscience, a real possibility for the free development of
personal abilities, and all other democratic rights and free-
doms. The essence of democracy lies not in formal signs but
in whether the political power serves and reflects the will and
fundamental interests of the majority of the people, the interests
of the working folk. The entire domestic and foreign policy
of the Soviet state shows that our system is a genuinely
democratic, genuinely people's system. The supreme aim and
daily concern of the Soviet state is the utmost advancement of
the living standards of the population, the ensuring of a
peaceful existence for its people.
Evidence of the further development of Soviet democracy is
the measures that are being carried out by the party and the
government for broadening the rights and competence of the
Union republics, the strict observance of the law, reconstruc-
tion of the planning system with a view to unleashing local
activising the work of the local Soviets, developing
criticism and self-criticism.
22
Notwithstanding the cult of the individual and in spite of
it, the mighty initiative of the masses of the people, led by
the Communist Party, initiative brought into being by our
system, pursued its great historical task, overcoming all
obstacles on the road to the construction of socialism. And
herein lies the highest expression of the democracy of the
Soviet socialist system. The outstanding victories of socialism
in our country did not come by themselves. They were
achieved by the tremendous organisational and educational
work of the party and its local organisations, by the fact that
the party always educated its cadres and all communists in
the spirit of loyalty to Marxism-Leninism, in the spirit of
devotion to the cause of communism. Soviet society is strong
by the consciousness of the masses of the people. Its historical
destinies have been and are determined by the constructive
labour of our heroic working class, glorious collective farm
peasantry, and people's intelligentsia.
Eliminating the consequences of the cult of the individual,
re-establishing the Bolshevik standards of party life, developing
socialist democracy, our party has further strengthened its ties
with the broad masses of the people and has rallied them still
closer under the great banner of Lenin.
The fact that the party itself has boldly and openly raised
the question of eliminating the cult of the individual, of the
impermissible errors committed by Stalin, is convincing proof
that the party firmly guards Leninism, the cause of socialism
and communism, the observance of socialist law, the interests
of the peoples and the rights of all Soviet citizens. This is
the best proof of the strength and viability of the Soviet
socialist system. At the same time it shows a determination
finally to overcome the consequences of the cult of the
individual and to prevent the recurrence of such errors in
the future.
The condemnation of the cult of J. V. Stalin and its conso
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quenccs has evoked endorsement and a broad response in
all fraternal communist and workers' parties. Noting the
tremendous significance of the 20th Congress of the C.P.S.U.
for the entire international communist and labour movement,
the communists in the foreign countries regard the struggle
against the cult of the inaividual and its consequences as a
struggle for the purity of the principles of Marxism-Leninism,
for a creative approach to the current problems of the inter-
national labour movement, for the consolidation and further
development of the principles of proletarian internationalism.
Statements by a number of fraternal communist parties
express endorsement and support for the measures taken by
our party against the cult of the individual and its conse-
quences. Summarising the conclusions to be drawn from
the discussion of the decisions of the 20th Congress of the
C.P.S.U. by the political bureau of the central committee of
the Communist Party of China, the party's newspaper
farminglipao, in an editorial "On the historical experience
of the dictatorship of the proletariat," wrote:
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, following
Lenin's behests, seriously regards some grave errors committed
by Stalin in the direction of socialist construction, and their
consequences. The graveness of these consequences raised
before the Communist Party of the Soviet Union the necessity,
simultaneously with recognising Stalin's great services, of laying
bare most sharply the essence of the errors committed by
Stalin, and calling upon the entire party to take care to
prevent a repetition of this, and to root out vigorously
the unhealthy consequences of these errors. We, Chinese
communists, profoundly believe that after the sharp criticism
that was displayed at the 20th Congress of the C.P.S.U., all the
active factors that were strongly restrained in the past because
of certain political errors, will surely come into motion every-
where, that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the
24
Soviet people will be still more united and rallied than before.
in the struggle for the construction of a great communist
society, unprecedented in the history of mankind, for lasting
world peace."
"The merit of the leaders of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union," a statement of the political bureau of the
French Communist Party says, "is the fact that they have
undertaken to correct the errors and shortcomings associated
with the cult of the individual, which testifies to the strength
and unity of the great party of Lenin and the trust it enjoys
among the Soviet people and to its prestige in the international
movement." The general secretary of the national committee
of the United States Communist Party, Comrade Eugene
Dennis, noting the great significance of the 20th Congress of
the C.P.S.U., says in his well-known article: "The 20th Con-
gress strengthened world peace and social progress. It marked
a new stage in the advancement of socialism and in the
struggle for peaceful co-existence that began in Lenin's day.
continued in the following years, and is becoming ever more
effective and successful."
At the same time it should be noted that in discussing the
question of the cult of the individual, the causes of the cult
of the individual and its consequences for our social system
arc not always correctly interpreted. Thus, for example,
Comrade Togliatti's comprehensive and interesting inters tew
given to the magazine Nuovi Argo:livid, along with man)
quite important and correct conclusions, contains also wrong
propositions. Particularly, one cannot agree with Comrade
Togliatti's putting the question of whether Soviet society has
not arrived at "certain forms of degeneration." There is
no grounds for putting such a question. It is all the more
incomprehensible in that in another part of his interview Com-
rade Togliatti quite correctly says: "It is necessary to draw
the conclusion that the essence of the socialist system was not
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4:911.
lost. Just as not a single one of the previous gains was lost,
and above all the support of the system by the masses of
the workers, peasants and intelligentsia who make up So?iet
society was not lost. This very support shows that notwith-
standing everything, this society has preserved its basic demo-
cratic nature."
Indeed, without the support of the broadest masses of the
people for the Soviet government and the policy of the
Communist Party, our country could not have built up in an
unprecedentedly brief period a mighty socialist industry and
effected the collectivisation of agriculture, it could not have
won the Second World War, on the outcome of which the
destinies of all mankind depended. As a result of the utter
rout of Ilitlerism, Italian fascism and Japanese militarism, the
forces of the communist movement have broadly developed,
the communist parties of Italy, France and other capitalist
countries have grown and become mass parties, the people's
democratic system has been established in a number of
European and Asian countries, the world system of socialism
has arisen and become consolidated, the national-liberation
movement which has brought about the disintegration of the
colonial system of imperialism has scored unprecedented
successes.
26
UNANIMO approving the decisions of the 20th
4 USLY . Congress of the C.P.S.U., which condemn the cult of
the individual, the communists and all Soviet people see in
them evidence of the growing power of our party, of the
strength of its Leninist principles, unity and solidarity. "The
party of the revolutionary proletariat," V. I. Lenin pointed out,
"is sufficiently strong to openly criticise itself, to call a mistake
a mistake, and a weakness a weakness" (Works. VOL 21, Page
150). Guided by this Leninist principle, our party will con-
tinue, in future too, boldly to disclose, openly to criticise,
and resolutely to eliminate mistakes and blunders in its work.
The central committee of the C.P.S.U. considers that the
work accomplished by the party so far in overcoming the
cult of the individual and its consequences has already yielded
positive results.
On the basis of the decisions of the 20th Congress of the
party, the central committee of the C.P.S.U. calls upon all
party organisations:
Consistently to adhere in all their work to the most important
principles of the teaching of Marxism-Lensm about the
people being the makers of history, the creators of all the
material and spiritual riches of mankind, on the decisive role
of the Marxist party in the revolutionary struggle for the trans-
formation of society, for the victory of communism ;
Persistently to continue the work, conducted in recent years
by the central committee of the party, for the strictest obsemi-
lion by all party organisations, from top to bottom, of the
Leninist principles of party leadership, and primarily of the
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supreme principle of collective leadership, the observation of
the norms of party life, as fixed by tho rules of the party, of
developing criticism and self-criticism;
Fully to restore the principles of Soviet socialist democracy
as laid down in the Constitution of the Soviet Union finally
to correct the violations of revolutionary socialist laws ;
To mobilise our cadres, all communists and the broadest
masses of the working people, in the struggle for the practical
realisation of the targets of the Sixth Five-Year Plan, giving
the utmost stimulation to the creative initiative and energy
of the masses, the true makers of history, in achieving this end.
The 20th Congress of the C.P.S.U. pointed out that the
most important feature of our epoch is the conversion of
socialism into a world system. The most difficult period in
the development and consolidation of socialism now lies
behind us. Our socialist country has ceased to be a lonely
island in an ocean of capitalist states. Today more than one-
third of humanity is building a new life under the banner of
socialism. The ideas of socialism are winning the support of
many, many millions of people in the capitalist countries. The
influence of the ideas of socialism is tremendous among the
peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, who are fighting
against all forms of colonialism.
The decisions of the 20th Congress of the C.P.S.U. are
regarded by all supporters of peace and socialism, by all demo-
cratic and progressive circles, as an inspiring programme of
struggle for the consolidation of peace throughout the world,
for the interests of the working class, for the triumph of the
cause of socialism.
Under present conditions, the communist parties and the
whole international labour movement are faced with broad,
inspiring prospects?to secure, hand in hand with all the peace-
28
ful forces, the prevention of a new world war, to curb the
monopolies and ensure lasting peace and the security of the
peoples, to put an end to the armaments race and remove
from the working peoples the heavy burden of taxes bred by
it, to fight for the preservation of the democratic rights and
liberties which facilitate the working peoples' struggle for a
better life and a bright future. This is what the millions of
ordinary people in every country of the world are vitally
interested in. The successful solution of these problems is to a
tremendous degree facilitated by the peaceful policy and the
ever new successes of the Soviet Union, the Chinese People's
Republic and all the other countries advancing on the road of
socialism.
In the new historical conditions, such international organisa-
tions of the working class as the Comintern and the Comm-
form have ceased their activities. But this in no way means
international solidarity has lost its significance and that there
is no longer any need for contacts among the fraternal revolu-
tionary parties adhering to the positions of Marxism-Leninism
At the present time, when the forces of socialism and the in-
fluence of socialist ideas have immeasurably grown throughout
the world, when different means of achieving socialism in the
various countries are being revealed, the Marxist working-class
parties must naturally preserve and consolidate their ideological
unity and fraternal international solidarity in the fight against
the threat of a new war, in the fight against the anti-national
forces of monopoly capital striving to suppress all the revolu-
tionary and progressive movements. The communist parties
are welded together by the great objective of freeing the
working class from the yoke of capital, they arc united by their
fidelity to the scientific ideology of Marxism-Leninism, to the
spirit of proletarian internationalism, by the utmost devotion
to the interests of the people.
In their activity under modern conditions, all the communist
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parties base themselves on the national peculiarities and con-
ditions of every country, giving the fullest expression to the
national interests of their peoples. At the same time, recog-
nising that the struggle for the interests of the working class,
for peace and the national independence of their countries is
the cause of the entire international proletariat, they are con-
solidating their ranks and strengthening their contacts and
co-operation among themselves. The ideological consolidation
and fraternal solidarity of the Marxist parties of the working
class in different countries are the more necessary since the
capitalist monopolies arc creating their own aggressive inter-
national coalitions and blocs, such as N.A.T.O., S.E.A.T.O.,
and the Baghdad pact, which are directed against the peace-
loving peoples, against the national-liberation movement.
against the working class and the vital interests of the working
peoples.
While the Soviet Union is continuing to do very much
to bring about a relaxation in international tension?and
this is now recognised everywhere?American monopoly
capital continues to assign large sums of money for increas-
ing the subversive activities in the socialist countries. When
the cold war was at its height, the United States Congress, as
is well known, officially appropriated (apart from the funds
used unofficially) 100 million dollars for the purposes of con-
ducting subversive activities in the people's democracies and
the Soviet Union. Now that the Soviet Union and the other
socialist countries are doing everything possible to case inter-
national tension, the cold war adherents are seeking once more
to galvanise the cold war which has been condemned by the
peoples of the entire world. This is shown by the decision
of the United States Senate to appropriate an additional 25
million dollars for subversive activity, under the cynical pre-
text of "stimulating freedom" behind the "iron curtain."
We must soberly appraise this fact and draw the necessary
30
conclusions from it. It is clear, for instance, that the anti-
popular riots in Poznan have been paid for from this source
But the agents-provocateur and subversive elements who were
paid out of the overseas funds had enough " go " in them only
for a few hours. The working people of Poznan resisted the
hostile actions and provocations. The plans of the dark knights
of the "cloak and dagger" have fallen through, their dastardly
provocation against the people's power in Poland has failed
All future attempts at subversive actions in the people's
democracies arc similarly doomed to failure, even though such
actions are generously paid for out of funds assigned by the
American monopolies. This money may be said to be spent
in vain.
All this shows that we must not allow ourselves to be in-
different about the new designs of the imperialist agencies,
seeking to penetrate into the socialist countries in order to do
harm and disrupt the achievements of the working people.
The forces of imperialist reaction are seeking to divert the
working people from the true road of struggle for their
interests, to poison their minds with disbelief in the success
of the cause of peace and socialism. In spite of all the designs
of the ideologists of the capitalist monopolies, the working
class, headed by its tried communist vanguard, will follow
its own road, which has already led to the historic conquests
of socialism, and will lead to new victories in the cause of
peace, democracy and socialism. There can be no doubt
that the communist and workers' parties of all countries will
raise still higher the glorious Marxist banner of proletarian
internationalism.
The Soviet people arc naturally proud of the fact that our
homeland was the first to pave the road to socialism. Now
that socialism has become a world system, now that fraternal
co-operation and mutual aid have been established among the
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socialist countries, new favourable conditions have been created
for the flourishing of socialist democracy, for the further
consolidation of the material and industrial basis of com-
munism, for a steady rise in the living standards of the
working people, for an all-sided development of the personality
of the new man, the builder of communist society. Let the
bourgeois ideologists invent fables abcut a " crisis " of com-
munism, about " dismay " in the ranks of the communist
parties. It is not the first time that we have heard
incantations from enemies. All their predictions have always
burst like bubbles. These sorry soothsayers have appeared
and disappeared, while the communist movement, the immortal
and inspiring ideas of Marxism-Leninism, have advanced from
victory to victory. So it will be in the future, too. No
malicious, slanderous outburst of our enemies can stop the
invincible, historic march of mankind towards communism.
Published by Soviet News, 3 Rosary Gardens, London, S.W.7,
and printed by Farleigh Press Ltd. (T.U. all depts.),
Beechwood Rise, Watford, Herts.
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SOCIAL
SECURITY
in the U.S.S.R.
by A. Kochkurov
Soviet Booklet No. SO
STAT
?
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SOCIAL
SECURITY
in the
U. S. S. R.
????=1.
by A. Kochkurov
SOVIET BOOKLET No. 50
LONDON, MAY, 1959
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N?
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CONTENTS
Page
EIGHTEEN MILLION PENSIONERS ...
5
A FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION OF THE SOCIAL SYSTEM
12
WHEN OLD AGE ARRIVES . . .
15
IF ONE BECOMES DISABLED
18
FOR FAMILIES WHO HAVE LOST THEIR BREADWINNERS
26
RECOVERING ONE'S ABILITY TO WORK
30
MOTHERHOOD-A STATE OF HONOUR
31
HOMES FOR OLD PEOPLE ...
33
THE EQUAL OF ALL OTHERS
35
FOR THE WELL-BEING OF TILE PEOPLE
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18 MILLION PENSIONERS
IF YOU GO into any house in the Soviet Union, whether
-'-that of a factory worker or an office employee, you're
almost bound to find a pensioner there.
Of the U.S.S.R.'s total population of 200 million, over 18
million, or about 10 per cent, receive pensions. In other
words, one out of every ten or eleven Soviet citizens is a
pensioner.
Never before in the history of Russia has such a large part
of the population been provided for by state pensions.
Let's look at Proletarskaya Street in the city of Kalinin,
for instance. Here, at No. 118 live the Nikonorovs. Both
husband and wife used to work as weavers. Now they have
both retired on pensions, receiving a total of 998 roubles a
month.
If you were to list the pensioners who live on Proletarskaya
Street according to the size of their pension, the Nikonorovs
would be somewhere in the middle. In other words, their
pension is an average one.
State pensions are only a part of the existing far-reaching
system of social insurance and social maintenance which
exists in the Soviet Union.
Article 120 of the Constitution of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics says: "Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the
right to maintenance in old age and also in case of sickness
or disability.
"This right is ensured by the extensive development of
social insurance of industrial, office and professional workers
at state expense, free medical service for the working people,
and the provision of a wide network of health resorts for
the use of the working people."
Social insurance is one of the main ways of ensuring the
right of citizens to material security in old age, during illneu
or in case of disablement.
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In the Soviet Union there are also other forms of providing
social security for the working people. These include: social
maintenance, the insurance of members of small producers'
co-operatives and co-operatives of invalids, and social mutual
aid for collective farmers.
Let us consider each of these forms separately.
Social Insurance
This is a system of material security provided at state
expense for workers when they become old or temporarily
disabled or ill, and also for families that have lost their bread-
winners. Under this system workers also obtain various ser-
vices and treatment to prevent disease or restore health.
Various cultural and welfare facilities are also provided.
The social insurance system of the U.S.S.R. embraces all
industrial and office workers of state, co-operative and social
enterprises, institutions and organisations.
The administration of this system is in the hands of the
trade unions, the general management being conducted by the
All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and, in the pro-
vinces, by the respective republican, territorial, or regional
committees of the trade unions and the republican, territorial
and regional trades councils.
"rylzw thiAt enterprises and in institutions it is the local corn-
_ _.:nintees and the social insurance commissions they organise.
as well as their insurance delegates, who manage social
insurance questions.
The social insurance commissions supervise the distribution
of accommodation for sanatoriums and rest homes, the pay-
ment of temporary disability and maternity leave benefits, the
fulfilment of plans for housing construction and the work of
medical, prophylactic-and children's institutions.
The membership of these commissions, which are elected
at trade union meetings, consists of industrial workers, engi-
neers, technicians, and doctors.
Thus social insurance in the U.S.S.R. is directly governed
by the social organisations of the working people.
6
With the tremendous development of the Soviet national
economy, social insurance has become a very important
method for improving people's well-being.
Every worker who has fallen ill or been maimed has the
right to receive aid during his temporary disability. He
receives such aid from the very first day of his illness until
his recovery or until the day when a special medical com-
mission declares him an invalid. In this case he will receive
the right to a corresponding pension.
Temporary disability grants are given to workers, no matter
where they were employed, if they are ill or receiving treat-
ment at a sanatorium or resort, if they have to take care of
some sick member of the family or have been released from
work as a result of quarantine. In all such cases workers are
released from work on decision of a doctor.
The amount of the temporary disability grant is based on
the individual earnings of the sick person. Account is also
taken of the length of time he has worked at one and the
same enterprise or institution prior to his having fallen ill:
up to 3 years ..
from 3 to 5 years
from 5 to 8 years
from 8 to 12 years
over 12 years ..
50 per cent of his earnings
60 ? .,
70 ?
80 ., IP PP to OP
90 ,. " ?. OP OP
Those workers who are not members of a trade union
receive half the amount indicated above during temporary
disability (except if their condition is due to some injury
incurred during work or as a result of some occupational
disease).
If temporary disability is due to injury incurred at work or
the result of some occupational disease the sick benefit is
100 per cent of wages, regardless of length of employment
and trade union membership.
In any case, sick benefit cannot be less than 300 roubles
a month in towns and workers' settlements or less than 270
roubles in rural districts.
The Soviet State assumes all the expenses involved in
medical treatment. Millions of people receive treatment and
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spend their vacation at sanatoriums and rest homes every
year at the expense of the social insurance fund.
All working people enjoy the services of a wide network
of free medical institutions. Many enterprises and institutions
have their own polyclinics and dispensaries, staffed with
experienced specialists.
Some enterprises even provide medical services for their
workers right in the shops. For instance, at the "Azovstahl'
(Azov Steel) Metallurgical Works in the city of Zhdanov
there is a doctor for every shop, who attends to working and
living conditions, and draws up an all-round plan of preven-
tive measures to meet the particular needs of the shop.
All the factory's shops are supplied with shower-rooms,
laundries, drying rooms for working clothes, and hygienic
rooms, while in the hot shops there are special water-screens
for cooling the air, powerful ventilation systems and soda-
water supply.
The medical posts in the shops are supplied with first-aid
outfits, stretchers, and dressings. These shop medical posts
function day and night.
The U.S.S.R. annual State Budget makes generous provis-
ion for social insurance.
In 1959 the budget provides for a total expenditure of
707.200 million roubles. The biggest allocation-308,700
million roubles, or 43 per cent?is to develop the national
economy; 232,000 million roubles, or 33 per cent, are
allocated for social and cultural measures (215.000 million
roubles were spent in 1958). This includes allocations for
education, the training of workers and cultural measures, the
development of science, public health and physical culture
and, finally, social insurance and social maintenance.
Expenditure on social insurance and social maintenance
amounts to 93,700 million roubles. Most of this comes from
the social insurance fund provided by the obligatory pay-
ments made by industrial establishments, institutions and
other enterprises.
No deductions whatsoever are made from workers'
earnings. Thus what workers receive in the form of social
8
insurance constitutes a substantial addition to their wages.
Simple arithmetic tells us that 93,700 million roubles is
equal to about 13 per cent of total budget expenditure,
and that it is only slightly less than the expenditure on defence
(96,100 million roubles).
But there is something else to be pointed out in this con-
nection. Whereas the funds directed towards social insurance
and maintenance in 1959 are 5,500 million roubles more
than in 1958, the allocations for defence are less than in
1958.
By contrast, certain Western countries are spending a major
portion of their budgets on armaments. President Eisenhower.
for instance, has recently stated that the "national security
programme" accounts for about 60 per cent of the entire
federal budget for the coming fiscal year.
Co-operative Insurance
This form of insurance covers members of industrial co-
operatives and co-operatives of invalids. Its funds are derived
from obligatory insurance payments made by the co-opera-
tives, no deductions whatever being made from the earnings
of the members.
Co-operative insurance is similar to State social insurance,
although it has some specific features. The members of pro-
ducer co-operatives receive sick benefit during temporary
disability and all forms of pension security, such as are pro-
vided for by the Law on State Pensions. But it is the co-opera-
tive organs which provide this co-operative insurance, and
which decide the amount of benefits and pensions to be paid.
Social Maintenance
This is a system of state and social measures for the
material security of citizens in old age, during convalescence,
illness, in case of the loss of the breadwinner, and in other
cases provided for by the law.
Social maintenance organs determine and pay pensions to
workers and servicemen, and to their families. These organs
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are also responsible for providing security to scientific
workers, single mothers and mothers of large families, to
secure work for invalids, organise their training and the teach-
ing of new trades, supply them with artificial limbs and
render other services to pensioners. The social maintenance
organs manage homes for the aged and invalids, homes for
crippled children, and so on.
Social maintenance, like social insurance, is financed by the
State budget. Part of the expenses are covered by funds from
the social insurance funds and part by direct allocations from
the local, republican and All-Union budgets.
In distinction to social insurance, which is handled by the
trade unions and co-operatives, the social maintenance system
is run by state organs.
Every Union and autonomous republic has its Ministry of
Social Maintenance. In the territories and regions all the
work is managed by the departments of social maintenance of
the respective territorial or regional executive committees of
the Soviets (Councils) of working People's Deputies.
There are similar social maintenance departments under
the executive committees of the local Soviets. These handle
the granting of pensions, finding employment for disabled
rsons wishing to work, providing artificial limbs to those in
.'ne.ed of them, and so on.
Social Mutual Aid
This form of security embraces members of collective
farms. It is run by the social mutual aid societies, the money
coming from the collective farm funds.
These societies are organised on a voluntary basis by decis-
ion of a general meeting of collective farm members. Their
functions are restricted to their own particular farms.
In the Russian Federation alone there arc over 24.000
mutual aid societies which have a membership of over 5
million collective farmers. Their budgets amount to tens of
millions of roubles.
10
This money is used to repair homes for the disabled and
the homes of families of men who died in the Services, to
purchase cattle and fodder for those who need it, and to
organise sanatorium and other treatment at resorts for
collective farmers when ill.
In the countryside such mutual aid societies have assumed
care of 23,000 orphaned children, and they also maintain
sixty-nine homes for aged and disabled collective farmers.
As the collective farms improve their economy they are
able to render ever greater material aid to needy members.
For instance, the Proletarian Will collective farm in
Stavropol Territory passed a decision at a general meeting of
its farmers to the effect that those of its farmers who have
worked with the farm not less than twenty years will be paid
a pension of 120 work-days* a year, the women when they
reach the age of 55, and the men when they reach the age
of 60.
At this farm the value of a work-day is very high. In 1956.
for example, 120 work-days meant about 2,000 roubles in
cash, 350 kilogrammest of grain, 180 kilogrammes of pota-
toes, 180 kilogrammes of vegetables, 16 kilogrammes of
vegetable oil, and other products.
This mutual aid society not only provides for its aged col-
lective farmers, but also takes care of its disabled. At present
it maintains forty-eight disabled collective farmers. Each of
them receives 29 kilogrammes of wheat every month as well
as 10 kilogrammes of potatoes, milk, and vegetable oil.
Furthermore, each person taken care of by this mutual aid
society was provided with from 600 to 1,500 roubles a year
for personal expenses.
Not every collective farm provides pensions and benefits on
this scale, although many of them do. Each collective farm
determines the conditions and system of granting pensions as
well as the amount, depending on its financial condition. All
payments for pensions to collective farmers are made from
? Work-day?the unit for figuring the amount and quality of work
done at a collective farm.
t 1 kilogramme = 2.2 lb.
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the indivisible funds of the farm, i.e. from the collective
assets and revenue.
? *
Thus social insurance, social maintenance, co-operative
insurance and social mutual aid differ one from another as
regards the people they provide for, the system of financing,
and also the forms of maintenance provided.
However, they all form part of the general system of
material maintenance for Soviet citizens in old age, in case
of illness and in case of disability.
A FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION
OF THE SOCIAL SYSTEM
m. I. KALININ) a former Soviet President,* said in his day
that the question of social security, the real security
of the working people, was a fundamental question of the
social system.
As the Soviet State developed its economic might it per-
sistently developed and perfected its social security system.
Allocations for such purposes increased from year to year,
the extent and forms of social security became greater, and
the size of benefits, pensions and other money grants grew.
In 1955 the State paid out 30,100 million roubles in pensions;
in 1957, after the new pension law was passed, it paid out
almost 58,000 million roubles; and in 1958, 64,000 million
roubles.
How are these funds, which have been allocated from the
U.S.S.R. budget for this purpose, used?
Let us take the Russian Federative Republic as an
example. In 1956 22,900 million roubles were spent for social
security in the Russian Federation; in 1957?over 36,500 mil-
lion roubles; and in 1958-40,800 million roubles.
What was this money spent on?
Pensions constitute the main form of social security. Over
36.700 million roubles were spent on pensions and cash grants.
"*".'";;Wa-,t? .1,1:0'.1 ? Igat-a.1 ?
The skiers in the above picture are all blind, and live,
with other blind people, in the house behind them,
near Moscow.
Pozhorina and Maria Mikheyeva, two workers
retiring from the Skorok hod shoe factory, are here
receiving their pension books from Vera Ossipova, of
the factory's Social Security Committee.
maw.,
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A foreman, a fitter, and two blacksmiths of the Gorky car works, all of
them with twenty-five years service, work out what their pension will be
on retirement.
Z. S. Dusaev, a retired teacher, receives his pension from A. V. Sorokina,
a posigirl of Kazan.
An equally important form of State aid to the disabled is
the restoration of their ability to work. The making of artifi-
cial limbs, treatment to restore the health of individuals,
specialised industrial enterprises, professional schools, techni-
cal schools and courses?all of these are widely developed in
the republic.
The Russian Federation has seventy-four enterprises
making artificial limbs and appliances of various kinds. These
are given to the people free of charge. 133 million roubles
were spent for this purpose in 1958.
The Russian Federation has forty-one boarding industrial
schools and nine technical schools to train disabled workers
and teach them new skills and trades. All the students in these
schools are suported completely by the State. In 1958, 61
million roubles were spent on such study courses.
Doctors play an important part in the work of social main-
tenance organs. They have a responsible task?to organise
medical examinations by experts in order to decide just what
labour an incapacitated worker can perform.
Not only does the size of the pension paid depend upon the
proper determination of the degree of a worker's disability,
but also on finding work which he is capable of doing without
impairing his health.
These medical check-ups are made by Medical Labour
Expert Commissions consisting of doctors who are experts in
this work. There are 2,405 such commissions in the Russian
Federation, their maintenance amounting to over 48 million
roubles. These Commissions are controlled by the social
maintenance organs.
Old people and invalids who are all alone or who, for one
reason or another, are unable to live with their families, are
taken complete care of by the State. The Russian Federation.
for example, has 609 Homes for the Aged and Disabled, for
the maintenance of which 60 million roubles were allocated
in 1958.
Of the remaining funds, 3,200 million roubles were used as
grants to single mothers and mothers of large families and
44.6 million roubles for health centres.
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?
J
Special Features of Pension Security
? - ?
In the U.S.S.R. those who have the right to a state pension
are: factory and office workers, workers on State farms,
regular servicemen, students in higher, specialised secondary
schools, and other schools, in schools and courses for the
training of workers, citizens who have become disabled during
the fulfilment of state and social duties, and, finally, members
of families that have lost their breadwinners.
Pensions are granted for old-age, disability, and in case
of the loss of the breadwinner.
All workers, without any exception whatsoever, have the
right to pension security. It does not depend on the nature
of their work, whether permanent, temporary, or seasonal.
Nor does the place of work, that is, whether it is a state or
co-operative institution, a social organisation, or the personal
household of individual citizens* play any role.
The method of payment for the work done, that is whether
the work is paid for according to time, whether it is piece-
work, and the like, is also not taken into consideration. And,
finally, a person has the right to a pension regardless of his
race, nationality, or sex.
Pension security is based on the principle: "To each
according to his work." When the size of pension is deter-
mined, the amount and quality of the work done by the
pensioner when he was working are taken into consideration.
This is reflected, in particular, in the fact that when pensions
are granted, special benefits are sometimes awarded; higher
pensions are given to those engaged in work underground, in
hot shops, or under conditions that are harmful or difficult.
Provision is also made for corresponding additions to
pensions for long, uninterrupted service and also for the pay-
ment of pensions even when the length of service is less than
normally required.
The amount of pension is dependent on wages and consti-
tutes from SO per cent to 100 per cent of the average monthly
? Where people are employed by a personal household, the
householder pays the contributions.
14
earnings. The lower the earnings, the higher the percentage
on which the pension is figured. The average earnings may
be calculated not only on the basis of the last year's work, but
also on the basis of five successive years of the ten years prior
to one's application for a pension. This is of special benefit
to the worker who, just before retiring on a pension, may
have earned less than when he was younger.
Pensions are supervised on a wide democratic basis. They
are supervised by the trade unions which take part in the
work of the commissions awarding pensions and in the
Medical-Labour Expert commissions, and see to it that the
funds are spent correctly.
Workers as a whole are encouraged to take an interest in
social security questions, as shown, for example, by the
country-wide discussion of the draft Law on State Pensions.
WHEN OLD AGE ARRIVES . . .
A-osT Soviur PENSIONERS are labour veterans. That can
iVireadily be seen by glancing at the figures for the Russian
Federation. In 1946, 2,200 million roubles were paid out in
pensions to retired workers. In 1957 they received 19,200
million roubles, which is more than half of the total social
security expenditure in this republic.
Men who have reached the age of 60 and who have worked
at least twenty-five years, and women who are 55 years of age
and have worked at least twenty years have the right to an
old-age pension.
It is interesting to note, in this connection, that in Britain
the corresponding ages are 65 years for men and 60 for
women; in the U.S.A. it is 65 and 62; in the German Federal
Republic 65 for both men and women; in Sweden-67; and
in Canada. Ireland and Norway-70 years.
Old-age pensions in the U.S.S.R. are granted for the rest of
a pensioner's life, regardless cf his ability to work. The maxi-
mum pension is 1,200 roubles a month and the minimum 300
roubles (225 in rural areas).
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Fri '
Ivan Dybin, who lives at No. 3 Bogoslovsky Lane, Flat 3,
Moscow, worked for many years as an electrician for a public
trust in the Sovietsky district of the capital. In 1956 when
he was 63 years old, he decided to retire on a pension. His
earnings during the past few years were not very high:
600-700 roubles a month. Yet he was assigned a pension of
1,200 roubles a month.
It probably seems strange that, as a pensioner, he should
receive more than he earned in the last few years of his work-
ing life. But, as already mentioned above, a pension may be
figured on the basis of any five successive years of the last ten
years of a worker's employment, prior to his applying for a
pension.
And so Dybin's pension was calculated on the basis of his
average monthly earnings during the years when his wages
were especially high.
Ivan Dybin is no exception. Take Vladimir Privezentsev,
another pensioner who lives in Sovietsky District, Moscow.
Now 61 years old, he spent thirty years working on various
construction projects. For the last ten years before his retire-
ment Privezentsev worked as at fitter. His average monthly
earnings, 2,013 roubles, served as the basis for calculating his
pension, which amounts to 1,006 roubles.
But Privezentsev was also entitled to an additional 10 per
..er-'-Z-7 cent for his continuous long service record, which meant
- unother 100 roubles a month. Furthermore, his wife, Antonina
Privezentseva, did not work but was dependent on him, for
which another 10 per cent was added to the pension. Thus
Vladimir Privezentsev was given the maximum pension of
1,200 roubles a month.
Needless to say, not every pensioner in the Soviet Union
receives such a high pension. But what should be particularly
stressed is that the Soviet State provides enough to retiring
workers to enable them to maintain the material and cultural
standard which they had enjoyed before retiring, and to enjoy
a secure old age without any worries.
For those who work under difficult conditions the length
of service required to receive a pension has been reduced by
16
five years. Even greater benefits are granted to those engaged
in work underground or in hot shops, as well as to those who
work under harmful conditions. In such cases a man is en-
titled to a pension if he has reached the age of 50 and has
worked twenty years, and a woman if she is 45 years old and
has a service record of fifteen years.
The pensions of such workers are S per cent higher than
usual. In order to be eligible for such privileges it is sufficient
to have spent half of the necessary period in these special
categories of work, regardless of where the last place ol work
may have been.
Konstantin Ivanov worked as a founder at a Moscow enter-
prise ever since 1936. As this was considered harmful work
Ivanov, upon reaching the age of 50 in 1958, was granted an
old-age pension of 1,200 roubles (his average monthly earn-
ings had been 2,500 roubles).
Apart from the above categories of pensions for workers
from the age of 45-50, there are pensions for prolonged, meri-
torious service which are granted at an even earlier age Such
pensions are awarded regardless of age, working ability, and
earnings and irrespective of whether or not the pensioner is
still working.
They are granted to doctors, pharmacists, teachers.
agronomists, zootechnicians, pilots of the civil air fleet, and
several other categories of specialised work, including circus
and stage stunt performers, ballet dancers, animal trainers,
wind instrumentalists and solo singers.
The following is the present scale of old age pensions in
roubles per month:
Average
earnings
Pension
percentage
Pension
not fess that:
up to 350
100
300
350-500
85
350
500-600
75
425
600-800
65
450
800-1,000
55
520
over 1,000
50
550
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Average Pension
earnings percentage
For those employed under- 100
ground, in hot shops or 90
under harmful conditions, for 80
earnings as above 70
60
55
The minimum old age pension is 300 roubles per month.
The maximum old age pension is 1,200 roubles per month.
Working pensioners receive an old age pension of 150
roubles per month provided their earnings (not counting the
pension) do not exceed 1,000 roubles.
Working pensioners eligible for old age pensions on
favourable terms, such as persons employed on underground
work, on work with harmful conditions of labour, or in hot
shops, receive 50 per cent of the full pension irrespective of
their income.
People with insufficient service are ineligible for an old
age pension if they continue working.
The law also provides other pension benefits.
Women who have given birth to five or more children
and have raised them to the age of eight have the right to a
pension when they are 50 years old if they have a service
record of at least fifteen years.
Working people may receive old-age pensions even if their
service record is not complete. Such people who have reached
pensionable age and have worked at least five years, three
of which were immediately prior to their application for a
vnsion, are eligible for a pension. In such cases the amount
of the pension is proportional to the length of their service,
but not less than a fourth of the full pension.
IF ONE BECOMES DISABLED
IN OLD RUSSIA thousands of beggars and homeless cripples
',flooded the towns, villages and roads in search of their
daily bread. Many perished.
The State showed practically no concern whatever for the
disabled, leaving all that to social, philanthropic societies
Pension
not less than
300
350
450
480
560
600
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which depended on the rare and incidental contributions of
eminent rich people.
True, crippled servicz men of the lower ranks were given
state pensions if they had no one to support them, but the
amount of these pensions was a paltry dole-3 roubles a
month?which meant semi-starvation.
The fate of those who were injured by an accident at work
was especially bitter. Such cripples were callously discharged
from their jobs. There was always someone to take their
place from amongst the crowds of people waiting outside
the factory gates, ready to accept any work for any wages.
Here is an item taken from the newspaper Pravda on
November 17, 1912.
"Locomotive driver Loginov, who worked on locomotives
for about twenty years, was sacked in the summer after a
medical examination, because of deafness. Loginov appealed
to be given other work. His request was refused and he was
told there was no other work for him. . . .
". . . Loginov has many children. Some of them attend
the railway school, but in view of Loginov's discharge from
work they are now deprived of the means to continue their
studies.
"Loginov was discharged without being given a pension.
Work, work, and then end it all near some fence, to die of
starvation. . . ."
On November 27, 1912, Pravda reported another case.
under the heading "No longer needed."
"On November 15, Iv. Avilov, a turner at the main loco-
motive shops of the Nikolai railway terminus, fell behind
his lathe during a fit. That very same day he was summoned
to the office and told that he was completely discharged from
his work, and even had to sign a paper that he had been
advised to that effect.
"Avilov had worked in the shops for thirteen years. He
was discharged without being given any pension, aid, etc.,
for he was no longer needed. They had squeezed all his
strength and health out of him and when his exhausting
labour and terrible working conditions had worn him out
19
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ii
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completely he was thrown out. He was no longer needed."
This discharge of incapacitated and aged workers without
pensions or other form of aid was common practice in
tsarist times.
It would be interesting to pay a visit today to that very
same building mentioned in Pravda of 1912. Today it is
the premises of Locomotive Depot No. 8 of the October
Railway. About a thousand people are employed there. Of
this number 114 are pensioners, seventy-two receiving old-
age pensions, forty disability pensions, and two are war
disabled from the Patriotic War.
Who are these pensioners?
One of them, Mikhail Klochkov, was formerly a locomotive
engineer on a passenger train. The Medical Labour Expert
Commission declared him as a disabled worker in group III
and he was transferred to lighter work, taking care of cold
locomotives. His earnings remained the same as before, for
his pension and new wages amounted to what he had received
as a locomotive driver on a passenger train.
Or take the case of Yevgeni Filimonov, a mechanic at
depot No. 8. In 1947, as a result of an accident, he was
injured and declared a group I disabled worker. As such
he received a pension amounting to 100 per cent of his wages.
In the meantime he was given medical treatment and when
the had recovered sufficiently to return to work he was given
an easier job. His wages are less but he received a pension
of 500 roubles a month because of the injury he had received,
so that his income is the same as before.
The Soviet State is very attentive to the needs of the
disabled, who are provided with pensions, helped to recover
their ability to work, and, it goes without saying, receive
medical care.
Workers are entitled to a disability pension in case of
permanent or prolonged loss of the capacity to work. In
such cases they are granted pensions irrespective of when they
became disabled?before starting work, during their working
life, or after retirement.
A person may become disabled as a result of some injury
S.
20
TA.:? ,
????,..-?????-i
1-?
"A long and
happy retire-
ni
en t" friends
wish to P. T.
Alexandrov, a
weaving in-
structor of
Trck hgornaya
textile in ills.
"Zff,
weary
Nikolai Prok- *-
horov operates `07-
a drill in the
factory run by
the Moscow
Society of the
Blind.
irp
'
t tAApek
,
? a----;)
:#,??;?
-tits.
?4's
h
r ? )
t
"?.
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A weekend call by
former workmates
of Dniepropetrovsk
steel works finds
Yakor Kollin' en-
joying his garden
al ter forty-five
years at work.
Below, retired
theatre people in
the lounge of their
itt Leningrad home
One of the homes at Voronezh for old age pensioners and war invalids.
Three hundred receive constant care and attention and full maintenance
here. Below is shown a corner of the Reading Room in this building.
c;;:kt
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Keeping age and illness at bay! Shipyard workers of "Krasnoye Sormovo".
Gorky, have an overnight sanatorium for those requiring medical care
without being hospitalised. Above, I. A. Chicherov, a moulder, tackles
sanatorium manager M. A. Temilov at chess.
N. A. Kamensky, being congratulated, below, on his fiftieth anniversary
at the Krasni Proletari engineering works. But he doesn't want to retire
yet?he says his father worked sixty years at the same works.
received at work, or because of some occupational disease
or following some general ailment.
In the first two cases a pension is granted irrespective of
the service record. The pension awarded to those in Group I
or II who have become disabled following some general
ailment is proportionate to the service record, but cannot
be less than one-fourth of the full pension. In the last case
the worker is entitled to a pension if he had a qualifying
service record, according to the following table.
Age
from 20 to 23
Length of Service
(in years)
Men 1Voinen
1
OP 23 to 26
3
2
PP 26 to 31
PP 31 to 36
5
7
3
5
It 36 to 41
10
7
41 to 46
12
9
Pl 46 to 51
14
11
PP 51 to 56
16
13
of 56 to 61
18
14
61 and older
20
15
Factory, office or other workers disabled by a general
disease before reaching the age of 20 are eligible for a
pension:
(a) if disability ensued in the period of work or after
stopping work?irrespective of the length of service;
(b) if disability ensued before starting work, providing
not less than a year has been spent in work.
For workers employed underground, working under harm-
ful conditions or in hot shops, the qualifying service period
for disability pension as a result of general ailment is less.
Since the degree of disability varies for different people
disabled workers are classified in three groups. The Medical
Labour Expert Commission determines the group to which
a disabled worker belongs.
The size of a disability pension depends on the earnings,
the group and the cause of the disability, as well as on the
trade working conditions.
21
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Pensions for people injured at work or suffering an occu-
pational disease are as follows: for group I: minimum-360
roubles a month; maximum-1,200 roubles; for group II:
minimum-285 roubles; maximum-900 roubles; and for
group III: 210 and 450 roubles respectively.
For workers who have become disabled as a result of some
ailment the following pensions have been established: group
I?from 300 to 900 roubles a month; group II?from 230
to 600 roubles a month; and group III?from 160 to 400
roubles a month.
On what basis are disability pensions calculated?
On the basis of the worker's earnings.
Disability pensions resulting from an injury incurred
during work or from an occupational disease are granted as
follows: for group I-100 per cent of earnings up to 500
roubles a month plus 10 per cent of the rest of the earnings;
for group II-90 per cent of earnings up to 450 roubles a
month and 10 per cent of the rest of monthly earnings; for
group III-65 per cent of earnings up to 400 roubles a month
and 10 per cent of the rest of monthly earnings.
For workers engaged in underground work, hot shops and
in work under harmful and difficult conditions the size of
the pension is greater.
The following increases in disability pensions may be
granted (within limits of the maximum pensions):
(a) to invalids of the first and second categories (in
consequence of a general disease) for continuous
service: from 10 to 15 years, 10 per cent of the
pension; over 15 years, 15 per cent of the pension;
(b) to non-working invalids of the first and second cate-
gories (irrespective of the cause of the disability)
who have dependents incapable of work: for one
dependent incapable of work, 10 per cent of the
pension; for two or more dependents incapable of
work. 15 per cent of the pension;
(c) to invalids of the first category (irrespective of the
cause of the disability). 15 per cent of the pension
as a nursing allowance.
22
The increases to invalids of the first category in consequence
of a general disease may not total above 30 per cent of the
pension.
If a disabled worker has reached the age of 60 (for men)
or 55 (for women) the pension is awarded for life. Other
disabled workers are granted pensions for the whole period
of their disability, which is laid down by the Medical Labour
Expert Commissions.
Many disabled workers wish to continue their work and
do so. In such cases those in groups I and II receive their
pensions in full just the same, irrespective of their earnings
or other form of income.
Those in group III are in a somewhat less privileged
position. They receive a pension which, together with their
earnings, does not exceed the total pay received before the
pension was granted. But in all cases they receive at least
50 per cent of the full pension of their category.
Soviet laws pay special attention to those injured at work
through the fault of the management. A worker has the right
to demand compensation for his injury from the management.
On decision of the court the injured person receives supple-
mentary pension from his enterprise making the total pension
equal to what he earned before the injury.
Here is an example. Montashin, a worker at a plant in the
city of Ulyanovsk, was injured in an accident at work. He
was completely disabled. The doctors proclaimed him a
group I invalid. Before the accident he had earned 1.064
roubles a month. He still receives that amount now: 695
roubles in the form of a pension paid by his district social
maintenance department, and 369 roubles a month from his
plant.
Privates and non-commissioned officers, whether they
worked or not before being called to the army, are also
entitled to a pension in case of disability. Neither the duration
of their service in the army, their preceding work, nor their
age are of any significance here.
Servicemen who receive disability pensions are classified
according to two categories. The first of these categories
23
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_
-
oz?lintmil
??"1. tutlitmx tl?ati';%? ? .7tttsirLitIca.ue.
ill-3 At jir1;.t._ _
;
?,4r
' !???
gjprfingr...;
1101tf.s
? inTri MIV.zut11111i2M
; ; th trt, --tryn-tr-
thr, 0.4'..r..A?4,544-1fikrikt-gisi:s44trAtz=f,-.--
erk n 114:' WWI* r!'111.11e A11771:114. ariCta-kiX1M151:'
cri?friSlirli-40' 10- arriTj
hoqe wfief4r6414?tittliti-#2g1w-:
ro u nd 4-- kelt
arc.. entititt;:tnrar.a'avnumntrr,-,i-Prtsri-nr
IN; 0 n world 11---ittrzi %BCC 317.:ICEZIME,
in the_-_anny;-zas well -as;:rtsocer" =Km tcconz=mnathi's
foilowinz.-zn-,mttay;iucualzt;-au-wor=c- as a IrTir'10/
a n occupatzonab az: gene= -.-trci--frq".-
t tr penstortiozdepatecnms-ms...-nrann: ?7i'L
What abeut: pUvattth zsuaz.Us: ? (HA-4"-r xrilr"714,110
did not: wosk_-before-tney- NYCM r=naans
have. boat. tuetnii: -
I)I5ubi,k LvicA4111411--o1. iOtt,it.fk:f
110.tii21.-a-,iltutttik-Amijkx."44?.Ittiggottaxml===_PPLT
110 I knii,a1c6., v.; oue-,11., the Twn-atan: a-mmlims? isn
'8', rott Wu:4, f,ur uithtnbz.
i?Iti 44g=titattltx.: -foxizstscC110
0!tit. of. KII=Xthit? Of
N t i,Qt, 1A0
?oi ;Q ?-?:"1 17N:1M= 7-T.
The Soviet State renders every kind of assistance to pen-
sioned invalids who wish to continue working. The Medical
Labour Expert Commissions advise disabled people as to
what kind of work they can do and under what conditions.
so that they will not impair their health.
Guided by the recommendations of the Medical Labour
Expert Commission the soCial maintenance departments
allocate these disabled pensioners to some enterprise or
industrial co-operative.
The managements of these enterprises are obliged by law
not only to accept such invalids for work but to provide them
with all the necessary conditions (special equipment, tools,
working schedule, and so on), recommended by the medical
commission.
The social maintenance departments as well as the medical
experts regularly check up on the working conditions of
disabled workers,, follow up their state of health, and see to
it that they receive the necessary treatment. The factory trade
union committees, through special social insurance commit-
tees and pension groups, also check up on their working
conditions.
The Krasnoye Sormovo plant in Gorky, which is one of the
largest plants in the country, employs a number of disabled
men who work successfully on an equal footing with the rest
of the workers. The plant's management does everything it
can to provide these invalids with good working conditions.
Most of them are qualified workers whose experience and
skills are constantly increasing. In the first six months of
1958 fifteen of them were granted higher wages.
In the same six-month period, thirty disabled workers were
taught new specialities. By improving their skills they also
began to earn more.
Another form of help to disabled workers is free instruction
and the teaching of new trades in special technical schools
and technical boarding schools.
Professional and technical schools train agronomists and
zootechnicians, dressmakers and tailors, shoemakers, book-
keepers, cinema operators, draughtsmen, designers, mechanics
25
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consists of those who were disabled by a wound, shock or
injury sustained while defending the U.S.S.R. or performing
other military duties, or in consequence of some disease
contracted at the front.
The second category consists of those whose disability is
due to the same causes but is not connected with the fulfil-
ment of military duties or life at the front.
In the first case the size of the pension depends upon the
earnings of the disabled servicemen before engaging in
military service: for those in group I?from 385 to 1,200
roubles a month; for group II?from 285 to 900 roubles a
month; and for group III?from 210 to 450 roubles a month.
In the second case the respective pensions are: group I?
from 330 to 900 roubles; group II?from 230 to 600 roubles;
group III?from 160 to 400 roubles.
Those who, before serving in the army, had worked under-
ground, in hot shops, or under harmful or difficult conditions
are entitled to more favourable pensions.
Non-working invalids in groups I and II who are serving
in the army, as well as those who have become invalids
following an injury incurred during work or as a result of
an occupational or general disease, are given additions to
their pension for dependents incapable of working.
What about privates and non-commissioned officers who
did not work before they were called up? What pensions
have been established for them?
Disabled servicemen in group I (of the first category)
receive 385 roubles a month and those in the second category
330 roubles; for group II the corresponding amounts are
285 and 230 roubles; and for group III, 210 and 160 roubles.
Pensioners in all of these groups are also entitled to
additional amounts for dependents incapable of working (10
per cent of the pension for one dependent incapable of
working, 15 per cent for two or more dependents incapable of
working). Another 10 per cent increase to the pension is
paid to non-commissioned officers in the army and navy.
24
The Soviet State renders every kind of assistance to pen-
sioned invalids who wish to continue working. The Medical
Labour Expert Commissions advise disabled people as to
what kind of work they can do and under what conditions.
so that they will not impair their health.
Guided by the recommendations of the Medical Labour
Expert Commission the soCial maintenance departments
allocate these disabled pensioners to some enterprise or
industrial co-operative.
The managements of these enterprises are obliged by law
not only to accept such invalids for work but to provide them
with all the necessary conditions (special equipment, tools,
working schedule, and so on), recommended by the medical
commission.
The social maintenance departments as well as the medical
experts regularly check up on the working conditions of
disabled workers,, follow up their state of health, and see to
it that they receive the necessary treatment. The factory trade
union committees, through special social insurance commit-
tees and pension groups, also check up on their working
conditions.
The Krasnoye Sormovo plant in Gorky, which is one of the
largest plants in the country, employs a number of disabled
men who work successfully on an equal footing with the rest
of the workers. The plant's management does everything it
can to provide these invalids with good working conditions.
Most of them are qualified workers whose experience and
skills are constantly increasing. In the first six months of
1958 fifteen of them were granted higher wages.
In the same six-month period, thirty disabled workers were
taught new specialities. By improving their skills they also
began to earn more.
Another form of help to disabled workers is free instruction
and the teaching of new trades in special technical schools
and technical boarding schools.
Professional and technical schools train agronomists and
zootechnicians, dressmakers and tailors, shoemakers, book-
keepers. cinema operators, draughtsmen, designers, mechanics
25
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for the repair of sewing and knitting machines, technologists,
rate-setters, landscape gardeners and other trades.
There is an agricultural school in Kungur which trains
agronomists and zootechnicians. It has its own 130-acre
farm, a herd of cattle, a large poultry farm, and also its
own orchards, vegetable gardens, and a large number of
modem agricultural machines.
The State has assumed all the expenses connected with
teaching, feeding and maintaining its 200 disabled pupils.
Furthermore, these disabled pupils receive part of their
pensions. Those with families receive their pensions in full.
This technical school helps to supplement the ranks of
agricultural specialists every year.
FOR FAMILIES WHO HAVE LOST
THEIR BREADWINNERS
TIN ADDITION TO OLD AGE and disability pensions, the U.S.S.R.
"provides special pensions for families that have lost their
breadwinner.
All members of the family of the deceased worker, office
employee or pensioner, who were his dependents and who
are unable to work, have the right to such a pension. These
include his children, brothers, sisters and grandchildren under
sixteen years of age and students up to the age of eighteen.
Should they become invalids at this age the pensions are
payable to the children of the deceased for life, and to his
brothers, sisters and grandchildren in the event that they do
not have parents who are able to work.
The parents of the deceased breadwinner are paid a pension
if they themselves are invalids or aged (that is, if the father
is 60 years old and the mother 55 years). In this case
it is of no significance when the parents of the deceased
became invalids or reached the indicated age, before or after
the death of their breadwinner.
The wife or husband of the deceased is eligible for a
pension if he (or she) reached advanced age and became an
26
invalid before, or not later than five years after, the death
of the breadwinner. If there are no adult children capable
of working the bereaved spouse is awarded a pension regard-
less of when advanced age is reached or invalidity ensues.
The husband or wife continues to receive his or her pension
even if they marry again.
A parent or spouse of the deceased who is not working,
but is engaged in caring for the under-eight-years-old child-
ren, brothers, sisters or grandchildren of the deceased, receives
a pension regardless of his ability to work and his age. In
case of the death of one parent, children who have been
dependent on both parents are still entitled to a pension even
if the other parent works.
The grandparents of a deceased person are given a pension
if they have no one else who is bound by law to support
them. If the deceased was an adopted child, his foster parents
have the same rights to a pension as his parents would have
had, and adopted children are equal to the deceased person's
own children in the eyes of the law.
In the case of the death of the breadwinner the following
pensions are granted:
To the families of factory and office workers regardless
of when the breadwinner died, that is, whether during the
period when he was working or after he had stopped working;
To the families of servicemen if the breadwinner died when
in the army or not later than three months after his demobi-
lisation, or if he died after this period as a result of a wound,
shock, injury or illness incurred during his military service;
To the families of pensioners if the breadwinner died
during the period when he was receiving a pension or not
later than five years after he had ceased to receive a pension.
Pensions awarded because of the absence of the bread-
winner, the reason for such absence not being known, are
granted regardless of when the absence of the breadwinner
was established.
If a factory or office worker dies as a result of an injury
incurred during work or some occupational disease, his family
is granted a pension irrespective of the length of service of
27
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the breadwinner. If the death results from a general disease,
the pension is granted the family provided that at the time
of his death the breadwinner had a service record which
would have entitled him to an invalid pension. Families of
servicemen are given pensions in all cases, regardless of the
length of military service or the previous work of the service-
man.
What are the amounts of pensions granted in case of the
loss of the breadwinner?
This is determined by the number of members in the family
who are unable to work, by the cause of the death (an
industrial accident, an occupational disease, or general
disease), and by the conditions under which the deceased
worked (whether underground, in a hot shop, or under harm-
ful or difficult conditions).
The following pensions, which are the highest, are granted
to families of workers and office employees who died as a
result of an industrial accident, after some occupational
disease, irrespective of the service record of the breadwinner,
and also to families of those who worked underground, in
hot shops or under harmful or difficult conditions: for three
or more members of the family who are unable to work?
from 300 to 1,200 roubles a month; for two members of the
family?from 230 to 900 roubles; for one member-160 to
450 roubles.
Similar pensions are granted to families of privates in the
army who, before their service, had been employed as factory
7-y...or office workers. But this refers only to those who died after
.''having been wounded, sustained shock or been crippled in
defending the U.S.S.R. or performing other military duties,
or as a result of some disease contracted at the front. In the
case of the death of the serviceman not being attributed to
the exercise of his military duties or service at the front, his
family is granted a pension equivalent to that given to
families of factory and office workers whose breadwinners
died as a result of general illness.
The families of deceased privates who had not worked
before their military service are granted pensions on the
28
?I?V
A.-, .
- - -
1.141,
irr?
Above, the house at Kashtak for retired metalworkers of the Chelyabinsk
Region
Olde Tyme Dancing! Retired veterans of the Likachev motor works in
Aloscow show their paces. Across the hall hung a banner?"llonour and
Renown to the Veterans of Labour".
????????:?????"..._ WO-
41
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?+:70
Of course one
doesn't need four
to qualify for
Children's Allow-
ances! Sho p-
assis tan I Vera
Bosova and her
chauffeur husband
have the active in-
terest of the local
Social Security
Committee in
caring for Faith,
!lope, Love, and
Rose.
Below, a meeting
of the Pensionc
Committee of the
Sverdlov district.
Itfoscow. Left to
right: Medical
Workers' U ionn
representative.
Chairman of the
Comnzittee, a pen-
sions inspector.
and the assistant
head of the dis-
trict's finance de-
partment.
following scale: for three and more members of the family
who are unable to work, 255 or 300 roubles a month; for
two members-195 or 230 roubles; for one dependent mem-
ber-136 or 160 roubles. The lower figure is granted to
families living permanently in rural localities and connected
with agriculture.
In all cases the families of non-commissioned officers who
had been serving a limited term in the army are given an
additional 10 per cent.
When the size of the pension to families that have lost
their breadwinners as a result of general disease is being
determined, the service record of the deceased person,
necessary for the granting of a disability pension, and also
the working conditions (underground, in hot shops, or under
harmful or difficult conditions) are taken into consideration.
These factors determine the size of the pension granted:
for three and more members of the family, who are unable
to work?from 300 to 900 roubles a month; for two such
members?from 230 to 600 roubles a month; and for one
dependent member of the family?from 160 to 400 roubles
a month.
Certain additions and supplements are granted within these
limits. For instance, higher pensions are granted to complete
orphans and to children of a deceased unmarried mother.
If the deceased had the necessary uninterrupted service
record, his family receives an additional 10-15 per cent.
However, if the deceased breadwinner did not have a service
record sufficient for the granting of a complete pension, the
members of the family can receive part of the pension if
the breadwinner died during the period when he was still
working.
The care shown by the state for families that have lost
their breadwinner is not restricted to the payment of pensions.
The social security organs and the trade unions, working in
close co-operation, organise other forms of aid.
They include, for instance, finding work for the members
of the families of the deceased and giving them an industrial
training; providing them with accommodation in a sana-
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torium, rest home, or Young Pioneers' camp; giving them
financial aid and loans to enable them to build their own
homes and purchase clothing and cattle; helping them
organise vegetable gardens and orchards; providing them
with fuel and with fodder for their livestock, etc.
At enterprises this work is done either by the guardian
councils or the social insurance committee organised by the
trade unions, and, in the countryside, by the social mutual
aid societies of the collective farmers.
RECOVERING ONE'S ABILITY
TO WORK
IT IS A GRIEVOUS BLOW for a person to lose his hands or feet.
his it possible for such a person to return to work? Yes, it
is! It's not only possible but even necessary, for a return to
normal working activity not only helps to restore morale but
is equivalent to the rebirth of the person.
Work is not such a serious problem for someone who
has become disabled as a result of some occupational or
general disease. He worked and will continue to work,
although under new, and easier conditions, such as are
recommended by the Medical Labour Expert Commission.
However, for the person who has lost his hands or feet,
the situation is different. His return to work depends upon
the use of artificial limbs.
The Soviet State has assumed this burden. Working people
in need of artificial limbs and orthopaedic appliances are
given them free of charge. Invalids without legs are also
given motorised wheel-chairs without having to pay for them.
An order for the necessary appliance can be given to the
nearest plant or shop. For those invalids who find it difficult
to move about themselves, there are travelling orthopaedic
workshops. Such mobile workshops also serve outlying
districts.
Science is of great help in designing artificial limbs and
helping the disabled to recover their ability to work, as well
30
as ascertaining what they can do. In the Russian Federation
alone there are four scientific research institutions which
devise methods for determining the extent of disability, design
new, more functional artificial orthopaedic appliances,
improve existing designs, and study and assess the experience
of organising work for disabled persons.
These institutes have combined staffs of over 1,900 scientific
and technical workers, ninety of whom have doctor's and
master's degrees.
Soviet scientists and inventors have created the most
diverse improved appliances for invalids, in particular
artificial limbs for people who have lost both hands, and
appliances which they call active artificial hands.
Artificial limbs to replace a hand or foot can greatly
facilitate one's return to work. But what a person wants more
than anything else is to return to his former trade or profes-
sion. He who was once a turner or fitter would like to work
at that trade again. What is to be done in this case?
Here, too, the scientific institutes have come to the aid
of man. They have designed various functional appliances
which enable disabled people to engage in skilled work.
MOTHERHOOD-A STATE OF
HONOUR
T !IL CONSTITUTION of the U.S.S.R. gives women the right
to equal pay for equal work, and equal rights with men as
regards participation in all spheres of economic, government,
cultural, and political life.
This equality of women exists not only in law but also in
reality. The State manifests special concern for the health of
women, the upbringing of the children, and mothers of large
families.
Of great significance for working women is the law on
increasing the length of paid maternity leaves from 77 to
112 days, and payment during maternity leaves, ranging from
60 to 100 per cent of their wages.
31
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According to the law a woman cannot be refused work
because of the fact that she is an expectant mother. Expectant
mothers cannot be empfoyed on night work, nor can they
be asked to do overtime work after the third month of
pregnancy.
Women also have at their service whatever special medical
and prophylactic aid may be required during their pregnancy.
Upon the recommendation of the doctor the plant manage-
ment must transfer expectant mothers to lighter work, while
continuing to pay them their former wages.
The Law on State Pensions also reflects the concern of
the State for women. As has already been said, working
women have the right to receive a pension five years before
men.
Even during the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War,
when all the means and efforts of the Soviet people were
directed towards the defence of the country, the State found
it possible to render aid to unmarried mothers and mothers
of large families. In July 1944, the Presidium of the Supreme
Soviet of the U.S.S.R. passed a decree "On Increasing State
Aid to Expectant Mothers, Mothers of Large families and to
Unmarried Mothers, on Improving the Care of Mother and
Child, on the Establishment of the Title of Honour 'Mother
Heroine' and the institution of the order 'Glory of Mother-
hood' and the 'Medal of Motherhood'."
According to this decree women who have two children
receive a one-time State grant upon the birth of a third
child. Should they bear other children, they are given both
one-time grants and also monthly financial aid the size of
which increases according to the number of children. Un-
married mothers are ensured a monthly grant when their
first child is born.
The State spends huge sums of money on aid to unmarried
mothers and mothers of large families. In 1956 alone it paid
out 5,100 million roubles for such aid.
Allocations to improve women's working and living condi-
tions constantly increase. The network of canteens, and
laundries, dress-makers, tailors, and shoe-repairers, personal
32
service shops, the production of semi-finished products and
all kinds of machines to lighten housework?all of these
are constantly being extended both in town and countryside.
These measures help to free women from many household
duties and cares, and enable them to take a more active part
in the public life of the country and to devote more attention
to the upbringing of their children.
HOMES FOR OLD PEOPLE
IN rim PAsr the fate of many lonely old people and invalids,
Lin tsarist Russia, who had no means of subsistence, was
indeed bitter. They were forced to lead a pauper's life. con-
stantly wandering from place to place in search of a piece of
bread. It was only some especially "fortunate" homeless old
people and invalids who found shelter or a nook in some
wretched poorhouse.
How different has become the situation in Soviet times! By
the beginning of 1958 the U.S.S.R. had 1,055 Homes for the
Aged and Disabled, which provided real homes for 135,000
people.
Who has the right to live in a Home for the Aged and
Disabled? All citizens not less than 16 years old who are
group I and U invalids and who have no relatives bound by
law to support them and give them the necessary care.
In addition to Homes of a general type, there are special
boarding homes for tubercular people, chronic psychopaths,
and invalid children.
Those who live in Homes for the Aged and Disabled are
supported completely by the state, which provides clothing.
footwear, three or four meals a day, necessary treatment.
care, and recreation facilities.
These Homes have their own auxiliary plots of land, which
produce a regular suply of fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and
dairy products.
Many Homes of the general type, besides having their own
plots, also have workshops for tailoring and dress-making,
manufacturing cardboard articles, footwear, lace and such
33
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like. Peoplo work in these shops and on the plots only with the
permission of the doctor and under his supervision.
For performing this work inmates receive half of the value
of the articles produced; the other half goes to improve the
cultural and other needs of the inmates as a whole.
Although the people who live in these Homes are sup-
ported entirely by the State, they still retain, in some measure,
their right to pensions. For instance, disabled servicemen
receive 25 per cent of their pension; others receive 10 per cent
but not less than 50 roubles a month. If a pensioner who lives
in the Home has dependents who are unable to work, the
latter arc also paid from 25 to 70 per cent of the pension.
As a rule these Homes exist in every region and even in
the most remote and northerly parts of the country.
The Yakutsk Autonomous Republic has nine such Homes,
among them the Aldan Home, which was built in 1956. There
are 150 people living here, Yakuts, Russians, Chinese,
Koreans, Tatars, and others.
The people live here as one harmonious family. Their
rooms are light and well-kept. Each Home has a large dining-
room, reception room, library, hairdressers and other facili-
ties and services.
To make time pass more interestingly the healthier people.
if the doctor agrees, may work in the carpentry shop where
they can make tables, chairs, bed-side tables and so on.
The Kharbet Home for Disabled in the Armenian Republic
has won fame throughout the country. It occupies three white-
stone buildings surrounded by greenery and flowers. The 200
inmates are mainly disabled workers and ex-servicemen who
have no family or relatives.
The Home is exceedingly cosy: there are flowers on the
tables, snow-white embroidered curtains on the windows, a
bedside table next to every bed, beautiful bedspreads, soft
comfortable beds, and convenient wardrobes. There is a
special medical room for those in need of treatment.
The people living here also work on the auxiliary plot of
land, make shoes and clothes, or grow flowers, depending
upon their physical ability and health.
34
1
THE EQUAL OF ALL OTHERS
p-r. HE Soy= Sr.vrE devotes special attention and renders
great help to the deaf, dumb or blind. They are given the
opportunity of receiving an education the same as anyone else.
and learn a specific trade or occupation. All work with them
is conducted through the Society of the Blind and the Society
of Deaf-Mutes.
In the Russian Federation the Society of the Blind has 260
educational and industrial training enterprises, seventy club-
houses, 1,008 recreation rooms, thirty-five regional libraries,
and over 700 travelling libraries and branches at public
libraries. The publication of literature in Braille is expanding
continuously.
The blind are taught to read and write according to the
Braille system at schools for young workers and in elementary
schools for adults. Thousands of blind people attend second-
ary, technical and higher educational institutions and have
become teachers and scientists.
The state has established a six-hour working day for the
blind. They are also given special benefits when retiring on
an old-age pension. Those blind people who receive a dis-
ability pension may receive an old-age pension instead if they
have reached the age of 50 and have worked at least fifteen
years. For women it is on reaching the age of 40 and having
worked at least ten years.
Enterprises employing the blind are exempt from taxes on
their turnover. This enables them to accumulate more funds
which are used for the building of hostels, houses, clubs, new
enterprises, for cultural and educational work and also to
render more material and medical aid to their workers.
In 1956 alone as many as 14,000 blind people were sent to
sanatoriums and rest homes, and 7 million roubles were given
to them in the form of one-time grants.
The All-Russian Society of Deaf-Mutes conducts its work
on a large scale. This society has fifty-eight educational and
industrial training enterprises where 4,000 deaf-mutes work
35
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and study. It. also has three factory and workshop schools and
a trade school.
The members of the society take part in various cultural
activities. The society has about 500 clubs and recreation
rooms, and 300 libraries. About 15,000 people take part in its
numerous sports clubs.
In August 1957 international contests of deaf-mutes were
held in Milan. At that time Soviet athletes won 31 medals-13
gold, 11 silver. and 7 bronze?and took first place among the
representatives of twenty-six countries.
Such are the talented, gifted people among the blind and
the deaf-mutes.
Many people have heard of the sports pistol designed by
Margolin, a blind Soviet designer. Soviet marksmen were
victorious when shooting with it at international champion-
ships held in China, Rumania, Venezuela, and elsewhere.
The 1956 world champion, Kalinichenko, used a Margolin
pistol.
The name of the blind architect, Alexander Zotov, is widely
known in Central Asia.
During the war the Begovat metallurgical works an-
nounced a competition for the best housing design.
There was one entry which specially attracted the jury's at-
tention. The building was very simple and comfortable, its
construction requiring less funds than the usual type and
being easy to build.
The project was unanimously awarded the first prize.
Imagine the amazement of the members of the jury when they
learned that the design had been submitted by Zotov the
blind architect!
Today Alexander Zotov is a member of the staff of one of
the designing organisations of Uzbekistan. His designs form
the basis for the construction of the district centre of Kara-
Uzyak in Kara Kalpakia, for the reconstruction of the city
of Ferghana, and for the nearby town of MargeIan.
36
FOR THE WELL-BEING OF
THE PEOPLE
IIE WELL-BE1NG of the workers has always occupied thc
I attention of the Soviet Government and the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union.
The U.S.S.R., the first state of workers and peasants on this
planet of ours, has been in existence for forty-one years
Throughout this period, under the most difficult conditions.
in the midst of dealing with intricate problems of state and
economic construction, the Soviet Government has always
shown concern for the welfare of the people. ?
From a wooden plough to artificial Earth satellites and
atomic power stations?such are the visible landmarks in the
sweeping development of the Soviet State. And the constant
improvement in the well-being of the people has kept pace
with the rapid growth of the socialist economy.
Unemployment disappeared in the Soviet Union long ago.
The number of workers employed in the Soviet national
economy has increased more than four-fold as compared with
1913. Real earnings, if we bear in mind pensions, money
grants, free tuition and free medical service, are almost double
what they were in 1940, the year before the war.
During the past three years the Soviet Government and the
Communist Party have introduced such important measures
as raising the wages of the lower-paid workers, reducing the
length of the working day on the eve of holidays and free days
(usually Sundays), the transition to a shorter working day for
factory and office workers in the coal industry, ferrous and
non-ferrous metallurgy, oil, gas, chemical, and cement; the
lengthening of maternity leave, and the new Law on State
Pensions.
Much has already been done, but the immediate future
holds forth promise of even greater things. The 1959-1965
Seven-Year Plan for the development of the Soviet national
economy provides for a further powerful growth in all
branches of the economy and a corresponding considerable
rise in the people's living standards.
37
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The national income, which, in the U.S.S.R., is distributed
in the interests of all members of society, will increase by
62-65 per cent by 1965. This will permit an average increase
of 40 per cent per worker in real income.
Wages of lower and medium-paid workers will be raised.
In particular, the minimum wage will be increased from 270-
350 roubles a month to 500-600 roubles a month.
The Soviet State annually spends tremendous amounts of
money on free education and courses to improve the workers'
skills, on free medical service, sanatoriums and resorts, pen-
sions and other forms of aid to factory and office workers in
the form of social insurance.
The Seven-Year Plan provides for a further increase in ex-
penditure for these purposes. In 1965 it will amount to
360,000 million roubles, as compared with 215,000 million
roubles in 1958.
Pensions will also be increased. The minimum old-age pen-
sions, for instance, will be raised from 300 to 400 roubles a
month in 1963 (for those in rural areas it will be raised to
340 roubles), and to 450-500 roubles a month in 1966 (again
with a corresponding increase in rural areas). Disability pen-
sions and pensions granted in case of the loss of the bread-
winner will also be increased.
One of the fust decrees passed by the Soviet State was the
decree establishing an eight-hour working day. Today a seven-
hour and even a six-hour working day has been established
in a number of branches of industry.
By 1960 all factory and office workers will have been trans-
ferred to a seven-hour working day, while workers in the
leading trades in the coal and mining industry, those engaged
in work underground, will enjoy a six-hour working day.
This is to be followed by a transition to a 40-hour working
week, which, according to plan, is to be completed in 1962.
A gradual switch-over to a 30-35-hour working week will be
effected in the U.S.S.R. by 1964. The Soviet Union will then
have the shortest working day and the shortest working week
in the world.
The planned tremendous increase in industrial output,
38
about 80 per cent, will be achieved, to a great extent, by intro-
ducing new machinery, and by mechanising and automating
production. This in turn, will contribute to a further improve-
ment in the working conditions of the people.
Measures are also being considered to improve industrial
health and safety at enterprises and building projects, and to
introduce, on a wide scale, the most up-to-date scientific and
technical methods to make working conditions healthier.
The coming seven-year period will see a further improve-
ment in public health measures: 25,400 million roubles is
being allocated to construct public health institutions, social
security, physical culture and sport, and to develop medical
services. That is 80 per cent more than was spent during the
previous seven years, 1952-1958.
The new construction projects will make it possible to
double the number of beds in hospitals and to increase the
number of places in hospitals more than 21 times as com-
pared with the increase during the previous seven-year period.
The necessary funds will also be provided by the State,
trade unions, and collective farms for the wide-scale construc-
tion of boarding homes for the aged both in town and country-
side.
The Seven-Year Plan, as drawn up by the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union, takes into consideration all the most im-
portant aspects of the working, cultural and social life of the
Soviet working people. It is a programme for a new, power-
ful advance in the Soviet economy, and a further improve-
ment in the people's standard of living.
Published by Soviet Booklets, 3 Rosary Gardens. London, S.W.7. and printed tt3,
Farlcigh Press Ltd (T U all Jepts.). Ikcchwood Rise. Watford. lien%
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? Social Services
? Pensions ...
All important new
developments in Soviet
social security
find a place in
the pages of
SOVIET WEEKLY
Thursdays 3d
3/3 3 months 616 6 months
131- per year
from all newsagents or post free direct from:
3 ROSARY GARDENS,
LONDON, S.W.7
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v
syVie Wirn Ve/sV Vai
OTHER BOOKLETS ON THE SOVIET UNION
include the following:
TARGETS OF THE SEVEN-YEAR PLAN 6d.
SEVEN-YEAR PLAN REPORT 9d.
SOVIET SPUTNIKS (4th Edition) Is. 6d.
SOVIET PLANET INTO SPACE Is.
SOVIET HEALTH SERVICE 6d.
CO-OPERATIVES IN THE U.S.S.R. 6d.
SOVIET TRADE UNIONS 6d.
DEMOCRACY IN THE U.S.S.R. 6d.
BRINGING SCHOOLS CLOSER TO LIFE 4d.
FOOTBALL IN THE U.S.S.R. Is.
SOVIET SPORTS HANDBOOK is.
MOSCOW ART THEATRE 2s.
100 QUESTIONS ANSWERED (5th Edition) Is. 6d.
SOVIET UNION IN FACTS AND FIGURES Paper 5s.
Clothboard 7s. 6d.
PLANNING IN THE U.S.S.R. 6d.
IMPROVEMENT OF INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT 4d.
ATOMS FOR PEACE 6d.
IF THE ARMS RACE WERE STOPPED 3d.
SOVIET PEOPLE SAY "NO" TO ATOM WAR 6d.
THE NATIONS CAN LIVE IN PEACE 4d.
SOVIET PROPOSALS ON GERMANY AND BERLIN 6d.
From Booksellers, or direct from Soviet Booklets
3 ROSARY GARDENS, LONDON, S.JV.7
:C.C.C.C.WW:41.MMO:46,NOL-10:44.14444.
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HEAD OF THE CLASS
"When the first earth satellite was shot into outer space
in October, 1957, ushering in a new age of man's relation to
the universe, the world rubbed its eyes, and then painfully
opened them. This step into space had not been taken by
Germans or Americans or French or British, but by Russians.
The dark, unlettered-people of tsarist times, liberated and
enlightened, had stepped to the head of the class. Behind
their spectacular advance was a generation of assiduous study
and research in mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry,
biology, geology, history, economics, political science,
sociology, language, mechanics, electronics, atomics?taught
in the universities and colleges, in the institutes and special
schools, in the pioneer houses and in the elementary classes,
by competent well-trained teachers to tens of millions of
healthy, bright-eyed, eager pupils."
(Scott Nearing: Soviet Education: California, 1959.)
EDUCATION?A TOP PRIORITY
"It is doubtful that any society has ever poured such a
high proportion of its energies and resources into educational
activities, in the broadest sense of the term, as the Soviet
Union is doing today. Soviet leaders, from the beginning,
have treated organised education with greater seriousness than
political leaders in any other country. And this seriousness
is widely shared by Soviet students and teachers, at every
level of the school system."
(George L. Kline, Assistant Professor of Philosophy,
Columbia University, in an article, June 16, 1958, follow-
ing his visits to Soviet schools in 1956 and 19574
Higher Education
in the U.S.S.R.
by
Professor V. Yelyutin, D.Sc.
Minister of Higher Education of the_U.S.S.R.
Soviet Booklet No. 51
London, June, 1959
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STAT
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Prof. Vyacheslav Petrovich Yelyntin
Doctor of Technical Sciences.
Graduated from the Moscow Steel Institute in 1930.
Director of the Moscow Steel Institute 1945-51.
Deputy Minister of Higher Education x951-54.
Minister of Higher Education of the U.S.S.R. 1954-.
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CONTENTS
Foreword.. ? ?
Higher Education Before the Revolution
First Russian University ? ?
Education for Privileged Few ..
Valuable Traditions ..
Progress of Soviet Higher Education
Universal Education .. ? ?
Democratic Educational System
Training Specialists
National Republics
New Intelligentsia ? ?
Some General Information
Universities ? ?
Engineering Institutes ..
Education of Agricultural Specialists
Education of Economists
Law Schools ? ?
Teachers' Training
Medical Colleges
Training in the Arts ..
Some Questions of Planning ..
Administration and Organisation
Academic Councils
The Departments
? ?
? ?
Enrolment and Provisions for Students
Methods of Education and Training ..
Examinations ..
Practical Training
Employment Facilities for College Graduates
Workers at College
Faculty Members
Scientific Research
International Contacts ..
Conclusion
? ?
. .
? ?
. .
Page
? ? 5
7
8
9
fo
II
12
? 13
^ 17
18
19
20
22
24
25
26
? 26
27
26
? 29
? 29
30
31
33
36
37
38
42
43
45
48
50
52
FOREWORD
Today there is world-wide recognition of the great strides
made by Soviet industry and science. No one doubts any
longer that Soviet engineers and technicians, in fact her
specialists in every field, occupy a leading place in the world.
The three sputniks, the space-rocket, the atomic-powered
ice-breaker, and other outstanding Soviet achievements have
contributed, in a somewhat dramatic form, to throw into
relief the great progress made by the Soviet Union.
It has not been lost on commentators in other countries
that much of this advance is due to the Soviet educational
system and to the great care lavished by the Soviet Govern-
ment and people on the training of specialists of all kinds.
This is not fortuitous, for a basic aim of the Soviet socialist
system has been scientific, technical and cultural progress
and the utmost development of all the creative genius and
talents of man.
For this reason the Soviet State, the Communist Party, and
the Soviet people as a whole have devoted special attention to
the training of highly skilled specialists for all branches of
industry, agriculture, science, education, medicine and the
arts.
In line with the tasks involved in its economic and cultural
development, the Soviet Union plans to expand and improve
still more the training of specialists.
From 1959 to 1965, some 2,300,000 will graduate from the
colleges and universities as against 1,700,000 between 1952
and x958-4o per cent more. The number of engineers to be
trained for industry, building, transport and communications
5
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will be go per cent greater, and that of agricultural specialists
50 per cent greater, than in the previous seven-year period.
The increase will be greater in the case of engineers specialising
in chemical technology, automation, computing techniques,
electronics and other new fields.
It is also planned to improve the existing higher education
system by linking it more closely with production and by
enrolling in higher educational establishments more young
people having some experience of fife and a record of practical
work.
The role and importance of evening and correspondence
schools in the college educational system will grow immensely.
In this booklet Professor V. Yelyutin, Minister of Higher
Education of the U.S.S.R., describes the great progress in the
field of higher education made in the Soviet Union since the
Revolution in 1917, and outlines the further important per-
spectives for the coming period.
6
HIGHER EDUCATION
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
HIGHER EDUCATION commenced in Russia when the Slav-
Greco-Latin Academy was founded in Moscow at the end
of the i7th century. Although the academy was a religious
school, it exerted a favourable influence on the subsequent
development of science and education in Russia.
It provided the possibility of accumulating a definite store
of experience for advancing higher education, since, along
with theological subjects, the students were instructed in
grammar, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, geography and
other subjects.
Later, in the early alth century, a number of secular
schools were opened by order of Tsar Peter I for training
navigators and engineers; to a certain degree they became
the embryo of higher engineering education in the U.S.S.R.
The development of agricultural production, the birth and
growth of industry created a pressing need to develop higher
education, to open higher schools and research institutions.
An Academy of Sciences was founded in St. Petersburg, in
1725, and a university was opened under its auspices in 1726;
the latter, however, was short-lived and ceased to exist after
1765.
This university is nevertheless worth mentioning because
it was the first to adopt the new system of education which
combined the reading of lectures with extensive laboratory
practice, the purpose being education as well as scientific
research.
In 1755, a firm foundation was at last laid for university
education, when Moscow University was opened on the
initiative and with the direct co-operation of the most out-
standing Russian thinker and scholar of the time, Mikhail
Lomonosov.
7
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It
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FIRST RUSSIAN UNIVERSITY
TIIE wilvERsrrv began its work in the premises of a former
drugstore in Red Square (where the Historical Museum now
stands), with a faculty of no more than a few professors and
lecturers, and less than a hundrcd students.
Still, it was a real university with the latest equipment,
a curriculum covering all the necessary subjects, and lecturers
who were capable of ensuring standards of education on a level
with the achievements of science at that time. And most im-
portant, it was the first Russian university.
Industrial progress in Russia created the need for a national
higher school for training engineers, especially mining and
metal engineers. And the St. Petersburg (now Leningrad)
Mining Institute, founded in 1773, furnished the basis for the
progress of technical education in Russia.
Other institutes and universities were added later. Thus,
the Konstantinovskoye School for Land Surveyors was opened
in 1779; it provided the basis for the Moscow Land Surveying
Institute which was opened in 1835.
An academy for training army surgeons was founded in
St. Petersburg (it was formerly called academy of medicine
and surgery) in 1798.
The Derpt (now Tartu) University, and the Forestry Insti-
tute of St. Petersburg were opened in 1802, the University of
Kazan (where Lenin studied) in 1804, and Kharkov Uni-
versity in 1805.
Among the many establishments for education opened in
the first half of the 19th century were the Railway Engineer-
ing Institute and Technological Institute (1828) in St. Peters-
burg, and the Moscow Higher Technical School (1830).
Kiev University, which was opened in 1834, was destined
to play an important cultural and educational role in the
Ukraine.
8
EDUCATION FOR PRIVILEGED FEW
TUE FOUNDING of higher educational establishments and the
further development of existing ones continued during the
second half of the 19th century.
However, the economic conditions and political atmosphere
in tsarist Russia were extremely unfavourable for the develop-
ment of higher education.
Pre-revolutionary Russia lagged far behind the economic
and cultural development of the advanced countries of the
West. The reactionary autocratic regime acted as a brake on
Russia's economic and cultural progress, stifling scientific
thought and the initiative of her progressive representatives.
A college education was one of the privileges of the proper-
tied classes before the Revolution. For sons and daughters
of the working people the way to college was well-nigh
blocked.
In 1914, for example, of the total number of students of the
eight Russian universities 38.3 per cent were children of
aristocrats and officials, 43.2 per cent, children of clergymen
and rich families, 14 per cent, children of kulaks (capitalist
farmers), and only 4.5 per cent, children of workers, peasants
and working intellectuals.
Before the Revolution college education was denied also
to the national minorities. There was no provision for higher
education in the territories of the present Byelorussian,
Lithuanian, Moldavian, Azerbaijan, Armenian, Kazakh,
Uzbek, Turkmen, Tajik and Kirghiz republics of the Soviet
Union, whereas today these Union Republics have i5i higher
educational establishments with about 380,000 students.
For a long time colleges were completely closed to women.
Only at the end of the i9th and beginning of the 2oth centuries
did the tsarist government grant permission for the introduc-
tion of higher courses for a limited number of women, on a
restricted curriculum.
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VALUABLE TRADITIONS
AND NOW, let US SUM up.
In 280 years pre-revolutionary Russia acquired 105 uni-
versities, colleges and technical institutes, attended by 127,000
students. These establishments were located in 21 cities, con-
centrated mainly in Central Russia; there was not a single
college in the border regions, especially in the cast and in
places with a non-Russian population.
And yet, despite all that, higher education in pre-revolu-
tionary Russia built up its own system of training specialists,
founded and developed a national school of science, educated
many specialists, and produced a number of world-famous
scholars.
It is enough to mention the work of Lomonosov,
Lobachevsky's discovery and elaboration of non-Euclidean
geometry, Mendeleyev's discovery of the periodic law of
chemical elements, Stoletov's definition of the photo-electric
effect, Zhukovsky's works in aeromechanics, and Timiryazev's
works in botany.
The crowning achievement was Mendeleycv's periodic
system of elements which blazed a reliable road into the future
of science and engineering. This discovery furnished the
theoretical basis for the use of atomic energy, the basis for
modern technical progress, for the development of new and
highly promising trends in science and engineering.
In the process of this work Russian higher education accu-
mulated a rich store of experience in tuition. It evolved
systems of education which received international recognition
and were widely adopted. An instance of this was the Moscow
Higher Technical College.
This college utilised the summarised experience of different
Russian colleges of technology, as a basis to develop a new
trend in college education. Its underlying idea was the estab-
lishment of close organic ties between theoretical education
and practical training in production.
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This system was widely adopted in the technical colleges of ?
Europe and America after the world industrial exhibitions of
1872 (in Vienna) and 1876 (in Philadelphia).
The Soviet people are proud of the past achievements of
Russian higher education and strive to develop and extend
the valuable traditions of their precedcssors.
PROGRESS OF
SOVIET HIGHER EDUCATION
A POWERFUL impetus to the progress of higher education,
science and public enlightenment, was supplied by the
October Socialist Revolution.
"Knowledge for the people" became the motto in Soviet
Russia.
Speaking at the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets,
in ig18, Lenin said:
"In the past, the whole of human intellect, all its genius,
laboured in order to give all the benefits of engineering and
culture to some, and to deprive others of the most essential,
of education and development. Now, however, all the
wonders of engineering, all the achievements of culture will
become available to the people as a whole, and henceforth
human intellect and genius will never be used as a means of
violence, a means of exploitation. This we know?and is it
not worth while to work for this great historic task? Is it
not worth devoting all our strength to it? And the working
people will accomplish this colossal historic work, for latent
within them arc great forces of revolution, regeneration and
renewal."
The achievements of culture, of human thought should
become the general possession of the whole people?that is the
fundamental principle underlying the activities of the state
to advance public education, college education, science and
culture.
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Science serves progress only when combined with demo-
cracy. To make education and science in the Soviet Union
democratic the state created favourable conditions for pro-
viding the vast majority of people with knowledge.
In practice this meant the opening a of huge number of
special secondary schools and higher educational establish-
ments (institutes and universities) and the founding of many
research institutes.
UNIVERSAL EDUCATION
A RADICAL change has taken place in the geographical dis-
tribution of colleges and scientific institutions throughout the
country.
The regular secondary school equips its pupils with poly-
technical knowledge. Along with a grounding in the sciences
the pupils acquire skill in one field or another.
After finishing secondary school the young boy or girl
may enter a college, or go to work in industry, or agriculture.
With two years' experience in production applicants who
pass the college entrance examinations are given priority
when applications for admission are considered.
Before going to work, the secondary school graduate may
learn a trade by attending special short-term courses main-
tained in the factories, or a technical school. This training is
given at the expense of the enterprise concerned, and the
students are paid a small wage throughout the duration of
this training.
Opportunities for a secondary schooling in native language
arc available to all citizens, since numerous national schools
exist in all the republics of the Soviet Union.
The development of education in the U.S.S.R. may be illus-
trated by the following statistical data:
12
Thal
Including
Secondary school
Schools
school
attend-
attendance
for
YEARS
ance
(5-so grada)
in mations ofpeopk
adults
1914-1
9.7
o.6
957-50
30.6
13.5
1.9
Steps have now been taken for educational reform. In
particular arrangements have been made for combining
education in the higher school grades directly with work
in production. This brings secondary education increasingly
closer to life, to practice.
The younger generation is receiving knowledge which will
be necessary for its future work. This knowledge is at the same
time adequate to qualify school graduates for entering a
college or university.
Consequently, the college or university has a huge field
from which it can draw its new enrolments.
DEMOCRATIC EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
IMMEDIATELY AFTER the establishment of Soviet government,
steps were taken to develop college education and ensure
the most consistent implementation of the principle of demo-
cracy in the universities and institutes.
This afforded the opportunity for an education to the most
capable citizens, without any discrimination based on property,
social standing, nationality, sex, religion, or world outlook.
The reorganisation of higher education on these lines was
decreed by the Council of People's Commissars on August 2,
19'8. This decree opened the doors of the higher institutes
of learning to the working people and their children, abolish-
ing all restrictions which kept them out of college, and
announced that all citizens could qualify for admission.
Not only were tuition fees abolished in the colleges, but
state stipends were instituted for the students. Faculty mein53
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bers and students were called upon to co-operate in the
management of the colleges and universities.
On September 2, 1921 the Council of People's Commissars
of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, headed
by Lenin, endorsed the new charter of higher education, the
first statutes of Soviet colleges.
Despite the heavy burdens resulting from civil war and
foreign intervention, the first benefits of the Soviet policy
in the realm of higher education were soon apparent. Already
by the autumn of 1919 college enrolment had grown to 221,000,
as compared with 536,900 at the beginning of 1918.
Free admission of students from the ranks of the workers
and peasants and the institution of state stipends for them
were not enough, important though they were, to enable
workers and peasants to take advantage of their new oppor-
tunities. Special arrangements had to be made to enable
them to acquire secondary education.
This problem was solved through the setting up of workers'
faculties, which were college preparatory schools for adult
workers and peasants. These schools made a most valuable
contribution to the training of intellectuals from the midst
of the people, to the rearing of a Soviet intelligentsia.
With the progress of Soviet secondary education, the need
for the workers' faculties gradually diminished, and they were
finally closed.
College education advanced in the Soviet Union very
rapidly. By 1921-223 Soviet Russia already had 279 higher
educational establishments, which means that their number
had grown in the first few post-revolutionary years by 150
per cent, as compared with pre-revolutionary Russia.
TRAINING SPECIALISTS
ONE os' the main tasks confronting higher education under
the early five-year plans was the training of Soviet technical
specialists.
14
It was in that period that new institutes were opened in
Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Kharkov, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Baku,
Minsk and many other cities of the constituent republics of
the U.S.S.R. The existing higher educational establishments
were expanded, new college buildings and dormitories put
up, new laboratories equipped and the college faculties re-
ceived additional personnel.
As a result, college attendance was brought up to 504,400
at the end of the first five-year plan period. As many as
198,700 college-trained specialists, including 76,600 engineers,
were educated during the first five-year period, and in the
second five-year plan period the Soviet Union advanced to
one of the leading places in the world in turning out college-
trained specialists.
And SO, immediately before the war of 5941-45 Soviet
higher education was in a position to train specialists for all
fields of economic and cultural endeavour.
The progress of college education was retarded slightly by
the war, but even in the most difficult period of the war the
colleges were continuing without interruption the education
of specialists as well as scientific research. Three hundred and
two thousand specialists were educated by the colleges during
the war.
Tremendous damage was caused to higher education in the
Soviet Union by those enemies of civilisation, science and
enlightenment?the fascist invaders. For example, they were
responsible for destroying 334 college buildings. Steps to
restore these colleges were taken by the Communist Party
and the Soviet Government when the war was still in progress.
In the post-war years Soviet higher education has not
only recovered from the ravages caused by the fascist vandals;
it has made greater progress, training greater numbers of
specialists equipped with a more thorough grounding in the
specific fields of knowledge.
College attendance grew from 81i,000 in 5940 to 5,247,000
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in 1950, an increase of more than 50 per cent, and to
2,001,000 111 1958, an increase of 150 per cent over the 1940
figure.
As compared with 1914 (when pre-revolutionary Russia
had the highest college attendance in her history), the college
attendance in 1957-58 had grown 16.6 times over.
Along with the general increase in college attendance, there
has been an especially great increase in the number of students
majoring in the most essential professions and fields.
? Attendance in the technical colleges which educate en-
gineers for industry, construction, transport and communica-
tions has grown from 25 per cent of the total college attend-
ance in 1940 to 38.1 per cent of the total in 1958.
The corresponding share of students of the agricultural and
forestry colleges had grown in relation to the total attend-
ance from 6.4 per cent in 1940 to 10.8 per cent in 1958.
Attendance in the economics and law colleges in 1958 was
four times that of 1940; attendance in the teachers' training
colleges and in the respective university faculties in 1958 was
Ti4vindouble that of 1940, and in the medical and physical culture
'colleges, 50 per cent more.
Especially high was the rate of progress in the fifth five-
year plan period, when the number of graduating specialists
in the engineering colleges had grown by 93 per cent, and
in the agricultural and forestry colleges by 102 per cent, as
compared with the fourth five-year period, the general
increase in the college attendance in the fifth five-year period
amounting to 72 per cent.
Considerable changes in the distribution of the higher
educational establishments, improvements in their organisa-
tion and in the educational system in order to bring it up to
the level of the new requirements and urgent state tasks have
been made since the war.
One of the reading rooms of the tiloscow Power Institute
Professor Tayana Birich and fifth-year students of illituk Medical Institute examine an
X-ray photograph
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.1 lesson in
Bengalese for
fist-year students
in the Oriental
Languages Depart-
ment of Leningrad
University
A group of young Kirghiz scientists and re-
search workers of the Kirghiz Academy of
Sciences
Third-year student Irma Artemseva and other
students of English at the Moscow Motor and
Highway Institute, are enjoying Jerome
K. Jerome's "Three Alen in a Boat"
Irma Ushaeva, in the
Zoology Room of
Leningrad University.
is a Khalil: and studies
in the Department of
the Peoples of the North
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?
Moscow State Untrerrity, seen from the neer. Below ar ...ve straw if its xftel,r? a their
mtcrostopes In the Petrography Lahonttog stactr- twiny
NATIONAL REPUBLICS
STEPS TAKEN 10 promote the development of the productive
forces in the east of the U.S.S.R., greater industrial and agri-
cultural progress, and the development of culture in these
regions, created a demand for the faster expansion of the
existing colleges there and the opening of new ones.
The number of higher educational establishments has been
growing steadily in the Urals, in West and East Siberia, in
the Far East and in the Central Asia republics. They now have
200 such establishments as compared with four before the
Revolution.
The college attendance in the eastern part of the U.S.S.R.
in 1958 was Go per cent more than in 1950, and 270 per cent
more than in 1940. The higher educational establishments
in the Soviet East have 25 per cent of the total college attend-
ance of the U.S.S.R.
Universities have been opened in the Tajik, Turkmen and
Kirghiz Union republics, in the Yakut, Kabardino-Balkar,
Bashkir, and Mordovian autonomous republics, and in Vladi-
vostok; 25 higher schools of technology, seven agricultural
colleges, six medical and many other higher schools have been
founded in the Soviet East.
One of the most remarkable results of the cultural revolution
in the U.S.S.R. is the development of college education in the
national republics.
Higher educational establishments existed in pre-revolu-
tionary Russia only in 21 cities situated mainly in the central
part of the country. They now exist in 220 cities of the Soviet
Union, among them many cities in the national republics.
Furthermore, there are extension colleges, branches of
colleges and consultation centres for college correspondence
students in more than 500 inhabited places.
There is not a single republic in the U.S.S.R. without its own
university and other institutions for higher education. There
are at present 140 colleges in the Ukraine (there were only
17
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;47
f.
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7 baorc ritvant4401, fr..",:ir.7,77--rint,n
15 tn korimijan, ;owl ..f.vi 1lie &vie- 12A-6- ,,3:ffics
(LiNiatila, Latvia a nil i&rEF -v=2" ".d,13 no
k tell la MP I ago fir th,ii (Am =raw hare
thetc own engineers,
writers and oilier intrilooz.,--A.
The progress or crAle ... fr.i-Am6mr- is ??=n-,s: i1/4-,--14,3
the Ukrainian Soviet SseM..= -fithitts- lad ...71=ed
terribly from the Gernun awl-53 the
Ukraine's college attendarce to= 3311,sor?
lia order to appreciatepc?'-iem2==sam'-ret.?rrain-
ian, S.S.R. in the sphere of 1er=---,=, to
know that the total attendancentie--.1=-32:ry
Russia was 127,000.
NEW INTELLIGENTSIA
TEM PROGRESS of college edrr--r '-ri? ii passible
ttr train in a comparatively bicE- pimo" c:rous
intellectuals who are deeply devri
The decisive role played by cr1=Ecta the crea-
ticm of the Soviet intelligentsia rm,ybc:eger-2 br act that
before the Patriotic War Soviet .0-rn -40.=? etba' cating
specialists at the rate of too,000-i tope? a as 0:1=fared
with the annual average of 8,000-xo,ceo 'b&-re Revolution.
College Attendance and Gradtires
/AA id
oudents,
feaiscwrfersg oudenis In-
elitTfelf(s ttiousands)
1914 1930 1940 1.:?-?3
1274
Piwi$1W iv-Mewing ? . 10.7
287-9
4.3.9
811.7 1:001.0
126.0
Cc T938,
sr er=pcxed
x'a 1914
T6.6 times
CAW
times
Over
290 '-`7
18
The progress of higher education in the republics may be
illustrated by the following figures.
YEAR
1914
1938
RSFSR
72
441
UATaine
27
138
Nwnber of colkges in the republics
Byelo- Kazakh- Llehki-
russia stem start
24 27 31
Tajtki-
start
7
The number of college students for every 1,000 inhabitants
was more than to in 1958.
The progress made by higher education in the U.S.S.R. in
the past 40 years is truly immeasurable, and is now in a position
to meet the country's full demand for specialists.
The U.S.S.R. now has skilled specialists and executives who
are capable of solving the most complex problems in industry,
science, engineering and management, of achieving the highest
results in industry, transport, construction and agriculture
with the least expenditure of labour, funds and materials.
As many as 3,800,000 college-trained specialists, including
one million engineers, have been educated in the Soviet
period.
SOME GENERAL INFORMATION
Most. nisrrrirrEs of higher learning in the Soviet Union are
maintained at state expense and financed from the state
budget.*
A college education may be acquired by attending a
college in daytime, or an evening college (for students who
work during the day), or by taking a college correspondence
course. In the latter case the necessary lessons arc mailed to
the students and they attend the institute twice a year for
examinations.
All these facilities may be available at one and the same
*With the exception of a few colleges which belong to the co-operative
societies and mass organisations.
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?IN?
institute. Diplomas issued to the graduates in all these cases
are equally valid.
Colleges are subordinated to different ministries and
departments. All the universities and most of the technical
schools are subordinated to the Ministry of Higher Education;
the agricultural institutes arc subordinated to the Ministry
of Agriculture; the medical institutes to the Ministries of
Public Health of the Union Republics; the teachers' training
institutes to the Ministries of Public Education of the Union
republics, and so on.
But in order to ensure a uniform system of instruction,
scientific research and methods of education in all the colleges
(irrespective of jurisdiction) they receive their guidance from
the Ministry of Education of the U.S.S.R.
The colleges may be divided for the sake of convenience
into three main groups: universities, polytechnical institutes
and specialised institutes.
UNIVERSITIES
Ix ACCORDANCE with their historic traditions, the universities
have been developed as major scientific and educational
centres. They conduct extensive scientific research and train
highly skilled specialists for the scientific institutions, for the
national economy, cultural and educational institutions, for
secondary and higher education and for the state apparatus.
University education has made great progress under the
Soviets. Tsarist Russia had 13 universities with an attendance
of no more than 43,000; the U.S.S.R. today has 39 universities
with an attendance exceeding 200,000.
The universities turn out versatile specialists with a
thorough grounding in physics, chemistry, mathematics,
mechanics, biology, geology, geography, philology, history,
philosophy, economics and law.
The number and nature of the faculties vary in different
20
universities. Here is some detailed information about two
universities.
Moscow University, the oldest in the country, was founded
in 5755. In 1957-58, Moscow University was attended by
21,200 students: 14,600 attended the university in day-
time, about 3,000 in the evening, and 3,600 were taking
correspondence courses. There are fikculties of history,
philology, journalism, philosophy, economics, law, physics,
mechanics and mathematics, chemistry, biology and soil
science, geology and geography.
The faculty is composed of 1,800 lecturers who include
more than Ioo members and corresponding members of the
Academy of Sciences, 390 professors with D.Sc. degrees and
more than i,000 lecturers with M.Sc. degrees.
The university has fine lecture halls and well-equipped
laboratories. The new buildings on the Lenin Hills occupy a
territory of over 400 acres. They have a floor space of about
5 million square feet and 25,000 rooms, including 5,714 in
the student hostels.
Sixty nationalities of the Soviet Union and 40 nationalities
of other countries arc represented by students at this university.
One thousand two hundred students from 40 foreign countries
attend the university.
Important scientific investigations are conducted here by
the university's scientists.
Moscow State University maintains extensive scientific
contacts with universities in other countries. The works of
its scientists may be found in the libraries of many uni-
versities and scientific institutions of the world. It has a
regular exchange of scientific works with 277 institutions, and
periodically also with 138 institutions of 54 countries.
The university has numerous laboratories with first-class
equipment, a students' club and a library with more than
5 million books, magazines, and newspaper files in both
Russian and foreign languages.
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The Central Asian University has its seat in Tashkent,
the capital of the Uzbek Republic. Founded only 38 years ago
it has educated about 25,000 specialists. With faculties of
history, philology, oriental studies, law, physics and mathe-
matics, chemistry, biology and soil science, geology and
geography, it has an attendance of 5,000 and a staff of 429
lecturers, including 33 professors. This university has trained
many eminent statesmen, scientists, writers and other dis-
tinguished people.
At the Central Asian University, Uzbeks are instructed in
their native language.
The universities play an important part in training and
retraining teachers and scientific workers. There are extensive
facilities for post-graduate studies and research. Some of the
universities (Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Ural, Central Asian
and Kazan Universities) have in the last few years rendered a
valuable service in training highly qualified lecturers for the
advanced training institutes of social science teachers, and
of instructors in philology, mathematics and physics.
Scientific research conducted at the universities is of great
theoretical and practical value. Progress made in natural and
exact sciences (physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology and
geology) serves as the foundation and pivot of technical
progress in all branches of production.
The scientists and lecturers of the universities number in
their midst recognised authorities in all these fields of
knowledge.
ENGINEERING INSTITUTES
ENGINEERS ARE trained in the Soviet Union in almost 200
special fields. They arc educated by various technological
institutes which may be divided for convenience into two
groups: polytcchnical and specialised.
Polytechnical institutes occupy an important place among
22
the engineering colleges. As a rule they have many faculties
educating engineers in a great many specialities.
The Leningrad Polytechnical Institute, for example, has
nine faculties including metallurgy, mechanics and machinery,
electromechanics, electrical engineering, physics and mech-
anics, hydrotechnical and radio engineering.
Each faculty covers allied fields. For example, the radio
engineering faculty trains specialists in radiophysics, industrial
electronics, dielectrics and semi-conductors; the metallurgical
faculty educates specialists in the production of iron and steel,
and non-ferrous metals, metallography, foundry production,
treatment of metals under pressure, and so on.
Altogether the institute trains its students in 42 specialities;
it has ro,000 day students and more than 800 evening students.
There is a staff of 360 professors and lecturers.
The institute has more than 200 laboratories equipped with
the latest instruments, making possible not only normal
laboratory practice, but also extensive research which is
conducted by the faculty members and students.
Other polytechnical institutes are organised along the same
lines. There is the Ural Polytechnical Institute with 13
faculties educating students in 36 special fields, the Kharkov
Polytechnical Institute with 15 faculties educating students in
38 special fields, and the Kaunas Polytechnical Institute with
seven faculties, educating students in a3 special fields.
The specialised institutes educate specialists for a definite
industry. This category includes the metallurgical, mining,
civil engineering, chemical technology, transport engineering
and other institutes.
They offer courses in a more limited number of fields and
have a smaller number of faculties than the polytcchnical
institutes.
For example, the Dniepropetrovsk Mining Institute edu-
cates engineers for the coal industry. With geological prospect-
ing, mining, mining machinery and mine construction facul-
23
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tics, this institute educates students in zo special fields, and
has an enrolment of 3,900.
The Novosibirsk Civil Engineering Institute has five facul-
ties and trains civil engineers in seven special fields.
I have already mentioned that the technical and poly-
technical institutes are divided into two groups for the sake
of convenience. There are certain technical institutes which
occupy a place between these two groups.. The Moscow
Power Engineering Institute, for example, although nominally
a college for training specialists for a specific industry, has
ro faculties offering courses in 26 specific lines. The Moscow
Higher Technical School is also organised approximately
along the lines of the polytechnical institutes.
The number of technical colleges, the nature of their
specialisation and organisation reflect the present standards,
requirements and prospects of economic development in the
U.S.S.R.
Old Russia had 16 technical colleges (in 1914), whereas
the Soviet Union now has 200. Eighty-four thousand specialists
received their diplomas in these colleges in 1957, and 94,000
in 1958.
The industrial development of a constantly greater number
of formerly underdeveloped or completely undeveloped
districts has brought about a re-distribution of the technical
colleges. There were technical colleges in only nine cities of
pre-revolutionary Russia; today they exist in more than
6o cities; they are located not only in big centres, but also in
the new industrial districts, much closer to production.
EDUCATION OF
AGRICULTURAL SPECIALISTS
AolueuvruaAL SPECIALISTS are educated at agricultural col-
leges.
The reorganisation of agriculture along socialist lines has
24
resulted in the development of highly mechanised, large-scale
co-operative (collective) farming and state farming.
This was naturally bound to and did create a high demand
for agricultural specialists. Accordingly, the network of agri-
cultural colleges was expanded. Pre-revolutionary Russia had
no more than 15 agricultural colleges with an attendance of
5,000, whereas the Soviet Union has 99 agricultural institutes
with 223,000 students.
The agricultural colleges educate specialists in agronomy,
animal husbandry and veterinary medicine and in the mech-
anisation of agriculture.
Thus, at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy of Moscow
specialists are educated at the faculties of agronomy, pomology
and gardening, agrochemistry, animal husbandry and
economics.
Thanks to the more or less even territorial distribution of
the agricultural institutes it has been possible to adapt their
plans and programmes to the most urgent local requirements
(in the district where the specific institute is located, and,
practically in the place where the specialists educated in
the district will be working).
The faculty members of the agricultural colleges arc
confronted at present with the important task of strengthen-
ing contact between education and production, of tying it up
with the concrete features and urgent requirements of agri-
culture in the respective zone.
EDUCATION OF ECONOMISTS
THE NATURE and standards of education in the higher schools
of economics arc determined by the requirements of the
socialist economic system. Management of socialist enter-
prices requires deep knowledge of economics and the ability to
apply it in practice.
Specialists for economy, trade and finance are educated
by the economics' institutes and also by special faculties in
25
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the universities and the economic engineering faculties of the
higher technical schools.
Economists are educated in the following fields: political
economy, economics of industry, transport and agriculture,
finances, planning and production accounting. These special-
ists are educated at present in 30 institutes of economics, x4
universities and 61 industrial and agricultural institutes.
LAW SCHOOLS
MEASURES TAKEN by the Soviet state for strengthening socialist
law and improving the state apparatus dictate the need for
special attention to the education of expert lawyers. These
specialists are educated by the law institutes and law faculties
of the universities.
While receiving instruction in jurisprudence, economics,
political subjects and philosophy, the future lawyers become
skilled in analysing social phenomena and are given the
opportunity of undergoing practice in the legal services and
government offices.
The law schools and law faculties of the universities have
an enrolment of 36,000, including 24,000 working students
who are taking college correspondence courses.
TEACHERS' TRAINING
ILLITERACY HAS been banished into the realm of history in
the U.S.S.R. Universal seven-year schooling has been intro-
duced in the countryside, and secondary education in major
cities.
Polytechnical education is intended to bring students closer
to life, to acquaint them with the production processes in
industry and agriculture.
There were practically no teachers' training colleges in
tsarist Russia apart from two small private colleges. In the
U.S.S.R., however, these institutes comprise one of the largest
groups of Soviet colleges.
26
The Soviet Union has 212 teachers' training institutes with
an attendance of 515,000. Their responsible and honourable
mission is to train teachers for the fifth to tenth grades of
the secondary schools and for instruction in general subjects
at the specialised secondary schools.
The teachers' training institutes arc quite evenly distributed
throughout the country, through all the republics. This,
together with the specialists educated by the universities, makes
it possible to meet the demand for teachers in all the secondary
schools and the great demand for teachers in the schools where
classes are conducted in the non-Russian languages of the
peoples of the Soviet Union.
MEDICAL COLLEGES
To Gm a good idea of progress made in this field it is enough
to say that tsarist Russia had no more than eight medical
colleges in 194; concentrated in Central Russia, they issued
1,000-1,500 diplomas a year.
One of the first acts of the Soviet Government was to
provide a great number of medical specialists in order to
ensure medical service to all the many millions of people of
the Soviet republics. In 1922 the country already had 26 medi-
cal institutes.
Today, numbering 79, they have an attendance of more than
6o,000.
A radical change has taken place, too, in the geographical
distribution of the medical colleges: in the outlying border
regions where not a single doctor, to say nothing of medical
schools, was found in the past, medical institutes arc now
turning out highly skilled specialists.
These institutes (with a six-year course) train specialists in
internal medicine, pediatry, sanitation, stomatology and
pharmacy. The continuous progress of medicine has made it
necessary to open refresher courses and advanced training
institutes (mainly at the medical institutes).
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r
Diplomas are issued by the medical institutes at the rate of
18,00o-2o,000 a year. (The population is provided with medi-
cal service free of charge.)
Specialists for physical culture and sports (who include
medical specialists as well as instructors) are educated at
18 special institutes which have an attendance of 14,500.
TRAINING IN THE ARTS
IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY Russia training in the arts was limited
to seven colleges. Their number has grown seven-fold under the
Soviets, and the U.S.S.R. now has 22 conservatoires of music,
12 dramatic and scenic-design institutes, a cinematography
institute, an architectural institute, several academies of arts,
art institutes, several institutes of applied and decorative arts,
as well as industrial art schools and a literary institute.
Faculty members of the art schools include many outstand-
ing Soviet art workers.
The wide and versatile network of Soviet higher educa-
tional institutions provides every possibility for meeting the
great demand for specialists in every sphere of economic and
cultural endeavour. Soviet colleges are constantly improving
their educational methods and work as well as scientific re-
search, which is conducted in numerous fields.
A good general theoretical background is especially impor-
tant at present when science and engineering are advancing
with seven-league strides. It provides the basis for special
training, for the extensive use of specialists in different fields
of economic endeavour and for the best solution of scientific
and technical problems arising today.
Special attention is devoted to general improvements in
the system of education in order to meet the general require-
ments of the state and to give young people the opportunity
of acquiring an education according to their choice. Soviet
education is so organised as to ensure the closest links between
theory and practice in each field.
28
SOME QUESTIONS OF PLANNING
EDUCATION OF specialists is based in the Soviet Union on
the estimates of future requirements in the respective branches
of the national economy and cultural services. Estimates of
these requirements for six to ten years ahead arc prepared by
all the enterprises, instittitions and organisations, taking into
account the long-range plans for the corresponding economic
and cultural spheres.
When the time for the distribution of the graduating
students arrives, the institutes have at their disposal complete
lists of available vacancies and requirements in the given year.
Knowing the required number of specialists each year (for
six to ten years ahead), it is possible to determine the enrol-
ment for each speciality in order to meet the future require-
ments of the national economy. Knowledge of the geographical
distribution of the population, industry and agriculture pro-
vides the basis for a correct decision as to the geographical
distribution of the colleges.
Consequently, education of specialists on a planned basis
makes it possible to change the number and ratio of specific
groups of specialists.
The existing correlation in percentages between specific
groups of specialists (college attendance) is as follows:
The humanities, including the teachers' training
group ? ?
? ?
? ?
? ?
.. 42.6
Engineering..
? ?
.. 38.1
Agricultural
? ?
.. 10.8
Medical
? ?
? ?
. ?
.. 8.5
Naturally, this correlation changes with the progress of
all the spheres of the national economy and culture.
ADMINISTRATION AND
ORGANISATION
ONE-MAN MANAGEMENT is combined with collective manage-
ment of the colleges.
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Every college is headed by a director (a rector at the uni-
versity), who has several assistants responsible for educa-
tional, scientific and executive activities.
There is an academic council functioning under the director
(or rector) who presides at this council.
It is composed of the director's assistants responsible for
educational and scientific work, faculty deans, professors who
head the respective departments and some of the lecturers.
Mass organisations at the colleges (e.g. trade union, Communist
Party, Young Communist League) each have a representative
on the council.
ACADEMIC COUNCILS
MESE COUNCILS have extensive rights and prerogatives. Their
activities are planned by themselves. Chief attention is devoted
to questions relating to educational work and methods, to
the work of the departments, faculties and the institute as a
whole.
Questions relating to scientific research are also dealt with
by the councils. They adjudge the scientific title of associate
professor to instructors and discuss candidates recommended
for docentships, or professorships.
The councils of the bigger colleges have the right to receive
disscrtations for M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees, to adjudge M.Sc.
degrees and to make recommendations for the conferment of
D.Sc. degrees.
The academic councils deal not only with current affairs,
but also with important fundamental questions relating to the
future development of the specific educational establishment.
They discuss term and annual plans for the departments,
faculties and other divisions, and for the institution as a whole,
as well as reports on work already accomplished.
The director (rector) endorses the plan for scientific re-
search which covers general theoretical problems and urgent
problems relating to technical progress in industry and other
30
branches of the national economy, and to the introduction of
the results of scientific research into production.
Plans for scientific research also include the compilation of
textbooks, manuals, and courses of lectures. College scientists
compile each year more than 300 new textbooks and aids in
various subjects.
The colleges publish scientific papers prepared by faculty
members, lecture series, guides and manuals for laboratory
practice, collections of problems, guides on method, treatises,
popularisations and so on.
The faculties and departments are the colleges' basic
organisations.
The faculties are responsible for the education of students
in one or more allied specialities. Each faculty is headed by
a dean appointed from among the professors who represent
the leading specialities of the faculty.
The dean is directly responsible for the educational and
scientific work of the departments, for the fulfillment of
the educational plans and programmes. He directly sees to
the organising of education and arrangements for the students'
practical training, he approves the schedules, and is also
responsible for the maintenance of discipline.
The bigger colleges have faculty councils presided over by
the deans. The functions of the faculty councils arc approx-
imately the same as those of college councils. The bigger
faculty councils have the right to receive dissertations.
THE DEPARTMENTS
THE PRIMARY educational and scientific unit of the college is
the department which is responsible for guiding the educa-
tional work, and questions concerning methods and scientific
research in one or several allied subjects.
The department is headed by a professor who directs the
work of the laboratories, reads lectures in the main subjects,
directs the work of the professors, docents and lecturers, checks
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"4.
up on the quality of their lectures, practical and other work.
The head of the department directs all the work of the
students, post-graduate studies and advanced training of the
teaching staff of the department.
As a rule, the staff of a department includes professors '
if several courses of lectures are read, docents, lecturers and ?
411
3
assistants. There is ordinarily a group of laboratory workers
attached to a department.
The head of the department and professors are elected
through a contest among professors or scientists with D.Sc.
degrees. Docents are also selected through a contest of docents
or persons with M.Sc. degrees.
Lecturers are selected by the Councils of the faculties or
the institute.
Each department has its own plan for the academic year
subject to approval by the director of the college. It covers
the educational programme, scientific research and methods.
The plan contains provisions also for the compilation of new
textbooks and manuals, to assist student scientific circles and
societies, and direct post-graduate work. Special attention is
given to advanced training and refresher courses for the teach-
ing staff.
? Meetings of the department held once or twice a month
Aiscuss the progress of the studies in specific groups, hear re-
. .?
"Ports on scientific problems and methods, discuss the results
of scientific research conducted by the staff members, manu-
scripts of textbooks and manuals, theses of future lectures on
the most important and complex problems covered by a definite
course of lectures, and questions relating to the future work
of the laboratories.
Other questions discussed include plans for dissertations,
reports on post-graduate research and scientific papers.
Reports on scientific problems are made at these meetings
by outstanding people in industry: chief engineers and tech-
nologists employed in factories, or mines, directors of factory
32
Above--a welcome
meal for Moscow
University students in
one of the dining halls
The students on the
right are from the
foscow Textile
Institute, and are bang
shown how the loops
are formed on a
knit .goods machine
44t
r
f
4v!'
A
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411.
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Maths for motor-
car makers: Fitter
V. Gruhin (left)
from the Gorky
si fotor Irorks,
studies at the
Polytechnical
Institute. His
tutor is Vladimir
Lipkin, ALSc.
Future road-
builders in their
third year at the
Motor and High-
way Institute test
the action of heat
on bitumen
First-year students of therapeutics in the lecture theatre of the Moscow Afedical Institute
Leningrad University students. 77ie one on the right is studying journalism in the Philology
Department. He already has a world-wide reputation?for he is Boris SpassAy, International
Grandmaster and junior world champion of chess
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V4v,
arlk
"Nt
5te
I
ta.
I???
RELAXATION: Soot: students of the Bauman Tec/uncal College enjoy they sports day
at Ouch there are entrants for most sports and athlettc events
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One of the events at
the Bauman Technical
College sports in
Moscow is wrestling.
Here we see Anatoli
-L.. .4 .411 Teplov and Leonid
Maslov in a bout
Students of the Aloscow
Motor and Highway
Institute keeping close
to their main subject?
the highway?in a
training sprint
Students outside Riga
University in the
Latvian S.S.R.
. Fourth-year students at
the Moscow Steel
Institute are here
having a practical
lesson in the assembly
of a vacuum furnace
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?
Three nurses who
are determined to
become surgeons:
Dwya Abratanova,
Volvo illikityuk,
and Valya
Volchkora
A three-student
room in the
students' hostel,
liapsukas State
University,
Vilnius, Lithuania.
In the photograph
is fifth-year medical
student Ona
liaraljauskaite
Te.
TX.
;
4-Yr.
laboratories, agronomists employed at state farms, collective
farms, and experimental stations, and so on.
Reports are also delivered at these meccings (and lectures
are delivered from time to time before student audiences)
by rank-and-file innovators in industry and leading agricultura-
lists on their methods of work and achievements in production.
Professors and lecturers in their turn render dircct assist-
ance to the factories, co-operate in the scientific work done
by their laboratories and assist (and sometimes assume full
responsibility for it) the development of new technological
processes, new designs for machines and instruments, and so
on.
One of the basic trends in the work of the colleges is repre-
sented by the co-operation of their faculty members in solving
the most important scientific problems relating to intensifica-
tion of production on the basis of the latest achievements of
science and engineering, to ways of cutting production and
construction costs, and the overall development of definite
economic regions where specific colleges are situated.
Because of this, direct scientific and technical co-operation
is maintained constantly between the college departments
and the enterprises in the respective industries. This co-
operation has grown considerably since the war.
Organisations of students, professors, lecturers and all staff
members exist in every college.
ENROLMENT AND
PROVISIONS FOR STUDENTS
NEW REGULATIONS for admission to Soviet higher educational
establishments, introduced in April 1959, continue the trend
towards priority for those with a background of practical work.
Recent years have shown a marked change in this direction.
In 1957, for instance, about two-thirds of the student body
(in day, evening and correspondence higher schools) were
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people who had worked in industry or other flagric- last year
the figute had grown to three-quarters-
And from now On even more emphasis will be placed on
good references from trade union and Soviet Party, Young
Communist League or other organisations to which they
belong, when applications are being consid=ttl from would-be
full-time students.
School leavers will also have to present recammendarinni
from their schools.
For those wishing to study journalism, law, literature,
philosophy and political economy, two years' practical work
is a must.
Written entrance exams will be presented under a code
name, and the papers will be marked by a commission of not
less than two examiners.
Those who wish to enter the fields of tr-whing, medicine and
international relations will receive priority if they have had
working experience, and for the first time it will be possible
to combine part-time medical studies in some fields with work
in the health services.
Persons with a specialised secondary education employed
in medical institutions can now be enrolled in evening depart-
ments of medical institutes or may study pharmacy and
certain medical subjects in either correspondence or evening
institutes.
Second World War ex-servicemen and women, who have
completed their secondary education with excellent marks,
will be admitted to day, evening and correspondence institutes
without entrance exams, and will receive priority in enrol-
ment.
Next In priority will be ex-servicemen and women who have
headed their classes In technical schools, are working in their
speciality and whose entrance exam marks are satisfactory;
those without a war service record who receive the highest
34
marks in competitive exams; demobbed soldiers and persons
who have passed the leaving exams in evening schools.
Secondary school leavers with the highest marks and those
who have finished specialised educational establishments
with honours and are working in production are required to
pass entrance exams, but they will be given preference in
enrolment in the event of marks and other conditions being
equal.
The regulations insist that, while up to four college places
in five may be allocated in accordance with these priorities,
the remainder must be allocated by competitive exam.
To this exam school leavers would be admitted on equal
terms with any other applicants.
The question may be asked: what becomes of the youths
and girls who fail at the college entrance examinations?
They go to work in industry, agriculture, or offices. While
working they have every opportunity of continuing their
education by attending an evening college, or taking a college
correspondence course.
They may also prepare for and enter the competitive ex-
aminations a year or two later; or, after attending an evening
college, or taking a college correspondence course for two-
three years, secure a transfer to a day college.
What provisions arc there for students in the U.S.S.R.?
To begin with, there is a system of state stipends. More than
8o per cent of the college students are paid state stipcnds
which cover the required minimum standard of living. The
charge for accommodation in student hostels is very small
(the subsidies necessary for covering the cost of all the services
in the dormitories are provided by the state).
Special funds are allocated by the state for assistance to
students, whenever the need for it arises; allowances to
students in such cases are paid by order of the rector (of the
university), or director (of the institute).
Thousands of college students are accommodated at sana-
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toria, rest homes or tourist camps during the summer and
winter holidays. Many of the colleges maintain their own holi-
day homes, sanatoria and summer camps.
Extensive assistance is rendered to the students by the trade
unions and health departments. At least ro per cent of the
places in holiday homes and sanatoria maintained by the
trade unions and Ministries of Public Health of the republics
arc reserved for students during the holidays.
METHODS OF EDUCATION
AND TRAINING
THE METHOD of instruction employed in Soviet colleges varies,
but its basic purpose is the fullest possible development of the
individual inclinations and abilities of the students, and the
combination of theoretical education with practical training.
Theoretical education is conducted through lectures,
laboratory exercises and practical training, seminar dis-
cussions, and so on.
How much time is spent on each of these forms depends
mainly on the nature of the subject. The time allocated in
Moscow University for physics, for example, is 5,146 hours,
which includes 2, 1 1 13 hours for lectures, 1,688 hours for labora-
tory exercises and 1,348 hours for practical training and
seminars.
Attendance at lectures and practical exercises is obligatory.
The academic year is divided into two terms: the autumnal
term which lasts from September 1 until January 23,
and the spring term which begins on February 7 and ends on
June 30.
Each term concludes with examinations (in no more than
five subjects) for which three to four weeks are allocated.
Under the guidance of their lecturers the students study
no more than 36 hours a week in the first three years, and
28-30 hours a week in the fourth and fifth years.
There arc holidays twice a year, winter holidays beginning
36
on January 24 and lasting to February 6, and summer holi-
days from July i to August 31.
The schedule is subject to approval by the director (or
rector).
The order and inter-connection of the subjects arc defined
in the plan for the given speciality.
This plan covers 40-50 subjects and is composed of the
following series: socio-economic, genual science and special
subjects. A general engineering series of subjects, which
occupy a most important place in the educational programmes
for engineers, may be designated in the technical colleges.
A greater number of hours are devoted to general science
and general engineering subjects in colleges educating
specialists for jobs requiring a wider range of knowledge.
The allocation of time in the technical colleges is as follows:
up to 40 per cent for general science; general engineering
subjects 25-40 per cent; special subjects 20-25 per cent;
socio-economic subjects 8 per cent; and athletics up to 3 per
cent.
Some technical colleges (such as construction engineering
institutes, for example) spend about 40 per cent of the time
on special subjects.
EXAMINATIONS
STtroEtsrrs ARE required to take written examinations. In some
subjects preliminary practical exams are taken. Students who
fail at the preliminaries are not allowed to take the term
examinations.
The marks are "Excellent", "Good", "Satisfactory" and
"Unsatisfactory".
Only professors and docents have the right to act as ex-
aminers, while ordinary lecturers and assistants may super-
vise the preliminary examinations.
Every student receives a special examination card listing
his subjects and marks.
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As already noted above, the educational system is made up
of lectures, practical (seminars in the humanities) and
laboratory exercises, consultations, annual assignments and
homework, preparation of graduation theses or projects, and
state examinations.
There are regular lectures, many of them illustrated by
experiments and visual aids, including educational films.
Books and life, theory and practice are organically bound
up in Soviet higher education. As a rule, the lectures are
combined with practical exercises, seminars, or laboratory
practice.
PRACTICAL TRAINING
PaAmicAt. 'TRAINING in production is part and parcel of
the educational system. It covers practical work at the college
as well as direct practice in production.
First- and second-year students are required to undergo
practical training in the workshops and experimental stations
maintained by the institutes, while practical training in pro-
duction is obligatory at the end of the third and fourth years,
and directly before work begins on the graduation theses.
Practical exercises are required in mathematics, theoretical
mechanics, theory of mechanisms and machines, strength of
materials, and other subjects.
In the presence of the lecturer the student carries out one
or another demonstration based on the lecture. After that he
continues to work independently on textbooks and other
materials.
Seminars are arranged mainly in the humanities.
Special attention is devoted to laboratory practice which
reinforces the theoretical knowledge acquired by the students,
acquaints them with laboratory equipment and develops a
taste for experimenting.
The student is given the opportunity not only to perform
experiments the results of which are known to the lecturer in
38
advance, but also to do independent work, to draw up the
plan for the experiment, conduct observations, sum up their
results and draw the necessary conclusions.
Much is being done to improve laboratory work, to acquaint
the students with the latest instruments and methods of re-
search, to get them accustomed to observe the greatest
accuracy when they are conducting experiments.
Practically every college gives students the opportunity of
co-operating in scientific research conducted under the
respective department.
The best works are awarded special medals and prizes;
they are published in the collections of scientific papers issued
by the institute and may be used as a basis for graduation
works and dissertations.
Some of the programmes require the presentation of esti-
mates and charts, or annual projects. These estimates represent
the first experience in the independent application of the
theoretical knowledge acquired by the students.
After completing their studies in one or another subject
and presentation of the required estimates and charts, the
students proceed to work on their annual projects. Their
volume, subjects and nature are defined by the departments,
depending upon the subject.
The student prepares his annual project independently,
the lecturer's role being reduced only to that of consultant
and examiner.
Moreover, consultations must not interfere with the
student's independent work; he must not be given any ready
solutions for his problems, he must not be allowed to copy
existing projects and every encouragement must be given to
the student's initiative.
The students defend their projects at a public hearing.
Annual theses arc presented in the main subjects by
students of the humanities. During the term, or during the
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academic year, the student works on his theses, selecting
one of thc subjects announced by the department.
Lectures on optional subjects may be attended by students
at their choice.
Practical work and laboratory exercises prepare the
students for their future training in production, which they
do under the guidance of a professor, or lecturer.
The students go together with the head of the department
to the place where they are to do their practical training,
the given enterprise appointing the most skilled specialists
to assist them.
Arrangements for practical training are usually made at
the best modern industrial enterprises, at collective farms,
or state farms, offices, and other economic, cultural, educa-
tional and medical establishments.
Things arc organised so that the student can perform
independently, in consecutive order, various jobs ranging from
less to more skilled, up to the duties of a technician and then
of foreman and superintendent.
Students arc acquainted not only with production processes
and technology, but also with industrial organisation and
maintenance.
Final production practice is arranged directly before
work begins on the graduation projects. Twenty to twenty-five
weeks is allocated for the preparation of the graduation thesis.
There is a wide range and variety of subjects to choose
from for the graduation projects at a technical college.
As a rule, the student is required to prepare the design of
a locomotive, diesel engine, motor car, airplane, factory,
shop, mine, electric power plant, and so on, depending upon
the nature of his chosen profession.
The project embraces 10-15 standard sheets of drawings
with a corresponding memorandum and calculations totalling
about I oo-x 20 pages.
Graduation theses required in some of the colleges are brief
40
works summing up the results of independent experiments
and research.
Technical colleges, however, prefer graduation projects
which give students the possibility of improving and com-
pleting their training for a chosen profession.
Graduation projects arc primarily of educational value,
but their subjects arc connected with concrete tasks in indus-
try, transport, construction, communications, and so on, and
they therefore cover urgent problems confronting concrete
enterprises, or even entire industries.
Numerous cases have been known in the last decade of
projects prepared by students having been used for the con-
struction of machines, automatic transfer lines, for building
workshops and factories.
Both graduation projects and graduation theses arc pre-
sented by students before the examination commissions.
Both at the institutes and at the universities students
of the humanities arc required to take state examinations.
The president of the examination commission is, as a rule,
an authority in the specific field, but not associated with
work at the given institute.
After presenting his graduation project, or passing state
examinations (in the humanities), the student receives a
diploma qualifying him for work in his chosen field.
The role of Soviet education is to assist in the building of
a communist society, in shaping the materialist world outlook
of the students, equipping them with a good grounding in the
different fields of knowledge and preparing them for socially
useful work.
Graduates of Soviet higher educational establishments are
expected to understand the fundamental laws governing the
development of nature and society and to apply them
creatively in practice.
They arc largely helped to acquire this understanding
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through the thorough grounding they are given in social and
economic studies.
All students, irrespective of the subjects they are studying,
are required to take courses in the History of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union, political economy and philosophy.
Technical colleges allocate about 8 per cent of their time to
these subjects, and still more time is allocated to these subjects
in colleges specialising in the humanities.
EMPLOYMENT FACILITIES
FOR COLLEGE GRADUATES
IT um already been mentioned that colleges train specialists
in the U.S.S.R. in accordance with the requirements of its
national economic and cultural plans.
Young specialists therefore have no need to worry about
finding employment. They know that the rapidly developing
economy and culture of their country provide unlimited
possibilities for them to make use of their energy and
knowledge.
The question of appointments is usually considered a
few months before the students receive their diplomas.
The director receives lists of vacancies in advance and he
presides at the state commission where the students are
invited to choose their place of work, in the presence of
representatives of the respective enterprises or institutions
where their services are wanted.
In most cases the question is settled without any difficulties.
Sometimes a husband and wife may have graduated from
different institutes. In such cases appointments are found for
both of them in the same city, or rural district.
Sometimes the climate is found medically unsuitable in a
district to which a graduate's appointment would take him.
Problems such as these are settled by the director offering
alternative employment; and if that offers no way out, the
graduate can make his own arrangements.
42
Such cases, of course, are exceptions.
Before starting work, all graduates are given a month's
holiday and paid their final stipend. Specialists whose appoint-
ments entail taking up a different place of residence arc paid
by the management of the factory (or institution) travelling
expenses (for himself and his family) and the cost of trans-
porting baggage.
WORKERS AT COLLEGE
THERE ARE some people who for one reason or another are
unable to attend college in the daytime. As a rule, these arc
family people who do not wish to give up their job. It would
be unfair if such people had no chance to acquire a college
education.
Forty-three per cent of the students in the U.S.S.R. attend
college in the evening, or take college correspondence courses.
There is a whole system of evening colleges and special insti-
tutes and faculties offering college correspondence courses.
The U.S.S.R. Law Correspondence Institute, for example,
has 12,820 students; it offers a five-year course in law based on
the same standards of education and according the same
privileges as the law faculties of the universities.
This institute has branches in different parts of the country.
Its students are government and local council employees,
people's assessors and other people requiring a legal education.
Another college of this kind is the U.S.S.R. Polytcchnical
Institute (with 32,700 students) which offers correspondence
courses in chemical engineering, mining, metallurgy, and so
on. It has branches and consultation centres in 31 cities, some
of them remotely situated, such as Magadan.
Then there is the U.S.S.R. Institute of Economics (with
9,434 students) which offers correspondence courses in indus-
trial or agricultural management, statistics and so on. This
school, too, has branches in many cities.
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Correspondence courses are offered also by the faculties
and departments of thc regular institutes and universities.
Many colleges provide facilities for all forms of education;
daytime attendance, evening courses (attended by working
students who live in the city where the institute has its seat)
and correspondence courses, which may be taken by people
who reside in different parts of the country and report only
for the examinations.
To enable worker-students to take advantage of these
opportunities for a college education, the state gives them a
number of privileges.
Just as in the day colleges, no charges are made for tuition
or for any other service extended to those taking college
correspondence courses. All expenses are borne by the state.
Libraries supply all the necessary textbooks free of charge.
And no charge is made for examinations.
Correspondence students who make good progress in their
subjects arc legally entitled to extra time off work with full
pay (of no less than one month) for taking their examinations.
Graduating students receive a special leave of four months
(receiving a state stipend for the duration of this leave) for
preparing and presenting their graduation theses. Furthermore,
travelling expenses required for reaching the place where
examinations are held are paid by the enterprise or institution
where these students are employed.
The effectiveness of this state aid may be judged by the
fact that correspondence courses were completed and gradua-
tion projects or theses presented in 1957 by 3,400 lawyers,
5,700 economists, 5,800 engineers and thousands of other
young specialists.
Facilities for a college education through attending even-
ing school or through correspondence courses will be still
greater in the coming period.
44
FACULTY MEMBERS
CONSIDERABLE ATrEwrioN has always been paid in the Soviet
Union to the training of college professors and lecturers.
This training is accomplished mainly through the post-
graduate courses at universities, institutes and research
institutions.
The best college graduates (or college-trained specialists
with some experience in production) are given the opportunity
for post-graduate studies (with a three-year course). After
completing this course, post-graduates present their theses for
an M.Sc. degree.
Faculty members have also been trained under the re-
spective departments from amongst the most capable assist-
ants who received their M.Sc. degrees after presenting
dissertations.
A uniform system of post-graduate training was adopted
in 1934. The two scientific degrees conferred arc the M.Sc.
and D.Sc. The first qualifies its holder for lecturing hi a
college as an assistant, or docent, and the second for a profes-
sorship.
A college-trained specialist desiring to qualify for an
M.Sc. degree must take examinations in three or four subjects
in accordance with the special programmes adopted in the
respective college or scientific institute.
Next, he must, independently or under the guidance of a
professor, conduct scientific research which would lead to new
discoveries, and after these results are published defend his
scientific paper at a public hearing before an academic council
(of a college or scientific institution) which has the right to
confer an M.Sc. degree.
An entirely independent scientific work with new results
and treatment of a major scientific problem with scientific
generalisations, is required for a D.Sc. degree. After the
results of his work are published, the author defends it at
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awl
a public hearing before an academic council which has the
right to confer D.Sc. degrees.
The decision of the council is based on a vote taken by
secret ballot.
The decision to confer an M.Sc. or D.Sc. degree is subject
to confirmation by the Supreme Qualification Commission
of the Ministry of Higher Education of the U.S.S.R.
Statistical records of the Supreme Qualification Com-
mission covering a period of 20 years (1937-57), show that
too,000 dissertations were submitted in the period in question
for an M.Sc. degree and more than 12,000 for a D.Sc. degree.
The colleges train scientists and lecturers not only for their
own faculties, but also for various research institutions, for the
institutes of the Academies of Sciences, and so on.
More than 12,000 young people are taking post-graduate
courses in colleges at present. Young scientists graduate at
the rate of 3,500 annually.
How well the facilities for post-graduate studies and
research have been extended may be judged by the fact that
the number of scientific workers has grown to more than
double the 1950 figure.
About 240,000 people are employed as scientific workers or
faculty members today; they include more than 50,000
i'cientists with D.Sc. degrees and about 100,000 with M.Sc.
degrees.
More than 120,000 lecturers are employed in the colleges
and institutes. They include more than 5,500 scientists with
D.Sc. degrees and more than 45,000 with M.Sc. degrees.
There are highly authoritative scientists in every field of
knowledge capable of solving the most difficult problems
advanced by science and technology today and of ensuring
the training of specialists with standards of knowledge on a
level with the latest achievements of science and engineering.
The Soviet Government does everything to encourage the
training of scientific workers; it is enough to mention that high
46
stipends arc paid to post-graduate students, and that lecturers
or research workers who are doing post-graduate scientific
work in preparation for M.Sc. or D.Sc. degrees are given a paid
leave lasting up to three months.
Scientific degrees entitle specialists employed in research
institutions, colleges, or industry, to higher salaries.
Plans for training scientific workers are drawn up in accord-
ance with the requirements of the leading branches of indus-
try and culture, and, especially, in such branches of knowledge
as physics, mathematics, biochemistry, biophysics, aero-
dynamics, computing machines, radio engineering, elec-
tronics, semiconductors, and other new divisions of science
and technology.
Those with at least two years' practical experience in
their particular field and with abilities and a leaning for
scientific research are admitted to post-graduate studies. In
exceptional cases opportunities for post-graduate studies in
some theoretical subjects are given to young people directly
after graduation.
Facilities for post-graduate studies arc available in the
scientific institutions and colleges which have the necessary
scientific personnel for giving guidance to post-graduate
students and the necessary equipment for experimental work.
The themes of the dissertations must be connected with the
solution of the most urgent scientific and practical problems.
All this helps to provide additional personnel for university
and college faculties. There is, however, still much to be done
in this respect.
The point is that in the last few years college education has
been developing much faster than the training of faculty
members, with the result that 5,000-6,000 more professors
are required in order to raise the standards of education and
to widen the scale of scientific research in the colleges.
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SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
PERHAPS THE main feature distinguishing higher education
from all other forms of education lies in its historic links
with the development of science.
College instructors have always been and are bound to be
direct contributors to scientific progress, scientists who can
acquaint students not only with the results achieved by other
scientists in a given field of knowledge, but also with the results
of their own investigations.
Because of this one can expect college-trained specialists
to be up to the level achieved by modern science and en-
gineering.
Scientific research is conducted in Soviet colleges on a large
scale. Faculty members have been responsible for some of the
most important discoveries in science.
It is enough to mention Mendeleycv's contributions to
chemistry, or Zhukovslcy's work in aerodynamics. It was as
college faculty members that their most important scientific
work was accomplished.
Faculty members in Soviet colleges are developing the
finest traditions of the great Russian scientists.
WNew branches of knowledge developed of late are being
nergetically cultivated in college; this applies to nuclear
- physics, atomic crystallo-physics, chemistry of chain reactions,
biogcochemistry, machine mathematics, electronics, the theory
and so on.
of semiconductors, automatic engineering, remote control,
That does not mean, of course, that colleges are trying to
monopolise science. There is a vast number of scientific insti-
tutions in the U.S.S.R. It is enough to refer to the Academy of
Sciences of the U.S.S.R. with its more than 3,00o research
institutes, special institutes conducting research in specific
and so on.
branches of production, agricultural research institutes,
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?
A student and
instructor in Mos-
cow University's
laboratory of
photogrammehy.
This stereo-
loParlintug
naaliklera photographsinP ah pis s' ltd
from
.1 meeting of the
council of the
oudents' scientific
society, at Lam
State University
ft,
?
CS
t.3
???.1
fe'r
e`rtti
?
?
-
1
sfae?.
.1
?"-??
-
4grire
C.
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St
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EXAMS:
No time to lose
when exams draw
near! Volodra
Mtronor, of Mos-
cow University, Is
catching up at
meal-times. Below,
two third-year
students remember
that holidays
follow exams?
aid prepare for
both together!
Tutor and research
worker watch the
tapping of molten
metal at the Iron and
Steel Institute,
Stalinsk, Siberia
Professor Pout/as
Brazdvunas and
students in the semi-
conductors laboratom
of liapstikas State
University, Vilnius.
Lithuania
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Education
TRAINING of SPECIALISTS
(in thousands, gradua-
ting from Universities 23
and institutes)
HIGHER EDUCATION
IN THE SOVIET
SEVEN-TEAR PLAN
The diagram on the left shows the
achievements in higher education durmg
the previous planning period compared
with the training programme now
embarked upon.
Students at the Iron and Steel Institute,
Stalinsk, working with electronic micro-
scopes
Together with these institutions, colleges conduct extensive
research in various fields of knowledge.
Numerous examples could be cited to show the great scope
of scientific work accomplished by college professors. Soviet
scientists have done much for the conquest of the most power-
ful forces of nature; they stand in the forefront of the develop-
ment of world science and engineering in some of the leading
and most important fields.
Great headway has been made in the U.S.S.R. in the peace-
ful uses of atomic energy. Its plan for the construction of atomic
power plants is being successfully carried out.
Steps arc being taken to acquire greater control of atomic
and nuclear energy. The U.S.S.R. has built the world's most
powerful accelerator of charged particles, the proton synchro-
tron; it is building the world's first solar electric power plant
and is completing the world's first atom-powered icebreaker.
Extensive use has been made of tracer atoms as an impor-
tant means of investigation and control of production processes
in chemistry, mining, agriculture, in medical theory and
practice for the purpose of combating diseases.
Soviet scientists, engineers and designers have remarkable
achievements to their credit in rocketry. The TU-1o4,
TU-114 and TU-i i4A are among the latest achievements
in fast aircraft.
Last, but not least, the whole world knows about the Soviet
sputniks and the Soviet cosmic rocket which has become the
first man-made planet of the solar system. This is a most
outstanding contribution to the scientific and engineering
progress of all mankind which has long cherished the dream
of conquering outer space.
The sputniks and the first artificial planet of the solar system
represent one of the results of the Russian system of education
?this is the general conclusion of world public opinion.
Direct participation of faculty members in scientific re-
search enables them to bring standards of education up
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to the requirements of modern science and engineering, to
keep well abreast of the latest developments in science and
ensure the constant training of new scientific personnel.
Everything is done to persuade the senior students (the best
and most talented, of course) to co-operate in scientific
research.
Just as an athletic coach selects the most promising athletes
to train for competitions, so a professor selects future scientists
from amongst the most talented and successful students,
cultivating in them a taste for scientific research and helping
them to scale, step by step, the difficult and thorny path of
science.
INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS
CoNrAcTs wrru progressive scientific trends and scientists in
other countries have always been maintained by Soviet higher
educational establishments. They are expressed in the ex-
-.'.:.-ch-sange of books, textbooks and other materials; exchanging
gentific experience and methods of education by corn-
,- nussioning lectures to colleges in other countries for a long
period of time, and through exchanges of visits and of students.
More than a hundred Soviet colleges, including universities,
polytechnical, engineering, mining and agricultural institutes,
are exchanging scientific works, textbooks, manuals and visual
aids, collections of minerals, seeds and other materials. A
voluminous correspondence is maintained on scientific and
pedagogical questions.
The scientific library of Moscow State University exchanges
books with more than 270 cultural institutions in 54 countries.
A regular correspondence is maintained between the
botanical garden of the University and more than roo insti-
tutions in 25 countries.
Professors and other faculty members of Soviet colleges
have attended international congresses in philosophy, history,
theoretical and applied chemistry, conferences on the peaceful
5o
uses of atomic energy and have visited many countries as
members of Soviet cultural and scientific delegations.
Soviet scientists have read complete courses of lectures,
as wdl as separate lectures in mathematics, physics, history,
economics, jurisprudence and other subjects in China, Britain,
France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Den-
mark, Finland, Switzerland, India, Turkey and other
countries.
And Soviet students have heard in their colleges lectures
by scientists from China, Britain, Germany, France, Finland,
Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania, Sweden, Den-
mark and India.
Foreign scientists have paid visits to Moscow, Leningrad
and other Soviet cities. The universities of Moscow, Lenin-
grad, Kazan, Tomsk, Tartu and Kiev have now invited
eminent foreign scientists to lecture to their students.
More than 13,000 students and post-graduates from 40
countries are attending colleges in the Soviet Union at
present. As a rule, they study together with the Soviet
students, in the Russian language, which they manage to
learn quite quickly. The foreign students arc also paid
stipends. After graduating they return to their own countries.
Foreign students are admitted to Soviet colleges in accord-
ance with special agreements between the Government of
the Soviet Union and the governments of the respective
countries.
In some cases they are sent to Soviet colleges under a
reciprocal arrangement, in other cases this arrangement is
extended as a privilege to students from the under-developed
countries, the Soviet Government allocating special stipends
for these students.
Soviet students and post-graduates arc also given oppor-
tunities for studying in foreign colleges. Soviet colleges are
now helping to provide equipment for a number of colleges
in India, Burma and Afghanistan.
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.k
,-
An important example of the kind of reciprocal arrange-
ment the Soviet Union is developing is the programme
of cultural, educational, scientific and technical exchanges
recently agreed upon between the United Kingdom and the
U.S.S.R.
Under this agreement 12 professors from each side will visit
corresponding universities in the next 12 months to deliver
lectures and meet students; there will be a similar exchange
of four professors, instructors or lecturers from technical
institutes of higher education in each country; an exchange
of delegations between the universities of London and Lenin-
grad to discuss university administration, teaching and re-
search; an exchange of 20 post-graduate students from each
side during the 1959-60 academic year; an exchange of 25
students at teachers' training colleges to improve their know-
ledge of the English and Russian languages and to become
acquainted with the life and culture of their respective
countries; a further exchange of Russian-language teachers
from Britain and English-language teachers from the U.S.S.R.;
_and the continuation and expansion of exchanges of educa-
tional materials.
,This agreement shows the possibilities which exist for still
further co-operation and contact between the higher educa-
tional institutions of different countries.
By lending a hand to such developments Soviet colleges
are making a valuable contribution to the building of improved
relations between peoples, thus assisting to safeguard world
peace.
CONCLUSION
TECHNICAL AND cultural progress creates a demand for in-
creasingly skilled young specialists. In order to meet this
demand, the standards of education and training have also
been raised in Soviet colleges. Much has been done in the last
few years to equip the young specialists with a wider store of
52
_
r
knowledge so that their education could be up to the require-
ments of scientific and technical progress.
A thorough grounding in the sciences can be acquired
by the young specialists only by taking a direct part in
scientific research at college. That is why every encourage-
ment is given to scientific research in the U.S.S.R. It is our
opinion that only a scientist who makes his own contribution
to the progress of science has the moral right to lecture at a
university or institute.
I should not like to create among my foreign readers the
impression that all the problems of higher education have
already been settled in the U.S.S.R.
The coming seven years will see still greater progress
made in socialist culture and education and in the cultural
development of the people. Exceptional importance is there-
fore attached to questions connected with the communist
education of the people, especially of the growing generation.
Great as it is, the progress made in the U.S.S.R. in public
education, in the education of specialists for all branches of
the national economy and culture, is inadequate to keep pace
with communist construction, and the system of education
still has serious shortcomings to overcome.
The main shortcoming is expressed in a certain aloofness
from life, in the inadequate practical training of the school
graduates. The reorganisation of education taking place at
present is intended to make our secondary and special schools
and colleges a more effective factor in the constructive work
of the Soviet people.
The main purpose is to bring about constant improvements
in the educational process in the universities and institutes,
to raise the professional standards of the young specialists.
Our specialists must assimilate the experience of world science
and engineering.
Practical training must be improved. What we want is to
bring college education closer to practice, to life, and we are
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persistently seeking better forms of organisation, ways of
improving scientific research in the colleges.
All these questions are at present receiving special attention
from our state and from the public as a whole. The countrywide
discussion of these problems has shown that the programme
for the development of education drawn up by the Central
Committee of the C.P.S.U. and the Council of Ministers of the
U.S.S.R. is of exceptional value for the successful solution of
the problems connected with the building of corrununist
society.
This programme has found its expression in the special law
adopted for the purpose of strengthening the ties between
education and life, for the purpose of furthering the progress
of public education in the U.S.S.R. This law was passed by the
Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. by unanimous vote (in
December 1958).
The main tasks of the colleges are:
Education of highly skilled specialists brought up in
the spirit of Marxist-Leninist teachings and equipped
with the knowledge of the latest achievements of science
and engineering at home and abroad and with practical
skill, and capable not only of making the most rational
use of modern technique, but also of creating the tech-
nique of the future;
Promotion of scientific research which could assist in
the building of communism;
Training of scientists and teachers;
Advanced training of specialists employed in various
branches of the national economy, culture and education;
Dissemination of scientific and political knowledge
among the working people.
In order to further the progress of college education, the
existing system of day and evening colleges and college corre-
spondence courses will be supplemented by a fourth type of
school, the factory college.
54
Education in the new institutes will take the following two
forms:
First, theoretical studies at the college, and practical
training in the factory, which thus becomes as it were a
branch of the institute.
Second, a factory, or big shop, is to be turned over
entirely to the institute, for combining study with pro-
ductive work.
The second type will be most suitable for the agricultural
institutes which will, in fact, be converted into important state
farm colleges.
Concrete forms of education will vary in all these four
types of college, depending upon their nature. What they
will all have in common is the closest possible combination of
theoretical training with direct work in the factories, in agri-
culture, in scientific research institutions; cultural institutions,
and so on.
Work in colleges will be reorganised so as to ensure the
education of a new type of specialist who will be able to rise
to the future requirements of science, engineering and pro-
duction.
The modern specialist must possess a high level of practical
skill combined with deep theoretical knowledge in his specific
field; he must be thoroughly acquainted with practice in his
field of production. And the system of college education is
being reorganised at present to meet these requirements.
What arc the concrete forms proposed for the development
of higher education in the U.S.S.R.?
To begin with, attendance of. evening colleges and studies
by correspondence will be greatly encouraged, for these forms
afford the greatest possibilities for combining theoretical and
practical training.
Nine hundred and fifty thousand out of a total of 2,150,000
students are attending evening college or taking college cone-
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spondence courses. The number of these students will be
growing steadily in the years to come.
In view of the fact that these groups are composed of worker
students with experience and skill in their specific fields, chief
attention will be devoted to equipping them with the most
thorough theoretical background.
Consequently, in reorganising education in evening colleges
and correspondence courses chief stress will be laid on im-
provements in the methods of teaching in order to raise
theoretical standards and make it easier for students to
assimilate the required knowledge.
In their last years students will be released from work and
given the opportunity to concentrate their attention entirely
on their studies, research and designing.
Steps have been taken to promote the widest possible use of
films, radio and television, to provide all worker students
with the necessary textbooks, manuals and guides, and records
of lectures. In addition to the existing publishing and printing
facilities at the disposal of the colleges we are planning to set
up a big publishing house in order to meet the full demand
for textbooks and other literature required by the colleges in
-----20? millions of copies.
.. The faculties of the evening colleges and correspondence
courses will be reinforced with the most authoritative profes-
sors and lecturers and provided with greater facilities; evening
colleges and faculties, as well as the correspondence extensions
will be able to use the premises and facilities of the day colleges
and of the leading industrial and agricultural enterprises.
Speaking of education through college correspondence
courscs, I should like to note a very important new function
of the colleges which this very system will be called upon to
perform: advanced training of working specialists. Colleges
will thus be solving not only the problem of training new
specialists for the national economy and culture, but also the
problem of advanced training and refresher courses for the
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older specialists and for the workers and other employees.
Colleges will provide an opportunity to study specific sub-
jects, or all the subjects in a given field included in the college
programmes, to all citizens who desire to do so, and who possess
the necessary preliminary education.
Faculties for advanced training will be instituted in a num-
ber of colleges.
An important role will also be played by the college corre-
spondence courses and evening schools of the universities
in the education of specialists in the humanities.
Education there will be for practical workers whose occupa-
tion requires a knowledge of the humanities, and for those
who wish to improve their general scientific and cultural
background.
This form of education will afford the opportunity of study-
ing specific subjects, or a course of inter-connected subjects
(history, or jurisprudence, for example), and to take examina-
tions in these subjects, or to take a complete course. Such
students may terminate their studies at any stage.
With their greater facilities, the evening colleges and college
correspondence courses will be able to provide all citizens with
the opportunity of a college or university education, or of
studying and graduating from another college.
This form of education has a great future. Greater progress
and a higher productivity of labour will lead to the gradual
reduction of the working day. The seven-year plan, as a matter
of fact, contains concrete provisions for a reduction of the
working day and working week, namely, for a 35-hour week
with two free days. This will allow more leisure for studying.
I have already mentioned that the combination of work
and study is the essence of the current reorganisation of the
higher school. Naturally, the concrete forms of this combina-
tion will vary, depending upon different circumstances.
In some fields, where it is necessary to equip the students
with knowledge of difficult theoretical subjects to begin with
57
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=di to ear &...= fix =cm11.7' e laboratory practice, first,
second and even t..6-year students will devote themselves
ez.4.-dy to their /*?-cges It is proposal to follow this up by a
keg pcied cf practice; regular work for a year /Erectly in
Eicteea, Etherawrier, designing offices, or research institu-
does,.
lkst of the day colleges (engineering, agriailtnral, and
so cc), wall combrn* e themetical stoles from the very begin-
work in production which, as a rule, will correspond
to the .ear=e tithe college.
It is aho proposed that young people who have had no
pracdetbl ccp=icace before catering college should study during
the E= two years in all evening college, or through college
correspord=ce courses- After these two years, the students
rzay,B-they wish to, remain in the evening college, or continue
tath.' studEes throazh correspondence courses, or transfer to
a ea7 college.
In agicultura colleges, and in other colleges connected
s7h br=thes of prcxhiction which depend upon the seasons,
thesccore,Ha Cl theoretical and practical training will also
..?...cad up= these stasons. For example, students at agri-
ittmal colleges could study in the winter and do their
practical =mining on farms in the summer.
Educational plans will be drawn up so as to enable the
worker student to devote his attention in the period when he
is occupied in production to subjects which could be studied
independently, leaving the more difficult subjects for the third
and subsequ= years.
We are proposing to make arrangements so as to enable
students of the humanities (law, economics, etc.) without
precious practical ccperience to combine work with studies
during the fiat year or first and second years.
In dealing with applicants, medical colleges will give priority
to trained nurses and other people with experience in medical
and prophylactic services. Theoretical studies will be corn-
58
or
bined from the very outset with practice in medical and
health services.
Those with a secondary medical schooling and with practical
experience in this field will be able to attend a medical college
without giving up their work.
It is impossible to raise a specialist's skill without raising
his standards of theoretical knowledge. It is therefore natural
that in the process of reorganising higher education special
attention should be paid to the improvement of the theoretical
background of the specialists.
A college-trained specialist must possess a deep knowledge
of theory. National economic progress creates a constantly
greater demand for advanced methods of work, and new
technological processes. This cannot be achieved without
advanced theoretical thought. Improved theoretical training
of specialists remains one of our main tasks.
Our professors and other faculty members will be able to
ensure the highest level of theoretical education by studying
and summing up the achievements of science and engineering
at home and abroad, by furthering scientific research and
enlisting the students' co-operation in this work.
Special attention will be paid by Soviet colleges to equipping
specialists with higher standards of knowledge in mathematics,
physics, chemistry, mechanics, electrical engineering, instru-
ment building and in other branches of knowledge which arc
connected directly with the development of science and
engineering, so that our country can continue to occupy a
leading place in all these fields.
College-trained specialists in these fields must be thoroughly
versed in the latest achievements of science; they must be able
to understand the future prospects of scientific thought and
to acquire command of modern methods of experimenting.
These specialists arc indispensable to scientific institutions
and to modern industrial and other enterprises.
Life itself dictates the need for the wider usc of such
59
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J.
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specialists in factory and shop laboratories, designing offices,
experimental farms and other establishments.
Practice has shown that any research institution and design-
ing office must have on its staff specialists with a good general
grounding in theory as well as designing engineers and tech-
nologists. Only this combination can ensure the successful
solution of fundamentally new problems.
All that I have said shows the steady progress of higher
ing.
education and the growing opportunities for a college train-
In the coining seven years ('959-65), graduating college..
trained specialists will increase by almost 50 per cent over the
earlier seven years, from 1,700,000 to 2,300,000, and graduat-
ing engineers for industry, transport and construction will be
almost doubled.
It is enough to mention that diplomas will be issued to
engineers in the coming seven years at the rate of more than
100,000 a year.
It is evident that higher education in the U.S.S.R. has
entered a new stage of development, meeting the fundamental
interests of the people.
..At the same time, the workers employed in the higher
Licational services of the Soviet Union are carefully studying
_.;,the, experience of college education in other countries, and
we are always prepared to utilise the achievements of our
foreign colleagues.
6o
Other Thies include:
Great Plan of the Soviet Union: Target Figures and
Resolution of the new Seven-Year Plan
Proposals to Reform Soviet Education
Bringing Soviet Schools Still Closer to Life
Soviet Sputniks (I, II and HI)
Soviet Planet Into Space (Cosmic Rocket)
Soviet Union in Facts and Figures
Soviet Union in Facts and Figures?Library Edition
The U.S.S.R?A Hundred Questions Answered
Social Security in the U.S.S.R.
9d.
3d.
4d.
Is. 6d.
is. Od.
Ss. Od.
7s. 6d.
is. 6d.
6d.
From Bookshops and Newsagents, or direct from:
SOVIET BOOKLETS, 3 Rosary Gardens, London, S.W.7
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SOVIET
WEEKLY
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I
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Published by Soviet Booklets.
3 Rotary Gardens, London, S.W.7
and ;dried by Farleigh Press Ltd. (1. U. all depts.).
Beechwood Rite, Watford, Herts.
IMPRESSIVE, WIDESPREAD, RAPID
"An educational development so impressive, so widespread
and so rapid must have required a tremendous effort. It
could have come about only if the leaders of the new Russia
had realised from the beginning the importance of education
for the realisation of their national aims and if they had
been supported in this regard by the people throughout the
length and breadth of the Soviet Union. . . ."
(Education in the Soviet Union: A Report of a Study Tour.
A Joint Report Submitted to the Educational Interchange
Council and Representative Executive Committees. Pub-
lished by the Educational Interchange Council (Inc.),
London, 1956.)
ASTONISHED?AND SOBERED
"We were simply not prepared for the degree to which
the U.S.S.R. as a nation is committed to education as a
means of national advancement. . . . Our major reaction
therefore is one of astonishment?and I choose the word
carefully?at the extent to which this seems to have been
accomplished. . . . Ten American educators came away
sobered by what they saw. . . ."
(Dr. Lawrence G. Derthick, Commissioner of Education
in the United States Department of Health, Education
and Welfare, speaking at the National Press Club in
Washington, June 13, 1958, following a visit of ten
United States educationists to the Soviet Union in
May, 1958.)
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eIU it,dlanzna and liarhrTla :larking on their graduation project at the
tooki Institute 01 I I nter I rati,part ppont (.otyr Baru Koznet.as on a tait-
:Ante r ?,,orooknee ',one at II oi I Ta rrtal f here Tonkin:: a ?Iii,11 "1 rhr"ncal
?
":??
of the
1
Econom
Deve:opment
of the U SS R
from
19S9 to 1965
Abridged Version
With Map
and Thirty Diagrams
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TARGET FIGURES
for the
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
OF THE U.S.S.R.
from 1959 to 1965
RESOLUTION
of the
, 21st CONGRESS of the
,COMMUNIST PARTY
of the
SOVIET UNION
February 5th, 1959
Soviet Booklet No. 49
London, May, 1959
STAT
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CONTENTS
Page
Target Figures for the Economic Development of the U.S.S.R.
from 1959 to 1965 .. .. ? ? ? ? ? ? 5
1. Some Results of Economic and Cultural Developments in
the U.S.S.R. .. ? ? ? ? .. .. .. 8
2. Basic Tasks in the Development of the National Economy
of the U.S.S.R. for 1959-1965 .. .. 12
Development of Socialist Industry ? ? 13
Development of Socialist Agriculture 18
Development of Transport and Communications .. . ? 21
Capital Investments in Economy and Capital Construction 21
3. Distribution of the Productive Forces and the Economic
Development of the Union Republics .. .. 25
4. Increase in the Well-Being of the Soviet People .. .. 31
5. Questions of Communist Upbringing, Public Education, the
Development of Science and Culture .. .. .. .. 36
6. International Significance of the Seven-Year Plan for the
Development of the National Economy of the U.S.S.R. .. 38
7. The Communist Party?the Leading and Organising Force
of the Soviet People in the Struggle for the Victory of
Communism ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . ? . 40
Resolution of the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union on N. S. Khrushchov's Report on the Target
Figures for the Economic Development of the U.S.S.R. from
1959 to 1965 .. .. ? ? .. ? ? ? ? .. .. 43
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TARGET FIGURES FOR THE ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT OF THE USSR FROM 1959
TO 1965
(The Seven-Year Plan was approved unanimously by the
21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union on February 5, 1959. Published below is an
abridged version of this document.)
RALLIED around their Communist
.Party, the Soviet people have reached
summits that are so high, and have ac-
complished transformations that are so
stupendous, that our country is now able
to enter a new and most important period
of its development?the period of the
comprehensive building of communist
society. The key tasks of this period
will be the establishment of the material
and technical basis for communism, the
further consolidation of our country's
economic and defensive might and, at
the same time, the ever fuller satisfaction
of the growing material and spiritual re-
quirements of the Soviet people. This
will be the decisive ? phase in the com-
petition with the capitalist world, when
the historic task of overtaking and sur-
passing the most highly developed
capitalist countries in output per head
of the population must be accomplished
in practice. The Communist Party and
all the Soviet people are fully convinced
that this goal will be successfully
achieved.
In order to accomplish in the shortest
Possible space of time the historic tasks
confronting our country, the Central
Committee of the C.P.S.U. and the
U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers instruc-
ted the State Planning Committee of the
U.SS.R. to work out, on the basis of
the decisions of the Twentieth Party Con-
gress and subsequent decisions of the
Party and government, a draft of the
target figures for the country's economic
development from 1959 to 1965 in line
with the programme for the development
5
of the Soviet Union's productive force'
which the Communist Party has mapped
out for the next fifteen years and which
was presented at the Anniversary Session
of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet on No-
vember 6th, 1957.
A wide discussion of the thesis of N.
S. Khrushchov's report to the Twenty-
First Congress of the C.P.S.U.: "Target
Figures tor the Economic Development
of the U.S.S.R. from 1959 to 1965" took
place prior to the Congress. In the course
of the country-wide discussion before the
Congress over 968,000 meetings were
held at industrial establishments and
construction sites, at collective farms and
state farms, in scientific and educational
institutions, units of the Army and Navy
and in governmental offices. These meet-
ings were attended by more than 70
million people, with 4,672,000 indi-
viduals making proposals, suggesting
amendments and speaking at these meet-
ings. Meetings of working people, Party
conferences and Congresses unanimously
approved the draft target figures.
The target figures for the economic de-
velopment of the U.S.S.R. from 1959 to
1965, on instructions of the Central Com-
mittee of the C.P.S.U. and the U.S.S.R.
Council of Ministers were elaborated by
industrial establishments, economic
councils, the State Planning Committees
and the Council of Ministers of the
Union Republics, ministries, depart-
ments, the Academy of Sciences, and
other scientific institutions and the
U.SS.R. State Planning Committee, with
the active participation of Party, trade
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utacc 1124. 13=1 ?12===441. ivoz. Irra, A
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GROWTH OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION
IN THE USSR
(1913 shown as I)
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1. Some Results of Economic
the USSR.
li A S a result of the industrialisation of
the country, of the collectivisation of
agriculture, of the liquidation of the ex-
ploiting classes, and of the cultural
revolution, socialism has triumphed in
the Soviet Union and the gradual transi-
tion to communism is being successfully
carried out.
The world's first socialist state was
built in exceptionally grim conditions.
International imperialism tried more than
once, by force of arms, to prevent the
building of socialism in the U.S.S.R. Of
the forty-one years of Soviet government,
the Soviet people have been able to de-
vote only slightly more than half to
peaceful pursuits, because some twenty
years have been lost owing to wars and
the subsequent periods spent in restor-
ing a ravaged economy. The great
vitality of the Soviet system has been
manifested in a striking way in the fact
that the Soviet people have built up a
powerful and prosperous socialist eco-
nomy, surmounting all the difficulties and
obstacles In their path.
The Soviet Union now possesses a
powerful industry, transport and highly
mechanised socialist agriculture?all of
them developed in an all-round way. The
country's social wealth and its national
income are growing year by year. Since
the birth of Soviet government, the
national income, the growth of which ex-
presses the general advance of. the
economy and of the people's standard of
living, has increased fifteen-fold on a
per capita basis. The material and cul-
tural standards of the working people of
town and countryside are steadily rising.
The most important result?the out-
come of the Soviet people's heroic
struggle and labour?is that they have
built up a new society, a society of
socialism, and a new political system
corresponding to it?the Soviet
socialist state. With the establishment
ami development of socialist society
nod the Soviet state system, there have
arisen new and hitherto unknown laws
of social development and new stan-
dards in the relationships between
human beings.
and Cultural Developments in
8
The supreme goal of socialism, its
mighty motive force, is the steady sails-
faction of the rising requirements of the
whole of society and the growth of the
material well-being of the working
people.
Socialist society has no place for such
things as business competition, anarchy
of production, unemployment and eco-
nomic crisis. In socialist society other
economic laws have come into being
and are operating. They are: the balanced
and proportionate development of the
national economy, and the uninterrupted
and rapid growth of production, knowing
no slumps or crises. This makes it pos-
sible to plan the economy, to determine
the trend of its development, the con-
tinual increase of eolumes of output and
the rational distribution of productive
forces, and to carry out wide-scale
specialisation and co-operation along
socialist lines.
Socialism has engendered not only new
economic laws, but also new social re-
lationships. On the basis of socialist
public ownership there have arisen
mutual assistance %thl co-operation in the
common labour of the free and equal
members of society, who are deeply inter-
ested in economic and cultural develop-
ment and who realise that this depends
entirely on the results of their labour
In the conditions of socialism, of the
Soviet state system, there have appeared
and developed new social relationships,
characteristic of genuine democracy. The
unbreakable alliance between the work-
ing class and the peasantry?that bedrock
foundation of the Soviet state?has be-
come still firmer, and the fraternal
friendship of the free and independent
peoples of the Soviet Union has grown
stronger.
In the years of Soviet power, the work-
ing people of the U.S.S.R. have made
good Russia's century-long lag in industry
and have built up a mighty industry -en-
suring the economic and political inde-
pendence of the Soviet state. Today, as
regards industrial output, the U.S.S.R
holds first place in Europe and second
place in the world.
In 1958 y..e produced about 55 million
tons (these are metric tons. One metric
ton=2,204.6 lb.) of steel and extracted
113 million tons of oil. This means that
today more steel and more oil are being
produced in a month than in the whole
of 1913. The output of electricity in
1958 reached 233,000 million kilowatt-
hours. We are now generating as much
electricity every three days as tsarist
Russia did in the space of a whole year.
Today the U.S.S.R. is second in the
world for the volume of chemical output.
The successes achieved in the advance-
ment of the engineering industry are par-
ticularly great. Whereas in 1913 the
country produced turbines whose total
capacity amounted to 6,000 kilowatts, in
1958 the total capacity of the turbines
produced was some 6.6 million kilowatts.
In 1913 the country produced only 1,500
metal-cutting machine-tools, but in 1958
at has turned out more than 138,000. At
the present time industry in the U.SS R
is producing 220,000 tractors a year,
more than 10,000 excavators, and more
than half a million motor vehicles.
The whole of the U.S.S.R.'s heavy in-
dustry is developing at an accelerated
pace: in 1958 output of the means of pro-
duction was more than five times as great
as in 1940.
The high rate of development in heavy
industry and the growth of agricultural
production have laid a firm foundation
for bringing about the advance of all
branches of the light and food industries.
In 1958 the output of consumer goods
was nearly fourteen times greater than in
1913. This includes a more than forty-
five-fold increase in articles intended for
cultural and household purposes. Even
though during the Great Patriotic War
some branches of the light and food in-
dustries were thrown back many years
as regards their production levels, 170
per cent more consumer goods art now
being produced than in 1940.
Socialist industry has won great suc-
cesses because its development is based
on the latest scientific and technical
achievements, on the increasing creative
initiative and selfless endeavour of the
factory workers, scientists, engineers and
technicians.
A most important factor speeding up
9
ELECTRIC POWER
OUTPUT
in the USSR
In thousand million
kilowatt-hours
500-520
economic development was the reorgani-
sation of the management of industry
and construction. The short space of time
in which the economic councils have
been working has revealed the tremen-
dous advantages of the new form of in-
dustrial management. The rate of growth
of industrial output has increased; in-
ternal production reserves are being used
to better advantage; the working class
and the engineering and technical person-
nel are displaying more initiative and
activity.
Great successes have been achieved in
the further strengthening of the collective
farm system and in the development of
agricultural production since the plenary
meeting of the C.P.S.U. Central Com-
mittee held in September 1953. The
major economic task of bringing into
cultivation 36 million hectares* of virgin
and long-fallow land was carried out in
a short space of time. In this way there
was created a big granary in the East
and also the conditions for the zonal
specialisation of agricultural production
in the country. The total area under
? One hectare=2.47 acres,
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crops in the Soviet Union has exceeded
195 million hectares.
In 1958, as compared with 1953, the
output of meat (taking into account the
increase in the herd) rose 40 per cent;
the production of milk rose 60 per cent;
eggs 50 per cent and wool 40 per cent;
the last figure including a more than
two-fold increase in fine and semi-fine
wool. In the last five years, ending with
1958, the average annual rate of growth
in the gross output of agriculture was
over 8 per cent for the U.S.S.R., as com-
pared with less than 2 per cent for the
United States.
The successes achieved in agricultural
development arc the result of the all-
round organisational activity of the
Party and the Government to strengthen
the collective farm system and develop
the state farms, and of the implementa-
tion of the major organisational, political
and economic measures taken, especially
in order to increase the material incen-
tives for the collective farm peasantry
and all the workers in the countryside to
bring about the growth of commonly-
owned production.
In the period from 1954 to 1958 in-
clusive, agriculture received 664,000
tractors (or more than 1 million in terms
of 15 h.p. units), 361,000 grain combine
harvesters, 571,000 lorries and much
other machinery. Agriculture now em-
ploys some 500,000 specialists with a
higher or specialised secondary educa-
tion.
The collective farms have become big,
economically sturdy establishments. For
products sold to the state and the co-
operative societies, the collective farms
and their members received over 100,000
million roubles more in cash in 1958
than in 1952.
Major measures in the development
of socialist agriculture have been: the
reorganisation of the machine and tractor
stations, the change in the practical pro-
duction and technical servicing of the
collective farms, and the introduction of
a new system of procurement and new
procurement prices for agricultural pro-
ducts.
In the years of Soviet government
large-scale construction has been carried
out in all spheres of the economy and
10
culture. Between 1946 and 1958 alone,
some 12,000 big state industrial enter-
prises and a large number of medium
and small enterprises have been built and
put into operation.
Housing construction has assumed
particularly great proportions. In the last
five years alone, 223 million square
metres of new housing have been erected
in cities, towns and factory housing
estates. This is far in excess of the total
amount of urban housing in tsarist
Russia in 1913. In the last five years the
collective farmers and members of the
rural intelligentsia have built more than
3 million houses in rural localities.
The cultural and general educational
standards of the population are steadily
rising. More than 50 million people are
now engaged in some form of study. At
the present time the U.S.S.R. has 766
higher educational establishments and
HOUSING in the
Soviet Union
In million square
metres
285
HMI
111111111111
1952-1931 1939-1965
3,344 specialised secondary schools and
other specialised secondary educational
institutions, with a total of more than
4 million students. The number of
specialists, with a higher or secondary
specialised education, employed in eco-
nomy is about 7.5 million. The higher
educational establishments in the U.S.S.R.
650-660
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EDUCATION
The growth In the
number of pupils
attending General
and Secondary
Schools (In millions)
now graduate nearly three times as many
technical engineers as similar establish-
ments in the United states.
An extensive network of scientific
establishments with the most up-to-date
equipment has been set up in the
U.S.S.R. At the close of 1958 there were
more than 280,000 scientific workers,
that is twenty-eight times more than
before the Revolution.
The close pooling, in production, of
the efforts of scientists, engineers and de-
signers to usc atomic energy has made
possible a general risc in scientific levels
and has brought the U.S.S.R. to the fore
in this leading field of natural science
and technique. A powerful atomic in-
dustry has been built up in the U.S.S.R.
Soviet scientists are making successful
headway in the peaceful use of thermo-
nuclear energy. The serial production of
international ballistic rockets has been
organised. The launching of the first
Soviet artificial Earth satellite has opened
up a new era in human history, that of
the conquest of outer space. The second
and third Earth satellites and a space
rocket which became the first artificial
planet of the solar system have been
launched, and preparations are being
made for travel to celestial bodies.
The material well-being of the Soviet
people is steadily improving. Real wages
and salaries?taking into consideration
pensions, grants, free tuition and free
health services?in comparison with 1940
almost doubled in 1958, while the real
incomes of the peasants more than
doubled, for each person employed.
In accordance with the decisions of the
Twentieth Party Congress, there have
been carried out such significant
measures as the raising of wages and
salaries of lower-paid factory and ollice
workers, the reduction of the working
day on Saturdays and the eves of holi-
days, the transfer of workers in several
branches of heavy industry to a shorter
working day, as well as several measures
to improve the system of grants to work-
ing people under the social insurance
scheme. Maternity leave has been ex-
tended and a new law on state pensions
has been passed considerably improving
pensions for factory and office workers.
Every year the Soviet state earmarks
tremendous sums for social insurance
payments, for grants, pensions, scholar-
ships for students, for free tuition and
health services, for paid holidays, and
so on. In 1958 alone total appropriations
for these purposes topped 215 000 minion
roubles, against the 1953 figure of
134,500 million roubles.
In 1958 the people received, from the
state, pensions totalling the sum of
64,000 million roubles, which is nearly
Education
TRAINING of SPECIALISTS
(in thousands, gradua-
ting from Universities
and institutes)
2500
11
1952-1958
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State Expenditure
on SOCIAL
SERVICES
In thousand million
roubles
1940
1955 1958 1965
two-and-a-half times as much as in 1953.
As a result of the consistent carrying
out of a Leninist national policy and of
fraternal mutual assistance, the former
economically and culturally backward
national Republics have built up a power-
ful modern industry, a large-scale,
mechanised system of farming and a
large network of educational establish-
ments and scientific and cultural institu-
tions, and have produced a vast army of
skilled personnel. In Soviet times the
output of large-scale industry has in-
creased fifty times over in the Central
Asian Republics and Kazakhstan. thirty
times in the Transcaucasian Republics,
and nine and a half times in the Baltic
Republics, (the last figure is in comparison
with 1940).
In recent years the Party and the
Government have taken steps to grant
the Union Republics considerably wider
powers to develop their economy and
culture. This is making it possible to
employ our country's natural resources
and manpower more efficiently and to
develop the economy and culture of each
Republic more rapidly.
The Soviet Union has surpassed
Britain, West Germany and France in
the actual volume of production of pig
iron, steel, coal, electricity, cement, com-
mercial timber, sawn timber, cotton
fabrics and certain other industrial items.
We have considerably shortened the gap
between our country and the United
States in the output of iron and steel,
iron ore, several types of machines, in-
struments and cotton fabrics. In several
important industrial and agricultural
items, such as coal, woollen fabrics, tim-
ber and sawn timber, butter, wheat, sugar
beet and potatoes, the U.S.S.R. has sur-
passed the level of the United States. In
the last eight years the USS.R. has
overtaken the United States in the actual
annual increment of many items, notably,
steel, pig iron, iron ore, oil, coal, cement.
sulphuric acid, cotton and woollen
fabrics and leather footwear.
The Soviet Union, which has blazed
the trail into socialism for mankind,
has now reached such a level of
development of Us productive forces
that it can now turn to the solution
of new great tasks in building com-
munism.
2. Basic Tasks in the Development of the National Economy of
the USSR for 1959-1965.
'THE chief task of the Seven-Year Plan By completing this plan, a decisive
.1. for the development of the national step will be taken towards the creation
economy of the U.S.S.R., 1959-1965, is a of the material-technical base of corn-
further mighty upsurge of all branches of munism and the accomplishment of the
the economy on the basis of the priority main economic task of the U.S.S.R.: to
expansion of heavy industry, and a sub- overtake and surpass, in the shortest
stantial improvement of the country's historical time, the most highly developed
economic potential so as to ensure a capitalist countries in output per head of
continuous rise in people's living sten- population.
dards. The Communist Party regards it as a
12.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
major task to ensure, in this seven-year
period, a further substantial increase in
the real incomes of the population in
town and country, and a considerable rise
in the wages of lower- and medium-paid
groups of factory and office workers. The
target figures for 1959-1965 envisage a
large expansion in the production and
consumption of foodstuffs and manufac-
tured goods. Housing construction will
take place on a large scale.
The Twenty-First Congress of the
C.PS.U. regards as the main tasks of
the Seven-Year Plan:
A high rate and the necessary pro-
portions In the development of the
national economy.
A substantial increase in the output
of ferrous and non-ferrous metals to
satisfy more fully the growing needs
of the national economy.
A more rapid development of the
chemical industry and especially of the
production of artificial and synthetic
fibres, plastics and other synthetic
materials. The chemical industry will
become a major source of raw
materials for the production of con-
sumer goods.
A change in the pattern of fuel pro-
duction by priority development of the
extraction and production of the most
economical fuels, namely, oil and gas.
A rapid development of electrifica-
tion of all branches of the national
economy by building, chiefly, large-
scale thermal electric power plants,
Further development of machine
building, particularly heavy machinery,
the production of electric machines and
apparatus, instruments and automation
devices, as an Important condition for
the further rise of labour productivity.
The technical reconstruction of the
railways on the basis of electrification
and wide use of diesel locomotives.
A further advance of all branches of
agriculture, ensuring the satisfaction
of the country's constantly rising needs
for foodstuffs and agricultural raw
materials.
A rapid development of housing con-
struction so as to accomplish success-
fully the task set by the Party and the
Government to eliminate the shortage
of housing for working people.
An important task of the forthcoming
seven-year period is that of intensively
exploiting the rich natural resources of
our country, improving the distribution
of the productive forces on its territory,
bringing industry still closer to the
sources of raw materials and fuel. Special
attention should be devoted to the further
development of the natural resources of
the eastern parts of the U.S.S.R.
The forthcoming seven-year period
will be marked by technological progress
in all branches of the national economy.
This is to be achieved primarily by the
development of the Soviet engineering
industry, particularly the machine-tool
manufacturing,, instrument-making, radio-
electronic and electrical engineering in-
dustries; the production of new and more
efficient types of equipment for the
metallurgical, chemical, oil and gas in-
dustries; the development of the produc-
tion of polymer materials; still wider use
of atomic energy for peaceful purposes,
and so on.
The accomplishment of the tasks posed
by the Party and the Government for the
next seven years will be of immense
political and economic significance for
the further strengthening of our country's
might.
13
DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALIST
INDUSTRY
The Communist Party of the Soviet
Union attaches major significance to the
development of industry, particularly
heavy industry, which is the bedrock
foundation of our socialist economy, of
the country's might, a decisive factor for
developing the productive forces and
raising the productivity of labour in all
branches of the national economy.
Gross industrial output in 1965 is to
increase, as compared with 1958, by
approximately 80 per cent, including
production of the means of production?
by 85 per cent to 88 per cent, and pro-
duction of consumer goods?by 62 per
cent to 65 per cent. The average annual
increase of gross output in 1959-65 for
industry as a whole will approximate to
8.6 per cent. The average annual increase
of industrial output in the forthcoming
seven-year period will amount to about
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OUTPUT of
IRON and STEEL
in the USSR ?
In million tons
for the organisation in the U.S.S.R. of a
large-scale diamond extraction industry.
The output of Soviet diamonds will in-
crease approximately fifteen to sixteen
times in 1965, as compared with 1958.
Over-all output of chemicals will in-
crease nearly three-fold. The production
of synthetic materials is to be widely
14 developed, the output of artificial fibres
42 Gailwill increase by 300 per cent, including
the most valuable synthetic fibres twelve
to thirteen times and plastics and syn-
thetic resins by more than 600 per cent.
Large-scale production of new types of
synthetic materials will make it possible
to expand sharply the output of high-
quality and cheap consumer goods, as
well as to raise the technical level and
4 2
make more efficient all branches of the
national economy. The seven-year period
should see the construction or the com-
luuss pletion of more than 140 new large-scale
Setif(' A.ITAL
1940 1358 1965
135,000 million roubles, as against 90,000
million roubles in the preceding seven-
year period.
The development of the major
branches of industry is to be determined
as follows:
A. HEAVY INDUSTRY
In 1965, 65-70 million tons of pig iron,
or 64-77 per cent more than in 1958;
steel, 86-91 million tons, or 57-66 per
cent more; rolled metal, 65-70 million
tons, or 53-63 per cent more: com-
modity iron ore, 150-160 million tons
(230-245 million tons of crude ore) shall
be produced.
Compared with 1958, a 180 per cent
to 200 per cent increase in the output of
aluminium, 90 per cent increase in the
output of refined copper, and a substan-
tial increase in the output of nickel,
magnesium, titanium, germanium, silicon
is envisaged. The output of other non-
ferrous and, especially, rare metals will
likewise increase.
The discovery of diamond fields has
created a dependable raw material base 1958
Development of the
SOVIET CHEMICAL
INDUSTRY
Total output will Increase
almost three times.
Artificial Fibre output
will grow nearly four
times. Plastics and Tars
will Increase more than
seven times
COAL MINING
in the Soviet Union
In millions of tons
600-612
'??
-1 -165.9
million cubic metres, as against 30,000
million cubic metres in 1958. In the coal
industry production should be brought up
in 1965 to 600-612 million tons.
The seven-year period will be a
decisive stage in implementing Lenin's
idea concerning the all-round electrifica-
tion of the country. In 1965 electric
power output in the country will rise to
500,000-520,000 million kw. hours, i.e.
110 per cent to 120 per cent, and the
fixed capacity of electric power plants
shall increase more than 100 per cent.
Besides putting into operation large
chemical enterprises and renovations to
more than 130 enterprises.
For a further improvement in the
structure of the country's fuel pattern,
priority development of oil and gas in-
dustries will be ensured. It is planned
to bring up the extraction of oil in 1965
to 230-240 million tons, a more than two-
fold increase over 1958, the extraction
and production of gas in 1965 to 150,000
OIL EXTRACTION
in the Soviet Union
In millions of tons
MACHINE BUILDING
and
METAL DRESSING 450
INDUSTRIES
RiseTin output
(1913=1)
1141 I11 1913
1940 1958 1915
thermal electric power plants, it is en-
visaged to complete the construction of
the Stalingrad, Bratsk, Kremenchug, and
a number of other hydro-electric stations,
to put into operation a number of atomic
electric power stations with various types
of reactors.
The high rate of development of the
engineering industry, as is envisaged by
the Seven-Year Plan, will ensure thc
supply of new equipment to industrial
establishments and a radical improvement
in the technology of production, which
will be a decisive factor for the growth
of labour productivity, will ease working
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conditions and enable a further reduction
in the working day. Transition to inte-
grated mechanisation and automatic con-
trol of production, with the use of elec-
tronic devices, represents the most out-
standing feature of contemporary tech-
nical progress and must become the main
trend in the designing of new machines.
It is planned to manufacture the latest
equipment for all branches of the
economy, to design and manufacture
Metal cutting machine-tools
including special, specialised and
aggregate machine-tools
Forging and pressing machines
Automatic and semi-automatic
machine lines
Precision instruments
including computers and mathe-
matical 'machines
Turbines
Generators for turbines
Electric motors of alternating current
Rolling mill equipment
Chemical equipment
Technological equipment for the
textile industry
Technological equipment for the food
and flour milling industries
Motor vehicles
Trunk-line, electric and diesel loco-
motives
Technological equipment for the
cement industry
Technological equipment for foundry
production
A substantial growth in the output of
the timber, paper and wood-working In-
dustry is envisaged. The production of
paper and cardboard, prefabricated
houses, furniture, etc., will increase con-
siderably.
16
machines on the 'basis of utilising the
latest achievements and discoveries in
science and technology, particularly
radio - electronics, super - conductivity,
super-sound, radio-isotopes, semi-con-
ductors, nuclear energy, and so on. The
output of the engineering and metal-
working industries will nearly double in
seven years.
Production of major types of machines
and instruments will be as follows:
1965
thousands
190-200
thousands
38
thousands
362
complete sets
280-300
million roubles
18,500-19,200
million roubles
2,000-2,100
million kw,
18.7-20.4
million kw.
17.5-18.4
million kw.
32-34
thousand tons
200-220
million roubles
3,500-3,700
million roubles
2,500
million roubles
3,8004,100
thousands
750-856
units
2,550-2,700
thousand tons
180-220
million roubles
360410
Increase compared
with 1958
Percentage
40-50
100
50 approx.
210-230
150-160
350-370
180-210
240-250
120-130
130-160
220-240
120
110-130
50-70
140-160
150-210
130-160
B. PRODUCTION OF CONSUMER
GOODS
The light and food industries are grow-
ing continuously and the production of
consumer goods is expanding in our
country on the basis of the high level
of development reached in heavy indus-
try and agriculture.
The gross output of light industry will
increase in seven years approximately by
50 per cent.
Production of cotton fabrics in 1965
will reach 7,700-8.000 million metres,
woollens-500 million metres. linen
fabrics-635 million metres, silk fabrics
?1,485 million metres, leather footwear
515 million pairs, etc.
In 1959-1965 it is planned to build
approximately 156 new, large light-
industry establishments and to complete
the construction of 114 enterprises which
were staned prior to 1959. Together with
the building of new enterprises, a sub-
stantial number of existing factories will
be reconstructed.
Gross output of the food Industry is to
increase by 70 per cent in the seven-year
period. About 250 new meat processing
enterprises, over 1.000 milk processing
factories, over 200 canneries and other
factories will be put into operation. The
capacities of sugar refineries will be in-
creased by more than twice over.
The output of household goods and
also of machines and appliances which
GROWTH of
RETAIL
TRADE
In the USSR
IMO? WO
430
lighten women's work in the home will
be doubled, reaching 88.000 million
roubles in 1965. There will be a sub-
stantial increase in the output of furni-
ture, sewing machines. refrigerators.
washing-machines. dish-washers, wireless
sets, radiugrams and television sets, clocks
and watches, bic)cles, motorcycles and
motor-scooters. cameras, and electric
household appliances,
C. INTEGRATED MECIIANISATION
AND AUTOMATION OF PRODUC-
TION
Specialisation and Co-ordination In
Industry
Integrated mechanisation and the auto-
mation of production processes constitute
the chief and decisive method for en-
suring further technical progress in
economy and, on this basis. a new in-
crease in labour productivity, the lower-
ing of costs and an improvement in the
quality of output.
Apart from carrying out the over-all
programme of automation in all fields of
industry, it is planned to set up more
than fifty experimental model enterprises
where the latest models of integrated
automation will be put into effect.
Large undertakings in specialisation
and co-ordination in industry arc envi-
saged. These include:
the further integrated development
of the economic areas through the most
rational use of natural resources, bear-
ing in mind the need to specialise and
improve co-ordination and to eliminate
wasteful methods of transportation;
the far better use of the productive
capacity at existing enterprises;
the carrying out of specialisation not
only in industry but also in other
spheres of economy?in transport,
building, repair and other jobs
Productivity of labour in industry,
which is the decisive factor to increase
output and raise the living standards of
the working people, will considerably
increase on the basis of measures to bo
carried out in the next seven years in the
integrated mechanisation and automation
of production processes and the develop-
ment of specialisation and co-ordination
in industry. Productivity of labour, per
employee, in industry will increase by
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RISE in the PRODUCTIVITY
of LABOUR in SOVIET
INDUSTRY
(1940=100)
TOTAL AGRICULTURAL
OUTPUT in the
U.S.S.R.
(1958=100)
,
1958 1965
from 45 per cent to 50 per cent over
1959-65, while, taking into account the
reduction of working hours, the output
per hour will increase still more.
Alongside the planned volume of gross
output and the growth of labour produc-
tivity, it is envisaged that over 1959-
1965 production costs will be reduced, in
comparable prices, by no less than 11.5
per cent.
DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALIST
AGRICULTURE
The task, in the coming seven years.
is to make agricultural production grow
to an extent where it will make possible
the satisfaction of the demands for staple
foods and a big increase in the resources
of agricultural raw materials, in order to
provide the population with a wide range
of high-quality foodstuffs in abundance
and to meet all the other requirements
of the state for agricultural products.
The targets for 1959-1965 envisage:
a further expansion of grain pro-
duction, so as to ensure by the end of
the seven-year period a grain harvest
of 10,000 to 11,000 million poods (164-
180 million tons) a year;
an increase in the production of the
main industrial crops in 1965 as
follows: raw cotton, to 5,700,000 to
6,100,000 tons, or 30 per cent to 40 per
cent more than in 1958; sugar beet, to
76 to 84 million tons, or 40 per cent
to 55 per cent more; oil-bearing seeds,
to approximately 5,500,000 tons, or 10
per cent more; flax fibre, to 580,000
tons, or 31 per cent more than in 1958;
an Increase in 1965 of the gross
potato crop to approximately 147
million tons, as against 86 million tons
In 1958;
Increased output of vegetables to
satisfy fully the needs of the popula-
tion;
an increase in the production of hard
and soft fruit during the seven years,
by no less than 100 per cent; grapes
by no less than 300 per cent;
an increase in the output of the chief
animal products in 1965, as compared
with 1958: meat (slaughter weight), to
at least 16 million tons, or double;
milk, to 100 to 105 million tons or a
70 per cent to 80 per cent increase;
wool, to approximately 548.000 tons,
or 70 per cent snore; and eggs to 37,000
million, or 60 per cent more.
Gross farm output as a whole will
be up by 70 per cent in 1965, as com-
pared with 1958.
The utmost expansion of the output
of grain as the basis of all agricultural
production will be the chief line in the
development of crop production for the
forthcoming period, too.
High stable yields of all agricultural
crops must be obtained and gross harvests
must be raised to the planned levels by
using a scientifically substantiated farm-
ing system, applicable to the conditions
of the given economic zones of the
country and of each farm, by the further
specialisation and improvement in the
distribution of agricultural production,
and the wide application of the achieve-
ments of science and advanced experi-
ence. .
In animal husbandry the chief task in
the forthcoming seven years is to increase
the output of meat, milk, eggs and wool.
While the average annual increase in
meat production in 1952-58 amounted to
approximately 500,000 tons (slaughter
weight), in 1959-65 it must exceed
1,100,000 tons; milk, respectively,
3,100,000 tons and 5,900,000 to 6,600,000
tons; wool, 18,000 tons and 33,000 tons.
Milk yields must rise to no less than
2,600 kilograms per cow on the collective
farms.
At the same time it is necessary to
ensure a sharp increase in the number
of all kinds of livestock and poultry.
The chief requisite for the successful
accomplishment of the programme for
developing animal husbandry is the
creation of a solid fodder supply base.
The planned increase in grain production
will make it possible to allocate 85 to
90 million tons of concentrated fodder
for livestock in 1965. Maize must play
a decisive part in increasing fodder pro-
duction. The production of concentrated
SOVIET MEAT
PRODUCTION
In millions of tons
?1955 1951 --- fodder must must be increased to 18-20
million tons as against 3,900,000 tons
in 1957.
The purchases of the basic agricultural
products shall be increased in 1965 as
follows:
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1965
(thousand tons)
Raw cotton
Sugar beet
Oil-bearing seeds
Potatoes
Flax fibre
Livestock and poultry (live weight)
Milk
Wool
Eggs (million)
5.700-6.100
81.000
3.920
11,720
530
11.050
40,610
540
10,000
MILK OUTPUT in the
SOVIET UNION
(in million tons)
1965
per cent
of 1958
130-140
159
136
174
137
196
184
172
221
100-105
ELECTRIC POWER CONSUMPTION in SOVIET
AGRICULTURE?a four-fold increase is planned.
The output of agricultural products in
state farms will be greatly increased in
the forthcoming seven years.
It Is planned to produce for agricul-
ture In seven years over 1 million
tractors, about 400,000 grain harvester.
combines and large quantities of other
machinery and equipment.
It is envisaged to complete in the main
the electrification of all collective farms
in the country by the end of the seven-
year period, while the electrification of
state farms and repair and technical ser-
vice stations will be completed much
sooner. Consumption of electric power
in agriculture will increase approximately
by 300 per cent in seven years.
In the seven-year period labour pro-
ductivity in the collective farms should
approximately double, and in the state
farms should increase by 60 per cent to
65 per cent.
DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORT
AND COMMUNICATIONS
The coming seven-year period will see
the radical technical reconditioning of
the main types of transport, especially
rail and air transport.
Goods traffic on the railways will in-
crease in the seven-year period to
1,800,000-1.850,000 million ton-kilometres
or by 39 per cent to 43 per cent. In 1965
between 85 per cent and 87 per cent of
the entire freight carriage on the railways
will be hauled by electric and diesel loco-
motives, against 26 per cent in 1958. The
length of track to be switched to electric
and diesel traction will reach approxi-
mately 100.000 km. The construction of
the biggest South-Siberian and Middle-
Siberian trunk-lines will be completed
and several new railway lines will be
laid in the districts of Kazakhstan, the
Urals and the Volga area.
The cargo carriage of sea transport will
roughly double.
Freight carried by river transport will
increase approximately 60 per cent in the
seven-year period. The Volga-Baltic
waterway will go into operation.
With the rapid development of the oil
industry, the length of trunk pipe-lines
will almost treble while the volume of
transport by pipe-line will increase
approximately by 450 per cent.
Goods carried by motor tntosport will
increase roughly by 90 per cent. It is
planned to build 180 per cent more motor
roads of state-wide importance, over
1959-65, than in the past seven-year
period.
Duo to the introduction of fast and
large turbo-jet and turbo-prop airlines,
air transport will become one of the main
forms of passenger transport. Passenger
traffic by air will increase approximately
by 500 per cent.
The network of inter-city cable lines
will double, while the length of radio-
relay communication lines will increase
approximately by 740 per cent.
CAPITAL INVESTMENTS IN
ECONOMY AND CAPITAL
CONSTRUCTION
The coming seven-year period will see
construction get under way on an un-
precedentedly sweeping scale all over the
country, especially in the Eastern regions.
In 1959.65 the volume of state
capital investments will increase to
1,940,000-1,970,000 million roubles, or
by 80 per cent as compared with the
previous seven-year period. It will
almost equal the total volume of capital
Investments In economy during the
entire period that Soviet power has
been in existence.
As regards certain branches, especially
the processing industry, the Seven-Year
Plan proceeds from the premise that the
radical reconstruction, extension and the
technical reconditioning of existing estab-
lishments on the basis of integrated
mcchanisation, automation and new tech-
nological processes, providing for the
sweeping renewal and modernisation of
equipment, should be the main trend
during the coming period.
While the total volume of state capital
investments in economy in general will
increase 80 per cent over 1959-65, capital
investments in industry will roughly
double compared with investments made
in the past seven-year period.
Some 100,000 million roubles will be
earmarked for the construction of iron
and steel establishments, which is 140
per cent more than the capital invested in
this industry in 1952-58.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOVIET TRANSPORT
GAS EXTRACTION in
the USSR
In thousand million
cubic metres
Goods corned by motor transport
will increase
Transpott by pipe-line will
(FOAM
Cergo corneae al sea Irawspori
welt increase
Cargo carriage ol river /ransom,
will increase
1940 1957 1951 1965
GROWTH in the
TRANSPORT of
GOODS BY RAIL
(In thousand million
ton-kilometres)
Growth of network of
ELECTRIC RAILWAYS
in the USSR
1340 1151 1365
22
The chemical industry will be given
100,000 to 105,000 million roubles for
its development. About half of all the
allocations for the development of the
chemical industry will go to construct
enterprises for manufacturing plastics,
artificial and synthetic fibres, synthetic
rubber and alcohol.
Capital investments in the oil and gas
industry will amount to 170,000 to
173,000 million roubles, an increase of
130 per cent to 140 per cent.
For the development of the coal indus-
try, 75,000 to 78,000 million roubles will
be earmarked.
Capital investments in the construction
of electric power plants, electric grids
and heating systems will be fixed at
125,000 to 129,000 million roubles, an
increase of approximately 70 per cent,
priority to be given to the construction
of thermal electric power plants.
In the timber, paper and woodworking
industries a total of 58,000 to 60,000
million roubles will be invested, an in-
crease of more than 100 per cent.
In 1959-65 80,000 to 85,000 million
roubles will be allocated for the develop-
ment of the light and food industries, an
approximately two-fold increase over the
preceding seven-year period.
The construction of housing and public
building will be given 375,000 to 380.000
million roubles. More than 80,000 million
roubles will be allocated for building
schools, hospitals, child welfare estab-
lishments and other cultural and public
health services.
Some 150,000 million roubles will be
invested by the state in agriculture,
Total capital investments in agriculture
by the state and by the collective farms
will amount to about 500,000 million
roubles in 1959-65 and will nearly double
the actual investments made in 1952-58.
For the development of railway nuns-
port 110,000 to 115,000 million roubles
will be allocated, or 85 to 94 per cent
more than has been spent in the preced-
ing seven years. Capital investments for
electrifying the railways will increase
170 per cent.
The projected sweeping programme of
capital construction will be carried out
with the utmost saving of state funds.
It is planned to ensure the further
extensive application of mass production
methods to building, to convert building
work into a mechanised process of
assembling and erecting buildings and
structures from precast blocks, parts and
elements. Capital investments amounting
to 110,000 to 112,000 million roubles are
being allocated for the development of
tho building industry and the building
materials industry, an increase of 79 per
cent to 82 per cent over the preceding
seven-year period. The building materials
industry will be further developed. It is
planned to expand the production of
building materials on a scale sufficient
to make it possible to satisfy fully the
needs of state capital construction and
also individual house building in cities
and the repair of buildings, and to
satisfy to a greater extent the main needs
of collective-farm and private housing
construction in the countryside. Produc-
tion of cement in 1965 will be increased
up to 75 to 81 million tons, i.e. 120 per
cent to 140 per cent more compared with
the output in 1958; precast reinforced
concrete elements and parts up to 42-
45 million cu. m., or approximately 150
per cent more; slate to 6,000 million
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CAPITAL
INVESTMENTS
in the
NATIONAL ECONOMY
of the USSR
In thousand million roubles
19401970
1928-1932 1951-1955 1959-1965
24
standard pieces, or 150 per cent more.
The experience of the foremost build-
ing organisations shom that the USS.R.
has tremendous possibilities of reducing
building times in all branches of the
economy. In 1958, for example, large
blast furnaces were built in six to eight
months. Big successes have been regis-
tered lately in reducing the times required
for housing construction.
With the increase in the volume of
capital construction ever greater signifi-
cance is acquired by the saving of
material and financial resources used in
construction, the reduction of building
costs and the profitable running of all
building organisations and enterpnscs.
With the present scale of construction, a
reduction in the estimated cost of build-
ing and assembly work by 1 per cent
alone means a saving of over 1,000
million roubles a year.
Labour productivity in construction is
scheduled to increase 60 per cent to 65
per cent in 1959.65 on the basis of the
further industrialisation of construction,
the completion of the integrated mechani-
sation of the large-scale labour-consum-
ing jobs, the improvement of the organi-
sation of building work and the wide
application of the best experience of
innovators.
3. Distribution of the Productive Forces and the Economic
Development of the Union Republics.
TN working out plans for the national
leconomic development of the U.S.S.R..
the Communist Party is guided by the
Leninist national policy and proceeds
from the need to distribute the productive
forces properly in the country's territory
with the object of achieving the greatest
economic effect and ensuring the
economic advance of all the Union
Republics.
The Seven-Year Plan for the national
economic development of the U.S.S.R.
in 1959-65 takes into account the interests
of a further advance in the economy and
culture of all the Union Republics.
It is envisaged to make use of the
natural resources which are richest in
content and most advantageous as regards
conditions of exploitation, particularly in
the eastern areas of the country, to make
fullest use of labour resources in accor-
dance with the experience gained in pro-
duction, and the available production
facilities in various areas and in all the
republics; further to bring industry closer
to the sources of raw materials and fuel,
to develop specialisation and co-ordina-
tion in industry to the utmost, to improve
economic ties between areas and to make
rational use of all forms of transport.
The main changes in the distribution
of the productive forces in the forthcom-
ing seven-year period are envisaged first
of all in the direction of a big develop-
ment of the eastern areas. Over 40 per
cent of all the capital investments in
25
1959-65 will go for the development of
the eastern areas, including the Urals,
Siberia, the Far East, Kazakhstan and
Central Asia The share of those areas
in the country's entire output of major
items will rise and reach in 1965: in the
production of pig iron approximately
44 per cent. steel 48 per cent, rolled
metal 49 per cent, coal approximately
51) per cent, oil 30 per cent, electric
power 46 per cent and sawn timber over
45 per cent.
Provision is made for putting into
operation the country's third iron and
steel centre, which will include a produc-
tive capacity of approximately 9,000,000
tons of pig iron.
The coal industry in Siberia and
Kazakhstan will be developed at a faster
rate than in other areas. These areas will
contribute in seven years about 60 per
cent of the total increase of coal produc-
tion in the entire country. A large power
industry will also be built up in Siberia
and Kazakhstan. Production of electric
power here will rise 230 per cent to
250 per cent in seven years and these
areas will account for nearly 35 per cent
of total expansion in the output of
electric power production. The big
growth of power potential and cheap
electricity in the eastern areas will create
favourable conditions for the develop-
ment of industncs consuming much
power, the non-ferrous metals industry
in the first place.
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Changes arc planned in the distribution
of the oil and gas industry which will
enjoy priority development in the
European part of the USS.R. and
Central Asia on the basis of the rich oil
and gas deposits discovered in these
areas. Construction of oil refineries in
almost all the main oil-consuming areas,
and the building of a large network of
oil and gas pipe-lines will be an essential
clement in the distribution of the oil and
gas industry in the seven-year period.
Total output of industry in the Russian
Soviet Federative Socialist Republic will
rise approximately 80 per cent.
Agriculture is set the task of substan-
tially increasing grain production in the
seven years. For other crops production
in 1965 will increase by the following
approximate percentages: sugar beet 100
per cent to 120 per cent, flax fibre 40
per cent, meat 120 per cent, milk, eggs
and wool 60 per cent to 70 per cent.
Capital investments of 954,000-974,000
million roubles will be allocated for the
development of the Republic's economy.
In the European part of the R.S.F.S.R.
a rapid growth of the oil and gas indus-
try is planned in the Volga area and the
North Caucasus, which will make it pos-
sible to replace power coal by more
economical types of fuel: oil and gas.
Provision is made for the building of
large trunk gas pipe-lines from. the North
Caucasus to Leningrad. On the basis of
oil and gas it is planned to expand
existing chemical plants and to build a
large number of new ones in the Euro-
pean part of the Republic, particularly
plants for the production of chemical
fibres, mineral fertilisers and. others. Of
great significance is the planned develop-
ment of the iron ore deposits of the
Kursk Magnetic Anomaly.
Districts of the Urals will retain a
leading place in the Republic for the
output of ferrous and non-ferrous metals
and heavy engineering. The further
growth of the metallurgical, oil, chemical,
timber and engineering industries and in-
creased productive capacity in power are
planned here in the seven-year period.
Productive capacity will be enlarged at
the Magnitogorsk, Orsk-Khalilovo and
Nizhni-Tagil iron and steel works and
also at the Chelyabinsk and other iron
and steel works. In the Urals, Chelya-
binsk Region alone will produce in 1965
SOVIET TOTAL GRAIN HARVEST
(larger figures are in thousand million poods?1 Food =36 lb.)
more pig iron than is produced in France
today.
Large chemical works, using casing
head gases for the manufacture of new
types of synthetic rubber and products of
organic synthesis, are to be built in
Bashkiria.
In districts of Siberia the huge natural
resources will be very much developed.
It is planned to build two large iron and
steel works which will constitute the
foundation for the third iron and steel
centre of the U.S.S.R.
Largo thermal-electric stations work-
ing on cheap coal will be built. The
world's biggest hydro-clectric station,
Bratsk, with a capacity of over 3,500.000
kw., will go into operation and Lonstruc-
tion will begin of the Krasnoyarsk hydro-
electric station with a capacity exceeding
4 million kw. The timber and wood-
working industry should develop at a
rapid pace. One of the world's biggest
diamond mining centres is being built up
in the Yakut A.S.S.R.
The huge funds invested in Siberia's
economy will make possible the fuller
use of the natural resources available
here for developing the economy of the
entire Soviet Union.
Total industrial output in the
Ukrainian SS.R. will rise by approxi-
mately 77 per cent in the seven years.
Further development is contemplated of
such major branches of industry as iron
and steel, coal, chemical, power, oil and
gas, engineering and sugar.
Capital investments of 214,000 million
to 219,000 million roubles arc earmarked
for developing the Ukraine's economy,
of which over 50 per cent will go to the
key heavy industries. A number of large
industrial establishments will be built in
the western regions.
The output of consumer goods will go
up substantially. Large textile mills will
be built and the production of furniture
will be doubled. The output of sugar will
grow to 4,900,000 to 5,300,000 in 1965.
In agriculture the main task is to
expand further the output of industrial
crops by raising yields, and to develop
fruit and grape growing. Compared with
1958 meat output in 1965 increases 90
per cent; milk, 90 per cent to 100 per
27
cent; eggs, 80 per cent; wool, 60 per
cent.
As a result of the fulfilment of its
planned targets the Ukrainian S.S.R. will
greatly exceed the most developed
capitalist countries for per capita output
of a number of main industrial items.
Thus, in 1965 the Ukrainian Republic
will exceed the 1957 per capita output of
pig iron in the United States by approxi-
mately 70 per cent, Western Germany by
90 per cent and France and Britain by
150 per cent; in the production of steel
the level of the United States will be
topped approximately by 20 per cent,
Western Germany 40 per cent, Britain
60 per cent, France 120 per cent.
In the Byelorussian SSA. it is planned
to set up oil refining and chemical in-
dustries, to develop the engineering, light
and food industries and expand consider-
ably fuel and power. Tho capital invest-
ments for 1959-1965 will more than
double the capital investments in the
preceding seven years.
SOVIET SUGAR OUTPUT
In thousands of tons
9250-10000
1913
1940
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1958 1965
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GROWTH OF SOVIET
COTTON PRODUCTION
(Annual average In million tons)
1957-1940 1949-1953 1958 19 65
Total output of industry in the republic
will increase 80 per cent in seven years.
The production of electric power will
go up 160 per cent, the output of tractors
will grow substantially, the production
of lorries will increase 40 per cent to
50 per cent, chemical fibres 230 per cent
to 250 per cent, cement 220 per cent to
230 per cent, cotton fabrics eighteen
times, and granulated sugar 450 per cent
to 510 per cent.
Agriculture will continue to specialise
in intensive dairy and meat farming, the
breeding of water fowl, the production
of potatoes, flax fibre and sugar beet.
The Uzbek SS.R. will remain the main
cotton producer of the country.
Capital investment of 35,000 to 36,000
million roubles arc earmarked for
developing the republic's economy, or
approximately 140 per cent more than in
1952-58. Irrigation construction will be
conducted on a large scale. Total indus-
trial output will rise about 80 per cent
in seven fears.
The gas deposits discovered in the
Bukhara district will make it possible to
build up a large gas industry which will
provide gas not only to a large part of
Central Asia but also to major industrial
centres in the Urals. The Angrcn district
electric station working on cheap local
coal will go over to full capacity.
The chemical and non-ferrous metals
industries will be developed on a large
scale The production of copper, lead
and zinc is being organised. The output
28
of cement will grow approximately four-
fold.
In agriculture the production of raw
cotton in 1965 will increase 20 per cent
to 30 per cent compared with 1958, silk
cocoons approximately 30 per cent, vege-
tables 150 per cent, meat 90 per cent,
milk 40 per cent to 50 per cent, wool
20 per cent, and karakul skins 40 per
cent. The area under orchards and vine-
yards is to be extended.
In the Kazakh SS.R. it is planned to
develop further non-ferrous metals,
power, engineering, chemical, oil, coal,
cement, food and light industries and to
build up the iron and steel industry on
a large scale.
Total capital investments in the Repub-
lic's economy will amount to 116,000 to
119,000 million roubles, or approximately
130 per cent more than in the preceding
seven-year period. Total industrial output
in 1965 will rise approximately by 170
per cent above 1958.
The Karaganda works and the
Ycrmakov ferro-alloys plant will be the
major construction projects of the iron
and steel industry. The Sokolovka-Sarbai
mining and concentration works with an
annual capacity of 19 million tons of iron
ore, the biggest in the country, will be
put into operation in Kustanai Region
during 1959-65. The production of pig
iron is being organised in Kazakhstan
for the first time.
The production of artificial fibres will
grow approximately ten times; the output
of mineral fertilisers will increase sub-
stantially, and the production of synthetic
rubber, automobile tyres and caustic soda
will be organised.
The textile, shoe and leather, meat-
packing and sugar industries will see the
biggest development among branches of
the light and food industries.
In agriculture a further increase in
grain production is envisaged. The
northern districts of the Republic should
specialise in meat and dairy farming, the
breeding of fine wool-bearing and semi-
fine wool-bearing sheep; the areas of
desert and semi-desert steppes should
specialise in raising livestock for meat,
the breeding of sheep yielding semi-fine
wool, meat and fats and of Karakul
sheep.
In the Georgian Republic the chemical
industry, engineering, the growing of tea
and citrus fruit, horticulture and seri-
culture, viticulture and wine making, and
also other branches of the food industry
will be further developed.
Total capital investments in the eco-
nomy will amount to 16.800 million
roubles. Total industrial output will rise
nearly 75 per cent in seven years.
The electrical equipment and instru-
ment-making industries will account for
the biggest development in engineering;
the manufacture of electric locomotives
is being organised on a large scale. The
output of the chemical industry will
grow approximately six-fold; the produc-
tion of mineral fertilisers will increase by
120 per cent; the manufacture of new
chemical products will be organised.
Fifteen tea factories will be built; the
production of tea will increase by 60 per
cent.
In the Azerbaijan S.S.R. the major eco-
nomic tasks are to develop oil, gas.
chemicals, ferrous and non-ferrous
metals, engineering and textiles. In agri-
culture to develop cotton growing, animal
husbandry, horticulture and viticulture.
Capital investments in the Republic's
economy in 1959-65 are envisaged at ap-
proximately 29.000 million roubles. 60
per cent more than in the preceding
seven years. Total industrial production
will increase approximately 90 per cent
in seven years.
Oil production will grow by 33 per
cent, gas 160 per cent, the manufacture
of oil equipment by 120 per cent and
electric motors by 140 per cent. The pro-
duction of electric power is being nearly
doubled and the output of the chemical
industry is going up substantially. The
production of cotton goods will increase
by 63 per cent, woollen fabrics by 230
per cent and grape wine by 88 per cent.
In the Lithuanian SS.R. it is planned
to industrialise the republic's economy
further, to develop the engineering, light,
food and fish Industries and to build up
a chemical industry.
About 12,500 million roubles of capital
investments are assigned for the eco-
nomic development of the republic, i.e.,
twice as much as in the preceding seven
years. Total industrial output will grow
approximately 80 per cent.
The republic's agriculture will special-
ise along the lines of breeding pedigree
dairy livestock, and pigs for the produc-
tion of pork and bacon. in combination
with the growing of potatoes and other
vegetables, sugar beet and flax Grain
growing will also be further developed.
In the Moldavian SS.R. there is
planned the further development of the
.engincering, building Materials. and food
industries, the power industry, and agri-
culture, particularly viniculture, fruit-
growing, vegetable growing and beet cul-
tivation.
The gross output of industry is to in.
crease approximately 2.2 times. Capital
investments in the republic's economy
arc to comprise approximately 8,800
million roubles.
It is planned to build and put into
operation more than 100 vineries, 5 sugar
factories. 3 meat combines, 6 canned
food factories, engineering factories, a
factory producing technological equip-
ment for the food industry, and a cement
factory. The collective and state farms of
the republic arc to lay out vineyards over
an area of about 180,000 hectares, and
orchards for hard and soft-fruits over an
area of 116.000 hectares.
In the Latvian S.S.R. the most import-
ant tasks are the development of the elec-
trical. and radio-engineering Industries,
instrument making, transport machine-
building, and the fishing industry.
29
r. " ' D r+
_ a
r-iifi7pd rn
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Capital investments in the republic's
national economy during 1959-65 will
amount to about 10,800 million roubles,
or twice as much as in the preceding
seven years.
The republic's gross industrial output
will increase more than 60 per cent, with
output of the engineering and metal-
working industries being more than
doubled. It is planned to build and recon-
struct a number of factories in thc
chemical, electrical engineering and
machine building industries. A big in-
crease is envisaged in the fishing fleet and
the Riga fishing port is to be enlarged.
The republic's agriculture will be
specialising in dairy cattle-breeding, pork
and bacon pig-breeding and in pedigree
livestock raising.
In the Kirghiz S.S.R. non-ferrous
metals, oil, gas, coal, and the light and
food industries will be further developed.
Capital investments in the republic's
economy will amount to 10,500 million
roubles, or 130 per cent more than in
the preceding seven years. Total indus-
trial output in the republic will increase
by 120 per cent.
The supply of electric power to the
SOVIET WOOL OUTPUT
In thousands of tons
548
1953
1958
1965
30
economy will be sharply increased. The
republic will continue to occupy a lead-
ing place in the Soviet Union for the
production of mercury and antimony
The output of oil will be trebled and
gas extraction will be organised on a
large scale. Enterprises of the engineer-
ing, building materials, light and food
industries will be constructed.
The republic's agriculture will special-
ise in the production of cotton, sugar
beet and meat, and the breeding of fine
wool and semi-fine wool sheep.
In the Tajik SS.R. it is planned to
develop further cotton growing, the light
and food industries, the building
materials industry, horticulture and viti-
culture; power facilities are being ex-
tended. The chemical and cement indus-
tries are being built up.
It is planned to invest 8,600 million
roubles in the republic's economy, 160
per cent more than in 1952-58. Total in-
dustrial output will rise by more than
80 per cent.
In agriculture the production of raw
cotton, primarily of fine staple varieties,
is to increase in 1965 by 30 per cent
compared with 1958, silk cocoons by ap-
proximately 50 per cent; meat 100 per
cent, milk 130 per cent and wool 40 per
cent.
In the Armenian SS.R. it is envisaged
to develop further the chemical industry
on the basis of utilising natural gas, to
develop precision machinery and instru-
ment making and also the food and light
industries, and to expand power facili-
ties.
Capital investments will amount to
12,000 million roubles in seven years.
120 per cent more than in 1952-58
Total industrial output will grow by ap-
proximately 120 per cent.
In agriculture the production of grapes
is to increase by approximately 180 per
cent in 1965 compared with 1958, fruit,
170 per cent, tobacco by 20 per cent, silk
cocoons 60 per cent, meat 70 per cent and
milk 60 per cent. The production of high
quality wines and cognacs will be in-
creased considerably.
In the Turkmen S.S.R. the oil, gas,
chemical, light and food industries will
be further developed.
About 15,700 million roubles are to be
allocated for developing the Republic's
economy, 140 per cent more than in
1952-58. The Republic's total industrial
output will be nearly doubled. The pro-
duction of oil will increase by 80 per
cent and gas by 370 per cent. The pro-
duction of fertilisers is being organised.
The output of cotton and silk fabrics and
leather footwear will rise sharply.
The Republic's agriculture will con-
tinue to specialise in the production of
cotton, particularly fine-staple varieties.
In the Estonian SS.R. the task is to
develop the shale, chemical, electric
power, machine-building, textile and fish
4. Increase in the Well-Being
industries, and increase the output of
ea
butter and mt.
Capital investments in the Republic's
economy arc envisaged at over 8,000
million roubles. or 80 per cent more than
in 1952-58. Total industrial output will
rise approximately 80 per cent. The out-
put of electric power will go up more
than 400 per cent.
The fishing fleet will be '.greatly de-
veloped and a fishing port in Tallinn will
be built to serve it.
Agriculture will continue to specialise
in pedigree dairy farming, the breeding
of pigs for meat and bacon.
if the Soviet People.
TILE law of development of Soviet
society is a continuous improvement
in the people's living standards on the
basis of the development of social pro-
duction and the raising of labour pro-
ductivity. Under socialism production
develops in the interests of the whole of
society, with a view to satisfying the
growing material and cultural needs of
all members of society, and the growth
of production leads to a steady improve-
ment in well-being of the entire people.
The decisive superiority of the socialist
system over the capitalist one is that
under socialism there takes place an ac-
celerated development of the productive
forces of society and the ensuring, as
distinct from capitalism, of a just dis-
tribution of the products of social labour
between all workers in the socialist
society. Functioning in the Soviet Union
is the socialist principle of distribution
according to labour, in keeping with its
quantity and quality, which gives to the
worker a personal material incentive in
the results of his labour and is an im-
portant stimulus in increasing the pro-
ductivity of labour and the growth of
production.
At the present stage of development,
when through the efforts of the Soviet
people a mighty industry and large-scale
agricultural production have been estab-
lished, there arc all the conditions for
our working class, collective-farm
peasantry, intelligentsia, for all the
Soviet people to live still better in the
near future, to meet more fully their
31
growing material and spiritual require-
ments.
Nourishment for the population will be
substantially improved, particularly by
such products as milk, butter, meat,
sugar, vegetables and fruit. In the
U.S.S.R. increased food production leads
to a continuous growth of consumption,
where an improved dict is achieved for
the entire population, for all the
nationalities of the Soviet Union without
exception.
There will be a plentiful supply for the
Soviet people of high-quality and beauti-
fully designed clothing and footwear. The
people's housing conditions will be
fundamentally improved by the imple-
mentation of a wide-scale housing pro-
gramme in towns, workers' settlements
and country districts. The production of
furniture and other household goods will
be considerably expanded. Great atten-
tion is to be paid to expanding produc-
tion and improving the quality of pro-
ducts and goods for children.
Provision is made for increased wages
and, in particular, a substantial increase
for low- and medium-paid sections of
workers and office employees. In the
coming seven-year period the state will
allocate large sums for the payment of
pensions and grants, for organising the
upbringing of children, for expanding
and improving public catering and reduc-
ing prices in this field.
The target figures for the development
of the national economy, which envisage
a steady rise in the material well-being
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MAJOR SOVIET
CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
in 1959-65
ON THE BASIS OF THE
SEVEN-YEAR PLAN
TARGET FIGURES
racnoyitrA
NEW COAL FIELDS
tufaHYDRoPowER,
STATIoms
Z ENairteERING
0?? GUILSING MATERIALS
41Z0 TIMBER.
TODD IHDusygy
LIGHT INDUSTRY
NEW RAILWAYS
ELECTRIC RAILWAYS
MEW WATERWAYS
GAS PlPel.witS
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.1
GROWTH in the
NATIONAL INCOME
of the USSR 3677.3643
(1913=100)
2208
1913
'Ai IL'
IMO 1958 1965
and the cultural level of the people of
the U.S.S.R., serve as a fresh and vivid
expression of the ceaseless concern of
the Communist Party and the Soviet
Government for the welfare of the Soviet
people.
The national income, a truly people's
income in the U.S.S.R., is used for a
steady rise in people's living standards
and for expanding socialist production.
The national income will increase by 62
to 65 per cent in 1965 as compared to
1958, and with its increase a further rise
in public consumption will be effected.
The consumption fund will go up by 60
to 63 per cent in the seven-year period.
In the seven-year period the number of
factory and office workers in all branches
of the national economy is to increase
approximately by 12 million people, or
by 22 per cent. The aggregate number
of factory and office workers in the
national economy will reach 66.5 million
people by the end of the seven-year
period.
The real Income of factory and office
workers per worker will rise on an
average by 40 per cent as a result of the
increase in wages, pensions and grants
34
alongside the further price reductions in
public catering.
On the basis of an increase in agri-
cultural production and higher labour
productivity the real incomes of the col-
lective farmers too will increase by not
less than 40 per cent, mostly due to the
growth of common husbandry of the col-
lective farms.
The overhauling of wages of factory
and office workers in all branches of the
national economy, started in recent years,
should be completed in the coming seven-
year period together with a general in-
crease in wages for factory and office
workers. The wages of low-paid workers
in the course of the seven-year period
will be raised from 270-350 roubles to
500-600 roubles a month.
A further improvement of working
conditions, industrial hygiene and safe!)
engineering at enterprises and construc-
tion projects will be ensured in 1959-
1965. The widespread introduction of
new techniques, mechanisa,i( .1 and auto-
mation in production will t : ,Jamentally
FACTORY and OFFICE
WORKERS
engaged in the
National Economy of
the USSR
(millions)
6615
1913
1948
1958 1985
?
change working conditions for factory
and office workers.
Larger funds will be allocated for free
education and advanced training, free
medical aid, sanatoria and rest homes.
state social insurance benefits for factory
and office workers, state grants to un-
married mothers and mothers of large
families, state pensions, the upkeep of
homes for the aged, holiday pay for
factory and office workers, and for other
payments and grants to working people.
State expenditure for the above-men-
tioned purposes in 1965 will amount to
approximately 360,000 million roubles as
compared to 215,000 million roubles in
1958.
The pension system will be further im-
proved. In connection with the increase
in the minimum wage it is planned to
effect, in 1966, a new rise in minimum
pensions to about 450-500 roubles a
month for old-age pensioners in towns,
and correspondingly boost the minimum
in rural localities, and also to increase
minimum pensions for the disabled and
in case of the loss of a breadwinner.
In keeping with the decisions of the
Twentieth C.P.S.U. Congress it is in-
tended to complete, in 1960, the transfer
of factory and office workers to a seven-
hour working day, and of workers of
leading trades in the coal and mining
industries occupied in underground
work to a six-hour working day, and
also to complete in 1962 the transfer or
factory and office workers with a seven-
hour working day to a forty-hour work-
ing week. Starting from 1964 there will
be a gradual transfer to a thirty-five or
thirty-hour working week, i.e. for
workers engaged in underground work,
and on work involving harmful labour
conditions to a thirty-hour working week
(five working days of six hours each with
two full days off) and a thirty-five-hour
working week (five working days of seven
hours each with two full days oil) for the
rest of the workers. All these measures
are to be completed by 1966-68 The
transfer to a thirty- to thirty-five-hour
working week, with the present one full
day off, means introducing correspond-
ingly a five- or six-hour working day.
Since for the majority of factory and
office workers it is more convenient to
have six- or seven-hour working days
with two full days off each week instead
of a five- or six-hour working day in a
six-day working week, it is intended to
introduce a five-day working week, I.e.
establish two full days off each week.
It is intended to make this change-
over to a shorter working day and fewer
working days in a week without reducing
wages.
As a result of this, the U.S.S.R. will
have the shortest working day and the
shortest working week in the world.
As industrial and agricultural produc-
tion and the income of the population
grow, the volume of retail trade turn-
over through state and co-operative
trading organisations will rise in the
seven-year period approximately 62 per
cent (in comparable prices).
Tho sales of livestock products to the
population in the seven-year period will
increase 120 per cent, vegetable oils 90
per cent, fruit including citrus 200 per
cent. Sugar production will rise sharply;
by the end of the seven-year period per
capita output of sugar in the Soviet
Union will reach 41 to 44 kilograms a
year as against 26 kilograms in 1958.
There will be a substantial increase in
sales to (ho population of important
manufactured goods, such as fabrics,
clothing, underwear and footwear.
There will be bigger sales to the popu-
lation of cultural and welfare and house-
hold commodities, particularly those
making the work of housewives easier:
washing machines, vacuum cleaners, elec-
tric floor-polishers, electric irons and re-
frigerators. In comparison with the pre-
vious seven-year period sales of refrigera-
tors to the population will rise by 480 per
cent, washing machines and accessories
810 per cent, sewing machines 110 per
cent, television sets 360 per cent, radio
receivers and radiolas 80 per cent, motor-
cycles and motor scooters 170 per cent.
To meet the demand for individual
housing and also for the construction of
farm buildings at the collective farms it
is intended to launch large-scale trade
in building materials. The sales to the
population of standard-type houses will
rise by nearly ten times.
It is planned to build in 1959-65 in
towns and workers' settlements, at state
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farms, repair and technical service
stations, and in timber settlements a total
of 650 to 60 million square metres of
housing, or nearly 15 million flats, which
is 130 per cent more than the number
completed in the previous seven-year
period. Close to 7 million dwellings will
be put up in rural areas by the collective
farmers and rural intelligentsia them-
selves. Housing facilities in towns and
workers' settlements by the end of the
seven-year period will increase by 60 per
cent. Economical and well-appointed
flats to be occupied by one family each
will be built in urban and rural districts.
It is intended to make a big improve-
ment in communal and shopping facili-
ties in the 1959-65 period. The output of
public catering establishments will be
more than doubled.
It is proposed to expand considerably
the system of catering establishments and
improve their work, and also to reduce
prices at catering establishments. This
will help in particular the budgets of
working men's families and make work
easier for millions of women. There will
also be a reduction of prices on some
other commodities.
A further improvement in safeguard-
ing the people's health is envisaged.
Capital investments earmarked for the
construction of public health institutions,
social maintenance, physical culture and
sport and also for the medical industry,
will amount to over 25,000 million
roubles. This will enable, through new
construction, accommodation in hospitals
to be doubled in 1959-65 and the accom-
modation in nurseries to be increased by
more than 150 per cent in comparison
with the increase in the previous seven-
year period.
The medical industry will be consider-
ably developed, particularly the produc-
tion of anti-biotics and other modern
effective curative means.
With the purpose of creating more
favourable conditions for aged citizens,
it is planned to organise large-scale con-
struction of homes for the aged both in
town and country.
S. Questions of Communist Upbringing, Public Education, the
Development of Science and Culture.
OR the transition to communism
what is needed is not only a powerful
material and technical base, but also a
highly conscious attitude on the part of
all citizens of socialist society.
The realisation of the sweeping plan
of communist construction calls for a
decisive improvement in all the work of
educating Soviet people, raising their
communist consciousness and activity,
forming a new man in the spirit of collec-
tivism and diligence, with an under-
standing of his social duty, in the spirit
of socialist internationalism and patriot-
ism, in the spirit of the observance of the
lofty moral principles of the new society.
Special attention must be paid to bring-
ing up the rising generation in the spirit
of communism, to bringing education
closer to life, to combining instruction
with productive work, to mastering the
scientific knowledge accumulated by man-
kind, to overcoming the survivals of
capitalism in the consciousness of people.
It is planned, in the years 1959-65,
considerably to develop general second-
_r-
36
ary-school education in town and
country, to extend evening and corres-
pondence higher and specialised second-
my education, and to increase the net-
work of evening schools for working
youth in town and country. The number
of pupils in the primary and secondary
schools in 1965 will be increased to 38-40
million as against 30 million in 1958.
The system of boarding schools will be
greatly developed, as they arc one of the
most important forms for bringing up
the younger generation. In 1965 the num-
ber of pupils in these schools will be no
less than 2,500,000.
The number of children in kinder-
gartens will increase from 2,280,000 in
1958 to 4,200,000.
The measures outlined by the Central
Committee of the C.P.S.U. for a radical
improvement in the entire system of
public education mark a new stage in the
development of the Soviet school. Educa-
tion is faced with the cardinal task of
preparing the rising generation for life,
for useful labour, and of inculcating in
KINDERGARTENS in the
Soviet Union
number of children 4200
attending, in
thousands
1958 1965
our youth a deep respect for the
principles of socialist society.
It is planned to carry out the following
measures in the period 1959-65:
To effect a transition from seven-
year to eight-year universal, compul-
sory education.
To reorganise the network of ten-
year schools (their upper forms) Into
various types of urban and rural
secondary labour schools, the pupils
of which, by combining study with
work at factories, on collective farms
and in special workshops, receive both
a complete secondary general and poly-
technical education and a special train-
ing for a mass trade, depending on the
local needs in personnel.
Considerably to extend the network
of city and village schools which pro-
vide their pupils with a secondary
school education while they continue to
In connection with the tasks for de-
veloping the national economy and cul-
ture, it is planned further to extend and
improve the training of specialists with a
higher and secondary specialised educa-
tion. During the years 1959-65 the higher
educational institutions will graduate
2,300,000 specialists, as against 1.700,000
in the period of 1952-58, that is, 40 per
cent more. The number of engineers
trained for industry, construction, trans-
port and communications will increase
by 90 per cent, and that of agricultural
specialists by 50 per cent as compared
with the preceding seven-year period. The
greatest increase in the number of engi-
neers graduated will take place in the
fields of chemical technology, automa-
tion, computing engineering, radio-elec-
tronics, and other branches of new
technique. Over 4 million people will be
admitted to the secondary specialised
schools in the period 1959-65. including
those who study while working.
During the coming seven-year period
the necessary conditions will be created
for an even more rapid development of
all branches of science, for the making
of important theoretical studies and new
important scientific discoveries. It is with
this aim in view that a broad programme
of scientific research is planned, and the
concentration of scientific forces and
means on the most important investiga-
tions, such as are of theoretical and
practical significance. The state allocates
huge sums of money for the construction
of new scientific institutions, and the
equipment of institutes and laboratories
with the most modern instruments. Soviet
scientists who have penetrated the secret
of the atom and thermonuclear reactions,
and who have created artificial Earth
satellites and a man-made planet of the
solar system will enrich our science with
even greater discoveries and achieve-
ments.
The physical sciences occupy the lead-
ing place in natural science, as the ad-
vance of associated sciences and of
national economy depends on their suc-
cessful development. The efforts of Soviet
physicists will be concentrated on the
solution of problems of cosmic rays,
nuclear reactions, and semi-conductors.
In the field of the chemical sciences, a
most important task is the utmost exten-
sion of theoretical studies which con-
tribute to the development of new, im-
proved technological processes and the
creation of synthetic materials possessing
properties that satisfy the demands of
modern technique.
The development of biology is a neces-
sary theoretical prerequisite for the
advance of medicine as well as for the
agricultural sciences. The importance of
the group of biological sciences will rise
especially as the achievements of physics
and chemistry are used in biology. In
this connection such branches of science
as biochemistry, agrochcmistry, bio-
physics, microbiology, virusology, selee-
37
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tion, and genetics will play an important
part.
In the field of the technical sciences the
chief goal of investigation is to ensure
major qualitative advances in the effec-
tive use of implements of labour, raw
and other materials, fuel and electric
energy, in raising labour productivity,
reducing production costs and in improv-
ing the quality of output while simul-
taneously increasing efficiency and labour
safety.
The network of scientific institutions
will be considerably extended, particul-
arly in the eastern parts of the country,
and the training of scientific personnel
will be increased, especially in the most
important fields of science.
The cinema, press, radio and television
will be greatly developed in the seven-
year period.
It is planned to bring the total num-
ber of cinema projectors up to 118,00?-
120,000 by the end of 1965. This will
make it possible to provide every state
and collective farm with a cinema pro-
jector.
It is planned to increase considerably
the number of public libraries and clubs.
The further development of physical cul-
ture, sports and tourism will be ensured.
Approximately 100 new TV centres and
TV stations will be built. The number of
radio-reception points will increase by
almost 30 million in 1965, which will
include 12f million TV sets. In 1965 the
number of books published will increase
to 1,600 million copies, the number of
magazines printed will be more than
doubled and the annual circulation of
newspapers will rise over 50 per cent
6. International Signfficance of the Seven-Year Plan for
Development of the National Economy of the USSR.
THE experience of the construction
I of socialism and communism in our
country has international significance. V.
I. Lenin foresaw that the Soviet Union
would influence the entire course of
world development primarily by its eco-
nomic construction.
The realisation of the Seven-Year Plan
for the Development of the National
Economy (1959-65) will be a new highly
important stage in the peaceful economic
competition of tho two systems?
socialist and capitalist. This plan is an
expression of the Soviet Union's con-
sistent policy of peace, of the Leninist
principle of peaceful co-existence as
opposed to the aggressive policy of the
imperialist countries.
As a result of the fulfilment of the
Seven-Year Plan, the Soviet Union's
"per capita" industrial output will be
higher than the present output in the
most developed capitalist countries of
Europe?Britain and West Germany?
and will advance to first place in
Europe.
If the pace of industrial growth in the
U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. is considered,
the Soviet Union will, for the gross out-
put of some most important items, sur-
pass, and for other items approach the
38
the
present level of industrial output in the
United States. By that time, our gross
and per capita output of the most im-
portant agricultural products will exceed
the present level in the United States.
The superiority of the U.S.S.R. in the
rate of growth of production will create
a real basis for overtaking and surpass-
ing the United States within approxi-
mately five years following 1965, in the
level of per capita output. Thus, by this
time, or perhaps even earlier, the Soviet
Union will have moved to first place
in the world both in gross and in per
capita output, which will ensure its
people the highest living standards in
the world. It will be an epoch-making
victory for socialism in peaceful competi-
tion with capitalism.
Tho international significance of the
Seven-Year Plan lies in the fact that its
fulfilment means a further consolidation
of the might of the world system of
socialism.
The fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan
will bring about a considerable increase
in the share of the Soviet Union and the
entire system of socialism in world in-
dustrial output. Whereas in 1917 the
share of the Soviet country in world in-
dustrial output was less than 3 per cent.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
and in 1937. about 10 per cent, in 1958
the Soviet Union's share in world output
has reached almost 20 per cent. As to the
socialist countries, they account for
about a third of the world's population
and over a third of the entire industrial
output of the world. The socialist coun-
tries account for almost half of the
world's grain output and 43 per cent of
cotton.
Estimates show that as a result of
the fulfilment and overfulfilment of the
Seven-Year Plan for the Development
of the National Economy of the
USS.11, as well as of the high rate of
economic development of the People's
Democracies, the world socialist
system will turn out more than half of
the entire industrial production of the
world. [Diagram on back cover.- -Ed.l
the foreign trade of the Soviet Union.
The U.S.S.R. can, and is prepared to,
develop economic contacts and trade
with all countries.
The Seven-Year Plan for the Develop-
ment of the National Economy of the
USS.R., the successes of the construc-
tion of socialism in the U.S.S.R. and all
socialist countries lay bare the inven-
tions of our enemies to the effect that
socialist revolution brings with it the
destruction of civilisation. As a matter of
fact, only under socialism begins a rapid,
really mass movement forward in all
spheres of public and private life, a rapid
growth of material production, an im-
provement in the well-being of the work-
ing people, an unheard-of flowering of
science and culture. Only the socialist
revolution enabled the Soviet Union to
turn from a backward, semi-literate
country into an advanced, industrial
power setting before itself a perfectly
practicable task of advancing, within a
historically short period of time, to first
place in the world in guaranteeing the
material and cultural well-being of its
citizens.
The successes of the Soviet Union and
other socialist countries, far from threat-
ening anyone, are a guarantee of the pre-
servation of peace and the security of
the peoples.
In the present international situation,
poisoned as it is by imperialist provoca-
tions, the arms drive and the threats of
the most terrible, destructive war, the
Seven-Year Plan for the Development of
the National Economy of the Soviet
Union is a powerful means of preserving
and strengthening peace.
Peace is indispensable for the fulfil-
ment and overfulfilment of the colossal
tasks set in the new stage of communist
construction. The Seven-Year Plan is
further proof that in the Soviet Union
and in the entire world socialist system
there are no, nor can there be any, social
forces interested in expansionism, in in-
ternational tension, in predatory aggres-
sive wars.
The Seven-Year Plan is a concrete offer
of the Soviet Union to the capitalist
world to compete in peaceful economic
pursuits, for the Soviet Union is against
a competition in the arms race.
Thus absolute superiority of the world
system of socialism over the capitalist
system in the production of material
values, the decisive sphere of human
activity, will be ensured.
The Seven-Year Plan for the Develop-
ment of the National Economy of the
U.S.S.R. opens up new, truly remarkable
prospects for the development of the
economic, scientific and technical co-
operation of socialist states, which will
help to bring out more fully all the ad-
vantages inherent in the world system
of socialism and will speed up economic
progress in every socialist country.
Tho Soviet Union is constantly ex-
tending its international economic con-
tacts. Whereas in 1946 the Soviet Union
traded with forty countries, at the present
time trade is conducted with more than
seventy countries.
In 1965, the Soviet Union's trade turn-
over with socialist countries will register
a more than 50 per cent increase over
1958. The Soviet Union's economic ties
with economically under-developed coun-
tries are growing: in 1957 the Soviet
Union's trade with them was more than
five times the 1953 level. The Soviet
Union expects that its economic contacts
with these countries will steadily con-
tinue to grow.
The economic programme of peaceful
construction in the U.S.S.R. for 1959-65
opens up broad prospects for developing
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The realisation of the Seven-Year
Plan will bring about the further con-
solidation of the economic and de-
fensive power, of the unity and soli-
darity of the world socialist system,
will greatly strengthen the positions of
peace-loving forces throughout the
world, put up new insurmountable
obstacles In the path of the war-
mongers and will be a new proof of
the correctness of the Marxist-Leninist
tenet of the Twentieth Congress of the
C.PS.U. that war can be averted In the
present epoch.
The economic and political results of
the competition between the two systems
and the prospects of their further de-
velopment convincingly testify that the
onward march of socialism is irresistible,
that its victory in peaceful competition
with capitalism is inevitable.
7. The Communist Party?the Leading and Organising Force
of the Soviet People in the Struggle for the Victory of
Communism.
TuB great successes in the develop-
ment of socialist industry, agriculture,
science and culture, in increasing the
well-being of the working people, arc
the result of the tireless creative work of
the Soviet people and the enormous
political and organisational work of the
Communist Party.
As a result of steadily implementing
the epoch-making decisions of the Twen-
tieth Congress of the CPS.U., the lead-
ing role of the Party in the struggle for
the fulfilment of plans for communist
construction and in the state, social, eco-
nomic and cultural life of the country
has grown still more, and the unity and
cohesion of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union have become stronger. The
Party and the people have come closer,
the Party's contacts with the people have
extended and strengthened immeasur-
ably. and the Party has acquired rich ex-
perience in its political and organisa-
tional activities among all sections of the
working people.
In solving problems of communist
construction, our Party and its Central
Committee constantly seek the advice
of the workers, collective farmers and in-
telligentsia. rely on their experience and
knowledge, and take notice of their sug-
gestions and critical remarks. Such
measures as the nation-wide discussion of
draft bilk on important pmblems of
state, economic and cultural development,
the convening of conferences of workers
in various branches of the national
economy, science and culture, and
appeals to the working people on vital
40
problems of the country's life, have be-
come part and parcel of the Party's work
and have strengthened still more its ties
with the people.
Implementing the decisions of the
Twentieth Congress of the GPS.U. and
relying on the great power of the people,
the Party has carried out in recent years
radical measures for improving the
management of the national economy.
Chief among these measures are: re-
organisation of the management of in-
dustry and construction, the organisation
of Economic Councils in the economic
administrative areas, the extension of the
rights of the Union Republics, local
organs and enterprises, the reorganisation
and strengthening of planning bodies,
the drawing up of long-range national
economic plans, the re-organisation of the
machine-and-tractor stations and the im-
plementation of measures for the further
development of the collective farm
system, the change in the system of pro-
curement and the fixing of uniform
prices for farm produce, the extension of
the rights and the re-organisation of the
work of the trade unions, and so on.
All this signifies the triumph of the
Leninist principles of democratic central-
ism, ensuring the proper combination of
centralised management of communist
construction with the maximum develop-
ment of the creative activity and initia-
tive of the working people.
Creatively developing Marxism-Lenin-
ism. the Party wages a resolute struggle
against those who cling to old outmoded
forma and methods of work, who are in-
fected with conservatism and who resist
the implementation of the Party's
Leninist general line. The June plenum
of the Central Committee of the C.PS.U.
exposed and defeated the anti-Party
group of Malcnkov, Kaganovich, Molo-
tov, Bulganin, and Shcpilov, which had
fought against the Party's Leninist
general line, against the political line
adopted at the Twentieth C.P.S.U. Con-
gress, against the leading role of the
Party, and had taken the path of fac-
tional, splitting activities. The anti-Party
group came out against such urgent and
vitally important measures as the de-
velopment of virgin and long-fallow
lands, the reorganisation of national eco-
nomic planning, especially in agricultural
production, the reorganisation of the
management of industry and construction,
against the Party's measures aimed at
further raising the working people's well-
being, and also against the Party's foreign
policy which is aimed at relaxing inter-
national tension, consolidating peace, de-
veloping co-operation and strengthening
friendship between the peoples. Having
cast the anti-Party group aside from its
path, our Party has consolidated still
more the Leninist unity of its ranks and
rallied them still closer under the great
banner of Marxism-Leninism.
The further strengthening of our state,
the intensification of its economic,
organisational, cultural and educational
activities are important prerequisites for
the successful fulfilment of the Seven-
Year Plan for the Development of the
National Economy. In recent years the
Party and the Government have put
through a number of important measures
ensuring the further development of
Soviet democracy and the strengthening
of socialists law.
Only a socialist, a really popular, de-
mocracy is capable of bringing out the
talents of the working people and pro-
viding an outlet for the inexhaustible re-
serves of the people's creative energy.
As our society advances towards com-
munism, the activities of the Soviets of
Working People's Deputies in guiding
economic and cultural construction ac-
quire ever greater scope. The Supreme
Soviets and the Councils of Ministers of
the Union and Autonomous Republics
the territorial, regional, city, district,
village and rural Soviets should deal daily
with important problems concerning the
work of industrial enterprises and con-
struction projects, and of collective and
State farms in fulfilling the targets of the
Seven-Year Plan, they must ensure the
fullest use of all possibilities and local
resources for boosting production, they
must raise the well-being and culture of
the people by the fulfilment of construc-
tion plans for housing, cultural and pub-
lic services; they must develop and sup-
port the creative initiative of the people.
An important part in mobilising the
working people for the successful carry-
ing out of the plan for the development
of the Soviet Union's national economy
in 1959-65 belongs to the trade unions,
they being the organisation with the
largest membership, uniting in their ranks
over 50 million workers and office em-
ployees.
The struggle for the implementation of
the great programme of communist con-
struction outlined in the Seven-Year
Plan represents the most vital, the most
important task of trade union organisa-
tions. They arc called upon to mobilise
the working class and all working people
for the fulfilment and overfulfilment of
the state plan at each enterprise, to de-
velop still further socialist emulation.
which is a tried and tested method of
communist construction in our country.
It is necessary to develop such forms of
attracting the masses to industrial
management as permanent production
conferences, meetings of workers, mana-
gerial personnel and trade union func-
tionaries.
The trade unions must continue to
improve their work in the field of hous-
ing and everyday services for workers
and office employees, to improve their
supervision over labour protection in in-
dustry, the fulfilment of housing construc-
tion plans, the distribution of housing,
the work of shops and catering establish-
ments and medical and public services.
The Leninist Young Communist
League, which has a membership of 18
million young people, has always been
the Party's true assistant in carrying out
plans of communist construction. In
, recent years the Y.C.L. and the entire
41
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Soviet youth have played an outstanding
role in the solution of such tasks of
great importance to the state as developing the virgin and long-fallow lands, con-
structing important enterprises in the
country's East, and accelerating the
construction of enterprises in the iron
and steel, coal, and chemical industries.
This is a manifestation of the militant
spirit, ideological firmness and com-
munist consciousness of Soviet youth
who wholeheartedly respond to the
Party's appeals. The Party and the people
highly value the heroic labour of the
young men and women of our country.
At this new stage in the development
of our country, the Y.C.L. and the entire
Soviet youth are confronted with still
more majestic tasks. The great pro-
42
gramme of building communism opens
up enormous vistas for the greater
creative initiative of young men and
women.
Communism presupposes the all-round
spiritual and physical development of
man. Consequently, special attention
should be paid to the formation of a
communist outlook in young people, to
the rearing of active, conscious builders
of communist society.
As a result of the triumph of socialism
the Soviet Union has entered a new his-
torical stage of gradual transition from
socialism to communism.
Outlining great plans for building com-
munism, the Party is confident that this
time, too, they will be successfully
carried out.
RESOLUTION
of the
21st CONGRESS of the
COMMUNIST PARTY
of the
SOVIET UNION
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Resolution of the 21st Congress of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union
On N. S. Khrushchov's Report on the Target Figures for the
Economic Development of the USSR from 1959 to 1965
THE 21st Congress of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union has been
convened at an exceedingly important
moment in history when, as a result of
deep-going transformations in all spheres
of social life and on the basis of the
triumph of socialism, the Soviet Union
has embarked upon a new period in its
development?the period of the com-
prehensive building of communist society.
The great goal of building communism,
for which many generations of people
have striven, is now being reached in
practice by the Soviet people under the
leadership of the Communist Party.
The programme for building com-
munism in the Soviet Union?the pro-
gramme for a new and mighty advance
in the economy, culture and the material
wellbeing of the people?is on a vast
scale unparalleled in history. The Seven-
Year Plan for the development of the
national economy of the U.S.S.R. is a
concrete embodiment of the Leninist
general line of the party at the present
stage.
The congress expresses its profound
satisfaction at the course and results of
the pre-congress discussion on tbe theses
of the report by Comrade N. S. Kbrush-
chov on the target figures for the econo-
mic development of the U.S.S.R. from
1959 to 1965. This discussion developed
into a mighty demonstration of the
creative initiative and activity of the
Soviet people and of their solidarity with
their tried and tested leader?the Com-
munist Party. All the Soviet people have
unanimously approved the target figures
for the development of the national
ceonomy, have welcomed the Seven-Year
Plan as their own vital concern and have
expressed their complete readiness to ful-
fil and overfulfil its targets.
The 21st Congress of the C.P.S.U.
resolves:
To approve the theses and report by
Comrade N. S. Khrushchov on the tar-
get figures for the economic develop-
ment of the U.S.S.R. from 1959 to
1965;
To endorse the target figures for the
economic development of the U.S.S.R.
from 1959 to 1965, with the amend-
ments and addenda introduced on the
basis of the discussion at the congress
and during the pre-congress discussion
on the theses;
To instruct the central committee of
the C.P.S.U. and the U.S.S.R. Council
of Ministers to introduce into the
annual plans for the development of
the national economy of the U.S.S.R.,
drawn up on the basis of the target
figures endorsed by the congress, the
necessary amendments dictated by the
course of the U.S.S.R.'s economic
development.
The period that has gone by since the
20th Congress of the party has been one
of the most important in the history of
the Communist Party and the Soviet
state. In carrying out the decisions of
that congress and of subsequent plenary
meetings of the central committee of the
C.P.S.U.. the Soviet people have achieved
outstanding successes in their advance
along the road to communism. That
period has shown the tremendous impor-
tance which the decisions of the 20th
Party Congress have had for communist
construction in the USS.R. and for the
whole international communist and work-
ing-class movement, and for strengthening
world peace.
The 21st Congress of the C.P.S.U.
wholly and completely approves the
45
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1.1??????11101600i1.??.e......
work of the central committee and the
important measures it has taken in home
and foreign policy. The party's major
decisions on reorganising the management
of industry and construction, on accele-
rating the development of the chemical
industry, on reorganising the machine
and tractor stations and further develop-
ing the collective-farm system, on increas-
ing the output of agricultural produce,
on establishing closer ties between the
school and life and further developing
the system of public education arc of im-
Mense importance for developing the
economy, promoting the advance of cul-
ture, improving the wellbeing of the
people, and for the building of com-
munism.
The might of the Soviet state and its
International prestige have increased still
further as a result of the Leninist line
of the central committee and the Soviet
government and of the selfless work of
the Soviet people.
The entire activity of the central com-
mittee of the party has been based on
the creative application of Marxist-
Leninist theory in solving the tasks of
communist construction and has been
built up on the. basis of a profound
study of the experience of the masses of
the people and constant and close ties
with the life of the people, on an ability
to find the main link in the chain of
historical development, to open up pros-
pects, to mobilise the masses of the
people and boldly and resolutely
to do away with everything obsolete that
hinders the forward movement.
The congress approves the decisions of
the June (1957) plenary meeting of the
central committee which, unanimously
supported by the whole party and the
entire people, exposed and ideologically
routed the anti-party group of Malenkov,
Kaganovich, Molotov, Bulganin and
Shepilov. Resorting to the basest
methods of factional struggle, this group
tried to shatter the party's unity and to
divert the party and the country from
the Leninist path. It opposed all the
most important measures taken in accor-
dance with the decisions of the 20th Con-
gress of the C.P.S.U., measures which
made it possible to achieve big successes
in developing industry and agriculture
and improving the wellbeing of the
46
people, and in foreign policy?to ease
international tension and strengthen
the cause of peace. The central com-
mittee acted correctly when it emphati-
cally condemned and cast aside the des-
picable group of factionalists and split-
ters. Exposing and ideologically defeat-
ing the anti-party group, the party rallied
still more closely round the central com-
mittee under the banner of Marxism-
Leninism.
The Communist Party has always
triumphed, and will continue to triumph,
thanks to its loyalty to Marxism-
Leninism, the unity and solidarity of its
ranks and its unbreakable ties with the
people. In the Leninist party the Soviet
people sec their tried and tested leader
and teacher, and in its wise leadership
they see the guarantee of the further
successes of communism.
It is with profound satisfaction and
revolutionary pride that the 21st Con-
gress of the Communist Party sums up
the great gains of the Soviet people. The
chief result of the heroic struggle and
labour of the Soviet people is the new
society they have established?socialism,
with its corresponding political system?
the Soviet socialist state.
Our country has become a great
socialist power with a highly developed
economy and advanced science and cul-
ture. For volume of industrial out-
put the U.S.S.R. now holds first place
in Europe and second place in the world.
In 1958 total industrial output was 36
times greater than in 1913, while the out-
put of means of production?the basis of
the whole of the national economy?has
increased 83 times over, and the output
of the engineering and metal-working
industries, 240 times over. In 1958 our
country produced nearly 55 million tons
of steel, extracted 113 million tons of
oil, mined 496 million tons of coal and
generated 233,000 million kilowatt-hours
of electric power. Substantial successes
have been achieved in developing the
light and food industries. As compared
with 1913, output of consumer goods had
increased nearly 14-fold in 1958, while
over 45 times more articles were pro-
duced for household and cultural pur-
poses. Today 170 per cent, more con-
sumer goods are being produced than in
1940.
The tremendous scale of industrial out-
put and the unparalleled rate of indus-
trial development have been attained
thanks to the advantages of the socialist
system of economy, combined with the
utilisation of the latest achievements of
science and engineering and the country-
wide socialist emulation movement. On
this basis labour productivity is rising
continuously in all branches of the
national economy. In 1958 labour pro-
ductivity in industry was 10 times greater
than in 1913 and 2.6 times greater than
in 1940, although the length of the work-
ing day had been reduced.
Side by side with the rapid growth of
socialist industry, agriculture is also
developing successfully. The party has
fearlessly and sharply criticised mistakes
and shortcomings in the guidance of
agriculture in past years, has discarded
everything that was blocking the develop-
ment of collective and state farm pro-
duction and has outlined a programme
for bringing about a rapid advance in
agriculture. The measures to further the
development of agriculture drawn up and
carried out by the party and the Soviet
people have brought our country remark-
able fruits. In 1958 the country procured
3,500 million poods' of grain, i.e., 1,600
million poods more than in 1953. The
development of tens of millions of hec-
tares of new land has given the country
thousands of millions of poods of addl.-
tional grain. In the past five years grain
production has increased by 39 per cent
as compared with the previous annual
volume. Considerable successes have been
achieved in the production of other crops,
particularly sugar beet and cotton, and in
developing socialised animal husbandry.
The Soviet state has a powerful indus-
try, developed in an all-round way, and
a highly mechanised agriculture. The
country's social wealth and the standard
of living and cultural level of the people
are rising continuously on the basis of
the general advance of the socialist
economy. In Soviet years the national
income has increased 15 times over per
head of the population. As compared
with 1940, the real incomes of the
workers had almost doubled in 1958,
while the real incomes of the farmers
' About 561 million tons. 62 poods = one ton
per working person had more than
doubled.
In pursuance of the decisions of the
20th Congress of the CP-S.U. such im-
portant measures were carried out as
raising the wages of the lower-paid cate-
gories of factory and other workers,
shortening the working day on Satur-
days and on the eve of holidays, intro-
ducing a shorter working day for the
factory and other workers of a number
of branches of heavy industry, establish-
ing a six-hour and four-hour working
day for juveniles, and increasing social
insurance benefits for the people; ma-
ternity leave has been extended and
pensions for factory workers and other
employees have been increased. The
Soviet state is allocating increasing sums
of money to satisfy the material and
cultural requirements of the people.
The Communist Party has educated
millions of new people?socially con-
scious builders of communism. This is a
most remarkable achievement of the
socialist system.
In the Soviet Union the culture of all
the nations and nationalities is really
flourishing and unlimited opportunities
have been created for the all-round and
free development of science, engineer-
ing, literature and the arts. The launch-
ing of the world's first earth satellites
and of the first artificial planet, which
is revolving round the Sun, is a strik-
ing expression of the high industrial and
technical level of our country and of the
creative genius of the Soviet people.
With its magnificent victories in scientific
and engineering thought, the Soviet
Union has opened a new era in the cog-
nition of the world. The far-reaching
importance of these victories is that they
have demonstrated the mighty creative
forces of socialism, which work in the
interests of mankind and of its progress
and prosperity. All Soviet people take
great patriotic pride in their country,
which is advancing at the head of
world scientific and technical progress
and boldly paving the way into the
future.
The historic gains of the Soviet people
in the economy and culture and the
measures of the party and the govern-
ment that have been carried out in re-
cent years have led to a further consoli-
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111
dation of the Soviet system and of its
firm foundation?the alliance between
the working class and the peasantry.
The friendship and political unity of
all the fraternal peoples of the Soviet
Union have become stronger than ever
before. The Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics is setting the whole world an
example of a communist community of
free and equal peoples.
The Soviet Union. which has blazed
the trail of socialism for mankind, has
reached a level in productive forces,
socialist production relations and cultu-
ral development that enables the build-
ing of a communist society to be started
on a broad front.
II
The 21st Congress of the C.P.S.U.
considers that in the coming seven years
the principal tasks of the party are the
following;
In the economic field?all-round de-
velopment of the productive forces in
our country and, on the basis of priority
expansion of heavy industry, the
achievement of a level of production in
all branches of the economy which will
enable a decisive step to be taken to-
wards the establishment of the material
and technical basis of communism and
the Soviet Union's triumph in the peace-
ful economic competition with the capi-
talist countries to be ensured. The
increase in the country's economic
potential, further technical progress in all
spheres of the economy and the con-
tinuous growth of the productivity of
social labour must secure a substantial
rise in the standard of living.
In the political field?further consoli-
dation of the Soviet socialist system, the
unity and solidarity of the Soviet people,
development of Soviet democracy and
of the activity and initiative of the broad
masses of the people in the building of
communism, extension of the functions
of public bodies in matters of state im-
portance, enhancement of the organisa-
tional and educational role of the party
and the socialist state, and the all-out
strengthening of the alliance between
the workers and the peasants and of the
friendship of the peoples of the U.S.S.R.
In the ideological field?intensification
of the ideological and educational work
of the party, the raising of the level of
communist consciousness of the working
people, and particularly of the rising
generation. instilling in them a commun-
ist approach to work and developing the
spirit of Soviet patnotism and interna-
tionalism, eliminating survivals of capi-
talism from the minds of people and
combating bourgeois ideology.
In International relations?consistent
pursuance of a foreign policy aimed at
preserving and consolidating world peace
and international security on the basis
of Lenin's principle of the peaceful co-
existence of countries with different
social systems; implemenuition of a
policy aimed at putting an end to the
cold war and easing international ten-
sion; all-out strengthening of the world
socialist system and the community of
fraternal peoples.
The fundamental problem of the com-
ing seven years is to make the most of
the time factor in socialism's peaceful
economic competition with capitalism.
Fast rates and the necessary proportions
must be ensured in the development of
the national economy.
Attaching primary importance to the
development of industry, and heavy in-
dustry in particular. the 21st Congress of
the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union considers it necessary to make
provision in the Seven-Year Plan for in-
creasing total industrial output by about
80 per cent.: in Group A (output of
means of production) by 85-88 per cent,
and in Group B (output of consumer
goods) by 62-65 per cent. In industry
as a whole the average annual increment
in gross output is to amount to about
8.6 per ccnt, in the 1959-65 period: in
Group A to 9.3 per cent, and in Group B
to about 7.3 per cent.
The congress considers it necessary
that :
Provision be made in the Seven-Year
Plan for a considerable increase in the
output of ferrous and non-ferrous
metals to meet the requirements of the
national economy more fully. The tar-
get for 1965 is to raise the output of
pig iron to 65-70 million tons, steel to
86-91 million tons, rolled metal to 65-70
million tons, and marketable iron ore to
150-160 million tons; to increase the out-
put of aluminium by 180-200 per cent
48
refined copper by 90 per cent., and
step up substantially the production of
other non-ferrous metals, and particularly
'are metals;
An accelerated expansion of the
chemical industry, particularly in the
output of artificial and synthetic fibres,
plastics, other synthetic materials and
mineral fertilisers. By the end of the
seven years, the output of artificial fibres
must be increased fourfold, that of
plastics and synthetic resins more than
sevenfold, and mineral fertilisers about
threefold;
A change in the structure of the fuel
pattern through priority development of
the output of the cheapest kinds of fuel
oil and gas. In 1965, the output of oil
must reach 230-240 million tons, gas
150,000 million cubic metres,* and coal
600-612 million tons:
Rapid electrification of all branches of
the national economy by building mainly
big thermal power stations. In 1965, the
output of electric power must be brought
up to 500,000-520,000 million kilowatt-
hours;
High rates of development for the en-
gineering and instrument-making indus-
tries in order to equip factories with new
and highly productive equipment, ma-
chines and instruments and to achieve
comprehensive mechanisation and auto-
mation in industry. In the coming seven
years the output of the engineering and
metal-working industries must be approxi-
mately doubled.
The congress considers that on the
basis of a high level of development in
heavy industry and the further advance
of agriculture provision must be made
for a substantial growth in the output of
consumer goods so that within seven
years there is an ample supply of fabrics,
clothing, footwear and other goods to
satisfy all the requirements of the popu-
lation.
In pursuance of this task, the fol-
lowing increases over the 1958 level must
be achieved in 1965: total output of the
light industry by approximately 50 per
cent., including the output of cotton tex-
tiles by 33-38 per cent., woollen fabrics
by 65 per cent., silks by 76 per cent.,
and leather footwear by 45 per cent;
total output of the food industry by
? 5,295,000 million cubic feet.
about 70 per cent., including meat by
110 per cent., butter 58 per cent.. milk
120 per cent., sugar 76-90 per cent., and
fish 60 percent _ .
Special attention must be paid to ex-
tending the variety and improving the
quality of manufactured goods and
foodstuffs and to increasing the output
of household utensils and appliances.
Party organisations must ensure the
rhythmic work of all enterprises so that
the state plans arc fulfilled and over-
fulfilled with regard to all quantitative
and qualitative indices from day to day
and from month to month. The inner
potentialities and the possibilities of the
enterprises for stepping up production
with the existing capacities must be
more fully brought to light, and the
technology and organisation of produc-
tion, and also the utilisation of equip-
ment and raw and other materials must
be improved.
In agriculture, the chief task is to
obtain a level making it possible to
satisfy to the full the food requirements
of the population and the raw
material requirements of industry and to
meet all the state's other demands for
agricultural produce. This problem
must be solved primarily by consider-
ably raising the yield of all farm crops,
increasing the number of livestock and
further promoting the productivity of
socialised animal husbandry.
With a total increase of 70 per cent.
in gross agricultural production in the
next seven years, the output of staple
products must be raised as follows :
grain to 10,000-11,000 million poods,
sugar beet to 76-84 million tons, cotton
to 5,700,000-6,100,000 tons, meat (slaugh-
ter-weight) to 16 million tons, milk to
100-105 million tons, potatoes to 147
million tons, and other vegetables to a
quantity that will fully meet the require-
ments of the population.
The main line in crop farming will
continue to be the utmost expansion of
grain growing as the basis of all agricul-
tural production. The collective and
state farms now have the prerequisites
for increasing the yield by an average
of three to four centners of grain per
hcctaret throughout the country within
the next few years. In livestock breed.
t 2.39-3.18 cwt. per acre
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ing the main task is to raise the pro-
duction of meat, wool and eggs by
sharply increasing the number of live-
stock, raising the productivity of all
branches of animal husbandry and
developing poultry and rabbit-breeding
on collective and state farms. Fodder
resources must be increased even more
persistently than before, mainly by culti-
vating maize, potatoes and sugar beet
and growing protein feeds such as
clover, lucerne, vetch and oats, peas,
lupin, etc., depending on the features
of this or that zone. The output of
soya beans must be increased.
It is important that the annual plans
for the purchase of all kinds of agricul-
tural produce should be successfully
fulfilled or overfulfilled.
The congress expresses its confidence
that the movement started in the coun-
try for fulfilling ahead of schedule the
tasks envisaged by the target figures in
agricultural production, particularly the
output of meat and other livestock pro-
ducts, will enable the country not only
to fulfil but also to overfulfil the Seven-
Year Plan as regards both the time-
table and the volume. Every encour-
agement must be given to the initiative
of the republics, territories and regions
which have worked out concrete
measures to increase agricultural output
in the next few years and have given
pledges to double or treble the output
of meat already in 1959. The fulfil-
ment of the pledges given by republics,
territories, regions, districts and collec-
tive and state farms will be a worthy
contribution in response to the call of
leading collective and state farms to
overtake the United States in per capita
output of meat and other agricultural
products within a short space of time.
The contribution of each republic, terri-
tory, region and district, and of every
collective and state farm must be evalu-
ated on the basis of the output of live-
stock products per 100 hectares of farm-
land.
In order to cope with the big tasks
facing agriculture in the coming seven
years, party, government and agricultu-
nil. bodies must do their utmost to con-
solidate the socialist assets of the collec-
tive farms, carry out sweeping measures
to promote the mechanisation and elec-
SO
trification of agricultural production, im?
prove labour organisation and, on this
basis, secure a considerable growth in
labour productivity and reduction in the
cost of agricultural produce. The role
of the state farms, as the leading social-
ist enterprises in agriculture, must be en-
hanced still further.
Side by side with measures aimed at
further extending agricultural output it
is necessary to start the construction of
enterprises for processing farm produce
by the collective and state farms and
the consumer co-operatives, to extend
housing development and the construc-
tion of cultural and public facilities in
the countryside and to organise commu-
nal services and amenities in the villages.
With the incomes of the collective farms
growing, the practice of several collec-
tive farms pooling resources to build
power stations, roads, building materials
enterprises, big and well-equipped inter-
collective farm canning factories, baker-
ies and other enterprises should become
widespread.
The 21st Congress of the C.P.S.U.
considers that in future as well the ques-
tions connected with developing all
branches of agricultural production must
have the full attention of party, govern-
ment and agricultural bodies, of all col-
lective farmers and state-farm workers.
All means of transport must be de-
veloped in order to achieve high rates
of economic growth in the country. In
the course of the next seven years
fundamental technical reconstruction
must be carried out in the basic branches
of transport, especially railway trans-
port, where it is necessary to replace
steam engines with modem, economical
locomotives--electric and diesel locomo-
tives. At the same time, everything
must be done to increase carriage by sea.
river, air and motor transport and to
extend the network of pipelines, with
emphasis on the- most economically
profitable means of transport for the
given district and type of freight Tele-
phone communications and the network
of radio and television stations must be
developed.
The congress considers that the de,isi?e
condition for the successful fulfilmci, of
the Seven-Year Plan and the creation a
the material and technical foundation of
ommunism is the broad application of
new techniques, comprehensive mechanis-
ition and automation of production
processes and specialisation and co-ordi-
nation in all branches of the national
economy. The task in the coming seven
)ears is to eliminate ardous manual work
through the comprehensive mechanisation
of production processes in industry, agri-
culture, construction and transport. In-
asmuch as the measures aimed at the
mechanisation and broader automation of
production are not only of economic
but also of great social importance, the
congress instructs the central committee
of the party and the local party organis-
ations to exercise day-to-day control over
the implementation of all measures re-
lated to comprehensive mechanisation
and automation of production.
The further over-all development of the
economic regions must be persistently
promoted through the most effective use
of natural resources, with provision being
made for expedient specialisation by
enterprises, an improvement in co-ordina-
tion between enterprises and economic
regions and the elimination of un-
economic transporting.
In order to achieve high rates in ex-
tended socialist reproduction, the con-
gress considers it necessary to implement
important measures in the sphere of capi-
tal construction in the coming seven
years. The volume of capital investments
by the state will go up by 80 per cent.
in the next seven years and will amount
to approximately 1,940,000-1,970,000 mil-
lion roubles, which is nearly equivalent
to the capital investments made in the
national economy in all the years of
Soviet power. In order to make most
effective use of capital investments, large
funds should be earmarked for the re-
construction, expansion and technical re-
equipment of operating establishments
and the renewal and modernisation of
equipment, which will make it possible
to fulfil the task of increasing output and
raising labour productivity with smaller
outlays and to do this more rapidly than
by building new industrial plants.
The 21st Congress notes that for the
timely execution of projected capital con-
struction it is necessary to maintain a
policy of the comprehensive industrialis-
ation of building, of turning the building
industry into a mechanised conveyor pro-
cess for the assembling of buildings and
structures from large prefabricated
panels and blocks. It is necessary to
develop the building materials industry.
particularly the cement industry, at
accelerated rates and to extend the pro-
duction of reinforced concrete sections.
A bolder approach should be encouraged
in merging building organisations. Dr
signing must be improved, capital invest-
ments must be concentrated on key
projects and on projects that are nearly
completed, building times must be short-
ened and the cost of building and assem-
bly must be lowered and the quality of
building improved.
In view of the unprecedented scale of
construction in the coming seven years
and the need to achieve the maximum
economy in social labour and time,
special attention should be paid to the
correct distribution of the productive
forces. Attention should be devoted to
the further development of the economy
of the country's eastern areas, which
possess tremendous natural resources. In
solving problems connected with the
further increase of production capacities,
preference should be given to districts
where the invested funds will yield the
best economic effect. It is essential that
party organisations should work for the
strictest consideration of the interests of
the state, and the slightest signs of a
narrow, local approach should be nipped
in the bud.
The Soviet Union is a multinational
socialist state, oased on the friendship of
equal peoples united by the single desire
and aspiration tu advance steadfastly
along the path of communist construc-
tion. Our plans give vivid expression to
the Leninist national policy, which fur-
nishes extensive possibilities for the all-
round development of the economy and
culture of all peoples.
The Seven-Year Plan makes provision
for the large-scale expansion of the
economies of all the Union republics. In
each republic emphasis is to be laid on
branches of economy for which it pos-
sesses the most favourable natural and
economic conditions, so as to make more
effective use of the resources of each
republic and ensure the proper harmony
of interests of the individual republics
51
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and the Soviet Union as a whole.
The congress considers that one of the
main tasks of the Seven-Year Plan is
to achieve a considerable rise in the pro-
ductivity of social labour, this being the
chief source of extended socialist repro-
duction and accumulation?the basis for
the further improvement of the people's
living standards. In the course of the
seven years, labour productivity is to
rise by 45-50 per cent, in industry, 60-65
per cent, in building, 34-37 per cent. in
railway transport, 60-65 per cent. on state
farms, and about 100 per cent. on collec-
tive farms.
It is necessary to reduce expenditures
in production so as to achieve a reduc-
tion In the cost of production in industry
of not less than 11.5 per cent, in the
seven years, and in building and assembly
of not less than 6 per cent.
All party, economic, trade-union and
Young Communist League organisations
must intensify the drive for fulfilling and
overfulfilling the targets of the Seven-
Year Plan, for higher labour productivity,
lower production costs and stringent
economy. It is necessary to launch a
countryside drive against all aspects of
mismanagement, extravagance and negli-
gence as regards public property, to make
greater ?demands on managers for im-
proving all qualitative indices in running
establishments and building projects and,
above all, for reducing costs of produc-
tion and improving the quality of output.
The self-supporting operation of estab-
lishments in industry, transport and
3gricultute must be strengthened in
every Way.
? The 21st Congress of the C.P.S.U.
considers that under present conditions.
when tremendous successes have been
achieved in the development of industry
and -agriculture, there exist all the
conditions necessary to provide still
better living standards for the Soviet
people in the immediate future and to
meet their material and spiritual needs to
a- still fuller extent. For this purpose, the
Seven-Year Plan should provide for the
following:
A 62-65 per cent. increase if. the
national income, which will ensure a
considerable extension of consump-
tion;
A 60-63 per cent. rise in the volume
52
of consumption in the next seven
years;
An average increase of 40 per cent.
during the seven years in the real
incomes of industrial and office
workers and also a rise of not less
than 40 per cent. in the real incomes
of collective farmers;
The abolition of taxes levied on
the population;
Measures to put the wages system in
order and in the course of the next
seven years to raise the wages of
factory and other workers in the lower
income brackets from 270-350 roubles
to 500-600 roubles a month;
An increase in the minimum old-age
pension from the present 300 roubles
per month to 400 roubles in the towns,
and from 255 roubles a month to 340
roubles for pensioners permanently
residing in rural localities and con-
nected with agriculture, and also a rise
in the minimum disability pensions
and pensions paid to families which
have lost their breadwinner;
A considerable improvement in the
trade and utility services for the
population, the extension of the net-
work of public catering establishments,
and a reduction in prices at public
catering establishments;
An increase in the number of board-
ing schools, nurseries, kindergartens
and homes for the aged;
All-out promotion of building and
public utility construction so as to
build houses with a total floor space
of 650-660 million square metres', or
nearly 15 million flats, in towns and
workers' settlements in the next seven
years, and to build about seven million
houses with the resources of the col-
lective farmers and rural professional
workers;
The introduction of measures to
shorten the working day and the
working week. The transfer of factory
and other workers in a seven-hour
working day, and of workers in lead-
ing trades in the coal and mining
industries occupied in- underground
work to a six-hour day must be com-
pleted in 1960. The transfer of factory
and other workers with a seven-hour
working day to a 40-hour working
week must .be completed in 1962. The
gradual transfer of workers engaged in
underground work and in work with
harmful working conditions to a 30'
hour working week, and the rest of the
workers to a 35-hour working week
with two days off per week and a 6-7-
hour working day is to be started in
1964;
An increase of approximately 62
per cent. in the volume of retail sales
by state and co-operative trade
establishments. Provision must be
made for considerably extending the
sale to the population of livestock
products, vegetable oils, sugar, fruit
(including citrus fruit), and staple
manufactured goods such as fabrics,
clothes, underwear and footwear, as
well as general merchandise, especi-
ally items that lighten the work of the
housewife,
Implementation of all these measures
will signify a further major gain by the
people of our country and will be a
striking expression of the Communist
Party's and the Soviet government's
Soviet people.
The 21st Congress of the C.P.S.U.
constant care for the welfare of the
considers that the carrying out of the
great plan of communist construction
demands from party, government, trade-
union and Young Communist League
organisations a further improvement in
all their work of educating the Soviet
people, increasing their social conscious-
ness and activity, and shaping the new
man in a spirit of collectivism and
industriousness and awareness of his
social duty, in a spirit of socialist inter-
nationalism and patriotism and steadfast
observance of the high principles of
communist morality.
The communist education of the work-
ing people, the elimination of the
survivals of capitalism in the minds of the
people must be placed in the centre of
attention and activity of party. govern-
ment, trade union, Young Communist
League and other public organisations.
It is necessary to continue an uncom-
promising struggle against bourgeois
ideology. Propaganda and zgitation. the
press, the cinema, radio and television.
and cultural and educational establish-
ments must play an important role in the
party's ideological work.
Special attention should be paid to the
communist education of the rising
generation. Party and government
organisations must ensure unswerving
implementation of all measures con-
nected with the reorganisation of the
secondary and higher school so that the
Soviet school, closely linking study with
production and with the practice of com-
munist construction produces socially
conscious citizens ith an all-sided
education, specialists with a secondary
school or higher school education.
In the present period of the building
of communist society, science is acquiring
increasing importance. Noting the tre-
mendous achievements of Soviet science
in all fields of knowledge, particularly in
the field of nuclear physics and atomic
power engineering, jet aircraft and
rocketry, the congress considers that in
the next seven years it is necessary to
attain a still faster development in all
branches of science and the implementa-
tion of major theoretical researches
ensuring further scientific and technical
progress. For this purpose it is necessary
to provide for a broad programme of
scientific research, concentrating scientific
forces and means on major fields that ,are
important scientifically and practically.
The link between scientific institutions and
practice must be constantly strengthened.
the latest achievements of science and
engineering must be broadly and rapidly
introduced, and experimental and design-
ing work must be carried on more
daringly.
The social sciences, especially econo-
mics, have the task of creatively general-
ising the experience of our economic and
cultural development and examining the
new problems being posed by life. It is
necessary to make a profound study of
the laws governing the transition to com-
munism, to analyse comprehensively the
most important processes taking place in
the capitalist world, to expose bourgeois
ideology and uphold the purity of
Marxist-Leninist theory.
The coming seven years must he
marked by a further development of
socialist culture. Workers in literature.
the theatre, the cinema. music, sculpture
and painting arc called upon to raise still
higher the ideological and artistic level
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11
of their art, to continue being the party's
and the country's active assistants in pro-
moting the communist education of the
working people, in propagating com-
munist morals, in developing the multi-
national socialist culture.
Ill
Iii determining the tasks of the present
stage of communist construction, the
21st Congress of the C.P.S.U. proceeds
from the fact that the Soviet Union has
entered a new period of historical
development. The victory of socialism
in our country is complete and final. The
time has gone by when the Soviet Union
was the only socialist state in a hostile
capitalist encirclement. Now there are
two world social systems: capitalism.
which is breathing its last, and socialism.
which is brimming over with a growing
vital force and enjoys the support of the
working people of all countries. Nothing
in the world could restore capitalism in
our country, could overcome the socialist
camp.
Under the leadership of the party. the
Soviet people have achieved triumphs of
socialism in all spheres of economic and
social-political life which make possible
the practical accomplishment of the task
of building the material and technical
basis of communism and of a balanced
and gradual transition to communism.
Communism can be achieved on the sole
condition that we surpass the production
level of the developed capitalist countries
and attain a higher productivity of labour
than exists under capitalism.
Comprehensive communist construc-
tion must, along with material plenty,
provide for a genuine blossoming of
spiritual culture and an ever-fuller satis-
faction of the requirements of all people,
must provide for the further development
of socialist democracy and for the
upbringing of socially-aware working
people of communist society.
With the growth of the productive
forces, socialist social relations, based on
principles of comradely co-operation.
friendship and mutual assistance, must
also be further enhanced. In step with
technical progress in all branches of the
economy and the closer merging of
schooling and production there will take
54
place an eradication of the essential dis-
tinctions between mental and physical
work and d rise in the cultural and tech-
nical level of all working people. Reduc-
tion of the working day and the further
improvement of working conditions on
the basis of the comprehensive
mechanisation and automation of pro-
duction must facilitate the transformation
of work into a vital urge and necessity
of the harmoniously developed man.
As a result of the measures taken in
recent years to advance agriculture and
the growth of the socialised assets
of the collective farms, the collective
farm system is gaining new strength and
its advantages and ample possibilities are
unfolding ever-more fully. All this
shows that the collective farm-co-
operative form of relations of produc-
tion promotes the development of the
productive forces of agriculture, and will
do so for a long time to come.
In the process of communist construc-
tion the socialised nature of collective
farm production will be extended, there
will be an approximation of collective
farm-co-operative property and public
property, an elimination of the distinc-
tions between them. The indivisible
funds of the collective farms will expand
and strengthen, and inter-collective farm
production contacts will become broader.
The merger of the collective farm-co-
operative and public forms of property
will occur in the future not through the
gradual effacement of collective farm-co-
operative property, but by way of
raising its level of socialisation to that of
public property with the assistance and
support of the socialist state.
In the present-day conditions of com-
munist construction the distribution of
material wealth is based on this guiding
principle: From each according to his
ability, to each according to his work.
Distribution according to work stimu-
lates the material interest of people in
the results of production and promotes
the growth of labour productivity, the
greater proficiency of the working
people, and the improvement of produc-
tion techniques; it also plays a big
educational role, accustoms people to
socialist discipline and makes work
universal and obligatory. Equalitarian
distribution would lead to the consump-
tion of accumulated means and impair
communist construction.
With the development of socialist
society and the growth of the social
awareness of the masses of the people,
the labour enthusiasm of the Soviet
people is rising ceaselessly, and so is
their concern for the wellbeing of
society. The urge for personal enrich-
ment is losing ground and moral
incentives to work for the good of
society are steadily taking precedence.
The transition to distribution accord-
ing to needs is to take place gradually,
as the productive forces develop, when
there will be an abundance of all the
necessary consumer goods and all people
will work voluntarily according to their
ability, regardless of the measure of
material benefits they receive frGm it,
conscious of the fact that their work is
needed by society.
Even now in Soviet society a sub-
stantial and ever-growing portiOn of
material and cultural benefits is being
distributed free of charge in the form
of pensions, grants for students, allow-
ances to mothers of many children and
funds for the building and maintenance
of schools, hospitals, kindergartens,
nurseries and boarding schools, and also
of clubs, libraries and other cultural
facilities. This portion of The socialised
consumption fund will progressively
grow, which is an important premise for
the gradual transition to the communist
principle of distribution.
The congress takes note that in
present-day conditions the main empha-
sis in the development of the socialist
state is to be laid on the all-round
development of democracy, on drawing
all citizens into taking part in the man-
agement of economic and cultural
affairs and conducting public affairs. It
is necessary to enhance the role of the
Soviets as mass organisations of the
working people. Many of the functions
now performed by state agencies should
gradually pass to public organisations.
Questions related to cultural services,
public health, physical culture and sport
should be handled with the active and
broad participation of public organisa-
tions. In the matter of enforcing the
rules of socialist human relations an
increasingly important role is to be
played by the People's Militia, COUrtS of
honour and similar volunteer public
bodies, which, hand in hand with the
state institutions, must perform the
functions of preserving public order,
protecting the rights of citizens and
preventing acts harmful to society.
The transfer of some functions from
state agencies to public organisations
will not weaken the role of the socialist
state in the building of communism, but
will rather extend and reinforce the
political groundwork of socialist society
and ensure the further development of
socialist democracy. The Soviet state
will be able to concentrate even more
on developing the economy, which is the
material basis of our system.
The socialist state is called upon to
perform extremely important tasks in the
defence of peace, and the defence of the
country from the threat of armed
imperialist attack. As long as there
exists an aggressive imperialist camp, the
Soviet state is obliged to strengthen and
improve its glorious armed forces?the
army ansl navy?which stand guard
over the socialist gains and the peaceful
endeavours of the Soviet people. It is
necessary to strengthen the organs of
state security, which are aimed lirst and
foremost against agents sent in by the
imperialist states. The functions of
defending the socialist country, now
performed by the state, will not wither
away until after the danger of an
imperialist attack has been completely
eliminated.
IV
The congress is confident that the
accomplishment of the Seven-Year Plan
will add still more to the strength of the
position of the Soviet Union and the
world socialist camp as a mighty fortress
of peace and progress, and will
lead to a further growth of the forces of
peace and to a weakening of the forces
of war. The successes of the Seven-Year
Plan will be a major triumph of the all-
conquering teaching of M a rx is m-
Lcninism, a token of the superiority
of socialism over capitalism. They will
attract millions of new followers to
socialism.
The Seven-Year Plan ushers in a new
stage in the economic competition be-
tween socialism and capitalism. The
mammoth labour effort of the Soviet
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people, who are following the path indi-
cated by. Lenin, has elevated our country
to so great a height that it can now
successfully compete with the United
States in the economic sphere and can
win this competition and leave that lead-
ing capitalist power well behind. In this,
the high rates of growth of production
in our country will be of decisive
importance.
With the accomplishment of the Seven.
Year Plan the industrial output per head
of the population in the Soviet Union will
be greater than that in the most developed
capitalist countries of Europe?Britain
and Western Germany?and will rank
first in Europe. In the physical output
of some key items of production the
Soviet Union will surpass, and in others
approach, the present level of industrial
output in the United States. By that
time the production of key agricultural
products, physically and per capita, will
exceed the present level of the United
States. After that it will take about
another five years to catch up and out-
strip the United States in industrial out-
put per head of the population. The
Soviet Union, therefore, will by that
time, or sooner, take first place in the
world both for physical volume of pro-
duction and for production per head of
the population. That will be a world-
historic victory of socialism in its peace-
ful competition with capitalism.
A different course of development is
typical for the capitalist countries. The
.general crisis of capitalism continues to
deepen owing to the growth of the forces
of socialism, the disintegration of the
colonial system and the exacerbation of
internal social antagonisms. The in-
stability of the capitalist economy is
growing, and it is going through one
production slump after another. Neither
the armaments race nor any other meas-
ures taken by the capitalist states will
eradicate the cause of crises. The contra-
dictions of capitalism continue to
accumulate, setting the stage for new
upheavals.
Economic competition between the
world socialist system and the world
capitalist system is unfolding on the
world arena. The economy of all the
countries of. the world socialist system is
56
developing at rapid rates. High rates of
production growth are a general objec-
ti,ve law of socialism, now confirmed by
the experience of all the countries of the
socialist camp. In consequence of
socialist industrialisation and the tran-
sition of the peasantry to the co-oper-
ative mode of production, some people's
democracies have already entered the
period of completing the building of
socialism.
As a result of fulfilling and over-
fulfilling the Seven-Year Plan and also
as a result of the high rates of economic
development in the people's democracies,
the world socialist system will, economists
estimate, produce more than half the
world's industrial output. This will
establish the superiority of the world
socialist system over the world capitalist
system in material production?that deci-
sive sphere of human activity.
The distinctive feature of the economic
development of the socialist countries
lies in the fact that as they stride for-
ward their mutual relations grow stronger
and the world socialist system becomes
ever more united. A diametrically oppo-
site tendency obtains in the capitalist
world, where the growth of production
in one country or another serves to aggra-
vate contradictions between capitalist
states, to heighten competition and incite
conflicts between them.
With the further growth and consoli-
dation of the world socialist system all
the socialist countries will develop
successfully. Countries that were economi-
cally backward in the past are benefiting
by the experience of the other socialist
countries, by co-operation and mutual
assistance, and are rapidly developing
their economies and culture. In this way.
the general line of econOmic and cul-
tural development in., all the socialist
countries is levelling out. The pre-
requisites for their transition from the
first phase of communism to its second
phase will be built up at accelerated rates. ,1
The time is near when these countries
will, like the Soviet Union, tackle the '
building of communist society.
The Soviet Union coniiders it to be its'
prime task to continue promoting the
greater unity of the socialist countries.
the development of close economic and
cultural links between them, and the still
greater solidarity of the fraternal family
of free nations on the basis of the great
ideas of Marxism-Leninism, the principles
of proletarian internationalism.
The congress considers that the accom-
plishment of the Seven-Year Plan and
also of the plans of the other socialist
countries will create even more favour-
able conditions for solving the principal
problem of our time?the preservation of
universal peace. The conclusion drawn
by the 20th Party Congress to the effect
that war is not fatally inevitable has
proved-to be perfectly justified. There
now exist tremendous forces capable of
defending peace and of delivering a
crushing blow to any imperialist aggres-
sor who tries to start a war. Aggression
by imperialist states against the socialist
camp can have only one outcome?the
downfall of capitalism.
Fresh successes of the socialist coun-
tries will induce an expansion and
strengthening of the peace forces through-
out the world. The countries working
for enduring peace will be joined by more
and more countries. The idea that war
is intolerable will take ever-firmer root
in the conscience of the nations. Backed
by the might of the socialist camp, the
peaceful nations will then be able to
compel the bellicose imperialist groups to
abandon their plans of starting new wars.
In this way, even before the complete
victory of socialism in the world, with
capitalism still existing in a part of the
world, there will take shape a realistic
possibility of excluding world war from
human society.
However, at present the possibility that
the imperialists might start a war exists.
and the threat of war must not be under-
estimated. For this reason. the socialist
countries and all the forces of peace must
exercise the utmost vigilance and must
extend their struggle for safeguarding
peace.
The aggressive policy of American
imperialism, which reflects the ambition
of the United States capitalist mono-
polies to gain world domination, remains
the main source of the war danger. The
rulers of the United States, and those of
Western Germany, Britain, France and the
other member-countries of the aggressive
North Atlantic bloc, are continuing 'to
stockpile atomic weapons, are rejecting
every peaceful settlement of international
problems, and are continuously provoking
armed conflicts in various regions of the
world. In this, the part of the main shock
force of the North Atlantic Alliance is
handed to Western Germany, which is
becoming the principal nuclear and
rocket base of that alliance. Militarism
and revenge-seeking have reared their
heads in Western Germany and are
threatening the peaceful nations.
Imperialist aggression, as recent experi-
ence shows, threatens peoples in different
regions of the world. The imperialists
are provoking armed conflicts in the
Middle East and the Pacific basin, are
engaged in military operations against the
peoples of Africa who are fighting for
their freedom, and are continuously
threatening armed intervention in the
domestic affairs of the Latin American
countries. All this makes particularly
insistent the struggle of the peaceful
peoples for collective security and for the
rejection of war as a means of settling
international disputes.
The aggressive policy of the western
powers is opposed by the peaceful policy
of the Soviet Union and all the socialist
countries, a policy which is supported by
the peaceful nations. Thanks to the firm
stand of the countries of the socialist
camp and the peaceful countries of the
East it has been possible in recent years
to nip in the bud hotbeds of war in the
Middle East and. the Far East, and to
frustrate other imperialist schemes.
The 21st Congress unanimously
approves the peaceful Leninist foreign
policy of the Soviet government, which is
erecting insuperable obstacles to imperial-
ist aggression. Timely and correct are
the recent measures of the Soviet Union
as regards a peaceful solution of the
German problem, agreement on the dis-
continuance of tests of nuclear weapons
and their complete prohibition, on dis-
armament, ending the cold war, and
arranging a conference of beads of
government.
The congress authorises the central
committee of the party and the Soviet
government to continue to work con-
sistently for the implementation of these
57
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and other proposals designed to safeguard
peace and international security.
By the efforts of all peaceloving nations
the international atmosphere, must be
cleared of all inflammatory calls for
armed attack. Efforts must be made to
enhance mutual confidence and co-opera-
tion among states, regardless of their
social systems. An important part in
relieving international tension and pro-
moting mutual confidence must be played
by the extensive development of world
trade, cultural exchanges and other forms
of international contacts. Better relations
between the Soviet Union and the United
States?the two great powers bearing
special responsibility for the destiny of
world peace?could be decisive in effect-
ing an improvement in the international
situation. ?
Guided by Lenin's principle of peace-
ful co-existence, the Soviet Union will
work persistently for all-round co-oper-
ation among all countries. The growing
might of the Soviet Union, like that of
the entire socialist camp, and the fresh
achievements of Soviet science and tech-
nology are placed in their entirety in the
service of peace and international
security.
The congress considers the accomplish-
ment of the Seven-Year Plan to be fresh
evidence of the fulfilment by the work-
ing people of the Soviet Union of their
international duty to the international
working-class and communist movement.
to all progressive mankind. The new
successes in the building of communist
society will serve as powerful moral sup-
port to all the forces fighting for peace,
democracy and social progress. This
support is of special importance at this
time, when in the capitalist countries
signs are appearing of a new offensive
of reaction and fascism.
The going over of the reactionary bour-
geoisie to open dictatorship is a sign
of its weakness, of its inability to main-
tain its domination by parliamentary
methods. At the same time, it should
be borne in mind that in conditions of
unbridled dictatorship reaction has great
opportunities of redoubling repressions
and terror, suppressing the opposition, of
acting upon the masses of people in the
spirit that suits its ends, poisoning them
58
with the venom of chauvinism, and un-
tying its own hands for military gambles.
The peoples must be vigilant, constantly
ready to rebuff the onslaught of reaction
and the threat of a revival of fascism. It
must not be forgotten that fascism may
reappear in new, and not only in its old,
forms, which have been discredited in
the eyes of the peoples. The unity of
the democratic forces, and of the work-
ing class in the first place, is the most
reliable barrier to the fascist threat. The
successful, advance of the Soviet Union
to communism, the victories of all the
socialist countries, and the consistent
struggle for peace create favourable pros-
pects for achieving working-class unity
of action both on the international and
the national scale. In the process of the
class struggle the broad masses of social'
democratic workers and their organisa-
tions in the capitalist countries will be-
come increasingly aware of the new
possibilities that present themselves to
the international working class in con-
nection with the successes of socialism,
and it is to be hoped that they will fall
in step with the other sections of the
working class and the broad democratic
movement with the purpose of barring
the road to fascism and war.
The congress notes with satisfaction
that the ineeiings of representatives of
Communist and Workers' Parties in
November 1957 demonstrated the com-
plete unity of viewpoints of the fraternal
parties. The Declaration of the confer-
ence was unanimously approved by all
the Communist and Workers' Parties and
has become a fighting programme of
action for the world communist move-
ment. The conclusions of the Declara-
tion were proved completely right by
the course of events. Since the Novem-
ber meetings the solidarity in the ranks
of the Communist Parties and the entire
international communist movement has
been cemented on the basis of Marxism-
Leninism.
The revisionist programme of the
League of Communists of Yugoslavia has
been unanimously condemned by all the
Marxist-Leninist parties. The theory
and practice of the Yugoslav leadership
arc a deviation from the positions of the
working class, the principles of inter-
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national proletarian solidarity. The
views and policy of the leaders of the
League of Communists of Yugoslavia
are jeopardising the gains of the people's
revolution and socialism in Yugoslavia.
The Soviet communists and the whole
Soviet people have friendly feelings for
the fraternal peoples of Yugoslavia, for
the Yugoslav communists. The Soviet
Union will continue to work for co-
operation with Yugoslavia on all ques-
tions of the struggle against imperialism
and for peace on which our positions
will coincide.
While continuing to expose revisionism
as the main threat within the commu-
matism and sectarianism must go on
unabated, for they impede the creative
application of Marxist-Leninist theory
and lead away from the masses of the
people.
The congress considers it essential to
strengthen in every way the might of the
socialist camp and to consolidate further
the unity of the international communist
movement in accordance with the prin-
ciples of the Moscow Declaration.
The fraternal co-operation of the
Communist and Workers' Parties must
be developed and extended on the basis
of the complete independence of each
party, on the basis of proletarian inter-
nationalism, voluntary co-operation and
mutual assistance. The Communist
Party of the Soviet Union, reared by
V. -I. Lenin in the spirit of proletarian
internationalism, considers itself one of
the component detachments of the inter-
national working-class and communist
movement. Together with the other
Communist Parties, the CP.S.U. bears
responsibility for the destiny of the
socialist camp, the destiny of the world
communist movement. It will continue
to follow faithfully the great interna-
tional teaching of Marx, Engels and
Lenin, to combat revisionists of all
shades, uphold the purity of Marxism-
nist movement, the struggle against dog-
Leninism, and work for the new suc-
cesses of the world communist and
working-class movement.
V
The historic victories of socialism in
our country that have created the condi-
tions for the transition to a new stage of
communist construction are the result of
tireless creative work on the part of the
Soviet people and of the tremendous
political and organisational work of the
Communist Party. The party, basing
itself on the collective wisdom of the
working class and of the entire people,
ou their wealth of experience, is elabo-
rating and implementing the plans for
communist construction. Our party has
come to its 21st Congress more united
and monolithic than ever before and is
capable of successfully carrying out
gigantic new tasks.
The boundless love and trust dis-
played by the people for their own party
is clearly manifested by the growth in
the membership of the CP.S.U., with
reinforcements being drawn from the
finest people among the working class,
the collective-farm peasantry and the
Soviet intelligentsia. In the time that
has passed since the 20th Congress, the
party has consistently followed the line
of expanding inner-party democracy and
criticism and self-criticism and of in-
creasing the activity of the party mem-
bership. The central committee and
local party organisations have been con-
ducting a determined struggle for the
restoration and further development of
the Leninist standards of party life and
principles of collective leadership.
The entire experience gained in the
struggle for the victory of socialism and
communism shows that in the course of
the building of communist society the
role of the party, as the tried and tested
vanguard of the people and the highest
form of social organisation, is growing
to a still greater extent.
The fulfilment of the Seven-Year
Plan will require a still higher level of
party ideological, political and organi-
sational work and the active mobilisation
of the creative forces of the Soviet
people. It is essential that the targets of
the plan be made clear to all working
people, that the efforts of every collec-
tive be organised and directed towards
their fulfilment, that shortcomings be
resolutely eradicated and that difficulties
met with in work be overcome.
The success of the plan will be deter-
mined directly at the factories and con-
struction sites, on the collective and state
farms and in the research institutions.
59
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In view of this the role of local and
lower party organisations will be still
more greatly increased, since these are
called upon to mobilise and organise the
masses of the people for the fulfilment
of concrete tasks in production. It is
the duty of party organisations to ensure
that at every factory, on every collective
and state farm and in every institution
an atmosphere of creative work and
productioh enthusiasm prevails. It must
be remembered that victories will not
come of themselves, they must be won
and consolidated.
Party organisations, lecturers and
propagandists, while calling for the
fulfilment of the plans of communist
construction, must explain clearly and
simply what communism is and what
great benefits it will bring the people,
and must in every way support and
develop communist forms of work. The
organisational and educational work" of
the party, all methods of ideological
work, must be devoted to the successful
fulfilment of the targets for communist
construction. It is essential to ensure
that every worker makes better use of his
machine, machine tool, installation,
tractor , or harvester combine and em-
ploys progressive methods of work.
The congress is of the opinion that
a priority role in the fulfilment of the
Seven-Year Plan belongs to party and
government cadres. The placing and
training of cadres must be improved, we
must promote to responsible positions
people who are well-trained and of high
principle, who have a feeling for what
is new, who will give all their strength
and knowledge for the benefit of the
people, who will introduce Bolshevik
ardour into the work and be implacable
in respect, of shortcomings. It is
essential to promote young cadres more
boldly and to give them an opportunity
to.display their ability in practical work.
Party organisations must strengthen
backward factories, collective and state
farms and districts by allotting them
qualified cadres, selecting good organ-
isers and specialists who will be able to
make use of hidden potentialities,
Organise people and bring lagging
elements up to scratch.
It is the duty of all party organisations
to train our cadres and all communists
to be exacting towards themselves, to be
60
conscious of their responsibility for the
tasks entrusted to them, to train them in
the spirit of loyal service to the people
and to the cause of communism. We
should systematically, raise the level of
theoretical knowledge and Marxist-
Leninist training of our cadres.
Of great significance in improving the
oiganisational work of the party and
mobilising the masses of the people 1..
carry out the tasks of communist con-
struction is the consistent application of
inner-party democracy and the develop-
ment of criticism and self-criticism as a
powerful means to overcome shortcom-
ings and achieve a further advance.
At the present stage of social develop-
ment the role of the Soviets of Working
People's Deputies is growing to a still
greater extent. Republican, territorial,
regional, city, district and village Soviets
must tackle from day to day the most
important problems of work at factories,
building sites and collective and state
farms for the fulfilment of the Seven-
Year Plan targets, and must pay heed
to raising the living and cultural level of
the working people. The work of
Soviet bodies will be the more fruitful
the greater the extent to which they rely
on the activity of the masses of the
people, achieve a further extension of
socialist democracy and check with
determination elements of red tape and
bureaucracy.
It is necessary to make certain amend-
ments and addenda to the Constitution
of the U.S.S.R. Important changes in
the political and economic life of the
Soviet Union have taken place since the
constitution was -adopted; the inter-
national situation has also changed. All
these changes should be reflected and
given legal force in the Constitution of
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The trade union organisations will
have to carry out 'considerable work in
mobilising the masses of the people to
struggle for the successful fulfilment of
the Seven-Year Plan. The trade unions
arc called upon to develop the activity
of the working class and all working
people, to bring about a still greater
development of socialist emulation for
the fulfilment and overfulfilment of state
targets at every factory, and to support
the initiative of inventors and ration-
alisers, the leading people in production,
and to popularise their experience. The
trade unions must increase their control
over the application of safety measures
in production, fulfilment of housing
plans, the distribution of housing, and
the work of trade and catering establish-
ments and of medical and communal
services for the working people. A most
important task of the trade unions is
that of developing educational work
among the people and improving the
work of cultural and educational
institutions.
The programme of communist con-
struction drawn up by our party for the
coming seven years opens up wide
vistas for activity and the growth of
creative initiative on the part of the
rising generation and its vanguard, the
Lenin Young Communist League. The
Young Communists are called upon to
continue setting an example of selfless
work to the rung people. Every
Young Communist organisation must
become a militant, vitalising collective
that maintains close ties with the young
people. The Young Communist League
will have to take an active part in
industrial building, housing construction
and the erection of public buildings, in
the struggle for the further development
of socialist agriculture and for exploiting
the natural resources of the newly
developed districts of the country
Party and Young Communist League
organisations must pay special attention
to creating a communist world outlook
among the youth, to training active,
conscientious builders of communist
society, whose love for their country is
boundlebs and who live and work in the
communist manner.
The chief task of the Communist Party
and the Soviet people today is to ensure
hit unconditional fulfilment of the
Seven-Year Plan for the development of
the national economy. The fulfilment of
the targets set by the party and the
government for the next seven years will
have tremendous importance in further
strengthening the might of our country.
The fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan
for the development of the national
economy of the U.S.S.R., the main line
in which is the peaceful development o
the economy and raising the hying
standards of the people, will at the sam
time further strengthen the country's
defence capacity, increase its prepared-
ness to give a crushing rebuff to any
attacks made ,by imperialist aggressors
against the great gains of socialism. The
successes of peaceful economic construc-
tion in the U.S.S.R. and all the socialist
countries will be a new expression of the
advantages of socialism over capitalism
and will to a still greater extent increase
the power of attraction of the great
ideas of Marxism-Leninism.
? ? ?
The Soviet people, in the course of
socialist construction, have performed
great feats of labour that have been
recognised by the whole world. The
21st Congress of the Communist Party
expresses its firm conviction that the
entry of our society into the period of
the extensive construction of commun-
ism will give rise to a mighty wave of
labour enthusiasm, to new forms of
countrywide emulation for the fulfilment
and overfulfilment of the Seven-Yea'
Plan and will be marked by outstandina
victories.
The magnificent plan for communist
construction elaborated by the party
opens up before the soviet people wide
and bright prospects for the advance to
communism. Our cherished goal is
close. We have to go through the
decisive stage in the peaceful economic
competition with capitalism and in the
shortest time win that competition. We
have everything necessary to win that
position. And when we have solved
those problems and have cleared the way
forward it will be easier for us to
advance. For the sake of the great aim
of the construction of communism we
can and must work well.
In paving the road to communism the
Soviet people are maintaining close
unity with the peoples of all the coun-
tries of the socialist camp. Day by day
the mighty camp of socialism is growing
stronger. The ideas of communism have
become The leading force of our time.
The 21st Congress of the Communist
Party calls upon all the working people
of our great country to struggle actively
f for the fulfilment and overfultilment of
the Seven-Year Plan. The congress is
e fully confident that the workers and col-
61
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lective farmers and Soviet intelligentsia
will do everything to strengthen further
the might of our socialist country and
to implement the communist ideals
inscribed on the victorious banner of
Marxism-Leninism.
62
The heroic Soviet people, led by the
Communist Party, are marching confid-
ently forward, building the finest and
most just society on earth?communist
society.
(February 5, 1959)
Two other booklets
on the Seven-Year Plan
TARGETS OF THE SEVEN-YEAR PLAN
Theses of N. S. Khrushchov's Report to the Special
Twenty-First Congress of the C.P.S.U.
Soviet Booklet No. 43
*
6d.
SEVEN-YEAR PLAN TARGET FIGURES
Report and Reply to Discussion by N. S. Khrushchov
at the Special Twenty-First Congress of the C.P.S.U.
Soviet Booklet No. 47 9d.
*
Available from newsagents,
or post free from
SOVIET BOOKLETS
3 ROSARY GARDENS, LONDON, S.W.7
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For news of the progress of the Plan
read
SOVIET WEEKLY
Illustrated Thursday 3d.
Authentic, well-written articles on Soviet scientific achieve-
ments, on industry, agriculture, sport, international relations,
and other aspects of Soviet life and work, ?can be found
within its well-illuitrated pages.
Subscription rates: 3s. 3t1., 3 months; 6s. 6d.. 6 months;
13s, Od., 12 months, post free
from newsagents, or post free from
? "SOVIET WEEKLY",
3 ROSARY 'GARDENS, LONDON, S.W3
PubbIsbol by Soviet Booklets, 3 Rosary Gardens, London, S.W.7, and printed by Farleigh
Press Ltd tT.U. all depts.), Beechwood Rise. Watford, Herta.
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The Share of the USSR and
other Socialist Countries in
World Industrial Output
* Full Text of the Theses of the
Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the Soviet
Union, and the USSR Council
of Ministers on the question of
STRENGTHENING THE TIES OF THE SCHOOL
WITH LIFE, AND FURTHER DEVELOPING
THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
1917 1937
1958 1965
Soviet Booklet
No. 44
December 1958
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1
o
Strengthening the Ties of the School
with Life, and Further Developing the
System of Public Education
Theses of the Centra/ Committee of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union and the USSR Council of Ministers
I. The Soviet Union is now in the
midst of a great advance. The country's
economy is developing rapidly, science
and culture are making unprecedented
progress and the standard of living of
the working people is steadily rising.
The Soviet people?real masters of life
and makers of history?have won out-
standing victories in all spheres of
economic and cultural development?
victories of which they are justly proud,
victories which inspire the hearts of
millions of friends of peace and
socialism in all parts of the world with
joy and hope and which fill the enemies
of the working class with fear and
despondency.
The Soviet people have achieved great
successes as a result of the wise home
and foreign policy of the Communist
Party and the Soviet state. In the years
that have gone by since the historic 20th
Congress of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union, Soviet society has taken
another big step forward in the gradual
transition from socialism to communism.
These years have been marked by a
tremendous acceleration of the rate of
communist construction, and by wide-
scale encouragement of the working
people's initiative in the political life of
the country and in economic and
cultural endeavour. Consistently apply-
ing the great behests of Lenin, the party
has rallied the masses of the people still
closer around itself.
The Soviet Union is now faced with
the need to carry out new and far-
reaching tasks. The 21st Congress of
the C.P.S.U. will discuss and approve
the target figures for the development
of the national economy from 1959 to
1965. The Seven-Year Plan will be a
great programme of communist con-
struction and its fulfilment will make the
Soviet Union still stronger and richer
and will be of decisive significance for
victory in the peaceful competition
between the socialist and capitalist
systems. The Soviet people arc fully con-
fident that they will carry out the plans
that have been outlined.
2. The decisive part in carrying out
these creative plans will be played by
Soviet men and women. Their loyalty
to the cause of communism, their will
to work, their ability to translate into
reality the great outlines drawn by the
Communist Party are the foundation for
our victories. In the Soviet Union the
well-spring of the people's talents is
inexhaustible. Ever new millions of
builders of communism are joining the
ranks of the conscious and energetic
workers of Soviet society. Vladimir
Ilyich Lenin taught us that for the
Communist Party and the Soviet state
the upbringing and education of the
younger generation and the training of
highly qualified personnel for all
branches of the economy, science and
culture must always be the object of
special concern.
The Soviet school system has pre-
pared millions of educated and cultured
citizens, playing an active part in socia-
list construction. It has created remark-
able forces of outstanding scientists,
engineers and designers, whose search-
ings and whose creative work are em-
bodied in such historic scientific and
technical victories as the artificial earth
satellites, atomic power stations, the
atomic icebreaker and high-speed jet
3
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airliners. But Soviet people must not rest
on their oars. Life itself is setting the
school new tasks. Our systems of
general and higher education arc lagging
behind the demands made by the build-
ing of communism and suffer from
serious shortcomings. The most serious
of these is that instruction is to some ex-
tent divorced from life. This shortcom-
ing in the educational system is all the
more intolerable at the present stage in
building communism.
"Every boy and every girl," said
Comrade Khrushchov, speaking at the
13th Congress of the Young Communist
League, "should know that in studying
at school they must prepare themselves
for work, for creating values that arc
useful to man, to society. Everyone,
regardless of the position occupied by
his parents, must have only one road?
to study and, having acquired know-
ledge, to work."
It is necessary to reorganise the edu-
cational system so that the secondary
and higher educational establishments
play a more active part in all the creative
endeavours of the Soviet people. The
paths to be followed in this reorganisa-
tion are outlined in the memorandum of
Comrade N. S. Khrushchov, first secre-
tary of the central committee of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union,
on "Strengthening the Tics of the
School with Life, and Further Develop-
ing the System of Public Education"
The proposals made in that memo-
randum have been approved by the
presidium of the central committee of
the C.P.S.U. and arc warmly supported
by the Soviet public, which regards the
reorganisation of the school system as
an urgent task. These proposals arc
aimed at raising to a still higher level
the communist education of the younger
generation and the training of personnel
for all branches of the economy, science
and culture.
THE SCHOOL AND THE BUILDINQ
OF COMMUNISM
3. The Communist transformation of
society is inseparably bound up with the
education of the new man, in whom
spiritual wealth, high ethical standards
and perfect physical fitness must be
harmoniously combined. The man of
the communist future will be free from
the mean characteristics bred by a
system of exploitation: the selfishness
of private ownership, the desire to live
at the expense of other people's labour,
philistinism, individualism, etc.
One of the principal evils of the old
society was the great gulf between
manual and mental labour. The separa-
tion of manual work from mental work
took place with the appearance of pri-
vate ownership of the means of produc-
tion and the division of society into
hostile, antagonistic classes. The growth
of the contradictions of capitalism has
increased still more the contrast
between mental and manual labour
Marxist teaching has exploded the bour-
geois legend that there must inevitably
exist for ever, on the one hand, a drab
4
mass of people, doomed to a subordinate
position and arduous physical toil, and,
on the other hand, a small group of
people, allegedly predestined by nature
to think, to rule and to develop science,
literature and the arts. The experience of
the Soviet Union, the experience of the
Chinese people and of the peoples of
the other socialist countries has shown in
a conclusive way that the working men
and women, on ridding themselves of the
fetters of exploitation, irrespective of
racial, national or other distinctions,
administer the state, not worse, but
better than the exploiters, and are
developing the economy, science, liter-
ature and the arts at an unprecendented
pace.
4. The divorce of mental labour from
manual labour and the conversion of
mental endeavour into a monoply of the
ruling classes have done tremendous
harm to the intellectual development of
mankind. For centuries culture was for-
bidden fruit for the millions of ordinary
people. For centuries the old society
organised the school system in such a
way that it was, in fact, out of reach
of the masses of working people and
served the interests of the exploiters. The
development of all aspects, not only of
production, but also of the spiritual
activity of the broadest masses of work-
ing people is being accelerated on a
gigantic scale in socialist society, where
the essential distinctions between manual
and mental work arc gradually being
obliterated and their unity is being
established. The socialist state is organ-
ising its school system so that it will
serve the people, give knowledge to the
working people and promote the devel-
opment of all the people's talents. The
Soviet school is bringing up the rising
generation in the spirit of the most pro-
gressive ideas -the ideas of communism
and is shaping in the minds of the
oung people a materialist world out-
look, the basis of genuinely scientific
cognition of the world. Socialism has
opened up boundless scope for the
growth of the material and spiritual
wealth of society, for the all-round
development of the personality In
socialist society all the achievements of
world culture become the possession of
the masses.
5. Thanks to the establishment of the
socialist system, work in our country has
been transformed from the heavy burden
it is under capitalism into a matter of
honour and civic duty for everyone.
Socialist society, of course, applies the
principle. " From each according to his
ability, to each according to his
work " But this principle is not
eternal. In communist society another
principle will prevail ? " From each
according to his ability, to each
according to his needs." This naturally
does not mean that under communism
there will be a lordly life in which lazi-
ness and idleness reign supreme. In the
communist future people will lead inter-
esting, creative, industrious and cultured
lives. Work will become the prime
vital necessity of man At the same time
people will have much more time to
devote to science, literature, music,
painting, sports and other things they
like Marx wrote that in communist
5
society " the development of the pro-
ductive forces will advance so rapidly
that although production will be designed
to provide riches for all, nevertheless the
free time of all will increase."
What Marx foretold with such great
foresight is coming true. The productive
forces of Soviet society have developed
to such an extent as to place on the
agenda the question of shortening work-
ing time and increasing free time. The
transition to a seven-hour working day.
and in some branches of industry to a
six-hour day, is gradually being carried
out in the U.S.S.R Together with the
further development of the productive
forces and the increase in the social
wealth of the Soviet Union, the free time
of the working people will steadily in-
crease This means that all Soviet men
and women will have ever greater oppor-
tunities for combining work with study,
[cm broadening their horizon and satisfy-
ing their intellectual requirements, which
arc increasing all the more rapidly the
nearer we draw to communism
Proceeding from the Leninist premise
that communism means, in the first place,
a higher productivity of labour than
under capitalism, the working people,
both in industry and agriculture, must
introduce the most efficient methods and
the latest achievements of science and
technology. Accelerated development of
mechanisation and automation and the
application of chemical processes in pro-
duction, the introduction of electronics
and computers on a wide scale, the
maximum development of electrification
and other highly efficient methods arc
radically changing the nature of work
The labour of workers and collective
farmers is drawing ever nearer in essence
to the work of technicians, engineers,
agronomists and other agricultural
specialists. What is now being required
of the workers is the ability to operate
improved machine tools and the finest
precision instruments and devices for
measurement and control, and an under-
standing of intricate technical calcula-
tions and blueprints. The immediate and
long-term prospects for the Soviet
Union's technical and economic develop-
ment are thus making ever greater
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demands on all the working people of
our society. An all-round education is
becoming a vital necessity for them
It is a very great nustakc to assert
that with the automation of production
manual labour will disappear in com-
munist society. It goes without saying
that gigantic technical progress will
immeasurably lighten manual labour,
and many trades that exhaust people
arc disappearing and will disappear in
the future. Yet the harmonious develop-
ment of man is inconceivable without
manual work?creative and joyous?
which strengthens the organism and
stimulates its vital functions. "Just as in
nature itself the head and the arms
belong to one and the same organism,
so is mental and manual labour also
combined in the process of work," wrote
Karl Marx. The new generations of
builders of communist society, par-
ticipating in socially useful activities,
must join in manual work within their
powers and in the most vaned forms.
6. The idea of combining instruction
with productive work has attracted the
best minds of mankind for a long time.
Already the utopian socialists Campan-
ella, Fourier and Owen, and the great
Russian revolutionary democrat Cherny-
shcvsky, in describing the society of the
future, said that under socialism instruc-
tion would be closely linked with pro-
ductive work The great thinkers Marx,
Engels and Lenin placed the idea of
combining instruction with productive
work on the realistic foundation of the
proletarian struggle for socialism and
communism and organically linked
it with the polytechniad training of the
youth in socialist society Marx wrote
that in bringing up children it was
necessary, from a certain age, to com-
bine productive work with instruction
and gymnastics. This " will be not only
a method of increasing social production,
but also the only method of bringing up
people of all-round development."
Engels stressed that "in socialist society
work and education will be combined
and in this way the rising generation will
be assured an all-round technical educa-
tion as well as a practical foundation for
scientific upbringing." Already before
6
the October Rcvoluton Lenin planned
the bringing up of children and the
youth in socialist society on the basis of
combining instruction with productive
work.
7. The experience of the Soviet school
confirms the scientific foresight of Marx,
Engels and Lenin. In his historic speech
at the Third Congress of the Young
Communist League, Lenin explained that
the younger generation must learn to
build communism, closely linking up
each step in their training, upbringing
and education with the struggle of the
working people against the old, exploit-
ing society. The young people must not
confine themselves to the schools but
must combine all their learning and
education with the labour of the workers
and peasants. "Only in labour together
with the workers and peasants is it
possible to become a real communist,"
Lenin pointed out. Giving concrete ex-
pression to this proposition, he said that
the young people must link up their
studies with work, with the struggle to
reconstruct industry and agriculture on
the basis of electrification, with the
struggle for culture and the education
of the people. The principle of combin-
ing instruction with productive work has
been formulated in major documents of
the Communist Party.
8. A genuine cultural revolution has
been accomplished in the U.S.S.R. The
Soviet school system has played a deci-
sive part in this revolution and has
facilitated the advance of the culture of
all the peoples in our multi-national
homeland The Soviet Union today has
no backward national "borderlands,"
as was the case in tsarist Russia. All the
peoples in the Soviet Union have schools
where their children arc taught in their
native language. The well-springs of
education and culture are freely available
to all, illiteracy has been eradicated,
universal seven-year education has been
accomplished and secondary and higher
education have been extensively
developed. More than 50 million people
arc now studying in the U.S.S.R.
Whereas in Russia before the Revo-
lution, a total of 9,650,000 pupils were
attending elementary and secondary
schools in 1914, in the 1957-58 school
year which has ended there were
28,700,000 pupils in our general educa-
tional schools and, if schools for adults
are included, the figure was 30,600,000.
During this penod the number of pupils
in the senior forms of secondary schools
increased nearly 40 times over. In 1958
alone 1,600,000 boys and girls completed
their studies at secondary schools pro-
viding a general education and at
schools for young workers and peasants.
Particularly great succcssses in public
education have been achieved in
Union republics whose population
was almost completely illiterate
in the past. For example, more than
1,340,000 pupils are now attending
schools in the Uzbek Republic, whereas
in 1914 there were only a little more
than 17,000 school children on the
territory of what is now Uzbekistan
More than four million students are
now studying at higher educational
establishments and specialised secondary
schools, as against 182,000 in 1913 The
universities and colleges of the U.S.S.R.
have nearly four times as many students
as such big European capitalist countries
as Britain, France, the Federal Republic
of Germany and Italy combined, whose
population is nearly 200 million. i.e.,
almost as large as that of the U.S.S.R.
About 7,500,000 people with a higher or
specialised secondary education are now
working in our country's national
economy, while in 1913 there were
fewer than 200,000 specialists of this
kind.
The Soviet Union has advanced to
one of the first places in the world in
the development of science and tech-
nology and has surpassed all countries in
the scale and quality of the training of
specialists. When the first Soviet arti-
ficial earth satellite was hurled into the
boundless expanses of outer space, many
sober-minded and thinking people in the
capitalist world recognised that the exten-
sive development and high level achieved
by secondary and higher education in
the U.S.S.R. was the primary reason
which bad determined that brilliant vic-
tory of Sovct science and technology.
The American press wrote with alarm
about how much time and attention is
being given to the study of mathematics,
physics, chemistry and biology in the
Soviet secondary school as compared with
United States schools. The United
States of America, whose leading circles
used to pride themselves on being, so
they claimed, in the lead, now declare
that the United States must overtake the
Soviet Union in the training of specialists.
This is an achievement of which we can-
not fail to be proud.
A splendid generation of young people
who arc devoting all their knowledge,
energies, abilities and talents to building
communism, has been brought up in
Soviet society. The high moral qualities
of the Soviet youth have been manifested
in a striking way at the labour fronts
in building socialism during the first
live-year plans, in the Great Patriotic
War, in the heroic feats performed in
cultivating virgin and long-fallow lands,
in the construction of big power stations,
mines and blast furnaces, in the con-
struction of new industrial centres in the
East and North of our country, and in
many other feats of labour in our day.
9. The progressive development of the
productive forces in the proems of build-
ing communist society, the perfecting
of socialist relations in society and the
further development of Soviet democracy
arc creating favourable conditions for
posing new tasks of the communist up-
bringing and education of our young
people and for successfully carrying
them out.
It was pointed out at the 20th Con-
gress of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union that a big shortcoming of
our school system is that instruction is
to some extent divorced from life and
that when they leave school, young
people are not sufficiently prepared for
practical work.
"To strengthen their tics with life
the schools must not only introduce new
subjects which teach the pupils the fun-
damentals of technology and production,
but must also systematically accustom
the pupils to working in factories, collec-
tive and state farms, experimental plots
and school workshops," it was stated in
7
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the report of the central committee of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
to the congress. "The secondary school
curriculum should be revised to include
greater production specalisation, so that
boys and girls who complete their
studies at a ten-year school have a good
general education, opening the way to a
higher education, and are, at the same
time, prepared for practical activity, since
the greater part of those leaving school
will immediately begin working in
various branches of the national
economy"
Since the congress a certain amount of
work has been done to bring the school
closer to life. The first experiences in
combining instruction with productive
work, already accumulated in a number
of schools in the R.S.F.S.R , the Ukraine
and other Union republics, are undoubt-
edly valuable and promising. A remark-
able example of initiative in forming
teams of pupils on collective farms has,
for instance, originated in the Stavropol
Territory. These teams arc made up of
pupils of the 8th and 9th forms. The
collective farms allocate definite areas of
land to the teams. The pupils do a whole
range of jobs in agriculture which are
within their powers and fit in with the
school curriculum. These jobs arc not
done to the detriment of the curriculum.
In the winter and sprang definite hours
are assigned to work and in the summer
the pupils arc mainly engaged in working
on the collective farm The boys and
girls are brought up to work, are be-
coming accustomed to discipline and arc
preparing to be good agriculturists.
A profound study of the experience
accumulated by a number of schools
which arc combining instruction with
production and work will help to reorg-
anise the educational system
Yet in the overwhelming majority of
secondary and higher educational estab-
THE SECOND
to. The educational system now exist-
ing in the U.S.S.R was created more than
20 years ago. In the 'thirties, in the
period of socialist reconstruction of the
economy, the school was set the task of
lishmcnts the situation has remained
practically unchanged and the ties of
the schools with life, as in the past, are
completely inadequate. That is why the
central committee of the party and the
U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers consider it
necessary to examine in all its scope the
question of practical measures to streng-
then the ties of the schools with life and
further to develop education in the
country.
"The system of bringing up our ris-
ing generation in the schools must be
reorganised drastically," it is stated in
Comrade Khrushchov's memorandum on
strengthening the ties of the school with
life. " The most important thing here
is to issue a slogan, and make this slogan
sacred for all children entering school.
namely, that all children must prepare
for useful work, for taking part in
building communist society. And any
work at a factory, a collective farm, an
industrial establishment, a state farm, a
machine and tractor station, a repair
and service station, or in an office?any
honest, useful work for society?is sacred
work and necessary for every person who
fives in and enjoys the benefits of
society. Every person living in com-
munist society must contribute by his
work to the construction and further
development of this society. The main
task of our schools must become that of
preparing our younger generation for
life, for useful work, and of inculcating
in our youth a deep respect for the
principles of socialist society."
The Soviet school is called upon to
prepare people with an all-round educa-
tion who have a good knowledge of the
fundamentals of science and, at the same
time, are capable of systematic manual
work, and to foster in the young people
a desire to be useful to society and to
take an active part in the production of
the values which society needs.
ARY SCHOOL
preparing well-educated people, with a
good knowledge of the fundamentals of
science, for the higher educational estab-
lishments. The school concentrated its
main attention on giving the pupils the
8
general educational grounding necessary
for entering a university or institute. This
led to one-sidedness and a certain abstract
quality in the teaching provided for the
young people, to the divorcement of the
school from life, which made for serious
shortcomings in educational work as
well The school limited itself primarily
to verbal methods of instruction and did
not pay the necessary attention to accus-
toming the children and young people to
take part in socially useful work within
their powers.
As a result of this, many boys and girls
who have completed their studies at
secondary schools consider that the
only road in life suitable for them is
to continue their education in a higher
educational establishment or, if the worst
comes to the worst, in a specialised
secondary educational establishment ,
they go unwillingly to work in factories,
mills, collective farms and state farms,
while some of them consider it degrading
to do manual work Yet the continuous
expansion of secondary education
naturally leads to a situation in which
the overwhelming majority of the young
people who leave school must go straight
to productive work At the same time,
technical progress demands the replenish-
ment of industry and agriculture with
young people who have a sufficiently high
general educational grounding.
In present conditions the higher educa-
tional establishments annually enrol about
450,000 people, including those who study
at evening classes or through corre-
spondence courses. Between 1954 and
1957 more than two and a half million
people from among those who completed
their studies at secondary schools did not
enter higher educational establishments or
specialised secondary schools. In view
of the fact that the curriculums of the
secondary schools arc divorced from life,
many young people have no work skills
and arc not familiar with production,
which creates serious difficulties in placing
them in jobs and gives rise to dissatisfac-
tion among a considerable section of the
young people and their parents.
All this has created an imperative need
9
for reorganising the work of the schools.
11. The initial starting point for a
proper solution to the problem of re-
organising the school system is first of all
the premise that from a certain age all
young people should join in socially use-
ful work and that their instniction in the
fundamentals of science should be linked
with productive work in industry or
agriculture. From this there follows the
need for properly correlating, in the
secondary school, the general, poly-
technical and vocational education, based
on a rational combination of work and
instruction, with rest and leisure and the
normal physical development of children
and young people.
Thus, the key principle in teaching the
fundamentals of science at school?
the principle which determines the con-
tcnt, organisation and methods of
instruction- must become the close link-
ing of instruction with life, with produc-
tion, with the practical work of building
communism Instruction must psycholo-
gically prepare the children from their
very first years. so that they will in the
future take part in socially useful
activities, in work
The education and upbringing of the
younger generation on the basis of link-
ing up instruction with life and with won(
that is within their powers, must be
organised in such n way that the age of
the school children is taken into account
It is desirable for all young people to be
drawn into socially useful work from the
age of 15 or 16 It is therefore necessary
to divide secondary education into two
stages.
12. The first stage of secondary
education must be the compulsory eight-
year school, set up in place of the seven-
year school that exists at present. The
compulsory eight-year school will be
considerable step forward in developing
education, as compared with the seven-
year school The young people who com-
plete their studies at an eight-year school
will have a greater general knowledge and.
both psychologically and practically, will
be better prepared for taking part in
socially useful activities. Such a school
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will solve the problems of communist
education and of labour and polytechnical
instruction more successfully; it will pro-
vide the pupils with a wider range of
knowledge, and will make it possible to
eliminate the overloading of the pupils
with studies that has existed in the seven-
year school, and to organise in a snore
thorough way the physical training of
children and the development of good
artistic taste. The specific features of
woman's work should be taken into
account in the work training given to girl
pupils in the eight-year school.
In the process of instruction and
upbringing the school is called upon to
familiarise the pupils with the varied
forms of work in our society and to help
them to discover their particular bent
and make a conscious choice of their
future occupation.
The eight-year school will be an
incomplete secondary labour polytech-
nical school providing a general educa-
tion. Primary schools consisting of the
first four forms should be preserved in
small communities. When they have been
through the fourth form at these schools
the pupils will enter the fifth form at the
nearest school.
On leaving the eight-year school, all
young people must join in socially useful
work at industrial establishments, collec-
tive farms, etc. This will create more
equal conditions for all citizens as regards
work and education, and it will be a good
means of bringing up young people
in the spirit of the heroic traditions of
the working class and the collective-farm
peasantry.
13. Young people will receive a
complete secondary education during the
second stage of instruction. A secondary
education can be completed on the basis
of combining studies with productive
work in the following ways.
The first and main way is for young
people, who upon finishing at the eight-
year school go to work, first of all to
receive initial vocational training and then,
while working in production, to study at
schools for young workers and peasants.
These schools should give their pupils a
10
complete secondary education and help
to increase their vocational skill.
The second way is for young people
who have completed their studies at the
eight-year school, to be taught at a
secondary labour polytechnical school
providing a general education together
with production training (of the type of
factory or agricultural vocational schools)
which, on the basis of nearby industrial
establishments, collective farms, state
farms, repair and service stations, etc.,
will combine instruction with productive
work and give the pupils a complete
secondary education and vocational train-
ing for work in a branch of the economy
or culture.
The third way is to teach a section
of the young people in specialised secon-
dary schools which will function with
the eight-year school as a basis, and at
which the pupils will obtain a complete
secondary education, a speciality and the
status of specialists with medium quali-
fications.
The new system of education will en-
able every boy and girl to prepare for
life better, to have a definite trade
and to choose the way of obtaining a
complete secondary education that suits
them best.
14. The purpose of the secondary
schools for young ikorkers and peasants
is to enable young men and women
working in production or in offices to
obtain a complete secondary education.
These can be shift, evening, seasonal
(in rural localities) or correspondence
schools. It is necessary to create condi-
tions which will ensure that the working
youth are brought into these schools, that
they study in a normal way, and that
there is a decided improvement in the
quality of the instruction given. For
those who study successfully while work-
ing, it is desirable to institute a shorter
working day or to release them from
work for two or three days a week.
The pupils of these schools must be
given the opportunity, not only to re-
ceive a complete secondary education,
but also to improve and deepen their
vocational training. The period of
study at schools for young workers and
peasants should be three years. It is
necessary to provide encouragement in
every way for the working youth to
obtain a secondary education and to en-
courage the passing of secondary school
examinations without compulsory attend-
ance at classes.
In raising the trade rating of young
workers and collective farmers and in
giving them promotion at work, it is
desirable to take into account successful
studies at school and a favourable
assessment of social and production
activities.
In view of the fact that a certain num-
ber of the working youth do not have
a seven-year education, schools for
young workers and peasants can con-
tinue for a certain time to have all
forms, beginning with the third. In case
of necessity these schools can also
arrange classes for adults.
Youths and girls who complete their
studies at schools for young workers
and peasants will receive a certificate of
secondary education and will have the
right to enter a higher educational
establishment
IS. Secondary labour poly technical
schools providing a general education
together with production training (of the
type of factory or agricultural voca-
ional schools) are to be set up in towns
and rural localities and will have a
three-year period of study They will
combine general polytechnical and voca-
tional education. In production training
the correlation of theory and practice
and the periods of instruction and work
will be fixed in accordance with the
nature of the special training being given
to the pupils and with the local con-
ditions. In schools in the countryside
the school year should be arranged so
that the seasonal nature of agricultural
work is taken into account.
Production training and socially use-
ful work can be carried on in the train-
ing and production shops of industrial
establishments, in teams of pupils on
collective and state farms, on training
and experimental farms, and at the
training and production workshops of
a school or group of schools.
Those who complete their studies at
secondary labour polytechnical schools
will receive a certificate of secondary
education and a diploma giving them a
rating in the trade they have chosen,
and they will have the right to enter a
higher educational establishment. Secon-
dary schools can be set up either separ-
ately from an eight-year school or to-
gether with it.
16. A new type of institution for the
education and upbringing of children
has been established and is being ever
moro extensively developed in the Soviet
Union?the boarding school, where the
best conditions arc provided for the
education and communist upbringing of
the younger generation In accordance
with the reorganisation of the system
of secondary education, the boarding
schools may be either eight-year or 11-
year schools, depending on local con-
ditions. They should follow the curri-
culums and syllabuses of the eight-year
and secondary labour polytechnical
schools giving production training. The
boarding schools arc to set examples of
a really efficient combination of educa-
tional instruction and productive labour.
17. Besides the aforementioned schools
for the second stage of secondary educa-
tion, it is desirable to retain schools for
children showing superior abilities in
music, choreography and the fine arts.
When necessary, these schools are to
provide facilities for children living out
of town and children from large families
to attend them as boarders. The parents'
contribution to the upkeep of their chil-
dren should be fixed on the same prin-
ciples as at boarding schools.
The schools for children and
young people with superior abilities in
the arts will give their pupils a general
secondary education, work training, and
special training in some field of art.
On completing their studies at these
schools pupils can go direct to appro-
priate higher educational establishments.
The schools and public education
authorities must pay more attention to
developing the abilities and inclinations
11
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of all children, both in the arts and in
mathematics, physics, biology and other
sciences. Circles, studios and special
lecture bureaus should be organised on
a wide scale at higher educational estab-
lishments and schools; societies of young
mathematicians, physicists, chemists.
naturalists and engineers should be
formed; gifted young people should be
discovered and their talents should
be carefully fostered. Thought should be
given to the question of establishing
special schools for young people with
a particular inclination and aptitude for
mathematics, physics, chemistry and
biology. It goes without saying that
such schools, when organised, may
admit youths and girls who have been
recommended by their school's teaching
board and who have passed a special
examination.
18. The schools for the second stage
in secondary education should provide
a higher level of general and polytech-
meal education than is now established
for the 10-year schools. Special atten-
tion should be paid to teaching physics,
mathematics, chemistry, draughtsman-
ship and biology The study of foreign
languages must be fundamentally im-
proved at all schools throughout the
country; the network of schools in which
a number of subjects arc taught in
foreign languages should be expanded.
The reorganisation of the schools
should by no means result in a reduction
or weakening of education in the
humanities, which is of great importance
for the formation of the pupils' com-
munist world outlook
It is necessary to do away with the
underestimation of physical training and
aesthetic education for school children
The various forms of independent youth
activity in the technical field, in the
arts, natural sciences, physical culture,
sport and tourism, should be developed
still more widely.
The reorganisation of school educa-
tion will call for a change, not only in
the content, but also in the methods
of teaching, with a view to the maxi-
mum development of the independence
and initiative of the pupils. Visual
12
methods of instruction should be applied
more extensively; the cinema, television,
etc., should be widely used; ab-
stract teaching of the fundamentals of
science and production must be done
away with. It is particularly important
to promote on a wide scale in the
schools technical inventions and work
by the pupils to make new instruments,
models and technical devices; experi-
mental agricultural work should also be
encouraged.
19. Instruction in the native language
has been effected in Soviet schools. This
is one of the important gains of the
Leninist national policy At the same
time, the Russian language, which is a
mighty medium for intercourse between
nations, for strengthening the friendship
between the peoples of the U.S.S.R. and
for giving them access to the wealth of
Russian and world culture, is being
seriously studied in the schools of the
Union and autonomous republics.
One cannot, however, ignore the fact
that children are greatly overloaded in
studying languages at the schools of the
Union and autonomous republics. Indeed,
at the national schools children study
three languages?their native tongue,
Russian and one foreign language
Consideration should be given to the
question of allowing parents to have
the right to decide to which school (as
regards the language in which instruc-
tion is given) they will send their
children. If a child attends a school in
which instruction is given in the
language of one of the Union or auto-
nomous republics, he may study Russian
as an optional subject. And, conversely,
if a child attends a Russian school he
may study the language of one of the
Union or autonomous republics as an
optional subject It goes without saying
that this can only be done when there
is the necessary number of children for
making up classes in which instruction
is given in this or that language.
Giving parents the right to decide
which language their child will study
compulsorily is the most democratic
way of approaching the question; it will
eliminate any bureaucratic approach to
IJ
this important matter and will make it
possible to eliminate the excessive over-
burdening of school children in studying
languages. Permission should be given
not to include a foreign language among
the compulsory subjects at those schools
which do not have the proper condi-
tions for this.
20. A big improvement is needed in
the way in which the upbringing of
children in the schools is organised. The
upbringing must inculcate in the school
children a love of knowledge and of
work, and respect for people who work;
it must shape the communist world out-
look of the pupils and must rear them
in the spirit of communist morality and
of boundless loyalty to the country and
the people, and in the spirit of prole-
tarian internationalism.
It is necessary to intensify the work of
the teachers, parents and public organi-
sations in cultivating in the pupils habits
of good bchavour at school, at home, in
the street and in other public places, and
with this in view educational propaganda
among the broad sections of the popula-
tion should be considerably improved,
and the responsibility of parents and all
adults to society for the upbringing of
children should be heightened. In this
matter the schools and the families must
be given every assistance by the party,
trade union, Young Communist League
and other public organisations. The
Soviet schools are called upon to pro-
mote actively a higher cultural standard
for the entire people.
The public education and public
health authorities must strictly super-
vise the correct sequence of the pupils'
work and recreation, must not allow
them to be overburdened with studies.
social activities and work training, and
must take the necessary measures for
the further improvement of the health
of school children.
21. The reorganisation of the system
of public education poses in a new way
the question of the work of the Young
Pioneer p.nd Young Communist League
organisations in the schools. The eight-
year schools will be attended by children
of Young Pioneer age. This will enhance
the role of the Young Pioneer organisa-
13
tions in these schools. In the schools for
the second stage there may be either a
Y.C.L. organisation of the school itself,
or a joint Y.C.L. organisation of the
school and the corresponding production
establishment All this will call for
substantial changes in the work of the
Young Pioneer and Y.0 L. organisations
of the schools and in the guidance
given them by Y.C.L. and party bodies.
22. An end must be put to the big
shortcomings an implementing universal
compulsory education of children It is
desirable to establish by law in all the
Union republics compulsory eight-year
education, providing for the strict respon-
sibility of the parents, or persons taking
their place, for the education of the
children. The local government bodies
must be made responsible for ensuring
that all children and young people from
the age of seven to 16 attend the eight-
year schools. The Central Statistical
Board of the U.S.S.R and its local bodies
are in duty bound to keep a better record
of children and young people of school
age.
With a view to implementing com-
pulsory eight-year education it is neces-
sary to ensure the building of a sufficient
number of schools and accommodation
for boarders at schools, both with budget
funds and with funds from the collective
farms and co-operative organisations; to
bring about a considerable increase in the
number of "after-school-hours groups"
in the schools for children whose parents
arc ssorking , to arrange for hot meals
for the pupils at school, and to establish
a general education fund for material
assistance to children in need (free meals
and free footwear, clothing, textbooks.
etc ), both from budget resources and
from the resources of the collective
farms, co-operative organisations and
the trade unions.
23. The reorganisation of upbringing
and education in the Soviet schools makes
new and greater demands of the teachers
the foremen, and instructors in vocational
subjects.
In Soviet times the number of teachers
in the country has increased from 280,000
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in 1914 to nearly tv.o million at the present
time. This is an immense cultural force,
which Lenin spoke of with respect as the
army of socialist education. Many
teachers who have a good mastery of
educational science are working in the
schools of the U.S.S.R. At the same time
the education and upbonging of children
is at times entrusted to persons who are
not sufficiently trained for this or who,
owing to the way they do their work and
their moral characteristics, are unsuited
to the requirements of teaching.
There are not enough qualified instruc-
tors in polytechnical subjects (machine
operation, the fundamentals of agricul-
ture, practical instruction at workshops).
The teachers' qualifications are being
improved in a one-sided way, primarily
with regard to methods of teaching.
Teachers arc not sufficiently acquainted
with the latest achievements of science,
culture and technology There is an
excessive regimentation of the work of
teachers and teaching staffs as regards the
choice of forms and methods of educa-
tion and upbringing. In a number of
places insufficient concern is shown for
the material standards of teachers.
Measures should be taken to improve the
working and living conditions of teachers
and to raise their ideological and
theoretical level and professional quali-
fications.
With a view to improving the qualita-
tive composition of teaching staffs and
instituting a proper procedure in the
appointment and transfer of teaching
staff, teachers who do not have the neces-
sary education should pass qualification
tests.
24. The science of education has a
great part to play in reorganising the
schools. Yet up to the present it has
failed to tackle many fundamental prob-
lems of upbringing and education that are
posed by life itself It is the duty of the
science of education to take a leading
part in the reoeganisation of the public
education system. Elaboration of the
scientific fundamentals of the content of
school education (curriculums, syllabuses,
textbooks), and improvement in the
methods of education and communist
14
upbringing of the young people must
become an important feature of the
activity of pedagogical scientific institu-
tions.
With a view to raising the level of
teaching, it is necessary to develop
educational research in the Union repub-
lics on a still wider scale, to strengthen
the bonds between teachers' training
institutes and to increase the mutual
exchange of the results of their research
The Academy of Educational Sciences of
the R.S.F.S.R must pay more attention to
working out the theory of Soviet educa-
tional science, to questions of poly-
technical and vocational training in the
schools, and to making valuable exper-
ience generally known.
25. The reorganisation of the system
of public education must be carried
through in a planned and organised
manner, taking every account of distinc-
tive local features and preventing by
every means any worsening of the school
service for the population. Attention
should be paid to the need for further
increasing the number of girls of the
indigenous nationalities in the upper
forms of the schools in the Union and
autonomous republics of the East.
A plan for changing over to the new
system of school education should be
drawn up in each Union republic.
applicable to the specific economic and
cultural development of the republic.
The change-over of the schools from
seven-year to eight-year compulsory
education and the organisation of the
various second-stage schools should begin
as from the school year of 1959-60 and
be completed within four or five years.
Pupils now in the 8th. 9th and 10th forms
shall be allowed to complete their
secondary school studies under the exist-
ing curriculums and syllabuses, but their
work training should be improved.
The plans for reorganising the second-
ary schools must make provision for
supplying the higher educational estab-
lishments with a sufficient number of
pupils leaving secondary schools, since
the national economy cannot have any
interruption in the reinforcements of
young specialists with the highest quali-
fications. With this in view, each Union
republic, when necessary, should retain
for the transitional period (about four to
five years) a certain number of the present
secondary schools.
The reorganisation of the schools will
require extensive work by the central
committees of the Communist Parties, the
Councils of Ministers and the Ministries
of Education of the Union republics,
and by the local party and government
bodies, in order to improve the material
facilities of the schools, to abolish the
practice of having more than one shift in
schools, to organise production training.
to place young people leaving school in
jobs without delay and to draw up
syllabuses for textbooks, and prepare
methodological aids.
VOCATIONAL
26. In connection with the reorganis-
ation of general education, vocational
training for young people assumes parti-
cularly great importance. Its task is to
train in a planned and organised way- -
for all branches of the national economy
?cultured, technically-skilled and quali-
fied industrial workers and workers in
agriculture.
Inadequate vocational training of a
section of the workers is already hold-
ing up the growth of production in some
cases. Further technical progress will
demand still higher qualifications of the
entire basic mass of the workers.
Vocational training should develop in
close contact with the new plans that
have been drawn up by the Communist
Party to promote the advance of the
national economy of the U S.S.R
27. The present Labour Reserves
factory, trade, railway, mining and build-
ing schools and the vocational and fac-
tory schools of the economic councils
and departments are lagging behind the
increased requirements of industrial and
agricultural production. They should be
reorganised into day and evening special-
ised urban vocational schools, with a
course of training lasting from one to
Each Union republic should bc given
the right to decide independently, taking
Into consideration the local conditions,
questions concerning the time classes
begin and end, holidays, and the organi-
sation of the pupils' work in industrial
and agricultural production.
The further advancement of the educa-
tion of the working people of all the
nationalities of the Soviet Union is
regarded by the Communist Party as an
important task. The party and the state
should take the maximum care to ensure
that all men and women workers and
collective farmers have a secondary
education, regarding this as a pre-
requisite for the continuous rise of the
productivity of labour, and, consequently,
as a major prerequisite for successfully
building communism
EDUCATION
three years, and agricultural vocational
schools with a course lasting from one
to two years. The length of the course
in these schools is to be fixed in accord-
ance with the complexity of the trade
they teach.
The urban vocational schools are to
specialise in particular branches of pro-
duction and arc to train qualified work-
ers for industrial, building, transport and
communications enterprises, for public
utilities, and for trading, cultural and
public service establishments.
The rural vocational schools should
train qualified argicultural mechanics
and builders, and other responsible
workers necessary for the farms.
Special attention should be paid to
drawing girls into the vocational schools.
and not only for public services, retail
trade and other specialities, but also for
occupations in industrial production
(instrument-making, radio electronics,
electrical engineering, textiles, clothing
and knitwear, etc).
On the basis of a knowledge of the
fundamentals of science, the polytech-
meal training and work skills acquired
by the pupils at the eight-year schools,
the vocational schools should give their
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students additional knowledge in general
educational subjects.
The number of vocational schools
should increase in accordance with the
need of the national economy for these
schools. Some of the existing Labour
Reserves schools should be retained for
a period of from three to five years, so
that the young people who will complete
their studies at 10-year general educa-
tional schools during these years may
have the opportunity to enter technical
schools; and young people who, for
some reason, do not complete their
studies at the schools, will be able to
enter trade, building, railway and mining
schools, factory trade schools and agri-
cultural mechanisation schools.
28. The vocational schools should
have the instructional workshops neces-
sary for mastering the fundamentals of
vocational skills, and laboratories fitted
out with the appropriate production
training equipment and staffed by quali-
fied production training foremen and
engineering instructors entirely engaged in
the teaching and training of the
The educational process at these schools
is to be based on the active and
systematic participation of young people
in productive labour and is to be sub-
ordinated to the task of training workers
of particular trades. The organic linking
of production training with broad tech-
nical education and the combination of
training in workshops and at enterprises
will make it possible in these schools to
train technically-educated workers with
a wide range of knowledge and high
qualifications.
The vocational schools are to carry
out their work of education and training
in close contact with enterprises,
construction projects, state farms and col-
lective farms, which are in duty bound
to provide work places for the production
practice of the pupils and to take care to
provide conditions enabling the young
people to study successfully and master
new techniques, advanced technology and
highly productive methods of work The
economic councils must give every
16
assistance to improve the vocational
training of the youth.
An all-important task of the vocational
schools is the communist education of
the pupils, developing them ideologically.
and inculcating in them a communist
attitude towards work. The Y.0 L. is to
play a big part in the communist educa-
tion of the pupils of vocational schools
29. In order that the vocational
schools may gradually begin partially to
pay their way, measures should be
worked out and consistently implemented
to extend and increase the incomes
which the schools derive from their pro-
duction activity.
In view of the improvement in the
material security of the working people.
it is desirable, in order to increase the
pupils' incentives to obtain a better
mastery of their trade, to change the
existing conditions concerning material
provision for the pupils, by introducing
apprenticeship wages instead of free
clothing and meals.
Full state maintenance should be re-
tained for pupils who are orphans and
pupils who come from children's homes
or large families.
The collective farms should be recom-
mended to consider the question of allo-
cating appropriate funds for the training
of young people from collective farms
at vocational schools.
30. The reorganisation of the system
of vocational education presents new
and higher demands with regard to the
level of technical, ideological, political
and teachers' training for the foremen
responsible for production training and
teachers in the vocational schools. The
development of the network of these
schools will call for more foremen and
teachers. It is therefore necessary to pay
more attention to training them at
specialised secondary schools and higher
educational establishments.
The quality of textbooks and visual
aids should be improved and more
should be produced; the production of
technical education films and popular
science films should be extended, and
wide use should be made of radio and
television in vocational training
31. The U.S.S.R State Planning Com-
nuttce, the U.S.S.R. Council of Minis-
ters' Central Board of Labour Reserves,
the Councils of Ministers of the Union
republics and the Ministries of Educa-
tion should draw up long-term plans for
the vocational training and employment
of young people leavin the eight-ear
general educational schools, the secon-
dary schools giving training in produc-
tion and the vocational schools; they
should make provision for reserved
places to be established at enterprises so
that the young people can be given jobs,
and they should also provide for the
SPECIALISED SECON
33. Persons with a specialised secon-
dary education have an important place
in industnal and agricultural produc-
tion and at cultural, educational and
public health institutions. Technicians
play a decisive part as organisers of
production. It is they?the technicians
?who directly organise production, and
special attention should therefore be
paid to their training.
The interests of modern production,
which is based on the latest achieve-
ments of science and technology, re-
quire of those trained at specialised
secondary schools a good knowledge of
practical work as well as a high level
of theoretical training Yet the quality
of training at these schools still fails
to meet the requirements of life The
students of specialised secondary schools
and other specialised schools do not
play a sufficient part in productive
labour and do not acquire adequate pro-
duction skill for practical work The
system of specialised secondary educa-
tion must be improved.
34. The system of specialised secon-
dary education should be based both
on the eight-year polytechnical schools
and on the complete secondary schools
The training of specialists at special-
ised secondary schools should be more
dosely linked uith socially useful
strict observance of labour protection
and safety regulations.
32. 11.-sides the development of voca-
tional schools, it is necessary to =prose
the training of new cadres of
workers, either individually or in
teams, and through the system of short
courses at enterprises. Here production
training should be carried out on the
basis of plans and programnus uniform
for each trade and concretely developed
on the spot in relation to the specific
features of the particular enterprise.
When necessary, theoretical training
should be given at the nearest vocational
schools.
DARY EDUCATION
labour Depending on the branch of
the national economy for which special-
ists are being trained and on the work-
ing conditions at the enterprises, con-
struction projects and other organisa-
tions, the length of the particular
periods of full-time and spare-time
training may vary Study at specialised
secondary schools must give the pupils,
in addition to a general education, (he
necessary knowledge in their speciality,
working skills, and a definite trade with
an appropriate qualification rating. The
quality of instruction at specialised
secondary schools should be improved,
as should the composition of their teach-
ing staffs, and the teachers' qualifications
should be systematically raised
35. The specialised secondary schools
should be brought closer to production
and should be developed, taking into
consideration the requirements of the
economic areas as regards personnel, and
giving preference to evening arid corre-
spondence education The economic
councils. Ministries and departments
should co-operate more widely in train-
ing specialists with a secondary educa-
tion, and the Union republics should
make a more thorough study of (he
need for such personnel and should plan
their training better.
It is recommended that shops be
organised at specialised secondary
schools for the manufacture of industrial
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products by using the labour of the
pupils.
Agricultural specialised secondary
schools should be organised at big
farms, and all the main work must be
done by the pupils themselves.
In admitting students, evening and
correspondence schools should give
preference to persons working in trades
allied to specialities they have chosen.
It is advisable to organise correspond-
ence education at the main, large, special-
ised secondary schools which have
qualified teaching staffs and the neces-
sary instructional and material facilities.
HIGHER EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS
36. The 20th Congress of the Com-
munist Party of the Soviet Union has set
the system of higher education, as its
main task, the further improvement of
the quality of the training provided for
specialists on the basis of the close link-
ing of instruction with practical work,
with production. The new tasks of build-
ing communism demand that the exist-
ing serious shortcomings in the work of
higher educational establishments be
eliminated. Today many young people
graduating from colleges have a poor
knowledge of practical work and are not
sufficiently trained to decide questions of
modern production independently. Quite
a lot of time elapses before such a
specialist finds his place in the work
team. The higher educational establish-
ments must be brought closer to life, to
production, and must have real links
with it. At the same time it is also
necessary to raise the theoretical level of
the training provided for specialists, in
keeping with the latest achievements of
science.
In the present conditions of building
communism the higher educational
establishments arc to train men and
women with an all-round education, who
have a thorough knowledge of their own
particular field of science and technology
and are active and conscious builders
of communism. Special attention should
be paid to a further improvement in
the quality of the training given to
specialists for industry and agriculture.
The reorganisation of the system of
higher education, the aim of which is to
ensure better practical and theoretical
training for specialists, should help to
bring about a considerable improvement
in the study of the social sciences and
18
should further the communist education
of young people and the active par-
ticipation of all teachers in the training
of students.
Taking into consideration the fact that
about half of all the country's scientific
personnel arc concentrated at higher
educational establishments, it is neces-
sary to bring about a substantial im-
provement in the part played by those
establishments in scientific research and
to get all teachers to take an active part
in this work.
Higher educational institutions should
primarily admit young people who have a
certain record of practical work. Better
conditions should be created for young
workers and collective farmers to pre-
pare for entering higher educational
establishments.
The concrete forms by which instruc-
tion at higher educational establishments
is combined with practice, with work,
should be determined in accordance with
the specialities of the particular estab-
lishment, the composition of its students,
and certain, specific national and local
features.
37. In developing our system of
higher education it is necessary to pro-
ceed, in the first place, along the lines of
evening and correspondence education.
The system of evening and correspon-
dence higher education should be
extended in every way and the quality
of the instruction given should be raised
to a new level. The network of corres-
pondence and evening colleges must be
improved and reinforced, and it should
be organised in such a way that evening
and correspondence education, too, is
based on the main large colleges having
qualified professors and instructors and
adequate material and technical facilities.
It is desirable to transfer the instruction
and consultation centres and branches
of higher educational establishments to
large industrial and agricultural enter-
prises, which will enable the economic,
party, trade union and Y.0 L. organisa-
tions to supervise and help the students
in their studies. Evening and corres-
pondence colleges, departments and
divisions, and instruction and consulta-
tion centres should be staffed by very
highly qualified professors and in-
structors, in numbers ensuring that
studies proceed in a normal way in this
system.
With the further advance of science
and technology, there arises the need for
college-trained specialists to acquire new
knowledge In this connection the higher
educational establishments must ensure
that specialists employed in various
fields of the national economy, culture
and education improve their qualifica-
tions in their spare time.
It is necessary to improve the supply
of textbooks, teaching aids, printed
lectures and other literature for corres-
pondence students, by providing the
necessary printing and publishing facili-
ties for this purpose. The book-selling
organisations must establish a procedure
by which a student can always acquire
the literature he needs for his studies.
Examinations and tests of spare-time
students must be held at vanous times
throughout the year
The collective farms should be recom-
mended to extend to those of their
members who are correspondence
students successfully pursuing their
studies, the privileges enjoyed by corre-
spondence students working at industrial
enterprises.
The college correspondence system
must be developed in such a way that
people engaged in useful work in society
should be able in their spare time, if
they so desire, to receive a higher
education or to improve their qualifica-
tions and study art, painting, music,
the humanities, and so on.
38. In training engineers, there can
19
be various forms by which study is
combined with work in production. At
most technical colleges it is more
advisable to combine study with work
in production under the system of even-
ing or correspondence education in the
first two years.
In a number of specialities, where the
students first study a cycle of complex
theoretical subjects and also do extensive
laboratory work, it is more expedient
that they should study full time for the
first two or three years. After that, a
year's work practice should be provided
for them in staff jobs directly in pro-
duction, in laboratories, or in designing
bureaus.
In improving the system of higher
education, great attention should be paid
to the training of engineers for the new
branches of technology and for the fur-
ther development of research and design-
ing work. With the rapid development of
science and technology, an acute need
is arising for specialists of a new type who
combine engineering knowledge with a
profound theoretical training.
The next few years are to sec the
development on a wide scale of the train-
ing of engineers in the peaceful uses of
atomic energy. in automation and tele-
mechanics, electronics, electrical engineer-
ing and instrument making, radio electro-
nics and communications, and chemical
technology. The higher educational estab-
lishments are to train engineers capable,
not only of fully applying modern tech-
niques, but also of creating the techniques
of the future.
In addition to a high standard of tech-
nical training, our engineers must have a
good knowledge of economics and of the
organisation of production
The production work of the students
must be organised in such a way that it
will help them to obtain a better mastery
of their future profession. A procedure
should be established at the enterprises
which will enable the students to make a
consistent study of the technological pro-
cess of production. During their study in
their spare time the students will master
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subjects which they can tackle themselves.
When perons having a sufficient work
record in their chosen speciality are
admitted to higher educational establish-
ments, it is possible to arrange for full-
time study for them At higher educa-
tional establishments training engineers
for branches of production that arc of a
seasonal character, instruction must be
so organised that studies at higher educa-
tional establishments alternate with work
in production, on a seasonal basis.
Factory colleges at large enterprises are
a good form of combining study with pro-
ductive work. In particular, factory
colleges can be organised on the basis of
existing factory branches of the main
large colleges. It is also possible to
organise at higher educational establish-
ments industrial enterprises and shops
turning out goods, using the labour
power of the students.
39. At agricultural colleges study and
productive labour should be combined.
taking into account the seasonal nature
of production. The studies should be
conducted at higher educational estab-
lishments organised on the basis of big
state farms possessing extensive model
instructional husbandnes, good labora-
tories, and all the prerequisites for
practical work. The students themselves
must look after the animals, repair the
machines, operate thcm, and sow, culti-
vate and harvest the crops. All agricul-
tural specialists must receive a good
training in the economics and organisa-
tion of socialist agricultural production.
There must be a certain amount of
specialisation in the training of agricul-
tural specialists in accordance with the
various zones of the country
The agricultural colleges must become
scientific centres and must help the collec-
tive and state farms to improve yields per
hectare, the productivity of livestock, and
the mechanisation and organisation of
agricultural production. and to organise
experimental work. The amalgamation
of research institutes and experimental
stations with agricultural colleges should
he carried out on a wide scale. The
colleges must carry out extensive measures
an order to improve the qualifications of
agricultural specialists through refresher
departments and other forms in which
this can be done.
40. The interests of Soviet science,
technology and culture require the fur-
ther development of university education.
The universities train specialists for
scientific research institutions and teachers
for the secondary schools.
In training mathematicians, physicists.
biologists, philologists, specialists in
mechanics, chemistry and other fields of
science at universities, it is necessary to
enhance the practical training of the
students by longer periods of work in
factory laboratories, designing bureaus.
experimental agricultural stations or other
scientific research establishments.
University students who are going to
work in the schools should be given better
methodological training and practical
teaching work, for which the services of
the best secondary school teachers should
he enlisted.
In the next few years it is necessary at
the universities to increase considerably
the training of mathematicians, especially
in the field of computing mathematics ?
biologists, and, primarily, biophysicists,
biochemists, physiologists and geneticists ,
physicists, particularly in nuclear physics
and radio-physics ? and chemists special-
ising in the field of chemical catalysis and
high polymer substances. Computing
laboratories equipped with electronic
machines should be set up at the univer-
sities university nuclear laboratories
should be supplied with modern acceler-
ators. radio-chemical and radio-biological
laboratories should be established, etc.
In the process of improving university
education increased attention must be
paid in eery way to the humanities, the
importance of which is growing con-
stantly.
In training economists. jurists.
historians, philosophers and certain other
specialists in the humanities, a system of
instruction should be introduced under
which students who have no work record
must in the first year or two study in their
20
spare time, while working in the national
economy.
41. The reorganisation of the system
of secondary education calls for a funda-
mental improvement in the training of
teachers at teachers' training institutes
and universities. These higher educa-
tional establishments must train teachers
for the secondary schools who have a
profound knowledge of their subject,
possess adequate teaching experience,
have a good knowledge of life, and can
bring up the pupils in the spirit of
boundless loyalty to the cause of com-
munism. Teachers for primary schools
should be trained at special departments
in teachers' training institutes with a view
to having all schools completely staffed
with college-trained teachers in the future
It is necessary to organise the training
of teachers in special subjects (agronomy.
animal husbandry, technology. etc.), both
at teachers' training institutes and at
specialised higher educational establish-
ments, depending on the specific con-
ditions. In the period from 1959 to 1965
a certain number of qualified engineers
and agronomists should be sent to teach
in the general schools, vocational schools
and specialised secondary schools, pro-
viding proper conditions for their training
for teaching. The present system of
instruction at teaching institutes should be
supplemented by more extensive produc-
tion work and practical work in teaching.
At teachers' training institutes it is
necessary to raise the scientific and
theoretical level of teaching, extensively
develop scientific research, set up scien-
tific laboratories and increase the insti-
tutes' ties with the schools and with pro-
duction and scientific organisations.
42. Serious attention should be paid to
raising the quality of the training for
doctors. Persons who have chosen this
profession have to meet a number of big
demands of a special character. Even
before entering a medical college every
young person must show an interest in
the medical profession and must have
some practical experience of work at
medical establishments. The rc ?rc
21
medical institutes should, in the main,
select young people who have done prac-
tical work as junior service personnel at
medical or prophylactic institutions.
The students' training must be accom-
panied by continued practical work at
medical and prophylactic or health and
hygiene institutions. For persons having
a secondary medical education and a two-
year record of work in their speciality.
instruction in the first two years may
be organised in their spare time.
In order to raise the quality of the
training for doctors, it is necessary to
improve the organisation of research work
at medical colleges in the main fields of
medical science.
43. The reorganisation of the system
of public education will make it possible
to pursue the only correct method of
admitting students to colleges on the
principle of selecting the most industrious.
capable and best trained people The
higher educational institutions should
admit young people on a competitive
basis, giving preference to those who have
a record of practical work. In the selec-
tion on a competitive basis it as neces-
sary to consider not only the total marks
received in the examinations, but, first
and foremost, the ratings in subjects
related to the applicant's future speciality
and the recommendations of public
organisations. so as to ensure that the
best people are selected?people who will
be able in a short time to apply effec-
tively in production the knowledge they
will have received. In order to achieve
greater objectivity in the selection of
young people for college entry, it is
advisable in some cases to hold written
examinations, with the candidate using
a pseudonym.
The heads of higher educational institu-
tions. and the party, trade union and
Y.C.L. organisations must carry on active
work at factories, collective farms and
state farms to ensure a higher intake of
workers and collective farmers at the
colleges. In admitting students to higher
educational institutions it is necessary to
consider their inclination and love for
their chosen speciality, as well as the
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specific features of male and female
labour.
44. A decisive prerequisite for im-
proving both the practical and theoretical
training of young specialists is to im-
prove the composition of science teachers
at higher educational establishments. Con-
ditions should be provided for training
highly-qualified scientific workers and
teachers, able to ensure the further
development of science, technology and
culture, from among capable young
people who are college trained and have
practical experience of work.
The most highly qualified engineers and
technicians of enterprises, construction
projects, designing bureaus and research
institutes, agronomists and doctors,
capable of teaching by using advanced
methods of production and the latest
achievements of science and technology,
should be widely enlisted for teaching at
higher educational establishments. Con-
ditions should be worked out, enabling
them to combine teaching with their
basic work in production, and the terms
of their remuneration at the colleges
should also be determined.
It is the duty of every teacher of a
higher educational institution constantly
to improve his scientific qualications, to
take an active part in research work, and
to give scientific assistance to production.
It is considered expedient to establish
a system under which teachers of higher
educational establishments in a number
of fields arc sent to do practical work
in appropriate branches of the national
economy for a certain period, depending
on the nature of their scientific and
teaching work
The present system by which scientific
and teaching personnel qualify should
be improved, ensuring that higher
demands arc made with regard to
scientific works and that scientific
degrees are conferred only on those who
by their creative work make a definite
contribution to science and practice.
Professors and lecturers at higher
educational establishments must in the
main be elected under the competitive
system, which should be substantially
improved; the people who arc most
capable scientifically and from the
point of view of teaching must be chosen
for the colleges.
45. The role of the higher educational
institutions in the development of
science, technology and culture is grow-
ing constantly. Colleges should carry
on research at a high theoretical level
and of major importance for the
development of the national economy,
science and culture. The professors and
lecturers must be more closely
associated with production, must take
part in working out major problems of
technological progress, must more
actively apply the latest achievements of
science and technology in production,
must systematically draw general con-
clusions from the advanced experience
of enterprises and popularise those con-
clusions, and must carry out more
profound research in the social sciences.
The fact that the guidance of industry
and construction has been brought nearer
to the enterprises helps the colleges to
tackle the most important research
problems. The economic councils and
the agricultural management bodies must
assist the colleges in applying the results
or scientific investigations and in organis-
ing production experiments.
It is considered advisable to merge
sc me research institutes with correspond-
ing higher educational establishments.
Scientific work should be co-ordinated
between higher educational establish-
ments, the Academy of Sciences of the
U S.S.R. and the Academies of Sciences
of the Union republics, and the industrial
zicademies, research institutes and large
factory laboratories.
46. The educational importance of the
higher educational institutions is great
The colleges must turn out people who
have mastered their speciality well, who
are active and passionate champions of
Lenin's ideas and the policy of the Com-
munist Party, who are bold and enthu-
siastic, arc profoundly convinced of the
triumph of our cause.
In fostering these qualities, a big part
is played by studying the social sciences.
Knowledge of the fundamentals of
Marxism-Leninism is necessary for
specialists in all fields. One must study
Lenin and be able to apply his tremen-
dous theoretical heritage in life, to build
up life along communist lines. Marxism-
Leninism must be taught in a creative,
militant way. Our youth must be
brought up in the spirit of irreconcil-
ability to bourgeois ideology and any
manifestations of revisionism. Instruction
in the social sciences must be conducted
so that it is inseparably linked with the
study of the natural sciences, and it
must help to develop in the students a
scientific method of cognition. The high
requirements with regard to teaching
Marxist-Leninist theory in the colleges
make it the duty of every teacher con-
stantly and persistently to deepen his
knowledge and closely link his work with
practice, with current tasks.
It is the job of all the professors and
lecturers and of party, trade union and
Y.C.L. organisations to attend to the up-
bringing of the young people at higher
educational institutions. It is their duty
to inculcate in the students a Marxist-
Leninist world outlook, a love for work,
communist morality, and the habit of
social activity.
The colleges must imbue the students
with a responsible attitude to their
studies, with a creative approach to
mastering the sciences, with independence
in their work. They must eliminate the
overloading of students with compulsory
studies and must draw the senior students
into scientific research work.
47. Extensive work should be carried
out to bring order into the system of
higher educational institutions in the
country, with a view to bringing the col-
leges closer to production. The number
of colleges should be increased in the
new industrial centres, especially in
Siberia, the Far East and the Central
Asian republics. The unjustified con-
centration of higher educational estab-
lishments in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev
and some other cities must be eliminated
48. The reorganisation of the higher
education system along the lines of corn-
23
billing study with work in production
must be planned and organised so as to
increase year by year the output of spe-
cialists needed for the national economy,
science and culture. It is considered desir-
able to carry out the reorganisation of the
work of a substantial section of the
higher educational institutions gradually,
over a period of three to five years, be-
ginning with 1959. The heads of
economic councils, enterprises, and
scientific research and other organisations
must place at the disposal of the
colleges paid staff jobs as workers and
technicians which will be filled by
students, must organise production train-
ing for the students, and must provide
them with living accommodation, work-
ing clothes, etc.
All the measures for reorganising the
system of higher education arc designed
to help the country's colleges to carry
out still better the important state tasks
confronting them.
? ? ?
The reorganisation of the secondary
and higher educational establishments
affects the interests of millions of men
and women, of the entire Soviet people.
A correct solution of this problem will
bc of immense significance for the further
material and spiritual development of
Soviet society, especially in the light of
the great plans that will be discussed and
adopted by the 21st Congress of the
C.P.S.U. Bringing the school closer to
life will create the conditions that arc
really necessary for the better education
of the rising generation who will live
and work under communism.
There is not a single family in our
country which is not keenly interested
in the question of reorganising
the schools. Therefore the central com-
mittee of the C.P.S.U. and the U.S.S.R.
Council of Ministers consider it neces-
sary to put the present theses before the
whole country for discussion. This will
make it possible, when finally determin-
ing the concrete ways of reorganising the
system of public education, to make fuller
use of the practical experience of the
foremost schools and colleges which have
already achieved certain successes in the
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?ft.
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labour upbringing of the young people,
and of the suggestions of broad sections
of the Soviet public. It goes without
saying that in doing this, the specific
national features of each Union republic
must be taken into account.
The proposed reorganisation will en-
hance the role of the schools in educat-
ing and bringing up the young people,
will substantially raise the general
educational level and work qualifications
of the young people, will better ensure
the training of highly qualified personnel
for all branches of the national economy,
science and culture, and will to a still
greater extent facilitate the growth of
the might of the Soviet Union, which is
advancing with a firm step along the
road of building communism.
(The above Theses were published in the
Soviet Union on November 16, 1958.)
Published by &Islet Booklets. 3 Rosary Gardens. London S W 7. and printed by March Publicity Press
Ltd ii t.) all departments), London. S F I
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TATARSKAYA, A. GIIRYANOV
A SOVIET FAMILY
BUDGET
FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE
Moscow 1057
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II TATAPORAR, A. TYPIJIII0B
BIOJVHET PAB0111311 MUM
TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN
BY GEORGE II HANNA
Printed in the Union ol Soviet Socialist Republics
1
I
CONTENTS
Page
1. A Life of Honest Toil
5
2. how Anastasia Grigoryevna Became a Good
I I ousekeeper
12
3. Invisible Income
16
4. Our Great Advantage
23
5. Comparisons
28
6. For All Soviet Families
32
2 826
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A LIFE OF IIONESI"rOIL
Father and daughter always set off to work together.
In this respect, Anastasia Grigoryovna, usually a good-
tempered, easily persuaded woman, was implacable.
"Who over hoard of a girl going out alone at night. Do
what you like about it, Dad, either you change with some-
body or talk to the people in Lusya's shop, only see that
you both work in the same shift."
After work Semyon Alexeyovich would always wait
for his daughter at the gates. They would exchange a few
words about their job and then walk home in silence.
Lusya, a tall girl with high cheekbones, as liko her mother
as two peas in a pod, would walk on ahead, her father
keeping a little behind her.
Semyon Aloxoyovich was a quick and efficient worker
but was lost for words, was oven bashful, when amongst
his fellow-workers. At home, too, ho was inclined to be
taciturn, unlike his talkative wife. Tim children respected
their father who had made a name for himself as a first-
rate tradesman and they loved him for his kindness and
just severity. Now that Lusya, the eldest, was independent,
she showed, as is often the case with the younger genera-
tion, an attitude of solicitude and patronage towards
her father.
As they walked home through the empty streets of a
town, long wrapt in slumber, the girl was worried by her
own thoughts.
"Dad is beginning to weaken. Ilo goes to work smartly
enough, but on the way home...." She slackened her pace.
"And will he ever admit he's tiredl?"
6
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During that, summer Lusya had often noticed that her
father's face was drawn with pain and by tacit consent
they stopped for a rest.
"You ought to go to the doctor, Dad. What a man you
are, to be sure! Why, I can seo that you're not, well."
Semyon Alexoyovich would only wave her aside.
"There's nothing wrong with me, I tell you, just some-
thing gets hold of my leg and arm so that it hurts to move
them. It's my ago, girlie...."
Their conversation usually ended on that note.
"Yes, I can see myself that Dad's tired out; he's not
at all well," Anastasia Grigoryevna, his wife, would say
in his absence. "What can we do? How can we make ends
meet if he leaves his job? Nina has another three years
before she finishes college. Alya's thinking about, college,
too, to say nothing of tho youngsters. It'll be a long time
before they bring anything in."
Still they tried to fathom it out.
Anastasia Grigoryevna earned 360 rubles a month as
cloak-room attondant in tho offices of tho Automobile
Plant. Lusya, forewoman of one of the sections of tho press
shop, made a thousand rubles a month on the average.
If Somyon Alexoyevich wont on pension that, would bring
in another 210 rubles a month, about fifteen hundred alto-
gether. But how could a family of seven live on that, mon-
oy?... And then there was the question of whether fa-
ther would agree to leave the plant.
Tho Automobile Plant in tho town of Gorky had long
boon a second home to Semyon Alexoyevich. Not for noth-
ing would Anastasia Grigoryevna say to him angrily:
"Where are you off to so early in the morning? It's a good
Iwo hours Moro your shift begins, you'd better sit quietly
at home and rest."
How could he sit still? That, restlessness had come to
him many years before when Semyon Andrianov had been
demobilized from the Red Army and had entered tho plant's
training shops to learn a trade he had never even heard
of before?furnace hand in tho heat-treatment shop. At,
first it, had seemed he would nevor get used to working in
front of the blazing furnace amid smoke and noise. He soon
6
got used to it, however. In three years he was made under-
foreman and a few years later becamo shop foreman, one of
the officers of tho plant's army. Years of practical expe-
rience and tho love he felt for his work and his shop mado
up for his lack of education.
When Semyon Alexeyovich came to tho plant ho was a
carefree young fellow with a shock of black curls. At first
lie earned from 80 to 100 rubles a month. Today his hair is
grey, ho has three grown-up daughters, a son, his favourite,
in tho sixth form at school and the only man in the family
besides his father?and wo must not forget the youngest,
six-year-old Natasha, still too young for school.
Thoughts, memories flash across his mind ono after tho
other. Was life really over for him, was it limo to mako
way for the younger generation of stronger and better edu-
cated young men?
Thero was no denying it, when his old friend Ivan Iva-
novich Raikov, secretary of the Communist Party organ-
ization of their shop, first, broached the question of pension,
it cut him to tho quick. It was on the day tho now decree
was published in tho papers.
"I've been wanting to talk to you about it for a long
time, only I know you wouldn't, listen," he said. "I know
you've got, a big family, fivo children. It would havo been
hard on them if they had lost tho biggest income in tho
family. But now things are different,. It's time you took a
rest, old chap. If you get better and want, to come back
there'll always be a place for you at tho plant."
Tho shop gave its veterans of labour a real festive fare-
well. Many were the words of gratitude said to these old
pioneers of tho Soviet, automobile industry and each of
them was handed a gift from tho shop's workers. Tho bitter-
ness of parting was tempered by great human solicitude
for a peaceful and comfortable old ago...
* * *
We got, acquainted with Semyon Alexoyevich Andria-
nov's family at, tho beginning of 1957. Tho preceding year
had brought, many changes in the budget of every work-
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ing-class family and there had boon changes in the Andri-
anovs' too.
We were sitting in their largo and comfortable apart-
ment. It was obvious that thoro was no lack of ithome-
loving feminine hands in the house. Table-cloths, runners,
cushion-covers, all beautifully embroidered, lent a special
sort of cosiness to the room.
A year before the couple had celebrated their silver
wedding?twenty-five years they had lived together. As
they glanced back it seemed but yesterday that bright-
eyed Anastasia, full of laughter, nimble and over ready
to do things, had captured the heart of Somyon Andrianov.
Mon he came back from the army his hands itched for
the soil, ho had been pining for the farm for three years
but she would have none of it.
"If you go to work in the town I'll marry you. If not?
you can look for another."
And Somyon took heed?he know that nowhere in the
world would he find anybody better than his Anastasia.
How could he let such a girl slip through his fingers? To-
day, a quarter of a century later, he admits:
"She's the mainstay of the whole family?I'm nothing!"
We had a real heart-to-heart talk with them. Anastasia
Grigoryovna did most of the talking. Her husband glanced
at her with a somewhat condescending smile on his
lips.
"I don't quite know how to explain it, but somehow
things have been much easier with us this last year. You
can imagino it?we were worried about Dad's health
but now he's on pension. And he's getting better, he goes
to the clinic for treatments."
Semyon Alexoyovich hold out to us a little grey booklet;
not much to look at but it summed up his 25 years of hon-
est labour. According to the now old-age pensions law,
the worker Andrianov received a pension of 55 per cent of
his average monthly earnings. To this was added 10 per
cont for unbroken service at one enterprise and 15 per cent
for his dependents. The total came to 1,200 rubles a month.
"Of course, we've never tried to work out our income,"
continued Anastasia Grigoryovna, "but you can tot it up
The family gathers for supper
if you're interested. Our eldest girl, Lusya, earns about a
thousand rubles a month. Our second girl, Nina, is at col-
lege and since January last year she has been getting an
augmonted sti pond for good progress ?320 rubles a month.
Even Alya makes her contribution, it's not a very big
one, but it helps."
Alya was sitting there with us, the very imago of her fa-
ther, with tho same big, thoughtful oyes. She smiled shyly.
"You can leave mo out, mother."
In the spring of last year Alya had finished secondary
school. Her ambition had been to enter the Department
of Biology of Gorky University but she failed in the com-
petitive examination. She got poor marks in her favourite
subject, chemistry, and oceans of tears were shed. Her
elder sisters were as much upset as Alya herself.
"What is the girl to do now? She's only just turned sev-
enteen, she's too young to work. Let her stay home for a
year and then try the examination again," was the deci-
sion of the feminine half of the family.
But on this occasion her father displayed absolute
firmness.
9
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"She must learn a trade. If chemistry and biology aro
her real vocation she won't lose her taste for them."
And so Alya is attendingtho Automobile Plant's Techni-
cal School and studying electricity. She does well at her
studies and brings a stipend of 235 rubles a month home to
her mother. is
Together wo totted up the family's income. In the course
di a year they had earned, together, 38,180 rubles.
Anastasia Grigoryovna clapped her hands.
"Now just fancy how much money has passed through
my hands."
But this was not all. During the year the Andrianov
family had income from other sources: the girls earned a
few hundred rubles unloading cabbage for the factory
dining-room and both father and mother had earned bon-
uses. This added another 2,800 rubles.
"Do you have any other sort of income?" we asked,
interested.
Ho told us that during the war the plant had given the
Andrianovs an allotment of land. It was not very big but
they had kept it and still planted potatoes on it. They
gathered between eleven and thirteen sacks of potatoes
every year which was enough for the family table and for
next year's seed. The market price of potatoes that year
was one ruble a kilogram,* eleven sacks at 50 kilograms
each meant 550 rubles. This sum we also added to the fami-
ly income.
Then wo summed up the situation. In 1956 the Andrianov
family had a total income of 41,530 rubles. Semyon
Aloxoyovich had earned 17,500 rubles of this sum?his
wages for nine months, including progressive pay for work
above quota, and his pension for the other three months.
Anastasia Grigoryovna had contributed 4,320 rubles, Lu-
sya 12,000, Nina 3,420 and Alyn 940 rubles; bonuses,
income from the allotment and for unloading cabbage
brought a further 3,350 rubles.
Why, then, did Anastasia Grigoryovna say with such
confidence:
* 1 kg.-2.2 lbs.
Alyn Andrianova is studying for her exams
"This year we have begun to live much better."
To find the answer to this we must return to 1955. That
year Semyon Alexoyevich, Anastasia Grigoryovna and
Lusya earned the same amounts. Nina was then in her sec-
ond year at college. She had always been a joy to her par-
ents, her school report cards had rarely had a mark lower
than "good." When she entered college there was oven more
reason for keeping up her record. If she were marked "fair"
in any subject at the end-of-term examinations it would
mean that she would lose her scholarship stipend for the
next term and Nina knew well enough that although the
sum was not a largo one, it, meant quite a lot to the family.
Whether Nina relied too much on her knowledge or
whether, as sometimes happens, she lost her head when
she was answering the professor, we do not know, the fatal
word "fair" appeared in her record book.
It was very hard for her to go home and say, "Mum, you
mustn't count, on my stipend any more!" Nevertheless she
had to say it.
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At the college they knew that Nina Andrianova was one
of a big family and that every ruble counted with them,
but still the authorities could not make any exceptions to
the rule.
In 1955 Alya was in tho last form at school and so she
did not. bring any money into the house. Other extras were
also less, they aincunted to only 1,550 rubles.
Tho Andrianov budget for 1956 was 3,580 rubles more
than in 1955. Was this, however, the only reason for the
Andrianovs' finding life easier in 1956 than in the previous
year?
HOW ANASTASIA GRIGORYETNA
BECAME A GOOD IIOUSEICEEPER
"You'll excuse my plain speaking," said Anastasia
Grigoryovna, "but there's something I want to tell you.
It happened the summer before last. 1 don't remember how
we came to talk about it,: maybe one of the girls wanted to
go to an evening party; all her friends had new frocks while
she had only one best. frock for all occasions, or, perhaps,
it was something elso?only I remember that the girls
said that wo don't know how to live: 'Look,' they said,
'other people get something new every month and all
our money goes on food and nothing else.' I was so upset
that I oven cried. It was true, we seemed to have plenty of
money but, we could never buy more than necessities. In
1956, however, the girls have had nino new dresses made.
Everybody got a now coat except Nina and Dad. And be-
sides that wo got, 24 pairs of boots and shoes (including a
pair of sandals for Natasha that cost 17 rubles and a pair
of fur-lined winter boots for Lusya that cost 340 rubles).
We made presents of watches to the two elder girls?a
Zvozda for Lusya and a Zarya for Nina."
"To toll you the truth," Anastasia Grigoryevna con-
tinued thoughtfully, "I don't know how we managed to
get so rich in one year."
Perhaps tho daughters' recriminations had made her
economize on food to save money for clothes? Anastasia
Grigoryevna very energetically rejected that idea.
12
"Oh, no," she said, and the children lent their support,
"we have boon eating better, we've had more variety."
Then what was the reason?
It may be readily understood that bettor living in the
family was not only duo to the differenco in income.Where,
then, did they manago to save money enough for clothes
and footwear and for better food? In 1955 part of the fam-
ily's food had to be bought at higher prices on the collec-
tive-farm markets as there was a shortage in the govern-
ment food shops. In 1956 Anastasia Grigoryovna was able
to buy meat in a shop at 12 or 14 rubles a kilogram whereas
in the previous year she had had to pay 20 to 24 rubles a
kilogram on the market. Butter cost 14 rubles a kilogram
more on the market than in the government shops, milk,
which cost 2 rubles 90 kopeks a litre* (government price)
in winter cost from four and a half to five rubles on the
market. In the summer of 1956 milk cost a rublo and a
half a litre on the market.
According to our calculations the family lost about.
3,500 rubles a year by buying food on the market, at high-
er prices.
Today Anastasia Grigoryevna spends 1,645 rubles a
month on food.
The family's monthly consumption is: broad-120 kg.,
meat and fish-38 kg., cereals, macaroni, etc.-18 kg.,
fats?about 10 kg. (of them vegetable oil-3 kg.), milk-
90 litres, potatoes and other vegetables-100 kg., sugar-
18 kg., etc. This includes food eaten in canteens and din-
ing-rooms where they lunch.
From this it, follows that in 1956 the Andrianov family
spent 19,740 rubles on food for the whole year. As we
have already seen, the amount spent in 1955 was greater
by 3,500 rubles, that is, 23,200 rubles.
Expenditure on food in 1955 amounted to 61 per cent
of their total income of 37,950 rubles. In 1956 the Andri a-
novs spent 47.5 per cent of a total income of 41,530 ru-
bles on food, quite a big difference-13.6 per cent.
There was another important change in the family budg-
* I litre?about 2 pints.
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Another dream comes true?they've bought,
a new radio set
et which must be taken into consideration: the family
had to pay 450 rubles college fees for Nina and school fees
for Alya in the 1955-56 school year. The sum is not a big
ono but it was just. enough for Anastasia Grigoryevna to
buy a pair of fur-lined winter boots for her eldest daughter
and a pair of felt boots with rubber overshoes and ma-
terial for a summer dress for the youngest,.
Thus we see that the new decree abolishing school and
c9llego fees also affected the Andrianovs' budget.
Now, by a joint effort, we have discovered why the
14
Natasha Andrianova (right.) shows her friends
the family album
"poor housekeeper" Anastasia Grigoryevna turned into a
"good and efficient housekeeper" in 1956 and her son and
daughters got, new clothes.
Tho family was now able to spend 52.5 per cent of their
income, or 21,790 rubles, for other things than food. Part
of the money went for rent and municipal services (beating,
lighting, water), transport, taxes, amusements, books,
etc. Almost 12,000 rubles was left for clothing and foot-
wear and other needs.
"Wo never seem to have enough shoes," complained
Anastasia Grigoryovna. "Not, a month passes but. I must
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take them Lobo repaired. It isn't that they don't take caro
of them, either. I suppose the quality isn't too good. Es-
pecially the children's shoes. They ought to have steel
tips on the toes and heels."
Anastasia Grigoryovna also complained of the quality
of socks and stockings manufactured in Gorky, and of
the poor dyes used for cheap summer materials.
We could not but agree with her. A thrifty housewife
reckons on every article lasting a definite time and on
account of the poor quality of some locally made goods
she had been forced to spend extra money....
INVISIBLE INCOME
On one of the days when we visited the Andrianovs
it, happened that the grown-ups wore all out. Lusya and
Anastasia Grigoryovna wore at work, Semyon Alexervich
had gone shopping while Alya and Nina were, as usual, at
their respective studies. Tho door was opened by Natasha.
"Daddy said ploaso wait for him. Take off your coats
and come in. I'll be mother."
It was obvious that, little Natasha was fond of playing
hostess.
"Volodya," sho called out to her brother. "We've got
guests."
Volodya was busy, he was tidying up the apartment.
Ho made the beds with amazing care, several times stand-
ing back to make sure the bedspreads were on straight,
and that the lace covers on the pillows vore4n their prop-
er places. Tho boy was a bit ashamed of being caught
at, this "unmasculino" job but kept on with it all the same.
"Soo what a helper ho's getting to be." Natasha praised
her brother patronizingly, apparently repeating her moth-
er's words. "Ho always tidies up when Mummy isn't at
home. (Anastasia Grigoryovna worked every other day.)
And the girls wax the floors and help Mummy wash
clothes, and they can cook, too."
Our little hostess showed us her toys and books, boasted
16
Volodya (right) is a good chess-player. Who'll win this time:
he or his friend Gana Meshkov?
of Volodya's new skis and then, not knowing what to do
to amuse us, got out the fat family album.
She had a string of commentaries for every photograph,
some of which were corrected by her brother.
"This is our Lusya in Leningrad. And that's Nina on a
ship when she wont somewhere."
"That was when she had a holiday at a floating sana-
torium," Volodya put in.
"This is Alya at a Young Pioneer camp. Look how she
squeezed into the corner and shut her oyes as though she
were afraid of being photographed. And that's Volodya in
a Young Pioneer camp, too."
Volodya could not keep quiet any longer. "That was
two years ago," ho said. "I went to the Automobile Plant's
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camp four years running but last year I spent my holidays
at my aunt's in tho country. I liked it, there, I could swim
and ride horses as much as I wanted. My uncle, Dad's
brother, ho's stableman at, a kolkhoz. It was wonderful
there, you know," and, recalling a pleasant summer with
obvious relish, added, "wo'vo got, over so many relatives
there. They visit us in winter and we go to them in summer.
Twice Mum wont from the plant for the harvesting and
Dad has only just come back from there?hestayed with
his brothers for a fortnight. Mum says ho still has a farm-
er's soul. Ile loves reading Nekrasov, about the country.
And ho doesn't, take offence...."
Semyon Alexeyovich, returning from his shopping expe-
dition, unknowingly interrupted an interesting talk.
"So you see, I've turned into a housewife, go round
the shops and to tho market. I try to help my wife. She's
been working for us all her life. Every year I had a holi-
day, sometimes I wont to Zelyony Gorod, sometimes to
Krasniyo Bald, but, in all her life she went once to her sis-
ter in Leningrad. She always said that, her work was easier
and it would be better if she stayed home during her holi-
days and stitched something for the kids. A few years
ago we bought, a sewing-machine. She's awfully fond of that
work, if she had her way she would bo sowing all day long."
Anastasia Grigoryevna herself had once told us that she
liked sowing and showed us some of tho things shehad made.
"You can add that to our income," she said jokingly.
"it's all extra money that stays in tho house."
Irrepressible Natasha, tho know-all, could not, resist
the temptation to boast.
"Mummy made this dress for mo herself. At first Nina
wore it, and now I've got it. And she made a new dress for
herself and a shirt for Daddy and a smock for Alya?she
goes to the school workshops and without a smock would
make her dress dirty."
"Yeu'ro tho only one that, doesn't help," said Semyon
Aloxoyovich, fondly patting his daughter's fat rosy cheek.
"Why should I? When I grow up I'm going to be a doc-
tor. Mummy wanted Lusya and Nina to train for doctors
but, it didn't work out. Now I'm her only hope."
Anastasia Grigoryovna is a Jack-of-all-trades. Just a tow moro
stitches and the dress will he ready
Mother's "hope" ran away to play, Volodya went to
school and we returned to the subject we had been discuss-
ing with Volodya when Semyon Alexoyovich's arrival in-
terrupted us?the Andrianovs' native village, Prokoshovo.
Anastasia Grigoryevna's parents and Semyon Alexe-
yovich's brothers and sisters were still living there. Each
of the latter now had his own family and his own home.
They worked in the Udarnik Collective Farm. Their in-
come for workdays on the farm had formerly been barely
enough to manage on, there was never anything left over.
"From time to time we had to help our relatives," said
Semyon Alexoyevich. "If Anastasia managed to save any-
thing we sent it off to the village."
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"This year things have been much better," he continued.
"I was there a short while ago and saw it for myself. Even
though last summer wasn't a good one, wind and rain all
the time, they got a good harvest, especially vegetables.
They've built new cowsheds, pigsties and sheep-pens and
they have enough fodder for the winter. My niece Olga,
my sister's daughter, works in the piggery. Sho told me
herself that, she earns an average of 1,200 rubles a month
with bonuses."
We were unable to visit the Udarnik Collective Farm
but we telephoned to Pavel Stepanovich Tsaryov, Secre-
tary of the District Committee of the Communist Party,
and this is what he told us:
"For a number of years the Udarnik Farm had been one
of the most backward. It was only in 1954, when the collec-
tive farmers elected Nikolai Grigoryevich Nosov, a farm-
er from their own village, chairman of the farm, that
matters began to improve. Tho greatest, progress was made
in dairy farming: the cattle were better housed (the new
buildings that Semyon Alexoyevich had told us about)
and better looked after so that the milk yield was much
higher than before. In 1956 each cow gave 466 litres more
than the year before and the farmers expect to maintain
this level through the present winter and by the summer of
1957 raise the average milk yield per head to 3,000 litres.
This is the figure recorded in their socialist, emulation
contract.... Tho farm's milkmaids last year received from
1,000 to 1,500 kilograms of milk extra pay and each of
them was given a calf. In terms of money a milkmaid
earns between 800 and 900 rubles a month."Somyon Alexe-
yevich was elated at the progress made by his native vil-
lage, asentimentwi thwhich woworo in complete agreement.
"Life is improving month by month, both in the towns
and in the countryside," ho said. "It's a pity years fly
so quickly. Now's the time to keep on living...."
Alya returned from her technical school: in the work-
shops where she was gaining practical experience those
under 18 worked only 6 hours a day so that, 17-year-old
Alp came home early. Alya had her dinner and sat, down
LO her books while we continued OUT talk with her parents.
20
Semyon Alexeyevich attends the district clinic regularly
When the litticgirl had shown us the family album we
had unconsciously touched on those invisible sources of
income that, every working-class family has but which we
do not notice since we have got so used to them.
In the Andrianovs' album we had seen dozens of snaps
of the members of the family taken during holidays. Work-
ers during their annual paid holidays and school children
and students during the summer vacation are given oppor-
tunities to visit sanatoriums, holiday homes and camps, the
state bearing half the cost.
This, however, is not, all.
During the past few months Semyon Alexoyovich had
been attending the local clinic and had been receiving a
course of treatment,. It seemed quite natural to him that
he did not, have to pay for it,. It also happened that other
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members of the family received free medical attention on
a number of occasions throughout the year.
Tho winter before little Natasha had been taken ill.
When her mother measured her temperature she found it,
was just over 102?F. They sent, for the doctor, Nina Alex-
androvna Petrova, who knew the family well as she had
treated all the children, one after the other, until they
reached adolescence. Nina Alexandrovna was an excellent
children's specialist, a doctor of great experience, known
to all the workers at the Automobile Plant; during the win-
ter she treated the children at the clinic or visited them at
home and in summer made the rounds of the Young Pio-
neer camps and kindergartens.
Natasha was very fond of the kindly lady in the white
smock who always carried a lot of pretty tubes and things
in her bag. Natasha had measles in a rather bad form and
for a fortnight Nina Alexandrovna visited her little patient
every other day until all danger of complications was past.
It must be admitted that Natasha's memories of another
lady in a while smock were not so pleasant?she came sev-
eral times, on Nina Alexandrovna's instructions, it
seemed, and gave Natasha injections. But even that was
more frightening than painful.
Natasha's illness did not mean any great additional
expense to the family with the exception of extra dainties
for the sick child; the visits of the doctor and nurse did
not cost them anything.
Three of the Andrianov children were attending schools
of various types?one an institute of higher learning, the
second was getting secondary professional education and
the boy was attending an ordinary secondary school.
This was also taken as a matter of course. Nobody was
surprised that oven little six-year-old Natasha was already
dreaming of becoming a doctor. Of course, little girl, your
dreams will come true if you don't, change your mind as
the years go by, just as the dreams of your elder sisters
are coming true.Lusya has become a technologist,in anoth-
er two years Nina will be granted her diploma as a tex-
tile engineer; when Alya graduates her technical school
she will be able to take her entrance examinations to the
22
Paculty of Biology at Gorky University, and, as she will
be working, will not have to take the competitive exami-
nation but will be enrolled as a student if she gets "pass"
marks.
We included the scholarship stipends of the two daugh-
ters in the Andrianov family budget but (lid not, say how
much their tuition actually costs the state.
When we applied to the Gorky Statistical Board for
information they gave us the following interesting
figures.
Tho state expends about 3,100 rubles a year on a family
of seven people to ensure them, through the trade unions,
an annual rest in sanatoriums, holiday homes and camps.
In the city of Gorky an annual average of 198 rubles
per head of the population is spent on medical services?
the Andrianov family, therefore, accounts for 1,380
rubles.
Lastly, the tuition of the three Andrianov children
costs the state an annual 16,030 rubles: Nina's higher
education costs 9,000 rubles, Alya's technical education-
6,148 rubles and Volodya's secondary education-882
rubles a year. In this sum we have included the stipends
paid to the two girls by the state.
Now let us tot up these "invisible sources of income."
3,100 rubles for holiday rest, 1,386 rubles for medical
services and 11,670 rubles for tuition. Thus the Andrianov
family has a further 16,156 rubles on the income side of
the budget, that is, more than a third of the family's
total income.
Such are the services, now so usual that they are not
noticed, that. Soviet power has been affording the people
for many years.
OUR GREAT ADVANTAGE
Soviet, people, who have in the past experienced tre-
mendous difficulties and privations, feel that they aro the
masters of their fate, and they know the joys of creating
that which is wonderful and now. They give all their abili-
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ty, knowledge and experience to the country that so gener-
ously rewards them by its solicitude for man, by raising
living standards, making work less laborious and making
life more carefree.
When wo speak of the greater well-being of the people
we sometimes forget one important item?the constant
improvement in labour conditions and the organization
of production. This is worthy of more thought. Can a man
be satisfied with life if he comes home from work tired and
exhausted to the very limit so that he has only one thing
in mind?physical repose? Of course he cannot! Neither
a comfortable home nor a substantial income can ever be
a sufficient reward. In our country, therefore, in addition
to the efforts being made to ensure a comfortable home life
for the workers, there is also a constant improvement in
their labour conditions, a lightening of their toil. This
is one of the greatest advantages of our social system.
During ono of our talks with Semyon Alexoyovich we
became particularly aware of what Soviet people think
of this. Usually he is taciturn and reticent but when we
asked him to show us over the plant, especially the shop
in which ho had worked for 25 years, he was a changed man.
Heat-Treatment Shop No. 1. was such a huge building
that the eye could not take it, in all at once. No less than
an hour was required to go round the shop, from section
to section. At the plant the shop was known as the "mirror
of the work of the forgo."As an old worker Semyon Alexe-
yevich felt himself the master hero. He know by heart
all the items treated in the shop?and they were not
few, over 800 altogether. Ho know where to send every
item, which items had priority and which could be dealt
with later. He know the character and habits of every fur-
nace and every press. All of them had been installed in
his presence, all of them had been improved and modern-
ized, as they grew old they had been replaced by new ones.
And how many of those who were now regular skilled work-
ers at the plant had been trained by Semyon Alexeye-
vichl His old friends who had worked side by side with
him were still there?foremen Derevyankin and Laptev,
senior foreman Sukhanov.
I; 24
Andrianov is an avid soccer fan. Today the teams
of Syria and Rumania are playing
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Every year brings many changes to the shop. In 1956
the output plan was 15 per cent higher than the previous
years. And how many now features had been introduced!
The removal of the dross, once a slow, laborious and dan-
gerous job (dangerous because the dross was removed by
dipping the treated metal in sulphuric acid baths), is now
done in the chambers of automatic sand-blast, machines.
Until quite recently considerable time and effort was ex-
pended on carrying items to be tempered on hot trays to
the various furnaces. This process has now been mecha-
nized. Now types of furnaces aro still being installed;?
when Semyon Alexeyovich first started work there
were only three furnaces?today there are more than
thirty.
We left the shop when the shifts were changing and as
we passed the press shop we suggested waiting for Lusya.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you," said Semyon Alexoyevich,
"she isn't working there any more." And he smiled his
gentle, modest smile. "She's been wanting to continue her
studies for a long time and thought of entering the evening
institute. Wo held a family council and then I wont to
the Communist Party Committee for advice. We decided
that while she is attending the institute she can work as a
technician in the3plant's Co-ordination Bureau. They
work in one shift and it will be easier for her to attend the
institute. Today they finish at three so there will be an
hour to wait."
"How will that affect the family budget? Will there be
any changes on account of Lusya's new job?" was the far
from modest question we could not help asking.
"Yes, she'll get a hundred and fifty rubles less. But
that doesn't matter, we won't starve...."
On Saturdays (somebody at, the plant very aptly called
it "little Sunday") many of the working people walked
home so that the buses and trolley-buses, usually packed
tight during "peak" hours, were half empty.
Next day, Sunday, we again visited the Andrianovs
but Semyon Alexeyovich was not at home. He had always
been a strong supporter of the plant's football and hockey
1,eams and had gone to the football ground with his son.
46
They know just where to put the now wardrobe
in the bedroom
The elder girls were also out: Lusya had gone to buy a new
alarm-clock (the old one had refused to work any longer)
and Alya and Nina had gone to the pictures. Little Na-
tasha was there with her mother.
"We're baking cakes," she informed us immediately.
"Today Uncle Pavel and Aunt Nastya Morozkin aro
coming."
"They're old friends of ours, we were neighbours in our
old house," Anastasia Grigoryovna explained. "It isn't
more than two years since we moved hero. That's why we
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haven't yet, got all tho furnituro we would like, you see we
didn't want to bring old things into such a lovely flat."
It really was a lovely flat and looked very comfortable
oven if there was not quite enough furniture. Tho builders
had paid great attention to interior decoration, the soft
colours of the walls, the snow-white doors and windows and
the parquet, floor were all in good taste.
"Please don't be offended at not finding Semyon at home,"
said Anastasia Grigoryovna as we were leaving. "He'd
much rather miss his dinner than a football match. And the
girls never miss a picture show on Sundays. It's better
for mo, too. When they get together in the evening they
tell me all the news so that I keep up with the times...."
COMPARISONS
Even today one can still hoar old people, those who have
soon a lot in their time, making such remarks as:
"There was a time when broad cost two or three kopeks
a pound."
We browsod for a long time in tho records of tho Nizhny-
Novgorod Gubornia Council, turned up tho reports of the
rural councils and found lists of food-stuff prices. At,
first, glanco tho prices of food-stuffs were astoundingly
low: expressed in kilograms fresh butter cost a ruble forty
kopoks, potatoes two kopeks, meat thirty-three kopeks,
and so on.
This led us to wondering how a working-class family,
like tho Andrianovs, lived before the Revolution, in 1913,
one of the cheapest and most favourable years, for example.
We discovered that the food on which Anastasia Grigor-
yovna spoilt 1,645 rublcs a month would have cost, her
76 rubles 25 kopeks in 1913.
But did a working-class family of seven have that
amount to spend?
By rummaging through the reports of factory inspec-
tors, tho reports of the Municipal Council, workers' pay-
books and the lodgers of tho Nizhny-Novgorod employ-
ers we discovered that a qualified worker in the engineer-
28
ing industry earned an average of 25 rubles 65 kopeks
a month in 1913. Young pooplo with somo professional
skill earned 10 rubles 50 kopeks, a furnaco hand-
16 rubles, door porter-8 rubles and so on.
Let us assume that the chief bread-winner of a family
like the Andrianovs had the highest skill and earned the
maximum 30 to 35 rubles a month. His wife, who works
in tho cloak-room, would have earned 8 rubles; tho elder
daughter, at. the highest wages paid to women, would
have got 12 rubles and the younger one 10 rubles. Even at
that, the income of a family with four people working would
not have exceeded 60 rubles a month. Tho Andrianov
family expend 50-60 per cent of their income on food. Con-
sequently such a family would have spent no moro than
30 to 35 rubles a month in 1913. Clearly this would not
have been enough to buy more than half the food they
buy today.
Tho books of factory provision stores show that workers
ate mostly black bread; rico and buckwheat were bought
only for the chief holidays, otherwise they ate lentils and,
occasionally, millet. Animal fats wore used very sparing-
ly, hemp and linseed oil being, as a rule, used for cooking.
In working-class families only the children could get milk.
For all other expenses (excluding food) somo 20-25 ru-
bles were left from the monthly income. This money was
spent on rent, rates, fuel, clothing and footwear. According
to the same data the cost of rent and fuel averaged 14-16
rubles a month and rates came to 2 rubles 40 kopeks.
Now let us see what tho family could have obtained in
1913 for the few rubles left over. Top-boots cost 8 rubles a
pair, shoes from 4 to 9 rubles, factory-made cloth trousers
6 rubles, homespun trousers 2 rubles, a winter overcoat
20 rubles, a mackintosh 35 rubles.
This list of prices could be continued indefinitely.
But those quoted are sufficient to show that a working-
class family could not acquire top-boots, nor cloth trousers,
to say nothing of a mackintosh, even if there were four well-
paid workers in the family. And this does not take into
consideration any unexpected expenses that may occur dur-
ing the year, such as a wedding, sickness or a long journey.
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List of Focd Products Used by a Working-Class Family of Seven
People with 1950 and 1913 Prices
Item
Quan-
tity
1956
1913
Price
Total
Price
Total
11. K.
R. K.
R. K.
R. K.
1. Bread, black
50 kg.
1.24
62.00
0.06
3.00
9 . white
70 kg.
1.90
133.00
0.13
9.10
3. Meat
30 kg.
12.00
360.00
0.40
12.00
4. Cereals (rice; buck-
wheat, millet)
12 kg.
5.30
63.60
0.12
1.44
5. Macaroni, etc.
6 kg.
4.00
24.00
0.20
1.20
6. Butter
10 kg.
27.00
270.00
1.40
14.00
7. Vegetable oil
3 1.
16.00
48.00
0.40
1.20
8. Milk
90 I.
1.80
162.00
0.11
9.90
0. Cream and curds
3 kg.
12.00
36.00
0.30
0.90
10. Eggs
30
8.00
24.00
0.024
0.75
11. Fresh fish
8 kg.
8.00
64.00
0.40
3.20
12. Potatoes
70 kg.
1.00
70.00
0.024
1.75
13. Other vegetables
30 kg.
1.00
30.00
0.08
2.40
14. Sugar
18 kg.
10.70
192.60
0.30
5.40
15. Tea
0.2 kg.
68.00
13.60
3.80
0.76
16. Spices
-
-
10.00
-
1.00
17. Fruit, cakes and
sweets
-
-
82.20
-
8.25
Total - 1,645 - 76.25
rubles rubles
The language of figures is dry but it is more eloquent
than words. Amongst the old records still preserved in
Gorky there are some that give a truly horrible picture of
old Nizhny-Novgorod. Here are some of them. In 1913 out
of every thousand inhabitants 40 died; only two of every
? The average prices of the more popular varieties in govern-
ment shops and the open market in 1956.
JO
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ten children born lived to the ago of three years; naturally
it was the strongest and most healthy that survived, but
could they keep healthy for long?
Hero are some figures taken from the report of an army
official in the Nizhny-Novgorod Gubernia whose duty it,
was to attest recruits called up for service in the army.
Out of the 20,000 youths called up for service in 1913 only
4,500 were found physically fit. What was it but under-
nourishment, poor living conditions and exhausting work
for 14-16 hours a day that made these youngsters prema-
turely old and decrepit?
'When we spoke of the Andrianov family we did not
introduce the figures of state expenditure on medical serv-
ices casually. The people of Gorky have a largo number
of hospitals, outpatient clinics and medical centres at
their disposal. They are manned by a whole army of qual-
ified medical workers-3,000 doctors and 6,000 nurses
and doctors' assistants. And it, is only a matter of forty
years since the time when it, would have been difficult
to find 20 doctors in Nizhny-Novgorod.
The following fact tells what doctors' fees meant to
working-class families. In 1913 some 260 women left a
private maternity home before giving birth. We tried to
find out the reason for this. We were told that the daily
cost of maintenance in the home was so high that women
who had come there a few days before time were forced to
leave. And here is another fact: more than half the chil-
dren born that year came into the world either in factory
workshops during working hours, in the street or in the
gloomy, damp rooms of the workers' barracks.
Tho most terrible thing of all, however, was old age,
because, as a rule, in old age people of small means were
faced with almshouses or "widows' houses." These were
government institutions and the suni of 77 rubles per head
per annum was granted for the maintenance of the aged.
In Gorky today 76,641 people receive old-age pensions;
according to city statistics the average pension amounts
to 482 rubles a month.
Our Soviet vocabulary no longer contains the expres-
sion "a rainy day," a day when illness, old ago or some other
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cause prevents a person from earning his living. Soviet
workers are not threatened with unemployment and do not
fear old age. Nobody may call an old man or woman an
"extra mouth," the bitterest experience for one who has
spent his whole life at work.
It, is difficult for the young people in theSovietUlliOn
today to estimate the value of all these good things for
which their fathers and grandfathers spilled their blood
forty years ago. How could young Volodya know that his
father had throughout his childhood had just, as many
pairs of shoes as he had worn in one year? How should
Lusya know that her mother put, on her first, silk dress
when more than one wrinkle marred her face?...
FOR ALL SOVIET FAMILIES
Wherever a man may be in the Soviet Union, be it a
big city, a provincial town or a remote village, everywhere
lie feels that great changes for the better are taking place.
Although we still have our shortcomings everybody can
say proudly that life is becoming easier and better.
We did not set out to toll our readers what the ordinary
man has gained by Soviet power or how life in all its
aspects has changed during the past forty years. The au-
thors had a much moro modest aim in view: to show what
one single year?the first year of the Sixth Five-Year
Plan?has brought the Andrianov family.
Tho head of the family, Semyon Alexoyevich Andrianov,
retired on a pension at the ago of fifty; he was able to
do this because the new pensions law, passed in 1956, gave
him, for 25 years uninterrupted work at, the Automobile
Plant in Gorky, a pension that is almost as much as his
average earnings.
As we have seen, two daughters add to the family in-
come?Nina, who studies at, a college, and Alya, who at-
tends a technical school. By a government decision they are
paid a scholarship stipend all the year round irrespective
of progress made in each term (in 155 the stipend depend-
ed on progress made). Like all other school pupils and
The mail-carrier comes on Me same day of every
month with Andrianov's pension
college students, beginning with the 1956-57 sellool
year they do not pay tuition fees.
One of the main reasons for the well-being of the family,
however, is a law of Soviet reality that has never been
written down or published: year by year the quantity
of food products and manufactured goods is increasing,
quality is improving and prices are falling.
In tolling the story of the Andrianov family we only
touched on those Communist Party and Soviet Govern-
ment measures that directly affect that family. And how
many changes came last year (1956) that did not affect
them but, made the lives of millions of other people much
easier!
Let us recall a few of them.
A lad of 16 has just, finished training at a vocational
school; he has learned a trade and has begun work at a
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factory. The young fellow, however, still has a lot to
learn, lie has still to become an educated and cultured man
as well as a skilled worker. Ho needs more time for rest
and for interesting recreation. In view of this the govern-
ment has instituted a six-hour working day for all young
workers under the ago of eighteen but they are paid as
much as an adult worker who works for eight hours a day.
Incidentally, Alya Andrianova, who is not yet eighteen,
is now getting practical training at the Automobile
Plant's workshops and works not 8 hours but 6 hours a
day.
We still remember the gratitude of Soviet women when
the law was passed increasing leave of absence from work
for expectant mothers from 77 calendar days to 112 days.
A working woman may now devote herself wholly to her
baby for the first two months after confinement. lithe con-
finement was a difficult one, with complications, she is
given a further two weeks for convalescence, altogether
70 days after confinement in addition to 56 days before
confinement, and all on full pay.
Under the new law this additional leave of absence
costs the state a further 800 to 900 million rubles for
every million expectant mothers, and a similar sum must
be spent as wages for those who take their places while
they are absent from work. Mothers of nursing infants
may, furthermore, obtain a further three months leave of
absence without, pay. If the mother wishes to remain at
home to look after her baby she may do soup to one year,
her job will be kept for her and her years of service at the
factory or office will be considered unbroken. This is impor-
tant since the years she has worked prior to motherhood
count towards the 25 years unbroken service necessary for
a full pension.
A great deal is also being done to ensure that young
mothers have their proper rest. By the end of this year
18 now sanatoriums and holiday homes for expectant moth-
ersand mothers with nursing infants will be functioning.
Those who come within the low income bracket will be
maintained at these institutions free of charge, the facto-
ry or office where the woman is working paying for her
Three years ago the Andrianovs had their
house-wartaing party here
out of the funds allotted for the improvement of living
conditions
At many of the bigger factories there are nursing rooms
and personal hygiene monis for women workers.
And now a few words about workers' holidays. From 1st
N ovember, 1956, the food rations supplied to the more than
3,000 sanatoriums and holiday homes in the U.S.S.R. were
increased. In 1956 trade- union organizations sent over
3,200,000 people to sanatoriums, holiday homes, and on
organized tours; 20 per cent, of the sanatorium passes
and 10 per cent of those to holiday homes were issued for
a nominal charge which in no case exceeded 30 per cent,
of its cost
In one little booklet it is difficult to cover all the
changes that took place last year We must, however, say a
few words about the "Iong-day groups" that have been or-
ganized in a number of schools in this school year. Children
in these groups are those whose parents are both at work;
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they are under the guidance of experienced pedagogues and
the strict regime essential to their health and normal
development is maintained. They are given hot meals,
have playtime and engage in sport.
The opening of the first. boarding schools was a big
event in the lives of many Soviet children. At, present. there
are 300 such schools in which several thousand children
are being maintained and educated at the cost. of the state.
This, of course, is invaluable help to the family.
Amongst other 1956 measures improving the living con-
ditions of Soviet. people are: the reduction in the price of
theatre tickets, a higher minimum taxable income, the
new Rules of the Agricultural Artel, increased control
of the fulfilment of collective agreements at the factories
and assistance for city workers who have laid out their
own orchards in the suburbs of big cities.
Many thousands of Soviet people moved to now homes
in 1956. In Moscow alone 1,373,000 square metres (about
14 million square feet) of now apartments went into exploi-
tation. Thousands of families moved to new apartments
in Gorky, Stalingrad, Kharkov, Omsk, Irkutsk, Kiev,
Kremenchug, Vladimir, and hundreds of other Soviet
cities. In that same year many new well-planned town-
ships and factory housing estates appeared on the map.
Tho December Plenary Session of the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union found it
necessary to allocate additional funds for housing construc-
tion. A provisional estimate shows that in 1957 32,800,000
square metres (about 340,000,000 square feet) of dwelling-
house accommodation will be built which is 30 per cent
more than in 1956.
For all Soviet people 1956 was a year of great improve-
ments, a year of outstanding solicitude for the well-being
of the working man, a year of great progress in all fields
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THE U.S.S.R
A Hundred
Questions
Answered
FIFTH REVISED EDITION
Soviet Booklet No. 40. London, November, 1958
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FOREWORD
THE many delegations, business representatives and tourists
from foreign countries who have visited the Soviet Union
have repeatedly expressed a desire for the publication of
a booklet which will tell readers in their countries about life in
the Soviet Union.
It was these people's view that such a booklet should explain
the structure of the Soviet State, its economy and culture, its
home and foreign policy. Indeed, the form of the publication was
suggested: a concise work in the shape of brief answers to
questions.
In response to that wish this booklet on the Soviet Union
has been prepared in the form of answers to a hundred questions,
those most frequently asked by visitors from abroad.
THE QUESTIONS
Page
Page
I. STATE AND SOCIAL
SYSTEM
Page
1. What is the U.S.S.R.? - 7
2. Who governs the Soviet
Union? - - -
15. What are the Soviet laws
regarding marriage and
the family? - - - 30
16. How is freedom of cons-
cience exercised in the
8 U.S.S.R.? - - -
3. What are the functions
of the Council of Minis-
ters of the U.S.S.R.? - 11
4. What are the rights of
the Union Republics? -
5. What are Autonomous
Soviet Republics. Auto-
nomous Regions and
National Areas? - -
31
17. How is justice adminis-
tered? - - - - 34
18. Who may become a
12 judge? - - -
19. Is there a legal profession
in the U.S.S.R.? - - 36
35
14 20. What arc the powers of
the Procurator - General
of the U.S.S.R.? - -
6. How has the national
question been solved in
the U.S.S.R.? - - 16
7. How are Soviets elected? 19
8. What jurisdiction have
local Soviets? - 21
9. Do classes exist in the
U.S.S.R.? -
10. What forms of property
are there in the U.S.S.R.?
11. How is the right to own
and inherit personal pro-
perty protected? - -
12. What does the equality
of all Soviet citizens
mean? - - -, -
13. What role do women
play in the life of the
Soviet Union? - -
14. What are the rights and
duties of Soviet citizens? 28 Pioneers? -
A2
37
II. PUBLIC ORGANISATIONS
21. What is the role of the
Communist Party in the
U.S.S.R.? - - - 38
22. Why is there only one
22 political party in the
U.S.S.R.? - - -
24 23. What is Communism? -
24. What is the cult of the
individual? How is the
25 C.P.S.U. overcoming its
consequences? - -
25. What is the role of criti-
26 cism and self-criticism in
Soviet society? - -
26. What is the Young Com-
26 munist League? - -
27. Who arc the Young
- -
40
41
44
45
47
49
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Page
Page
28. How do the Soviet trade
unions function? - -
29. What scientific and cul-
tural associations are
there in the U.S.S.R.? -
30. What peace and inter-
national organisations are
there in the U.S.S.R.? -
41. How are collective agree-
49 ments concluded? - -
42. Do disputes between
workers and management
51 occur in the U.S.S.R.? -
43. What systems of payment
exist at Soviet enter-
53 prises? - - - -
44. Who. receives service
bonuses? - 80
45. What is socialist cmula-
55 lion? - - -
46. How is invention en-
couraged? What are the
57 rights of inventors? -
HI. NATIONAL ECONOMY
31. What is the basic econo-
mic law of Socialism? -
32. How is the U.S.S.R.
national economy
planned? - -
33. What are the tasks of the
long-range Seven-Year
Plan (1959-1965)? - - 60
34. How is the national in-
come distributed? - -
35. How has the U.S.S.R.
become an advanced in-
dustrial power? - -
36. How has the national
economy of the non-
Russian Union Republics
developed? - - -
37. Why has the management
of industry and construc-
tion been reorganised and
how? - - - -
76
77
78
38. Who manages Soviet in-
dustrial enterprises? -
39. How do Soviet workers
take part in the manage-
ment of enterprises? -
40. What are the working
conditions at Soviet en-
terprises? - - -
80
83
47. How is the training of
skilled workers
organised? - - - 85
48. What does automation
61 mean to Soviet workers?
49. Why is there no, and can
be no, unemployment in
62 the U.S.S.R.?
50. What are collective
farms? - - -
65 51. What is a state farm? -
52. How has the steep ad-
vance of agriculture in
1953-1958 been carried
68 out? - - - -
53. Why have the machine
70 and tractor stations been
reorganised? - - -
86
88
Page
Page -
56. Who fixes prices in the
U.S.S.R.? - - - 102
57. What banks are there?
Where do people keep
their savings? - - 103
58. What taxes do the people
pay? - - - - 104
59. How is the U.S.S.R.
state budget made up? - 105
IV. EDUCATION, SCIENCE,
CULTURE
60. What is the system of
public education in the
U.S.S.R.? - - - 107
61. How is higher education
organised? - - - 109
62. Can a Soviet worker
become an engineer by
studying in his spare
time? - - - -
63. How is science advancing
in the U.S.S.R.? - -
64. What scientific institu-
tions are there in the
89 U.S.S.R.? - - -
111
70. Do Soviet scientists,
writers, artists and mu-
sicians enjoy creative
freedom? - - - 135
71. What newspapers and
magazines are published? 137
72. What publishing houses
are there? Do they pub-
lish many books? - - 139
73. Which foreign authors
are most popular in the
U.S.S.R.? - - - 140
74. What theatres arc there?
What do they produce? - 142
75. What orchestras, dance
companies, choirs are
there? - - - - 145
76. What films are most
popular? - - - 146
77. How do musicians,
dancers, artists get their
training? - - - 148
78. How popular are ama-
112 tcur art, music, drama,
dancing etc.? - - 150
116
93 65. What is the Soviet
Union's contribution to
the International Geo-
physical Year? - - 119
95 66. What is the significance
of the Soviet sputniks? - 122
67. How is engineering de-
98 vcloping in the U.S.S.R.? 125
54. How is domestic trade
72 organised in the
U.S.S.R.? - - - 100
55. What co-operatives are
74 there in the Soviet Union 101
68. How is atomic energy
being used for peaceful
purposes? - - - 129
69. What is the cultural life
of the Union Republics? 133
79. How arc radio and tele-
vision organised in the
U.S S.R.? - - - 152
80. What libraries are there? 154
81. What museums are there? 156
82. How has sport developed
in the U.S.S.R.? - - 158
V. PEOPLE'S WELFARE
83. How does the Soviet
people's living standard
rise? - - - - 160
84. What, apart from his
wages, does the worker
get from the state? - - 162
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Faze
Pa.le
31. How do Saran catizers
exerse their rie.t to rest
and leisure' - - - 163
74 How does rhe medical
serrce work ?
- 165
741 Heol, n social assurance
VL FOREIGN POLICY
OF THE SOVIET UNION
94. What are the principies
of Soviet foreign portcy? ISO
95. What is the world
6rgamsed't - - - 167 socialist system? - - 133
13 What eor.cern does the
Serret State show for
ino0..ers? -
10 Who gets a state pension
in the U.S-S.R. and how
much? - - - - 170
90 How is housing construc-
tion developing in the
U.S.S.R., and what rent
is paid? - - -172
91, How is tovm-planning de-
veloping in the Soviet
Union? - - - - 174
92. What government
decorations are there? - 176
93. What are Lenin Prizes
far outstanding works in
science, engineering,
literature and art? - - 177
168
96. Is the peaceful co-
existence of the SOCi2ESt
and capitalist systems
possible? - - - 184
97. How is Soviet foreign
trade organised and con-
ducted? - - - 189
98. How does the U.S.S.R.
co-operate with econo-
mically underdeveloped
Countries? - - - 191
99. What are the Inter-
national Lenin Peace
Prizes? - - - - 195
100. What are the U.S.S.R.'s
cultural relations with
foreign countries? - - 196
I. STATE AND SOCIAL SYSTEM
What is the U.S.S.R.?
I
THE Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) is a
federal socialist state of workers and peasants.
The U.S.S.R. is made up of fifteen Union Soviet Socialist
Republics, which have joined together on the basis of voluntary
union and equality: the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist
Republic (R.S.F.S.R. or Russian Federation), the Ukrainian,
Byelorussian, Uzbek, Kazakh, Georgian, Azerbaijan, Lithuanian,
Moldavian, Latvian, Kirghiz, Tajik, Armenian, Turkmen and
Estonian Soviet Socialist Republics.
All these Republics have arisen on the territory of the former
Russian Empire as a result of the victory of the Socialist
Revolution in October 1917 (with the exception of Latvia,
Lithuania and Estonia which voluntarily joined the Soviet Union
in 1940). This great Revolution abolished capitalist and landlord
rule in Russia and, for the first time in history, transferred
power into the hands of the working people.
The U.S.S.R. is a great world power, possessing a mighty
industry and a highly developed agriculture. Its territory occupies
the eastern part of Europe and the northern and central parts
of Asia, making up about a sixth of the inhabited land surface
of the earth, or more?than 22 million square kilometres (8,500,000
square miles). The area of the U.S.S.R. is three times the area
of the U.S.A. (excluding Alaska) and four times that of the
countries of Western Europe put together. The population of
the U.S.S.R. in 1956 was 200,200,000.
The Soviet Union is a country of beautiful and varied natural
scenery, rich in minerals, ores of all kinds, coal, peat and oil,
with fertile soil and great water power resources. The seas, lakes
and rivers teem with fish. The forests are full of valuable kinds
of trees and fur-bearing animals.
Soviet power has put an end to the economic and technical
backwardness which was inherited from tsarist Russia. Indus-
trialisation of the country and collectivisation of its agriculture,
carried out under the leadership of the Communist Party, have
resulted in the Soviet Union becoming a country with an
advanced industry and collective farm system, an economically
independent country.
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The Soviet Union is a land of socialism. In it there is no
private ownership of the instruments and means of production.
The factories and mills operate without capitalists, and the men
and women who cultivate the fields have no landlords.
The basis of Soviet economy, the foundation upon which the
entire life of the country is built, is the socialist system of
economy, and public, socialist, ownership of the instruments
and means of production. The national economy is developing
according to a unified state plan. There are no economic crises,
unemployment or impoverishment of the people.
In Soviet society there is no exploitation of man by man and
no national oppression. Here, for the first time in history, the
moral and political unity of all members of society has been
realised.
The working people themselves?the workers, peasants and
intellectuals?govern their country and administer the entire
national economy.
Distribution of what is produced (i.e. the material wealth) in
the U.S.S.R. is carried out in accordance with the principle:
From each according to his ability, to each according to his
work.
This means that every working man and woman receives
material wealth according to the quantity and quality of the work
performed. This is socialism, or the first (lower) phase of
communist society.
Today the Soviet Union is passing through the period of
gradual transition from socialism to communism. The Soviet
people's goal is the building of communist society.
2
Who governs the Soviet Union?
LL power in the U.S.S.R. belongs to the working people
of town and countryside, as represented by the Soviets of
Working People's Deputies, which are the political founda-
tion of the country.
The deputies to these Soviets are workers, peasants, or intel-
lectuals, elected on the basis of universal, equal and direct
suffrage by secret ballot.
Every deputy is accountable to his electors. With the excep-
tion of those who, after the elections, take office in the executive
8
branch of the Government, the overwhelming majority of the _
deputies continue to work at their regular jobs. It is through
them that the Soviets maintain the closest contact with the
electors.
The highest organ of state power in the Soviet Union is the
Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., which is elected by a country-
wide poll for a term of four years.
In the last elections, held in March 1958, 133,796,091 voters
went to the polls; they elected 1,376 deputies, 831 of whom
are workers or peasants. The rest are intellectuals, such as
scientists, engineers, writers, doctors or teachers, leaders of state,
public or economic organisations or members of the armed
forces. Three hundred and sixty-five are women. The deputies
include representatives of many nationalities: thirty-eight
nationalities are represented in the Soviet of the Union and fifty-
eight in the Soviet of Nationalities.
The Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. consists of two Chambers
?the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities.
One deputy to the Soviet of the Union is elected from every
300,000 of the population. The Soviet of the Union represents
the common interests of all Soviet citizens, irrespective of
nationality.
The Soviet of Nationalities is elected by the citizens of the
U.S.S.R., voting by Union Republics, Autonomous Republics,
Autonomous Regions and National Areas, on the basis of
twenty-five deputies from each Union Republic, eleven deputies
from each Autonomous Republic, five deputies from each
Autonomos Region and one deputy from each National Area.
In this way the Soviet of Nationalities reflects the specific
interests of all the nations, national groups and nationalities in-
habiting the Soviet Union.
The Supreme Soviet embodies the supreme power possessed
by the Soviet people. It acts as the representative of the entire
people, the whole country?the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics.
To the Supreme Soviet belongs the legislative power of the
Soviet Union. The laws it enacts have the same force within the
territory of every Union Republic, and their carrying out is
binding upon all state organs, public organisations, institutions
and citizens of the U.S.S.R. These laws express the interests and
will of the working people of the country.
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The USS.R. Supreme Soviet considers and approves the
national economic plans and approves the State Budget of the
USS.R.; decides questions of war and peace; has control oYet
the observance of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R., ensures the
conformity of the Constitutions of the Union Republics with the
Constitution of the U.S.S.R., and amends the Constitution of
the U.S.S.R.; decides questions of admission of new Republics
into the U.S.S.R.
The junsdiction of the Supreme Soviet includes the represent-
ing of the U.S.S.R. in international relations, the conclusion,
ratification and denunciation of treaties with other states; the
organisation of the defence of the U.S.S.R.; the direction of all
the armed forces of the U.S.S.R.; questions of foreign trade and
state security.
At a joint sitting of its two Chambers, the Supreme Soviet
elects its Presidium, forms the Government of the U.S.S.R.,
elects the U.S.S.R Supreme Court and appoints the Procurator.
General of the U.S.S.R. The Supreme Soviet exercises guidance
and control over all higher state organs of the U.S.S.R.
Its two Chambers, the Soviet of the Union and Soviet of
Nationalities, have equal rights. Each may initiate legislation.
A law is considered adopted if passed by both Chambers by a
simple majority vote.
As the highest organ of state power of the U.S.S.R., the
Supreme Soviet functions both directly and through other bodies
formed by, and accountable to it. The major body is its
Presidium.
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. is the
highest standing organ of state power in the U.S.S.R. While
the Supreme Soviet conducts its work at regular sessions, held
twice a year, or at special sessions, its Presidium is a standing
body,
The Presidium convenes the sessions of, and orders ne??.
elections to, the Supreme Soviet. It ratifies international treaties
of the U.S.S.R., proclaims a state of war in the event of military
attack on the U.S.S.R., and orders general or partial mobilisation
It appoints the high command of the armed forces and pleni-
potentiary representatives of the U.S.S.R. to foreign states It
institutes and confers titles of honour, orders and medals.
In intervals between sessions of the Supreme Soviet the
Presidium issues decrees which are binding on the Union Re-
publics. But these decrees must be based on and be within the
10
scope of All-Union laws. Decrees appointing or removing U.S.S.R.
Ministers or relating to other questions coming within the
powers of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. are submitted to
the earliest session for consideration and approval and they arc
considered and approved by the next session of the Supreme
Soviet.
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. is
elected at a joint sitting of the two Chambers of the Supreme
Soviet. It consists of a president, fifteen vice-presidents (one for
each Union Republic), a secretary and fifteen members.
The highest organ of power in a Union Republic is the
Supreme Soviet of the Republic (see answer No. 4). The Supreme
Soviet of the Union Republic elects its Presidium?the standing
organ of state power in the territory of that particular Republic.
What are the functions of the Council of
Ministers of the U.S.S.R.?
3
HE Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. is the highest
executive and administrative organ of state power in the
U.S.S.R.?the Government of the U.S.S.R.
The Council of Ministers is appointed by the Supreme Soviet
of the U.S.S.R. at a joint sitting of the two Chamber 4 and
consists of a chairman, first vice-chairman, vice-chairmen.
Ministers, the chairman of the State Planning Committee, the
chairman of the Control Commission, the chairmen of the
State Committees on labour and wages, aviation techniques,
defence techniques, radio electronics, shipbuilding, construc-
tion, chemical industry, foreign economic relations, the chair-
man of the State Security Committee, the chairman of the Board
of the State Bank of the U.S.S.R., and the head of the Central
Statistical Administration, all functioning under the Council.
As the Soviet Union is a voluntary federation of equal Soviet
Socialist Republics, Article 70 of the U.S.S.R. Constitution pro-
vides that the chairman of the Councils of Ministers of the
Union Republics are ex-officio members of the U.S.S.R. Gov-
ernment. Thus, the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers is made up
of the officials enumerated and also the fifteen chairmen of the
Councils of Ministers of the Union Republics.
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The Ctumcil uiMinisters ,of the UScR ants cm the hams of
thr iU.SR. Constantana. ihas responsaile and am-is/musk to
the 3.3iK. Supreme Soviet in all of is aunixim, and an the
intervuls butweenat:batons of the Supreme Soviet, to its
.Presttlium.
The Council of Minim= issues decisions and cram on the
basis of the lawb iii operation, and sees that they are carried
Into itfiect. It eo-ctrritames and directs the work of the
and the Stun. Committees, that is, the organs tin charge of the
various bruntbrb of stale administration. h adopts the ritasures
n=r=1,-y to =cry out the national economic plan and the State
budget. It as charged vith maintenance of public order., pro-
'tett= of the =masts of the state and safegmrcling the rights
of citizens. it exercises general guidance in the sphere of rela-
tions with foreign mates.
The Goversimmits of the Union and Autonomists Republics
are formed on the same basis as the All-Union Government The
rompoattion and powers of the Republican Counrilc of Alinisters
urr ?defined by the Constitutions of the respective Republics.
4 J la ere the rights of the Union RepEbllcs?
EAC of the fifteen Union Republics, which have freel)
sained the Soviet Union, is a sovereign Soviet Socialist State
of wcutx:rs and peasants, and accordingly has is own Conso-
imam. uhtcb red= the specfic features of the particular re-
economic and cultural.
h also has its own State Arms, State Flag and National
Antimm. 3ts own organs of state power and state administration.
-and its padicial orpns.
AM instionions and orgamsations of the republic and its
-
tirdneational =tab ,hrtraits conduct their work in the languages
'the people of - it Republic.
'.:The Supreme r of the Republic exercises supreme state
power on the 1.=-? of the Republic. It enacts laws which
laws.
have binding in the Republic along with all-Union
h cLts the Pr:- of the Supreme Soviet?the highest
organ of laze pow: - -1 the mtervals between its sessions?and it
appal= the Gave - -nent--the Council of Ministers?which
12
plans and directs the Republic's economic and cultural develop-
ment and guides all executive and administrative activity there.
The Supreme Soviet also elects the Republic's Supreme Court
?the highest judicial organ.
The competence of the Republican authorities embraces the
major questions of state activity. The Union Republic manages
independently its revenues under the Republic's budget, which
is approved by the Supreme Soviet of the Republic.
The bulk of industrial enterprises in the Republic arc under
the authority of the Republic. The rights of the Union Republics
in the spheres of education, public health and cultural develop-
ment are practically unrestricted.
Finally, each Union Republic has the right to enter into
direct relations with foreign states, conclude agreements with
them and exchange diplomats and consular representatives. The
Ukrainian and Byelorussian Union Republics are foundation
members of the United Nations.
All Union Republics, irrespective of the size of their population
or territory or level of economic and cultural development enjoy
in equal measure all the rights of independent states, including
the right to secede from the Soviet Union, reserved to them by
the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.
All participate on an equal basis in governing the Soviet
Union as a whole. The chairmen of the Presidiums of the
Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics as a rule are vice-
chairmen of the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet, and
the chairmen of the Council of Ministers of the Union Republics
are ex officio members of the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers.
Likewise, the chairmen of the Supreme Courts of the Union
Republics are ex officio members of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Court.
The only limitation on the sovereignty of the Union Republics
is the clearly defined restriction with respect to questions of
state activity which they have themselves voluntarily delegated
to the all-Union state organs.
However, in deciding these questions, too, the interests of
every Union Republic are safeguarded by its representation in
the highest organs of state of the Soviet Union and by special
rights vested in them, namely, that Union Republics have the
right to demand the convocation of an extraordinary session
of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet or the holding of an all-Union
referendum on questions they deem necessary.
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Actually, the Union Republics have not found it necessary
even once to have recourse to this extraordinary proceeding,
since in their close co-operation as socialist states with equal
rights each is freely developing to the full extent of its pos-
sibilities, enjoying fraternal support from the other Union
Republics.
As the Union Republics progress economically and culturally
the prerogatives of the central, all-Union organs diminish and
the functions of the Republican authorities become broader. In
recent years especially much has been done in this respect;
effective measures have been taken to do away with excessive
centralisation and substantially to extend the rights of the
Republics' organs with respect to economic and cultural
development.
The sovereign rights of the Union Republics are safeguarded
and protected by the U.S.S.R. Constitution and by the tradi-
tions and activity of the Soviet people. ?
5
Inat are Autonomous Soviet Republics,
Autonomous Regions and National Areas?
THE Union Republics, besides being inhabited by the nation
that has given the Republic its name, are inhabited also
by other peoples. The latter, constituting a minority of the
Republic's population, are distinguished by specific national
features. Where these peoples form a compact mass, they may
form Autonomous Soviet Republics, Autonomous Regions or
National Areas, if they so desire. .
The Autonomous Republic is a Soviet Socialist State of
workers and peasants, forming a constituent part of a partcular
Union Republic, and through it, of the Soviet Union.
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic includes
oer within its boundaries the Tatar, Bashkir, Daghestan, Buryat,
Kabardine-Balkarian, Kalmyck, Checheno-Ingush, Karelian,
Komi, Mari, Mordovian, North Ossetian, Udmurt, Chuvash
and Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics.
The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic includes the Abkha-
zian and Adjarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics.
The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic includes the Nakhi-
chevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
14
The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic includes the Kara-Kalpak
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
What rights does an Autonomous Republic possess?
An Autonomous Republic exercises state power on the basis
of autonomy on its territory. This means that the people who
form the Republic enjoy the right to self-government with
regard to their domestic affairs. All state organs and institutions
of an Autonomous Republic use the language of that Republic's
people.
Each Autonomous Republic has its own Constitution, which
takes account of its specific national features and is drawn up
in conformity with the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. and the
Constitution of the Union Republic of which it forms a part.
The Autonomous Republic enacts its own laws, the obser-
vance of which is obligatory on its territory. All-Union laws
and the laws of the Union Republic of which the Autonomous
Republic is a constituent part are also effective on the territory
of the Autonomous Republic.
The frontiers of the Autonomous Republics are fixed by the
highest state power in the Union Republic in question.
Autonomous Republics have their own higher legislative
organs (Supreme Soviets) and higher executive and administrative
organs (Councils of Ministers). They are ensured equal partici-
pation in the highest organs of power of the U.S.S.R. and of
the Union Republic of which they form a part. Each of them
elects deputies directly to the Soviet of Nationalities of the
U.S.S R. Supreme Soviet, and takes part in the election of
deputies from the Union Republic to the Soviet of Nationalities.
One of the forms of national state structure of the Soviet
peoples is the Autonomous Region. It differs from the ordinary
regions in national composition.
Autonomous Regions enjoy rights additional to those of the
ordinary administrative regions. They decide what language is
to be used in conducting the business of the state apparatus and
instruction in schools, and they elect deputies directly to the
Soviet of Nationalities of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet.
The Soviet of Working Pc.ople's Deputies of the Autonomous
Region adopts Statutes of the Autonomous Region which take
into account the region's specific national features. These statutes
are approved by the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic of
which the region forms a part.
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Nationalities which are small in number are organised in
National Areas. There are ten of these in the U.S.S.R. and they
are component parts of one or another region or territory of
the RS.F.S.R.?mostly in the far north.
National Areas have their own organs of power, Soviets of
Working People's Deputies of the National Areas, which, like
the schools, conduct their work in the languages of the local
population and send their deputies directly to the Soviet of
Nationalities of the U.S.S.R.
All these various forms of state structure?Union Republic,
Autonomous Republic, Autonomous Region, National Area?
make it possible to look after the needs and requirements of the
different peoples inhabiting the vast multi-national socialist state
which is the U.S.S.R. They play an important part in the
economic and cultural advancement of the Soviet peoples.
6
1
How has the national question been solved
in the U.S.S.R.?
LONG before the victory of the Great October Socialist
Revolution the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had
worked out its basic demands on the national question, and
on the establishment of Soviet power it started out undeviatingly
to put them into effect.
Underlying the demands are the Leninist principles of equality
and friendship of the peoples and proletarian internationalism
Marxism-Leninism is based on the proposition that no nation
can be free if it oppresses other peoples, and that is why Lenin
considered it necessary "to link up the revolutionary struggle
for socialism with a revolutionary programme on the national
question".
In the "Declaration of Rights of the Peoples of Russia",
published on November 3rd [16], 1917 are proclaimed the
cardinal principles of the Soviet State's national policy; equality
and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia; the right of the
peoples of Russia to free self-determination, including secession
and formation of independent states; abolition of all national
and national-religious privileges and restrictions whatsoever; and
free development of the national minorities and ethnographic
groups inhabiting the territory of Russia.
16
Guided by these principles, the Soviet Government has solved
in practice the national question in Russia, one of the most
complex social questions, establishing among the numerous
peoples living in the country friendly and fraternal relations
such as had never existed before.
The peoples inhabiting former tsarist Russia were afforded
the opportunity of making use freely and without hindrance of
the right of self-determination and to set up independent states.
Poland and Finland, for instance, seceded from Russia and set
up bourgeois states. The other peoples voluntarily joined the
workers' and peasants' state.
Peoples that had never before enjoyed statehood won it and
peoples who had lost it regained it. In the "Declaration of Rights
Of the Toiling and Exploited People" adopted in January 1913
by the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets we read that
"the Russian Soviet Republic is constituted on the basis of a
free union of free nations, as a federation of Soviet national
Republics."
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) was formed
in December, 1922, and today it has as constituent members
fifteen Union Republics enjoying equal rights, eighteen Autono-
mous Republics, ten Autonomous Regions and ten National
Areas, all united by a common desire to build Communist
society and permeated by the common proletarian ideology of
friendship and fraternity of the peoples.
In tsarist Russia the non-Russian nationalities suffered brutal
national oppression. They were officially called "aliens", which
underscored their dependent and inferior status.
The ruling class preached the reactionary ideology of bour-
geois nationalism and chauvinism, kindled national strife and
tried to set the workers of one nation against those of another
in order to control them more easily.
In opposition to the reactionary ideology of bourgeois nation-
alism and chauvinism, the country's working class preached the
ideology of internationalism and friendship of the peoples.
The Communist Party has untiringly united the working
people of all nationalities in the country around the Russian
proletariat.
Even before the victory of the October Revolution Lenin
wrote; "As against the old world, the world of national oppres-
sion, national strife or national isolation, the workers arc offering
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a new world of unity of the toilers of all nations, a world in
which there is no place for any privilege or for the slightest
oppression of man by man."
After the victory of the October Revolution it was precisely
this "new world of unity of the toilers", of which Lenin
dreamed, that was set up in the U.S.S.R., a model of national
peace and co-operation of free peoples.
All nations and nationalities inhabiting the U.S.S.R. have,
since the establishment of Soviet power, made vast progress in
government, and in economic and cultural development.
Equality of the nations under the law has been reinforced by
equality in fact.
With the aid of the Russian and other peoples a number of
peoples of the Soviet Union have eliminated their former back-
wardness, making a leap from patriarchal, feudal forms of
economy to socialism, skipping the capitalist stage.
Large centres of modern industry have emerged in the national
republics, regions and districts, including centres of the iron
and steel, engineering, electric power, chemical, light and food
industries.
As a result of the victory of the collective farm system agri-
culture in those areas has passed from the use of the primitive
farm implements to modern tractors, combines and other
machines (see answer No. 36).
Many higher educational establishments have been opened in
the Union Republics, also Academies of Sciences, and a native
intelligentsia has developed, devoted to the cause of the people
and the international unity of the peoples.
In Soviet years forty-eight nationalities and national groups
have created a written language and literature for the first time
in their history (see answer No. 69).
The victory of socialism in the U.S.S.R. lifted the formerly
oppressed peoples to the status of truly equal peoples and
transformed the old, bourgeois nations into new, socialist.
nations.
To illustrate, while before the Revolution in the whole of the
Turkestan territory there were altogether some 50,000 industrial
workers, today in Uzbekistan alone more than 300.000 persons
arc employed in its industrial enterprises. The Republic now
has its own heavy industry, making steel, building machines and
producing oil.
18
Before the October Revolution there were approximately 160
schools on the territory of Uzbekistan with an enrolment of
17,000 children, and one specialised secondary school, staffed by
some 700 teachers in all. The native populations of Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were practically 100
per cent illiterate (literates made up altogether 0.2 per cent).
Today Uzbekistan alone has more than 5,400 schools staffed
by 71,000 teachers giving instruction to 1,300.000 pupils. Before
the Revolution there was not a single educational establishment
in all of Turkestan; today Uzbekistan alone has thirty-one higher
schools and 100 specialised secondary schools with an aggre-
gate enrolment of more than 130,000 young boys and girls.
Equally striking changes have taken place in the other Repub-
lics of the Soviet East.
The solution of the national question in the U.S.S.R. and
the achievements of the peoples of the Soviet East have sub-
stantiated a cardinal thesis of Lenihism that colonial, dependent
and under-developed countries can, if they cast off the yoke of
imperialism, wipe out their backwardness and take up the path
of building socialism.
The experience gained in building socialism in the U.S.S.R.
is being widely used in the other countries of the socialist camp
and elsewhere all over the world.
The solution of the national question in the U.S.S.R. and the
triumph of the ideology of friendship and equality of the Soviet
peoples have acquired international importance and arc an in-
spiring example for all nations and nationalities the world over.
How are Soviets elected?
II
7
DEPUTIES to all Soviets?from the rural Soviet to the
Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.?arc elected by the voters
on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by
secret ballot.
Elections in the U.S.S.R. are universal. All citizens who have
reached the age of eighteen take part in them, irrespective of
sex, social origin, property status, past activities, race or nation-
ality. Soviet citizens have the right to take part in all elections,
whether they arc "resident" or "non-resident" in the area
covered, whether they profess any religion or none.
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Members of the armed forces enjoy the same electoral rights
as other citizens.
Persons who have been convicted by a court of law and
whose sentences include deprivation of electoral rights have no
right to vote or be elected during the period fixed in the court
sentence.' Apart from this, only the insane have no right to vote
or be elected.
Elections of deputies are equal, for each citizen has one vote
and all citizens take part in the elections on an equal footing.
Elections are direct. Deputies to all Soviets, including the
Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., are elected not through dele-
gates but by the voters themselves.
Any citizen who has reached the age of twenty-three is
eligible for election as deputy to the Supreme. Soviet of the
U.S.S.R. Any citizen who has reached the age of twenty-one
can be elected deputy to the Supreme Soviet of a Union or
Autonomous Republic. Any citizen who has reached the age of
eighteen can be a deputy to a local Soviet.
Elections arc conducted by secret ballot. The voter himself
fills in the ballot paper in a special booth, in which no one else
may be present, and he drops the ballot paper into the box
himself. The complete secrecy of voting guarantees the people
free expression of their will.
Candidates can be nominated by public organisations or by
working people at general meetings of workers at their enter-
prises and institutions, of peasants in their villages and collective
farms, of servicemen in their units.
At the election meetings, Communists and non-Party people
nominate joint candidates and then jointly campaign for them
This election bloc of Communists and non-Party people follows
from the fact that in the U.S.S.R. the Communists and the non-
Party people have common interests. Both have the same aim?
to ensure a high living standard for all working people, to live
in peace and friendship with all peoples, and to build Com-
munism in the U.S.S.R
The electorate takes part in the organisation of elections and
the supervision of the way in which they are conducted. For
this purpose electoral commissions are formed of representa-
tives of public organisations of the working people.
I In the new draft Fundamentals of the Criminal Code the power
of courts to deprive citizens of electoral rights is abolished.
20
Soviet elections are truly elections by the people. Thus, in
February 1946, out of 101,000,000 electors 99.7 per cent cast
their vote in the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.
In March 1950, out of 111,000,000 electors, 99.98 per cent voted,
and in March 1954, 120,727,826 went to the polls, also 99.98 per
cent of the electors. In March 1958, 133,796,091 (or 99.97 per
cent) voted.
In the U.S.S.R. the deputy is a servant of the people. Any
deputy who does not justify the confidence placed in him by
the electors may be recalled by them at any time.
What Jurisdiction have local Soviets?
THE local Soviets of Working People's Deputies in terri-
tories, regions, districts, cities, villages and settlements are
the organs of state power in their respective territories.
Under the Constitution they are elected for a term of two years
by secret ballot by all men and women who have reached the
age of eighteen by election day.
With respect to social composition, the local Soviets reflect
the class structure of socialist society, being composed of
workers, peasants and members of the intelligentsia.
A good example is offered by the composition of the Moscow
City Soviet elected in March 1957. Among its 853 deputies are
377 women; 346 are factory workers, 156 are engineers, scientists
or journalists, 88 are heads of industrial enterprises or institu-
tions, 26 are teachers, 30 are doctors, 159 are officials of Party,
trade unions, youth or other public organisations.
The local Soviets direct local economic and cultural affairs,
safeguard public order and see that the laws are observed and
the rights of citizens are protected.
All local Soviets have their own budgets. In 1957 the rights
of the local Soviets were further extended in connection with
the reorganisation of economic management in the country.
Under the jurisdiction of the local Soviets are thousands of
industrial enterprises which earlier had been directed by all-
Union or Republican Ministries, mainly factories manufacturing
The local Soviets' administrative organs arc their executive
consumer goods.
18
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ito
committees; they are elected at a session of the particular
Soviet and are accountable to it.
The executive committees have departments to direct the
different spheres of economy and culture: local industry, trade,
management of residential buildings and housing construction,
public education, public health and social maintenance. Execu-
tive committees of rural Soviets carry out agricultural
inspections.
All Soviets except rural and settlement Soviets have planning
commissions, whose functions include current and long-range
planning of economic and cultural development on the territory
served by them.
The executive-committee departments as a rule have small
staffs, as the Soviets count on the participation of the voters in
their activity. Millions of men and women in town and country
participate in the work of the local Soviets' standing commis-
sions, which are appointed by the Soviets from among the
deputies.
The local Soviets and the deputies regularly report to their
electors on their activity in directing economic and cultural
development, and take note of the critical remarks and sugges-
tions of the people.
9 I
Do classes exist in the U.S.S.R.?
yES, they do. But they are new classes?the working class
and the collective-farm peasantry, and the intelligentsia
(which has nothing in common with that which existed
in old Russia).
What is the ratio of these classes to the country's total popula-
tion (200.200,000 in April 1956)? At the beginning of 1956
wage and salaried workers and their families numbered roughly
117 million; collective farmers, and handicraftsmen united in
producers' co-operatives and their families numbered about
11082 million, and peasants farming individually and handicraftsmen
working on their own without hired help numbered, together
with their families, approximately 1 million. Wage and salaried
workers made up (in 19s5) 58 3 per cent; collective farmers and
handicraftsmen united in producers' co-operatives 41.2 per cent,
22
and peasants farming individually and handicraftsmen working
on their own 0.5 per cent.
These figures alone are enough to show that in the U.S.S.R.
there are no exploiters, no classes that live by exploiting the
labour of others. Exploiting classes were eliminated in the
U.S.S.R. long ago.
Soviet society consists of two friendly classes--the workers
and the peasants?and the intelligentsia which comes from the
workers and peasants.
The working class of the U.S.S.R. is an entirely new working
class, one that is free from exploitation, a working class that
has become master of its country's material and spiritual wealth.
The Soviet worker is a person of great public interests, versatile
knowledge and a constructive attitude to his work. Manr
workers regularly contribute articles for the press, write books
and pamphlets on their experience at work, or lecture on it in
colleges and specialised secondary schools, and so on. Being
the advanced class in society, the working class exercises state
leadership of society in alliance with the peasantry.
The Soviet peasants are similarly free from exploitation.
Previously the peasants worked individually on their small hold-
ings, with backward technical equipment; or they worked for
landlords and rich peasants, suffering hunger and want.
Today, Soviet peasants have voluntarily united their farms
into agricultural collectives (artels) and are developing them on
the basis of collective labour and modern technical equipment.
Consequently, the Soviet peasantrY is an entirely new class, the
like of which mankind has never before known.
The intellectuals?man and women engaged in mental labour
?faithfully serve the Soviet people. They stem from the workers
and peasants, and are bound up with the people by their very
roots. The Soviet intelligentsia is devoting its strength and
knowledge to the common cause of the working people, the
building of communist society.
23
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10
I {nal forms of public property are there in t
U.S.S.R.?
IN the Soviet Union there is no private ownership of the
means of production.
In the U.S.S.R. public socialist ownership of the means of
production is the invariable rule. This means that Soviet society,
which is made up of working people of town and countryside,
itself owns the means of production.
Article 4 of the U.S.S.R. Constitution reads as follows:
"The economic foundation of the U.S.S.R. is the socialist
system of economy and the socialist ownership of the instru-
ments and means of production, firmly established as a result
of the liquidation of the capitalist system of economy, the
abolition of private ownership of the instruments and means of
production, and the elimination of the exploitation of man by
man."
Public socialist ownership is the basis of the Soviet system,
the source of a prosperous and cultured life for all the working
people.
Socialist property in the U.S.S.R. exists in two forms: state
property (belonging to the whole people) and collective-farm
and co-operative property (property of peasant collective farms,
property of co-operative societies).
The land, Its mineral wealth, waters, forests, mills, factories.
mines, rail, water and air transport, banks, communication
facilities, large state-organised agricultural enterprises (state
(arms, repair and technical service stations, and the like), and
also municipal enterprises and the bulk of the dwelling houses
in the cities and industrial localities, are state property, that is
they belong to the whole people.
The common enterprises of collective farms and co-operative
organisations, with their livestock and implements, the products
of collective farms and co-operative organisations, as well as
pro-
perty
their buildings, constitute co-operative or collective-farm pro-
Thus, under socialism the means of production in the towns
and in the countryside are public property.
While the means of production arc public property, citizens'
incomes and savings from work, their dwelling houses and
24
subsidiary home undertakings, articles of domestic economy
and use, and articles of personal use and convenience (see answer
No. 11) are their personal property. The personal property of
citizens is also protected by law.
How is the right to own and inherit personal
property protected?
11
RTICLE 10 of the U.S.S.R. Constitution declares:
"The personal property right of citizens in their incomes
and savings from work, in their dwelling houses and sub-
sidiary home enterprises, in articles of domestic economy and
use and articles of personal use and convenience, as well as
the right of citizens to inherit personal property, is protected
by law."
Every Soviet citizen is free to dispose of his savings as it
seems best to him. He or she may use them to build a home or
a cottage in the country, to buy a car or anything else desired.
It all depends on one's earnings and savings, which arc not
restricted.
A worker who wishes to build his own house is given a plot
of land by the state, free of charge. On application, endorsed
by both the trade union and the management of his place of
work, the State Bank grants a loan of 5,000 to 10,000 roubles,
repayable over five to ten years on easy tcrms. Interest is charged
at the low rate of 2 per cent per annum. In addition, the state
provides building materials and free technical advice.
It is, however, against Soviet law to derive unearned income
from one's savings or other personal property. Speculation or
usury is a criminal offence punishable by law.
A citizen of the U.S.S.R. has the right to bequeath his personal
property, i.e. savings from work, house, personal effects, copy-
rights and patents.
25
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12
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son or trade, complete equality with men in the family, in
rearing the children, and in the right to inherit property.
There is no sphere of economic or cultural, political or other
public activity, where women may not display their knowledge.
bents or talent.
In pre-revolutionary Russia the overwhelming majority of
women working for hire were employed as domestic servants
50 per cent), or farm-hands working for rich peasants or landed
roprietors (25 per cent).
In the Soviet Union women make up practically half of all
wage and salaried workers; 45 per cent of those employed in
gdustry, approximately 70 per cent of those employed in the
educational system, 85 per cent in the public health service, and
49 per cent of those working in administrative bodies or public
organisations.
The Soviet people rate highly the work of their mothers, wives
and sisters, as can be seen from the fact that more than a million
working women have been awarded orders or medals, and almost
3,000 have won the title of Hero of Socialist Labour.
Since Soviet power opened wide the doors to schools and
higher educational establishments for all people several genera-
tions of talented women engineers, technicians and agricultural
-specialists have developed.
More than 10,000 women have degrees or titles, with more
than 1,000 employed on the staff of Moscow University as
teachers or scientific workers, among them twenty-nine professors
and 500 doccnts and Candidates of Science.
Soviet women of various nationalities prominent in the arts?
ballet and drama, music and folk dancing, circus and music hall
?are known throughout the U.S.S.R. and abroad as well. The
Soviet people are justly proud of many women architects,
sculptors and painters, and there are also many famous women
prose writers and poets.
The Soviet Government draws women citizens widely into the
work of state administration. More than half a million women
workers, peasants and members of the professions, arc deputies
to local Soviets, and more than 2,000 are deputies to Supreme
Soviets of the Union or Autonomous Republics.
The number of women deputies to the U.S.S.R. Supreme
Soviet keeps growing from one election to the next. The Fifth
Supreme Soviet elected on March 16th, 1958, has 366 women
27
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I.' I
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- ,
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12
What does the equality of all Soviet citizens
mean?
SOVIET society does not recognise any difference in rights
as between men and women, "residents" and "non-residents",
educated and uneducated, religious and those without religion.
In Soviet society all citizens enjoy equal rights. Position in
society is determined not by property status, sex, or national
origin, but by work and ability.
Every Soviet citizen is guaranteed the right to work, rest and
leisure, education, material security in old age and in sickness
or disablement. All citizens are guaranteed political freedoms:
freedom of speech, of the press, of meeting and demonstration,
of uniting in public organisations. They are also secured free-
dom of conscience
A Soviet citizen of any nationality is eligible for election to
any organ of state power, or for appointment to any governing
post, All citizens receive equal pay for equal work. They are
free to take up any trade, to enter any educational establishment,
to engage in any scientific, literary, political or other public
activity.
Women in the U.S.S.R. are accorded equal rights with men in
all spheres of economic, government, cultural, political and other
public activity.
13
What role do women play in the life of the
Soviet Union?
THE U.S.S.R. Constitution, the country's fundamental law,
defines women's place in the life of the Soviet people, their
.., role in building and developing the socialist state.
Article 122 of the Constitution has secured them equal rights
ith men in all spheres of economic, government, cultural,
political and other public activity.
The age-old aspirations of women have come true in the
U.S.S.R.: equal right to work and equal pay for equal work,
state protection of the interests of mother and child (see answer
No. 88), unlimited opportunity to acquire an education, profes-
26
sion or trade, complete equality with men in the family, in
rearing the children, and in the right to inherit property.
There is no sphere of economic or cultural, political or other
public activity, where women may not display their knowledge,
bents or talent.
In pre-revolutionary Russia the overwhelming majority of
women working for hire were employed as domestic servants
(50 per cent), or farm-hands working for rich peasants or landed
proprietors (25 per cent).
In the Soviet Union women make up practically half of all
wage and salaried workers; 45 per cent of those employed in
industry, approximately 70 per cent of those employed in the
educational system, 85 per cent in the public health service, and
49 per cent of those working in administrative bodies or public
organisations.
The Soviet people rate highly the work of their mothers, wives
and sisters, as can be seen from the fact that more than a million
working women have been awarded orders or medals, and almost
3,000 have won the title of Hero of Socialist Labour.
Since Soviet power opened wide the doors to schools and
higher educational establishments for all people several genera-
tions of talented women engineers, technicians and agricultural
specialists have developed.
More than 10,000 women have degrees or titles, with more
than 1,000 employed on the staff of Moscow University as
teachers or scientific workers, among them twenty-nine professors
and 500 docents and Candidates of Science.
Soviet women of various nationalities prominent in the arts?
ballet and drama, music and folk dancing, circus and music hall
?are known throughout the U.S.S.R. and abroad as well. The
Soviet people are justly proud of many women architects,
sculptors and painters, and there are also many famous women
prose writers and poets.
The Soviet Government draws women citizens widely into the
work of state administration. More than half a million women
workers, peasants and members of the professions, are deputies
to local Soviets, and more than 2,000 are deputies to Supreme
Soviets of the Union or Autonomous Republics.
The number of women deputies to the U.S.S.R. Supreme
Soviet keeps growing from one election to the next. The Fifth
Supreme Soviet elected on March 16th, 1958, has 366 women
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deputies, or 26.4 per cent of the total. Four women are members
of the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet.
Participation by women in governing the state and in other
public activity is not confined to those elected by the people
as their deputies.
A great many women have been elected people's judges or
people's assessors, and there is no trade union committee any-
where in the Soviet Union in which women are not widely
represented.
A woman Minister can be found in every Union and
Autonomous Republic, and a woman factory director, school
principal, or collective-farm chairman is a common phenomenon.
The socialist system has at the same time raised high the
dignity of mothers (see answer No. 88). Motherhood is
recognised in the U.S.S.R. as an important social function of
women, and care of mother and child is a major duty of the
state.
Soviet times have witnessed the establishment of 7,000 women's
medical consultation centres and 200,000 beds in maternity
homes.
14
,
What are the rights and duties of Soviet citizens?
HE Constitution of the U.S.S.R. has secured to Soviet
citizens extensive rights in all spheres of political, economic
and cultural activity.
These liberties testify to the true democracy of the Soviet
system, to the harmony of personal and public interests.
Soviet citizens' fundamental rights are: the right to work,
that is, the right to guaranteed employment and payment for
their work in accordance with its quantity and quality; the right
to rest and leisure; the right to maintenance in old age and in
sickness or disablement; the right to education; personal property
rights to their incomes and savings from work, to their dwelling
houses and subsidiary husbandries and the right to inherit
personal property. .
Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have also been secured the following
freedoms: the freedom of conscience, that is, the freedom of
professing or not professing a religion and likewise the freedom
of religious worship or anti-religious propaganda; freedom of
28
speech and of the press, freedom of assembly, including the hold-
ing of mass meetings, street processions and demonstrations.
Citizens are also guaranteed the right to form and belong
to public organisations. The most active and politically conscious
citizens in the ranks of the working class, working peasants
and working intelligentsia voluntarily belong to the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union, which is the vanguard of the working
people in their struggle to build communist society (see answer
No. 21).
The Soviet State guarantees the citizens of the U.S.S.R. in-
violability of the person and of the home, and the privacy of
correspondence.
Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to elect and be eligible
for election to the representative bodies of the state.
A cardinal feature of Soviet democracy is that the rights and
freedoms are secured to all citizens of the U.S.S.R., irrespective
of sex, nationality or race, social status, origin or office.
The rights and freedoms are not merely proclaimed in the
Constitution; they are actually guaranteed and the means pro-
vided for exercising them.
Thus, the right to work is ensured by the socialist organisation
of the national economy, the steady growth of the productive
forces of Soviet society, the elimination of the possibility of
economic crises and the abolition of unemployment.
Freedom of the press is ensured by placing at the disposal of
the working people and their organisations printing presses and
stocks, of paper for the publication of books, magazines and
newspapers, and the possibility for every citizen to write to
newspapers and criticise any state official, and so on.
Along with securing citizens of the U.S.S.R. democratic rights
and freedoms, the Constitution also imposes on them certain
duties, among which are: the duty to abide by the Constitution
of the U.S.S.R., to observe the laws, to maintain labour
discipline, honestly to perform public duties, to respect the
rules of socialist behaviour and to safeguard and fortify public
socialist property.
Military service in the armed forces of the U.S.S.R. is an
honourable duty of the citizens of the U.S.S.R., and to defend
the country is the sacred duty of every citizen.
The duties as well as the rights apply equally to all citizens.
29
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What are the Soviet laws regarding marriage and
the family?
THERE is complete equality between husband and wife
in the Soviet family, which is built on a foundation of
mutual respect, friendship and affection.
The Soviet State safeguards and protects the stability of the
home. Both parties are guaranteed full equality in their rights
and duties under the law, which allows no impairment of the
woman's rights, and holds both parties equally responsible for
the upbringing of their children.
Property accumulated after marriage belongs to both parties
in equal measure. Each of the parties is responsible for the
maintenance of the other in case of disability.
Soviet laws provide penalties for undermining the home by
irresponsible conduct and for failure to support one's children.
A marriage in the Soviet Union is contracted by registration
at the Civil Registry Bureau of the local Soviet of Working
People's Deputies. The fact of marriage is recorded in the pass-
ports of both parties.
With the aim of strengthening family life, and protecting the
interests of mother and child, Soviet law allows termination of
the married state only through court proceedings and only on
serious grounds. Divorce proceedings are held in private at the
request of either party.
If the court finds it proper to grant a divorce, it specifies in
the judgment which parent is to keep the children, divides
the property between the husband and wife, and permits the
parties to resume their original surnames if they so desire.
Re-marriage without the dissolution of a previous marriage,
bigamy and polygamy are prohibited by law.
30
flow is freedom of conscience exercised in the 16
U.S.S.R.?
IN the Soviet Union, in conformity with Article 124 of the
Constitution, the Church is separated from the state, and the
school from the Church. The Church has no right to interfere
in the political activities of the state. Neither does the state
interfere in the internal affairs of the Church. No Church receives
any money from the state. All Church organisations and the
clergy are supported by voluntary contributions from members
of the Church. All churches and religions enjoy equal rights.
There is no state religion in the U.S.S.R.
All believers may freely attend church, mosque, synagogue, or
other house of worship, in accordance with their religion to
worship and perform religious rites. Any believer may invite
a clergyman to his home to perform religious rites.
The right of Soviet citizens to profess any religion or none,
to freely express atheistic views and conduct anti-religious propa-
ganda, without, however, offending the feelings of believers, is
guaranteed by law.
The Soviet State makes no distinction between citizens because
of religion. In official documents (passports, marriage certificates,
birth certificates etc.) the citizen's religion is not indicated.
Officials' have no right to enquire into the religion of citizens
applying for work or admission to an educational establishment.
Religion is the private, personal affair of the citizens, a matter
of their conscience, the freedom of which is strictly protected
by Soviet law. Religious intolerance, even the slightest, is not
permitted in the Soviet Union.
Believers who wish to perform religious rites collectively may
set up religious congregations on a voluntary basis. Such
congregations may be formed if as few as twenty members are
ready to join them. The state grants these congregations the free
use of buildings to hold services and perform other religious
rites. Congregations may also build new houses of worship.
Central or local authorities assign premises for religious schools
and provide paper and printshops for the publication of religious
books and church magazines.
The denomination having the largest number of adherents in
the U.S.S.R. is the Russian Orthodox Church. It is headed by
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A/exey, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, who uns elected
at a Church Council held in 1945. The Patriarch took his
monastic vows more than half a century ago, in 1902. He has
an advisory body?the Holy Synod.
The religion having the second largest number of adherents in
the USSR. is the Moslem Faith (Islam). The Moslems residing
on the territory of the U.SS.R. have four ecclesiastical centres
(Religious Boards): in Baku, capital of the Azerbaijan S.S.R.;
in Tashkent, capital of the Uzbek S.S.R.; in Ufa, capital of the
Bashkir ASS.R.; and in the city of Bilinaksk, in the Daghestan
ASS.R.
The overwhelming majority of the Moslems in the U.SS.R.
are Sunnites, but there are a good many Shi-ites in the Azerbaijan
Republic, the Central Asian Republics and in n number of other
districts of the Soviet Union. In contrast to pre-revolutionary
times, there is no strife today between the Sunnites and Shi-ites
in the US.S.R.
At the Congress of the Peoples for Peace held in Vienna in
1952 Sheikh UI-Islam Akhund Aga All Zade, the representative
of the Moslems of the Soviet Union, said in his speech: "By
the will of Allah, it has been the good fortune of myself and
my contemporaries to live to the day when I could see with
my own eyes how the peoples of the multi-national Soviet Union
?and the Moslems among this friendly family?have gained
their happiness on earth. . . . In the Soviet Union all peoples
enjoy equal rights and have their independent states?the Soviet
Republics; the native language is used in all institutions, all
peoples are prosperous and among them fraternal friendship
has been established; they have become cultured and they have
mastered science and art. Moslems have full religious liberty
and Islam enjoys the same rights as all other religions."
Other large denominations are:
The Buddhis:s, headed by the well-known Buddhist spiritual
leader, the Bandido Hambo Lama Lobsan Nima Darmayev. He
is chairman of the Central Ecclesiastical Board of the Buddhists
in the U.S.S.R. and maintains his residence in the city of
Ivolginsk, in the Buryat A.S.S.R.
The Roman Catholic Church, mainly to be' found in the
svestem part of the U.S.S.R. in the Latvian and Lithuanian
Republics.
The Staroobriatsi (Old Believers).
The Orthodox Church of Georgia.
32
The Armenian (Gregorian) Church.
The Evangelical Christian Baptist Church.
The Lutheran Church.
The Jewish Religion.
Besides the larger religious denominations enumerated above,
there are in the U.S.S.R. also other denominations with much
smaller numbers of adherents. These are the Seventh-Day
Adventists, Reformati, Molokani, Karaites, Dukhobors, Metho-
dists And so on.
All of these religious associations, regardless of the number
of their adherents, enjoy the same rights as the larger denomina-
tions. Only fanatical sects, which make mutilation the basis of
their creed (such as the Skoptsy, who castrate their followers),
are not allowed in the U.S.S.R.
To consider problems relating to the internal affairs of the
Church, central ecclesiastical bodies convene congresses or con-
ferences, which are attended by the clergy and representatives
of the laity. Religious denominations have their own academies,
seminaries and other schools for training clergymen. Ecclesiastical
centres freely maintain intercourse with their co-religionists
abroad, and some of them, the Russian Orthodox Church and
the Armenian Church, for instance, have their own cparchics
or representatives in foreign lands.
The clergy enjoy all political rights equally with all other
citizpns of the U.S.S.R. They may vote in all elections to organs
of state power and they are eligible for election to them.
Leaders of all religious denominations, the rank-and-file clergy
and the believers are actively participating in the peace movement
in the U.S.S.R. Nikolai, Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna
(Russian Orthodox Church), Archbishop Turs, head of the
Evangelical-Lutheran Church of the Latvian S.S.R., with head-
quarters in Riga, are members of the U.S.S.R. Peace Committee.
The late Mufti Ishan Babakhan Ibn Abdul Mcdjid-Khan, the
head of the Moslems of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, was also
a member of the committee.
In the activities of religious denominations questions arise that
require solution by government bodies, and this has been taken
into account by the Soviet Government. For this purpose there
have been set up a Council for Affairs of the Russian Orthodox
Church and a Council for Affairs of Religious Cults. These
Councils assist ecclesiastical bodies to solve problems requiring
consultation with state authorities and institutions; they also
11
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supervise the proper application of the laws covering freedom
of conscience and freedom of religious worship, and they draft
bills and regulations on questions raised by religious bodies
17
How is justice administered?
THE function of Soviet courts of justice is to safeguard
the labour and property rights and interests of Soviet
citizens and to protect the rights and lawful interests of
state institutions, enterprises, co-operative and other public
organisations.
All courts, from the People's Court, which is the lowest, to
the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R., which is the highest, are
elective
The Jurisdiction of each court is strictly defined. The bulk of
criminal and civil cases are tried by the People's Courts (each
composed of a Judge and two People's Assessors), which are
found in every town and district. The territorial, regional, city
and area courts hear cases involving crimes against the state and
disputes between state and public organisations, and consider
appeals and protests against sentences and decisions of the
People's Courts.
Supervision of the judicial activities of all courts in a particular
Union Republic is exercised by the Supreme Court of the
Union Republic, and the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. exercises
supervision to ensure compliance with federal laws by the courts
and hears disputes in which the interests of Union Republics are
involved
In all courts, cases are tried with the participation of People's
Assessors
The powers of these People's Assessors, who are elected on
the same basis as People's Judges, are the same as those of the
Judges, and this equal authority constitutes the most important
principle of the entire Soviet judicial system.
The Soviet Constitution provides for the complete indepen-
dence of Judges. No government body or official may influence
in any way the outcome of a trial. The court's judgment or
decision must be in strict conformity with the law and based on
the evidence in the case.
It must be stated, however, that for a certain period these
34
clear and strict requirements of the law were distorted. The
vigorous measures taken by the Communist Party and the Soviet
Government have resulted in rectification of the injustice done
in the cases in which wrong verdicts were rendered, and provision
has been made to preclude the possibility of similar deviations
from the law in future.
All citizens are equal before the law. There are no special
courts in the U.S.S.R. for any category of the population. The
People's Court is the same for all citiiens.
Judicial proceedings are conducted in the language of the
Union or Autonomous Republic, Autonomous Region or
National Area, persons unfamiliar with that language being pro-
vided with an interpreter. All citizens have the right to use their
own language in court.
One of the most important principles of .the Soviet court
is that cases are heard in public. The only exceptions are cases
involving state or military secrets, or at the request of the litigants
where their intimate relations are concerned.
The Soviet court performs a great educational function.
The laws of the U.S.S.R. reject punishment as an aim in
itself or as a revenge, as a method of humiliating the human
dignity of the convict. While punishing criminals, the Soviet
court at the same time makes provisions for their correction
and re-education. Of major importance for this is that convicts
serving sentences are given work paid at regular rates and
living conditions not incompatible with human dignity.
The Soviet State creates conditions of life and work for con-
victs which enable them to atone for their guilt by honest
labour and conduct, and regain their status as decent Soviet
citizens.
Who may become a Judge?
118
ANY Soviet citizen of either sex may become a judge in
the U.S.S.R., provided he or she has leached the age of
twenty-three and wins the confidence of the voters.
People's Judges and People's Assessors are elected by the
citizens of the particular district in which the court sits on the
basis of universal, direct and equal suffrage, by secret ballot
for a term of three years.
One Judge and from fifty to seventy Assessors are elected in
02
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each election district. The overwhelming majority of the Judges
possess a higher or secondary legal education.
Judges and Assessors of the higher courts?the territorial and
regional courts?as well as members of the Supreme Courts of
the Republics and members of the Supreme Court of the
U.S.S.R. are elected by the respective Soviets of Working People's
Deputies and Supreme Soviets for a term of five years.
19 I Is there a legal profession in the U.S.S.R?
Y
ES, there is. There are associations (collegiums) of lawyers
in all big cities, district centres and in many industrial
settlements.
Any citizen may practise law who has had a legal education
and legal experience. Questions of admission to the legal pro-
fession are decided by the associations themselves, which are
independent m all their activity.
The legal profession in the Soviet Union renders legal aid to
citizens and organisations, including state enterprises and collec-
tive farms. Lawyers appear in court as counsel for defendants
in criminal cases and as representatives of litigants (plaintiffs
or defendants) in civil cases.
Fees for legal services are low. The defendant may choose
lawyer himself, or may ask a lawyers' collegium to appoint
one. If a defendant cannot afford to pay the lawyer's fee, the
court provides legal assistance in all cases handled by the Pro-
curator's Office, or where the accused is physically unable to
defend himself (deaf mutes, the blind, and so on), and also
where the accused is a minor.
The right to legal defence entitles the defendant in a criminal
case (and the litigants in a civil suit), or the lawyer, to ask the
court to subpoena any number of witnesses, to order any written
or material evidence to be produced in court and to have the
neces_ 'try documents made exhibits in the case, and also demand
expert testimony or recommittal of the case for further investi-
gation.
36
What are the powers of the Procurator-General
of the U.S:S.R.?
120
THE Procurator-General of the U.S.S.R. is appointed by the
Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. for a term of seven years.
He has supreme supervisory power to ensure the proper
application and strict observance of the law by all government
institutions, officials and private citizens of the U.S.S.R. He is
vested with the right to protest against any action, order or
instruction of any official, Ministers of the U.S.S.R. included,
if it is in contravention of the law.
The Procurator-General appoints the Procurators of the
Union and Autonomous Republics, territories and regions; they
are responsible only to the Procurator-General of the U.S.S.R.
and function independently of any local organs. The Procurator-
General of the U.S.S.R. approves the appointment by the Pro-
curators of the Union Republics, of area, district and city
Procurators.
The Procurator-General of the U.S.S.R., the Procurators of
the Republics, territories and regions, and the city and district
.Procurators prosecute for the state in court proceedings.
Any citizen of the U.S.S.R. may file a complaint with the
Procurator-General against any institution or official violating
the law, or a petition seeking protection for his legal rights
and interests.
Article 127 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. reads:
"Citizens of the U.S.S.R. are guaranteed inviolability of the
person. No person may be placed under arrest except by decision
of a court or with the sanction of a Procurator."
The Procurator's Office enforces the observance of this Article,
and those violating it, no matter what office they may hold, are
called to strict account.
In the performance of its duties the Soviet procuratorate
receives great help from the community. Like the Soviet court,
the procuratoratc has close ties with the working people who
regard it as the defender of the Soviet social and state system.
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21
IL PUBLIC ORGANISATIONS
Ffiert is the role of the Conunsurist Party in the
U.S.S.R
'THE Cot=iinist Party of the Soviet Union is the guiding
an 6r=ing form of the Soviet State, the leading force
Cf Syviet SOthdry.
BY
the Sal of the people this role of the Party is embodied
= the I: c KR_ Constitution.. Article 126 of the Constitution says
r''...e Co,.......nast Party of the Soviet Union is the vanguard
a le:e zructing pee* in their struggle to build communist
sothery 1.-41 is the 1...rling core of all organisations of the work-
Ems peat,*? bath public and state.
How does the Party guide the Soviet State and the people?
I: det-nes the political line to be followed in respect of
c=ox qmstiorts of foreign and home policy. It thoroughly
1.:fikes
the state of the national economy?industry.-, transport
a..nd agimhm-e?slablems of the development of science and cul-
=r& studies em experience of the foremost people, and brings
sbartoo=2:s to the surface, and on the basis of these studies
the Party gives guidance on particular questions of communist
....===nion..
la &-leaMs the activity of the Soviet State the Party does
am mph.= the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet In its work it does not
tale the plam of either the Soviets, which are the organs of
care power. or other oripmsauons of the working people, such
as the trade =ions, peasants' co-operatives (collective farms).
t"..x YC-L. and so on. These organisauons are non-Party orean-
maracas, =lag teas of millions of working people of Soviet
sociery?worts,
peasants and professional people. The Party
..s forward its line in the mass organisations through the
Comma:aim wecting m them. Party members working in the
Soviers, wade moos, peasant and producers' co-operatives.
mai:Liss-rim factories. cultural and scientific organisations explain
to the working people the Party's line, its counsel and proposals
and they inur..m- dx, people to carry out the Party's proposals.
Explanation and persuasion is the principal method used by
the Party to guide ail organisations of the working people which
make up the system of the Soviet State.
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The Communist Party has guided Soviet society successfully,
leading the country along the path of progress year after year.
It adheres to the Leninist principle of collective leadership of
the country, which means that all of the Party's decisions on
the affairs of the Soviet State are decided by Party leaders not
individually, but collectively after thorough discussion by Party
congresses, meetings of the Central Committee, or the Presidium
of the Central Committee. Collective leadership ensures correct
decisions on problems of policy, economy and culture.
The Party policy is carried out not only by the Communists
but also by the non-Party masses and their organisations. This
is due to the fact that the policy of the Communist Party is in
accord with the vital interests of the people and of the whole of
society.
The people and the Communist Party have one and the same
goal: to build Communist society and to live in peace and
friendship with the peoples all over the world. That is why all
members of Soviet society support and follow the policy of the
Party, regarding it as their own.
The strength of the Party consists, firstly, in that it is armed
with advanced Marxist-Leninist theory.
This revolutionary, scientifically-grounded theory enables the
Communist Party to learn to know the laws of development of
society, to foresee the course of events, and to direct them in
the interests of the working people, to outline and carry through
the correct policy. Knowledge of the economic laws of develop-
ment of society, for instance, helps the Party constantly to
develop the national economy, to enhance the material welfare
of the people and to hurdle all barriers to the goal?the building
of the classless Communist society.
The strength of the Communist Party lies, secondly, in the
unity and solidarity of its ranks, its millions of like-minded
people. Lenin, founder of the Party, said that every member of
the Party was responsible for the Party, and the Party was
responsible for every member. A characteristic feature in the
life and activity of the Party is the unity of its ranks and views
(world outlook).
Finally, the strength of the Communist Party lies in its
inseparable ties with the people. It is a truly people's Party, for
it is made up of society's best people?foremost workers, pea-
sants and professionals?and serves the people only.
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The Party is guided by the Marxist-Leninist teaching that the
people are the makers of history. It therefore constantly
strengthens its ties with the working people, listens to what they
have to say, understands their needs, and not only teaches them,
but also learns from them. That is why the Communist Party
enjoys the utmost confidence of the people.
Its inseparable ties with the people are the major source of
the strength of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
22
Why is there only one political party in the
U.S.S.R?
THE Communist Party is the only political party in the
U.S.S.R.
This sterns from the country's historical development,
from the fact that in Russia triumphed the ideology of the
workmg class expressed in the programme and policy of the
Communist Party.
The working people of the U.S.S.R. need no other party as
there are no antagonistic classes in the country, society being
made up of workers and peasants, who are bound together by
the same aims and actions; by ties of profound friendship and
indestructible union; the people's intelligentsia is closely joined
with them.
Before the establishment of Soviet power Russia had several
political parties, as the country then had antagonistic classes:
capitalists and proletarians, landlords and peasants. Besides
these classes there was also a rural bourgeoisie (kulaks) and an
urban pet:y-bourgeoisie.
Each class had its own party, which expressed and defended
its interests.
The party of Russia's working class is the Communist Party,
founded by Lenin. It defends the interests not only of the
workers but of all working people. It led the peoples of Russia
to victory in the Great October Socialist Revolution.
The class structure of Soviet society differs fundamentally
from the class structure of pre-revolutionary Russia. There have
been no capitalists, landlords, kulaks, or urban petty-bourgeoisie
in the Soviet Union for a long time. The class of imperialist big
bourgeoisie and the landlord class were eliminated during the
40
t'At
revolution and civil war, and the urban bourgeois classes
ceased to exist following the complete victory of the socialist
system in the whole of the national economy. With the elimina-
tion of the ,exploiting classes their political parties also dis-
appeared.
Today there are only two friendly classes in the U.S.S.R.?
the workers and peasants?and the people's intelligentsia. The
political, economic and spiritual interests of the workers, pea-
sants and intelligentsia are identical. Their ultimate goal is also
the same?to build up communist society in the U.S.S.R. The
interests of all the working people are expressed and defended
by one party: the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The
people have long recognised it as their leader and teacher, for
they have become convinced from their experience over many
years that the Communist Party, had no aim other than working
for the happiness of all working people, and has no other aim
today.
There is therefore no social ground in the U.S.S.R. for other
political parties.
What is communism?
123
WHAT is communism, and in what way does it differ
from socialism?
The teaching of the founders of scientific communism,
Marx and Engels, a teaching developed comprehensively by
Lenin, propounds that socialism and communism are the two
phases, two stages of development of one and the same social
system, communist society.
Socialism is the first (lower) stage, and communism is the
second (higher) stage of communist society.
The Soviet people have built up socialism and are now build-
ing communist society.
While socialism and communism have much in common, there
is, nevertheless, a difference between them.
The following features are common to both socialism and
communism:
Under both socialism and communism the economic founda-
tion of society is the public ownership of the instruments and
means of production and an integrated system of economy.
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Neither under socialism nor communism is there social
oppression. There are no exploiting classes, no exploitation of
man by man, and no national oppression.
Under both socialism and communism the national economy
is developed according to plan, and there are neither economic
crises, nor unemployment and poverty among the masses.
Under both socialism and communism everyone is equally
bound to work according to his ability.
Under communism, just as under socialism, the basic economic
law is the maximum satisfaction of the constantly using material
and cultural requirements of the whole of society through the
continuous expansion and improvement of production on the
basis of higher techniques.
What then, is the difference between communism and social-
ism?
Socialist society affords full play for the development of the
productive forces. The level reached by socialist production
makes it possible for society to give effect to the principle:
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his
work." This means that the products are distributed in accor-
dance with the quantity and quality of the work performed. In communist society the productive forces will reach anin-
comparably higher level of development than under socialism
The national economy will develop on the foundation of very
high techniques, the production processes will be mechanised
and automatised in an all-round way, and people will extensively
utilise every source of energy.
1-) The productive forces of society will reach so high a level of
development that they will ensure an abundance of all consumer
goods and all material and cultural wealth. This abundance of
products will make it possible to meet fully the needs of all
members of communist society. Social life under communism,
therefore, will be guided by the principle:
From each according to his ability, to each according to his
needs.
Through lack of knowledge, or sometimes because of hostility
towards communism, it has been argued that under communism
there will be a levelling of the tastes and needs of all people.
But tastes and needs of people are not and cannot be the same
or alike in quality or quantity, either under socialism or
communism.
41
_
17.
Under communism there will be an all-round and full satis-
faction of every demand of the people.
Under socialism there are still the working classes?the
workers and peasants?and the intelligentsia, among whom there
still remains a difference. Under communism there will be no
class differences, and the entire people will become working folk
of a united, classless communist society.
Under socialism there still exists a distinction between town
and country. Under communism there will be no essential dis-
tinction between town and county, that is, between industry and
agriculture.
Under socialism there are two forms of public property,
namely, state property (belonging to the whole people) and
collective farm and co-operative property (property of collective
farms and of co-operative societies). Under communism there
will be a single form of property?property belonging to the
whole people.
Under socialism there still exists an essential distinction be-
tween mental and manual labour.
This distinction consists in that in contemporary socialist
society there is still a gap between the cultural and technical
standards of people engaged in physical labour and those en-
gaged in mental labour.
Although among the workers and peasants there are a good
many who have risen to the level of engineers or technicians,
the cultural and technical level of most workers and peasants,
people engaged in physical labour, is still behind the cultural
and technical level of the intelligentsia.
The very fact that in socialist society the intelligentsia remains
a special social stratum is proof that under socialism there still
exists an essential distinction between mental and manual labour.
Under communism this distinction will disappear, for the cul-
tural and technical standard of all working people will reach the
standard of engineers and technicians.
Under socialism there still exist the survivals of capitalism in
the minds of people. Under communism all survivals of capital-
ism will disappear.
Under communism work will no longer be merely a means
of livelihood, but man's primary need in life.
These are the main features of communism.
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241
What is the cult of the individual? How is the
C.P.S.U. overcoming its consequences?
THE cult of the individual is the exaggerated adulation
of individuals, attributing to them supernatural qualities,
deifying and worshipping them. It is an idealistic notion
attributing to outstanding individuals a decisive influence on the
course of history.
This phenomenon has nothing in common with the ideology
of Soviet society which is based on the Marxist-Leninist teach-
ing that the working people are the motive force of social pro-
gress, the real makers of history. Any leader may lose the
ability of giving correct leadership if he places himself above the
people, or divorces himself from them. The cult of the individual
is thoroughly alien to the nature of the Soviet system, a system
which arose, grew in strength and developed as a result of the
consciousness, labour and will of the popular masses headed by
their collective leader and organiser?the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union.
The cult of the individual is an intolerable phenomenon in
the Communist Party and socialist society.
The harm resulting from it lies in the fact that its dissemina-
tion diminishes the role of the Party and the people, and the
role of collective leadership in the Party, and leads to serious
defects in work and gross violations of socialist .law. Yet this
--ugly phenomenon was observed in the Soviet Union over a num-
Wei of years, it was connected with the cult of J. V. Stalin which
spread among the members of the C.P.S.U. and among the
Soviet people at large as well.
The Stalin cult manifested itself in attributing to him personal-
ly the major 2chievements of the people and the Party in build-
ing socialism Lnsf in defending the country against aggressors.
Principled critk.isra of the mistakes connected with the Stalin
cult of the individual was made and measures for over-coming
the consequences of the cult were taken by the Twentieth Con-
gress of the C.P.S.U, held in 1956. The Party launched its critic-
ism of Stalin's mistakes firstly in order to overcome their con-
sequences. and secondly to prevent a repetition of the mistakes.
While giving due credit to Stalin for his work in the building
of socialism and in the struggle against the anti-Party groups,
44
the Congress pointed out that in his latter years Stalin had made
a number of mistakes, violating the standards of Party and state
activity.
The criticism by the Party and its big effort in eliminating
the consequences of the cult of the individual have contributed
to the improvement of all the Communist Party's activities and
to the consistent adherence to the Leninist principles of col-
lective leadership and standards of Party activity, to strict ob-
servance of revolutionary law, to the further development of
inner-Party and Soviet democracy, to an upswing in ideological
work and a growth of the initiative and activity of the working
people.
The C.P.S.U. and the Soviet people give Stalin his due as a
devoted Marxist-Leninist and staunch revolutionary.
While criticising the wrong aspects of his activity the Party
has fought and continues to fight those who, under the guise of
criticising the cult of the individual, are incorrectly picturing and
distorting the whole historical period during which Stalin headed
the Central Committee of the Party.
The Party and the Soviet people know well that such "critic-
ism" and talk of "Stalinism" is nothing but a cover for depart-
ing from the principles of Marxism-Lcninism. That is why the
Communists have combated and will continue to combat all
deviations from Marxism-Leninism, all attempts to distort its
essence, and will fight against all those who would belittle and
compromise the leaders of the Communist and Workers' Parties
who are devoted to the Marxist-Leninist cause, to the principles
of proletarian internationalism.
What is the role of criticism and self-c-iticism 1 25
in Soviet society?
IN the Soviet socialist state, in which the workers, peasants
and intellectuals are themselves masters of their country, all
working people are equally interested in having all their insti-
tutions and organisations, their industrial enterprises and col-
lective farms, work well, so that day by day, they provide more
material and cultural values for the people.
That is why, at their meetings and conferences, at sessions of
the Soviets and in the newspapers, the Soviet people, both
Communists and non-Party people, expose in a forthright way
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defects in the work of state institutions or public enterprises,
and criticise poor leaders. They also view their own work
critically.
This critical attitude towards the activity of government
officials, Deputies to the Soviets and towards the work of fellow.
workers, Soviet people call criticism. A critical attitude towards
their own work and honest public admission of shortcomings
in their own work, is called self-criticism.
Criticism and self-criticism have always been and are now
methods applied by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in
its daily work. And, since in the U.S.S.R. communists and non-
Party people have the same tasks, and one and the same goal
?the building of communist society?these methods used by
the Party in its work have become the daily working methods
of all Soviet people.
Criticism and self-criticism have become a great force in the
development of Soviet society. Forthright criticism of defects in
work prompts Soviet people not to be satisfied with their
successes, not to become set, but always to go forward, to develop
their socialist economy.
Criticism and self-criticism help to enlist millions of working
people to take part in the solution of important problems of
state, develop their activity and inculcate in them the feeling
that they are the masters of the country.
By availing themselves of this opportunity to criticise openly
defects in work, the working people take an active part
in guiding the country and its economy.
Criticism, by the broad masses, of inferior work of state,
DO economic and public organisations is a vivid illustration of the
genuine democracy of the Soviet socialist system.
The spirit of criticism and self-criticism pervades the entire
work of the Communist Party, the Soviets and all organisations
of the working people of the U.S.S.R.
46
What is the Young Communist League?
HE Lenin Young Communist League of the Soviet Union,
Tor Komsomol, as it is known for short, has been in
existence since October 29th, 1918. On that day the first
congress of Russia's Young Communist League opened in
Moscow. It added "Lenin" to its name in 1924 after the death
of the founder of the Soviet State.
In the forty years it has existed, the Komsomol has grown
from a small group of young revolutionaries, 22,000 in all, into
a mass organisation of foremost Soviet youth. Today it counts
18,500,000 youngsters in its ranks.
Although a non-Party organisation, the Komsomol maintains
close ties with the Communist Party, working under the latter's
It admits to membership youths and girls who accept its rules
leadership.
and programme, and express a desire to work in one of its
organisations. Applicants must be not less than fifteen years
old and membership terminates at the age of twenty-eight.
Komsomol organisations are set up in factories, on state and
collective farms, in institutions, schools and higher educational
establishments. Its primary organisations today number nearly
All leading bodies?from the primary organisation committee
half a million.
to the Central Committee arc elected by secret ballot at meet-
The main task set itself by the Komsomol is to educate Soviet
ings, conferences or congresses.
youth in the spirit of devoted service to their country. It takes
an active part in the country's political life, in building Com-
munist society, inculcates love for work among the youth, sees
to it that the youth regularly improve their working skill, master
knowledge and the achievements of advanced science and
engineering and know how to apply it in practice in all spheres
of the national economy and culture. Over 120,000 Komsomol
members are Deputies to Soviets. Seven thousand are Heroes
of the Soviet Union.
Very often Komsomol organisations in ?
itiate valuable under-
takings that are of importance to the entire country. During the
First Five-Year Plan, the Komsomol was one of the chief
initiators of socialist emulation among the working people (sec
answer No. 45).
126
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A good many towns and industrial settlements, factories and
mines built by the youth have been named in honour of the
Komsomol; among the towns are Komsomolsk-on-the-Amur,
Komsomolsk-on-the-Volga, Komsomolsk-on-the Pechora, and
Komsomolsk in Kazakhstan.
Late in 1956 the youth undertook to build thirty-five new coal-
mines in the Donbas, and 30,000 youths and girls participated
in this work. Formerly it took from two to three years to build
a mine of this kind; this time the young people built all thirty-
five in one year.
The Komsomol played an exceptional part in putting virgin
land under crops. In two years more than 350.000 young people
settled on the new lands.
In the spring of 1958 roughly 100,000 Komsomol meetings
were held throughout the country at which the young people
discussed the further development of the collective farm system
and re-organisation of the machine and tractor stations. A good
many suggestions were made at the meetings and they were taken
into account by the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet in enacting the law
(see answer No. 53).
Representing as it does the interests of the youth, the Kom-
somol deservedly enjoys great prestige. It has been given the
right to take up direct with the government or individual
Ministeries questions of work, education, cultural services and
problems of every-day life of interest to young people.
The Komsomol organisations have their own clubs and
libraries, publishing houses, newspapers and a great number of
juvenile and children's magazines.
.The Komsomol helps and directs the work of the Lenin Young
Pioneer Organisation (see answer No. 27).
Soviet yot,?,1 take an active part in the work of the World
Federation i Democratic Youth, in the Olympic and -World
Student Gan, in International festivals. They carry out an
extensive exct ,e of delegations with foreign counu-ies and take
a most active ?-? Ili the ;:.ople's struggle for peace.
48
IT
Who are the Young Pioneers?
OUNG Pioneers is the name given to schoolchildren who
belong to the Lenin Young Pioneers, a mass children's
Y
organisation with a membership of 19 million boys and
girls between nine and fourteen years of age.
The main function of the Young Pioneers' organisation is to
help the school and teachers. By their study and conduct Young
Pioneers serve as an exampie for other schoolchildren to follow.
All kinds of clubs flourish in Young Pioneer organisations:
young technicians, iadio amateurs, aircraft modellers, young
naturalists, book friends and amateur art circles are just a few.
All over the country are to be found Palaces and Houses of
Young Pioneers, Young Pioneer parks and sports grounds.
In summer-time, millions of Young Pioneers go out to camps,
make special, tours, or go on excursions to see the country.
Through all of its varied and absorbing work, the Young
Pioneer organisation inculcates in the children a conscious
attitude towards study, discipline and labour, physical endurance,
honesty and truthfulness, a sense of comradeship, respect for
elders, and accustoms them to socially useful activities.
1 28
27
How do the Soviet trade unions function?
HE Soviet trade unions have a membership of close to 50
Tmillion workers. They are organised along industrial lines:
all workers in an enterprise or institution belong to the
same union. (Membership is, of course, voluntary.)
Every Soviet citizen working in a factory or institution, or
studying in a higher educational establishment, specialised
secondary school or trade school has the right to join a trade
The union statutes provide that every member is entitled to
union.
vote in elections and is eligible to election to any union body.
He has the right to criticise activities of trade union bodies or
their officials at meetings and in the press, and to address requests
to, or lodge complaints with any leading body, to apply to the
union for protection and support of his rights if the management
violates the collective agreement or laws in force, covering work.
social insurance, cultural or every-day services. ,
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ir
All trade union bodies, from the lowest to the highest, are
elected by the members of the union and are accountable to
them. Trade union funds come from membership dues, which
run from 50 kopeks to one per cent of the wages monthly,
depending on the amount earned.
All the activity of Soviet trade unions is based on broad
democracy and the initiative of the masses on experience gained
and approved by the masses.
The history of the trade union movement in the U.S.S.R. is
a history of drawing ever wider sections of workers into the
country's economic and political activities. The trade unions
regularly concern themselves with raising the workers' living and
cultural standards and educating them in the spirit of
communism.
In every stage of development of the Soviet Union the trade
unions have played an important part in building up the economy
and in drawing workers into managing industry and deciding
urgent economic and political questions.
The role and scope of activity of the trade unions in the
socialist state becomes broader all the time.
In the Soviet Union the functions of the trade unions are not
restricted to defending the economic interests of the working
people. Lenin called the trade unions a school of administration,
of management, a school of communism, and it is on this classical
definition that the Soviet trade unions base their activity.
Among the principal functions of the Soviet trade unions are
the following: participation in drafting long-range plans of
nation-economic development; participation in drafting legisla-
tion pertaining to Industry, labour and culture; supervision to
ensure observance of labour protection laws and industrial
safety rules; participation m planning wages and seeing to it that
they are p-operly calculated; administration of the state social
insurance f art 3s organisation of socialist emulation and con-
clusion of collective acreements with the management (sec answer
No 4.1). and settlement of work disputes (see answer No. 42).
Union comrlittees at factories organise socialist emulation.
help the worke-, to train for higher qualifications, take part in
arranging courst, schools and study circles, pass on the ex-
perience of the fc -most workers, and popularise new and better
production metho _n3 technical innovations.
The unions alsc ?tier for the workers material needs and
cultural interests. maintain many Palaces of Culture, clubs.
libraries and stadiums. They see to it that programmes for hous-
ing, cultural and other services are carried out as scheduled, take
part in the distribution of fiats in houses belonging to industrial
establishments, and provide accommodation at health and holiday
The central trade union body for the entire country is the
resorts.
All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (A.U.C.C.T.U.),
which is elected at the All-Union Congress of Trade Unions.
The central body for each trade union is the central committee,
which is elected at the Congress of the particular union.
Trade councils direct the activity of the trade union organisa-
tions in the localities (the administrative economic areas).
1
What scientific and cultural associations are there 29
in the U.S.S.R.?
IN affording the working people unlimited opportunities to
acquire an education, Soviet power has made science and
culture available to all the people, and that is why the once
backward country, three-quarters of whose population were
illiterate, is now occupying a leading place in world science and
Contributing to this development, among other things, has
culture.
been the activity of various societies in which scientific and
cultural workers are united.
The Constitution of the U.S.S.R. (Article 126) secures to Soviet
citizens the right to unite in public organisations and societies,
and on this basis many associations of scientific and cultural
workers have been organised in the U.S.S.R. The more important
The Writers' Union of ti,e U.S.S.R., founded in 1932, today
are named below:
has a membership of roughly 4,500. It helps to create emulation
among writers, growth of artistic skill, all-round development of
the forms, styles and genres of the multi-national Soviet litera-
ture and gives assistance to budding writers.
The highest leading body of tae union is the U.S.S.R. Writers'
Congress, and the executive body is the Board, elected by the
Congress. Serving under the Board are the following commis-
sions:. on the literatures of the peoples of the U.S.S.R., on literary
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criticism, on work with young writers and on children's literature.
The union has its own newspaper, magazines and a publishing
house, the Soviet Writer Publishing House. The union maintains
the Gorky Literary Institute and the Higher Literary Courses.
It also has an office for the protection of authors' rights and
a Literary Foundation, the function of which is to help improve
the general amenities of writers.
The other associations of people engaged in creative activity
function similarly, each in its own field, and have a similar
structure.
The U.S.S.R. Journalists' Union (recently established) caters
for jou, nalists working on magazines and in publishing houses.
The U.S.S.R. Artists' Union, founded in 1939, has a member-
ship of 7,800.
The U.S.S.R. Architects' Union, founded in 1932, has over
7,400 members.
The U.S.S.R. Composers' Union, also founded in 1932, has a
membership of 1,240.
The recently established Union of Cinema Workers has 1,450
members; it is made up of directors, operators, actors and
actresses.
Each Union Republic has its own writers' union, composers'
union, and so on, and they are affiliated to the appropriate
U.S.S.R. organisations on a federative basis.
The Union Republics also have theatrical societies, to which
the actors, stage directors and other art workers belong. The
largest is the All-Russian Theatrical Society, which has sixty-odd
branches in regional towns and Autonomous Republics of the
R.S.F.S.R.
There are many sezntific societies in the country helping the
development of different branches of science and the putting
into practice of the more important scientific achievements.
Among them are the U.S.S R. Geographical Society, one of
the world's oldest geographical societies, established in 1845;
the U.S.S.R. Mineralogical Society, founded in 1817, and the
U.S.S.R. Astronomical and Geodetic Society.
There are also twenty-four country-wide medical societies, such
as the Society of Anatomists, Histologists and Embryologists, the
Pediatrists' Society, the Society of Neurosurgeons, and so on,
each representing a particular field of medicine.
The twenty-five U.S.S.R engineering and technical societies,
organised along ir Justripl and technological lines, occupy
52
themselves with raising and solving new scientific and technical
problems and maintaining close contact between science and
industry.
These unions and societies have their own publishing houses,
newspapers and magazines.
What peace and international organisations are 30
there in the U.S.S.R?
THERE are many public organisations in the U.S.S.R. set
up for the purpose of developing and strengthening
economic and cultural relations and friendship and co-
operation between the Soviet people and the peoples of other
countries.
The principal organisations are the following:
The U.S.S.R. United Nations Association is working to make
the United Nations a real instrument of peace, an organisation
of international co-operation. It is affiliated to the World Federa-
tion of United Nations Associations.
The Soviet Peace Committee, founded in 1949, heads the peace
movement in the U.S.S.R. and maintains contact with peace
organisations elsewhere in the world. The Soviet Peace Com-
mittee represents the peoples of the U.S.S.R. in the World
Peace Council, taking an active part in the latter's work. It
publishes the Russian edition of the magazine Peace.
The Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural
Relations with Foreign Countries is doing mu :h to acquaint
the Soviet public 'with the life and culture of other peoples
and to acquaint the public abroad with the life and culture of
the Soviet people. The Union has affiliated to it fifty-odd societies
for friendship and cultural relations with foreign countries. The
Union's ties with many people prominent in the field of culture
and with scientific and cultural societies in different countries
help to promote international co-operation, better understanding
and to strengthen world peace.
The Soviet Women's Committee is a public organisation serving
as a medium for contact between Soviet women and women in
other countries.
On the invitation of the Committee women's delegations limn
Greece and Indonesia, Poland and Italy, the Germar Federal
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Republic. Great Britain, Yugoslavia, Burma and many other
countries have visited the Soviet Union. With the active assistance
of the committee delegations of Soviet women have visited
countries abroad.
Being a national section of the Women's International
Dmnoaatic Federation. the Committee takes an active part in the
work of the Federation. The Committee publishes Soviet Woman,
a monthly magazine, which comes out in nine languages.
The Committee of Youth Organisations of the U.S.S.R. helps
to promote friendship and co-operation between the Soviet
youth and the youth of other countries, to extend relations
between Soviet youth organisations and international, regional
and national youth organisations of other countries; it ensures
participation by Soviet youth in international undertakings and
the preparation and bolding of international youth and student
affairs in the U.SS.R. Among other things, the Committee took
a very active part in organising the Sixth World Youth and
Student Festival in Moscow in 1957.
The Committee of Youth Ornications of the U.S.S.R. is a
member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, is
affiliated to the International Union of Students, and maintains
relations with youth organisations in seventy-odd countries.
The Soviet Asia and Africa Solidarity Committee is a public
organisation whose function is to extend in every way friendly
ties between the peoples of the U.S.S.R. and The peoples of
Asia and Afrim. Represented on the Committee are public
organisations of the U.S.S.R.. of the Kazakh, Kir_hi7, Tajik,
Turkmen. Uzbek, Armenian, Georgian and AzerbairIjan Union
Republics.
The' Sonia War Veterans' Organisation plays a big part In
mei:tribe?ling ties with international and national organisations.
winch are combating the danger of another war. The Soviet
Veterans' Organisation is affiliated to the International Federa-
tion of Resistance Movements and takes an active part in the
work of the Federation.
54
DI. NATIONAL ECONOMY
What is the basic ecOnomic law of socialism? 31
THE basic law of socialism is an objective law of social
development. It defines the essence of the socialist mode
of production and all the principal aspects of economic
development under socialism.
The aim of production under socialism is not profit, but to
provide man and his needs. Maximum satisfaction of the con-
stantly rising material and cultural requirements of the whole
of society and of every member of society is the aim of socialist
production; continuous expansion and perfection of socialist
production on the basis of higher techniques is the means for
the achievement of the aim.
Being an objective law, the basic economic law can arise
only on the basis of certain economic conditions. As a result of
the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia the mills,
factories, the land, the banks and transport facilities became
the collective property of the people. Thus, for the first time in
history, the working people had the opportunity of employing
the means of production to satisfy their growing requirements.
The basic economic law' of socialism became operative from
that moment.
The operation of the basic economic law of socialism is
reflected, firstly, in the development of the productive forces of
society, in their flourishing. Between 1913 and 1955, in spite
of the immense damage caused to the national economy by two
world wars, the civil war and foreign intervention in 1918-1922,
per capita industrial output rose 19.4 times over. (By way of
comparison, United States industrial production in the same
period went up 2.3 times, in Britain 1.6 times and in France
1.8 times).
Since 1930 the U.S.S.R. has known no unemployment. By the
close of 1957 the number of workers had reached 52 million,
an increase of nearly 40 million over 1913.
The operation of the basic economic law of socialism is
reflected, secondly, in the steady advance of the material welfare
and cultural standards of the people of the Soviet Union. The
working people in the U.S.S.R. receive about three-quarters of
the national income for the zatisfaction of their personal material
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and cultural requirements, and their income is going up year by
year (see answer No. 34).
In the two post-war five-year plan periods (1946-1956) the
new homes built for the working people in towns and industrial
settlements totalled over 254.5 million square metres of living
floor space* (i.e. 2,636 million square feet), and 5 million houses
were built in rural areas.
In 1957 more than 48 million square metres (i.e. 516 million
square feet) of living floor space were turned over for occupancy
in towns, and in the countryside 770,000 houses were built by
collective farmers and rural intelligentsia.
Every able-bodied person in the Soviet Union is ensured work
and the opportunity of acquiring a higher qualification free of
charge. Children and adults studying in the U.S.S.R. in 1955-
1956 numbered more than 50 million, with the cost of instruction
met by the state.
In 1957, the state spent more than 201,000 million roubles for
social and cultural purposes (health services, education, social
security, physical culture, and so on).
Socialism gives the working people a life of prosperity and
culture. It has emancipated the individual, allowing full play
for individual and collective creative effort. The material and
cultural requirements of the people in the U.S.S.R. are con-
stantly rising, and this, in its turn, is a permanently operating
and powerful factor m the development of production, because
production is being set new tasks and demands all the time.
Socialist production is constantly growing and expanding on
the basis of machines that are being more and more improved
upon.. An essential condition for continuous expansion of
socialist production is the priority development of production of
the means of production.
? Figures for domestic floor space in the U.S.S.R. do not include
kitchens, bathrooms, lavatories, halls and passages.
56
How is the U.S.S.R. national economy
planned?
132
AN essential condition for planning the national economy
is public ownership of the means of production and of the
natural resources. Public ownership provides the state and
its economic and planning bodies the needed material means
for solving economic tasks which make up the basis for the
plan.
National economic planning began in the U.S.S.R. imme-
diately after the victory of the October Revolution, but it was
only at the end of the period of civil war and intervention that
economic planning could be widely developed.
At first, plans were compiled for individual branches of the
economy or areas covering brief periods.
The first long-range plan of development of the U.S.S.R.
economy as a whole was drawn up in 1920; it was the
G.O.E.L.R.O. Plan (State Plan for the Electrification of Russia),
covering ten to fifteen years, envisaging the rehabilitation of the
national economy and the establishment of socialism's indus-
trial base, with wide electrification of industry to servo as the
foundation. That plan was fulfilled ahead of schedule?in ten
years.
Starting with 1928, the U.S.S.R. began to compile five-year
plans of national economic development. Before World War 11
three five-year plans had been worked out of which two were
fulfilled or overfulfilled; fulfilment of the third was interrupted
as a result of fascist Germany's attack on the Soviet Union.
The war years showed the decisive advantages planned econ-
omy had for the mobilisation of the country's forces to deal a
crushing rebuff to the enemy.
The fourth and fifth five-year plans, compiled after the war,
were successfully fulfilled, with the result that the prc-war
economic level was considerably exceeded.
Today the U.S.S.R. is drawing up a seven-year plan to cover
the 1959-1965 period (see answer No. 33).
Besides the long-range plans, annual, quarterly and monthly
plans are compiled, concretising the principal tasks of the long-
range plans and ways of carrying them out in practice.
The concrete forms of planned guidance of the national
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economy depend on the maturity of the socialist economy and
of pl7rining itself. on 'the number and size of enterprises to be
covered by planning. and the scope and nature of the plan's
When industries consisted of a few enterprises and the econ-
omy of individual areas was not mature or comprehensive
enough. the best way of planning the industries was through
the Union Ministries, whose plans were combined by the
U.S.S.R. State Planning Committee into a consolidated national
economic plan.
This system, however, had a number of inconveniences, which
were especially felt when the number of enterprises in the indi-
vidual industries had increased sharply and when a sufficient
number of more comprehensively developed areas had emerged.
Under these conditions the planning centre naturally was shifted
from the Union Ministries to enterprises in the districts and
Union Republics.
Since the reorganisation of the management of industry and
construction (see answer No. 37). the establishment of economic
councils in economic administrative areas, and the great exten-
non of the rights of the Union Republics, the present system
of planning has ensured the best combination of centralised
planning and economic initiative of the local planning bodies
and enterprises.
Compilation of a long-range national economic plan begins
simultaneously in the central planning body and locally.
The State Planning Committee of the U.SS.R. Council of
Ministers (Gosplan), taking the level of development reached
and the principal national economic tasks for the planned period
as a basis, works out the more general targets for the develop-
ment of the main branches of the national economy, the financial
resources and their utilisation and the programme of capital
investment, and determines the national economic requirements
and the resources to meet them.
Simultaneously the enterprises and the economic councils
work out draft plans for their territories; the drafts are sent to
the state planning committees of the Union Republics which
consolidate them and send them on to the Gosplan.
The latter appraises them from the point of view of practicality
and the extent to which the available resources are used, and
58 .
whether the drafts are in line with the tasks of 'the national
economic plan as a whole.
Representatives of the enterprises, of economic councils and
the republics widely participate in this work; they may defend
their projects and at the same time they can get a concrete idea
of the place their plans occupy in the country's consolidated plan.
Local initiative, coupled with central guidance, makes for
practical and efficient planning. Only the countrywide working
out of the plan makes it possible to bring out all development
possibilities and potentials and make maximum use of them.
At the same time it is only centralised planning that ensures
a balanced development of the economy and casting the plan
to solve the -problems that are most important in the particular
period.
The consolidated long-range plan contains the tasks for
developing the branches of industry, agriculture and transport,
and for distributing production over the country.
An important section of the plan is the capital construction
programme, which ensures the carrying out of production tasks
through the required increase in production capacities. Under-
lying the production and construction plans arc targets for higher
labour productivity and lower production costs.
Occupying an important place in the plan are the provisions
for raising the material and cultural standards of the people,
namely?, the targets for increased retail sales, higher incomes,
housing and other construction, education, social security, and
so on. The financing of all measures under the plan is worked
out in the financial plan's indices.
Not all parts of the national economy are planned directly
by the state.
Collective farms draw up their plans of development indepen-
dently. Neither are the personal and auxiliary husbandries of
the working people or prices of goods sold on collective farm
markets planned.
However, the state influences these spheres economically in
the needed direction and the state plan includes provision for
such influence: the amount of purchases of farm produce and
the prices paid for them, lowering prices for the state trading
system to influence the price movement on collective farm
markets, and so on.
A limited range of basic planned tasks for economic councils
59
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and republics are approved by way of centralised planning .11
carrying but these tasks, those implementing the plan have the
opportunity of manoeuvering with the resources and attain (lit
objectives set most economically and rapidly.
Local bodies enjoy the greatest independence in compilini
annual and quarterly plans, as the basic ratios of development
are already determined by the long-range plan.
The principal task of the central planning body now is then.
fore scientific long-range planning of national economic develop.
ment; and operative planning and check-up of plan fulfilment
have become in the main the function of the local economic
and planning bodies.
33
I What are the tasks of the long-range Seven-Year
1'1an-1959-196S?
the U.S.S.R.
ment of long-range planning of the socialist economy of
THE Seven-Year Plan of national economic development
covering the years 1959-1965 is a new stage in the develop.
The period to be covered by the plan?seven years?has been
picked so that the considerable programme of industrial con-
struction outlined for the immediate period ahead could be
completed in the main, that most of the enterprises under con-
struction might be put into operation and yield a substantial
increase in the chief items of industrial production.
_
The combination in a single plan period of large capital
,nvestmcnts and the economic results therefrom (in the form of
Wroducts from the new enterprises) has great advantages.
Besides pros iding for the completion of most of the con-
struction work.. ?he 1959-1965 plan envisages at the same time
the neccssar. c,,)-otei construction to ensure an even rise in
output in the r. ,., 1?, to follow.
The Seven-) a., is a continuation of the earlier Fl%e-
Year Plans and , :1 - ..me time a part of the general long-
range programme country's economic developme it
designed to reach a pr !,.i.i-i output level for the main items
of production, surpassirs ,, United States.
The Seven-Year Plan iN I') Solve a number of major problem
re?
faced in the development of principal industries, the elimination
of shortages of a number of industrial products, and better
geographical distribution of industry in the country.
The plan envisages important tasks for the development of
the iron and steel industry, the power industry, the fuel industry
(especially oil and gas) and the building materials industry.
A major task of the Seven-Year Plan will be the development
of the chemical industry, which today does not meet all the
requirements of the national economy. By 1965 output of the
more important branches of the chemical industry is to double
or triple, and output of synthetic fibres and plastics is to go up
4.5 to eight-fold.
Along with the further development of heavy industry a
more rapid expansion is outlined for light industry. For instance,
the output of woollens and silks is to be almost doubled and the
production of footwear is to go up 60 per cent.
In addition to the manufacturing and construction programme,
the 1959-1965 Plan sets large tasks for the development of
agriculture, transport facilities, a considerable programme of
housing construction and a number of important undertakings
for the greater well-being and higher cultural standards of the
Soviet people.
Actively participating in compiling the Seven-Year Plan arc
enterprises, the economic councils of economic administrative
areas and the planning organs of the Union Republics.
On the basis of their draft plans, made more precise and
revised so as to have them correspond to the basic tasks of the
national economic plan, Gosplan is working out a consolidated
long-range plan of development of the national economy, which,
following approval by the Supreme Soviet, will become a state
law.
How is the national income distributed?
I 34
IN the Soviet Union the national income belongs to the
working people.
One part (about a quarter) goes for the further expansion
of socialist production and for other public needs, and the re-
mainder (approximately three-quarters) is used for the satisfac-
tion of the working people's material and cultural requirements.
Mat makes up the three-quarters of the national income
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which goes to satisfy the personal needs of the people?
This figure includes wages and salaries and the income received
by collective farmers. It includes the money spent by the Govern-
ment on pensions and other forms of social maintenance, social
insurance, on free education and medical services and on other
cultural services and amenities.
Thus, in 1950, cash payments and various benefits received
by the population from the state amounted to 122,000 million
roubles, or almost three times the 1940 figure.
In 1955 they amounted to 154,000 million roubles, or 3.6 times
as much as in 1940 and in 1957 to 201,000 million roubles, the
sharp rise being due to the large increase in pensions under
the new law.
The expansion of socialist production (building new enter-
prises, equipping enterprises with new machinery, etc.) is in the
interests of the working people themselves, since increasing
output means a higher material and cultural standard for them
all.
The advantages of the socialist system of economy (develop-
ment according to plan, no economic crises, unemployment or
impoverishment of the people) make for an unprecedented rate
of increase in the national income. In 1957 the national income
was up more than twenty-fold compared with 1913 and in 1960
it will be twenty-seven times as high as before the Revolution,
with the income of the population growing in the same pro-
portion.
_3.35
How has the U.S.S.R. become an advanced
industrial power?
HEN the Socialist Revolution took place in Russia
the country was backward and in a state of ruin.
Yet Marxist-Leninist teaching says that socialism can
be build only on the basis of a developed large-scale machine
industry, which provides the foundation for equipping the
national economy with advanced technique. ?
Only if this was done could the young socialist system show
its superiority over capitalism: a higher productivity of labour,
a rapid rate of industrial expansion and the possibility of a
steady rise in the well-being of all members of society.
62
The U.S.S.R. thus had the choice of either giving up the
building of socialism or doing away with Russia's age-old
backwardness in the shortest possible time, rapidly developing
heavy industry and, on that basis, all of the national economy.
Overcoming the greatest difficulties, the Soviet people have
successfully solved the problem of industrialising the country,
the problem of building up the material and technical found-
ation for socialism.
In forty years the U.S.S.R. became a great industrial power
with an all-round developed and economically independent
national economy, and with a progressive science capable of
solving the most diffkult scientific and engineering problems.
The country's economic advance has been brought about by
socialist industrialisation, which has provided the best solution
of this problem in an unprecedentedly brief time.
When industrialisation of the U.S.S.R. began, its industrial
level was extremely low and it did not have enough means,
qualified personnel or experience in socialist construction, and.
moreover, it had to combat the resistance of the enemies of
socialism within the country and without.
What has made possible the decisive progress was the super-
iority of the socialist economic system, and above all, the fact
that industrialisation was carried out in the interests of the
people, who therefore threw themselves heart and soul into the
Job.
With ownership of the basic means of production passing
over to the state it became possible, in a centralised way, to
manage the material resources available and to start industnal-
isation first with developing heavy industry, that is. the iron
and steel, engineering, fuel, and ore-mining industries.
An acute problem faced in industrialisation, especially at
first, was the shortage of finance, the problem of capital invest-
ments. The problem was solved by exercising strict cconomy
and by the centralised use of accumulation to develop heavy
industry.
Investments in heavy industry came largely from the accumu-
lation of light industries, agriculture, trade, and so on. Soyiet
heavy industry was developed without outside assistance, en-
tirely by means of domestic resources.
Today Soviet heavy industry is developing mainly by using
its own accumulation, which makes it possible to allocate con
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siderably more resources to develop agriculture, the light and
food industries and housing construction. Capital investments
in 1957 alone equalled the total for both the First and Second
Five-Year Plans.
A serious obstacle to the development of industry during the
early Five-Year Plans was the shortage of technical persoGnel
and skilled workers and the inadequate development of science.
A country-wide cultural revolution was required to solve these
problems. Today the U.S.S.R. has the largest number of qualified
engineering and technical personnel.
A special feature of socialist development is that obstacles
have been tackled consciously; it has been a country-wide con-
structive process with all the people united in the struggle for
objectives that are important for all the people.
There is no ?record in history of a single case of capitalism
being able to utilise such factors to solve its economic problems.
Adhering as they did to the principles of private initiative and
? unplanned development it took the United States, Germany and
Britain from 80 to 150 years to increase industrial output thirty
times. The U.S.S.R. accomplished this in less than forty years,
of which but little over half were years of peaceful development.
The U.S.S.R. built up a strong and technically advanced heavy
industry under the first two Five-Year Plans. A number of
industries (the automobile, machine-tool and instrument-making
industries and most branches of the chemical industry) had to
be developed from scratch.
By 1937 more than 80 per cent of the country's industrial
output had come from plants built or completely reconstructed
under the Five-Year Plans, and when the Second World War
broke out the Soviet Union had become a power of great
economic potential, capable of smashing the Hitler war machine
both economically and militarily.
Under the post-war Five-Year Plans the country's industrial
power kept increasing and the industrial structure and technical
equipment of the national economy were further improved.
While during the First Five-Year Plan period coal output
increased on the average by 7,200,000 tons a year, and in the
Second Five-Year Plan period by 12,700,000 tons, the annual
increase in the Fourth Five-Year Plan period was 22,400,000
tons, and in the Fifth 26,000,000 tons; in 1957 the increase was
33,000,000 tons.
64
The annual increase in the production of cement went up
from 407,000 tons in the First Five-Year Plan period to 4,000,000
tons in 1957, and in oil production from 2,400,000 tons to
14,200,000.
Industrial output in 1957 exceeded the 1913 output 33 times
over, with output of the means of production up 74 times, of
electric power 110 times; coal output went up 16-fold and steel
I2-fold, and output of the engineering and metal working
industries increased more than 200 times.
In 1913 Russia accounted for 2.5 per cent of the world's
industrial production, while today industrial output of the
U.S.S.R. is approximately 20 per cent of world production.
For output volume the U.S.S.R. has moved up to second on
the list, being behind only the United States.
The high level of industrialisation reached by the U.S.S.R.
provides a solid foundation for the socialist system, and is a
reliable guarantee of the country's defensive capacity and a
material base for further economic progress and greater well-
being for the Soviet people.
How has the national economy of the non-Russian
Union Republics developed?
36
FROM the earliest years of Soviet power the Soviet State
and people have given special attention to the development
of the non-Russian Union Republics of tho U.S.S.R.
This was required for eliminating in the shortest possible
time the backwardness those republics received as a legacy from
the past to enable their people to catch up with the Central
part of Russia economically and culturally. What had to be done
to solve the national question (see answer No. 6) in such a
multi-national state as the Soviet Union was precisely to do
away with the economic and cultural inequality of the peoples.
This task has been successfully carried out. Today each
Union Republic has its own up-to-date and diversified industry,
large-scale mechanised agriculture and a developed culture.
Let us cite a few examples.
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic is second among the
Soviet Republics for territory (over 1,100,000 square miles) and
third for population.
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Before the Revolution Kazakhstan was a region of stock-
breeding nomads, scarce mining enterprises run by foreign con-
cessionaires and a few small primitive factories?a region with a
poverty-ridden and illiterate population.
In those days it accounted for less than half of one per cent
of the country's industrial output.
In Soviet times, rich deposits of various minerals have been
found in the Republic, and some 3,000 industrial enterprises have
been built.
Today Kazakhstan produces ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
coal, oil, chemicals, machinery, industrial equipment, footwear,
fabrics, meat products, tinned goods and other commodities.
The Republic's largest coalfields, the Karaganda Basin, is the
third largest supplier of coal in the U.S.S.R. In 1957 the Kara-
ganda coal miners produced more coal than all of tsarist Russia
did in 1913.
Kazakhstan comes third for industrial output in the country
Kazakhstan's industrial development is continuing. Among the
many enterprises under construction at the present time are the
huge Karaganda steel mills and the Sokolovsk-Sarbai concentra-
tion mills.
The Republic's agriculture is also progressing steadily.
While it remans an important animal husbandry centre, as a
result of the subjugation in recent years of more than 50 million
acres of virgin land in the Republic, Kazakhstan has become the
country's second-ranking cereal supplier, next to the R.SF.S.R
In 1956 it accounted for 30 per cent of the grain delivered to
the state granaries.
In Uzbekistan, too, a diversified industry has been developed
since the establishment of Soviet power. This Republic has been
and remains the country's chief cotton producer, today producing
51 times as much as it did before the Revolution.
Cotton-growing, the leading branch of Uzbekistan's agriculture,
has had a considerable effect on the development of the
Republic's industry, too.
The output of technical equipment used for raising and pro-
cessing cotton occupies a leading place in its engineering industry
Uzbekistan today is the main producer of machinery for cul-
tivating and harvesting cotton, and at the same time it turns
out roughly three-quarters of all spinning machines made in the
Soviet Union.
It is also an important centre of the textile industry, and
66
coal, oil, iron and steel and chemical industries have been
developed following the discovery of mineral deposits, all
prospected since -the Revolution.
Electric power has been considerably developed in the Re-
public, which today produces almost 1,300 times more electricity
than in 1913.
Kirghizia, Tajikistan, Turkmenia, the Trans-Caucasian and
Baltic Republics, and other Union Republics possess today a
highly developed industry and up-to-date mechanised agriculture.
Compared with 1913, gross output of large-scale industry in
1957 was up as follows: in the Kazakh Republic 97-fold, in
the Kirghiz Republic 717 times and in the Taiik Republic 1,049
times.
Industry in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which joincil the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1940, has also reached
a high level of development. To illustrate, Lithuania has become
richer by many new industries, among them the machine-tool and
turbine manufacturing industries; the Republic's total volume
of industrial output has increased seven-fold.
The industrialisation of the Union Republics and their rapid
economic expansion have resulted in a steep rise in employment
and in the material and cultural standards of the working people.
In each Republic the working class and native intelligentsia
have grown in numbers.
On the eve of the Revolution Turkmenia, for example, had
altogether 300 Turkmen factory and office workers, while in
1957 it had more than 85,000. Forty years ago Turkmen were
engaged in primitive crop growing and livestock breeding; today
they produce oil and coal, work in the chemical industry, at
electric stations, and light and food industry plants.
Economic development in the non-Russian Union Republics
is proceeding at a steadily rising rate. The long-range plans,
based on accurate calculations and practical possibilities, envisage
a further advance in all branches of the national economy, a
growth of the productive forces in each Republic and in the
Soviet Union as a whole.
C2
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37
Why has the management of industry and con-
struction been reorganised and how?
IN the middle of 1957, the management of plants and con-
struction jobs was reorganised all over the country by decision
of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.
The reorganisation plan, which was put forward on the
initiative of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U., was submitted
to a country-wide discussion. Millions of people discussed the
draft law at hundreds of thousands of meetings and in tens of
thousands of letters which they addressed to editorial offices of
newspapers.
In the discussions and letters they presented concrete sugges-
tions for improving the draft.
What is the purport of the reorganisation and what are its
advantages as compared with the old system of management?
In the past the basic organisational form of management of
industry and construction was the Ministries or independent
offices for the individual branches of the economy.
That structure served well in the period when the Soviet people
launched the country's industrialisation. The principle of manage-
ment by industry made it possible to concentrate the effort on
the key branches of heavy industry and to train the necessary
engineering and technical personnel and industrial executives.
However, as Soviet economy expanded and more and more
branches of industry and construction jobs appeared, it became
necessary to set up new Ministries and departments, and that
led to the management staffs swelling all the time and growing
more complicated.
Many departmental barriers appeared between branches of
industry and between enterprises, and under those conditions,
with the vast scale of production (there were more than 200,000
industrial enterprises and more than 100,000 construction works),
concrete and operative direclion from one centre became difficult.
A situation had been created when the principle of direction
by a branch of industry began to check the growth of the
country's productive forces and hamper the work of industry
It became necessary to work out more flexible methods of
managing industry and construction, to shift the centre of
economic management to the localities, to bring management
closer to the factories and construction jobs.
68
It was therefore decided to switch over to the principle of
territorial management; 104 economic administrative areas were
established, each with its Economic Council, which is directly
subordinate to the Council of Ministers of the Union Republic.
All enterprises and construction works of Union-Republic
importance in the particular economic area arc directed by the
Economic Council, and those of local importance by the local
Soviets.
The reorganisation has resulted in the elimination of 141 All.
Union and Republican Ministries; their enterprises have been
placed under the authority of the Economic Councils or local
Soviets.
The industrial enterprises turned over to the Economic
Councils account for roughly three-quarters of the country's total
industrial output.
What has been the practical result of the reorganisation?
With centralised direction retained by the state, the reorganisa-
tion has made it possible considerably to enlarge the rights
and responsibility of the Republican and local organs in
economic development and to release local initiative, and it has
made for broader and more active participation by the people
in the management of industry.
The territorial principle has made it possible to remove depart-
mental barriers and to make more efficient use of the vast
potentials and possibilities offered by planned socialist economy.
Direction of enterprises has become more energetic and opera-
tive. All enterprises in the area now have one director?the
Economic Council or local Soviet, instead of the many Ministries
as in the recent past. This has made it possible to take quick
decisions on urgent questions of production right on the spot.
The reorganisation has created favourable possibilities for the
overall development of the economic areas and more deliberate
and effective co-operation and specialisation of plants. And this
has made for a considerable increase in the volume of output,
together with better quality and lower production costs.
The technical councils set up under the Economic Councils
have opened up wider possibilities for drawing the working
people into the management of industry and construction.
The technical councils, made up of representatives of research
organisations, worker-inventors, executives, trade union and
Party officials, take up problems of the general industrial develop-
ment of a particular area, greater labour productivity, higher
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technical level of plants, better organisation of production, and
so on.
Proposals and recommendations submitted by the technical
councils make it possible to solve the complex problems of the
development of industry and construction most efficiently.
Testifying to the substantial results already produced by the
reorganisation of economic management is Soviet industry's
record for 1957 and the first half of 1958.
The 1957 plan for gross industrial output was overfulfilled
by all Economic Councils, and overfulfilment continued in 1958.
In 1957 Soviet industry produced goods exceeding the state plan
by 100,000 million roubles.
The country's industry has begun to work considerably better,
increasing output from month to month. The reorganisation has
thus ensured a fresh advance of socialist industry, greater material
resources for the country and a higher national income and,
consequently, a further rise in the material welfare of the people.
381
Who manages Soviet industrial enterprises?
THERE arc two kinds of industrial enterprises in the
U.S.S.R.?state enterprises, belonging to the whole people,
and co-operative enterprises, belonging to the workers of
the particular enterprise, the members of the particular pro-
ducers' co-operative.
State industrial enterprises?the bulk of the country's enter-
prises?are managed by a director appointed by an appropriate
Ministry, by the Economic Council of the particular area; or
local Soviet.
Co-operative industrial enterprises are managed by a board
of management and its chairman, who are elected by the members
at a general meeting.
The director of a state industrial dnterprise has charge of
the material and financial resources and personnel of the enter-
prise, and bears full responsibility to the state for the enterprisp's
work, for fulfilment of state plans on schedule and targets for
quantity and variety, and for the cost of production. He is also
answerable for the strict observance of labour laws.
The directors of Soviet enterprises are, as a rule, former
workers or peasants, or the children of workers and peasants;
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they possess vast experience, and most of them have completed
a course in economics or engineering in a college or specialised
secondary school.
Thus, the director of a Soviet enterprise and the people work-
ing under him, are representatives of the same class; they arc all
working people and their interests fully coincide.
Defining the relations between the management of a state
industrial enterprise and the workers employed in it is the collec-
tive agreement, concluded annually between the management
and the trade union organisation (see answer No. 41). The
collective agreement covers all aspects of the enterprise's work,
including production and payment of factory workers, engineers
and office workers, rate-fixing and working conditions, and
cultural and everyday services.
The socialist system ensures broad and active participation
by the workers of every enterprise in the management of
production.
They do this through the trade unions, which in a socialist
society are a school in which millions learn to manage the
economy, and through the standing production conferences,
where every worker may submit proposals for further improving
techniques and production technology, may criticise the activity
of any executive, from foreman to director.
The administration of every Soviet industrial enterprise has
to report to the production conferences, or their committees, how
the proposals submitted by workers and specialists have been
carried out.
The enterprise's communist and trade union organisations in
their daily work help the management, at the same time exercising
public supervision over the activity of the administration. They
regularly hear and discuss reports and communications by
directors, deputy directors and shop superintendents, and make
proposals and recomendations for improving the work of the
enterprise.
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39
1 HOW do Soviet workers take part in the manage-
ment of enterprises?
ANUMBER of measures have been taken in recent years
to further develop Soviet democracy and improve the
organisation of industrial management (see answer No 37)
One feature is the greater role given the trade unions (see
answer No. 28).
There are many ways in which members of Soviet trade unions.
workers in industry, transport, construction, and on state farms,
machine and tractor stations and repair and technical service
stations, participate in the management of production.
The most common ways are participation in making up their
enterprise's annual and long-range plans; participation in the
factory scientific and technical councils, the function of which
is to work out measures for technical progress and for economis-
ing raw and auxiliary materials, and to give practical assistance
to innovators in their work; also participation in production
conferences, which make it possible to combine the principles
of one-man management with control from below.
In the summer of 1958 the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme
Soviet approved a special statute covering the rights of factory
trade union committees; the statute underscores that the com-
mittee represents the workers on all questions of work, living
conditions and culture and is vested with legal rights for this
purpose.
It takes part in drafting production and capital construction
plans, and proposals for housing repairs and cultural and service
establishments.
The factory committee hears reports by the manager on the
fulfilment of the production plan, of undertakings under the
collective agreement, of measures for improving working and
living conditions.
It also takes part in settling questions relating to rate-fixing
and payment for work, in seeing to the observance by the
administration of labour laws, rules and standards, of safety
measures and industrial hygiene.
The Statute prohibits dismissal of factory or office workers
without the consent of the trade union committee.
Recently the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. and the All-
72
Union Central Council of Trade Unions have jointly approved
a statute providing for setting up standing production conferences,
which are one of the principal forms of .drawing workers into
managing industry.
The conferences settle the most complex and varied production
problems, and inculcate in every participant a sense of personal
responsibility for the implementation of the state plan and the
technical progress of their enterprise.
Production conferences are made up of production and office
workers, representatives of the trade union factory and shop
committees, of the administration, of the Party and Komsomol
organisations, of the primary organisation of the scientific
technical society and of the inventors' and innovators' society.
The production conference directs all of its activity to ensuring
successful work by the enterprise and to spreading the experience
of innovators and outstanding workers in production, and so on.
The production conference examines problems of the organisa-
tion of production, work, pay and rate-fixing.
It discusses plans for organisational and technical measures for
the introduction of new techniques, and the mechanisation of
production; it also considers plans for industrial and housing
construction and the building of cultural and service establish-
ments.
Coming within its scope of activity are questions of improving
working conditions, industrial safety, training of personnel and
the proper employment of workers.
The production conference works under the direction of the
trade union committee and is a broadly representative body. It
discusses all questions collectively and decisions are taken by a
majority vote.
The enterprise's administration sees to the implementation of
the decisions and proposals adopted at the conference, and at
the following meeting reports on how they have been carried out.
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40 I
What are the working conditions at Soriet
enterprises?
WORKING hours at Soviet enterprises, holidays and
leaves arc fixed by labour legislation, which is based
on the principles underlying the Constitution of the
U.S.S.R.
Until 1956 eight hours constituted the maximum working
day and for trades involving hard working conditions the
working day was seven, six or even four hours. In 1956 the
working day was cut by two hours on Saturdays and days before
holidays. And beginning with 1957 the country is gradually going
over to a seven-hour working day, and for workers of the
leading trades of some branches of industry to a six-hour
working day, without a reduction in wages.
Overtime is prohibited, and is permitted only in exceptional
cases (combating natural calamities, putting things in order
following accidents, and so on).
All workers receive annual paid holidays ranging from two
week to two months, depending on the conditions of work and
the nature of the industry.
Besides these general rules which apply to all working people.
there is Soviet legislation specifically covering the working con-
ditions of juveniles and women. Soviet laws prohibit child
labour. Juveniles between the ages of sixteen and eighteen may
not be employed at jobs requiring physical strain or on night
shifts. In 1956 the working day for juveniles was cut to six
hours, leaving their wages the same as before. The employment
of women on work requiring physical strain, or which is harm-
ful to women, is also prohibited. Pregnant women are transferred
to lighter jobs for which they are paid their regular average
pay, and in addition to their normal paid holiday they receive
maternity leave of 112 days, or more if the confinement does
not proceed normally. In addition to their regular lunch time,
nursing mothers are allowed time off?half an hour every three-
and-a-half hours?to feed the baby. These leaves are paid for
by the place of employment.
The extensive mechanisation of production processes and
automation which the Soviet State has been carrying out has had
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a decisive effect on improving conditions of work and health
in industry.
Today, the arduous and labour-consuming operations in
coal, iron and steel, oil, transport, building and other industries
are completely mechanised.
The Soviet Union also has automatic transfer machines, auto-
matic shops, and automatic plants, where everything is done by
machines with people merely watching the operations.
Provision has been made for overall mechanisation and auto-
matisation of the main and auxiliary operations in all branches
of industry, and the further mechanisation of agricultural pro-
duction.
The U.S.S.R. has a well-organised system of labour protection.
safety technique and industrial hygiene in mills, mines and trans-
port. Working clothes and footwear are issued free.
Workers engaged in hazardous occupations (chemical plants.
non-ferrous metal works, printing works, and so on) receive
special foods (milk, butter, sour cream, etc.) at their place of
work, the cost being met by the state.
The Soviet State spends immense sums of money on labour
protection and safety measures. During the Fifth Five-Year
Plan period, from 1951 to 1955, the amount came to about
10,000 million roubles, or more than eight times as much as was
spent during the first two Five-Year Plan periods (1928-1937).
Huge sums have been allocated to increase the mechanisation
of arduous processes and improve working conditions.
State control of observance of the regulations and standards
covering labour protection, safety technique and industrial
hygiene has been entrusted to the trade unions. Several million
workers are members of the trade union labour protection com-
missions and social insurance councils. They keep a check on
the proper expenditure of the money allotted by the state for
these purposes and on the enforcement of the measures cover-
ing labour protection and safety technique stipulated in the col-
lective agreement (see answer No. 41).
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411
How are collective agreements concluded?
COLLECTIVE agreements are negotiated each year by and
between the management and trade union committees of
Soviet enterprises, the latter acting on behalf of the
workers, engineers, technicians and office employees.
The agreements stipulate each side's undertakings with respect
to fulfilment and overfulfilment of state plans and the establish-
ment of working and living conditions that best help to raise
production and improve output quality, and to ensure higher
material and cultural standards for the workers. The agreements
specify exactly what and when the management and trade union
committee are to do towards improving production technology,
introducing new machinery, increasing workers' skill, improving
labour protection and safety technique, building houses for the
workers, organising healthy recreation, adding to the facilities of
children's institutions and service establishments, and so on.
The workers take an active part in drafting collective agree-
ments; at the thousands of shop, shift and general meetings and
conferences they submit proposals and discuss individual items
and the draft as a whole.
After the collective agreement has been signed it is put out
in booklet form?or as a poster?and is widely distributed
among the workers of the particular enterprise. Every three
months the factory director and the chairman of the trade union
committee report to the workers at the general factory meeting
on how the agreement is being carried out. At the end of the
year the trade union committees enlist large numbers of workers
to check up on how the provisions have been carried out and
to collect proposals for the draft agreement for the following
?t.ar
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Do disputes between workers and management
occur in the U.S.S.R.?
142
IN socialist society there are no class conflicts, nor can there
be, between workers and managements, as there arc between
employers and workers under the capitalist system, since there
are no exploiters and exploited in a socialist country.
Nevertheless, labour disputes may arise in Soviet enterprises
between individual workers and the managemeq involving the
wage rate, the conditions or organisation of work, and so on.
Under the statute covering disputes, approved by the Presi-
dium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet early in 1957, labour dis-
putes arc examined by labour disputes commissions, which are
set up at enterprises, offices and institutions and are composed
of an equal number of representatives of the trade union com-
mittee and the management.
Any worker or other employee with a grievance, whether it
concerns the wage rate paid him, transfer to another job, or
dismissal, or any similar matter, files his complaint with the
commission, which must examine the complaint and hand down
a decision within five days.
If the commission fails to reach agreement, or the worker is
not satisfied with the decision, he may apply within ten days
to the factory (or office) trade union committee, which has the
power to reverse the commission's decision. The trade union
committee must examine the worker's complaint within seven or
eight days. If the worker does not agree with the decision of the
trade union committee he may start a suit in the People's Court.
The management also has the right to appeal against the de-
cision of the committee, but only where it believes that the de-
cision is contrary to the law.
Should the management fail to carry out a decision in a
labour dispute, the trade union committee issues the worker
with a certificate which has the force of a writ of execution.
The certificate is turned over to a bailiff, who enforces execution
of the decision.
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What systems of payment exist at Soviet
enterprises?
THE following systems of payment for work operate in
the U.S.S.R.; piece rate, progressive piece rate, time-work
and time-work plus bonus.
The principal system in operation in Soviet industry is the
straight piece-rate system, which best conforms to the socialist
principle of payment for work in accordance with its quantity
and quality.
Piece rates are based on the established technical standards of
expenditure of labour in the production process (time per unit
of product), a record of which is kept on a strictly scientific
basis. The standards are usually fixed for one year, during which
time they are not changed. Revisions are made in connection
with the introduction of new machinery, improvements in tech-
nological processes and the mastering by the bulk of the workers
of advanced methods of work. .
New standards are set up with the active participation of the
workers.
The Soviet worker's higher output comes not from physical
over-exertion but from better organisation of work and further
mechanisation, which lightens his labour. That is why revision
of technical standards does not, and cannot, result in lower
earnings.
There are rates and wage scales for each branch of industry,
drawn up with the participation of the trade unions and approved
by the Government. The rates and scales vary for the different
categories, according to the skill and effort required to perform
a given operation, and the complexity and character of the work.
Skilled or difficult work is rated higher than unskilled or less
difficult work.
The piece rate per unit of product is fixed on the basis of
these scales and standards. The rates for piece workers are 10-15
per cent higher than for time workers. The worker is paid for
every piece produced by him that passes inspection The piece
worker's earnings are not limited.
Soviet industry sometimes makes use also of the progressive
piece-rate system, which is a combination of the piece-rate and
bonus systems. Under this system, workers exceeding quotas
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are paid at progressively rising rates for the portion turned out
over and above the standard quota.
The higher the per cent of overfulfilment the higher the rate.
The progressive piece-rate system is usually applied to particularly
important production sectors of industry and also where it is
especially necessary to stimulate initiative and invention.
Under the time-work system, workers arc paid according to
the wage and salary scale established for each industry and for
each trade. The time-work system is used only where piece
work is impossible or impracticable. In many cases, the time-
work. plus bonus system is used as an incentive to overfulfilling
production plans, improving quality of output, and economising
materials.
In such cases a bonus is given ranging from 10 to 15 per cent
of the monthly scale or salary.
Directors of enterprises, engineers, technicians and office
workers receive fixed monthly salaries, the amount depending
on the conditions and volume of work, the importance of the
enterprise, the complexity of the technology, the qualifications
and length of service of the particular individual.
Engineers, technicians and office employees of industrial enter-
prises receive bonuses for fulfilment or overfulfilment of the
production plan by the enterprise.
Workers in industry also receive cash bonuses for good work
The bonuses are paid from what is known as the enterprise fund.
Many enterprises also have a fund which they get for
achievements in country-wide socialist emulation (see answer
No. 45). Approximately two-thirds of the money is distributed
as bonuses to individual workers, office employees, engineers
and technicians, and the rest goes to improve cultural and
other services for the workers.
The systems of remuneration apply to all workers alike,
irrespective of sex, age or race. The principle applied in the
U.S.S.R. is "equal pay for equal work", and any violation of
this principle is punishable.
The central committees of trade unions and the factory trade
union committee have the right to check all wage calculations
and payments.
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Who receives service bonuses?
THE Soviet State provides every possible . incentive for
long and conscientious service. One such incentive is the
service bonus, paid annually or monthly.
The amount of the bonus varies in the different fields.
In the coal-mining industry, for example, such bonuses are
paid to all personnel, including those working underground and
nose at enterprises serving the mines.
Miners who have worked in a mine for two years get a
bonus of 10 per cent of their annual wage. Those who have
worked for five years get a 20 per cent bonus, and miners with
a service record of fifteen and more years get 30 per cent. This
bonus is paid in December each year.
Service bonuses are also paid to iron and steel, chemical, gas
and oil workers, geologists, airmdn, timbermen, engine and train
crews, and many other categories of workers.
The salaries of college instructors, doctors and schoolteachers
and of certain other classes of workers also depend on the
length of their service. To illustrate, scientific workers receive
increases in their monthly salaries starting with the sixth year
of work. The amount of the increase varies in different fields of
work.
45 I
What is socialist emulation?
SOCIALIST emulation in the U.S.S.R. is a manifestation of
a new attitude towards work which arose with the consolida-
tion of the socialist system; it is a mass patriotic movernent
of the Soviet people in which tens of millions of working
people in town and country are taking part.
It came from below, on the initiative of the working people
themselves, and its object is higher labour productivity, more
iocial wealth, to make society as rich as possible so as to secure
the fullest possible satisfaction of the material and cultural
requirements of the members of socialist society.
When Soviet power became firmly established in Russia,
the workers and peasants became the masters of production.
The fruits of their labour no longer belong to individuals or
80
groups but to society as a whole, to the state, and society
distributes them among all working people in accordance with
the quantity and quality of their work.
Society has made its main goal a steadily higher standard of
living for the people, with more and more material wealth being
allocated for the personal consumption of the working people.
Consequently, in the Soviet Union, work for society, for the
people, is at the same time work for oneself, and conversely.
work for oneself is at the same time work for society.
A new feeling has appeared among Soviet people, the feeling
of being collective owners of industry, and it has made for a
new attitude towards work.
In the U.S.S.R., work is regarded as an important duty to the
people and the state, a public duty, and Soviet people therefore
try to put into their work their creative energy, to do more and
better. This is the source of the spirit of emulation, of the
striving for highe- labour productivity which has swept the
country.
Socialist emulation has nothing in common with competition;
it is based on entirely different principles.
Competition is a fierce struggle bringing defeat, want and
death to some, and victory, dominion and prosperity to others.
The principle of socialist emulation may be expressed as
follows: "Some work well, others better, and still others lag
behind, so let us catch up with the best and help those lagging
and we will have a general advance."
This principle conforms to the nature of socialist society, in
which the relations between people are relations of comradely
co-operation, and mutual assistance of workers free from ex-
ploitation.
Those taking part in emulation who have achieved high
production results are called foremost workers, production in-
novators.
These are men and women workers, office employees, engineers
and technicians, field-crop cultivators, vegetable growers and
animal husbandry people, tractor drivers and combine operators,
people who are technically competent and cultured and have
mastered technique well.
Knowing their machines perfectly they revise designed
capacities and old technical standards, improve technology, and
develop new and more progressive working methods, all of
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which has an important effect on economic development and
helps to fulfil and overfulfil state plans.
The introduction and wide application of the experience of
production innovators is accomplished in various ways.
Widespread use is being made, for instance, of what are
known as schools for progressive working methods. In these
schools innovators show at the bench how one should work
more productively and how to obtain the best results. In-
novators also tell of their work at factory production conferences
and at Ministries, at meetings of Economic Councils and at
conferences in research institutes.
Posters and booklets are published on innovators' work, with
many foremost workers themselves writing books about their
experience. Enterprises send groups of their workers to similar
plants, to study the advanced experience in the other places,
the employing enterprises paying the costs.
Socialist emulation in the U.S.S.R. is of diverse forms. One
is emulation by individual workers for higher labour produc-
tivity, better quality and lower production costs, for maximum
economy of material resources and the most efficient operation of
machines.
Collective farmers and state farm workers emulate one another
for high yields of cereal and industrial crops, for improved
animal husbandry, for greater productivity of agriculture.
The emulation of individual workers leads to the signing of
emulation pacts between whole groups: team with team, shop
with shop, factory with factory, collective farm with collective
farm and state farm with state farm.
Do material incentives play a part in this emulation?
Of course. In their effort for higher labour productivity, a
voluntary task, assumed on their own initiative, Soviet people
do not merely feel moral satisfaction; they also improve their
material position. Higher output means higher earnings.
At the same time steadily rising labour productivity and de-
clining production costs enable the Soviet Government to cut
retail prices, raise pay, spend more money for social and
cultural needs and amenities, build more houses from year to
year, and produce more goods to meet the growing demand (see
answer No. 83).
Soviet society encourages labour by the Soviet people in every
way. People who have distinguished themselves in their work
larc surrounded with honour and attention. The press writes
82
about foremost production workers and front-ranking enterprises,
they are publicised by the cinema and radio and appear on tele-
vision.
The names of those who have distinguished themselves most
are placed on Honour Boards and they get Certificates of
Honour, money prizes or valuable gifts. Outstanding services
bring people orders or medals, and the best of the best have
the title of Hero of Socialist Labour conferred upon them (see
answer No. 92).
In the U.S.S.R. it is not social origin or the amount of money
one has that brings one distinction, but work for the good of the
people.
How is invention encouraged? What are the
rights of inventors?
46
THE vast scale of invention by workers in the U.S.S.R.
graphically reflects the Soviet working people's desire to
see industry developed as rapidly as possible.
In 1957 the number of innovators who put forward suggestions
for improving production processes and inventors who sub-
mitted inventions exceeded 1 million. In the rubber works of
Moscow, for example, one out of three workers is an innovator
and in the Ural machinery works, one out of four.
The movement of inventors and innovators is supported by
public organisations, among them the trade unions. Factory trade
union committees have special invention and innovation com-
mittees to give assistance to innovators and inventors of the
particular plant.
Every enterprise has an innovation and invention bureau
whose function is to examine proposals submitted and to put
them through if they are worth while. As a rule, working in such
bureaux are experienced engineers and designers who render
technical assistance.
It goes without saying that inventors are fotind not only at
plants but also in research organisations where they are afforded
every opportunity to use laboratory facilities.
Under existing regulations, where the management of an
enterprise, trust, Ministry or the appropriate department of an
Economic Council receives an application covering an invention
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which comes within the scope of their activity, the application
has to be considered by the enterprise within ten days, by the
trust within twenty, by the Ministry (or Economic Council) with-
in two months, and the result of the examination must be
reported to the author of the application.
The author may apply directly to the State Committee on
Inventions and Discoveries.
If the invention is found to be worth while the appropriate
institution gives the author the opportunity of developing the
invention, and the author may be released from his regular job,
receiving wages based on his average earnings.
The rights of inventors and innovators arc protected by Soviet
law. An inventor has the choice of taking out either a certificate
of authorship or a patent, depending on the value of his in-
vention.
Anyone appropriating another's invention, or divulging the
essence of the invention before formal registration of its author-
ship, to the detriment of the inventor's interests, is liable to
criminal prosecution and the payment of damages.
Officials who unwarrantably hold up the examination of the
invention or payment of rewards are called to account; they may
be removed from their posts and prosecuted.
Inventors and innovators receive remuneration, the amount
depending on the value of the proposal. The maximum reward
is 200,000 roubles..
In 1957 the Committee on Inventions and Discoveries of the
U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers and the All-Union Central
Council of Trade Unions jointly drew up a new statute covering
inventions, discoveries and proposals to improve efficiency. It
provides for rewarding, besides the author, also the workers,
engineers and technicians who help to put the new invention or
innovation proposal into practice.
The draft statute provides for giving inventors and innovators
extra holidays, passes to sanatoria, and so on. It also envisages
conferring on inventors the title of "Honoured Inventor of the
U.S.S.R." and awarding them a gold medal, and on innovators
the title of "Hohoured Innovator of the U.S.S.R." and awarding
them a silver medal.
The new draft is being discussed by' enterprises, institutions,
construction works and research institutes.
84
How is the training of skilled workers'
organised?
-
APLANNED system has been set up for training workers
for industry, transport and other branches of the national
economy, at state expense.
As far back as 1920, enterprises all over the country began
to open factory apprenticeship schools, the number of which
increased as industry expanded. Between 1929 and 1937 some
2 million young workers were trained by them.
While keeping the factory apprenticeship schools in a number
of enterprises, the Soviet Government in 1940 Fet up an extensive
system of labour reserves, and the trade schools and factory
apprenticeship schools were merged into the system. In 1954
technical schols began to function.
The course of study in the trade schools which prepare
workers of the more difficult trades, is from two to four years;
in the factory apprenticeship schools, which turn out workers
for the mass trade, it is from six to ten months; and in the
technical schools, which prepare workers for the higher skilled
trades and junior technical personnel, it is from one or two years.
The explanation for the relatively brief course of study in the
technical schools is that boys and girls admitted to these schools
must have completed a secondary education (the ten forms of a
general education school). The other Labour Reserves schools
admit young people with less than a ten-year education.
Tuition in these schools is free; technical school students
receive a stipend, and those of the trade schools and factory
apprenticeship schools are fully maintained by the state. The
latter are provided with accommodation and receive their board,
clothing and textbooks free.
In addition to this centralised system, qualified workers of a
particular trade are trained directly by many industrial enter-
prises. All factories and mills maintain apprenticeship courses
in which young workers are taught, singly or in groups, and
also advanced training courses.
In 1953 the Labour Reserves system was charged with training
skilled workers to repair farm machines, and tractor drivers and
combine operators who are at the same time mechanics.
The State Labour Reserves system has played an extremely
I 47
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important role in training skilled workers for the national
economy. Between 1941 and 1955 they turned out close to
8 million workers, and in the 1956-57 school year 1,365,000 boys
ship schools.
and girls studied in the system's schools and factory apprentice-
In 1958 the technical schools alone were able to turn out 94,000
Young workers, mainly metal workers for the ?country's machine.
tool engineering plants.
In 1957, 361,000 youths and girls from among the graduates
of technical, trade, railway, factory apprenticeship schools,
building trades and mining schools were sent to work in in-
dustry, on construction jobs or transport. Farm-machine opera-
tors' schools trained 325,000 persons, and all received work on
collective farms, state farms or machine and tractor stations.
48What does automation mean to Soviet workers?
I
UTOMATION is one of the general directions of technical
progress in the Soviet Union. It is not only a technical
problem, but a social and economic problem as well; its
solution means continued improvement of the material well-
being of the working people.
Industrial development in the Soviet Union has reached a level
which ensures extensive, and, eventually complete automation
Mechanisation is widely practised in all branches of industry
In the coal industry, for example, the main processes of
mining and loading the coal on to railway trains is already fully
mechanised. Machines and other equipment have substantially
lightened the labour of coal miners, steel workers, oil workers,
and so on.
Many production sectors are already automatised.
In the engineering industry there are hundreds of automatic
transfer machines, and there are also automatic shops and fac-
tories. The principal power systems and the larger sub-stations
are automatically operated.
Automatic control has also been introduced in steel smelting;
many rolling mills, oil wells and other means of production are
operated automatically.
The U.S.S.R. has also developed a unique system of self-
regulated automatic control of production processes. Undergoing
86
tests in the Soviet transport system are automatic locomotive
engineers which drive trains and automatic bus drivers which
can drive buses on schedule more reliably than people do.
Output of automation equipment in the next seven years
(1956-65) will be up five-fold compared with 1958, instruments
six-fold and electronic computing machines fifteen times over.
This development will make for an immense rise in labour
productivity, amounting to hundreds per cent. It will ensure
a vast decline in production costs and overheads, and conse-
quently will mean an abundance of products and a considerable
rise in living standards.
The growing automation enables the Soviet Government as a
whole and each enterprise individually to increase accumulation
and therefore spend more and more money to improve living
conditions, build more housing, develop and improve cultural
services, and so on.
Making work easier and cutting down the expenditure of
labour, automation also does away with the use of physical
labour in hazardous occupations or on arduous jobs.
Moreover, it considerably raises the cultural and technical
standards of the workers, as automation requires greater techni-
cal knowledge and the mastering of a higher and more difficult
speciality, for the worker's labour is connected with radio
electronics, telcmechanics, and so on.
Under conditions of automation, the labour of Soviet workers
is such as to bring it close in character to the work of engineers
and technicians, and that means higher earnings.
Automation also opens up wide possibilities for further cutting
the working day. The gradual shift-over of factory and office
workers to a six- or seven-hour working day now being put
through in the U.S.S.R. (it is to be completed in 1960) is based
on the extensive introduction of automation.
But does not automation threaten the worker with the loss of
his job?
It is nearly thirty years since unemployment has been
abolished in the Soviet Union, and the national economy, de-
veloping as it does at a high rate under a unified national eco-
nomic plan, needs a great many more _workers of the most
diverse trades from year to year. Under these conditions auto-
mation does not compete with the workers and does not force
them out of industry.
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Obviously when new automatic machine tools and automatic
transfer machines are set up in factories, a certain number of
workers are no longer needed on their particular jobs.
However, they do not remain without work; they get new Jobs,
as a rule in the same enterprise. Under the law they may not be
paid lower wages.
Workers are also offered the opportunity of taking courses,
at state expense, to learn a higher-skilled trade to enable them to
operate automatic machines. While learning the new trade they
receive pay based on their average wages. '
Should a worker not get a job in the particular enterprise he
will get one in another; the trade union and the factory Manage-
ment see to that.
Under socialism, technical progress brings workers benefits
and not misfortune; the machine is their friend, not a competi-
(or.
That is why wide sections of the working people in the
U.S.S.R. are champions of automation and the army of inven-
tors and innovators, many milions strong, is growing from year
to year (see answer No. 46).
.49
I Why is there no, and can be no, unemployment
in the U.S:S.R.?
RTICLE 118 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. reads:
"Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to work, that is,
the right to guaranteed employment and payment for their
work in accordance with its quantity and quality.
"The right to work is ensured by the socialist organisation of
the national economy, the steady growth of the productive forces
of Soviet society, the elimination of the possibility of economic
crises, and the abolition of unemployment."
The socialist system of the national economy, based as it is
on the public ownership of the instruments and means of pro-
duction (the land, its mineral wealth, mills, factories, mines,
transport, and so on), has made it possible to organise the de-
velopment of the national economy according to a unified state
plan (see answer No. 32). The plan envisages the uninterrupted
growth of the country's productive forces, continuous expansion
of production and steady advance in living standards,
88
The vast construction in all spheres of the national economy
and the continuous growth of the people's purchasing power
preclude the possibility of economic crises, ensuring the popula-
tion full employment, and requiring additional manpower
besides. Under these conditions there can, of course, be no un-
employment in the U.S.S.R. The state spends substantial funds
to train more and more qualified workers to meet the needs of
the national economy, which keep growing from year to year
The number of wage and salaried workers is increasing all the
time. Thus, at the end of 1950 the national economy of the
U.S.S.R. counted 8,300,000 more workers than at the end of
1940. Another 8,000,000 were added during the Fifth Five-Year
Plan period (1951-1955) bringing up the total by the close of 1955
to 47,900,000, exclusive of members of producers' co-operatives.
who numbered 1,800,000 in 1955.
By the end of 1957 the number of workers reached 52,100,000,
an increase of 2,100,000 over the previous year.
Everyone has work in the Soviet Union and is sure of the
morrow.
What are collective farms?
COLLECTIVE farms, or kolkhozes (abbreviated from the
Russian kollektivnoye khozyaistvo) are large socialist
farming enterprises, in which Soviet peasants have Joined
of their own free will to make farming more productive by
pooling their means of production and working together in an
organised way, thus ensuring themselves a prosperous and cul-
tured life.
In collective farms the peasants work collectively and the prin-
cipal means of production?farm implements (except minor
ones), draught animals and productive livestock and farm build-
ings are owned in common.
Crops, farm buildings, machinery and other implements.
draught animals and productive livestock and the entire output
of the collective farm constitute the co-operative, collective farm
property, that is the common property of the members of the
collective farm. The land cultivated by the collective farm is
state property, that is, belongs to the whole people, but the farm
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is given the title deeds to the land by the state for free use in
perpetuity.
The foundation of the collective farm structure, the principles
on which the farm's activity is organised and managed, and also
the rights and duties of its members are defined by the Rules
of the Agricultural Artel, which are adopted by thp general
membership meeting and have the force of law.
The farm's affairs are directed by the general meeting of its
members. It elects a board of management, made up of live to
nine persons and headed by the chairman, for a term of two
years. The board manages production and is accountable to the
general meeting for the state of the farm's affairs.
The general meeting also elects an auditing commission, which
checks up on the economic and financial activity of the board.
The general meeting considers and decides all major questions
of running the common husbandry, approves the annual and
seasonal production and financial plans and estimates, examines
the annual and quarterly reports on the work of the farm, de-
cides the amounts of the common funds, such as the seed and
fodder stocks, indivisible funds, and so on, the amount of pro-
duce and cash to be distributed among the members, and it
admits new members.
Able-bodied members are divided into brigades, which con-
stitute the chief form of organising the work. Field brigades are
assigned plots of land and the necessary implements, draught
animals and farm buildings. Animal husbandry brigades are
assigned productive livestock, the necessary equipment and live-
stock premises.
A collective farmer's income is derived from his or her work
in the common husbandry. The standard unit for calculating the
work performed by the farm member, and the consequent re-
muneration, is the work-day unit.
Daily standards have been established for each operation, and
collective farmers are credited with from one-half to two-and-a-
half work-day units for fulfilment of a daily standard, depending
on how difficult or complex the task and on the skill required.
A certain part of the crop and animal husbandry produce the
collective farm sells to the state in fulfilment of its obligation to
the state; next it lays in its planned store of seeds, fodder and
other stocks required for carrying on the farming, and sets aside
the produce to be sold at the collective farm market.
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Out of the money realised from the sale of produce to the
state and on the market it pays off loans and taxes and fixes the
amount to go to the common assets.
The rest of the crops, animal husbandry products and cash
are distributed among the farm's members in accordance with
the work-day units credited to them. The cash and products are
clear income for the collective farmers, for no taxes have to be
paid on them.
Besides the common husbandry each collective farmer has a
plot of household land ranging in size from a half to a whole
acre, exclusive of the area on which the house stands. This land
is used by the collective farm family to grow vegetables and for
planting an orchard.
A collective farmer may have as his personal property a co??.
a calf, several pigs, goats and sheep, and an unrestricted num-
ber of rabbits and poultry.
The size of the household plot and the number of personal
livestock are fixed by decision of the general membership meet-
ing of the collective farmers in accordance with the number of
able-bodied members of a collective farm family taking part in
the common husbandry.
The personal husbandry on the collective farmer's household
plot is subsidiary in character, the main source of a collective
farmer's income being the common husbandry.
The country now has 78,000 collective farms, which unite
some 20,000,000 peasant households, practically the entire
peasantry.
As a rule, a collective farm has under cultivation roughly
5,000 acres, but in grain-growing districts many have 25.000 to
37,000 acres or more.
Besides growing crops, collective farms engage in dairy farm-
ing, sheep breeding, hog breeding and poultry farming, they also
grow vegetables, fruit and berries. Every collective farm has
subsidiary enterprises, such as blacksmith, metal and carpenter
shops, brick and tile works, flour mills or other enterprises for
processing farm produce.
A collective farm's original capital, the so-called indivisible
funds, came from small cash payments made by members and
the pooling of the means and implements turned over by each
member on joining the collective farm: a plough, a harrow, a
horse and seeds.
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the indivisible funds are increased by adding to it a certain
amount of the collective farm's income for the year, the amount
being fixed by the general membership meeting. Today the
amount is no less than 15 and no more than 35 per cent of the
cash income, depending on the farm's economic strength.
The money set aside for the indivisible fund is used for
capital outlays to enlarge the common husbandry?to put new
land under cultivation, put up farm buildings and cultural
establishments, to buy machinery and other equipment or breed
stock.
The money set aside for the indivisible fund has served as the
basis for the rapid development and improvement of collective.
farm production.
In 1932, that is, in the early years of collectivisation the
indivisible funds of the country's collective farms were valued
at 4,700 million roubles, and by the beginning of 1958 they had
exceeded 100,000 million roubles, an increase of more than
twenty-fold.
Of even greater importance is the qualitative change in the
indivisible funds which has taken place since the collective farms
have been first organised.
By the beginning of 1958 the collective farms owned 330,000
motor lorries, 162,000 mechanical engines and a large number
of electric motors. The value of tractors, farm machiner),
motor lorries and other equipment on collective farms was
24,000 million roubles.
Today collective farms arc developed and economically sound
socialist enterprises, and as a result the old forms of service they
received from the state machine and tractor stations (M.T.S.)
proved antiquated. The old forms were becoming a brake on the
development of the productive forces in agriculture.
Consequently, the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet early in 1958
passed a Law on the Further Development of the Collective
Farm System and the Reorganisation of the M.T.S.
Under this law the machinery in the possession of the stations
is being sold to the collective farms, and the M.T.S. have been
reorganised practically everywhere into repair and technical
service stations. Before it was taken up by the Supreme Soviet
the bill was submitted to countrywide discussion and it was
supported universally by the people in town and country.
The shift from service by machine and tractor stations to the
92
purchase by collective farms of tractors and other machines is
an important stage in the development of socialist agriculture
and the consolidation and further development of the collectixe
farm system.
In the hands of the collective farms are now concentrated
the machinery and the land, which though it belongs to thz.
state is secured to them for use in perpetuity. This makes for
more efficient use of both the land and machinery and will lead
to a still more rapid advance of the country's agriculture.
What is a state farm?
51
ASTATE farm, or Sovkhoz (abbreviated from the Russian
sovietskoye khozyaistvo?Soviet farm), is a large-scale
state establishment, the highest form of organisation of
socialist agricultural production in the Soviet Union.
State farms operate on land which belong to the whole
people, and their means of production and produce are state
property. Guidance of the activity of the state farms, including
approval of their plans, has been entrusted to the public
Ministries of State Farms.
By the beginning of 1958 the country had 5.8(X) state farms.
including grain-growing, beet-growing, cotton-growing, fruit-
growing, vegetable-growing, dairy or meat and dairy farms, hog-
raising, sheep-breeding, poultry-raising, and so on
However, state farms are not narrowly specialised but diversi-
fied enterprises. Thus, animal husbandry occupies an important
place on state grain-growing farms, and crop cultivation on
animal husbandry farms.
Proper proportions between the various branches coupled
with high mechanisation and scientific methods of farming serve
as the main foundation for high productivity and marketability
of state farms and their profitability.
The average number of tractors per state farm is fifty-four. of
grain combines fifteen and of motor lorries sixteen In 1957 the
state farms had almost twice as many tractors as they had in
1933. They have close to 156,000 electric motors with an aggre-
gate capacity of some 700,000 kw.
Ninety-three per cent of the state facms Nisi: eleLtriots with
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98 per cent of total power capacity furnished by mechanical
engines. The average area of a state farm is over 40,000 acres.
and the area under crops, 15,000. The average number of
workers per farm is 376.
State farm workers' wages arc paid by the state. Production
and office workers on state farms have a trade union of their
own and they enjoy the social benefits and privileges enjoyed by
members of other unions.
Any state farm worker can, if he so desires, get a small plot
of land on which to build a home for himself and the needed
outbuildings, also to plant an orchard, grow vegetables and other
crops. The farm provides lorries to transport building materials,
and the state gives the home-builder a long-term loan. Those
who have no houses of their own receive living quarters from
the farm.
State farms are divided into several sections, each headed by
a manager who is appointed by the director; most of the
managers arc agricultural specialists. Each section has assigned
to it the needed number of tractors, horses, machines, buildings
and other means of production.
The first state farms were set up in the U.S.S.R. in the year
after the Great October Socialist Revolution, at first by assigning
for the purpose confiscated landlord estates.
Later much more land from the state reserves, in particular
virgin land, went to enlarge old and establish new state farms.
A good illustration is the 425 new state farms set up between
1954 and 1956 on virgin and long-fallow lands.
The area under crops on state farms today is nearly triple
that of 1940 and amounts to 75 million acres. Since 1940 the
area under grain crops has gone up from 18 million acres to
53 million.
Animal husbandry sections of state farms have roughly
4 million head of cattle, more than 6 million pigs, close to
12 million sheep and more than 13 million head of poultry.
State farms play an important part in the advance of agricul-
ture, especially in the output of produce for the market, furnish-
ing the state nearly a third of the country's marketable grain.
Gross output of state farms in 1956 was up 170 per cent
compared with 1940; in the last three years it has almost doubled
and marketable grain increased 4.2-fold.
State farms have been from their very inception not merely
producers of grain, meat, milk and other produce; they have
94
also been a school of new techniques, of proper organisation
of work and of the introduction of scientific methods in farming.
They became models of large-scale socialist production, show-
ing the peasantry the advantages of large-scale collective farming.
The state farms have thus played a big part in the consolidation
of the collective farm system.
Lenin, the founder of the Soviet State, held that the main
function of the state farms was to be model state farming
enterprises yielding more produce with minimum expenditure
of money and labour. The state farms are carrying out this task
creditably.
Holy has the steep advance of agriculture in
1953-1958 been carried out?
152
THE Second World War delayed the development of agri-
culture in the U.S.S.R. and caused it great damage. The
Hitlerite invaders ruined and plundered 98,000 collective
farms, some 2,000 state farms and almost 3,000 machine and
tractor stations. More than 64 million head of productive live-
stock and 110 million head of poultry were seized and
slaughtered or sent to Germany.
Nevertheless, the difficulties caused by the war and aggravated
by the drought in 1946 were quickly overcome. Already in the
third year after the war, the pre-war level of grain production
was reached, and in the sixth year the pre-war level of produc-
tion of oil-bearing plants, potatoes, and fodder crops.
For volume of wheat grown the U.S.S.R. moved up to top
place in the world.
The following years saw a further rise in agricultural output.
However, serious shortcomings were found in certain branches
of agriculture in some parts of the country and output failed to
meet the growing demand. Though there had been a big in-
crease in agricultural output the demand still exceeded the
supply.
In September 1953 a plenary meeting of the Central Com-
mittee of the C.P.S.U. worked out a comprehensive programme
for a steep advance of the country's agriculture, and it is being
successfully carried out.
One of the important measures was to put under cultivation
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immense tracts of unused land in the eastern part of the country.
In the last four years more than 90,000,000 acres in Kazakhstan.
Trans-Urals, Siberia and the Volga area have been subjugated.
In addition to the subjugation of virgin land a whole series
of important measures have been carried out in recent years to
snsure an upswing in agricultural production.
In the past four years 908,000 tractors (in terms of 15 h.p. units)
and millions of other farm machines have been sent to the
countryside. Today agriculture has around 1,700,000 tractors,
660.000 motor lorries and more than 450,000 grain combines
Much help was given agriculture by supplying it skilled
personnel. While in 1953, 83,000 specialists possessing a higher
or specialised secondary education worked on collective farms
and in machine and tractor stations, by the end of 1957 the
number had gone up to 277,000.
In the past four years the state has invested in agriculture
75,400 million roubles, or 10,000 million roubles more than in
the preceding nineteen years.-
Another measure was to raise considerably the prices paid by
the Government for the chief agricultural produce purchased
by the state and to reduce the agricultural tax. From Janu-
ary 1st, 1958, the personal husbandries of collective farmers.
factory and office workers have been completely exempted from
obligatory deliveries of produce to the state.
A new planning system has been introduced, under which
collective farmers themselves decide which crops are Most profi-
table for them to grow, and which livestock to raise.
Collective farms have been granted the right to revise the
Rules of the Agricultural Artel taking into account local con-
ditions.
These measures have released the collective farmers' initiative
Special attention has been given to the proper distribution of
branches of agriculture and to specialisation of farming in con-
formity with the natural and economic conditions of each dis-
trict.
As a result of all this, Soviet agriculture has overcome the lag
of individual branches and is now advancing steeply.
Gross cereal harvests in the past four years have increased
27 per cent as compared with the previous four years, and the
harvests of industrial and other valuable crops on old cultivated
land have also gone up.
96
For example, the sugar beet crop in 1957 was up 70 per cent
compared with 1953, flax nearly 200 per cent, raw cotton 13 per
cent, potatoes 20 per cent, and vegetables 27 per cent.
The impressive rate of development of the field husbandry has
created the necessary conditions for an upswing in animal hus-
bandry.
The extension of the area under maize was of decisive import-
ance in establishing a stable fodder supply. In 1957 the area
sown to maize for corn, green fodder and silage was more than
43,000,000 acres, practically seven times the area in 1953. That
year collective farms and state farms silaged some 90,000,000
tons, including 42,000,000 tons of maize; in 1953 the total silage
was 27,700,000 tons.
Putting the fodder supply on a firm basis has considerably im-
proved the situation in animal husbandry. Meat production
(taking into account the increase in the herd) went up 38 per
cent in the last four years; milk production for the country as
a whole went up 50 per cent, and collective and state farms
increased their production by more than 100 per cent.
The plan provided for raising the average milk yield per cow
by 600 kilograms between 1954 and 1960, but the task was
carried out in three years. The average yield per cow on collec-
tive farms in 1957 was 786 kilograms more than in 1955.
Hundreds of collective farms and state farms annually pro-
duce 10 tons of meat or more and 40 tons of milk or more for
every 250 acres of farm land.
The progress made in crop-growing and animal husbandry
development has made it possible to recommend Soviet agricul-
ture the task of bringing the annual grain crop in the next few
years up to over 180,000,000 tons, meat to 20,000,000 and milk
to 70,000,000 tons and the task is being carried out successfully.
The reorganisation of the machine and tractor stations and
sale of the machinery to the collective farms (see answer No. 53)
now under way will also help the further steep advance of agri-
culture. This measure has opened up still greater prospects for
an upswing in crop growing and animal husbandry, through
highly-efficient use of the machines.
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53
Why hare the machine and tractor stations
.been reorganised?
0 N March 31st, 1958, the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet passed
a law on the further development of the collective farm
system and the reorganisation of the machine and tractor
stations, under which the system of technical service rendered
the collective farms has been changed.
Tractors, combines and other machines belonging to machine
and tractor stations have been sold to the collective farms, which
pay cash or undertake to pay in instalments over two or three
years, depending on the economic position of the particular col-
lective farm. Collective farms also buy newly manufactured
machines.
Machine and tractor stations have been reorganised into repair
and technical service stations, whose function is to repair farm
machinery, sell machines and spare parts, fuel, fertiliser and
other commodities needed for production purposes, and to
arrange to rent-out road-building, reclamation and certain other
types of machinery.
By the beginning of spring in 1958 two-thirds of the country's
collective farms had already bought the machinery, and tens
of thousands of tractor drivers, combine operators and other
skilled workers, and thousands of agronomists and zootechni-
cians who were previously working in machine and tractor
stations joined collective farms and became members.
Before the reorganisation, the machine and tractor stations
served the collective farms under contracts to cultivate the fields
and harvest the crops. This system originated thirty years ago
when large masses of the Soviet peasantry began to form col-
lective farms.
The new collective farm system required a new material and
technical base, and so the Soviet Government built factories to
manufacture tractors, combines and other modern farm
machinery. However, the young collective farms could not
afford to buy the machines, and, besides, there were no people
in the villages who could operate them.
The country-side needed substantial help from the state, and
the most expedient form of such help was the machine and
tractor stations (M.T.S.). The first M.T.S. was set up up 1928; it
98
was followed by others, and before long a dense network of
them covered the country.
During the time the M.T.S. existed the government spent more
than 300,000 million roubles on their organisation, maintenance,
and development.
The machine and tractor stations were a vehicle of technical
progrets in the countryside, helping the peasants to learn to run
large collective farms, and training an army of qualified tractor
drivers, combine operators, motor lorry drivers, fitters and
turners.
The M.T.S. were a force without which it would have been
impossible to strengthen the collective farms, to achieve a rapid
advance of agriculture and a higher standard for the peasantry.
Recent years witnessed a complete change in the situation in
the Soviet country-side.
The collective farms grew stronger, small farms amalgamated
to form bigger ones; the peasants gained a wealth of experience
in running collective farms, and the number of machine
operators and other farm specialists multiplied.
And finally the financial position of the collective farms be-
came considerably stronger. Between 1949 and 1957 the average
annual money income per collective farm increased more than
ten-fold?from 111,000 roubles to 1,247,000. Today the country
has thousands of collective farms with annual money incomes
of 10 to 20 million roubles or more.
Under these conditions, the question arose whether it was not
time to change the system of the material and technical service
of the collective farms. It was the collective farmers and M.T.S.
workers who raised the question, and the Communist Party and
the Soviet Government supported them, and their proposal was
embodied in a state law.
The measures outlined under this law are a component part
of the effort to improve the management and guidance of the
national economy so as to permit the country's productive forces
to develop more fully all the time and the standard of living
to rise ever higher.
D2
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54 I How is domestic trade organised in the U.S.S.R.?
THE sale of goods in town and country is carried on by
state and co-operative organisations, the two principal
forms of Soviet trade. The state organisations account for
65 per cent of the retail trade, and the co-operative for 28; the
other 7 per cent are accounted for by the collective farm
markets.
The goods sold by the state and co-operative trading organi-
sations are supplied to them by industry or are produced, con-
tracted for or purchased by them (farm produce, mushrooms,
wild berries, game, and so on).
The quantities to be supplied and time of delivery are de-
termined by the national economic plan. The state fixes the
wholesale and retail prices, which are uniform for the state and
co-operative trading organisations.
Farm produce is also sold at collective farm markets, to which
collective farms, collective farmers and individual peasants bring
their surplus products for sale. The price of produce sold in
these markets is governed by supply and demand.
More shops, stalls, public dining rooms, restaurants, snack
bars and other retail trade establishments are opened up every
year.
In 1957 there were 620,000 of them, or roughly 120,000 more
than in the pre-War year 1940.
The number of public catering establishments has grown par-
ticularly rapidly; in the last thirty years the number of dining
rooms, restaurants and snack bars has increased forty-two-fold,
now exceeding 126,000.
The number of warehouses and cold storage plants has also
grown.
More than 3 million persons are employed in trade. There are
special educational establishments to train workers for this job,
including institutions, specialised secondary schools and trade
schools.
As a result of the balanced expansion of production and
steady rise in the income of the population, the volume of sales
keeps going up from year to year.
In the last four years it increased by 52.2 per cent, reaching
616,500 million roubles in 1957.
100
Compared with 1940, state and co-operative retail sales in
1957 were up 250 per cent for meat and meat products, 260 per
cent for butter, milk and other dairy products, 220 per cent for
sugar and 180 per cent for fabrics, with the rise in the sale
of woollens being 300 per cent, and silks 800 per cent. Sales of
clocks and watches, bicycles, radios, TV sets, domestic refrigera-
tors, washing machines and vacuum cleaners increased many
times over.
What Co-operatives are there in the
Soviet Union?
BESIDES the agricultural co-operatives (collective farms)
the Soviet Union has consumers' and producers' co-opera-
tives.
The consumer's co-operatives are mass public organisations in
the country-side with more than 34 million members.
There are more than 20,000 of these co-operatives. Their
highest organ is the general membership meeting, and in the
intervals between meetings?the elected board of management.
The co-operatives are organised in unions for each district,
region, territory and republic, and their boards, too, arc elected
by the membership.
The highest guiding body of the Soviet consumers' co-opera-
tives is the delegate congress, which elects the Council of
Centrosoyuz (Central Union of Co-operative Societies of the
U.S.S.R.), the board of directors of Centrosoyuz and the audit-
ing commission, all for a term of four years.
The consumers' co-operatives trade in the rural localities,
where they have 315,000 retail trading and public catering estab-
lishments. Their volume of sales is growing steadily and rapidly
as a result of the rising income of the collective farm peasantry,
especially in recent years. In 1957 retail sales were up 17.2 per
cent over 1956 and were 190 per cent greater than in 1940.
The co-operatives sell produce for collective farms and indi-
vidual collective farmers on a commission basis in towns, for
which purpose they have opened up special stores. The produce
is sold at prices lower than those prevailing on collective farm
markets. In 1957 total sales by these stores came to 7,700 million
roubles, an increase of 26 per cent over 1956.
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These co-operatives are the chief procurers of a number of
farm products and raw materials. They also operate small enter-
prises processing certain food products and manufacturing
certain consumer goods (bakeries, sausage factories, vegetable,
fruit and berry canneries, and so on). The annual output of these
enterprises exceeds 11,000 million roubles..
Centrosoyuz is affiliated to the International Co-operative
Alliance, of which it is the largest single constitutent organisa-
tion.
The producers' co-operatives unite handicraft workers making
various articles of consumption and repairing household articles,
furniture, clothing, shoes and rendering certain other services,
such as painting and decorating and cleaning flats, and so on.
These co-operatives have tens of thousands of small plants
and workshops, barber shops, photo studios and so on.
The management boards of the co-operatives and of the
unions of producers' co-operatives are elected by the member-
ship.
There are several other kind of small co-operatives, among
them co-operatives of workers' and office employees for build-
ing houses for themselves in towns and summer cottages in the
suburbs.
The Soviet co-operative organisations are given every support
by the state.
56
Who fixes prices in the U.S.S.R.?
pRICES are fixed by the state planning authorities, subject
to approval by the Government. The prices of some goods
are fixed by the local organs?the Councils of Ministers of
the Republics.
For the more important articles other than food, state prices
are uniform in all parts of the country. For the more important
food products, prices vary according to zone. For these pur-
poses the country has been divided into a number of zones, and
in setting the special prices for the various zones, account is
taken of carriage and other overheads.
Since most manufactures and foodstuffs are concentrated
in. the hands of the state, and their distribution is handled by the
102
state and co-operative trading systems, there is nothing to hinder
the establishment of uniform prices. Soviet economy is free
from fluctuating or rocketing prices due to spetulation.
The prices of goods produced by the co-operatives are fixed
by them at approximately the same level as state prices.
Retail prices in collective farm markets are influenced by
supply and demand. But, with state and co-operative shops
nearby selling products at uniform state prices, the collective
farmers have to sell at the same or lower prices. In this way the
Soviet State uses economic means to control the prices in the
collective farm markets.
What banks are there? Where do people keep
their savings?
ALL banks in the U.S.S.R. belong to the state. There are no
private banks.
In the hands of the Soviet State, finance and credit repre-
sent an important instrument for advancing the national eco-
nomy and culture. Through the banks, the state also exercises
financial control over the work of individual enterprises, insti-
tutions and the economy as a whole.
The chief Soviet bank is the State Bank of the U.S.S.R. All
state institutions, co-operatives, public organisations, factories
and offices keep current accounts in the State Bank, through
which their mutual accounts are settled. The State Bank also
handles the state budget revenues, including the profit tax and
income tax.
The State Bank grants short-term credits to enterprises and
institutions, and finances organisations, funds for which are
provided by the state budget.
The bank has branches in all Republics, territories, regions,
cities and district centres.
Foreign trade transactions are financed by a special bank, the
Foreign Trade Bank of the U.S.S.R. (see answer No. 97).
The U.S.S.R. also has four special long-term credit banks:
the Industrial Bank, the Trade Bank, the Central Agricultural
Bank, and the Central Bank for Municipal Economy and Hous-
ing Construction.
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These banks finance capital construction and handle clearing
operations in their respective branches of national economy.
The people keep the money they save from their earnings in
state savings banks.
Savings banks are to be found in all towns, large villages,
district centres and industrial settlements.
The number of depositors increases every year, and by the
beginning of 1958 it reached 40 million, a fact which bears
witness to the growing well-being of the people.
It is estimated that in 1957 savings bank deposits will amount
to approximately 90,000 million roubles compared with 7,300
million before the war. In 1957 they went up by 16,800 million
roubles.
581
What taxes do the people pay?
P
EOPLE in the Soviet Union pay small taxes, which make
up an insignificant portion of their income.
Factory or office workers, art workers, artisans and other
citizens who have independent sources of income pay income
tax. The tax is progressive, rising in proportion as the earnings
rise.
Workers whose earnings do not exceed 370 roubles a month.
and pensioners, regardless of the amount of their pensions, are
exempt from paying taxes.
Other workers pay income tax monthly out of their earnings
for the preceding month. The rate is as follows:
Monthly Earnings
400 roubles ..
500 roubles
600 roubles
1,000 roubles
1,500 roubles
etc. etc.
The maximum tax does not exceed 13 per cent of the income.
Workers with four or more dependents are allowed a deduc-
tion of 30 per cent of the amount of the tax.
Single men and childless married people who are working
pay a special bachelors' and childless people's tax. Men between
? ?
? ?
? ?
. ?
Tax
18 roubles
26 roubles
36 roubles
82 roubles
147 roubles
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the ages of twenty and .fifty and women between twenty and
forty-five pay tax at 6 per cent of all income above 450 roubles
a month.
Income taxes paid by the population are a minor item in the
state budgetary -revenue. Under the 1958 budget they will con-
stitute only 7.8 per cent of total revenue.
How is the U.S.S.R. State Budget made up? I 59
THE state budget of the U.S.S.R. has important distinctive
features. It is a budget of a socialist country, in which
public ownership of the means of production predominates,
and the national income belong to all of society.
Through the Soviet budget a small part of the national income
is switched to the development of the productive forces of
society and the improvement of living standards.
The state budget of the Soviet Union is thus a major means
of the marshalling and balanced employment of the state's
financial resources for enlarging socialist production and raising
general living standards for all members of society?workers,
peasants and intelligentsia.
The state budget is also the country's chief financial plan, as
it is closely linked with the national economy as a whole and
serves the latter's requirements.
The chief revenue items are the receipts from the socialist
enterprises and organisations, and the budget resources arc used
' to finance the socialist enterprises in conformity with the
national economic plan.
Revenue and expenditure items are approved annually by the
U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet, which also discusses and approves the
Government's report on the fulfilment of the budget for the pre-
ceding year.
The 1958 budget, as passed by the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet,
provides for a revenue of 643.000 million roubles, and an ex-
penditure of 627,800 million roubles, that is an excess of revenue
over expenditure of 15,200 million roubles.
The Soviet budget has been yielding a surplus year after year,
and the fact that it has no deficit shows that U.S.S.R. finances
rest on a healthy foundation. They are not squeezed out through
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taxation; their source is income from a steady expanding
socialist economy.
The chief revenue items are the accumulations of state indus-
trial, transport and trading enterprises?in the form of turnover
and profit taxes, and income tax paid by co-operative
organisations (collective farms and producers' co-operatives).
In 1958 the socialist economy accounted for almost 89 per
cent of total budgetary revenue against 85 per cent in 1957.
Taxes paid by the population play a minor part in the budget;
in 1958 they will come to 7.8 per cent.
The Soviet budget is the budget of a peace-loving power. This
is clearly shown by the items of the expenditure side.
Out of the total 1958 appropriation of 627,800 rilion roubles,
more than 257,000 million was allocated to t'.ie national eco-
nomy and close to 213,000 million roubles '.or social and cul-
tural services.
Thus, two-thirds of the budgetary a-,propriations go to de-
velop the national economy and for sr ..1a1 and cultural purposes.
Of the 213,000 million roubles Pr.soted for social and cultural
purposes (nearly 25,000 million snore than in 1957) more than
84,000 million were earmart-.4 for public education and science,
more than 40,000 ino'..:on for health and physical culture, and
mnrs':;,vu0 million for social maintenance and social
insurance (against 71,400 million in 1957).
Defence expenditure is reduced from year to year, the 1958
allotment being 15.4 per cent of total budgetary appropriations,
against 16 per cent in 1957 and 19.9 per cent in 1955.
In this distribution of state funds we see clearly the endeavour
of the Soviet state to satisfy the rising material and cultural,
needs of the people and further to develop the peace-time
economy.
106
IV. EDUCATION, SCIENCE, CULTURE
What is ,the system of public education in
the U.S.S.R.?
60
IN the U.S.S.R. all children attend school.
The Soviet Union has built up its system of public education
on principles that were set forth in a government decree in
1918.
Briefly, these principles were: free general and polytcchnical
education for children up to the age of seventeen irrespective of
sex or nationality; instruction in the native language; the pro-
motion of vocational training.
Full observance of the principle of a system of uniform schools
closely bound up with socially productive labour excluded the
rise of private schools.
The curriculum of the Soviet school combines general and
polytechnical instruction and moral, physical and aesthetic
education.
Included in the public education system arc pre-school estab-
lishments, many types of general schools, specialised secondary
schools, institutions of higher learning (see answer No. 61) and
also various cultural and educational establishments.
The pre-school establishments (kindergartens, playgrounds,
children's homes) carry out the social education of children
between the ages of three and seven.
Next comes the general school, where children are educated
from the age of seven to seventeen. This is divided into the seven-
year and secondary (ten- or eleven-year) schools. There are also
music, ballet and other schools, as well as special schools for
mentally deficient children, the blind, and the deaf and dumb.
There are special seven-year and secondary schools for young
workers and farmers who for some reason did not obtain a
secondary education at the proper time.
Vocational schools train skilled workers -or specialists with
intermediate qualifications. They arc divided into trade, railway,
arts and crafts, and mining schools.
Technical schools train highly-skilled workers and junior
technical personnel. Secondary technical, medical, teacher train-
ing, music, theatrical and other schools graduate young
specialists with intermediate qualifications.
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Boarding schools were establisned in the U.S.S.R. in the
autumn of 1956, chiefly for orphans, children of unmarried
mothers or mothers with large families, and children whose
families cannot give them the proper upbringing.
Orphans and the children of parents with low earnings are
maintained at the boarding schools completely at state expense
The boarding schools follow the curriculum of the secondary
school. Education and upbringing are based on the principle of
combining instruction with productive work.
Such, in general outline, is the system of public education in
the U.S.S.R.
The Soviet system inherited a small and underdeveloped net-
work of schools.
In the 1914-15 academic year 9,700,000 children and adoles-
cents in Russia attended school. In 1956-57 enrolment in the
general schools of the Soviet Union (not counting the schools
for young workers and farmers and the schools for adults) was
28,200,000.
If we include all the types of schools, we find that more than
50,000,000 persons in the U.S.S.R. are studying.
During the Soviet period, more than 100,000 schools have been
built, nearly 30,000 of them since the end of the Second World
War. They have spacious classrooms, laboratories, auditoriums,
gymnasiums, rooms for extra-curricular activities, libraries, lunch
rooms, and so on.
Altogether, there are 213,000 schools in the Soviet Union.
More than 200 million text-books are published annually. This
is enough to supply each pupil with text-books in all the subjects
he studies.
Teachers for the elementary forms (the first to the fourth) are
prepared at teachers' training schools, and those for, the fifth to
the tenth forms at teachers' training colleges and universities. In
the 1956-57 academic year there were 1,811,000 teachers in the
Soviet Union.
Under the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1951-55) universal secondary
(ten-year) education was introduced in the big cities and industrial
centres. Now it is being put into effect in the other towns and in
the rural areas.
In the 1956-57 academic year the secondary schools graduated
.""r4.06-,000 boys and girls.
nother important measure being carried out in the Soviet
108
Union is the introduction of polytechnical training in the secon-
dary schools. This will familiarise the pupils, in theory and in
practice, with modern industrial and agricultural production and
prepare them for future socially-useful activity.
How is higher education organised?
161
THERE are several main types of higher education in the
U.S.S.R.; university, technical, agricultural, medical,
, economic, teachers-training, artistic, architectural, musical
and theatrical. The higher educational establishments in all the
Union and Autonomous Republics, territories and regions are
attended by young men and women of all nationalities.
Today the Soviet Union has thirty-nine universities with a
total enrolment of about 200,000. .
The universities have a five-year course of study. They graduate
qualified philologists, historians, biologists, geologists, physicists,
and so on, who have the right to teach in the secondary school.
The universities carry out extensive research activities, for which
they possess the necessary laboratories and up-to-date equipment
and apparatus.
Inasmuch as scientific and technical progress depends largely
on the level of knowledge of the engineering personnel, the
Soviet Union has always devoted great attention to its technical
colleges. There are more than 200 of them: polytechnical, indus-
trial, power engineering, electrical engineering, radio engineering,
physical engineering, machine-building, civil engineering.
machine-tool building, and so on and so forth.
Their course of study is five or five-and-a-half years, and they
have a total student body of 645,000.
Like the universities,, the technical colleges do extensive
research. In 1957, for instance, they conducted investigations in
the field of radio-electronics, heat-resistant alloys, gas turbine
design, the use of isotopes in science and engineering, and so on.
In 1956 the U.S.S.R. had 721,000 engineers with diploma, or
431,000 more than in 1940.
The specialised secondary and higher schools graduated more
than 770,000 young men and women in 1957.
A higher agricultural education is given at academies, colleges
and the agronomy faculties existing at some universities. Train-
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Boarding schools were establisned in the U.S.S.R. in the
autumn of 1956, chiefly for orphans, children of unmarried
mothers or mothers with large families, and children whose
families cannot give them the proper upbringing.
Orphans and the children of parents with low earnings are
maintained at the boarding schools completely at state expense.
The boarding schools follow the curriculum of the secondary
school. Education and upbringing are based on the principle of
combining instruction with productive work.
Such, in general outline, is the system of public education in
the U.S.S.R.
The Soviet system inherited a small and underdeveloped net-
work of schools.
In the 1914-15 academic year 9,700,000 children and adoles-
cents in Russia attended school. In 1956-57 enrolment in the
general schools of the Soviet Union (not counting the schools
for young workers and farmers and the schools for adults) was
28200,000.
If we include all the types of schools, we find that more than
50,000,000 persons in the U.S.S.R. are studying.
During the Soviet period, more than 100,000 schools have been
built, nearly 30,000 of them since the end of the Second World
War. They have spacious classrooms, laboratories, auditoriums,
gymnasiums, rooms for extra-curricular activities, libraries, lunch
rooms, and so on.
Altogether, there are 213,000 schools in the Soviet Union.
More than 200 million text-books are published annually. This
is enough to supply each pupil with text-books in all the subjects
he studies.
Teachers for the elementary forms (the first to the fourth) are
prepared at teachers' training schools, and those for the fifth to
the tenth forms at teachers' training colleges and universities. In
the 1956-57 academic year there were 1,811,000 teachers in the
Soviet Union.
Under the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1951-55) universal secondary
(ten-year) education was introduced in the big cities and industrial
centres. Now it is being put into effect in the other towns and in
the rural areas.
In the 1956-57 academic year the secondary schools graduated
1,500,000 boys and girls.
Another important measure being carried out in the Soviet
108
Union is the introduction of polytechnical training in the secon-
dary schools. This will familiarise the pupils, in theory and in
practice, with modern industrial and agricultural production and
prepare them for future socially-useful activity.
How is higher education organised?
161
THERE are several main types of higher education in the
U.S.S.R.; university, technical, agricultural, medical,
, economic, teachers-training, artistic, architectural, musical
and theatrical. The higher educational establishments in all the
Union and Autonomous Republics, territories and regions are
attended by young men and women of all nationalities.
Today the Soviet Union has thirty-nine universities with a
total enrolment of about 200,000.
The universities have a five-year course of study. They graduate
qualified philologists, historians, biologists, geologists, physicists,
and so on, who have the right to teach in the secondary school.
The universities carry out extensive research activities, for which
they possess the necessary laboratories and up-to-date equipment
and apparatus.
Inasmuch as scientific and technical progress depends largely
on the level of knowledge of the engineering personnel, the
Soviet Union has always devoted great attention to its technical
colleges. There are more than 200 of them: polytechnical, indus-
trial, power engineering, electrical engineering, radio engineering,
physical engineering, machine-building, civil engineering,
machine-tool building, and so on and so forth.
Their course of study is five or five-and-a-half years, and they
have a total student body of 645,000.
Like the universities,, the technical colleges do extensive
research. In 1957, for instance, they conducted investigations in
the field of radio-electronics, heat-resistant alloys, gas turbine
design, the use of isotopes in 'science and engineering, and so on.
In 1956 the U.S.S.R. had 721,000 engineers with diploma, or
431,000 more than in 1940.
The specialised secondary and higher schools graduated more
than 770,000 young men and women in 1957.
A higher agricultural education is given at academies, colleges
and the agronomy faculties existing at some universities. Train-
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ing is offered in many fields: soil science and agro-chemistry,
fruit and vegetable cultivation and viniculture, plant protection,
sericulture, animal husbandry, land use, mechanisation, land
reclamation, forestry, the economics and organisation of agricul-
ture, and so on.
In 1954 the colleges and universities gave training in 500
specialities, but now the number has been reduced to 274 with the
aim of giving students a more thorough general scientific and
general engineering education .
The curricula encourages diverse forms of independent work
by the students. This gives the instructors more time for a fuller
elucidation of the more complex and important scientific prob-
lems, as well as an opportunity to acquaint students with the
latest achievements in domestic and foreign science and engin-
eering.
Enrolment in institutions of higher learning is open to citizens
between the ages of seventeen and thirty-five who have completed
a secondary education and passed the entrance examinations.
Tuition in all the colleges and universities of the Soviet Union
has been free of charge since 1956. All students who make good
progress receive a state allowance that assures them a subsistence
minimum.
New regulations introduced in 1957 stipulate that young men
and women who have Worked for a period of at least two years
after completing secondary school shall be given preference in
admittance to higher schools. This is promoting the influx into the
colleges and universities of young people with a certain amount
of practical experience on the job.
Six out of every ten persons entering higher schools in the
1957-58 academic year had worked at least one or two years.
The Soviet Union's 767 colleges and universities have an aggre-
gate student body of more than 2 million.
Of these, upwards of 800,000 study by correspondence or in
evening departments, in their spare time. They enjoy a number
of privileges, sual as, for instance, an additional paid holiday
during the examination periods.
116
'?".%
Can a Soviet worker become an engineer by
studying in his spare time?
162
yEs, he can.
Many secondary technical schools and colleges provide
evening or correspondence courses. There are also corres-
pondence colleges, for instance, the U.S.S.R. Polytechnical
Correspondence Institute, with a student body of more than
20,000.
Most of the evening courses are attached to big factories. The
students attend lectures and do their laboratory assignments
after working hours.
Correspondence students receive assignments by mail. Twice
a year they are summoned to the college to take examinations.
That is how, by studying in the evenings or by correspondence,
a worker can obtain a higher education in his spare time. This
education is free.
Soviet labour legislation stipulates a number of privileges for
evening correspondence students. Among them are additional
holidays for consultations, examinations and preparation of their
graduation theses.
On completing their studies, evening and correspondence stu-
dents receive diplomas on the same basis as regular students.
Under the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1951-55), the higher educa-
tional establishment graduated 247,000 correspondence students.
In 1955 more than 175,000 students were admitted to the cor-
respondence departments of colleges and universities and the
correspondence colleges.
More than 3,500,000 persons studied in their spare time in
1957 at evening or correspondence courses provided by special-
ised secondary and higher schools, in general schools for young
workers and farmers, and schools for adults.
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63 1 How is science adrancing in the U.S.S.R.?
?
SOVIET people hold the view that science is born of practice
and that the ultimate aim of scientific cognition of the world
is to gain active mastery over the laws governing the develop-
ment of nature and society in order to place them at the service
of society and social production.
In the second half of the nineteenth century and the first
decade of the present century a number of scientific discoveries
of first-rate importance were made in Russia.
Even with the limited material and technical facilities they had
in old, pre-revolutionary Russia the country's scientists did some
magnificent work, the crowning point of which was Mendeleyev's
Periodic Table of the Elements, the foundation of all modern
natural science.
In the sphere of the social sciences, Lenin provided a develop-
ment of Marxism, that most progressive scientific theory which
discovered the materialist laws of social development.
The Revolution of 1917 put the ideas and conclusions of this
theory into practice. A new social system, Socialism, emerged
victorious.
Subsequently, socialist production, the object of which is to
satisfy the requirements of the entire population, had to be
founded, and actually is founded, on the latest scientific and
technological achievements.
Socialism implies the organisation of the life of society on a
planned, scientific basis. By its very nature it is a social system
containing unprecedented potentialities for scientific progress.
In the early Soviet period, when the country was working to
restore the economy that had been wrecked by the war and
foreign intervention, science took an active part in the solution
of many practical problems.
The first research institute founded by the Soviet Government
was the Physico-Technical Institute in Leningrad. Its purpose
was to promote the introduction of achievements of modern
physics into technology. Scientists were active in developing ex-
peditionary work to study Russia's great mineral riches, which
had been explored only to an insignificant degree in Pre-
revolutionary times.
They also played an important role in distributing the country's
productive forces rationally and promoting the specialisation of
112
economic districts in conformity with their particular natural
factors.
Scientific personnel was likewise drawn into the training of
highly-qualified specialists in all branches of learning, something
to which ? great attention has always been paid in the Soviet
Union.
The system of planning takes into account both short-term
and long-range economic requirements. Alongside the develop-
ment of the applied sciences it therefore provided for a great
advance in the theoretical departments of the natural sciences
as a major motive force in scientific progress as a whole. This
long-range policy fully justified itself.
Fundamental discoveries have been made in the U.S.S.R. in
studying the behaviour of matter at temperatures approaching
absolute zero (by P. L. Kapitsa and his associates). Recently
this research received theoretical interpretation in a new theory
of super-fluidity and super-conductivity propounded by N. N.
Bogolyubov. '
In 1934 P. A. Cherenkov, working under the guidance of
S. I. Vavilov, discovered a new phenomenon which has been
named the Vavilov-Cherenkov Effect. Subsequent studies have
shown the practical importance of this phenomenon in making
extremely sensitive instruments with which to investigate the
properties of atomic nuclei.
V. I. Veksler has worked out a new principle for accelerating
charged particles which has made it possible to produce energies
more than a thousand times greater than those known before.
This principle has been incorporated in powerful accelerators
built in the U.S.S.R.
N. N. Semyonov evolved the theory of branching chain re-
actions, on which the processes of combustion, explosion and
other types of oxidation are based. Proceeding from this theory
the Soviet scientists Y. B. Zeldovich and Y. V. Khariton made
the first calculations that were correct in principle of nuclear
chain reactions in the fission of uranium. This directly preceded
the experimental construction of the first nuclear teactors.
In the Soviet period N. D. Zelinsky and his followers have
conducted fundamental investigations in the transformation of
hydrocarbons, which served as the basis for the development
of modern methods of chemical refining of oil.
A. E. Arbuzov, A. N. Nesmeyanov, K. A. Andrianov and
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others laid the foundation of the chemistry of organic com-
pounds. Further work has led to the development of a number
of extra-powerful insecticides, drugs, high-temperature-resisting
oils, rubber, insulating resins, and so on.
V. 1. Vernadsky and A. P. Vinogradov founded a new science,
biogeochemistry, which deals with the natural laws governing
the accumulation and dispersion in the earth's crust of elements
connected with the activity of living organisms.
The development of theoretical geology enabled I. M. Gubkin
to predict the existence of many new oil-bearing regions, includ-
ing the vast fields in Bashkiria and Tataria that have come to
be known as the Second Baku. Extensive work by geological
prospecting parties provided the basis for broad generalisations
expressed in the compilation of unique geological and tectonic
maps embracing the territory of the U.S.S.R. and neighbouring
countries.
In biology, Ivan Pavlov developed the theory of higher
nervous activity. Ivan Michurin evolved new forms of plant life
and in Soviet tinies made broad generalisations which are of
importance for biology as a whole.
The Soviet Union's planned system of economic and scientific
development provides excellent conditions for an all-round
approach to the solution of major problems of science and
engineering. An example was the collaboration of scientists of
many specialities to create the powerful inter-continental rockets
with which the Soviet sputniks were subsequently launched.
Work along a similarly broad line is being conducted on the
peaceful uses of atomic energy.
The Soviet Union is now able to increase its appropriations
for science from year to year according to plan. Appropriations
for science under the U.S.S.R. budget were 11,700 million
roubles in 1957 and 15,000 million in 1958. Scientists themselves
take part in deciding how these sums are spent. Fundamental
research is a priority.
Proceeding from the practical requirements of the national
economy, the U.S.S.R. has planned a greater development of
the whole complex of sciences making up the foundations of
modern knowledge?its physico-mathematical, chemical and
biological groups. In each of these groups Soviet economy sees
immense potentialities for developing the techniques of the
future.
114
In the physical sciences, for example, Soviet researchers are
combining work on the design and construction of atomic
electrical stations and atomic power installations with experi-
ments aimed at producing controlled thermo-nuclear reactions.
Solution of this problem would free man for ever from all
worry about sources of energy.
Extension of the sphere of application of semi-conductor
instruments demands broader experimental and theoretical
investigations.
Also. requiring considerable theoretical development are the
new researches being conducted in radio and electrical engineer-
ing (for example, work connected with the building of a single
high-voltage system for the whole Soviet Union, employing
long-distance transmission lines) and in the design of new
electronic computing machines.
Chemistry is called upon to play an important part in the
Soviet Union's further economic progress. In this case, too,
science will be a reliable compass for the national economy.
Soviet scientists are working on ways of extracting the most
valuable chemical products from fuel before it is burned.
An example of the comprehensive technological approach in
processing minerals is the production of aluminium from
nepheline (this was first done in the U.S.S.R.; up to now all
over the world, aluminium has been obtained from bauxite).
The alkalis in nepheline (soda and potash) are extracted at
the same time as the aluminium, and the waste-products are
made into high-grade cement.
Mendeleyev's dream of underground gasification of coal and
the turning of oil into a universal chemical raw material is
coming true.
The growing importance of chemistry is understood in the
U.S.S.R. not only as the use of more substances and materials
in industry but also as a fundamental change in production
technique.
Broadest use of plastics and of what is called "powder metal-
lurgy" will help to eliminate inefficient intermediate processing.
Ready-made articles are more and more being shaped directly
from atoms and molecules.
In the biological sciences, along with further work on methods
of scientific farming and livestock raising, an important place
is occupied by the study of problems of human longevity and
115
?$-
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3,
the search for radical cures for the most widespread diseases
(malignant tumours, cardio-vascular disorders, and others) and
the elaboration of a complex of measures for prolonging human
life.
In the Soviet Union's new stage of economic development
science is being advanced according to plan, as before, and
its latest achievements are, in turn, being made part of long-
range plans.
64
I What scientific institutions are there in the
U.S.S.R.?
RUSSIA has given the world many outstanding scientists
who have made great discoveries. Lomonosov, Popov,
Stoletov, Mendeleyev, Sechenov and Pavlov are names
known to the whole civilised world.
In tsarist times, however, scientists and scientific institutions
did not possess either the necessary facilities or support. The
electric arc light invented by Yablochkov, for example, failed to
find recognition in Russia and was first used in Paris. The
inventor died in poverty.
The Soviet system created exceptionally favourable conditions
for the advance of science and placed science at the service of
the people.
As early as April 1918, when the young Soviet Republic was
living through the difficult period of civil war and economic
chaos, Lenin wrote his famous "Draft Plan for Scientific and
Technical Work" which outlined the broad development of
science in close contact with the needs of industry.
Science in the U.S.S.R. is called on to promote the maximum
development of productive forces and best use of natural
resources with the help of the most up-to-date techniques. The
object is to satisfy the constantly growing material and cultural
requirements of Soviet society.
Science in the Soviet Union has achieved an unparalleled
-
development in a short span of years. In 1913 tsarist Russia
had only slightly more than 10,000 research workers. In 1939
the Soviet Union had about 60,000. By 1956 there were 240,000.
There were close to 2,800 scientific institutions in the Soviet
Union in 1957..
Today, when we observe, on the one hand, a great differenti-
:n:-c ?
116
anon and specialisation of separate departments of knowledge
and, on the other, the rise of numerous fields taking in several
of these departments, a thorough study of problems is
impossible unless they are approached from all angles.
All-round investigation of major scientific and technical
problems by the joint efforts of large groups of research workers
has become common in the U.S.S.R.
The Soviet Union's scientific institutions work in close co-
operation with industrial and agricultural establishmentt and
help them to improve production.
. For example, the Paton Institute of Electric Welding of the
Ukrainian Academy of Sciences has close ties with more than
700 factories which apply the new welding method it has
evolved.
The centre of scientific thought in the Soviet Union is the
Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. (founded in 1724), which
embraces more than 100 research institutes. The Academy has
eight departments (physics and mathematics, chemistry, geology
and geography, biology, technical sciences, history and philos-
ophy, economics and law, and literature and language).
The Academy's twelve branches, situated in the Moldavian
Republics, the Karelo-Finnish, Tatar, Bashkir, Yakut and
Daghestan Autonomous Republics, Primorye Territory, Siberia,
Sakhalin, the Urals and the Kola Peninsula, have thirty-four
research institutes, about eighty independent departments and
laboratories, eight botanical gardens, and other auxiliary
establishments. These branches have grown into major scientific
centres.
In May 1957 the Soviet Government adopted a decision to set
up a Siberian Department of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences.
This large new scientific centre is to guide the work of all
the Academy branches situated in Siberia and the Soviet Far
East, and organise more effective assistance by science to the
rapidly growing industry and agriculture of that rich territory.
A town consisting of twelve research institutes, a university,
residential area, cultural establishments, public service estab-
lishments, and so on is now being built for it near the city of
Novosibirsk.
By March 1958 the Siberian Department included eight
Academicians and twenty-seven Corresponding Members of the
Academy.
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In recent years Soviet scientists have made big progress in
nuclear research. This is thanks largely to the work of such
relatively new establishments as the Atomic Energy Institute
headed by Academician I. V. Kurchatov and the Institute of
Physical Problems headed by Academician P. L. Kapitsa.
In the laboratories of these institutes scientists are working
on problems of controlled thermonuclear reactions, are studying
the behaviour of plasma at temperatures of more than 1 million
degrees, are perfecting methods of obtaining liquid helium, and
so on.
Thirteen of the fifteen Union Republics have their own
Academies of Science which are doing fruitful work. They com-
prise 262 research institutions. (The Union Republics that do
not have Academies are Moldavia, where there is a big branch
of the U.S.S.R. Academy, and the Russian Federation, on the
territory of which are situated the U.S.S.R. Academy, several
of its branches, and the Siberian Department).
The Soviet Union has a number of specialised academies.
The Academy of Medical Sciences (founded in 1944) consists
of three departments: medicine and biology: clinical medicine:
hygiene, microbiology and epidemiology. In 1957 it had 96
Members and 136 Corresponding Members.
The Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the U.S.S.R.
(founded in 1929) has six departments: farming; livestock
raising; mechanisation and electrification of agriculture; hydro-
engineering and reclamation; forestry and afforestation; and
land reclamation; and the economics and organisation of agri-
cultural production. The Academy has thirty-five zesearch insti-
tutes under its jurisdiction.
The Academy of Arts of the U.S.S.R. is successor to the Art
Academy established in St. Petersburg in 1757.
final shape in 1956.
The U.S.S.R. Academy of Construction and Architecture took
There are a number of specialised scientific academies in the
Union Republics. One is the Academy of Educational Sciences
of the Russian Federation founded in 1943. This research organ-
isation uniting outstanding scientists and scholars promotes the
development of the educational system, spreads educational
knowledge, and studies problems of education.
In addition, extensive scientific work is carried out in univer
sities and other higher educational establishments.
118
What is the Soviet Union's contribution to the 65
International Geophysical Year?
THE thousands of scientists in sixty-four countries who arc
combining their efforts in the research programme of the
International Geophysical Year, which began on July 1st,
1957, are conductinig investigations along twelve main lines.
In numbers of observation stations and scale of expeditionary
work the Soviet Union is one of the largest participants in the
1.G.Y.
A great many scientific institutions and organisations arc
working on the I.G.Y. programme. Of the 496 stations and
observatories in the U.S.S.R. which are doing research under
the programme 200 were organised or completely re-equipped in
connection with the I.G.Y.
There are also hundreds of stations for observing the Northern
Lights and phosphorescent clouds. The Soviet Union organised
a large Antarctic expedition and set aside twelve big oceano-
graphic ships for research in all the oceans of the world along
routes agreed upon with the other countries.
Among the many other investigations is a large-scale study
of the zone between the continent and the ocean in the region
of the Kuril-Kamchatka ridge.
Under the I.G.Y. programme Soviet scientists have organised
joint expeditionary work with scientists from Czechoslovakia,
the German Democratic Republic and the United Arab Republic
A number of studies are being carried out jointly with other
countries. In Antarctica, for instance, the Soviet Union and the
United States have exchanged meteoroligists.
An outstanding achievement of Soviet scientists was the
launching of the first man-made earth satellites, in conformity
with the I.G.Y. programme (see answer No. 66).
Speaking about preliminary scientific results, mention should
first be made of the geophysical investigations carried out with
the help of the sputniks and rockets. These investigations arc of
great interest to scientists in all countries.
Since 1949 the Soviet Union has regularly sent up geophysical
and meteorological rockets to altitudes ranging from several
dozen miles to 125-130 miles. During the I.G.Y. it plans to
launch 125 rockets of different types and purposes; part of this
programme has by now been fulfilled.
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.or
Carrying out the I.G.Y. progranune, Soviet scientists sent up
a powerful new one-stage rocket carrying a total of 1 to 10 mit
of scientific apparatus to a height of nearly 300 miles on
February 21st, 1958. Both as regards the altitude reached. and
the scope of the research programme conducted, this rocket
substantially surpassed previous experiments in the U.S.S.R. and
Other countries in studying the upper atmosphere with rockets.
The Soviet Union made a notable contribution to science When
it launched Sputnik III on May 15th, 1958. While Sputnik I
was hailed the world over as the first step into space, and
Sputnik II was particularly interesting because of the test animal
it carried, the main feature of Sputnik III is its great weight,
1 ton 6 cwt. and extensive scientific apparatus, weighing over
19 cwt. Sputnik III is a unique space laboratory carrying out
a broad complex of inter-connected investigations of the upper
layers of the atmosphere along all points of the I.G.Y. pro-
gramme.
To carry out I.G.Y. research in Antarctica the Soviet Union
sent a big expedition there equipped with the latest scientific
instruments, aircraft, helicopters, cross-country vehicles, tractors,
lorries and other equipment.
This winter Soviet Antarctic explorers will cross three poles?
the South Pole itself, the magnetic pole, and "the pole of
inaccessibility".
In 1956 three ships delivered some 8,000 tons of cargo to the
bottom of the world to set up the Mirny observatory.
The 180 Soviet research workers encountered harsh conditions
on the ice-covered continent. Between February 1956 and
January 1957, 262 stormy days, twenty-three of them with hurri-
canes, were registered at Mirny. But neither the snowstorms.
the rarefied air, temperatures as low as 75 and 80 degrees (
below zero, nor the other difficulties prevented the Soviet scie.,
tists from doing extensive research.
They photographed an area of over 23,000 sq. miles from the
air, sent up more than 2,000 radiosondes, obtained the first data
about temperatures and pressures at medium altitudes in tha 1
district by launching rockets, organised stations at high altitude
far from the coast, in the district of the south magnetic pole
the pole of inaccessibility, and other parts of Antarctica where
man had never set foot before.
They are conducting extensive geophysical, meteorological,
120
oceanographic and other research. After the latest investigations
many scientists now believe that Antarctica is a gtoup of islands
under an ice cap.
Measurements of the ice made by Soviet, British and American
scientists have established that its average thickness is not a mile,
as previously assumed, but more than one and a half miles.
Hence, the total volume of ice in Antarctica is correspondingly
greater. This is important from both the theoretical and prac-
tical points of view.
The ice continent has become a continent of friendship. The
scientific expeditions from different countries have established
close contacts there. They carry on, a broad exchange of scien-
tific and general information and are always ready to come to
one another's help.
The Soviet oceanographic expeditions have established that
the warm Kuroshio current has shifted 200-250 miles to the
north. A record ocean depth of 36,000 feet was registered in the
vicinity of the Marian Islands.
The Soviet ship Zarya, the world's only non-magnetic vessel.
especially built without the use of iron so that precise magnetic
observations could be made from it, has already finished work
in the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ahead lie thousands
of miles through the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.
Big achievements have been recorded by the scientists studying
Fedchenko Glacier in the Pamirs, by the research workers on
the stations drifting in the area of the North Pole, and at the
permanent Arctic stations equipped with the latest instruments
for photographing the northern lights, probing the ionosphere.
measuring cosmic radiation, and other work.
It will be possible to sum up the I.G.Y. work of scientists
from the Soviet Union and the other countries only after the
unique data collected all over the world has been systematised
and generalised.
World centres have been set up in the Soviet Union and the
United States, which all the I.G.Y. countries are obliged to
supply with data on all points of their investigations. Each of
the centres will have a complete set of the data; in case of
need they will give each other any observation data that arc
lacking.
Information from Soviet and other scientific institutions has
begun coming in to the Soviet centre.
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The Fifth Assembly of the Special (International) I.G.Y.
Committee was held in Moscow in July-August 1958.
The Assembly, which was attended by some 300 delegates and
guests from different countries, paid special attention to concrete
forms of co-operation between the scientific institutions of
various nations in working up the valuable 1.G.Y materials, to
the work of the world centres, and the role of international
scientific associations in co-ordinating the processing of I.G.Y.
data.
The Assembly also dealt with a number of problems pertain-
ing to subsequent co-operation.
A characteristic feature of the International Geophysical Year
is that this major scientific undertaking has not only brought
closer together scientists of different specialities who previously
were little connected with one another, but has been a striking
example of broad international co-operation which strengthens
cultural ties between nations and promotes world peace.
66 I What is the signficance of the Soriet Sputniks?
THEartificial satellite of the earth on October 4th, 1957, marked
successful launching by the Soviet Union of the first
the beginning of man's conquest of space. The sputniks
have opened up the broadest of prospects for conducting impor-
tant scientific observations at high altitudes over various regions
of the globe over a long period.
Although the significance of satellites for scientific investiga-
tion was known long ago, until recently launching them Nvas a
problem that nobody could solve. The main difficulty Jay in
building a rocket capable of imparting a space velocity of about
26,000 feet per second to a satellite.
It was only after the 'U.S.S.R. had developed the inter-
continental ballistic rocket that the launching of earth satelliks
became possible.
The weights of the first three sputniks-184.3 lb., nearly half
a ton, and 1 ton 6 cwt.?are landmarks in the advances mad,-
by Soviet science and engineering in little more than half a year
Each of the sputniks was a new stage.
The instruments inside Sputnik I furnished basic information
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about the satellite's orbit, about radio communications with it
and about its temperature regimens.
In addition to data about the upper layers of the atmosphere,
the equipment of Sputnik II gave us the first idea about the
behaviour of a living organism during a flight through space.
Finally, Sputnik III carries instruments for solving a greater
number of problems than ever before attempted in similar con-
ditions (the total weight of its apparatus is over 19 cwt.).
It is a unique space laboratory investigating the upper
atmosphere according to all the points of the I.G.Y. programme:
the state of the ionosphere and its chemical structure; measure-
ment of the pressure and density of the upper layers of the
atmosphere; study of the nature of the corpuscular radiation of
the sun; study of the primary composition and variations of
cosmic rays study of the electrostatic fields in the upper layers
of the atmosphere; study of the earth's magnetic field at high
altitudes; study of micro-particles.
Sputnik HI, launched on May 15th, 1958, is equipped with
improved radio and radio-telemetering apparatus guaranteeing
precise measurement of its movement along the orbit, uninter-
rupted registration of the scientific observations, and the con-
tinuous "memorising" and periodic transmission of information
to earth while passing over special relaying stations.
Automatic functioning of the sputnik's apparatus is assured
by a programme device. Semi-conductors were widely employed
in the apparatus; several thousands of them were used.
The apparatus is supplied with power by electro-chemical
sources of current and semi-conductor silicon solar batteries
which conve0 the energy of the sun's rays into electricity.
The Soviet I.G.Y. Committee has passed on all the data neces-
sary for observing Sputnik III to the I.G.Y. committees of other
nations .? Scientists in all countries are thus able to carry out
observations of the sputnik's flight.
A feature of the Soviet sputniks is their substantial and steadily
increasing payload, thanks to which they can be equipped '.th
a large number of scientific instruments.
Soviet engineering has now reached a level at which
launch an artificial satellite and send it out beyond fly:. carol
gravitational field, to the moon, for instance. But ,or
space rocket to have any scientific importance it would ha'.. to
be richly equipped with apparatus with which to obtain new
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data about physical phenomena in space and the conditions
of space flight.
Hence, the key to the problem of establishing permanent
space laboratories and travelling to distant planets lies in buRd
ing satellites of great weight. This is the line Soviet scientists
are following.
The size of Sputnik III and its high degree of automation
bring Soviet science and engineering close to the creation of
space ships.
The Soviet people's achievements in building and launching
the sputniks are not just an accident or a stroke of luck. They
are logically and naturally connected with the general progress
made by the Soviet Union
The ground for them was prepared by the entire previous
and engineering.
development of socialist society and its economy, culture, science
It is worthwhile recalling that 1957?the year when the fortieth
anniversary of the Soviet system was celebrated ?was marked by
such events as the launching of the world's first atomic ice-
breaker, the construction of a uniquely powerful proton synchro?
tron for conducting nuclear research, the commissioning of huge
ing attainments.
jet airliners, and many other outstanding scientific and engineer-
At the bottom of these successes lies the socialist system,
which creates the most favourable conditions for an uninter-
rupted advance in the culture of the entire people, the growth
and engineering thought.
of scientific personnel, and the development of free scientific
The sputniks convincingly illustrate the level Soviet science
and engineering have reached. They are the synthesis of a
planned economy and a highly-developed industry ; they ar, a
result of Soviet achievements in physics, chemistry, matheman.s.
mechanics and electronics; they are a product of the joint aid
co-ordinated efforts of Soviet scientists, engineers and work( rs
trained in a socialist country
The striking fact that the world's first socialist country w c
the country to blaze a trail into space is a logical reflection ( '
the new stage in the development of human society.
The sputniks have emphasised the strength of the socialic
power, its scientific and technical potentialities, and its increase(
role as an advanced industrial country.
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However, the latest scientific and engineering achievements
and the resultant further changes in the correlation of forces in
the world arena in favour of the socialist camp have not altered,
nor could they have altered, the Soviet Union's foreign policy
of peaceful co-existence with all states and co-operation and
friendship with all nations. For the foreign policy of the Soviet
Union is determined by the social nature of the socialist system
?a system for whose fullest development peace is essential.
That is why the launching of the Soviet sputniks is a great
factor for peace, and not war. It helps to consolidate the forces
for peace the world over.
The Soviet sputniks are therefore not only a tool with which
to probe the secrets of space but are, at the same time, a symbol
of peace and co-operation among nations to give man still
greater power over the forces of nature for the welfare of the
whole of humanity.
How is engineering developing in the U.S.S.R.? I 67
EVER since the U.S.S.R. launched the first artificial earth
satellites (see answer No. 66) people all over the world have
been taking a greater and greater interest in Soviet engi-
neering achievements.
Regular flights by the first turbo-jet airliners in serial produc-
tion; the construction of big atomic electric stations; the
development of the intercontinental ballistic rocket; the launch-
ing of the first atomic-powered icebreaker?all these and other
attainments are the fruit of the powerful socialist industrtes
that have been built up in the Soviet period and are continuing
to advance at an unprecedented speed.
Here we chall deal briefly with the main trends in the develop-
ment of engineering in the USS.R.
Way back in the period of the Civil war and econorrix dans.
when the Soviet Republic was in its infancy, Lenin initiated
a programme for transforming the national economy on the
basis of electrification.
Knownas the GOELRO Plan, it was drafted and appro,:e4 r...'
1920. Fulfilment of the GOELRO Plan and subsequent deFeiop-
meat gave the U.S.S.R. large hydro-electric and other rxrar..-
capacities.
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Power production has increased by more than 100 times since
1913. More than 100 big hydro-electric stations, including the
largest in the world, with a capacity exceeding two million kw,
have been built in the forty years of the Soviet system. A
hydro-electric station with a capacity of more than three million
kw. is under construction.
The share of hydro-electric stations in the country's power
output has increased from 2 per cent to approximately 17 per
cent.
The construction of hydro-electric stations in the USSR.
follows three main principles: utilisation of the water power
along the entire course of rivers; simultaneous development of
waterways and irrigation systems; the creation of vast reservoirs
to store up colossal masses of spring thaw waters.
Characteristic of thermal power production in the USS.R.
is the combined output of electric energy and heat, that is, the
development of heat and power stations. This reduces fuel
expenditure, improves urban sanitary conditions, and relieves
urban transport.
A feature of Soviet thermal power stations is that the capacity
of the turbines is steadily being increased. Soviet engineering
mills put out turbines with capacities of 100,000, 150,000 and
200,000 kw. A 300,000-kw. turbine is now being built and
preparations are under way for the construction of still bigger
ones.
Steam pressure and temperature are also steadily being in-
creased, which makes operation of the power stations substan-
tially more economical.
Many thermal power stations in the U.S.S.R. use local peat,
shale, brown coal or gas. The target has been set of increasing
the share of oil and gas in the country's fuel consumption from
20 per cent to 63 per cent within the next few years.
Gas output is to be increased to between 9,477,000 million and
11,232,000 million cubic feet annually. Big new oil and gas pipe-
lines are being built.
A method of all-round power-chemical Utilisation of solid
fuel has been worked out (the gas obtained is used as fuel, the
liquid products are used as chemical raw materials, and the solid
waste is turned into building materials). (For the use of nuclear
energy in power production in the USS.R.?see answer No.68 )
A The regional power systems of the Soviet Union are now being
linked up by long-distance transmission lines as part of a scheme
126
to create a unified high-voltage network. Work is now nearing
completion on a unified power system for the European part of
the U.S.S.R.; the Georgian, Azerbaijan and Armenian power
systems are being linked up; a unified Central Siberian grid is
being set up.
Thanks to exceptionally rapid electrification the amount of
electric energy available per worker in industry is nineteen times
greater than in 1913. Electrification has been an important factor
in the fast rise of labour productivity.
The increase in productivity is due to consistent mechanisation
of labour, to the introduction of greater numbers of machines
and their more efficient use.
An example is the thorough mechanisation of farm labour
with the object of creating an abundance of foodstuffs. The
Soviet Union's socialist agriculture now has about 1,700,000
tractors (in terms of 15-h.p. units), more than 450,000 grain
combine harvesters, about one million tractor-drawn seeders,
and hundreds of thousands of other complex machines.
To all practical purposes the ploughing, sowing and harvesting
of grain crops has been completely mechanised.
However, it is not a question of merely providing the country
with more and more machines. The U.S.S.R. is introducing over-
all mechanisation by eliminating manual labour in auxiliary
operations as well as the main ones.
In the coal industry, for instance, the pits are getting coal
combines, conveyors and mechanical sets. The combine performs
all the main operations simultaneously, including loading: the
conveyor transports the coal, and the mechanical sets move
along the face working with the aid of a special machine as
needed.
The former tubmen, horse drivers and pick men have become
engine drivers, mechanics and motormen, and pits have become
highly mechanised enterprises of an industrial type.
In the building trades, over-all mechanisation had spread to
include 85 per cent of the work by the end of 1957.
The highest stage of mechanisation is automation, the main
line along which engineering is developing in the U.S.S.R. There
is not a factory in the Soviet Union today that does not have
automatic machinery.
The engineering and food industries, iron and steel plants and
shoe factories, and the chemical, textile and other industries are
getting automatic machines in ever-increasing quantities.
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? I,
More than 90 per cent of the country's pig iron is smelted
in furnaces equipped with automatic control and regulation
devices. Most of the open-hearth furnaces are being equipped
with automatic heat regimen regulators. Plate-rolling, tube-
rolling and blooming mills are being equipped with automatic
controls.
A feature of the present stage is the transition to over-all
automation. Automatic transfer lines, shops and entire factories
are being introduced in the engineering industry. All the district
hydro-electric stations have been equipped with automatic con-
trol devices. Over-all automation is spreading to the manufac-
ture of synthetic rubber, alcohol, oil products, building materials,
foodstuffs, and so on.
The scale on which automation and mechanisation are being
introduced into the national economy may be judged from the
fact that the output of the engineering and metal-working
industries has increased by more than 200 times since 1913.
In this same period labour productivity in Soviet industries
has grown approximately 9.5 times, despite the reduction of the
working day. (Incidentally, productivity in the United States has
increased only 6.6 times in the last 100 years.)
The growth in power output and the steadily rising level of
mechanisation and automation have led to a greater accent on
chemistry in all branches of the national economy.
New automatic techniques, the development of nuclear power
production, and the big dimensions of modern machines demand
many new materials with high physical and chemical properties.
Modern chemistry is creating artificial materials for various
specific needs. Manufacture of synthetic resins, plastics and
synthetic materials is being expanded. .
The Soviet Union's chemical industry is working on the
important national-economic problem of reducing, and then
altogether eliminating, the use of edible raw materials for indus-
trial purposes.
The chemical production of synthetic alcohol from oil is being
developed on a large scale. Much attention is being paid to
developing the manufacture of synthetic acids to replace lubri-
cants of vegetable origin.
The manufacture of mineral fertilisers and weed and pct
killers, which substantially raise crop yields, has been widel
developed in the Soviet Union. Mineral fertiliser output ha,
grown from 80,000 tons in 1913 to 11,200,000 tons in 1957.
128
-7
Also being expanded is the manufacture of chemical fibres,
leather substitutes and household items. Chemical processes are
penetrating into all branches of the national economy; they
are helping to reduce production costs and improve quality. The
role of chemistry will continue to grow at an increasing rate.
How is atomic energy being used for peaceful
purposes?
168
ATOMIC energy is used in the Soviet Union for diverse
peaceful purposes. A Central Administration for the
Utilisation of Atomic Energy has been set up under the
U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers. This body is engaged, on the
one hand, in solving problems relating to the wide use of atomic
energy in the national economy, and, on the other, in promoting
co-operation between the Soviet Union and other countries in
peaceful uses of atomic energy.
The experience gained in operating the world's first industrial
atomic power station (inaugurated in the Soviet Union on June
27th, 1954) and subsequent research have been utilised in the
building of large atomic electric plants. The first part of a new
plant, with 100,000 kw. capacity, was opened in 1958. When
completed the full capacity will be 600,000 kw.
The Soviet Union's big atomic power stations (with capacities
of up to 400,000 kw. each) are being equipped with reactors of
various types.
The first type is analogous to the one initially put into opera-
tion and is designed for the use of turbines with a capacity of
100,000 kw. with steam at a pressure of 90 atmospheres at
5000 C.
The second type are thermal neutron reactors with water
under pressure?that is, ordinary water is used as the moderator
and coolant.
In the third type (also thermal neutron) heavy water is used
as the moderator and carbon dioxide circulating under pressure
in a closed circuit as the coolant.
In addition to the big stations of these three types, four
smaller experimental installations are being tested. In general,
the construction of big and small atomic power stations is in
the experimental stage. In the course of the operation of these
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chosen
stations the most efficient types of atomic reactors will h
Broader use of atomic energy in the national economy and
in science and engineering is closely connected with the develop
ment of atomic engines of various types, the establislunent cl
methods of directly converting atomic power into electric energy,
and the application of radioactive substances.
The icebreaker Lenin, the first atornic ship, was launched in
the USS.R. in 1957. It is a 16,000-ton vessel with a length ei
452 feet, beam of 91 feet, and engin of 44,000 h.p. develop
a speed of 18 knots in clear water. The Lenin can plough
through ice for twelve months without having to make port.
The Central Administration for the Utilisation of Atomic
Energy is working on atomic engines for other sea-going vessels,
ground transport, aircraft, and so on.
Radio-isotopes are widely used in Soviet science, engineering.
industry, agriculture and medicine as a source of penetrating ?
radiation and as tracer atoms.
The penetrating property of radio-active radiation is employed ,,,,
to control and regulate diverse industrial pr es ocess, for instance, 4.z,.
to check the quality of metal articles. Gamma defectoscopes k.
designed in the USS.R. can detect inner flaws in steel goods up
to nearly 12 inches thick.
The absorption and dispersion of rays while passing through ;
stibstances is also used to check the thickness of sheets and
ribbons in the rolling process and the thickness of coatings, to
measure the density of substances and the level of liquids and
dry substances in closed vessels, in the pouring of molten metal,
in counting articles moving along conveyors, in measuring the
thickness of the walls of pipes, and so on.
In many fields the action of nuclear radiation on substances
is employed. In the chemical industry, for instance, radiation
is used to activate a number of bnportant reactions (in parti-
cular, in obtaining polymers, the big molecules which are the
basis of plastics).
The structural features of deep oil-bearing and other strita
are studied with the help of radiation.
In the canning industry radiation treatment is employed to
sterilise food products.
Among the medical uses of radiation id the USS.R. a /nal r
place is occupied by treatment of skin and internal tumours.
Soviet scientists have developed irradiation apparatus chargt I
130
f
with radio-active cobalt which has a number of advantages over
installations using natural radium. Cobalt ray machines are in
use in medical centres in many towns of the U.S.S.R. Also
widely employed are thin cobalt needles which are introduced
into the tumour, as well as applicators for treating surface
tumours.
Internal organs are also treated by introducing therapeutic
doses of artificial radio-active substances into the body.
Radio-isotopes are employed in the U.S.S.R. not only as a
source of powerful radiations but as indicators. Tracer atoms
are widely used in chemical investigations. They help engineers
to study machine friction and wear without taking the machines
apart, and to improve blast furnace and steelmaking processes.
Tracer atoms have found application in all fields of biology.
In particular, they have enabled Soviet biologists to develop
a new field, functional biochemistry of the nervous system. With
the help-of tracer atoms research workers can observe the rate
of metabolism in different parts of the nervous system and
obtain data on the distribution of germ cells and the drugs that
act against them. Successful efforts are being made to use
radio-isotopes for the early diagnosis of cancer.
Radio-isotopes are also employed at fisheries to study migra-
tion and propagation.
Equally broad use is made of radio-isotopes in the study of
important processes taking place in plants. With the help of
tracer atoms scientists have elucidated the most efficient methods
of applying fertiliser. Tracer atoms are also employed to observe
the movement of salts in the soil in connection with fertilisation
and drainage.
The development of diverse peaceful uses of atomic energy
contributes to a steady improvement of techniques in many
industries.
For example, the construction of atomic power installations
has required new chemically pure materials capable of with-
standing extremely high temperatures and radio-active radiation.
Improved automatic devices have had to be developed to
control reactors and other atomic apparatus. Atomic power
production has called into being a new industry of dosimetric
and radiometric apparatus to discover and register radiation.
A number of effective steps have been taken by the state
radiation.
12 the health of people who may be subjected to ionising
F2
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Only 2 small part of the work done in the USSR. on pin, :
,deseription would occupy far too numb space..
ita nses of nuclear energy has been inenticaled h=e; a fal r
Still '$aide-t use of atomic energy in the smIice of IMM i
bound up Iiith the development of nuclear research.
The Soviet Union has never made a secret of its achieverneXt ,
in the peaceful use of atomic energy- The work of Scniet scia
lists is widely publicis' ed in the press. A Journal Azornir &an= '1
Soviet Union.
devoted to peaceful uses of atomic eneiri, is published in the il,
The Soviet Union took an active pan in the International
Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy held in Geneva c,
r
in August 1955. Soviet scientist' s submitted 1,02 papers on the '
work being conducted in the U.S.S.R.-
Travelling exhibitions on thesubjett have been on display h
Geneva, India, Czechoslovakia' , &wed= and other countzies. A at
special pavOion showithe peaceful uses of atomic energY in =
F-xhibition in Mosc.citv.
the Soliet Union has been opened at the USSR. Industrial
The Soviet Union is extending scientific and techntl co-
operation in thiS field mith other countries. With the aid of the T
Soviet Union a number of other countries are setting up exe-''' f'
mental centres for research in nuclear physics and the use of
atomic energy for peaceful purposes. ,s.4 s.
Such work is being done in China, Poland, Czechosi"valia'
the German Democratic Republic, Rumania, Bulcana and
Hungary
An agreeement has been concluded to supply Yugoslavia uith
a research reactor. The U.S.S.R. is also giving Egypt scieitifie 1.
and technical assistance in establishing a nuclear physics la Kora- '
tory in Cairo and in the peaceful uses of atomic energY-
operation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy is the - in
Of great importance in the development of internationa; ,co
-t.
Nuclear Research Institute founded in the town of Dubna vicar
Moscow) with the participation of a number of countries.
The LISS-R- has placed unique installations for nuc .ar
research at the disposal of the Institute.
Vigorously advocating the prohibition of atomic and them 0-
nuclear weapons, the USSj. is promoting international ,. ?
operation in the use of the powerful energy of the aton lc
nucleus for the benefit of mankind.
132
What is the cultural life of the Union Republics? 69
THE old regime overthrown by the October Socialist Revo-
lution in 1917 barred the working people from acquiring
knowledge; it isolated the people from spiritual riches and
doomed the entire population of Russia's border regions to
ignorance.
The Soviet social system has quickly and completely overcome
the cultural backwardness born of centuries of social oppression
and national enslavement. In a brief span of years all the
country's nationalities, including those that were most backward
culturally, have made outstanding progress.
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, where the overwhelm-
ing majority of the population was illiterate under tsarism, has
long since become a region of full literacy, with a numerous and
highly-gifted intelligentsia.
Supporters of the old regime claimed that the Kazakh people
were "organically incapable of attaining modern civilisalion, like
all the other peoples of the East".
Today the Kazakh people have many scientists of whom the
whole of Soviet science is proud, many writers whose books arc
translated into the languages of all the other peoples of the
U.S.S.R. and into foreign languages, and many singers, dancers
and musicians who have won renown both at home and abroad.
Here are a few figures: the Kazakh Republic has more than
9,000 elementary and secondary schools, 135 specialised secon-
dary and higher schools, and un Academy of Sciences with
twenty research institutes. It has nineteen permanent theatres
and nine concert organisations, a film studio, and hundreds of
Palaces of Culture and other recreation centres.
Similar big changes have taken place in Tajikistan. A region
with an ancient culture, it had descended to complete illiteracy
in the centuries preceding the establishment of the Soviet system.
Today Socialist Tajikistan has 40,000 spi-cialists with a secon-
dary or higher education. Universal seven-year education has
been put into effect everywhere, including the remotest mountain
villages. Ten-year schooling has been introduced in the towns
and in many district centres and collective farms.
The Republic's ten institutions of higher learning have a
student body of 16,000, chiefly the sons and daughters of
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workers and peasants who before the Revolution were oppressed
by feudal lords.
Scientific thought is developing intensively in Tajikistan. Its
centre is the Tajik Academy of Sciences, where hundreds of
research workers are engaged on major economic and cultural
problems. Three research institutes in Taaistan are engaged on
problems of agriculture alone.
The great socialist transformations that have taken place in
all the Union Republics in the Soviet years have been marked
by striking cultural progress.
From the very beginning the Russian people gave the formerly
oppressed nations tremendous assistance. Russian scientists and
other specialists generously shared their knowledge and solici-
tously trained the first school teachers, engineers and scientists
in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, ICirghizia and other Union Repub-
lics. Before long, yesterday's pupils became equal associates and,
in some cases, mentors of their former teachers.
The cultural advance in Russia's border regions to which the
Sovietnisystem gave freedom and independence was not simply
a case of bringing civilisation within the reach of the masses.
It was more than that. It was the development of new cultures,
national in form and socialist in content, the creation of new
spiritual values.
The work of many scientists, writers and artists of the Repub-
lics of the Soviet East has won wide recognition in the world.
Noteworthy cultural progress has also been made by the
Union Republics in the western regions of the U.S.S.R.
Although Latvia, for instance, joined the close-knit family of
Soviet nations comparatively recently, in 1940, she has registered
considerable cultural advances. Suffice it to say that the number
of research institutes in Latvia has grown from 36 in 1940 to 66
today; seven times as many college-trained specialists are being
produced today as in 1940; school enrolment has increased
nearly eightfold. Before 1940, 10 per cent of the Latvian popula-
tion was unable to read or write. Since joining the Soviet Union
illiteracy has been wiped out.
134
Do Soviet scientists, writers, artists and
musicians enjoy creative freedom?
yES, they do. The Soviet social system ensures all citizens,
irrespective of their material position, race, nationality, sex
or religious convictions the opportunity freely to develop
and apply their gifts and energies in any field of endeavour,
including the scientific and artistic.
In the Soviet Union all the material riches and political power,
and the newly-created material and cultural benefits belong to
the working people, to the workers, peasants, and intellectuals.
They themselves create and distribute them in the interests of
the whole of society. The country's economy, science, education
and art, and the people's cultural level are advancing all the
time.
While receiving material assistance from society, workers in
Soviet science, art and literature are completely free to choose
the sphere in which they will apply their talents.
In training scientific workers the Soviet higher schools strive,
as President A. Nesmeyanov of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences
has noted, to give the student greater independence in his studies
and to make the curricula more flexible and individual. This
will lead to the graduate scientist being all the more independent
in his work.
It goes without saying that in the present age, when the inter-
connection of the sciences has become greater than ever before,
research has to be conducted according to a definite plan, all
the more since the majority of the investigations require sub-
stantial outlays from society.
Scientific work, like all other forms of activity in Soviet
society, is based on an indivisible combination of the require-
ments of society and the creative interests of the individual
scientist. The scientist is not compelled by anyone to engage in
research that does not attract him. And if a scientist feels drawn
to an interesting subject or hypothesis, it will be included in the
research programme and funds will be allocated for it no matter
how remote the possibility of its yielding practical results
A diversity of creative individualities is characteristic of all
spheres of intellectual life in the U.S.S.R. Dmitri Shostakovich,
the distinguished modern composer, has said that "Soviet art
opens up the road to an all-round development of various
135
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arUtie: ? i??imj1jj1 eannims, Erandi i=ge dam- o,-amle
&rJljlanatitatir_
iiiihndve and 7.-^actatiliiflth.. icage adms 2..nd
Fzet Saniet =mina-am or wri-ter vandas r;:ar ffte wela..--e of
the ger.cie im ciant,rma-rsi? /Aida ifs' tterutr,- 'xialwE and i---icrat..ky
Oro mare %IT. as it it iitrgtvale ro) carta, rate..-xeL-y of
..31:1maxittkr wiinD rfnu: of Lecraiit 1/Inr74tnaw. ?car. al-
ai:a octufane eb ztmfla"::..0 1Dmabii Ii:fainfsta,tw %Ile:. Aran
Kfialthatarfterri, ecurgrcidatriE. or ffne guntr:mm,
S-7x2.. .13 %.tin3Cal/1' eoff .3imfren Plerror.ot
The IcanteL-ircran1.11fcCiatbli2E. Cif S.7' isiet
ecnzp: (me critcrastar Em7e e-
offt5cimamds of r=E,..e r=ta off adritt'r'e 2.:ILA
the
aza., and ear-.5 Ens Ea on Toile. aim' omm =ern-me styre-.1-.. oza
f.eitr-e-treved incil-
Friatztoff a-dadite watt gmelipzif. f.-teSam
of =eithe catms-vm,my mod c-eLtize Th
sz-nr.. e -c:_ft.-ent
er-m-ne amd elea-ema ErIpatbeses
with cue .azawdaer-Tbel lexcC21 C:Eziry' W274 tas==c-
in
tfre ;mit za0 fro= ;Acrt.-- of cm.r-a otisEzEL.-Imf. Every
eoff=tinaa2=!= gir=in s SaNriet ILr6z3 tae creaLz-itt 'male
ocinfros. as a pma=fr.1 faimer pramess.
The Coe:raxt Party off tht. sof aTtim L4m,:--ra_ at and
dr=titas ferze e:e cecgre? =--efitazdti- proczoces tEe
ir.catErtIcrie mod Q-MZIA:t of an atezze. of
sr?0 ee coy.
ii:cranttes road of de:dint:3m= of salitax. z.,-t and 1_
--& tf:e of the peagk; it helps recs.:: to
deleltp thei- one of Ito ways beinz -cfetr crizic:ira ;
it fem.= t!:e names 1E42 am:be&tasr and au indiarible
irzirEmg_for 1:=1=fica_
The Patty's azithatze of sederigt
ct.tracc hiejy-
-.. ti - and is alien to any b.=: of
:. 1.11'
!zZ
ath-Zall ,i-emikca. It is one of the nzaila sources of th.e rev;oes
cretairre nurezub and of tIne Sairiet Union's _wientili: and artism:
Fre edcm of ataire .-roork in the USSR. rta,...ncs freedom ?0
t=le the reef& andproneszs. This service is the ezezice of t-e
-.4-15tct=zh adt=e_
Conam=ii. t Patty spinit to which the Soviet Union's creat, e
Sonia variety reitcts art and literature that follow anwr- I
tris. ineke ecnnity between races and nationalities, Prra` 1
136
misanthropic views, or advocate war. It does not recognise
pseudo-sciences that poison human minds.
The socialist system provides all gifted people with real oppor-
tunities to develop their abilities to the utmost in science, litera-
ture, art or the practical fields of human endeavour. All it
demands of them is that their creative work should promote
the further flowering of the life of the people, that they should
work for the joy and welfare of the millions of ordinary people.
Soviet science, literature and art are carrying out this noble
mission with credit.
What newspapers and magazines are published? 71
ABOUT 8,000 newspapers in eighty-one languages arc pub-
lished in the U.S.S.R. They include twenty-five central,
163 Republican, 320 territorial, regional and area papers.
107 papers of Autonomous Republics, and 4,689 city and district
papers. Newspapers are put out at many industrial establish-
ments, institutions and schools. There are sixteen newspapers
dealing with engineering,, industry and construction, and ninety
devoted to transport.
In recent years collective farms have begun publishing news-
papers. There are now about 2,000 of these.
Total newspaper circulation is 57,500,000, which is seventeen
times more than the circulation of the newspapers published in
Russia before the Revolution.
Particularly popular are the central newspapers, which are put
out in Moscow: Pravda, organ of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union; Izvestia, organ of the
Soviets of Working People's Deputies of the U.S.S.R.; True!,
newspaper of the Central Council of Trade Unions; Krasnaya
Zvezda, organ of the Ministry of Defence of the U.S.S.R.;
Komsonzolskaya Pravda, newspaper of the Central Committee
of the Young Communist League; Literaturnaya Gazeta, organ
of the Soviet Writers' Union, and several others.
More than 3,000 magazines and other periodicals in fifty-five
languages with a total annual circulation of 533 million were
published in the U.S.S.R. in 1957. Magazines are published not
only in the languages of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. but also
137
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iv English, LF.tenith, Atithie, Chinese,, Genian, Inpanest,
Se
(Cteratran and Indian Itinguagms (Qrdu and lEfintii)
The Stwiet Union's analazines cover m great ?luirie:y oflL rib-
with spial petrffications tor ipranfinmy er.arm7x_. 'irinich of
-the irrational -economy and fidid of =au= mend mlenct The
tete 136 pattual and sonio-meantunic itriagaz:ines:; I!! .-deeimg
with Itumiture and atrt; 1120 dnvaled :to enthnenJj industry,
-transport and eommunientions; smaintrd-twDonmgtimItme.;
voity?steviiii dealing Av.tria the andural sciences; xmvm:tt3'
mg in the .beedro s=lices. end maediriine, and so on.
Tilt:'t: ere no priinne.13 (owned inewspapens or imprT-rm-e, is the
They are ptiblibb?%1 by gmblin cergunlinnions (.r..c Com-
vide LthiOa, youth, Solias, Aetitm' ;iewirrns dnr.. Saar
newspapers
are jciintly by Itlinigniim mud the =nal
=mu:titters of The 11017Tspoadinz trade Imians. For
Vci.Ludalar)a Gicrsa is issued jointly by the Miriiittifees F +1-,-
tionof The Union aripUblecs and the Central Cruirr-firs? of the
Ain=ofVicCtehttr6 an the Enexn=ntry and S=cindary Schools.
A tom ,MOCItttiOD of newspap-x, anavin. 3e-krI pnblinag
house Avorkeni,, the Union of Soviet Immmarists, has 11,---1 for-rd
The Smitet press gh.ts a full picture of The life of the Sosiet
people.. their heroic labour ia hating ociminnthatc, J their
clikturcel progress. Jr devotes izinc33 spa-cc to morld mffifux, popu-
larising 13 ideas of peaceand friendsit3. znamg the peop*iz of
all races and =ions.
The newspapers crhireet stithom fear ex faro= inc=cetent
eitoiniveslabo violate the latAs of sojjso6ety as demed by
the Constitution.
The Soviet press is a people's press_ It is of the people by
the people and for the people..
raelaspams cam. articles, des/latches and letters
si. In
by workers, collective farmers, engineers, economic man2gers
and government and Party Cmikial. s_ Central and local papers
wine:times give over entire pages to letters from readers_
During the c:ountrywide discussion of the further develop:- cnt
of the collec&e-farm system and reorganisation of the machine
and tractor stations, for invance, the newspapers published n-,re
than l001.00 articles and letters contributed by readers.
138
What publishing houses are there?
Do they publish many books?
172
THERE are more than 260 publishing houses in the U.S.S.R.
Most of them deal with a specific range of subjects: fiction
and poetry, books on agriculture, geography, medical
books, textbooks, books on science and engineering etc
Large publishing houses are run by the U.S.S.R. Academy of
Sciences, the Soviet Writers' Union and the Republican writers'
unions, and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions.
The Molodaya Gvardia Publishing House, run by the Young
Communist League, puts out books for young people. Books for
children of various ages are issued by the State Publishing House
of Children's Literature.
These two. publishing houses alone put out approximately
1,200 titles in a total printing of 140 million annually.
There are publishing houses in each Republic and in most of
the regions. Apart from the big central and local publishing
houses there are many publishing organisations attached to
colleges and universities, scientific institutions and societies. Their
total output runs into thousands of titles annually.
In the forty years of the Soviet system 1,327,000 books have
been published in a total printing of 19,300 million, in 122 lan-
guages of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. and other countries. In
1957 alone 58,800 books and pamphlets were put out in a total
of 1,047 million copies.
As compared with 1913 the number of titles published has
nuirly doubled and the printings have increased 10i times. In
pre-revolutionary Russia an average of 62 books was published
per 100 persons. Today the average is 550 books per 100 persons.
Political, social and economic literature holds a prominent
place in book publishing. Between 1917 and 1958 works by Marx
and Engels were published 1,955 times in a total printing of 72
million in forty-eight languages of peoples of the U.S.S R. and
twenty-one foreign languages. In this same period Lenin's works
were put out in eighty-eight languages, including sixty-two lan-
guages of peoples of the U.S.S.R. The total printing was 300
million. There were 2,357 editions of Lenin's works in Russian,
4,199 in other languages of the U.S.S.R., and 990 in foreign
languages.
139
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Works of classical fiction as well as the best books by con-
temporary Soviet authors are issued in enormous editions. In the
Soviet period 79 million copies of works by Pushkin have been
printed in eighty-one languages of the U.S.S.R. and foreign
countries. Gogol's works have appeared in 31 million copies in
forty-nine languages. Printings of Leo Tolstoy's works have
totalled 69 million in seventy-six languages. Gorky's works have
appeared in 85 million copies in seventy-three languages. The
works of the well-known Soviet writer Mikhail Sholokhov have
been put out in 21 million copies in fifty-five languages.
Besides books printed in the languages of all nations, national
groups and nationalities inhabiting the U.S.S.R., books are also
published in English, French, German, Spanish and other foreign
languages. A total of 14,583 books by 1,731 foreign authors had
been published in the U.S.S.R. in the Soviet period, according
to 1956 statistics.
In 1957 works by 388 foreign authors and editions of the folk-
lore of forty-seven countries were published. The Soviet Union
holds first place in the world in the publication of translated
literature. According to U.N.E.S.C.O. figures, the U.S.S.R. puts
out five times as many translated editions as the United States.
(For figures on the publication of works by foreign authors?see
answer No. 73.)
73
1 Which foreign authors are most popular in the
U.S.S.R.
SOVIET people sincerely appreciate and respect the cultural
achievements of other nations, large or small.
The Soviet Government spares no effort to make the best
productions of the human mind available to all the people
Works by Democritus, Aristotle, Voltaire, Diderot, Helvetius.
Holbach, Spinoza, Feuerbach, Darwin, Newton, Einstein and
many others are published in the U.S.S.R. in editions running
into tens of thousands.
Foreign works of fiction, which help the reader to gain a
better understanding of the history, life and customs of other
nations, are highly popular in the U.S.S R. and are published on
a, large scale. In 1957 alone their total printing was 78 million
During the Soviet period (between 1918 and 1957) 16,685 books
140
by 1,942 foreign authors were put out in a total of 535,500,000
copies in seventy-six languages of the U.S.S.R.
The total print of works by the main French authors between
1918 and 1957 were: Victor Hugo. 13,300,000 copies in forty-
five languages of the U.S.S.R.; Balzac, 11 million; Guy de
Maupassant, 8,500,000; Zola, 10,500,000; Jules Verne,
14,800,000; Romain Rolland, 6 million; Stendhal, 4,900.000;
Flaubert, 3,500.000; Anatole France, 3,400,000.
The print figures for works by English authors have been:
Dickens, 8,900,000; H. G. Wells, 6.900.000; Kipling, 4,400,000;
Swift, 3,700,000; Defoe, 3,500,000; Shakespeare, 3 million copies
in twenty-seven languages.
Soviet publishing houses issue American literary productions
in large editions. Jack London's works have been published in
thirty-two languages of the U.S.S.R. in editions totalling
19,200,000 copies and Mark Twain's works in twenty-five lan-
guages, with a total of 9,800,000 copies. The works of Theodore
Dreiser have come out, in 8,700,000 copies in twelve languages;
0. Henry and Upton Sinclair in 4 million copies each.
German writers are also published in big editions: Heine, a
total of 2,500,000 copies; Goethe, 1,900,000; Feuchtwanger,
2,500,000; Schiller, 1,600,000.
Here are some other outstanding authors of different countries
whose books have been published in editions totalling hundreds
of thousands, and even millions, of copies: Shaw, Byron, Burns,
Scott, Galsworthy, Cronin, Priestley, OVasey, Merimdc,
Rabelais, Aragon, Georges Sand, J. Fenimore Cooper, Scion-
Thompson, Longfellow, Hemingway, Bret Harte, Washington
Irving, Walt Whitman, Steinbeck, Bredel, Heinrich Mann,
Thomas Mann, Anna Seghers, Cervantes, Blasco Ibanez, Amado,
Neruda, Guillen, Ibsen, Boccaccio, Giovagnoli, Moravia, Amicis,
Stefan Zweig, Charles de Coster, Multatuli.
Soviet readers take a keen interest in the literature of the
Eastern countries. In forty years more than 1,000 books by
168 Eastern authors have been published in a total of 47 million
copies in thirty-two languages of the U.S.S.R. Books by Lu
Hsun have appeared in 2 million copies in eighteen languages;
San Shan-fei, 1,700,000; Chu Pao-hua, 1,200,000; Rabindranath
Tagore, 2,400,000; M. R. Anand, 1 million. Writings by Kuo
Mo-jo, K. Chandra, C. A. Abbas, P. Chandra, Omar Khayyam,
Firdousi, Kobayashi, Sepuko, Takakura, Li Ji Yen and others
have gone through editions of hundreds of thousands of copies.
141
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Recent years have seen a particular increase in the publication
of works of Eastern fiction. In 1957 there appeared 177 books
by Eastern writers, in a total of nearly 10 million copies, includ-
ing twenty books by authors of Arab countries in 1,500,000
copies, forty-six books by Indian authors in a total print of
2,700,000, and sixty-six by Chinese writers in 4,100,000 copies.
Works by writers of Burma, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and other
Eastern countries are also published extensively.
74 What theatres are there? lVhat do they produce!
THERE are more than 500 professional theatres and opera
houses in the Soviet Union. All have permanent com-
panies; as a rule, they have their own buildings. In addi-
tion there are touring companies which perform in district
centres and small industrial towns, and at railway stations and
construction projects.
Like Soviet socialist culture as a whole, the Soviet theatre has
assimilated the best and most progressive traditions of the Soviet
and other peoples. Fidelity to principle and the depiction of real
people are distinguishing features of the theatre. It adheres to
the principles of socialist realism, the fundamental method of all
Soviet art.
The traditional centres of Russian stage art are Moscow and
Leningrad. Among their most famous theatres are the Bo!shot
Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Moscow Art Theatre and the
Maly Theatre in Moscow and the Pushkin Theatre and the
Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre in Leningrad.
Theatres in the capitals of the Union Republics and many
regional centres have also won renown and widespread popu-
larity.
Widely known beyond their own towns and Republics are
such theatres in the Russian Federation as the Volkov Theatre
of Yaroslavl and the Kachalov Theatre of Kazan; in the
Ukraine, the Shevchenko Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Ivan
Frank? Theatre, both of Kiev; in Byelorussia, the Opera House
and the Yanka Kupala Theatre, both of Minsk; in Georgia, the
Rusthaveli Theatre of Tbilisi; in Latvia, the Academic Theatre
of Drama in Riga; in Estonia, the Kingisepp Theatre of
142
Tallinn; in Uzbekistan, the Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre and
the Khamza Theatre, both of Tashkent, and so on.
One of the historical gains of the Soviet system is the bringing
of culture within the reach of all the peoples inhabiting the
U.S.S.R.
In particular, dramatic art is developing among peoples to
whom it was completely unknown before 1917, for instance, the
Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Tajiks and Turkmcnians of Central
Asia, who never had any professional theatre.
Before the Revolution the inhabitants of the present-day
Kazakh Republic, whose area is equal to nearly one-third of
Europe, were familiar only with folk bards. Today the Kazaktis
have their own opera and ballet theatre, a republican theatre
of drama, a children's theatre, and fifteen drama theatres in
regional and district centres. They have symphony orchestras
and smaller bands, song and dance companies, circus troupes
and other permanent concert groups.
The same holds true for all the other Union Republics and
also for the Autonomous Republics. Stage performances are
given in forty languages in the U.S.S.R.
The repertoires are broad and varied. Works by Soviet drama-
tists and composers cover diverse themes, subjects and genres,
from the heroic and the epic to the comic, from psychological
drama to fairy-talcs.
The heroic and epic theme is most richly represented in opera.
Glorious pages from Russian history and the people's heroic
struggle for freedom and happiness are described in Prokoficv's
opera War and Peace, after the novel by Tolstoy; Dankevich's
Bogdan Klunehzitsky, about the reunion of the Ukraine and
Russia 300 years ago; Khrennikov's Mother, after the novel by
Gorky; Kabalevsky's Nikita Vershinin, about Siberian partisans
during the Civil War; Molchanov's Dawn, about sailors who
fought in the Revolution of 1917.
Soviet ballet is also varied in theme. It includes interpretations
of well-known literary works, such as Asaficv's Fountain of
Bakhchisarai, after the poem by Pushkin; Gliere's The Bronze
Horseman, based on Pushkin's poem of the same name; or
Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Machavariani's Othello, after
Shakespeare; fairy-tales, such as Prokofiev's Cinderella and
Stone Flower or F. Yarullin's Shurale, based on Tatar legends;
and works on contemporary subjects, such as Gliere's Red
Poppy, devoted to China's struggle for independence, Khacha-
143
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Recent years have seen a particular increase in the publication
of works of Eastern fiction. In 1957 there appeared 177 books
by Eastern writers, in a total of nearly 10 million copies, includ-
ing twenty books by authors of Arab countries in 1,500,000
copies, forty-six books by Indian authors in a total print of
2,700,000, and sixty-six by Chinese writers in 4,100,000 copies.
Works by writers of Burma, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and other
Eastern countries are also published extensively.
I74 What theatres are there? What do they produce!
THERE are more than 500 professional theatres and opera
houses in the Soviet Union. All have permanent com-
panies; as a rule, they have their own buildings. In addi-
tion there are touring companies which perform in district
centres and small industrial towns, and at railway stations and
construction projects.
Like Soviet socialist culture as a whole, the Soviet theatre has
assimilated the best and most progressive traditions of the Soviet
and other peoples. Fidelity to principle and the depiction of real
people are dtinguishing features of the theatre. It adheres to
the principles of socialist realism, the fundamental method of all
Soviet art.
The traditional centres of Russian stage art are Moscow and
Leningrad. Among their most famous theatres are the Bolshoi
Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Moscow Art Theatre and the
Maly Theatre in Moscow and the Pushkin Theatre and the
Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre in Leningrad.
Theatres in the capitals of the Union Republics and many
regional centres have also won renown and widespread popu-
larity.
Widely known beyond their own towns and Republics are
such theatres in the Russian Federation as the Volkov Theatre
of Yaroslavl and the Kachalov Theatre of Kazan ; in the
Ukraine, the Shevchenko Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Ivan
Franko Theatre, both of Kiev; in Byelorussia, the Opera House
and the Yanka Kupala Theatre, both of Minsk; in Georgia, the
Rusthaveli Theatre of Tbilisi; in Latvia, the Academic Theatre
of Drama in Riga; in Estonia, the Kingisepp Theatre of
142
Tallinn; in Uzbekistan, the Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre and
the Ithamza Theatre, both of Tashkent, and so on.
One of the historical gains of the Soviet system is the bringing
of culture within the reach of all the peoples inhabiting the
USSR.
In particular, dramatic art is developing among peoples to
whom it was completely unknown before 1917, for instance, the
Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Tajiks and Turkmcnians of Central
Asia, who never had any professional theatre.
Before the Revolution the inhabitants of the present-day
Kazakh Republic, whose area is equal to nearly one-third of
Europe, were familiar only with folk bards. Today the Kazaklis
have their own opera and ballet theatre, a republican theatre
of drama, a children's theatre, and fifteen drama theatres in
regional and district centres. They have symphony orchestras
and smaller bands, song and dance companies, circus troupes
and other permanent concert groups.
The same holds true for all the other Union Republics and
also for the Autonomous Republics. Stage performances are
given in forty languages in the U.S.S.R.
The repertoires are broad and varied. Works by Soviet drama-
tists and composers cover diverse themes, subjects and genres,
from the heroic and the epic to the comic, from psychological
drama to fairy-tales.
The heroic and epic theme is most richly represented in opera.
Glorious pages from Russian history and the people's heroic
struggle for freedom and happiness are described in Prokofiev's
opera War and Peace, after the novel by Tolstoy; Dankevich's
Bogdan Khmelnitsky, about the reunion of the Ukraine and
Russia 300 years ago; Khrennikov's A! other, after the novel by
Gorky; Kabalevsky's Nikita Vershinin, about Siberian partisans
during the Civil War; Molchanov's Dawn, about sailors who
fought in the Revolution of 1917.
Soviet ballet is also varied in theme. It includes interpretations
of well-known literary wzoks, such as Asafiev's Fountain of
Bakhchisarai, after the poem by Pushkin; Glierc's The Bronze
Horseman, based on Pushkin's poem of the same name; or
Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Machavariani's Othello, after
Shakespeare; fairy-tales, such as Prokofiev's Cinderella and
Stone Flower or F. Yarullin's Shurale, based on Tatar legends;
and works on contemporary subjects, such as Gare's Red
Poppy, devoted to China's struggle for independence, Khacha-
143
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ttuian's Gayane, Spadavekkia's Shore of Happiness and .1
Juzeliunos' By the Seaside.
An important place in the opera and ballet repertoire is
occupied by Russian and world classics: Glinka's Ivan Susanin
and Ruslan and Ludmila, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Queen
of Spades, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, Mussorgsky's Boris
Godunov, Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko, Borodin's Prince Igor,
operas by Rossini, Verdi, Gounod and Bizet, and ballets by
Adam, Mina's and Pugni.
The repertoire of the drama theatres includes such gems of
Russian and world drama as Griboyedov's Wit Works Woe,
Alexander Ostrovsky's Storm and Bride Without Dowry, Chek-
hov's Three Sisters, Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya, Gorky's
The Lower Depths and Yegor Bulychev and others, Shakespeare's
Othello and King Lear, Lope de Vega's Dog in the Manger,
and Shaw's Pygmalion. Soviet audiences are drawn to these plays
by their truthful character delineation and lofty humanism.
Soviet dramatists have brought a new hero to the stage?the
fighter for social progress and against the exploitation of man
by man, the fighter for justice and peace on earth. It is charac-
ters of this type that the Soviet theatre-goer has seen and come
to love in Trenev's Lyubov Yarovaya, V. Ivanov's Arnzoured
Train 14-69, Bil-Belotserkovsky's Storm, and Vishnevsky's Opti-
mistic Tragedy, which deal with the time of the Revolution and
the establishment of the Soviet system.
This tradition was carried on by such plays as L. Leonov's
Invasion, Korneichuk's Front, and Movzon's Konstantin Zaslo-
nov, describing the heroism of Soviet men and women in the
Second World War.
The workaday life of the Soviet people is the subject of plays
like Kron's Deep Reconnaissance, Katayev's Time, Forward!
Komeichuk's Makar Dubrava and Wings, Happiness, after the
novel by Pavlenko, Dovzhenko's Life in Flower, Pistolenko's
The Love of Anna Beryozko and a great many others.
Soviet theatres also present satires, for instance, Mayakovsky's
The Bed Bug and The Bathhouse, which scourge bureaucrats,
and such gay comedies as Dyakonov's Marriage With a Dowry,
about life in a collective farm village, Volodin's Factory Girl,
about young workers, and The Wheel of Happiness, by the Tur
brothers.
Plays by contemporary foreign authors have won a firm place
in the Soviet repertoire.
144
The Soviet theatre is expanding and developing. It spreads the
progressive culture of all times and nations and advocates inter-
nationalism, socialist progress and peace.
What orchestras, dance companies, choirs:are
there?
IN each Union and Autonomous Republic and in the territorial
and regional centres there arc philharmonic societies that
maintain orchestras, song and dance companies, variety
troupes and other entertainment companies. The USS.R.
Ministry of Culture alone (not counting the radio broadcasting
networks, which have a large number of concert groups) has
thirty-six symphony orchestras, fifty-two variety orchestras and
folk instrument ensembles, forty-eight choirs and fifty-five song
and dance companies.
Wide popularity is enjoyed by the State Symphony Orchestra
of the U.S.S.R. and the symphony orchestras of the Moscow
Regional, Leningrad and Sverdlovsk philharmonic societies.
They are led by such distinguished conductors as K. Ivanov, E.
Mravinsky, A. Gauk, N. Rakhlin, S. Samosud, K. Kondrashin
and M. Paverman.
The Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Georgian, Estonian and
other peoples inhabiting the U.S.S.R. have long been known for
the high level of their choral and dance art. In Soviet times these
centuries-old traditions have received substantial development.
Basing themselves on national motifs, Soviet composers, choir-
masters and choreographers have created a folk song and dance
art that has become world famous.
The State Folk Dance Company of the U.S.S.R. under Igor
Moiseyev, the Pyatnitsky Russian Folk Choir, the Bcryozka
(Silver Birch) Dance Company of Moscow, the Red Banner Song
and Dance Company of the Soviet Army, the folk dance com-
panies of the Ukraine and Georgia, and the Omsk Folk Choir
have all enjoyed triumphal success in their appearances abroad.
The Turkmenian dance company, the Uzbek folk instruments
ensemble, the song and dance company of Yakutia and others
in the non-Russian republics, where before tin Revolution there
were no professional music groups at all, likewise win acclaim.
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? 1,
People in the Soviet Union love the circus. There are sixty-
nine permanent circuses in which the most diverse types of circus
skill are represented. The high level of professional skill, based
not on outward effect but on agility, boldness, grace and beauty,
has made the Soviet circus famous in many countries.
Well known abroad, as well as at home, are the Russian circus
artists V. Durov, animal trainer, Oleg Popov, clown, P. Cherncga
and S. Razumov, trapeze artists, and V. Filatov, bear trainer,
the group of Ossetian horsemen under Ali-Bek Kantemirov, the
Gincik group of Lithuanian equilibrists, V. Herts, the Latvian
strong man and juggler, A. Yusupov, Uzbek comic, and the
Oskal-Ool group of jugglers of the Tuva Autonomous Region.
Variety entertainment is widely developed in the Soviet Union.
Gay songs, clever parodies that are sometimes bitingly satirical,
eccentric dancing and comic acts draw hundreds of thousands
of spectators.
All variety artists in the Soviet Union have regular work, per-
forming at parks and public gardens in summer and at Palaces
of Culture, concert halls of philharmonic societies and recreation
centres in winter.
Some groups belong to permanent companies and have their
own theatre premises, like the Moscow Variety Theatre and the
Miniature Theatre of Leningrad under Arkadi Raikin.
76
What films are most popular?
THE cinema is the most widespread and popular form of
art among the Soviet people, part and parcel of their
living.
The number of cinema units has increased from 1,414 (133
of them in the rural localities) in pre-revolutionary times to
65,000 (50,000 of them in the rural areas) today. Nine million
people view feature films daily.
Films are produced in the U.S.S.R. by thirty-four studios,
located in Moscow, Kiev, Minsk, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Riga, Vilnius,
Kishinev and other capitals of Union Republics, and in a number
of other large cities.
More and more motion pictures are being produced all the
time to meet the steadily growing demands of the Soviet popula-
tion. While in 1955 the country's studios made eighty-two full-
146
length films, in 1957 the number was 143. Besides this, up to 500
popular science films, newsreels and documentaries are released
annually.
A large number of foreign films are shown in the Soviet Union.
In 1957 alone Soviet cinema-goers saw seventy full-length motion
pictures from twenty-three countries, among them China,
Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Japan and Mexico.
What films are the most popular?
Briefly, pictures about men and women who work to make
life better for their .people, who are engaged on constructive
jobs, and who feel that working for the good of their country,
in the name of progress and peace, is the highest purpose of
life. To this category of pictures belong classics of world film
art like Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin, Afother, the
picture Vsevolod Pudovkin made from Maxim Gorky's novel of
that name, and Alexander Dovzhcnko's Land. Made at the dawn
of Soviet cinematography, they are still being shown both at
home and abroad. ?
Also famous outside the Soviet Union are Chapaycv and
Shchors, films about two great army leaders of the Civil War.
The lofty humanity that permeates these pictures from beginning
to end has assured them their success. The same criterion is
applicable to a number of pictures about the immortal deeds
of the Soviet people during the Second World War, among them
She Defends Her Country, The Russian People, The Rainbow
and The Young Guard.
The most popular of the films dealing with the country's
glorious history and its outstanding personages are Alexander
Nevsky, Suvorov, Georgi Saakadze, Academician Ivan Pavlov,
Mussorgsky, Allisher Navoi, Taros Shevchenko and Yakov
Sverdlov.
The Soviet people particularly love films about Lenin. Lenin
in October, Lenin in 1918, The Man With the Gun, and Stories
about Lenin portray with historical fidelity and great artistic
skill the splendid qualities of that great leader of the Revolution,
the founder of the Soviet Socialist State.
Screen adaptations of famous works of literature hold a fairly
large place among films produced in the Soviet Union. Among
the best have been screen -versions of Ostrovsky's plays The
Storm and Guilty Though Guiltless, Othello, Don Quixote,
Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot, Road to Cigvary, a trilogy by
the outstanding Soviet novelist Alexei Tolstoy from which two
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pictures, The Sisters and The Year 1918, have been made, and
Mikhail Sholokhov's And Quiet Flows the Don. Adults as well
as children have delighted in the fairy tale films Sadko, Snow
Queen and Ilya Muromets.
But history and its great figures, and fairy tale characters are
secondary to the main theme of Soviet cinema art?Soviet man
and his deeds, concerns and joys. Here we find the story of mem-
bers of a wintering party in the Arctic in the picture Seven
Bold Men, and the young people who built a new town in
Komsomolsk.
Then there are the miners, so energetic about their work and
so slow to arrange their personal affairs, in A Big Life, and the
enthusiastic, gay lovers of music and singing in the comedies
Volga-Volga, Bright Path, Tale of Siberia and Carnival Night.
The problems CL Soviet morals and ethics and woman's position
in society are treated in The Large Family, Lesson of Life, The
Runiyantsev Case, The Cranes Are Flying and many other motion
pictures.
The practice of producing pictures jointly with foreign film-
makers is becoming more and more common in the Soviet
Union. Pictures like the Soviet-Albanian Skanderbeg, Great
Warrior of Albania, the Soviet-Bulgarian Heroes of Shipka, the
Soviet-Indian Travels Beyond Three Seas, and the Soviet-Korean
Brothers help Soviet audiences gain a better understanding of the
history, way of life and customs of other nations and contribute
to friendship and world peace.
How do musicians, dancers, artists, get their
training?
THE system of art education in the Soviet Union is designed
in such a way as to discover children possessing ability in
some field of art and give them the opportunity to develop
their talent. Children are taught singing, drawing and modelling
at kindergarten and later at elementary schoo). Often singing in
the school choir or participation in an exhibition of children's
drawings shows that the child has a gift for music or painting.
Conservatoires and art institutes maintain schools for children
who show special talent. There, in addition to music or art train-
ing, the child obtains a regular ten-year secondary school educa-
148
don, enabling him to enter any higher educational establishment
upon finishing the school if he does not wish to continue his
education at a conservatoire or art institute. These schools pro-
vide board and lodging for out-of-town pupils.
Similar to these music or art schools arc schools of choreo-
graphy which are, as a rule, attached to theatres of opera and
ballet. Here, too, the child is given a complete secondary educa-
tion in addition to his dance training. Graduates become
members of the ballet companies of the theatres.
Although there are music and art schools in many cities there
are not enough of them to accommodate all who wish to enter.
The majority of those wanting to study music, art or dancing
attend lessons at children's music or art schools after their regular
school hours.
There are over 700 music and art schools of this type in the
Soviet Union, attended by more than 100,000 children. At these
schools the children get adequate training for admission to the
special music or art schools, of which there are about 200.
Art and music schools admit children from the age of fourteen
who have completed seven years at a general secondary school
and have passed the entrance examinations in music or art. The
term of study is four to five years.
Graduates become members or directors of choirs, musicians.
painters or sculptors, workers in the applied arts, or teachers
of drawing or singing at secondary schools. The more gifted
graduates usually go on to study at conservatoires, or art and
architectural institutes.
The Soviet Union has twenty-two conservatoires. The oldest
are those of Moscow and Leningrad, founded in the middle of
the last century. Many have been established in recent years, in
Alma-Ata, capital of Kazakhstan. Sverdlovsk, in the Urals, and
Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, and elsewhere. The youngest is
the Novosibirsk Conservatoire, opened in the autumn of 1956.
Departments in the conservatoires include piano, vocal music,
conducting, composition, symphony orchestra, and musicology.
Many conservatoires have evening departments at which gifted
people may obtain a higher education in music without giving
up their main work.
There arc twelve colleges teaching art and architecture.
They train architects, painters of stage-settings, artists in easel
or monumental painting, sculptors, graphic artists, book de-
signers, poster artists and specialists in applied and decorative
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art. Graduates of these colleges have the right to teach in art
schools.
There are twelve theatrical institutes in the Soviet Union,
as well as a cinematography institute training film actors, film
directors, script-writers, cameramen and stage designers.
Instruction in all these colleges is in the native language, and
tuition in both secondary and higher education is free. All
students making normal progress receive allowances from the
state.
Many actors, musicians and artists obtain their start as mem-
bers of amateur talent groups (see answer No. 78). An example
is People's Artist of the U.S.S.R. Nikolai Bogolyubov of the
Moscow Art Theatre, who began acting with an amateur group.
Another is People's Artist of the U.S.S.R. Sergei Lemeshev, a
star tenor at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
781
How popular are amateur art, music, drama,
dancing etc.?
AMATEUR dramatics, music, choral singing, dancing,
painting, sculpturing and decorative and applied art really
began to develop on a broad scale only after the Revolu-
tion.
Material well-being and confidence in the future have led to
an unprecedented thirst for culture and a desire to engage in art
activities.
The Soviet Union has 300,000 amateur drama, choral and
dance groups, orchestras and studios of the fine arts with a total
membership of more than three million factory and office
workers, collective farmers, and members of their families.
These groups are found at all recreation centres and Palaces
of Culture. In 1914 Russia had 222 clubs for workers, known as
Folk Houses. Today the trade unions alone maintain about
130,000 Palaces of Culture and other recreation centres.
In the towns amateur talent groups are financed by the trade
unions, which provide them, free of charge, with premises, pro-
perties, costumes, musical instruments and instructors. In the
rural localities money to finance amateur talent comes from the
collective farms.
In 1957 the trade unions spent 2,000 million roubles on cul-
150
tural undertakings and the development of physical culture. A
considerable part of this sum went to promote amateur talent
activities.
Soviet men and women of the arts, including the most promi-
nent, consider it their duty to help develop and improve amateur
talent activities among the people. Almost every professional
theatre acts as patron for some recreation centre and its
amateur talent groups.
The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, for example, helps with
amateur activities at the club of the Moscow brake works and
the rural amateur talent groups in Talovaya District, Voronezh
Region. Famous Bolshoi Theatre stars like Sergei Lemeshev and
Maxim Mikhailov, both People's Artists of the U.S.S.R.. have
made trips to the Talovaya collective farms many times to give
help and advice to amateur choirs and singers.
Another important Moscow theatre, the Art Theatre, has close
ties with workers at the Krasny Proletari machine tool factory
in Moscow. A council made up of Art Theatre actors and direc-
tors gives regular assistance to the amateur talent groups at the
factory club. Members of the groups often attend Art Theatre
performances and rehearsals. There are hundreds of similar
examples.
Constant assistance from the state and help from leading
people in the arts have had such a favourable influence on the
development of popular talent that many amateur groups have
achieved a level of performance in no way inferior to that of
professional theatres and companies, and individual amateur
performers are in some cases as good as professionals.
There are amateur groups which stage entire operas and
ballets, plays by Chekhov, Gorky, Shakespeare and Mohere,
and the finest Soviet plays; amateur orchestras perform Tchai-
kovsky, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Chopin. In 1957 alone
amateur talent groups in the Soviet Union gave about 600,000
performances and concerts attended by almost 127 million
people.
Many prominent Soviet stage artists such as the outstanding
Ukrainian singer Mikhail Grishko, a People's Artist of the
U.S.S.R., People's Artist of the Russian Federation Irma
Maslennikova, soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre, and the popular
film stars Marina Ladynina, Boris Andreyev and Nikolai
Kryuchkov, among others, began their careers on the stages of
factory and village clubs.
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Amateur talent activities among children are also highly
developed in the Soviet Union. There are thousands of amateur
talent groups at schools and Houses of Young Pioneers where
children have an opportunity to develop their natural gifts for
music, dancing, acting or painting.
Taking part in amateur talent activities gives interest and
meaning to the leisure of Soviet people. Such activities enable
millions of people in town and countryside to enjoy real art.
79 1
How are radio and television
organised in the U.S.S.R.?
THE Soviet Union has a highly-developed radio industry.
a large network of radio broadcasting stations, and all
the radio engineering facilities essential for economic,
scientific and cultural progress, and for defence needs.
As regards the power of its radio broadcasting stations, the
Soviet Union now holds first place in Europe and second in
the world.
Radio broadcasting in the U.S.S.R. does not pursue any com-
mercial aims. It is an important factor in the cultural and
political education of the people, and also contributes to tech-
nical progress and development in all branches of industry. In
the socialist state radio is the property of the people and serves
the people.
That is why so much attention is paid in the Soviet Union to
the expansion of radio relay systems in urban and rural
localities. ?
By 1957 there was one radio receiver for every four urban
dwellers and every nine or ten rural inhabitants. In addition to
radio sets Soviet citizens have the benefit of the radio relay
service maintained in towns and rural areas. Under this system
broadcasts may be heard by plugging in a loudspeaker.
The radio relay service takes in practically every house in the
towns and the villages. The low cost, simplicity and universality
of the radio relay service have led to its becoming as common-
place as electric lighting. Loudspeaker outlets are installed in
streets, public places, hostels and flats.
There are now many districts in the U.S.S.R. where all the
houses are wired for radio. An example is the North Kazakhstan
152
region, where radio has been brought to all the collective farms,
state farms and villages.
The radio relay service by no means excludes radio sets. Many
citizens have both.
Besides the central radio broadcasting station in Moscow there
are stations in the capitals of the Union Republics and in the
administrative centres of the territories and regions. Programmes
are also broadcast regularly by tens of thousands of small
stations at factories and offices, schools, colleges, collective farms
and state farms.
The central radio station in Moscow broadcasts three pro-
grammes simultaneously for home listeners over different wave-
lengths twenty-four hours a day. The programmes include home
and world news and commentaries, talks about industry and
agriculture, classical and modern literature, music and drama.
Hundreds of concerts of all kinds are presented. Broadcasts arc
conducted in fifty-seven languages of the U.S.S.R.
A distinguishing feature of Soviet radio broadcasting is its
close ties with the people. Radio Moscow receives more than
300,000 letters annually from Soviet listeners. Question and
answer programmes, request concerts and other broadcasts arc
arranged in response to letters.
People of different trades and professions, from factory
workers and collective farmers to Party and Government leaders,
from schoolchildren to Academicians, frequently appear before
the microphone.
Radio Moscow daily presents a broad variety of programmes
in thirty-eight languages for Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and
America. The subjects include the life of the peoples of the
U.S.S.R., science, engineering, culture, sports, music, and com-
mentaries on world affairs.
The Soviet radio speaks persistently for world peace, for the
peaceful co-existence of states with different social systems; it
exposes the forces that want to instigate another war. That is
why the programmes meet with such a wide response from
listeners abroad. Radio Moscow gets some 70,000 letters from
120 countries every year.
Television has made rapid progress in the Soviet Union in
recent years. The number of TV stations has increased from
only three five years ago to forty-one today, and upwards of
thirty more are to go into operation by the end of 1958
TV is becoming a regular part of Soviet life. You will now
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find sets in the homes of Lithuanian farmers and Karaganda
coal miners, Baku oil workers and factory workers in the small
town of ICarpinsk in the North Urals.
Much attention is being paid to the installation of relay lines
for an exchange of programmes between studios in the capitals
of the Union Republics and other large towns, and also for
assuring good reception in towns that do not have their own
studios.
Moscow TV programmes are now viewed in Kalinin, Vladi-
mir, Kaluga, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo and Kostroma. In a few years
from now they will be relayed and cabled much longer distances,
to Kiev, Kharkov, Dniepropetrovsk and Orel, among other
cities. Muscovites, in turn, will be able to view programmes from
those cities.
The first experimental colour TV station will soon start work-
ing. The colour system to be used will enable programmes to
be received on ordinary black-and-white sets, and black-and-
white programmes to be received on colour sets.
There are now about 2 million TV sets in the big cities of
the U.S.S.R. By 1965 there are to be more than 300 TV studios
and enough sets in use to bring programmes to some 100 million
persons.
801
What libraries are there?
THERE are more than 390,000 libraries of all kinds in the
U.S.S.R., 120,000 of which are in rural localities. The total
number of volumes on their shelves is approximately 1,500
million, of which 335 million are in the rural libraries.
The number of library books per 100 inhabitants has increased
from six in 1914 to 332 today.
The Lenin State Library in Moscow, with about 20 million
volumes and bound sets of newspapers and magazines, and the
Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library in Leningrad, with
about 12 million volumes, are among the biggest in the world.
More than 1,600,000 persons annually use the Lenin Library.
These and other big libraries (in Tashkent, Tbilisi, Yerevan
and elsewhere) have rich collections of manuscripts and other
written records of different ages and peoples.
154
Tens of thousands of Muscovites avail themselves of the
facilities of the U.S.S.R. State Library of Foreign Literature,
the country's main depository of foreign publications. Its sub-
scribers include 1,200 libraries and institutions in nearly 250
towns of the Soviet Union and in twelve other countries.
A new building with a depository for 4 million volumes is to
be erected for the U.S.S.R. State Library of Foreign Literature
under the current Five-Year Plan. The building will have exhibi-
tion halls, twelve reading rooms with a total of 850 places, a
number of smaller reading rooms for one, two and three persons,
a lecture hall seating 500 and a conference hall seating 100. The
library will have its own printshop, bookbindery, book hygiene
department and microphotography d.epartment.
More than forty big libraries by law receive a free copy of
every book, magazine and newspaper printed in the U.S.S.R.
To give people living in the smaller towns and rural areas
access to the cultural treasures assembled in the major libraries
there is an inter-library subscription service through which local
libraries may borrow rare books from the large libraries.
City and district libraries are maintained and stocked on funds
provided by the state budget. They include children's libraries,
with pre-school departments, and specialised scientific and tech-
nical libraries.
Besides these, there are many libraries maintained by the trade
unions at recreation centres and at factories and offices. The
number of collective farm libraries is steadily growing.
Tremendous progress has been made in expanding and en-
larging the network of libraries. For instance, the trade union
library at the motor works in Gorky has more than 155,000
volumes and thousands of subscribers, whereas before the
Revolution all the libraries of the whole region in which the city
of Gorky is situated had only 103,000 books altogether.
All the libraries in the Soviet Union are free.
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81 I
What museums are there?
THERE are 849 museums in the U.S.S.R. devoted to art,
history, literature, science, regional history, the theatre,
engineering, famous persons, and so on.
The most famous art museums, known the world over, are
the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Hermitage in Lenin-
grad.
The Tretyakov Gallery, founded in 1856 by Pavel Tretyakov,
a distinguished patron of the arts and well-known figure in the
field of culture, has the world's largest collection of Russian
painting, sculpture and drawing.
The collections in the Hermitage trace the culture of many
countries and peoples over the centuries (the most ancient items
relate to the Stone Age). Many of the exhibits were supplied by
the archaeological expeditions which the museum arranges regu-
larly. The Hermitage paintings include works by Leonardo da
Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt and many other
great masters.
Another prominent museum is the Pushkin Museum of Fine
Arts in Moscow, whose collections include art memorials of the
world of antiquity, the ancient East, and Western Europe. This
museum grew out of a small art gallery founded at Moscow
University in the middle of last century.
The Historical Museum in Moscow presents the history of
Russia from ancient times. It has rich archaeological collections,
clothing and fabrics, furniture, household articles, ornaments,
weapons, documents and books. Rare collections of decorative
and applied art and old weapons'are on display in the Armoury
in the Moscow Kremlin. Branches of the Historical Museum
are St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square, the Novo-Devichy
Nunnery in Moscow, and monuments of old Russian architecture
in the village of Kolomenskoye, situated not far from Moscow
Many country estates of the Russian tsars and nobles have
been turned into museums. Among them are Petrodvorets, near
Leningrad, with its famous fountains, and the estates of Ostan-
kino, Kuskovo and Arkhangelskoye, all of them near Moscow.
where the architecture, sculptures, canvases and applied art make
magnificent displays.
The Museum of the Revolution, founded in Moscow in 1924,
has large collections reflecting the main stages in the revolu-
156
tionary struggle against tsarism waged by the peoples of Russia
under the leadership of the Communist Party, the October
Socialist Revolution, and the Soviet Union's political, economic
and cultural achievements.
Many museums have been set up in places associated with
the life and work of famous people.
Thousands of people daily visit the Lenin Museum in Moscow
in which documents and relics reflecting the life and work of
the founder of the Soviet State are collected. The museum has
branches in a number of cities. Lenin'c flat in the Kremlin, and
the estate at Gorki, near Moscow, where he died have also been
turned into museums.
There are also memorial museums dedicated to other distin-
guished Soviet leaders.
Leo Tolstoy's estate in Yasnaya Polyana and his house in
Moscow, Tchaikovsky's house in Klin, Chekhov's house in Yalta,
Pushkin's flat in Leningrad, and the flats of Dostoyevsky, Maya-
kovsky, Stanislavsky, Scriabin and others are also museums now.
One of the country's oldest institutions for the dissemination
of scientific knowledge is the Polytechnical Museum, founded
in 1872 by the Society of Lovers of Natural Sciences, Anthro-
pology and Ethnography at Moscow University. It is a huge
museum which arranges excursions, lectures, expositions, and
so on.
Soviet museums have their exhibits arranged in chronological
order, which makes it easy to examine them. Qualified guides
and consultants are available. Admission to museums is for a
nominal fee or free of charge. They attract many visitors. The
Tretyakov Gallery, for instance, is annually visited by more
than one million persons.
Museums have their own archives, photography laboratories,
libraries, and restoration and other workshops. They conduct
extensive research, publish studies and guide-books, and arrange
archxological and other expeditions.
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How has sport dereloped in the U.S.S.R.?
ILLIONS of people go in for physical culture and sport
in the U.S.S.R. These include factory and office workers,
collective farmers, students, scientists and writers. There
are about 200,000 sports groups with 19 million members who
are active in one or several of the more than forty sports culti-
vated in the U.S.S.R.
The state annually spends large sums to develop the health
services and physical culture (the 1958 appropriations are 40,100
million roubles).
Sports facilities at the disposal of the population include more
than 1,500 large stadiums, upwards of 7,000 gyms, 5,000 sports
grounds, 25,000 football pitches, about 200,000 volleyball and
basketball courts, thousands of ski lodges, hundreds of rowing
centres, swimming pools, and so on. All these are well attended.
There is a public governing body in each sport. Sporting
activities as a whole are co-ordinated and guided by the Physical
Culture and Sports Committee of the U.S.S.R. Council of
Ministers.
The physical culture groups belong to sports societies, the
oldest and most popular of which are Dynamo and Spartak.
There is a trade uniim sports society in each Union Republic:
Trud in the Russian Federation, Vanguard in the Ukraine,
Enbek in Kazakhstan etc. College and university students are
members of the Burevestnik (Stormy Petrel) society.
Railwaymen, Soviet Army men and rural sportsmen also have
societies of their own.
There are some 50,000 qualified instructors and coaches who
have been trained in the thirty-two secondary and fifteen higher
schools of physical culture and sports and the 106 physical
education departments at teachers' training colleges. In addition.
there is a large number of amateur instructors who have gone
through a short-term course of studies and train beginners.
Three research institutes in the Soviet Union specialise in
problems of physical training and sports.
Physical education is based on the set of norms fixed for the
Ready for Labour and Defence Badge and the U.S.S.R. sporting
classification system. After a sportsman fulfils the requirements
for the Ready for Labour and Defence Badge, First and Second
Degree, he can qualify for one of the three sporting categories
158
if he improves his prowess. Next come the ratings of Master of
Sport and Honoured Master of Sport. Outstanding coaches arc
given the title of Honoured Coach of the USS.R.
In the past four years Soviet sportsmen have set up 1,230
new U.S.S.R. records, 405 of them world records. They hold
seventy-four of the 170 registered world records.
Soviet sportsmen have won world championships in wrestling.
gymnastics, shooting, modern pentathlon, speed skating, volley-
ball, women's fencing and weight-lifting. They are European
champions in boxing, track and field, basketball, ice hockey and
several other sports.
When Soviet sportsmen made their debut in the Olympic
Games at Helsinki in 1952 they chalked up the same number
of points as the United States team. At the Melbourne Olympics
of 1956 they captured the largest number of gold, silver and
bronze medals and outstripped the teams of the other countries.
The attention being given to promoting sports in the Union
Republics is bearing rich fruit. For instance, at the Melbourne
Olympics sportsmen from the Ukraine registered more points
than the teams of such countries as Britain, France, Italy and
Japan. The sportsmen of Georgia and Armenia proved stronger
than the teams of Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Argentina and
other countries.
Soviet sportsmen have established ties with organisations in
fifty-seven countries. Hundreds of foreign sportsmen visit the
U.S.S.R. every year, and in turn hundreds of Soviet sportsmen
make foreign tours, competing in all the major contests. The
Soviet Union is a member of thirty-one international sports
federations.
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V. PEOPLE'S WELFARE
83 I How does the Soviet people's living standard rise?
UNDER the Soviet socialist sysiem the national income
belongs to those who produce it?the working people--
and is distributed so as to improve the well-being of
society as a whole and each of its members.
Compared with pre-revolutionary Russia, the national income
in 1957 was more than twenty times higher, and more than
thirteen times higher per head of population. This growth in the
country's social wealth has enabled the Soviet Government to
carry out measures resulting in a considerable rise in the material
welfare and cultural standard of the Soviet people.
The first index of the rising material security of the Soviet
people is the absence of unemployment and the steady increase
in the number of people employed in the national economy. The
number of workers and office employees working in the national
economy in 1957 averaged 52,600,000, or four times as many
as in 1913.
Another index of the living standard is the length of the
working day. Before the October Revolution, the working day
in the coal, iron and steel, papermaking, food and other in-
dustries, as a rule was more than ten hours, not counting over-
time; in 1957 the working day in industry was less than eight
hours, on the average.
Since the latter part of 1956, by decision of the Twentieth
Congress of the C.P.S.U., the working day for all workers and
office employees is being gradually reduced to seven or six
hours, depending on the nature of the industry, and in a number
of industries, to a five-day week (with an eight-hour day and
two days off), without a reduction in wages. The task is to he
completed in 1960.
A major index of the steadily rising standard of living is the
higher real income of the population. Compared with pre
revolutionary times (1913) the real income of workers and office
employees in 1957 was roughly five times higher, and the real
income of peasants, six times.
How did this substantial rise come about/
First, money wages have gone up during this period much
more than has the price of goods and services.
160
Second, rent and communal services, which before :Ile
non took more than a 20 per cent slice out of the Nwl
and sometimes even more than a third, are more than
cent lower.
Third, in addition to wages, working people in the t ?, It
receive considerable sums or free services from the state in Oa
shape of social insurance benefits, pensions, stipends, paid high
days, free tuition, free medical service, and so on
State allotments to meet social and cultural needs are a con
stant factor of higher income for the population.
In 1957, for instance, the state spent more than 201,000 million
roubles to satisfy the everyday social and cultural requirements
of the people, or an average of 2,300 roubles extra income for
every worker, office employee and working peasant for the year
In 1958 the extra income will be still higher, as the state
budget appropriation for these purposes is more than 212.000
million roubles.
Since the Second World War, due to measures carried out by
the communist Party and the Soviet Government, living stan
dards have not only been brought up to the pre-war loci, but
have been considerably exceeded.
It is the result of the expansion of social production and
higher national income, and it has enabled the Government
repeatedly to cut retail prices, to pay the peasants higher pro-
curement prices for the main farm products sold by the collec-
tive farms to the state, to raise money wages of a number of
categories of workers, to reduce or repeal certain taxes and lift
the minimum tax-exemption wage, and to repeal obligator)
deliveries of produce to the state from the personal husbandries
of collective farmers, workers and office employees
In 1956 a new state pensions law was passed, as a result of
which more than 17,000,000 people are now getting higher
pensions. Monthly pensions have gone up 80 per cent on the
average, and for a number of categories of workers. 100 per
cent or more.
Tuition fees for students in senior forms of secondary schools
and higher educational establishments have been abolished, and
a number of other measures have been carried out
All of this has resulted in a substantial rise of people s red
income. Thus, between 1950 and 1957 real wages and salaries
went up more than 50 per cent, and compared with the pre war
year 1940, almost 100 per cent.
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This, in its turn, meant a higher purchasing power, whkh is
reflected in the enormous increase in retail trade.
In the last four years (1953-7) the volume of retail trade went
up more than 52 per cent, and, compared with pre-war, more
than 150 per cent. The sale of chief food products, clothing,
shoes, fabrics and household articles has increased several times
over.
Owing to the vast scale of housing construction the housing
conditions of the working people have improved considerably.
Compared with pre-revolutionary times, urban housing has
nearly quadrupled in Soviet times. The housing construction plan
for the five-year period of 1956-60 envisages building almost
twice as many flats as there had been in all towns in Russia
before the Revolution.
The seven-year plan of development (1959-65) outlines a new
advance of the Soviet economy and a new rise in living stan-
dards. This will be reflected in a further increase in employment,
higher cash and real incomes, a greater trade turnover, a sharp
improvement in housing conditions, and a further rise in cultural
standards.
84
I What, apart from his wages, does the Soria
worker get from the State?
ASOVIET worker's income is not confined to the wages he
gets. He receives from the state a number of additional
cash allowances and other benefits, which swell every
include:
family's real income by more than a third. These additions
Allowances and benefits from state social insurance funds.
Pensions under social security legislation;
Pay for holidays, which all workers receive;
Free or reduced-rate accommodation at health and holidcentres;
ay
Accommodation of workers' children at nurseries and kinder
gartens, children's sanatoria and other health resorts (see answ,
Money grants to mothers of large families and unmarried
mothers (see answer No. 88);
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Free tuition in all educational establishments, including insti-
tutions of higher learning, and advanced training courses for
workers;
Allowances paid to students at specialised secondary schools
and higher educational establishments;
Free medical service;
Premiums and bonuses of many kinds.
All of these, paid for by the state, are forms of extra income
for the working people, and they are increasing from year to
year.
In 1940 they came to 42,000 million roubles, in 1950 to 122,000
million roubles, in 1957 to more than 201,000 million roubles
and in 1958 they are to reach 212,000 million roubles.
These figures do not include the huge amounts spent by the
state each year on housing construction.
How do Soriet citizens exercise their right to 85
rest and leisure?
THE right to rest and leisure is guaranteed by the U.S.S.R
Constitution to al' working people.
This right is reinforced by a system of social and econ-
omic guarantees, namely, an extensively developed system of
social insurance of wage and salaried workers at state expense;
free medical service to all Soviet citizens; a wide network of
health resorts; and a working day that is growing shorter.
An important requisite for making the right to rest and leisure
a reality is a short working day.
In 1956 the working day in industry was 7,6 hours on the
average. For young people between the ages of sixteen and
eighteen a six-hour working day was established and they arc
paid the same wages workers of the same categories receive for
a full working day.
Today the average working day in the U.S.S.R. has been
lowered again, as since the latter part of 1956, by decision of
the Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.U.. all workers and office
employees are gradually being put on a seven-hour day, and
workers of the leading trades employed underground in the coal
and ore-mining industries on a six-hour day.
F2
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Those put on the shorter working day in 1956-57 were miners
working underground in the Donets and Lvov-Volhynia coal
basins in the Ukraine and in many enterprises of other industries
in the country. The switch-over to the shorter working day in
the coal and shale, iron and steel, coke-chemical, cement and
several other industries is to be completed in 1958.
By the end of 1958, 8 million workers and office employees
will have been transferred to a seven- or six-hour day, and
before the end of 1959 it is planned to transfer all workers
employed in heavy industry to a seven- or six-hour day.
By 1960 no wage and salaried workers will do more than
forty hours a week. This will be without reduction in pay, as was
provided for by the Twentieth C.P.S.U. Congress. In fact, owing
to the extensive introduction of new machinery and progressive
technology, mechanisation of production processes and auto-
mation, and improvement of the organisation of work, the trend
to higher wages will continue even under the shorter working day.
The right of Soviet working people to rest and leisure
is ensured also by granting all workers and office employees
annual holidays with full pay.
The minimum holiday period is two weeks, but many workers
receive a month's holiday.
These include workers under eighteen, miners, workers em-
ployed in iron and steel, textiles, chemicals and a number of
other industries, railwaymen, workers employed on waterways
and motor transport.
Workers of research, educational and other cultural insti-
tutions get a holiday of from one to two months.
Many workers and office employees in branches of the national
economy where special conditions obtain, or because of the
nature of their jobs, receive extra paid holidays of from six to
thirty-six working days a year. This applies, among others, to
people engaged in hazardous occupations or those working in
the Far North or similar areas, crews of ships plying in the
Arctic, and workers in a number of other trades.
Workers studying after working hours receive extra leave.
All health resorts in the U.S.S.R. belong to the state and arc
at the disposal of the working people for health or rest cures.
Every year millions of workers spend their holidays at sanatOria
or holiday homes in the Crimea, the Caucasus, or resorts in
other areas.
Nearly 4,000 sanatoria and holiday homes are functioning in
164
the U.S.S.R. and accommodation at them is distributed by the
trade unions and health-service boards.
The cost of accommodation does not exceed the average
monthly wage of a skilled worker. Many working people receive
their accommodation at a 70 per cent discount or free, the
difference coming out of social insurance funds, which enter-
prises and institutions have to provide.
Health or rest cures at special sanatoria (for those suffering
from tuberculosis, and so on) are provided free, at state expense.
How does the medical service work?
186
EDICAL service of every kind is free of charge for every
citizen of the U.S.S.R. One of the principles on which the
Soviet health service is based is to have medical insti-
tutions within close reach of the population.
There are 160,000 medical institutions, therapeutic and pre-
ventive, in towns and villages fully maintained by the state. Any
citizen may obtain medical consultation and treatment at his
district dispensary or clinic, which have all facilities for diagnos-
ing and treating diseases.
Where necessary, dispensaries send a specialist to the patient's
home. Clinics have emergency service departments which send
a doctor to the patient's home immediately.
Towns and industrial settlements also have first aid stations
to take care of accident cases, calamities, and so on. Medical
service by air has been considerably developed in the U.S.S.R.
Factories have their own clinics and big factories have medical
centres. The latter include a number of institutions (a clinic, a
hospital and shop medical stations). There were approximately
1,000 of them in 1957, besides tens of thousands of first aid
stations headed by a doctor or feldshcr at mills, factories, mines,
and so on.
The country has an extensive network of hospitals, with more
being opened all the time. Compared with 1913 the number of
hospital beds has increased nearly seven-fold, leaching 1,432,000
in 1957, with another 80,000 to be added in 1958. Hospitals now
under construction will have 360,000 beds.
The Soviet State gives much attention to mother and child
care (see answer No. 88). Pre-revolutionary Russia had practically
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no mother-and-child care service by the state.
In 1913 Russia's hospitals had altogether 7,000 beds for
maternity cases, nine women's consultation centres, nineteen
nurseries with accommodation for 550 infants in all.
In 1957 maternity homes and maternity wards in hospitals had
accommodation for 140,000 women, and there were 14.200
women's and children's consultation centres, children's hospitals
with accommodation for 183,000 and nurseries accommodating
856,000.
The year 1958 will see room for another 82,000 in nurseries,
and 1960 another 400,000.
The number of people working in the health service in 1957
was more than 2,800,000, of whom 346,000 were doctors and
over 1 million trained medical personnel.
While in 1913 the country had, on the average, one doctor
for every 6,879 of population, in 1957 it had, according to data
published by the Secretariat of the United Nations, one doctor
for every 600 of population.
There are 79 colleges and 603 secondary schools train-
ing medical personnel. The number of doctors graduated by
them annually is around 25,000, or more than Russia had
altogether in 1913.
With the Soviet health service based on the principle of
prevention, medical examinations of the population are carried
out regularly. The country has 350 hygienic education centres,
5,230 health and epidemiological stations, and 16,400 special
dispensaries and offices.
Books, booklets and magazines are issued in large editions to
popularise medical knowledge and special films are nroduced
for the same purpose.
Medical research is conducted by 350 research institutes,
laboratories and higher educational establishments, and this
activity is co-ordinated by the U.S.S.R. Academy of Medical
Sciences.
The Soviet State annually allocates huge amounts of money
for the protection of the people's health. Against 91 kopeks per
person spent by tsarist Russia in 1913 on the health service, the
U.S.S.R. in 1956 spent 177 roubles 40 kopeks. The budgetary
appropriation for 1947 was 18,900 million roubles, and for 1958
it was 40,100 million.
As a result of the steadily rising material and cultural stand-
ards of the people, of improved working and living conditions
166
and the progress of the health service, there has been a sharp
decline in the sickness and death rate and an increase in the
life-span.
It is a long time since the country last had cases of such
dangerous epidemic diseases as the plague, cholera, smallpox
and relapsing fever, and there has been a sharp drop also in
malaria, typhoid fever and other infectious diseases.
In 1934, for instance, there were 9 million cases of malaria,
while in 1956 there were only 15,000. Compared with 1913 the
general death rate declined by 75 per cent. and children's
mortality rate by 84 per cent.
According to data published by the United Nations Secretariat
the U.S.S.R. in 1956 had a death rate of 8 per 1,000 of
population (the United States had 9.4 and Britain 11.5). The
average life-span, which was thirty-two years in 1896-97 and
forty-four in 1926-27, reached sixty-seven in 1955-56.
The annual net increase in population in the U.S.S.R. exceeds
3 million and is one of the highest in the world.
Holy is social insurance organised?
87
SOCIAL insurance is financed completely by the state. The
state social insurance fund is made up of a fixed percentage
of the wage bill paid regularly by all enterprises and institu-
tions for this purpose. The workers make no payment into this
fund.
The state social insurance budget increases in proportion to
the growth of the socialist economy.
In the first Five-Year Plan period (1928-29 to 1932-33), the
social insurance funds amounted to 10,400 million roubles. In
the second Five-Year Plan period (1933-37) they reached 32,500
million roubles. In the first post-war Five-Year Plan period
(1946-50) they amounted to 80,100 million roubles.
Expenditure on social insurance and social maintenance in
1956 was 71,000 million roubles, and the appropriation for 1958
is 88,200 million.
Benefits paid out of the social insurance fund include
temporary disability benefits paid to industrial, office and other
workers, and maternity grants.
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Social insurance funds go to pay the cost of construction and
maintenance of trade union health and holiday resorts, for
accommodation of workers in them, and for the upkeep of
workers' children at summer camps and children's sanatoria.
The cost of dietetic meals served in special dining rooms and
of accommodation and treatment at overnight sanatoria or one-
day rest homes maintained by the factories also comes out of
these funds.
During illness, a worker receives sick benefit from the first
day of his disability until his doctor permits him to go back to
work. A worker is also paid out of this fund if he or she has to
stay at home to take care of a sick member of the family.
Tho benefits paid range from 50 per cent to 90 per cent of
the worker's earnings, depending on the length of service at
the enterprise.
Maternity leave benefits are paid to women who have worked
at a given enterprise or institution not less than three months
and those who have worked more than two years receive 100
per cent of their earnings.
At the birth of a child a lump sum is paid as a special allow-
ance for feeding the baby and for the purchase of a layette.
The trade unions have complete charge of these state social
insurance funds.
State old-age and disability pensions, and pensions to
families which have lost their breadwinner are paid out of annual
allotments under the state budget of the U.S.S.R. and funds
under the state social insurance budget. Workers do not contri-
bute to this fund (see answer No. 89).
88
What concern does the Soviet State show for
mothers?
IN the Soviet Union mothers are surrounded with universal
honour and respect. Special laws regulate conditions of work
for pregnant women. They receive maternity leave with full
pay for 112 days, fifty-six days before and fifty-six days after
confinement. This leave is extended if their health requires it.
An extensive network of free maternity homes and children's
consultation centres has been set up in both the towns and
villages throughout the country.
Some 6,000 maternity homes and a large number of maternity
wards in hospitals are maintained by the state. Maternity homes
are also maintained by collective farms. Ninety-five per cent of
all confinements in the Soviet Union take place in maternity
homes or hospitals, where the women receive expert medical
and other care free of charge.
Childbirth in maternity homes and hospitals has largely
been made painless. Death in childbirth is disappearing in both
urban and rural communities in the Soviet Union.
Expectant mothers arc registered at special state consultation
centres, which keep them and, subsequently, their infants also,
under constant medical observation.
The state system of mother and child care provides many
privileges and advantages for mothers.
Mothers with large families receive state allowances. Upon
the birth of her third child a woman receives a lump sum of
200 roubles and on the birth of her fourth child 650 roubles and
a monthly allowance of 40 roubles. On the birth of her fifth
child, 850 and 60 roubles respectively; her sixth child, 1,000
roubles and 70 roubles; the seventh and eighth child, 1,250 and
100 roubles; the ninth and tenth child, 1,750 and 125 roubles.
Mothers of ten children receive on the birth of each additional
child a sum of 2,500 roubles and 150 roubles monthly.
In 1956 a total of 5,100 million roubles was paid out by the
state in such allowances.
State allowances are paid also to unmarried mothers.
Appropriations made for allowances to mothers of large
families and unmarried mothers and on the birth of a child
totalled 9,000 million roubles in 1957, or 700 million roubles
more than in 1956.
Soviet scientists arc constantly seeking new and better ways
of caring for mothers and children. More than twenty special
scientific research institutes are working in this field.
To enable women to work in industry and agriculture, to study
and to take part in public activity a network of nurseries and
kindergartens has been set up and it is being expanded all the
time.
Children under three arc cared for at nurseries and those
between three and seven in kindergartens, usually during the day
while their mothers are at work. In both nurseries and kinder-
gartens experienced nurses with teachers' training take care
of the children, and doctors take care of their health and
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There are also supplementary payments (within the limits of
the maximum amount): 10 per cent of the amount of the pension
for those who have worked steadily for more than 15 years; 10
per cent extra for non-working pensioners who have dependent
on them a non-able-bodied member of the family, and 15 per
cent extra for two or more non-able-bodied -dependents.
Wage and salaried workers are entitled to a disability pension
in case of permanent disablement or incapacity for a long period
where the disability started during or after work. These pensions
are granted irrespective of the length of service where the
disability is due to injury or occupational disease, and after a
certain period of service where the disability is due to general
sickness.
The disabled are divided into three groups, depending on the
degree of their incapacity to work, and the greater the degree
of incapacity the greater the pension. Here, too, the scale has
been fixed on the basis of a percentage of the monthly earnings.
And the cause of disablement is also taken into account. The
government provides more for the maintenance of those whose
disability is due to an injury at work or to occupational disease.
This type of pension also has supplements. For instance, first
category disabled (irrespective of cause of disability) will receive
an additional 15 per cent of the amount of the pension to pay
for their care.
The principle underlying the fixing of the pension on the loss
of a breadwinner is similar to that applying to the other two. It
is fixed at a certain percentage of the earnings, taking into
account the number of dependents, the cause of the bread-
winner's death, and the more favourable conditions applying to
those who worked underground, at unhealthy trades, and so on.
All these pensions are based on average monthly earnings, the
basis being the last twelve months of work. If the applicant for
a pension so desires any five years in a row out of the last ten
years may be taken as a basis.
Pensions are paid out of funds appropriated for the purpose
under the State Budget of the U.S.S.R., including the state social
insurance funds, without any deductions from workers' wages.
Pensions are not taxable.
02
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f'7.2
In 1957 the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the
Soviet Government worked out a new housing construction
programme designed to eliminate the housing shortage completely
within the next ten or twelve years, and the programme is being
successfully carried out. The scale and rate of housing con-
struction is increasing year by year.
As against seven flats per 1,000 of population built in 1954,
10.2 flats were built in 1957. In the latter year alone consider-
ably more flats were built than during the whole of the Second
Five-Year Plan period (1933-37)?more than 4S million square
metres of housing in towns and industrial settlements and 770,000
individual homes built by peasants and professional people
working in the countryside.
In 1958 housing construction increased in scale, and it will
keep on increasing from year to year, making use of the latest
achievements of building construction technology and science.
Almost all money for housing construction comes from the
state treasury. Budgetary appropriations for this purpose are
regularly going up, reaching 36,800 million roubles in 1958.
against 29,000 million in 1957 and 25,000 million in 1956.
These immense investments in housing construction do not
yield the state any income. Rent for flats is fixed at a uniform
rate, set in 1926. Even in those years rent was low, and today
with earnings considerably higher it takes an insignificant portion
of the working people's budget. As a rule, rent does not exceed
3 to 5 per cent of a worker's earnings.
Ninety-eight per cent of the rent received goes for current
repairs and maintenance of the buildings, and 2 per cent for
insurance. The rent does not yield enough to pay for capital
repairs of the buildings, and this expense also is paid by the state.
for which purpose the budget provides large allocations.
Flats in houses built on state money are assigned in the first
place to people whose housing conditions are bad, families with
many children, newly-weds, and so on. Flats arc distributed by
the local Soviets with participation of the trade unions and other
public organisations.
Among the 287,300 persons who received flats in new build-
ings in Moscow in 1957, 52 per cent were workers and their
families, 37 per cent scientists, specialists, office employees and
their families, and the rest families of disabled, families of
deceased war veterans, pensioners, and so on
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The Soviet State assists those who wish to build their on
homes, granting them long-term loans. In 1958 the total amount
of such loans considerably exceeded 3,000 million roubles.
How is town-planning developing in the
Soviet Union?
ACHARACTER ISTIC feature of life in the Soviet Union
is the rapid growth of the urban population, a result of
the vast scale of industrial construction. Living in towns
now are roughly 90 million people (approximately 45 per cent
of the population), against a population of barely above 25
million as late as thirty years ago.
This, naturally, compelled an expansion of old towns and
the rapid construction of new. Large industrial and cultural
centres appeared in every part of the country, particularly in the
East and North, frequently in places where people had seldom
set foot.
Between 1926 and 1956 the number of towns increased by
860, and 1,200 new industrial settle ,:ents appeared during the
same period.
Most of the new towns sprang up in connection with the con-
struction of industrial enterprises. Magnitogorsk, an important
town with a population of close to 300,000 today, arose and
developed in an uninhabited steppe in the Southern Urals around
the big iron and steel works built in 1929-32. It has a dozen
or so industrial enterprises, two higher educational establish-
ments (a mining and metallurgical and a teachers' training
institute), scores of schools, clubs and libraries, a theatre, a
museum, a circus, a recreation park and many other public
buildings and other structures.
Another large city is Komsomolsk-on-Amur, built twenty-five
years ago in the remote taiga in the Far East. Other new towns
that might be mentioned are Kirovsk on Kola Peninsula, where
apatites, a valuable mineral, is mined; Sumgait in Transcaucasia
with its tubing mill and aluminium plant; Karaganda in
Kazakstan, a coal-mining centre; Stalinsk in Western Siberia.
a steel and coal-mining town, and Norilsk in the Far North
with its non-ferrous metals industry.
174
?Ax
A good many towns came into being in connection with the
construction of hydro-electric stations, which is proceeding ?on
a large scale. Among these towns are Zaporozhye and Novaya
Kakhovka in the Ukraine, Zhigulyovsk and Volzhsk on the
Volga, and a number of towns in Siberia.
New towns arc built according to a single plan and the land-
scape and climate are taken into consideration. This ensures the
proper allocation of residential blocks, industrial enterprises,
public buildings and service establishments. The towns arc
designed by special institutes, and they are provided with up-
to-date public services and amenities.
As far as old towns are concerned, it would be hard to find
one which has not changed in appearance in Soviet years. In
many cases the name of the town is the only old thing left.
For instance, the town of Kemerovo (Western Siberia), which
had a population of 22,000 in 1926 now has some 250,000
inhabitants, and Yerevan has increased its housing space six-fold
in thirty years.
In Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Tbilisi, Gorky (the former Nizhni
Novgorod) and other historic centres, many new buildings have
gone up, new thoroughfares and even extensive districts have
been built. The following table shows the population increase
in a number of the bigger cities between 1926 and 1956:
City
1926
1956
Moscow
2,000,000
4,800,000
Leningrad
1,700,000
3,200,000
Kiev
513,000
990,000
Gorky
222,000
876,000
Tashkent
323,000
778,000
Tbilisi
294,000
635,000
Stalingrad
151,000
525,000
In 1926 the U.S.S.R. had altogether thirty towns with a
population of over 100,000 and today it has 130-odd. In 1926.
only three towns had a population of more than 500,000 each,
while today there arc about twenty.
New construction in the old towns, as a rule, takes the shape
of massive blocks of buildings. Good illustrations of these are the
Peshchanaya Street and South-Western districts in Moscow, the
blocks of residential buildings put up by the automobile factory
in Gorky, and by the Ural heavy machinery works in Sverdlovsk
Radical changes have taken place in the municipal economy
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of the old towns. In pre-revolutionary Russia only the larger
cities had bus services, telephones, water mains, sewerage systems,
gas, and paved streets. Many towns did not even have electric
lighting. Today all these services and amenities are to be found
everywhere.
Moscow and Leningrad have underground railways and Kiev
has one under construction. Thousands of miles of gas mains
have been laid in towns, and electricity is used for domestic
purposes on an ever increasing scale.
A lot of greenery has appeared in towns; with millions of trees
and shrubs planted and new public gardens and parks laid out
every year. Large artificial lakes have been built in many towns,
particularly in the south, among them Tashkent and Kislovodsk.
921
What Government decorations are there?
FOR outstanding services in the sphere of socialist con-
struction, or defence of the Soviet State, individual citizens,
collective bodies and military units are awarded Orders or
Medals of the U.S.S.R. These awards are made by decrees of the
Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet.
In the first years of the Soviet State, two Orders were instituted
the Order of the Red Banner, for outstanding military feats, and
the Order of the Red Banner of Labour for notable labour
achievements. Subsequently the Order of Lenin, the Soviet
Union's highest Order, was introduced, followed by the Orders
of the Red Star and of the Badge of Honour.
During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, the Presidium of
the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet established a number of new Orders.
to be awarded for distinguished service in the struggle for the
honour, freedom and indet.zndence of the Soviet Union.
Among these are the Order of Victory, awarded to the High
Command; the Order of Suvorov, First, Second and Third
Class; the Order of Ushakov, First and Second Class; the
Order of Kutuzov, First, Second and Third Class; the Order
of Nakhimov, First and Second Class; the Order of Bogdan
Khmelnitsky, First, Second and Third Class; the Order of
Alexander Nevsky; the Order of the Patriotic War, First and
Second Class, and the Order of Glory, First, Second and Third
Class, awarded to rank and file soldiers only.
176
Each Soviet Order has its special statute.
In addition to the Orders, the U.S.S.R. has established twenty-
seven different Medals. Among them are the "For Distinguished
Labour", the "For Labour Valour", the "For Merit in Battle".
and the "For Bravery" Medals. Special Medals were awarded to
those who took part in the defence of Moscow and the Hero
Cities of Leningrad, Stalingrad, Sevastopol and Odessa.
Awards of Medals of the U.S.S.R. are also made by decrees
of the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet.
In 1944 the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet
instituted Orders and Medals for mothers of large families; the
"Mother Heroine Order"; the "Order of Motherhood Glory",
First, Second and Third Class, and the "Motherhood Medal",
First and Second Class.
For heroic deeds, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union is
conferred upon Soviet citizens. Persons on whom this title is
conferred receive the Order of Lenin and the "Gold Star"
Medal.
For distinguished achievements in their work, citizens of the
U.S.S.R. receive the title of Hero of Socialist Labour. Those
awarded this high title receive the Order of Lenin and a gold
"Sickle and Hammer" Medal, in addition to the title award
certificate.
In the last twenty-five years approximately 2 million people
in industry, transport, agriculture, construction, science and
culture have been awarded Orders or Medals, and close to 7.000
innovators have had conferred upon them the high title of Hero
of Socialist Labour.
What are Lenin Prizes for outstanding works
in science, engineering, literature and art?
93
BACK in 1925 the Soviet Government established the V. I.
Lenin prizes for the purpose of encouraging outstanding
work in the spheres of science, engineering, agriculture.
medicine and the social sciences.
Among those who received these prizes were Academician
A. N. Bach, one of the founders of modern biochemistry;
Academician K. K. Gedroits, one of the founders of modern
.agrochemistry; V. F. Mitkevich, an electrical engineer, who
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later was elected a Member of the Academy of Sciences;
Professor N. Y. Tsinger,- eminent botanist; Professor L. A.
Chugayev, famous chemist and metallurgist; and Professor V. P.
Vorobyov, well-known anatomist whose work made it possible
to preserve the body of Vladimir llyich Lenin for humanity.
After 1935, however, no Lenin prizes were awarded.
On September 8th, 1956, the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U.
and the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. passed a decision
to re-establish the Lenin Prizes for the more outstanding
scientific works, architectural designs and buildings, inventions,
designs of machines and new materials introduced into the
national economy, and improvements in production methods.
Lenin Prizes have been instituted for the best works of literature
and art which have received wide public recognition.
The prizes are to be awarded annually on April 22nd, Lenin's
birthday.
Two committees have been set up under the U.S.S.R. Council
of Ministers, the Committee for Lenin Prizes in the Spheres
of Science and Engineering, and the Committee for Lenin Prizes
in the Spheres of Literature and Art, to examine works submitted
in competition for a prize and to award prizes for the best of
them.
Works are to be presented to the Lenin Prize Committees
by the Presidiums of the Academies of Sciences, scientific or
engineering-technical societies, research institutes, higher institu-
tions of learning, the Presidium of the All-Union Central Council
of Trade Unions, Collegiums of Ministries of the U.S.S.R. or of
the Union Republics, plants, the Board of the Union of Soviet
Writers, of the artists', composers', and architects' unions, and
editorial boards of magazines, publishing houses, public
organisations and public figures in science, engineering, literature
or in the arts.
In 1957, seventeen works in the sphere of science and
engineering were awarded Lenin Prizes.
Among the recipients of the prizes were the outstanding
representatives of Soviet science and engineering, Academician
K. I. Scriabin, Academician D. V. Nalivkin, Academician A. N
Tupolev, D. I. Blokhintsev, Director of the International Nuclear
Rtearch Institute, and A. N. Bakulev, Member of the Academy
of Medical Sciences.
Those who received Lenin Prizes for outstanding achievements
in the field of literature and art were the sculptor S. I. Konenkov,
178
the prose writer L. M. Leonov, the poet Musa Jalil, the composer
S. S. Prokofiev (the latter two posthumously) and the ballerina
Galina Ulanova.
Among those who were awarded Lenin Prizes in the field
of science and engineering in 1958 were Academician P. G.
Betekhtin, Academician N. S. Shatsky, Academician S. G.
Strumilin, Academician I. P. Bardin, F. M. Gerasimov, chief
of the laboratory of the S. I. Vavilov Optical Institute, and
engineers Y. Y. Gumennik and E. A. Ignatchenko.
In the field of art Lenin Prizes were awarded to the sculptor
M. K. Anikushin, the stage director G. A. Tovstonogov, the
artist Y. V. Tolubeyev, the ballet master V. M. Chabukiani, and
the composer D. D. Shostakovich.
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,4?11.6
VI FOREIGN POLICY OF THE SOVIET
UNION
94 I What are the prindples of Soviet foreign policy?
THE principles of Soviet foreign policy
were formulated
and substantiated theoretically by V. I. Lenin, founder of
the Soviet Socialist State, and in pursuing its foreign policy
the U.S.S.R. Government is always guided by Leninist principles.
The principles are as follows: peaceful co-e.tistence of states
with different social systems, vigorous struggle for peace, recogni-
tion of and respect for the sovereignty of all nations?large and
small, non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
and proletarian internationalism.
The general aim of Soviet foreign policy has always been and
continues to be the Leninist principle of peaceful co-existence of
states with different social systems, in other words, peaceful
co-existence of the socialist and capitalist systems (see answer
No 90.
Another principle of Soviet foreign policy is vigorous struggle
for peace and against the aggressive plans of the imperialist
powers.
The U.S.S.R.'s pacific foreign policy follows from the very
nature of the socialist system The Soviet Union neither has nor
can have any motives for attacking other countries, for the
seizure of foreign lands. It possesses vast expanses of territory
and countless natural resources. It has no groups or sections
of the population interested in war, nor can such appear.
The Soviet Union has carried on a struggle for peace from
the dawn of its existence. On the day following the October
Socialist Revolution?November 8th, 1917?the Second All-
Russian Congress of Soviets adopted a Decree on Peace, drafted
by Lenin, which expressed the demand for universal peace that
is in accord with the vital interests of all peoples.
In the first days of its existence the Soviet State put an end
forever to the policy of national oppression pursued by tsarist
Russia and renounced all unequal treaties concluded by the
tsarist government with a number of states.
The chief content of Soviet foreign policy in the per,od
between the two world wars was the struggle for consolidating
peace
180
In the Second World War, unleashed by the fascist aggressors,
the Soviet Union greatly contributed to the defeat of Hitlerite
fascism and Japanese militarism, and since the end of the war
it has waged a tireless struggle for the prevention of another
slaughter of the peoples, for laming peace and international
security.
In force in the Soviet Union is the Peace Defence Act, which
declares war propaganda a grave crime.
The Soviet Union has repeatedly introduced concrete proposals
in the United Nations and its agencies for banning atomic and
hydrogen weapons, for a reduction of arms and armed forces
up to complete disarmament, and for prohibition of war
propaganda.
The Soviet Government has made a good many important
proposals for peaceful relations in its messages to the heads of
the United States, British, French and other governments. Along
with introducing proposals aimed at consolidating peace and
eliminating international tension, the Soviet Union has set a
good example by reducing its armed forces and cutting its
military appropriations from year to year. Proceeding from the
interests of peace and the striving to rid mankind from the
baneful effect of nuclear radiation, the Soviet Union in March
1958 unilaterally discontinued all nuclear weapon tests and
called on the governments of the powers possessing such weapons
to follow its example.
In its relations with other countries, the Soviet Union is
always guided by the principle of recognition of and respect
for the sovereignty of all nations, large or small, and non-
interference in the internal affairs of other states.
Recognition of and respect for the sovereignty of all nations
follows from the principles underlying the Soviet social and
state systems, from Lenin's teaching on the national question
and from the multi-national nature of the Soviet State.
This principle underlies the Soviet policy of friendship with
all peoples throughout the world, support of the national-
liberation movement and the struggle of the peoples against
colonialism and for the freedom and independent development
of all nations.
The Soviet Government has declared its full support of the
well-known five principles of peaceful co-existence set forth in
1954 in the statements of the Prime Ministers of the People's
Republic of China and the Republic of India
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II
111
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Jo the joint declaration issued by the gas of the
Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of Celina on October
1954, the two grierninerds stated tint they wonld =urine
to build their relations with the countries of Ash and the Pacific,
ab well as with other countries, on the basis of Strietence
to gx principles of respect for sovereignty and terriaoriml iinegny,
non-aggression, non-interference in the internal affairs of the
other, equality and mutual advantage and peaceful co-existence,
Whitt) opens up wide possibilities for the development of fruitful
international co-operation.
The five principles have received official recognition from most
of the countries in Asia and Africa and a number of countries
in Europe. In the present international situation th.se principles
stand opposed to the "cold war" and, in place of a world split
into antagonistic alignments, they proclaim the co-operation
of all nations to strengthen peace and settle outstanding issues
through negotiation.
implementation of the five principles of peaceful co-existence
leads to a wider zone of peace, or in other words, to whole
area; of the globe made up of countries resolutely opposing war
and standing for co-operation of all states on an equal footing for
their mutual advantage.
In his report to the Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.0
N. S. Khrushchov said: "The e ablisionent of firm
friendly relations between the two biggest powers of the world.
the Soviet Union and the United States of America, would be
of great significance for the strengthening of world peace. We
think that if the well-known Five Principles of peaceful co-
existence were to underlie the relations between the U.S.S.R. and
the United States, that would be of truly great importance for
all mankind and would, of course, benefit the people of the
United States no less than the Soviet peoples and all other
peoples. . . .
"Why not make these principles the foundation of peaceful
relations among all countries in all parts of the world? It
would meet the vital interests and demands of the peoples if all
countries subscribed to these Five Principles."
In its foreign policy the Soviet Union invariably proceeds
from the principles of proletarian internationalism. In the struggle
against imperialist aggression and for peace and friendship among
the nations, the Soviet Union relies on the unity of the working
people of all countries and their solidarity with the working
182
people of the U.S.S.R., for in ?defending the interests of the
Soviet people, Soviet foreign policy also defends the vital
interests of working people all over the world.
What gives the foreign policy of the U.S.S.R. its international
character is that it expresses the aspirations of all nations
inhabiting the Soviet Union, united in a friendly fraternal family.
The patriotism of the Soviet people is in fully harmony with
deep respect for the rights and interests of the peoples all over
the globe.
In unswervingly pursuing the policy of relaxation of inter-
national tension and consolidation of peace, the Soviet Uunion
proceeds from the fact that wars arc not fatalistically inevitable
in the present epoch, that there are powerful social and political
forces possessing formidable means to prevent the imperialists
from unleashing war.
What is the world socialist system?
I 95
THE socialist system, which has become firmly established
in Russia, is fundamentally different from all social and
economic systems which preceded it, primarily owing to
the fact that it eliminated exploitation of man by man, abolished
private ownership of the means of production and turned them
into public property belonging to the whole people. The people,
complete masters of this property, having taken state power
into their hands, use it for the extensive development of the
productive forces on the basis of advanced techniques, for the
fullest and all-round satisfaction of the requirements of the
whole population, for building a classless communist society,
the basic principle of which is: "From each according to his
ability, to each according to his needs."
As a result of the socialist revolution in Russia in October
1917, the chain of the capitalist system, which until then was the
only system in the world, was broken and there emerged a
qualitatively new socialist state of workers and peasants, which
paved the way for the formation of a world socialist system
For almost three decades, from 1917 to the end of the Second
World War, the Soviet Union, which was the first socialist state
in the world, stood alone, all the rest of the countries being
capitalist.
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The victory of the freedom-loving peoples over the fascist
aggressors changed the world situation radically. In a number
of countries in Europe and Asia, the peoples, after overthrowing
the old, reactionary and pro-fascist governments, chose a new
road of people's democracy, of socialist construction.
A history-making event was the victory of the people's revolu-
tion in China in 1949, and the shift of that country with the
largest population in the world to the path of socialist develop-
ment.
Thus, after the Second World War socialism emerged from
within the bounds of a single country and there took shape the
world system of socialist states, with an aggregrate population
of some 1,000 million.
The socialist countries are united in one community by all
of them taking the path of socialism, by the common class
nature of their social and economic systems and state power, by
the need of mutual support and assistance, by the community
of interests and aims in the struggle against imperialism and for
the victory of socialism and communism, and by their common
Marxist-Leninist ideology.
The socialist countries build their relations on the principles
of complete equality and non-interference in the internal affairs
of one another.
These principles, however, are not all there is to the substance
of relations between socialist countries. An integral part of their
relations is mutual fraternal assistance, co-ordination of national
economic plans and all-sided mutually advantageous co-opera-
tion; the latter plays an important part in strengthening the
economic and political independence of each and of the socialist
community as a whole.
The socialist countries also stand for extending in every
way economic and cultural relations with all other countries.
The chief distinguishing feature of the economy of the socialist
countries is its planned and all-sided development and its peace-
ful direction. Production in socialist countries is not carried on
for maximum prcfit; its main aim is a steadily higher standard
of living for the whole population. The balanced development
of all branches of the socialist national economy envisaged by
the state plans precludes crises of over-production.
The socialist countries are considerably ahead of the capitalist
countries in the rate of expansion of industrial output. Since
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the war the socialist countries have increased industrial produc-
tion 41-fold compared with 1937, while the capitalist countries
barely managed to double output during this period
A corner-stone of the socialist countries' foreign policy is the
struggle for peaceful co-qxistence with states of a different social
system. All socialist countries arc tirelessly waging a struggle for
relaxing international tension and for peace and friendship
among all nations inhabiting the globe. Economic expansion or
aggressive designs are alien to the socialist countries.
As the first and most powerful socialist country the Soviet
Union, naturally, plays an important role in the relations between
the socialist countries. The Soviet people have behind them a
rich experience in building socialism, an experience of which the
other socialist, countries are making wide use, applying it in
conformity with the concrete historical and social-economic
conditions and specific features of each country.
Nothing is, therefore, further from the truth than to assert
that it is all reduced to the "establishment" of socialism every-
where on the Soviet model. Actually the development of the
socialist countries is characterised by their complete independence
in politics as well as in economics. Each country brings a
certain originality in socialist construction.
The countries of the socialist system are carrying on vast
peacetime construction and they are vitally interested in a stable
and lasting peace. That is why the socialist countries have
joined efforts vigorously to uphold the policy of peaceful co-
existence with the countries of the capitalist system.
The solidarity of the socialist states is not directed against
any other countries; it serves the interests of all peoples, check-
ing the aggressive aspirations of the imperialist circles and
supporting the forces of peace and progress, which are growing
stronger day by day.
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96
I Is the peaceful co-existence of the socialist and
capitalist systems possible?
pEACEFUL co-existence of the socialist and capitalist
systems is not merely possible, it is also necessary. In the
present international situation, with two diametrically opposed
social systems existing on our planet?the socialist and capitalist
?the relations between them can develop only along one of two
ways: either peaceful co-existence or the most destructive war
in history. There is no third way.
In its foreign policy the Soviet Union has proceeded from
the premise that countries with different social systems can do
more than exist side by side. They should also always improve
their relations, strengthen mutual confidence and co-operate. If
we keep in mind traditional economic relations between
countries and the international division of labour which has
taken shape as a result of these relations, it will become per-
fectly obvious that no country can develop without normal
co-operation with other countries. And such co-operation is
inconceivable unless there is peaceful co-existence.
The enemies of peaceful co-existence in the West often slander
the Soviet Union by alleging that it advances the principle of
peaceful co-existence merely out of tactical considerations, con-
siderations of expediency. However, the U.S.S.R. has always,
from the very first years of Soviet power, stood with equal
firmness for peaceful co-existence,
As far back as 1922 the Soviet delegation at the Genoa
Conference proclaimed from the platform: "While adhering to
the communist viewpoint, the Russian delegation recognises that
in the present historical epoch, which makes possible the parallel
existence of the old social system and the new now coming into
being, economic co-operation between states representing the two
systems of ownership is imperatively necessary."
The U.S.S.R. has pursued the same political line all through
the post-war years.
During the Second World War, the Soviet Union, in close
alliance with the United States, Britain and other capitalist
countries defeated the common enemy, Hitlerism, and that again
was graphic proof that socialist and capitalist countries could
co-operate in the interests of all nations, and it was advisable
to do so.
186
Undeviatingly adhering to the principle of peaceful co-
existence, the Soviet Union acts in full accord with the United
Nations Charter, which envisages co-operation between states
with different social systems for the preservation of peace and
safeguarding the security of nations.
In the opinion of the Soviet Union the economic foundation
and manifestation of the principle of peaceful co-existence of
states should be the extensive development of economic, scientific
and cultural relations between them, and the political foundation
and manifestation of the principle should be non-interference
in the internal affairs of the other.
The all-round improvement of relations between states with
different social systems and the development of business co-
operation between them does not at all mean that struggle
between them will cease altogether or lessen. As long as the two
differing systems exist a struggle will go on between them all the
time, mainly an ideological struggle.
In advancing its proposals for lessening international tension
and eliminating the danger of another war, the Soviet Union
has always proceeded from the premise that ideological questions
are not a matter to be examined by an international forum
of representatives of different social systems. Life will show
which system is better for the peoples, and the choice of a
particular social system is an inalienable sovereign right of the
people of every country.
When the Soviet Union says that the socialist system would
win in the competition between the two systems?the socialist
and the capitalist?this by no means signifies that its victory
will be achieved through interference by the socialist countries
in the internal affairs of the capitalist countries. The Soviet
Union's certainty of the victory of communism is based on the
fact that the socialist mode of production possesses decisive
advantages over the capitalist.
Guided by the principle of peaceful co-existence of states with
different social systems, Soviet foreign policy proceeds from the
premise that wars between them can be avoided. The Soviet
Government has always proposed that outstanding international
issues should be settled through negotiations on the basis of
mutual recognition and consideration of tic interests of others
However, despite the Soviet Union's great effort for a relaxa-
tion of world tension, the international situation remains fraught
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with grave dangers of another world war. Under these -conditions
the vital intercsts of the peoples demand that the governments
responsible for the fate of peace should take effective measures
radically to improve the international situation.
Experience over many years in relations between states shows
convincingly that the easiest and best way to settle major inter-
national problems is by leaders of states meeting in person and
exchanging views.
The Soviet Government has therefore suggested the idea of
calling a conference of the heads of governments of East and
West to examine urgent international problems and to take the
necessary steps to remove the barriers in the way of peaceful
co-existence and frt.itful co-operation of the socialist and
capitalist systems.
In the opinion of the Soviet Government the problems
requiring immediate settlement are:
Immediate ending of tests of atomic and hydrogen
weapons.
Renunciation by the U.S.S.R., the United States and
Britain of the use of nuclear weapons.
Establishment in Central Europe of a zone free from
atomic, hydrogen and rocket weapons.
Conclusion of a non-aggression pact between the countries
belonging to the North Atlantic Alliance and the states
parties to the Warsaw Treaty.
Reduction of the number of foreign troops on the territory
of Germany and within the frontiers of other European
states.
A pact to prevent a surprise attack by one state on
another.
Measures for developing international trade relations.
Ending of war propaganda.
Ways of casing tension in the Near and Middle East.
Prohibition of the use of outer space for military purposes,
the dismantling of foreign military bases on alien territories,
and international co-operation in exploring outer space.
Conclusion of a German peace treaty.
Development of contacts between countries.
The Soviet proposals arc not designed to give the Soviet
Union any benefits or advantages at the expense of the interests
of other powers; they equally accord with the interests of all
188
nations, large and small, and are aimed at the further strengthen-
ing and extension of the principle of peaceful co-existence as
the foundation of international intercourse of the countries oi
the socialist and the capitalist systems.
How is Soviet foreign trade organised and
conducted?
97
SOVIET foreign trade is conducted as a state monopoly, and
is directed by the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the U S.S.R
The Ministry is charged with regulating foreign trade as a
whole and with individual countries, and concluding trade
treaties and agreements covering the volume of trade and pay-
ments.
Actual foreign trade operations are transacted by All-Union
corporations?state export and import organisations each of
which, as a rule, handles specific commodities.
This system of commerce is reflected in trade treaties and
agreements signed with many countries.
There are today twenty-odd export and import organisations.
known as Vsesoyuzniyc Obyedinenia, among them Exportles.
Soyuzneftexport, Soyuzpromexport, Raznoimport, Avtoexport
and Machinoexport. They conduct their operations by concluding
contracts with foreign firms or trade associations
Soviet export and import organisations are vested with the
authority to make transactions independently
Recent years have witnessed a considerable increase in Soviet
sales of complete plant for factories and other enterprises and
in technical assistance. This has made it necessary to set up a
State Committee on Economic Relations, whose functions include
the designing and delivery of complete equipment for industrial
enterprises and scientific and cultural establishments, technical
assistance and technical training.
Trade operations with co-operative organisations of foreign
countries are also conducted by Ccntrosoyuz (see answer No 55).
With the national economy rapidly developing it has become
possible to earmark for export more commodities and larger
quantities of them, besides providing more goods for the expand-
ing home market. Besides exporting its traditional commodities.
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such as timber and sawn timber, cereals, manganese and chrome
ores, coal, furs, petroleum and petroleum products, the Soviet
Union is one of the biggest exporters of machinery and other
equipment, occupying fifth place in the world for the volume
of exports of industrial equipment.
Of metal-cutting machine tools alone the Soviet Union exports
several hundred types and sizes. It exports various kinds of
construction equipment, also equipment for the food and light
industries, machines for the printing industry, many kinds of
agricultural machines, motor lorries and cars, and tractors.
It is also an important exporter of cotton, ferrous and non-
ferrous metals, asbestos and iron ore. Other items exported are
ferro-alloys, metals of the platinum group, mineral fertilisers,
chemicals, different kinds of animal raw materials, tobacco,
caviar, tinned fish and crabs, fabrics, handicrafts, and many
other items.
The U.S.S.R. is at the same time a big importer of many raw
materials and manufactures. One of its chief import items is
machinery and other equipment (it ranks among the world's top
importers of industrial equipment). It buys metal-cutting machine
tools, forge and press equipment, equipment for the mining
industry, metallurgical and hoisting machinery, equipment for
the chemical, light, food and printing industries, also power
equipment and machinery for making building materials.
Large quantities of raw materials and manufactures and
consumer goods are bought by it annually. It also buys rolled
metal, certain non-ferrous metals, various chemicals, rubber.
synthetic fibre and yarn, wool, hides, also cocoa beans, coffee,
?
spices, fruits and other commodities.
The list of Soviet exports and imports today contains several
thousand items, with the number of both import and export items
increasing year by year, as the Soviet economy develops.
The U.S.S.R.'s foreign trade volume keeps growing from
year to year. In 1957 it came to 33,300 million roubles, or more
than six times that of 1938, in comparable prices. As a result
of the rapid expansion of its foreign trade, the U.S.S.R. now
occupies sixth place in the world for volume of trade, against
sixteenth place before the war.
The number of countries with which the U.S.S.R. trades is
increasing, too. While in 1946 it traded with forty countries.
today it trades with seventy-odd, and with forty-five of them
it has trade treaties.
190
The countries heading the U.S.S.R.'s foreign trade list are the
German Democratic Republic, China, Czechoslovakia and
Poland.
Besides having close trade ties with the socialist countries. the
Soviet Union is rapidly increasing its commerce with many other
countries. In 1957 its trade volume with capitalist countries was
8,700 million roubles, an increase of more than 150 per cent
over 1946 (in comparable prices).
Countries in Western Europe with which the Soviet Union
does considerable trade are Britain, Finland, France, Western
Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Sweden, and in Asia
and Africa?India, Iran, Afghanistan and the United Arab
Republic.
The Soviet Union conducts its trade with all countries on the
basis of equality and mutual benefit, without any political strings
attached. It holds that ideological differences should not stand
in the way of developing mutually advantageous commerce
However, the volume of trade with some countries, the United
States among them, remains insignificant; the explanation is
that these countries are still pursuing a policy of discrimina-
tion, maintaining lists of goods prohibited for export to the
Soviet Union and other socialist countries.
The new Seven-Year Plan of national economic development
now being drawn up (see answer No. 33) provides for the
rapid expansion of all branches of industry and agriculture, and
in the sphere of foreign trade it envisages a further development
of mutually advantageous economic and trade relations with all
countries throughout the world.
How does the U.S.S.R. co-operate with
economically undereloped countries?
198
UNDERLYING the U.S.S.R.'s co-operation with econo-
mically underdeveloped countries are the principles of
full equality and mutual advantage, scrupulous fulfilment
of its commitments and respect for the national dignity and
sovereignty of other countries (see answers Nos. 94 and 96).
The Soviet Union firmly adheres to these principles in its relations
with any country, large or small.
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Co-operation of the Soviet Union with economically under-
developed countries takes various forms: trade, credits, sale of
machines to equip whole plants, technical assistance, and so on.
Among underdeveloped countries doing business with the
Soviet Union, South-East Asia and the Near East top the list.
The Soviet Union now trades with thirty-two countries in the
East, and with sixteen of them on the basis of trade treaties and
agreements. Among them are India, Burma, Lebanon, Turkey
and Afghanistan.
? Argentina heads the list of Latin American countries for
volume of trade with the U.S.S.R.
In concluding trade agreements with underdeveloped
countries the Soviet Union offers them the possibility to buy
from it goods they need for their economic development and
for meeting the pressing needs of their population.
Industrial equipment is the principal export item to those
countries; this includes machine tools, equipment and auxiliary
materials for the petroleum, coal-mining and power industries,
farm machinery, road-building equipment, motor vehicles, rolled
steel, fuel, building materials, and so on?in other words, every-
thing without which industrial development and economic in-
dependence are inconceivable.
Underdeveloped countries in South-East Asia and the Near
East took more than half of the machines and other equipment
and rolled steel the U.S.S.R. exported to capitalist countries in
1957. A considerable percentage of its exports is made up of
complete plant for enterprises in India, Afghanistan, Burma and
other countries.
In exchange for its industrial commodities the Soviet Union
gets from those countries their traditional export items. The
U.S.S.R. is one of the biggest importers of hides and skins from
India, Afghanistan and Iran, of Egypt's cotton and rice, and
Turkey's livestock, and is an important buyer of Burma's rice,
Morocco's citrus fruits, India's spices, Afghanistan's and Iran's
cotton, wool, and so on.
In many cases (where the underdeveloped countries have
foreign-exchange difficulties or limited gold reserves) the Soviet
Union puts through its deals in the currency of the particular
country on the basis of stable prices, which is an important
factor for expansion of their foreign trade.
Every year sees the trade volume rise and the number of
countries trading with the U.S.S.R. increase.
192
Total trade with this group of countries in 1957 went up
five-fold compared with 1953. In 1957 the Soviet Union's trade
volume with South-East Asia and the Near East increased almost
50 per cent compared with 1956, with the export of machinery
and other equipment amounting to 344 million roubles, four
times as much as in 1956 and twenty times as much as in 1955.
On its part, the Soviet Union bought in 1957 150 per ccnt
more cotton and 100 per cent more hides and skins than in
1956 and from 300 to 400 per cent more than in 1955.
In 1957 and early 1958 the U.S.S.R. signed its first trade
agreements with Pakistan, Indonesia, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia.
Cambodia and Ceylon. A number of agreements were also
concluded covering economic and technical co-operation with
India, the United Arab Republic and Ceylon.
The extension of trade relations is directly bound up with
the strengthening of other forms of economic co-operation, such
as the financial, scientific and technical assistance the Soviet
Union gives to underdeveloped countries.
A typical example of friendly assistance is the agreement
covering the construction in the Bhilai district in India of an
all-inclusive iron and steel works with a capacity of 1,300.000
tons of steel a year.
The Soviet Government granted the Indian Government a
long-term credit to the amount of 500 million roubles, to be
repaid in Indian rupees bearing interest at the rate of 21 per
cent per annum. (The rate of interest charged India is not an
exception for the Soviet Union; the long-term credit to the
amount of 100 million U.S. dollars granted by the Soviet Union
to Afghanistan bears 2 per cent interest, the loans to Syria and
Egypt of 700 million roubles each, 2f per cent, and the 100
million dollar loan to Indonesia, also 21 per cent.)
The Soviet organisations undertook to supply the latest equip-
ment manufactured, with the country's climate taken into account.
also to give technical guidance to construct the works, including
assembling the equipment and starting operation.
The Soviet organisations hold no shares in the enterprise
designed by them and will not participate in its operation. When
the construction is completed, the works will become the property
of India.
Another important step in the development of friendly relations
and co-operation between India and the U.S.S.R. was made late
in 1957, when an agreement covering economic co-operation and
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the development of other branches of Indies industry as
signed.
Under the agreement Soviet organisations are preparing pro-
jects and will supply equipment and auxiliary materials and give
other assistance, in building a heavy machinery plant and an
optical glass works, a thermal-electric station and enterprises
for mining and processing coal.
The Soviet Union granted India a long-term credit of
500 million roubles on highly favourable terms to build these
enterprises.
The U.S.S.R. has concluded agreements for co-operation and
assistance with other countries on similar terms.
The Soviet Union builds in underdeveloped countries industrial
enterprises, electric stations, dams, irrigation canals, higher
educational establishments, research centres, and so on.
To illustrate, in recent years we have seen the construction
with the aid of Soviet specialists of an asphalt and concrete
works in Kabul, Afghanistan, and petroleum bases in different
parts of the country, and recently a mechanised bakery was
put into operation in Kabul and an elevator in Pul-i-Khumri
In Burma the Soviet Union is building free of charge a
technological institute to accommodate 1,000 students and 100
graduate students, a hospital and clinic, a cultural and sports
centre and a theatre.
Having made great progress in the application of atomic
energy for peaceful purposes, the Soviet Union gladly passes
on its scientific and technical experience and knowledge to
countries that are just beginning to develop their atomic science
and industry.
For instance, under an agreement with Egypt it is building
in Cairo a nuclear physics laboratory with a 3-MEV accelerator.
An agreement signed by the Soviet Union and Indonesia provides.
among other things, for joint labours in the use of radioactive
isotopes in medicine, science and technology, and for training
Indonesians to become specialists in peaceful uses of atomic
energy.
The Soviet Union actively participates in assistance given to
underdeveloped countries under the United Nations programme.
The U.S.S.R. builds its relations with economically under-
developed countries, as with all other countries, on the basis
of mutual benefit, with no political strings attached.
In selling its goods the Soviet Union is not actuated by the
194
profit motive; it wants to help the peoples of those countries
in their noble cause of building up an independent national
economy and in raising the standard of living of the people
What are the international Lenin peace prizes?
99
BY a decree issued on September 8th, 1956, the Presidium
of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet has renamed the Inter-
national Stalin Prizes for the Promotion of Peace among
Nations the International Lenin Prizes for the Promotion of
Peace among Nations.
Up to ten of these prizes are to be awarded each year to
citizens of any country, irrespective of their political affiliation,
faith or race, for distinguished service in the struggle for the
preservation and consolidation of peace.
A recipient of an International Lenin Prize receives a diploma
conferring the title of International Lenin Prize-winner, a gold
medal embossed, with a head of V. I. Lenin and a cash prize
of 100,000 roubles.
A special committee, composed of representatives of the
democratic forces of various countries, was set up to make the
awards.
In 1950 International Peace Prizes were awarded to the
following outstanding peace champions: Frederic Joliot-Curie
(France); Soong Ching-ling (China); Hewlett Johnson (Britain),
Eugenie Cotton (France); Arthur Moulton (U.S.A.); Pak Den
Ai (Korea); and Heriberto Jara (Mexico).
For 1951 they were awarded to Kuo Mo-jo (China); Pietro
Nenni (Italy); lkuo Oyama (Japan); Monica Felton (Britain):
Anna Seghers (Germany); and Jorge Amado (Brazil).
In 1952 awards were made to Yves Farge (France), Dr
Saifuddin Kitchlew (India); Elisa Branco (Brazil); Paul Robeson
(U.S.A.); Johannes Becher (German Democratic Republic).
James Endicott (Canada); Ilya Ehrenburg (U.S.S.R.)
In 1953 Peace Prizes went to Pierre Cot (France), Sahib
Singh Sokhey (India); Andrea Gagger? (Italy); Isabelle Blume
(Belgium); Howard Fast (U.S.A.); John D. Bernal (Britain);
Leon Kruczkowski (Poland); Pablo Neruda (Chile), Andrea
Andreen (Sweden); Nina Papaya (U.S.S.R.).
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In 1954 Prizes were awarded to Denis Nowell Pritt (Britain);
Alain Le Leap (France); Thakin Kodaw Hmaing (Burma);
Bertold Brecht (Germany); Felix Iversen (Finland); Andre
Bonnard (Switzerland); Baldomero Sanin Cano (Colombia);
Prijono (Indonesia); and Nicolas Guillen (Cuba).
In 1955 awards were made to Lazaro Cardenas (Mexico); the
Sheikh Mohammed al-Achmar (Syria); Joseph Wirth (German
Federal Republic); Ton Duc Thang (Viet Nam); Akiko Seki
(Japan); and Ragnar Forbech (Norway).
In 1956 prizes were awarded to Chandrasekhara Venkata
Raman (India); Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie (France); Maria
Rosa Oliver (Argentina); Nikolai Tikhonov (U.S.S.R.); Udakend-
avala Saranankara Thero (Ceylon); Danilo Dolci (Italy);
Heinrich Brandweiner (Austria); and Louis Aragon (France).
In 1957 awards were made to Kaoru Yasui (Japan); Arnold
Zweig (German Democratic Republic); Louis Saillant (France);
Arthur Lundkvist (Sweden); and Josef Hromadka (Czechoslo-
vakia).
The annual award of International Peace Prizes is a vivid
testimony to the peaceful foreign policy unfailingly pursued by
the Soviet Union.
100 1
What are the U.S.S.R. 's cultural relations with
foreign countries?
FROM its earliest days, the Soviet Union has striven to
establish and extend cultural relations of every kind with
other countries, irrespective of their social and political
systems, rightly believing that promotion of cultural relations
between nations helps them to understand each other better and
leads to the strengthening of peace, friendship and co-operation
of the peoples.
The Soviet Union's international relations have been particu-
larly broadened in recent years; this applies also to tourism
In 1956, 486,000 foreigners visited the U.S.S.R., and in 1957.
550,000.
The number of Soviet people going abroad is also increasing
all the time. In 1956 the number was 561,000, and in 1957 more
than 716.000.
196
Cultural and scientific ties based on international agreements
are developing particularly fruitfully. The Soviet Union has
some ninety agreements with different countries on particular
questions of cultural and scientific exchange.
Of great importance is the agreement on exchanges in the fields
of culture, technology and education concluded by the U.S.S.R.
and the United States. The signing of this agreement met with
the approval of broad sections of the public in both countries,
furnishing concrete proof that Soviet - American relations really
can improve in the international situation.
The Soviet people want to extend cultural relations with all
countries.
In 1957 prominent Soviet cultural figures visited fifty-four
countries and were hosts to colleagues from forty-four countries.
The same year 3,000 cultural figures visited the Soviet Union on
the invitation of the U.S.S.R. Ministry of Culture, which has been
widely developing cultural relations with foreign countries and
thousands of their Soviet counterparts made trips to foreign
countries.
An important event in the cultural life of the whole world
was the TchaikovskY International Contest of Violinists and
Pianists held in Moscow in the spring of 1958.
A holiday of people's culture of 131 countries was the Sixth
World Youth Festival held in Moscow in 1957, which was
attended by 34,000 young people from other countries. The
festival participants gave some 800 concerts, plays and other
performances to audiences totalling 10 million. During the
festival 108 films from thirty-two countries were shown, three
international exhibitions were held, and there were friendly meet-
ings of artists, painters, writers, and so on.
The exchange of films, exhibitions, books and periodicals
is growing all the time. Soviet radio and television exchange
broadcasts with thirty-five countries. In 1957, 102 writers from
forty-four countries visited the U.S.S.R.
The exchange of scientists is regularly increasing in scale On
the invitation of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences (not counting
the academies in specific fields) 905 foreign scientists visited the
Soviet Union in 1957, and more than 1,500 Soviet scientists
travelled abroad. With international congresses of astronomers.
architects, Slavonic scholars, and others scheduled to be held in
the Soviet Union in 1958 it is expected that the number of foreign
scientists visiting the Soviet Union will reach 1500. The U.S.S R.
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a
Ministry of Higher Education will have received by the end of
the year some 600 professors and instructors from foreign
colleges and will send some 1,000 of its own specialists abroad.
Studying at Soviet educational establishments are 14,500
foreign students and graduate students, and hundreds of Soviet
students are studying abroad. An exchange Of students between
the United States and the U.S.S.R. has been outlined for the
first time. ?
Relations are rapidly developing in the field of sports. In
1958 Soviet sports organisations have maintained active relations
with sixty-three countries in thirty-four fields of sport. In 1957,
5,068 sportsmen from forty-six countries visited the U.S.S.R. and
2,904 Soviet sportsmen travelled abroad.
Direct contacts between the Soviet and other people's are
developing more and more extensively. Soviet trade unions were
hosts in 1957 to trade union and workers' delegations from
eighty countries.
The recently established Union of Soviet Societies for Friend-
ship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (see answer
No. 30), set up on the initiative of the public and acting in-
dependently, plays a tremendous and ever-increasing role in
promoting mutual understanding and friendship among all
peoples.
198
* To keep abreast of developments in the Soviet
Union, where such great economic and social
changes are taking place, read Soviet Weekly. Each
week Soviet Weekly gives you the latest news of the
Soviet people at work and play, and of Soviet policy
for preserving peace.
FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT
\ THE
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each Ihursday, price 3d.,
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THE SOVIET UNION
in Facts & Figures?
An invaluable book of reference covering almost
( very aspect of life and work in the USSR
216 pages 9 x 6 182 illustrations
Largt. coloured folding map
In plastic cover 55.
L brarv edition, stiff cover is. 6d.
books-,ps r p)st f,3"'
SOVIET NEWS, 3 ROSARY GARDENS, LONDON, 5.W.7
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CO-OPERATIVES
in the
SOVIET UNION
by Israel E. Friedman
SOVIET NEWS BOOKLET No. 36
LONDON
1958
STAT
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CONTENTS
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
I. A BIT OF HISTORY
H. TRADE AND PURCHASES
Page 5
Page 7
Page 8
III. PUBLIC ROLE
Page 13
IV. MEMBERS ARE MASTERS
Page 17
V. WOMEN IN CONSUMERS' CO-OPS
Page 24
t
VI. 'THE 1958 CO-OP CONGRESS
VII. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Page 26
Page 28
Published September, 1958
I
Second Impression, November, 1958
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Author's Preface
IHAVE OFTEN NOTICED that co-operative leaders who come to
the Soviet Union from the West want more information as
to what our consumers' 'co-operatives arc really like, what is
their significance and role in Soviet economy and in the life
of the people.
They want to know how our co-operative enterprises are
managed, whether or not women take part in their work, and
if they do, in what capacity. They also ask how the members
of the co-operatives exercise control over the activity of the
organs of the consumers' co-operatives. .
In order to understand the role and activities of consumers'
co-operatives in the U.S.S.R. one' must bear in mind that they
have developed in a socialist society. -
In the Soviet Union the relations between the working class,
the collective farmers and the Soviet intelligentsia are based on
comradely co-operation.
Here the land, its mineral wealth, waters, forests, mills, fac-
tories, mines, railwlys, water and air transport, banks, com-
munications, coml.-anal enterprises and the bulk of the dwelling
houses in the cities and industrial localities are state property,
that is, belong to the whole people.
This public, socialist property forms the foundation of the
entire economy of the country.
Another form of public, socialist property in the U.S.S.R. is
the co-operative property which belongs to individual co-
operative organisations.
The Soviet consumers' co-operative is thus an integral part
of the socialist system of economy, and is conducted and
developed in accordance with a definite plan.
It is this very fact which determines the favourable conditions
under which the Soviet co-operatives conduct their work.
These co-operative societies are not forced to struggle for
their existence under conditions of vicious competition, for
there are no capitalist monopolies in the Soviet Union. On the
5
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contrary, the socialist state renders all kinds of assistance to
the consumers' co-operatives (as it-does to all other co-operative
forms of organisation).
The co-operative societies and the Soviet Co-operative Union
(Centrosoyuz) receive credit from the state (for which they pay
2 per cent interest annually) and goods on favourable terms.
The co-operatives, in turn, contribute, through their activities,
to the growth of socialist economy in the U.S.S.R. and to
improving the well-being of the working people.
As with all other public and state organisations in the U.S.S.R.
the chief aim of the co-operatives is to satisfy the needs of the
people. And like all Soviet people the members of the co-
operatives are in favour of peaceful co-existence. They want to
trade with other peoples, and not to wage war.
If my remarks help our readers, who are interested in the
Soviet co-operative movement, to understand the essence of its
work and the principles governing that work, if these remarks
of mine contribute to a better mutual understanding between
Soviet and British co-operative members and, consequently, to
the development, to some extent, of business relations on the
basis of mutual benefits, I shall consider I have achieved my
goal.
6
_
I. E. F.
I. A Bit of History
I SHALL NOT GO INTO DETAIL about the history of the development
of the consumers' co-operatives in Russia but I merely wish to
refer to certain events in the history of our co-op movement
which will help to understand its present-day role and activity.
During the first years of Soviet government the consumers'
co-operative societies were the main channel for supplying the
population of town and countryside with their needs. In his
book, Ten Days that Shook the World, the famous American
journalist John Reed, who witnessed the heroic days of October
1917 in Petrograd, wrote that it was the co-operatives that fed
Russia when the old system of trade collapsed. Indeed, state
trade in those days was very poorly developed and the co-
operative system was essentially the chief distributive
organisation.
When the Civil War and foreign intervention were over the
period of the restoration of the national economy, the period
of the New Economic Policy, began.
One of the most important tasks facing the consumers'
co-operatives was that of organising ties between town and
village, and of crowding private capital out of trade.
Cities and towns grew up, industry developed at a tem-
pestuous pace, the number of workers increased and the
consumers' co-operatives, naturally, were unable to meet all
the demands of the working people in town and countryside.
It became necessary to organise, in large cities and industrial
centres, c network of state trading enterprises and, in a number
of cases, to turn over to the m2naeng boards at the most im-
portant industrial enterprises the task of supplying the workers.
These enterprises organised special departments for supplying
the workers.
The consumers' co-operatives concentrated their trading and
purchasing activity mainly in rural localities, in district centres
and in workers' communities.
Today over one-fourth of the trade turnover of the co-
7
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operatives is to be credited to such towns and workers' com-
munities. The co-operative societies also trade with state farms,
machine-and-tractor stations*. and fisheries.
The victory of socialism in the 'U.S.S.R., the strengthening
of the collective farm system and the subsequent improvement
in the material conditions of the collective farmers have served
as a tremendous stimulus to develop the trade of the consumers'
co-operatives. In the pre-war year of 1940, the retail trade of
these co-operatives amounted to 42,zoo million roubles.
With the termination of the Great Patriotic War the Soviet
people began wiping out the after-effects of the war and further
developing all branches of the national economy. The trade of
the consumers' co-operatives increased still more.
In 1956 it amounted to 161,700 million roubles, and in 1957
it increased by another 27,800 million roubles. Their total retail
trade in 1958 will exceed last year's by 45,000 million roubles.
At the present time the trade of the consumers' co-operatives
constitutes almost one-third of the total retail trade of the U.S.S.R.
II. Trade and Purchases
The Financial Basis of the Co-operative
Societies
THE CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES of the U.S.S.R. are a voluntary
form of organisation. All citizens of the Soviet Union who have
reached the age of sixteen, regardless of race, nationality, sex,
?seligious faith, social origin and property, may become membt..%
?.ofithe co-operative societies.
-rThc consumers' society sells goods in the district where it
conducts its activities, both to its members and to people who
are not members, and also to collective farms and institutions.
These societies receive their funds from admission lees (three
roubles) and membership fees (or shares), from short-term credits
granted by the State Bank of the U.S.S.R., and from incomes
obtained by the societies as a result of their activities.
*Now in process of being changed to repair-and-service stations.
8
?tr-
? 441e-s
?Nr
t.?
e k
?
&
'
.rne \
ts.t?-
-, ?
-
411.
?s.
411714141,
' et
-
4?41.
? 44%
?
Above, a delegate
conference of con-
sumers' co-
operatives, attended
by 1,3oo delegates,
meeting in the large
hall of the Kremlin,
Moscow, June 23,
1958.
Themeeting is being
addressed by A. P
Klunov, chairman of
the Central Co-
operative Union.
The Central Co-
operative Union
runs a Higher Co-
operative .%chool for
the training of per-
sonnd, in the village
of Perlovka, near
Moscow. On the
left, second year
student Nina Lcbe-
dem tests the acidity
of bread.
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'7-1771);TS 7`rr7.7'-?-?
?
II
'Fa
00.
tit
EPter
ttrlf4- r
21111
!:11111 I
7 ?411,
11
?
r
Viv
?
?-?
.11.7 ??e-
???????...
The co-operative co-operative shop of Ludisnskoye village, Istra District, near Moscow
The agricultural produce shop of the Lyubertsy District, Moscow Region. The
signs outside list friar and vegetables, mushrooms, meat and poultry, milk, eggs,
honey, wine etc.
b ti a
t".
a 3 ts
ire
,.............,,, -.-.-.5:tft
? _., ..,;;;-. ? ..*,.
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Soo
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?sk
The amounts of the membership fees and the dates of their
payment are decided upon at general members' meetings at the
time the society's charter is confirmed. In some societies mem-
bership feet' amount to 3oo roubles which, as a rule, can be
paid in two or three years. Co-op members do not have to pay
dues continually like members of a trade union. Once they have
paid off their membership fee total they cease having to pay.
I shall explain, later on, what constitutes the profits of the
society (in 1957 they amounted to 7,65o million roubles) and
how they are distributed.
Purchase of Goods from the State
The consumers' co-operatives acquire goods from state industry
and also produce them in their own enterprises.
They acquire most of thcir goods from state enterprises?and
on the same conditions as state trading organisations.
Industry gives these co-operatives a trading discount which
enables them to cover all transport and sales expenses and still
make a normal profit. The co-operatives sell almost all their
goods at retail prices fixed by the state.
As regards goods obtained from the state at wholesale prices
(such as coal) the co-operative societies fix their own prices
by adding an extra rharge the size of which is determined by
the distance to the place where these goods will be sold.
The consumers' co-ops also acquire goods from producers'
co-operative enterprises* and produce many general consumers'
goods themselves at their own enterprises.
Productive Enterprises of the Co-operative
Societies
The co-operative societies have about 29,000 different indus-
trial enterprises. They produce sausages and confectionery,
wines and non-alcoholic drinks, tinned foods, dried fruit, ice-
cream, furniture, carts, pottery, clothing, linen goods, building
materials and other articles.
*In addition to collective farms there are a number of producers'
co-operatives in light manufacturing, watchmaking, handicrafts etc.
9
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In 1957 these enterprises produced goods amounting to
12,000 million roubles.
Furthermore, the co-operatives go in for fishing, breeding of
fur animnts (the co-operatives have over iso farms for the
breeding of silver fox, mink, and other animals), and have a
large number of auxiliary agricultural enterprises which have
considerable herds of cattle, sheeps and pigs.
The output of these farms is sent to co-op stores for general
sale.
Growth of Co-op Trade
Year by year co-op trade experiences a steady expansion. In
1957 total co-op sales showed an increase of 28,000 million
roubles over 1956. This is an increase of 17.2 per cent and
represents the biggest annual increase ever recorded.
In the past four years alone co-op sales in the countryside
have gone up by 75 per cent.
In 1957 the co-ops sold 83 per cent more boots and shoes,
33 per cent more fabrics, and 103 per cent more knitted goods.
Here is another indication of the people's growing standards.
Last year co-op shops received r,900,000 cycles, 1,274,000 radio
sets, 300000 cameras, 1,142,000 sewing machines?more than
ere sold in the countryside during the entire 1951-1953 period.
?
Commission Trade
In their trading activities consumers' co-ops do not restrict
themselves to just the selling of the goods they get from state-
owned enterprises and producers' co-operatives or what they
make themselves.
Selling of agricultural produce on a commission basis for
collective farms and their members occupies a prominent place
in the trade of consumers' co-ops. They initiated this new form
of trading in 1953.
The idea behind it is to save collective farmers' time in bringing
their produce to town. For a small commission (usually 8-9
per cent, depending on the place of purchase and likewise of
sale), the co-ops take over the job. In addition, they see to it
10
that collective farmers get the average market price for their
goods.
Farmers find it profitable and willingly pay commission for
their goods to be sold via the co-ops.
In Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk and
other such cities and towns and also in factory settlements there
are already more than 12,000 co-op shops and stalls doing a
lively trade in farm produce on a commission basis. This trading
network now sells annually thousands of millions of roubles
worth of flour, potatoes, vegetables, fruit, meat, milk, honey,
wines, sugar and other products.
Procurement
Aside from trading, the Soviet consumers' co-ops also do
much in the way of procurement* of agricultural products. They
enjoy literally boundless opportunities in this field.
One glance at the geographical map of the Soviet Union is
enough to see the wealth of food and raw materials our country
possesses.
Who is best able in the Soviet Union to do the compli=ed
and economically important job of purchasing farm produce
and raw materials?
Obviously, organisations with euough authority, appropriate
funds and a ramified network of buying stations. In the U.S.S.R.
the consumers' co-op is precisely such an organisation.
Suffice it to cite the following figures: rural procurements
are carried on by more than 17,000 village consumers' societies
and by 4,000 district consumers' unions. They have their own
shops, stalls, and warehouses in the farthest outposts of the
country and =joy the services of qualified and experienced staff.
The consumers' co-ops purchase potatoes and other vegetables,
fruit, berries, mushrooms and wild plants, and also eggs.
In early 1956 they began to buy everything in the way of
raw materials from animal husbandry, including fur, hides, wool,
and astrakhan skins.
*This relates to the purchase of that proportion of agricultural
produce which is for compulsory delivery to the State.
II
* ?
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Relations with Collective Farms
The consumer co-ops organise their relations With the collec-
tive farms in the following way: the collective farm accepts from
the consumer's co-op a monetary advance on the items which
it produces for sale, such as potatoes, fruit, vegetables, and so on.
These funds are used for general farm expenses, to buy
machinery and other equipment.
The farm undertakes to pay off this advance by a definite
date by selling to the co-ops its produce in an amount pror9ed
for in the plan for deliveries.
That done, the co-op then completes the sale.
The co-op also buys some produce directly from the collective
farm.
All purchases are based on State prices.
Thus you now have the answer as to what the consumers'
co-ops in the U.S.S.R. do in the way of trading and procurement.
To this we need only add that in selling the products of
state-owned enterprises and in increasing procurement in the
countryside of food for the urban population and of raw
materials for industry, the consumers' co-ops help to forge
stronger links between town and countryside, promote domestic
trade and raise the population's material standards.
ILFor an assessment of the activities of consumers' co-ops in
the countryside I would like to qrote Nikolai Sidorov, vice-
the Soviet Co-operative Union board:
"Co-operative trade in the countryside is a sort of mirror of
the economic and cultural transformation taking place in the
Soviet village," he told a correspondent of Gudok, the railway-
men's journal. "In the N.E.P.* years the village co-ops primarily
traded in a narrow range of commodities, mostly tea, sugar,
calico and kerosene. Now the village shops sell many radio sets,
gramophones, musical instruments, bicycles and articles of fur-
niture. Last year collective framers bought some roo,000 TV
sets alone."
* I.e., in the period of the New Economic Policy, 1921-1925, when a
limited revival of small-scale capitalism was temporarily permitted,
before the First Five-Year Plan was launched.
12
III. Public Role
AFTER Tim VICTORY of the October Revolution Soviet consumers'
co-ops became an important factor in the country's life, and a
neaps of making widely known the ideas of V. I. Lenin, founder
of the Soviet state, as regards co-operative forms of farming
among the peasantry.
This helped to establish collective farms, the producers' co-
operatives of the peasants, who saw for themselves, through
the example afforded by consumers' co-ops, the huge advan-
tages of collective over individual farming.
Consumers' co-ops facilitated the extension of economic links
between town and countryside at all stages of development of
the Soviet state.
It is important to note the work consumers' co-ops do to
extend the network of public catering and of bakeries in the
countryside. Co-ops regard it as one of their main tasks to ease
the work of peasant women and help them to participate more
actively in social and political life.
Some 36,000 village dining and tea rooms and more than
r7,00o bakeries are part and parcel of the fundamental changes
socialism has brought about in the countryside.
The important job done by the consumers' co-ops in the
U.S.S.R. has been noted by foreign guests. Thus in a Soviet
Weekly interview, Lord Williams, president of the Co-operative
Wholesale Society, who, together with Lady Williams, visited
the Soviet Union for a fortnight as guests of the Soviet Co-
operative Union September, 1957, remarked that though he had
not had the time to acquaint himself in detail with all aspects
of the activity of Soviet co-operators, from what he had seen
he had gathered that they were doing tremendous work to
develop the co-operative movement in the country and were
drawing ordinary people into it.
Book- Selling
Consumers' co-ops are today the main se& -a of articles
meeting cultural needs, especially of books, in the countryside,
whereas before the Revolution this branch of their activity was
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negligible. By using their extensive trading network, co-operators
are dning fine work in bringing books into the homes of villagers
and, in general, in meeting their growing cultural requirements.
Consumers' co-ops have different categories of shops. In
district centres they have district general shops and special shops
selling articles meeting cultural needs, including books. All the
last-named shops have special book counters.
Now the village general and other shops with the proper
faalities also trade in bolks. The consumers' co-op network
has also a large number of special bookstalls. Co-op shops at
state farms also sell books and there are special book-vans to
cater for smaller inhabited localities.
In June last year arrangements were made with Knigotorg
(the state's Central Book Trading Organisation) for 3,000 of
the latter's bookshops and stalls to be turned over to the co-ops.
Wide use is also made of book bazaars and book weeks and
months to popularise printed material.
Last year co-op book sales jumped from 430 million to 600
million roubles. The books are obtained by the co-ops from the
state book trading organisations, includielg Knigotorg.
The growth in book sales throughout the country, including
villages, is due above all to the conditions created by the victory
of the October Revolution for raising educational standards. An
idea of the Soviet Union's educational facilities may be derived
from the fact that in the 1956-57 school year there was an
attendance of 30,122,00o at elementary, seven-year and secondary
general schools, schools for factory and village youth and for
adults, a student body of 2,0I I,000 at the technical and specialised
secondary educational establishments, and a student body of
2,00z,oco at the institutions of higher learning. The country
boasted of 213,000 schools and 767 higher educational estab-
lishments
Co-ops Aid Housebuilding
Every year more and more houses are going up in the Soviet
Union. Nevertheless the housing problem is not yet solved. And
this is quite understandable if we bear in mind not only the
legacy of tsarist days but also the Nazi invasion, which left tens
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of millions of Soviet citizens without a roof over their heads.
Soviet consumer co-ops are playing a big part in helping to
achieve our country's objective of providing everyone with
adequate housing within ten to twelve years. Co-op aid in this
task is particularly directed to the countryside. It takes the form
largely of organising the sale of building materials and prefab
houses.
In 1957 alone more cement and slate roofing was sold by the
co-ops than during the entice period of 1950-1953. Between
1958 and 1961 it is planned to step up considerably the produc-
tion and sale of prefab houses and parts.
How do consumer co-ops organise the sale of building
materials?
On the basis of an examination of individual householders'
requirements they apply to the Economic Councils for the
required quantity of building materials. They purchase materials
at state-owned cement, slate and glass factories, and from local
industry they obtain bricks, tiles, lime and building stone.
Co-ops also have their own enterprises which make bricks,
tiles, lime etc. And they purchase timber through co-op societies
in forest regions.
The sale of building materials is carried on at over 8,000
special co-op shops and storage centres.
There is one other aspect of co-op initiative in house-building
which should not go unmentioned. About 1,400,000 people are
employed by the co-ops in shops, canteens, cafeterias, industrial
plants, depots, warehouses, and so on.
All co-op personnel are provided with homes, the building
of which is financed by co-op funds. The amount set aside for
this purpose is decided by the shareholders' meeting, the sum
being taken from funds allocated for capital construction and
from profits derived from normal co-op trading activities.
Helping to Make Life Easter
This, of course, does not exhaust all the activities of the
consumer co-ops. In a variety of other ways, too, they make life
easier for people in the countryside.
A recent decision cf the Soviet Co-operative Union makes
15
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important recommendations in this respect. It suggests that
shops, dining hallc, bakeries, purchasing depots and warehouses
be built first. At the same time it says that the construction of
children's playgrounds, sports grounds and other public service
establishments should not be neglected.
The Co-operative Union also recommends an extension of
centres for the repair of clothing, boots and shoes, radio and TV
sets, cycles, sewing machines and electrical household appliances.
In order to lighten the work of women co-op members it
recommends that, wherever possible, co-ops should organise
more laundries with washing machines which can be used by
co-op members for a small fee fixed by shareholders' meetings.
It also suggests the baking of bread in co-op bakeries from
flour supplied by collective farmers, and the construction of
co-op hotels.
How Personnel is Trained
To train co-op personnel, there are hundreds of special co-
operative educational establishments which provide instruction
for diverse professions.
These establishments consist of 4 higher schools, 77 technical
schools, to two-year schools, 115 co-operative-trade schools and
dozens of training courses, attended all in all by more than
103,000 people.
Last year the Soviet Co-operative Union earmarked 450 million
roubles for this purpose. These funds come from deductions
from profits, fixed first by the councils of the republican con-
sumers' co-op unions, with subsequently the entire sum for all
the country endorsed by the Co-operative Union.
Consumers' co-ops employ about 1,400,000 people, prominent
among whom are those who have received their training in
co-operative schools. Between t955 and 1960 colleges and
secondary educational establishments of the Co-operative Union
will train respectively 4,000 and over 6o,000 specialists.
The village co-op of
Pavlovskaya
Sloboda, Mosconi
Region.
Trying on shoes in
the shoe department
of the co-op in
Afechetinsky
Rostov Region.
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A young Soviet citizen tries on a pair of white boots in the co-op shop of A hand sewing machine is being demonstrated at the household goods counter of
Luchinskoye village, Moscow Region. the Pavlovskaya co-op.
INSIDE THE SOVII:7' VILLAGE CO-OP.
Shopping at the grocery counter in the co-op of Pavlovskaya Sloboda, Moscow At the haberdashery counter of the Luchinskoye store. The sign announces
Region. "Haberdashery, Perfumery and Hosiery".
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- e) ..?_
1 ro..Pa....',.%?3i131..,....?\
?+..:AL.1
-
rfi4i1.?
it.
V.
????
eel
?
*A.
The girls above are
learning accountancy
at the Central Insti-
tute of Co-operative
Trade in Lvov,
xed Ukraine. Note the
combination of the
abacus and calculat-
ing machines.
??? ?
? ??for? ???76.
Left: Learning to
wrap crockery for
delivery at the
Higher Co-operative
School, Perlovka
IV. Members are Masters of the
Co-operatives
The Meeting? is ^ the Highest Authority
THE CONSUMERS' CO-OPERATIVE is a public mass organisation
that acts on its own initiative. Over 35 million peasants, workers
and employees of state farms, repair and service stations and
industrial enterprises, fishermen, village teachers, doctors, agro-
nomists and people of other specialities arc members of the con-
sumers' co-operatives of the U.S.S.R. They are united in over
20,000 consumers' societies.
The tremendous expanses of the Soviet Union and the fact
that settlements are scattered all over the country and are far
from each other often make it difficult to convene a general
assembly of co-op members. Such being the case, sectional
meetings are held in the villages, which elect authorised repre-
sentatives for a general meeting of the consumers' society and
which give these delegates the necessary instructions.
Once in every two years meetings of the members or their
representatives are convened, at which reports arc made on the
work carried out and new elections held. At these meetings all
questions concerning the work of the consumers' societies are
decided and the managing board and auditing commission are
elected by secret ballot for the coming period.
In addition to these meetings the members assemble at least
twice a year to consider current matters. Special unscheduled
meetings may be convened upon the demand of at least one-tenth
of the members or at the demand of the auditing commission.
The general meeting of the members (or the meeting of their
representatives) is the highest organ of management of the
affairs of the consumers' society.
This meeting decides all the most important questions touching
upon the work of the consumers' society, including the adoption
of the charter, admission of members or their exclusion from
membership, confirmation of accounts and plans etc. ?
When questions concerning the activity of the consumers
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society are being decided upon, all members, regardless of the
amount of dues which they have paid in, have equal rights.
As a rule members take a very active part in the meetings of
their co-operative societies.
Decisions taken at a general meeting are only valid if three-
quarters of the members of the society attend.
Passing Judgment
In most cases members endorse the reports of the managing
board and the auditing commissions. And that is quite under-
standable. The success achieved in their work speaks for itself.
Trade has increased, procurements are greater, there is a profit,
and the trade network is being expanded.
Incidentally, co-op retail trade will exceed 200,000 million
roubles this year. In the past two years alone the co-op network
of stores and shops increased by ro,000, while this year another
4,500 stores, shops and stalls will be opened, as well as !zoo
more dining-rooms, lunch-rooms and other eating places.
But there are cases when people criticise those members of
the management who have been remiss in their work; and during
the voting by secret ballot these people are not re-elected.
That is what happened, for instance, at a meeting of delegates
of the members of the Yavan District Consumers' Society in
Tajikistan, where both the former chairman of the managing
board, Salikhov, and the head of the society's trading department,
Thivodrov, went down.
Co-op members are very exacting when it comes to appraising
the work of store managers. Those who do not handle properly
the tasks entrusted to them find themselves outside pretty quick.
Participation in the Distribution of Profits
The role of members as masters of the co-operatives can also
be seen when profits are distributed. As a result of its trading
and purchasing activity the consumers' co-operative receives
profits from which allocations are made every year to the mem-
bers on the basis of their membership fees or shares.
Strict account is kept of the members of the co-operatives and
the fees they have paid.
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For instance, the Rolybemv Village Consumers' Co-operative,
Moscow Region, has personal accounts for all its 1,5oo members.
These accounts are kept in special books and entries made of
all the fees paid by each member.
The cashier of the society has special membership stamps.
Membership fees are collected by collectors approved at a
meeting of the managing board. As a rule the members pay
their fees when they visit the stores.
What part of the profits is to be used for dividends is decided
upon at the general meetings of the members or their delegates.
In any case it amounts to at least 20 per cent of the annual
profits. It is from 15 to 50 kopecks for each rouble, and some-
times even more.
If one bears in mind that the membership fee in a number of
societies amounts XO 250-300 roubles, it follows that the dividend
which each member receives every year on his shares constitutes
a substantial sum.
These payments arc made at the end of the trading year,
after the managing board has reported to the general assembly.
An announcement regarding the payment of dividends to the
members is made over the local radio, in the press, at meetings,
and in special posters which arc hung up in the shops.
Why Members are Interested
Since members of consurricrs' societies have a share in the
profits they are vitally interested in seeing to it that their enter-
prises work without a loss, that their accumulations increase
year by year, and that their societies fulfil and overfulfil their
plans for trade and procurement of agricultural products.
The most active members attend board meetings and discuss
with the board urgent questions concerning the life of their
societies.
The elected members of shop, dining-room and auditing
commissions check up on how decisions passed at general
meetings of members or their delegates are carried out.
Members demand that the best methods for delivering goods
and organising trade be applied, for this lessens expenditure and
means a profit.
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I
They also try to expand the trade network and to develop
itinerant trade. Co-operative members direct their attention to
everything that may improve service to buyers and to patrons
of dining-rooms, and that may serve to increase the profitable-
ness of co-operative enterprises for their further development.
They also endeavour to achieve greater specialisation of stores,
for this creates better conditions for extending the assortment
of goods. And they try to organise more self-service stores, shops
and dining-rooms.
Village Co-op's Special Fund
As I have already pointed out co-op members take a very
active part in the distribution of profits when they endorse the
annual report and accounts. At these meetings they also discuss
how best to use these profits.
Every village consumers' co-operative distributes the profits
in accordance with the wishes of the members. Besides the
dividends which are paid out to the members every year in
cash for every rouble of membership fees, part of the profits
is set aside for special funds.
Part of these funds goes to expand the industrial enterprises
of the co-operative, to build new trading premises and repair
old ones.
By decision of the co-op members funds are also set aside
from profits for cultural and educational work. The co-ops have
many club houses which have been built with these funds, where
lectures are given, films shown, and amateur art circles held.
Part of the income of the co-operatives is used to organise
playgrounds, nurseries and kindergartens for the children of
both co-op members and employees. A certain proportion of
the profits is used to acquire accommodation at holiday centres
and rest homes.
One must not overlook the fact that members of co-operatives
arc people of various professions and qualifications. Many of
them are members of their particular trade unions at their
places of work, and these unions also are concerned with im-
proving the cultural and living conditions of their members.
It therefore follows that those workers and office employees
20
1
who are members of a co-operative have these additional oppor-
tunities for organising their vacations, for arranging to have
their children taken care of in kindergartens and nurseries and
to visit the co-op cultural and educational institutions in addi-
tion to their trade union dubs, libraries and sports organisations.
When distributing profits, members allocate part of the funds
to reward the staff of the stores, dining-rooms and industrial
enterprises. The best are given money rewards, free accom-
modation at sanatoriums and rest homes and free excursions.
Part of the profits also goes to organise various courses and
schools where co-operative employees can improve their qunlificxt-
dons. At least so per cent of profits, as a rule, goes to the basic
fund of the consumers' society.
Participation of Members in Management
As masters of their organisation co-op members take part in
its management. The managing boards of the co-operatives
include rso,000 collective farmers and state farm workers.
Over Doo,000 members serve on auditing commissions and
about 600,000 are members of shop and dining-room com-
missions, which are vested with broad powers. For example,
they have the right at any time to check up on the work of a
store or dining-room, and to see how the instructions of the
members are being carried out.
Still More Powers to Co-op Members
Following on the nationwide discussion in 1957 which led
to the setting up of economic councils in the Soviet Union in
place of a number of industrial ministries, the Central Council
of the Co-operative Union discussed how to improve its work.
In particular, the consumer co-ops were faced with a request
from the economic councils to expand their rural trading net-
work, put out a wider range of goods for sale and to speed up
their delivery.
To meet these demands, steps were taken to give wider
powers to local co-operative organisations, so that they could
take decisions on matters involving allocation of funds for new
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shops, warehouses and storage facilities, the placing of orders
with industrial enterprises to produce consumer goods and the
buying of farm produce and raw materials.
Even before this, decisions to give more power to local co-ops
had been taken.
For example, trade plans are now framed by the consumer
co-operatives in each republic, and local societies are empowered
to open new trading enterprises and set up new buying depots.
Local co-ops now decide on the number of pigs to be left
for fattening and the percentage of fish to go to processing plants.
Streamlined Structure
The giving of these wider powers to local organisations
required an overhauling of the co-op structure as a whole, in
order to eliminate unnecessary administrative machinery.
During 1954 and 1955 a large number of depots, food and
other enterprises were transferred from central control to the
different republics, territories and regions.
Some 200 departments, divisions and boards of managements
were abolished in the overall administration.
Still, even this was not sufficient. The four buying depart-
ments which handle vegetables, frui; medicinal raw materials,
livestock and scrap materials were cut down to two. And the
two existing trading departments which handle separately manu-
factured goods and foodstuffs were replaced by a single depart-
ment.
Where, What and When
In the spring of this year 25 million shareholders?out of
35 million members?took part in their society meetings, to
hear the reports of the outgoing boards and to elect new ones.
The meetings were attended by 85 per cent of the sitting
board members.
At these meetings many members advocated a further ex-
tension of the rights of consumer co-operatives, especially in
deciding on the construction of new co-op establishments.
The final decision as to what trading, buying or production
establishment should be built in a definite locality, the size of
22
the investment to be mad; hitherto rested not with the share-
holders' meeting but with higher elected bodies?regional,
republican co-operative councils, or even with the antral
managing body itself.
The result of this was that co-ops with the necessary funds
were often deprived of the opportunity of building shops, dining
halls, bakeries or warehouses only because the necessary ex-
penditure was not approved by the higher body.
On the other hand, co-ops which were poorly managed often
received loans for construction from the higher body?and it
was the funds of the well-run socizties that were used for this.
Many shareholders objected to this practice.
The result? Shareholders' general meetings will now decide
themselves where, when and what establishments are to be built
to meet the needs of the shareholders. And the boards of the
regional co-op societies will no longer have the right to use the
funds of the local society nor of the district co-op.
Loans can be granted to economically weak co-operatives in
the form of mutual assistance only on the decision of a general
meeting of shareholders, and only on the conditions laid down
by such a meeting.
Leaders of consumer co-ops which need funds will now have
to appeal to a shareholders' Pirating of another society, and
persuade them to grant them a loan as an act of comradely
assistance.
Shop Manager
Other rights, too, have been extended to co-operators which,
as A. Klimov, chairman of the Soviet Co-operative Union points
out in a relent article, are aimed at the decentralisation and
further democratisation of co-op management.
General membership and sectional meetings of the share-
holders now have the right to take the final decision on the
nomination of shop managers or their removal from office.
Co-operators have not been slow to make use of these new
rights.
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At a membership meeting of the Perichushkovo co-op, at the
Uspe.nslcoye village in the Moscow region, dissatisfaction was
registered against the manager of the food shop. He was dis-
missed and a new board elected.
Democratzs. ation Continues
The same spirit of democratic criticism has been evidenced
in the recent co-op elections. Board members who have worked
in isolation from their members and disregarded their needs
have been flung off.
In dealing with these developments, Klimov points out that
this progress would not be possible "without the participation
of the shareholders in the management of the co-ops, without
them taking part in the daily work of all co-op enterprises".
He therefore calls for a still further extension of the rights
of local organisations and shareholders, in order that the
initiative of co-operators be still further stimulated.
V. Women in Consumers' Co-operatives
Opportunities
nm MEMBERSHIP of the consumers' co-operatives includes some
18 million women. Women take a most active part in all spheres
of co-op work on a par with men. They are to be found on
management boards and on the various commissions, on many
of which they form a majority.
The Co-operative Union has a women's committee which
co-ordinates women's work in the co-operatives and represents
women in the International Co-operative Women's Guild.
Many women hold responsible positions in shops, dining-rooms
and other co-op enterprises.
Last summer I chanced to meet Ogul Gozel Durdiyeva in
Moscow. She is a Turkmenian woman and president of the
board of the Ashkhabad Rural Consumers' Co-operative of
Turkmenia.
Her biography is typical of many women born before the
October Revolution. Her parents were farm hands and hardly
24
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UVZ:11MIL?104.10,y4Mae4t,vi-44/41-raZ,4'4
1.* /
6.6.716
616
-1
T.t '
. .
' 1,-.;L'Or-?1"
-r
?? ?
r,???
??pl
?rvir W
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?
?
? ?
?
k,
? (
?
At-
Chr
The dress fabrics
department of the
co-op of Starommsk,
near Krasnodar,
North Caucasus
A lesson in a model
provision shop for
pupils of the
Higher Co-operative
School.
_
.06121i
y
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.4
I
On the right, we see
some of the house-
waves who tvizefit
from the work of the
students at Perlovka
and dsewhere. They
are shopping in the
meat department of
the Lyubertry Co-op,
Moscow Region.
1
h...
?
-eAr
?
-11
On the left, second-
year students of the
Higher Co-operative
School studying
"A feat and Meat
Products".
;01
?
????..
't 4
11,Flel*
I I
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earned enough to support their seven children. Ogul Durdiyeva
never went to school but had to help her mother around the
house.
At the age of 24 she started work and inec 1934 has been
working in the co-operative movement, first as employee and
later as a leading member.
It is interesting to note that before the Revolution the statutes
of the co-operatives approved by the Governor-General of
Turkestan not only prohibited women from being elected to
boards of management and control but also forbade them
attending members' general meetings.
At first Durdiyeva was a saleswoman. In 1938 she was elected
president of the board of the rural co-operative. Today she is
a member of the Council of the Turkmenian Republican Con-
sumers' Union and the Ashkhabad Regional Consumers' Union.
Like her mother, Durdiyeva has seven children.
Women in Responsible Positions
The majority of board members of the Ashkhabad Rural
Consumers' Co-operative arc women. Shop managers Anna
Niyazklycheva, Eva Janorazova and Eva Palvanova enjoy great
authority there, the last-named being elected member of the
Central Council of the Co-operative Union.
The Ashkhabad Rural Consumers' Society ,is not the only one
in which women play a leading role. In the Odintsovo Rural
Consumers' Co-operative of Moscow Region, where Yekaterina
Vetrova was elected board president, and in many other societies
women manage dining-rooms, tea-rooms, shops, storehouses and
other co-op enterprises.
Many women have been elected to co-op managing boards.
Thus of the 120 members and candidate members of the Central
Council of the Co-operative Union twenty-three are women.
Working Conditions
More than half of the i,40o,000 people employed by con-
sumers' co-operatives are women. Their pay is exactly the same
as that of the men doing the same work.
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Like all working women in our country women co-operators
enjoy greater pension privileges than men. They begin receiving
a state pension five years earlier than men, at the age of fifty-five
(with a working period of twenty years).
Women workers and employees at enterprises with heavy or
difficult working conditions have a right to a pension at the age
of fifty. Women who have five or more children and have reared
them to the age of eight are entitled to a pension at the age of
fifty (with a record of no less than fifteen years of work).
Women receive the same pensions as men, depending on their
length of service. Minimum pensions are 300 roubles and the
maximum 1,200.
According to our laws women receive maternity leave with
full pay for 112 days, besides their regular annual leave. Single
mothers and mothers with large families are given state
allowances.
Pregnant women and nursing mothers are not allowed to
work at night or do overtime. Nursing mothers have additional
rest periods during working time and retain their average earn-
ings. Special privileges are accorded to families in which two or
more children are born simultaneously; they are given special
consulting physicians and nursing assistance.
VI. The 1958 Co-op Congress
THE CO-OP CONGRESS was held in Moscow at the end of June,
1958. According to the Co-operative Union regulations, con-
gresses are held every four years, and the last one was held in
1954.
The Congress discusses the reports of the managing board
and the auditors, takes policy decisions for the following period,
elects a new board, a new executive, and new auditors.
Having been present at the 1954 congress, I was able this
year to note the marked increase in the number of delegates.
This was not only because the membership had gone up
from 321 million to 35 million. The main reason was the changed
scale of representation.
Whereas in 1954 there was one delegate for every 6o,000
26
members, this year it was for every 25,000 delegates. And the
result was 1,393 delegates as against 552 last time.
In all, thirty-six nationalities were represented. The delegates
included 398 women. Over a quarter of the delegates had higher
education or were engaged in such studies. About a third had
secondary education.
By contrast, in 1954 the bulk of the delegates had only
primary education.
The four-day congress gave striking proof of the great
advances made by the co-ops.
?Total trade turnover, since 1954, in comparable prices?up
by 82 per cent.
?Co-op purchases doubled, making the co-ops the country's
main purchasing organisation
?While four years ago the co-operatives did not have a
single self-service establishment, now they have ro,000 kiosks
without shop assistants.
?Over 32,000 consumer co-ops and retail enterprises now
receive goods by mail from co-op storehouses under the new
mail order system. (Congress decided to step this up to 20,000
parcels a day.)
?Co-ops own some 5,000 tailoring, shoe-making and repair
establishments. (These, too, will be extended, and will include
repair shops for radios, bicycles, sewing machines and household
electric appliances.)
?In 1955 the Soviet Co-operative Union had trade contracts
with two countries. In 1956, with nine. In 1957, with seventeen.
For this year contracts have been signed with an additional ten
countries. The volume of such trade last year was five times
as 11111C.h as in 1956.
In the light of these striking all-round advances, the delegates
took bold decisions to step up their activity on all fronts in the
coming period.
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VII. International Relations
A REVIEW OF THE ACTIVITIES of consumers' co-operatives in the
U.S.S.R. would not be complete if we did not say something
about their relations with co-operative organisations in other
countries.
During 1957 alone the Soviet Co-operative Union received
forty-five delegations of foreign co-operatives, including those of
Britain, India, the Chinese People's Republic, and Poland.
Delegations of Soviet co-operatives travelled to Sweden, Poland,
Britain, China, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and other
countries.
It should be recalled that, on the initiative of the Soviet
Co-operative Union, the Twentieth Congress of the International
Co-operative Alliance in August 1957 adopted a resolution:
"International co-operative trade, its difficulties and possibilities
for extending contacts to exchange experiences in co-operative
activities", on the basis of a report delivered by Klimov, chnir-
man of the Soviet Co-operative Union.
Long before this resolution was discussed and adopted the
soviet co-operatives had already done much to develop trade
with foreign co-operative organisations. The beginning of
such contacts was made three years ago when the Soviet Co-
operative Union concluded mutually beneficial agreements with
co-operative organisations of a number of countries, including
three separate agreements with the Scottish Co-operative Society.
It also concluded a contract with the British Co-operative
Wholesale Society. One cannot but agree with the comments
made by Mr. Buckley, General Secretary of the Co-operative
Wholesale Society:
"My committee," he wrote in his letter to the Soviet co-ops,
"notes with great satisfaction that international co-operative ties
have grown stronger, thanks to the mutually beneficial trade
contracts we have concluded, and which we hope will open up
the way for extensive co-operation between our two societies."
(Retranslated from the Russian.)
The recent past confirms Mr. Buckley's words. On the basis
of these agreements the Soviet Co-operative Union purchases in
28
Britain knitted goods, fabrics, footwear and other commodities.
The British co-operatives, on their side, acquire from the Soviet
Co-operative Union grain, cameras, watches and other manu-
factured goods.
The Soviet Co-operative Union now has trade agreements
with co-operative organisations in eighteen countries. Soviet
co-operatives sell timber to the co-ops of the Federal Republic
of Germany, japan and Czechoslovakia; oil products to Norway;
grain to England, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and
Bulgaria; radio appliances, watches and fountain pens to Albania,
RtIvnlinia, Hungary, Poland and other countries.
The Soviet co-ops, on the other hand, obtain a variety of
consumer goods from co-operative organisations in Italy,
England, Denmark, Scotland, Sweden, France, Japan and others.
These commodities include footwear, fabrics, knitted goods,
razor blades, crockery, sheepskin-lined articles, cigarettes, and
tinned goods.
Cbmpared with 1956 the foreign trade conducted by the
Soviet co-ops in 1957 increased considerably. Twenty-three
trade contracts were concluded with foreign co-operatives
totalling more than tpoo million roubles. The range of
export and import commodities increased to 3oo items.
Soviet co-op trade operations with foreign co-operatives
further extended this year, the Soviet Co-operative Union
establishing new trade connectiohs with co-operative organisa-
tions in Western Europe, Asia and Africa.
In addition to normal trading the Soviet Co-operative Union
has recognised the expediency of selling commodities produced
by U.S.S.R.. consumer co-operatives by sending them to foreign
co-operatives on a commission basis. This will certainly con-
siderably extend the foreign trade connections of Soviet co-
operatives.
It should be added that many Soviet consumer co-operatives,
for example, those of Moldavia, Kirghizia, Lithuania, Latvia,
and Georgia, are building up their own foreign trade connections.
They export furs, medicines, leather goods, dried mushrooms,
berries, fresh and pickled vegetables, fruit, honey, carpets, handi-
craft goods and other commodities.
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Soviet women co-operators, too, are busy extending friendly
relations with co-operators in other countries. The Women's
Committee of the Soviet Co-operative Union is taking an active
part in the work of the International Co-operative Women's
Guild.
At the invitation of national co-operative organisations repre-
sentatives of the Soviet Co-op Women's Committee visited
Britain, Belgium, the German Democratic Republic, Finland,
Poland, Rumania and the Chinese People's Republic during
1954-1957. During the same period the Soviet Union MS
visited by representatives of women's co-operative organisations
from a number of countries, including the British Women's
Co-oper.tive Guild delegation headed by its President, M.
Schofield.
In September 1956 the U.S.S.R. was visited by Marcel Brot,
President of the International Co-operative Alliance, who took
part in the sittings of this Affiance in Moscow. Upon his return
he wrote in the newspaper Co-operator, published in France, that
the co-operators of the West would never forget the warm
reception they had been given by the Soviet people.
In the same spirit, Lord Williams observed that "Soviet
co-operators undoubtedly help in developing the co-operative
movement and in cementing friendship not only between the
co-operators of both our countries but also between our peoples."
Soviet co-operators stand for the greatest possible develop-
ment of economic and cultural collaboration between national
co-operative organisations. In this they rightly discern a path
towards a fuller satisfaction of people's material and cultural
needs, and towards better mutual understanding, friendship and
world peace.
30
-
WORK and WAGES
FOOD and PRICES
HOMES and SCHOOLS
FACTORIES and FIELDS
SPORT and LEISURE
SCIENCE and MEDICINE
POLITICS and ECONOMICS
? IN THE SOVIET UNION
All these things, and many more aspects of
Soviet life are dealt with in the pages of
SOVIET WEEKLY
Illustrated ? Every Thursday ? 3d.
Obtainable from newsagents and bookshops, or post free
from the publishers.
Subscription rates:
3 months 3/3d., 6 months 6/6d., one year I3/-.
SOVIET WEEKLY,
3 Rosary Gardens, London S.W.
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Professor M. Rubinstein, D.Sc.(Econ.)
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Soviet News
Booklet No. 32
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i If the Arms Race
Were Stopped. . .
1
li
Professor M. Rubinstein, D.Sc.(Econ.)
Soviet News
Booklet No. 32
../
(9
London,
July, 1958
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Cover picture: The awful cost of war is well-understood by the
Russian people, as can be seen front the top half of the cover
which shows Stalingrad at the end of 1943. The River Volga can
be seen at the top of the picture.
Below is a model of the new Stalingrad which was to arise from
the ruins of thc old, and no Soviet citizen wishes to see all this
labour erased again in an atom war,
Contents
Page
1. Victims ar.i Destruction of Two 'World Wars .. 7
2. The C.)st of the Arms Race .. 12
3. How Would the Peoples Benefit if the Arms Race
Were Stopped? .. 14
4. Modern Science in Mankind's Peaceful Progress 18
4. Possibilities for Economic Co-operation of the Two
Systems .. 22
(a) International Trade .. 22
(b) Assistance in the Advancement of the
Economically Under-developed Countries 24
(c) Wider International Contacts in Science and
Engineering .. 27
6. The Struggle for Peace and Disarmament is a Struggle
for Life .. 29
ERRATA
Page 9. line II, should read "4.i00 railway stations."
Page 9, line 21, should read. "679.000 million roubles or
approximately ?60,000 million "
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Foreword
Tun ARMS RAcr, stockpiling of atomic, hydrogen and rocket
weapons, and the development of new, more destructive types of
these weapons have created in the last few years a grave and
growing threat of nuclear war.
Even now, in peacetime, the atmosphere, the soil, rivers, lakes
and seas are being poisoned by radioactive substances as a result
of nuclear test explosions which imperil the life of existing and
future generations.
By suspending these tests unilaterally, the Soviet Union was
the first to indicate the way to spare mankind the danger of
nuclear war.
But this noble move was not taken up by the other Great
Powers, and the Sword of Damocles still hangs over mankind.
The arms race and the stockpiling of new types of weapons
is already causing grave damage to mankind. Owing to colossal
outlays on the production of armaments, living conditions are
going from bad to worse.
Furthermore, the arms race and the cold war sow distrust and
hostility among nations, depriving them of the great benefits of
friendship and co-operation.
Giving a brief analysis of the fatal consequences of two world
wars and the current arms race on the economy and living
conditions in all countries, the author of this booklet affords
to the reader a glimpse into the future of a world without the
arms race.
He thus indicates a way out of the impasse, the way suggested
by common sense and the common interests of the people.
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1. VICTIMS AND DESTRUCTION OF TWO
WORLD WARS
IN THE FIRST HALF of the twentieth century the peoples of the
world suffered the calamity of two world wars.
The countries which directly took part in the First World War
of 1914 to 1918 had a population of 800 million. It seems in-
credible that 70 million were mobilised for military service.
There were many countries where almost all the adult men
were torn away from productive labour for many years.
Even elderly men, striplings and those suffering from chronic
ailments were called up for service in the last period of the war.
Almost 10 million killed, 8 million missing and prisoners,
more than 20 million wounded, including over 6 million seriously
wounded people crippled for life, thousands of European cities
and villages reduced to debris, millions of ruined peasant house-
holds, hunger and poverty?those were some of the main con-
sequences of the First World War.
The war shook the world to its very foundations. In the scope
of its operations and the number of its victims the First World
War was without precedent in the history of mankind.
Its toll of human lives was as great as the total carried off in
Europe by all the wars fought in the previous 1,000 years.
Rationing was introduced in the European countries for the
first time. Public consumption dropped radically. It required
years of strenuous work by millions of people to repair the
damage.
Only the big firms connected with war industry profited from
the war.
Great as were the ravages of the First World War they were
surpassed by the Second World War in the technical means of
dealing death and destruction, the scope of operations and size
of the belligerent armies, the number of victims, and the human
suffering.
Hitler Germany, which unleashed the Second World War, did
not hesitate to resort to any crimes in order to force its rule
upon Europe and to pave the way to the world supremacy of
German imperialism.
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Wholesale murder of children, women and aged people,
annihilation of entire nationalities, total destruction of civilians
undesirable to the fascists, barbarous destruction of culture and
of thousands of cities and villages, economic paralysis of entire
countries and incalculable losses?these were the consequences
of the Nazi brigandage.
States with about 50 per cent of the world's population were
drawn into the First World War. States with more than 95 per
cent were involved in the Second World War.
Moreover, military operations were not confined to Europe;
they were carried to Asia, North Africa and to some of the
Pacific islands. Altogether 110 million people were mobilised into
the armies.
According to statistics published by the Vatican in 1945 on
the basis of the estimates supplied by international organisations,
22 million soldiers and civilians were killed in the Second World
War, and 34.4 million more were wounded!
These figures do not include the millions who perished in the
Nazi concentration camps, who died of hunger and epidemics
caused by the war.
According to the estimates of West German statisticians, 55
million perished in the Second World War, civilians included.
There is no doubt that the loss of human life in the Second
World War was more than five times the losses suffered in the
First World War.
A characteristic feature of the Second World War was the
greater number of victims among civilians, and, especially, the
great number of civilians killed in air raids and in Nazi concen-
tration camps. Tens of millions of people were crippled at the
front and in the rear, and millions of children were orphaned.
According to the estimates of American economists, direct
military expenses of the belligerent states covered by their
budgets in the war years amounted to $925,000 million, i.e
almost live times greater than the military costs of the First
World War.'
Moreover, those outlays did not include the military costs
of the U.S.S.R. which amounted to $357,000 million, and the
military costs of China.
Still greater damage was caused by military operations.
Especially great was the damage suffered by the Soviet Union
? World Almanac, New York, 1947, page 523.
8
Several million soldiers of Hitler Germany and her satellites who
invaded the U.S.S.R. laid waste to 1.710 flourishing cities and
70,000 villages, reducing more than 6 million buildings to ashes
and rubble and leaving about 25 million people homeless.
Stalingrad, Sevastopol, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Odessa.
Smolensk, Novgorod, Pskov, Orel, Kharkov, Voronezh. Rostov-
on-Don and many other big industrial and cultural centres were
utterly ruined or sadly battered.
Military operations conducted on the territory of the U.S.S.R.
caused the destruction of 31,850 industrial enterprises, over
40,000 miles of railway track, 4,1000 railway stations, 40,000
hospitals and other medical establishments, 184,000 general
schools, specialised secondary schools, higher schools and re-
search institutes.
Ninety-eight thousand collective farms, 1,876 state farms and
2,890 machine and tractor stations were ruined and plundered,
and several dozen million head of livestock were destroyed.
According to the estimates of the Extraordinary State Com-
mission of the Soviet Union, the damage caused by the war to
the national economy of the U.S.S.R. and to individual citizens
in town and country amounted to 60,000 million roubles, or
?43,000 million.
Badly disrupting international economic relations throughout
the world, the war completely unbalanced the economy of the
belligerent countries.
There was a drastic drop in production for civilian needs and
a dangerous decline in public consumption.
In many countries the war brought about the militarisation
of labour, longer working hours, abolition or drastic limitation
of social insurance and labour protection.
More than 10 million workers were forcibly removed to
Germany from the occupied countries. Together with war
prisoners they were sold into slavery to factory owners and land-
lords.
They perished in large numbers as a result of brutal treat-
ment, hunger, unendurable labour, violence and torture practised
by Hitler's executioners.
The war ruined numerous peasant households, small and
medium manufacturers, shopkeepers and intellectuals.
Even in the United States of America, notwithstanding the
fact that military operations did not take place on its territory.
thousands of small manufacturers and tradesmen were ruined
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during the war years, swallowed up by the monopolies which
were making profits from the war.
In the belligerent countries of Europe and the Far Last, the
ruination of the middle classes assumed still greater proportions.
Only a handful of arms kings made enormous profits. The profits
of American monopolies grew almost four-fold during the
Second World War.
Oceans of human blood, ruined cities and villages, it tears
of tens of millions of widows and orphans mourning theil bread-
winners?those were the consequences of the Second World War.
With these facts in mind any honest person can form an
objective view of the value of arguments about alleged benefits
which war brings to the national economy and to living
standards.
However heavy the loss of human life and destruction in the
two world wars, the possible consequences of a third world war
would be incomparably greater and more far-reaching.
The threatening disaster is especially terrifying since it could
be brought on by the military use of the latest scientific dis-
coveries.
The use of atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in August
1945, which caused the death of more than 300,000 people, has
shown in practice the great threat to mankind emanating from
the abuse of science and engineering.
Outstanding discoveries of atomic physics are used for the
production of the most terrible weapon of all times, a weapon
with an entirely unparalleled destructive power.
The modern H-bomb may be compared to ten or more million
tons of T.N.T., the most widely used explosive in the First and
Second World Wars. The blast of one H-bomb possesses a
--tater destructive power than all the explosives produced in the
' ole world in four years of the Second World War.
-American, Soviet and British scientists have warned that an
\,;/- H-bomb blast would devastate territory for dozens of miles,
i.e. a territory greater than the biggest cities and concentrated
industrial regions of the world.
Radioactive fall-out ssould extend this death zone. Conse-
quently the blast of one H-bomb in a densely populated urban
or industrial district would kill millions?not hundreds of thous-
ands?of people.
In some of the small densely populated West European
countries, with a high concentration of material resources, a
10
'
-Ow
blast like that would mean utter devastation.
Countries beyond the ocean, and the U.S.A. primarily, could
hope in the past that they would be spared this fate owing to
the difficulties connected with the delivery of A- and H-bombs
over long distances.
But these calculations have been nullified by the latest
achievements of science and engineering. The construction and
further improvement of intercontinental ballistic missiles has
made it possible to dispatch A and H warheads almost instantan-
eously to any point of the g1obe.
Distance has therefore ceased to be a protection! The develop-
ment of military technique has made it impossible for an aggres-
sor to act with impunity by making others pull the chestnuts out
of the fire for him and compelling other peoples to shoulder the
brunt of war in losses and hardship.
Even today, every nuclear test explosion throws up consider-
able amounts of radioactive substances which spread to all parts
of the world. Increasing radiation injures human health in all
countries and holds out the threat of degeneration to future
generations.
Some scientists believe that an explosion of all the available
A- and H-bombs could endanger the existence of almost all life
on earth.
This does not exhaust all the applications of modern science
for purposes of unleashing add conducting a devastating war
which would be directed not only against the armed forces, but
against the population as a whole, including women, old people
and children. It is enough to note that the American military
press and scientific and technical magazines speak frankly of
the growing preparations by the U.S.A. for chemical and
bacteriological warfare.
Militarist ideologists are doing everything to boost the "cheap-
ness" and other advantages of such a war.
They are planning to convert some of the food and pharma-
ceutical industries to the mass production of deadly germs and
poisons for the wholesale destruction of people, domestic animals
and plants. Their purpose is to convert the flourishing country
of an adversary into a desert.
People should be told the complete truth about the dangers
of another world war, the truth about the nature and specific
features of the modern arms race, in order that they should be
able to save themselves and all mankind from this madness.
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2. THE COST OF THE ARMS RACE
THE ARMS RACE STARTED after the Second World War has been
growing year by year. Military outlays in most Western states
are many times greater than their corresponding expenditures
before the Second World War.
According to statistics of the press and information service
of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and
of France Presse, direct military expenditure of fourteen
N.A.T.O. countries has grown from S18,700 million in 1949 to
S59,500 million in 1957.
That includes the military expenditure of the U.S.A. which
has grown from S13,500 million in 1949 to 544.200 million in
1957, and the military expenditures of the West European
countries, from S4,700 million in 1949 to S13,400 million in 1957.
Altogether, the direct military expenditures of the N.A.T 0
countries amounted to $486,000 million in ten postwar years
(1948 to 1957).
But this figure is disputed: Paul Hoffman has calculated that
the U.S.A. alone has spent S443,000 million on armaments and
the armed forces since the end of the Second World War.'
Annual military expenditures throughout the world have
reached S120,000 million in the last few years. Translated into
the concrete language of urgent human requirements, it can be
shown how much mankind loses by this wasteful use of its re-
sources for the arms race.
The general expenditures of all states on armaments and
armed forces in ten postwar years amounted to at least 3800.000
million, enough to build 80 million houses and thus relieve the
very acute housing crisis in all the big cities of the world.
And here is another example. According to United Nations
statistics, the per capita national income in the economicall)
underdeveloped countries averages about S60 to $100 a year.
It follows that the annual military expenditures in the advanced
industrial countries are equal to the annual income of approxi-
mately 1,500 million inhabitants of the underdeveloped countries.
Some economists and the press of the cold war devotees claim
that, although the arms race is costly, military orders act as a
safeguard against economic disaster and bolster up business.
Let us look into these arguments
? Look, January 1958.
12
It is true that in some countrics the distribution of big military
orders may create for a time the illusion of economic prosperity.
Increases in the production of armaments create a greater
demand for various raw materials, semi-finished products, fuel
and electric power.
Scarcities of definite goods caused thereby, as well as the threat
of various limitations and control of consumption lead to the
accumulation of stocks, higher prices and greater profiteering.
This rise in production, price increases and orgy of profiteer-
ing were observed hi many countries after the outbreak of the
war in Korea and became known as the "Korean boom".
However, the growth of production characteristic of the first
stage of the arms race is extremely unstable and fundamentally
unsound. The use of the arms race for bolstering up capitalist
economy may be likened to the effect of drugs upon a sick
organism; they create the misleading and brief illusion of re-
covery, while in reality they undermine the health and aggravate
the disease they were expected to cure.
They are administered in increasing doses and the duration of
their action becomes shorter and shorter.
Growing military expenditures ruin the national economy and
leave constantly smaller possibilities for improving the national
economy and state finances.
The resultant inflation, great increases in taxation, skyrocket-
ing prices and wage-freezing reduce drastically the purchasing
capacity of the people.
As a result, the growing arms race reduces the demand for
consumer goods to a level which cannot be compensated by the
expansion in production brought about by military orders.
The theory that the arms race enables capitalist countries to
evade overproduction crises and to ensure full employment must
inevitably fail because it is fundamentally wrong.
A vivid illustration to this is afforded by the existing economic
situation in a number of capitalist countries, and in the U.S.A.
especially.
Notwithstanding the huge military outlays which amount to
more than 340,000 million annually, the general level of pro-
duction in that country has been frozen at the same level for a
number o: years. and beginning with the autumn of 1957 it has
been falling off. The number of totally jobless workers surpassed
5 million in Matt.h 1958.
Consequently, far from averting an economic slump in the
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?
1
USA, the growing arms drive has aggravated the economic
d...vuhies in that country and, as a result, svorseried living
uar&ards.
Socialist countries, which are compelled to sustain their
defer= capacities at the required level owing to the existing
orld tension, are also handicapped economically by the arms-
mewl burden.
The proportion of the social product diverted for armaments
=at Mevitably slow up improvements in people's lives.
Both people and government in these countries, which base
t&-er development on economic planning, can see most clearly
the unfavourable effects of the arms race.
They are energetically working for peace and friendship among
=Isms, for peaceful co-existence, for switching over the colossal
allocations consumed by armaments to peaceful uses, for im-
prming living standards in every country.
3. HOW WOULD THE PEOPLES BENEFIT
IF THE ARMS RACE WERE STOPPED?
Ir
IS BEYOND DOUBT that colossal possibilities for increasing pro.
doctive forces and living standards in all countries would be
opened up if the arms race were stopped.
These potential possibilities are extremely varied. Let us dwell
on some aspects of this question.
Termination of the arms race would release for peaceful
poses great production capacities as well as substantial
irnounts of raw materials and labour power now used for
military production.
That applies equally to industry and agriculture.
For example, conversion of the nitrate industry from the pro-
duction of explosives to the production of fertilisers would make
ir possible to raise considerably within a few years the yields of
all food and industrial crops.
'The use of the available stocks of fissionable materials
(uranium-2,35, plutonium etc.) for the production of electric
power rather than for the production of atom bombs would
make it possible to provide within a short space of time an
abundance of power, especially in those countries where fuel and
14
electric power are scarce today. Many more examples could be
given.
However, some readers may ask: would not an increase in
the output of industrial and farm goods lead to greater over-
production, curtailment of production and unemployment?
Naturally, termination of the arms race would not, nor could
it, do away with the fundamental economic contradictions of
capitalism which lead to cyclical ups and downs in production,
to crises and unemployment.
Nevertheless, cessation of the insane expenditure on the pro-
duction of weapons of death and destruction would tend to
raise effective demand, reduce taxation, especially indirect taxes
on consumer goods, and put a halt to rising prices.
Furthermore, termination of the arms race would afford
the possibility for increased state and municipal allocations for
health services, public education, housing construction and social
insurance.
Some of the resources released by reducing military outlays
could be used for raising pensions for aged people, invalids etc.
Inasmuch as a cut in military production would drastically
reduce taxation and non-productive expenditures, it would sub-
stantially raise the demand for peaceful production.
It follows that far from causing an economic slump and
unemployment, the termination of the arms race would, on the
contrary, tend to bring about the recovery of the national
economy, increase employment and improve the possibilities of
foreign and domestic trade.
?
Termination of the arms race could stimulate the growth of
productive forces, especially by encouraging construction.
Thousands of peaceful construction projects, which are very
essential to mankind's progress, arc still awaiting realisation
owing to wars, military preparations and the arms race.
The French La Terre calculated in the spring of 1951 that
with the money spent by France on the arms race that year
it would be possible to extend electrification to all the rural
districts of that country where kerosene lamps are still used,
build water mains in the villages, pave 100,000 km. (62,500
miles) of country roads, build 200,000 modern dwellings for the
peasants, pay allowances for household equipment to 200,000
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young people and provide adequate pensions to 703,000 aged
pmsants.
About 700,000 houses were destroyed in France by air raids
during the Second World War. Many houses are still awaiting
restoration, but the funds and materials are used mainly for
military construction.
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe the war in Algeria costs as much as 700,000 million
francs a year. The war has caused tremendous economic damage
not only to Algeria where the hostilities are conducted, but also
to France.
By ending the war in Algeria on the basis of recognition of
the complete independence of the Algerian people. France
would be able to release colossal economic resources to be used
for satisf}ing many urgent requirements.
Even in the U.S.A., the richest country in the capitalist world.
the arms race interferes with satisfying the most elementary
needs.
Speaking at the emergency convention of the American trade
unions on questions relating to the economic situation in the
U.S.A., in March 1958, George Meany, President of the A.F L -
C 1.0., emphasised that there was an extreme need in the U.S.A.
for housing, schools, hospitals, roads etc.
It would be necessary to build for a long period of time at
the rate of 2 million houses a year, said Meany.
According to the latest census, taken in December 1956, 13
million American families lived in dilapidated houses. The in-
vesiments needed for repairing or replacing those houses were
estimated at $67,000 million.
Far from improving, the situation has become worse since
then, inardnuch as the population has been growing, while the
houses have been deteriorating, the housing construction has
been extremely slow.
Most cities in the U.S.A. require radical replanning. Thirty
million townsmen live in slums today. Housing projects have
been prepared in some cities, but their realisation has been
postponed to an indefinite date owing to lack of funds.
There is an equally great need for improvements in the U.S.
health services.
According to the corresponding commission of the United
States Congress, 8 million Americans suffered from various
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nervous and psythic &ck?sr.ims- am..1 irdflion from btAti diStANtS
in 1950. us oitutxrca.ilsvi\ ,4.-aricor other YinalAlieh
comprise millio.c. Butreataliztsztcpa'tals and kiiNistOtiAlitA Art ills
sUlkittit.
According to MeAtty% i',11CtI3111:%:. t \VOSIM bent?-t&sAry to
build in the US--k. in the next rive years Mao:4s with more
than 5(X1.av iNvAtu..-tion could not be
accomplished witholat sibstaniW assislance trom the federal
authorities.
Yet allocations for building conAruction, just as for the health
services, are being cut every year. since the bulk of the state
budget is used for financing the anus race.
Naturally, socialist countries would also benefit from the
termination of the arms race.
A further cut in military expenditures would enable the Soviet
Union to expand with treater speed all branches of peaceful
production, light industry included, to step up house building
and thus solve within the shortest time the housing problem
to make improvements in cities and villages, and build more and
better roads.
The means and human resources thus released could be used
with great effect for the industrial development of the eastern
regions.
Disarmament and the easing of international tension would
open up very favourable prospects also before the economically
under-developed countries.
According to United Nations statistics, the per capita annual
income in these countries is smaller by 90 per cent than in
the advanced industrial countries. The countries of Asia and
Africa are vitally interested in a stop to the arms race, which
is essential for their independent political and economic develop-
ment.
Millions of people suffer hunger and want in some of the
African and South-East Asian countries.
One of the factors responsible for this hunger is the deteriora-
tion during colonial rule of the ancient irrigation systems. If
some of the sums now used for armaments were diverted to
the development of irrigation, for combating soil erosion and
preventing floods, for the supply of cheap fertilisers and
machines to the peasants, agriculture in the whole world would
soon become so efficient as to banish hunger for all times.
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,
4. MODERN SCIENCE IN MANKIND'S
PEACEFUL PROGRESS
MODERN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING are now developing faster
than ever. Mankind is on the threshold of a new scientific and
technical revolution associated with the use of atomic energy
for peaceful purposes, the conquest of space, automation,
electronics, synthetic chemistry. new discoveries in biochemistry,
biology, genetics etc.
Depending upon their use, the greatest discoveries of science
and technology may exert entirely different influences upon the
destinies of all mankind.
Placed at the service of war many discoveries may threaten
disaNier.
But the use of scientific and technical discoveries for peaceful
purposes will pave the way for an unprecedentedly faster
development of productive forces, of material and spiritual
resources, for new methods of combating disease an premature
old age.
Control of the energy of the atomic nucleus furnished splendid
proof of man's triumph over the forces of nature.
The peaceful uses of atomic energy have just been started.
The possibilities thus opened are truly limitless.
One of them is the use of nuclear reactors for the generation
of electric power. The world's first atomic power plant with a
5,000 kw. capacity has been in operation in the U.S.S.R. for
four years now.
Construction of atomic power plants with capacities totalling
2 million to 2.5 million kw. has been launched in the Soviet
Union under the Sixth Five-Year Plan (1956-1960).
Atomic power plants arc working successfully in Britain, and
atomic power industry is steadily battering its way in the U.S.A.
The first American atomic power plant was started in
Pennsylvania at the end of 1957. Other countries, Italy, Japan
and India among them, are contemplating the construction of
their first atomic power plants.
Prohibition of the use of atomic energy for war purposes and
the conversion of available stocks of fissionable materials to
peaceful uses would make it possible to quicken the rate of
18
progress in this field many times over and to develop atomic
energy in the very near future into an important source of
economic advance.
The operation of atomic power plants today is based on the
fission of heavy nuclei of uranium, or plutonium. Theoretically,
it is, however, possible to use for electric power production the
fusion of nuclei of the lightest chemical elements, hydrogen in
the first place.
This fusion (similar to processes at work in the suns and
stars) has already been produced in practice in the H-bomb.
The problem before science is to find ways of controlling this
process and make it available for peaceful purposes.
Mankind will then have an inexhaustible source of energy.
In his report at the British atomic centre of Harwell in 1956,
Academician I. V. Kurchatov of the U.S.S.R. showed that Soviet
scientists had already advanced a long way towards the discovery
of the secret of controlled thermonuclear reactions.
Achievements in this field have lately been made also by
Be:ish scientists who built the Zeta unit wherein a temperature
of 5 million degrees was obtained. Similar investigations arc
conducted also in the U.S.A.
Although the technological difficulties are still great, pro-
hibition of atomic and thermonuclear weapons would clear the
way for extensive co-operation of scientists and engineers of
different countries and thus bring nearer the welcome hour of
peaceful uses of new, thermonuclear sources of energy which
have practically unlimited reserves of raw materials and other
advantages.
It is quite probable that further improvement of semi-
conductors will lead to discoveries which will make the direct
conversion of solar energy into electric power economically
expedient. That would lead to the complete transformation of
the tropical regions and deserts which would then become the
biggest producers and consumers of electric power.
A great promise of still faster scientific and technical progress
is held out by the developiltent of new methods of automatic
control of production processes.
An increasingly important part is played by the electronic
computing machines which are used among other things for
regulating complex technological processes in chemical produc-
tion and in atomic technology. These machines afford pos-
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sibilities for the automatic regulation of entire shops, plants.
or electric power systems.
A valuable service is rendered in various fields of intellectual
endeavour by automatic information and statistical machines
based on the principle of the electronic computing machines.
With the aid of these machines it is possible to analyse almost
instantaneously and to compile at once the necessary materials
for planning and directing production.
Automatic information and bibliographical machines, the
electronic "memory" of which contains a wealth of information,
are of great value for scientific work and for planning. Machines
arc being built for the automatic translation of scientific and
technical literature from one language into another.
All this holds out the promise of a colossal increase in the
productivity of both manual and intellectual labour. The very
first electronic machines have enabled scientists and designers
to solve many problems which were formerly considered in-
soluble owing to the extreme complexity and duration of the
required mathematical operations.
The third field in which very important scientific and tech-
nological progress has been made in recent years is synthetic
chemistry.
The forecast that with the development of science and
technology mechanical methods of work will be gradually re-
placed by chemical methods is borne out at present in all
branches of production.
A real revolution was ushered in by the discovery of the
chemical method of production of artificial and synthetic pro-
ducts which are well on a par with and in some cases even
superior to the natural materials. That applies to various
synthetic resins and plastics, synthetic rubber, fibres, and many
other materials used for technical and other purposes.
The properties of polymer materials may be altered to suit
the needed requirements, and thus create materials which do not
exist in nature.
All this lies behind the fast increase in the production of
polymer materials. About 3 million tons of plastics, synthetic
rubber and synthetic fibre were produced in the world in 1955.
An eight-fold increase in capacities for the production of
plastics and a 4.6-fold increase for the production of synthetic
fibre is contemplated in the next few years in the U.S.S.R. alone.
20
Production of polymer materials ts bthng in,aessed31,4)
in
other countries.
melnisshainll onthoterdufi-ealldsi,nas.detailfer emunon ,,,,,tmittltesnkui-trAoi"eie-
e.m.w
je. the
fertilisers, new means of combating plant pests and Nw-to..1/4. ctr
chemical stimulators of the =-owila of plants.
great potentialities for baeging croP Yid& and i rethrrg 100.3
resources.
Bertrand Russell, the well-known British phil4.7Lsopber. wrote
the following in the Observer: We have it in our poiver.
through the resources of science. whidi are now in ta..r.e pan
so sadly misused, to create a world far bet= and far bappilz. r
than any which has existed in the p=c, Poverty could
be
abolished; the dread of disaster. which now paralyses
thonghthal
men, could be ended; and creative abilities ,a1,6d be fr...1 for
human achievement and not for dctri.taiots: tianazy 5r.h.
Peace. peaceful co-existence of states?these: are rh& needed
guarantees which can ensure that the blest sai=tihc- and t?-?.-11-liml
discoveries are used in all countries for purpos.es of progress and
not for purposes which could 1..d mankind to a
nuclear 4iser-
There will then no longer be a cause of competition between
general staffs. All the more successful will be the peaceful com-
petition for the best and fastest uses of the discoveries of science
and engineering for creating the most favourable living condi-
tions and comforts for all.
The years 1957-1958 witnessed a splendid illustration of tbe
benefits of international scientific co-operation and scientific
and technical competition. I have in mind the artificial satellites
of the Earth launched under the International Geophysical Year
tl.G.Y.) programme by the scientists of the Soviet Union, and
later also by the scientists of the U.S.A.
It is, as yet, too early to foresee the technical and scientific
results of these outstanding achievements; but it is already clear
that the observations of these satellites conducted in the scien-
tific centres of many countries should make a valuable contri-
bution to our knowledge of the cosmic radiation, the ionosphere,
the structure of the Earth and in other fields.
The success of these experiments makes it possible to anticipate
a constantly growing pace of scientific and technical development.
And it is the greatest task of our time to use these discoveries
for the good of mankind.
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5. POSSIBILITIES FOR ECONOMIC CO-
OPERATION OF THE TWO SYSTEMS
MIEN Tim ARMS RACE and the cold war are ended, favourable
conditions will have been created or a thorough improvement
in relations between all countries, irrespective of their political
and social systems, for the development of greater confidence
and co-operation between them.
International Trade
Co-operation between the two world systems, socialist and
capitalist, could develop chiefly along the lines of international
trade. This developmen: would tend to strengthen peace and it
would be economically advantageous to both trading partners.
To this day some Western economists claim that trade between
countries with different social systems is impossible and unpro-
fitable. It is also alleged that the industrialisation of the Soviet
Union has changed its economy so much as to make the possibi-
lities for the development of trade with the U.S.S.R. extremely
limited.
These arguments are completely refuted by the entire history
of international trade. Industrial progress in the capitalist coun-
tries (nineteenth-century Britain and twentieth-century U.S.A.,
for example) has always tended to increase rather than diminish
their foreign trade volume and the variety of their imports and
exports.
There is no sound reason for making an exception from this
rule for the trade between countries with different social and
economic systems. Facts show that quite the contrary is true.
The industrial development of the U.S.S.R., the People's
Democracies and the underdeveloped countries of Asia and
Africa has greatly widened rather than limited trading possibi-
lities.
Naturally, the industrialisation of the former agrarian countries
is gradually removing the economic basis of one-sided trade
which allows one country to sell industrial goods only and to
make superprofits on it, leaving to the other countries possibilities
for marketing only farm products and some mineral raw mat-
erials at a great loss owing to the wide gap between prices (the
so-called unequivalent exchange).
22
Industrialisation tends to quicken rather than to arrest the
development of trade.
It will not be amiss to recall here the successful development
of trade between the U.S.S.R. and the capitalist countries before
the Second World War. At the time of the world economic crisis
in 1929-1933, the Soviet Union was the only state which did
not reduce its imports; on the contrary, it made far greater
purchases abroad.
In 1931 the U.S.S.R. was the biggest buyer of machines and
other equipment in the U.S.A. Senator Borah declared in March
1931 that the greatest potential and growing market for American
goods lay in the U.S.S.R. Soviet purchases were extremely
important at that time since they kept industry busy and helped
to sustain employment in Germany, Britain, Belgium and other
countries.
It is regrettable that a different situation has developed since
the Second World War. Some Western powers believed that by
pursuing a policy of discrimination in trade and credits, down
to an outright embargo, they would be able to retard the ecor -
omic development of the socialist countries and interfere with
their industrialisation.
This policy is responsible for the drastic drop in the volume of
trade between capitalist and socialist countries in the post-war
decade.
Trade between West and East European countries has con-
tracted to one-third, or even to a quarter of the pre-war volume.
Trade between the leading capitalist countries and China has
dwindled to a negligible volume.
However, this policy has clearly failed to check or even delay
the rate of economic progress in the socialist countrcs. Obliged
to rely on their own resources more than ever, they have laid
greater stress on mutual co-operation within the socialist world,
with the result that there has been a great increase in the volume
and share of trade between socialist states.
Furthermore, the economic cold war policy hit back like a
boomerang at many capitalist countries, especially in Western
Europe.
Economic, commercial and cultural relations between Euro-
pean nations have taken shape in the course of centuries, and
their disruption was a hard blow to the West European states
whose economy depended to a greater degree on foreign trade.
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Severed (by their own hands, to be exact) from their tradi-
tional markets in Hastert) Europe, they landed in the stranglehold
of one-sided dependence upon the United States of America.
"Dollar hunger" became a characteristic feature of their econ-
tn?y. Japan, which, under pressure from the U.S.A., broke away
from her traditional Chinese market, found herself in the Sankt
position.
Disappointed by the economic cold war, some Western states
have lately been lifting some of their trade restrictions. We can
only wish for faster and greater progress in this direction.
ln 1956 the Soviet Union took the initiative in proposing an
increase in British-Soviet trade.
If there were no trade restrictions or discrimination, the Soviet
Union would be in a position to increase its purchases in Britain
within five years to the value of approximately 9,000 million to
11,000 million roubles, i.e. ?800 million to ?1,000 million.
This would include orders for various equipment and ships to
the value of 4,000 million to 5,000 million roubles and purchases
of various manufactured goods and raw materials to the value of
5,000 million to 6,000 million roubles.
The volume of trade between the Soviet Union and the U.S.A.
could have been still greater if all the artificial barriers had
been abolished. A policy of peaceful co-existence and business-
like co-operation would open to the U.S.A. vast markets in the
U.S.S.R., as well as in People's China and in many other
countries.
It should, moreover, be emphasised that now that the symp-
toms of an impending or threatening economic crisis are growing
in some capitalist countries, long-term trade agreements with
socialist countries would provide reliable markets which are
immune to the economic ups and downs of the capitalist world.
Unhindered development of international trade would furnish
the best basis for greater confidence and better relations between
states, for greater friendship and understanding between nations.
Assistance to
Countries
A favourable soil
co-operation between
provided by assistance
Economically Underdeveloped
for economic competition and political
capitalist and socialist countries could be
to economically underdeveloped countries.
24
These countries are inhabited by more than 50 per cent of the
world's population, but their share in world industrial production
is negligible (no more than 4 per cent to 7 per cent in the output
of the most important products).
Their industrial backwardness is characterised by an extreme
lack of mechanisation and low productivity of labour. Mech-
anical power per worker in industry, agriculture and transport
in these countries is only 5 per cent of the corresponding stan-
dards attained in economically advanced countries.
Their industrial backwardness and the predominance in their
economy of agricultural production and the production of raw
materials are also reflected in their foreign trade. They arc
greatly dependent upon exports of several raw materials and
farm products, and upon imports of manufactured goods,
especially industrial equipment.
Countries which have won political independence since the
Second World War are eager to overcome the lag in their
economy as quickly as possible and to discard for ever the fetters
of colonialism.
Adlai Stevenson, former Democratic candidate for the presi-
dency of the U.S.A., wrote that the main problem facing the
majority of underdeveloped countries which had recently
acquired independence is how to carry out a belated industrial
revolution and improve the life of the people. This is a task,
moreover, that has to be accomplished rapidly though resources
of native capital arc small.
tdlai Stcvenson emphasised in this connection the admiring
interest of the peoples of the underdeveloped countries in the
remarkable achievements of the Soviet Union and China.
It stands to reason that the economic progress of under-
developed countries can and should be achieved primarily
through the efforts of their own peoples.
But the magnitude of this task, which presupposes an increase
in the production potential and improvements in the life of more
than half the population of the globe within a relatively short
space of time, is so great as to require organised assistance from
the advanced industrial countries which possess the necessary
equipment and technical experience.
Some assistance of this kind is provided through U.N.O.
channels. It is, however, necessary to increase substantially the
technical assistance rendered to the underdeveloped countries
from the United Nations Fund.
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Much ctitild be accomplished through bilateral and multilateral
Cm-operation,
NI it ?votiid be 11A1V0 10 close one's cycs to the fact that in
akhanced capitalist countries, and especially in the countries
\shiets had or have extensive colonial possessions, there arc
atthmstial citvles which exploit the economic backwardness of
the underdeveloped countries and which are interested in the
rtv-kversation of this backwardness.
At the $11111C time, many public figures in the capitalist
kMuntries emphasise, with good reason, that such a retrograde
Mks- has no chance of success at a time when two social and
tessnoutie systems exist in the world, and when capitalism has
knt.its monopoly of the production and export of machines and
equipment, of technical experience and scientific knowledge.
tiNsmpetition with socialist states has prompted the industrially
ads-An:v.1 capitalist countries of the West to co-operate on an
inaessing scale in the deliveries of equipment and in the con-
strued.= of industrial enterprises in underdeveloped countries.
The simultaneous construction of steel mills in India by the
Soviet Union. Britain and West Germany may be mentioned as
an illustration.
The Soviet Union and other socialist countries, which know
from their own experience the great role played by 1.eavy
industry in ensuring their independence and in advancing the
people's welfare, treat with great sympathy the efforts of peoples
in the underdeveloped countries to develop their national
economy, and especially their national industry.
Countries which have recently extricated themselves from
colonial rule are receiving Soviet economic assistance on a grow-
ing scale.
The Soviet Union assists in the industrialisation and general
economic advance of these countries by granting credits and
loans on favourable terms, by delivering equipment, preparing
designs for industrial construction, rendering technical and
scientific assistance, training skilled specialists, and so on.
All this assistance is rendered on the basis of full equality and
mutual benefit, without any interference in the internal affairs
or the countries concerned.
Soviet assistance has been instrumental in China's epoch-
making Ind ustrial isa t ion.
The Soviet Union Is assisting India in the construction of a
Ng iron and steel plant. It has granted credits for financing the
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construction of other enterprises (heavy machinery, optic glass,
coal mining and processing, and a thermal station) and has
offered to share its experience in the construction of electric
power plants, hydro systems, in geological prospecting, the
peaceful uses of atomic energy and it: other fields of science and
engineering.
Burma. Indonesia, the United Arab Republic, Afghanistan and
other countries have been successfully building up their economy
with Soviet assistance.
It is hard to overestimate the historic significance of these
initial steps in systematically assisting the industrialisation of
underdeveloped countries.
They represent new forms of peaceful economic competition
between the two systems, not only as regards the rate and scale
of industrial development in socialist and capitalis1 states
respectively, but also as regards the solution of the greatest
economic problem of our time?the rapid industrialisation of
the underdeveloped countries which arc inhabited by the
majority of mankind.
The Soviet Union considers competition in this field far more
worthy and necessary than competition in the armaments race.
When the arms race is ended, it will be possible to quicken
radically the progress of the underdeveloped countries.
The economic progress and industrialisation of China, India,
the South-East Asian countries, the countries of Africa, the
Middle East and Latin America will lead to the complete eradi-
cation of colonialism.
It will undermine one of the mainstays of modern militarism,
and set mankind moving faster than ever along the course of
peace and progress.
Wider International Contacts hi Science and
Engineering
As mentioned above, the wide use of the latest scientific
achievements for peaceful purposes would open to mankind un-
precedented possibilities for increasing the productive forces,
raising the productivity of labour, increasing food reserves and
finding new ways to combat disease and prolong human life.
However, in order to make scientific resources available for
practical purposes. it would be necessary to stop the unprece-
dented concentration of all the resources of science and engineer-
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ing for military purposes which is taking place in a number
of countries today.
Such a situation leads to the creation of more and more means
of mass destruction, diverting scientists and engineers from their
true mission. Only when this perversion of science is abolished
will the way be cleared for mankind's real progress.
Another essential condition for the rapid progress of modern
science and for the extensive use of its achievements for peace-
ful purposes is the all-round development of international
contacts and co-operation in all spheres of scientific research,
cessation of undue secrecy, exchanges of experience and inform-
ation, regular convocation of international scientific congresses
and conferences, extensive translation of scientific literature, and
so on.
When countries arc not obliged to conduct scientific and
technical investigations already carried out in other countries,
when a rational division of labour and co-operation is established
between scientists of all continents, it will be possible to quicken
the scientific and technical revolution which has already begun
and to direct it into organised channels, so as to concentrate the
efforts of scientists on satisfying at the earliest man's most urgent
needs.
Scientific and technical co-operation between states with
different social and economic systems in the peaceful use of
atomic energy could be promoted through the regular con-
vocation of international conferences, broad exchange of experi-
ence and information, organisation of international and regional
research institutes etc.
Such co-operation would be particularly valuable in preparing
projects to develop productive forces in specific regions of the
world, undertakings which could not be carried into effect by
a single country, especially small or underdeveloped countries.
The following could be mentioned as examples of undertakings
of this kind:
(a) Elaboration of projects and preliminary scientific and
technical measures for the creation of a unified electric power
system for the whole of Europe (including problems of inter-
dependence between hydro-electric stations, thermal stations and
atomic power plants).
(b) Overall development and use of big river systems which
pass through a number of countries, and of border rivers, for
the production of electric power, for irrigation, navigation etc.
23
Modern technique makes a possible to transmit electricity
over long distances. This creates new possibilities for co-oper-
ation between different states with the object of raising power
production in underdeveloped regions.
It would be easier to create hydro systems and to make the
best use of rivers if efforts were combined internationally.
A characteristic example of this co-operation is afforded by the
overall use of the Danube (which spreads its basin over the
territories of eight states) to promote navigation, hydrotechnical
construction, irrigation and fishing.
Many such undertakings could be promoted.
Truly limitless possibilities exist for the fruitful development
of peaceful competition and co-operation between socialist and
capitalist countries in all fields of science, technology, economy.
education, health protection, culture, the arts and sport.
Wide exchanges of knowledge and experience, combined efforts
of scientists, engineers, agronomists and doctors, and, most im-
portant, of hundreds of millions of ordinary people in all
countries of the world could be most instrumental in accelerating
scientific, technical and cultural progress.
But it is necessary in the first place to avert the threat of a
monstrous nuclear and rocket war.
6. THE STRUGGLE FOR PEACE AND DIS-
ARMAMENT IS A STRUGGLE FOR LITE
THE FACTS MENTIONED ABOVE show how much the arms race and
war injure the economy and living standards.
According to the most modest estimates, wars and war
preparations swallowed up as much as S2,500,000 million in the
lifetime of one generation (forty years, between 1914 and the
end of 1954). This is five times as much as the combined national
incomes of seventy countries in 1949.
In the years that followed, the arms race was pushed ahead,
attaining unprecedented proportions. Termination of the arms
race and prevention of another world war?this is the main
problem today; the very existence of the peoples, the destinies
of mankind depend upon its solution.
The peoples have not yet recovered from the consequences
of the Second World War. In a number of countries there is
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hardly a family that did not lose somebody or was left without
cripples in the war.
To this day millions of refugees are leading a miserable exist-
ence in foreign countries, away from their homes.
In many countries the people are still weighed down by such
economic consequences of the war as inflation, high prices, pay-
ment of interest on the inordinately swollen state debt, scarcities
of food and other prime necessities, the acute housing crisis.
Their own experience is convincing them that death and
destruction emanate not only from war; preparations for war
doom millions of people to incredible suffering and privation.
The arms race leads inevitably to inflation and sky-rocketing
prices, wage and salary cuts, to the ruination of peasants and
craftesmen, to the bankruptcy of small and medium manu-
facturers and businessmen. Even many big manufacturers in the
industries which produce for civilian needs cannot escape the
fatal consequences of the arms race.
The cold war disrupts world economic contacts; it contracts
drastically and perverts international trade, credits and loans.
Possibilities for the normal development of civilian production,
for extensive peaceful construction, the reduction of prices of
consumer goods and improvements in people's lives, are ex-
cluded by the very essence of the arms race.
But worst of all, it inevitably aggravates the threat of another
world war.
Under these circumstances it is the fundamental and decisive
task of the people to wage an energetic struggle for peace, to
prevent another war, for economic co-operation and the peaceful
co-existence of states.
We have it from the most authoritative scientists that the
modern arms race and the attending tests of thermonuclear
weapons are already causing enormous harm to all life on earth.
In January 1958, a petition was laid before the Secretary
General of the United Nations; it calls for an immediate termin-
ation of nuclear weapon tests since every test increases the
amount of radioactive particles which injure the health of the
people throughout the world.
? Tho petition was signed by 9,235 scientists of forty-four
countries, among them 101 members of the National Academy
of Sciences of the United States, 216 Soviet scientists, and many
Nobel Prize winners..
The courageous voice of reason, the voice of the peoples and
30
scientists of many countries was listened to in the Soviet Union.
Desiring to initiate in practice a general termination of atomic
and hydrogen weapon tests and thus make the first move towards
the complete deliverance of mankind from the threat of a
devastating atomic war, the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.
resolved to suspend, beginning with March 31st, 1958, the tests
of all types of atomic and hydrogen weapons in the Soviet Union,
and urged the parliaments and governments of other states
possessing atomic and hydrogen weapons to take similar steps
in order to ensure the termination of atomic and hydrogen
weapon tests everywhere and for all time.
In its appeal to the parliaments of all countries, the Supreme
Soviet of the U.S.S.R. notes that the fatal influence of isuclear
tests is not limited either by geographical boundaries, or by
political distinctions between states.
All states are therefore interested in the immediate termination
of nuclear test explosions.
Furthermore, the termination of atomic and hydrogett bomb
tests everywhere would advance the world a long way towards
ending the drive for atomic armaments; it would guarantee the
security of all nations and create a 11,:althicr international
atmosphere.
This muv.. of the Soviet Union has been welcomed by all
peace-loving people.
In a statement published in May 1958, the World Federation
of Scientific Workers declared its whole-hearted approval of the
Soviet Government's decision to stop nuclear test explosions, and
urged interested governments to adopt identical decisions to end
test explosions and to establish through negotiations an effective
control system in order to ensure the implementation of this
decision.
This could be the prelude to a general agreement on the pro-
hibition of all nuclear weapons, and it could end so reckless an
act as the unlimited arms race.
In the existing international situation mankind can preserve
peace and discard the burden of armaments which weighs heavily
upon the peoples.
This is dictated by the highest interests of mankind.
Peace without the feverish arms race would open up the road
to a radiant and happy future for all.
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other .sourceA of information
on the Soviet Union . . .
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New Steps orsTAT
Peace by
Socialist
Countries
Meeting of the Political Consultative
Committee of the Warsaw Treaty
Organisation 24- May 1958
Soviet News
Booklet No.31
-?;,"
? Communique
? Declaration
? Speec_h by
N. S. Khrushchov
a- Appendix :
Communique of
Conference of
Representatives of
Communist & Workers'
Parties in Socialist
Countries STAT
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COMMUNIQUE
on the Meeting of the Political
Consultative Committee of the
Warsaw Treaty Organisation
The following is the text of the communique issued after the meeting of
the Political Consultative Committee of the states which are parties to the
Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance:
AMEETING of the Political Con-
sultative Committee of the states,
parties to the Warsaw Treaty of
Friendship. Co-operation and Mutual
Assistance. was held in Moscow on
May 24, 19%
The following repp-sentatives attended
the meeting of the Political Consultative
Committee:
From the People's Republic of Albania
?Mehmet Shehu, Chairman of the
Council of Ministers ? Enver Hodia.
first secretary of the central committee
of the Albanian Party of Labour .
Behar Shtylla. Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and Anf Hasko. Chief of the
General Staff of the People's Army of
the Albanian People's Republic.
From the Bulgarian People's Republic
?Anton Yugov, Chairman of the
Council of Ministers Todor Zhivkov
first secretary of the central committee
of the Bulgarian Communist Party .
Karlo Lukanov. Minister of Foreign
Affairs ? and Pyotr Panchewski. Minister
of National Defence
From the Hungarian People's Repub-
lic?Janos Kadar. Minister of State and
first secretary of the central committee
of the Hungarian Socialist Workers'
Party. Endre Sik, Minister of Foreign
Affairs. and Colonel-General C1C73
Revest Minister of Defence
From the German Democratic Repub-
lic?Otto Grotewohl Chairman of the
Council of Ministers Walter Ulbricht
first secretary of the central committee
of the Socialist Unity Party of Ger-
many Colonel-General Willi Stoph
Minister of National Defence; Bruno
Leuschner. Vice-Chairman of the Coun-
cil of Ministers, and Otto Winzer,
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
From the Polish People's Republic--
Josef Cyrankiewicz, Chairman of the
Council of Ministers ; Wladislaw
Gomulka, first secretary of the central
committee of the Polish United
Workers' Party; Adam Rapacki,
Minister of Foreign Affairs; and
Colonel-General Marian Spychalski,
Minister of National Defence.
Front the Rumanian People's Republic
?Chivu Stoica. Chairman of the Coun-
cil of Ministers , Glicorghe Gheorghiu-
Del, first secretary of the central corn
mince of the Rumanian Workers' Party:
Emil Bodnaras, Vice-Chairman of the
Council of Ministers, Avram Bunaciu.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Colonel-General Leontin Salajan.
Minister of the Armed Forces.
From the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics?N S K hruslichov. Chair-
man of the Council of Ministers and
first secretary of the central committee
of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union ? A A Gromyko. Minister of
Foreign Affairs . Marshal of the Soviet
Union R Y Malinovsky, Minister of
Defence
Front the Czechoslovak Republic?
Viliam Siroky, Prime Minister; Vaclav
David. Minister of Foreign Affairs . and
Colonel-General Bohurnir Lomsky,
Minister of National Defence
As observers from the People's Repub-
lic of China?Chen Yun Vice-Premier
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of the Government Council; and La Fu-
chun, Vice-Premier of the Government
Council.
Anton Yugov, Chairman of the
Council of Ministers of the People's
Republic of Bulgaria, presided over the
session.
In conformity with Article 3 of the
Warsaw Treaty, envisaging consultations
between the states, parties to the treaty,
on all major international questions
affecting their interests, an exchange of
opinion on the present international
situation took place at the meeting of
the Consultative Committee. The
Political Consultative Committee noted
with satisfaction the complete unanimity
of the socialist countries, parties to the
meeting, both in assessing the inter-
national situation and their common
ti.sks in the struggle for peace and the
security of the peoples The Political
Consultative Committee unanimously
adopted a declaration of the states,
parties to the Warsaw Treaty, which is
published in the press.
The Political Consultative Committee
heard a report by Marshal of the Soviet
Union 1. S. Koniev, Commander-in-
Chief of the Joint Armed Forces of the
states, parties to the Warsaw Treaty, on
further reduction in the armed forces
of the Warsaw Treaty countries, and on
the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from
the teretory of the Rumanian People's
Republic.
Besides the further cut in the armed
forces of the Soviet Union in 1958 by
300,000 men, which was announced
earlier, the states, parties to the Warsaw
Treaty, resolved to effect in 1958, in
addition to the earlier substantial reduc-
tion in their armed forces, another cut
in the armed forces by a total of
119,000 men, including: the Rumanian
People's Republic by 55,000 men, the
Bulgarian People's Republic by 23,000
men, thc Polish People's Republic by
20,000 men, the Czechoslovak Republic
2
by 20,000 men and the Albanian
People's Republic by 1,000 men. Thus
the Warsaw Treaty member-countries
will have reduced their armed forces by
419,000 men in 1958.
The Political Consultative Committee
approved a proposal of the government
of the Soviet Union, agreed with the
government of the Rumanian People's
Republic, on the withdrawal in the near
future from the *.tumanian People s
Republic of the Soviet troops stationed
there in conformity with the Warsaw
Treaty.
The Soviet government, by agreement
with the Hungarian government, re-
solved to reduce, in 1958, the Soviet
troops stationed in Hungary by one
division and to withdraw it from Hun-
garian territory.
The Political Consultative Committee
approved this decision of the Soviet
government.
Decisions were also taken on certain
organisational matters involved in the
activity of the Joint Armed Forces of the
states, parties to the Warsaw Treaty.
The Political Consultative Committee
resolved to address to the member-states
of the North Atlantic Treaty (N.A.T.0)
a proposal concerning the conclusion of
a non-aggression pact between thc
states, parties to the Warsav. Treaty,
and the N.A.T.O. member-states. The
text of the draft of the aforesaid non-
aggression pact is published separately.
The proceedings of the meeting of the
Political Consultative Committee of the
states, parties to the Warsaw Treaty.
demonstrated the complete unity, un-
breakable fraternal friendship and
co-operation of the socialist countries,
which arc concentrating their efforts on
a relaxatiot, of international tension.
the creation of an atmosphere of mutual
confidence and businesslike co-operation
between all states, for the further con
solidation of peace.
DECLARATION OF THE STATES
PARTIES TO THE WARSAW TREATY
The following is the full text of the Declaration signed in Moscow on
May 24 by the representatives of the countries that are signatories to the
Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance:
GUlDED by the interests of ensuring
%a peace in Europe and developing
peaceful co-operation among states, which
is the basic task of the Warsaw Treaty
Organisation, the governments of the
People's Republic of Albania, the
People's Republic of Bulgaria, the Hun-
garian People's Republic, the German
Democratic Republic, the Polish People's
Republic, the Rumanian People's Repub-
lic, the Union of Soviet Socialist Repub-
lics and the Czechoslovak Republic con-
vened in Moscow on May 24, 1958, a
conference of the Political Consultative
Committee of the Warsaw Treaty coun-
tries so as to examine the existing inter-
national situation and work out new
joint measures to ease international
tension.
The exchange of views, in which an
observer from the Chinese People's Re-
public also took part, confirmed the
unanimity of the governments repre-
sented at the conference, both in their
estimate of the international situation and
with regard to the ways of strengthening
peace.
The state of affairs in the world is
being influenced to an ever greater extent
by the unceasing struggle of the countries
of the socialist camp for the develop-
ment of international co-operation on the
basis of the peaceful co-existence of
states with different social structures, for
the settlement of disputed questions by
means of negotiations between states, for
the ending of the arms race and the
removal of the threat of atomic war.
The participants in the conference
note with satisfaction that today it is not
only the socialist countries that are direct-
ing their efforts towards strengthening
peace but also most of the countries
of Asia and Africa that have freed them-
selves from age-old colonial dependence.
3
Peace is also supported by the masses
of the people and influential public
circles, by many parties and trade unions
that heed the demands of the workers,
by scientists and workers in the cultural
field, by clergymen, by people of diffe-
rent political outlooks in the countries of
Western Europe, America and other
continents. States pursuing a policy of
neutrality are also making a positive
contribution to the struggle for peace.
The development of internaticmal
events is again and again giving proof
of the fact that the Warsaw Treaty of
Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual
Assistance, signed three years ago by eight
socialist states, not only reliably safe-
guards the security and independence of
the peoples of these states but also consti-
tutes a mighty deterrent to the activities
of the military groupings of the western
powers and, first and foremost, of the
North Atlantic bloc, which arc hostile
to the cause of peace.
Those circles of the western powers
and, in the first place, of the United
States, who have closely linked their
policy with the continuance of the "cold
war" and international tension are, as
hitherto, seeking to pursue a "positions
of strength" policy, and to hinder the
peoples from shaping their lives accord-
ing to their own will. They bear the
responsibilty for the unceasing arms race
which is acquiring an especially dan-
gerous nature in connection with the ex-
panding production and stockpiling of
nuclear means of mass destruction. An
unbearably heavy burden of military ex-
ptmditure has been heaped upon the
peoples of the N.A.T.O. countries.
Judging only by official N.A.T.O. figures,
the military expenditures of the mem-
ber-countries of this bloc in 1957 were
three times as great as in 1950. In all,
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during the penod from 1950 to 1957,
the N.A.T.O. countries spent more than
400,000 million dollars on war prepara-
tions.
At the present time the N.A.T.O. mili-
tary bodies arc working out new plans
to increase the armed forces and military
expenditure of those countries, while the
N A.T.O. War Ministers' conference in
April this year discussed the question of
doubling the size of the armed forces
placed at the disposal of the American
supreme commander of N.A.T.O. It
is, moreover, well known that on May 1
this year, the permanent Council of
N.A.T.O. took a decision providing for
the atomic arming of those participants
in the North Atlantic bloc who do not
at present possess such weapons. The
governments of a number of N.A.T.O.
countries, such as Britain, France, lialy,
Turkey, and others, have, in spite of
resolute protests by the population, sub-
mitted the territories of their countries
for usc as American launching sites for
rockets beal:ng nuclear warheads and as
storehouses for atomic weapons.
The war preparations in the Federal
Republic of Germany, whose Bundestag
has taken a decision empowering the
Federal government to arm the West
German armed forces with nuclear and
rocket weapons, are coming to be of a
particularly dangerous character. Thus
the most dangerous types of weapons
arc falling into the hands of militarist
and revenge-seeking circles who are rais-
ing terntonal claims against other states.
The United States government, in
lending its support to tho policy of arm-
ing the Federal Republic of Germany
and taking upon itself the task of supply-
ing Western Germany with nuclear and
rocket weapons is, as a matter of fact,
encouraging these circles to pursue a
policy fraught with danger to peace and
disastrous consequences for the German
people themselves. Measures arc being
taken, at the same time, to involve Wes-
tern Germany in manufacturing and per-
fecting new types of weapons, this pur-
pose being served by the disclosed tri-
partite agreement between France, Italy
and the Federal Republic of Germany,
on co-operation in the sphere of military
research and the manufacture of arma-
ments.
These military preparations are giving
rise to grave fears in Western Germany
itself and are meeting with ever-increas-
ing opposition from the West German
population.
The present situation is being worsened
in an extremely dangerous way by the
practice, unheard of in time of peace, of
flights by United States air force planes
with atomic and hydrogen bombs over
the Arctic areas towards the Soviet
Union. As is well known, flights of
American bombers with atomic and
hydrogen bombs are also carried out
over the territories of many West Euro-
pean countries under the pretext of pat-
rolling the air space. These actions by
the United States government border on
direct provocatioR and if they are not
stopped, mankind may any day find itself
engulfed in the hurricane of a rocket
and atomic war.
One cannot fail to note with satisfac-
tion the fact that certain N.A.T.O. mem-
ber-states, aware of the direct'an in
which the policy of preparing or an
atomic war and juggling with atomic
weapons pursued by the major powers
of this grouping is leading, are adopting
a saner attitude?a circumstance which
cannot fail to constitute a definite posi-
tive contribution to the relaxation of
international tension, particularly in
Europe. This is one of the examples
showing that, even when there exist
aggressive military groupings and commit-
ments imposed by their sponsors upon
the other participants in those groupings.
there still remain unused possibilities
for a detente in the European situation
and for reducing international tension
A heavy blow at the hopes of the
peoples for lessening the danger of war
and curtailing the atomic arms race has
been dealt by the governments of the
United States and Britain, who have
carried out new nuclear test explosions
in the Pacific even after the Soviet Union
has unilaterally ceased tests of all types
of hydrogen and atomic weapons. These
explosions show what little concern to
the governments of the druted States and
Britain are the interests of the peoples
4
demanding that an end be put to the
preparations for atomic war and that real
steps be taken to remove the threat of
such a war.
The participants in the conference ex-
press serious concern in connection with
the unceasing attempts of the govern-
ments of the United States, Britain,
France and other colonial powers to
interfere in the internal affairs of
countries of Asia and Africa, to impose
upon them regimes and governments that
are alien to the peoples and are ready
once again to sell out to the colonialists
their countries, which have recently taken
the path of aational independence. If
in Indonesia, Algeria, Lebanon, Yemen
and Oman guns are firing and the
blood of patriots is being shed, the
blame for this rests with those same im-
perialist circles whose policy is being pur-
sued by N.A.T.O., the Baghdad Pact
organisation and S.E.A.T.O., and who,
by means of pressure and flagrant inter-
ference in the internal affairs of other
states, are seeking to lay their hands on
the natural resources of these countries
and to strangle the national liberation
movement of the peoples of Asia and
Africa. Just as last summer the clouds
gathered over Syria, so today dangerous
schemes arc being carried out against
Lebanon, and this time the United States,
falling back on the notorious "Dulles-
Eisenhower doctrine," which has been re-
jected by the Arab peoples, is making
ready to set its armed forces in action
against a state which wants nothing
more than to be master in its own house
and to be free from foreign dictation.
It would not be out of place to pose
the question of who gave any state the
right to impose various doctrines on
other countries. Indeed, the time has
long since passed when force and arbi-
trary behaviour could disregard lav and
even be presented as law. The Dulles-
Eisenhower doctrine has clearly pursued
the aim of meddling in the affairs of
other states, and its authors have not
scrupled to declare this openly. And all
this is taking place before the eyes of
the United Nations, which, so it would
seem, should react to deeds consti-
tuting interference in the internal life
5
of the countries of the East, in as much
as this is a breach of international law
and is condemned by the United Nations
Charter. Thy- United Nations, however,
owing to the position of certain western
powers, remains paralysed and is taking
no steps to safeguard the independence
of Lebanon or of other states either,
which are being subjected to the schemes
of imperialist circles.
There exists the opportunity for the
United Nations to become a genuinely
international organisation and an effec-
tive instrument in the struggle for peace,
provided all its member-states arc guided,
not by their narrow interests, but by the
interests of peace and the security of
nations.
The Warsaw Treaty countries have
directed, and will continue to direct their
actions towards enabling the United
Nations to accomplish successfully the
tasks entrusted to it by the Charter.
The states parties to the Warsaw
Treaty are convinced that the denial to
the Chinese People's Republic of the
possibility of occupying its lawful place
in the United Nations is doing serious
harm to the activities of the United
Nations. They arc also profoundly con-
vinced that the participation of People's
China in the activities of the United
Nations would be of great positive signi-
ficance for the maintenance of peace in
the Far East, and also for the cause of
peace throughout the world.
For a number of years France has
been waging a bloody war against the
people of Algeria, who arc fighting for
self-determination and independence.
The war in Algeria not only constitutes
a monstrous injustice against the free-
dom-loving Algerian people but also
creates a dangerous hotbed of inter-
national tensions and conflicts in that
part of the world.
The sponsors of N.A.T.O. and the
other blocs of the western powers asso-
ciated with it arc striving to conceal the
war preparations being carried out by
them on an ever-increasing scale and
their interference in thc internal affairs
of other countries by false references to
the "danger of international com-
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munism." Whether it is a question of
equipping the Bundeswehr with atomic
weapons or of preparing armed inter-
vention in the affairs of Lebanon, of
deploying American rocket installations
in foreign countries or of increasing
budget allocations for military purposes,
of sending American planes with atomic
and hydrogen bombs to the frontiers of
the Soviet Union or of restricting inter-
national trade?in all these cases this
device, which is far from new, is brought
into play.
Can anyone have forgotten that the
preparations of Hitler Germany for the
Second World War were also carried out
under thii banner of the struggle against
the "danger" of communism. Millions
upon millions of people who let them-
selves be misled by that false propa-
ganda paid for it with their lives in the
last war. It cannot be assumed that the
nations have not drawn conclusions from
those dramatic lessons and have not
learned, on the basis of their own ex-
perience, to discern the real source of
the threat of war.
The states united by the Warsaw
Treaty and also the socialist states of
Asia do not have and cannot have any
motives for attacking other countries and
seizing foreign lands. The Soviet Union,
the Chinese People's Republic and the
socialist camp as a whole possess im-
mense expanses of land and untold
natural resources. But the main wealth
of the socialist countries are the people,
the inexhaustible creative forces of the
nations which have liberated themselves
from exploitation and are following the
path of social progress. There is no
chance of any groups or sections of the
population interested in war emerging in
any of these countries, since power in
them is wielded by the workers and peas-
ants and they arc the ones who bear the
greatest sacnficcs in any war. They
create all the necessary material wealth
with their own hands and it is not in
their nature to covet what is not theirs.
The people of our countries arc
devoting all their efforts to the creation
of a new social system which will
guarantee general prosperity and allow
for the comprehensive and maximum
6
development of man's spiritual abilities.
And for this purpose they need, first and
foremost, firm and lasting peace. That
is why nothing can be more remote from
the truth than the allegations that the
socialist countries can threaten anyone
or that they want to force their way of
life on to others.
The states that are parties to the War-
saw Treaty have no reason whatsoever
to fear the easing of international ten-
sion; they are united, not by the "cold
war" atmosphere, not by the state of
war hysteria in which the advocates of
military preparations want to keep the
world, but by their common ideals and
aims in the building of the new socialist
society and the strengthening of peace
among nations. An itpirovement in the
international situation is feared by those
who do not want to risk the loss of
fabulous profits extracted from the
pockets of taxpayers owing to the arms
race, and who stand for the preservation
of military groupings, the existence of
which will become absolutely unjusti-
fiable and superflous if tension decreases,
if confidence among the states is en-
hanced and the "cold war" ended.
The states signatories to the Warsaw
Treaty resolutely condemn the course
pursued in N.A.T.O. by the leading
states of this aggressive grouping?a
course aimed at worsening the inter-
national situation and preparing tur
an atomic wa1x They call upon the
governments of the countries of the
North Atlantic Alliance not to permit at
the present critical time any steps that
might further worsen the already grave
situation in Europe and in some other
parts of the world. For the war danger
not to grow, but to decrease, for mutual
mistrust and suspicion among states to
give way to confidence and businesslike
co-operation, it is necessary, above all,
to refrain from such actions as the reck-
less deeds of the American air force or
the decision concerning the atomic arm-
ing of Western Germany, which const.-
totes a challenge to all European nations.
The socialist countries of Europe and
Asia have given ample proof of their
good will and desire for co-operation
with other states in the interests of
strengthening peace among nations. All
the parties to the Warsaw Treaty have
repeatedly earned out unilateral reduc-
tions of their armed forces, which since
1955 have been reduced by 2,477,000
men. The armaments, war material and
defence expenditures of these countries
have been reduced accordingly. During
this period the Soviet Union has cut its
armed forces by 2,140,000 men; the
Polish People's Republic has cut its
armed forces by 141,500 men, the corre-
sponding figure for the Czechoslovak
Republic being 44,000, for the German
Democratic Republic, 30,000; the
Rumanian People's Republic, 60,000;
the People's Republic of Bulgaria, 18,000,
the Hungarian People's Republic,
35,000; and the People's Republic of
Albania, 9,000.
No one can deny that states carrying
out reductions in their armed forces to
such a considerable extent arc preparing,
not for war, but for peaceful co-
operation. And on the contrary, when
states are building up their armaments
and increasing their armed forces, this is
a sure sign that they, or rather those
who shape their policy, are thinking not
of peace, but of war.
It appears that the N.A.T.O. countries
arc responding to the reduction of the
armed forces and military expenditures
of the states that are parties to the
Warsaw Treaty by increasing the number
of their troops, augmenting their military
budgets and building up their armaments.
By pursuing this policy, the N.A.T.O.
leaders would like to prevent the relax-
ation of international tension and the
reaching of agreement among states
which would guarantee their peaceful
co-existence, and in that way to impel
the Warsaw Treaty states to participate
in the arms race and in the "cold war,"
so as to slow down peaceful construction
and the impruvement of the living stan-
dards of the peoples of the socialist
countries. All this makes it incumbent
upon the peoples to be on their guard
and to be more active in the struggle
against forces working towards the
preparations for war
The participants in the conference
take pnde in the fact that of the three
powers possessing nuclear weapons it was
7
a state belonging to the Warsaw Treaty
Organisation, namely the Soviet Union,
that undertook a step of a very humane
nature in adopting the decision to dis-
continue unilaterally tests of all types
of atomic and hydrogen weapons. This
noble step of histanc significance paves
the way for the final deliverance of man-
kind from the thicat of a devastating
atomic war. The government of the
Chinese People's Republic has taken, and
is rapidly carrying out, the decision to
withdraw the Chinese volunteers from
Korea. The United States would have
contributed in no small measure to the
consolidation of peace in the Far East
and to the settlement of the Korean
quzstion if it had followed the example
of People's China and withdrawn its
forces from South Korea, also dis-
mantling all its bases on South Korean
territory
The government of the Polish People's
Republic has displayed valuable initia-
tive, which has as its aim the removal
of the danger of an atomic war in
Europe and which has met with wide
international recognition, in proposing
the creation in central Europe of a zone
free from the production, deployment
and use of atomic, hydrogen and rocket
weapons.
The proposal of the government of
the German Democratic Republic con-
cerning the establishment of a German
confederation has opened up a real
prospect for ending the unnatural situa-
tion in Germany which, 13 years after
the end of the war, still remains split into
two parts. The governments of the states
represented at the conference express
their appreciation of this proposal and
give it their wholehearted support.
With a view to settling urgent inter-
national issues and meeting the universal
demand of the peoples that measures be
taken to case international tension and
eliminate the "cold war," the Soviet
Union, having consulted the other
socialist countries, came out with a
proposal that a summit conference be
held of leading statesmen of East and
Vest. The governments of the Warsaw
Treaty countries regard the summit con-
ference as a major means, in the existing
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circumstances, to protect mankind from
the disaster of war and to direct
developments in the international field
towards the strengthening of peace. The
participants in the conference express
their satisfaction at the fact that the
agenda for the summit conference pro-
posed by the Soviet side contains
questions for whose solution there exist
real prerequisites and whose settlement
would promote an improvement in the
situation and the strengthening of
security in Europe, and would also
facilitate the removal of mutual distrust.
These questions arc:
I. The immediate ending of tests of
atomic and hydrogen weapons.
2. Renunciation by the U.S.S.R.. the
United States and Great Britain of the
use of nuclear weapons.
3. The establishment in Central
Europe of a zone free from atomic,
hydrogen and rocket weapons.
4. The conclusion of a non-aggression
agreement between members of the North
Atlantic Alliance and states parties to the
Warsaw Treaty.
5. The reduction of the number of
foreign troops on the temtory of Ger-
many and within the frontiers of other
European states.
6. The drawing up of an agreement
on questions connected with the preven-
tion of a surprise attack.
7. Measures for the extension of
international trade ties.
S. The ending of war propaganda
9. Ways of easing tension in the
Middle East area.
10. Prohibition of the use of outer
space for military purposes, the liquida-
tion of foreign military bases on alien
territories, and international co-operation
in exploring outer space.
11. The conclusion of a Gc:man
peace treaty.
12. The development of ties and con-
tacts between countries.
First among these questions is the
ending of atomic and hydrogen weapon
tests. The governments responsible for
the destinies of their peoples have no
right to ignore the warnings uttered by
thousands of scientists from various
countries of the world against the
harmful effects of atomic and hydrogen
weapon tests and the dreadful con-
sequences of a nuclear war. One can-
not but take into account the warnings
of the scientists who point out that in
the event of atomic and hydrogen
weapon tests continuing further as they
have hitherto, millions of people in
every generation will be affected by
hereditary diseases.
The immediate ending of atomic and
hydrogen weapon tests accords with the
hopes and aspirations of people all over
the world who are alarmed by the
dreadful consequences of these tests.
An agreement on this issue would halt
the creation of new and ever more
lethal types of nuclear weapons and
would be a major step towards the
cessation of the atomic a:ms race
One cannot fail to see that the refusal
by the governments of the United States
and Britain to follow the example set
by the Soviet Union, and the continua-
tion of their atomic and hydrogen
weapon tests can only throw mankind
back to the starting point on this ques-
tion, which is of the utmost importance
for its destiny, in which case the grave
responsibility would rest entirely with
the governments of the United States
and Britain. The participants in the
conference declare that the peoples of
the states they represent, being fully
determined to use all possible means to
promote the consolidation of peace and
the prevention of a new world con-
flagration, are interested in establishing
in the centre of the European continent
a zone free of atomic, hydrogen and
rocket weapons and including the two
German states?the German Democratic
Republic and the Federal Republic of
Germany?and also Poland and Czecho-
slovakia.
In giving support to the proposal of
the Polish People's Republic on the
establishment of a zone free from
nuclear and rocket weapons, the partici-
pants in the conference are not seeking
any military advantages for themselves
A comparison between the territories
of the states to be included in an atom-
free zone will show that the territory of
the German Democratic Republic.
Czechoslovakia and Poland is more than
double that of the fourth state in this
zone?Western Germany. Furthermore,
the population of the Warsaw Treaty
states in this zone also exceeds the
population of the member of the North
Atlantic Alliance in this zone. As
regards their own production of nuclear
weapons it is known that none of these
countries ? the German Democratic
Republic, Czechoslovakia, Poland or the
Federal Republic of Germany?manu-
factures this kind of weapon. More-
over, the government of the Federal
Republic of Germany at one time
assumed an international obligation not
to manufacture such weapons in the
future. All this is evidence of the
absence of any grounds for supposing
that the establishment of an atom-tree
zone will offer any one-sided military
advantage to the Warsaw Treaty coun-
tries to the detriment of the interests of
N A.T.O. states. On the contrary, the
realism of the proposal for an atom-free
zone in Europe consists in the very fact
that the member-states of the Warsaw
Treaty and the member-states of
N.A T.O. would, in accordance with this
proposal, reciprocally undertake such
measures in the field of atomic dis-
armament as would, taken as a whole,
be equal in their military significance
The participants in the conference
welcome the readiness of the Soviet
Union, as one of the major states
possessing nuclear weapons, to assume
the obligation to respect the status of
the atom-free zone and to regard the
territory of the countries of this zone as
being excluded from the sphere of the
use of atomic, hydrogen and rocket
weapons.
It is to be regretted that the govern-
ment of a non-European power?the
United States?not only hastened to
declare its negative attitude to the pro-
posal for the establishment of an
atom-free zone in the centre of Europe,
but also considered it possible to bring
pressure to bear upon its European
N.A.T 0 allies so as to complicate the
submission of this proposal to the
summit conference and its subsequent
examination This initiative, however.
is aimed at achieving a detente in Central
Europe and at reducing the possibility
of an atomic war breaking out in this
region. The implementation of this
initiative, directed as it is towards a
partial solution, would facilitate the
achievement of broader agreements in
thc field of disarmament, thus con-
tributing to reaching the main goal of
all the peoples, that is to say, the
removal of the danger of an atomic
war in Europe, and thereby war in
general. It should be noted that it is
precisely in this sense that this initiative
has been interpreted by broad circles of
public opinion and various political
circles in the West.
The ruling circles of some members
of N.A.T.O., professing their desire for
successful negotiations, are actually going
all out to make it more difficult to con-
vene a summit conference, if not to avoid
such a conference altogether. It is with
this aim in view that the trumped up
question is raised of the so-called situ-
ation in the East European countries?a
question which in actual fact does not
exist. The participants in the conference
resolutely reject any discussions of this
question as inadmissible interference in
the domestic affairs of sovereign states
which is incompatible with international
law and the United Nations Charter. The
states taking part in the conference de-
clare that they will not tolerate any
interference in the internal affairs of their
countries, whose peoples have firmly and
irrevocably taken the road of building
socialism and who are determined to
safeguard the work of their peoples and
their security against any schemes from
outside.
As to the attempts to bring before a
summit conference the question of Ger-
man unity, they can only serve the pur-
poses of those who want to prevent the
calling of a summit conference and do
not want to see it brought to a success-
ful conclusion. The states that are par-
ties to the Warsaw Treaty fully under-
stand the desire of the German
for the elimination of the division of the
country and they arc in favour of the
restoration of Germany's unity and the
establishment of a peaceful, democratic
9
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/04/01 : CIA-RDP81-01043R004000060002-5
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release ? 50-Yr 2014/04/01 : CIA-RDP81-01043R004000060002-5
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