XIX Congress of the CPSU (b) - (October 5-14, 1952). Documents and Materials

October 7th

(Morning session)

Presiding N.A. Bulganin, after a break L.M. Kaganovich.

The meeting continued the discussion of the reports of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU (b).

At the end of the meeting, the congress heard a report from the Credentials Committee. The Congress unanimously approves the report of the Credentials Committee.

G.A. Arutinov, (Armenian SSR)

Comrades, (...)

Comrade Stalin in his classic work ʺEconomic Problems of Socialism in the USSRʺ teaches that one of the main preconditions for the transition to communism is to ensure the continuous growth of all social production with a predominant growth in the production of means of production, without which it is impossible to carry out expanded reproduction.

The results of the implementation of the post‐war five‐year plan for the restoration and development of the national economy testify to the continuous growth of the entire socialist industry and, in particular, heavy industry, which led our country to economic prosperity. A characteristic aspect of this economic boom is that it covered all the Union republics. The development of industry, which is the basis for the upsurge of the entire national economy, proceeded both in the central and remote regions of the Soviet Union. One of the outstanding achievements of our party is the implementation of Comrade Stalinʹs instructions that the inequality left by tsarism between nationalities should be eliminated through the rapid economic development of the once backward regions. The implementation of this important instruction is combined with the correct geographic location of the construction of new industrial enterprises on the basis of bringing industry closer to the sources of raw materials and fuel. This policy of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and the Union Government led to a powerful development of industry and the entire national economy of the Union republics, bringing them closer to the level of the most developed industrial centers of the country.

As an example, confirming this, one can cite the development of industry and agriculture in Soviet Armenia in recent years. The gross output of industrial enterprises in Armenia in 1952 increased by 4.2 times compared to the pre‐war 1940, while the gross output of light industry increased 4.1 times, and the output of heavy industry increased 4.6 times. The enterprises of metallurgy, metalworking, machine‐building industries, and electrical machine‐building have received great development. Electricity generation increased 3.3 times.

Simultaneously with the commissioning of new enterprises, work was widely carried out to identify new industrial reserves of minerals. Thus, high rates of industrial growth were ensured, mainly due to local raw materials.

For the maximum use of the opportunities for further industrial development in Armenia, the construction of hydroelectric power plants and the rapid pace of implementation of the Sevan‐Zangin cascade problem are of great importance. We consider it necessary to raise the issue of the simultaneous construction of two or three hydroelectric power plants of this cascade. Only in this case it will be possible to provide the developing industry of the republic with electricity.

Along with the growth of industry, the agriculture of Armenia received great development. The area of grain crops in 1952 in comparison with the pre‐war 1940 increased by 13 percent, and the gross grain harvest ‐ almost 2 times. During this period, the area of wheat increased by 26 percent, and the gross harvest of wheat ‐ 2.4 times. The number of all types of social livestock on collective farms and the gross output of livestock raising have increased significantly. The area of industrial crops has also increased ‐ cotton, tobacco, sugar beet and perennial plantations, vineyards and orchards.

Irrigation works carried out in Armenia will ensure further growth of agriculture. Achievements in agriculture have been achieved thanks to the great help of the Armenian SSR from the Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Union Government in equipping agriculture with the latest machinery, supplying mineral fertilizers and other materials. This aid contributed to raising the culture of agriculture in the collective farms of Armenia. As a result of successes in the field of industry and agriculture, the material wellbeing of the working people of the republic and their cultural level have increased.

Comrade Stalinʹs brilliant works on linguistics gave a new impetus to the growth of the culture of the Armenian people and opened up broad prospects for the further development of science, literature and art ‐ national in form, socialist in content. The decisions of the Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on ideological issues armed the party organization of Armenia to fight against manifestations of bourgeois nationalism and helped the cause of the Marxist‐Leninist education of cadres.

Several years ago, on the historical front in Armenia, manifestations of bourgeois nationalism took place in the form of a one‐sided fascination with ancient history, its idealization. Thanks to the assistance of the Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the Communist Party of Armenia promptly launched a struggle against such manifestations of bourgeois nationalism and achieved a turn of the attention of scientists and creative workers towards studying and covering the life of Soviet Armenia and its achievements.

The republicʹs party organizations are doing a great job of educating the working people in the spirit of indestructible friendship between the peoples of the Soviet Union. Friendship of peoples found its new bright manifestation in the participation of all the peoples of the Soviet Union, including the Armenian one, in the construction of the great construction projects of communism. The peoples of the Soviet Union regard these construction projects as their own business, clearly realizing that their completion will ensure a new rise in the material well‐being of the Soviet people and will be a major contribution to the building of a communist society. The active participation of the working people of Armenia in the construction of the great construction projects of communism plays an important role in educating the masses, in strengthening the friendship of peoples.

However, it must be admitted that lately bourgeois‐nationalist tendencies have manifested themselves in the field of history and literary criticism. Some authors consider the national liberation movement of the Armenian people outside the class struggle, declaring all participants in the struggle against tsarism, including bourgeois liberals and bourgeois nationalists, to be revolutionary democrats, national heroes. This approach to assessing the national liberation movement leads to the bourgeois‐nationalist, the so‐called theory of ʺone streamʺ. Such harmful anti‐Marxist theories hinder the correct education of workers. It is imperative that party organizations fight all forms of manifestation of bourgeois nationalism.

One of the important points in strengthening party organizations and strengthening their leadership is the correct solution of party organizational issues. The Central Committee of the CPSU (b) constantly brought the form of building party organizations in accordance with the changed conditions. One of these measures was the formation of regions and districts in some republics. In order to bring the leadership closer to the lower party organizations in Armenia, district party committees were established. This measure led to an improvement in the management of the districts, made it possible to more promptly resolve issues of collective farm development. The formation of district bodies creates more favorable conditions for the development of cadres of leading republican workers.

From the point of view of the correct organizational structure of party organizations, in our opinion, the question of party organizations in large collective farms remains unresolved. In connection with the enlargement of collective farms, the working conditions of party organizations changed. If, before consolidation, the collective farm united, as a rule, no more than one village, then after the consolidation, collective farmers from several villages were united into one collective farm. The unification of the communists of these villages into one collective farm organization complicated the party work, and in some cases led to the weakening of mass political work in the villages, in which there were previously independent primary party organizations.

The interests of strengthening party work on collective farms, improving political work among collective farmers raise the question of the need to create party committees in large collective farms uniting several villages. These party committees should unite both production and territorial party organizations of all villages that make up a given collective farm, with the granting of them the rights of primary organizations. The need for such a formation of collective farm party organizations in Armenia is especially dictated by the mountainous conditions of the republic, which complicate communication between villages in the winter months.

The party organizations of Armenia will take into account the shortcomings in the work of party organizations, noted in the reporting report of the Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and will make every effort to further improve this work.

The working people of Armenia, like the entire Soviet people, under the leadership of our leader and teacher, Comrade Stalin, will achieve a successful solution to the tasks set by the 19th Party Congress! (Applause.)