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

October 6, (Morning session)

Presiding N.S. Khrushchev.

At the meeting, the report of the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU (b) is heard. Then the congress goes on to discuss the reports of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU (b).

O. N. Mikhailov, (Moscow)

Comrades! (...)

The Leninist‐Stalinist Komsomol strives in everything to justify the title of the faithful assistant and fighting reserve of the Communist Party. Comrade Stalin says: “The Komsomol has always been in the forefront of our fighters. I do not know of cases when he lagged behind the events of our revolutionary life in our country ”. And in military affairs, as it was during the Great Patriotic War, and in labor, during the years of peaceful construction, the Komsomol went and is in step with the party. At factories and collective farms, at construction sites of communism, at work to create field‐protective forest belts ‐ everywhere young builders of communism are selflessly working. Many wonderful innovators have emerged from among young people.

The Party Congress outlines a program for building communism in our country. A new page is opening in the history of Soviet society, in the life of the peoples of the whole world.

Comrade Stalinʹs work ʺThe Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSRʺ ideologically arms the Party, the Soviet people, and indicates the path of the transition from socialism to communism. This work of Comrade Stalin belongs to those brilliant creations of thought that move the development of the entire society forward.

Komsomol members, all Soviet youth consider it a matter of their honor and valor to fight selflessly for the successful implementation of Comrade Stalinʹs plans for building communism. (Stormy applause.)

The new situation poses new challenges. Proceeding from the instructions of Comrade Stalin, we must approach all aspects of the activity of the Komsomol, ensure a new upsurge in work on the communist education of young people. This will require a lot of effort, overcoming many difficulties, combining a militant revolutionary sweep with concreteness and efficiency.

Comrade Stalin teaches that one of the conditions for preparing the transition to communism is to achieve such a cultural growth of society that would ensure all members of society the all‐round development of their physical and mental abilities.

In direct connection with this is the program developed by the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) for the further rise of public education, the polytechnic of schools. Soviet youth have deeply learned that without knowledge and science it is impossible to successfully build a new society. The overwhelming majority of young people study in schools, technical schools, universities, in various evening and correspondence courses. It is well known what great success our school has achieved. But there are also drawbacks in her work: a large number of repeaters, a significant number of students who do not succeed in certain subjects, poor organization of teaching and educational work in some schools, the lack of school buildings in a number of cities and districts ‐ all this cannot but worry the party , Soviet and Komsomol bodies.

The teacher plays a decisive role in the school. A certain number of teachers do not have the appropriate education. However, the work to improve their qualifications, the organization of distance learning, the activities of methodological associations sometimes suffer from major shortcomings. Great demands are made on Soviet pedagogical science. Meanwhile, we have an obvious lag here. There are no well‐developed textbooks on pedagogy. The experience of advanced teachers is poorly studied and generalized. The Academy of Pedagogical Sciences does not provide answers to many important questions, does not publish meaningful works, and shows itself weakly in the revision of some textbooks. It is necessary that Party and Soviet bodies devote as much effort to public education as this extremely important matter deserves.

Unfortunately, not all‐party bodies are closely involved in school issues. Letʹs refer to an example. The Central Committee of the CPSU (b) drew the attention of the Central Committee of the CP (b) of

Kyrgyzstan to significant shortcomings in the work of schools, but these shortcomings are being corrected slowly. There are illiterate people in the republic, the general education plan is not being implemented, there is a dropout of students, especially girls; many evening schools for working and rural youth work poorly.

At the Congress of the Communist Party of the republic, the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Kyrgyzstan, Comrade Razzakov, had to admit that the party and Soviet bodies of the republic were unsatisfactory in managing public education. It must be assumed that this criticism will contribute to increasing attention to schools, teachers, primarily from the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Kyrgyzstan.

It is necessary that, in the light of the new tasks, the education of young people and raising their cultural level should be in the center of attention of the Komsomol. Ensure the leading role of Komsomol members and pioneers in their studies, constantly help school principals, teachers, and class teachers in all their teaching and educational work, actively participate in all activities to implement universal secondary (ten‐year) education, polytechnic school, train new cadres of teachers, strengthen educational ‐ the material base of the school ‐ these are our responsibilities.

The Komsomol should also work even more actively in universities, help the party in training new cadres of highly qualified specialists from among young people.

The works of Comrade Stalin in the field of linguistics and political economy show again and again the great power of advanced revolutionary science. The Komsomol is obliged to strive for young specialists in any branch of knowledge to tirelessly master the teachings of Lenin and Stalin, so that the study of revolutionary science would be a daily vital necessity for young people.

Each social era has created heroes of its time. The era of socialism also created such a hero. The hero of our time is a Soviet patriot, an active builder of communism, devoted with all his heart to the cause of Lenin and Stalin. The Soviet young man develops and is brought up harmoniously and comprehensively. High moral qualities, tireless work for the good of the people, constant striving for knowledge, science, culture, regular sports, active participation in public life ‐ this is what is characteristic of a young Soviet man of our days.

But we cannot fail to notice the facts testifying to attempts of alien influence on young people. Remnants of the past in the minds of people make themselves felt. In some enterprises, there are cases of violation of labor discipline by young workers. Both in the city and in the countryside there are idlers among young people, violators of the rules of socialist society. Some young men and women fall under the influence of religion.

There are serious shortcomings in the leadership of the Komsomol Central Committee of ideological work among young people. Often educational work is conducted with little content, formally, and does not attract young people. In many Komsomol organizations this work is extremely neglected. Communist education of young people has always been the main thing for the Komsomol. The importance of educating people is growing even more now, in the period of the gradual transition from socialism to communism. The task is for the Komsomol, guided by the instructions of the Party Congress, Comrade Stalin, to improve ideological work among the masses of young people in every possible way, to educate the young generation in the spirit of communism. We must resolutely do away with shortcomings in ideological work and raise it to the level of new challenges. There is no doubt that the party organizations will render every possible assistance to the Komsomol in this.

Comrade Malenkov in his report paid a lot of attention to literature and art. Soviet youth love and highly value wonderful Soviet art and literature ‐ an important weapon in the struggle for communism.

In recent years, many excellent works have been created, which are the pride of our people, and play a huge role in shaping the communist views of young people. But some writers publish raw, unprincipled works, lag behind life, in their work they bypass many important aspects of work, study, and everyday life of young people.

The Soviet theater creates few good works dedicated to our socialist life. The award of only two Stalin Prizes for plays published last year speaks volumes about the ill‐being that has created in the drama, designed to help educate the younger generation. The Board of the Union of Soviet Writers, the Committee for Arts under the Council of Ministers of the USSR held dozens of conferences and sessions devoted to discussing the reasons for the lag in Soviet drama. A lot of articles have been published on this subject but sometimes one gets the impression that some playwrights have completely stopped writing plays and write mainly articles in which they explain why there are no plays about Soviet life. (Animation in the hall).

Among young people, fair criticism is often heard that the USSR Ministry of Cinematography makes serious shortcomings in its work, creates few good films dedicated to Soviet reality. The leaders of the USSR Ministry of Cinematography and the Union of Soviet Writers not only admit these shortcomings, but also continuously discuss the question of how to rectify the situation. At the same time, the Ministry of Cinematography complains about the board of the Union of Soviet Writers for the lack of benign scripts. In turn, the board of the Union of Soviet Writers criticizes the Ministry of Cinematography. There are controversies, and few good films are made.

The Party teaches that it is not enough to admit a defect, it is necessary to be able to correct it as well. It is time for the Ministry of Cinematography, the Board of the Union of Soviet Writers, and the Committee for Arts to respond to criticism on the merits. The cause of the communist education of young people will in many ways benefit from this. New good works of literature, art, cinema will be received by young people with deep respect and gratitude.

The party teaches the Komsomol to link every step of its teaching and upbringing with practical tasks in building a new society. In response to the decisions of the party congress, the Komsomol will even more actively develop socialist competition among young people. Komsomol members and young people in all branches of industry will strive to increase production, increase labor productivity, reduce costs, and improve product quality. The Komsomol members and the youth of the village will strive to increase the yield of all crops, the further development of public livestock raising, and the improvement of the work of collective farms, state farms and machine and tractor stations. It should be noted that a useful initiative of young innovators does not always receive the necessary support. I will refer to examples. Young workers now laureate of the Stalin Prize, com. Dikov, Chikirev and others, with the active help of engineers and technicians, achieved a large increase in metal cutting speed. High‐speed methods open up huge reserves of the machine tool park. But some ministries, such as the USSR Ministry of Agricultural Engineering, do not really support this matter. From year to year, the ministry does not fulfill the plan for the introduction of speed limits. Now ministry officials have apparently decided to abandon such planning altogether, mistakenly believing that this will be a safer life.

Comrade Malenkov talked about a lean approach to spending resources. At the initiative of the youth of the Comrade Stalin automobile plant, about 3 thousand tons of metal were saved here in the first half of the year due to various measures. It is not hard to imagine what a huge amount of metal can be saved throughout the country if it is spent more carefully. Overestimation of metal consumption, poor cutting, huge tolerances ‐ all this is common in many factories. We must declare a decisive struggle against wastefulness, mismanagement, persistently implement the slogan of a regime of economy.

The Party, Comrade Stalin, constantly teach us not to put up with shortcomings. If a Komsomol member sees a flaw, he is obliged to seek its elimination. If the Komsomol organization knows that, for example, there are omissions in the work of the collective farm, the Charter of the agricultural artel is being violated ‐ there are, unfortunately, many such facts ‐ it must seek to eliminate the shortcomings. Komsomol members not only can but are also obliged to signal shortcomings to the Party and Soviet bodies. Indifference, a passive attitude towards shortcomings should not be characteristic of a member of the Leninist Komsomol.

The new situation presents us with the task of further raising the level of internal Komsomol work and improving the leadership of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. Criticism of shortcomings in the work with personnel, given in the report of Comrade. Malenkov is directly related to the Komsomol. Some Komsomol leaders are embarking on the unworthy path of deception, deception, and gloss over shortcomings. Let these facts be isolated, but we cannot tolerate them.

In the Novosibirsk, Ryazan Komsomol organizations of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, facts were revealed when some Komsomol leaders did not contribute to the development of criticism and self‐criticism, took the path of clamping down on criticism. We must expel the bearers of such anti‐Party morals from Komsomol work. The Komsomol must develop and encourage criticism and self‐criticism in every possible way, especially criticism from below. This is the only way to strengthen each primary Komsomol organization, to raise the activity of the Komsomol members.

Comrades! The basis for the success of the Komsomol is the leadership of the Lenin‐Stalin party. Just as a living being cannot live without light and air, so the Komsomol cannot live without the leadership of the Communist Party of Lenin and Stalin. The governing party organs render enormous assistance to the Komsomol on a daily basis. But we sometimes meet such district committees, city committees, regional party committees who forget about their duty to lead the day‐to‐day communist education of the young generation. There are facts when the leadership of the Komsomol organization is carried out not by the bureau of the regional party committee, its first secretary, but by one of the secretaries, in the order of the so‐called patronage. What this leads to can be seen in the example of the Irkutsk Regional Party Committee. Taking advantage of the lack of control, the Irkutsk regional committee of the Komsomol violated the Bolshevik principles of personnel selection. At times random people got to the Komsomol work. Criticism and self‐criticism were in the corral. Instead of decisively revealing these shortcomings, the bureau of the regional party committee smoothed out the sharp corners and displayed liberalism. The Central Committee of the Komsomol and the regional committee of the party managed to correct the shortcomings only with the help of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b).

The Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and Comrade Stalin direct the work of the Komsomol on a daily basis and render it enormous, invaluable assistance. Nowhere is there such a concern for young people as we do in the Soviet country. The Komsomol, all Soviet youth warmly thank the Communist Party, Comrade Stalin for this concern, for the happiness and joy of our life.

(Applause.)

The Central Committee of the Party is concerned with all aspects of life, work, and education of Soviet youth. By the 18th Party Congress, the Komsomol had 8 million people. Now the Komsomol unites about 16 million Komsomol members. During the reporting period, over 4 million members of the Komsomol joined the ranks of the Communist Party from the Komsomol. The pioneer organization named after V.I. Lenin.

By the 18th Party Congress, the pioneer organization numbered about 11 million pioneers. Now, about 19 million young pioneers are united in the pioneer squads.

The Komsomol arrived at the 19th Congress of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) with a strong army, as never before rallied around the Central Committee of the Party, the great leader and teacher, Comrade Stalin. (Prolonged applause.)

Comrades! For the entire army of young builders of communism, there is nothing higher than to fight under the invincible banner of Lenin, under the leadership of Comrade Stalin for the triumph of communism, for the great cause of Lenin‐Stalin. (Applause.)

Let me assure our leader, the Communist Party, let me assure the congress, Comrade Stalin, that the Komsomol members and young people are ready to fight for communism and will always follow their native Communist Party, Comrade Stalin. (Prolonged applause.)

No threats and adventures of the imperialist aggressors can hinder the great cause of building communism in our country. Any attempts of the enemy will be thwarted and smashed to smithereens. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, Comrade Stalin, the Soviet people and their youth have mastered the Stalinist science of winning well. Let the reactionaries from the United States remember this.

The sun of communism shines over our fatherland. The youth of the Soviet country feels inexhaustible energy in themselves, is full of creative joy and enthusiasm, faith in the triumph of communism, and the great party of Lenin and Stalin inspires and leads us to fight.

Soviet, Stalinist youth is burning with the desire to devote all their strength, mind, will to the service of the Motherland, the Communist Party, the cause of communism ‐ the great cause of Lenin and Stalin.

Under the banner of Lenin, under the leadership of Comrade Stalin ‐ forward to communism!

Long live our great leader and teacher, dear and beloved Comrade Stalin! (Stormy, prolonged applause.)