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

8 October, (Evening meeting)

Presiding A.. Niyazov.

The meeting continued to discuss the report of Comrade. M.Z. Saburov.

At the end of the meeting, the congress was greeted by representatives of foreign communist and workersʹ parties.

PC. Ponomarenko, (Moscow)

Comrades! (...)

During this period, the Soviet people won a great victory over Nazi Germany and imperialist Japan, defended the honor, freedom and independence of our Motherland, liberated the peoples of Europe enslaved by fascism, saved world civilization from the fascist thugs, liberated the German people from Hitlerʹs tyranny.

The years of post‐war socialist construction represent one of the brightest pages of the selfless struggle of the Soviet people for the victory of communism. These years were marked by a new powerful upsurge in all branches of the national economy, a steady increase in the material well‐being and culture of our people. This time is characterized by the persistent struggle of the Soviet Union for the preservation and consolidation of world peace, for freedom, national independence and the security of all peoples.

During the war and in the post‐war period, our party grew, hardened and further strengthened its ties with the people, enriched with experience in all areas of communist construction.

The successes achieved personify the victory of the general line of our party, dedication, unshakable loyalty and solidarity of the Soviet people around the party, the Central Committee, around our great leader and teacher, Comrade Stalin. (Prolonged applause.)

The ambitious tasks and prospects put forward in the reporting report of the Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the draft directives of the 19th Party Congress on the new five‐year plan clearly express the concern of the Communist Party for a powerful new rise in the national economy and further growth in the material well‐being and cultural level of the Soviet people.

In the camp of imperialism in the past years, the process of further exacerbation of internal and external contradictions, the deepening of the crisis and the weakening of the capitalist system, the subordination of all politics and the economy to the criminal goals of preparing for a new war and a ruthless attack on the vital interests of the working people continued.

These were the years of further absolute and relative impoverishment of the working class in the capitalist countries, the decline of agriculture, landlessness and ruin of huge masses of the working peasantry. Millions of small and smallest peasant farms with their backward, often medieval, technology, vegetating on plots of land depleted due to lack and lack of fertilizers, under the weight of an unbearable burden of taxes, under the blows of capitalist competition, were ruined and disappeared from the face of the earth. For example, in Turkey, which the bosses of the United States, contrary to reason, present as an example of a ʺfreeʺ country, five million peasants are really free even from plots of land and, as the Turkish newspaper Aksham writes, roam the country in search of work and go hungry, and of the peasant families with plots of land, only one in one hundred and fifty families has a plow. On the other hand, the landowners and capitalists of Turkey own two‐thirds of the land, a huge part of which is not cultivated and is empty.

In the United States, hundreds of thousands of farmers are going bankrupt and swelling the ranks of nomadic farm workers without a corner. From 1945 to 1950 alone, 713 thousand farms went bankrupt and ʺdisappearedʺ.

While millions of peasant farms are suffering severely from landlessness, two‐thirds of the land suitable for cultivation belonging to the large agrarians in capitalist countries is not cultivated and is empty.

The defenders of capitalism are unable to hide the poverty, hunger and lack of rights of the workers and working peasants in capitalist countries, colonies and semi‐colonies by any tricks. As many bourgeois scholars admit, more than three quarters of the worldʹs population lives in want and deprivation.

Having concentrated in their hands the land wealth and the bulk of marketable grain, the capitalists and landowners, in pursuit of superprofits, doom the broad masses of working people to exhaustion and starvation. These are the inevitable fruits of the dominion of capitalism.

The ideologists of the imperialist bourgeoisie, by means of falsified calculations, are trying to prove that, due to the allegedly ʺdiminishingʺ soil fertility, at any level of technology, it is impossible to feed the growing population. ʺThe most threatening force in the world right now is the unrestrained birth rate,ʺ scream American geopolitics and reactionary philosophers, and call for a reduction in the worldʹs population by at least half. To achieve this goal, the learned lackeys of the imperialists are developing methods, as they put it, ʺthe mass scientifically organized murder of people.ʺ The seal of the United States of America is filled with such cannibalistic nonsense. These monsters, in their most obvious and disgusting form, reflect the misanthropic plans for the extermination of millions of people, hatched by the American warmongers.

The imperialist robbers speak with undisguised cynicism about the aims of the aggressive war they are preparing. One of the prominent foreign diplomats and intelligence officers wrote a book in which he says that he welcomes a future war, because, in his opinion, as a result of this war, the United States will be able to ʺput the globe in a bag and live in luxury at the expense of the loot.ʺ

Reading such statements, one cannot but recall the Eastern proverb about the robber, who, as this proverb says, was fierce and gluttonous, but poor in reason.

The invincible and ever‐growing might of the Soviet Union and its will for peace stand in the way of realizing the aggressive designs of the American imperialists. The robber plans of the imperialists are opposed by the unyielding will of the peoples who are waging a stubborn struggle for world peace. All hopes, aspirations and gazes of progressive mankind are directed to the Soviet Union as a herald of a new life and an example for the working people of all countries.

The peoples of our country, led by the party of Lenin ‐ Stalin, got rid of the shackles of capitalism, built socialism, the basic law of which, as Comrade Stalin teaches, is to ensure maximum satisfaction of the constantly growing material and cultural needs of the entire society through the continuous growth and improvement of socialist production on the basis of higher technology ...

One of the greatest achievements of the Soviet system was the socialist reconstruction of the Soviet countryside. The transition to the collective farm system made it possible in the shortest possible time to eliminate the age‐old backwardness of agriculture in our country, to forever rid the working peasants of the landlord‐kulak bondage and hopeless existence.

ʺIn the history of mankind,ʺ says Comrade Stalin, ʺpower, the power of the Soviets, appeared for the first time in the world, which has proved in practice its readiness and its ability to provide the working masses of the peasantry with systematic and long‐term industrial assistance.ʺ

The Party and the Soviet state created all the conditions for the successful development of socialist agriculture and supplied it with powerful modern technology. This ensured the unprecedented development of all branches of socialist agriculture, the unprecedented flourishing of collective farms, the material and cultural upsurge in the Soviet countryside.

The greatest success of socialist agriculture is the systematic growth of the gross grain production, which in 1952 reached eight billion poods. The grain problem, as noted in the reporting report of the Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which was previously considered the most acute and serious problem, has been successfully resolved, finally and irrevocably resolved. As can be seen from the report of Comrade Malenkov, the gross harvests of other agricultural crops also increased, as well as the number of livestock in the country increased significantly, and collective farm animal husbandry, along with state farm, became predominant.

Life has irrefutably proved the progressive strength and advantages of the socialist mode of production in agriculture.

Socialist agriculture is now a strong and stable base for a continuously improving food supply to the population of our country, a reliable raw material base for our growing industry, a source of state food and material reserves that can provide the country from all accidents.

If we talk about grain production in the capitalist world, then from 1938 to 1940 alone, it fell by 2 billion poods. In the United States, wheat production fell 26 percent from 1947 to 1950. Consumption of bread per capita, according to the US Senate Commission, in 1950 compared with the pre‐war time fell by 19 percent. In recent years, not only the consumption of bread has decreased in the United States. According to the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the United States, the production and consumption of butter in 1951 compared with the prewar year fell by 41 percent, lamb ‐ 56 percent, veal ‐ 14 percent, etc. Princeton University President Harold Dodds had every reason to say that ʺthe guns have removed meat and butter from the table of the American worker.ʺ

The successes of all branches of agriculture in our country have led to a significant quantitative and qualitative growth in the procurement of agricultural products and raw materials. The new policy of procurement of agricultural products adopted by the Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the Government in 1940 was of paramount importance for the development of agriculture; This system of procurement created the interest of collective farms and collective farmers in the development of social field cultivation and animal husbandry and provided a solid and stable base for procurement.

This procurement policy has proven itself brilliantly over the twelve years of its implementation. Procurements for almost all types of agricultural products and raw materials are significantly increased every year. The grain procurement plans have been overfulfilled for many years. In 1952, the fulfillment of the state grain procurement plan is also going well. Many regions, territories and republics have already fulfilled and exceeded the grain procurement plan. In the near future, all regions, territories and republics should complete the implementation of the grain procurement plan.

It should be noted that the Ukrainian SSR, Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Rostov and Crimean Regions, having exceeded the grain procurement plan of this year, handed over more grain than in 1940. And, what is especially important, on the basis of the growth in wheat production, they significantly increased the procurement of this crop.

The production and procurement of wheat increased in many regions in the east, in the center and in the republics of the Caucasus. The production and procurement of wheat in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia increased significantly. This made it possible to significantly reduce the import of wheat to these republics from distant regions.

Comrade Malenkov pointed out in his report that the gross yield of the most valuable food crop, wheat, increased in 1952 in comparison with 1940 by 48 percent. In view of this, the share of wheat in the procurement of 1952 increased significantly and is 61 percent against 43 percent in 1940. This makes it possible to satisfy the significantly increased demand of the working people for higher grades of grain products. The production and consumption of wheat flour of the highest grade this year, compared with 1940, increased by 69 percent and the first grade ‐ by 29 percent.

The Council of Ministers and the Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in its resolutions on a three‐year plan for the development of animal husbandry and on the procurement of livestock products in 1949 stated, “... that the interests of raising the countryʹs entire national economy and further improving the wellbeing of the people urgently require meat, lard, milk, butter, eggs, leather, wool and other animal products was increased by at least one and a half to two times. ʺ

Party, Soviet, procurement organizations have basically achieved this task. In 1951, in comparison with 1948, 1.4 times more milk was procured, more than 1.5 times more meat, wool and leather, and more than 2 times more eggs, which also significantly exceeds the 1940 level.

In 1951, the harvesting of cotton and sugar beet increased significantly in comparison with 1940. In 1951, the procurement of tea leaves ‐ by 83 percent, grapes ‐ by 34 percent, fruits ‐ by 42 percent, silk cocoons ‐ by 28 percent, karakul ‐ by 18 percent, furs ‐ by 51 percent also increased in comparison with 1940. , fur raw materials ‐ 4 times. There was a significant increase in the procurement of these types of products in 1952.

During these years, the growth of incomes in kind and money of collective farms and collective farmers continued, the amount of grain in the seed, insurance and other funds of collective farms increased, as well as grain given out for workdays to collective farmers. This is evidenced, for example, by the fact that in 1951 the milling of grain by collective farmers and collective farms in mills for their own needs amounted to 170 percent compared to 1947, and the amount of grain sold by collective farmers and collective farms in the city collective farm markets in 1951 increased compared to 1947, more than doubled.

In the practice of Soviet procurement, a certain development has taken place in the ʺstockingʺ of billets or, as Comrade Stalin points out, the rudiments of product exchange. When procured, many goods are sold at preferential prices, as a result of which the collective farms and collective farmers only in 1952 receive a net gain of several billion rubles. Comrade Stalin set the task of organizing these rudiments of product exchange in all branches of agriculture and developing them into a wide system of product exchange so that the collective farms receive for their products not only money, but mainly the necessary products.

Comrade Stalin, with ingenious perspicacity, determined what tremendous importance in building a communist society the development of the rudiments of product exchange into a broad system of product exchange, which would be ʺa real and decisive means for raising collective farm property to the level of public property under our present conditionsʺ

The successes of our agriculture are great. They make all Soviet people happy. These successes testify with irrefutable force to the decisive advantages of socialist agriculture over the agriculture of the capitalist countries. The new five‐year plan opens up even more grandiose prospects for the development of our agriculture.

It is necessary to dwell on some of the shortcomings in the procurement business, as well as in the agricultural production of some areas.

A major drawback is that in some regions and districts not enough attention is paid to the production and procurement of crops such as flax, sunflower, tobacco and makhorka. The Kalinin, Smolensk, Pskov, Kirov, Novgorod, Velikie Luki and Vologda regions, as well as the

Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs in the production and procurement of flax occupy three quarters of the total volume. In recent years, these regions and republics have not fulfilled the plans for the procurement of flax products. Despite the increased interest of collective farms and collective farmers in connection with the measures taken by the Government to encourage flax growing, the party, Soviet, procurement, agricultural bodies of these regions and republics have not yet taken sufficient measures to improve the business of flax growing and continue to lag significantly behind in harvesting a good harvest of flax this year and in blanks of flax products.

The main suppliers of sunflower ‐ Ukraine, Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Rostov and Stalingrad regions, which occupy 70 percent of the production and harvesting of sunflower, have weakened attention to it and unsatisfactorily fulfill the plan of harvesting. It should also be said that in recent years, the sown area of sunflower in the east has significantly expanded. However, the Ministry of Agriculture and local agricultural authorities do not show due concern for the development of new varieties of seeds and the introduction of agricultural techniques appropriate to local conditions. Therefore, sunflower yields in the east are very low. It is not clear why this issue fell out of sight of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR and the Ministry of Agriculture of the RSFSR.

The Ukrainian SSR is the main supplier of makhorka. However, Ukrainian organizations have weakened their attention to the production and procurement of makhorka. If in 1940 in Ukraine 25 centners were harvested per hectare of crops, then in 1951 only 8 centners per hectare were harvested, which is, of course, the result of the lack of attention of local authorities to this matter.

The implementation of the new five‐year plan must be accompanied by a steady reduction in all unproductive expenditures, the elimination of excesses, and the observance of a strict economy. Procurement and sales organizations of the Ministries of Procurement, Trade, Meat and Dairy Industry, Food Industry, Cotton Growing and the Tsentrosoyuz allow extremely high costs for procurement, storage and marketing of products. These costs should be drastically reduced. In 1952, some measures were already taken to streamline procurement organizations, eliminate excesses in procurement costs, and also somewhat reduce the number of procurement apparatus. Procurement and marketing expenses in the above ministries have been cut by 4.7 billion rubles a year. 174 thousand people were released to work in other sectors of the national economy.

The task is to further streamline the procurement business, eliminate bloated staffs, improve the storage of products in every possible way and eliminate their losses, prevent a decrease in quality during storage and transportation of products; reduction of long‐distance and irrational transportation; increasing the turnover and safety of containers; development of transportations from stockpiles directly to selling organizations, bypassing intermediate bases; introduction of packaging of food products, etc.

An important means of reducing overhead costs is to reduce the range of transportation of agricultural products. It cannot be considered normal, for example, that over the course of a number of years the distance of potato transportation has been continuously increasing. If in 1940 it was 444 km, then in 1950 it increased to 600 km and in 1951 ‐ to 717 km. This causes a sharp rise in prices, increased losses and reduced potato quality. It is necessary to put an end to such non‐state practice by strengthening the production and procurement of potatoes and vegetables near the major centers of the country.

In order to reduce transport costs, it is necessary to sharply increase the water transport of agricultural products, since they are much cheaper than rail. It cannot be considered normal that the transportation of the most important agricultural goods and raw materials by waterways has not increased in comparison with 1940 and amounts to no more than 10 percent of all transportation.

A sharp reduction in overhead costs should give serious economic results and lead to an improvement in the work of procurement, sales and trade organizations.

The tasks set out in the draft directives of the 19th Party Congress on the fifth five‐year plan for the development of the USSR and in the report of Comrade Saburov envisage a further mighty rise in all branches of the national economy, an increase in the material wellbeing, health care and cultural level of our people.

The tasks set by the five‐year plan make great demands on all organizations, party, Soviet and economic workers, require the utmost mobilization of forces, the development of sharp criticism of shortcomings and their decisive elimination, the full use of the colossal opportunities and advantages that the Soviet economic system conceals, for further movement forward.

Comrades! The Soviet people are proud of the glorious path traversed under the leadership of the Communist Party, under the leadership of Comrade Stalin. All the successes of our people, the Soviet state are inextricably linked with the name of the great Stalin, achieved under his brilliant leadership. Comrade Stalinʹs great energy and attention to large and small matters, his brilliant ability to find the main tasks for the Party and the people at every stage of the development of our country ensured the historic victories of communist construction.

Comrade Stalinʹs new, invaluable contribution to the cause of communist construction, to the theory of Marxism‐Leninism, is his work on the economic problems of socialism in the USSR. These works show the Party and all Soviet people the path to the complete victory of communism and inspire them to heroic work in building a communist society.

The love of our Party and people for Comrade Stalin is boundless and great. Long live the great leader and teacher, our dear and beloved Comrade Stalin, for the joy and happiness of all working people!

(Prolonged applause.)