Marx-Engels | Lenin | Stalin | Home Page
XIX Congress of the CPSU (b) - (October 5-14, 1952). Documents and Materials8 October, (Morning session)
Presiding V.M. Andrianov.
The meeting unanimously approved the Report of the Central Auditing
Commission of the CPSU (b).
The Congress hears a report by Comrade M.Z. Saburov ʺDirectives of the XIX Party Congress on the fifth five‐year plan for the development of the USSR for 1951 ‐ 1955ʺ and proceeds to discuss it.
At the end of the meeting, representatives of foreign communist parties spoke.
Organizational matters
The chairperson gives the floor for a proposal on the report of the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU (b) comrade. Aristov. He makes the following proposal: to approve the report of the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU (b). The proposal was adopted unanimously.
The congress proceeds to discuss the third item on the agenda: ʺDirectives of the XIX Party Congress on the fifth five‐year plan for the development of the USSR for 1951‐1955.ʺ The floor is given to the Chairman of the USSR State Planning Committee, Comrade M.Z. Saburov.
M.Z. Saburov
Chairman of the State Planning Committee of the USSR
Directives of the 19th Party Congress on the fifth five‐year plan for the development of the USSR for 1951 ‐ 1955
Comrades!
Directives on the fifth five‐year plan for the development of the USSR for 1951‐1955 are being submitted for your consideration. The new fiveyear plan will continue the line of the previous five‐year plans for the peaceful development of the Soviet economy, the systematic growth of the socialist economy and the peopleʹs well‐being, and its implementation will be an important stage for our country on the path of a gradual transition from socialism to communism.
Our country has achieved major successes in the field of economic and cultural development on the basis of the implementation of the fourth five‐year plan. The main tasks of the five‐year plan for the restoration and development of the national economy of the USSR for 1946‐1950. consisted in restoring the war‐torn regions of the country, restoring the pre‐war level of industry and agriculture, and then surpassing this level on a significant scale. As is known from the report on the results of the implementation of the fourth five‐year plan, published in due time, this plan has been successfully fulfilled, and the most important tasks of the plan have been significantly exceeded.
As a result of the fulfillment of the fourth five‐year plan, the pre‐war level of development of the national economy of the USSR was left far behind. In terms of industrial production, the five‐year plan was fulfilled ahead of schedule ‐ in 4 years and 3 months, as a result of which the volume of production of all industry in 1950 was 73 percent higher than before the war. Due to the high rates of industrial development, on a significant scale, further technical armament of the national economy has been carried out and all its branches have been replenished with the latest domestic technology.
In the field of agriculture, the pre‐war level has been significantly surpassed in terms of productivity and gross crop yield, as well as livestock production.
In accordance with the growth of the main branches of the national economy, all types of transport were developed, and the pre‐war level of freight turnover was significantly exceeded.
The upsurge in the national economy has increased the well‐being of the working people, and the pre‐war level of national consumption has been significantly surpassed. The national income of the USSR in 1950 increased as compared with 1940 by 64 percent. The production of consumer goods was seriously expanded, a monetary reform was carried out, the rationing system for all food and industrial goods was canceled, trade was widely developed, retail prices were repeatedly reduced, and the Soviet ruble was further strengthened. The total income of workers and employees and the income of peasants in 1950 increased by 62 percent over 1940.
Five‐year plan for the restoration and development of the national economy of the USSR for 1946‐1950. fulfilled at the expense of internal resources, without any outside help, without foreign loans. The selfless labor of the Soviet people, led by the Communist Party under the leadership of the great Stalin, played a decisive role in fulfilling and overfulfilling the plan. (Applause.) The successful fulfillment of the fourth five‐year plan led to the further consolidation of the socialist system and was a major new victory for the USSR, which ensured the further growth of the power of the socialist state.
Successful fulfillment of the fourth five‐year plan makes it possible to adopt the fifth five‐year plan, which ensures the further development of all branches of the national economy, the growth of the material wellbeing of the working people, the development of health care and the raising of the cultural level of the people.
The most important tasks of the directives for the fifth five‐year plan are characterized by the following indicators.
I. Tasks of the fifth five‐year plan in the field of industry
The directives for the fifth five‐year plan envisage an increase in the level of industrial production in 1955 by about 70 percent compared to 1950. This means that by the end of the fifth five‐year plan gross industrial output will be three times higher than the pre‐war level. The average annual growth rate of the entire gross industrial product for the five‐year period is determined at about 12 percent, including the growth rate of the production of means of production ‐ 13 percent and the production of consumer goods ‐ 11 percent. In the past five‐year period, the growth rates of gross industrial output were higher. The somewhat lower growth rates of industrial production in the fifth fiveyear plan compared to the last five‐year plan are explained, on the one hand, by the end of industrial restoration work, when a rapid increase in production was achieved at the expense of the restored enterprises, and, on the other, by the need for a further significant improvement in quality in the new five‐year plan. and expanding the range of products. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that each percentage increase in gross output in the new five‐year plan corresponds to almost twice as much output as in the previous five‐year plan.
Metallurgy is the basis for the growth of industry and the entire national economy. The directives on the five‐year plan set an increase in 1955 over 1950 in pig iron smelting by about 76 percent, steel by 62 percent and rolled products by 64 percent. The projected increase in the production of rolled products over a five‐year period exceeds its entire output in 1940.To better meet the needs of construction and mechanical engineering, the production of scarce types of rolled products ‐ heavyplate steel, light‐section steel, wire rod and stainless sheet steel ‐ should be increased, as well as the production of economical types should be developed. and rolled profiles, increased production and improved quality of special steels and alloys.
The most important condition for this growth in the production of ferrous metals is the further improvement of the utilization of the existing capacities of metallurgical enterprises. To this end, it is planned to carry out work to further accelerate metallurgical processes, automate control over these processes and mechanize labor‐intensive work at metallurgical enterprises.
A large program should be carried out for the construction of new and expansion of the existing enterprises of ferrous metallurgy. In the fifth five‐year plan, compared with the fourth five‐year plan, the commissioning of production capacities should increase by about 32 percent in pig iron smelting, by 42 percent in steel production, at least twice as much in the production of rolled products, coke by 80 percent as in ore ‐ three times. Along with the further development of ferrous metallurgy in the regions of the South, the Urals, Siberia, the Center and the North‐West, the development of the metallurgical industry in the regions of the Transcaucasus must be ensured.
It is necessary to significantly expand the production of non‐ferrous metals. Over the five years, the production of refined copper will be increased by approximately 90 percent, lead ‐ 2.7 times, aluminum ‐ at least 2.6 times, zinc ‐ 2.5 times, nickel ‐ 53 percent and tin ‐ by 80 percent.
The growth in the production of non‐ferrous metals will be accompanied by further improvement and introduction of new technological processes that will ensure an increase in the production of high‐grade metals. In accordance with the tasks for the production of non‐ferrous metals, the raw material base of non‐ferrous metallurgy should be developed with all‐round mechanization of mining and labor‐intensive work, and the work of metallurgical enterprises in the use of ore raw materials should be significantly improved.
Further electrification of the country is the most important condition for achieving the planned rates of growth in production and technical progress in all sectors of the national economy. Electricity generation in 1955 will increase by about 80 percent compared to 1950. This allows: to increase the level of electrification of industry with the widespread development of automation of production processes and the further introduction of new methods of electric heating and electrolysis, to significantly expand the use of electricity in agriculture, to carry out further electrification of railways and to increase the supply of electricity for household needs of the population.
To ensure the planned growth in electricity generation, as well as to increase the reserve of electrical capacities in energy systems, high rates of increase in the capacities of power plants are planned. The total capacity of power plants will approximately double over the next five years, and hydroelectric power plants ‐ three times. At the same time, the increase in the capacity of thermal power plants should first of all be ensured by expanding the existing plants.
In the fifth five‐year period, by decisions of the Government, extensive construction of hydroelectric power plants and thermal power plants on local fuel sources is being carried out.
Of the hydroelectric power plants under construction, it is necessary to name, first of all, the Kuibyshev and Stalingrad hydroelectric power plants on the Volga, as well as the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant on the Dnieper. The Kuibyshevskaya HPP with a capacity of 2.1 million kilowatts is to be commissioned in 1955, which will seriously increase the power supply of the central regions and the Volga region. The construction of a 400,000‐volt power transmission line from the Kuibyshevskaya hydroelectric power station to Moscow is envisaged. The world practice of electrical construction does not yet know such structures. Along with the Kuibyshev hydroelectric power station, such large hydroelectric power plants as Kamskaya, Gorkovskaya, Mingechaurskaya, Ust‐Kamenogorskaya and others should also be built in the fifth five‐year period, the capacity of which, introduced in this five‐year period, will be about 2 million kilowatts. In addition, other district and local hydroelectric power plants will be built. The construction of the Stalingrad and Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plants is being widely developed, and the construction of new large hydroelectric power plants will also begin Cheboksary on the Volga, Votkinskaya on the Kama, Bukhtarminskaya on the Irtysh and a number of others. Work should begin on the integrated use of the energy resources of the Angara River for the development of aluminum, chemical, mining and other industries on the basis of cheap electricity and local sources of raw materials.
In order to significantly improve the power supply to the South, Urals and Kuzbass, a significant increase in the capacity of district heating and factory power plants in these areas is envisaged. Along with the construction of large power plants, the construction of small and medium‐sized power plants should be carried out in order to improve the power supply of cities and regions, and for a wide district heating of cities and industrial enterprises, it is necessary to continue the construction of combined heat and power plants.
Large thermal power plants will generally have high pressure boilers and turbines. The automation of production processes at power plants will be widely used.
The directives for the fifth five‐year plan outline the further significant development of the oil industry. Oil production over the next five years will increase by about 85 percent. To ensure this growth in oil production, it is necessary to intensify drilling operations, widely introduce new methods of drilling wells, apply large‐scale methods of maintaining pressure in oil reservoirs, and complete the automation of oil production processes. The implementation of a large oil production program will require the accelerated development of the oil refining industry, bringing it as close as possible to the regions where oil products are consumed. Over the five‐year period, the capacities of oil refineries will increase for primary oil refining, approximately twice, and for the cracking of raw materials ‐ 2.7 times. At the same time, new methods of deep oil refining should be mastered and introduced, which would provide a significant increase in the yield of light oil products. The transportation of oil and oil products through pipelines should be greatly developed. For the development of the production of artificial liquid fuel, powerful enterprises must be put into operation in the eastern regions of the country.
In the fifth five‐year period, further extensive development of the gas industry is ensured. The production of natural and associated petroleum gas, as well as the production of gas from coal and shale, will increase by about 80 percent over the next five years. The use of gas for domestic needs is expanding, its use as a vehicle fuel and the production of chemical products from gas.
The coal industry, thanks to the large and comprehensive assistance of the Party and the Soviet Government, has grown significantly in the postwar years and, as is known, fully meets the needs of the national economy. In the new five‐year period, it is planned to increase coal production by about 43 percent. The most important task of the coal industry is to ensure a faster growth in the production of coking coal, as well as a significant increase in coal beneficiation. The production of coal for coking will increase by at least 50 percent and the concentration of coal by about 2.7 times. It is planned to put into operation the capacity of coal mines, approximately 30 percent more than was introduced in the fourth five‐year plan. In order to ensure the planned growth in coal mining, increase productivity and facilitate labor of workers in the coal industry, further improvement of methods for the development of coal deposits, the development of mechanization of the most labor‐intensive coal mining processes ‐ the loading of coal in longwalls, loading of coal and rock during development workings ‐ and widespread introduction the latest machines and mechanisms to expand the mechanization of coal mining.
The peat and shale industries will be further developed. The extraction of peat in the five‐year period will increase by 27 per cent and of shale by 2.3 times, especially in the Estonian SSR.
Mechanical engineering plays an important role in ensuring high rates of development of the national economy and further technical reequipment of industry, transport and agriculture. In accordance with this, further rapid growth of machine building is envisaged in the fifth five‐year period. Over the five‐year period, the production of machine building and metalworking will approximately double. A particularly important task of mechanical engineering is the complete provision of equipment for power plants, enterprises of ferrous and non‐ferrous metallurgy, oil refineries and the production of artificial liquid fuel. The volume of production of the most important types of equipment is planned to increase in five years compared to the fourth five years in the following sizes: steam and hydraulic turbines, approximately 4.3 times, rolling equipment ‐ 2.8 times, oil equipment ‐ 5.2 times.
There is also a significant increase in the production of chemical equipment, material handling equipment, and especially metallurgical cranes and electric overhead traveling cranes of heavy lifting capacity; component equipment for the production of building materials; automatic equipment for light and food industries and especially for weaving looms; new types of agricultural machinery and equipment for the logging, pulp and paper and wood processing industries.
The production of mainline steam locomotives, diesel locomotives, electric locomotives and wagons is established in accordance with the needs of railway transport.
The production of tractors and cars will be increased, in particular, diesel heavy‐duty vehicles, as well as gas‐fired vehicles.
A significant development of shipbuilding for the merchant marine fleet, for the passenger river fleet, as well as for the fishing fleet is envisaged.
Machine‐tool building and precision machine‐building should receive serious further development, the level of development of which, first of all, depends on the provision of the national economy with technically advanced equipment.
During the years of the fifth five‐year plan, the industry will be supplied with significantly more high‐performance metal‐cutting machines and forging‐and‐pressing machines than during the years of the previous five‐year plan, in particular, large and unique machines, approximately 3.6 times, high‐precision (precision) machine tools ‐ 4 times. This will make it possible to dramatically increase the proportion of progressive types of machine tools, to ensure a further increase in the technical level of mechanical engineering and to guarantee the production of technically advanced machines and equipment in quantities that meet the needs of the national economy of the USSR and democratic countries friendly to us.
In the conditions of modern large‐scale machine production, instrumentation is becoming increasingly important. The production of devices is a necessary and important addition to the production of complex machines, the control of which, as well as modern technological processes in general, is impossible without a system of devices. The growth in the production of instruments also reflects the development of production automation, one of the most important branches of technical progress. The directives provide for an increase in the production of control and monitoring devices by about 2.7 times over the five years.
Significant development of all branches of mechanical engineering will make it possible, during the fifth five‐year plan, to complete mainly the mechanization of heavy and labor‐intensive work in industry and construction, which will be an outstanding achievement in the field of further technical equipment of the national economy, increasing productivity and lightening the labor of workers.
In the chemical industry, the highest growth rates should be achieved in the production of soda, synthetic rubber and mineral fertilizers. The production of soda ash is increasing in comparison with 1950 by about 84 percent, caustic soda ‐ by 79 percent, synthetic rubber ‐ by 82 percent and mineral fertilizers ‐ by 88 percent. It is necessary to significantly increase the capacities for the production of ammonia, sulfuric acid, synthetic rubber, synthetic alcohol, soda, mineral fertilizers, chemical agents for controlling pests of agricultural plants and for the production of granular fertilizers that provide a large increase in crop yields. It is also necessary to increase the production of plastics, dyes, raw materials for artificial silk, expand the range of chemical products and develop the production of synthetic materials ‐ substitutes for nonferrous metals.
The timber industry is still lagging behind the growing needs of the national economy. The challenge is to close this gap. During the fiveyear period, the export of industrial timber should be increased by about 56 percent and the production of sawn timber by 50 percent. At the same time, it is necessary to relocate logging on a large scale to multi‐wooded areas, especially to the regions of the North, the Urals, Western Siberia, the Karelo‐Finnish SSR, and to reduce logging in sparsely wooded areas of the country. It is necessary to reduce the seasonality of logging, to carry out reconstruction and construction of new mechanized timber industry enterprises in the logging areas, and to provide them with a permanent cadre of workers. At the same time, it is necessary to further develop the comprehensive mechanization of logging operations, improve the organization of production, the use of mechanisms, and increase labor productivity in logging. To increase the production of sawn timber, the commissioning of the capacities of sawmills in the regions of the development of timber harvesting should be increased in comparison with the fourth five‐year period by about eight times.
The paper, cellulose, furniture, plywood, wood‐chemical and hydrolysis industries should be fully developed.
The building materials industry is facing great challenges. The implementation of the planned capital construction program requires at least doubling the production of basic building materials over the next five years, improving their quality and expanding the range. It is necessary to increase the production of cement by about 2.2 times, wall materials by 2.3 times, slate by 2.6 times, soft roofing by 70 percent, and tiles by 3 times. Along with this, the production of new high‐quality and progressive finishing and facing building materials, parts and structures of factory production from ceramics, gypsum, concrete and reinforced concrete should be significantly increased, which is necessary for the further industrialization of construction and reducing its cost.
On the basis of the development of heavy industry and agriculture in the fifth five‐year period, high rates of growth in the production of consumer goods must be ensured. The resources of agricultural raw materials make it possible to increase the output of the light and food industries by at least 70 percent over the five‐year period. At the same time, the production of cotton fabrics in 1955 will increase in comparison with 1950 by about 61 percent, woolen fabrics ‐ by 54 percent, leather shoes ‐ by 55 percent, meat ‐ by 92 percent, fish catch ‐ by 58 percent. production of granulated sugar ‐ by 78 percent, animal oil ‐ by 72 percent, vegetable oil ‐ by 77 percent and canned food ‐ by
2.1 times.
The construction of a large number of enterprises in the light and food industries will be carried out: cotton factories, artificial fiber factories, silk, garment, knitwear, leather and footwear factories, sugar, oil mills, vegetable drying factories, confectionery, canning, brewing, wine, meat, fish, butter and cheese industry.
It is also necessary to significantly expand the production of consumer goods, household and household goods, and local building materials at local industrial enterprises and industrial cooperatives. The output of local industry enterprises and industrial cooperatives will increase by about 60 per cent over the five‐year period. To implement this program, local Councils must improve the management of local industry and trade cooperatives in order to make fuller use of local raw materials and waste from large state industries, expand the range of consumer goods in demand by the population, improve the quality of manufactured products, and ensure a decrease in their cost. to improve the work of workshops of local industry and trade cooperatives for servicing the household needs of the population.
The interests of the national economy require further expansion of the range and a serious improvement in the quality of products in all branches of industry. It is completely unacceptable for some enterprises to overfulfill the production growth plan to the detriment of a given quality and range of products. Improving product quality is a top priority for our industry. Improving product quality ensures a more economical use of material resources, reducing losses associated with the production of non‐standard products. Improving the quality and expanding the range of consumer goods is of particular importance. The Soviet consumer is legitimately placing ever‐increasing demands on the quality and range of products. Our industry must fully meet these growing needs of the population and prevent the production of goods that are not in demand by consumers.
To ensure high quality products, it is necessary to more widely implement state standards that meet modern requirements, as well as more effectively use the premium system and material and technical supply of enterprises in order to fulfill the plan for the range and range of products.
The most important condition for the fulfillment of the five‐year plan in the field of industrial production is the fullest utilization of production capacities on the basis of the introduction of advanced standards and the fastest elimination of bottlenecks at enterprises that prevent the full use of equipment. It should be noted that in the fourth five‐year period the targets for the use of production capacities in a number of industries were underestimated and in the course of fulfilling the plan they were significantly exceeded. This applies primarily to the ferrous metallurgy and chemical industries. In some branches of industry, there is still an underestimation of the capacity of enterprises; ministries, without opening up the reserves of capacities available at these enterprises, thereby restrict the development of production for a number of the most important types of products.
The ministriesʹ underestimation of production capacities and standards for the use of equipment is revealed not only during the operation of factories and plants, but also in the technical projects of enterprises under construction. There are many cases when an enterprise is still under construction, and its capacities indicated in the technical design already require an upward revision without any additional costs.
A large share of the responsibility for the understatement of production capacity falls on the planning authorities. The State Planning Committee of the USSR must improve its work on identifying reserves of capacities and loading them with state orders and wage a more resolute struggle against all kinds of departmental tendencies to understate production plans.
Our country has a powerful production apparatus, created during the years of the Stalinist five‐year plans, equipped with advanced technology, as well as numerous cadres of skilled workers and engineers and technical workers with rich experience. This creates great opportunities for a systematic increase in production through better use of existing production facilities. In the new five‐year plan, it is planned to obtain a significant amount of production from this. Thus, by improving the utilization of existing blast furnaces, about 30 percent of the total increase in pig iron smelting in 5 years should be obtained in 1955; better utilization of coal mines should generate about 25 percent of the total increase in coal production; due to the fuller use of cement plants, about 30 percent of the total increase in cement should be obtained. Improving capacity utilization in other industries is equally important.
Along with an improvement in the utilization of existing production capacities, a large program of capital construction in industry is outlined in the new five‐year plan.
In accordance with the plan for the growth of industrial production in the fifth five‐year period, it is envisaged to increase state capital investments in industry by approximately two times in comparison with the fourth five‐year plan. A particularly large increase in capital investments should be provided for the development of metallurgy, power plants, the oil industry, and also light industry enterprises. The capital construction plan should ensure not only a significant commissioning of new enterprises and units, but also an increase in the capacity of existing enterprises through the reconstruction of units, the installation of new equipment, the mechanization of production and the improvement of technological processes. The increase in production capacity due to the expansion of existing enterprises is in the new fiveyear plan the most important reserve for increasing production at the lowest cost. The capital construction plan should also provide for the creation of reserves in the construction of metallurgical enterprises, power plants, oil refineries, coal mines, mineral fertilizer plants in order to ensure the necessary development of these industries in the coming years.
In the new five‐year plan, the geographical location of the construction of industrial enterprises must be improved in order to bring industry further closer to the sources of raw materials and fuel. This will make it possible to eliminate irrational and excessively long‐distance transportation of goods by rail.
In order to meet the growing needs of the national economy in raw materials and fuel resources in the fifth five‐year period, further development of work on the exploration of natural resources in the subsoil is planned, the identification of mineral reserves, primarily nonferrous and rare metals, coking coal, aluminum raw materials, oil, rich iron ores and other types of industrial raw materials.
The most important condition for the successful implementation of the construction program in industry and other sectors of the national economy is the further development of the construction industry, the strengthening and expansion of existing organizations, as well as the creation of new construction organizations in areas of large‐scale construction.
The construction industry is now capable of solving incomparably larger and more complex tasks than in previous years. In the postwar years, such large construction organizations were created and significantly expanded as the Ministry of Construction of Heavy Industry Enterprises, which builds mainly ferrous and non‐ferrous metallurgy enterprises, the Ministry of Construction of Mechanical Engineering Enterprises, powerful organizations for the construction of power plants, oil industry enterprises, coal mines and open‐pit mines. , railways and highways, subways, high‐rise buildings and others. The Ministry of Construction of Heavy Industry Enterprises, organized on the basis of the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Construction, is currently carrying out twice as much, and together with the Ministry of Construction of Machine‐Building Enterprises, more than three times more volume of construction and installation work than the Peopleʹs Commissariat for Construction in 1940. power plants currently carry out more than five times more construction and installation work than they did in 1940.
Nevertheless, further serious strengthening of construction organizations is needed. The directives for the five‐year plan to strengthen, first of all, the construction organizations of the Ministry of Construction of Heavy Industry Enterprises, the Ministry of Power Plants and the Ministry of the Oil Industry, as well as the construction organizations of the Ministry of Construction of Mechanical Engineering Enterprises that are engaged in the construction of factories for energy and metallurgical equipment, oil equipment, large and unique machine‐tool construction, heavy press‐forging machines and hoisting‐and‐transport equipment.
It is necessary to ensure the widespread introduction of industrial construction methods, the all‐round expansion of factory production of building parts, structures, concrete, mortars and other semi‐finished products. In this regard, it is planned to increase the capacity of factories for the production of metal structures at least twice, to build the required number of factories for the production of precast reinforced concrete structures, to expand existing and organize new regional quarries with comprehensive mechanization of the extraction and processing of stone, crushed stone, gravel and sand. as well as piece stone from natural rocks.
The main construction work must be mechanized and the transition from the mechanization of individual processes to the comprehensive mechanization of construction must be ensured. Over the five‐year period, it is planned to increase the number of excavators in construction by about 2.5 times, scrapers by 3 times, bulldozers by 4 times, and mobile cranes by 4.5 times. Builders are obliged to seriously improve the utilization of the ever‐growing fleet of machines and mechanisms.
It is necessary to improve the design business in construction, avoid excesses in design, reduce design time and timely provide construction with projects and estimates. For this, it is necessary to strengthen design organizations with qualified personnel and to widely introduce standard design into construction.
II. The tasks of the fifth five‐year plan in the field of agriculture
In the field of agriculture, the main task will continue to be to increase the yield of all agricultural crops, to further increase the social livestock population with a simultaneous significant increase in its productivity, to increase the gross and marketable output of agriculture and animal husbandry by further strengthening and developing the social economy of collective farms, improving the work of state farms and machine and tractor stations in the basis of the introduction of advanced technology and agriculture in agriculture.
It is planned to increase the gross harvest of grain crops by 40‐50 percent over the five‐year period, while wheat production is to increase by 55 to 65 percent; production of raw cotton will increase by 55 ‐ 65 percent, flax fiber ‐ by 40 ‐ 50 percent, sugar beet ‐ by 65 ‐ 70 percent and sunflower ‐ by 50 ‐ 60 percent. The production of potatoes, hemp, tobacco, makhorka and other crops will also increase. Horticulture, viticulture, citrus crops and sericulture are further developed.
High growth rates are established for animal husbandry. The gross production of meat and lard will increase in 1955 as compared to 1950 by 80 ‐ 90 percent, milk ‐ by 45 ‐ 50 percent and wool ‐ 2 ‐ 2.5 times. The production of vegetables and potatoes, as well as milk, meat and eggs will increase in the suburban areas of Moscow, Leningrad and other large cities and industrial centers.
Our agriculture should become even more productive and skilled, with developed grass sowing and correct crop rotation, with a higher specific weight of sown areas for industrial, fodder, vegetable crops and potatoes.
The fifth five‐year plan provides for a significant increase in the yield of agricultural crops, indicating targets for individual main regions of the country.
This is expressed in the following tasks:
To increase the yield of grain crops per hectare: in the regions of Southern Ukraine and the North Caucasus up to 20‐22 centners and on irrigated lands up to 30‐34 centners; in the Volga region up to 14 ‐ 15 centners and on irrigated lands up to 25 ‐ 28 centners; in the Central Black Earth regions up to 16 ‐ 18 centners and on irrigated lands up to 30 ‐ 34 centners; in the non‐black earth zone up to 17 ‐ 19 centners; in the regions of the Urals, Siberia and North‐East Kazakhstan up to 15 ‐ 16 centners and on irrigated lands up to 24 ‐ 26 centners; in the regions of Transcaucasia up to 20 ‐ 22 centners and on irrigated lands up to 30 ‐ 34 centners; to bring the yield of rice on irrigated land to 40‐50 centners per hectare.
To increase the yield of cotton per hectare: in the regions of Central Asia and South Kazakhstan up to 26 ‐ 27 centners; in the regions of Transcaucasia up to 25 ‐ 27 centners and in the southern regions of the European part on irrigated lands up to 11 ‐ 13 centners and on nonirrigated lands up to 5 ‐ 7 centners per hectare.
To increase the yield per hectare:
flax fiber in the regions of the non‐black earth strip up to 4.5 ‐ 5.5 centners and in the regions of the Urals and Siberia up to 4 ‐ 5 centners per hectare;
sugar beet in the regions of the Ukrainian SSR, Moldavian SSR and the North Caucasus up to 255 ‐ 265 centners, in the regions of the Central Black Earth regions up to 200 ‐ 210 centners and in the regions of Central Asia and Kazakhstan up to 400 ‐ 425 centners per hectare;
potatoes in the regions of the non‐black earth belt up to 155 ‐ 175 centners, in the regions of the Central Black Earth regions up to 140 ‐ 160 centners, in the regions of the South and North Caucasus up to 135 ‐ 155 centners and in the regions of the Urals and Siberia up to 125 ‐ 145 centners per hectare;
sunflower in the regions of the Ukrainian SSR, Moldavian SSR and the North Caucasus up to 17 ‐ 20 centners, in the regions of the Central Black Earth regions up to 14.5 ‐ 16.5 centners and in the Volga regions up to 10 ‐ 12 centners per hectare.
Due to the increase in yields, most of the increase in the gross production of the most important crops is provided. From the increase in yields, approximately 90 percent will be received for grain, about 50 percent for raw cotton, and over 60 percent of the increase in gross production for sugar beets.
In the fourth five‐year plan, the implementation of the grandiose Stalinist plan for the transformation of nature in the steppe and foreststeppe regions of the European part of the Union began. Now there is every opportunity to go over to the widespread introduction of the correct farming system. In the fifth five‐year plan, it is envisaged to lay forest belts in the fields of collective and state farms, not only in the zone of steppe and forest‐steppe regions of the European part of the Union, but also in the steppe regions of Siberia, Central Asia and other regions. It is planned to establish within five years no less than 2.5 million hectares of protective forest plantations on collective and state farms and about 2.5 million hectares of crops and plantings of state forests.
During the years of the fourth five‐year plan, considerable work has been carried out to introduce correct crop rotations in collective and state farms and to implement an advanced system of tillage. However, there are serious shortcomings in this case. Agricultural ministries, party and Soviet bodies of regions, territories and republics must improve their work on the development of grass crop rotation and ensure the widespread use of the correct system of tillage. The directives for the fifth five‐year plan envisage the further development of grass cultivation as one of the most important means of increasing the yield of agricultural crops and strengthening the fodder base of animal husbandry; it is envisaged to expand work on the development of correct grass field crop rotation in collective and state farms. The development of crop rotation should be carried out in such a way as to ensure an annual increase in the production of grain, cotton, sugar beet, flax fiber, other crops and livestock feed in accordance with the state plan. The application of mineral and organic fertilizers to the fields of collective and state farms must be increased.
Tasks to increase yields and gross harvests of agricultural crops impose on research institutions, experimental stations and agricultural bodies requirements for the development and introduction into production of new, more productive varieties of grain crops, more productive and early ripening varieties of cotton, varieties of sugar beets with increased sugar content, varieties of high‐oil sunflower, as well as the creation of new varieties of agricultural crops for cultivation on irrigated lands. It is necessary to ensure the further development of Soviet agrobiology on the basis of the Michurin doctrine and the widespread introduction of scientific achievements and advanced experience in agriculture into collective and state farms.
In the fifth five‐year period, it is planned to carry out extensive water management measures. The area of irrigated land has increased over the five years by 30–35 percent and drained land by 40–45 percent. It is planned to build up to 35,000 ponds and reservoirs on collective and state farms.
The ongoing transition to a new irrigation system with temporary irrigation canals instead of permanent ones is already a serious means of increasing the area and increasing the productivity of irrigated lands. By the end of the five‐year period it is planned to complete the transition to a new irrigation system in all regions of irrigated agriculture.
Priority works in the field of irrigation include the construction of irrigation and watering systems based on the use of electricity from the Kuibyshev hydroelectric power station and in the area of the VolgaDon navigable canal named after V.I. Lenin. It is meant to start the construction of irrigation and watering systems in the zone of the Stalingrad hydroelectric power station, the Main Turkmen, South Ukrainian and North Crimean canals. It is also planned to carry out preparatory work on irrigation and watering of the lands of the Kulunda steppe. Work will continue on the construction of irrigation systems in the Central Chernozem regions, in the Kura‐Araks lowland, in the basins of the Syr‐Darya, Zeravshan and Kashka‐Darya rivers, in the regions of Central Fergana, as well as the Kuban‐Yegorlyk system, the Orto‐Tokoi reservoir and the Bolshoi Chuisky Canal. These works are supported by a powerful technical base. Agriculture now has a significant fleet of earth‐moving machinery. The excavator fleet in agriculture in 1951 increased almost 8 times against 1940. Water management construction is equipped with a large number of scrapers, bulldozers, graders and other mechanisms.
A wide network of irrigation systems, combined with field‐protective afforestation, correct crop rotations and other methods of advanced agronomy, provides the basis for a powerful rise in agriculture in a large territory of our country, where until recently, due to lack of water and frequent dry winds, crop yields remain unstable, and livestock farming suffers from lack of feed and water. Taking into account the planned large increase in irrigated lands, on the irrigation of which the state spends very significant funds, it is necessary to demand from agricultural workers to improve the use of irrigated lands. We still have unsatisfactory use of lands with an irrigation network, especially in the Kazakh SSR, the Turkmen SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR. It is necessary to bring order to the use of these lands, to take measures to ensure high productivity of agricultural crops on irrigated lands and to protect them from salinization and waterlogging. The fifth five‐year plan provides for a significant expansion of work on drainage of marshes in the Byelorussian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR, primarily in the Polesye lowlands, in the Lithuanian SSR, the Latvian SSR, the Estonian SSR, in the regions of the non‐chernozem zone of the RSFSR and in the Barabinsk steppe.
The all‐round upsurge in public collective and state farm productive livestock raising in the new five‐year plan remains in the center of attention of Party and Soviet bodies. Over the five‐year period, it is envisaged to increase the number of cattle throughout agriculture by 18 ‐ 20 percent, including in collective farms: cattle ‐ by 36 ‐ 38 percent and cows, approximately ‐ twice; sheep ‐ throughout agriculture by 60‐62 percent, including on collective farms ‐ by 75‐80 percent; pigs ‐ throughout agriculture by 45‐50 percent, including in collective farms ‐ by 85‐90 percent.
The productivity of animal husbandry must be seriously increased. The directives provide for:
To increase the milk yield per cow on collective farms in the non‐black earth zone up to 1,800 ‐ 2,000 kilograms, in the Central Black Earth regions up to 1,700 ‐ 2,000 kilograms, in the regions of the South and the Volga region up to 1,600 ‐ 1,900 kilograms, in the regions of Siberia, the Urals and North‐Eastern Kazakhstan up to 1,500 ‐ 1.700 kilograms, in the regions of Central Asia up to 700 ‐ 900 kilograms, in Transcaucasia ‐ up to 900 ‐ 1.100 kilograms.
To increase the shearing of wool in the collective farms of the South and North Caucasus regions for one fine‐fleece sheep to 5.2 ‐ 5.8 kilograms, for one semi‐fine‐fleece sheep up to 4.2 ‐ 4.8 kilograms, in the Central Black Earth regions for one fine‐fleece sheep up to 4, 2 ‐ 5.0 kilograms and for one semi‐fine‐fleece sheep up to 4.0 ‐ 4.2 kilograms, in the Volga region for one fine‐fleece sheep up to 4.6 ‐ 5.4 kilograms and for one semi‐fine‐fleece sheep up to 3.9 ‐ 4.5 kilogram, in the regions of Siberia for one fine‐fleece sheep up to 4.3 ‐ 4.9 kilograms and for a semi‐finefleece sheep up to 3.8 ‐ 4.2 kilograms.
In order to meet the livestock targets, it is necessary to ensure proper feeding and maintenance of livestock everywhere. Over the five‐year period, the sowing of fodder crops has increased by about 70 percent, and the yield of sown grasses, silage crops, fodder root crops will increase at least 2 times.
In the field of dairy farming development, special attention should be paid to the further introduction of a more intensive livestock management system ‐ a stall system for keeping livestock, taking into account local characteristics. For our agriculture, and especially in areas with a large plowed land, the transition to a stall system for keeping livestock is very important and will significantly increase the productivity of dairy farming. There is a full opportunity to solve this most important problem for animal husbandry through the widespread introduction of crops of grasses, fodder root crops, silage and other crops, involving unproductive meadows and pastures in crop rotations and thereby ensuring full‐fledged year‐round feeding of livestock with green and succulent fodder.
Sheep breeding receives a broad base for its development, especially on the watered and irrigated lands in the areas of the Volga‐Don navigable canal named after V.I. Lenin, the Caspian lowland, the Nogai steppe and in the zone of the Main Turkmen Canal. A solid forage base for the large and largest flocks of sheep must be created in these areas.
In the new five‐year plan, a large and responsible task is set before the MTS, as large state‐owned enterprises, which now carry out more than two‐thirds of all field work on collective farms. It is necessary to ensure a further improvement in the work of machine and tractor stations, to expand their activity in the mechanization of labor‐intensive work in all branches of collective farm production, and to increase the responsibility of the MTS for fulfilling plans for the yield of agricultural crops and the productivity of animal husbandry. In the current fiveyear plan, it is necessary to complete the mechanization of field work on collective farms, to widely expand the mechanization of laborintensive work in animal husbandry, vegetable growing, horticulture, transport, loading and unloading of agricultural products, irrigation, drainage of wetlands and the development of new lands.
The capacity of the MTS tractor fleet is increasing over the five years by about 1.5 times, with a particularly rapid growth of row‐crop tractors. In 1955, the capacity of the tractor fleet operating on the fields of collective farms for every 100 hectares of sown area will increase by 70 percent compared with 1940 and by 30 percent since 1950. In addition, the fleet of trucks, stationary engines and other mechanisms. It is planned to supply agriculture with a large number of new, more advanced plows, cultivators, seeders, cotton pickers, beet harvesters, hay harvesting machines, fodder ensiling, electric sheep shearing, electric cow milking and other agricultural machines. The task of the MTS, state and collective farms is to significantly improve the use of this technique.
In the fifth five‐year period, the use of electricity in agriculture should be expanded. One of the most important tasks is the development of perfect designs and the introduction into agriculture of electric tractors and agricultural machines operating on the basis of the use of cheap electricity, especially in areas of large hydroelectric power plants.
The fulfillment of the assignments of the five‐year plan for a new upsurge in agriculture and livestock raising requires further strengthening of the agricultural artel, the correct selection and placement of collective farm management cadres, and the improvement of the qualifications of these cadres. It is necessary to ensure the growth of collective farm wealth on the basis of the all‐round development of the social economy, the correct combination of the branches of agriculture and animal husbandry, a significant increase in labor productivity, an improvement in the organization and remuneration of labor, and the maximum reduction of losses in agriculture. Collective farm incomes will increase, contributions to indivisible funds will increase, which will make it possible to widely develop construction on collective farms, directing investments primarily to the development of public economy ‐ the construction of farm buildings, livestock buildings, irrigation and drainage canals, reservoirs, uprooting of land from shrubs, planting forest shelter strips, the construction of collective farm power plants and other structures.
In the field of state farm construction, the most important task is to increase the marketability, primarily of wheat, fine and semi‐fine wool, meat, and also to provide collective farm livestock breeding with pedigree producers. It is necessary to envisage a significant increase in the yield of agricultural crops and the productivity of animal husbandry on state farms and, on this basis, to achieve a significant reduction in the cost of production.
In order to improve the work of state farms, it is planned to complete the comprehensive mechanization of all the most labor‐consuming work in field cultivation, animal husbandry, fodder production and fodder preparation. It is necessary to take measures to further strengthen the state farms, to provide the state farms with specialists and permanent workers, and to transform all state farms into highly productive and highly commodity enterprises in agriculture.
In the fifth five‐year period, the state will invest large funds in agriculture: the volume of state capital investments will increase in comparison with the fourth five‐year period by about 2.1 times, and in water management construction ‐ by 4 times.
The great tasks set before agriculture in the new five‐year plan require a significant improvement in the management of agriculture on the part of agricultural ministries and local Party and Soviet organizations. It is necessary, relying on large state aid to agriculture, to make extensive use of the significant reserves available for the growth of gross and marketable agricultural and livestock production, ensuring that the state plan is fulfilled by each collective farm, state farm and machine and tractor station.
III. The tasks of the fifth five‐year plan in the field of trade, transport and communications
In the directives for the fifth five‐year plan, based on the growth of industrial and agricultural production, it is envisaged to increase the retail turnover of state and cooperative trade in the five‐year period by about 70 percent.
It is envisaged to increase the sale to the population of the most important food and industrial goods, as well as goods of cultural and economic use, on a significant scale. So, in 1955, meat products will be sold to the population, approximately 90 percent, fish products ‐ 70 percent, animal oil ‐ 70 percent, cheese ‐ 2 times and sugar ‐ 2 times more than in 1950. a significant increase in the sale of industrial goods: cotton, woolen, silk and linen fabrics, by about 70 percent, clothes ‐ by 80 percent, footwear ‐ by 80 percent, knitwear ‐ by 2.2 times. The sale of cultural and household goods should increase in the following sizes: furniture, approximately 3 times, metal utensils ‐ 2.5 times, sewing machines ‐ 2.4 times, bicycles ‐ 3.5 times, radios and televisions ‐ 2 times, hours ‐ 2.2 times, home refrigerators, washing machines and vacuum cleaners ‐ several times. At the same time, it is planned to expand the network of canteens, restaurants, tea houses and increase the output of products by public catering enterprises, by about 80 percent, with a significant improvement in the range.
To further improve customer service, it is envisaged to expand the retail trade network, first of all, a network of specialized stores selling food, clothing, shoes, fabrics, furniture, dishes, household goods, cultural items, building materials and equipping food stores, canteens, restaurants, warehouses with refrigeration units and the latest equipment.
The growth of industrial and agricultural production, as well as the growth of trade turnover, planned for the new five‐year period, require a significant development of transport.
Freight turnover of all types of transport should increase by about 46 percent over the next five years. At the same time, the freight turnover of railway transport increases by 35 ‐ 40 percent, river transport ‐ by 75 ‐ 80 percent, sea transport ‐ by 55 ‐ 60 percent, road transport ‐ by 80 ‐ 85 percent, air transport ‐ at least twice, and oil products through pipelines ‐ approximately five times.
The growth of freight traffic by rail leads to a further increase in the freight traffic of railways. In this regard, the most important task in the field of railway transport is to increase the capacity of railways.
A number of major events are envisaged to increase the capacity of the railways.
It is intended to increase the commissioning of second tracks by about 60 percent compared with the past five‐year plan, and to quadruple electrified railways, and to increase the length of station tracks to 46 percent of the operational length of railways.
The construction of new railways is significantly increasing. In the fifth five‐year period, new railways should be put into permanent operation, approximately 2.5 times more than in the fourth five‐year period. The construction of the South Siberian Railway will be completed on the sections from Abakan to Akmolinsk and the Chardzhou ‐ Kungrad railway line; the construction of railways was launched: Kungrad ‐ Makat, Krasnoyarsk ‐ Yeniseisk, Agryz ‐ Pronino ‐ Surgut, Guryev ‐ Astrakhan and others.
It is planned to further equip the main directions of the railways with the latest signaling, automation and blocking devices, ensuring an increase in the throughput and safety of train traffic.
In order to strengthen the track facilities of the railways, it is planned to increase the supply of new rails to railway transport by 85 percent against the fourth five‐year plan and to double the length of the tracks laid on rubble.
In this five‐year period, basically the transfer to automatic coupling of the working fleet of wagons should be completed and the equipment of rolling stock of railways with roller bearings should be started.
The industry must fully provide railway transport with locomotives and wagons and begin the production of new powerful steam locomotives, electric locomotives and diesel locomotives, including gas generators.
One of the most important tasks of the Ministry of Railways is to improve the use of rolling stock in every possible way, especially to reduce the turnaround time of cars, increase the average daily mileage of steam locomotives, as well as ensure a significant improvement in the use of the carrying capacity of cars and increase the weight of freight trains.
The implementation of the planned transportation tasks requires a clear, well‐coordinated work of all links of the railway transport based on the implementation of the governmentʹs decision to strengthen discipline and improve the organization of labor of workers associated with the movement of trains, and especially locomotive crews.
The possibilities of river transport have significantly expanded in the current five‐year period with the commissioning of the Volga‐Don navigable canal named after V.I. Lenin. In addition, in the fifth five‐year period, the Volga‐Baltic waterway will be reorganized and the navigable depths on the Kama River will be increased. The construction of large hydraulic structures ‐ the White Sea‐Baltic Canal named after I.V. Stalin, the Moscow Canal, the Volga‐Don navigable canal named after V.I. Lenin, as well as the planned reorganization of the VolgaBaltic waterway and the construction of hydroelectric power stations on the Volga and Kama, in the fifth five‐year plan, in the fifth five‐year period, basically, the creation of a single deep‐water transport system in the European part of the USSR will be completed. The primary task of the Ministry of River Fleet is the full development of this transport system for the transport of bulk cargo and passengers.
In connection with a significant increase in the cargo turnover of river transport and the creation of new waterways, it is envisaged to build passenger and cargo steamships and motor ships, tugs and barges that meet the conditions of navigation on large reservoirs; the throughput of river ports should be approximately doubled through the construction of new ports, reconstruction of existing ports and equipping them with high‐performance means of mechanization.
The backlog of river transport in the river basins of Siberia should be eliminated and its role in the transportation of goods in the Far North should be increased.
It is also necessary to ensure the development of transport on small rivers to meet local needs.
In order to significantly increase the tonnage of the merchant marine fleet, including oil tankers, it is envisaged to expand the base of the domestic maritime shipbuilding by building new and expanding existing shipbuilding and ship repair plants. The throughput capacity of seaports and the capacity of marine shipyards should be approximately doubled over the next five years. It is planned to carry out work on the expansion and reconstruction of the Leningradsky, Odessa, Zhdanovsky, Novorossiysky, Makhachkala, Murmansk, Naryan‐Mar and Far Eastern seaports, the expansion of the Riga and Klaipeda ports.
It is planned to increase the transportation of goods along the Northern Sea Route to a size that will ensure uninterrupted supply of the population, enterprises and construction projects in the Arctic and the Far North, replenishment of the marine fleet with new icebreakers, and broad development of cargo transportation in the Lena River basin.
Compared to the fourth five‐year plan, the volume of construction of hard‐surface roads should increase by 50 percent, especially in the southern regions, the Transcaucasus and the Baltic states.
Much attention needs to be paid to improving the utilization of the rapidly growing fleet of vehicles and reducing the cost of road transport. To this end, it is planned to significantly increase the share of public road transport in the transportation of goods and passengers, complete the enlargement of existing and create new territorial selfsupporting automobile enterprises of departmental significance, expand the network of auto repair enterprises and car service stations. The length of intercity, regularly operating lines for the transportation of passengers by buses will approximately double. Taxi fleets will be organized in all major cities.
The network of air communications will significantly expand, the fleet of transport aircraft will increase due to new aircraft equipped with the latest aircraft navigation devices, and the number of airports equipped for round‐the‐clock operation will increase.
In the field of communications, it is envisaged to strengthen longdistance telephone and telegraph communications, as well as radio communications. To improve the conditions for receiving Soviet radio broadcasting throughout the territory of the Soviet Union and in other countries of the world, the power of radio broadcasting stations is being significantly increased. Work will be launched to introduce ultra‐shortwave radio broadcasting and radio relay communications. The capacity of city telephone exchanges should be increased by 30 ‐ 35 percent.
In accordance with the plan for the further development of transport and communications, state capital investments in transport and communications are to be increased in the fifth five‐year period by about 63 per cent compared with the fourth five‐year plan.
IV. The tasks of the fifth five‐year plan in the field of further growth of material well‐being, health care and the cultural level of the people The projected growth of socialist production and an increase in labor productivity ensure a significant increase in national income and a further rise in the material well‐being of the people. The national income of the USSR in the five‐year period will increase by at least 60 per cent, which will ensure a further significant increase in the incomes of workers and employees and the income of the peasants.
In accordance with the growth in the volume of production and labor productivity, as well as in accordance with the tasks in the field of cultural development, an increase in the number of workers and employees in the national economy should be envisaged in 1955 compared to 1950 by about 15 percent.
In the new five‐year period, the retail prices for consumer goods will be further reduced. A steady decline in prices is the most important means of systematic growth of real wages of workers and employees and an increase in the income of peasants.
The real wages of factory and office workers will increase over the five years, taking into account the decline in retail prices by at least 35 percent. State appropriations for social insurance of workers and employees will increase over the five years by about 30 percent compared to 1950.
An increase in the labor productivity of collective farmers, an increase in collective farm production, and an increase in the output of agriculture and livestock raising will ensure an increase in the monetary and in‐kind income of collective farmers (in monetary terms) by at least 40 percent.
To further improve the living conditions of workers and employees, a significant program of new housing construction must be carried out in the fifth five‐year period. To this end, capital investments in housing construction in cities and workersʹ settlements are approximately doubling in comparison with the previous five‐year plan. In cities and workersʹ settlements, it is envisaged to put into operation new residential buildings with a total area of about 105 million square meters only through state construction.
In addition, individual housing construction, carried out by the population, will be carried out both with the help of a state loan and at the expense of their own savings. It should be borne in mind that in comparison with the previous five‐year plan, when large‐scale restoration of destroyed dwellings was carried out, in this five‐year plan only new dwelling houses of higher quality and with improved amenities will be built.
Along with the implementation of a large program of housing construction, broad measures will be taken to further improve communal and consumer services for the population ‐ expanding water supply and sewerage, heating and gasification of houses, expanding urban transport and improving cities and workersʹ settlements.
Serious tasks in the fifth five‐year period must be solved in the field of public health. Further expansion of the network of hospitals, dispensaries, maternity homes, sanatoriums, rest homes, nurseries and kindergartens are envisaged. The number of beds in hospitals will increase by at least 20 percent, the number of beds in sanatoriums ‐ by about 15 percent, in rest homes ‐ by 30 percent, in nurseries ‐ by 20 percent and in kindergartens ‐ by 40 percent. Further equipping hospitals, dispensaries, sanatoriums with the latest medical equipment will be provided and the culture of their work will be improved. The number of doctors in the country will increase by at least 25 percent over the next five years, and measures to improve the qualifications of doctors will be expanded.
The production of medicines, medical equipment and instruments must be increased by at least 2.5 times, with an even faster expansion of the production of the latest medicines and other therapeutic and prophylactic means, as well as modern diagnostic and medical equipment.
The further development of physical culture and sports is provided.
Along with the growth of the material well‐being of the working people, it is necessary to ensure a further rise in socialist culture. The task is to complete by the end of the five‐year plan the transition from seven‐year education to universal secondary education (ten‐year) in the capitals of republics, cities of republican subordination, in regional, regional and largest industrial centers, as well as to prepare conditions for the full implementation of universal secondary education (ten‐year) in the next five‐year plan in the rest of the cities and rural areas. To this end, the number of students in grades 8‐10 in urban schools should be increased in 1955 compared to 1950 by 4 times and in rural secondary schools by 4.5 times.
To successfully fulfill the large and largely new tasks in the field of education, it will be necessary to expand the training of teachers and improve the work of public education bodies. It is planned to increase the construction of urban and rural schools in comparison with the previous five‐year period by about 70 percent.
In order to further increase the socialist educational value of the general education school and provide students who graduate from secondary school with conditions for free choice of professions, it is envisaged to start implementing polytechnic education in secondary school and taking measures necessary for the transition to universal polytechnic education.
In accordance with the tasks of further development of the national economy and cultural construction, it is necessary to increase the graduation of specialists of all kinds from higher and specialized secondary educational institutions by 30‐35 percent over the five‐year period, including more than 50 percent from higher educational institutions. The graduation of specialists from higher educational institutions for the most important branches of industry, construction and agriculture increased in 1955 in comparison with 1950, approximately twofold.
Soviet science, which plays an important role in ensuring technical progress in the USSR and the rise of socialist culture, will receive great state support in the new five‐year plan. The training of scientific and scientific‐pedagogical personnel through postgraduate studies at higher educational institutions and scientific institutions is approximately doubled in comparison with the previous five‐year plan. Large capital investments will be envisaged for the construction of research institutes and higher educational institutions. The construction of a grandiose building for the largest scientific and educational center ‐ Moscow State University is already being completed.
Scientific research institutes and higher educational institutions will have to significantly improve scientific work, make fuller use of scientific forces to solve the most important issues of the development of the national economy and generalize advanced experience. It is necessary to ensure a broad practical application of scientific discoveries, every possible assistance to scientists in their development of theoretical problems in all fields of knowledge and to strengthen the connection between science and production.
Taking into account the growing desire of the adult population to improve their education, further development of correspondence and evening higher and secondary specialized educational institutions, as well as general education schools for the training of working citizens on the job, is envisaged. It is planned to carry out extensive measures to further improve the qualifications of workers in production.
To meet the growing needs of the national economy for qualified personnel, especially in connection with the further introduction of advanced technology in production, it is planned to improve the quality of training young skilled workers in the system of state labor reserves and training workers in production.
In order to better satisfy the growing cultural demands of the population, the further development of cinema and television, libraries, clubs and the press must be ensured in the fifth five‐year period. It is necessary to expand the network of cinemas and to increase the number of cinema installations by about 25 percent over the next five years, and to increase the number of films produced, especially in color. The network of public libraries will be increased over the next five years by at least 30 percent and clubs by 15 percent; at the same time, their work on serving the population should be improved. A significant increase in the production of fiction and scientific literature, textbooks, magazines and newspapers, an expansion of the printing industry and an improvement in the quality of printing and book design are envisaged.
In accordance with the projected development of health care, education, scientific, cultural and educational institutions, the volume of state capital investments for these purposes will increase over the five‐year period by about 50 percent compared to the previous five‐year plan.
These are the most important tasks of the new five‐year plan for the national economy and for raising the material and cultural standard of living of the working people. They testify to the fact that the development of the Soviet economy is proceeding in truly gigantic steps. It is known that the first three Stalinist five‐year plans, or rather the 13 years of peaceful construction that preceded the Great Patriotic War, were a period of enormous growth in production. Describing this period, Comrade Stalin pointed out that “such an unprecedented increase in production cannot be considered a simple and ordinary development of the country from backwardness to progress. It was a leap through which our Motherland turned from a backward country to an advanced one, from an agrarian to an industrial one. ʺ
The Soviet Union now possesses even greater possibilities for increasing socialist production. If we compare the tasks of the new fiveyear plan for the growth of production with the actual results of the development of the national economy for the first three five‐year plans (13 years), we will see that the fifth five‐year plan for the increase in production of many important types of products is equal, and for some types of products even exceeds the sum of the three pre‐war five‐year plans ... Thus, the increase in the production of pig iron, oil, electricity, cotton fabrics and other important products, planned for the fifth fiveyear plan, significantly exceeds the increase in their output during the three pre‐war five‐year plans ‐ from 1927‐28 to 1940.
In the new five‐year period, a further rise in the economy and culture of all Union republics is ensured. The Fifth Five‐Year Plan is a new vivid expression of the ever‐growing friendship between the peoples of the Soviet Union, their common desire for a common goal ‐ building a communist society and strengthening the economic might of the USSR in every possible way, as an unshakable basis for the prosperity of all peoples of our Motherland.
A convincing example of the enormous attention of the Soviet Government to the needs of the Union republics are, in particular, the assignments for the development of the economy and culture of the Lithuanian SSR, the Latvian SSR and the Estonian SSR in the fifth fiveyear period. As a result of the fourth five‐year plan, industrial production in the Lithuanian SSR, in the Latvian SSR and in the Estonian SSR increased by 2.8 times in comparison with 1940, and in the fifth five‐year period it should again significantly increase. In the new five‐year period, further industrialization of these republics is being carried out. In this regard, it is planned to increase the production of electricity by 2 ‐ 2.5 times, build the Narva hydroelectric power plant, the Riga thermal power plant and launch the construction of the Kaunas hydroelectric power plant. On the basis of the development of the oil shale chemical industry, the production of artificial gas in the Estonian SSR will increase by 2‐2.5 times, and artificial liquid fuel ‐ by
80 percent, construction is being completed and the Kohtla‐JärveTallinn gas pipeline is being put into operation. Further development of machine building is planned: shipbuilding, turbine building, machine tool building in the Lithuanian SSR; electrical machine building, machine tool building and shipbuilding ‐ in the Latvian SSR; shipbuilding and electrical engineering ‐ in the Estonian SSR. The production of superphosphate is organized in the Estonian SSR. It is planned to increase the fish catch in the Lithuanian SSR by approximately 3.9 times over the five years, in the Latvian SSR by 80 percent, in the Estonian SSR by 85 percent, and it is planned to expand the existing fish processing enterprises and build new fish processing enterprises in these republics.
Further development is planned in the Lithuanian SSR, the Latvian SSR and the Estonian SSR of highly productive livestock raising, especially dairy cattle and pigs. Work will be carried out to drain the swamps in these republics. The network of machine and tractor stations equipped with tractors and agricultural machines is expanding.
The necessary work should be carried out to reconstruct the railways, as well as to improve navigation and increase the transportation of passengers and cargo in the basins of the Neman and Daugava rivers. It is planned to build bridges across the Neman River in Kaunas and across the Daugava River in Riga. The further development of sea transport and seaports in the Lithuanian SSR, the Latvian SSR and the Estonian SSR is ensured. The construction and reconstruction of highways is planned on a large scale.
Big events should be taken to develop health and culture. Over the five years, the number of hospital beds in the Lithuanian SSR has increased by about 40 percent, in the Latvian SSR by 30 percent, and in the Estonian SSR by 30 percent.
It is envisaged to increase admission to pedagogical institutes of the Lithuanian SSR by 2.3 times, the Latvian SSR ‐ by 90 percent, and the Estonian SSR ‐ by 60 percent.
Equally serious tasks are envisaged for the development of the economy and culture of other Union republics.
The fulfillment of the new five‐year plan cannot be carried out by gravity; it requires a serious exertion of forces, active and creative labor of workers, peasants and intelligentsia. It requires the implementation of an immense capital construction program. Capital construction has always been and remains the main means of solving the most important long‐term economic problems put forward by the Communist Party, the most important factor determining the pace and direction of development of the branches of the national economy.
The total volume of state capital construction in 1951 ‐ 1955 it is planned to increase in comparison with the fourth five‐year plan, by about 90 percent, with an increase in appropriations by 60 percent. The excess of the volume of capital construction over the volume of financing should be ensured through a corresponding reduction in construction costs by increasing labor productivity, reducing overhead costs, and reducing prices for construction materials and equipment.
To fulfill the planned capital work plan, it is necessary to mobilize internal reserves and sources of accumulation in all links of the national economy.
The successful solution of this task depends on the fulfillment of tasks to increase labor productivity, reduce the costs of production and circulation, on skillful management, on the ability to ensure a real mode of economy in every sector of economic construction.
An increase in labor productivity is the most important source of growth in socialist production, a reduction in production costs and an increase in savings. Over the five‐year period, labor productivity should increase in industry by about 50 percent, in construction by 55 percent and in agriculture by 40 percent. About three‐quarters of the total increase in industrial production will be obtained in the fifth fiveyear period due to the growth of labor productivity. Thus, industrial production must be increased mainly by increasing labor productivity.
The basis for such an increase in labor productivity is a continuous increase in the technical equipment of labor, the introduction of advanced science and technology into production, as well as a further increase in the material situation of the people and an increase in the cultural and technical level of the working people.
In the fifth five‐year plan, the mechanization of heavy and laborintensive work is mainly completed, and the electrical equipment of workers in industry increases in 1955 by 70 percent compared to 1950 and 2.6 times compared to 1940. Widespread development of mechanization and electrification of labor finds especially favorable conditions in socialist production. In the USSR, where there is no unemployment, machines, along with saving labor for society, facilitate the work of workers.
Of great importance in achieving high labor productivity is the wide dissemination of the experience of the best enterprises and innovators of production in the use of technology, improvement of technology, and the introduction of advanced methods of organizing production. It is necessary to raise a mass movement of inventors and rationalizers from among engineers, technicians, workers and collective farmers for the improvement of production methods, an increase in labor productivity and a decrease in production costs.
A systematic reduction in the cost of production and the selling prices of manufactured goods is the main road along which the development of socialist industry should proceed. The decline in the cost of production most clearly characterizes the quality of the work of industry, its success in improving production techniques, raising labor productivity and strengthening cost accounting. Reducing the cost of production and distribution costs is the basis for a further reduction in retail and wholesale prices.
Over the five‐year period, it is envisaged to reduce the cost of industrial products by about 25 percent, the cost of construction work ‐ by at least 20 percent, the cost of tractor work at machine‐tractor stations ‐ by 25 percent, rail transportation ‐ by 15 percent, and the costs of retail trade ‐ by 23 percent. It is also necessary to carry out a sharp reduction in the costs of procurement, storage and sale of agricultural products, as well as overhead costs of sales organizations in industry.
To fulfill the tasks of the five‐year plan to reduce the costs of production and circulation, it is necessary, along with increasing labor productivity, to implement the strictest mode of saving material resources by eliminating excesses in the expenditure of materials and equipment, strengthening the fight against rejects, introducing economical types of materials, widespread use of high‐grade substitutes and advanced production technology. It is also necessary to achieve a serious reduction in the cost of the management apparatus at enterprises and institutions.
Particular attention should be paid to reducing construction costs. The cost of construction, despite a significant increase in the volume of capital work and equipping construction sites with advanced technology, is still high. It is necessary to ensure that the construction of factories and plants, roads, residential buildings, hospitals and schools would cost the state much cheaper every year.
The planned reduction in the cost of construction work should be achieved by increasing labor productivity on the basis of further mechanization of construction work and the introduction of industrial methods of construction, reducing the construction time, while improving the quality of work, reducing overhead costs, as well as reducing prices for building materials.
The business leaders of enterprises and construction projects are required to pay much more attention to the issues of economics and finance of production, a skillful combination of all their activities in the field of technology development and organization of production with the economic and financial results of enterprises is required. It is necessary to strengthen the role of financial authorities in the daily ruble control over the course of production and construction, the circulation of goods, the accumulation of material assets, over the financial and economic activities of enterprises and economic bodies.
ʺThe trouble is,ʺ says Comrade Stalin, ʺthat our business executives and planners, with a few exceptions, are poorly acquainted with the operation of the law of value, do not study them and do not know how to take them into account in their calculations.ʺ
Party, Soviet, economic, trade union, and Komsomol organizations must mobilize the broad masses of the working people to fulfill and overfulfil the five‐year plan, deploy broad Bolshevik criticism and selfcriticism of shortcomings in the work of our organizations in order to eliminate them as quickly as possible and improve all our work. It is necessary to educate our cadres in the spirit of irreconcilability to shortcomings in the organization of production, to any manifestations of mismanagement and bureaucracy, to timely identify and in every possible way support new progressive and progressive phenomenon in economic life.
It is necessary to ensure the strictest state discipline in the implementation of national economic plans, guided by the instructions of the Party and the Government that the implementation of the state plan is an unconditional duty of every enterprise. The state plan must be fulfilled not only in terms of gross output as a whole, but also in terms of the range, assortment and quality of products, in terms of labor productivity and production costs.
Fulfillment of the tasks set by the new five‐year plan requires an improvement in the planning of the national economy. The most important task of planning is to ensure the correct proportions in the development of individual industries and the national economy, and to identify and use internal reserves for production growth.
Successful implementation of the fifth five‐year plan will significantly increase reserves. The directives for the five‐year plan envisage doubling in the five‐year period the state material and food reserves, which can provide the country from all accidents.
Comrades! The fulfillment of the new five‐year plan will be a major step forward along the path of development from socialism to communism. Stalinʹs five‐year plans have always had tremendous international significance. Describing the results of the first five‐year plan, Comrade Stalin noted that “not a single step along the path of economic development in our country has met such a response in the most diverse strata of the capitalist countries of Europe, America, Asia, as the question of the five‐year plan, its development, and its implementation.
ʺ.
Our five‐year plans demonstrate to the whole world the great vitality of socialism, the fundamental advantages of the socialist economic system over the capitalist system. In the new five‐year plan, which provides for a large increase in production and technical progress in all sectors of the national economy, a further rise in the material well‐being and culture of the Soviet people, the demands of the basic economic law of socialism and the law of planned development of the national economy are vividly expressed. The essential features and requirements of the basic economic law of socialism, as Comrade Stalin teaches, are 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.
The five‐year plan of the Soviet Union is a plan for peaceful economic and cultural development. Its implementation will be a major new contribution to the consolidation of world peace. The peaceful policy of the Soviet Government, which has found its embodiment in the new five‐year plan, proceeds from the possibility of peaceful coexistence of the socialist system and the capitalist system, expresses the unshakable will of the entire Soviet people for peace and fully meets the fundamental interests of the working people of all countries.
The new five‐year plan will contribute to the further consolidation and expansion of economic cooperation and the fraternal community of the Soviet Union and the peopleʹs democracies and the development of economic relations with all countries wishing to develop trade on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.
The new five‐year plan enhances the international prestige of the Soviet Union. Millions of people in all countries are more and more convinced of the advantages of the socialist social system, the Soviet policy of peace and the development of friendly relations between peoples.
The publication of the draft directives of the 19th Party Congress on the fifth five‐year plan aroused deep interest and lively responses in all countries without exception. The working people of the whole world warmly welcome the new Stalinist five‐year plan aimed at peaceful economic construction and a further rise in the peopleʹs well‐being.
In the USSR, the draft directives for the fifth five‐year plan received universal approval from party organizations, the working class, peasants, and the intelligentsia. Inspired by the program for the further rapid development of the socialist economy and culture along the path to communism, the working people of the Soviet Union greeted the Party Congress with outstanding production successes. In the nine months of 1952, compared with the corresponding period of last year, the gross industrial output of the USSR increased by 12 and a half percent, the volume of capital investments in the national economy ‐ by 15 percent, and the average daily loading on the railways ‐ by 10 percent. A good harvest of grain crops has been harvested, the harvesting of a high harvest of industrial crops, vegetables and potatoes is coming to an end.
Discussing the draft directives for the five‐year plan, party organizations, as well as individual party members and non‐party comrades, expressed many comments and additions. The overwhelming majority of the comments made concretize the draft directives in accordance with the tasks and characteristics of the development of the economy of a particular region, region, republic, or in relation to certain sectors of the national economy.
They propose to increase production in one or another branch of industry, to clarify the tasks for the development of agriculture and transport, to build industrial enterprises, power plants, railways and highways necessary for the region, territory, republic.
Thus, the Ukrainian comrades are raising the question of building coal preparation plants and a thermal power plant in Zaporozhye; Leningraders propose to build hydroelectric power plants; it is proposed to build new power lines and substations in Krivoy Rog, a hydroelectric power station on the Daugava River, etc.
A significant number of proposals are aimed at clarifying the tasks for the introduction of new technology, the mechanization of laborintensive work. There are a significant number of proposals for improving the organization of labor, training personnel, improving the work of cultural and scientific institutions, health care institutions.
All these proposals are imbued with concern for fulfilling and overfulfilling the fifth five‐year plan, reflect the vast experience accumulated by Party organizations in the field of economic development, the growth of our cadres and are of great importance for the five‐year plan.
Since the directives for the five‐year plan should define only the main tasks for the national economy and cannot be detailed, all the numerous proposals of party organizations, individual communists and nonparty comrades, concretizing the draft directives, would be expedient to consider and use when drawing up, on the basis of the directives of the 19th Congress, five‐year plan.
However, when finalizing the draft directives, some amendments should be adopted. In particular, in the field of industry, it is advisable to point to the development of automation in mechanical engineering, in the field of agriculture ‐ to the development of sericulture and beekeeping, in the field of communications ‐ to the development of radio frequency, in the field of labor ‐ to take measures to further improve the safety and health of working conditions.
In the countries of peopleʹs democracies, the draft directives for the fifth five‐year plan also caused an upsurge in the political and production activity of the working people and an increase in interest in Soviet economic construction, which is the prototype for all peoples who have embarked on the path of socialism and democracy. The working people of the democratic countries accepted the five‐year plan for further increasing the economic might of the USSR with satisfaction. They see in this a reliable guarantee of world peace and a real prerequisite for the further strengthening and expansion of economic ties between the USSR and the democratic countries. In honor of the 19th Party Congress, the workers and peasants of the countries of the peopleʹs democracies committed themselves to fulfilling and overfulfilling their five‐year plans.
The working people of the capitalist countries, who are experiencing greater and greater hardships in connection with the growing militarization of the capitalist economy, were greatly impressed by the five‐year program for the further growth of the peopleʹs living standards. Every day they are more and more convinced that only under socialism is peaceful labor and the well‐being of the whole society possible.
All bourgeois newspapers devote great attention to the new Soviet fiveyear plan. It is curious to note that if the bourgeois press, as a rule, was skeptical of the previous five‐year plans and many bourgeois leaders considered even the fourth five‐year plan impracticable without American loans, now, in view of the undoubted success in the implementation of Soviet plans, bourgeois public opinion no longer considers this five‐year plan unrealistic. ... The Fifth Five‐Year Plan was a new striking confirmation of the peaceful policy of the Soviet Government and dealt a serious blow to the warmongers. That is why the reactionary bourgeois newspapers pounced on the draft directives for the fifth five‐year plan with a stream of lies and slander, trying to hide from the masses the peaceful nature of the five‐year plan and ascribe to it non‐existent aggressive goals and objectives.
Comrade Stalin has already explained that it is impossible, along with the development of civil industry, grandiose civil construction and a systematic reduction in prices for consumer goods, to simultaneously multiply the armed forces and expand the military industry. The lie about the allegedly aggressive intentions of the Soviet Union is spreading in order to mislead the working people of the capitalist countries, to impose on them this lie about the USSR and by deception to drag them into a new world war organized by the reactionary circles of the United States of America. However, the systematic growth of the well‐being of the working people and the development of the peaceful branches of the national economy and culture in the USSR and the ever worsening position of the working people and the growth of militarism in capitalist countries break this crude lie of bourgeois propaganda. Comrades! The inspirer of the new five‐year plan, like the previous fiveyear plans, is our leader and teacher, Comrade Stalin. (Applause.)
Before the congress, Comrade Stalinʹs new work ʺEconomic Problems of Socialism in the USSRʺ was published, which armed our party with knowledge of the economic laws of socialism, the theory of building communism in the USSR, knowledge of the scientific foundations of planning the national economy.
The five‐year plan worked out on the instructions of the Party and the Government, the Soviet people will meet with a new powerful upsurge in production activity, nationwide socialist competition for the victory of the fifth Stalinist five‐year plan.
The Soviet people will not spare their efforts to ensure the successful fulfillment and over fulfillment of the new five‐year plan. Closely rallied around the Communist Party, around their beloved leader and teacher, the great Stalin, the Soviet people are confidently moving forward towards communism. (Prolonged applause.)