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

October 9, (Morning session)

Presiding N.S. Patolichev.

The meeting continued to discuss the report of comrade. M.Z. Saburov and performances of foreign guests.

D.G. Smirnov, (Gorky region) (...)

In our region, more than half of the entire industry is mechanical engineering. The largest enterprise in the Soviet automotive industry, the Molotov plant, is equipped with the most advanced technology, first‐class Soviet equipment. Hundreds of kilometers of conveyor lines cross the huge workshops of the plant, in which units and automatic lines are installed. Car production has increased significantly compared to the pre‐war level. The necessary growth is envisaged for the current five‐year plan.

Saturation with new technology is typical for all industrial enterprises of the region. Over the years of the fourth five‐year plan, the industry of the Gorky region has given the Motherland many types of new products ‐ Pobeda, ZIM, GAZ‐51 cars, various machine tools, gas engine compressors, dredgers, engines and other machines and is mastering the production of new, more advanced products. Plant ʺKrasnoe Sormovoʺ them. Zhdanova began manufacturing the latest types of passenger diesel electric ships for the Big Volga, which are unmatched in terms of size and comfort in the river fleet.

The factories are introducing the latest achievements of Soviet science and technology, the advanced experience of the best enterprises and innovators in industry, and extensive mechanization of labor‐intensive processes is carried out, on the basis of which the labor of workers is facilitated and its productivity is increased. In comparison with the prewar 1940, the output per worker has almost doubled. 70 percent the increase in industrial production was obtained by increasing the productivity of workers.

From year to year, the Government increases capital investments in industrial, housing and cultural and domestic construction. Compared to 1940, investment has more than doubled. In the current five‐year plan, new large factories are being built in the region, huge funds are being invested in the expansion of existing enterprises, and large‐scale work is being carried out to reconstruct rail and water transport.

The draft directives for the fifth five‐year plan for the development of the USSR provide for the commissioning of large hydroelectric power plants, including the Gorkovskaya on the Volga. It must be admitted that for some time this construction lagged behind due to our fault and the fault of the Ministry of Power Plants, which allowed a significant rise in the cost of construction and installation work. In 1951 and this year, builders are more successful in meeting production targets. Huge equipment is concentrated on construction, a large team of workers, engineering and technical workers is working; among them are over 1,200 communists, 1,300 Komsomol members. The construction has already commissioned 100 thousand square meters. m of living space, 5 schools, 8 childrenʹs institutions, 6 clubs and cinemas, a stadium, medical institutions and dozens of shops have been built. Woodworking and mechanical repair plants are operating at full capacity.

This largest structure will be put into operation at the countryʹs operating enterprises within the time frame set by the Party and the Government. In many districts of the Gorky Region, a long‐distance super‐power transmission line Kuibyshev ‐ Moscow will run. The construction trust organized for this purpose is successfully fulfilling the tasks of the Government.

But along with the great growth of industry, transport and construction and the fulfillment of state plans in general, many industrial enterprises and construction organizations of the Gorky region are unable to cope with the fulfillment of state tasks. The reserves of operating enterprises are still poorly used in our country, and the production of low‐quality products is taking place. In some factories, inertia is manifested in the introduction of new technology and advanced experience. There are many other major shortcomings, which were pointed out in his report by Comrade. Malenkov.

The timber industry occupies an important place in the economy of the Gorky Region. As you know, the timber industry is lagging behind in the country. The lagging behind this branch of the economy, in particular in our region, is explained primarily by the insufficient leadership of regional organizations. But itʹs not only that. About 16 million cubic meters of forest are harvested in the region, of which the Ministry of Forestry does not exceed 4 million, and 12 million cubic meters are harvested by 57 other ministries and departments with 250 organizations and 1,500 logging sites. For example, the USSR Ministry of Light Industry, which harvests only 120 thousand cubic meters of timber, has 29 logging organizations in the region. In the Krasnobakovsky district of our region, 34 organizations are engaged in logging.

Such dispersion of the logging fund does not make it possible to establish proper order in the timber industry, organize permanent bases, build roads, and secure forest tracts for a long time to the main loggers. Mismanagement of logging leads to large non‐productive costs and high cost of timber. The average cost of one cubic meter of timber costs self‐procurement workers almost twice as much as the enterprises of the Ministry of Forestry.

The regional party committee and the regional executive committee have repeatedly raised this issue. Last year, a special commission was created, which basically agreed with our proposal to streamline the logging business in the Gorky Region. However, the issue remained unresolved.

In the USSR State Planning Committee, some employees still support the departmental claims of individual ministries and thereby violate state interests. Ministries and departments do not agree to transfer their bases to the Ministry of Forestry, stating that the Minister of Forestry, Comrade Orlov, will not provide them with timber. But this explanation is flimsy. Last year, for example. The Ministry of Transport Engineering handed over its timber industry, and now it is one of the best in the system of the Ministry of Forestry.

We need to put things in order in the industrial exploitation of forests in our region, as well as in some other regions of the country. It is much easier to harvest timber in the Gorky region, where there is a developed railway and water transport, than in remote areas of the country. But you cannot harvest the forest at any cost, wastelessly, not in a stateowned way.

There is also a lot of disorder in the issue of cooperation between industrial enterprises. The USSR State Planning Committee admits shortcomings in its planning work, as evidenced by numerous facts. Plant ʺKrasnoe Sormovoʺ them. Zhdanova takes out ingots for rolling to the plant of her ministry in the mountains. Kulebaki is hundreds of kilometers away, and located next to the mountains. Kulebaki The Vyksa Metallurgical Plant of the Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy exports the same ingots for rolling to a metallurgical plant in the mountains. Bitter. Another example. The Sormovo plant exports ingots to the Leningrad plants named after Kirov and Izhora, and Leningrad enterprises supply the same metal to the Gorky plant ʺKrasnaya Etnaʺ. The Sormovo plant receives rental for tractor track shoes from the Urals, makes only cutting and simple drilling of holes and sends it to many regions of the country, including back to the Urals. Even firewood is delivered to the Gorky region from the Kirov region ‐ 800 km away. At the same time, the Gorky Region exported millions of cubic meters of firewood to other parts of the country.

The successful fulfillment of the tasks facing the party is inextricably linked with the development of criticism and self‐criticism. I believe that the periodic convening of the economic assets of the industrial ministries should be resumed. Economic assets in the ministries should be conducted in a businesslike manner, with the participation of the party organizers of the Central Committee, secretaries of party committees, as well as heads of the corresponding departments of regional committees and the Central Committee of the party. Criticism from below will help ministries to improve enterprise governance.

Comrades, along with the growth of industry and agriculture, the material well‐being of the working people is steadily increasing. In the post‐war years alone, about 900 thousand square meters were commissioned in the region. m of living space and more than a million square meters to be built over the years of the new five‐year plan.

During the years of the Stalinist five‐year plans, the city of Gorky turned into one of the largest industrial and cultural centers of our country. The government from year to year increases allocations for the development of the city economy, for the further serious expansion of the cultural and social construction of the city. Retail turnover has significantly expanded in the region. Compared to the pre‐war level, the sale of butter, meat, sugar, fish products, etc. to the population has increased significantly.

The culture has grown significantly. There are 13 universities in the region, including a university and a polytechnic institute, 62 technical schools with 47 thousand students. There are a large number of scientific institutions. There are 3.327 schools with 516 thousand students and more than 23 thousand teachers in the region. Hundreds of new schools are to be built during the current five‐year plan. Much work on the communist education of the masses is carried out through cultural and educational institutions. There are 4 palaces of culture, 1.419 clubs, 1.529 libraries with a book fund of about 11 million copies, 16 museums, 9 theaters and a large number of reading rooms and red corners in the region.

The Central Committee of the Party, Comrade Stalin personally, render great assistance to the Gorky Party organization, timely reveal mistakes and shortcomings in the work of the Regional Party Committee. The decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) ʺOn shortcomings in the work of the Gorky regional committee of the CPSU (b)ʺ caused a great upsurge in the party organization: the communists began to expose the shortcomings more sharply and increased their demands on regional organizations and their leading cadres.

The regional party organization, discussing the directives for the fifth five‐year plan, approved them and made some amendments and additions to the published projects, which were reported to the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). At party meetings, assets and conferences of the region, 29 thousand members and candidates of the party spoke on this issue. The Communists expressed their determination to devote all their strength to the fulfillment of the five‐year plan and to mobilize the masses of the working people to fulfill the great Stalinist program of building communism in our country.

Together with our entire glorious party, the Gorky regional party organization has grown significantly over the past years, has become ideologically tempered and organizationally strengthened. It came to the 19th Party Congress even more united, fully devoted to the Leninist‐Stalin Central Committee, our genius leader and teacher, Comrade Stalin. (Applause.)

Compared to 1939, the regionʹs party organization has grown almost 3 times. In 1939, only 11,000 party members and candidates worked in industry and transport, and now there are more than 62,000. In 1939, there were only 6,532 communists with higher and secondary education in the ranks of the regional party organization; now ‐ about 34 thousand. At the present time, about 80 percent of the leading party and Soviet workers have higher, incomplete higher and secondary education. More than half of all the secretaries of district and city party committees received higher and incomplete higher political education in party schools created by the Central Committee of the party.

Let me assure you that the Gorky party organization, on the basis of raising the level of party organizational and ideological work, will ensure the fulfillment of the tasks that will be entrusted to us by the historic decisions of the 19th Congress of the great Communist Party.

Long live the inspirer and organizer of all our victories, beloved leader and wise teacher, Comrade Stalin! (Prolonged applause.)