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

October 7th

(Evening meeting)

Presiding L.M. Kaganovich.

The meeting concluded the discussion of the reports of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU (b). The congress unanimously adopts a resolution on the report of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b).

At the meeting, speeches of foreign guests of the congress begin.

A.N. Egorov, (Karelo‐Finnish SSR)

Comrades! The period passed by our party after the XVIII Congress is full of such events and deeds, the historical significance of which cannot be overestimated. The years of the Great Patriotic War against German fascism have passed. Even in the most difficult days of failures at the front, caused by the treacherous attack of the enemy on our territory, the Soviet people did not lose faith in victory, in the triumph of our just cause. We won a great victory, destroyed the enemy, saved the world from the threat of fascist oppression. Peopleʹs democracy triumphed in a number of European countries and in China, opening a new path to a free and happy life for many hundreds of millions of ordinary people.

In the shortest possible time, our country, having found the necessary internal resources, rebuilt the economy, which had suffered from the war, and especially in the regions that were under occupation. The fourth (first post‐war) five‐year plan for the restoration and development of the national economy of the USSR was fulfilled by industry ahead of schedule ‐ in 4 years and 3 months. The tremendous successes in eliminating the consequences of the war made it possible in the fifth five‐year plan, the directives of which will be discussed and approved by this congress, to set before the country gigantic tasks for the further development of the national economy and more rapid movement forward, from socialism to communism.

In the years since the 18th Congress, the Bolshevik Party has become even closer to the people. The socialist consciousness of the millions of working people has grown. This found a particularly vivid expression in the unprecedented political activity and labor upsurge, which manifested itself in the days preceding the 19th Party Congress, in the liveliest participation of the masses in the discussion of the documents of the Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks for the Party Congress, especially the draft directives on the fifth five‐year plan for the development of the USSR. This plan, which determines the paths for the further development of our Motherland, says what every Soviet person would like to say. Soviet people sincerely and confidently express their firm readiness to go only forward, along the path of building communism.

Our Communist Party has become more monolithic, cohesive than ever, its leading and organizing role in all economic, political and cultural life has risen immeasurably. Its ideological level has significantly increased, as evidenced primarily by the widespread discussion in the party of the Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) for the congress, as well as the reports and elections of party bodies that have demonstrated the enormous activity of the Communists, their deep understanding of the tasks of party politics, our country.

We owe all these results of the struggle and labor of the Party and the people after the XVIII Congress to the correct and wise policy of the Central Committee of the Party, to the brilliant leadership of our beloved leader and teacher, Comrade Stalin. (Applause.)

The years that have passed since the 18th Party Congress have convincingly shown to the whole world again and again that the historically formed leading nucleus of our Party, headed by Comrade Stalin, is firmly and unshakably, in spite of any difficulties, victoriously leading us to the triumph of communism.

Wherever you look at the vastness of our vast Motherland, outstanding great transformations, the mighty growth of Soviet people are visible everywhere and everywhere. The unprecedented scale of peaceful economic construction is embodied in the Stalinist construction projects of communism on the Volga, Dnieper and Amu Darya. The first of these projects is the Volga‐Don Canal named after V.I. Lenin ‐ has already entered service. At these construction sites, Soviet people appear before us as the bearer of new, remarkable qualities, as the creator of communism.

The Karelian‐Finnish Soviet Republic is growing and gaining strength in the fraternal family of the peoples of the Soviet Union. She lives a full‐blooded creative life. For a long time already, not a trace of what defined it as a remote outskirt of Russia has remained in Karelia. The timber industry has developed on a large scale, which is highly equipped with modern Soviet technology and annually supplies the Soviet Union with millions of cubic meters of timber. The paper industry already in the past, 1951, produced almost 3 times more paper than in the pre‐war 1940. Fish production is growing every year; in 1951 it exceeded the pre‐war level by 54.5 percent. The social economy of collective farms is developing. Along with the development of the republicʹs economy, its culture is growing, national in form, socialist in content. The number of schools, clubs, reading rooms, cinema installations is constantly increasing, the number of libraries is growing. The republic has a State University and a Pedagogical Institute. Now the number of students in higher educational institutions of the republic has increased in comparison with 1940 more than 2 times. The number of technical schools and other secondary specialized educational institutions in the postwar years has doubled, and the number of students in them ‐ almost 4 times. A branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences has been established and is operating in the republic.

In its work, the Communist Party of the Karelo‐Finnish Republic daily feels the attention and care of the Central Committee of the Party, personally of Comrade Stalin. We constantly receive the necessary assistance with material, technical and financial means, which allows the republic to overcome the existing difficulties and confidently move forward. Nowadays, administrative districts have been created in the republic, which will make it possible to bring the leadership of party and Soviet bodies closer to the economy and culture, and most importantly, to accelerate the growth of personnel.

The Central Committee of the party was deeply involved in the work of the Communist Party of the republic: in 1944 and 1950. The Central Committee of the CPSU (b) heard the reports of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and in July of this year the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) listened to the report of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the republic on work with cadres.

Studying the work of the Communist Party of the Republic, the Central Committee of the Party rendered us invaluable assistance, helped to reveal serious mistakes and shortcomings in the work and indicated ways to eliminate them.

The Central Committee of the Party cements our organization, educates it, teaches it to be more combat‐ready and vigilant in resolving all questions of the life of the republic. The communists of the KareloFinnish SSR are sincerely grateful to the Central Committee of the party, personally to Comrade Stalin for their paternal concern for increasing the fighting efficiency of the ranks of the Communist Party of the republic and improving the leadership of political, economic and cultural life.

Now, in the light of the plans of the fifth five‐year plan, the republic, as well as the entire Soviet Union, face enormous tasks for the further development of the national economy. In connection with the relocation of the countryʹs logging to the Karelo‐Finnish SSR, as one of the many‐forested regions, the growth in the export of industrial timber in the Karelo‐Finnish Republic, according to preliminary data, will be 3 times more and will amount to 168 percent, with an increase in the export throughout the Union as a whole by 56 percent. Paper production will increase by about 169 percent, including newsprint by 370 percent. Fish production will increase by 133 percent.

To successfully solve all these problems, it is necessary, of course, to put an end to the still continuing lag in the rates of development of the republicʹs economy as soon as possible; to ensure that the forestry, paper and fishing industries, as well as agriculture, work at the level and above the state plans and targets. There are all conditions and opportunities for such work in the republic. This was said quite convincingly by the Communists at the past reporting and election party meetings, party conferences and at the III Congress of the Communist Party of the Republic.

It is necessary that the party organization of the republic, all its leading cadres increase responsibility for the task entrusted to them, manage the economy concretely and with knowledge of the matter, have a strong and inextricable connection with the rank and file communists and the broad masses of the working people, listen sensitively to their voices, develop and lead criticism and self‐criticism in every possible way. , especially criticism from below, strictly adhered to the party principle of selection of personnel based on business and political qualities. The party organizations of the republic are obliged to work daily and tirelessly to further raise the ideological level of the communists, to educate the broad masses of the republicʹs working people in a communist way. This will allow us to soon eliminate the lag in the pace of development of the republicʹs economy.

At the same time, it must be emphasized that the elimination of the lagging behind of the republic and the provision of faster rates of its development largely depend on the assistance that should be provided by the union ministries of the Karelo‐Finnish SSR. However, not all is well here.

In connection with the growing role of the timber industry in the national economy of not only the republic, but also the entire Soviet Union, it is necessary to take up the organization of the integrated use of forest resources as a priority task; a wide network of various enterprises should be organized on the basis of the use of all kinds of waste that are generated during logging, sawmilling and wood processing. Suffice it to say that the residues remaining at the site of logging in the form of stumps, twigs and apex only at the enterprises of the Ministry of Forestry of the Republic are (meaning the achieved level of logging) 1.5‐2 million cubic meters. In addition, so‐called illiquid firewood remains in the forest, the amount of which is estimated at hundreds of thousands of cubic meters. Only at the sawmills of the republic, which are part of the system of the USSR Ministry of Forestry, waste in the form of sawdust, cuttings annually reach over two hundred thousand cubic meters. The paper industry also has a lot of valuable waste.

Based on the use of logging waste, waste from sawmills and wood processing enterprises, it is possible and necessary to build hydrolysis, sulfite‐alcohol plants, enterprises of the rosin‐extraction industry, organize the production of synthetic camphor, various wood‐based panels, plates and many other products and chemical products. Unfortunately, the exploitation of forest resources is going wrong in many ways. This is primarily the responsibility of the Ministry of the Forest Industry and the Ministry of the Paper and Wood Processing Industry of the USSR.

Back in 1949, the Union government provided for the construction of new hydrolysis and sulfite‐alcohol plants at the paper industry in the Karelo‐Finnish Republic by 1952. But this directive remained unfulfilled. The Ministry of the Paper and Wood Processing Industry of the USSR built only the first stage of the hydrolysis plant.

It is necessary in every possible way to speed up the construction of hydrolysis plants based on the use of sawmill waste and, first of all, to fulfill the decree of the Union government on the construction of sulfitealcohol plants at paper mills; in the shortest possible time to study and practically solve the issue of building factories in the forest, which would be designed not only for the harvesting and removal of timber, but also for the complete mechanical, chemical and energy processing of the entire logging fund, bearing in mind the use of all waste.

The Karelo‐Finnish Republic has a large raw material base for the development of the stone‐mining and stone‐processing industry, which can meet the needs of many regions and republics of the USSR with high‐quality and beautiful facing material, rubble stone, crushed stone and various materials for paving.

With the completion of the reconstruction of the Volga‐Baltic waterway, Karelian stone, granite and marble will have a wide access by waterway to Moscow, to the cities of the Upper and Lower Volga regions, to the regions of the Volga‐Don shipping channel. This will provide significant savings in public funds, reduce the cost of delivering stone to various cities.

Huge opportunities for the development of the stone‐mining and stoneprocessing industry and the richest deposits of facing and building materials are used in the republic on an extremely limited scale. This is primarily the fault of the USSR Ministry of Construction Materials Industry, which until recently did not restore the Soyuzkamnegranit trust that existed before the war.

The Communist Party of the Karelo‐Finnish Republic, like our entire party, came to the 19th Congress of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) closely rallied around the Lenin‐Stalinist Central Committee of the party, around Stalinʹs own comrade. She is capable of fighting in a militant manner, with a new exertion of her strength and dedication to work on the successful implementation of the great Stalinist plans of communist construction, which were developed in the program speech of the leader I.V. Stalin on February 9, 1946.

The guiding star for the entire Party in its further activities to build communism in our country is Comrade Stalinʹs brilliant work ʺEconomic Problems of Socialism in the USSR.ʺ This work instills new confidence in the triumph of the great ideas of Marx ‐ Engels ‐ Lenin ‐ Stalin about the inevitable death of the capitalist system and the complete victory of communism.

The tasks of the Communist Party, expounded with exhaustive clarity by Comrade Malenkov in the report of the Central Committee, will become a militant program in the heroic creative work of the Party in leading the building of communism in the USSR.

Long live our great, heroic party of Lenin‐Stalin!

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