The Soviet Union
Is striding ahea

HE 20th Congress of the
Communist Party of the So-
viet Union will stand out in the
‘history of the party and of the
_ struggle for peace and for soci-
alism. :

It was the congress of bold

critical re-evaluation of the
_ work of the party’s leadership in
‘the fields of both theory and
practise; which signalized a ra-
dical change in class political
relationships on a world scale;
which signalized, concretely by
its decisions upon immediate
questions both political and eco-
-homic, the opening up of what
: Will be the decisive stage of the
advance of people’s democracy
- and socialism to numerical and
; material as well as_ historical
: superiority over capitalism.
; The congress registered fur-
, ther tremendous achievements
_in the development of :socialist
industry, agriculture, and tech-
nique and in advancing the liv-
-ing standards of the Soviet
, people.
; The Fifth Five-Year Plan was
‘completed eight months ahead
.of schedule and overfulfilled
‘With its completion industrial
‘output in 1955 was 85 percent
| greater than in 1950 instead of
‘ the 70 percent planned. The pro-
‘ duction of means of production
was increased 91 percent, of con-
» Sumer goods 75 percent.
The living standards of the
, people rose considerably more
. than had been anticipated.
Real wages of workers in in-
' dustry increased 39 percent and
- incomes of collective farmers 50
; percent.
Consumption of meat in 1955
' was two and a fifth times the
i consumption in 1950, butter
} consumption increased 58 per-
’ eent, wearing apparel 98 per-
i cent, footwear, 68 percent, pur-
‘ chases of furniture’ more than
three times the 1950 volume.
; The population: of the Soviet
Union increased by 16,300,000
+ between 1950-55. :
One of the most significant
: features of the big advance dur-
ing 1950-55 was that of rising
' labor productivity. Nikita
; Khrushchev, first secretary of
; the Soviet Sommunist party,
! pointed out in his report that
| “higher productivity accounted

for more than two-thirds of the |

' ? total increase of industrial pro-
| duction during ‘the Fifth Five-
Year Plan.” <%=:

The need for a radical increase
of the areas devoted to the rais-
ing of corn for livestock feed and
of industrial crops was met.

i In 1955 the aréa sown'to corn
in the Ukraine and the North
* Caucasus was expanded by more
than 30 million acres, with the

immediate result that livestock,

: raisers in the Trans-Caucasus
’ and the Ukraine started the win-
« ter of 1955-56 with 17 million
“tons more feed in their silos
than they had at the beginning
. of the. winter before.
‘ Wheat that traditionally has
' been grown in the Ukraine and
the Trans-Caucasus on land now
‘ being turned increasingly to
‘ crops of higher value, is being
now on the new virgin
funds of the eastern republics
» and Siberia.
- It is worthwhile to note that
_all the measures adopted in con-

\

BY TIM BUCK

nection with Soviet agriculture
mirror the contrast between the
problems of socialist agriculture
in the Soviet Union and the cri-
sis of capitalist agriculture in
Canada.

The problems of agriculture
in the Soviet Union derive from
the fact that the market has ex-
panded more rapidly than has
agricultural production. In Can-
ada the problem confronting the
farmers is exactly the opposite.

Seventy-five million acres of
virgin and long fallow land has
been brought into cultivation in
two years. The expansion is not
yet finished.» The successes a-
chieved show that large-scale
cultivation of wheat is practical
and very economical in parts of
Siberia, Kazakstan and _ the
Urals. :

In the name of the central

committee, Khrushchev called
for further expansion in the
Krasnoyarsk territory and the
Irkitsk Region (in each of which
gigantic hydro-electrical power,
mining and manufacturing de-
velopments are now in pro-
gress). He set the party’s sights
on the immediate target of an
average annual crop of 1,300,-
000,000 bushels of wheat from
the rich new lands.

Krushchey had warm words
of praise for 350,000 young patri-

ots who answered the party’s

call for volunteers to “bring vast
areas of the virgin lands under
the plough.”
He pointed out to the con-
gress: — s
“Had we undertaken to de-
velop the virgin lands in the
usual way, by the gradual re-
settlement of people in the
new areas, we should have
required a ‘tremendous num-
ber of people, vast resources
and much time. Then of
course, we should not have
been able to solve the pro-
blem of ploughing up 30 mil-
lion hectares of new lands
within two years.” (The actual
acreage ploughed was 33 mil-
lion hectares or~ 82 million
acres.) :
The stormy applause with
which the 1,350 delegates greet-
ed his words of praise testified
warmly to the enthusiasm with
which the Soviet people are
watching the -exploits of the
350,000 pioneers who are trans-

forming what used to be con-.

sidered useless regions into the
bread backef of the Soviet

Union.
*

The foregoing gives only the
most sketchy ideas of the tre-
mendous achievements during
the Fifth Five-Year Plan. The
advances made during that peri-
od in every field of social acti-
vity could be described only in
a booklet.

Within the necessary limits of
this article it is impossible to
do justice to the advances of the
past five years, intensely inter-
esting though they are, because
the vital and dynamic feature of
the 20th Congress was the man-
ner in which it came to grips
with the problems that are new
and the tasks of still further

‘development.

Its treatment of those: prob-
lems can be described correctly
by the words with which Krush-
chev outlined the approach of

~
;

Ps

production of 110 million tons.

: This is how Soviet production of steel will increase by 1960
under the Sixth Five Year Plan, closing the gap with U.S. kteel

LPP national leader reports on
the Twentieth Congress of the
Communist Party of Soviet Union

the central committee since the

19th Congress:

“. . it boldly uncovered
shortcomings in different
fields of economic, govern-
mental and party activity,
-broke down outdated con;
ceptions, resolutely sweeping
aside everything that had be-
come outmoded and was hind-
ering our advance.”

* 4

At. the centre of the historic
contributions the 20th Congress
made to the struggle for world
peace and democratic advance
to socialism, was its emphasis
upon the decisive new charac-
teristic feature of world political
relationships, described by the
congress’ resolution in these
words: ;

“The main feature of ‘our
epoch is the emergence of so-
cialism from the boundaries of
one country and its transform-
ation into a world system,
with capitalism powerless to
hamper this  world-historic
process.”

The situation described by
that statement marks a qualita-
tive change. The developments
which brought that qualitative
change into being are still in
progress. Two main diametrical-
ly opposed trends are now clear-
ly defined in the world.

To paraphrase the congress re-
solution: the more aggressive
circles of the imperialists are
seeking to crush the working
class, democratic and national

liberation movements, to under-

mine the camp of socialism and

re-establish imperialistic dom-
ination of the world.

Their reckless pursuit: of
“brink of war” policies has the
aim of atomic war against the
lands of people’s democracy and
socialism. They have not suc-
ceeded so far in securing suf-
ficient support among the dem
ocratic people in the capHalieha
countries to enable them to
launch a war against the grow-
ing might of the socialist sector
of the world. :

In the meantime, the narrow-
ing sphere of imperialist domin-

‘ation is wracked by profound

imperialist contradictions.

Disintegration of the colonial.

system is a world historic fea-

ture of the postwar years. Com-
plete abolition of the colonial
system is now a definite and.

relatively short term prospect.

Capitalism is headed towards
new economic and social up-
heavals. The working class in
the capitalist countries is “fight-
ing back” in defense of its ele-
mentary needs on an everwiden-
ing scale and with growing mili-
tancy.

The general, historical crisis
of capitalism continues to deep-
en. ;
On the other hand the forces
fighting for peace and security

for the peoples are growing

steadily and becoming stronger.

A far-flung zone pf peace has
emerged comprising both socia-
list and non-socialist peace-

loving countries in Europe and
Asia and embracing more than |
half of the population of the
globe. 2

The new period of world his-
tory foreseen by Lenin has set
in—the period when the peoples
of the East are taking an active
part in deciding the destinies of
the world and are becoming a
new, powerful factor in interna- |
tional relations.

The democratic forces of the
people have become an increas-
ingly important factor, their in-
fluence turns the balance on the
side of peace. With the con-
tinued increase in the strength
and the attraction of socialism
the immeasurable democratic
forces of the people can become
decisive—in the issue of peace
or war and all other political
issues:

I make no excuse for the
length of this summary because,
out of the galaxy of political
facts quoted by Khruschev, Mol-
otov and numerous other speak-
ers, the congress drew conclu-
sions which will exert a pro-
found influence on the destinies
of all peoples.

*

‘On the basis of its profound
Leninist analysis of the new re-
lationship of political forces the
congress gave unequivocal an-
swers to the fundamental ques-
tions the new relationships are
bringing forward — particularly
concerning the peaceful coexis-
tence of states with differing so-
cial and economic systems, the
possibility of preventing im-
perialist war and the new forms
in which the’ transition from
capitalism to socialism may be
made in this period.

Concerning peaceful coexis-
tence, Khrushchev and Molotov
each pointed out quite bluntly .
that it is not a tactical proposal,
but “a fundamental principle of

_ Soviet foreign policy.”

Khrushchev said that “as a
matter of principle we renounce
any policy that might lead to
millions of people being plunged
into. war to serve the selfish in-
terests of a handful of million-

salres, ..

“Building communism in our
country, we are resolutely
against war. We have always
held and continue to hold that
the establishment of a new so-
cial system in one or another
country is the internal affair of
the peoples of the countries con-
cerned, This is our attitude based
on the .great Marxist-Leninist
teaching . . . Indeed, there are
only two ways; either peaceful
coexistence or the most destruc-
tive war in history. There is no
third way.”

Those simple forthright words
state the most forceful of all the
reasons why men and women of
goodwill, in Canada—and in all
countries — should work more |
strongly for national policies
based’ upon the principle of
peaceful coexistence.

The report of the central com- —
mittee and the resolution of the
congress each emphasized main-
ly the advantages of peaceful co- —
existence—for the people in the
capitalist countries no less than _
for those of the socialist coun-
Tries so

But the address of Minister of
National Defense Marshal Zhu--
kov showed clearly that Khrush-
chev’s warning that “the most
destructive war in history” 1S
the only alternative to peaceful
coexistence, stated the fact
very conservative terms. $

Zhukov testified to the pre-
paredness of the Soviet peoples -
if the mad dogs of imperialism
should unleash war against
them. His speech was vivid ev1-
dence of the fact that if the
peoples allow such a war to be ~
started, no country and n0 —
peoples of the earth will be im-
mune from its devasting effects.

Those deluded individuals

who are still victims of Senator’ —

‘Styles Bridges’ ignorant dema- —
gogy that “other people’s boys

APRIL 20, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 8