troduced. A big was built up and th boilers, agriculturay and the iron and st was started during t} Fe NE. that the war is over it is possible to get a complete picture of industrial building in the USSR during the four years of the great conflict. This new construc- tion program, which exceeded in scale even the tremendous. build- ing undertaken during the years of the five year plans, played a tremendous role in ensuring vic- tory of the Soviet people over the fascist invaders. Construction sites in the US SR were like battlefields in an economic war which had to show which was stronger—the econ- omy Hitler Germany built up on the industrial resources and raw materials of occupied countries in Europe, or the young Soviet industry built up by the five- year plans. In the end, Soviet economy proved stronger. By 1948, the advantages which Hitler Ger- Reconversion inthe USSR by K. Semenov The importance of has grown beyond and it has become a branches of ‘the natio; Z in Central Asia. In the manufacture of ammunition to serve of the army, Uzbekit production of machine trical equipment and Construction of iro; plants, the opening of- and the building of }- electric power statio under way, and offe prospects for the fu} ie bek industry. (HANGES of paray portance have take many had in tanks and aircraft the industries of -we : had been overcome. From that beria. Siberia is maki time, Soviet qualitative and her tremendous nat quantitative superiority in all sources and has deye forms of armaments underwent a constant increase. coal, iron and steel, — ferrous metal industri ~ same time introduc — branches, armaments, heavy machines, - mz electric lamps, presses, equipment and other in | The middle reache The great and significant pro- cesses’ which took place in So- viet economy can best be ap- preciated if we remember that at the beginning of the war, the Soviet Union was deprived of Street Repairs .in Leningrad Ukrainian metal and coal, iron - ore, Manganese and engineering plants. New industries were in- tended to compensate for these losses and increase the “output capacity of Soviet industry. 5 Baas Soviet people love building and are skilled builders. Dur- ing the period of the five-year plans they built up big industry which by 1937 had an output that exceeded Germany’s. Modern methods of industrial building developed in the USSR in the pre-war period proved of inesti- mate value during the war. A new construction program was carried out mainly in the east and central regions of the country, where industrial equip- ment was brought from the re- gions that were threatened with German occupation. In the sum- mer and autumn of 1941, the foundations of hundreds of new industrial enterprises were laid. all of which began to function within a few months. The severe winter of 1941-42, with its fierce blizzards and 40 degree frosts didn’t check building, which went on at an ever increasing speed. The development of high-speed production would have been impossible if the pace hadn’t been forced in building iron and steel, coal and electric power concerns. \ The biggest funds and great- est number of workers were al- loted to these industries. The biggest capital investments were made in the Urals and Siberia. Long before the war in these parts, new centers of heavy in- dustry had been built up and equipped on a very high tech- nieal level. Giant iron and steel combines, built during the five- year plan periods at Magnito- gorsk and Kuznetsk, and a num- ber of other first-class industrial concerns, were extended during the war by the addition of doz- ens of new blast furnaces and open hearth furnaces, rolling PACIFIC ADVOCATE— PAGE 109 mills, electric furnaces, ete. These were added to new industrial concerns, ferrous alloy plants in Siberia and Kazakhstan, Iron and steel rolling mills at Chely- abinsk jn the Urals, a huge com- bine for mining and refining rare metals in Kirghizia, Siberian Aluminum works and others. At the same time, new industrial centres in Uzekistan had iron and steel mills placed at their disposal. PARALLEL to this, the coal in- dustry was developed. About two hundred shafts were sunk in the eastern regions. Kuznetsk basin, which by 1936 was pro- ducing 22 times as much coal as in 19138, doubled its output by coking coal during the war. Coal output in the Urals and at Kraganda was almost doubled. Moscow coalfield, rebuilt after its destruction during the short German occupation, is now pro- ducing’* more than twice the amount of coal turned out before the war. A new coalfield has been Opened up at Pechorsk in the North. New coalfields have been started in the North Urals. Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Growing iron and steel snon- ferous metals, power and engin- eering industries were therefore provided with a reliable source of fuel supply. XCEPTIONALLY intensive. was the building of new pow- er stations. In 1943 alone, power stations with greater capacity than those opened up in 1940 started work in the Urals. Dure ing the war there was a 50 per cent increase in power output in the Kuznetsk Basin; the Urals Novosibirsk, Tashkent, and Kaz- an almost doubled their output while that of Omsk, Kuibshev. Karaganda, and Kransoyarsk were trebled or ‘increased to a still greater extent. Such huge inereases in iron, steel and coal industries, and in the output of electrical Bower provided the basis for further construction in all de- cisive: branches of industry. In addition to the large num- ber of enterprises built espe- cially for war purposes, large number of factories were built during the war that are of prime significance in further devel- oping the Soviet national econ- omy. Some of these are automo- bile plants at Miassa in the Urals, and at Ulanovsk on the Volga, tractor plants in Siberia. Altaietat, and Vladimir in Cen- tral Russia, factories for the ma- nufacture of combines and other big machines in Siberia, locqomo- bile plant at Syzranet, and many others. A huge Q-line is under con- struction from Saratov to Mos- cow to carry abundant natural gases in the Volga basin that AL reconstructed blast furnace of the Krematorsk Iron and Steel {were prospected during the great battle of Stalingrad. Extensive work has been be- gun to provide Leningtad with gas, using supplies of shale in Soviet Estonia and the Lenin- grad region. New industrial concerns built have completely changed the na- ture of many regions. New branches of industry grew up in the Urals during the war: Tank building, the manufacture of automobiles, aireraft motors, turbines, coal mining machinery. ball bearings, plastics, and cable production, manganeze and other branches of industry. Kazakhstan underwent great changes. Those branches of in- dustry built up there during the period of five-year plans, coal and non-ferrous mietals, were greatly extended and others in- Volga have been dey ; an important industri 4 An important featur ' new industrial develoy that it not only means in heavy industry, but ; vides the basis of texti tries in the east. Do n ton, wool, silk and a have been added to the ing. ii qt New industrial consty being carried on paral} work of industrial re i tion, which developed: | ately after the Red Arm | Soviet territory of thei | cccupation. Industria] i ; tion today is developin, { even larger scale to me: the losses suffered fror action during the war, : ensure further develop). the Soviet economy. : fos eae EN Te gente Works in Donets