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TRIBUNE SUPPLEMENT

USSR: ao eee 10
a peaceful and better future

STC TR RR AA 1

Summary of the political report of the CPSU
Central Committee to the 27th CPSU Congress
Delivered by M.S. Gorbachyov, February 25, 1986

MOSCOW — ‘‘The 27th Congress of
_ the CPSU has gathered at an abrupt
turning point in the life of the country
and the contemporary world as a
whole’, said Mikhail Gorbachyov,
general secretary of the CPSU Central
Committee, February 25, delivering the
political report of the CPSU Central
Committee at the party’s congress. He
pointed out that the documents dis-
cussed at the congress would speak of
“‘what the Soviet Union will be like as
_ it enters the 21st century, of the image
of socialism and its positions in the
international arena, of the future of
humanity.”’

“The path travelled by the country,
its economic, social and cultural
_ achievements, convincingly confirm the
vitality of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine,
and socialism’s tremendous potential as
embodied in the progress of Soviet
_ society. We can be legitimately proud of
everything that has been achieved in
these years ... ,’” Gorbachyov said.

While duly commending the achieve-
- ments, he continued, the leadership of
_ the CPSU considers it to be its duty to
_ tell the party and the people honestly
and frankly about the deficiencies in our
political and practical activities, the
unfavourable tendencies in the economy
and the social and moral sphere, and
about the reasons for them.

Noting that today’s priority task is
to overcome the negative factors in
society’s socio-economic development as
rapidly as possible, Gorbachyov said
that the situation came to a turning
point not only in internal but also in
external affairs. The modern world is
complicated, diverse and dynamic, and
shot through with contending tendencies
and contradictions. It is a world of the
‘most intricate alternatives, anxieties and
hopes.

Noting that the progress of the pres-
ent day is rightly identified with social-
ism, the general secretary characterised
world socialism as a ‘‘powerful inter-
national entity’’. ‘‘It accounts for more

than one-third of humanity, for dozens

of countries and peoples opening up in
every way the intellectual and moral
wealth of man and society.”’
“Social progress is expressed in the
development of the international com-
munist and working-class movement
and in the growth of the new massive
democratic movement of our time,
including the anti-war and anti-nuclear
movement’’, Gorbachyov continued.
“Tt is apparent, too, in the stratification
of the political forces of the capitalist
world, notably the USA, the metropoli-

tan centre of imperialism. Here, pro-:

gressive tendencies are forcing their
way forward through a system of mono-
polistic totalitarianism, exposed to
the continuous pressure of organised
reactionary forces... ”’

Stressing that the progress of human-
ity is directly connected with scientific
and technological progress, Gorbachyov

pointed out that the facets and conse--

quences of the scientific and technolog-
ical revolution varied in the different
socio-political systems. ‘‘The capitalism
of the 1980s, the capitalism of the age
of electronics and computer science,
computers and robots, is leaving more
millions of people, including young and
educated people, without jobs’’, the
report says.

The general secretary of the CPSU
Central Committee described in detail
the principal contradictions of the con-
temporary world, including the internal
contradictions of capitalist society. He
described as the most important those
contradictions connected with relations
between the states belonging to two
systems.

While capitalism regarded the birth of
socialism as an ‘‘error’’ of history which
must be ‘‘rectified’’ at any cost, by any
means, socialism, as distinct from capi-
talism, has never, of its own free will,
related its future to any military solution
of international problems, the Soviet
leader pointed out. However, the ruling
circles of the imperialist countries today
circulate the myth of a Soviet or com-
munist ‘‘threat’’ for the purpose of jus-

Mikhail Gorbachyov: “We can be
legitimately proud of what we have
achieved in these years.”

tifying the arms race and the imperialist
countries’ own agressiveness.
Although it is becoming increasingly
clear that the path of war can yield no
sensible solutions, either international or
domestic, it is not easy at all, in the cur-
rent circumstances, to predict the future
of relations between the socialist and the
capitalist countries, the USSR and the
USA. The decisive factors here will be
the correlation of forces on the world
scene, the growth and activity of the
peace potential, and its capability of

World socialism is a powerful
international entity . ..
Opening up in every way the
intellectual and moral wealth
of man and society

effectively repulsing the threat of
nuclear war. Much will depend, too, on
the degree of realism that Western rul-
ing circles will show in assessing the
situation. ‘‘With nuclear war being
totally unacceptable, peaceful coexis-
tence rather than confrontation of the
systems should be the rule in inter-state
relations’’, Gorbachyov said.

The political report of the CPSU
Central Committee identified the global
contradictions affecting the very foun-
dations of the existence of civilisation,
such as those of pollution of the envi-
ronment, the air and oceans, and the
exhaustion of natural resources. ‘‘The

All eyes and ears were
focussed on Mikhail
Gorbachyov as he
delivered the CPSU
Central Committee
report to the
Congress. Present in
the huge Kremlin
Palace of Congresses
were 4,993 delegates
and invited
delegations of
Communist, Workers,
Socialist, Social
Democratic and
National Democratic
parties and liberation
movements from over
110 countries.

‘can and must be achieved’’.

global problems, affecting all humanity;
cannot be resolved by one state or group
of states’’, Gorbachyov stressed. ‘‘This”
calls for cooperation on a worldwide
scale, for close and constructive joint | j)
action by the majority of countries”: —

On the CPSU’s domestic policys | jj
Mikhail Gorbachyov said that the str@ |} ¢
tegic course of the party and the people ie et
was the acceleration of the countrys |} ,
socio-economic development. “‘Accelet- |} g
ation of the country’ s socio-economle |}
development is the key to all oul |
problems: immediate and long-term, —
economic and social, political and ide0-
logical, international and external’’, he
explained. ‘‘That is the only way a neW |}
qualitative condition of Soviet society |}} ,,

Speaking about the results of the
socio-economic development of thé ||
country, Gorbachyov said that in the |}
quarter of a century since the adoptiom ||| .
in 1961 of the third CPSU programme |
the fixed production assets of the econ |
omy had increased seven times over. The
national income went up nearly 300 pe
cent, industrial production — 400 pet
cent. Over the same period real per caP- | }
ita income had gone up 160 per cent: |}
Fifty-four million flats were built. The
transition had been completed to univel—
sal secondary education. The number of
people who finished higher educational
establishments increased fourfold. «= jk}

Mikhail Gorbachyov also identified@ | |
number of shortcomings and outstande= &
ing questions of the USSR’s economie
development. He said, in particular, that
difficulties began to build up in the
economy in the 1970s, with the rates of
economic growth declining visibly. AS
a result, the output of most types 0! —
industrial and agricultural goods fell |
short of the targets set in the past fivé- |}
year period (1981-1985). di

The general secretary analysed thé
reasons behind this and called for draw” |
ing most serious lessons. The most
important of them are a responsible
analysis of the past, a sense of purposé
and resolve in practical actions, al
winning the working people’s interes!”
morally and materially.

“Today, the prime task of the pari :
and the entire people’, Gorbachy0Y
said, ‘‘is to resolutely reverse thé
unfavourable tendencies in the develoP”
ment of the economy, to give it the
necessary dynamism . she

Speaking about the prospects of the
USSR’s economic and social develop”
ment by the end of the current century; —
the speaker pointed out that ‘‘we intel!
to increase national income nearly two
fold, while doubling the productio®
potential and qualitatively transforming
it. Labour productivity will go up bY
2.3-2.5 times, energy consumption po!
rouble of national income will drop bY
28.6 per cent, and metal consumptio®
by nearly 50 per cent”’

Among the top BEGLEY tasks Gor qi
bachyov mentioned the problem of fullY |
meeting the USSR’s food needs. With
this in view it is planned to more thal
double the growth rate of agricultural
production. The key to succéss in ths |
sphere lies in large-scale application 9 |
intensive technologies, while reduciN® —
crop and livestock produce losses is the
most immediate source of augmentiné
food stocks.

The report devoted a great deal of |