NEW SOVIET PLAN Control of industry ecentralized to be d By SAM RUSSELL MOSCOW “he abolition by the end of June of 28 All-Union ministries was proposed by the Soviet government last week as part of a major decentralization of Soviet in- dustry. Only eight of the ministries concerned with industrial production and processing of raw materials are to be retained. to divide the country into 92 economic areas each controll- ed by an economic council. The proposals, put forward by Nikita Krushchev, first sec- retary of the Communist par- ty, In a four-hour speech in the Supreme Soviet, will bring management right to the point of production. Tt will result in a major ministerial migration from Moscow to the specialized centres of Soviet industrial production throughout the country. And it will have to be car- ried out at top speed in the next two months to be com- pleted by the end of June. Even those ministries which remain are to be radically re- organized, retaining only plan- ning functions and general technical control. In general the plan provides for the existing direction of industry to be replaced by control exercised by the eco- nomic councils and by control of local industry, which will be directly subordinated to the local city and regional Soviets. Khrushchev pointed out that the planned reorganization would mean-an enormous in-~ crease in the powers of the individual republics and that, apart from their economic im- portance, they were of major political significance. He dismissed all speculation by Western observers that the planned reorganization was evidence of an alleged crisis in Soviet economic planning. This was nonsense. It mark- ed a new stage in a further development of socialist econ- omy and was an indication of its superiority. It constituted further evi- dence of the truly democratic nature of the Soviet system and was a further justification ofits policy of centralized na- tional economic planning to- gether with democratic cen- tralism., He said that during the dis- eussion many justified critical remarks were made disclosing shortcomings in the work of ministries and government de- partments, including the plan- ning organizations, the govern- ment, the Communist party and the trade unions. “Some people may say,” Khrushchev continued, “why do we have to reorganize man- agements when our industry is working well? “Our industry is indeed coping very well with the ful- filment of the state plans and has tremendous achievements to its credit. “But it is precisely the rapid growth of industry and the un- precedented scope of construc- tion that makes it indispens- able to bring about a further improvement of methods of management. “The planned reorganization of industry and construction will help to eliminate many shortcomings which are now apparent, will bring direction closer to the point of produc- tion and will make it possible to tight bureaucracy more ef- ficiently.”” Khrushchev warned that re- organization by itself would not eliminate bureaucracy. This could only be assured by drawing more and more work- ing people into the manage- ment of industry and enabling them to exert more and more influence on public organiza- tions. He said a distinctive feat- ure of the discussion on the reorganization had been the aversion to complacency and conceit and the desire to com- bat “all symptoms of. inertia and stagnation, bureaucracy and departmental narrow- mindedness.” Bureaucracy had cost the scate thousands of millions of roubles a year. The number In place of the slashed ministries, it is proposed of administrators and bureau- crats in the Soviet Union totall- ed 850,000 men and cost the country 10,000 million roubles annually. There were too many Soviet citizens supervising other So- viet citizens at work. “Our job is to encourage pro- duction to the point where the worker does not need to have a supervisor standing behind him checking his work,” said Khrushchev. Khrushchev’s report opened debate in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on reorganization plans first published on March 30 and since discussed all over the country. How extensive this discus- sion has been was indicated by .Khrushchey when he disclos- ed that the reorganization plan was discussed at 514,000 meet- ings attended by 40,820,000 people, at industrial plants, building sites, scientific org- anizations, and offices as well as in the Soviet armed forces and collective and state farms. Over 2,300,000 men and wo- men participated in the discus- sion and submitted proposals for improving management of industry, and over 68,000 peo- ple took part in the discussion of the plan in the newspapers. USSR divided into 92 economic areas MOSCOW Details of the new Soviet plan for decentralized control of industry. are: The only All-Union indus- trial ministries to be retained are those in charge of aircraft production, shipbuilding, the radio industry, including elec- tronics, the chemical industry, medium machine building, and transport machinery. ~ Apart from that the ministry of defense industry is to be combined with the ministry of general machine building, and the ministry of electric power stations, which is headed by Georgi Malenkov, is to be combined with the ministry of electric power station construc- tion, In the republic, a ministry for the iron and steel industry, non-ferrous metals and coal- mining would be set up in the Russian Republic, an iron and steel and coal ministry in the Ukraine and a ministry for the oil industry in the Russian Republic and in Azerbaijan. But here, too, the decentrali- sation process would be carried through and the ministry for coalmining of the Russian Re- public would be located. in Kemerovo, the ministry for the oil.industry in Ufa or Kazan and the ministry for the iron and steel industry of the Rus- sian Republic in a town in the Urals. The state planning commit- tee of the USSR becomes the body which plans the whole of the country’s national econ- omy. National economic plans will be drafted in the 15 republics and the 92 economic areas. The state planning commit- tee will have to ensure the cor- rect and balanced development of the various branches of the country’s economy and check the plans of the representatives and economic areas from this point of view. Apart from pfeparing, the annual and five-year plans, the state planning committee will have to draft plans for much longer periods for the country as a whole and for individual branches of industry. a The tremendous growth of industry in all parts of the |. USSR is responsible for the Soviet government’s new plan for decentralizing control. TOP LEFT: A new blast furnace the Dzerzhinsky plant in Dneprodzerzhinsk. TOP RIGHT: © new cement factory in Rustavi, Georgian SSR. TOP CENTRE: The automated bearing plant in Moscow. BOTTOM CENTRE: The Izhorsk steel plant at Leningrad. BOTTOM: An auto” mated line at the Ordzhonikidze machine tool plant in MoscoW’ MAY 1%, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE ?