RUSSIAN MIGHT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 287, 4 December 1941, Page 17

RUSSIAN MIGHT

HOW IT WAS BUILT HER THREE BIG PLANS ORGANISATION MARVEL LONDON. The world has been astonished by the strength and skill of Soviet resistance to the Nazi onslaught. Out of what has that great strength been built? The answer lies,in the three FiveYear Plans—three great drives to reorganise national economy and culture, says W. P. Coates in the Daily Herald. It may be useful to the British reader to-day to have a brief survey of those plans—to understand what they were aimed at and what they achieved. But first it is necessary to be reminded of several facts .... Soviet Russia is a territory covering one-sixth of the earth's surface, and second to none in resources. And yet, in Czarist days, she was one of the most backward countries in Europe.

Only 10 per cent of her huge population was engaged in industry. The conditions under which the factory employees worked were reminiscent of the early days of the industrial revolution in Britain.

Three-quarters of the population was engaged in agriculture, but the methods employed were primitive and the conditions of the peasants on their little holdings were deplorable.

Few people could read or write. Among the smaller nationalities, in fact, only one person in 50 could do so. The World War, the Civil War and foreign armed intervention played havoc with Russia's production. In the spring of 1921 Russian economists estimated that her industrial production was only one-fifth and her agricultural output one-third of what it had been in 1913. By the end of 1926, the pre-war level of production was reached, and a year later the figures were still rising. Plan No. 1 But there was still a long and stony road to be travelled, and so the first Five-Year Plan was launched. It began on October 1, 1928. Its fundamental aims were:— To'establish a large-scale industry for the manufacture of producer (means of production) and consumer goods.

To organise large-scale agriculture based on modern technique. To raise enormously the cultural level of the people. Those were the goals. What was achieved?

Actually, the plan was completed by December 31, 1932—that is, in four years and three months. It was claimed to be 97 per cent successful.

Some industries—oil, machine-con-struction, chemicals and artificial rubber—reached or exceeded the point marked out for them. Others —metallurgy, electricity and light industries—i-did not quite reach the planned figures. The number of workers employed in the national economy Increased from 13,000,000 to 23,000,000. Success in agriculture, however, was the chief claim of the planners. By the end of 1932, three-quarters of the land was organised in collective farms and a further large acreage in State farms.

The increase in the yield of grain was not big, but there was a considerably higher yield in industrial crops, such as cotton, flax, hemp, etc. Another great victory was announced in the realm of culture. The number of children attending the elementary and secondary schools had risen to 22,000,000—as compared with 8,000,000 in 1914. The number of students attending the higher educational institutions technical workers' colleges and factory schools was five times more than it had been. As regards health, the mortality rates fell by one-third. Plan No. 2 While this first Five-Year Plan was being completed, a second was being organised. It began on January 1, 1933. This time, the economic aims were: To double the national income. To increase the basic capital of the national economy two-and-a-half times. To double the industrial output. To collectivise 95 per cent of the remaining peasant holdings. At the end of 1937. the authorities announced that once again the Plan, on balance, had been Fulfilled. The value of agricultural production had risen by more than half. Grain production had risen by 25 million tons. Industrial production was now six times what it had been in 1928.

Again the planners were proud of big strides in education.

They announced, too, that the U.S.S.R. had risen as a manufacturing country from fourth in Europe and £fth in the world—that was in 1928—t0 first in Europe and second in the world.

Undoubtedly, the economic progress of Russia between 1917 and 1937 had no parallel in human, history.

Plan No. 3 But still there was much to be done, and on January 1, 1938, the third Plan was begun. Here are its chief aims:— ! To increase industrial production by 14 per cent annually. To raise the national income by 80 per cent over the 1937 level— that is, by a sum equal to the increase of the first and second FiveYear Plans combined. To augment the output of consumers' goods by 70 per cent. An important provision this time was that no new industrial enter-, prises were to be constructed in; Western Russia, but exclusively in ] the Eastern and Far Eastern areas i of the U.S.S.R. 1 Respecting education, the Plan was particularly ambitious. ! Here we can only de# with the ; results attained by the end of 1940, and the industrial, agricultural and educational positions as they existed on June 22, 1941, when Germany launched her attack on the U.S.S.R. During the three years, 1938-39-40,: it has been announced, industrial production increased by 44 per cent' over 1937. Nearly 3000 new factories, plants, mines, electric power plants and other enterprises had been launched. The gross production of grain in 1940 had risen to 117,700,000 tons. The national income had risen by a quarter. I could daze you with all the figures that were announced, but, simply, they meant that industrial production was nearly 12 times what it had been in 1913. In addition, further advances were announced in all forms of general well-being—wages, incomes of collective farmers, housing, social insurance, health protection and education. Certainly, then, the Soviet Union of 1941, in all her spheres, human and material, is vastly stronger than the Czarist Russia of 1914.

And for that strength her millions thank the three Five-Year Plans.