Changes In Russia’s Economic Leadership

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28162, 28 December 1956, Page 8

Changes In Russia’s Economic Leadership

fNJZ. Press Association —Copyright)

MOSCOW. Dec. 26. A Soviet First Deputy Premier (Mr M. G. Pervukhin) has been appointed chairman of the State Economic Commission after the Government's decision to reorganise the work of the commission. the Soviet News Agency. Tass. reported today. Mr Pervukhin replaces Mr M. Z Saburov, another First Deputy Premier, as chairman of the commission. The appointment was made by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. Mr Saburov this week reported on next year's economic plan at a meeting of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee. The committee —meeting for the first time sin e last February’s “de-Stalinisation r congress hailed the advances in production of agricultural, industrial and consumer goods in 1956 but denounced current failures in economic planning. It demanded that the sixth | five-year plan, which has already j been operating for a year, should be presented to the Supreme Soviet for consideration and approval within the first six months of 1957. Other Changes Made The Party Presidium also appointed two Deputy Premiers. Mr Alexein Kosygin and Mr Vyacheslav Malyshev as First DeputyChairmen of the commission and two Deputy Premiers. Mr Mikhail Khrunichev and Mr Vladimir Kucherenko, as Deputy Chairmen. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Vladimir Matskevich, and the Minister of State Farms, Mr Ivan Benediktov, would also serve as deputy chairmen of the commission, the announcement said. Because of their new appointments the party Presidium has released Mr Kosygin, Mr Malyshev, Mr Khrunichev, Mr Kucherenko and Mr Matskevich from their duties as Soviet Deputy Premiers. The announcement said that all the newly appointed First Deputy and Deputy chairmen of the commission would have Ministerial rank. Reuters Moscow correspondent said to-night that Mr Pervukhin’s new job might open the way for other changes near the top of the Soviet leadership. “Two Formidable Tasks” Mr Pervukhin is faced with two formidable tasks—to reduce waste in State planning and to execute a massive decentralisation scheme. This job is probably the most important in the country outside the “overlord” level where operate such men as the First Secretary of the Soviet Commun-

ist Party, Mr Khrushchev, a First Deputy Premier, Mr Anastas I. Mikoyan, and Marshal Nikolai Bulganin, the Soviet Prime Minister.

Judging from its composition ■ and directive, the commission will 'now have wider powers than before. The Soviet Union’s aims remain the same now as at the twentieth Party Congress in February—to achieve higher national output through improved technical managerial efficiency rather than through grandiose schemes of industrial expansion, especially “unco-ordinated expansion.” One of the prime tasks confronting Mr Pervukhin therefore will also be the creation of a managerial class endowed with more powers than before, and able to work in a more flexible fashion. In the last few weeks, the Soviet press has printed many thousands of words complaining that factory administration is too rigid, that ! factory managers fear to display i initiative, that innovations are disregarded and that "justified workers' criticisms” have been ignored. This has been the case for many years, but now the economic balance of the Soviet Unic • is such that the leadership is demanding a fundamental change of direction. This fear seems to confirm the belief that the very great economic advances envisaged in the present five-year plan, which will end in 1960. are so ambitious that they cannot be carried out without a much higher production a head for every rouble invested. Today’s decree should also be related to the fact that Soviet industry has embarked on the process of satisfying the popular demand for consumer goods and at the same time maintaining a heavy burden of capital industrial expansion.