More Soviet Films On TV Soon

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30983, 12 February 1966, Page 1

More Soviet Films On TV Soon

New Zealanders could expect to see an increasing number of Russian films on television soon, said Mr Boris Dorofeev, the Soviet Minister to New Zealand, in an interview in Christchurch yesterday.

Documentary films would cover a wide variety of aspects of Russian life, such as sports, scenery, culture, and education.

The increase in Soviet films would be a result of talks held recently with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.

Mr Dorofeev yesterday afternoon addressed Canterbury trade union leaders on working conditions and social ■ security in Russia. '

In an interview after his informal talk, Mr Dorofeev said that in the Soviet Union they had a saying: “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” But in spite of this, the Soviet paid its citizens with first-degree disabilities an invalid pension of 90 per cent of the basic wage. Those with second-degree disabilities received 60 per cent, and third-degree, 30 per cent. Men in Russia, he said, received a pension when they were 65 years old and women when they were 60. The lowest pension was 50 per cent of the basic wage. A person who had worked for more than 25 years received an additional 10 per cent, and if he had a wife or child on his hands he received another 10 per cent. Medical services were free iand a person who was ill re-1

ceived 90 per cent of his wages.

“We assume that 10 per cent should cover operations and expenses in hospital,” said Mr Dorofeev. “Usually it has nothing to do with expenses. because a serious operation takes hundreds of roubles. It is a symbolic sort of thing.”

Mr Dorofeev said there were more than 100 nationalities in the Soviet Union. “We don’t breed 'super subjects’ but we believe—and my wife, who is a teacher, has found out from her experience—that children of cross marriages are more healthy and more intelligent as a rule,” he said.

On housing, Mr Dorofeev said that construction was in i prefabricated concrete blocks. In the last 12 years 33m flats

and 3m bungalows had been built. “We have a fast team of 25 construction workers in Leningrad who build 36 five-storey blocks of flats a year,” he said. “This is done by hard work, the synchronising of trucks, materials, and labour, and quick assembly by welders.”

Mr Dorofeev said that 1,500,000 overseas tourists visited Russia each year. “Unfortunately we cannot accept more at present, because we have insufficient accommodation, roads, and other facilities,” he said.

“But the plan is that in two years we will be able to accommodate a million more foreign tourists a year.” Mr Dorofeev left for Arthur’s Pass yesterday for two days’ mountaineering. He is ranked in the Soviet Union as a master of climbing.