RUSSIA'S NEXT PLAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 134, 3 December 1936, Page 27

RUSSIA'S NEXT PLAN

MANUFACTURE THE KEY

Residential construction and manufacture of clothing and other consumer goods will receive chief emphasis in the third Five-year Plan, which Soviet authorities already have begun to discuss (says the "San Francisco Chronicle"). Expansion of cultural activities, such as newspapers and in schools, also will be pressed.

The third Five-year! Plan will cover' the period from 1938 t0'■•.■1942... Actually, Soviet Russia economy is conducted primarily on the basis of annual plans. Over the next few months, for example, quotas for 1937 production, oper* ating records and unit costs for major divisions of industry and trade will be set up, by the State Planning Commission and'various commissariats will fix them for ;trusts and .individual plants throughout the country. ■■". ,'■'- The annual, control 'figures involve deviations from the second Five-year Plan, coming to: a close "next year, but generally will'be quite close to the latter.

A prominent Soviet official conversant with American conditions yen-; tures the view that by the close of the third Five-year Plan in 1942 the standard of living of the population will closely approach that of employed workers in advanced countries' of Western Europe, and that by the end of the fourth Five-year. Plan it will begin to approach that of the 'United States. .. If the progress achieved in the past three years is to be projected in the future this prediction seems reasonable, except for automobiles and perhaps housing. •.. . ' . INDUSTRY CAME FIRST, The first Five-year Plan was frankly designed to establish an "industrial base", for the country. Stress was laid entirely on iron and steel plants and railroad construction^ The second Five-year Plan shifted the.emphasis to : consumers' goods.;As; a result, as far as many staple food': products are concerned, Soviet Russia. now possesses plentiful .supplies ■'■:,; at" prices in some cases hot far above the; world level. .'. ' >:'::.■?■. ■?':''" '■'.'! :

Most articles of ■ clothing are sjill relatively scarce'and thus are high priced. However, and the situation wilt not be corrected for a few years unless there is some radical-change, the present policy leads -to imports of lextiles for clothing. v ■. . . '

■ In urban housing the.Soviet Union; is still backward, compared with more• advanced industrial nations. The situation is an especially difficult one. There was a great housing shortage in Russian cities, based on modern,standards, even before, the: war. i . ■'■'*• : ■.'• ' ..■• When building activity began to=:re-; vive, the intensive industrial programme caused a major shift in' the, population from rural areas to cities. The urban population'of the country ten years ago was .approximately 17 per cent. Today it is about 25, per cent. At the same time the total'population of the country was. increased more than 20,000,000. ' '" ■ ;

In many communities families of two and three persons have but one room. Renting of apartments in new houses has often been similarly restricted to spread available facilities. In several new factory towns where apartments were built along with industrial plants the situation is better.