RUSSIA AT WORK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22513, 17 December 1947, Page 11

RUSSIA AT WORK

LIFTING _THE VEIL INDUSTRIAL GOALS FOURTH FIVE-YEAR PLAN Russia is hard at work to implement her ambitious industrial objective, according to Edmund Stevens in the Christian Science Monitor (Boston), and his observations are in striking contrast to those of some commentators who have viewed Russia through the so-called Iron Curtain. Writing from Moscow, Mr. Stevens said Russia is making noteworthy headway toward the ambitious goals of its Fourth Fve-Year Plan, dedicated to national reconstruction and expansion of Russia's industrial power in terms of new or reconstructed plants and factories, and in manufactured products. Construction of productive facilities is exemplified by completion of the building of the first unit of the giant steel plant at Zaporozhye in the Ukraine. This achievement is being hailed throughout the Soviet Union as a major milestone on the road to postwar recovery. Originally built under the Second Five-Year Plan, the Zaporozhye plant was one of the largest and most modern in Europe. Located in the vicinity of the Dnieper Dam, it was the core of a new industrial centre designed to utilise abundant hydro-electric power at the sources. In September, 1944, its most useful sections were conveyed to a new site in the Ural Mountains, and with it went the aluminium plant—to avoid the invading Germans. After the German retreat little time was lost in reconstructing the huge plant. Factories and Housing

This work involved removal of more than a million cubic metres of rubble, and the laying of 85,000 cubic metres of concrete, 60,000,000 bricks, 50 miles of railway track, and nearly 400 miles of cable lines, the completion of 62,000 tons of steel construction, the mounting of 29,000 tons of equipment, and installation of 260 electric motors.

Today this plant is shipping sheet metal for motor-car bodies to the Stalin Autoplant in Moscow. Reconstruction of its rolling mill was completed by the end of September. In addition to the plant itself. 110,000 metres of housing space are reported to have been completed. Reports indicate that the job was done in record time and without foreign aid, entirely by Soviet personnel, including many of the country’s best engineers. The Kirev machinery plant at Leningrad, which during the wartime siege continued making shells within a mile of the enemy lines, recently completed the first two tractor trailers for the logging industry. Moscow industry has fulfilled its over-all production plan for ten months by October 1, which was one month ahead of time. In numerous other key lines of production, such as steel, motor cars and cycles, machine tools, textiles and shoes, the volume of output has exceeded the plan. Gratifying Increases

Russia’s State-Planning Commission has just released additional -figures bearing out this reported trend. It lists a 17 per cent increase in pig iron production for the third quarter this year over the corresponding period last year, 10 per cent for steel, 21 for oil, 14 for coal, 191 for locomotives, 83 for motorcars, 16 for electrical power, 44 for leather footwear, 11 for meat, 7 for butter, 34 for soap, and 20 for industry as a whole. Exceptionally well-appointed and attractive buses have made their appearance in Moscow streets, and it is said all Soviet cities are to be similarly equipped. Additional plants are being erected in important centres, and by 1950 the total Soviet motor-car industry will be making 500,000 cars annually. There will be 10 plants in operation, of which the huge Gorky plant is said to be the largest in Europe. For comparison, the United States produced 4,838,000 motor-vehicles in 1941 and is expected to produce about 4,700,000 this year. Inceniiyes to Workers An extensive roading system has been in progress, with first-class highways to carry Soviet methods to the remote regions of Central Asia, for conveyance of goods between the manufacturing centres and the consumer groups all over the Union. How is it done? An interesting light is thrown on the key question of incentives to workers under socialism as distinct from the standards of the profit system by recent Soviet Government decrees establishing scales of honorific awards for those who excel in dairying and stock breeding, potato raising, hemp and flax growing, and coal mining. These new measures tend to emphasise that according to the. tenets of the socialist Marx, labour is no longer to be regarded as the inevitable means to earning a living, but rather as a matter of hortour, valour and heroism. The awards are based on norms, and in each instance the greater the ressponsibility of an individual’s position the stiffer are the norms he must meet to qualify for a given honour. The milkmaid may claim this high honour if during the y'ear she obtains 5000 kilograms of milk or 230 kilograms of butter per cow from eight cows, whereas the manager must have the same showing for 30 cows. For a collective farm chairman or a veterinarian the showing must be for 64 cows. Lesser showings per cow entitle them to lesser awards on the same basis. There is a system of social security allied to the winning of honours. The system also sets up a scale of yearly bonuses ranging from 10 per cent of a year’s pay for those who have worked from one to three years to 30 per cent for those who have worked for more than 15 years.