p The history of the Soviet initiative in pressing tor general and complete disarmament goes back to the days when Soviet rule was set up. Aiming at satisfying the people’s needs to the fullest possible extent, socialist society has always been opposed to the useless, unproductive expenditure of resources on armaments which deprive the working people of the opportunity to use all the material values produced by them for their own welfare. “Disarmament is the ideal of socialism. There will be no wars in socialist society; consequently, disarmament will be achieved.”  [148•* 

p The Soviet Union redoubled its efforts to bring about general and complete disarmament after the Second World War, when the threat of a world thermonuclear war loomed large. The Soviet Union initiated a series of important steps aimed at disarmament and relaxing world tension.

p This initiative is enthusiastically welcomed by the peaceloving nations and by broad sections of progressive people throughout the world. A growing number of people is beginning to appreciate the senselessness and overwhelming danger of the arms race, into which the world has been drawn.

p In addition to the Soviet Union and other socialist states, the advocates of general and complete disarmament include the Marxists-Leninists of other countries. This problem is dealt with in the Statement of the 1960 Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, which declares: “The Meeting considers that the implementation of the programme for general and complete disarmament put forward by the Soviet Union would be of historic importance for the destinies of mankind." Fulfilment of this programme would mean abolishing the very possibility of wars between countries.

p Broad sections of people throughout the world are demanding a halt to the arms race, for the main burden of this race falls squarely on the shoulders of the working people. They are well aware that an intelligent use of the 149 money now being spent on armaments would considerably improve their standard of living. Enormous sums of money are indeed spent on arms. In only the period 1900-53 wars and the preparations for them cost the astronomical sum of over 4,000,000 million dollars. This is approximately 12-13 times the size of the national income of all the countries of the world in that period. On this money all mankind could have lived without financial worry for more than a decade.

The newly liberated countries advocate a world without wars and weapons. It has been estimated that only onetenth of the present expenditures on armaments would suffice to raise all the undeveloped regions of the world to a level where they would be self-sufficient.