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p Every branch of the economy rests on power engineering, because production is always linked up with power consumption.

p Electric energy is the key requirement of modern scientific and technical progress, and for that reason the Programme of the C.P.S.U. regards electrification as the pivot of economic development.

p The most universal form of power, electricity, is becoming ever more widespread, changing all branches of production and technological processes. Automation, electronics, cybernetics, chemistry, electrometallurgy, the electric working of metals, electrothermy and other spheres are founded on electricity.

p A higher power-to-man ratio is vital to the growth of labour productivity and in making labour easier. The Programme of the C.P.S.U. calls for a sharp increase of the power-to-man ratio through the priority development of the power engineering industry. The generation of huge quantities of electric power will signify the implementation of Lenin’s formula that communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.

p Power engineering is linked up with the fuel industry because oil, gas, coal and other fuels are the basic sources of power. At present about 1,000 million tons of conventional fuel (in terms of fuel with a heat combustion of 7,000 kilocalories per kilo) are consumed annually in the U.S.S.R. One-third of the investments for the development of industry and transport is spent on fuel and electric power 

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p Electric power is produced chiefly through the combustion of fuel and from the energy of water. However, no matter how great the reserves of fuel and water resources are, they are not limitless. It has been estimated, for instance, that the explored reserves of conventional fossil fuel will be exhausted within the next 100 years. Mankind is, naturally, looking for ways of producing and utilising new forms of energy.

p Nuclear power engineering is being intensively developed. The U.S.S.R. already has several large atomic power stations. Atomic energy is propelling ships, converting sea water into fresh water, driving machines at factories, helping medical research, and so forth. Much progress has been achieved in turning atomic energy into electric power, in controlling thermonuclear reactions and in utilising solar energy.

p Experts tell us that if throughout the world power engineering expands at the Soviet rate, the power output will increase approximately 10,000-fold within the next 100 years. This will not only help to multiply labour productivity many times over but also give man unheard-of power over nature. He will be able to control the climate—regulate temperature and precipitation, and heat the soil, turning the globe into a flowering orchard and freeing crops from the whims of nature. Man’s transforming activities will thereby range beyond our planet.

Complete electrification will give tremendous impetus to the engineering, metallurgical, metalworking, fuel and other heavy industries, which will remain the foundation of economy under communism as well. In its turn, the swift development of the heavy industries will make it possible to raise all other branches of the economy—the light and food industries, agriculture, building, transport, and communications, as well as trade, public catering, public health, housing, the municipal economy and other everyday services—to a higher level.