p Comrades, for more than half a century the Soviet Union has been opposing imperialism on all sectors—political, economic, ideological and military.
p Immediately after the Civil War ended Lenin stressed: "We are exercising our main influence on the international revolution through our economic policy" (Collected Works, Vol. 32, p. 437). Our Party holds that this proposition preserves its significance to this day. The defence capability of the Soviet Union and, to no small extent, of the entire socialist community, and the possibility of countering the imperialist policy of aggression and war depend on our economic achievements. Our possibilities of supporting the revolutionary and liberation movement throughout the world likewise depend on these achievements. The force of the example of the new social system, which is becoming the best agitator for socialism both among the working people in the capitalist countries and the peoples who have shaken off the yoke of colonialism, also depends on them.
p Reviewing the traversed path, we Soviet Communists can say that economic development is a complex front of struggle demanding a* great and, moreover, sustained effort. For our country it was a particularly hard path owing to the economic backwardness inherited from the past and the enormous destruction caused by imperialist-imposed wars. All of you know how we surmounted these difficulties, what we achieved in economic development in the Soviet years and 166 what the impact of this was on the international situation and the world revolutionary movement.
p Today I should like to cite only a few figures characterising the results of our work in the 1960s. During these eight years industrial output in the USSR has more than doubled. Agricultural production increased by almost one-third. The real incomes of the working people rose 43 per cent.
p In the economic sphere the distance separating us from the United States, the most powerful and richest country in the capitalist world, has also shortened appreciably. In I960, our industrial output was 55 per cent of the American, while in 1968 it reached about 70 per cent.
p These figures naturally do not give a full picture of the work which the Soviet people have accomplished. A few words must be said not only about the quantitative but also the qualitative aspect.
p In recent years, especially since the beginning of the current five-year plan which was drawn up in accordance with the Directives of the 23rd Congress of the CPSU, this aspect has become, we might say, the object of special concern by our Party. While being fully aware of the importance of preserving high rates of general economic growth, we embarked on a course of building up the most advanced national economy in the world both for economic efficiency and for its scientific and technological level. The past years have been quite fruitful in this respect, too.
p The pattern of industry is being seriously changed through the accelerated development of sectors which determine technological progress—chemical, radio-electronics, instrument-making, precision and heavy engineering and other industries.
p Prerequisites for major advances in agriculture, where we had quite a few difficulties, have also been created in recent years. Never before has the state allocated such large capital investments for the comprehensive mechanisation, electrification and chemicalisation of agriculture, and for land improvement.
p A reorganisation of the management of our economy has been undertaken in recent years on the initiative of the Party; we have launched in earnest on the improvement of planning and management methods. This extensive work has not been completed yet, but we can already see how favourably it has affected the national economy.
p I should like to stress, comrades, that our country’s unquestioned achievements in recent years have not made us lose sight of the shortcomings which exist in our work and of the serious problems confronting us.
p Such problems are constantly raised by life. This is not surprising if we bear in mind the scale of the Soviet economy, its rapid growth rates and the diversity of the requirements and needs of such a large country as ours. Moreover, the very dialectics of development is such that the higher the level a society attains, the more complex and the bigger the tasks it sets itself.
p And we are now, in the current period, making a searching study of these tasks. A new five-year plan is being drawn up which is to become another major step in the building of communism, in implementing the CPSU Programme. Naturally, in that plan we seek to incorporate the main trends of the country’s economic development, the principal long-term tasks.
167p The task of accelerating scientific and technological progress must be first of all singled out among them.
p The draft Main Document of the Meeting stresses that broad development of the scientific and technological revolution has become one of the principal sectors of the historic competition between capitalism and socialism. Our Party fully subscribes to such an understanding of the problem.
p Utilising the advantages of the socialist system, the Soviet Union has made great headway in the development of modern science and technology. We were the first to place nuclear energy at the service of peace and the first to reach into outer space; we have registered many other notable accomplishments which have advanced the Soviet Union to the forefront of scientific and technological progress.
p But, speaking of these successes, we do not want to underrate the forces of those with whom we have to compete in the scientific and technological sphere. Here the struggle will be a long and difficult one. And we are fully resolved to wage it in earnest so as to demonstrate the superiority of socialism in this sphere as well. This meets not only the interests of communist construction in our country but also those of world socialism and the entire revolutionary and liberation movement.
p To achieve, as we should like, a further considerable advance in science and technology is a very difficult task involving great effort and large capital investments. It demands the training of vast personnel—even though already today our country has one-fourth of all the scientists in the world. Furthermore, it is necessary to raise the educational level and the professional skills of millions upon millions of people who will have to operate the new technology. An imperative demand of our time is to integrate science and production. We have to set up many new scientific centres and educational establishments, further and very substantially extend the scope of research, create and widely introduce control systems based on the latest scientific achievements and the employment of electronic computers. All these tasks, apparently, will be given a prominent place in our new five-year plan.
p The paramount task of socialist society—that of raising the standard of living of the working people—always remains in the foreground of our Party’s activities. In this sphere our country has likewise attained tangible results. Representatives of fraternal Parties, who have been to the Soviet Union more than once, can judge of this not only from dry statistics but also from personal impressions.
p If account is taken of what we started from and what difficulties we had to surmount, the achieved living standard of the working people should be assessed as a great victory. But our people’s requirements are growing steadily, making ever higher demands on our industry and agriculture. I shall cite only one example. Every day about 8,000 families move into new flats or their housing conditions are improved—every day, comrades—but the housing problem remains quite acute. What is the reason ? The point is that according to present-day standards it is usually a question not simply of living quarters but of a separate flat for each family with all amenities, moreover, while preserving the lowest rent in the world.
168p Another task which we regard as important is to bring the working people of the countryside nearer to urban dwellers in terms of well-being, cultural and other services, way of life and all amenities. For our country, where many million people live in villages, this task is as difficult as it is important.
p We expect that the new five-year plan will be an important step towards solving these problems.
p All of us would like these problems to be solved more swiftly. But the international situation prevents us from using all of the .country’s resources for economic development, improving the working people’s living standard and promoting culture. Large resources have to be appropriated for defence. And I can assure you that we maintain it at the highest level. Our Armed Forces reliably protect the borders of our homeland, and together with the allied armies stand guard over the gains of the fraternal socialist countries, over the peace and security of the nations.
p We set ourselves big tasks in the social and political sphere.
p In the forefront here is further development of socialist democracy and consolidation of the Soviet state. The experience of our country and other socialist countries has taught us to consider these tasks in their intrinsic unity. Without a well-coordinated state machine, functioning smoothly in all its units, it is impossible to run the intricate and sensitive organism of a modern economy and other aspects of social life, to say nothing of the country’s defence.
p A socialist state draws its strength from its inseparable bond with the people and the participation of the broadest masses in the administration of the country and of public affairs. This is exactly what socialist democracy is called upon to ensure. Its improvement and extension constitute the main trend in the political development of Soviet society on the road to communism.
p It is naturally a matter of developing socialist democracy, with a clear-cut class content designed to serve the cause of socialism. " ’Pure democracy’," Lenin stressed, "is the mendacious phrase of a liberal who wants to fool the workers. History knows of bourgeois democracy which takes the place of feudalism, and of proletarian democracy which takes the place of bourgeois democracy" (Collected Works, Vol. 28, p. 242). This conclusion is fully corroborated by life, by the experience of history.
p The development of socialist democracy implies extensive day-to-day practical work in many directions. It includes stimulating and improving the work of all organisations which unite the masses, primarily, of the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies, trade unions and the Komsomol. It also presupposes improving the fundamental legislative principles of our democracy. Further, we attach great significance to developing democratic principles directly where the main mass of the population is concentrated—at factories, offices and collective farms. A case in point is the Collective Farm Rules, the draft of which has been submitted for a nation-wide discussion.
p The improvement of socialist democracy is closely linked with enhancing the political consciousness of the masses, keeping them informed of the policy of the Party and the Government, and making them deeply interested in these affairs and feel that they are the true masters of the country. In this sphere we are 169 resolutely combating the influence of bourgeois ideology and propaganda and the survivals of capitalism in the minds of people.
p We regard as an important task the further strengthening of the union of all nations and nationalities of our multinational country. All of you, comrades, know that in this sphere of socialist transformations, too, we have accomplished notable results which have been of fundamental significance to the revolutionary movement and in awakening Jhe oppressed nations. The present stage of the building of communism demands that the attained successes should be not only consolidated but also developed. It is a matter of drawing still closer together all the nations and nationalities, further improving the work of educating the Soviet people in the spirit of Soviet patriotism and socialist internationalism and of intolerance for the ideology of nationalism and racialism.
p The scale and complexity of the tasks of communist construction enhance the role of the politically conscious, organising vanguard in the life of society. This vanguard is the Communist Party, which founds all its activity on Marxism-Leninism, is intimately linked with the people and imparts an organised and planned nature to all the work of building communism.
p Exercising its leading role, the Party does everything to enable the working people actively to influence the shaping and implementing of state policy and give them every opportunity to display initiative, a pioneering spirit. The Party resolutely fights bureaucratic tendencies against which the administrative apparatus is not fully guaranteed under socialism either.
p EnhaKcement of the Party’s leading role increases its responsibility for everything done in the country, for the present and the future of the Soviet state. And this means that the Party itself must develop, raise the combat ability of its ranks and reinforce its ideological and organisational unity.
p In the little more than eight years which have passed since the last Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, the membership of the CPSU has increased by more than 4,500,000. It now has in its ranks almost 14 million members. More than half of the Party members are workers and peasants. We attach great significance to workers holding a leading place in the Party. This corresponds to the class nature of our Party, to the role and place of the working class in the life of our society. A big part in the life of the Party is played by the collective-farm peasantry. The Party unites millions of trained specialists, scientists, workers in culture and other intellectuals who are contributing greatly to social, scientific, technological and cultural progress.
p The growth of our Party’s ranks attests to the high prestige it enjoys among all sections of the people in our country. The Communist Party and its home and foreign policy have the whole-hearted, unanimous support of the entire Soviet people.
p We associate the improvement of the Party’s work with the consistent development of democracy within the Party, with the undeviating application of the principle of democratic centralism. All of you know how much has been and is being done along these lines in recent years, and what place these questions held in the de:i;ions of the 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd congresses of the CPSU.
p Comrades, the way things shape out in our country, the successes in communist construction, largely determine the scale and depth of the influence 170 exerted by the Soviet Union’s foreign policy on the international situation. The main aims and trends of this policy were clearly defined in the decisions of the 23rd Congress of the CPSU.
p In foreign affairs the Communist Party of the Soviet Union concentrates on making the socialist world stronger today than yesterday, and stronger tomorrow than today. This is concretely embodied in the efforts made by our state, jointly with other socialist countries, to further co-operation in the political, defence and economic spheres.
p The Soviet Union, together with other socialist countries, holds active positions in the wide and seething front of the national liberation movement, and renders firm political support and moral and material help to the peoples fighting for liberation.
p The Soviet Union will continue to give effective military and economic assistance and moral and political support to the Vietnamese people in order to repulse imperialist aggression. In our view, the programme for a political settlement of the Vietnam question set out in the "10 Points" of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam is perfectly justified and fair, and we declare our support of it.
p Young Asian and African states invariably find support in the Soviet Union. Our country co-operates with many of them in the economic, scientific, technological and cultural spheres and in the training of national personnel.
p The Soviet Union has rendered and will continue to render all-round assistance to the Arab states subjected to aggression. We firmly demand full implementation of the provisions of the Security Council resolution of November 22, 1967, which opens the way for the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
p The imperialists are seeking to sow discord among states which have won national independence. Soviet foreign policy opposes imperialist intrigues and facilitates a peaceful settlement of the differences between these states. A case in point is the Tashkent meeting of the leaders of India and Pakistan, when even belligerent countries were able to reach agreement on ending hostilities.
p We are extending our ties with the states of Latin America, where resistance to imperialist dictation and to foreign monopoly oppression is stiffening.
p The relations of the Soviet Union with countries of the capitalist world are based on the principle of peaceful coexistence of states irrespective of their social system, a principle substantiated by Lenin. This principle implies that outstanding issues between countries must be settled not by force, not by war, but in a peaceful way. This principle has won wide international recognition.
p Peaceful coexistence does not extend to the struggle of ideologies—this must be stressed most categorically. At the same time, it does not boil down merely to an absence of war between socialist and capitalist states. Observance of the peaceful coexistence principle opens up broader possibilities for expanding relations between them. This includes settlement, at the negotiating table, of international problems, eo-ordination of measures for reducing the war danger and easing international tensions, and also mutually advantageous economic, trade, scientific, technical and cultural ties.
171p Recent experience, specifically the development of relations between the Soviet Union and France, Finland, Italy, Japan and a number of other countries, shows that such possibilities lie in the very nature of the policy of peaceful coexistence. We make no exception in this respect for any capitalist state, including the USA. For us peaceful coexistence is not a temporary tactical method, but an important principle underlying the consistently peace-loving foreign policy of socialism. Such a policy creates the most favourable conditions for building the new society in socialist countries, and for spreading the revolutionary and liberation movement.
p We are well aware that the extreme aggressive circles often influence the shaping of the foreign policy of the big capitalist states. To curb the activity of these circles it is necessary to be firm, to expose their intrigues and provocations and be constantly ready to administer a determined rebuff to aggressive encroachments. This is the foreign policy that the CPSU and the Soviet Union pursue.
p In the capitalist camp we distinguish a more moderate wing as well. Its representatives, while remaining our class, ideological adversaries, assess the present balance of power more soberly and are inclined to search for mutually acceptable solutions to outstanding international issues. In its foreign policy, our state takes into account such tendencies.
p Barring the road to the threat of war and without relaxing our vigilant watch of the intrigues of the aggressive and revanchist circles, we shall continue to do everything in our power to stamp out the hotbeds of war on our planet.
p The burning problems of the current international situation do not conceal from our view longer-term tasks, namely, the creation of a system of collective security in areas of concentrated danger of another world war, of armed conflicts. Such a system is the best replacement for the existing militarypolitical groups.
p At their conference in Karlovy Vary the Communist and Workers’ Parties of Europe, both those in power and Parties in the capitalist countries of the continent, drew up a common programme of measures aimed at safeguarding security in Europe. Member-countries of the Warsaw Treaty have advanced a concrete programme of achieving the security of the European peoples, stability of frontiers and peaceful co-operation of European states. The CPSU and the Soviet Union will do everything to implement this programme.
p We are of the opinion that the course of events is also putting on the agenda the task of creating a system of collective security in Asia.
p The draft Document we are discussing emphasises the urgency of putting into force the Treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the need for prohibiting these weapons and using nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes. Increasing the effectiveness of the ban on chemical and bacteriological weapons is also our common aim. The Meeting’s participants know very well how much perseverance and initiative Soviet foreign policy is displaying in all these directions.
p Today, as before, the Soviet Union is prepared to reach understanding on general and complete disarmament, on measures for limiting and restraining the arms race, above all the race for nuclear and missile weapons. To force 172 a curtailment of the arms race on the imperialists means to shake the positions of the instigators of another war, to switch colossal resources to constructive purposes, and to strengthen world peace.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet people will continue to increase their contribution towards accomplishing the tasks of the anti-imperialist struggle, and steadfastly uphold the cause of peace, democracy, national independence and socialism.
p Comrades, our movement has a great and illustrious history. The great thinkers and revolutionaries Karl Marx and Frederick Engels stood at its cradle. Their fervent call "Workers of all countries, unite!" resounded throughout the world. It epitomised the idea of unity and fraternity of all working people, of community of their interests, and became the battle standard of our movement.
p Last year all of us observed the 150th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, founder of scientific communism. We did not merely pay a tribute of deserved respect to the man whose ideas and deeds are immortal, but also reviewed our forces, analysed the results and charted the prospects of our activity.
p We are now on the eve of another memorable anniversary—the centenary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
p Lenin’s inestimable service consists in that he furnished answers to the most acute questions raised by life and indicated the most efficacious forms of struggle against imperialism, against social and national oppression, for the victory of the socialist revolution and the triumph of communism.
p To apply a consistent class line, firmly adhere to principles, be flexible in tactics, consider the concrete conditions from every angle, to undertake bold and at the same time well-conceived actions, to be able to utilise all the diverse means of fighting imperialism—this is what Lenin taught us, and what we learn from Lenin.
p His contribution to revolutionary theory was a major stage in the development of Marxist thought. Leninism is the Marxism of our epoch. The centenary of Lenin’s birth is a great date for all the Communists of the world. The CPSU feels that the forthcoming Lenin anniversary must be utilised for further stimulating ideological work in the communist movement.
We, comrades, have every reason for looking with confidence to the future. The communist movement, loyal to the immortal teaching of Marx, Engels and Lenin, now possesses tremendous possibilities for winning, in alliance with all the anti-imperialist forces, fresh victories in the historic struggle for the social and national liberation of the peoples, for peace, for the radiant communist morrow of all mankind. (Prolonged applause.)
Notes