p In raising and resolving problems of our political system’s further development and questions of an ideological nature, the Central Committee’s point of departure is that the Party’s policy yields the required results only when it fully takes into account both the interests of the entire people and the interests of various classes and social groups, and directs them into a single common channel.

p The Party’s policy is directed towards helping to bring the working class, the collective-farm peasantry and the intelligentsia closer together, and gradually erasing the essential distinctions between town and countryside and between labour by brain and by hand. This is one of the key sectors in the building of a classless communist society.

p In our country the drawing together of all classes and 405 social groups, the moral and political upbringing of the Soviet people and the strengthening of their social unity are being achieved on the basis of Marxist-Leninist ideology, which expresses the socialist interests and communist ideals of the working class.

p The working class is the most numerous in our society. During the past five-year-plan period the number of workers increased by approximately eight million. The working class has been considerably augmented by state-farm workers. Workers comprise more than 55 per cent of the employed population. But the place occupied by the working class in socialist society is determined not only by its numerical strength, which can change depending on economic development and the rate of the scientific and technical revolution. The working class has been and remains the main productive force of society. Its revolutionary spirit, discipline, organisation and collectivism determine its leading position in the system of socialist social relations.

p The leading role of the working class as the builder of communism is consolidated with the growth of its general cultural and educational level and of its political activity. The growth of the cultural level of the working class is convincingly shown, in particular, by the last two censuses. In 1959 there were 386 workers with a higher or secondary education per 1,000; today this figure tops 550.

p Today there is a steadily growing number of workers who have completely mastered their trade and who, having a secondary education, are continuing their studies and mastering the advanced achievements of science and culture. As a rule, these workers are politically active and they regard the interests of their enterprise and the entire country as their own. The entire mass of Soviet working people look to these workers as models and it is only natural that in recent years the stratum of workers has been steadily growing in the Communist Party, and the number of representatives of the working class has been increasing in the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies and in our public organisations.

p The Party will continue to direct its efforts to securing the growth and strengthening of the influence of the working class in all spheres of the life of our society and to making its activity and initiative more fruitful.

p Our society’s political foundation is the alliance of the 406 working class with the peasantry. The Party’s policy and its practical measures to promote both industry and agriculture have led to a further consolidation of this great alliance.

p The growth of the productive forces of agriculture, the gradual conversion of agricultural labour into a variety of industrial work, the cultural upsurge in the countryside and the remaking of rural life have led to changes in the peasant’s social make-up and way of thinking. He now has more and more features in common with the worker. The number of collective farmers whose work is directly linked with machines and mechanisms is growing steadily, and the educational level of the collective-farm peasantry is rising. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War only six per cent of the working people in the countryside had a higher or secondary education. According to the figures for the close of 1970, more than half of the rural population have finished a secondary school or an institution of higher learning. That is a great victory for our society! (Applause.)

p The appearance of an increasing number of inter- collective and mixed state-collective-farm production associations and enterprises is giving rise to substantial social changes.

p The new and more complex machinery—powerful tractor?, harvester-combines and lorries—supplied to the countryside, the growth of the peasants’ standard of living and the gradual improvement of cultural and everyday conditions are making agricultural labour more attractive, and interesting, particularly for young people, and are giving them the opportunity of acquiring high qualifications. As a result, after finishing educational institutions the rural youth now stay to work in the countryside more willingly. This is a positive trend and it merits every possible support, especially as the development of agricultural production requires the training of more skilled cadres for the countryside.

p You will recall that the Third All-Union Congress of Collective Farmers adopted the new Model Rules of the Collective Farm. A Union Council of Collective Farms and collective-farm councils of district, regional, territorial and republican levels have been elected. They represent the interests of the peasants. All this is of cardinal importance to the life of the countryside and to the development of collective-farm democracy.

p Naturally, comrades, the Party is well aware that much 407 still remains to be done in the way of promoting culture, improving everyday life and, this must be specially stressed, construction in the countryside. In this respect there is a lot of ground to be covered. But we have no reasons for underestimating what has already been accomplished.

p The drawing together of the working class, the peasantry and the intelligentsia is among the paramount social changes in our society. This process has now become increasingly more marked.

p Our Soviet intelligentsia sees its mission in devoting its creative energy to the cause of the people, to the cause of building a communist society. Numerically, the intelligentsia continues to grow quickly. The number of scientific workers, engineers, technicians, agronomists, teachers and doctors is increasing, and in recent years the rate of growth of the scientific and technical intelligentsia in the Soviet Union has exceeded the rate of growth of all the other social groups. This is a natural process. It is a result of the Party’s policy of achieving the utmost acceleration of scientific and technical progress and further raising the cultural and educational standard of the people.

p To a huge extent our intelligentsia, particularly the scientific and technical intelligentsia, is replenished from the ranks of the workers and peasants. The following is a typical example. At the Pervouralsk Pipe Works 42 per cent of the engineers and technicians are of working-class stock, 32 per cent of peasant stock and 26 per cent from the families of office employees. The situation is approximately the same at other industrial enterprises in our country.

p Comrades, in its policy our Party has taken and will go on taking into consideration the interests of such large social groups as young people, women and pensioners.

p I shall speak of young people and of the Party’s work among them when I come to the activities of the Lenin Komsomol. At this point I should like to underscore only one thing, and it is that the Party has been and shall go on giving much of its attention to the problems, cares and interests of young people. More than half of our country’s population are young people under 30. They are our future and our replacement.

p On the Party’s initiative a series of important measures has been put into effect during the past five years to improve 408 the working conditions for women and, at the same time, lighten their household chores. Let me remind you at least of the fact that maternity leave procedures have been extended to collective-farm women and more creches, kindergartens and everyday service establishments have been opened. You all know, comrades, that further steps in this direction have been planned for the next five-year period.

p The aim of the Party’s policy is that Soviet women should have further possibilities for bringing up their children, for taking a larger part in social life, and for recreation and education, and that they should have greater access to the blessings of culture. All these are important tasks, and the new five-year plan will be a noteworthy stage in their implementation.

p A large group of our society consists of pensioners, of labour and war veterans. The delegates to this Congress know that in recent years citizens going on pension have been given wider opportunities to take part in labour activity. Many Party organisations are evolving useful forms of work with pensioners. But we shall act correctly if we take steps to employ the experience and energy of our veterans more extensively in social and labour activity.

p Comrades, one of the greatest achievements of socialism is the practical implementation by the Party of the Leninist national policy, a policy promoting equality and friendship among peoples. (Applause.)

p Many of the fraternal republics recently marked their 50th anniversaries. This was an imposing demonstration of the florescence of socialist nations, of the monolithic unity of all the peoples of our country. Next year we shall mark the 50th anniversary of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. For its political significance and socio-economic consequences the formation of the USSR occupies a prominent place in the history of our state. (Applause.)

p All the nations and nationalities of our country, above all, the great Russian people, played their role in the formation, consolidation and development of this mighty union of equal nations that have taken the road to socialism. (Applause.) The revolutionary energy, dedication, diligence and profound internationalism of the Russian people have quite legitimately won them the sincere respect of all the other peoples of our socialist motherland. (Prolonged applause.)

p Further progress along the road of the all-round development of each of the fraternal Soviet republics, along the road of the further gradual drawing together of the nations and nationalities of our country, has been made during the past few years under the Party’s leadership. This drawing together is taking place under conditions in which the closest attention is given to national features and the development of socialist national cultures. Constant consideration for the general interests of our entire Union and for the interests of each of its constituent republics forms the substance of the Party’s policy in this question.

p The Party shall continue to strengthen the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, consistently pursuing the Leninist line of promoting the florescence of the socialist nations and securing their gradual drawing together. ( Applause.) The Party shall continue to educate all the working people in the spirit of socialist internationalism, intolerance of nationalism, chauvinism, national narrowness and conceit in any form, in a spirit of profound respect for all nations and nationalities. (Prolonged applause?)

p A new historical community of people, the Soviet people, took shape in our country during the years of socialist construction. New, harmonious relations, relations of friendship and co-operation, were formed between the classes and social groups, nations and nationalities in joint labour, in the struggle for socialism and in the battles fought in defence of socialism. Our people are welded together by a common Marxist-Leninist ideology and the lofty aims of building communism. The multinational Soviet people demonstrate this monolithic unity by their labour and by their unanimous approval of the Communist Party’s policy. (Applause.}

The past five-year period has witnessed a further advance towards the consolidation of our society’s unity. We shall go on doing everything to strengthen the community of interests of all the classes and social groups of our country in order to promote the process of drawing them together. (Applause.)