482

p September 23, 1971

p Dear comrades, friends,

p Allow me first of all heartily to thank you for the invitation to visit your factory and meet you, workers of the electronic industry, members of the illustrious working class of Yugoslavia. I must say that even a brief inspection of your factory leaves a very good impression. This is really advanced production, that is, a combination of modern technology, wise heads and skilled hands. Everything shows that you are marching in step with the times.

p My comrades and I are sincerely touched by the heartfelt welcome and the warm words spoken here about our country and the Soviet people. I take this opportunity to convey to you and, through you, to the Yugoslav Communists, to all the peoples of socialist Yugoslavia the ardent fraternal greetings of the Communists, workers, and all the working people of the Soviet Union! (Prolonged applause.)

p The friendship between the peoples of our countries has a long history. This friendship took on a new substance in the struggle for socialism. Soviet people cherish the memory of the Yugoslav internationalists-volunteers, heroes of the Civil War in our country. Those gallant men fought and died not only for the freedom of Russia, they also fought for a new life in their native land.

p Another thing we always remember is that it was in the crucible of the Russian revolution that Comrade Tito started on the path of a revolutionary; today he is known to us all as the organiser and hero of the liberation, revolutionary struggle of the Yugoslav people, the leader of the 483 Communists of Yugoslavia, the head of the Yugoslav socialist state. (Prolonged applause.)

p Yugoslavia this year has commemorated the 30th anniversary of the armed uprising against the fascist invaders. The Soviet people will never forget that on the day when Hitler’s Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia called on the people to rise up for an all-out armed struggle. The flames of the heroic struggle, which flared up on July 4, 1941, engulfed the entire country. The uprising developed into an all-out struggle for the victory of the socialist revolution. (Applause.)

p I take this occasion, comrades, to voice the sincere heartfelt gratitude of the Soviet people to the veterans of these battles—our comrades-in-arms in the anti-fascist struggle. (Prolonged applause.)

p Soviet men and women know how great were Yugoslavia’s sacrifices in the Second World War and how substantial her contribution to the defeat of fascism. We remember very well that the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia by its heroic struggle inscribed the brightest pages in the history of the European Resistance and brought nearer the longawaited day of our common victory. A firm foundation for the combat comradeship between the Soviet Armed Forces and the Yugoslav People’s Army was laid in the joint battles for the liberation of Belgrade and other military operations on Yugoslav soil.

p Comrades, we in the Soviet Union think that the further strengthening of cooperation between our Parties and countries based on the principles of full equality and mutual respect is in the best interests of the Soviet and Yugoslav peoples and tends to consolidate the world socialist system and promote the cause of peace and progress. (Prolonged applause.)

p We can say with full right that a quite considerable positive experience has been accumulated in Soviet-Yugoslav relations in recent years. This especially applies to the economic, scientific and technological spheres. A case in point is your own factory which, we have been told, has established strong ties with Soviet industry. To be frank, 1 was curious to know what was thought of your produce in our country. It was a pleasure to learn that it enjoys a good reputation. (Applause.)

484

p At the same time cooperation between the Soviet and Yugoslav electronic industries could be much wider and more effective than it is. The same is true of many other sections of our cooperation.

p The scale of our country is immense. Our national economy is steadily and dynamically developing on the basis of stable plans. That is why the Soviet Union is a stable buyer of big lots of goods. And such orders, as you know, boost production and make it pay better. We are interested in the high-quality goods which Yugoslav factories are able to produce. On the other hand, the Soviet Union is well placed for supplying diverse and modern manufactured goods and raw materials which socialist Yugoslavia needs. In a word, we have a good basis for mutually beneficial cooperation and quite a few unutilised potentialities. ( Applause.)

p This applies, comrades, not only to economic ties, but also to political cooperation in the broadest sense. We should know each other better, study the experience accumulated by our Parties and peoples more fully and thoroughly. The most reliable way for doing so is direct, live contacts between Party and mass organisations, between people. That is why we would welcome a wider exchange of delegations of different types and at different levels, closer ties between twinned cities and local Party organisations. (Prolonged applause.)

p We should be happy to have workers from your factory and other Yugoslav enterprises visit Soviet workers. I invite you to come to us—come to Moscow, to Leningrad, to Kiev, to Kharkov! (Stormy applause.) The doors of our country, the gates of our factories are wide open to Yugoslav workers. (Stormy, prolonged applause.) I think it will be of interest to Yugoslav comrades to visit our republics, to study the life of the Soviet people, to see how our collective farmers, workers of state farms, our scientists and artists, live and work. And naturally it will be interesting for the working people of our country to visit you, to learn better how their Yugoslav brothers live and work. (Prolonged applause.)

p I want to be quite frank with you on all points, dear comrades and friends, and I want to say that at times one hears that the development of Soviet-Yugoslav relations supposedly has no prospects, because the methods of socialist construction and the forms of organising socialist society 485 which exist in Yugoslavia do not suit the Soviet Union, while the Yugoslavs do not accept Soviet experience. What can be said on this score?

p It is no secret that not everything that determines the specific features of the present organisation of Yugoslav social life seems acceptable to Soviet Communists, to Soviet people. We in the Soviet Union have our traditions, our experience, which correspond both to our understanding of socialism and our conditions.

p We as Communists-Marxists know well that there are definite general laws of socialist construction and general, fundamental features and attributes of socialism without which no socialism at all is possible. As for the choice of concrete forms of organisation of social life this is the internal affair of every Communist Party, every people. And we once again express our firm conviction that differences in these forms should not serve as a reason for any alienation and mistrust in relations between socialist states, including of course those between you and us. (Prolonged applause.)

p We are against counterposing to one another the practice of socialist construction in different countries and even more so against anyone imposing his concrete methods of development on others. (Applause.)

p For us, Communists, Marxists-Leninists, what is fundamental is that our countries belong to one socio-economic formation. And this, comrades, is in the final count the most important thing. We are convinced that if we proceed from this principle and act in the spirit of comradeship and mutual trust, the efforts of our Communist Parties aimed at developing cooperation between the USSR and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will be successful. (Applause.)

p The foundation of the friendship and brotherhood of the Soviet and Yugoslav peoples is cemented by the blood shed in the struggle against the common enemy. This foundation is immutable. And we, all of us, comrades, bear responsibility to history, to the memory of those who perished, to our children and grandchildren. It is our responsibility that the edifice of Soviet-Yugoslav cooperation erected on this foundation be radiant and durable, that an atmosphere of sincerity and mutual trust prevail in it. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)

486

p Comrades, we in the Soviet Union are following the life of the Yugoslav people, the course of economic and cultural development in your country, with great interest and sympathy. We sincerely rejoice in your successes. We are grieved when we hear of your difficulties and anxieties, and wholeheartedly wish you great achievements in socialist construction, in the further advance of the people’s well-being. (Prolonged applause.)

p Dear friends, it gives me pleasure to tell you, our friends, how the working people of our country live. You know that the 24th Congress of the CPSU was held last spring. It charted the main trends of the Party’s activities and the development of the country for several years ahead.

p It is always difficult to find adequate comparisons and examples to describe in a few sentences the development of an entire country, an entire state. But let me try to do it. Just think of it, our industrial output in 1970 alone was about twice as much as during the three prewar five-year plans. In the interval between the 23rd and 24th CPSU Congresses, wages and salaries were substantially raised and the duration of paid holidays was lengthened. The majority of the working people now enjoy two free days a week. In five years, 55 million people improved their housing conditions. Real per capita incomes went up by 33 per cent.

p This year we launched a new, the ninth five-year plan. It is of a special significance for our country, for the Soviet people. Backed by the achievements of earlier years we began to turn the entire national economy towards a fuller satisfaction of the material and spiritual requirements of the Soviet people. Of course, a good deal had previously been done to raise the well-being of the Soviet people, to improve their living standard, their working and living conditions. But today we have other, far greater possibilities and we want to make wide use of them in order to give the Soviet citizen a still better and contented life.

p All this, comrades, are the tangible fruits of socialism. He who works well, who gives his energies, his knowledge to the building of the new society—and in our country everyone is guaranteed such a possibility—is entitled to good earnings and comfortable housing, to all the opportunities for study and cultural advancement, for healthful rest and recreation.

487

p Our country is preparing to celebrate next year the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. True to the behests of Lenin, the CPSU is consistently pursuing a policy ensuring the economic and cultural advancement of all the nations and nationalities, of which there are more than 100 in our country. There are no longer any backward, poorly developed republics in the Soviet Union—they have long outlived that state. Each of the 15 Union Republics has a modern industry, a mechanised agriculture, a national intelligentsia, its own Academy of Sciences, universities and research institutions. And all this, comrades, is a result of joint common efforts, of fraternal mutual assistance and support. We regard the friendship and cooperation of nations and nationalities as a wellspring of the strength and might of socialist society, as an important factor accelerating the advance to communism.

p Our achievements in building socialism and communism are inextricably linked with the activities of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Everywhere and in everything we are consistently applying the Leninist principle of the Party’s leading role. The Party’s policy articulates the interests of all classes and social groups, all the nations and nationalities in Soviet society. The unity of the Party and the people is the keystone of the Soviet social system.

p Soviet men and women are firmly convinced that the programme outlined by the Party will be not only fulfilled, but also overfulfilled. We have all the possibilities for this— a clear-cut political line fully supported by the Soviet people, the necessary material basis and scientific and technological achievements.

p Naturally, one more thing is needed for the fulfilment of our plans: the necessity of ensuring a lasting peace and a further relaxation of international tension. (Prolonged applause.)

p The line of the CPSU in foreign policy is clear and consistent. We firmly defend the interests of socialism from all its enemies. We stand for peace and international security, we stand for the freedom and independence of all the peoples. We have always been and will be determined opponents of the imperialist policy of aggression, wars and oppression. We pursue our policy consistently and steadfastly, we pursue it in close cooperation with the fraternal socialist countries, with the other freedom-loving and peace-loving 488 states. And we see that our efforts are producing real fruits. (Applause.)

p Take, for example, the situation in Europe. We and other socialist countries worked for more than a quarter of a century to finally consolidate the results of the Second World War and postwar development. It has been no easy struggle. But it is yielding ever more tangible results. An agreement has been reached on the question of West Berlin. On the order of the day is the ratification of the Soviet-West German and the Polish-West German treaties. Preparations are being stepped up for an all-European conference on questions of security. And although a long and hard struggle still lies ahead, the idea of a stable peace in Europe is on the whole already becoming a real prospect.

p We would like all the peoples of both Europe and other continents to enjoy the boons of peace, of a peaceful life. So far they do not. They are prevented by imperialism, by its policy of aggression, by the rotten reactionary regimes which are foisted by it upon the peoples. We have fought, and will fight, against US aggression in Indochina. We have fought, and will fight, for the elimination of all the consequences of Israeli aggression in the Middle East. (Applause.) And we are confident that justice will triumph in the end. The aggressors will be forced to get out and the peoples of the countries attacked will be enabled to decide their own destinies. (Prolonged applause.)

p The Soviet Union has always held that in present-day conditions when the confrontation between the forces of reaction and progress, the forces of capitalism and socialism continues in the world arena it is necessary to counter the actions of imperialism and reaction by an active and coordinated policy of the socialist states. That is why struggle for the further cohesion of the socialist countries, for eliminating the difficulties and complications which exist in relations between some of them, is one of the principal objectives of Soviet foreign policy.

p The socialist states have accumulated considerable experience in developing businesslike all-round cooperation and coordinating a policy of concerted action in the international arena. The high level of fraternal cooperation is expressed, for example, in the defensive Warsaw Treaty which has come into being and functions as a dependable instrument for defending peace and socialism, as a powerful 489 counter-balance to the imperialist NATO bloc. The activities of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, of which you are probably well aware because Yugoslavia cooperates with this body, is an important section of cooperation among the socialist countries. A cardinal undertaking, a Comprehensive Programme of economic integration of socialist countries, is now being effected within the framework of this organisation. Fraternal cooperation is also successfully being implemented in the diverse relations which we are developing with Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Korean People’s Democratic Republic, and in Soviet-Yugoslav relations, of which I have already spoken.

p Dear comrades, we have come to you in Yugoslavia in order to analyse, together with the Yugoslav leaders, the present state of Soviet-Yugoslav relations and to eliminate by common efforts what complicates them, to map out the most promising trends of their further development. In the course of our friendly, candid talks with Comrade Tito and other Yugoslav political leaders we have tried to find a common language, and I think we have succeeded. We are firmly convinced that the closer the cooperation between our countries in the international arena, the better for the cause of socialism, for preserving peace throughout the world. We are confident that our meetings with the leaders of Yugoslavia will tend to strengthen still further the friendship and cooperation between our countries and serve to consolidate peace and socialism. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)

p In conclusion, I would like from this rostrum cordially to thank Comrade Tito, other Yugoslav leaders, the citizens of Belgrade, and all of you, dear comrades, for the warm reception accorded our delegation. (Prolonged applause.) We see in this added proof of the friendship of our peoples. Allow me once again to wish happiness and prosperity to you all, to men of labour, workers, to the citizens of all the Yugoslav republics who are bound together by ties of fraternal friendship. (Stormy, prolonged applause.) We wish you great success in your work for the good of your country, for the good of socialism. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)

p Long live the glorious working class of Yugoslavia, the main force in the building of socialism in your country! (Stormy, long-lasting applause. Cries of "Hurrah!”)

p Long live the fraternal friendship of the peoples of the 490 Soviet Union and socialist Yugoslavia! (Stormy, prolonged applause. Cries of "Hurrah!" again resound.}

p Allow me, comrades, in token of our friendship to present to the personnel of your factory a keepsake, a sculptured portrait of the leader of the world working class, the great teacher of the Communists, the father of our Party and the Soviet state Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)

We also present you with replicas, produced according to a method elaborated by Soviet engineers of the electronic industry, of our State Emblem and the emblems of all the fifteen Union Republics which make up the single harmonious family—the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (Stormy, prolonged applause, rising to an ovation.)