p The decisions of the 24th Congress of the CPSU generated a new wave of enthusiasm among Soviet youth. Here are some of the statements by young workers which Komsomolskaya Pravda printed during and after the Congress.

p K. Strokan, secretary of the Komsomol organisation of the Kiev Aircraft Plant: "Today, when the 24th Congress of the CPSU is in session in Moscow, the young aircraft builders are working with great enthusiasm. They are overfulfilling their shift quotas by 50 to 100 per cent. . .. All our YCLers and all young workers are now busy drawing up personal plans for the Ninth Five-Year Plan. These plans include ways of raising labour productivity and introducing innovations. True to their traditions, the Kiev aircraft builders will spare no efforts and knowledge to implement the Party’s grand plans.”

p N. Rebenok, team leader of the Avangard collective farm (Chernigov Region): "We decided to get a much better harvest than in previous years. We have been called upon to do so by the new five-year plan which is being discussed at the Party Congress.”

p L. Papakina, deputy secretary of the Komsomol committee of the Yakovlev Flax Mill, Ivanovo Region: "We are all convinced that the tasks in front of us will be fulfilled. Today we are taking stock of our potentialities. The emulation which we started on the eve of the Congress revealed great possibilities. Six groups of YCLers succeeded in achieving a very high level of output, utilising their latent reserves to a maximum. The YCL group of Olga Aksenova has decided to fulfil the five-year plan in four years. I am certain that their example will be followed by many other groups.”

p The facts of everyday life prove that young workers, collective farmers, specialists and scientists are unanimous in their decision to work efficiently and creatively during the new five-year plan and to raise their professional skill 44 so as to fulfil with honour the complex tasks of the Ninth Five-Year Plan. The collectives of industrial enterprises and construction sites widely support the slogan "5 in 4!" advanced by young workers of Leningrad. The slogan calls upon all young workers to fulfil the five-day production quota in 4 days. Young workers elsewhere add their own suggestions to the slogan. At the Arsenal Plant in Kiev the first to join the movement were the plant’s veterans, Heroes of Socialist Labour A. Dovchenko and V. Filippov. Their example was followed by many young workers in Kiev, who initiated a movement "Catch up with the heroes!" As a result, more than 83,000 young workers in Kiev fulfilled the assignment for the first year ahead of schedule.

p The YCLers of Kazakhstan launched the "Kazakh Hour" movement—the obligation to fulfil the day’s quota one hour ahead of schedule. The YCLers and young workers of Krasnoyarsk announced a competition for Komsomol organisations under the motto: "Maximum labour productivity from everyone.” The competition will last the full course of the five-year period. More than 200,000 young workers, collective farmers, specialists and scientists committed themselves to personal plans for raising labour productivity and fixed economically substantiated targets for each year. At the end of the first six months some 36,000 young workers in Krasnoyarsk achieved the highest production results in their collectives.

p The Komsomol-youth collectives are competing to smelt the 150-millionth ton of steel, extract the 500-millionth ton of oil and increase output in the other branches of heavy industry.

p Let us examine in greater detail how the young workers in the Kharkov Turbine Plant carry out the tasks set by the Party.

p Half the workers in the plant are under 30. The fiveyear plan envisages a 6 percent increase in labour productivity. The workers decided to make it 7 per cent. When it comes to the production of modern gigantic turbines, this extra per cent means a tremendous saving not only of fuel and money but also measured in terms of the strain and efforts required of the entire collective. The battle for the "Kharkov per cent" became the target of all young workers 45 at the plant. These efforts have a tremendous influence on the formation of each young worker’s personality.

p Valya Pogorelova, a milling-machine operator from the 3rd turbine shop, has been working for the past seven years on turbine blades. She polishes them half as quickly again as envisaged by the norm. She is so slim that one wonders where she gets all the strength.

p Valya and her work-fellows keep record of the amount of production materials they save in order to calculate, compare and analyse the cost of each case of absenteeism or each damaged tool and understand the mechanism of economy at the big modern plant. The battle for the "per cent" required that each worker should have a good understanding of his place and role in the collective. In this they are greatly assisted by the Party organisation, the administration, the local trade union committee and the plant’s YCL committee.

p The "Kharkov per cent" posed many problems for the turbine-builders. One of them—that of skill—directly concerns young workers. The 3rd turbine shop, for instance, installed new automatic lathes. Soon the operators learned to produce as many parts on three lathes as they formerly did on five lathes. It is not easy for novices to master the automatic lathes, so it was necessary to help them to "get into the rhythm”.

p Experienced workers began to sign "friendship agreements" with their younger counterparts. Valya Pogorelova, for instance, volunteered to help a few young men from her shop. She and the other experienced workers share their know-how, attract young people to Komsomol work, and look after their general needs.

p Agricultural workers are also displaying greater initiative. Following the example of the advanced farmers in the Kuban and Stavropol Territory, they launched a campaign for high rates and quality in harvesting. In 1971, nearly 40,000 Komsomol-youth detachments and teams of machine- operators took part in the drive for efficient farming methods. This campaign is an excellent school of efficiency, knowledge and grain-growing know-how for thousands of young men and women.

p The manifold activities of young people aimed at speedily implementing the decisions of the 24th Congress of the 46 CPSU have found general expression in a patriotic campaign under the slogan "Shock work, efficiency and initiative!”. This youth movement, which continues the glorious traditions of the Stakhanov movement, and the Komsomol shock construction sites, is now widespread.

p The movement is designed not only to boost labour efforts. It pursues many other important goals. The aim is at least to mobilise reserves which are as yet dormant because of inefficient management, and utilise them for the benefit of society.

p Following Lenin’s behests and the Party’s instructions, the Komsomol combines organisational work aimed at more active participation of youth in labour with educating it in the spirit of care for national property.

Initiative is closely interlinked with the struggle to accelerate scientific and technological progress. The efficiency of young workers requires that the technical base of production be improved and the quality of the more intricate production items be raised on the basis of constantly rising workers’ qualification.