Soviet Russia Today

...that is the fundamental law of socialism and we shall always remain faithful to it...

...and the production figures, too, should be cut to allow for the rapid depreciation of plant...

...They had never heard of Andre Gide, Claudel, Camus or Saint-Exupery...

...I could not do otherwise, because at the fourth visit one neighbor asked us most particularly to come to his home...

...I asked what happened in such a case, and was told that the commercial organization informed the appropriate technical ministry, which got in touch with another ministry, the one which bought its products or provided its supplies...

...Finally, there is a growing number of industries which are now the sole responsibility of the ministers of the republics...

...One might surmise that in power and steel the USSR will have caught up with the United States about 1970...

...In newly erected houses where concrete blocks had been used, the flooring in an apartment not yet lived in was already bulging and showing signs of cracks...

...I received precise answers so long as my questions fitted into one specialist's field...

...an industry which has overfulfilled its plan when its supplier has not kept pace is then obliged to mark time through lack of supplies...

...The French classical writers whom they were required to study—Corneille, Racine, Balzac, Andre Stil, Lafitte...

...On one occasion we hear: "The fundamental law of socialism is democratic centralism and always, always we shall remain faithful to that...

...I should not be surprised if, during the course of this year, we were to find again a slight swing toward industries producing consumer goods...

...these are certainly far too low...

...The existing houses arc rarely repainted and the front yards are badly maintained...

...this was their own expression...

...Gosplan simply draws up a total figure for production on the basis of the proposals put forward by the ministers of the republics...

...In general, and with some exceptions, we saw everything we wanted to see and were seen everywhere that we wanted to be seen...

...Yet I have the feeling that priorities in regional development depend particularly on the political influence of the different members of the Presidium of the Central Committee...

...Professor of Political Economy at Lyons University since 1928 and member of the Executive Committee of the French Socialist party since 1944, was a member of the French delegation which toured Russia this summer...

...today Gosplan prepares the five-year plan and is even beginning to think ten or fifteen years ahead, but another body, the State Economic Commission, makes the necessary modifications from year to year...

...Later we spent several hours at another vineyard which is of no great interest because it was below the average of those in the Midi or the Beaujolais...

...The second problem is less political and much more technical: After fixing the general volume of production to be achieved, they have to choose from the various means to further this end, and to decide which is the most advantageous...

...As soon as it was known that we were there, neighbors came in to see us, and they in turn passed us on from one family to the next...

...they transmitted to Gosplan their concrete proposals for every industry...

...each has his connections with this or that region, in which he is particularly interested and for which he will intercede...

...otherwise the answers tended to be generalized...

...The first political choice is between basic and consumer industries...

...This report, to appear in two parts, is condensed from the bulletin of the Societe d'Etudes et de Documentation Economiques, Industrielles et Sociales...

...An intermediate situation arose in Moscow when we asked to visit some working families in new flats...

...the latter have complete responsibility for the detailed administration...

...The journey out and back took four hours each way on terrible roads, and at one point the cars had to be pulled out of a stream bed by tractors...

...I support the development of the cultivation of corn in such and such a region because this, because that, because the next thing: and that is why I drink to the progress of corn-growing...

...We were put in a charming villa, hut it was three miles from the town...

...Until now the plan was prepared by the ministers of the Union...

...for marital solidarity, we went...

...In heavy industry the Soviet economy has a very big advantage...

...Philip, appointed Commissioner of the Interior by General de Gaulle in 1912, served as Minister of Finance in the postwar cabinet of Leon Blum and later led France's delegation to the UN Economic Commission for Europe...

...In addition we were given lunch there, in the course of which political discussion was carried on in the Russian fashion—that is, through toasts...

...it's disgraceful, it will be in ruins in a few months...

...The morning after our arrival, we were taken to see a wine-producing state farm...

...Soviet institutions of higher education welcome 500,000 students every year, of whom 60 per cent study the sciences...

...To deal with planning first...

...But on another occasion: "It is absolutely essential to follow a policy of decentralization...

...on the other hand, its administrative machinery is undeniably unwieldy, resulting in an irregular industrial progress reminiscent of those alternating periods of prosperity and depression in the capitalist economies of the 19th century...

...The foremost was in Georgia, where we were admirably received but saw nothing...

...some are almost entirely political, others are much more technical...

...At the Planning Board...

...I myself examined the Institute of Statistics, the State Planning Board, and the Supreme Court...

...Throughout the entire journey we were struck by the contradiction that exists between the enormous effort willingly put into the construction of new buildings or the manufacture of machinery and the careless way in which the premises and plant are then used and maintained...

...The problem has again become acute because of the present developments in agriculture...

...Then again, there may be variations in demand resulting in the accumulation of stocks in one particular branch when there are queues forming for other products for which there is an unsatisfied consumer demand...

...One can find technical marvels in the USSR, and considerable progress has been achieved, particularly in heavy industry...

...Today they are starting to decentralize...

...if the ministries concerned did not come to some agreement, then the problem came before the State Economic Commission...

...Then, when Malenkov was replaced by Khrushchev and Bulganin, the emphasis fell again on basic industries, mainly in order to fulfill contracts for equipment made with China and the "people's democracies.'' Investment in the basic industries rose from 53.3 per cent of the total in 1954 to 60 per cent in 1955, while the percentage for light industry fell from 8.3 per cent to 4.8 per cent...

...I had another complete afternoon with the vice-president and his six principal heads of departments...

...When we refused he asked if we were married...

...Our spokesman at the Planning Board admitted that frequently materials are treated in a barbarous way...

...The new Zis cars, resembling American Fords, flow in an unceasing stream from the factories, but the brutal driving they receive, often over poor roads, insures rapid deterioration...

...We divided ourselves into small study groups...

...This is no sooner said than someone adds that it is absolutely essential to develop the consumer goods industries...

...There are those for which the ministers of the Union prepare the plan, like the mercantile marine, which remains the sole responsibility of the Federal Union...

...in addition, the foundations seemed to us to have been laid rather quickly and not to be very deep...

...we were made to feel that our visit was a welcome prize for those who had done well in their work...

...There are three kinds of industries...

...Someone complained that we had had no chance of walking about the town...

...a most interesting journey from a tourist's point of view, with superb views of the Caucasus...

...and it was evident that there had been some preparations for our visit...

...I say with some exceptions...

...Mikoyan, in his address to the Party congress, had said of the Institute of Statistics that its director was in the habit of putting the figures in a safe, taking away the key, and sitting on it...

...Georgia, however, was exceptional...

...Andre Philip (cut at left...

...At several of these meetings we were afterward asked: "What is the situation with social legislation in France...

...Another will lower its production costs when an industry manufacturing a similar product does not do the same...

...In the factories which we visited, we often had a long discussion with the director, the Party secretary, and the secretary of the trade union...

...you would be made to do that work again...

...In those discussions that we had with the Presidium we heard plenty of declarations of this kind: "Our fundamental principle is the absolute priority of basic industries...

...We had in our delegation a man from Marseilles who was used to the beautiful red tiles in the houses of the Midi, where the floors are laid out as flat as a table...

...On being told we were, he said to us: "Well, then, comrades, I pray you in the name of marital solidarity come with me, since otherwise my wife will give me a bad quarter of an hour...

...They are now beginning to understand that a machine may be written off, although still good, if it can be replaced by a better one, whose use is more advantageous...

...Reply: "I think it is dangerous to cultivate corn in that region where the climate is a little cold and where the grain does not reach maturity...

...This, then, was the general setting of our story...

...We had one amusing experience: When we had explained about our social legislation, holidays with pay, consultative committees, and so on, the secretary of the union asked us: "But if you've got all that, what remains which you as Socialists can want...

...In Moscow and in Leningrad, we walked wherever we wanted, talked to people in the street, went into apartments, and talked without the presence of any officials...

...they nominate the directors and draw up the plan in every detail...

...But taking industrial production as a whole it would need at least forty years, even if the present pace were maintained—which is most unlikely without a complete transformation of agriculture...

...The USSR is changing over from a purely technical idea of depreciation to a financial one...

...We also went to the university in Moscow...

...they found a bore...

...there we were able to witness the enormous efforts in scientific and technical education which Russia is making...

...We also met a number of charming girls who played, in French of highest purity, some pieces by Moliere...

...The method of compiling statistics is being revised and a new statistical year-book is being published this year...

...In agriculture a great effort is made to increase the number of tractors: the factories turning out tractors are outstandingly good, comparable to the best in America...

...so we have a discrepancy in prices...

...Very well," they replied, "the theater will start at nine," and an order was given by telephone at once...

...The result was that when we arrived in the theater at nine we were received with thunderous applause from the audience, which had been waiting an hour and was delighted that the concert would start at last...

...The afternoon I spent there, the key was found, the safe opened, and I had the opportunity of talking most thoroughly about statistical matters and of asking questions which the director himself answered...

...I asked them: "How do you calculate your production costs...

...They replied: "We have not only to bear in mind the production costs, we have also to think of regional economic development...

...We got back at a quarter to eight in the evening, and at eight o'clock we were due at the great Georgian ballet...

...On three different occasions in factories I said: "But how long does this consultation take...

...One felt that lively discussions were now taking place on this subject...

...For two years now there has been a modification...

...It had always been the policy to put the accent on basic industry...

...it can plan for an immense region of 200 million inhabitants, thus benefiting from all the advantages of a wide market...

...At the Institute of Statistics they gave me the norms for depreciation, which varied from 4 per cent to 7 per cent, according to the industry...

...All the same, we were received most sincerely and genuinely...

...For a long time past, the plan has been prepared and supervised by Gosplan (the State Planning Board...

...I do not know if the wine was well fermented, but I know that we were...

...And each time I received the only reply for which I needed no interpreter—a shrug of the shoulders...

...There is an obvious drive to get the peasants to improve agricultural production by granting them a larger income, and therefore there is risk of inflation if, with the greater income, the peasants cannot buy consumer goods for themselves...

...But during this hour that we walked the streets we were quite unable to get rid of the twenty officials who surrounded us and went along with us every moment...

...For this the Government imposes terrible sacrifices on the people, with a regular investment rate of nearly 21 per cent of the net national income...

...I myself with my interpreter visited five families...

...For a long time, they have been counting for depreciation only the price of machinery which was completely worn out and abandoned...

...nobody oils them and they remain out of doors, in all weathers, for days at a time...

...Malenkov as Prime Minister revealed a slight preference for consumer industries, more by reducing some of the large, spectacular enterprises undertaken in the time of Stalin than by reducing the production of capital goods...

...A very serious problem arises in the lack of balance between the various Soviet industries or enterprises, as much in the field of production as in prices...

...Within the framework of the plan, a certain number of choices have to be made...

...he would declare in an outburst of rage: "At home that would never be accepted...

...we were not able to see the presses, because they were dismantled, or to meet the workers...

...This enabled the USSR last year to grant diplomas to 80,000 students of physics and engineering and to 50.000 biologists...

...A theoretical argument had nevertheless arisen and found expression in a few articles, and especially in some theses for university doctorates, in favor of consumer industries...

...Their figures for realized investments do not include, therefore, the costs of maintenance...

...That is why I drink to the cultivation of wheat...

...Everywhere we were received with warmth and friendliness...

...These families, as it turned out, were of engineers or skilled men...

...These investments are concentrated on the heavy industries, which gives Soviet industry an annual rate of increase per head of 7.4 per cent, of which 6.7 per cent comes from the increase in industrial production—the latter being greater than that of America...

...A leading French Socialist, recently returned from the USSR, describes its industry and its economic planning Soviet Russia Today By Andre Philip (First of two articles) We spent fifteen days in Russia, having previously prepared with a month's study...

...These discrepancies have, however, been denounced by the press in the last few months, and there arc already some signs of steps forward, however hesitant, in the matter of decentralization...

...Rut too often the tractors belonging to a station are left dirty at the collective farms after use...

...the ministers of each republic send in their proposals to Gosplan, which consults the Federal minister...

...Finally, we had twenty hours of discussion at the Presidium of the Communist party...

...There are others, which are the responsibility of both the Union and the republics, such as the textile industry...

...I put a series of questions, some highly specialized...