10. Chapter X
THE SUCCESS of the general line of the Party was expressed in a continued and steady progress of the country's industry and agriculture. In the sphere of industry, the Second Stalinist FiveYear Plan was fulfilled by April 1937, ahead of schedule in four years and three months. With the completion of the reconstruction of industry and agriculture, the national economy of the Soviet Union found itself equipped with the most advanced technique in the world. Industry had received a vast quantity of machines, machine tools and other implements of production. Agriculture had received first-class Soviet tractors, harvester combines and other complex agricultural machines. The transport system had received first-class motor vehicles, locomotives, ships and aeroplanes. The armed forces had received excellent equipment artillery, tanks, aircraft and warships.
This titanic labour of technical re-equipment of the national economy was directly guided by Stalin. The introduction of new makes of machines or of important technical innovations and inventions has always had his close attention and practical assistance. He personally acquainted himself with all the details of the work of technical reconstruction of industry and agriculture, inspiring and enthusing workers and engineers, industrial managers and economic administrators, inventors and designers. He displayed particular interest in the technical equipment of the Red Army, Air Force and Navy, the result of which has been to make them the formidable force they are to the enemies of Socialism.
One big program the Party had to tackle was the training of cadres. Soviet society had to have its own skilled forces, a Soviet intelligentsia, primarily^ a working-class intelligentsia. This was one of the cardinal problems of Socialist construction. In the light of Lenin's view that Socialist revolution was the basic condition for the rapid cultural progress of the masses, Stalin regarded it as one of the paramount tasks of Socialist construction to develop the cultural forces of the working class. He said:
ce Among the ruling classes that have hitherto existed, the working class, as a ruling class, occupies a rather unique and not altogether favourable position in history. All ruling classes till now the slaveowners, the landowners, the capitalists were also wealthy classes. They were able to educate their sons in the science and art of government. The working class differs from them in this, among other things: it is not a wealthy class, formerly it was not able to educate its sons in the science and art of government, and has become able to do so only now, after it has come to power. That, incidentally, is the reason why the question of a cultural revolution is so acute with us."*
This problem of training skilled and expert forces from the workers' midst became very urgent when the country was already abundantly supplied with new machinery and an acute need was felt for people who had mastered the use of machinery, people capable of utilizing it to the full for the benefit of their country.
This new machinery, this mighty technique, required trained people capable of harnessing it and extracting from it all that it could give. Attention had to be emphatically drawn to the need for mastering this new technique, for training large numbers of people capable of making full use of it. And in this respect, Stalin's address to the graduates from the Red Army Academies in May 1935 was of exclusive importance.
"In order to set technique going," he said, "and to utilize it to the full, we need people who have mastered technique, we need cadres capable of mastering and utilizing this technique according to all the rules of the art. Without people who have mastered technique, technique is dead. In the charge of people who have mastered technique, technique can and should perform miracles. If in our first-class mills and factories, in our state farms and collective farms, in our transport system and in our Red Army we had sufficient cadres capable of harnessing this technique, our country would secure results three times and four times as great as at present. . . . " It is time to realize that of all the valuable capital the world possesses, the most valuable and most decisive is people, cadres. It must be realized that under our present conditions 'cadres decide everything/ If we have good and numerous cadres in industry, agriculture, transport, and the army our country will be invincible. If we do not have such cadres we shall be lame on both legs."
Stalin's speech served as a powerful stimulus to the solution of one of the cardinal problems of Socialist construction the problem of cadres. The effect of this speech by the leader of the Party was not only to direct the attention of all Party and Soviet organizations to the problem of personnel; it also awakened a wide response among the masses, and aroused in them a new labour enthusiasm.
A mighty force now arose from the initiative of advanced rank-and-file workers the Stakhanov movement. Originating in the coal industry of the Donbas, it spread with incredible speed to all parts of the country, and to all branches of the national economy. Tens and hundreds of thousands of heroes of labour in industry, in the transport system and in agriculture, set an example in mastering technique and in Socialist productivity of labour.
Stalin drew the attention of the whole Party to Ihe unique significance of this new movement. Speaking at the First Ail-Union Conference of Stakhanoviles, in November 1935, he said that the Stakhanov movement "is the expression of a new wave of Socialist emulation, a new and higher stage of Socialist emulation. . . . The significance of the Stakhanov movement lies in the fact that it is a movement which is smashing the old technical standards, because they are inadequate, which in a number of cases is surpassing the productivity of labour of the foremost capitalist countries, and is thus creating the practical possibility of further consolidating Socialism in our country, the possibility of converting our country into the most prosperous of all countries."
He showed that this movement was paving the way to Communism, that it bore within it the seed of a cultural and technical advancement of the working class which would in the end lead to the obliteration of the distinction between mental ,and manual labour.
Speaking of the conditions that had made the Stakhanov movement possible, he showed wherein lies the might and invincibility of the revolution.
"Our revolution," he said, "is the only one which not only smashed the fetters of capitalism and brought the people freedom, but also succeeded in creating the material conditions of a prosperous life for the people. Therein lies the strength and invincibility of our revolution"."
Stalin personally guided the work of the AllUnion Conference of Stakhanovites and of other conferences of foremost workers in industry, transport, and agriculture, held in the Kremlin. He discussed with Stakhanovitesi in industry and transport, with harvester combine operators, tractor drivers, and record-breakers in collective-farm dairies and beet fields, the details of technique and production in all branches of the national economy.
Together with members of the Party Central Committee and the Government he received in the Kremlin many delegations from the fraternal Socialist Republics. This was a vivid demonstration of the great friendship binding the peoples of the Soviet Union the fruit of the national policy of Lenin and Stalin. In conjunction with leading industrial workers and collective farmers, Stalin and his colleagues worked out many a momentous decision on some of the most important questions of Socialist construction.
" Lenin taught us that only such leaders can be real Bolshevik leaders as know not only how to teach the workers and peasants but also how to learn from them," said Stalin at the conference of Stakhanovites. And, from the earliest days of his revolutionary career, he himself has always set an ideal example of such contact with the masses.
The Socialist reconstruction of the entire national economy brought about a radical change hi the correlation of classes in the country. This called for changes in the Constitution which had been adopted in 1924; and proposals to this effect were made, on Stalin's initiative, by the Central Committee of the Party at the Seventh Congress of Soviets of the U.S.S.R.
A Constitution Commission, under Stalin's chairmanship, was set up to draft a new Constitution. This draft was thrown open for nation-wide discussion, which continued for five and a half months. There was not a corner in the country where this document, one of the greatest in human history, was not studied and discussed. The draft Constitution was received with acclamation and approbation by the whole Soviet people.
In his report at the Extraordinary Eighth Congress of Soviets on November 25, 1936, Stalin made a profound analysis of the draft of the new Constitution, bringing out the tremendous changes which had taken place in the country since the adoption of the Constitution of 1924. The victory of Socialism now made it possible to extend the democratic principles of the election system and to introduce universal, equal and direct suffrage with secret ballot.
All the gigantic victories of Socialism are embodied in the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. The Constitution states that Soviet society consists of two friendly classes the workers and the peasants. The political foundation of the U.S.S.R. is the Soviets of Working People's Deputies. The economic foundation of the U.S.S.R. is the Socialist ownership of the means of production. All citizens of the U.S.S.R. are ensured the right to work, to rest and leisure, to education, to maintenance in old age or in case of illness or incapacittation. The equality of all citizens, irrespective of nationality, race or sex, is an indefeasible law. In the interests of the consolidation of Socialist society, the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, including the holding of mass meetings, the right to unite in public organizations, inviolability of the person, inviolability of homes and privacy of correspondence. The right of asylum is afforded to foreign citizens persecuted for defending the interests of the working people, or for their scientific activities, or for participation in the struggle for national emancipation. These great rights and liberties of the working people, unprecedented in history, are guaranteed materially and economically by the whole Socialist economic system, which knows no crises, anarchy or unemployment.
At the same time the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. imposes on all citizens serious obligations: to observe the laws, to maintain labour discipline, honestly to perform their public duties, to respect the rules of Socialist human intercourse, to cherish and safeguard Socialist property, and to defend the Socialist fatherland.
What the best and most progressive minds of humanity had dreamed of for hundreds of years has been made an indefeasible law by the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. the Constitution of Socialism victorious and of fully developed, Socialist democracy.
The new Constitution was approved and adopted by the Eighth Congress of Soviets, on December 5, 1936. It is unanimously called by the peoples of the U.S.S.R. after its author Stalin. For the working people of the U.S.S.R. the Stalin Constitution is a summary and seal of their struggles and achievements; for the working people of the capitalist countries it is a great program of struggle. It is the endorsement of the historic fact that the U.S.S.R. has entered a new phase of development, the phase of the completion of the building of Socialist society and the gradual transition to Communism. It is a moral and political weapon in the hands of the working people of the world in their struggle against bourgeois reaction-. It shows that what has been accomplished in the U.S.S.R. can be accomplished in other countries too.
Stalin spoke of the international significance of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.:
"Today, when the turbid wave of fascism is bespattering the Socialist movement of the working class and besmirching the democratic strivings of the best people in the civilized world, the new Constitution of the U.S.S.R. will be an indictment against fascism, declaring that Socialism and democracy are invincible. The new Constitution of the U.S.S.R. will give moral assistance and real support to all those who are today fighting fascist barbarism."
The Socialist victories achieved by the Party served still more to infuriate the enemies of the people. In 1937 new facts were brought to light regarding the fiendish crimes of the Trotsky-Bukharin gang of spies, wreckers and assassins, hirelings of the espionage services of capitalist states. The trials which followed revealed that these dregs of humanity had been conspiring against Lenin, whom they had intended to arrest, and against the Party and the Soviet state from the very first days of the October Revolution. At the bidding of their imperialist masters, they had made it their aim to destroy the Party and the Soviet state, to undermine the defence of the country, to facilitate foreign intervention, to pave the way for the defeat of the Red Army, to dismember the U.S.S.R., to convert it into an imperialist colony and to restore capitalist slavery in the country. The Party and the Soviet Government took stern measures to smash the gang of pernicious enemies of the people. In his report on "Defects in Party Work," delivered at the Plenum of the Central Committee in March 1937, Stalin outlined a clear-cut program for reinforcing the Party and Soviet bodies, and for heightening political vigilance. He advanced the slogan: "Master Bolshevism!" He taught the Party how to combat the enemies of the people and to tear the masks from their faces.
The Soviet courts disclosed the crimes of the Trotsky-Bukharin fiends and sentenced them to be shot. The Soviet people approved the annihilation of the Trotsky-Bukharin gang and passed on to next business, which was to prepare for the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.
Guided by the Central Committee and by Stalin, the Party threw all its energies into the preparations for the elections. The new Constitution signified a turn in the political life of the country, the further democratization of all its phases, The effect of the new electoral system was to enhance the political activity of the people, to strengthen the control of the masses over the organs of Soviet power, and to increase the responsibility of the latter to the people. In conformity with these new tasks, the Party, guided by the Central Committee and by Stalin, revised its methods of work, extending inner-Party democracy, strengthening the principles of democratic centralism, developing criticism and self-criticism, and increasing the responsibility of the Party bodies to the general membership. Stalin's idea of a Communist and non-Party bloc was taken as the keynote of the Party's election campaign.
On December 11, 1937, on the eve of the elections, Stalin addressed the voters of the district in which he had been nominated for election, the Stalin district, in Moscow. In this speech, he pointed to the fundamental difference between elections in the U.S.S.R., which are free and democratic in every sense of the word, and elections in capitalist countries, where the people are under the pressure of the exploiting classes. In the U.S.S.R. the exploiting classes had been eliminated, Socialism had become part of everyday life, and this was the basis on which the elections were taking place. Further, Stalin described the type of political figure the people should elect to the Supreme Soviet. The people must demand that they should be political figures of the Lenin type, that they should be as clear and definite, as fearless in battle, as immune to panic, as merciless towards the enemies of the people as Lenin was; that they should be as wise and deliberate in deciding complex political problems requiring a comprehensive orientation as Lenin was; that they should be as upright and honest as Lenin was; that they should love their people as Lenin did.
The whole country listened with bated breath to the broadcast speech of its great leader. Hisi words sank deep into the minds of the working people. The speech defined the principles which should guide the activities of the deputies of the people; it fired the people with enthusiasm and helped still further to cement the Communist and non-Party bloc.
The elections to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. took place on December 12. They turned into a nation-wide holiday, a celebration of the triumph of the Soviet people. Of a total of 94,000,000 voters, over 91,000,000, or 96.8 per cent, went to the polls; 90,000,000 people voted for the Communist and non-Party bloc, a fervent testimony to the victory of Socialism. This was a resounding victory for the Stalin Communist and non-Party bloc, a triumph for the Party of Lenin and Stalin, and for its Leninist-Stalinist leadership.
The moral and political unity of the Soviet people was here brilliantly confirmed. And first among the elected of the people, first among the deputies to ihe Supreme Soviet, was Stalin.
In view of the tremendously increased activity of the masses, and the immense problems involved in the further advancement of Socialist construction, the question of ideological and political training acquired a new and enhanced significance.
In a number of his public utterances, Stalin strongly stressed the necessity of mastering Bolshevism. He pointed out that all the necessary resources and opportunities were available to train personnel ideologically and to steel them politically, and that on this depended nine-tenths of the solution of all practical problems .
In 1938, the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) Short Course, written by Stalin, and approved by a commission of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U.(B.) , appeared.
The publication of this book was a major event in the ideological life of the Bolslhevik Party. It supplied the Party with a new and powerful ideological weapon of Bolshevism, a veritable encyclopaedia of fundamental knowledge in Marxism-Leninism. Written with the lucidity and profundity characteristic of Stalin, this book providesan exposition and generalization of the vast historical experience of the Communist Party, unequalled bj T that of any other party in the world. The History of the C.P.S.U.(B.) shows the development of Marxism under the new conditions of the class struggle of the proletariat, the Marxism of the era of imperialism and proletarian revolutions, of the era of the victory of Socialism in one-sixth of the world. The book had an enormous sale, millions of copies being bought up in a very short period. "It may be quite definitely asserted," said Zhdanov at the Eighteenth Congress of the Party, "that this is the first Marxist book to have been disseminated so widely ever since Marxism has been in existence."
The chapter on "Dialectical and Historical Materialism" is a masterly statement of the principles of dialectical and historical materialism, expounded with the utmost conciseness and lucidity. Here Stalin gives a general account of all that has been contributed to the dialectical method and materialistic theory by Marx, Engels and Lenin, and further develops the doctrine of dialectical and historical materialism in conformity with the latest facts of science and revolutionary practice.
He explains dialectical materialism as the theoretical foundation of Communism, as the world outlook of the Marxist-Leninist Party, as the ideological weapon of the working class in its struggle to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and to build up Communism. This work convincingly shows the underlying connection between the Marxist-Leninist philosophy and the practical revolutionary activities of the Bolshevik Party. In order to avoid mistakes in policy, Stalin teaches, we must be guided by the principles of the Marxist dialectical method and must know the law* of historical development.
Stalin's "Dialectical and Historical Materialism," written by an incomparable master of the Marxist dialectical method, and generalizing the vast practical and theoretical experience of Bolshevism, raises dialectical materialism to a new and higher level, and is the pinnacle of Marxist-Leninist philosophical thought.
In March 1939 met the Eighteenth Congress of the Party, whose labours were guided by Stalin. This Congress was an imposing demonstration of the solidarity of the Party, monolithic and united as never before around the Leninist-Stalinist Central Committee.
In his report on the work of the Central Committee, Stalin gave a profound analysis of the international position of the Soviet Union and exposed the schemes of the instigators of war and intervention against the U.S.S.R. Five years had elapsed since the Seventeenth Party Congress. For the capitalist countries this had been a period of grave upheavals both in the economic and the political sphere. The economic crisis of 1929-32 and the depression of a special kind had been followed, in the latter half of 1937, by a new economic crisis, involving the U.S.A., Great Britain, France and a number of other capitalist countries. The international situation had grown acute in the extreme, the post-war system of peace treaties had suffered shipwreck, and a new, the second, world war had begun.
The new war was started by the two most aggressive of the imperialist states Germany and Japan. This war, Stalin said, had drawn over five hundred million people into its orbit and its sphere of action extended over a vast territory, stretching from Tientsin, Shanghai and Canton, through Abyssinia, to Gibraltar. The war was more and more infringing on the interests of the non-aggressive states, primarily of Great Britain, France and the U.S.A. Yet the governments of these countries were making no attempt to put up effective resistance to the aggressors. They had rejected a policy of collective security and assumed a position of "neutrality," of non-intervention. The policy of non-intervention was tantamount to conniving at aggression, to giving free rein to war. The sponsors of the notorious Munich agreement, the rulers of Britain and France Chamberlain and Daladier wanted to direct German fascist aggression eastward, against the Soviet Union.
Stalin exposed the machinations of the instigators of war against the U.S.S.R. who asserted that the Munich concessions to the aggressors and the Munich non-intervention agreement had ushered in an era of "appeasement." He warned that "the big and dangerous political game started by the supporters of the policy of non-intervention may end in a serious fiasco for them."
In a masterly analysis, Stalin made clear to the Party and the Soviet people all the intricacy and danger of the existing international situation and defined the principles of Soviet foreign policy. He said:
"The tasks of the Party in the sphere of foreign policy are:
"1. To continue the policy of peace and of strengthening business relations with all countries;
"2. To be cautious and not allow our country to be drawn into conflict by warmongers who are accustomed to have others pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them;
"3. To strengthen the might of our Red Army and Red Navy to the utmost;
"4. To strengthen the international bonds of friendship with the working people of all countries, who are interested in peace and friendship among nations."*
After describing the achievements of Socialism, the progress of Socialist economy, the rising material and cultural standards of the people, and the increasing consolidation of the Soviet system, Stalin put before the Party and the whole Soviet people a new and great historic task, namely, to overtake and outstrip the principal capitalist countries economically i.e., in volume of output per head of population in the next ten or fifteen years.
"We have outstripped the principal capitalist countries as regards technique of production and rate of industrial development," he said. "That is very good, but it is not enough. We must outstrip them economically as well. We can do it, and we must do it. Only if we outstrip the principal capitalist countries economically can we reckon upon our country being fully saturated with consumers' goods, on having an abundance of products, and on being able to make the transition from the first phase of Communism lo its second phase."
Stalin outlined, as one of the most important tasks of the Party, a complete scientifically-grounded Bolshevik program for the training, education, selection, promotion and testing of personnel.
Reviewing the ground covered by the Party in the interval between the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Congresses, he said:
"The chief conclusion to be drawn is that the working class of our country, having abolished the exploitation of man by man and firmly established the Socialist system, has proved to the world the truth of its cause. That is the chief conclusion, for it strengthens our faith in the power of the working class and in the inevitability of its ultimate victory."
Stalin's report to the Eighteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U. (B.) is a programmatic document of Communism, a new step in the development of MarxistLeninist theory. Stalin carried Lenin's theory of the Socialist revolution a stage further. He gave concrete shape to the doctrine of the possibility of building Socialism in one country and concluded that the building of Communism in the Soviet Union was possible, even if it continued to be surrounded by a capitalist world. This conclusion enriches Leninism, arms the working class with a new ideological weapon, opens up to the Party the majestic prospect of a struggle for the victory of Communism, and advances the theory of Marxism-Leninism.
Lenin wrote his famous work The State and Revolution in August 1917, a few months prior to the October Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet state. In this book, Lenin defended Marx's and Engels' theory of the state against the distortions and vulgarizations of the opportunists. It was Lenin's intention to write a second volume of The State and Revolution, in which would be summed up the principal lessons of the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Death, however, prevented Lenin from accomplishing his design. That which Lenin had not lived to do in development of the theory of the state, was done by Stalin.
Drawing on the vast experience accumulated during the more than twenty years the Soviet state had existed in the midst of a capitalist world, Stalin developed an integral and complete theory of the Socialist state. He made a detailed analysis of the stages of development of the Socialist state and of the way its functions had changed with the changes in conditions; he gave a general review of tlie experience accumulated in the building of the Soviet state, and arrived at the conclusion that the state would have to be preserved under Communism if the capitalist encirclement persisted.
Stalin stressed the momentous importance of Party propaganda and the Marxist-Leninist education of the functionaries of the Party and the Young Communist League, of the trade unions and trade, cooperative, and economic organizations, and of government, educational, military and other bodies.
"If," he said, "the Marxist-Leninist training of our cadres begins to Languish, if our work of raising the political and theoretical level of these cadres flags, and the cadres themselves cease on account of this to show interest in the prospect of our further progress, cease to understand the truth of our cause and are transformed into narrow plodders with no outlook, blindly and mechanically carrying out instructions from above then our entire state and Party work must inevitably languish. It must be accepted as an axiom that the higher the political Itevel and the Marxist-Leninist knowledge of the workers in any branch of state or Party work, the better and more fruitful will be the work itself, and the more effective the results of the work; and, vice versa, the lower the political level of the workers, and the less they are imbued with a knowledge of Marxism-Leninr ism, the greater will be the likelihood of disruption and failure in the work, of the workers themselves becoming shallow and deteriorating into paltry plodders, of their degenerating altogether. It may be confidently stated that if we succeeded in training the cadres in all branches of our work ideologically, and in schooling them politically, to such an extent as to enable them easily to orientate themselves in the internal and international situation; if we succeeded in making them quite mature Marxist-Leninists capable of solving the problems involved in the guidance of the country without serious error, we would have every reason to consider nine-tenths of our problems already settled. And we certainly can accomplish this, for we have all the means and opportunities' for doing so."
Stalin further said: "There is one branch of science which Bolsheviks in all branches of science are in duty bound to know, and that is the Marxist-Leninv ist science of society, of the laws of social) development, of the laws of development of the proletarian revolution, of the Haws of development of Socialist construction, and of the victory of Communism. For a man who calls himself a Leninist cannot be considered a real Leninist if he shuts himself up in his speciality, in mathematics, botany or chemistry, let us say, and sees nothing beyond that speciality. A Leninist cannot be just a specialist in his favourite science; he must also be a political and social worker, keenly interested in the destinies of his country, acquainted with the laws of social development, capable of applying these laws, and striving to be an active participant in the political guidance of the country. This, of course, will be an additional burden on specialists who are Bolsheviks. But it will be a burden more than compensated for by its results.
"The task of Party propaganda, the task of the Marxist-Leninist training of cadres, is to help our cadres in all branches of work to become versed in the Marxist-Leninist science of the laws of social development."
Stalin's report to the Eighteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U.(B.) was a program for the completion of the building of a classless Socialist society and for the gradual transition from Socialism to Communism. The Congress unanimously endorsed the report of the Party leader as an instruction and a law to the Party in all its activities.
The report was a brilliant example of scientific, Marxist-Leninist foresight in the sphere of international relations. Stalin's wise statement of the aims of Soviet foreign policy, and his skill in leadership, resulted in important successes for Soviet foreign policy and enhanced the prestige of the Soviet Union as a serious international force, able to influence the international! situation and to modify it in the interests of the working people. Guided by Stalin's recommendations, the Soviet Government thwarted the perfidious schemes of the instigators of war who were keen on having other people pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them, and safeguarded the peaceful labour of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. The mutual assistance pacts concluded by the Soviet Union with the Baltic States immeasurably strengthened the defences of the Socialist country and its international position. The Soviet Government strove to prevent the further spread of war and to promote a policy of collective security. But this policy found no support among the ruling circles of Great Britain and France. The Munich policy of non-intervention turned out to be a costly thing for the peoples of the nonaggressive countries. In March 1939, with the connivance of British and French diplomacy, Hitter Germany seized Czechoslovakia. This was soon followed by an offensive of the German aggressors against the countries of Eastern Europe. Imperialist Japan Germany's ally in the Far East also became active. In May 1939, she launched a series of provocative sorties on the frontier of the Mongolian People's Republic, but at Khalkhin-gol the Japanese Manchurian army suffered signal defeat at the hands of the Red Army.
British and French diplomacy, meanwhile, was playing an insincere game with the U.S.S.R.; the negotiations for the organization of collective resistance to a possible aggressor were deliberately protracted, and conditions for the conclusion of an agreement were proposed which were clearly unacceptable to the Soviet Union.
Seeing that Britain and France were not disposed to co-operate with the U.S.S.R. for the maintenance of peace, the Soviet Government was forced to look for other ways of safeguarding the security of the country.
In August 1939, the Government of the U.S.S.R. concluded a treaty of non-aggression with Germany. Thisi treaty, as Stalin subsequently stated, did not jeopardize, either directly or indirectly, the territorial integrity, independence and honour of the Soviet Union. But it did ensure it peace for some time and the opportunity to prepare its forces for resistance in the event of attack.
Bearing in mind Stalin's insistence on the necessity of maintaining the country in a state of mobilized readiness against the contingency of armed foreign* attack, the Bolshevik Party had for a long time been working consistently and undeviatingly to put the Soviet Union in a state of all-round readiness for active defence. The Soviet policy of industrialization and of agricultural collectivization carried out during the period of the Stalin Five-Year Plans had created a powerful economic base capable of being utilized for the active defence of the country.
This policy of the party had made it possible to produce sufficient metal for the manufacture of munitions, machinery and equipment for industry, fuel to keep the factories and the railways running, cotton for making army clothing, and food for the supply of the armed forces.
Thanks to the policy of industrializing the country and collectivizing agriculture, the Soviet Union in 1940 produced: 15,000,000 tons of pig iron, or nearly four times as much as tsarist Russia produced in 1913; 18,300,000 tons of steel, or four and a half times as much as in 1913; 166,000,000 tons of coal, or five and a half times as much as in 1913; 31,000,000 tons of oil, or three and a half times as much as in 1913; 38,300,000 tons of commodity grain, or 17,000,000 tons more than in 1913; 2,700,000 tons of raw cotton, or three and a half times as much as in 1913.
"This unprecedented growth of production," Stalin said, when addressing his constituents on February 9, 1946, "cannot be regarded as the simple and ordinary development of a country from backwardness to progress. It was a leap by which our motherland became transformed from a backward country into an advanced country, from an agrarian into an industrial country."
In the autumn of 1939, on Stalin's initiative, the Soviet Union delivered its kindred peoples in the Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia from the yoke of the Polish landlords. These peoples merged with the united family of free nations of the U.S.S.R. Later the Soviet Baltic Republics Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were restored to the Soviet Union.
On December 20, 1939, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, Joseph Stalin, by decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., was granted the title of Hero of Socialist Labour in recognition of his outstanding services in the organization of the Bolshevik Party, the creation of the Soviet state, the building of Socialist society in the U.S.S.R., and in strengthening the ties of mutual friendship between the Soviet peoples.
On December 22, 1939, Stalin was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.
The Eighteenth All-Union Conference of the C.P.S.U.(B.) was held on February 15-20, 1941. It discussed the tasks of the party organizations in industry and transport, the economic results of the year 1940, the plan for the economic development ol' the U.S.S.R. in 1941, and organizational questions.
The keynote of the Conference, set by Joseph Stalin, was the further strengthening of the defensive power of the Soviet Union.
On Stalin's initiative, the Central Committee" of the C.P.S.U. (B.) and the Soviet Government instructed the State Planning Commission of the U.S.S.R. to draw up a general economic plan for the country covering a period of fifteen years, based on the decisions of the Eighteenth Party Congress. The objective of the plan was to overtake the principal capitalist countries economically, that is, in output per head of the population of iron, steel, fuel, electric power, machines and other means of production and articles of consumption.
On May 6, 1941, Joseph Stalin, by decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., was appointed Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R.
Led by the great Stalin, the Soviet people were marching toward new victories, toward Communism. But in June 1941, Germany attacked the U.S.S.R., and war interrupted the peaceful constructive labours of the Soviet people.