Gennady Zyuganov: “The Epoch of Stalin in facts and figures

2009-12-04

“Pravda” newspaper – G.A. Zyuganov

Making advances to these wishes, we decided to make a special publication, where by dry language of statistics we could show the full extent of achievements of our people under the leadership of I.V. Stalin and the vanity of attempts to discredit this historic feat.

I.V. Stalin took over the leadership of the country in 1922, when the Civil War just calmed down. He received the country with a bankrupt economy and people tired of endless war. After all, for the people of Russia, the war began in 1914 – as the First World War, which four years later developed into the Civil War. The following facts give evidence of the economic situation of the country by the beginning of the era, which has come in its history under the name of Stalin’s era. By the beginning of 1921, industrial output was only 12% of the pre-war volume. In 1920, grain growth was less than 64% of the pre-war ingathering. Most of the mines and diggings were destroyed. Only a few factories and plants were still working. Ruin covered both town and village. Most modern historians, estimating that era, explain large-scale destruction only by the Civil War, as if oblivious to the fact that it was preceded, like the revolution of 1917, by exhausting First World War.

Even the then, destroyed Russia attracted worldwide attention, surprising the whole world. Gradually, slowly but surely, the country was receiving the recognition of the progressive part of humanity as the world’s first socialist state. But the world was ruled by capitalist system, which could not tolerate the emergence of such a state. Stalin was well aware of his era, clearly recognized that the history released the Soviet Union too little time to create the economy that would allow to survive, to preserve the independence and to develop in full value. And the new leader of Soviet Russia directly confronted the people of the most important task, clearly articulated the main goal: “We are lagging behind the advanced countries for 50-100 years. We must cover this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they’ll crush us down”.

Stalin’s goal came home to the people; it reflected its interests and was aimed at saving the Fatherland. The realization of this goal draw people together, united the country in general striving. That is why the goal was achieved to the whole world wonder. Here is what wrote the French newspaper “Le Temps” in January 1932: “The USSR won the first round, industrializing itself without the aid of foreign capital”.

Our oligarchs, incompetent financiers and speculators of all stripes and ranks today should take those words into account. Those ones, who are so susceptible to “cheap” foreign loans, which are repaid now by the will of the authorities at the expense of budgetary funds that are rightfully belonged to all people. Under Stalin, such use of public money was impossible. Every ruble received by public purse was allocated into the industry development, in construction sites, in support of the village.

To the world surprise

Enthusiasm for the economic growth in Stalin’s Soviet Union could not hide even the major bourgeois West mass media editions, such as the British “Financial Times”, which pages stated: “The progress made in the engineering industry is above exception. Celebration of the achievements in the press and in speeches is by no means groundless. Do not forget that before Russia was producing only the most basic machines and tools … The Soviet Union now produces all the equipment necessary for its metallurgical and electrical industries. It managed to establish its own automobile industry. It created the production of instruments and tools, which covers the whole range – from the smallest instruments of high accuracy up to the heaviest presses. As for agricultural machinery, the USSR is no longer dependent on imports from abroad. At the same time, the Soviet Government is taking steps to ensure that the backlog in coal mining and iron production does not prevent the implementation of the five-year plan in four years. There is no doubt that the newly built huge factories guarantee a significant increase in output of heavy industry”.

It would be naive believing that the most popular bourgeois newspapers sought to share the joy of the Soviet people about the fantastic success in building new socialist economy moving over to the five-year development plans. But not to recognize the achievements of the Soviet Union in economic development was impossible.

It is a style now to talk about how rich and economically developed was tsarist Russia before the First World War, to cite really impressive at the time data of 1913. But do they really look so impressive at the background of the Stalinist era achievements? Here are only some of statistical figures. In 1913 Russia produced industrial products by about 8 times smaller than the United States, approximately 3.5 times less than Germany, 3 times less than the United Kingdom, and 1.5 times less than France. Russia’s share in world industrial output in 1913 amounted to only 4%. As a result of the devastation brought by World War I and the Civil war, the industrial potential of the country fell considerably. The production volume of heavy industry declined in 7 times as compared to 1913.

But immediately after the Civil War the rapid recovery of national industry began. By 1926 it was practically rebuilt. And in 1927 the total industrial output in the Soviet Union surpassed the one of 1913. By 1929 – the beginning of the first five-year period – more than two thousand large state-owned industrial enterprises were restored and re-built. However, these results were not enough to achieve economic independence and the defensibility. To accomplish that Stalin’s task, which was put forward at the XIV Congress of the Party, it was necessary to improve the system of economic management. That is why since 1929 the country’s economy started to develop on the five-year plans.

Just think: in less than five years doubled the volume of industrial production. The majority of productions were built-up from scratch; new technique and equipment were deployed and mastered. That was truly innovative economy! No chatter and loud declarations that were not secured by real deeds. In his Report to the XVII Congress of the All-Russia CP(b) Stalin stated briefly and clearly: “Our country has become firmly and finally an industrial country”. Here is the data, which fully confirms his words.

In order to ensure such rates of industrial development, to master its new branches, all available resources of the country had to be mobilized.

Breakthrough in Agricultural PolicyThose, who today are trying to distort history, to defile the Stalin era, as well as the historic feat of the people, claim that the agricultural sector was neglected at that time.

While reporting to the XVII Congress of the Party Central Committee of the All-Russia CP(b) Stalin informed the country and the people about what was made for the peasantry during the First Five-Year Plan: “Now among the notable people are the collective and state farmers collective, school teachers and club activists, tractor and combine operators, field and livestock brigadiers, the best shock workers of the collective farms”. However, Stalin did not conceal that between town and country remained cultural gap. But with what love, faith and hope he spoke about the village and the peasants! The head of the country knew what they were the ones, who were paying scot and lot. He realized, what was being accomplished for this feat of self-sacrifice, and did everything to raise the rural culture and education, gradually reducing the gap between town and countryside.

Reporting back to the XVII Congress, Stalin characterized the support that was provided to the peasantry during the First Five-Year Plan like that: “The state aid to farmers by providing them with 2 thousand 860 machine-tractor stations through allocation of 2 billion rubles. The state aid to farmers by crediting the collective farms with 1 billion 600 million rubles. The state aid to farmers by granting seed and food loans during the reporting period in the amount of 262 million tons of grain. The state aid to the poor peasants in the form of tax and insurance remissions amounting to 370 million rubles”. But at the same time Stalin openly stated in his report that “… the development in the field of agriculture was going on in a different way. Many times slower than in industry”. The Soviet leader noted: “In fact, the reporting period was for agriculture was not so much a period of rapid recovery and a strong upswing as a period of recovery and upswing in the near future”.

Stalin’s hope for success in agriculture was especially reinforced by the successful development of agricultural engineering and educational and cultural development of the village. Here are the data reflecting the dynamic growth of agricultural technology in the years of Stalin’s first Five Year Plan.

If the total volume of industrial production doubled for the first five-year period has, then, as the table shows, the number of tractors in the country has grown over the same period in 6 times, and their production capacity – almost in 8 times. Simultaneously, the number of harvesters has increased almost in 15 times.

Summing up the first Five Year Plan in the village, Stalin said: “Hence, collective and state farms were provided with 240 thousand tractors and 3 million 100 thousand horsepower. It’s quite a power, as you see, capable of pulling up all the roots of capitalism from the countryside. The power that is twice as the number of tractors, Lenin spoke of in his time, as of a distant prospect.

But the village while going trough the difficult process of collectivization was provided not only with the equipment. During the first five-year plan more than 23 thousand of Communists were sent to the village, who were assigned responsibility for implementing the set plans. In addition, during the first five years the state directed 111 thousand of technical and agronomic specialists, as well as about 2 million trained tractor and harvester drivers, wheelmen and drivers to collective and state farms. And more than 1 million 600 thousand field and livestock brigadiers, accountants, etc.

Stalin personally controlled the proper equipment storage, proper maintenance of rotation of crops, the creation of seed stock in all branches of agriculture. Stalin in his Report to XVII Congress dealt all these issues, which indicated how much he highlighted their resolution.
Could the current leadership of the country to demonstrate at least in some area such a responsibility and competence? It fails to cope even with the automotive industry, although only this year tens of billions of rubles have been invested in the industry. And now it rushes either to Germany, or to France for help in solving the problem. And under the leadership of Stalin, within only three years the production of trucks grew in 5,2 times, and or autos – in16 times. And from scratch, by the way.Socialism WinsNot only the figures that we have presented indicate Stalin’s era, the scale of his personality. While reading his speeches, reports, one cannot but wonder and admire how clearly he saw both the successes and disadvantages. Stalin always followed the Lenin behest: the main thing in any leader’s activity is the selection of people and performance checking. He repeatedly warned against bureaucracy, red tape, blab and carelessness. He articulated vital task for the country – “promote honest and conscientious performers”. These were the words used by Stalin, while summing up the first five years, performed within 4 years and 3 months.

In my book “Stalin and nowadays” I have already referred to the reviews of the English banker Jerry Gibson about the nature of Soviet people work. I believe it’s worth quoting again his opinion on the outcome of the first Soviet Five-Year Plan, issued in October 1932.
“I want to clarify that I am not a communist and not a Bolshevik, I am definitely a capitalist and individualist”, preconditioned Gibson, while further comparing the then West and the Soviet systems, made a verdict in favor of the Stalinist state and the Stalinist economy: “Russia is moving forward, while too many of our factories are out of operation, and about 3 million of our people are desperately looking for work. Five-Year Plan was ridiculed and its failure was predicted. But you can take it beyond doubt that in a five-year plan there was implemented much more than was planned”.

The main objective of economic policy for Stalin and his associates was to transform the country from an agrarian to an industrial power. My book “Stalin and nowadays” gives much prominence to the issue. However, Stalin’s works, the speeches at party congresses and plenary meetings, addresses to military men, one cannot but realize that the most difficult for him was the peasant issue. The collective-farm movement, drawbacks in the peasant question, preoccupied Stalin until the end of his life.

Not to recognize the tremendous efforts that made the state in the Stalin era for rural development, can only those, who deliberately seek to distort the policies of Stalin towards the peasantry. Perhaps the most eloquent of these state efforts, are even not the village supply with tractors and harvesters, nor large-scale state aid allocated for the village from the treasury. The most eloquent testimony is the figures that confirm the rapid expansion of educational and cultural environment throughout the village during the Stalin era. By the beginning of 1933 among higher school students there were about 17% of former peasants, while in Germany the share of farmers in higher education was about 2.4% of the total number of students. And the scale of school construction in rural areas, and increase in the number of students – those from farmers descended indicate that attitude toward the peasantry as a class on Stalin’s behalf was at least responsible.

Now let’s compare these figures with the ones that submits us the current, “market-democratic” era. If in 1991 there were 48600 schools in Russia, by 2008 there remained 36300 of them. That is, under Stalin more than twenty thousand schools were built every five years. And under the rule of present liberals more than twelve thousand schools were happen to be destroyed within 17 years.

In order to understand and appreciate Stalin as the builder of the power state, as the leader, one has to conceive his era. To conceive the then world and environment, in which the country lived. Why do historians seeking to discredit Stalin, avoid talking about the then condition of the world leading nations, the way their economy was developing in comparison with the Soviet one? Why do they keep silence on how many lives took the Great Depression in the United States? Meanwhile, many experts say that more than two millions died there from starvation. Why are liberal organizations in the West and Russia, calling for equating legally Communism with Nazism, not in a hurry on the basis of these millions of victims to equate Nazism with capitalism?

The figures help to imagine the then-Soviet reality and assess the successes of the Soviet Union in 1930’s, to compare the pace of its development with the pace of the other countries’ development.

These figures speak for themselves. None of the world leading countries swept by the then-world crisis, failed to reach by 1933 their own indices of 1929 – the beginning of the American Great Depression. On average, industrial production in these countries decreased by 25%. And the industrial output in the USSR at the same time more than doubled.

Let us cite other data, which allow you to compare our state and the western economies in the early 1930’s with pre-war figures of 1913.

As you can see, England and Germany, even for 20 years, unlike Russia, without civil wars, failed to reach the industrial production level of 1913. The U.S.A. and France, although managed to beat that level, but the 10.2% growth in the U.S.A. and 7,6% one- in France is incomparable to the Soviet Union’s, where the industry grew four-fold as compared with the tsarist Russia.
Now, when we are experiencing the decline, one might say, the collapse of the country economy, it is especially important to assess thoughtfully and realistically that era. And to understand: that to ensure in 1920’s the launch of the industrial production in the USSR and to reach by 1930’s its enormous growth first it was necessary to build the industrial production almost from scratch. So to say economically, we grew faster than all the western countries, while addressing the most complex innovative problems of economy than any of those countries. And this innovative breakthrough failed to repeat any state in the world.

To achieve such results, it was first necessary to solve the problem of education. The number of learners was growing every year.

In addition, at the workers faculties that existed until the 1940/41 academic year, were keeping terms 49 thousand within the 1927/28 academic year and 25 thousand – in 1940/41 academic year.

The above data speak volumes for the fact that the then leadership was not blabbing about innovation, but consistently provided the intellectual foundation for the country innovative development.

Even when the children born during the Great Patriotic War went to school and the number of pupils became smaller by about 800 thousand, the number of trainees in secondary and higher education institutions grew steadily.

The number of inventions and innovations in post-war years of Stalinist era evidenced about the compelling returns that the country received due to such attention paid to education.

It is of importance that annually over half of proposed inventions were introduced into production.

The figures become more impressive, if you compare them with today’s “successes” of Chubais in introducing of “nanotechnologies”. Out of the 1,200 rationalization proposals received by him Chubais supported only 8 ones. At the same time in 2009 for the development of nanotechnologies, he received 120 billion budget rubles. Out of this amount, according to the published data of the Prosecutor General’s Office, 5 billions he sent for innovation implementation. By the way, unknown to the public. And as much as 5 billion he spent on “domestic needs” of the company as usual. It is easy to imagine what would have paid Chubais in Stalin’s time after the promulgation of such check results. But now, in the era of the country looting and Law abuse, he is seeking for additional funding from the state budget.

Anti-Stalinist propaganda, the main “trump card” of which always happen to be  the talks about the alleged giant-scale repressions of 1930- 1940-ies, has not accidentally turned into the most worn-out record for the current corrupt officials, criminalized oligarchy and propaganda team of liberal “analysts” serving them. On the one hand, they all tend to distort the truth about Soviet history, glossing over its main achievements and otherwise blowing up, repeatedly exaggerating its costs. On the other hand, they fear and reject the very idea of rigid state control over the activities of officials and managers, of the relentless fight against crime and corruption, of uncompromising opposition to those who are deliberately or negligently causing damage to the country and people. In their understanding the democracy and freedom are their unlimited right to steal and trample upon the rights and interests of the overwhelming majority of citizens. The system, which deprives them of such right, they unequivocally declare the “totalitarian” and “repressive” one. Just here that the main reason of their hostility to Stalin and his era stems from. This was the era when the work of officials was under particularly hard control and the crime was suppressed without remorse. Yes, it was dome sometimes with extremity and with undue sacrifice, but, ultimately, for the good of the country and most of its people.

Recognizing that in the Stalin time wrongful repressions against the innocent and overly severe punishment of those, who committed offenses but deserves less severe punishment, took place, we, Communists, behind the most responsible and impartial historians and researchers herewith insist upon the two most important circumstances.

Firstly, wrongful repressions, abuse of authority on the part of law enforcement and security bodies were not Stalin’s personal initiative. He himself not even pushed to the extremity those, whose duty was to maintain law and order in the country, but rather called them to strict account for unjustified “zeal”, the cost of which was the life or liberty of innocents. That was why the leaders of the Soviet security bodies Ezhov and Yagoda ultimately paid themselves for such extremity in 1930’s. They answered in law for the violations. And the very fact that the former KGB leaders stood eventually their own trial for the misdeeds, leaves no stone unturned in the alleged anti-Soviet propaganda that the security services in the Stalin times were uncontrolled by the law and society and did whatever they wish.

Secondly, the anti-Soviet propaganda shamelessly and repeatedly overstates the sheer scale of “repressions” and the number of their victims, while dropping distinction between real criminals and those, who were convicted wrongly.

As confirmation of this let us cite the author, who has long been one of the most authoritative among serious researchers of the Soviet era. This is historian Victor Zemskov, who devoted to the issue we are talking about the years of near research work. In 1989, as the member of the Commission for determining the losses of the population of the History Department of the USSR Academy of Sciences, he began to study the hitherto classified and most informative documents – statistical reporting OGPU-NKVD-MVD-MGB, stored in the October Revolution State Archive. He later announced the received and repeatedly cleaned data. As a result, the scientist, while putting straightforwardly that he was not among Stalin’s supporters, caused a flurry of attacks on the part of “liberal” advocates. It happened due to the unveiled truth that crossed out their stories about the millions and even tens of millions of victims of the Stalinist totalitarianism. Zemskov convincingly argued that for thirty years – from 1921 to 1953 – a total of four millions sentenced for political crimes passed trough the Soviet prisons and camps. And about 800 thousand people were sentenced to the capital punishment. Simultaneously, the historian stressed that while giving an adequate definition of repression, it was necessary to separate the repression against the real criminals and injustice to the innocents. And there is no evidence that among the four millions imprisoned in Stalin’s time and among the 800 thousands sentenced to death, most were innocents.

And herewith is summary table, which in early 1990’s cited Zemskov in his article “Political repressions in the USSR (1917-1990)” published in several printings.

Such statistics, exposing myths about that under Stalin supposedly “half of the country served”, that millions were killed, proved to be inconvenient for the then propaganda. And it still remains inconvenient for the present one. One cannot refute the truth of scientific fact. So the truth is simply hushed up, covered by false tales about “the monstrous repressions”.

Finally, let us impartially compare two figures. Under Stalin, within three decades there were four million of the repressed, of which about 800 thousand shot dead. When “democracy” destroyed the Soviet Union and was governing the country since 1991, the population of Russia decreased by 15 million. For “building capitalism”, which nothing did but accruing chaos, the country has paid by mass extinction, catastrophic population decline, approaching the scale of losses incurred during World War II. Even if there were evidence that all 800 thousand were shot dead on court verdict in Stalin’s time were innocent victims of the system, still one cannot get away from the fact that the current system has required almost twenty times as many casualties, has robbed the country already not of thousands, but millions of citizens. And if you declare a “totalitarian”, excessively brutal Stalinist system, then which characteristics the current system deserves in this case? However, it has received the name recently in the title of one our article – “The System of extinction”.

But let’s return to the analysis of the economic life of the Stalinist Soviet Union, to the evidence of unprecedented effectiveness of the Stalinist modernization.

We have considered only some statistical indicators of the Stalin’s era, reflecting achievements in industry, agriculture, education and technological development. Now let’s consider, at least briefly, the main results of Stalin’s five-year plans.

First Stalin’s Five Year Plan (1929-1932) was a logical continuation and development of ideas of long-term plan for electrification. Total capital expenditures for the five years amounted to 7.8 billion rubles, which is two times more than was invested over the previous 11 years (1918-1928). Thus 50% of all capital investments were appropriated to the industry, and 75% of them – to heavy industry. During the First Five-Year Plan 1500 new large industrial enterprises came into effect, entire industry branches were newly created: aviation, machine-tool, automobile, chemical, instrumentation, agricultural machinery. And these industries could not be mastered if not for the high achievements in ferrous metallurgy, in aluminum, high-quality steel production and etc.

During the First Five-Year Plan the substantive work on the implementation of the electrification plan was carried out. Domestic power plants over the years grew in nearly 2.5 times.

Through performing the tasks of the first Five Year Plan solid foundation of the economy was built – heavy industry, machine agriculture.

The unemployment was eliminated all over the country and a seven-hour working day was introduced.

Capabilities and advantages of the socialist planned economy became beyond controversy.

We have already cited reviews of foreign authors, who admired the results of Stalin’s first Five Year Plan. Here is another one – a review from English magazine “The Round Table”: “Achievements of the five-year plan are real wonder. Tractor plants in Kharkov and Stalingrad, AMO Automobile works in Moscow, automobile plant in Nizhny Novgorod, the Dnieper hydroelectric station, huge steel plants in Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk, the entire network of engineering and chemical plants in the Urals, which is becoming into Russia’s Ruhr, – all these and other industrial achievements all over the country show that, whatever the difficulties were, the Soviet industry, as well-watered plant, is growing and gaining momentum… The five-year plan has laid the foundations for future development and has strengthened the power of the USSR”.

Results of the Second Five Year Plan (1933-1937) were no less impressive. The country was still booming, but the world around was not changing for the better. In Germany the Nazis came to power. Whatever nowadays detractors may say about Stalin, but already in 1933 he was fully aware of the inevitability of war. The country economic policy was mostly determined by the fact.

Industrial output continued to grow with the same high rate and by the five-year period increased in 2.2 times. Electricity production increased in 2.7 times. 80% of the total industrial output was obtained at the enterprises, newly built or completely renovated over the years of the first and second five-year plans. Labor productivity in industry increased in 1.9 times.

4500 large industrial enterprises were enacted. Among the largest – the Ural and Kramatorsky Heavy Machinery Plants, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Works, the Ural Car Building plant, Novolipetsk and Novouralsk Metallurgical works.

In 1935 the first turn of the Moscow Metro was put into operation, which became the pride of the country and adornment of the capital.

The number of theaters, cinemas, clubs and libraries increased considerably. Particular attention was paid to the spread of cinemas and clubs in rural areas. Health resorts and sanatoriums were building dynamically.

Housing construction during the Second Five-Year Plan was more widespread as compared to the First one. Houses built during the Stalin’s era even now are the real gems of our cities. And new-sprung moneybags descend to be the owners of housing created in that time.

At any times housing is an important social good for the people. Here is evidence of how people were provided with this social benefit in the Stalinist times.

Annual commissioning of housing at the end of Stalin’s era grew in almost 8 times as compared to its beginning.

Perhaps, among the most striking achievements of the Second Five-Year Plan was the introduction of universal compulsory primary education. Today in Russia, managed by market-liberals, there are approximately two million children not attending school. Under Stalin, the disgrace would have been impossible. But now the authorities trample the outstanding achievements of the Soviet educational system. The villages, where at Stalin’s times schools were built and opened, are now dying out, and these schools are disappearing. Meanwhile the Minister of Education Fursenko is busy developing a new educational “model”, details of which start leaking to the press. Under the new MES (Ministry of education and science) plans, the children eventually will be thought not by teachers, but by “managers”, whose services will no longer be completely free of charge to the pupils’ parents.

During the years of Stalin’s Second Five-Year Plan public healthcare and pharmaceutical industry were developed, new and hitherto unknown drugs were created. It suffices to mention penicillin that later saved the lives of millions of soldiers during the Great Patriotic War.

During the early years of the Third Five-Year Plan the USSR economy was not only irrefutable evidence of the benefits of socialism. The country came out on the second place in the world and on the first one in Europe under the basic types of heavy industry. In just three years of the five-year plan, interrupted by the war, 3000 more new large industrial enterprises were put in. Power plants, oil refineries and cement plants, pulp and paper mills were put into operation. The number of Soviet workers and employees in the pre-war 1940 increased up to 31.2 million, compared with 11.4 million in 1928. These people had permanent jobs and social recognition, were provided with comfortable housing and were free to raise their educational level. They were able to raise successfully children and be confident in their future. That’s why they did not just go – they were showing fight in 1941 to defend the socialist gains. But for such social cohesion in the country, such strong belief in ideas that reflected the interests of the majority and ensured their observance, the Soviet Union could hardly have survived under the pressure of the most powerful enemy. But there it was in the country. And so our soldiers went into battle, died and broke through the enemy circle with the words: “For the Motherland! For Stalin!”

The Soviet will to Victory

The war years were for Stalin, as for all the people, the hardest ones. But just the war proved conclusively that Stalin was highly gifted leader.

In the very early days of the war the mass movement of millions of people, property and equipment began from the front-line areas to the interior of the country, eastwards. And in a few weeks in the places of evacuation the production for the front was organized.

From July till December 1941 almost 2,600 enterprises were evacuated, 10 million people were carried by railway, more than 2 million – by water. By the end of August 1941 only from Leningrad 100 large enterprises and 600 thousand people were sent rearward. From Moscow By the end of November 500 industrial enterprises, many cultural sites, hundreds of thousands of scientists, artists, musicians, painters and writers were evacuated.

And one of the most infamous paradoxes of history is that among the current detractors of Stalin and his era there are many names of those, whose fathers and grandparents the country chose then as the first ones to be evacuated from the largest cities, in order to save them from Nazi atrocities. Truly, this is historic ingratitude, which will remain an eternal black mark on their conscience.

But not only plants were evacuated to the east of the country. Young rural Komsomol girls overlanded from the front zone to the east about 2.4 million of cattle heads, 5.1 million goats, 800 thousand horses. They evacuated agricultural machinery, removed millions of tons of grain – as front reserve.

Even such tragic time, as the war years, showed us an example of the Stalinist system ability to unprecedented economic breakthroughs. In 1942 the USSR surpassed Hitler’s Germany for the production of tanks in 3,9 times, for combat aircraft – in 1,9 times, for guns of all kinds – in 3,1 times. In 1943 the production of Soviet defense industries increased more than twofold as compared to the pre-war 1940. And domestic agriculture withstood the blows of war. New lands were cultivated in the east, where they expended by 5 million hectares. During the war years, the areas of winter crops in Siberia have increased by 64%.

The USSR war economy managed to ensure high rates of production, contributing to the Victory. And at the same time it was aiming at the peaceful future, at the postwar years of Stalin’s rule, when the Soviet Union, once again surprised the world, showed the wonders of rapid industrial recovery.

It was not long after the Victory that the Soviet economy exceeded pre-war indices. As under the then system and the then leadership the country and the people really wanted and could win both in the war battle and in the struggle for the advanced economy.Get the best from the past – and move forward 

Today Russia’s realities just underline the hypocrisy and failure of the “critics” of Stalin and his rule. The creators and adherents of the system of criminal capitalism, who with its help have gathered huge capital and have made political careers inadequate to their abilities and merits, are blaspheming Stalin with malice, envy and repressed fear. The one, under whose leadership corruption and bureaucratic red tape in the country were completely overcome and the crime was in fact knocked out. The one, who managed the problems, which rulers of the country failed to settle either before him or after.

It would be quite in place to cite the book “Stalin and nowadays”: in this historic dispute the main argue is in favor of Stalin – the great country, which he left behind. The country, on the infrastructure remains of which are still holding by the present-day Russia and the other former Soviet republics.

And the main argument against the most zealous Stalin’s detractors is also his country, the plundering, trampled and destroyed one by them. Even according to 2007, the most successful one recently, the monstrous extent of this destruction can be seen.

The country would rise only if it turns its gaze to the best and most important issues from Stalin history and the Stalinist heritage.

We, Communists, are convinced of the vital necessity of such recovery and are sure in its possibilities. It is the basis of recently published Appeal of the CPRF Central Committee to the citizens under the name of “Russia’s path is forward to socialism!” The document calls for a broad national-patriotic front creation. The main points of today’s CPRF anti-crisis program are formulated in the Appeal. We believe they are current and close for all responsible citizens, who want to revive the country and are ready to make their own contribution. We reiterate herewith the main points of this program.

Stop the extinction of the country, primarily through a drastic change of the socio-economic policy, stimulating birth rate growth, restoration of benefits for large families, reconstruction of the kindergartens’ network, the housing provision for young families

Return Russia’s natural resources to the society ownership as well as strategic industries: electric power industry, transport, military industrial complex, oil and gas deposits, illegally privatized factories and mines.

Start urgent struggle for the elimination of poverty. Introduce state control over prices of essential commodities and fuel.

Reinstate the responsibility of authorities for municipal housing economy. Expand public housing construction. Prohibit the eviction of people onto the street. Limit the utility charges to the 10% of the total monthly family income.

Ensure the availability and quality of health care. Provide the needy people with free medicines or on easy terms.

Increase the efficiency of state administration. Reduce the number of officials and swollen repressive apparatus. Support various forms of people self-organization to control the state apparatus.

Strongly suppress corruption and crime by cleaning up primarily the upper echelons of power from inefficient and corrupt cadres. Lift the moratorium on the death penalty for the gravest crimes.

Our program has identified many important goals, the attainment of which is impossible without a fundamental change of the current socio-economic system and large-scale personnel changes at all levels of state administration.

Russia needs, it is vital for the country to make this breakthrough. In Stalin’s times, in no less difficult times after the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars our country managed to cope with the crucial challenges of industrialization and modernization, of order restoring and suppression of banditry, was able to resurge and find decent life.

We, Communists, believe that now together with the people we will also be able to master this life-saving work for the Fatherland.