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5.01 ownership of means of production
- 5, AC9
- While government ownership of all means of industrial
and agricultural production exists generally, vestiges of
private ownership remain in the soviet agricultural
system as exemplified by the private plots owned
individually by the collective farm worker. Indeed, the
collective farmers--who number 50,000,000--are not
government salaried as their counterparts on the state
farms, but in principle jointly own the collective farm
and share in its proceeds. In the early 1960’s,
there also remained approximately 200,000 private
farmers. Although government ownership and control also
extend into all areas of business as well as non-business
activities--such as education, science, arts--and the
provision of public and professional services, privately
salaried artisans number about 500,000 and a few doctors,
dentists, and lawyers conduct private practice on the
side.
- 5.02 government role in economic planning
- 5, AC9
- In the post-Stalin era, the main issues in economic
policy planning were those of centralization vs.
Decentralization of the means of production and the
allocation of resources to increase consumer production
vs. An emphasis on industrial and military output.
Although the trends were toward greater decentralization
and a continued emphasis on industrial production, all
changes occurred within a framework of planned goals and
party supervision and control.
- 5.03 redistribution of wealth
- 4, AC9
- While one of the major tenets of the CPSU has been
the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor,
this has proven impracticable and the state of pure
communism is yet to be achieved as stated in the 1961
program of the CPSU, which indicates that the
construction of a truly Communist society has become an
immediate task of the party. With the nationalization of
industry and collectivization of agriculture in the
1920`s and 30’s, vast areas of wealth were shifted
from private to government ownership or, in soviet
ideological terms, to the workers who owned the means of
production and thus worked for themselves. Technically,
however, the state controlled production, and along with
this control, it also regulated the apportionment of
income. Although some attempts to equalize income were
made in the early 20’s, they were abandoned as
unrealistic. To achieve the goals of increasing
production, it became more expedient to establish a
system of rewards and incentives through higher salaries
and fringe benefits awarded to a managerial elite. Other
sectors of the population such as party functionaries,
intelligentsia, and white collar workers also tended to
be favored above the manual worker. But attempts at
bettering the workers’ standard of living were
eventually made by such changes as the 1956 wage policy
raising the salaries of lower paid workers with a
relative decrease in the salaries of intellectuals. While
inequalities in wealth do exist, they do not seem to be
as vast in the accumulation of property or as
concentrated within the population as by western
standards.
- 5.04 social welfare
- 5, AC9
- One of the aspects of the 1961 party program deals
with the proposed creation of a genuine welfare state
with an accent on the provision of goods and services.
Among these are the provision of rent-free
apartments--paid vacations, old-age pensions, and
sickness and disability benefits extended to collective
farmers, who depended mainly on the resources of their
collective farms for wages and benefits, free medicines,
etc. But even before the 1961 program, the party
advocated and the soviet citizen enjoyed paid vacations,
insurance against illness and old age, and free dental
and medical service. The social insurance system has been
administered by the trade unions and socialized medicine
by the ministry of health.
- 5.05 secularization of society
- 5, AC9
- Formally, according to one source, freedom of worship
exists in the Soviet Union in that any congregation
willing to pay clerical salary and building maintenance
may conduct services, but official policy discourages the
practice of religion and promotes anti-religious
atheistic propaganda through the press and other
communications. In 1954 a decree of the Central Committee
of the CPSU stated that religious sects and the orthodox
church have been increasing activity among the peasants,
especially women and youth, and chided the party
organizations for not conducting a more atheistic
propaganda. And in 1957, the religious instruction of
youth outside the home was forbidden.
- 5.06 support of the military
- 5, AC9
- During our time period military resources have
continued as a high priority item. In the political
struggle between Malenkov and Khrushchev, after
Stalin’s death, Malenkov was more concerned with the
consumer goods program and Khrushchev emphasized heavy
industry, armaments production, and a large defense
budget. It was Khrushchev’s belief that the
hostility of imperialist groups prevented cutbacks in
military expenditures. This belief extends into the 1961
party program which justifies the maintenance of security
forces as long as imperialism and the threat of war to
the Soviet Union exist.
- 5.07 alignment with east-west blocs
- 5, AC9
- Since World War Two, the Soviet Union and the CPSU
have been the major force in the eastern bloc seeking--as
a bloc--, according to one source, to supplant the
Atlantic community "as the paramount grouping of states,
militarily, politically, economically, and
ideologically."
- 5.08 anti-colonialism
- 1, AC7
- According to official theory of the mid 1950’s,
the Soviet Union forms the nucleus of a commonwealth of
socialist nations which includes China, Mongolia, North
Korea, North Vietnam, Poland, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Albania. The nature of
the Soviet Union’s relationship has been different
between the East European and Asian groups. While the
Soviet Union has espoused political, economic and
ideological ties or cooperation with the Asian members,
it has exercised a larger degree of control over the East
European countries, as exemplified by the use of soviet
military interference to put down the Hungarian and
Polish uprisings of 1956. Since the 20th CPSU congress in
1956, various steps towards the coordination of national
economic plans among the East European countries have
taken place through meetings and conferences on economic
cooperation and agricultural development. Ideologically,
the countries of the eastern bloc have been called upon
to adhere to the principles of Marxism-Leninism as
fostered by the Soviet Union. In matters of foreign
policy and defense, these members of the conference of
the Warsaw Pact are to meet, discuss, and agree upon
decisions. Although the Soviet Union does recognize the
need for national assertion and thus allows for a measure
of self-government, it is principally because of its
political, economic, and ideological control and
coordination as reinforced by the threat of the use of
military power to achieve stated goals that the CPSU is
coded as involved in a colonial relationship.
Interestingly, the Soviet Union’s own position with
respect to East Europe is contrary to the official
political tirades against colonialism as applied to the
western powers. The accusations generally apply to the
underdeveloped countries, where the Soviet Union has
itself practiced a policy of extending political and
economic influence.
- 5.09 supranational integration
- 3, AC9
- Various steps towards the coordination of national
economic plans among the east European nations have were
taken after the 20th CPSU congress in 1956. Among these
were the 1958 meeting of "commonwealth" members of the
council on mutual economic aid for the purpose of
developing economic cooperation and the 1960 conference
relating to the development of agriculture. At the 22nd
congress in 1961, the themes of economic, political,
technical and cultural cooperation among the socialist
countries were again stressed as being in the interest of
each country and the commonwealth as a whole. At best,
however, the institutional structures for joint decision
making at the supranational level which allowed for
meaningful participation by the other eastern European
countries appeared to be limited to trade and other
economic matters.
- 5.10 national integration
- 2, AC9
- Under the soviet constitution each nationality is
entitled to its own cultural identity, and the central
objective of soviet nationality policy would appear to be
to raise the cultural, political, social and economic
level of the various minority people to ensure "genuine
equality" as soviet citizens. Yet in the soviet effort to
unify the country into a politically and socially
cohesive community, the government has followed, to
varying degrees, policies of denationalization,
assimilation, or to use the soviet
term--"internationalization." While the national
minorities were allowed greater cultural leeway between
1953 and 1958, the liberal nationalities policy was
reversed by Khrushchev in 1958 resulting in greater
subordination of the minorities to the major ethnic
group. To implement this policy, immigration primarily of
Russian workers and personnel to the less advanced
non-Russian republics took place, and the teaching of
Russian was further stepped up among the minority ethnic
groups. Differences in the application of the policy
among the nationalities were evident as it appears that
very little, if any, assimilation occurred in the
republics of Georgia and Armenia. Thus, as exemplified by
Khrushchev’s speech in 1961, official policy seems
to weave a line between concessions to nationalist
sentiment and continuation of a policy of
assimilation.
- 5.11 electoral participation
- 3, AC9
- The 1936 constitution of the USSR states that
suffrage is universal and equal. All soviet citizens, 18
and over, can vote regardless of race, sex, ethnic, or
social origin, past or present activity or extent of
their property. The only exception to these broad
qualifications appears in the 1958 ruling denying the
vote to the insane. Another source adds "criminals" to
the category of people denied the vote. Despite this
broad grant of suffrage, popular participation was
severely limited because elections were not competitive.
No parties were allowed to organize to challenge
candidates of the CPSU.
- 5.12 protection of civil rights
- 2, AC7
- Legally the constitution of the USSR guarantees
equality of rights in political, economic, cultural
spheres to all citizens regardless of nationality or
race. In practice, however, infringements upon these
guarantees have occurred to varying degrees against
national and ethnic groups in the pursuit of such
official policies as assimilation and
internationalization. During the early period of this
study, discrimination against Jews and nationalists in
republics was particularly strong under Stalin. Although
the literature does not reflect the existence of strident
anti-Semitic policies after Stalin’s death, one
source indicates that Jews--who are not granted political
autonomy as a group and enjoy few, if any, communal
rights--may be subjected to extraordinary
discrimination.
- 5.13 interference with civil liberties
- 5, AC9
- All radio, television, and newspapers are state
controlled and are used primarily as tools of agitation
and propaganda.
- 5.14 / 5.15 US--Soviet experts left-right
ratings
- U.S. says 4, Communist.
- Soviets say nothing.
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