THE SIX-YEAR PLAN
OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND BUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIALISM IN POLAND
BOLESLAW BIERUT
WE ARE BUILDING THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIALIST POLAND
THE SIX-YEAR PLAN
KSIAZKA i WIEDZA
WARSZAWA
1950
BOLESLAW BIERUT
We are building the structure of socialist Poland
Closing speech delivered by Boleslaw Bierut at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party on the 16th of July 1950
Comrades,
The two day session of the fifth Plenum of the Central Committee devoted to the Six- Year Plan and the preparation of cadres indispensable for the realization of this Plan have terminated a long stage of preparatory work begun, as we know, still before the Unification Congress, that is over two years ago. The Six-Year Plan emerges from the deliberations of the present Plenum already as a ready plan, i.e. an elaborated verified plan, and completely prepared for:
1. its submission in the form of a draft law to the proper organs of
the state;
2. taking it to all the Party organizations, as a program of
action, expressed in plain figures but pulsating with a mighty and
revolutionary social content;
3. acquainting with it the entire nation and every citizen, every worker and peasant, engineer and teacher, for acquainting with it all the working people or those preparing for work by studying. It is a plan and the direction of our road of development for the period of the coming six years, but it is a plan and direction that determines our entire future.
It would be a mistake to perceive in the Six-Year Plan only dry, though bold figures, only figures and quantitative indices which perhaps astound by their size and comparable expressiveness but which are expressed only in simple sums in a numerical elaboration, in a summing up – in one word to perceive in the Six-Year Plan only its quantitative, external side and fail to realize its qualitative, revolutionary content which will transform our social relations in the core.
The Six-Year Plan is not only an economic program but, at the same time an ideological, political programme affecting the entire social order.
The Six-Year Plan is a plan which will create the strong and invincible foundations of a new social order in Poland, the foundations of socialism.
In this sense the Six-Year Plan is a concrete form of the realization of the ideology of our Party in a definite segment of time, it is the direction line of our Party’s policy imbued with definite tasks, a guide post and a directive for our activities.
Our ideology, our program, our policy, our propaganda, our organizational activity never have had anything in common with fantasy, with utopia, with petty bourgeois phrases divorced from life. On the contrary, we have fought most categorically against and continue to fight against empty, common pompous and hypocritical words devoid of concrete content which the bourgeoisie and its social-democratic, titoist etc., lackeys use so willingly in order to disguise often the most perfidious imperialist deceit and plots. The concreteness of our ideology, our program and our policy is expressed at the present stage precisely by the Six-Year Plan. It is a clear and distinct program, as distinct as the language of figures in which this program has been presented, outlined and elaborated.
What does this program consist of, what does it express and what does it state?
It states that the socialist order cannot be introduced without a thorough transformation of the country’s economy, without basing this economy on an incomparably higher technical level. What was the level of our economy, of our national economy in the pre-war period and what is it to a considerable degree still today in spite of the immense changes which have taken place in our country during the past five years?
It is a relatively low level, much below, both materially and technically, in comparison with highly industrialized countries. It is still a level of relatively low labour productivity of industrial workers and a level of a small-scale, often dwarf-like individual peasant economy which still prevails in our agriculture. We have advanced forward already considerably in comparison with the state which we inherited from the bourgeois order of pre-war Poland. Our industrial production is at present two and a half times greater on a per capita basis than before the war. Such a leap in industrial production was possible only due to an important raising of the level of our productive forces during the past five years both in industry and in agriculture. But we have undertaken only the first step in the direction of transforming our backward economy, we have taken the first important forward stride which makes possible for us a further true and rapid march forward in the direction of attaining a new, still higher technical level corresponding to the requirements of a new socialist social order.
We can attain at present that of which Lenin spoke figuratively when putting before the Party the task of creating a large machine industry, i.e.,
“to change horses, to change from the peasant, muzhik horse of poverty ... to the horse which the proletariat is seeking and cannot but seek – the horse of large scale machine industry, of electrification, of Volkhovstroi, etc.”
(Lenin. “Better Fewer but Better.” Selected Works, Eng. Ed. M. 1947. Vol. II, p. 855.)
To change to a horse of higher technique, to new and complex machines of our own production, to the Nowa Huta in industry, to electrification, to automobiles of domestic production in transport, to tractors in agriculture – only then will it be possible to build enduring and unshakeable foundations of socialism in Poland. It is only higher technique which makes possible a high labour productivity and creates the conditions for a marked growth in the prosperity and culture of the entire nation, in the prosperity and culture of the working masses, without which there is no socialism.
“Socialism signifies,” Comrade Stalin stated at the Seventeenth Congress, “the organization of prosperous and cultural life for all the members of society.”
The present level of the labour productivity of the Polish worker and peasant, limited by the still relatively low level of technique and, let us add in passing, by the still not sufficiently efficient organization of work culture of labour and skill available, does not assure such a level of life of the working masses as we would consider satisfactory. We want to raise the material and cultural level of the life of the working masses much higher and we shall succeed in accomplishing this.
We have already all the conditions for setting ourselves such a task and for its fulfilment in a relatively short time. The Six-Year Plan puts forth such a task.
“Socialism,” Comrade Stalin stated, “can only be built up on the basis of a rapid growth of the productive forces of society, on the basis of the abundance of products and goods, on the basis of the prosperity of the working people and on the basis of the rapid growth of culture ....”
(Stalin. “Problems of Leninism.” M. 1947. Eng. Ed. pp. 505 – 506.)
The essential content of our Six-Year Plan is a mighty raising of the level of productive forces, unheard of in the past history of the economic development of our country, based on the most modern and high technique. This pertains both to industry and agriculture, it pertains to all the fields of our national economy.
As a result of the achievements of the Six-Year Plan, Poland will be transformed into one of the most industrialized countries of Europe.
It is unnecessary to prove the significance that the Six-Year Plan will have for Poland’s defensive power, for its economic, political and state independence. The industrialization of the country on the basis of socialist economic and political forms signifies a thorough elimination of all capitalist influences in various fields of our life. It signifies simultaneously an intensification of Poland’s contribution to the general forces of the camp of peace which oppose the policy of conquest and economic slavery as well as of military aggression of imperialism, its policy of rapine and war. In this respect, the Six-Year Plan possesses not only a domestic but also an international significance.
Comrade Minc spoke of this in the final part of his report. However, in the discussion the economic accents of the deliberations dominated somewhat over the political content of the tasks of the Six-Year Plan.
Of course, one cannot separate the political content of the tasks inherent in the Six-Year Plan from its economic content. The essence lies in their interconnection, in the dialectical unity of economics and politics in our development towards socialism.
We cannot forget for a moment this unity and this connection of economic tasks with political tasks in our struggle for the realization of the Six-Year Plan.
The working masses of Poland who are putting into effect the Six-Year Plan by their devoted effort must be aware of the fact that their effort is an expression of participation in a class struggle, in a life and death struggle between the declining forces of capitalism and the new, constantly growing forces which the proletariat has aroused and which socialism has inspired with a mighty transfiguring and invincible idea.
The most important task of our Party is to make the working masses aware of the fact that their everyday, toilsome labour requiring an exertion of forces in the class struggle, in the fight against exploitation and barbarism, against the rapine and tyranny of imperialism – a struggle for a new, better world, a new, free and creative life for man. Only when the working masses will feel themselves to be soldiers on the front of the class struggle which is being waged with increasing determination both within our country and outside of it, only then will we successfully fulfil and surpass the great and responsible tasks of the Six-Year Plan. It would be dangerous and even criminal in relation to these tasks to exercise a narrow, limited practical attitude, incapable of perceiving living people behind the dry figures, as well as separating oneself from burning, everyday concerns and production processes. Both these dangers are characteristic today, unfortunately of the work of many of our organizational elements, both Party as well as professional, administrative and state. This explains the fact that we have been unable to utilize fully the immense reserves of people as well as material, social and economic reserves which are at our disposal.
During the discussion Comrades have dealt at length with the problem of the failure to utilize and set into motion immense reserves of forces of means due to faulty organization of work; careless or bureaucratic attitude towards set tasks. It is impossible to eradicate effectively this morass of soullessness, carelessness or simply criminal attitude of some individuals towards tasks of production, towards labour discipline, towards social property, if we do not incessantly mobilize the vigilance of the masses, if we do not activize for the struggle for the production plan the entire working class as well as every individual member of it. As long as masked agents of enemy classes are active among the working masses and in many important elements of our economic and state apparatus, the mobilization of political vigilance is an indispensable condition for paralyzing the perfidious attempts of the enemy. As long as the influence of reaction reaches the backward elements of the working population, political activeness aimed at opposing these influences should not weaken but increase. As long as small economy commodity which everyday breeds capitalism exists in society, as long as strata exist which practice capitalist exploitation, stimulate capitalist greed and the readiness to serve the interests of imperialism, so long must revolutionary vigilance and the class struggle permeate our every step, our entire work. Otherwise, defeats await us, for every weakening of our vigilance and political activeness automatically emboldens and strengthens the activity of the class enemy, arouses and animates the diversive and underhand activity of reaction.
The tasks of the Six-Year Plan are connected with immense shifts in the composition of social relations in the country. Over two million new workers will come from the village and other heretofore unutilized sources of manpower reserves to various fields of the economy during the six-year period. But we must remember that what matters is not only to increase numerically the ranks of the proletarian army accomplishing production plans. What matters is that it be an army of conscious, devoted fighters of the proletariat, determined to struggle for socialism, creating in a conscious and idealist way, that is with the highest selflessness and devotion, a new, higher and better social order. Thus, the masses of youth, women, working peasants, village and urban poor drawn into production work must be kindled by us with the fire of the great socialist idea which is capable of animating every man with a creative drive. We shall not be able to achieve this if we do not reshape our heretofore style of our organizational work which still too often is far behind the tasks put forth by the Party. We must put an end to the still so common superficiality of methods of organizational work in many of our links. One cannot be satisfied only, as generally happens, with the passing of correct decisions, without a further care for their precise fulfilment, their actual realization.
“Some people think,” Comrade Stalin stated at the 17th Congress, “that it is sufficient to draw up a correct Party line, proclaim it from the housetops, state it in the form of general theses and resolutions, and take a vote and carry it unanimously for victory to come of itself, spontaneously, as it were. This, of course, is wrong. It is a gross delusion. Only incorrigible bureaucrats and redtapists can think so.”
(Stalin. “Problems of Leninism,” p. 509.)
Comrade Minc in his report stated that we must “raise the level of our organizational work to the level of our political line.” This is extremely important and we must be clearly aware of what this signifies in the practice of our organizational work. If the Six-Year Plan in its great productive and social tasks reflects the political line of our Party, then the raising of the level of the organizational work to these tasks lies in the fact that every Party member should not only himself understand these tasks but should be able to influence his social environment, his non-Party co-workers and draw them in the work of realizing this task in the sector where he is present or which he can activize, arouse and mobilize. Comrades have correctly pointed out in the discussion that if a production plan assigned to a particular work establishments is to be successfully fulfilled, it must be brought not only to the entire crew but also to every section, to every production group and finally to every worker. When every worker of the factory crew knows the planned tasks, understands them and consciously participates in their fulfilment, he will show care for the opposing of all wastefulness, for the utilization in full of existing reserves, for assuring maximum labour productivity, both his own and of the entire crew. The entire success of the issue depends most often on such a style of organizational work. Comrade Stalin during the 17th Congress of the Party pointed this out. He taught that “victory never comes by itself – it usually has to be attained” (ibid. p. 509). It is attained by proper organizational work. Here is what Comrade Stalin stated on this subject:
“ ... After the correct line has been laid down, after a correct solution of the problem has been found, success depends on how the work is organized; on the organization of the struggle for the application of the Party line; on the proper selection of personnel; on the way a check is kept on the fulfilment of the decisions of the leading bodies. Otherwise, the correct line of Party and the correct solutions are in danger of being seriously prejudiced. Furthermore, after the correct political line has been laid down, organizational work decides everything, including the fate of the political line itself, its success or failure.”
(Ibid., p. 509.)
Thus, good organizational work determines victory. Good organizational work lies in activizing and in utilizing all the organizational elements. In organizational work many of our Party committees have developed such a style that the active members, the leading cadres, are usually set into action, without any further concern for the rank and file members of the Party, and, further, the manner in which the leading cadres carry out the decisions of the leadership is not even verified. It happens often that the active members from whom no reports are required and whose activity is not controlled, approach their tasks equally superficially, do not penetrate deeper into the Party ranks, do not set definite tasks for particular Party members, do not activize them, do not teach rank and file Party members how to work with non-Party people. This is why we have so many Party members showing little activity or even completely passive. This is why in carrying out even our most important tasks we utilize only a part of our forces and influences.
Will it be possible, continuing to employ this style of work, to fulfil successfully the great tasks of the Six-Year Plan? No, we will not be able to carry them out satisfactorily. The Six-Year Plan has considerably extended our heretofore tasks. The rate of production increase, and thus the sums of means and forces which we must set into motion in order to assure this rate are much higher than heretofore. The mobilization of all forces for these high production tasks is necessary.
On the other hand, we cannot permit ourselves to decrease the rate, to lower the tasks, for we cannot permit ourselves to lag behind as regards the technical level of our industry and as regards the level of our productive forces. It is not permissible for us to remain backward because the working masses desire to live differently, better and more culturally than they have lived in the past. We cannot permit ourselves to build the foundations of socialism during decades because any delays would only present trump cards to our class enemies. Finally, we must assure the rapid rate of growth of our productive forces and of the level of technique because the international situation requires this, as does the concern for our independence, the concern for the defence power of our state and the concern for the growth of the forces of the camp of peace in the struggle with imperialist aggressiveness.
Therefore, in undertaking the great but splendid and inspiring tasks of the Six-Year Plan, we must mobilize and activize in the struggle for the Plan’s fulfilment the entire working class, the entire working people of town and country. The working masses will support our efforts with enthusiasm, zeal and the highest devotion if we show them the social, revolutionary essence of the tasks of the Six-Year Plan. There has never been and there is no more beautiful, splendid, more creative and inspiring aspiration in the history of man than the idea of the complete liberation of man from all oppression and slavery. This idea is socialism. Our Six-Year Plan is the realization of this idea, it is the building of the foundations of socialism in Poland.
We know the hard laws of the class struggle. And thus, we know that the enemy will reply to our Six-Year Plan with still more furious hatred, with still more perfidious struggle, with still more underhand and poisoned weapons.
But our forces are growing every day. The lies and slanders spread by the enemy, the attempts to prey on ignorance and fanaticism will not be able to resist the offensive of truth which is carried out by our Party, a truth realized everyday in work and in deed, embodied in millions of cemented bricks, of millions of tons of extracted coal, of millions of printed books.
Thus, defending peace adamantly and unrelentingly, we shall consolidate the entire nation in the defence of peace, sustain the wavering, unmask the hypocrites, verify in everyday practice the verbal peace and patriotic declarations.
In a few days we shall be celebrating the sixth anniversary of the formation of the Polish Committee of National Liberation, the rebirth of Poland, the birth of People’s Poland which arose due to the historic victory of the USSR. On this anniversary let us carry forward to the working masses the slogans of the Six-Year Plan, let us make the masses aware of the tasks of the Plan. The People’s power has proved in the six years since its formation that it was able to defend and put into effect the liberation slogans of the Polish Committee of National Liberation. It has never betrayed the hopes of the working people. During the past period, the People’s power had to carry out difficult and great tasks, it fulfilled these successfully with the support of the work and devotion of the working people. During the past period the working masses fulfilled victoriously and ahead of schedule the bold and difficult Three-Year Plan. In the light of these experiences, who can doubt that we shall also realize victoriously the Six-Year Plan.
However, a prerequisite for our victory is that every working man in Poland become a conscious creator of the Six-Year Plan. It is necessary that everyone, beginning with the school child know the plan and the program of building socialism, that every working man become devoted to the cause of building socialism, a fighter and selfless fulfiller of the Six-Year Plan.
Let us glance backwards!
How many human beings, how many talents and gifts have been suppressed and wasted by the accursed capitalist system! How much suffering it has caused us, how it submerged into darkness and destroyed the souls of millions of people!
How many of the best people, how many revolutionaries, how many Polish Communists gave their lives in the unequal struggle against capitalist force! How many noble strivings burned out in sterile flounderings, and still more often in impotent cravings which broke down under the weight of ruthless oppression and cruelty of the capitalist system.
Today, we are approving the Six-Year Plan which surpasses a thousandfold in its scope and creative momentum the timid dreams of “crystal houses.”
Today, we are building the bright, happy edifice of socialist Poland based on the granite-like foundations of people’s patriotism and proletarian internationalism, on the unshakeable foundations of solidarity and brotherhood with the great Soviet Union.
Putting into effect our Six-Year Plan, and building the foundations of socialist Poland we are carrying out the testament and realizing the dreams of entire generations of Polish revolutionaries, of Polish fighters for freedom and social justice, the best sons of the Polish nation who died on the slopes of the Citadel, on the barricades of Polish towns, in struggling against Polish fascism, in the fight against the Nazi invader and in encounters with the fascist underground and imperialist agents.
Today, in accepting the project of the Six-Year Plan at the Plenum of the Central Committee of our Party we pay homage to the memory of all those who laid down their lives for socialist Poland.
I wish you, Comrades, successful work in the popularization and the carrying over to the broad masses the mighty tasks of the Six-Year Plan, in the mobilization of the working masses for the fulfilment of the Plan.
Let us then boldly carry the slogans and tasks of the Six-Year Plan throughout the entirety of our country. Let us call to the ranks of those realizing the Six-Year Plan all the fighters and patriots, everyone who loves our country, who is faithful to the cause of the proletariat, who understands and sees the superiority of our order over the decayed and rapacious capitalist order.
In building socialism in Poland we stand together with the great legion of builders of socialism and fighters for socialism which grows today in all the countries of the world. Our leader and guide is Stalin, and thus our idea and our ranks are invincible.
Faithful to the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, we shall spare no effort for the fulfilment of the Six-Year Plan, our contribution to the cause of the defence of peace and the full victory of socialism!
The Six-Year Plan of economic development and building the foundations of socialism in Poland
Report delivered at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party on the 15th of July 1950
Comrades,
On the agenda of today’s Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee stands the problem of the final determination of the Six-Year Plan and of determining the text of a corresponding draft law. As is known, the Unification Congress of the Polish United Workers Party in December 1948 set forth the guiding lines of the Six-Year Plan. Since that time, immense work has been carried out with the aim of working out concretely the outlines set by the Congress. This work, of course, could not and did not take place detached from life, from the development of the country, from the development of the Party and from the lessons and experiences entailed by this development. As a result of the generalization of the lessons and experiences which emerged from the development of our country in the period following the Unification Congress, the Congress outlines have undergone considerable changes and the project of the Six-Year Plan presented now for the Plenum’s discussion sets forth much broader and farther reaching tasks than those envisaged in the outlines passed at the Unification Congress. During the Fourth Plenum of the Central Committee Comrade Bierut said:
“The production successes attained during 1949 and the first months of 1950 as well as the development of labour emulation have laid the foundations for a bolder planning of the national economy and for setting a faster tempo of development than was foreseen by the outlines passed at the Unification Congress.” (Bulletin of the International Affairs Dept. C. C. of the P.U.W.P. June 1950, p. 11.)
This is how Comrade Bierut indicated the necessity to draw experiences from the development of our country in the post Congress period as well as the necessity to make corresponding changes in the Six-Year Plan, derived from a generalization of these experiences.
What is the basic change and difference between the tasks set forth by the present, final variant of the Six-Year Plan and the tasks envisaged by the outlines passed at the Unification Congress in December 1948.
The present Six-Year Plan project provides for a considerably increased rate of development and a considerably more rapid growth of production than had been foreseen in the Congress outlines. The Congress outlines provided for 85 – 95 % growth of the production value of socialist industry by 1955 in comparison with 1949. The present project provides for a growth of socialist industry production by 158.3 %. The Congress outlines provided for a growth of agricultural production value by 35 – 45 % during the six-year period, as calculated in relation to the harvest foreseen for 1949. The present project provides for a growth of agricultural production value during the six-year period by 63% in relation to the harvest foreseen for 1949, and in relation to the agricultural production actually attained in 1949, which due to favourable climatic conditions considerably surpassed the estimates, it envisages a growth by over 50%.
Thus we see that basic differences exist between the former outlines and the present project, differences which lay in the acceptance of a considerably stronger rate of development.
On what foundation do we base the acceptance of an increased rate of development realized both now and in the future?
During the Three-Year Plan we encountered a phenomenon of a considerable, systematic surpassing of the industrial production plans. In 1947 the industrial production plan was fulfilled with a 5% surplus, in 1948 with a 14% surplus, and in 1949 with a 13% surplus.
The plan for 1950 assumed a very significant increase of industrial production amounting to 22 %. Nevertheless in the first half of the present year this plan has been carried out with a surplus of 6% and one should expect that a considerable surplus in the fulfilment of the plan will be obtained in the second half of the year as well.
What follows from these figures?
These figures mean that our past planning has not considered fully the possibilities of the development of production, that it underestimated these possibilities and did not pay attention to the possibilities of full utilization of the reserves inherent in our national economy.
Already in the report delivered during the Unification Congress we called attention to this phenomenon and pointing to the surpassing of the 1948 plan as a result of the broad mass development of the labour emulation movement, and of the fuller utilization of reserves which was expressed, amongst others, in the “pre-Congress deed,” we said:
“The working class has corrected our plan and it is necessary in the future to take these corrections into consideration to their fullest extent.”
However, our knowledge of that time of the national economy, the level of our planning and especially a number of opportunist tendencies which were then still widespread in our economic and our planning apparatus did not permit us in reality to consider in their entirety the corrections brought into the Plan by life and by the working class. In the period which has elapsed since the Unification Congress we have been raising our knowledge of the national economy, raising the level of our planning, familiarizing ourselves with Bolshevik planning methods, tested in the victorious socialist construction of the U.S.S:R., and breaking the opportunist tendencies in our apparatus in the field of planning.
What were these tendencies?
For a certain period of time there existed a very widespread tendency which also now has its proponents here and there, a tendency towards so-called careful planning. It is better, the proponents of this tendency declared and still declare at times now, to plan consciously less than a given production establishment can provide and thus to fulfil the plan with a great surplus and receive for this “surplus” fulfilment of the plan, praises, bonuses and rewards.
It is unnecessary to explain how extremely harmful and dangerous such a tendency is. It assumes not the mobilization of all the employees for utilizing in full all the production possibilities and reserves but a minimum stand and demobilization, and as a result a systematic failure to utilize the possibilities of a rapid march forward.
We have had also a second very harmful tendency in the field of our planning, a tendency which at times assumed the form of a fully developed “theory” and which, it must be stated, still has at present some conscious or unconscious adherents here and there. This “theory” amounted to asserting that the rapid rate of industrial development was possible during the period of restoration, i.e. during the period of the Three-Year Plan, but that it is not possible in a period of expansion and reconstruction such as is the period of the Six-Year Plan.
There is no doubt that in fact one obtains much more rapidly a growth of production by rebuilding destroyed establishments than by building new ones. But this does not in the least mean that the transition to a period of expansion and reconstruction signifies an attainment of the total production increase solely by means of setting new establishments into action. Should the problem be thus presented, it would be necessary to assume the thoroughly false position that no increase of production can be obtained from the old establishments by improving them. But this is not so, and practice teaches us every day that technical progress, better organization of work, better utilization of reserves and the conscious effort of the working class provide the possibility to achieve in a number of branches a more rapid rate of growth of industrial production than the rate of growth of machines and equipment. Regarding the “theory” which assumes a decreasing, a “declining” rate of development of production in the period of expansion and reconstruction, Comrade Stalin said during the Sixteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U. (b) the following:
“There is a theory according to which high rates of development are possible only in the period of restoration and that when we pass to the period of reconstruction, the rates of construction must fall sharply from year to year. This theory is called the theory of the ‘declining curve.’ It is a theory which justifies our backwardness. It has nothing in common with Marxism or Leninism. It is a bourgeois theory, calculated to retain the backwardness of our country for all times.”
(Stalin, “Leninism,” Vol. II, New York, IntI. Publ., p. 328.)
There is no doubt that also in our conditions the theory of a “declining curve,” the theory of a diminishing rate of development in the period of reconstruction, in the period of the Six-Year Plan, is a theory which negates the possibility of technical progress, a bourgeois theory aimed at maintaining the technical and organizational backwardness of our country.
The project of the Six-Year Plan now presented to the Plenum of the Central Committee has arisen as a result of overcoming the erroneous conceptions and theories which hampered our planning as a result of the fullest, at the present stage, examination of the possibilities of achieving a rapid rate of development, of the fullest utilization of the existing and rising, productive forces, of the fullest and most complete utilization of technical progress and mobilization of the reserves of our economy. Hence the bold raising of the rate of the development of industry and other branches of our economic life, hence the Bolshevik and thus, simultaneously, extremely rapid and completely realistic tempo of our march forward which is accepted as the fundamental premise of our Plan.
I
THE FUNDAMENTAL TASK OF THE PLAN:
A CONSIDERABLE RAISING OF THE LEVEL OF PRODUCTIVE FORCES.
Industry
The fundamental task of the Six-Year Plan as a plan to build the foundations of socialism in Poland, is to bring about a significant development of productive forces, and in the first place, of the production of means of production. In the field of the development of productive forces, the greatest tasks fall to industry, due to which the Six-Year Plan is a Plan of an intensive industrialization of the country. The value of the production of socialist industry in 1955 will be over two and a half times larger than in 1949. This means that in 1955 will be attained a level four times higher than the level of industrial production in pre-war Poland. On a per capita basis the value of industrial production as a result of the realization of the Six-Year Plan will be over five times higher than the per capita value of production in 1938. Before the war economists calculated that Poland’s industrial production per capita was around ten times smaller than per capita industrial production in the most industrialized capitalist country in the world, the United States. During nine years (the Three-Year Plan plus the Six-Year Plan) we are raising per capita industrial production more than fivefold, thus in the space of nine years we shall travel more than half of the road which separates us from the United States of America with regard to industrialization. This is an illustration of the scope of the plan and of the rate of our development.
During the six-year period a large socialist industry will be expanded in Poland, a mighty economic-technical base of socialism in our country.
What will be the fundamental lines of industrial development during the Six-Year Plan?
1. It is known that the growth of the production of capital goods is, above all, of decisive significance. The Six-Year Plan assumes a more rapid growth in the production of tools and capital goods of the so-called group A, than in the production of consumers goods of so-called group B. As a result, if in 1949 the share of the production of capital goods in the global output of big and medium industry amounted to 59.1%, in 1955 it will amount to 63.5 %.
2. A basic element in the industrialization of the country, the development of industry and in particular the production of capital goods, is the development of machine building production.
Comrade Stalin writes that industry
“must reconstruct on a new technical basis not only itself, not only all branches of industry, including the light industries, the food industries, the timber industry; it must also reconstruct all forms of transport and all branches of agriculture. It can fulfil this task, however, only if the machine building industry – which is the main lever for the reconstruction of the national economy – occupies a predominant place in it.”
(Stalin, “Problems of Leninism,” Eng. Ed. Moscow 1947, p.473.)
This is why the highest rate of development within the Six-Year Plan had been foreseen for all the branches of the machine building industry.
For machine building proper we have an index of growth of 364 with the accompanying difficult tasks of putting into operation the production of machines heretofore not manufactured in the country such as steam turbines, high pressure boilers, paper machines, large capacity centrifugal pumps, universal lathes, etc. In the field of agricultural machines the task has been set of creating a technical foundation for the social transformation of the village, in connection with which the number of tractors produced in 1955 will amount to 11,000, i.e. over four times more than in 1949. The value of the production of agricultural machines and tools in 1955 will amount to four times the value of the 1949 production and there will be a considerable increase in the assortment as well as the setting into operation of new types of agricultural machines such as combines, tractor-sowing machines, binders, high capacity threshing machines, etc.
The index of growth of the industry of means of transportation which is also a part of the machine building industry conceived in a broad sense, amounts to 271, with the railroad rolling stock industry growing relatively more slowly for it attained a relatively high level during the Three-Year Plan. The main emphasis is placed on the expansion of automotive vehicles production, with the production of three and a half ton trucks to reach 13,000 in 1955, two and a half ton trucks – 12,000, and passenger cars – 12,000. The level of ship building production will be nine times higher than in 1949, and during the six-year period sea-going vessels of various types will be built with a total tonnage amounting to 575,000 T.D.W. The index of the electrotechnical industry, the preponderant part of which will be the building of electrical machines and apparatus amounts to 328, while the task has been set of establishing the production, heretofore unknown in the country, of such items as large electrical motors, high tension transformers, etc.
The large growth of machine building industry (along with the means of communication industry) and the significance of this industry in the industrial production as a whole is shown in the following data: if we take the total production of the large and medium industry as 100, it will appear that in 1937 the machine building industry amounted to around 7% of the total, in 1949 to around 10%, and in 1955 it will amount to around 14%. This is undoubtedly a very important increase which makes it possible in principle to attain in the machine building industry an adequate level, enabling this industry to become a lever for the transformation of the entire national economy. There is no doubt, however, that the tasks set forth by the plan do not exhaust all our possibilities in this respect and, therefore, it will be necessary in the course of the fulfilment of the Six-Year Plan to continue to increase, by means of operative planning, the rate of development of the machine building industry both quantitatively and qualitatively by introducing a number of new articles heretofore not produced in the country.
3. The growth of the country’s industrialization, the increase in the production of capital goods and the increase in the machine building industry which is a key to the development of the entire national economy, is impossible without a large growth in metallurgy, without a large increase in iron metallurgy.
Therefore, the Six-Year Plan assumes an important development of metallurgy, and the achievement in 1955 of a production of 4.6 million tons of steel, i.e. twice the production of 1949 and 3.2 times more than in 1938. This task will be achieved by completing the first stage of the building of a great new steel mill near Cracow, by the putting into operation of high quality steel metallurgical plants, the total expansion and modernization of old metallurgical plants, in particular the reconstruction of the Stalin factory in Labedy and the plant in Czestochowa where new, powerful metallurgical establishments are already under construction by the side of the old small plant.
4. The development of our basic industry, the coal industry, which already at the end of the Three-Year Plan had reached a very high level must keep pace with the general development of industry.
Coal mining in 1955 will amount to 100 million tons, that is an increase of 35%, in comparison with 1949. This will fully satisfy the growing needs of economic life and will permit a high level of coal export. In 1955 coal production will amount to 3.7 tons per capita, i.e. it will be one of the highest in the world. It is sufficient to state that per capita coal production in the United States in 1949 amounted to 2.9 tons.
Special emphasis will be placed on the increase of extraction and on a rational husbanding of coking coal, especially refining coal, this, in order to guarantee a full provisioning of metallurgy with high quality blast furnace coke.
5. In order to render possible the rapid rate of development of industry and of the entire national economy, during the six-year period a considerable expansion of the power base will take place. The production of electrical energy in 1955 will amount to 19.3 billion kwh. thus per capita production of electrical energy will amount to around 715 kwh., i.e. over six times more than in 1938. In order to obtain such a growth of production new power stations will be set into operation having a total capacity of over 2,700 mw. In connection with the necessity of consuming on the spot refuse coal and coal dust, power construction will develop to a large extent in the area of the coal basin. Simultaneously, however, the building of a number of heat electric power stations outside of the coal area is provided for.
The setting into operation of a large electric power plant working on brown coal in Konino in the Kujawy district and the building of a power plant in Wisno (Bialystok voivodship) utilizing the rich peat fields of the region is foreseen. For the first time in the Polish power industry, a number of heat power plants will be built.
During the six-year period the state high tension transmission network (110 and 220 thousand volts) will also be expanded which will lead to the creation of a uniform state power system, making it possible to lower the degree of power reserve while simultaneously increasing the stability of tension.
6. A large chemical industry will be created during the six-year period. Our country possesses particularly advantageous conditions, for it has the basic raw materials indispensable for the development of chemistry such as coal, limestone, gypsum, rock salt, etc. Therefore, an increase of over three and a half times in the value of the production of the chemical industry in 1955 in relation to 1949 is provided for, as well as the advance of this industry to one of the leading places in the national economy.
This is demonstrated by the following data: taking total production of large and medium industry as 100, the chemical industry production in 1937 amounted to 8% of the total, in 1949 to 8.8% and in 1955 it will amount to 13.1 %. The development of the chemical industry in Poland will be expressed not only in the quantitative growth of such basic articles as sulphuric acid, soda, nitrogen compounds, etc. but in the setting into operation of new branches of production, unknown or weakly developed in Poland, such as large chemical synthetics, plastics production, organic semi-finished goods production, paints and lacquers, medical products, tanning materials, etc.
7. The Six-Year Plan provides for an immense scope of industrial, housing, cultural and educational, etc. construction.
Therefore, a considerable growth in the production of construction materials is necessary for the realization of the building plan. This is why an increase in the production of cement is foreseen from 2.3 million tons in 1949 to 4.9 million tons in 1955, i.e. to a level three and a half times higher than in 1937. This signifies the achievement in 1955 of a level of 183 kg. per capita, thus exceeding the pre-war level of per-capita cement production in the United States and England.
Brick production will increase over three and a half times in relation to 1949 and will reach a level of 3.7 billion bricks in 1955.
Simultaneously the production of prefabricated elements and the development of the production of new building materials (light concrete, reinforced concrete, etc.) will be commenced.
The production of installation materials, boilers and central heating plants, water piping and canalization equipment etc. will also increase considerably.
8. During the six-year period an important step forward should be made in the direction of a better utilization of the country’s natural wealth and a significant broadening of the raw materials base of our industry. It should be accepted as a principle that the country’s industrialization is not possible without the creation of an important raw materials base. But the Polish industry before the war and also partially at present has been deprived of such a base. We do not have a sizable iron ore base for our metallurgy, we do not have, with the exception of tin, a nonferrous metal base; the present production of oil is not sufficient for our needs; our textile, leather, fat and partially the paper industry is to a large degree based on imported raw materials. The basing of the development of industry on imported raw materials to the degree in which they come from capitalist countries is always a serious risk for the development of industry. On the other hand, it is understandable that we should strive for the development of our raw materials base as a component part of the economic potential of the great anti-imperialist camp led by the Soviet Union.
Therefore, the plan provides for the achievement of a turning point in the field of extending the raw materials base of our industry. This turning point will be achieved in the heretofore neglected and trailing far behind iron ore mining the extraction of which in 1955 will increase fourfold in comparison with 1949 and reach the level of 3 million tons.
In order to achieve this level of extraction it will be necessary to set up 35 new modernly equipped and mechanized iron ore mines. This will make possible, along with a rapidly growing production of pig iron to raise the percentage of iron from domestic ores to about 30%. A turning point should be reached also in the field of copper. Copper ore extraction amounting to 3.2 million tons should be reached at the end of the six-year period as well as the necessary refining facilities for it, which will make it possible to limit considerably the import of copper.
A turning point should be achieved by the setting into operation of the production of such light metals as aluminium and magnesium. In the field of tin the needs of the national economy will be covered in full by an almost twofold increase of production and large quantities for export will be created. Simultaneously the proper utilization of tin ores will make it possible to decrease the amount of imported concentrates in the production of tin. The raising of oil production to 394,000 tons annually along with simultaneous considerable expansion of the production of synthetic fuels will make it possible to a larger degree than heretofore to cover the growing needs of the national economy for fuel. The creation in Poland of a synthetic rubber industry will form a domestic base for the development of the rubber industry.
Of great significance will also be the setting into operation of the production of sulphuric acid from anhydrite and gypsum which will make it possible to limit the import of pyrites.
Special stress will be placed also on the expansion of the domestic raw materials base for the light industry. A considerable development of the cellulose industry is foreseen, which is a basis for the growth of the paper industry and the synthetic yarn industry. Cellulose production in 1955 will reach the level of 414,000 tons which will make Poland completely free from importing cellulose. The development of the synthetic yarn industry both artificial silk and various other synthetic yarns will improve considerably the balance sheet of textile raw materials. The marked development in flax and hemp and on its basis the progress of the bast yarn industry will be in the same direction. Simultaneously, a growth will take place in the treatment of domestic oleaginous seeds by the fat processing industry and on the basis of a growth in stock-breeding there will be an increase in the treatment of domestic hides by the leather industry.
9. The growth of the capital goods industry will be a foundation for a hastened increase in the consumers’ goods industry and thus for the light industry and the food industry.
During the six-year period the industry will have the task of creating the foundations for attaining the planned rise in the population’s standard of living by supplying the market with a corresponding and continuously increasing quantity of consumer’s goods.
In connection with this, the following production is planned in the field of light industry:
607.7 million metres of cotton textiles in 1955 as against 397.6
million metres in 1949.
74.9 million metres of woollen textiles in 1955 as against 49 million
metres in 1949.
103.9 million metres of silk textiles in 1955 as against 43.7 million
metres in 1949.
22.2 million pairs of leather shoes in 1955 as against 8 million pairs
in 1949.
In connection with this the following production is planned in the field of the food industry:
1.1 million tons of sugar in 1955 as against 745.3 thousand tons in
1949.
982 million litres of pasteurized consumer’s milk in 1955 as against
339 million litres in 1949.
88.1 thousand tons of laundry soap in 1955 as against 41.8 thousand
tons in 1949.
600 million litres of beer in 1955 as against 235.5 million litres in
1949.
30 milliard cigarettes in 1955 as against 21.3 milliard in 1949.
Along with the considerable increase in the production of mass consumption articles a significant increase is also foreseen in the production of articles of so-called higher consumption for which, in connection with the growth of the population’s standard of living during the six-year period there will be an increased demand.
Thus, for example radio receivers production will increase from 66.1 thousand in 1949 to 300,000 in 1955.
Motorcycles from 4,200 in 1949 to 32,000 in 1955.
Bicycles from 91.1 thousand in 1949 to 340,000 in 1955.
Household china from 5,900 tons in 1949 to 8,500 tons in 1955.
10. During the six-year period the industry will have the task of creating the material foundations for the realization of a cultural revolution, for making accessible to the broadest masses the possibility of benefitting from the achievements of education, culture, science and art.
In connection with this an increase in the production of paper is planned to reach a level of 530,000 tons in 1955 as against 264,500 tons in 1949.
On a per capita basis this means an over threefold growth in comparison with the per capita paper production of pre-war Poland.
Parallel with this there will take place a modernization of the printing industry and a considerable increase of its productive capacity.
The production of school and scientific aids will also rise markedly as well as the output of musical instruments, photochemical and cinema-technical articles, etc.
11. An important task during the six-year period will be the realization of a rapid development of socialized small industry. The development of small industry will increase to a large degree the mass of commodities necessary for satisfying the growing needs of the population, will assure a better and fuller utilization of local raw materials and will aid considerably in the economic animation of heretofore, neglected areas, in particular in the activization of many cities and small towns lacking large industry.
In the project of the plan presented here, an index of growth of 484.1 has been taken for the whole of small industry for 1955 as compared with 1949. This index will amount to 466.9 for state small industry and to 491.7 for small co-operative industry. The value of the production of socialized small industry will thus increase more than four and a half times while its share in the production of the entire socialized industry will increase from 8.9% in 1949 to 16.7% in 1955.
12. One of the fundamental tasks of the Six-Year Plan should be the initiation on a broad scale of a long term process having the aim of obtaining a more even distribution of productive forces than at present through the industrialization of heretofore economically backward areas.
In 1949 of the total number of employed in industry, 65.8% were in the four highly industrialized voivodships of Katowice, Opole, Wroclaw, Lodz and the city of Lodz, while the whole remainder of the country had 34.2% of people employed in industry.
There is no doubt that this state of affairs is unacceptable if one wishes to realize consistently the industrialization of the country and the building of socialism. The industrialization of Poland is unconceivable on the basis of solely one large heavy industry district. And, in fact, up to now we have at our disposal only one large heavy industry district, i.e., the Silesian-Dabrowa basin, while in all other places heavy industry establishments are scattered and do not form compact industrial regions. On the other hand, the building of the foundations of socialism calls for a more even distribution of productive forces, for a considerable raising of the level of economically backward districts and for the creation in the entire country of concentrations of the working class – the principle driving force in the building of socialism.
In connection with this, new industrial establishments whose location is not strictly dependent on the raw materials base will be built outside of the highly industrialized voivodships.
Around 80% of the newly built establishments will arise outside Upper and Lower Silesia, the Lodz voivodship and Lodz city. These establishments will employ around two thirds of the crews of the new factories and will utilize around 70% of the total investment costs earmarked for new industrial establishments.
As a result fairly considerable changes will take place in the distribution of the socialist industry throughout the country. The share of highly industrialized voivodships in industrial employment which, as we have already mentioned, amounted to 65.8% in 1949 will fall to 54.3% in 1955 and analogously the share in the employment of the remaining voivodships will rise from 34.2% in 1949 to 45.7% in 1955.
Thus, if all the voivodships in Poland except Upper and Lower Silesia, the Lodz voivodship and Lodz city, had somewhat less than a third of the total of employed, in 1955 they will have already around one half of the total of those employed in Polish industry.
In addition to a more even distribution of productive forces, already during the six-year period will begin the crystallization of new industrial regions, in particular: the Cracow industrial region, the core of which will be large metallurgical plants and chemical synthetics establishments; the industrial district of the capital city of Warsaw with a restored and expanded metal and electrotechnical industry; the Czestochowa industrial region with large metallurgical establishments and ore mines; the Kujawy industrial centre, based primarily on the chemical industry and the Staropolskie basin industrial regions (Kielce voivodship) based primarily on the metal industry.
Such are the basic lines of the plan in relation to the development of industry during the six-year period.
The realization of these lines will make it possible to convert Polish industry into a mighty, social and economic-technical base of socialism.
Agriculture
The Six- Year Plan will be a plan of an all-sided development of Polish agriculture. The development of industry by means of the development of the machine building industry, the chemical industry and the power industry will lay the foundation for the reconstruction of agriculture, for supplying it with an adequate and growing quantity of tractors and agricultural machines, automobiles and fuel, artificial fertilizers and electricity.
On the other hand, the all-sided development of agriculture is indispensable for assuring the raising of the standard of living of the growing urban population by supplying it with the necessary quantity of consumer’s agricultural goods and a growing quantity of agricultural raw materials for the developing industry, hides for shoe production, meat for the meat industry, grain for the milling industry, flax for textile production, beets for sugar production, potatoes for the production of the potato industry, etc.
During the six-year period a growth of agricultural production of 50% will take place in relation to 1949, which was a year of good harvests. In this way the total value of agricultural production will surpass the pre-war value of agricultural production of Poland in its old frontiers by 29%. The total agriculture production value per capita will be 61 % higher in 1955 than per capita agricultural production value of 1937.
This index illustrates the growth in the provisioning of the country’s population by agriculture as compared with the pre-war period.
And here is an index which eloquently demonstrates the technical progress in agriculture, the increase of intensiveness in agriculture and the growth of agricultural productivity.
If one takes the value of agricultural production in 1937 as 100 on a per capita basis not of the entire population but only on per capita of the agricultural population then it is seen that in 1949 the value of agricultural production per capita of the agricultural population was 143 in 1949 and will amount to 219 in 1955.
This means that agricultural productivity measured by this general
index was already higher by almost half in 1949 than in the pre-war
period and, at the end of the Six-Year Plan, agricultural productivity
will be more than twice as high as pre-war.
What will be the main lines of the development of agriculture in the period of the Six-Year Plan?
1. In order to intensify trade between town and country a more rapid growth will be assured for agricultural production of marketing goods than for total production. While, as we have just stated, the total value of agricultural production is to increase in the six-year period by 50%, the value of the commodity mass furnished by agriculture is to increase by 88%.
2. In order to raise the economic level of agriculture and to raise its rentability as well as to assure the population of a growing quantity of livestock products, the demand for which increases along with the growth of the standard of living of the population, the Six-Year Plan provides for a more rapid growth of animal production than of plant production.
While the increase in plant production will amount to 39%, animal production will increase by 68%. As a result the value of plant production in 1955 will be 124.4% and the value of animal production 135% in comparison with the pre-war period.
On a per capita basis, the value of plant production at the end of the six year period will increase by 56% in comparison with pre-war while the value of per capita animal production will grow by 69%.
3. In the field of plant production, the greatest emphasis will be laid, corresponding to the ensuing changes in consumption on the growth of wheat and barley. While the production of rye by the end of the plan will increase only by 2% in comparison with 1949 rye production, oats production will go up by 21%, wheat production should increase by 58%, and barley production by 90%.
4. In order to assure industry of a sufficient quantity of raw materials the production of industrial crops should increase rapidly. The growth in sugar beet production will be 63%, of oleaginous plants by 134%, seeds of fibrous plants by 72% and their straw by 111%.
5. An important task of the Six-Year Plan in agriculture should be the expansion of a fodder base which would assure a foundation for a further enduring development of livestock breeding. The area of leguminous pastures for seed should increase by 30% in 1955 in relation to 1949, the area of pastures for hay or green fodder by 48%, the production of green fodder per head of cattle and horses by 28%, the production of cultivated pasture per head of cattle and horses by 40%.
6. In keeping with the basic direction of a more rapid growth of animal production, a growth of production will be attained at the end of the plan of beef on the hoof of 83%, live hogs of 63%, milk of 102% eggs of 38%. In connection with the striving for a partial reduction of import and the obtaining of an assured domestic raw materials base for the woollen industry, the production of wool in 1955 should reach 57 hundred tons, i.e. an increase of 169%.
7. The attainment of a planned increase of production can be assured only by considerably increasing the yield per hectare, which for the four grain staples in 1955 will amount to 41% in relation to the 1949 plan as well as a considerable growth in the individual productivity of animals. In particular the milk yield of cows should increase by 27% and the average weight of cattle by at least 4%.
8. The achievement of the rapid rate of an all-sided development of agriculture foreseen in the plan and impossible under capitalist conditions is feasible only if the socialist industry establishes a technical base for the reconstruction of agriculture and if an important advance of the process of the social transformation of the village, the transition on a voluntary basis from small, scattered individual peasant economy to a socialist, collective economy, is made.
The technical reconstruction of agriculture will follow the path of mechanization, of an increase in the supply of artificial fertilizers and of a considerable progress in rural electrification.
During the six-year period a marked increase in the mechanization of production processes in agriculture will take place. During this period agriculture will be supplied with 61,000 tractors. As a result the number of tractors will increase almost fivefold and with a better utilization of tractors provided for in the plan, the work of tractors in agriculture will increase almost six fold.
In 1955 the supplying of agriculture with agricultural machines will increase by 270% in comparison with 1949 as regards value of machines. Around 70% of the supplied tractors and around 90% of the agricultural machines will come from domestic production.
The supplies of artificial fertilizers in kilograms of pure
components will increase per hectare of sown area by 120% at the end of
the Six-Year Plan in comparison with the agricultural year 1948-1949,
which will be an almost six fold increase in comparison with the
pre-war period.
The supplies of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash will amount to 40.1 kg per hectare of sown area which will surpass the level achieved, for example, in France before the war amounting to 35.6 kg.
During the six-year period 8,900 villages will be electrified and simultaneously supplied with motors and electrical equipment, especially for collective use.
9. During the six-year period the State Agricultural Farms will become fully model socialist farms. Their production increase will be much more rapid than the growth of production of agriculture as a whole.
While the value of total agricultural production for the whole of agriculture will increase by 50% during the six-year period, it will increase by 168% for the State Agricultural Farms. While the value of plant production for the whole of agriculture will increase during the six-year period by 59%, it will increase by 123% for the State Agricultural Farms. While the value of animal production for all agriculture will increase during the six-year period by 68%, it will increase for the State Agricultural Farms by 353%.
As a result the State Agricultural Farms will play an important role in supplying the towns and their general share in the commodity production of agriculture will rise from 7.9% in 1949 to 15.9% in 1955, while in 1955 the share of the State Agricultural Farms in the commodity production of three grain staples will already reach a very important level and amount to 22.1% that is, almost one-fourth of the entire commodity production.
Simultaneously, the State Agricultural Farms will play an important role in supplying producer-co-operatives and small and medium peasant holdings with selected seeds and breeding stock.
During the six-year period the State Agricultural Farms will play the role of an important lever in the socialist transformation of the village.
10. During the Six-Year Plan conditions will be created for the extension of socialist production co-operation to a significant part of small and medium peasant holdings. These conditions will arise through the creation of a technical base for producer co-operatives, through mechanization, the supplying of fertilizers and rural electrification, by means of an extensive credit and investment aid on the part of the state, by means of a growth of the class consciousness and militancy of the mass of poor and middle peasants, by means of a growth of their experience and by means of forging the indispensable number of qualified managing and agronomic cadres and the aid therein of the working class. During the six-year period the State Agricultural Machines Centres, destined above all to service production co-operation, will be expanded in a decided fashion. The number of State Agricultural Machines Centres which amounted to 30 in 1949 will increase to 850 and the number of tractors held by them to 35,890 as against 200 in 1949.
In connection with the foreseen development of a mass movement of producer co-operatives, the plan provides for a gradual increase of state investment outlays in order to help the production co-operatives and to create State Agricultural Machines Centres. While in 1950 the proportion of investment outlays for State Agricultural Machines Centres and producers co-operatives, in relation to the total investments earmarked for agriculture amounted to 19%, in 1955 it will already amount to 53%. In absolute figures the investment outlays for the SMC and the producer co-operatives will increase almost tenfold by 1955 in comparison with 1950.
11. Simultaneously, the state will render increased assistance to small and medium peasant holdings.
12. The state will consistently carry out the policy of limiting and dislodging and subsequently liquidating the rural capitalists as a class.
Such are the main lines of the Six-Year Plan in the field of agriculture. The realization of these lines will assure an all-sided development of agriculture and its thorough technical and social transformation.
Transport and communications
The task of transport and communications in the Six-Year Plan is to carry out the great obligations which arise from the significant growth of productive forces during the six-year period. Transport and communications must equal the tasks arising from the growth of industrial and agricultural production, 1rom the great development of construction, from the necessity for wide communication links between old and new industrial centres and the extension of communication links between town and country, from the foreseen increase of transit. Transport and communications must also equal the tasks in the field of freight and passenger haulage resulting from the foreseen rise in the standard of living of the working masses.
In connection with the development of economic life, freight haulage by all means of transport will increase in 1955 by 117% in comparison with 1949 and the passenger transport by 104%.
What are the main lines of development of transport and communications in the Six-Year Plan?
1. Freight haulage on normal gauge railroads will increase in 1955 by 74% in comparison with 1949. On a per capita basis 8.5 tons of freight will be hauled on normal gauge railroads as against 2.17 tons in 1938. The increase of freight haulage on the railroad is thus almost four times greater than in 1938.
Passenger transport on normal gauge railroads will increase by 90.5%. In order to assure increased freight and passenger haulage, railroad transport will be improved by rebuilding junction points, increasing the traffic capacity of the main lines and the building of new lines. 704 km of new railroad lines will be built. Passenger traffic in the Warsaw junction area, the Gdansk-Gdynia area and partly the Katowice region will be electrified. 541 km. of railroad lines will be electrified.
2. Freight and passenger haulage by automotive transport will increase considerably. Public automotive freight haulage, concentrated in one enterprise, will increase elevenfold during the six-year period which amounts to a very high average annual increase of 50%. The share of public automotive transportation of freight haulage will increase from 4% in 1949 to 22% in 1955 and the share in passenger transport will increase from three to 15%. The number of buses of the State Automotive Communication will rise to 2,377 and the number of trucks to 11,200. At the same time the general number of trucks in the country will increase by over 100%. In connection with this the network of servicing automotive transport will be expanded and automobile overhauling will be based on the principle of exchangeability of units which will decrease the time of overhauling.
3. About 6,100 km. of paved roads will be built and about 4,000 km. of roads will be resurfaced.
4. In river navigation the transport on the Odra and the Vistula will increase by 104%. During the plan the first stage of the building of a great waterway linking the Bug with the Odra will be undertaken and carried out. This great East-West waterway will be of tremendous significance for domestic traffic as well as for transit traffic. It will render possible the hauling by water of ore from Krivoi Rog to the Polish steel works and of Polish coal to the USSR. A component part of the building of this great waterway will be the building of canals on the Bug on the sector from Brest to Modlin. For this purpose four main locks will be built and regulatory work carried out. On the entire length of the great East-West waterway during the first stage of the building of this road in the period of the Six-Year Plan, navigability will be assured for barges having a capacity of 250 tons. In the subsequent stages work will be undertaken to obtain navigability for barges of 100 tons capacity.
5. In maritime and coastwise navigation, freight haulage will be 315.7% and passenger transport 293.2% in comparison with 1949. A loading capacity of 32 million tons of freight will be reached in the Polish ports. The number of units of the Polish merchant marine will be increased by 186%, its carrying capacity by 208% in relation to 1949.
Such are the main tasks of the Six-Year Plan in the field of transport and communications.
The realization of these tasks will make it possible for transport and communications to fulfil those great obligations which will fall upon them in connection with the powerful development of productive forces during the six-year period.
Trade
As a result of the growth of industrial and agricultural production during the six-year period the mass of commodities, earmarked for consumption by the population will increase considerably. The overall increase in the mass of commodities will have an index of 190 in 1955 as compared with 1949. In other words, the value of goods in the retail trade, in 1950 prices, will increase around twofold during six years. In connection with this the consumption per capita of basic industrial and agricultural articles will increase considerably.
Here are a few data illustrating this growth.
The consumption of cotton textiles together with ready made clothing will increase by 41% in relation to 1949 and by 65% in comparison with pre-war. The consumption of woollen textiles will increase by 38% during the Six-Year Plan and by 120% in comparison with pre-war consumption.
The quantity of leather shoes per capita will increase during the Six-Year Plan by 75.5%.
The consumption of soap will go up by 70% as against 1949 and 109% as against 1938.
Consumption of agricultural articles will also increase greatly. Thus, pork consumption in 1955 will be 41% higher in 1955 than in 1949 and 104% higher than in 1937; wheat flour consumption will rise by 34%, eggs by 12%, sugar by 26%, butter by 165%, etc.
What will be the main lines of the development of trade turnover during the period of the Six- Year Plan?
1. During the most recent period a tumultuous growth of socialized sector (state and co-operative trade) has been taking place in commodity turnover. Wholesale trade is practically completely mastered by the socialized apparatus and the capitalist elements have been dislodged from the wholesale trade permanently.
During 1949 socialized retail trade achieved a dominant position in the market and its share of the general turnover for the entire year amounted already to 55%. By the end of 1949 the share of socialized retail trade has increased to 60% and at present, in the middle of 1950, according to provisional estimates it amounts already to around 70%. In this situation it is clear that the development of socialist trade will advance rapidly and consistently.
While not forcing artificially the liquidation of capitalist retail trade, it should be born in mind that with the present position of socialized retail trade, its network and turnover must develop rapidly in order to equal the requirements of distributing the growing quantity of goods and the growing requirements of the population.
All delays in the extension of the network of socialized trade and all lack of consistency in the rapid extension of its turnover would bring, already at present, harmful results to the whole of our national economy and, in particular, would painfully affect the interests of the working masses by not giving them the possibility of satisfying their growing requirements.
Therefore, the Six-Year Plan provides for a consistently more rapid growth in the turnover of socialized retail trade than for the general growth of retail trade. While the general turnover of retail trade will increase by 90%, the turnover of socialized retail trade will go up by 238%.
As a result, socialized retail trade will in practice embrace almost the entirety of retail commodity turnover, and the eventual share of the private sector will amount to a completely insignificant percentage.
2. In connection with this the network of the retail socialized trade apparatus will be expanded to over 87,800 outlets attaining a level 102% higher than in 1949.
The new outlets should be in principle larger units and modernly equipped.
In connection with this, the average turnover of a single socialized trade outlet will increase by 76% in comparison with 1949. Socialized retail trade will extend to a number of fields in which it had not been interested sufficiently previously (kiosks of all sorts, household goods stores, fuel stores, trade-service outlets, such as oculists, shoe repair, clothes, watches, etc.).
A special role will be played in this expansion of socialized retail trade by the network of the Municipal Retail Trade, whose turnover will go up by over 700% during the six-year period. The expansion of the network of socialized trade should be closely connected with the improvement of its work, with an improvement of serving the clients, which still leaves so very much to be desired.
3. During the six-year period the network of socialized restaurant establishments will be enlarged to around 11,000, i.e., around 600% more than in 1949 and attaining the capacity of feeding 2.2 million people daily.
4. A considerable extension of trade between the village and the town will take place. The apparatus of the Central Agricultural Co-operatives will distribute 152% more goods in the village than in 1949, it will enlarge its network and outlets of local co-operatives and dislodge speculators from the village.
The growth in the quantity of goods distributed to the village will be paralleled by a marked increase in the socialized purchase of surplus commodities. The total value of purchased basic articles not including purchasing made directly by industry will increase by about 140%. Socialized purchases will become decisive not only as, heretofore, in grain and livestock, but also in milk, in eggs, in potatoes and to a lesser degree also in fruits and in vegetables. In purchasing methods of planned purchase and contracting will be of ever greater significance as an important instrument of planned influence and regulation of individual peasant economy and, in a later period, of planned contact with the developing producer co-operatives.
Such are the main lines of development of trade in the Six-Year Plan.
The realization of these lines will make it possible to satisfy the growing requirements of the population by means of socialist trade.
Investment and Construction
The project of the Six-Year Plan presented here earmarks for investments in the years 1950-1955 the immense sum of 6,100,000,000,000 zlotys.
The rate of increase of investment outlays is shown by the fact that the investment field in 1955 will be three and a half times larger than in 1949. The dynamics of the growth of investment outlays is still more distinct when comparing the amount of investment outlays on a per capita basis. Such a comparison demonstrates that per capita investments will be eight times higher in 1955 than they were in 1938. In comparison with 1949 the planned investment per capita will reach in 1955 a level three times higher than the planned investment in 1949. Regarding the direction of investments, the Six-Year Plan clearly strengthens and develops the heretofore principle of concentrating investment outlays on industry. While the average general growth of investment outlays is 356 (1955 in relation to 1949) the level of investment outlays for industry will increase more than the overall average and will reach the index of 373. The overwhelming part of the great outlays for industry will be concentrated on the development of the production of capital goods. 76.1% of all industrial investments in 1955 will be earmarked for these investments as against 75% in 1949.
A very marked increase of investment outlays takes place in the field of agriculture and forestry (1955 as compared with 1949 – 413%) and for social and cultural facilities (analogous index of 431). The most rapid growth of the index of investment outlays will be in housing construction, outlays which in 1955 will be almost five times higher than in 1949. The effort undertaken in this field is immense. As a result, 723,000 rooms will be built and the needs of industrial production will he especially taken into consideration particularly in the field of building housing for workers in newly arising establishments.
During the Six-Year Plan the building of 1425 large projects in all the fields of the national economy will be begun and of these 1287 will be ready for use by the end of the Plan. Of this number of finished projects around 250 will be large industrial establishments and over 90 will be new complete housing settlements. The fulfilment of an investment plan on such a scale calls for an all-sided and rapid development of the building industry and of building production.
What will be the line of the development of the building industry and building production during the period of the Six-Year Plan?
1. Production of socialized building will increase during the six-year period by 280%, thus its growth will be more rapid than the growth of industrial production.
2. Due to the great importance in the building production plan, of construction for the needs of industry, special building production will increase more rapidly than the general production of socialized building, and the growth of special buildings during the six-year period will amount to 294%.
Production in the field of assembly work will increase still more rapidly and will rise during the six-year period by 386%.
To measure up to these tasks it will be necessary to develop broadly the network of state building and assembly enterprises and to increase the specialization of enterprises of industrial construction particularly in the field of special and assembly work.
3. In the last year of the plan the socialized sector will fulfil 99.4% of the total amount of building production – in this, state building enterprises 87.6%, local means 9%, and the co-operatives 2.8%. In this way the state building enterprises will carry out all the fundamental and basic investment projects. Local means will take care primarily of repair work.
4. In addition to the large building enterprises the network of district and urban building enterprises will be expanded – the district ones to conduct rural construction work in the entire country while the urban ones are to carry out repair work in the cities.
5. In order to assure full and punctual technical documentation for construction, the network of project bureaus will be considerably enlarged and in 1955 they will employ twice the number of workers than in 1949.
Such are the main lines of development of building production during the Six-Year Plan.
The realization of these lines will create a foundation for the fulfilment of the great program of investments as a fundamental element of the plan.
II
THE SIX-YEAR PLAN AS A PLAN OF THE GENERAL OFFENSIVE OF SOCIALISM
As a result of the mighty development of productive forces, the development of industry, construction, transport and communications, trade and agriculture, foreseen by the Six-Year Plan, national income in 1955 will be 112.3% higher than the 1949 national income. During the six-year period the average annual increase in the national income will amount to 13.4%. This is a very large rate of growth of national income. It is a rate which is close to the tumultuous rise in national income achieved in the Soviet Union. In the years 1929 – 1935 the average annual increase of national income in the USSR amounted to around 14.5%.
How high this planned rate of increase in national income is, can be demonstrated by comparison with capitalist countries in the period of their best and most rapid development. During the greatest development of the capitalist countries in the years 1890 – 1913 the average annual increase in national income amounted to: in the United States 4.1%; in England 2.4%; in Germany 2.6%. After the Second World War the rate of increase in the national income of the capitalist countries decreased still more and in a number of cases national income began even to fall.
What is it what will enable us to obtain such a rapid rate of growth of national income?
It will become possible, just as all our past achievements were rendered possible, due to the fact that our development took place heretofore and during the Six-Year Plan will take place even more rapidly as a development towards socialism.
Comrade Stalin speaking of the superiority of the Soviet economy over the capitalist economy in his report to the Sixteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U.(b) pointed out the question of the distribution of national income as one of the important characteristics of this superiority.
Comrade Stalin wrote that in the Soviet system of economy:
“The distribution of the national income takes place, not in the interests of enriching the exploiting classes and their numerous parasitic hangers-on, but in the interests of systematically raising the material position of the workers and peasants, and extending socialist production in town and country.”
(Stalin, “Leninism,” Vol. II, p. 308.)
In this same report Comrade Stalin, ascertaining the fact that in the principal capitalist countries around half of the national income is appropriated by the capitalists, stated that the share of the kulaks and urban capitalists in the national income of the Soviet Union amounted to 8.1% in 1927 – 1928, 6.5% in 1928 – 1929, and already only 1.8% in 1929 – 1930.
Ascertaining these facts, Comrade Stalin wrote:
“But if in the USSR in 1929 – 1930, only about 2% of the national income falls to the share of the exploiting classes, what happens to the remaining part of the national income?
“Clearly it remains in the hands of the workers and toiling peasants.
“This is the source of the strength and authority of the Soviet government amongst millions of workers and peasants.
(Stalin, ibid. p. 289 – 290.)
And how does the matter of the distribution of the national income and the share in it of the exploiting classes appear in Poland?
In 1947, in spite of the carrying out of the agricultural reform and the nationalization of large and medium industry, and in spite of the defeat of the landlords and capitalists, the urban and rural capitalist elements appropriated still 22% of the national income.
All of us remember what a great obstacle for the development of our country was represented by the large share of the parasitic capitalist elements in the distribution of the national income.
By means of a systematic limiting and dislodging of capitalist elements in town and country, the share of capitalist elements in the distribution of national income has been greatly reduced and in 1949 it amounted to 9%.
Without the reduction of capitalist income, without decreasing its share in the national income from more or less one-fourth of its total to more or less one-tenth, the realization of the Three-Year Plan would have been impossible and our heretofore victorious march would have been impossible.
It is clear that the Six-Year Plan as well could not be realized if capitalist elements were not further systematically limited, dislodged and liquidated.
How will this occur in the various fields of our economy during the Six-Year Plan?
In industry, due to the general rise in the production of socialist industry and due to the especially marked growth of small socialized industry, the share of the socialist sector in the total production of industry and handicrafts will increase from around 89% in 1949 to around 99% in 1955.
The remaining one percent will be small commodity handicraft economy and the future share of capitalist production will be reduced to a fraction of one percent.
In this way the question of “who conquers whom” is already completely decided in industry during the Six-Year Plan.
The matter appears similarly regarding construction where at the end of the Six-Year Plan, the share of the socialist sector in building production will be 99.6%.
With regard to trade, the fact of attaining already at present the mastery of 70% of retail turnover by socialist trade and practically 100% of wholesale turnover, predetermines already conclusively the victory of the socialist sector.
During the six-year period this victory will be deepened, extended and consolidated.
And how does the situation appear in agriculture?
Here, we are dealing, in the form of the village-rich, the “kulaks,” with the most numerous capitalist class, with the capitalist class which has as yet preserved the relatively strongest economic positions.
In 1949, according to estimated data, the production of capitalist holdings amounted to 26% of the total agricultural production.
It is clear that the share of these holdings in commodity production was still higher.
There is no doubt that there can be no talk about the victorious building of socialism in town and country without the systematic weakening and, in the end, the ultimate smashing of this still strong economic position which is occupied by the rural capitalists. The existence of rural capitalists, who are a foreign and hostile element in our economy and the exploitation conducted by the rural capitalists are an economic, social and political obstacle in the development of both the agricultural economy as well as of the entire national economy.
With the support of the village poor and in alliance with the middle peasants we shall continue to apply with full energy and consistency the policy of limiting the capitalist elements in the village. In pace with the growth of the socialist sector in the village, with the strengthening of the state agricultural farms, with the uniting to an ever greater degree of the masses of small and medium holdings peasants in producer co-operatives and the growth of the co-operatives share in the commodity production of agricultural articles, the conditions for the liquidation of the rural capitalists as a class will grow and mature.
The Six-Year Plan is a great class battle for the creation of such conditions.
The Six-Year Plan is a plan of the general socialist offensive
against capitalist elements in town and country.
III
THE STRENGTHENING OF MUTUAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH THE USSR AND THE PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACIES
The Draft Law on the Six-Year Plan presented for the discussion by the Fifth Plenum states that the building of the foundations of socialism signifies amongst others:
“The deepening and strengthening of mutual economic relations and economic co-operation, based on the principles of socialist solidarity and mutual aid, and leading to the broadest possible development of productive forces on the basis of the economic plans of Poland, the USSR and the People’s Democracies.”
It is clear and understandable that in the conditions of the existence of a number of socialist states, the USSR – the country of victorious socialism, and the People’s Democracies – countries of arising socialism, the building of the foundations of socialism in these countries can take place only by way of deepening and strengthening the mutual economic relations and economic co-operation between these countries and, in the first place, with the USSR, the leading socialist state.
This road and this road alone leads to a maximum growth of productive forces in each of the People’s Democracies and to the building of socialism in these countries. This road and this road alone is a guarantee of the development of these countries and of their real independence. The monstrous fraud in Yugoslavia showed that a negation of this road means nothing more than the fettering of’ one’s own country under the mask of deceitful phrases about “an independent road to socialism” in the chains of the worst slavery of the American imperialists, of economic diversion and ultimate decline.
The economic relations of Poland with the USSR and the People’s Democracies are of a fundamentally different character than economic relations with the capitalist countries.
Our monopoly in foreign trade in relations with the capitalist countries defends us against their imperialist greed. We are interested in relations with capitalist countries not in general but only inasmuch as these relations can facilitate our economic development and we must always systematically and consistently strive to avoid dependence on capitalist countries in whatever sector.
Our economic relations with the USSR and the People’s Democracies are of a completely different character. These relations give rise to a planned contact, on the basis of economic plans of the national economy of the socialist countries and these relations hasten and extend the development of productive forces and increase the tempo of the march to socialism in the People’s Democracies.
Due to these relations, the People’s Democracies, and our country in particular, have the possibility of defending themselves effectively against the imperialist greed of capitalism and of avoiding falling into dependence on capitalism.
It is through these relations also that the assistance of the USSR for the People’s Democracies building socialism, and in particular for our country, for Poland, is realized.
A classical example of these relations of a new type are the economic agreements in force between Poland and the Soviet Union, in particular the long term economic agreements of 1948 and the recently signed one of June, 1950.
These agreements provide for:
1. Planned mutual trade for a period of eight years. As a result, Poland has an assured supply of the raw materials and industrial materials most necessary for its development, such as iron ore, cotton and wool, non-ferrous metals, fluid fuels, apatites, ball bearings and hundreds of other raw materials and products indispensable for the development of Polish national economy. These agreements regulate at the same time the planned export to the USSR of surplus articles of the Polish economy. It is precisely on the basis of these recently reached agreements that the elaboration of such a project of the Six-Year Plan as the one presented at present to the Plenum is possible – that is, a plan based on a strong raw material and material foundation and due to this, able to assume rapid and bold rates of development.
2. The furnishing to Poland of a large quantity of investment equipment, including a few scores of large, complete industrial plants, based on Soviet projects and on Soviet industrial equipment.
The Soviet Union will furnish to Poland and is already partially supplying, the complete installations for the new great steel mill near Cracow and for other reconstructed and newly built mills for plain steel and fine steel, for ore and coal mining, for oil drilling, for the production of non-ferrous metals, for a large chemical industry, for power, for the building of automobiles, tractors and heavy machines, etc.
Without these Soviet investment deliveries it would be impossible to present such a project of the Six-Year Plan as the one we are presenting now to the Plenum, i.e. a project based on a large investment program.
3. The making available to Poland of Soviet technical experience, the free of charge transferring of licences and patents, assistance in the projecting, building and assembling of a number of large economic objects, the apprenticeships of our engineers, technicians and skilled workers in Soviet establishments and constructions, etc.
Without this Soviet assistance it would be impossible to present to the Plenum such a project of the Plan as we are .now presenting, i.e., a plan which assumes the realization of great technical progress.
4. The granting to Poland of large credits earmarked for the financing of the deliveries of investment equipment and amounting to 2,200 million rubles.
There is no doubt that these substantial credits are an essential support for the project of the Six-Year Plan presented for the discussion of the Plenum.
Polish-Soviet economic relations are relations of a new type, relations based on socialist solidarity. They are a vivid negation and denial of those relations which prevail in the capitalist world where American imperialism renders other capitalist countries more dependent upon it, forcing upon them stagnation, degradation and economic exploitation.
The development of economic relations and economic co-operation between the USSR and Poland, and between Poland and other People’s Democracies with which long term agreements will also be concluded, agreements based on relations of a new type, are a secure basis for the building of the foundations of socialism in Poland.
IV
THE PLAN OF RAISING THE MATERIAL AND CULTURAL WELFARE OF THE POPULATION
The draft law on the Six-Year Plan presented here provides for an increase in the standard of living of the population of from 50% to 60% in comparison with 1949. One of the elements of the growth of the population’s standard of living will be the planned increase of employment. Employment in the socialist sector, outside of agriculture will increase in round numbers from around 3,600,000 in 1949 to around 5,700,000 in 1955, i.e., by around 60%. In absolute figures employment during the six-year period will increase in the socialist sector outside of agriculture by over 2,100,000. Around 1,230,000 women will be employed and the percentage of women in the total employed in the socialist sector outside of agriculture will rise from 29.1% in 1949 to 33.5% in 1955.
It is clear that due to a large increase in employment and especially due to the large increase in the employment of women the standard of living of the population will rise considerably due to the increase of the number employed per family. The second element in the growth of the standard of living of the population will be the increase in the real wages of workers and intellectual employees, which is estimated at 40% during the six-year period. This increase will be realized in two ways: by an increase of pay and through a gradual lowering of prices of articles of broad consumption. In connection with the growth of employment and the rise in earnings the wage fund in the socialist economy will increase over twofold during the six-year period, calculating in comparable prices. The growth of the standard of living of small and medium holding peasants will take place by means of an all-sided development of the production of their holdings and by means of a still more rapid increase in commodity production, sold at advantageous and profitable prices.
The uniting of small and medium holding peasants in producer co-operatives will play a significant role in raising their standard of living.
The wide expansion of housing construction, foreseen in the Six-Year Plan will be an element in the improvement of the standard of living of the working masses. As we have already stated 723,000 new housing rooms will be built during the period of the plan. This construction will assure the satisfying of the housing needs of the workers in the expanding industry, in the first place. It should be stressed that the completion of three quarter of a million rooms will be not only an important increase in housing space but also a far-reaching qualitative improvement of its character.
As a heritage from capitalism, the working class occupies not only over-crowded quarters but ones that are very often deprived of even the most elementary sanitary conveniences, sometimes located in areas without facilities, in bad hygienic conditions, etc.
The new housing construction, 75% of which will be in the form of new complete settlements, equipped with the indispensable economic, social and cultural facilities will be the beginning of a profound turning point in the housing conditions of the working masses. At the same time, large sums will be earmarked for repairs action which will lead to a real improvement in housing conditions in old buildings. By means of important outlays for communal economy a considerable improvement of its unsatisfactory state will be obtained. In this field one of the most important investments will be the construction of around 60 canalization-water main networks in towns which do not possess these facilities up to now. The improvement in this sector is shown by the following data: before the war 36% of the urban population had the use of water main facilities and 31% of canalization. In 1955 70% of the urban population will have the use of water main facilities and 62% of canalization. The construction of group water mains in the industrial regions of Upper Silesia and Lodz, in order to supply the population and industry with water will be of great significance.
Large outlays are earmarked also for improving municipal communication and for setting it up in a number of towns which heretofore did not have municipal communication.
Important changes for the better during the six-year period will take place in the development of social health service. The number of hospital beds will increase during the six-year period to 123,500, i.e., by 38.3% in relation to 1949.
As a result, while the number of hospital beds per 10,000 inhabitants in Poland amounted to 21.7 in 1938, and already 36.3 in 1949, in 1955 we will have 47.7 beds per 10,000 inhabitants.
The Six- Year Plan in addition to raising the number of hospital beds will improve the location of the hospital network and will increase the supplying of hospitals and raise the level of medical aid.
In out-patient work, the plan provides for increasing prophylactic action with particular consideration of care for children and youth, a considerable increase of dental care, and improvement of medical care for those covered by social insurance, especially a large development of specialist medical aid. The number of urban clinics and health centres will grow by 99% to reach 3060.
It should be noted that there were only 482 institutions of this type in pre-war Poland in 1937.
The Six-Year Plan provides for an increase in the number of doctors per 10,000 inhabitants to 6.5, i.e., by almost 85%.
Regarding mother and child care, there will be an increase in the number of places in urban crèches by almost three times in comparison with 1949. In 1955 the number of places in urban crèches will amount to 52,000 while in 1938 it amounted to not quite 700. The institution of season rural crèches will also develop on a broad scale during the six-year period.
A million employees will be able to take advantage of the workers’ holiday plan in 1955, i.e., 193% more than in 1949.
Among the most important developments which show the growth of culture will be the liquidation of illiteracy which will take place already at the beginning of the plan, an increase in the number of books and pamphlets of up to 9,000 titles, i.e. of 90.6%, an increase in the number of radio subscribers by 166.7%, a large growth of the number of regular and touring theatres and cinemas. The number of permanent cinemas in the villages will increase especially rapidly, reaching the number of 3,300 that is a twenty two fold growth.
This then, is how the Six-Year Plan appears in the field of raising the material and cultural welfare of the population, without taking into consideration the problem of training new cadres and raising professional qualifications as well as the problem of assuring an all-sided development of education.
V
THE CONDITIONS FOR THE FULFILMENT OF THE PLAN
The outline of the Six-Year Plan presented here provides a picture of the magnitude and scope of the tasks which we face in connection with the realization of the Plan.
It should be stated with all clarity and determination that the fulfilment of the Six-Year Plan will lead us to face the necessity of overcoming a number of important difficulties, greater, more complicated and more involved than those which we encountered during the fulfilment of the Three-Year Plan. We must raise industrial production during six years by over 150%, we must develop in Poland an entire series of complicated and heretofore unknown types of production, assure the all-sided development of agriculture and raise its production by 50%. We must develop transportation and communication on a large scale and build the East-West waterway; invest over 6,000,000,000,000 zlotys in the national economy and complete 1287 large units, of this around 250 large industrial establishments and over 90 complete housing settlements. We must carry out a fundamental social transformation in agriculture, assure the necessary cadres for the great development of the national economy, raise the standard of living of the population by from 50% to 60%, and real wages of workers by 40%, and increase over twofold the wage fund in the socialist sector outside of agriculture. We must expand on a broad scale, education, culture, social health services, mother and child care, worker’s holidays. We must win victoriously the great class battle for the elimination of capitalist elements, change thoroughly during six years the appearance of our country and transform it into a leading industrial country – in one word, we must build the foundations of socialism in Poland.
All this presents a difficult, complicated and involved task, for the fulfilment of which it will be necessary to mobilize all forces and to see clearly the means and methods which lead to the overcoming of the difficulties to be encountered on our road, and to see clearly the conditions the fulfilment of which is indispensable for achieving the tasks of the plan.
What are these conditions?
Technical Progress is the Foundation of the Development of our Economy
The rate of development of the national economy assumed in the Six-Year Plan provides for the application and extension of technical progress in all its fields. Therefore almost every paragraph of the Draft Law on the Six-Year Plan speaks of technical progress and of the indices indispensable for the achievement of technical progress in this field. The basic elements of technical progress during the Six-Year Plan will be the mechanization of processes of production, electrification, automatization of the servicing of equipment and control. The intensification of production and service processes, the transition to greater aggregates, the substitution of permanent for periodic processes, the normalization of technological processes of raw materials and ready products and the application of the new gains in chemistry to processes in a number of fields of the economy.
The mechanization of work will include primarily the application of machines there where heretofore hard physical labour or labour under conditions harmful to health was utilized.
Lenin teaches us:
“We cannot send people to forced labour work. It is necessary to introduce everywhere more machines and to pass over much more extensively to an application of machine techniques.”
These indications of Lenin must be put into life to a large degree during the period of the Six-Year Plan in Poland. This is why, for example, a 100% mechanization of underground loading of coal will be carried out in the Polish mining industry during the Six-Year Plan. A great plan of mechanization in metallurgy will be carried out by mechanizing the depots of ores, coke, molden metal casting, the transport of furnace slag, scrap movement, loading of materials to and from the molds.
In all the productive industries, inner factory transport will be basically reconstructed by means of mechanization. The mechanization of foundries will be shown in a sevenfold increase in machine moulding. In transport and particularly in railroads a basic reconstruction will take place in loading and unloading. Conveyer belts, elevators, hoists, cranes, etc. will be widely used for the mechanization of loading and unloading.
A great program of mechanization will be the basis for a thorough reconstruction of technical methods in the building trade. Without the putting into life of this program, the fulfilment of the tasks which fall upon construction during the Six-Year Plan would be impossible and would equal, using Comrade Stalin’s words, the attempt to drain off the sea with a teaspoon.
The mechanization program in building will include the mechanization of foundation work, the preparation of cement, the preparation, cutting and bending of iron, plastering and the full mechanization of vertical transport and large progress in the mechanization of horizontal transport.
In the Six-Year Plan the electrification of production and service processes will increase considerably. Thus, for example in the coal industry the complete electrification of at least 50 coal mines, with the total elimination of steam and air motive power, will take place. In the metallurgical industry an almost complete electrification of rolling processes will be carried out. In manufacturing industries, above all in textile, electrification of driving power will increase very considerably.
During the Six-Year Plan automatization will be extended to a number of production functions such as servicing machines and apparatus, doling out of raw material, or the feeding of materials, the guiding of the movement of machines according to definite parameters.
During the period of the realization of the Plan a transition will take place to an ever greater degree towards larger aggregates and machines which will give a much greater output with almost the same servicing personnel.
During the period of the Plan the substitution of continuous processes for periodical ones will take place to an ever greater degree which will considerably facilitate mechanization and automatization, lower production costs and increase productivity. An example of the transition to continuous processes can be seen in the application of multitool lathes, foreseen in the plan, which will simultaneously carry out several or even several scores of operations. An example of continuous processes is also the assembly line system which will be used particularly in automobile, tractor, agricultural machines, motor and lathe factories.
During the Six-Year Plan an important development of normalization is foreseen by normalizing the consignment conditions of raw materials and ready made products, the chemical composition of raw materials and products, the geometric measurements of industrial products, etc.
Normalization work will be carried out on the basis of the great achievements which have been made in this respect by the Soviet Union.
A tendency of modern technique which will be applied in our economy during the Six-Year Plan in the introduction of chemical and physical-chemical processes into many branches of industry and also into agriculture. One of the signs of the greater employment of chemistry in industry will be the large growth in the production of synthetic materials.
In order to attain the greatest technical progress it is necessary to strengthen the Scientific Research Institutes and to utilize their work as broadly as possible. In the realization of technical progress, basing oneself upon the immense achievements of Soviet science and technique will be of great assistance.
One should be aware of the fact that the fulfilment of the tasks set forth by the Six-Year Plan depends on the realization of technical progress on a broad scale. It is, therefore, necessary to break relentlessly all attempts at opposition to technical progress, all manifestations of conservatism and routine.
Growth of Labour Productivity and Lowering of Prime Costs
During the six-year period our production apparatus will be renewed to a great degree, a number of new large industrial establishments will be set into operation and a number of old ones will be thoroughly reconstructed and supplied with new equipment.
During the six-year period considerable technical progress will be realized.
During the six-year period our national economy will be strengthened by a large number of new, qualified cadres.
During the six-year period considerable organizational progress in our national economy will be attained.
All of this creates a basis for a significant increase in labour productivity. Such an increase of labour productivity is assumed in the Six-Year Plan which foresees an increase of labour productivity in socialist large and medium industry of 66%. In construction the increase in labour productivity will be 85% and in the State Agricultural Farms of about 90%.
In the railroads labour productivity is to increase by about 52%; in the socialized retail trade by 45%.
All these tasks should be regarded as minimum tasks because the practice of the Soviet Union and already partially our own practice shows that with large investment outlays, the introduction of large quantities of equipment and the systematic realization of technical progress it is possible to obtain higher indices of growth of labour productivity.
The attainment of the minimum increase of labour productivity foreseen in the plan is a necessary condition for the realization of the plan. In order to fully grasp and clarify precisely the significance of the planned increase in labour productivity I will cite the following, to a certain degree paradoxical numerical illustration: if productivity in 1955 was to remain on the same level as in 1949 then with the scope of production planned for 1955 it would be necessary to employ many more workers than the plan provided for, i.e., 1,300,000 more in state industry, 530,000 in construction, 130,000 in trade, etc.
Is this possible?
It is, of course, impossible. The additional employment of such a number of people would increase prime costs immeasurably and lead to a complete financial breakdown not to mention the fact that we could not at all find such a number of workers, that we could not find housing for them, etc.
It follows clearly that we must all be fully aware of the fact that without the minimum growth of labour productivity foreseen in the plan there can be no talk at all of fulfilling the Six-Year Plan.
The increase of labour productivity takes place on the basis of applying scientifically co-ordinated technical labour norms and through a systematic improvement in raising the efficiency of these norms. A number of our comrades, even holding very important posts, do not or are unable to understand this. They treat the revision of norms as an unpleasant operation which should be avoided as much as possible, which should be delayed and postponed and to which one can submit only when there is no other way out. It is necessary to put an end to this whole approach to the question of norms. It is necessary to understand fully that the increase of productivity does not take place in any other way than by a revision of norms and that this revision should be carried out systematically on the basis of the technical and organizational progress occurring in production. It is necessary also to put an end to the erroneous view that a growth of labour productivity must always be accompanied by an equal or greater rise in earnings. This was in fact the case during the Three-Year Plan. If one takes at 100 the productivity per production worker in the industries under the jurisdiction of the four industrial Ministries in 1946, then this productivity had increased by 59% in 1949. During this same period average real wages more than doubled, thus the increase in real wages was overtaking the increase of labour productivity to a large extent.
We could apply this type of policy during the Three-Year Plan only partially and exceptionally due to the tendency to achieve a very rapid raising of the level of real wages which were exceptionally low at the beginning of the Three-Year Plan.
But we cannot apply and will not apply this type of policy during the period of the Six-Year Plan. It runs counter to the basic laws of socialist accumulation. These laws state that the increase of wages must progress more slowly than the increase of labour productivity for only in this way can one obtain a lowering of prime costs and an increased accumulation for investment needs.
Therefore, an increase of real wages during the Six-Year Plan for physical and intellectual workers as a whole is foreseen on an average of about 40%, while the growth in labour productivity in all fields of the national economy is to be higher.
This higher rate of the growth of productivity as compared with the rate of increase of wages is one of the important sources for lowering prime costs. A second source for lower prime costs is economy in materials, fuel, raw materials and auxiliary articles, by the application of rational consumption norms, the control of this consumption, the utilization of substitute materials, the liquidation of waste, etc.
As a result of the employment of the two most important sources for lowering prime costs, the project of the Six-Year Plan presented here, foresees the lowering of prime costs of production in the socialist industry by at least 17% along with a considerable improvement of the quality of output, the lowering of construction costs by at least 26%, the lowering of prime costs of production in State Agricultural Farms by at least 30%, the lowering of prime costs of railroads by at least 17%, in retail trade by at least 15%, etc.
All told, the lowering of prime costs in the most important branches of the national economy should amount to around 3,000,000,000,000 zlotys of accumulation which amounts to about 50% of the total investment outlays provided for in the Six-Year Plan.
In other words, without obtaining the planned lowering of prime costs it would not be possible to carry out about 50% of the planned investments, that is, it would not be possible to fulfil the Six-Year Plan.
On the basis of the obtained lowering of prime costs it will be possible to pass gradually to a policy of lowering the prices of mass consumption articles which in turn will cause an increase in real wages and strengthen our currency.
It is necessary for all of us to understand fully that the obtaining of the planned lowering of prime costs is a fundamental condition for the fulfilment of the Six-Year Plan.
Planning in the Relations Between Town and Country
Our agriculture is based at present, and for a certain time will still continue to be based predominantly on the small commodity economy.
In our agriculture, capitalist elements, as we have seen, still hold fairly strong positions. In connection with this we do not have as yet direct planning in the preponderant part of agriculture and the influence of the state on its development takes places solely by means of planned regulation. The stronger the position of the state in the field of socialist industry, in the finance system and in trade, the more effective this planned regulation becomes.
After the termination of the Three-Year Plan, the political and economic positions of the state were greatly strengthened and the possibility for a planned regulation of agriculture considerably extended. On the other hand, the tasks of the Six-Year Plan require a regular delivery of an increased quantity of food articles and agricultural raw materials and an ever greater elimination of the negative effects of seasonal fluctuations, marked disturbances and of the disorganizing role of capitalist speculatory elements. In connection with this, during the Six-Year Plan we shall be introducing evermore extensively planned forms of relations between town and country in the form of planned purchasing of agricultural commodities. Already in the first quarter of 1950 these new forms of relations between town and country were partly applied in the forms of the planned purchase of grain and the increased contracting of cattle. This brought successful results in the shape of increased and more regular deliveries of agricultural goods, in creating for small and medium holding peasants the possibility of a certain and planned sale of their production, in rendering difficult for the capitalist elements the speculation with grain in the period before sowing and of thus exploiting the small and medium holding peasants, in paralyzing the attempts of the capitalist elements to disorganize the supplying of the urban population and of industry with agricultural products and industrial raw materials. On the basis of the successful experiences acquired in the beginning of 1950 it is necessary to extend and deepen systematically the new forms of planned relations between town and country.
In this way, in the new stage and in new forms will be realized the economic contact between the working class and the small and medium peasantry. In this way the masses of poor and middle holding peasants will obtain the possibility of exercising a certain control over the activities of the rural capitalists. In this way we shall obtain a new, important instrument in the struggle with the rural capitalists.
The systematic strengthening of the planning-regulating function of the state in relation to the individual peasant economy is thus a necessary prerequisite for the successful carrying out of the Six-Year Plan.
For a Higher Level of Organization
The Six-Year Plan reflects the correct political line of our Party, presented in the language of figures and schedules, for the building of the foundations of socialism in Poland.
It is not sufficient, however, to possess a correct political line and a correct plan which is a reflection of the line. It is necessary to guard this line like the apple of one’s eye against all deviations and waverings derived from the pressure of the class enemy. It is necessary to put this line and plan into life and this is done by the everyday organizational work of the organizations and institutions whose purpose this is. But if one examines this organizational work then one cannot help reaching the conclusion that its level is plainly disproportionate to the level of the political line of the Party. Our planning organizations continue to plan badly, inaccurately and have as yet not tackled seriously many fundamental fields of planning such as inner-establishment planning or local planning.
Our economic organizations are still remote from the establishments, do not know what is happening there, do not direct them either in cadre, technical or finance matters. Our economic organizations are still full of foreign elements, bureaucrats, who hinder the broad development of labour competition and production improvement.
Our trade unions are as yet unable to organize in the proper fashion labour competition, to fight for discipline in labour establishments and for the liquidation of unjustified absenteeism. Our propaganda and press are still unable to write clearly and concretely on matters of production, competition and production improvement, are still unable to mobilize sufficiently for the fulfilment of the production tasks, for the struggle against the plague of bureaucracy. Our Union of Polish Youth is still unable to develop sufficiently the heroism, and grandeur of socialist construction resting in the souls of the young generation.
Our Party organizations do not have as yet a sufficiently profound and thorough knowledge of the economic matters of their terrain, do not know how to manage these problems correctly and concretely, do not have as yet a full feeling of responsibility for the fulfilment of production tasks and other economic tasks set forth by the Party and the government, and very often yet, instead of competent direction, based on a thorough knowledge of the issues, they exercise a superficial, general “pseudo direction,” they command and shout, and sometimes incorrectly and without need substitute themselves for the economic administration, infringing upon the principle of single authority in the establishment.
It is necessary to eliminate all these faults and shortcomings as rapidly as possible, it is necessary to raise the level of our organizational work up to the level of our political line, reflected among other things in the Six-Year Plan.
This is a necessary condition for the successful fulfilment of the Six-Year Plan of building socialism in Poland.
Apart from the extremely important problem of cadres, I have enumerated here the most important conditions on which the successful realization of the Six-Year Plan depends. There is no doubt that the fulfilment of these conditions will require the full mobilization of our Party and the working masses, a full exertion of effort, energy and will.
* * *
Comrades,
We are undertaking the discussion on the Six-Year Plan of the economic development and the building of the foundations of socialism in Poland in a moment of a tense and complex international situation. Bestialized American imperialism, consumed by inner contradictions and frightened by the progress of the camp of socialism and peace, is pushing towards new war adventures.
We, in the countries of the camp of socialism and peace are expanding industry and agriculture, building factories, schools and hospitals, lifting up education and culture, raising the standard of living of the population and struggling for an ever fuller, more beautiful and joyous life.
They, the dour heralds of the camp of war and death, criminal war-mongers and worthy successors of Hitler are carrying on an armed intervention in Korea, are attempting to undertake criminal provocations in the Balkans with the aid of the band of titoist agents, are taking council as to where and how to spread devastation and war conflagration, where and when to drop the atom bomb.
From day to day they are losing ground from under their feet, they are living in full uncertainty of tomorrow, they are ready to commit every crime and violence to save their rule.
We have faith in the future, we are calm and certain of the unshakeable strength of the anti-imperialist camp, led by the great Stalin. The anti-imperialist camp, the camp of peace has enough strength, has a sufficiently powerful potential and inexhaustible reserves, unattainable for the capitalist world, in order to frustrate the criminal plans of the imperialists.
We are enacting our Six-Year Plan – a plan which will strengthen still more our economic and defence potential – a plan which will strengthen Poland as an important link of the camp of peace, progress and socialism. By enacting and fulfilling the Six-Year Plan we shall inflict still one more blow to the American imperialists desirous of blood and ruin, we shall strengthen peace, strengthen socialism and build the foundations of socialism in our country.
INDEX
Boleslaw Bierut:
We Are Building the Structure of Socialist Poland (Final speech delivered at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party on 16th of July 1950)
Hilary Minc:
The Six-Year Plan of Economic Development and Building the
Foundations of Socialism in Poland (Speech delivered at the Fifth
Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers
Party on 15th of July 1950.)
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