Kilde: Rapport om statistikker og planer for industrien for 1931, udarbejdet af præsidiet for det øverste økonomiske råd, 1. januar 1931

(handwritten notation upper left corner:) Soso*, this is the project about which I spoke yesterday. Rquest you read it and give me your instruction. Signed, Sergo December 2, 1931)

10. January 1, 1931

Draft

RESOLUTION

of the Presidium of the All-Union Economic Council (VSNKh) of the USSR concerning figures for the industry for the year 1931

The Council of people’s commissars of the USSR approved a national economic plan for 1931 (control figures.)

The Soviet Union is entering the third, decisive years of the five-year plan.

The year 1931 should lead to the basic fulfillment of the grandiose plan of building socialism - the five- year plan.

The 1931 plan is based to a significant degree on those great achievements of the last two years of the current five-year plan.

During the first two years of the five-year plan, socialist stat industry yielded production worth 30.5 billion rubles in comparison with 29.3 billion rubles set by the five-year plan.

Heavy industry yield production of 13.8 billion rubles rather than the 12.5 billion rubles envisioned for these two years by the five-year plan.

The annual industrial output is twice the prewar annual industrial production.

In contrast to the capitalistic world, for which the year 1930 was an “unfortunate year” according to the leaders of this world themselves, unlike world capitalism, where production is sharply declining under the blows of an economic crisis, the Soviet state is entering the year 1931 with the perspective of an even sharper upturn of the curve of the Bolshevik economic growth rate.

In carrying out the words of this slogan “The five-year plan in four years “that was proclaimed by the working masse and confirmed by the 16th Party Conference, in contrast to the statements of the Trotskyites and Rightists, the country of proletarian dictatorship, led by the Communist Party and its Central Committee, in the third year will grow even more rapidly.

Since industry plays a leading role in the socialist transformation of the entire economy and the establishment of a foundation for the socialist economy of the USSR, the following enormous and crucial task falls to industry:

• 25 billion rubles of gross output
• 6.3 billion rubles of capital construction (together with regional   electrostations)
• 10% reduction in production costs
• 28% increase in labor productivity
• 6% wage increase

Our industrial output and industrial construction targets are designed to:

1. Concentrate investment in new construction in the most essential areas to ensure that the maximum possible number of new plans are put into operation in 1931 and thus lay the groundwork for even faster growth of output in 1932.
2. Supply 17 millions tons of cast iron for the program in 1933.
3. Accelerate the development of heavy machinery manufacturing in order to ensure that mostly Sovietmade equipment and machinery are used in gigantic new integrated steel and iron works and the coal and oil industries.
4. Establish a machinery manufacturing infrastructure for modernization of the transportation system.
5. Develop agricultural machinery manufacture and the automotive and tractors industries in order to provide a solid industrial foundation for the burgeoning process for agricultural collectivization and develop the production of machinery for the cultivation of industrial crops.
6. Dramatically accelerate the growth of the chemical and nonferrous metal industries. To this point, the nonferrous metals industry has developed at an unacceptably slow pace and has thus retarded the development of a number of other industries, especially the electrical equipment industry.
7. Expand the economy’s fuel and energy infrastructure.

The successful achievement of the 1931 plan targets should result in 17 billion rubles of Category A industrial output and 8 billion rubles in Category B output. By comparison with 1930, this would mean a 42 % increase, 58 % in Category A output a 17.6 % increase in Category B. In the process, machinery manufacturing output would rise 86 %, while the same figures for electrical equipment, iron, and coal could be 72 %, 52 %, and 46 %.

THE OUTPUT of essential products would be expressed in the following terms:

COAL - 82.5 million tons;
OIL - 25.5 million tons;
CAST IRON - 8.8 million tons;
COLLED METAL PRODUCT - 6.7 million tons;
TRACTORS - 54,000 units (as opposed to the 53,000 units projected for the last year of the five-year plan);
GENERAL MACHINERY PRODUCTS - 2,483 million rubles;
AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY - 760 million rubles;
ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS - 970 million rubles;
COTTON FABRICS - 2,785 million meters, or 13.4 % more than in 1930;
FOOTWEAR - 84 million pairs, or 36 % more than 1930.

In the area of production, meeting the plan targets will require us to concentrate as much effort as possible on the following tasks:

1. Strict fuel economy and effecting major reductions in fuel consumption per unit of output by 15 % in industry and by 9 % at electrical power plants. Despite the rapid growth projected for the fuel industry in 1931, fuel producers and consumers will have to work hard to ensure that an adequate supply of fuel is available for the rapidly developing economy. Some consumers continue to squander fuel in totally unacceptable manner (for example, by burning coking coal, high-grade coal, and so forth in boiler furnaces). All of our leading industrial managers, engineers, and technicians and the entire industrial community must be mobilized to use fuel thriftily and save it by whatever means possible. 

2. Saving ferrous and nonferrous metals. All industrial and construction workers must enlist in the campaign to save the metal in machining and to substitute wood and other material for metal in industry and industrial and housing construction in order to ensure a fully adequate supply of metal for the manufacture of equipment and critical industrial construction projects where metal is absolutely indispensable. The efforts of all industrial workers and special brigades of shock workers and komsomol members must be focused on inventorying and keeping track of all available supplies of ferrous metal.

Determined implementation of these measures and efforts to save every possible kilogram of metal will guarantee the successful accomplishment of the incredible tasks which industry now faces, especially the machinery manufacturing industry, in terms of the amount of metal which must be produced in 1931.

We must also focus the attention and efforts of shock workers, worker inventors, managers, engineers, and technicians on saving nonferrous metals as much as possible, finding substitutes for them, and tapping the country’s current resources of these metals. To this point we have not done enough in this area. The performance of research institutes in this respect has been especially inadequate.

We must economize on raw materials in all industrial sectors, mainly agricultural raw materials, which will still be in short supply in 1931 despite the growth in output in comparison with past years. We must be increasingly frugal in our use of imported raw materials and simultaneously do everything we can to produce the same raw materials in the Soviet Union and substitute other materials for imports.

4. Efficient utilization of existing equipment. We must fight tooth and nail with anyone who believes that industrial development in the future can rely exclusively on new construction and new equipment. We must remember that in many cases our existing equipment is as good as equipment installed at British, French, and German plants but is being utilized much less efficiently. In order to build socialism with old equipment, we will have to squeeze everything out of it that we can. We must firmly oppose any lordly contempt for old equipment.

Within three months’ time we must inventory and document all equipment, calculate its capacity and utilization, and determine which equipment is being badly used and underutilized or is standing totally idle. The example of Stalin Machinery Manufacturing Plant in Leningrad, whose inventory and documentation of its equipment revealed 500,000 machine-hours of unused capacity, and a number of other plants have shown how great this underutilization of equipment capacity still is and what a poor job we have done in inventorying the productive capacity of our industrial plants. In addition, the transfer of excess machines to other plants will relieve us of the burden of importing these machines and instead will allow us to import those machines which are truly in short supply.

In the area of major construction, we must use 5.5 billion rubles and the 850 million rubles appropriated for the construction of district electric power plants.

Of the 5.5 billion rubles, 500 million rubles will be used to begin new construction projects, while the remaining 5 billion will be used to develop and complete ongoing projects. This by itself provides a perfectly clear picture of the reasoning behind the plan for major construction in 1931.

We must avoid dissipating the funds earmarked for new construction projects. WE MUST CONCENTRATE THESE FUNDS ON VITAL SECTORS in order to complete and PUT INTO OPERATION AS MANY NEW PLANTS, SECTIONS AND INSTALLATIONS as possible this year.

We must not fritter away our efforts on every little construction project and every plant undergoing remodelling but must concentrate our efforts on essential projects so that individual production lines, sections, and aggregates can begin making products in 1931 or can facilitate the immediate expansion of output by the other sections of an existing plant. This kind of major construction plan for industry as a whole will dramatically expand the material resources at the country’s disposal, will promote socialist accumulation, and will open up the possibility of even faster growth in output and construction.

In order to accomplish this key task of the construction plan we must:

1. make immediate preparations for the construction season so as to provide as much material and manpower as possible and proper organization for key construction projects in each industry and at each individual plant;
    
2. complete all the designs, plants and specifications for priority construction projectswithout fail and make this effort the battle mission of plant engineers and technicians and design and planning organization employees. In past years we have often encountered the totally unacceptable situation where new construction has begun without any designs, plants, or specifications.
   
   We must ensure that cost estimates are completed within two months for priority construction projects and facilities to be completed in 1931. Until now a number of construction projects have not had completed and reviewed cost estimates. We must condemn any construction project which begins without any accurate cost estimate as manifestation of mismanagement and a reckless attitude toward the resources of a proletarian country.
    
3. We must persistently eliminate any extravagances from construction projects by reviewing all cost estimates, first and foremost for the largest construction projects, in order to decisively eliminate overbuilding and needless expenditures of metal and concrete not dictated by any engineering requirements. In our new construction projects we must concentrate our resources on factory buildings, their equipment, and the construction of the necessary housing for the workers and factory schools.

The campaign to cut construction costs, eliminate extravagances, and give priority to factory and worker housing construction must become the mission of every manager, construction worker, engineer, and technician.

We must single out the issue of financial discipline in production and construction for special consideration. We need discipline in spending, which must be based on accurate estimates. We need regular and accurate reports. We need our managers to stick fast to their budgets for materials and money.

Until now, many builders have believed that their only responsibilities is to turn over a completed construction project on time, while in fact they are directly accountable to the proletarian state for keeping accurate accountants of their expenditures, saving as much money as they can, completing their construction projects promptly, and at low cost, and providing timely and accurate reports.

Many industrial managers have devoted far too little energy and attention to reducing the unit cost of production and improving product quality.

A 10 % cut in the unit costs of production and 12 % reduction in construction costs are indispensable conditions for achieving the goals of the financial plan for industry.

In order to fulfill the plan for 1931, the sections of the VSNKh of the USSR shall take the following actions within the next few months:

1. The chief of the Construction Section, in cooperation with the appropriate manufacturing sectors, shall be responsible for monitoring the status and progress of designs, plans, and specifications. He shall submit report to the Presidium of the Council on the status of designs, plans, and specifications for priority construction projects no later than February 1, 1931.
    
2. The chief the Construction Section, with the assistance of the required number of engineers, shall review cost estimates to determine whether funds have been spent wisely and economically, starting with key projects. Ha shall submit a report to the Presidium every two months.
    
3. The chief of Machinery Manufacture Section shall submit an equipment budget for major construction in 1931 no later than February 15. He shall review the plans of machinery manufacturing consortia to ensure that they will supply equipment on time to the construction projects scheduled to begin in 1931.
    
4. The chief of the Supply Section, in cooperation with appropriate manufacturing sectors, shall examine the availability of material and supplies for the coal industry and steel and iron industries with local spot checks in certain coal-producing districts and facilities over the next three months.
    
5. The chief of the Fuel and Power Sector, with the assistance of research institutes and fuel industry employees, shall conduct spot inspections of leading fuel consumers to determine whether they are complying with expenditure limits and fuel economy requirements. The first report shall be submitted on March 1.
    
6. Over the next four months, the Presidium shall hear reports from the chiefs of six major construction projects after members of the Presidium have first been dispatched to inspect the projects.

The colossal plan of production and construction in 1931 has imposed major responsibilities on all workers, shock workers, managers, engineers, and technicians.

The successful fulfillment of the 1931 plan will require us to meet specific quantity targets and work hard to meet the plan’s quality targets (improving labor productivity and cutting unit costs) and improve product quality.

The fuel and metals sectors of the industrial front have been assigned and extremely critical mission. The success of the entire production plan depends on the aggressive efforts of the miners of the Donbass, the Urals, and the Kuzbass, the metalworkers of the Donbass and the Urals, the oil workers of Baku and Groznyi, and the employees of the peat industry. The tasks of these sectors have been made even more critical by the fact that they did not meet their special quarterly target, even though their output was higher than last year.

The fulfillment of all production targets, the fullest possible utilization of machinery, furnaces, and rolling mills, achievement of all quality goals, and raising the percentage of mechanized output to 80 % of total output in the Donbass, 42 % of the Eastern Coal Fields, and 52 % in the Moscow Coal Fields, getting their heavy coal cutters to produce 2860 tons of coal per month in the Donbass, 2150 tons in the Urals, and 4000 tons in the Kuzbass, and improving the coefficient of utilization of blast furnace capacity to 1.25 in the South and 1.20 in the Urals (in terms of mineral fuel) are the primary battle missions of the fuel and metal sectors.

The performance of the timber industry must be dramatically improved, especially in light of its unsatisfactory performance with respect to the special quarterly plan. The success of the construction plan is highly dependent on the successful performance of the timber industry.

The working class achieved its major successes in the first two years of the five-year plan not by “inertia,” but by fierce class struggle and surmounting difficulties. The 1931 plan will also not be achieved “spontaneously”. We face major growingly pains on the way to fulfilling this plan.

All managers should strive to encourage a new outburst of work enthusiasm which will make the prospect of even more colossal achievements in 1931 inevitable and inspire more socialist competition, shock worker ardor, and employee-sponsored production and financial plans. Without this we will not be able to solve our problems and fulfill the 1931 plan.

Faster rates of growth in socialist industry and the successful solution of our problems will require even more dramatic improvements in the quality of performance of all industrial sectors, hard and sustained efforts at all levels of management, and fierce and determined effort to correct all our deficiencies in industrial performance.

The experience of the past year, especially the last quarter, has quite convincingly confirmed that the proper pace should set at the very beginning of the year. The actions needed to establish and sustain this pace must be planned and taken in the first quarter, and the first quarter plan must be approved by the government at the same time as the yearly plan is approved. Successful fulfillment of the plan will require workers to concentrate on a specific plan for every month and every day of work, not just on the yearly plan in general. Unconditional fulfillment of the first quarter plan will lay the groundwork for further progress in the drive to fulfill the plan as a whole.

Socialist industry has extensive untapped potential for fulfilling the proposed plan.

A new upsurge in socialist competition and shock-worker enthusiasm should establish the foundations for even greater accomplishments in the new year of 1931.

Managers, shock workers, engineers, and technicians should be ready for the hard fight ahead to complete the foundations for the socialist economy of the USSR.

True copy:

(Handwritten annotation:)

1) Need to talk more forcefully about reducing production costs and not burdening enterprises with haphazard and unnecessary (illegible) of workers and office staff.

2) Need to say something about streamlined, timely implementation of inventions.

3) Need to add a point on one-man management individual responsibility for efficient use of resources.