End Five-Year Plan

Some time or other the Five-Year Plan, launched Oct. 1, 1928. had to end. Impatient Russians could not wait for Oct. i. 1933 so the State coined a slogan: "The Five-Year Plan In Four Years!" But Oct. i, 1932 called for a pace which proved too fast. Arbitrarily last year J. Stalin & Comrades set New Year's Eve last week as the Plan's official deadline. It passed quietly.

There was no celebration. Comrade Stalin knew better than to review troops or the populace in the Red Square. Russians are hungrier this winter than they have been in several years (TIME. Sept. 12 et seq.). They blame the food shortage on the Plan, blame Dictator Stalin for the Plan, and yet are docile. Things were so quiet in Moscow last week that Soviet censors calmly passed dozens of dispatches stating that Russia has failed to achieve anything like complete or uniform fulfillment of her Plan.

In 1932 the Plan called for pig iron at an average rate of 25.000 tons per day. Actual production is 17,000 tons. Even so--due partly to Russian progress under the Plan and partly to backsliding in other nations--Russia has climbed among pig iron producers from sixth to second place. In oil she has mounted from third place to second, in coal from sixth to third, in machine building from fourth to second, in production of electric energy from eighth to third--yet in none of these categories except oil has Russia fulfilled her Plan.

Starting in 1928 with 26,740 pre-Plan tractors, the Soviet Union has now increased its stable of iron steeds to 147,800. Precisely at this point--at the juncture of Industry and Agriculture symbolized by the Great God Tractor--the two largest phases of the Plan got out of step with each other, produced clashes and repercussions which have rocked all Russia.

Originally the Plan called for turning 17% of the nation's sown area into "collective farms." These were to be mechanized with tractors and other farm machinery. Soon the State found it possible to drive peasants into collectives much faster than had been planned. This was done. Never stopping to reflect that true collectivization demands simultaneous mechanization, the State has turned not 17% but 80% of Russia's sown area into so-called collectives. For the past two years these would-be "grain factories" have been clamoring in vain for tractors and other equipment which the State could not supply fast enough, great though its progress has been. Result: a sullen, spontaneous, nation-wide "strike" by Soviet peasants who have refused (and in some instances have been unable) to grow grain in excess of their own needs which the State must have to feed Russia's cities.

Next Plan? Early last spring newspapers throughout Russia blossomed with news of the "Second Five-Year Plan." Last week no Soviet leader so much as mentioned it. Rumors were current that 1933 is to be a "Plan Leap Year.'' that heroic efforts will be made to solve Russia's present problems without tackling more.

As Comrade Daniel Sulimov, a henchman close to Dictator Stalin, plaintively declared last week, "Many of our local people are unable to think except in terms of big construction projects, such as railways, coal pits, blast furnaces, iron and steel mills. They have not yet learned that they could contribute greatly to the efficient operation of the heavy industries by paying attention to the development of local industries. They must learn!"

To force Russians into this new and less grandiose groove the Soviet Government and the Communist Party--both dominated by Joseph Stalin--have just taken drastic steps: 1) Under a new decree the mere fact that a Russian is a "worker" will no longer entitle him to a food card. Instead of going to a civic food shop as formerly, he will present his card at a shop in the factory where he is employed and will receive food only so long as he keeps his job in that factory. Thus the State hopes to pin down "floaters," reduce labor turnover, increase efficiency. 2) Under a second decree, issued last week, all persons in Russian cities of any size must present themselves to the G. P. U. (secret police) and state good reasons for their presence in the city. If the reasons seem good to the G. P. U. the applicant will receive an identification paper entitling him or her to stay in town. Otherwise the paper will be withheld, the citizen will be forced to leave the city for work on a farm or in one of the remote mines or factories from which Soviet labor has shown a tendency to flee. 3) To conciliate the peasants. Dictator Stalin is expected to issue this month a decree ending the hated system whereby the peasant must deliver to the State a quantity of grain based on the size of his crop (variable from year to year) and substituting a system of State grain collections based on the area of the peasant's farm (which is fixed, not variable).

Under the old (present) system the more a peasant raised the more he had to deliver to the state. Under the new system the more he raises the more he will have left to sell in the open market at prices often ten times what the State pays when it "collects" (confiscates) grain.

On New Year's Day the official Soviet newsorgan, Izvestia, confidently predicted that J. Stalin's new decrees will break the peasant's strike, speed the wheels of industry. Front-paging a nearly lifesize sketch of the Dictator whose left arm extended clear across the bottom of the page, Izvestia captioned and clarioned: AHEAD, COMRADES, TO NEW VICTORIES !

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