“Socialist Modernization: The Road to the Resurgence of Russia”

Report by Gennady Zyuganov to the V Plenum of the CC CPRF on April 3, 2010

Communist Party of the Russian Federation

April 20, 2010

http://www.kprf.ru, zabirov@duma.gov.ru

Comrades,

The bourgeois “reforms” imposed on Russia in 1991 have visited major upheavals on our country.

The Communists maintained from the outset that these “reforms” were destructive. However, the authorities at first brushed aside our demands for a change of course and then began to assert that Russia was rising up from its knees anyway.

That assertion was based on unprecedented high oil prices, but the global crisis put everything in its proper place. The Russian ship of state hit the crisis rocks far stronger than any other leading country in the world. The Russian elite was saved by the safety cushion stuffed full of money taken away from the people. But the “ship” is heavily damaged and even the elite which up until now hoped to make do with painting over the cracks, now admits that the ship is in need of an overhaul.

Meanwhile Russia, which had become a test range for the restoration of the wild capitalism of the 18th century dropped out of the development process for nearly 20 years. This is the main cause of the imminent catastrophe that forced the Russian President to admit the need for change.

What kind of modernization does Russia need?

But we, Communists, stress that the country needs not just any kind of modernization, but a socialist modernization that would ensure the well-being of all the Russian citizens and restore it as a great power. This is dictated by the following objective reasons.

First. Globalization American-style has failed. Speculative capitalism is incapable of solving any of the serious problems facing humankind. Every new spiral in the crisis of capitalism acquires an ever more destructive character.

Second. The current crisis has affected our country more than other countries precisely because the country has been saddled with a model of robber capitalism. In Russia, the richest country in the world, a third of the population lives in poverty. In fact we have been thrown a hundred years back.

Third. Liberal capitalism is like a death sentence for Russia. It needs modernization on the basis of a new policy based not only on scientific and technological achievements, but also on the principles of patriotism, justice and collectivism. And that is incompatible with the present system dominated by bureaucrats and oligarchs.

President Medvedev recently set the task of putting an end to our dependence on oil. However, for some reason the President’s ideas give little inspiration. One has the impression that this acute problem is being drowned in empty talk. Instead of actions we see an imitation of actions. Life shows that the good resolutions of the authorities, as a rule, lead nowhere. It is not that the top Russian leaders have no political will. When it comes to the interests of the oligarchs the will is there in abundance. It is not by chance that during the last crisis year many oligarchs have managed to dramatically increase their fortunes.

Western leaders boldly adopt new development strategies, do not hesitate to resolutely increase the role of the state in managing the economy and scientific-technological progress. By contrast, the Russian government is clinging fanatically to the outworn principles of primitive capitalism believing religiously in the almighty “free market”.

As a result, we have practically no competitive industry left. Engineering, electronics and other hi-tech sectors create just 7-8% of our GDP. The depreciation of the basic assets is as high as 50%. Hence the technogenic disasters such as the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Power Station. All this is evidence of the danger of a technological collapse which makes accelerated modernization imperative.

In order to assess the prospects of Russia’s modernization it is necessary to review the current state of the main ingredients of that process. Above all, science and education. It is necessary also to look at the experience of reform in this country and abroad and to assess the real intentions of the ruling elite.

Conservative modernization leads into a dead end

If one analyzes the President’s proposals in the field of innovation, one is struck by their very limited character. He speaks about several areas. The introduction of the latest energy, information and medical technologies, the development of space and telecommunications systems. The Presidential Address never uses the word “industry”. There is much talk about “breakthrough technologies”, but it is strikingly divorced from real production.

Questions suggest themselves:  what  is to be the  technological basis of modernization even such as it is? Where are proposals on priority development of instrument and machine-building and electronics without which research and development (R/D) are impossible? Or is it assumed that the material basis for science and new technologies will emerge out of thin air? Perhaps some people hope that Western rivals will generously share their inventions with us?

We are convinced that no modernization is possible without first restoring the hi-tech production sectors. Yet the present administration does not mention it in its plans.

However, even the first timid attempts at transformations cause panic among the guardians of the former order. In response to Medvedev’s call the United Russia has come up with the idea of “conservative modernization”. This is utter absurdity. Modernization cannot, in principle, be conservative because it means renewal and pushing the limits of what has been achieved. Obviously, the United Russia is concerned above all with preserving the current political system.

Renewing the country calls for colossal resources. But the national revenue is being stolen by a dozen of rent-seeking oligarchs who get rich by selling our resources. An innovation breakthrough is impossible in such conditions. Indeed, the oligarchs do not need modernization. They become rich because of the kind of system that exists.

It is not by chance that the number of dollar billionaires in Russia almost doubled during the past year. There were 49 at the beginning of last year and 77 in February of this year. In 2009 alone, in spite of the crisis, more than 65 billion dollars has been taken out of Russia. And what if all that money had been given to scientists and to industry? What a great result our country would have achieved.

The philosophy of the comprador bourgeoisie is simple. Why invest money in science if the oil wells produce oil? If one can pump gas through the Soviet-built pipeline without any innovations? If there is demand for metals and timber in the world market? Why give thought to the state of the power industry if one can reap incredible revenues by raising tariffs? It is clear to everybody that “an effective owner” seeks to squeeze a maximum of profit from “easy prey” without giving a thought to the common good. Those who do not want to admit the destructive character of this system impede the development of Russia.

We have to understand the class roots of the modernization proposed by the authorities. At the beginning of the crisis the oligarchs and their political servants were seriously worried about their future. That accounts for the new motives in the Russian President’s Address. However, in the opinion of the authorities, the crisis is beginning to recede and talk of modernization is fast subsiding. The government is again obsessed with the building of oil and gas pipelines to the West and East. No real modernization plans have been put forward. Chubais, the advocate of nanotechnology, declares cynically: “In terms of innovative economy Russia is at the level of a neighbourhood football team.” And elsewhere he says: “There is no point in this work if there is no demand among Russian businessmen for the latest achievements of civilization.” This is the quintessence of the class approach of the ruling “group” to modernization. It associates modernization only with the interests of capital, its profits and bonuses.

That is indeed the case. Russian business spends 7-10 times less on R/D than business in the developed countries. The present-day corrupt bureaucratic elite, of its very nature, impedes the development of the country and leads to its destruction.

The political system is a brake on modernization.

And yet there can be no progress if it is not stimulated by the political system. The roots of progress or, on the contrary, technical and economic stagnation often lie in politics.

In the political sphere the essence of “Russian conservatism” takes the shape of the abuse of one of the main ideas of democracy, the idea of free and fair elections. Therefore when the President says that the planned transformations “represent the first experience in history of modernization based on the values and institutions of democracy” one finds it hard to believe that anything worthwhile can be built on such a rotten foundation.

Some people say in so many words that modernization can only be implemented by the “intellectual minority” in whose affairs the unknowing majority should not interfere. And indeed, the President prefers to discuss modernization plans with his favoured oligarchs. However, the country’s leadership avoids a substantive discussion with scientists and experienced production people, with representatives of the leading political and social forces.

The reluctance to take into account the opinion of the whole society is added proof of the fact that spiritual unity, a nationwide drive to modernize the country is impossible because of the unprecedented gap between the rich and the poor.

Incidentally, among those who have made it “to the top” in Russia we hardly see any people whose talents and energy could multiply the country’s wealth. Scientists, engineers, teachers, doctors and the military – people who in any country form the basis of development – have been reduced to the role of auxiliary personnel catering to the “masters”. The elitist model of modernization has no real base in society.

Moreover, the present-day authorities, as we have repeatedly noted, are incapable of being creative. So far, they have concentrated on plundering and destroying the huge scientific and technical potential created by our people.

This administration has no experience of implementing nationwide projects even approaching in scale the great construction projects of the USSR that gave Russia a huge margin of strength. The present administration survives due to that strength. But the margin is rapidly diminishing.

The authorities lack truly statesmanlike thinking without which bold projects cannot be accomplished. Such thinking is not acquired along with parliamentary seats won through a system of falsification, it is worked out in the process of decades of practical activities. If there is no large-scale activity there is no statesmanlike approach.

There are no honest and skillful human resources for modernization. The Soviet-era personnel have by and large been ousted by people whose speciality is grabbing state property and dividing up the budget. Those who have brazenly destroyed our industry are appointed as leaders of modernization. The fact that they are given key roles means that there can be no question of serious transformations.

The main obstacle to the modernization of Russia is universal corruption. Any major official project boils down to distributing budget money, but is not backed up by measures of strict monitoring of how the money is used. This provides excellent conditions for widespread embezzlement which has in Russia acquired the form of “kickbacks”. Until the authorities put a curb on these crooks, until they stop the plunder of the national wealth, no modernization is possible.

The Russian ruling elite is not in a hurry to implement reform. It behaves as if Russia has all the time in the world. However, there are growing signs of internal degradation and mounting external threats. One has to live in an artificial world of television pictures or to deliberately ignore the growing danger of the breakup of the country in order not to see them.

Russia has no extra time for modernization. Just like in the 1920s and 1930s, we again face the need to overcome backwardness in a short space of time. This is the only way to save the country from disintegration and to regain the positions achieved by the great feat of the Soviet people.

The current “elite” is one of the main obstacles in that way. Its “greed-based values” are incapable of uniting or inspiring the nation to address the outstanding problems. So modernization without political and social transformations is no more than a soap bubble.

We cannot afford to ignore the fact that the slogans of modernization can be used to bring about a “liberal comeback,” which is a recipe for the final destruction of Russia. These ideas inform the report “Russia in the 21st Century: the Image of the Desired Tomorrow” published in early February by Igor Yurgens and Yevgeny Gontmakher of the Institute of Modern Development, a liberal think tank. By “renewal” the liberals mean not scientific and industrial progress, not improvement of the life of the absolute majority, but a virtual dismantling of the state and the subjugation of Russia to their Western principals.

The state of Russian science

One need hardly argue that economic modernization is impossible without a solid scientific foundation. However, in Russia that foundation has long developed cracks, its façade is crumbling and its iron girders are being stolen for scrap.

Let us recall that in the USSR fundamental and applied science had reached great heights. Twenty years after the destruction of the Union the current authorities often pass off the fruits of Soviet inventions and discoveries as their own achievements.

However, after 1991 the bulk of applied science was simply liquidated during the course of predatory privatization . The funding of R/D was cut dramatically. The number of scientists dropped by almost three times. Entire scientific schools were lost. The prestige of intellectual labour plummeted. How can one expect fresh blood to flow into science given the current low social status of scientists? If a postgraduate student gets a measly grant of 1500 roubles?

Given such an attitude to scientists it is not surprising that we have seen a catastrophic brain drain. At least 800,000 scientists have left the country. Russian science today employs 25,000 Doctors of Sciences, whereas nearly 17,000 Doctors of Sciences from the former USSR now work in the US alone. They took away with them a wellspring of knowledge that had been created by several generations of Soviet scientists. The loss of scientific traditions, top-class scientists cannot be restored quickly even in the most favourable conditions. It takes two or three generations of scientists to create viable scientific schools.

Simultaneously the age crisis is developing. Less than a third of scientists are aged under 50, and a quarter of the Doctors of Sciences are over 70. An alarming gap between generations has arisen.

The plight of Russian science is the result of the neo-liberal concepts about the harm of state interference, concepts that have been  imposed on Russia. The misguided hopes pinned on the almighty “invisible hand of the market” had a deleterious effect in this sphere. Russia spends on R/D 17 times less than the US, 12 times less than the European Union, 6.4 times less than China and 1.5 times less than India. This highlights the direct link between scientific activity and economic progress.

One of the few surviving intellectual bastions is the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the flagship of fundamental research. But the RAS itself has been struggling for survival for many years. The Academy’s budget last year was a paltry 46 billion roubles, or 1.5 billion dollars. Meanwhile the predators who seek to liquidate that unique scientific body and introduce “external management” are pressing on.

Their goal is to gain control over the huge assets of the RAS created in the Soviet years. There are suggestions that some academic institutions be shut down while others be turned into joint stock companies. Clearly, if that comes to pass, fundamental science in Russia will suffer the same fate as applied science.

How can one talk about modernization while looking at the disintegration of science under the destructive pressure of Mr  Fursenko? How can one talk about supercomputers if scientists have to do moonlight work to eke out the family budget? But the authorities turn a blind eye on all that. The final destruction of science dooms all calls to modernization to dismal failure.

Destruction of education instead of modernization

A state that is really committed to development pays particular attention to education. What is happening in our country in front of the merciless eyes of government bureaucrats who have put a stranglehold not only on science but also on education?

Soviet Russia made great sacrifices in order to provide good education for its children. By the early 1940s more than 80% of the population were literate. In present-day Russia, over the past eight years, the number of schools dropped by 13,000, the school population by 6,700,000 and the number of teachers by 342,000. What is the point of broadband internet if the school lacks elementary equipment and children get poisoned by eating bad food?

The system of vocational-technical training has been practically destroyed. The country experiences a huge deficit of skilled workers. Who will create state-of-the-art technology: the dodgy bureaucrats from the Finance Ministry?

Higher education has been severely undermined. The introduction of tuition fees led to the degradation of education and the watering down of the criteria for selecting students. The Single State Examination turns the secondary school into a criminal shop and higher educational institutions into a factory of mediocrities.

The most alarming thing is that young people have no future. Young people account for more than 27% of all unemployed, and in some regions the figure is as high as 60-70%. Those who have just received their degrees or are completing their education are among the most vulnerable. Let me remind you that in the USSR university graduates were guaranteed employment. A young graduate could not be fired during the first three years. He enjoyed priority in getting state-provided housing.

That system, which guaranteed the country’s powerful development, has been destroyed. Who is talking about modernization if two million children and teenagers in Russia can neither read nor write?

Contemplating these facts, Academician Sergey Kapitsa writes in an article: “… We have finally got what we have sought: we have brought up a nation of idiots. If Russia continues down that road, in another ten years those who take a book in their hands from time to time will have disappeared. We will have a nation that will be easier to rule and from which it will be easier to suck natural resources. But such a country has no future.”

Without reviving a modern system of education, from preschool to higher levels, the country will have no solid base for sustained development.

The unity of technical, social and spiritual aspects

When we speak about technological modernization we mean the renewal of production on the basis of advanced technologies. Profound modernization is only possible if it covers the entire productive sphere and if its economic effect drives progressive social transformations.

By political modernization we mean the transformation of the system of government to make it more perceptive of popular aspirations and the country’s development needs.

Modernization of society presupposes its spiritual and intellectual improvement and an improvement of the quality of life. Renewal of production and political reform are meaningless if they do not improve people’s life, their cultural and spiritual nature.

Let us recall that Vladimir Lenin regarded spiritual transformation of society as the main goal of the socialist revolution. He coined the term “cultural revolution” to stress that without uplifting the intellectual and ethical standards of people it is impossible to ensure the triumph of the new society. Lenin and his followers saw the creation of material wealth solely as the basis for the all-round development of the individual.

Already in the early years of Soviet government a wide network of schools, higher education and cultural institutions were created. As the  English banker James Gibson put it, Russia had become “a country with a soul and an ideal”. That laid the foundation for industrialization which amazed the world by its unprecedented rate. That laid the foundation for the Great Victory over fascism.

We are convinced that profound modernization can only be carried out by mobilizing all the forces of society. This has always been the case at crucial moments in our history. It is only when the patriotic energy of the people was harnessed to implementing the ideas of the leaders that the country achieved success. This was the case in the times of Peter I, this was the case during the industrialization in the 1930s. This was the case in the 1950s-60s when we blazed the trail to outer space.

The current authorities want to carry out modernization on a totally different basis: in the interests of a wafer-thin ruling stratum, on the basis of renouncing the key features of Russian civilization: collectivism, justice, and the primacy of the spiritual over the material.

At present our intellectual resources are scattered all over the world, our spiritual resources have been desecrated and our material resources have been stolen. The strength of the people is sapped by vicious anti-Sovietism and imposition of a sense of inferiority on the Russian people. The arrows of toxic propaganda target above all young people generating massive apathy and lack of faith in the country’s revival. The standards of American mass culture are being introduced in our society. No serious transformations are possible on that basis.

Drawing on historical experience

The claims of the present administration that the Soviet country has left a legacy of scientific-technical and spiritual backwardness is absurd. In reality the whole history of the USSR is an example of powerful innovative development with simultaneous upsurge of education, science, culture, healthcare and sports.

Social modernization had powerful support in society because the Soviet leadership was much more aware than the present-day authorities of the needs and aspirations of the people. Every Soviet citizen could identify himself with the tasks of socialist modernization.  Stalin declared: “We are 50-100 years behind the advanced countries. We must cover that distance within ten years. Unless we do it we will be crushed.” He said that in February 1931.

The people were behind the government. In ten years’ time Soviet scientists, designers and engineers created the world’s best assault plane IL-2, the legendary T-34 tank and the famous Katyusha. During these ten years thousands of enterprises were built and output increased by more than 9 times compared with 1913.

However, the period of the first Five-Year Plans was not only about building new factories and cities, power plants and railways. It saw an unprecedented cultural upsurge of the builders of new society who identified themselves with the goals set. According to Stalin, the main driver of historic victories was “the energy and dedication, enthusiasm and initiative of the millions of workers and collective farmers who, together with the engineering and technical forces, generated colossal energy… Without it… we would nott have been able to make a single step forward”. This is the genuine and popular basis for a successful modernization of the country.

Let us compare the 20 years between the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War (1921-1940) and the 20 years that saw the introduction in Russia of primitive capitalism (1991-2010). The current twenty years have seen destruction and degradation and the twenty Soviet years saw the most spectacular development and creativity.

Industrial output in the USSR during those years increased by 27 times, the number of students in higher education by 7 times, in secondary technical schools by 18 times, the number of scientists by 10 times and of libraries by 20 times. The number of places in childcare institutions had increased by 20 times. In those years the USSR had the highest rate of population growth in the world. The country had the highest level of spending on science and education, amounting to 10% of its GDP. All this laid the foundation of the Great Victory in May 1945 and of the creation of nuclear missile parity.

The current administration gives priority to economic competitiveness. But the spearhead sectors of the Soviet industry, such as aviation, instrument-building, heavy machine building, electrical engineering were highly competitive. In 1986 the Quality Certificate was awarded to half of all the machine building output in the USSR. These were world-class machines.

But most importantly, the development of the Soviet economy was aimed not at “competitiveness” as a method of meeting the demand of foreign customers, but at meeting the vital needs of our own people. The USSR was developing in the interests of all its citizens with the broad public supporting the grandiose plans of socialist construction. Herein lies the huge difference between modernization in the USSR and what we are offered today. 

Choosing the direction of modernization

What is the strategy of modernization? There are two main types. The first is “catching up”. It was used by Stalin to industrialize the USSR. Our country by and large “repeated”, albeit at a very accelerated rate, what leading Western countries had done before it.

The second is the “leapfrog” variant, when society, rather than retracing the path covered by the countries that are in the lead, leapfrogs by picking up the newest and most promising elements of world experience. An example is collectivization in the USSR which did not repeat Western experience but took our countryside to a fundamentally new and more advanced frontiers of development, in spite of all the difficulties and problems.

What path is Russia choosing? The President has nothing to say about it. His proposals do not contain any plans on another key issue, the sequence of the modernization process. What will be the locomotives of modernization in Russia today is far from clear.

Our society has broad access to the products of new technologies. But these products are the fruits of development outside our country. It is the development of others and it has little impact on the intellectual state of Russia. The country merely uses the latest products in exchange for its natural resources. Such “modernization” goes hand- in-hand with degradation.

In the Soviet era we were the most widely read nation in the world. Today 17% of Russians, more than 24 million, do not read anything. Russia is sliding back fast. Hence the indifference of much of our society to what is happening to the country.

The comprador “elite” readily takes advantage of that. It is not interested in modernization. First, because its well-being is assured by the model in which Russian resources are exchanged for the products of other nations’ development and secondly, because the new masters of life see the intellectual and spiritual development of society as a threat to the neocolonial model of governance. Society as it is today is easier to dupe and to rob.

In the opinion of specialists, “we have created a business community with a pronounced ‘appropriating’ character inherently hostile to innovations… The underlying foundation of a healthy economy, the honest and persevering work ethic, has been destroyed. It has been devalued.”

The “monetization of the soul” has distorted the notions of good and evil. This can hardly be the moral basis for modernization, the development of the country and a breakthrough to the future.

The programme of the CPRF versus the programme of degradation

Our Party, in proposing its plan for the revival of Russia, assigns key significance to science, education and culture, the questions of intellect, morality and physical excellence. Life has shown that modernization in Russia is impossible in the framework of market capitalism. The country needs socialist modernization.

1. It should be based on restoring the people’s ownership of Russia’s natural wealth and strategic sectors: the power industry, transport, the defense industry, oil and gas and unlawfully privatized factories and mines. Nationalization, as well as progressive taxation, will be the main sources of funds for the development of science, technical innovation and social transformations.

Speedy transition of our economy to the innovative mode of development can be achieved by relying on Russian high technologies, the creation of sectors and spearhead enterprises which would generate resources for the modernization of the entire national economy of Russia.

Accelerated development of manufacturing industries is necessary. Transition from exporting raw materials to exporting high- added-value products. This will increase GDP, budget revenue and create new hi-tech jobs. The countryside must undergo profound modernization. Without rural development any reform programmes are doomed to failure. Agriculture must get at least 10% of state budget spending.

It is necessary to restore centralized economic management bodies and coordination of scientific and technical progress, and to develop a ten-year comprehensive programme of the modernization of Russia. Investments in the advanced sectors of industry must increase by 2.5-3 times over the next five years.

2. It is necessary to immediately stop the attempts to cause the disintegration of the Russian Academy of Sciences and to restore sectoral science. Budget financing should be increased of fundamental research as well as applied work (R/D). Spending on science should be increased to at least 4% of GDP. The Russian Academy of Sciences, its research and study institutions must be exempt from any taxes.

To introduce a tax policy that stimulates the private sector to spend money on R/D. Tax benefits must be granted only for research and development, the output of new products, especially competitive export products. Mandatory deductions from profits into enterprise investment funds must be introduced to raise money for innovation.

Bank loans must be the source of modernization. Strojbank in the USSR issued loans at 2% annual interest rate which made it possible to introduce new technology and derive economic effect. Today’s banks act as usurers and would have none of this. It is necessary to create state banks that can support the renewal of production. When world-standard products are introduced loans can be redeemed out of the state budget. Enterprises must be able to buy hard currency at a favourable exchange rate to buy the latest technology from abroad.

3. Transformations are impossible without skilful and knowledgeable human resources. The destruction of the system of secondary and higher education must be immediately stopped and the Single State Examination and the Bologna system must be dropped. Education must be free and accessible, it must remain secular and committed to character development. The national system of vocational technical education must be restored.

Brain drain must be resisted vigorously. To create decent living and working conditions for young scientists in Russia. To ensure the high prestige and remuneration of the work of young scientists at the level of the most “lucrative” sectors of the economy. To raise the salaries of science and education workers by at least 1.5 times, especially for young people.

To provide young teachers and scientists with guaranteed loans for the acquisition of housing. Scientific organizations should redeem the worker’s mortgage loan if such worker achieves good results, with the money to be provided out of the state budget. A system of incentives for scientific organizations towards technical achievement and their spread to the production sphere must be introduced.

4. Transformation of Russia’s social and political system is the key condition of modernization. It is necessary to depart from a system where the oligarchs hold sway to a system based on law and solid social guarantees, that is, to a socialist system. The following should be the main elements of political modernization:

The formation of a political system on the basis of people’s rule. Democratization of the electoral system. Prevent capital and the authorities from bringing pressure on the electoral process. Dismantle the bureaucratic machine of falsification of their results.

Restore the procedure of election of regional and local representative bodies of power and self-government through a combination of the majority and proportional systems.

Restore the parliament’s right to approve the composition of the government, hear its reports and vote no confidence in the whole government or individual ministers. Adopt the law On Parliamentary Control.

Build an integrated system of representative bodies. Election of the heads of regional administration and local government bodies by representative bodies or by popular vote. Monitor how they fulfill the mandates of the voters and electoral programmes. Regular reports by deputies and the possibility for voters to recall them.

Restore the constitutional rights of citizens, parties and non-governmental associations to hold referendums, assemblies, rallies and marches. Adopt the law On Guarantees of Opposition Activities.

Improve the justice system which is currently outside public control. Restore the procedure of election of judges.

5. Russia’s resurgence is impossible without the intellectual and physical development of citizens, without saving its culture, without putting an end to its commercialization. It is our duty to protect the Russian civilization which underpins the unity of the multinational Russia, the cultural and spiritual traditions of all the country’s peoples. We are convinced that we will not be able to extricate ourselves from the current pit without Russian spirituality, without friendship among the peoples, without relying the thousand-year-old traditions. The spiritual upsurge of the nation will provide an excellent opportunity for new sporting triumphs.

The salvation of culture lies in socialism which ensures the people’s unity, social equality and justice. Under socialism harmony of the interests of the individual and society is achieved and conditions are created for the development of the individual that can ensure the transformation of the country.

One of the key conditions of our progress is the creation of the renewed Union of Fraternal Peoples, above all the Union of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

The essence of the main conflict and ways to overcome it

Let us once again formulate the essence of the key conflict in Russia. Everybody can see that the social and political system that has taken shape in the last 20 years has led to the degradation of the country. That system is inherently hostile to modernization, it inevitably resists modernization because it cannot survive if such modernization takes place.

It is the lesson of history that contradictions between society’s needs and the nature of the political system create a revolutionary situation. The only alternative to transformation through violence is free and fair elections. There are already signs of change in the popular sentiments. On March 14 the CPRF won an average 20% of the votes in eight regions.

One of the reasons for such massive support is that we have managed to bring across to society the key provisions of our anti-crisis programme and the appeal “Russia’s Path is Forward to Socialism”. Our triple legislative initiative met with the most enthusiastic response.

First. To stop the decimation of the housing and utilities sector organized by the United Russia. We demand that housing and utilities rates be limited to 10% of family income.

Second. Society has responded to our programme of overcoming widespread poverty which envisages greater support of veterans, motherhood and childhood through increased taxation of the windfall profits of the oligarchs who have doubled their fortunes in the crisis year, and by terminating the bailout of bankers and those who serve them.

Third. We have had massive support for our demands of nationalization and an end to the sell-off of state property.

The United Russia, led by Putin, has failed in these elections. They polled not 73% of the votes, as in October 2008, and not 64%, as half a year ago, but for the most part only 40-45%. It was again declared on the eve of the elections that they would amount to a referendum on confidence in the United Russia and its leaders. If that is so, the United Russia failed dismally.

The Party’s immediate tasks

Comrades,

Our good performance in the election is no cause for complacency. In seeking modernization of society we must redouble our efforts to renew every aspect of the life of our party. These tasks were clearly formulated in the decisions of the 13th Congress and the Plenums of the CC CPRF. Much has been done pursuant to these decisions. But still more remains to be done. For example, the task of rejuvenating the ranks of our party is being solved at an intolerably slow pace. And in some places one can feel a conscious resistance to the inflow of young people into the CPRF. It is incumbent upon us to take vigorous action to rectify this intolerable situation.

One has to bear in mind that the deepening economic crisis inevitably politicizes the population. More and more often the citizens who up until now did not believe that resistance was possible, join rallies and demonstrations calling for the resignation of the Government. It is increasingly brought home to people that there is an inseparable link between their daily woes and needs and the policy of the ruling elite.

At the same time one can distinctly feel the desire of various forces, both of the avowed right and of the pseudo-left persuasions, to take advantage of the current situation to pose as champions of the people. We know the true worth of these “champions”. However, their social demagogy has an impact on people. This is witnessed by the percentage of the votes won by our opponents from Just Russia and the patently phony party, the LDPR. The list of those who wish to take advantage of the new situation is growing rapidly.

We cannot confine ourselves to exposing the various bogus “friends of the people”. We must demonstrate to people by practical deeds that the Communists are the most consistent champions of the working people’s rights and interests. Our times demand that we elevate our activity to a qualitatively new level. People must see that we can not only propose solid programmes for taking the country out of its crisis, but uphold the ideals of social justice where that justice is flouted, at factories, in rural areas, in the urban neighbourhoods and workers’ settlements.

The people will only follow us and not the orange-rose manipulators  if we fight vigorously for the dignity and rights of people in the actual “hot spots”. Only on this basis can we unite all the healthy forces in society in a broad Patriotic Front which will ensure the salvation and revival of Russia. Those who hope to weather it out in the quiet of their offices and conference rooms risk falling behind events and being overwhelmed by them.

In conclusion I would like to stress again that two main ideas have always had the potential to inspire Russian citizens to perform exploits and win battles. These are the ideas of patriotism and social justice. They are combined under the banner of socialism. We are convinced that Russia can only cover the path of genuine and salutary modernization under that banner. This banner inspires millions of people who will join us in celebrating the 140th anniversary of Lenin’s birth and the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory over fascism.

We should draw fortitude in our work and struggle from the notion that patriotism and justice remain the main values for the absolute majority of citizens. This despite the lies and the troubles of recent years. Historical truth is on our side. We hold the banner under which Russia can march forward towards new transformations that meet the genuine interests of the country and its people.