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Approved For Release 2004/02/19 : CIA-RDP83-00415R006800050005-6 important for the socialist nations — a problem whose solution demands tre- mendous efforts. The course of the Amu-Darya was blocked midway, and part of its water was diverted to the dried-up river bed — the Kelif Uzboi. The water penetrated into the depths of the desert for a stretch of 56 miles, and, as if touched by a magic hand, the desolate landscape was transformed. Nowadays collective farmers reap abun- dant harvests of cotton, barley, wheat, and certain types of melons in the dis- tricts around the Kelif Uzboi. And now it is not merely a few score, but thousands of miles of desert that the Soviet people have undertaken to transform into a blossoming land. The hearts of millions of Soviet people were filled with joy and pride when they heard about the construction of the Main Turkmenian Canal — which will take its course from the lower reaches of the river Amu-Darya to Krasnovodsk. It is to be almost 700 miles long and will pass through the desert plateau of Ust-Urt, the sands of Kara-Kum, the Kopet-Dag Mountains, the Great and Minor Balkhans, and the Trans-Caspian plain. From it on both sides large, ap- proximately 750-miles-long irrigation and water supply canals will be built. Large conduits more than 600 miles long will be constructed. About midway down the canal a dam will be built so that in the center of the Kara-Kum Desert a huge fresh-water basin will be formed. The canal will supply water for the irrigation of about 321,000 acres of fertile lands that had been dried up by-the heat. Later, when the Main Turkmenian Canal will con- sume about 600 cubic meters of water pet sccond, this figure may be more than doubled. In addition, more than 17,000,- 000 acres of the Kara-Kum Desert will be transformed into green pastures. Such is the scope of the new Soviet irrigation work which is unprecedented in world practice. It is difficult at present to predict the favorable consequences and changes that will take place as a result of the fulfill- ment of the great plan of transforming the deserts of the Volga-Aral-Caspian Basin under the geophysical conditions of two continents — Europe and Asia. According to Soviet scientists these changes are comparable only with the geological processes that alter the sur- face of the earth. Water will bring life to the desert. After restoring all that the war destroy- ed, the Soviet people have gained new energy enabling them to wage a fight against heat, cold, winds, and sands. ‘They are ready for a new feat of labor. They will not be daunted by difficulties, for what they have undertaken will bring happiness to Soviet folk, lighten their labor and improve their living conditions. And that is just what con- stitutes the chief purpose of the entire activity of a peace-loving socialist state. The plan for the transforming of des- erts is a great contribution of the Soviet people to the cause of peace. In Accordance with Stalin’s Plan By L. Melnikov Secretary, Central Committee, Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Ukraine IKE all the Soviet people, the work- L ing people of the Soviet Ukraine received with deep satisfaction and a sense of patriotic pride the historic de- cision of the Government of the USSR “On the Construction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station on the Dnieper River, of the South Ukrainian Canal, the North Crimean Canal, and the Irri- gation of the Land in the Southern Dis- tricts of the Ukraine and Northern Dis- tricts of the Crimea,” adopted on the initiative of J. V. Stalin. The construction of the Kuibyshev and Stalingrad Hydroelectric Stations on the Volga, of the Main Turkmenian Canal, of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station, and of the canals in the south- em Ukraine and northern Crimea rep- resent a vivid manifestation of the peace-loving policy of the Soviet 582 State, of Stalin's indomitable soli- citude for the prosperity and might of the great socialist Motherland, for pro- moting the welfare of the Soviet people. ‘The magnificent hydroelectric systems to be erected in the next few years on the Volga, in Turkmenia, in the south- ern steppes of the Ukraine, and in the northern districts of the Crimea will change the appearance and economy of vast districts of the Soviet Union, sup- ply a further impact to the development of Soviet industry and agriculture, and will greatly advance the building of the material and technical foundation of the communist society. The Soviet people justifiably call these great communist construction undertakings the works of Stalin’s gen- ius. These undertakings represent a com- ponent part of the Stalin plan for trans- forming nature. Protected by forest shel- ter-belts from the effects of dry winds, vast tracts of land will be spanned by a dense network of irrigation and water canals. On these tracts the agricultural workers will garner rich harvests of grains and industrial crops and develop highly efficient livestock farming. The new titanic projects which will be carried into effect in the southern Ukraine will furnish added and very vivid evidence of the victory of the wise Lenin-Stalin national policy, and of the constant concern displayed by the Bol- shevik Party, the Soviet Government, and by J. V. Stalin himself for the eco- nomic and spiritual progress of the Ukrainian people and of all the peoples of our Motherland. Stretching in the southern Ukraine are vast steppes with highly fertile soils. USSR INFORMATION BULLETIN Approved For Release 2004/02/19 : CIA-RDP83-00415R006800050005-6