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Approved For Release 2004/02/19 : CIA-RDP83-00415R006800050005-6 The Moral Fiber of the Soviet Man HIRTY years ago, when the young Soviet Republic had begun to con- solidate itself, V. I. Lenin, delivered a speech that was addressed to the youth and dealt mainly with morality in com- munist society, with the moral fiber of the Soviet man. Lenin said on that occasion that mo- rality was subordinate to the interests of the class straggle of the proletariat and that the builders of the new society re- pudiate all moral concepts that stand outside of human, class concepts. He said further that the old, bourgeois so- ciety rested on the principle: “Rob or be robbed, work for others or make others work for you, be a slave-owner or a slave.” Lenin sketched the path of moral de- velopment of the Soviet man, a path whose prime underlying principle is that there can be no exploited persons in the new society, that the youth must be educated to fight against egoists and Proprietors to whom the interests of the people mean nothing at all and who try to keep their sinecure in bourgeois so- ciety by playing up to the powers-that- be. He said, in addition, that the new, grand objectives would help the youth to become an initiative-full shock force of the system in the making, and that the time was not far off when backward Russia would become an advanced and prosperous country. The moral fiber of the Soviet man, who has displayed such spiritual force in peaceful labor and under the hard- ships of the war against the fascists, has more than once astonished the world by its exceptional qualities. The genera- tion born in the years of the October Revolution, who now are in their 30's, were fortunate that they could make their way in life fully armed with the new moral principles. ‘These principles became the basis of social conduct for the generation that followed too. The Soviet man knows that the bet- ter life is for all the people, the better OCTOBER 13, 1950 By V. Lidin Soviet Writer his own life is; the richer the State, the more prosperous he is; the grander the prospects of the changes undertaken by the State, the broader his own pros- pects and objectives are. When two years ago the plan of pro- tective afforestation of the steppe and forest-steppe districts of the European part of the USSR was published, the en- tire Soviet people became enthused by the plan’s great purposes, and Soviet men and women not only ardently proceeded to carry it out, but began to bend every effort to accomplish it ahead of sched- ule, linking their personal destiny still more closely with the destiny of the socialist State. It is but a few wecks ago that the de- cisions on the construction of the huge hydroelectric power stations at Kuiby- shev and Stalingrad on the Volga, of the Khakovka Station, of the Main Turk- menian Canal, the South Ukrainian Ca- nal, and the North Crimean Canal were made public. These sources of energy and water supply are intended primarily for the irrigation of the very droughty dis- tricts in the Volga area, the Kara-Kum Desert, the southern districts of the Ukraine, and the northern districts of the Crimea. It is not surprising, there- fore, that the members of a number of collective farms to a man expressed their readiness to spare no pains to help in these splendid construction projects. Only a profound understanding of the Governinent’s aims, and recognition of the fact that these aims and the personal aims of Soviet men and women are one and the same, could give rise to such a movement. The Soviet man cannot imagine that anybody would rob him, or that he could rob anybody, or that he should feel de- pendent on anybody, for equality and independence are second nature to him. No matter what his calling, whether coal miner or collective farmer, Joco- motive engineer or ordinary worker, his labor is equally honorable and is di- rected toward the attainment of the common goal, which is the homeland’s prosperity. “Love of labor is one of the main elements of communist morality,” said Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, “But only with the victory of the working class does labor —- this essential condition of human life — cease to be a heavy and shameful burden and become a matter of honor and of heroism.” Hardly a day passes without the newspapers carrying reports of the con- ferring of the honorable title of Hero of Socialist Labor on ordinary people whose fathers or grandfathers in days gone by felt the full weight of endless toil on the fields of landlords, and of poverty, illiteracy, and oppression. ‘This new generation of peasants reinforces the ranks of the working class and the intellectuals, and, together with the rep- resentatives of the other social strata, is at the helm of the ship of state. Many a rural school maintains contact with for- mer pupils, children of collective farm- ets, who have become prominent in their chosen field of work. A citizen of Soviet society can achieve his goal only by his own labor and by constant and painstaking study. Soviet men and women remember Lenin’s words that "you can become a Commu- nist only when you have enriched your memory with knowledge of all the treas- ures produced by mankind.” For the Soviet man this knowledge is no dead weight, for he strives to use it critically, to apply it in his everyday practical work. Having bridged the old gap be- tween theory and practice, the gap so characteristic of obsolete and moribund social systems, he lays out new paths in every sphere of knowledge and practice and impels science and technology to new heights. The sense of the new is the most precious and abiding quality of the Soviet man. One of the pillars of the morality of 595 Approved For Release 2004/02/19 : CIA-RDP83-00415R006800050005-6