547 



The Directives of the Party Congress and the Five- Year Plan 

 specifically refer to "speeding the technological progress in machine- 

 building. 30 Among the indicators of technological success for the 

 machine-building industry are lowering weight-to-power ratios, rais- 

 ing capacity and efficiency levels, and improving reliability. Some 26 

 lines of machines and equipment are listed as specific objects for tech- 

 nological change in the period 1971-1975. 31 



Other industries, such as chemicals and petrochemicals, are a part 

 of the technological plan, but with less specific technological targets. 



QUALITY OF SOVIET LITE 



The Ninth Five-Year Plan projected significant improvements in 

 the quality of consumer goods; it stressed the need for better diets, 

 clothing, personal transportation, and housing for the Soviet citizen. 

 The proposed improvements require not only increased output, but 

 also technological change in consumer industries. 



The quality of the Soviet diet had been gradually improving for 

 several years before the Ninth Five- Year Plan, but the Plan's projec- 

 tions of considerable increases in quality foods underlie Soviet claims 

 that it is more consumer-oriented. (See Table 2.) 



TABLE 2.-C0NSUMPTI0N OF SELECTED FOODS IN THE SOVIET UNION 

 [Yearly, per capita, in kilograms] 



1975 as a 



percentage of 



1965 1970 1975 1970 



Meat and meat products 



Milk and milk products 



Eggs 



Fish and fish products 



Sugar 



Vegetable and melon products. 



Source: Baibakov, p. 300. 



In spite of an impressive increase of 14 percent in meat output from 

 1965 to 1971, the Soviet citizen averaged just one-third of the quantity 

 of meat consumed by his counterpart in the United States. 32 More- 

 over, if the ambitious increase — about twice the earlier rate — is 

 achieved, the meat output per capita in 1975 will only approach the 

 level common in Eastern Europe today. 33 In order to reach this goal, 

 improvement in animal husbandry, as well as a significant increase of 

 feed grain output and feed grain imports for a number of years, is 

 required. Foreign technology — the animal husbandry of American 

 agricultural business — could greatly assist Soviet agriculture. Specific 

 Soviet import needs include high-protein feed grains, better breeding 

 stock, and livestock raising and processing equipment. 34 Although 



30 Ibid., pp. 121ff. 



31 Ibid., pp. 124-5. 



32 Peterson Report (1972), op. clt., p. 23. 



al Comecon, Statisticheskii ezhegodnik, 1970, p. 300. 



34 See Hubert H. Humphrey and Henry Bellmon, Observations on Soviet and Polish Agri- 

 culture, November-December, 1972. A trip report prepared for Committee on Agriculture 

 and Forestry of the U.S. Senate (Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 

 1973). 



