-DATE-
19720526
-YEAR-
1972
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
12TH BULGARIAN KIMSOMOL CONGRESS
-PLACE-
SOFIA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC SVC
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19720531
-TEXT-
CASTRO ADDRESSED KOMSOMOL, HOLDS PRESS TALK DURING VISIT

Komsomol Speech Text

Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 0100 GMT 26 May 72 F

[Text of speech given by Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro on 25 May at
12th Bulgarian Komsomol Congress in Sofia-recorded]

[Text] Dear Comrade Todor Zhivkov, dear comrades of the leadership of the
Bulgarian Communist Party, comrades of the leadership of the Dimitrov
Community Youth Union, comrades and members of the invited delegations,
Comrade Dimitrov youths:

When the Cuban Youth Communist Union Congress was coming to an end at the
beginning of April, we met with the Bulgarian Komsomol delegation and, when
they heard the news of our possible visit to Bulgaria, asked us to take
part in a session of this 12th congress which you are now holding. At that
moment the itinerary was more or less organized and the date of 25 May did
not really coincide with the possible date of our stay in Bulgaria.
However, a series of circumstances and factors permitted us to postpone the
date and this gave us the change to dovetail the event. Thus, it was
possible to accept the invitation.

The comrades who were present at the Cuban congress had a change to
appreciate the great gains made by the young communist of Cuba in these
years of revolution. Indeed, I should say that our party and our people are
pleased with the great accomplishments and growing role, rising
revolutionary spirit and political awareness that the young communists of
our country are acquiring.

Even so, we understand that Cuban youth should play an even more important
role in the revolutionary process. Seemingly, experience itself shows the
possibilities of youth. And the possibilities of their role in the
revolutionary process, in the construction of socialism and communism, are
even greater than any of us would have imagined.

We understand that here in Bulgaria, the party, particularly Comrade
Zhivkov, has been pointing out the need for Bulgarian youth to play an
increasingly great role in responsibilities of every type--political or
administrative--in Bulgaria's revolutionary process. Therefore, it would
appear that both parties have reached the same conclusions.

We have had the chance to visit this country for the first time. It you
will allow me I will drink some "chai" [Bulgarian term for tea]. We have
heard a lot about Bulgaria. Splendid relations were established with
Bulgaria and the Cuban revolution have moved forward in an uninterrupted
manner.

Still, it is not the same to hear about a nation as to visit it; Abstract
ideas are not the same as concrete ideas. We got to know many Bulgarians in
Cuba. Many Bulgarian delegations and above all technicians have been
working in our country for more than 10 years, for a period greater than 10
years.

We learned about Bulgaria, its history and its revolution, first of all
through the men and women who worked in our country. On one occasion we
said that if we had just limited ourselves to knowing those men
alone--their attitude toward work, their spirit of solidarity and
cooperation, their human qualities, their fraternal conduct, their work
spirit--that alone would have shown just that behind these men there was a
party, that behind these men there was a Komsomol, that behind these men
there was a serious revolutionary internationalist and communist education.
[applause]

Through the men who left this country to work in our country we truly began
to know and admire Bulgaria. It was because these men in every case
conducted themselves as revolutionaries, they conducted themselves as
communists.

Through these long years in which more than 3,000 Bulgarian technicians
have worked in Cuba, we have never had a single complaint. We have seen in
each one of them and in every instance a friendly spirit, a fraternal
spirit that understood our problems and difficulties. They were anxious to
help our country, anxious to give their all, anxious to find solutions to
our problems. And we always though that when a country can send men such as
these to work in distant lands, to fulfill their internationalist duties in
other places of the world, under very different conditions than those
existing in their own countries, it was because that country was really
molding a revolutionary, a communist youth.

And our comrades who have established relations with Bulgarian youth always
tell us: "They are hard-working youth. They are enthusiastic youth. They
are educated youth. They are disciplined youth. They are straight youth!"
[applause]

And "straight" youth means a lot. When Cubans talk to us about a "straight"
youth, we are quite clear as to what a "straight" youth means. Because it
is precisely our goal to mold a straight, revolutionary youth in a world in
which the problems of youth are very serious ones. Above all, when we look
at the spectacle of the youth of the capitalist nations it is traumatic
picture. It is a sad sight of frustration. It is an aimless life without
direction, without any participation in current and future problems of
society. And all of it translates into all types of protest, of
nonconformity, of rebelliousness; a rebelliousness which takes many forms.

On occasion this rebelliousness is seen in the conduct of the youths, in
their reluctance to abide by any social discipline or norm and in their
habits.

Rich and industrialized societies in the capitalist nations which were able
to accumulate large technical and economic resources on occasion have been
able to produce a great many consumer goods, many cars, many luxuries,
which, first of all go to a privileged minority, of course, and which on
occasion are also used to corrupt broad levels of the population; these
societies which flaunt their technological gains, their consumer goods,
have been unable to give man any incentive in the moral, in the spiritual
field.

They have not been able to give youth any path to follow and this is why we
see, for example, in the United States, how the number of crimes increases
annually. Juvenile delinquency increases annually. The consumption of
heroin increases annually. Mental cases increase annually. Their clothing,
their shoes, the garments they wear are practically unrecognizable! And in
many cases you cannot even tell a boy from a girl!

The capitalists do not concern themselves or do not have to concern
themselves with these problems of youth. On the contrary, they use these
same kinds of frustration and corruption in order to introduce them into
revolutionary countries and carry them into the midst of revolutionary
youth.

They introduce them into out countries through the existing mass means of
communications. Especially, in a case such as Cuba, if it does not form a
revolutionary youth, if it does not form a youth at work, such a nation
runs the risk that the influence of American society, the influence of
capitalist societies, which is getting through via such media as radio,
films, television, books, might be introduced into the midst of our own
youth.

Sometimes our countries, the countries of the so-called third world,
liberate themselves from colonialism. They liberate themselves to try to
liberate themselves from imperialism, but nevertheless the cultural
influence persists. What we call something like cultural colonialism still
persists. Some gentlemen in Paris, in London, in Rome, in New York City are
trying to force upon us the type of painting we should have, the type of
music we should have, the type of literature we should have, the type of
clothing we should wear, the type of living we should follow. It is well
known that capitalist societies do not organize the economy for the
production of material goods that will satisfy the needs of man. Capitalist
societies organize the economy for profit. Capitalist societies do not work
to fulfill needs. Many times when a need is satisfied they invent other
needs.

They try to inculcate in many artificial needs. We talk about this problem
because it is one of the problems that affects Latin American countries the
most. For example, we see in many Latin American countries hundreds of
thousands of beggars. We see millions and millions of illiterates in Latin
American countries. We note that there is a high mortality rate among
children before they reach for first birthday. There is a very high rate of
school dropouts and a very lot rate of income. But, nevertheless, we note
that in these poor countries--exploited, without schools or hospitals,
without jobs--the imperialists still introduce their customs. We find in
the magazines of all those countries advertisements such as: but an
automobile of this or that type; travel to New York on such and such an
airline; build a home of this or that type; use these items or wear those
clothes....

They force upon our peoples the consumer practices of developed societies.
That is why revolutionary movements, when the time comes for revolutions,
must face up to all these problems. From this we can appreciate what a
healthy youth is, a youth brought up in those ideas, that is, in full
awareness of those problems, a youth who knows that he has a revolutionary
objective to fulfill, a youth who knows that a revolution does not stand
only for material goods, that man needs material goods in order to survive,
that man needs material goods a a sine que non condition of life, but that
a revolution, besides the material goods, has to provide other goods that
human society has never known, namely, equality among men, fraternity among
men, dignity for man, moral values for man. Many of our countries, before
being able to do great things in the way of material goods can only give
their countries many things in the way of spiritual order, a moral order.

Our countries are very poor. Our countries, which have lived immersed in
backwardness and under exploitation by colonialists and imperialists, are
very poor and it is not right to arouse in them a desire for consumer
goods. It is impossible for them to think that the day after the victory of
the revolution all material problems will be solved. It is impossible to
them to think that on the day after the victory of the revolution we are
going to have goods in abundance. This is the gravest problem faced by any
country carrying out a revolution under the conditions we are facing. These
are some of the problems that our peoples have to overcome.

The situation in our countries is entirely different from the situation in
European socialist countries. The revolutionary process in Cuba evolves in
a different manner, despite the many similarities, despite the universal
principles that can be applied in the case of a country in Latin America as
well as in the case of a socialist country in Europe.

We must point out that there are some similarities between Bulgaria and
Cuba with respect to the difficulties at hand. For example, our two
countries are rather small. Our two countries do no have extensive natural
resources. For example, Cuba is a country which lacks resources for
producing power. We have more than enough manpower, but we do not have oil,
that is, we do not yet have it. We do not have hydroelectric power. Our
country is a long narrow island and does not have great rivers. Our country
does not have coal. I am citing four basic items.

Bulgaria has the same problem. So far, Bulgaria does not have large
quantities of oil. The coal resources of Bulgaria have a very low caloric
content. Sometime Bulgaria has been forced to use coal with 1,200, 1,300 or
1,400 calories, when the average coal used in our countries has 4,000,
5,000, or 6,000 calories. Bulgaria has neither large amounts of mineral
resources nor hydroelectric resources, that is, large quantities of
hydroelectric power.

Bulgaria is an example of how a country with very limited natural resources
and on the threshold of basic agricultural production has been able to work
out a form of economic development and consumer productivity leading to the
present levels. In our opinion, Bulgaria's greatest achievement in the area
of economic and social development is seen in reaching the levels of a
developed country, despite the fact that Bulgaria; is a small nation with
very few natural resources. This is due, in our opinion, to the fact that
Bulgaria moreover has another resource, the most important of them all, and
that was the Bulgarian people themselves [applause], a people whose
attitude, awareness and spirit have developed throughout the course of
history. The history of Bulgaria and the struggles of Bulgaria formed the
Bulgarian people--just as in the case of Cuba the history of Cuba and the
struggles of Cuba for its independence formed the Cuban people--the spirit
of the Bulgarians who for centuries and centuries fought the cultural
influence of invaders and foreign trespassers, the Bulgarian people who
fiercely defended their independence, the Bulgarian people who have
preserved their cultural ties throughout centuries....

Yesterday we had the opportunity to observe the wonderful parade
commemorating Culture Day. The people of Bulgaria who fought under
difficult conditions without ever giving up; the people of Bulgaria who at
decisive moments, at a time when history changed it course, employed all
their traditions and patriotism revelled against the fascist yoke; the
people of Bulgaria who took up arms, achieved power and participated in the
great victory of the peoples against fascism side by side with the Soviet
Union and other European oppressed peoples; the people of Bulgaria who
created the conditions necessary to carry out the current work, and
something even more essential, something which Bulgaria has never lacked,
namely, great leaders both during the time they fought for independence as
well as during the time the socialist revolution commenced. [applause]

Bulgaria had great leaders like Dimitrov, whose name, whose fame, whose
glory and whose example traveled throughout the world and was the driving
force behind revolutionary combatants everywhere. The Bulgarian people
forges a vanguard party and at every critical moment were able to find
among their ranks men capable of lending them to victory, just as they were
able to find Comrade Zhivkov at a critical moment.

The achievements of men, the work of revolutionaries and of leaders become
evident through events; this is evident throughout history. Lenin's work
was evident in the work of the great Bolshevik revolution carried out by
the party he trained over many years. Lenin's work was perpetuated in the
fight of the Soviet people against fascism. Lenin's work can be observed in
present circumstances, in the influence of revolutionary ideas throughout
the world, in the role of the Soviet Union and the entire socialist camp.
The work of the Bulgarian people, the work of Dimitrov, the work of Comrade
Zhivkov is what we have had an opportunity to observe during this visit.

The revolutionary work and the spirit of solidarity that we have observed
in the people, the great cultural and material changes that have taken
place in Bulgaria, its great industrial advances, are evidence everywhere.
However, the work that is easiest to acknowledge and the most commendable
work that we have observed in Bulgaria is the agricultural revolution that
has taken place in their country. You might perhaps be interested in the
observations made by a group of visitors from another continent. What has
really impressed us the most, next to the people, is Bulgaria's
agricultural revolution.

I do not know if you are aware of it. You are young, Possibly many of your
did not know, or none of your knew the problem of the minifundia [small
farms] in Bulgaria. During 1944, when the people's revolution achieved
victory, there were 12 million minifundia in Bulgaria, 12 million parcels.
I do not want to say 12 million minifundists, 12 million minifundia. There
1 million owners. The first agricultural changes, according to what was
explained to us, involved creating some 5,000 cooperative farms. later,
this number was reduced to 1,500 cooperative farms, and today all of
Bulgaria is divided into some 170 agricultural-industrial complexes.

Can you imagine a country with 12 million parcels of land? You imagine it
the same way I do. I did not see it either, but I can imagine it. What kind
of textbook, what kind of science, what kind of organization or production,
what kind of production rates could be applied to those parcels of land? In
the fist place, there was the phenomenon of forming cooperative farms. The
number of parcels of land is reduced. The use of techniques and scientific
methods commences. The use of machinery begins. Forest productivity begins
to increase, the productivity per man. A new technology in the use of the
land is followed, a change of structure, a raising of the scale, Now,
Bulgaria is the first socialist country, this is our observation....

We know that Comrade Zhivkov does not like to discuss these
agricultural-industrial complexes, or in other words, he always talks about
them with great modesty. When referring to the agricultural-industrial
complexes, he calls then an experiment. He says that this is the very
beginning. Nevertheless, we are of another opinion. We have seen the
agricultural-industrial complexes fully organized. We have traveled through
large regions of the Bulgarian countryside. What have we seen?

We have seen seas of wheat, and this is wheat properly cultivated. This is
wheat properly fertilized. We have seen seas of corn. This is corn properly
planted. This is corn properly cultivated. WE have seen seas of vineyards,
well taken care of, properly cultivated and fertilized. We have seen fields
taken care of by brigades of machinery with a very small number of persons,
only equipment doing the work. We have seen ending numbers of fields where
agricultural aviation can be used for any level of production in order to
spray weedkillers, pesticides, or for the purpose of planting in the case
of rice fields. We have seen unlimited methods of using machinery and
technology on any scale, and this would have been totally impossible with
12 million minifundia.

How can you use aircraft in the case of one minifundium? How can you use a
large combine in a minifundium having half a hectare of rice planted over
wheat? [as heard] How can one apply extensive irrigation systems? Moreover,
how can you use aircraft on a small cooperative farm? How can you use large
combines? [applause] How can you apply all possible technical methods? This
has been one of the great contributions made by Bulgaria in the
construction of socialism. This great victory achieved in agriculture,
these great structural changes applied to agriculture, to its magnitude, to
its technology, to its methodology, these are Bulgarian contributions. We
recalled that when we were on our way to Bulgaria from Algeria, the plane
flew over Italy. Rome was in one place and the countryside in another. We
did not have enough time to look at Rome. These planes fly so fast that
when we were told that we were flying over Rome we had already pasted it.
But we looked at the agriculture in the fields. What did we see? We saw a
minifundium-type agriculture. This was an agricultural formed by small
parcels of land. In other words, this was a backward type of agriculture,
an unproductive type of agriculture. But, the same thing occurs in all
other countries in Europe. It happens in France, Spain, the FRG, Belgium,
England, even in the United States.

In the United States, these are larger size parcels of land but they cannot
be compared to the possibilities of an agricultural-industrial complex. It
is said that in Japan, MacArthur --I do not know if you know about him; he
was an American general famous for his caps and theatrical gestures, who
ruled over Japan,--applied an agrarian reform and divided Japan into
millions of small parcels of land. The results are that in order for Japan
to produce on hectare of rice weighing 5 tons, Japan has to use 45 10-hour
man-days. IN the United States, in order to produce one hectare weighing 4
tons, they had to use 5 10-hour man=days. In other words, a country as
highly industrialized as Japan, which has made great progress in the
automation of productive processes, must use 8 times more manhours in order
to produce 1 ton of rice than the United States.

The imperialists have even made great propaganda in boasting that they have
achieved significant agricultural productivity, that they have amassed huge
agricultural surpluses. The history of agricultural surpluses if well
known. In the first place, capitalism neither produces to provide for needs
nor does it produce according to plan. That is why certain surpluses
result. In the second place, capitalist countries subsidize their
agricultural with a view in minds of competing against agricultural
countries. Beside, they had advanced techniques. They have fertilizer
industries. They have centers for research and are able to attain higher
rate of productivity.

However, one of the propaganda themes that the capitalists and imperialists
have carried our in the great stress concerns agriculture. Without bearing
in mind the situation in which the socialist countries found themselves at
the outset, or the climatic conditions, or the technical backwardness, or
the poverty, the interventions, the fascist attacks, without taking into
consideration any of these things, they tried to spread the legend that
socialism had failed in the field of agriculture, that great progress had
been made in the field of industry but that they had been unable to solve
their agricultural problems and that private property, the capitalist
system, had thus been the only successful system.

This is what really interests us the most, what arouses our interest and
our passion the most in connection with the efforts and successes achieved
by Bulgaria. These are not theoretical successes.

They are not abstract successes. They are concrete successes witnessed by
us during the past few days. For example, wheat production per hectare in
Bulgaria is well above that of the United States. The average corn
production in Bulgaria is well above that of the United States. [applause]
But these is something else. The production rate per capita is increasing
outstandingly. Yankee imperialists used to boast about having the highest
per capita production in agriculture. It was said that some American
agricultural workers were cultivating 100 hectares of corn, or were
cultivating 100 hectares of wheat. We have visited some regions, for
example (?kolyu), [applause] where 2,400 or was it 2,000...[thought is
unfinished] when I arrived there I was told that there were 2,400 and by
the time we left the party comrades told us that they were reduced to
2,300, that is 2,300 equipment operators. There must be an error here. Then
it was 240. No, that is wrong. No, No, No, not that! There were two or
three. But in Tolbukhin, the most important fact was that some 36,000
workers, who were taking care of the agricultural production of the region,
had been reduced to less than 4,000. That was the most important data about
Tolbukhin. The other data were from Ruse. There was a brigade of 25 in
Pleven, we found that they had the highest average in Bulgaria. There were
equipment operators who were work heroes taking care of up to 250 hectares
of grain. These are the facts!

With this, I want to say that if the United States it was considered a
productive achievement for one man to look after 100 hectares, there are
whole brigades in Bulgaria looking after more than 200! These are the
facts! There are other very important facts. In Ruse, the production of
corn had reached the level of 6.5 hectares that is 6.5 tons. With reference
to the matter of irrigation, if we take note of the new varieties...tests
were made to see if it was possible to produce up to 15 tons of corn per
hectare.

Those who have some information concerning world food problems, those who
have some knowledge of the problems related to production and productivity
of work in agriculture, know that these amounts are impressive. We are not
going by future probable productivity in stating that the production of 6.5
tons of corn per hectare in Ruse, on average, is without any doubt the
highest in the world. Without any doubt, it is the highest in the world!
[applause] As an average production in one region, it is the highest in the
world. It is possible perhaps to experimentally attain that level with one
parcel of land, with small pieces of land to attain greater productivity.
But the production of 6.5 on average without irrigation, we have even heard
anything similar to productivity per hectare. Moreover, they have an
absolute certainty that they can produce this average easily where
irrigation is used.

We also saw something else, the use of computers and automation in
productive agricultural processes. Without any doubt, Bulgaria is the first
country in the world to use these methods. There is no doubt that. Bulgaria
is already applying these methods in general. Do you think that electronic
computers and the automation of production can be applied to a minifundium?

Do you think that the capitalists have the proper conditions to apply these
methods? The capitalists were able to concentrate industry, but were unable
to concentrate agriculture because they confronted the social problems, the
resistance of the peasants who refused to be ejected from their land and
forced into a condition of hunger.

In addition, the capitalists and the capitalists governments attempted to a
certain degree to obstruct the natural process of concentrating agriculture
according to a philosophical concept which emerged during the era of the
French civil war, during the era of the Paris Commune, and even before
that, during the era of the French Revolution: Namely, to try to maintain
millions of small agricultural workers on the idea that small agricultural
properties created social classes that would become obstacles to workers'
revolutions.

We cannot forget that Lenin found a brilliant solution to this problem when
he conceived the theory of the worker-peasant alliance and promoted the
union of workers exploited by capitalists with peasants exploited by the
land owners. He then issued his famous apothegem: Land for the peasants.
The interesting aspect of the agricultural process in Bulgaria can be noted
in the fact that beginning with the Leninist concept, land for the
peasants, the merging of the peasants into cooperative systems has resulted
in a superior form of agricultural structure.

For our country, this is a very interesting experience. Why? Because we
have a situation similar to that of Bulgaria. Our exports depend on
agriculture, but to an even great degree. While in Bulgaria 45 percent of
exports are agricultural in origin, in Cuba 85 percent of exports depend on
agriculture. But the capitalists with their industrial development, with
their subsidies for agriculture, with an imbalance in trade, have forced
upon agricultural countries very difficult conditions. As the Bulgarian
comrades explained to us, agricultural products costing one leva to produce
have to be exported at a price equivalent to one fourth of a leva, that is,
30 or 40 percent of the domestic cost.

This has been one of the factors that has brought about a stepping up of
agricultural technology in Bulgaria. If a country which has been forced to
depend on agriculture has to export its products, and has to export them
under such disadvantageous conditions, it is logical to assume that it
would modernize its agriculture and thus reduce costs.

The situation in Cuba is similar. It is similar with one difference, and
that is that Cuba has depended on agriculture to a much greater degree, and
has also been forced to look into methods of modernizing agriculture. But
we want to make it known in the name of our delegation that we were
wonderfully impressed by what you have done in agriculture and have been
able to understand the successes you have obtained. We feel certain that
Bulgaria will become a subject of discussion, an example that can be used
against the reactionary lies and campaigns throughout the world by the
revolutionary movement, by the socialists and communists of the world.

We feel certain that in giving such a brilliant and intelligent solution to
the Bulgarian agricultural problem you are making a contribution to the
solution of one of the most difficult problems facing man today and
tomorrow, the problem of how to feed thousands of millions of human beings.
[applause] It is said that there are 3.5 billion inhabitants in the world.
It is known that this population is growing, in some places at a much
faster pace than in others. It is said that by the year 2,000 there will be
6 billion inhabitants. Today when we have only 3.5 billion, more than] half
of them are undernourished, more than half suffer from hunger. We observe
that there are still outmoded techniques, a feudalistic-type exploitation
of the land, land owners, minifundia, etc. How then can humanity face up to
the problem of feeding the population in 20 or 25 years? But at least there
are theoretical answers.

In the first place, the revolution, the abolition of the feudalistic system
of exploiting land, the abolition of the latifundium and something else,
the abolition of the minifundium, the establishment of adequate
agricultural structures, the application of technology and scientific
methodology in agriculture--In two words, we can state that here in
Bulgaria is a solution to the problems of feeding the world in the coming
years. [applause]

Comrades of the Bulgarian youth, you will probably analyze and discuss the
problems of your country. We can tell you that the revolutionary
youth--that of Cuba, of Bulgaria, of the socialist camp--have serious
problems ahead of them that have to be solved, great tasks of face up to.
You do not have the task of defeating fascism, because that was the task of
other generations.

A few days ago, we have the honor of meeting with the survivors of the
(Kaftar) Brigade or detachment in the very location where the brigade was
organized. This brigade had a very important political, revolutionary,
psychological and military role in liberating Bulgaria due to its proximity
to the capital. They had other tasks, namely the liberation and liquidation
of fascism and the establishment of the people's regime, the change of
structures, the nationalization of industries, agrarian reform, the
educational revolution and the preparation of the first plans and programs.

Today this generation that has grown in a revolution has had a change to
upgrade the cultural level and to acquire technical knowledge. It has
received the legacy of dozens and dozens of years of revolutionary
military. Today this youth is in a country in full development. This youth
consists of students and the millions, millions of youths, Pioneer youth
who follow in their stead and who today are in the classrooms, the
polytechnical schools, the universities. This youth knowns that it can
count on a vast mass of future engineers, physicians, scientists and
technicians of every type.

It is a country, I respect, in full development. It has an advanced
industry. It has a very advanced agriculture. It is a nation that had
gained in experience preparing economic projects and plans, a country that
applies new techniques to planning, a nation with splendid instruments with
which to organize work, to foresee future problems, to project ahead as
much as 10, 15, 20 years from now.

Bulgarian youth, who apparently are in a country most of whose problems are
resolved, still have tasks no less important than those faced by the men
who fought for the nation's independence, by those who fought to overthrow
fascism and to establish a socialist regime. They have tasks no less
important than those of the men who has worked for the past 25 years. Karl
Marx, Engels, Lenin, Dimitrov taught us internationalist ideology. They
taught us that all the proletariat of the world should unite. They taught
use that all revolutionaries ought to be united. They taught us that all
the peoples of the world are a single family. Ahead of these youths are
great tasks, not only, within their own country's borders. In their
country's interior they have the great task of continuing the march
undertaken years ago, to carry forward the technical and scientific
revolution, to perfect their experience, to perfect the party, to perfect
the organizations and to strive for superior levels on the path of
proletarian democracy, on the path of socialism and on the path of
communism, as Comrade Zhivkov has pointed out.

They also have a great task in terms of the whole world. I began my speech
by talking about the Bulgarian technicians in out country. How wonderful!
What a source of gratification and pride for any nation to know that it has
sent men of the first caliber to other nations that have fallen behind, to
other poorer nations, to other technically backward nations. They have sent
men with a high-level internationalist spirit, with a high-level communist
spirit.

How greatly this serves to unite the peoples! How greatly useful, how
indispensable this is. Even so, Cuba is one nation among dozens and dozens
that still lives under the greatest poverty. Dozens and dozens of nations
in Latin America, Africa, and Asia were left under the most abject misery
and and backwardness by colonialism, imperialism and exploitation.

The problems of the future world will have much to do with the situation of
the nations of the so-called third world, with the situation of the
underdeveloped nations. It is incredible. It suffices to visit any of the
nations that endured colonialism for centuries, such as our visit to the
fraternal Republic of Guinea, to realize how great the poverty, how much
technical backwardness was left there, how much misery the colonialists
left behind. We are not referring to cultural backwardness because that
would be an error. We were deeply impressed by the cultural movement of the
people of Guinea: How the soul of culture is used to defend themselves from
colonialist penetration; how they have defended their native values; how
they have developed an impressive cultural movement which they carry
forward with great dignity and their poverty.

We also saw the fraternal nation of Algeria. It is a nation of great
natural resources, above all in hydrocarbons, gas. It is carrying out an
investment program to develop petrochemistry, to develop the utilization of
these natural resources. From our point of view they are on solid ground.
But what poverty was their legacy! What backwardness in agriculture! What
social backwardness! What industrial backwardness! What poverty was left
there by the colonialists!

The list of nations throughout the world that will need the support and
experience of the most advanced nations is endless. They will need the
technology of the most advanced nations. Bulgarian youths, like Soviet
youths, Cuban youths, and the youths of all the socialist camps, have
before them a task which is of no lesser moral and historic importance than
that faced by the men of the past centuries and even in this century who
fought to reach this moment. Well count it be said that mankind is on the
eve of anew phase. Well could it be said that mankind faces very serious
and difficult problems in the years to come.

When we speak of billions, or 6 billion human beings who will populate this
planet in the nest 25 years, we think about the challenges faced in the
technical order, in the scientific order, in the social, in the educational
order, in the political order. And this is task for all of us. It is task
that is essentially for the youths of our countries. We try to inculcate in
our youths more than a desire for consumerism, more than a desire for
material wealth, more than the desire to live as the opulent societies
live, as the capitalists who life from the sweat and blood of the backward
nations to accumulate their wealth live. We inculcate in them an
internationalist feeling and duty. We inculcate in them the memory and
presence of the billions of human beings who still live in backwardness,
misery, and oppression. [applause] And not just that--for there are peoples
who are shedding their blood copiously just to get the right to begin!
These are people who are shedding their blood just to get the right to
build a new life, the right that Bulgaria, Cuba and other peoples have
already attained.

Present in the spirit and awareness of all of us are the heroic people of
Vietnam! [applause] We thing about Vietnam. WE are sure of its victory
because of the heroism of the people and because of the solid and loyal aid
of the socialist nations. We are sure that Vietnam will win, but a
precondition for its victory will be the support is receives from its
revolutionary brothers in the whole world. When this struggle ends, how
great will be the work of the Vietnamese people and how much cooperation
they will need from everybody to begin the reconstruction of the nation
amid the devastating war that the imperialists have imposed on them.

In Cuba, a group of youths representing the youths of the whole world are
working today on the construction of a school. We know that these youths
are preparing to build a hospital in Vietnam. This is nothing but a symbol,
an idea of the struggle and work that must be done by the peoples to help
in the future reconstruction of this country, just to give you an example.

We life in an era of statistics, an era in which gains are gaged by
industrial and agricultural growth, by numerical data. We have mentioned
Vietnam and here also we've brought some data about Vietnam. Numerical
data, statistical data., However, they do not refer to industrial
production increases, to agricultural production increases. These data
fully express the imperialist crime! They express the suffering and the
horror that some peoples of the world still must endure. It am going to
cite the statistics of the kilograms and tons of explosives dropped by the
imperialists by Vietnam.

Earlier we talked about tons of corn per hectare, tons of wheat per
hectares, tons of grapes per hectares, of agricultural production yields,
of the results of the science and technology applied to the welfare of man,
to work for the benefit of man. However, other data can be drawn from
Vietnam. These are statistical data: The Yankee imperialists drops 53.5
kilograms of explosive per second on Vietnam, 3,210 kilograms per minutes,
192,600 kilograms of bombs per hour, 4,622,400 kilograms a day! Each man,
woman or child in Indochina receives an average of 265 kilograms of North
American bombs. Each area measuring 5,000 square meters, that is to say,
each half hectare, received 64 kilograms of explosives. Overall, the Yankee
imperialists have dropped 12 millions tons of bombs on Vietnam! This is
double the average amount of explosives that were used during World War II.
There are regions in which four our of every five trees are shattered by
shrapnel. This makes lumber exploitation almost impossible. There are 21
million bomb crates in Vietnam! These craters destroy farm lands. Arable
lands become mud ponds and breeding sites for disease-bearing insects.

These figures are painful facts and express the magnitude of the genocide
committed by the Yankee imperialists. These are realities and our youths
and our peoples should turn their attention to them. These realities point
the way to the figure for us. They show us the effort to be exerted for the
future. They point out our duties and our sentiments in terms of solidarity
with them. We do not have the least doubt, we repeat, about the victory of
the revolution in Vietnam, of the victory of the revolution in the peoples
of Asia, Africa and Latin America because it is an inexorable law of
history.

Mankind is still ensuring harsh moments, difficult moments, but we are no
longer living in the past century. We are no longer living at the beginning
of the present century. We are no longer living as in the Hitler and
Mussolini era. The triumph of the October Revolution, the development of
the Soviet Union and its victory against fascism, the rise of the socialist
camp, the rise of the national liberation movement in the nations oppressed
by colonialism, have been responsible for deep-seated changes in humanity,
deep-seated changes in the correlation of forces which is today absolutely
favorable to the revolutionary nations and absolutely adverse to
imperialism and colonialism.

No longer can anything or anyone block the victory of revolutionary
ideas--the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Dimitrov. We believe, and the
experience of our own country proves, that a small island 90 miles from the
United States has been able to make its revolution and has been able to
maintain it; that this has been possible only because of the enormous
change in the correlation of forces, only possible thanks to the
internationalist spirit; thanks to international solidarity, thanks to the
fulfillment of the Marxist precept, "proletariat of all nations unite!"
[applause]

Therefore we are convinced of the final victory of the revolutionary ideas.
We shall leave from this visit to Bulgaria with a bolstered conviction. We
shall leave with heightened optimism. The example of the Bulgarian people,
of the Bulgarian revolution and of Bulgarian youth shall serve as
experience for us. It shall serve as an incentive to us.

Bulgarian youths, we invite you to close ranks with Cuban youths: We invite
you to close ranks with the youths of all socialist nations! [applause] We
invite you to close ranks [applause] with all the progressive youths of the
world! And we shall march forward united! United, your youths shall know
another era of mankind! [applause] United, our youths shall benefit from
new and better (?results) of man's heart and intelligence! United, our
youths shall enjoy a superior feeling of brotherhood! United, our youths
shall march toward socialism and toward communism! [applause]

Long live to Dimitrov Komsomols of Bulgaria! [cheers, applause] Long live
the union and friendship between the communist youths of Cuba and Bulgaria!
[cheers, rhythmic chanting, clapping] Long life the glorious ideas of
Marxism-Leninism! Long live proletarian internationalism! [cheers,
applause]
-END-