Gorbachev Addresses Uralmash Workers

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

We have changed all this, comrades. We made a decision. All the dachas have been handed over. We made the decision three years ago. We handed over all the dachas either to veterans, children, or for medical purposes, or turned them into holiday homes. And this process is still in progress. The Supreme Soviet must now tackle and discuss this problem, as is done in all states. As far as the top two or three people are concerned, the Supreme Soviet must make an official decision on what level of salary to set and whether they are allowed a residence or not. So that people know, all this must be published. It's as simple as that. The main criterion is that everything should be assessed in terms of salary, and from there on one lives as the rest of the country lives.

That is the path we are taking. It is not all that simple. We have now got as far as personal pensions and what we should do about them, and personal transport. It might seem straightforward. It might seem straightforward, simple. But when you delve into the issue, you find that it is not so simple after all. So, we want to sort out all these questions. What do we do about a director or the chairman of a collective farm? How will we solve these questions? If we had the same sort of maintenance base as in civilized states, we could probably solve this question quickly. If we had technical servicing centers and so on, we could do it. But we don't have these things. Eventually we will have both these machines and directors sitting in ravines or some other places. This all needs to be thought through.

I shall tell you directly. We are determined to enforce strict order in these things, strict party order. The state must decide who is entitled to what. What should be its first concern? Particularly deserving people, which categories of veterans and invalids, families -- families with many children? In other words, what privileges are they entitled to? We have to have a look and decide. And I think comrades, that even during these six months we shall finish off this work. It turned out not to be easy. But the main criterion is to evaluate the contribution of every person via their salary: the worker, the peasant, the professional, the scientist, the creative actor, the state employee. Talents in all spheres must be valued, comrades. Talents must be valued. We are all great specialists in redistribution. We must now put more stress on becoming even greater specialists in production. More, better skilled, of better quality, and so on. Then possibilities will open up for us by stimulating talent and productivity and conscientiousness to emerge into a market where we can realize our rubles and move toward a normal life. Everything stems from the fact that a lot of things have not been solved in the social sphere. All of this is a lot.

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[Excerpts] [Gorbachev continues] So that's how it is. There was another question asked, that somewhere Gorbachev has a bank account in Switzerland. It's royalties or something. Boris Nikolayevich [yeltsin] too. [passage indistinct]. My royalties -- he is perfectly well aware of where my party royalties go: all go into the party purses. Of course there is no bank account. What a stupid thing to say. It is even humiliating to answer this. It's simply shameful when people lower themselves to such a petty level, to such narrowmindedness, using everything for political aims and nothing further.

There are many questions. They have to be tackled. The critical questions that are raised demand to be solved. Those dealing with cadres,