Gorbachev Addresses Uralmash Workers

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

[Foundry worker V.F. Boyankin] [passage omitted: General complaints about waste] This used to be a purely male profession. People asked why there were no women, but men do not come here now; the pay is low. This is at hot furnaces -- you have seen what sort of furnaces we have; they are not Russian furnaces; they take a load of 300 to 500 tonnes -- it is not something to be done by women.

[Gorbachev] In general, the situation of women, above all, is an indicator of the fact that our society needs changes. Let us acknowledge this honestly. Take just the USSR Presidential Council: There are no women. LD3004111790TAKE3

[Excerpts] [Gorbachev continues] Take the other leading bodies: It is the same dismal picture. On the other hand, they are working in places where there should not be any women at all; In hot workshops. So comrades, we can look at any issue and we will see that here, in this matter, all the work still lies head of us.

If you have no objections, I will answer your questions and say something. Right. [video shows Gorbachev and officials on a platform; Gorbachev and subsequent speakers take the rostrum in turn, with Gorbachev interrupting rostrum, speakers from his position on the platform; then Gorbachev leaving the platform and mounting the rostrum, from which his subsequent remarks are addressed]

The first thing I have felt in my dealings with the people of the Urals--until now I knew about it only from reports--is that the people here have endured much and are enduring much, and they are reliable and strong, but that much anxiety and alarm has appeared, even among these people. This also has begun to reach us: precisely, an understanding of the meaning of the Urals for us, and within the Urals, of Sverdlovsk Oblast, which probably shares second or third place in terms of its potential, probably behind Leningrad. All the same...

[Unidentified speaker from out of shot, interrupting] Ahead! [Gorbachev] Ahead, eh? Well, that means you have achieved second place. This confirms even more the thought of what role and contribution are made both by the Urals as a whole--that mighty industrial area of our country and major region in the scientific field and in all other respects--and within it, by Sverdlovsk Oblast and the working people of this oblast, where--if you leave out the northern parts, so to speak, and the forests--huge masses of people are concentrated who are dealing with great tasks for our country, on the defense, economic, and scientific planes. All this, taken together--both the role played by the people of Sverdlovsk, this region of yours, and its labor collectives, and the anxieties and concern that have begun reaching us from here--have brought me here to you, although I have long had this desire. I even believe that it was, strictly speaking, a considerable omission of mine, and I am very glad that I am making up for it. I think that both the president and general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, as well as other members of the Soviet leadership probably need to pay more attention to the Urals. That was the first thing. I have felt that, in general, people are not losing heart, but they have already said a lot. This conference has supplemented even further what was said directly in my meeting there, in the course of lively contacts with workers, the working people of Uralmash. I understand all that, comrades, and I want to say right away that it is all of very great importance for me because we have approached a stage in the development of the country and the development of