This is all preliminary and open for change based on the QM but:
Italy has a wee fascist problem that seems to have lead to someone important in Italy getting car bombed
South Africa has decided to go all on supporting Rhodesia
Attempting to Fulfill the Plan MNKh Edition
- Thread starter Blackstar
- Start date
- Alt. History Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Italy has a wee fascist problem that seems to have lead to someone important in Italy getting car bombed
South Africa has decided to go all on supporting Rhodesia
HanEmpire
Delicious
Not De Gaulle, De Gaulle's a nobody TTL since he never got to lead the Free French government.
- Location
- The great frozen north
You had ONE job (Ok, three jobs), Yakov! So much for saving Italy from fascism. As for South Africa... oh no. It is possible that this will backfire and see the guerilla war spread to South Africa too, or did all hope for the natives in that part of the continent just get lost?
Right, thanks for the reminder. Gualle is such a larger than life figure it's easy to forget he's not doing anything in TTL. EDIT: though, who is running France TTL?
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- Location
- Europe
It depends on who bombed who:
1) If the fascists were behind the bombing, then it is probably a good thing that he has been boosting the local communist armed forces.
2) If the communist were behind the bombing, then it is probably a bad news for him and the Soviet Union at the very least to the diplomatic level.
3) If it is not clear who was behind the bombing, then it was probably the fascists, so see case 1.
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- Location
- UTC+0
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They
The dude is quite qualified, and he is also a legit ecologist, which will be good to have on the ministry at a time we can oopsie away the Aral Sea and are meshing together a bunch of waterways. I am not too worried tbh
Who is Aristov again?
Kosy isn't perfect, but imo he's been doing a pretty bang up job, especially with the situation inherited from Mikoyan and Stalin. Though I believe the real test of his legacy still awaits him in the coming years. Winning the space race, spreading communism, etc etc will all be challenges.
Right now Vietnam is the big conflict going on and the Chinese are bumbling it horribly bad. Not a good look for them at all. How Kosygin continues to handle it (and other foreign problems such as CMEA, Italy, decolonization) are all important.
- Location
- UTC+0
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They
Most economically right person who has a relevant power block in the CPSU, want further opening up of the economic sphere whilst stopping further opening up of society. No great loss, his people should either go to Pod if they disagree with the latter or to Kos if they feel he is too radical economically.
Aristov's Faction: The largest advocate for the continuation of economic reforms while maintaining the social sphere in the Mikoyanist mold. These are entirely economics-focused and primarily make up the managerial and enterprise line for those deviating from the scientific approach toward socialist construction. Their backing in the lower bodies is considerable as they are one of the largest advocates for an increased degree of freedom for the state enterprises in both policy and movement while not being socially outside the pale for the more conservative factions to cooperate with. Overall, a significant threat needs to be curtailed through the raising of proper scientific cadres and ensuring that the managerial structure cannot overwhelm the party with incorrect opinions.
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trooperist
Cinnamon Roll AI
The current leadership in France is a coalition of center and right wing parties with the current dominance being the right parties. They came to power after the socialists couldn't negotiate deescalation in Algeria. Their current policies are doubling down on force in Algeria, sending troops to Vietnam to fight the Chinese, probably some right wing economic stuff, and advocating for defense against Germany.
I'm sad Algeria still went hot ITTL, shame. But it makes sense France is more right wing, unlike OTL they didn't get the chance to occupy germany and dismantle it themselves. Must seem like a unstoppable Soviet tide now threatens with the germans across their border.
Thank you! Well it seems a political rival and leader of the managers has passed away. Don't quite know what to make of that.
- Location
- UTC+0
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They
Pretty sure he didn't die, only fucked up, and you're welcome!
- Location
- Wall Gazing
Current Economic States:
Coal: -84 CI4 (-40 RpT, Net Import, Moderate Cross Border Volume, Low Prices)
Non-Ferrous: -23 CI6 (-40 RpT, Net Import, Moderate Cross Border Volume, Very High Prices)
Steel: 146 CI12 (50 RpT, Large Net Export, High Cross Border Volume, Low Prices) (-10 RpD Infra)
Electricity: 22 CI9 (Insufficient Infra for Trade)
Food: -10 RpT (Large Net Export, High Cross Border Volume, Low Prices, Subsidized)
Oil: 190 RpT (Large Net Export, High Cross Border Volume, Low Prices)
Medications: 90 RpT (Large Net Export, Moderate Cross Border Volume, Medium Prices)
Consumer Goods: 160 RpT (Net Export, Very High Cross Border Volume, Medium Prices)
Plan Effects:
Housing Construction Efforts: (-7 Infra Dice -420RpT Modified by Steel Prices) (Reduction in Communal and Barracks Housing Forms to 10% of the adult non-student population by 1965)
Hydroelectric Power: (-2 Infra Dice -120 RpT (30(+5 per year) Electricity per Turn) (Conventional Dams Done, Upper Lena, Upper Yenisei, Lower Irtush, and Upper Ob Cascades Opened for the 8th Plan)
Power Plant Construction(CCGT): (-2 LCI Dice -240 RpT) (56 Electricity -2 Workforce per Turn)
Rural Modernization Programs: (-1 Agri Dice -80 RpT) (Stage 5 by 1965) (+4 Workforce a Turn)
Healthcare Expansion: (-2 Services Dice -120 RpT) (Completes up to Stage 6 and Modernizations) (-3 Workforce a Turn)
Education Expansion: (-2 Services Dice -60 RpT) (Completes Stage 7 Polytechnic, Completes Stage 3 Sociological, Completes Stage 4 Economical, Starts Secondary Schooling Expansion) (Cuts Workforce Expansion by ~1/4) (Delays Full Boomer Utilization until 1966)
Chita-1+Perm-1 and 2: VVER-300 nuclear cores set to be completed in 1964 (16 CI1 Electricity 7 CI3 Coal -2 CI1 Workforce)
State of the Workforce:
Labor Reserve: 16
Labor Reserve: 10 RpT Cost
Prison Reserve: 20 RpT Cost
Incoming:
21 CI7 Net Men Entering the Workforce
23 CI6 Net Women Entering the Workforce
13 CI7 Movement from Rural Areas
Foreign Labor Added to System:
(18)1957
(12)1958
(13)1959
(13)1960
(19)1961
Civilian Sector Demand Changes:
(30 RpT Grant Allocations)
Coal: 6 CI4
Non-Ferrous: 9 CI4
Steel: 11 CI6
Electricity: -28 CI5
Workforce: -15 CI5
Projected Military Demand Changes:
Coal:
Non-Ferrous: -6 CI1
Steel: -4 CI2
Electricity: -7 CI1
Workforce: 2 CI8
Coal: -84 CI4 (-40 RpT, Net Import, Moderate Cross Border Volume, Low Prices)
Non-Ferrous: -23 CI6 (-40 RpT, Net Import, Moderate Cross Border Volume, Very High Prices)
Steel: 146 CI12 (50 RpT, Large Net Export, High Cross Border Volume, Low Prices) (-10 RpD Infra)
Electricity: 22 CI9 (Insufficient Infra for Trade)
Food: -10 RpT (Large Net Export, High Cross Border Volume, Low Prices, Subsidized)
Oil: 190 RpT (Large Net Export, High Cross Border Volume, Low Prices)
Medications: 90 RpT (Large Net Export, Moderate Cross Border Volume, Medium Prices)
Consumer Goods: 160 RpT (Net Export, Very High Cross Border Volume, Medium Prices)
Plan Effects:
Housing Construction Efforts: (-7 Infra Dice -420RpT Modified by Steel Prices) (Reduction in Communal and Barracks Housing Forms to 10% of the adult non-student population by 1965)
Hydroelectric Power: (-2 Infra Dice -120 RpT (30(+5 per year) Electricity per Turn) (Conventional Dams Done, Upper Lena, Upper Yenisei, Lower Irtush, and Upper Ob Cascades Opened for the 8th Plan)
Power Plant Construction(CCGT): (-2 LCI Dice -240 RpT) (56 Electricity -2 Workforce per Turn)
Rural Modernization Programs: (-1 Agri Dice -80 RpT) (Stage 5 by 1965) (+4 Workforce a Turn)
Healthcare Expansion: (-2 Services Dice -120 RpT) (Completes up to Stage 6 and Modernizations) (-3 Workforce a Turn)
Education Expansion: (-2 Services Dice -60 RpT) (Completes Stage 7 Polytechnic, Completes Stage 3 Sociological, Completes Stage 4 Economical, Starts Secondary Schooling Expansion) (Cuts Workforce Expansion by ~1/4) (Delays Full Boomer Utilization until 1966)
Chita-1+Perm-1 and 2: VVER-300 nuclear cores set to be completed in 1964 (16 CI1 Electricity 7 CI3 Coal -2 CI1 Workforce)
State of the Workforce:
Labor Reserve: 16
Labor Reserve: 10 RpT Cost
Prison Reserve: 20 RpT Cost
Incoming:
21 CI7 Net Men Entering the Workforce
23 CI6 Net Women Entering the Workforce
13 CI7 Movement from Rural Areas
Foreign Labor Added to System:
(18)1957
(12)1958
(13)1959
(13)1960
(19)1961
Civilian Sector Demand Changes:
(30 RpT Grant Allocations)
Coal: 6 CI4
Non-Ferrous: 9 CI4
Steel: 11 CI6
Electricity: -28 CI5
Workforce: -15 CI5
Projected Military Demand Changes:
Coal:
Non-Ferrous: -6 CI1
Steel: -4 CI2
Electricity: -7 CI1
Workforce: 2 CI8
Note: I will be acting as if the projects that can be completed with a 15 Omake are.
Coal:
-Turn Start: -84 CI4
-Civilian Sector Demand Changes: +6 CI4
Total Pre-Turn Result: -78 CI8
-Kuzbas Deposit Exploitation (Stage 1): +56 CI8
-District Gas Heating (Stage 2 of 3): +22 CI2
Total Post-Turn Projection: 0 CI18
Non-Ferrous:
-Turn Start: -23 CI6
-Civilian Sector Demand Changes: +9 CI4
-Military Sector Demand Changes: -6 CI1
Total Pre-Turn Result: -20 CI11
Steel:
-Turn Start: 146 CI12
-Civilian Sector Demand Changes: +11 CI6
-Military Sector Demand Changes: -4 CI2
Total Pre-Turn Result: 153 CI20
Novocherkassk Locomotive Plant: -21 CI1
Expansion of the Automotive Plants (GAZ): -40 CI3
Total Post-Turn Projection: 92 CI24
Electricity:
-Turn Start: 22 CI9
-Hydro Electric Power: +30
-CCGT Power Plant Construction: +56
-Civilian Sector Demand Changes: -28 CI5
-Military Sector Demand Changes: -7 CI1
Total Pre-Turn Result: 73 CI15
Novocherkassk Locomotive Plant: -4 CI1
Kuzbas Deposit Exploitation (Stage 1): -4 CI2
Expansion of the Automotive Plants (GAZ): -12 CI2
Petrochemical Pipelines (Stage 4): -4 CI1
Television Production Plants (Stage 3): -11 CI3
Textile Industry Modernization (Stage 1): -4 CI1
Waste Disposal Improvement: 6 CI1
Television Station Development (Stage 3): -10 CI3
Total Post-Turn Projection: 30 CI29
Hybrid Packaging Developments: -10 CI3
Peoples Dietary Initiatives: -6 CI1
Total Post-Turn Projection With Omakes: 14 CI33 (I'll note the chance of us actually having -19 Electricity (worst case scenario where all of the CIs are the lowest) is 1 in 62 214 075)
Workforce:
-Turn Start: 16
-CCGT Power Plant Construction: -2
-Rural Modernization Programs: +4
-Healthcare Expansion: -3
-Net Men Entering the Workforce: +21 CI7
-Net Women Entering the Workforce: +23 CI6
-Movement from Rural Areas: 13 CI7
-Foreign Labor Entering (1961): +19
-Civilian Sector Demand Changes: -15 CI5
-Military Sector Demand Changes: +2 CI8
Total Pre-Turn Result: 78 CI33
Novocherkassk Locomotive Plant: -5 CI2
Kuzbas Deposit Exploitation (Stage 1): -9 CI3
Expansion of the Automotive Plants (GAZ): -9 CI1
Petrochemical Pipelines (Stage 4): -2 CI1
District Gas Heating (Stage 2 of 3): +2
Television Production Plants (Stage 3): -4 CI1
Textile Industry Modernization (Stage 1): -9 CI2
Waste Disposal Improvement: -7 CI1
Television Station Development (Stage 3): -9 CI2
Total Post-Turn Projection: 26 CI43
Hybrid Packaging Developments: -2 CI1
Peoples Dietary Initiatives: -8 CI1
Total Post-Turn Projection With Omakes: 16 CI45
Summary:
Coal: 0 CI18: We might actually be net neutral on Coal, which is surprising.
Non-Ferrous: -20 CI11: No real change, other then the variances from the civilian and military requirements
Steel: 92 CI24: Steel surplus is down somewhat, but remains high.
Electricity: 30 CI29 / Omakes: 14 CI33: Electricity has likely declined somewhat, but depends on the CI variation and if the Omake completable projects are.
Workforce: 26 CI43 / Omakes: 16 CI45: Workforce is either an increase or stays the same depending on if the Omake completable projects are. Also subject to significant CI variation.
Electricity and Workforce might initially seem like they are in a dangerous spot, however, due to how probability works since those large CI's are made up of many smaller ones, it is extra ordinarily unlikely they will be at the extremes. I only ran the number for the Steel CI, as my computer can't handle brute forcing over 62 million combinations (for Electricity alone), and I'm too lazy/tired to calculate it out in a more clever way. But for that, where we only had 5 CIs making up the total Steel CI the odds were 50/50 that the actual Steel amount was within 6 units of 92. Adding CIs turns their probabilities into bell curves very quickly as most of the CIs are 1s, 2s, and 3s. This drastically reduces the chance that the actual Electricity or Workforce values are at the fringes, after all if I roll 1d9 and get a 9 thats 1 in 9 odds, but if I roll 3d3s that's 1 in 27 odds.
I think it's the other way around - socialists managed to deescalate in Algeria by focusing on the coast and laying ground for the two-states solution, and were then promptly thrown out for that achievement, with the situation reescalating.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
I can confirm that with the recent amount of canon omakes that we got before this turn, we're definitely completing both Hybrid Packaging and Peoples Dietary Initiatives.
IIRC everything is already bell curves, +/- the CI value is the 95% confidence interval. So you can just add the means/variances together since they're all bell curves. I haven't done the math, but it should make us even more safe overall. (Variance is the square of 1/2 the CI.)
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
The trick is that 20C3 plus 20C3 isn't 40C6.
It's more like, if I recall correctly, 40C(3-times-square-root-of-two)...
It's more like, if I recall correctly, 40C(3-times-square-root-of-two)...
Turn 67 (January 1st, 1961 - July 1st, 1961 ): Party-Science Results
- Location
- The United States
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Turn 67 (January 1st, 1961 - July 1st, 1961 ): Party-Science Results
External News
Johnson practically delivered the Americans a victory and consolidated the influence of SEATO in the pacific. Decisively acting to increase the intensity of the air war and striking against Chinese logistical hubs, he has effectively stopped any hope of an advance and provided an excuse for China to stop the war and sue for peace. So far the Americans themselves have declared this as a major victory and demonstration of capability, practically using it as a domestic propaganda angle. This has also emboldened the rump state on Taiwan, with small raids launched on the Chinese coast. Nothing is expected to change in terms of positioning across SEA, outside of a stronger and more supported US presence. Overall the only real outcome of the war has been thousands of dead and a small demilitarized zone in the North of Veitnam, rendering the entire affair a pointless defeat.
With a loss in Vietnam combined with lacking economic performance and a general disappointment with current cadres, the Chinese have pulled out of Vietnam and begun an intensive party struggle. Blame has been distributed at every organ but especially the central military commission for failures in troop training and quality degradation from the civil war. Lack of sufficient intervention has also been partially blamed, but there were limits to what the Chinese would allow us to send outside of large quantities of equipment and airframes. Current predictions are expecting further attempts for a consolidation of power by hardliners, as their position in the party is technically the strongest, but the situation is too unpredictable.
In Italy, a significant change in governance occurred after a terrorist act killed the prime minister through the use of a car bomb. The Italian Social Movement immediately blamed communist radicals, while the communists and socialists placed the blame entirely on the fascists. As far as can be determined given the sheer degree of political convenience and prepared agenda, this was a coordinated strike from fascist groups. Fernando Tambroni, the next influential figure in the Christian Democratic party has immediately taken power and moved to support the far right, relying on their support to form a weak coalition. Crackdowns have already started on a number of communist and socialist organizations, with members arrested for planning to commit terrorism. A general strike has so far been planned with both the PSI and PCI taking a far friendlier stance to us, but this is such a powder keg that intervention would only further destabilize the situation.
Brazilian elections have so far gone smoothly with Janio Quadros entering office despite his strange platform. Preferring far more of a third-way path than expected from one of the politicians in the direct American sphere of influence, he is not expected to last long. A number of diplomatic feelers have even been extended in the tentative hopes that the US simply allows a country to walk out of its block. Trade tie negotiations are expected to occur in a few months, with a likely significant opening of Brazil for CMEA exports. Quadros has also pushed for an anti-corruption campaign towards the consolidation of power, ideally leaving him sufficiently influential to resist American pressure, but not much is currently expected.
South Africa has started to make several moves towards ensuring its Northern security with peacekeeping "anti-terror missions" conducted with the acceptance of the Portuguese colonial authorities. Entering the conflict with the excuse of infiltration by communist agents and likely actually due to the inherent instability caused by racism. This has been accompanied by a limited-scale direct intervention in Rhodesia for the maintenance of rule and an excuse for border stability. So far, the situation has been a low-intensity conflict, with Kosygin advocating for a limited intervention only to assist local communist organizations rather than a broader anti-imperialist method of rolling back capitalist influence.
Internal News
Kosygin has once again proven himself far more capable and predictive than anyone expected. His argument over increased involvement in the Vietnam war being limited due to the comparative uselessness of our Chinese allies has been borne out precisely. Simultaneously, acting decisively with a low level commitment to support the Chinese ensured that there wasn't a decisive defeat along with the testing of a large number of platforms and securing a sufficient quantity of the latest examples of US ordnance. He has used this to directly argue influences on foreign policy and the necessity of involvement, as the anti colonial struggles with legitimately backed communist states have had almost no blowback compared to everything else so far attempted.
Politically he has immediately hammered through a broad-scale currency reform to fix issues with the Ruble and establish a truly unified currency zone across CMEA over the next decade. On the Union's end, the transition will begin once an agreement has been generated for every full member of CMEA, with a centralized currency control body created with representation provided by the relative population of each state. This will then set the policy for the new unified currency regime, with interconvertibility from each state's currency and a peg towards gold utilized to stabilize the overall currency system. For now the priority is the founding of centralized banking and financial organs. After their establishment, the consolidation of external exchange currencies towards a new "Euro" has been tentatively planned, even if no specific time frame has been set.
Aristov has finally become too much of a problem to be tolerated, as he has taken an incompetent swing against the broader MNKh declaring that managerial authority needed to be expanded to optimize growth. In the days following his juvenile attempt at a new line of pandering to managers, loyal technocrats have been ordered to take a radical line, denouncing him as a capitalist and freezing the body in intensive argumentation. Thankfully due to determined efforts by two soon to be promoted regional politicians willing to explain issues to idiots, letters of public support for the new line have been generated. While Aristov has attempted to defend himself to the various other representatives in the Supreme Soviet, instead of taking their time to speak, several key politicians made important readings of the views of the public, going as far as to imply his acts as near sabotage of the construction of Communism. Despite making the correct ideological justifications for his particular line, the tide was sufficiently turned to open him to intense critique from every opportunist element, miring him and leaving his block to be picked at, at least until the imbeciles of the Supreme Soviet find a new distraction.
Due to the sheer scale of the rural housing modernization program, a number of flights by important personnel have been taken by helicopter. Despite his qualifications and intelligence, comrade Lobanov utilized his influence to order his pilot to fly through a forming winter storm. By the voice recorder onboard, this led to a significant destabilization of the Mi-4 as it was continuously hit by severe turbulence in a dense fog. Pilot altitude estimations were then thrown off, leading to a misinterpretation of altitude in flight followed by a sudden but rapid impact into the ground. As far as could be determined from the crash site, everyone on board perished on impact, leaving Smolin as the acting minister and requiring the selection of a new deputy.
[]Igor Alexandrovich Skachkov: An important academic in the fertilizer program that has proven his competencies in various intensification proposals. Conventional and a significant counterbalance to the far softer line of Smolin, he has achieved massive increases in yields and is one of the academics behind the modernization of Soviet agriculture. He is an academic, cut off from any power base, and minimal risk of political maneuvering leaving him as the politically easiest candidate. Simultaneously, he holds broadly correct opinions on the necessity of increasing agricultural production, reducing agricultural employment, and ensuring the lowest possible food price for the Soviet worker.
[]Georgy Nikolaevich Igoshev: Chief agronomist of one of the major enterprises centered around Tula and responsible for considerable gains in yields. Favoring an approach centered around the intensification of land use and with a strange opinion on the necessity of the agricultural export economy. He has taken a decisively odd political line, leaving him to be hard to support and justify, but also leaving him entirely dependent on the ministry. The most effective counterbalance to Smolin as they both agree on almost nothing, ensuring that the ministry can be made to properly follow central direction along with broadening policy choices for the ministry itself.
[]Nina Ivanovna Nikonova: Very young and already with a doctorate in biological sciences, Nikonova has progressed rapidly through the state apparatus, taking on challenging work towards increasing production in the Altai. She has little support outside of any local network and much of the party is still divided on the emotional nature of women for a significant support base to form around her. She has had exemplary performance, enabled a considerable increase in returns, and a demonstrated willingness to go out into the countryside to perform her duty. Harsh in the implementation of programs towards the taming of nature and one of the personnel core to the Virgin Lands campaign's implementation, she is more than capable of adapting to the latest methods for the increase of yields.
Kalashnikov has also finally finished his term of service to the ministry and at his post. While qualified and a subject matter expert, he has become old and has for the last year focused on preparing his deputy to succeed him. The loss to the ministry itself is expected to be significant, but in time his deputy will be able to build up a similar base of experience and shift the focus towards the necessary expansion and modernization of medical care. The perfect contemporary again would thus be an academic focused on education, to balance the area of investment and ensure no undue division of attention.
[]Lydia Vasilievna Sokhan: Despite her degree in philosophy rather than a more applicable field, a decade of experience in the coordination of elements of the polytechnical program across Ukraine has earned her a degree of prominence. Hardworking, capable of adaptation, and outspoken on teaching methodologies to a sufficient extent to limit her political influence. Sokhan is an ideal academic to continue Kalashnikov's work on expanding the social sphere of education and ensuring that the soft sciences gap can be closed and over-taken.
[]Zakhar Ilyich Fainburg: Achieving a doctorate in mathematical economics and with a radical line of the criticality of developing the service economy, he is the most specialized of the candidates under consideration. While it is obvious that the service economy has practically been fed piecemeal to the private sector, so far no one has proposed any form of solution. He has published a number of papers on the necessity of a pivot towards it, taking examples from the Capitalist world. This has earned him almost no support and few cadres, rendering him weak politically and a perfect radical to contrast for a more measured buildup of the service sector.
[]Lev Naumovich Kogan: A sociologist specializing in cultural research and more of an educator than the others, he is conventional and focused more on expanding education rather than fundamentally altering it. A doctor of science and a strong academic candidate from Yekaterinburg, he has little support in conventional party bases leaving him capable of gathering cadres, but with few to his name. Likely the strongest acceptable minister in case of rapid succession and the least disruptive to the operation of education and the service sector.
Infrastructure
Leningrad Renovation: Home of the revolution and rapidly increasing in size over the last few decades to the point that rapidly constructed moderate-density Mikoyan and wartime-era housing predominates entire districts. Through a dedicated modernization towards a proper skyline in those areas based on the high-density metro integrated district model, it is possible to significantly improve labor and organizational throughput. Dedicated areas for the organization of the largest enterprises and developmental areas for several critical aspects of the economy will be designated, ensuring that any large services projects can have a sufficient degree of bureaucratic space and a rapid flow of labor. This will be accompanied by moderate protective work to ensure that further inclement weather doesn't damage the city. (342/400) (Pork Project)
Massive work on renovating the city has started now that large tracts of it have been demolished and reconstructed. Vasilevsky Island, previously covered in residential housing reconstruction plans has called for four new museums, the transfer of the Sovetsky Soyuz as a museum ship, and large-scale districts for higher-density services construction. This has been accompanied by the broad-scale separation of districts into dedicated high-density service and enterprise districts for skyscrapers centered on partially park-specialized districts. These parks are expected to exhibit a number of novel features and social structures, ensuring a public appreciation for broader art. Taking advantage of the relative proliferation of the subway system, conventions of walkability have been modified in order to optimize and specialize spaces. This has led to combination districts being formed to ensure the highest-density commercial concentrations possible. Funding has also been transferred for a deep expansion of the metro system, incorporating a consolidated central line around the center of the city, linking branching lines for each individual island with a planned fully constructed scale of just under sixty stations. Mass housing construction efforts have also been set to work in cooperation with the effort, prioritizing the construction of the tallest and largest floor plans to optimize space efficiency.
Passenger Rail Network(Western SU): Electrification is a fundamental improvement in the transportation of personnel at high speeds, as diesel locomotives are not properly optimized to run at such a pace. Utilizing several innovations in rectification and localized drives for passenger units, it is possible to provide similar or better speeds across the HSR network. These new units will require a large-scale modernization and be limited to serving passengers. Still, as there is already a network specializing in the task, this optimization is more of a question of specialized production. Electrification of the track itself will be done according to a 25kV AC catenary scheme, allowing a reduction in power loss across the vastness of the Union. (1732/2250)
Slow intensive work across Ukraine for the electrification of the Southernmost routes has proceeded at an acceptable if slow pace. The massive program of electrification is at least at this point more than halfway done and will be completed soon. All that is left is the electrification of the route from Moscow to Mink and Stalingrad along with the massive external rail circle to serve as a bypass from busy Moscow stations. Usage profiles have been mostly in the short haul, with regional stops having a far greater number of passengers than long-haul trains, but this was to an extent expected. The completion of the full network itself will proceed to link the Western USSR in never before utilized ways, improving the lives of every Soviet Worker.
Unified Canal System(Step 1 of 3): The lowest cost option for entirely unifying the waterways of the Union rests in the restoration of the Ob-Yenisei Canal and deepening it preemptively to match the required depth of the Western deep water system. Barge traffic forms an essential part of the economy, and its further expansion will contribute to the development of the Far East. Work is expected to primarily focus on deepening the current remnants of the Tsarist attempt, ensuring that it can move sufficiently heavy barges in preparation for further construction efforts. (51/100)
Restoration of the old Tsarist canal has finally arrived now that barge traffic has become an ever-growing factor in the movement of heavy materials. The actual task of digging has been a simple process of excavating swampy soil in acceptable conditions, but the size of construction needed is still significant. Major parts of the effort itself are stabilizing it when working in the swampy ground and ensuring that barges designed for the Western Deep Water system can cross it. Construction work can be finished in a few years once funding is finalized, ensuring that large portions of Siberia and the Far East have a functional riverine network.
Augmented Earthmoving: American nuclear testing for peaceful purposes has already started at a small scale, and a technological gap cannot occur. By starting the development of lower radiation nuclear devices and incorporating testing for their impact on many fields, it should be possible to eclipse the American efforts and cheapen several proposed mass projects. Current uses are expected to primarily occur in earth-moving. Still, some visionary proposals have been made for the deepening of harbors and enhancing petrochemical recovery through the peaceful use of nuclear weapons. (101/50) (Completed)
It is always an interesting and novel experience to behold a nuclear test, it was for footage of the first shot, and now it is novel as the goal of the program has shifted towards the disruption of earth. Dedicated warheads are still being designed for higher fusion fractions and a comparatively smaller fission charge, but the concept itself has entered testing using older RDS-3I weapons. Their impractical configuration has left them little use in airforce circles, and rather than recycling enriched material, they have been transferred for testing. A cascade of six tests is planned for the year, demonstrating earth removal, earth softening, and a number of other applications. The radiation burden of these dirtier and older warheads is expected to be considerably higher, but nothing done will be different in type then older nuclear testing.
Heavy Industry
Novocherkassk Locomotive Plant: A new dedicated plant for producing electric locomotives is needed as the limited runs in the Leningrad Plant are inefficient, if adequate, for now. With the planned necessity to further increase loading on the passenger network and to enhance the degree of cargo throughput throughout the nation, electrification is a logical and efficient answer. Current grid power is only approximately at the price of fuel oil, but the reduced maintenance overhead of electrical traction alone is expected to recoup most investments. Once the plant is completed, it is expected that the overall cost of the HSR project will go down by a small degree while enabling a sufficient degree of experience to develop to enable large-scale conversions to freight electric traction in the next plan. (287/250) (-21 CI1 Steel -9 CI1 Electricity -7 CI2 Workforce)
Production lines for dedicated high speed electric passenger train sets have practically been established, with a degree of technical and scientific work remaining. The new train sets are expected to enter full scale production by the end of the current plan, if not entirely distributed by the end of it. The production of the machinery itself along with the trains are however expected to massively improve the experience of the Union with electrical passenger rail, with applications already being designed for lower speed intracity transit. Those models will likely enter production sometime before the end of the plan, but scaling rates heavily depend on the degree of investment and the necessary technical compromises.
Kuzbas Deposit Exploitation(Stage 1): Due to a number of political demands on the critical nature of domestic coal production and a number of speeches designating it a core element of national security, expansions need to be undertaken. Logistically challenging for a number of reasons, the deposit still represents a massive gain in accessible coal and in overall coal production. Current plans are first towards a general total modernization of methodology and techniques, improving labor efficiency and updating mechanization to use far heavier mining machinery. This will be accompanied by a moderate expansion in personnel and mining area, securing a far more stable and long term supply of low cost coal. (280/200 Stage 1 Completed) (80/300 Stage 2) (56 CI8 Coal -4 CI2 Electricity -9 CI3 Workforce) (Stage 3 Limit without rail electrification or Stage ⅔ Canals)
The massive deposits in Kazakh SSR have historically been exploited but to a far lesser extent than theoretically possible. Limitations in hardware and transportation infrastructure have always limited what could be hauled West, but now that can all be remedied. Massive pit mines and dedicated ultra heavy machinery have been shipped to the site along with experienced training cadres. Actual production is expected to take a few years to stabilize and reach optimal levels, but coal independence is now practically guaranteed as long as further utilization of the deposit continues and a sufficient investment into rail infrastructure is made. The availability of true metallurgical coal grades here is slightly worse than in the Donbass, but that is a minor factor compared to the sheer coal hunger of the electrical grid.
Expansion of the Automotive Plants(GAZ): The Gorky and the Volga automotive plants are excellent targets for mass expansion to close the gap toward the needed consumer goods targets. The managers there have already initiated large-scale extensive expansions of the production lines, but further efforts can be undertaken to improve output. Incremental improvements to the current models can be broken away from in favor of integrating several novel features, ensuring an adequate degree of foreign market utilization. Novel engine improvements can also be made on the production line, further improving throughput. (259/250) (Completed) (+60 RpT) (-40 CI3 Steel -12 CI2 Electricity -9 CI1 Workforce)
Directed funding towards the more experienced automotive plants has finally been authorized to great effect. Compounding on the efficiency of an already trained manufacturing line and established models, massive production increases will be achieved. Current plans call for a doubling of the relative workforce and machinery setups with more complex and automated systems. Enterprise funds on their own have already been in a constant commitment towards expanding production, but now the effort has only increased. If the plant's management is to be believed, it isn't unlikely that the plant and its complex will be shipping out more than a million cars a year before the end of the plan. Most of these will be economy cars meant for export, but reducing domestic prices to match foreign ones and achieving further market penetration can only contribute to the economy and secure yet more goods.
Rocketry
Expand RLA Program: The RLA program is proceeding at an acceptable pace for the standard single stack booster, even if the polyblock configuration has posed more challenges. Expanding aerodynamic testing and further extending structural evaluations can accelerate the overall project and reduce the odds of delay. Testing will be expanded on high capacity polyblock configurations with experience helping to ensure stability in both thermal and aerodynamic performance. (34) (Project Cost 15RpT)
The RLA is in itself a direct leap from what have been claimed to be "2nd generation" systems of rocketry towards a new conception of both efficiency and capability. Korolev has been given the task of designing upper stage packages for the full rocket, as his experience in payload design is invaluable. Dedicated programs towards tankage and structural modeling have also been initiated at full scale beginning the expensive but critical testing phase of every element of in flight hardware. Expanded testing is not the most popular approach towards space, but a politically relevant explosion or worse a loss to the Americans would be far worse.
Abort Program Enhancement: The recent loss of a cosmonaut is a politically fraught affair occuring due to failures in military quality control standards. Instead of focusing on the development of novel techniques, the current loss must be prevented from happening again. To that end, full scale testing and evaluation of the entire flight profile is necessary. High velocity solid rockets to separate the capsule at all launch phases, manual exit of the capsule in case of parachute abort and several novel features can be evaluated and tested. Space travel may be inherently dangerous, but risks can still be minimized. (77) (Project Cost 10RpT Finished 1962H2) (Reduces Political Fatigue Gain)
The tragic loss of an astronaut could be directly blamed on the army's lacking rocket design, but the R7U is likely to be used for a few more years yet. Compensating for issues in the capsule, a new all conditions ejection seat has been designed in with a far easier to operate hatch in the vehicle. A new solid rocket-based launch escape system has also been theorized to pull the capsule away at a significant g load, better to lose consciousness than to burn to death in a fireball of engineered incompetence. Both systems will not be available for immediate manned launches, with the program delayed for a few months until they are available, but Vostok flights are expected to resume by the start of 62.
Light and Chemical Industry
Petrochemical Pipelines(Stage 4): Further expansions of the overall pipeline network into the Far East have proven necessary as the massive petrochemical demand of the nation has only increased. The necessity of gas and power production in remote locations and the steady industrial intensification in the East have led to a proposed project for an oil and gas pipeline to be constructed to Vladivostok. The project will be costly, but it will ensure an easy and consistent flow of energy resources across the Union. Furthermore, constructing this pipeline will enable far cheaper petrochemical exports to China, supplying a massive market. (402/350) (Completed) (-4 CI1 Electricity -2 CI1 Workforce)
A link to Vladivostok has finally been completed, running across the Trans-Siberian to simplify logistics and constructed from both ends a true high-capacity pipeline has been built. Oil exports to China practically started as soon as it was connected to the local terminal, shifting the primary purchasers of Soviet oil towards the east. This massive drop in energy prices across the far East and SEA is expected to improve industrial productivity and ensure that the people can develop far faster. Already, there are Chinese proposals to build a direct pipeline with a meeting point of the lines near Chita. This would ensure that the Chinese can have a steady supply of petrochemicals through any form of economic or military disruption, and provide a sizable market for oil uninvolved with the West.
District Gas Heating(Stage 2 of 3): Continued development of gas heating initiatives will enhance the air quality of many urban centers and ensure that almost all urban coal heating centers are retired. Simplifications in logistics will generate a fairly mild return on both personal and resource expenditure, ensuring further ease in development. Gasification of heating will further expand the gas piping network, enabling the steady shift towards line gas for heating fuel across several urban zones. Already there exist designs for standardized homes with a basement gas-heating system, allowing for lower-cost designs in regions where the infrastructural density doesn't exist for a more centralized approach. (222/100 Stage 2 Completed) (122/150 Stage 3) (22 CI4 Coal 2 Workforce)
The finalization of district-based gas heating has demonstrated considerable and massive progress in reducing the state of urban smog. Instead of a partially persistent white fog lurking over major industrial centers, the air has steadily become far cleaner. Individuals still using coal for heating and cooking have yet to be addressed in their entirety, but just a small further effort is needed to fix that. So far gas use has increased especially with the cold, but the greater stability and lower logistical load of gas has provided a significant return on workforce and spending, allowing the people to re-specialize. Further initiatives are expected to focus on ensuring that every Soviet home can have a steady supply of gas, eliminating other cooking and heating fuels for even those in the countryside.
Fertilizer Plants(Stage 4/5): High-intensity production of several types of fertilizers is required to fulfill the target for already utilized agriculture and continue the current expansion of land under cultivation. It may not be possible to become an economy where the agricultural sector is not a drain on state funds. Still, a continued shift towards cheaper nutrition can only benefit the workers. Nitrogen-fixing apparatuses will be modernized and continuously improved, along with several vertical layout improvements developed in the petrochemical sector being implemented at all levels. (512/560)
Finalization of the massive Haber process units has practically been completed, with the only remaining work on the plants left for personnel recruitment and training. Increased rates of extraction for both potassium and phosphate have already been reached, satiating demand for those fertilizer components. Ideally, when fully finalized, it should be possible to maintain a high rate of export towards the Chinese as their agricultural and supporting industrial system is still primitive. Considerable gains for both agricultural efficiency and easy direct exports can be made in exchange for their high-employment manufactured products. Overall price indexes can thus be effectively lowered for the Soviet consumer while enabling market penetration with something other than capital goods.
Television Production Plants(Stage 3): Rationalized high throughput television models are far more likely to serve the bulk of workers instead of a focus on fewer, more expensive units. By consolidating production towards a black-and-white model that is easy to produce in massive numbers, considerable gains can be made in throughput. These plants will be practically constructed to ship out as many mid-grade televisions as possible, but that will more than serve to meet current consumptive demand. (208/200) (Completed) (-11 CI3 Electricity -4 CI1 Workforce) (Pork Project) (+20 RpT Consumer Goods)
With new technologies available, both the production of basic black and white television sets and color sets has steadily increased. A number of dedicated plants for both had already been practically built, just requiring the orders to start full-scale production. Significant portions of the funding has gone towards modernization, but production is still expected to rapidly climb as more and more of the population purchase televisions. So far demand is expected to be met by current production, as massive dedicated plants for the partially immature industry was a hasty oversight if one that still would have been useful. Keeping the industry at a reasonable profitability ratio, and ensuring that newer technologies are integrated when available has considerable promise to reduce expenditure and ensure consistent supply.
Textile Industry Modernization(Stage 1): The old era textile industry has adequately served for decades in producing a steady supply of new material for the Soviet Worker. Expansion now however will bring more modern techniques, synthetic fibers, and a degree of focus towards export. Low employment cost areas will be prioritized for expansion and modernization, as they will be the most sustainable in the long term, and the bulk provided factory labor will help to accelerate urbanization. The project itself will not be a short one, but as imported cotton is currently dirt cheap along with manufacturing labor, returns are expected to be considerable. (153/150 Stage 1 Completed) (3/200 Stage 2) (-4 CI1 Electricity -9 CI2 Workforce) (-5 RpT Oil, +20 RpT Consumer Goods)
Synthetic fibers have already started to proliferate in Western fashion and clothing and the Union cannot lag behind. Utilizing the current surplus of designs across the private sector and some licensing, new products are expected to be produced in the state sector. Polyester has provided a revolution in durability and quality for a massive number of conventional wear. Nylon has revolutionized several clothing items, and acrylic linings show massive promise in household applications. Synthetics have for a long time been the domain of the army and private sector but no more. Programs for new clothing have already started and the production of new fibers is only expected to rapidly increase as costs lower and public awareness increases.
Hybrid Packaging Developments: Continued computational production rests on a continuation of funding and demand. While local demand is considerable, production has so far met it and mostly produced new units without too much issue. As the academies in Kiev and other parts of the union have worked tirelessly towards new formats, a modernization to them will cost a minimized degree of funds. Going from the central ministry and standardizing on a generation of modular systems built on expandable transistors mounted onto card format can only help with the modularity. Funding here will mostly go towards accelerating production implementation, as early systems are not expected to ship before 1964 even with sufficient funding. (161+15 Omake/175) (Completed) (-10 CI3 Electricity -2 CI1 Workforce)
Experimental work on modular systems has so far had a considerable degree of progress with several proposals made on a further technical leap. Backward compatibility of the code and operational base to current generation machines has been a priority, but with new electronics far more can be put into smaller form factors. Discrete encapsulated silicon transistors and diodes have so far been mounted to cards at laboratory scales, but none of the technologies are minimally mature. Transistor fabrication will take time to troubleshoot, with the code base required for the new machines only growing in complexity. Still, once manufacturing can be initiated and the technology brought to maturity, a new series of modular machines can be built. In theoretical work under Glushko and Kitov has proposed the utilization of single integrated chips, but those are even more immature then card mounted sets of discrete units and are unlikely to function outside of aerospace applications.
Agriculture
Peoples Dietary Initiatives: Vitaminization and enrichment of standard foods has brought millions out of nutritional deficiencies, but far more can be done. Further vitaminization of foods and the enrichment of a number of standard components can make even the worst diets acceptably healthy. The demand for meat or any other product isn't expected to be significantly affected, but the enrichment of food will ensure that even the poorest workers can maintain their health. Fortification of breads with vitamin D in sufficient doses and a number of other moderate fixes can ensure that the health of the people improves at a minimal cost. An increase in protein concentration can also be accomplished for a number of specialty items, allowing workers to have more variety without negative health impacts. (188+15/200) (Completed) (-6 CI1 Electricity -8 CI1 Workforce)
Nutritional expansion and modernization has contributed massively towards improvements in health quantity and a further stage can be completed. Bread and milk fortification standards and secondary production has reached a point where vitamin D shortages should be a thing of the past. Previous Iodization efforts have effectively eliminated any nascent shortages of Iodine in diets, and continuous drives for higher vitamin contents have made massive leaps in public health possible without any significant costs. Some enterprises have not enjoyed the greater standards on the fortification of foods, but the state is more than willing to cover the cost of sufficient nutrition as a public health program.
Expanding Rural Production: Intensification of conventional agriculture has a massive degree of return and now that the chemical industry has steadily caught up, it is all a question of implementation. Higher degrees of processing in order to increase food preservation and accessibility while intensification with chemicalization can bring up agricultural production. Current methods of increasing production will likely increase export opportunities and maintain the relative profitability of the agricultural sector, ensuring that it doesn't become an active drain on finances. (93/250)
Procedures for high intensity fertilizer and pesticide cycle combined with near full nutrition supplementation has demonstrated massive gains in yields. For farms in agricultural zones with few rotation compatible high value crops, this has come as a massive benefit. Stronger education for agricultural workers and farmers on proper procedures has accompanied an effort towards the further distribution of tailored fertilizer combinations. Pest burdens have also significantly been reduced with new chemical formulations. Once full cross Union rollout is underway, it is expected that the new age of agricultural productivity can only accelerate until the limits of biology are reached.
Secondary Agricultural Production: The old enterprises developed to take advantage of the many secondary products from the broader agricultural sector have been constructed with a dramatic underestimation of the overall demand curve. Through the foundation of a further series of specialty cheese and meat processing enterprises along with several further processed products being developed, the Soviet worker could receive far cheaper consumptive products. These are then expected to improve overall agricultural turnover while cybernetically incentivizing several other enterprises to increase the production of previously secondary feedstocks. (239/300)
Continued emphasis on local cheeses has significantly taken advantage of a Union wide effect, with massive private participation in regional cuisines and dishes. Co Opting them partially, injecting masses of operational capital, and ensuring state oversight has so far massively increased production and export opportunities. If the Soviet worker has a demand for strange cheeses, wines, and meat products, there is no reason not to provide them. Regional Soviets have even gone so far as to praise the initiative as the distribution of jobs and cultural production has proven immensely popular, especially amongst the party members moving up towards operating semi-nationalized large scale enterprises.
Services
Waste Disposal Improvement: The production of garbage from the average worker has steadily increased over the last decade and some funding eventually needs to be allocated towards fixing it. With increased urban density and urban collection points the actual process of collection is relatively non-labor intensive but more work is needed in order to process and store it. Through the construction of a number of high temperature incineration facilities, the designation of more space for landfills, and an increased fleet of garbage vehicles in a number of cities, the problem can be solved for a time. Future efforts will likely necessitate a further expansion, but for at least a decade the current expansions should keep the situation under control. (202/150) (Completed) (-7 CI1 Workforce 6 CI1 Electricity)
Buildup of urban garbage has curiously been less of a problem then the state of rural trash. Instead of high efficiency consolidated systems for easy retrieval and disposal, most rural areas alternate between the obsessive preservation of meager possessions or massive turnover and consumption. Expanding processing and collection fleets has so far compensated for these discrepancies in valuation and consumption, even if the system is expected to be strained. Disposal of several challenging to process non decaying material has also shifted towards incineration, with several facilities built for a degree of power harvesting. Landfill capacity has also further been expanded to stabilize the situation and provide for the increasing demands of the workers.
Television Station Development(Stage 3): Building more stations is a useful utilization of creative potential and can further augment the distribution of new television units to the general population. While there will be some learning delays in determining the types of programming that the people primarily consume, it should easily be possible to continue an intensification and saturate several standardized channels, allowing everyone with a television to receive news and watch slightly older films. (204/175) (Completed) (-9 CI2 Workforce -10 CI3 Electricity)
Expansion of long form episodic shows and television dramas has proved to be far more popular than any reasonable expectations. The supply of failures has only increased in recent years as graduate ratios have so far failed to be adjusted for new cadres, new studios and new ideas have proliferated. Dedicated channels for episodic programming and several re-screenings of older episodes have enabled a contiguous experience for whoever wants to watch popular drama set in exciting settings. Documentary type and informational programming have also experienced a relative increase, as more worldly students have actually used their education to improve overall knowledge rather than producing simple entertainment.
Bureaucracy 5 Dice (No Free Dice can be Used)
Open Containerization Programs: Containerization of shipping is occurring at a slow pace, but through a degree of cybernetic encouragement through dual-approach methodologies it can be accelerated. Moderate fees and taxes will be placed on enterprises building conventional hulls outside of bulk freight while new ships will be softly encouraged to be built for containerization. These policies are just a first step and spending on the containerization of the entire economy will eventually be necessary, but the first steps can be taken legalistically. (86) (Supreme Soviet Reform)
Adoption of a container standard across the Soviet Economy has practically been rubber-stamped as a basic procedure. No one has so far said anything about the logistical state and a sufficiently timed report on the necessity of logistical streamlining from two bureaus and a following ministry report has secured its passage. Formally, the ministry itself could have pushed through the reform, but by ensuring that it has backing and that the correct performance numbers have been shown, initiative can be given to the Supreme Soviet to extend it across CMEA. If one of the luminaries of the body tries to come up with it independently, a tiny political win and risk can be handed off, leaving the task on the MFA, absolving any cost and influence loss from the ministry.
Expand Rural Housing Programs: Shifting up the intensity of the rural housing program has practically built a generation of controlled and correct housing personnel, and its expansion comes as a logical conclusion in expanding bureaucratic power. Setting the department towards a greater commitment of resources will assist in developing the Union even faster and a broader construction program will ensure that the countryside can start approaching the living standards expected from the development of communism. (Internal Reform) (Rural Modernization Program Becomes (-2 Agri Dice -180 RpT) (Stage 6 by 1965) (+6 Workforce a Turn))
With the tragic death of Comrade Lobanov, ironically while working at the very program his deputy ardently pushed for a general reorganization is only prudent. The deputy minister is thankfully unconnected, politically weak, and delusionally optimistic on the state of the Union, leaving him the perfect candidate. As said deputy has been the largest proponent of the rural housing program, allowing him to secure an undue amount of influence would be the highest point of error. Expanding the program before he could act in the indecisiveness of a reorganizing ministry and with claims towards doing what Lobanov wanted however will yield more support. The only worse thing than a death in the line of duty is a failure to properly utilize it for further influence.
Direct the University Program: Correct graduates are going to be moved up in massive numbers, and by taking a vested interest in the freshest cadres raised far from Moscow a far broader front of new personnel can be secured. Many will not be the most capable but politically isolated educated and technocratic personnel cannot be underestimated. They will be dependent on direct backing and practically be isolated and compliant to any necessary directive from above. The agreement is even unnecessary for as long as it takes them to form their own networks of connections, providing political capital for the better part of a decade with every promotion. (45) (Internal Reform)
Filtering the correct from the mediocre masses poses a significant challenge in both governance and direction. As tempting as it would be to accept all comers and ensure that all are integrated, some of the students are absolute imbeciles unable to get with any form of party program. For those better able to be directed, a sponsorship and career system has been established for recruitment directly into subordinate ministries and programs for hard distant work. If a student can prove themselves by taking on the hardest tasks away from any connections and in poor environments, they can justify their own promotions. If one has the dedication to work in punishing conditions in the Far East to develop the economy, they can build a non-threatening political base while directly demonstrating ability, dedication, and decisiveness.
Determine Coalitional Alignments: The current supreme Soviet may have just been re-seated, but already the closed-door debates have intensified. By taking time to personally discuss with several influential bureaus and members, it should be possible to obtain a general idea of the exact state of the various blocks present. The current poorly organized diaspora will only ensure that the ministry cannot operate with a proper idea for political margin, limiting capabilities at all levels. (80) (Stat Page Update)
24 Hour Moratorium(Will update status in the morning)
External News
Johnson practically delivered the Americans a victory and consolidated the influence of SEATO in the pacific. Decisively acting to increase the intensity of the air war and striking against Chinese logistical hubs, he has effectively stopped any hope of an advance and provided an excuse for China to stop the war and sue for peace. So far the Americans themselves have declared this as a major victory and demonstration of capability, practically using it as a domestic propaganda angle. This has also emboldened the rump state on Taiwan, with small raids launched on the Chinese coast. Nothing is expected to change in terms of positioning across SEA, outside of a stronger and more supported US presence. Overall the only real outcome of the war has been thousands of dead and a small demilitarized zone in the North of Veitnam, rendering the entire affair a pointless defeat.
With a loss in Vietnam combined with lacking economic performance and a general disappointment with current cadres, the Chinese have pulled out of Vietnam and begun an intensive party struggle. Blame has been distributed at every organ but especially the central military commission for failures in troop training and quality degradation from the civil war. Lack of sufficient intervention has also been partially blamed, but there were limits to what the Chinese would allow us to send outside of large quantities of equipment and airframes. Current predictions are expecting further attempts for a consolidation of power by hardliners, as their position in the party is technically the strongest, but the situation is too unpredictable.
In Italy, a significant change in governance occurred after a terrorist act killed the prime minister through the use of a car bomb. The Italian Social Movement immediately blamed communist radicals, while the communists and socialists placed the blame entirely on the fascists. As far as can be determined given the sheer degree of political convenience and prepared agenda, this was a coordinated strike from fascist groups. Fernando Tambroni, the next influential figure in the Christian Democratic party has immediately taken power and moved to support the far right, relying on their support to form a weak coalition. Crackdowns have already started on a number of communist and socialist organizations, with members arrested for planning to commit terrorism. A general strike has so far been planned with both the PSI and PCI taking a far friendlier stance to us, but this is such a powder keg that intervention would only further destabilize the situation.
Brazilian elections have so far gone smoothly with Janio Quadros entering office despite his strange platform. Preferring far more of a third-way path than expected from one of the politicians in the direct American sphere of influence, he is not expected to last long. A number of diplomatic feelers have even been extended in the tentative hopes that the US simply allows a country to walk out of its block. Trade tie negotiations are expected to occur in a few months, with a likely significant opening of Brazil for CMEA exports. Quadros has also pushed for an anti-corruption campaign towards the consolidation of power, ideally leaving him sufficiently influential to resist American pressure, but not much is currently expected.
South Africa has started to make several moves towards ensuring its Northern security with peacekeeping "anti-terror missions" conducted with the acceptance of the Portuguese colonial authorities. Entering the conflict with the excuse of infiltration by communist agents and likely actually due to the inherent instability caused by racism. This has been accompanied by a limited-scale direct intervention in Rhodesia for the maintenance of rule and an excuse for border stability. So far, the situation has been a low-intensity conflict, with Kosygin advocating for a limited intervention only to assist local communist organizations rather than a broader anti-imperialist method of rolling back capitalist influence.
Internal News
Kosygin has once again proven himself far more capable and predictive than anyone expected. His argument over increased involvement in the Vietnam war being limited due to the comparative uselessness of our Chinese allies has been borne out precisely. Simultaneously, acting decisively with a low level commitment to support the Chinese ensured that there wasn't a decisive defeat along with the testing of a large number of platforms and securing a sufficient quantity of the latest examples of US ordnance. He has used this to directly argue influences on foreign policy and the necessity of involvement, as the anti colonial struggles with legitimately backed communist states have had almost no blowback compared to everything else so far attempted.
Politically he has immediately hammered through a broad-scale currency reform to fix issues with the Ruble and establish a truly unified currency zone across CMEA over the next decade. On the Union's end, the transition will begin once an agreement has been generated for every full member of CMEA, with a centralized currency control body created with representation provided by the relative population of each state. This will then set the policy for the new unified currency regime, with interconvertibility from each state's currency and a peg towards gold utilized to stabilize the overall currency system. For now the priority is the founding of centralized banking and financial organs. After their establishment, the consolidation of external exchange currencies towards a new "Euro" has been tentatively planned, even if no specific time frame has been set.
Aristov has finally become too much of a problem to be tolerated, as he has taken an incompetent swing against the broader MNKh declaring that managerial authority needed to be expanded to optimize growth. In the days following his juvenile attempt at a new line of pandering to managers, loyal technocrats have been ordered to take a radical line, denouncing him as a capitalist and freezing the body in intensive argumentation. Thankfully due to determined efforts by two soon to be promoted regional politicians willing to explain issues to idiots, letters of public support for the new line have been generated. While Aristov has attempted to defend himself to the various other representatives in the Supreme Soviet, instead of taking their time to speak, several key politicians made important readings of the views of the public, going as far as to imply his acts as near sabotage of the construction of Communism. Despite making the correct ideological justifications for his particular line, the tide was sufficiently turned to open him to intense critique from every opportunist element, miring him and leaving his block to be picked at, at least until the imbeciles of the Supreme Soviet find a new distraction.
Due to the sheer scale of the rural housing modernization program, a number of flights by important personnel have been taken by helicopter. Despite his qualifications and intelligence, comrade Lobanov utilized his influence to order his pilot to fly through a forming winter storm. By the voice recorder onboard, this led to a significant destabilization of the Mi-4 as it was continuously hit by severe turbulence in a dense fog. Pilot altitude estimations were then thrown off, leading to a misinterpretation of altitude in flight followed by a sudden but rapid impact into the ground. As far as could be determined from the crash site, everyone on board perished on impact, leaving Smolin as the acting minister and requiring the selection of a new deputy.
[]Igor Alexandrovich Skachkov: An important academic in the fertilizer program that has proven his competencies in various intensification proposals. Conventional and a significant counterbalance to the far softer line of Smolin, he has achieved massive increases in yields and is one of the academics behind the modernization of Soviet agriculture. He is an academic, cut off from any power base, and minimal risk of political maneuvering leaving him as the politically easiest candidate. Simultaneously, he holds broadly correct opinions on the necessity of increasing agricultural production, reducing agricultural employment, and ensuring the lowest possible food price for the Soviet worker.
[]Georgy Nikolaevich Igoshev: Chief agronomist of one of the major enterprises centered around Tula and responsible for considerable gains in yields. Favoring an approach centered around the intensification of land use and with a strange opinion on the necessity of the agricultural export economy. He has taken a decisively odd political line, leaving him to be hard to support and justify, but also leaving him entirely dependent on the ministry. The most effective counterbalance to Smolin as they both agree on almost nothing, ensuring that the ministry can be made to properly follow central direction along with broadening policy choices for the ministry itself.
[]Nina Ivanovna Nikonova: Very young and already with a doctorate in biological sciences, Nikonova has progressed rapidly through the state apparatus, taking on challenging work towards increasing production in the Altai. She has little support outside of any local network and much of the party is still divided on the emotional nature of women for a significant support base to form around her. She has had exemplary performance, enabled a considerable increase in returns, and a demonstrated willingness to go out into the countryside to perform her duty. Harsh in the implementation of programs towards the taming of nature and one of the personnel core to the Virgin Lands campaign's implementation, she is more than capable of adapting to the latest methods for the increase of yields.
Kalashnikov has also finally finished his term of service to the ministry and at his post. While qualified and a subject matter expert, he has become old and has for the last year focused on preparing his deputy to succeed him. The loss to the ministry itself is expected to be significant, but in time his deputy will be able to build up a similar base of experience and shift the focus towards the necessary expansion and modernization of medical care. The perfect contemporary again would thus be an academic focused on education, to balance the area of investment and ensure no undue division of attention.
[]Lydia Vasilievna Sokhan: Despite her degree in philosophy rather than a more applicable field, a decade of experience in the coordination of elements of the polytechnical program across Ukraine has earned her a degree of prominence. Hardworking, capable of adaptation, and outspoken on teaching methodologies to a sufficient extent to limit her political influence. Sokhan is an ideal academic to continue Kalashnikov's work on expanding the social sphere of education and ensuring that the soft sciences gap can be closed and over-taken.
[]Zakhar Ilyich Fainburg: Achieving a doctorate in mathematical economics and with a radical line of the criticality of developing the service economy, he is the most specialized of the candidates under consideration. While it is obvious that the service economy has practically been fed piecemeal to the private sector, so far no one has proposed any form of solution. He has published a number of papers on the necessity of a pivot towards it, taking examples from the Capitalist world. This has earned him almost no support and few cadres, rendering him weak politically and a perfect radical to contrast for a more measured buildup of the service sector.
[]Lev Naumovich Kogan: A sociologist specializing in cultural research and more of an educator than the others, he is conventional and focused more on expanding education rather than fundamentally altering it. A doctor of science and a strong academic candidate from Yekaterinburg, he has little support in conventional party bases leaving him capable of gathering cadres, but with few to his name. Likely the strongest acceptable minister in case of rapid succession and the least disruptive to the operation of education and the service sector.
Infrastructure
Leningrad Renovation: Home of the revolution and rapidly increasing in size over the last few decades to the point that rapidly constructed moderate-density Mikoyan and wartime-era housing predominates entire districts. Through a dedicated modernization towards a proper skyline in those areas based on the high-density metro integrated district model, it is possible to significantly improve labor and organizational throughput. Dedicated areas for the organization of the largest enterprises and developmental areas for several critical aspects of the economy will be designated, ensuring that any large services projects can have a sufficient degree of bureaucratic space and a rapid flow of labor. This will be accompanied by moderate protective work to ensure that further inclement weather doesn't damage the city. (342/400) (Pork Project)
Massive work on renovating the city has started now that large tracts of it have been demolished and reconstructed. Vasilevsky Island, previously covered in residential housing reconstruction plans has called for four new museums, the transfer of the Sovetsky Soyuz as a museum ship, and large-scale districts for higher-density services construction. This has been accompanied by the broad-scale separation of districts into dedicated high-density service and enterprise districts for skyscrapers centered on partially park-specialized districts. These parks are expected to exhibit a number of novel features and social structures, ensuring a public appreciation for broader art. Taking advantage of the relative proliferation of the subway system, conventions of walkability have been modified in order to optimize and specialize spaces. This has led to combination districts being formed to ensure the highest-density commercial concentrations possible. Funding has also been transferred for a deep expansion of the metro system, incorporating a consolidated central line around the center of the city, linking branching lines for each individual island with a planned fully constructed scale of just under sixty stations. Mass housing construction efforts have also been set to work in cooperation with the effort, prioritizing the construction of the tallest and largest floor plans to optimize space efficiency.
Passenger Rail Network(Western SU): Electrification is a fundamental improvement in the transportation of personnel at high speeds, as diesel locomotives are not properly optimized to run at such a pace. Utilizing several innovations in rectification and localized drives for passenger units, it is possible to provide similar or better speeds across the HSR network. These new units will require a large-scale modernization and be limited to serving passengers. Still, as there is already a network specializing in the task, this optimization is more of a question of specialized production. Electrification of the track itself will be done according to a 25kV AC catenary scheme, allowing a reduction in power loss across the vastness of the Union. (1732/2250)
Slow intensive work across Ukraine for the electrification of the Southernmost routes has proceeded at an acceptable if slow pace. The massive program of electrification is at least at this point more than halfway done and will be completed soon. All that is left is the electrification of the route from Moscow to Mink and Stalingrad along with the massive external rail circle to serve as a bypass from busy Moscow stations. Usage profiles have been mostly in the short haul, with regional stops having a far greater number of passengers than long-haul trains, but this was to an extent expected. The completion of the full network itself will proceed to link the Western USSR in never before utilized ways, improving the lives of every Soviet Worker.
Unified Canal System(Step 1 of 3): The lowest cost option for entirely unifying the waterways of the Union rests in the restoration of the Ob-Yenisei Canal and deepening it preemptively to match the required depth of the Western deep water system. Barge traffic forms an essential part of the economy, and its further expansion will contribute to the development of the Far East. Work is expected to primarily focus on deepening the current remnants of the Tsarist attempt, ensuring that it can move sufficiently heavy barges in preparation for further construction efforts. (51/100)
Restoration of the old Tsarist canal has finally arrived now that barge traffic has become an ever-growing factor in the movement of heavy materials. The actual task of digging has been a simple process of excavating swampy soil in acceptable conditions, but the size of construction needed is still significant. Major parts of the effort itself are stabilizing it when working in the swampy ground and ensuring that barges designed for the Western Deep Water system can cross it. Construction work can be finished in a few years once funding is finalized, ensuring that large portions of Siberia and the Far East have a functional riverine network.
Augmented Earthmoving: American nuclear testing for peaceful purposes has already started at a small scale, and a technological gap cannot occur. By starting the development of lower radiation nuclear devices and incorporating testing for their impact on many fields, it should be possible to eclipse the American efforts and cheapen several proposed mass projects. Current uses are expected to primarily occur in earth-moving. Still, some visionary proposals have been made for the deepening of harbors and enhancing petrochemical recovery through the peaceful use of nuclear weapons. (101/50) (Completed)
It is always an interesting and novel experience to behold a nuclear test, it was for footage of the first shot, and now it is novel as the goal of the program has shifted towards the disruption of earth. Dedicated warheads are still being designed for higher fusion fractions and a comparatively smaller fission charge, but the concept itself has entered testing using older RDS-3I weapons. Their impractical configuration has left them little use in airforce circles, and rather than recycling enriched material, they have been transferred for testing. A cascade of six tests is planned for the year, demonstrating earth removal, earth softening, and a number of other applications. The radiation burden of these dirtier and older warheads is expected to be considerably higher, but nothing done will be different in type then older nuclear testing.
Heavy Industry
Novocherkassk Locomotive Plant: A new dedicated plant for producing electric locomotives is needed as the limited runs in the Leningrad Plant are inefficient, if adequate, for now. With the planned necessity to further increase loading on the passenger network and to enhance the degree of cargo throughput throughout the nation, electrification is a logical and efficient answer. Current grid power is only approximately at the price of fuel oil, but the reduced maintenance overhead of electrical traction alone is expected to recoup most investments. Once the plant is completed, it is expected that the overall cost of the HSR project will go down by a small degree while enabling a sufficient degree of experience to develop to enable large-scale conversions to freight electric traction in the next plan. (287/250) (-21 CI1 Steel -9 CI1 Electricity -7 CI2 Workforce)
Production lines for dedicated high speed electric passenger train sets have practically been established, with a degree of technical and scientific work remaining. The new train sets are expected to enter full scale production by the end of the current plan, if not entirely distributed by the end of it. The production of the machinery itself along with the trains are however expected to massively improve the experience of the Union with electrical passenger rail, with applications already being designed for lower speed intracity transit. Those models will likely enter production sometime before the end of the plan, but scaling rates heavily depend on the degree of investment and the necessary technical compromises.
Kuzbas Deposit Exploitation(Stage 1): Due to a number of political demands on the critical nature of domestic coal production and a number of speeches designating it a core element of national security, expansions need to be undertaken. Logistically challenging for a number of reasons, the deposit still represents a massive gain in accessible coal and in overall coal production. Current plans are first towards a general total modernization of methodology and techniques, improving labor efficiency and updating mechanization to use far heavier mining machinery. This will be accompanied by a moderate expansion in personnel and mining area, securing a far more stable and long term supply of low cost coal. (280/200 Stage 1 Completed) (80/300 Stage 2) (56 CI8 Coal -4 CI2 Electricity -9 CI3 Workforce) (Stage 3 Limit without rail electrification or Stage ⅔ Canals)
The massive deposits in Kazakh SSR have historically been exploited but to a far lesser extent than theoretically possible. Limitations in hardware and transportation infrastructure have always limited what could be hauled West, but now that can all be remedied. Massive pit mines and dedicated ultra heavy machinery have been shipped to the site along with experienced training cadres. Actual production is expected to take a few years to stabilize and reach optimal levels, but coal independence is now practically guaranteed as long as further utilization of the deposit continues and a sufficient investment into rail infrastructure is made. The availability of true metallurgical coal grades here is slightly worse than in the Donbass, but that is a minor factor compared to the sheer coal hunger of the electrical grid.
Expansion of the Automotive Plants(GAZ): The Gorky and the Volga automotive plants are excellent targets for mass expansion to close the gap toward the needed consumer goods targets. The managers there have already initiated large-scale extensive expansions of the production lines, but further efforts can be undertaken to improve output. Incremental improvements to the current models can be broken away from in favor of integrating several novel features, ensuring an adequate degree of foreign market utilization. Novel engine improvements can also be made on the production line, further improving throughput. (259/250) (Completed) (+60 RpT) (-40 CI3 Steel -12 CI2 Electricity -9 CI1 Workforce)
Directed funding towards the more experienced automotive plants has finally been authorized to great effect. Compounding on the efficiency of an already trained manufacturing line and established models, massive production increases will be achieved. Current plans call for a doubling of the relative workforce and machinery setups with more complex and automated systems. Enterprise funds on their own have already been in a constant commitment towards expanding production, but now the effort has only increased. If the plant's management is to be believed, it isn't unlikely that the plant and its complex will be shipping out more than a million cars a year before the end of the plan. Most of these will be economy cars meant for export, but reducing domestic prices to match foreign ones and achieving further market penetration can only contribute to the economy and secure yet more goods.
Rocketry
Expand RLA Program: The RLA program is proceeding at an acceptable pace for the standard single stack booster, even if the polyblock configuration has posed more challenges. Expanding aerodynamic testing and further extending structural evaluations can accelerate the overall project and reduce the odds of delay. Testing will be expanded on high capacity polyblock configurations with experience helping to ensure stability in both thermal and aerodynamic performance. (34) (Project Cost 15RpT)
The RLA is in itself a direct leap from what have been claimed to be "2nd generation" systems of rocketry towards a new conception of both efficiency and capability. Korolev has been given the task of designing upper stage packages for the full rocket, as his experience in payload design is invaluable. Dedicated programs towards tankage and structural modeling have also been initiated at full scale beginning the expensive but critical testing phase of every element of in flight hardware. Expanded testing is not the most popular approach towards space, but a politically relevant explosion or worse a loss to the Americans would be far worse.
Abort Program Enhancement: The recent loss of a cosmonaut is a politically fraught affair occuring due to failures in military quality control standards. Instead of focusing on the development of novel techniques, the current loss must be prevented from happening again. To that end, full scale testing and evaluation of the entire flight profile is necessary. High velocity solid rockets to separate the capsule at all launch phases, manual exit of the capsule in case of parachute abort and several novel features can be evaluated and tested. Space travel may be inherently dangerous, but risks can still be minimized. (77) (Project Cost 10RpT Finished 1962H2) (Reduces Political Fatigue Gain)
The tragic loss of an astronaut could be directly blamed on the army's lacking rocket design, but the R7U is likely to be used for a few more years yet. Compensating for issues in the capsule, a new all conditions ejection seat has been designed in with a far easier to operate hatch in the vehicle. A new solid rocket-based launch escape system has also been theorized to pull the capsule away at a significant g load, better to lose consciousness than to burn to death in a fireball of engineered incompetence. Both systems will not be available for immediate manned launches, with the program delayed for a few months until they are available, but Vostok flights are expected to resume by the start of 62.
Light and Chemical Industry
Petrochemical Pipelines(Stage 4): Further expansions of the overall pipeline network into the Far East have proven necessary as the massive petrochemical demand of the nation has only increased. The necessity of gas and power production in remote locations and the steady industrial intensification in the East have led to a proposed project for an oil and gas pipeline to be constructed to Vladivostok. The project will be costly, but it will ensure an easy and consistent flow of energy resources across the Union. Furthermore, constructing this pipeline will enable far cheaper petrochemical exports to China, supplying a massive market. (402/350) (Completed) (-4 CI1 Electricity -2 CI1 Workforce)
A link to Vladivostok has finally been completed, running across the Trans-Siberian to simplify logistics and constructed from both ends a true high-capacity pipeline has been built. Oil exports to China practically started as soon as it was connected to the local terminal, shifting the primary purchasers of Soviet oil towards the east. This massive drop in energy prices across the far East and SEA is expected to improve industrial productivity and ensure that the people can develop far faster. Already, there are Chinese proposals to build a direct pipeline with a meeting point of the lines near Chita. This would ensure that the Chinese can have a steady supply of petrochemicals through any form of economic or military disruption, and provide a sizable market for oil uninvolved with the West.
District Gas Heating(Stage 2 of 3): Continued development of gas heating initiatives will enhance the air quality of many urban centers and ensure that almost all urban coal heating centers are retired. Simplifications in logistics will generate a fairly mild return on both personal and resource expenditure, ensuring further ease in development. Gasification of heating will further expand the gas piping network, enabling the steady shift towards line gas for heating fuel across several urban zones. Already there exist designs for standardized homes with a basement gas-heating system, allowing for lower-cost designs in regions where the infrastructural density doesn't exist for a more centralized approach. (222/100 Stage 2 Completed) (122/150 Stage 3) (22 CI4 Coal 2 Workforce)
The finalization of district-based gas heating has demonstrated considerable and massive progress in reducing the state of urban smog. Instead of a partially persistent white fog lurking over major industrial centers, the air has steadily become far cleaner. Individuals still using coal for heating and cooking have yet to be addressed in their entirety, but just a small further effort is needed to fix that. So far gas use has increased especially with the cold, but the greater stability and lower logistical load of gas has provided a significant return on workforce and spending, allowing the people to re-specialize. Further initiatives are expected to focus on ensuring that every Soviet home can have a steady supply of gas, eliminating other cooking and heating fuels for even those in the countryside.
Fertilizer Plants(Stage 4/5): High-intensity production of several types of fertilizers is required to fulfill the target for already utilized agriculture and continue the current expansion of land under cultivation. It may not be possible to become an economy where the agricultural sector is not a drain on state funds. Still, a continued shift towards cheaper nutrition can only benefit the workers. Nitrogen-fixing apparatuses will be modernized and continuously improved, along with several vertical layout improvements developed in the petrochemical sector being implemented at all levels. (512/560)
Finalization of the massive Haber process units has practically been completed, with the only remaining work on the plants left for personnel recruitment and training. Increased rates of extraction for both potassium and phosphate have already been reached, satiating demand for those fertilizer components. Ideally, when fully finalized, it should be possible to maintain a high rate of export towards the Chinese as their agricultural and supporting industrial system is still primitive. Considerable gains for both agricultural efficiency and easy direct exports can be made in exchange for their high-employment manufactured products. Overall price indexes can thus be effectively lowered for the Soviet consumer while enabling market penetration with something other than capital goods.
Television Production Plants(Stage 3): Rationalized high throughput television models are far more likely to serve the bulk of workers instead of a focus on fewer, more expensive units. By consolidating production towards a black-and-white model that is easy to produce in massive numbers, considerable gains can be made in throughput. These plants will be practically constructed to ship out as many mid-grade televisions as possible, but that will more than serve to meet current consumptive demand. (208/200) (Completed) (-11 CI3 Electricity -4 CI1 Workforce) (Pork Project) (+20 RpT Consumer Goods)
With new technologies available, both the production of basic black and white television sets and color sets has steadily increased. A number of dedicated plants for both had already been practically built, just requiring the orders to start full-scale production. Significant portions of the funding has gone towards modernization, but production is still expected to rapidly climb as more and more of the population purchase televisions. So far demand is expected to be met by current production, as massive dedicated plants for the partially immature industry was a hasty oversight if one that still would have been useful. Keeping the industry at a reasonable profitability ratio, and ensuring that newer technologies are integrated when available has considerable promise to reduce expenditure and ensure consistent supply.
Textile Industry Modernization(Stage 1): The old era textile industry has adequately served for decades in producing a steady supply of new material for the Soviet Worker. Expansion now however will bring more modern techniques, synthetic fibers, and a degree of focus towards export. Low employment cost areas will be prioritized for expansion and modernization, as they will be the most sustainable in the long term, and the bulk provided factory labor will help to accelerate urbanization. The project itself will not be a short one, but as imported cotton is currently dirt cheap along with manufacturing labor, returns are expected to be considerable. (153/150 Stage 1 Completed) (3/200 Stage 2) (-4 CI1 Electricity -9 CI2 Workforce) (-5 RpT Oil, +20 RpT Consumer Goods)
Synthetic fibers have already started to proliferate in Western fashion and clothing and the Union cannot lag behind. Utilizing the current surplus of designs across the private sector and some licensing, new products are expected to be produced in the state sector. Polyester has provided a revolution in durability and quality for a massive number of conventional wear. Nylon has revolutionized several clothing items, and acrylic linings show massive promise in household applications. Synthetics have for a long time been the domain of the army and private sector but no more. Programs for new clothing have already started and the production of new fibers is only expected to rapidly increase as costs lower and public awareness increases.
Hybrid Packaging Developments: Continued computational production rests on a continuation of funding and demand. While local demand is considerable, production has so far met it and mostly produced new units without too much issue. As the academies in Kiev and other parts of the union have worked tirelessly towards new formats, a modernization to them will cost a minimized degree of funds. Going from the central ministry and standardizing on a generation of modular systems built on expandable transistors mounted onto card format can only help with the modularity. Funding here will mostly go towards accelerating production implementation, as early systems are not expected to ship before 1964 even with sufficient funding. (161+15 Omake/175) (Completed) (-10 CI3 Electricity -2 CI1 Workforce)
Experimental work on modular systems has so far had a considerable degree of progress with several proposals made on a further technical leap. Backward compatibility of the code and operational base to current generation machines has been a priority, but with new electronics far more can be put into smaller form factors. Discrete encapsulated silicon transistors and diodes have so far been mounted to cards at laboratory scales, but none of the technologies are minimally mature. Transistor fabrication will take time to troubleshoot, with the code base required for the new machines only growing in complexity. Still, once manufacturing can be initiated and the technology brought to maturity, a new series of modular machines can be built. In theoretical work under Glushko and Kitov has proposed the utilization of single integrated chips, but those are even more immature then card mounted sets of discrete units and are unlikely to function outside of aerospace applications.
Agriculture
Peoples Dietary Initiatives: Vitaminization and enrichment of standard foods has brought millions out of nutritional deficiencies, but far more can be done. Further vitaminization of foods and the enrichment of a number of standard components can make even the worst diets acceptably healthy. The demand for meat or any other product isn't expected to be significantly affected, but the enrichment of food will ensure that even the poorest workers can maintain their health. Fortification of breads with vitamin D in sufficient doses and a number of other moderate fixes can ensure that the health of the people improves at a minimal cost. An increase in protein concentration can also be accomplished for a number of specialty items, allowing workers to have more variety without negative health impacts. (188+15/200) (Completed) (-6 CI1 Electricity -8 CI1 Workforce)
Nutritional expansion and modernization has contributed massively towards improvements in health quantity and a further stage can be completed. Bread and milk fortification standards and secondary production has reached a point where vitamin D shortages should be a thing of the past. Previous Iodization efforts have effectively eliminated any nascent shortages of Iodine in diets, and continuous drives for higher vitamin contents have made massive leaps in public health possible without any significant costs. Some enterprises have not enjoyed the greater standards on the fortification of foods, but the state is more than willing to cover the cost of sufficient nutrition as a public health program.
Expanding Rural Production: Intensification of conventional agriculture has a massive degree of return and now that the chemical industry has steadily caught up, it is all a question of implementation. Higher degrees of processing in order to increase food preservation and accessibility while intensification with chemicalization can bring up agricultural production. Current methods of increasing production will likely increase export opportunities and maintain the relative profitability of the agricultural sector, ensuring that it doesn't become an active drain on finances. (93/250)
Procedures for high intensity fertilizer and pesticide cycle combined with near full nutrition supplementation has demonstrated massive gains in yields. For farms in agricultural zones with few rotation compatible high value crops, this has come as a massive benefit. Stronger education for agricultural workers and farmers on proper procedures has accompanied an effort towards the further distribution of tailored fertilizer combinations. Pest burdens have also significantly been reduced with new chemical formulations. Once full cross Union rollout is underway, it is expected that the new age of agricultural productivity can only accelerate until the limits of biology are reached.
Secondary Agricultural Production: The old enterprises developed to take advantage of the many secondary products from the broader agricultural sector have been constructed with a dramatic underestimation of the overall demand curve. Through the foundation of a further series of specialty cheese and meat processing enterprises along with several further processed products being developed, the Soviet worker could receive far cheaper consumptive products. These are then expected to improve overall agricultural turnover while cybernetically incentivizing several other enterprises to increase the production of previously secondary feedstocks. (239/300)
Continued emphasis on local cheeses has significantly taken advantage of a Union wide effect, with massive private participation in regional cuisines and dishes. Co Opting them partially, injecting masses of operational capital, and ensuring state oversight has so far massively increased production and export opportunities. If the Soviet worker has a demand for strange cheeses, wines, and meat products, there is no reason not to provide them. Regional Soviets have even gone so far as to praise the initiative as the distribution of jobs and cultural production has proven immensely popular, especially amongst the party members moving up towards operating semi-nationalized large scale enterprises.
Services
Waste Disposal Improvement: The production of garbage from the average worker has steadily increased over the last decade and some funding eventually needs to be allocated towards fixing it. With increased urban density and urban collection points the actual process of collection is relatively non-labor intensive but more work is needed in order to process and store it. Through the construction of a number of high temperature incineration facilities, the designation of more space for landfills, and an increased fleet of garbage vehicles in a number of cities, the problem can be solved for a time. Future efforts will likely necessitate a further expansion, but for at least a decade the current expansions should keep the situation under control. (202/150) (Completed) (-7 CI1 Workforce 6 CI1 Electricity)
Buildup of urban garbage has curiously been less of a problem then the state of rural trash. Instead of high efficiency consolidated systems for easy retrieval and disposal, most rural areas alternate between the obsessive preservation of meager possessions or massive turnover and consumption. Expanding processing and collection fleets has so far compensated for these discrepancies in valuation and consumption, even if the system is expected to be strained. Disposal of several challenging to process non decaying material has also shifted towards incineration, with several facilities built for a degree of power harvesting. Landfill capacity has also further been expanded to stabilize the situation and provide for the increasing demands of the workers.
Television Station Development(Stage 3): Building more stations is a useful utilization of creative potential and can further augment the distribution of new television units to the general population. While there will be some learning delays in determining the types of programming that the people primarily consume, it should easily be possible to continue an intensification and saturate several standardized channels, allowing everyone with a television to receive news and watch slightly older films. (204/175) (Completed) (-9 CI2 Workforce -10 CI3 Electricity)
Expansion of long form episodic shows and television dramas has proved to be far more popular than any reasonable expectations. The supply of failures has only increased in recent years as graduate ratios have so far failed to be adjusted for new cadres, new studios and new ideas have proliferated. Dedicated channels for episodic programming and several re-screenings of older episodes have enabled a contiguous experience for whoever wants to watch popular drama set in exciting settings. Documentary type and informational programming have also experienced a relative increase, as more worldly students have actually used their education to improve overall knowledge rather than producing simple entertainment.
Bureaucracy 5 Dice (No Free Dice can be Used)
Open Containerization Programs: Containerization of shipping is occurring at a slow pace, but through a degree of cybernetic encouragement through dual-approach methodologies it can be accelerated. Moderate fees and taxes will be placed on enterprises building conventional hulls outside of bulk freight while new ships will be softly encouraged to be built for containerization. These policies are just a first step and spending on the containerization of the entire economy will eventually be necessary, but the first steps can be taken legalistically. (86) (Supreme Soviet Reform)
Adoption of a container standard across the Soviet Economy has practically been rubber-stamped as a basic procedure. No one has so far said anything about the logistical state and a sufficiently timed report on the necessity of logistical streamlining from two bureaus and a following ministry report has secured its passage. Formally, the ministry itself could have pushed through the reform, but by ensuring that it has backing and that the correct performance numbers have been shown, initiative can be given to the Supreme Soviet to extend it across CMEA. If one of the luminaries of the body tries to come up with it independently, a tiny political win and risk can be handed off, leaving the task on the MFA, absolving any cost and influence loss from the ministry.
Expand Rural Housing Programs: Shifting up the intensity of the rural housing program has practically built a generation of controlled and correct housing personnel, and its expansion comes as a logical conclusion in expanding bureaucratic power. Setting the department towards a greater commitment of resources will assist in developing the Union even faster and a broader construction program will ensure that the countryside can start approaching the living standards expected from the development of communism. (Internal Reform) (Rural Modernization Program Becomes (-2 Agri Dice -180 RpT) (Stage 6 by 1965) (+6 Workforce a Turn))
With the tragic death of Comrade Lobanov, ironically while working at the very program his deputy ardently pushed for a general reorganization is only prudent. The deputy minister is thankfully unconnected, politically weak, and delusionally optimistic on the state of the Union, leaving him the perfect candidate. As said deputy has been the largest proponent of the rural housing program, allowing him to secure an undue amount of influence would be the highest point of error. Expanding the program before he could act in the indecisiveness of a reorganizing ministry and with claims towards doing what Lobanov wanted however will yield more support. The only worse thing than a death in the line of duty is a failure to properly utilize it for further influence.
Direct the University Program: Correct graduates are going to be moved up in massive numbers, and by taking a vested interest in the freshest cadres raised far from Moscow a far broader front of new personnel can be secured. Many will not be the most capable but politically isolated educated and technocratic personnel cannot be underestimated. They will be dependent on direct backing and practically be isolated and compliant to any necessary directive from above. The agreement is even unnecessary for as long as it takes them to form their own networks of connections, providing political capital for the better part of a decade with every promotion. (45) (Internal Reform)
Filtering the correct from the mediocre masses poses a significant challenge in both governance and direction. As tempting as it would be to accept all comers and ensure that all are integrated, some of the students are absolute imbeciles unable to get with any form of party program. For those better able to be directed, a sponsorship and career system has been established for recruitment directly into subordinate ministries and programs for hard distant work. If a student can prove themselves by taking on the hardest tasks away from any connections and in poor environments, they can justify their own promotions. If one has the dedication to work in punishing conditions in the Far East to develop the economy, they can build a non-threatening political base while directly demonstrating ability, dedication, and decisiveness.
Determine Coalitional Alignments: The current supreme Soviet may have just been re-seated, but already the closed-door debates have intensified. By taking time to personally discuss with several influential bureaus and members, it should be possible to obtain a general idea of the exact state of the various blocks present. The current poorly organized diaspora will only ensure that the ministry cannot operate with a proper idea for political margin, limiting capabilities at all levels. (80) (Stat Page Update)
24 Hour Moratorium(Will update status in the morning)
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Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
Okay, I like her for building up our soft sciences. Will think about who for Agri when I wake up.
- Location
- Behind You
[X]Nina Ivanovna Nikonova
[X]Lydia Vasilievna Sokhan
We need girlbosses!
[X]Lydia Vasilievna Sokhan
We need girlbosses!
Kuzbas is not a part of Kazakh SSR, though. Not OTL, at least.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
24 hour moratorium.
- Location
- India
Any new update about India?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Holy shit we've actually got female deputy options!
Modernity is actually getting closer!
Reaction post follows later.
Modernity is actually getting closer!
Reaction post follows later.
I don't think we need that now, though. Manufacturing is still an expanding sector, material standards of living aren't amazing, and artificial inflation of services (advertising, things like lots of fast food clerks instead of things like automats) isn't necessarily a good thing.
DkArthas
CAPITAL IS TO BLAME
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- They
I believe service sector expansion would include stuff like actually having enough lawyers, banking sector, transportation and similar essential stuff rather than fast food or advertising.
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