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This is your program Moscow mailbag. It's mailbag time and here is Joe Adam up to answer your questions the first letter is from Herbert Smith of thirty four M. Street spring will never Scotia Canada in what year does the U.S.S.R. expect to have the highest standard of living in the world by nineteen eighty we expect to have the highest standard of living in the world now this is not an idle dream this calculation is based on exact scientific estimates by our economists they took into consideration our actual possibilities the rate of growth of our economy the rate of growth of our productivity of labor and that's really the corresponding growth of the Western countries by that time. Compared to nine hundred sixty nine hundred eighty eight we'll see a growth in industrial production by six times we will be producing more eloquence of even was produced by the whole world in one thousand nine hundred eighty and we will leave the United States far behind in the level of industrial production a real incomes bridgehead of population will go up over three and a half times the housing problem naturally will be finally solved we will have the shortest and the highest paid working day in the world. We will not be paying for such things as rent gas and I Kristie that will be free and. Sitting transport will be free lunch of a our place of work will be free and that goes without saying that such things as medical service and education will be free to just the way they are today and income tax will be something that you read about in books. How many people lost their lives in the Second World War in living grabs six hundred and fifty thousand died of hunger of cold of bombs of the shells during the nine hundred a seed in my opinion this is one of the grimmest chapters of the war I'd like to dwell on this a bit longer people lived in Leningrad on one slice of black bread a day and nothing else they work hard at the various enterprises producing munitions they had to walk to work because there was no city cram for it there were cases when people just walked to work and fell on the way from exhaustion and hunger and cold their apartments were not heated there was no light there was no water there was no sewage system and people didn't even have the strength to bury their dead I've heard many stories of the siege of Leningrad my wife for one lived through it all and I'm telling you all this so that you'd better understand why we so ardently fight for peace why we want to see the Nazi war criminals punished and not rehabilitated as Western Germany wants them to be the ordeal that our people went through is something that I'm afraid a lot of you people in the states do not quite understand but I will conclude by saying we are people that are not afraid of war we just love it the next night is some day pick up fifteen five twenty two Houston Street and sign a California are there any organized basketball leagues in your country could you give me their names you see we have. Big and minor leagues you might call them that but they don't go under any special names they follow the British system in the Soviet Union that is we have Division one and division two and. Division one for instance plays for the national title. The teams eligible are selected by the U.S. as our basketball federation most of the competition here most of the games are on a local scale that is for city for District championships and so on what is the men's the season. We play basketball the year round in winter it's an indoor game the spring and summer we played outdoors which teams are the best the best men's team is the army club the best women's team is the team from the street car and trolley bus club Riga Latvia the national champions here take part in the European playoffs all the European national champions of the various countries lead to clubs I mentioned are the best in Europe the Soviet Olympic team and the team that plays at the World Championship is made up of players from all clubs poll human ache seven seven one five was the parkway Parma Ohio asks How did your station get started if you mean the foreign service of Radio Moscow we began in one nine hundred twenty nine. Already in one nine hundred thirty the broadcasts were they very. And by nine hundred thirty three we broadcast in eight languages German French English Hungary in Spanish Italian Swedish and check if you mean the the home service of Radio Moscow Well the first broadcast of a concert went on the air on the seventeenth of September nineteen twenty two. And already by October nineteenth twenty two hours central radio station called the common turn began regular broadcast and. We got the first reception report if you're interested in that shortwave reception report on the twentieth of March nineteen twenty five. A listener in Puerto Rico Louis Rex Satch heard our shortwave station and sent us a letter for the first time in history this said Don't you know Piqua of twenty six thirteen Fourth you are Rocky River higher asks why are Russia and the United States both fighting for world peace and yet there is war well who's doing the fighting may I ask we're not fighting anyone and we don't intend to where is there war in Vietnam you'd say correct well who's doing the fighting the United States plus the United States financed backed and trained puppets all right where else of their war they're fighting in the Congo why because somebody who represents the gentleman who only natural riches of the Gulf of the Congo is fighting his own people and here again you see American planes to been mercenaries the same picture no one elected the United States of the world policeman you know that is the world jammed arm this is a self-imposed mission. We are told that you're fighting for freedom in Vietnam freedom from watching me I ask freedom from the will of the absolute majority of the people who hold practically eighty percent of South Vietnam in their hands I'd like you to write to me and to tell me whom you are supporting in South Vietnam or put it this way who is supporting you in South Vietnam maybe it's the governments who become a regular joke yes they have you go to sleep and there's one government you wake up in the morning and you find there's another you go to sleep the next day and there's a third government do you call supporting them supporting freedom do you think the United States should be spending so much money on foreign aid a country's budget and expenditures are things that belong to the sphere of their internal affairs and it's not for me to tell you how to spend your money but since you asked the question I will say that I believe that aid to developing countries is definitely a good thing when a richer and more developed country helps a newly developing country. But when aid is given to further your own selfish interests that sort of aid we're against age should not be given to further one's political military or economic interests of the Soviet Union and many countries in return for our aid we do not ask for military bases or concessions and we do not attach any political strings to our aid that sort of aid we believe that we do not humiliate the new nations with charity neither do we insult them with degrading conditions of credit we adhere to the principle of equality and mutual respect as a rule credits are given on favorable terms to be cancelled during twelve years at two and a half percent annual interest which is half incidentally of the usual interest of Western banks. Why does your country always make the front page on our newspapers I think that ought to be clear our country is the most powerful and the richest country in the socialist camp yours of the first country in the capitalist camp there are bound to be problems between these two camps problems do arise but we here firmly believe that the thing to do is to solve all our differences all without exception at the negotiations table and no other way with the breaking up of the colonial system countries fight for their independence you try to put them down by force naturally our sympathy is on the side of those countries and God forbid if anybody wants to follow the socialist path of development then you're ready to send the Marines you don't care what the absolute majority of the country wants naturally in such cases we oppose your policy and naturally we have the headlines Michael gallery of six nineteen Miami Avenue Terrace Park Ohio writes How many universities are there in the U.S.S.R. we have forty one universities the University for students of the developing countries of Asia Africa and Latin America is the forty first we also have seven hundred forty two colleges what is the annual cost the annual cost is nothing at all because all education is free but it costs the government eleven thousand dollars to train a doctor for instance and no graduate has ever paid a cent for his education in fact he gets what we call a maintenance grants from the government while he studies. While we're on the subject of colleges and universities you may be interested to know that just recently. There are new rules for entering colleges and priority is given to those who have at least two years of work on the job behind them and priorities also given to those well who show that they're outstanding workers in production and they're sent to college by their enterprise or factory we pay more attention to the marks for the main subjects in pouncing the entrance examinations Well for instance if you're going into a technical college naturally marks for such subjects as mathematics physics and so on and priority will also be given to those who outside of their school studies that much work in their chosen field in the various clubs or maybe in various competitions organized by the colleges for instance he wants to enter and have a chronic scholar age well he did work in a club or took part in various say Radio model building competitions such a student gets priority because we feel that he's got a soft heart set on the subject when you start of Carrington Dr Reddy's Connecticut asks how many T.V. stations are there in the U.S.S.R. all told there are a hundred fifty today and we've just recently commissioned our longest radio relay line between Moscow and Tbilisi in the Caucasus do you have commercials or are the stations supported by payment for the use of the set by each own name on many occasions I've explained that we do not have any commercials we do have a few ads naturally both on T.V. and radio but the stations are not supported by payment for the use of a set by each owner. Both the payment for sets and the registration of sets was stopped in one nine hundred sixty one so we pay nothing for our for the use of our sets both radio and T.V. There is a system in the Soviet Union. A public aggressive some sort of wired system. Radio broadcast in which you can only get the home service broadcasts that you pay for that's the only thing you pay for and that costs fifty five cents a month but if you have a regular transistor or tube radio set or television set you pay nothing for that well those are all the questions we have time for today but you must have many questions about the Soviet Union so the best thing to do is get first hand information directly from us and raise your letters to mailbag Radio Moscow Moscow the U.S.S.R..