Yesterday, the Politburo made its first decision on the priority tasks for promoting and implementing the Congress's decisions, and on addressing the critical remarks made by delegates, with corresponding instructions to the departments. Now, proposals are being prepared on the forward-looking issues raised at the Congress, both in reports and speeches, including, of course, issues related to women's councils and veterans. We want this matter to be taken seriously. It seems that a group of Central Committee departments will be tasked with conducting such work together with the relevant agencies, trade unions, and the Komsomol. By the way, you (Fedotova) should be included there too, because you accumulate opinions on women's issues that need to be thoroughly thought through. This work will be carried out under the party's control, with your participation and assistance.

It must be said that many socialist countries have adopted our experience and are implementing it beautifully. I had the opportunity to see this during my stay in Bulgaria. Women's councils have been given enormous rights there. Many issues can only be decided on the initiative of these women's councils.

Here, the trade unions met this with little enthusiasm because they felt they would have to give up something. This is common among us. Everyone loves to take—regardless of whether they will do anything with what they've taken. But they don't like to give.

All this needs to be carefully considered. We essentially created this movement as such. In the 1930s, we had women's councils everywhere. They still remain in the national republics, but their focus has been narrowed to freeing women from religious influence—particularly Islam. But now Soviet women are addressing many issues. All our women work, carrying various responsibilities—from ordinary to leadership roles. In some sectors, everything rests on their shoulders. Many progressive industries rest on their shoulders—electronics, transformers, instruments. To a significant extent, all this is on women's shoulders. I'm not even mentioning public education, healthcare, service industries, light industry, and so on.

But this must be balanced with the fact that women also have families. Has everything been thought through here? Has everything been done to take into account the changed position of our women? How much time she loses in shops, in service establishments, and so on. All these issues need to be brought under the control of such organizations. Or issues of childhood, motherhood, and everything connected with this. These are not simple matters.

And the family issue needs to be addressed. Look how we've discredited the family in literature. The heroines are single women, ladies who create some kind of comfort for wandering men. And we watch them in cinema—outstanding actresses play them, and we create some kind of twilight atmosphere, and all this propaganda. The entire conflict is built around a wife cheating on her husband, or vice versa. Otherwise, there's no conflict. Take any work, they're all built on this. This isn't normal.

In general, comrades, the family issue deserves the most serious attention. Many factors that previously underpinned marriage have fallen away—economics no longer holds it together, religion doesn't hold it, the law doesn't hold it. The family is indeed forming on a different basis, on new ideas about family, different relationships, human personality, in a different moral atmosphere. Personal relationships are primarily at the foundation. But we need to help the process of their formation and development in accordance with the high principles of our morality, in the interests not only of the individual but also of society.

Look—50 percent of marriages end in divorce. Where will this lead us?

In general, our newspapers have recently begun to address these topics well. This is right. True, sometimes they'll put some vociferous female author on the pages of the press. And she begins to develop the theme of women wanting to have children outside of marriage. That's fine if she can't form a family. But why shout about it across the entire country with calls to help resolve this issue? Should we give some kind of instruction through newspapers? Well, what kind of foolish appeal is this? Does anyone think about these things or not? These are very delicate matters, comrades. And what is society without a reliable family? The issue of children and parents is not only a question of parents' obligations toward children, but also of children toward parents. This is a real problem. How many mothers have been abandoned, forgotten. Both sons and daughters have drifted away. This is a very serious thing, and we need to think seriously about the family.

All this relates to the issue of women's councils as well. If things are bad in the family, both men and women suffer. What kind of mood can they have if they don't even want to return home after work? It should be the opposite.

With what mood and feelings do they go to work? What will their productivity be? These are all very serious issues, and I don't want to discuss them simplistically now. I just want to emphasize that this is a very important topic, and that's why we specifically included it in the Political Report. Now it's a matter of thinking about how to solve the issues related to it.

Perhaps you didn't notice this.

When preparing the report, we weighed how best to say this until the last moment. And you can't write everything. For example, when vacation vouchers are distributed—they give one voucher to a man—or to a woman. What kind of outrage is this, comrades? Or take invitations: they distribute invitations to a holiday, some anniversary—again not to spouses, but separately to either the man or the woman. Why, comrades? What nonsense is this? Who established this practice?

The trade unions, thank goodness, have now begun to allocate vouchers to parents with children. Before, those raising children couldn't go on vacation with their children. No sanatorium would accept them. Now they've started to allocate at least 30 percent of places for vacationers with children.

All this contradicts the interests of strengthening the family. Everything is permeated with this. There's a virus of some kind of indifference to the family. They don't understand its significance. And this is reflected in literature. In this sense, it's truthful. But who, one might ask, needs such truth, what does it orient people toward? It leads to the conclusion: they're living happily, so why am I so bored?

I feel that you're already prepared for lunch. I think we met at the right time. Just at the time when everyone is thinking about what needs to be done after the Congress. It seems that everything that could be done for the Congress has been done. And this helped create a creative atmosphere in the country. We felt this through the delegates' speeches, through the reporting and election campaign. Some kind of new atmosphere has formed in society, allowing us to hope that our people will actively engage in the process of solving the tasks set by the Congress in the political, production, and spiritual spheres. This is very important.

Now the main thing is to implement everything outlined by the Congress. There was a very good expression here: "not to talk away," not to drown the implementation of the party's strategy and plans in idle chatter.

In general, I feel that everyone is concerned about this, just like the Central Committee. This is my most important impression. And this is the most important prerequisite for finding approaches to solving the tasks facing us, if not today then tomorrow, and implementing measures aimed at working better, moving forward, and concentrating the activities of our mass media on the main thing—the implementation of the Congress's decisions.

We understand the enormous and mobilizing role of the mass media in this. Their activities will constantly be in the party's field of vision. And this means there will be direction, help, criticism, and support. That's how it should be. This is a normal process. And, in general, one should react to criticism in a businesslike manner, draw conclusions, improve work, including when it applies to the editor.

The day before yesterday, when we met with the members of our Government, I spoke about this. Because it used to happen that as soon as some critical remark was made, immediately the thought arose: they're probably going to fire me. Now the issue is not like that. This is not what we should be thinking about. Criticism should be a normal phenomenon. If a question arises—ask it, if there are remarks—express them, but things should change for the better afterward. That's what it's about.

We had journals and newspapers in which certain individuals settled personal scores on their pages. But a newspaper is not a place to settle scores. It's the country's platform, an organ performing a huge public service. And let's stick to this approach—if there are proven new approaches, they should be supported. And do this under the editors' responsibility. There is a political line. It must be followed strictly and unswervingly. Everything else is under the responsibility of the editors. If you make mistakes—be accountable; if you achieve success—we will welcome and acknowledge it. This is also necessary. Creative workers perhaps need a kind word even more than anyone else. Because if there's no good mood, it's difficult to create something that would touch the soul of a person, a reader, a viewer.

It's very important that from the first days after the Congress, you engage in active work and act in this spirit. This is where I see the main meaning of our conversation. It's important that at this stage you already know our plans, our attitude to the work you're doing, to the assignment you're carrying out. And the tone you set, those present here, will largely determine the work of all other mass media outlets. So, to work! Deeds are needed. I want to wish you success.

A number of practical issues were raised here. Some, I think, we will resolve quickly, we'll find ways to solve them. Others—I think it's necessary to step-by-step solve the issues of the material basis of the mass media, oriented both within the country and beyond its borders. If anything, we should not spare resources for the technical base of our ideology's means.

Comrades, great is the power of the truthful word and your responsibility is serious. Here, Alexander Nikolaevich (Yakovlev) reports that as of today, this morning, one and a half million copies of brochures with the text of the Political Report have been published... And still it's not enough. People are getting them through connections. This says something, comrades.

About work, about life, comrades, one must write responsibly, seriously. Sometimes you suddenly see that there's a breakdown in a newspaper on some day. I sometimes call "Rural Life" about this, out of old habit: what are you doing, I say, blaming TASS. Don't you have anything to write about? For rural residents, you need to provide live materials that concern them. And not just critical ones. People are now very concerned about what's next, what needs to be done. We need to help them, comrades. And to help means to capture new experiences, to bring them to the consciousness of the broadest masses, to fully promote their dissemination.

Of course, we need to criticize what requires criticism. This needs to continue. You have experience in how to criticize. Here I won't give you advice. To criticize to the foundation, and then... (Laughter in the hall.)

I think we're parting in the spirit of complete mutual understanding. Ahead lies enormous work. This must be constantly remembered. And work. According to conscience, according to party conscience. I wish you success.