The rump of the military command treated the Congress to a formal but not uninformative survey of military policy. Pride of place went to Voroshilov, who produced an impressive tally of percentage increases in the technical equipment available to the Red Army. The fire-power of a Soviet rifle corps could produce by its artillery volley 65 tons of metal per minute; adding the weight of other projectiles (mines, grenades, bullets) this came to the grand total of 78 tons of metal. The cavalry was being strengthened, increasing numerically by over a half since 1934 and with a 43 per cent increase in its artillery power, not to mention special anti-aircraft artillery designed to protect the cavalry against air-attack. Tank regiments attached to the cavalry had been increased by 30 per cent. The tank forces themselves, in addition to being re-equipped, had been completely re-organised. The greatest increase in Soviet artillery had occurred with anti-tank guns, antiaircraft weapons taking second place. The 'so-called short range artillery' (including mortars) had undergone considerable strengthening. Chemical troops were now double what they were, signal troops had increased and were almost completely mobile. Voroshilov obviously could not pass over dual command in silence. On the contrary, the Defence Commissar launched into a grand eulogy of the commissar, who was ' ... a most responsible figure in the army'. The commissar, V oroshilov went on, had a vital place

51I in the modem army, in which the commander was necessarily preoccupied with combat training and specialist instruction. In battle that 'integral unit' of the commander and the commissar would lead the troops into action; in training, both were responsible for the combat efficiency and material well-being of their units. The commissar had played his vital role in rooting out the traitorous elements in the Soviet armed forces. Political staff had grown with the expanding army; there were now 34,000 political workers compared with 15,000 at the time of the 17th Congress.