J.V. Stalin. Collected Works. 1-13 volumes. English edition.

TALK WITH THE METAL PRODUCERS
26 December 1934
(In connection with the successful fulfilment by
the iron and steel industry of the plan of production
for 1934, a delegation of directors, engineers and
workers of metallurgical plants was received on
December 26, 1934, by Comrades Stalin, Molotov and
Orjonikidze.
In the course of the interview Stalin spoke of the
tasks facing the iron and steel industry and of certain
important problems of socialist development.
Stalin said :-)
...We had all too few technically trained people.
We were faced with a dilemma : either to begin with
giving people technical training in schools and to postpone
the production and mass operation of machines
for ten years until such time as our schools trained
technically educated cadres; or to proceed immediately
to create machines and to develop their mass operation
in the national economy in order to train people in
technical knowledge and to create cadres during the
very process of production and operation of machines.
We chose the second course. We frankly and deliberately
consented to incur what in this case would be
inevitable charges and over-expenditures owing to the
inadequate number of technically trained people capable
of handling machines. True, not a few of our
machines were damaged during this period. But, on
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