The problem before the Communists was to find the most convenient and easy way to assert the control of the Moscow standardizing policy without arousing too much discontent among the people. The return of agricultural prosperity under individual farming was supplying the rest of the Soviet Union with food and at the moment the leaders were not desirous of upsetting conditions too strongly. It was true, of course, that Ukraine was being laid under heavier and heavier contributions until it seemed even to some of the Communists that the entire land was being ruined. Then came the problem of extending Communism to the country. The First Five Year Plan was started in 1928 and this gave a good opportunity for changing conditions. Enormous factories and power plants were projected for Ukraine, such as the Dnyeprostroy near the site where the old Sich had been located. There was needed a large mass of workmen and the government saw to it that these were recruited from the Great Russians and from non-Ukrainian elements. The first step in the change of character of Ukraine had been taken. At about the same time, the first steps were taken to handle the cultural problem which had been intensified by the success of the preceding program of Ukrainization. Under the guise of promoting the solidarity of the Soviet Union, it was ordered that Russian be taught as a second language in all schools. Arrangements were made so that possibility for personal advancement was only opened to those persons who knew Russian. Army officers who desired a career were sent to Russian All-Union schools, and then for the most part were assigned to units from other Soviet Republics. Along with such tendencies, which removed from the state organization many of the outstanding young men even among the Communists, there came a shift of emphasis, so that Stalin could declare that the culture of the various Soviet Republics would be varied in language but socialist in essence. In other words, exactly the same thoughts were to be expressed in all the various Soviet Republics, which were to be at liberty to repeat in their native tongue the ideas of the Kremlin and nothing else. There was strong opposition to this stand in Ukraine and the old and more or less disused talk of Ukrainian counter-revolution and nationalism was again brought out of the discard. Mykola Skrypnyk, an old Ukrainian Communist, but an ardent advocate of Ukrainian culture, undertook to bring Communism into the Academy of Sciences. The various Communist organizations were invited to propose candidates for its membership, for party prominence and familiarity with the slogans and practice of Communism were henceforth to be the determining features of the membership, rather than eminence in any field of learning.