KOSYGIN AND THE RUSSIAN CONSUMER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100540003-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 1999
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 9, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

K
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Kosyg;hi and the Russian Consumer
CITv-r&Rrnands on the New Premier: More and Better Goods Plus Industrial Might
V Or the direct orders of Russia's new
leaders, it was bread-and-circus
time in Moscow this week, Black-booted
workers swarmed over the public build-
ings, hanging bunting for Saturday's cel-
chration of the 47th anniversary of the
revolution. To the wonder of Muscovite
housewives, wheat flour magically ap-
peared for the first time in more than a
year (at 31 kopecks a kilo, or about
16 cents a pound). More than 2,000
stores were taking orders for holiday
food, drink, and gifts-and some were
even offering home deliveries. Shops
stayed open until 11 o'clock at night
(they usually close at 9), and restau-
rants which have had to close at 11
kept their doors open as late as 3 a.m.
'there were rumors that prices of meat,
butter, and even vodka would be
slashed by its tmtch n'l :10 per cent in
time for the holed,, ,dl In a Final
Lucullan touch, the regime assigned
250 assistants in Moscow food stores
to advise housewives on how to set
a gay holiday table.
In 47 years of Communism, the So.
viet consumer had rarely had it so
good. And if the new concessions, the
crimson banners, and the festively lit
streets still left him skeptical, he couldn't
i;znore the spurt., of good economic
news. Blazed in headlines across Pravda
and Izvestia were claims of a record
grain collection of 53.8 million metric
tons from Kazakhstan and the Russian
Republic alone (vs. 33 million metric
tons last )rear), news of a new trade
)act with France, news that a promising
wcw incentive system based on factory
)rofits had unproved the efficiency of
)ilot plants and was being extended.
Bad news-such as word that the coun-
ry's industrial growth rate continued its
lecline, to only 7 per cent in the first
tine months--was subtly but clearly
inked to the "harebrained schemes" of
he ousted Nikita Khrushchev.
Big Lever: The Kremlin's new bosses,
3arty Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and
'remier Aleksei Kosygin, are obviously
riving top priority to their economic
)roblems-and not without reason. In
he view of CIA and State Department
rcmlinologists in Washington, Russia's
-hronic economic troubles were the big-
-rest single ]ever which Brezhnev and
Kosygin used to topple Khrushchev from
?owes. "But now," one top U.S. observer
are under just the same handicaps."
As Washington sees it, the basic
squeeze is one of priorities. Encouraged
by a rising industrial growth in the late
1950s, Khrushchev began trying to im-
prove the long-neglected consumer and
agricultural sectors of the economy
even promising in 1957 that Russia
would equal U.S. production of meat and
butter by 1960. But almost immediately,
things started going wrong. Disastrous
weather and a welter of misguided re-
forms kept agriculture virtually stagnant
for five years; Russian industry, inflexible
to new technology, remained geared to
the simpler demands of the 1930s and
Kosygin (wearing hat) ; `Logical'
developed more lavers of bureaucracy
and less real growth every year. There
simply wasn't enough capital to meet
the rising consumer hopes and at the
same time maintain the industrial
growth which every Russian leader
since Lenin has regarded as the prime
necessity in the race with capitalism,
In Moscow last week, 29 charges-a
number of them economic-were leveled
'avs, "Brezhnev and Kosygin have to against Khrushchev's stewardship. But tive wife, Klavdia, and daughter, Lud-'
ldiver what Khrushchev failed to de- the incident that actuall trf ered the milla out of the public eye. His
ever, 11 they ApprmyeohFberoJ tieas~ee491o9Mgilv7ag6iQ 7i5-0O4ARA0fiAG 00Qtr, is d(-n?
ing of party and ituverument leaders on
Oct. 2 and then in a secret .ne"noran-
clum to the party Pre:,idiuni on Oct. 8,
that more capital should be i"llrkcated to
agriculture and consumer goo ls--at the
expense of heavy industry and the mili-
tary budget. The proposals outraged the
Russian conservatives whom Khrushchev'
himself has derisively called the "steel
eaters," and they tipped the balance to
force his resignation.
Logician: As Khrushchev's successor
in the post of Premier, stolid, colorless
Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, 60, will
have prime responsibility for the work-
ings ings of the economy. His approach, 'as
virtually all knowledgeable observers
agree, will be sharply different. "Kosygin
is a new kind of Soviet leader-not sd
much ideologue as realist," says Joseph
Kahn of New York, a U.S. shipowner
who talked with the new Premier earlier
this year. "He's the kind of man to head
up a major corporation like Ford or
General Motors; he doesn't seem to be
the type to run a, political party. He
seems to approach problems in terns of
facts, in a pragmatic and very logical
manner. If I was impressed with any-
thing, it was his logical approach`
Kosygin rose to the top mainly
through sheer dedication to his various,
jobs, starting as a workman in a Lenin-
grad textile plant. He held ministerial
rank under Stalin in textiles, light indus-
try, and finance, and as Khrushchev's
Gosplan director, in effect ran the in-
dustrial side of the economy. "1-He's
respected and clever, but not a very,
winning nman," said a long-time Western
resident of Moscow. "He may have trou-
ble building tip a group of loyal fol-
lowers in the Central Committee--and
that's very important."
A precise, almost stuffy man (it was a
rare unbending when he appeared in
his shirt sleeves on a recent official visit
to Afghanistan), Kosygin has been about'
as popular as the proverbial efficiency
expert in his role as economic coordi-
nator. In a recent factory visit, a worker
recalls, "We were sure he was a trouble-
maker who was bound to poke his nose
in every corner and claim things weren't '
being done right. And that's exactly
what he did."
New Nepotism? Unsociable and reti-
cent at parties, Kosygin takes only an
occasional drink. He has kept his attrac-
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