SOVIET DEFECTORS AID WAR OF WORDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00662R000100140019-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 1, 2000
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: April 30, 1951
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP75-00662R000100140019-9
`s N.y.
MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1951.
SOVIET DEFECTORS
'AID WAR OF WORDS
Suggest Specific Points of
Vulnerability for Making
Psychological Attacks
By HARRY SCHWARTZ
Intensive interrogation of recent
defectors from the Soviet Union
has revealed that psychological
warfare can play a substantial role
in the struggle against the rulers
of the Soviet Union. Their testi-
mony indicates that the people
ruled by Moscow are far from
being taken in completely by the
propaganda to which they are in-
cessantly subjected and that much
resentment smolders underneath
the surface appearance 9 unanim-
ity.
here are indications that the
vulnerability of Soviet people to
psychological warfare techniques
extends through virtually all
groups of the population. Even
those born and raised under the
Communist regime have been sub-
jected to family and other influ-
ences that have insulated them in
part from the propaganda aimed
at them by acquainting them with
some notion of what life was
really like before the Bolsheviks
seized power and giving them some
perspective on their lot under the
Kremlin's rule.
Moreover, information about the
true nature of conditions outside
the Soviet Union is fairly wide-
spread- in that country, though
oftxtn in only blurred and frag-
mentary form. This is the result
mainly of the experiences of Soviet
troops in Eastern Europe during
and after World War II, as well
as, to a lesser extent, the result of
United States and British broad-
casts aimed at the Soviet Union.
These and other conclusions indi-
cated by defectors from many dif-
ferent groups of Soviet society
have convinced those concerned
with problems of psychological
warfare that if the Kremlin-im-
posed barriers to communication
can be overcome, counter-propa-
ganda can do much to weaken the
stability of Stalin's rule.
It is believed. that while efforts
to exploit many sources of dissat-
isfaction will find ready response
in the Soviet Union it must also
be basically' concerned with an
over-all discrediting of Soviet ideol-
ogy and with destroying the Com-
munist-spread myth that the Stalin
regime is the only protector of the
national interests of Great Rus-
sians and other peoples in, the So-
viet Union.
Much "Ammunition" Available
To discredit the basic ideology of
Stalinism, much "ammunition" is
available' both in the writings of
Marx, Lenin and Stalin and in the
history of the Soviet Union. The
Kremlin's claim to "scientific pre-
vision of history," it is pointed out,
conflicts basically with the long
history of Soviet flip-flops in many
different areas. Thus the war com-
munism of 1917-21 gave way to
the liberalism of the New Eco-
nomic Policy, 1921-28, and was
then reversed with the economic
development charted by the Five
Year Plans.
Those concerned with the prob-
lem point out that while Soviet
citizens learn that Marx believed
that the economic environment ba-
sically determined all else in social
development, the current Stalinist
C
position is that the Communist
party directs the Soviet Union's
growth, thus substituting a group
will for the economic environment
of Marx as the directing force.
. To counter the Politburo's bid
for Russian and other national sup-
port, psychological warfare must
seek to make clear that the free
world has no aggressive aims or
animosity toward the peoples of
the Soviet Union and is basically
more sympathetic to their interests
than the Soviet leaders.
Propaganda directed at the
Soviet Union, the defectors indi-
cate, must avoid certain danger-
ous associations with persons and
ideas whom Soviet propaganda has
successfully vilified. These include
such topics as Czarist injustice,
capitalist exploitation, efforts to
dismember Russia, ideas of racial
supremacy, Chiang Kai-shek, the
Kerensky Provisional Government,
Marxist anti-Stalinists and their
ideology, the Russian Orthodox
Church, Churchill and Tito. Some
of these associations are dan-
gerous not so much because of
Soviet propaganda but because of
independent trends. of thought
within the Soviet Union, such as
resentment at the way the Keren-
sky regime surrendered to Bol-
shevism.
Points of Vulnerability
The specific Soviet psychologi-
cal vulnerabilities cover a large
number of Points, it has been
found, but the chief are these:
The failure of the Soviet Govern-
ment to produce an abundant
life after thirty-three years of
rule and its need to rely on "pie
in the sky" propaganda.
The demonstrable falsity of much
Soviet propaganda. As one de- ings for their beatification started
fector put it, communism will i in 1917.
arrive in the Soviet Union. "on
the day when the people fail to
see the discrepancies between
Soviet propaganda and their
daily life."
Rewriting of Soviet history with
regard to events many people
remember.
The forced labor system, which
virtually all Soviet citizens
know about and hate.
The police state and its giant
coercion machinery.
The collective farm system, which
is almost universally hated.
Nationalism among minority
groups.
The exploitation of women who
must work alongside men while
also trying to raise families.
Resentment at the party bureauc-
racy and frictions within that
bureaucracy.
Discontent within influential So-
viet groups, including the intel-
ligentsia, high army officers,
factory managers, and the like.
Persons who have listened to re-
cent Voice of America broadcasts
beamed at the Soviet Union have
observed that these broadcasts are
being planned on the basis of con-
cepts and information not too far
distant from those sketched above.
Pope Venerates 25 Martyrs
ROME, April 28" (l euters)-
Pope Pius today venerated. twenty-
five newly blessed priests martyred
in Tonkin, "Indo-China, nearly 100
years ago. Thousands of Roman
Catholics, including '2,000 foreign
pilgrims, packed St. Peter's Ba-i
silica for the ceremony. Those
raised to the ranks of the blesse
today were the first to be beatifit.114
of 1,315 martyrs killed in Tonkin
between 1856 and 1862. Proceed..,.
Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP75-00662R000100140019-9