Notes on Communist Party Finances

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R000100170001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 9, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 10, 1948
• Content Type: REPORT

- S iitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100170001-1 z
10 August 1948
SUBJECT: Notes on Communist Party Finances
25X1A2g
The attached study on Communist Party finances has
been prepared as background information to assist the collection
of intelligence on this significant aspect of Party activities.
It is realized that it is difficult to obtain documentary evidence
concerning Party finances where their are overt, and that covert
financial dealings are even harder to document. It is however
sug?estcd that attention be focused on the clandestine trans-
actions of the Communist Party, i.e., that first priority be
given to the follot.ring subjects:
a. bueiness, commercial and trade fronts; their
personnel and transactions;
b. financial supDort of the Party through Soviet sources,
including transfers of moneys from official or semi-
official Soviet and Satellite installations or
individuals to the Party;
c. transfers of funds from one Party to another;
d. illegal activities (speculation, black market
dealings, bribery and. extortion);
e. identification of financial couriers.
Secondary attention should be given to the more normal
aspects of Party finances. It will however be of value to receive
authentic financial statements published by the party, complete
Party buc1 ;ets and estimates, no well as complete lists of overt,
mon.cy-rs,:xi:in{ Party enterprises and their financial status.
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NOTES OIS COII UITIST PARTY FIFA" CES
Pew activities of Com iunist Party administration arc so
shr-ucl.acl in obscurity as their financial tr,:nsactio . ns. Cho reasons
are not difficult t- finch Partly res.)onsible is normal reticence --
} reticence not unique to the Party, but shared. by most other
business, social, a.nn politic! nrbanications in matters of their
finances. Also res)onsible is the conspiratorial flavor which
the Party culti-,atos deliberately as part of its recruiting
tec:ncsique. More important is the, fact that the Party does engage
in work that, when not actually illegal, is at least better kept
from general _ )ubl.ic~-tion.
In order to reduce confusi'n between well--established fact
and speculation to a reasonable miniium, the present brief
outline on JP-arty finances has been d.1vided. into two sections.
The first deals with "normal" operati^ns _- activities Which are
neither "shady" nor actually illegal; those which the ;-.arty
acinowleciges. The sec in.d part attempts to show in general terms
the directions .rhiclx ille~l, or otherwise comproriising operations
may take, so far as they a.rc reflected in the rartyt s finances.
A balance sheet of the C" Italy has been ap'-)enderl to the study to
illustrate the more common items of income and. expenditure,
GG(mof
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,A M. 10 Q G1
PART 0itL : 111-TORMAL" OPT'RAT I O??S
A Communist Party is only incidentally a money-m-Iking or
money-conscious organization. Its political functions --
a..gitating, propagandizing, rocruiting, building up ?r. political
actin,n machine -- are its prior but not exclusive business.
Clandestine-illo_ya.l activities porma.ate the entire political
structure of the Party, nocessitating special security
techniques. Hence, the seemingly indifferent attitude of the
Party to accounts-Keeping. The statements rendere~:d to Party
Congresses, ancl. even those fe?.r samples which we have so far obta.in-
ed which are intended to satisfy Party functionaries, arc always
general ncl usually misleading. They -_re probably inaccurate even
in the few details which they purport to explain.
Drawing on such documents, supplemented by field reports of
varying degrees of -accuracy and detail, we can construct some-
thing of an outline of Party finances. The principal sources of
"normal" Party revenues are: membership fees and dues; periodic
financial drives; voluntary contributions from members and
sympathizers; extra levies on members for special purposes or on
special occasions; and receipts from "normal" operations, such
as the sale of Party literature, sale of tickets to Party-sponsored
events, and the like. Chief objects of expenditure are: salaries
of functionaries, agitation-propaganda expenses, and operational
necessities, mostly of a housekeeping variety (rent of office
space, stationery, travel accounts, etc.)
A.