INDICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04864A000300040022-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 6, 2002
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: February 4, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT NO.
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCArrs CD NO.
SATINTL
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT INDICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES
HOW
PUBLISHED
WHERE
PUBLISHED
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
THIS DO UM NTA INS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEPEN
OF THE UNITED STATES. WI THIN THE MEANING OF TITLE IS, SECTIONS T.Eli
1110 1S4, UP THE H.S. CODE, AS AMENDED. IT'S TRANSId I SS WM OR REWE?
1..AT1 ON OF TO CONTENTS TO OR RECEIPT ST AN UNAUTHOR12CD PgRsat rrs
II CT I OF ,THI.S. FORM IS POEM BIT 0
SOURCE Monitored Broadcasts
Vat
Otte .
NAY?
DATE OF 20 Deo. 1952 -
INFORMATION 5 Jan. 1953
DATE DIST,
1953
NO. OF PAGES 6
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO,
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
CPW Report No. 66 -- Inside USSR
(20 D.C. 1952 -- 5 :an. 1953)
CONTENTS
Union Day
2
Ideology in Ukraine
3
Ideology in Kazakhstan
5
Fedoseyev-BOLSHEVIK Affair
5
CIASSIFICATION FOR OFiTrIAL USE ONLY
NCO
DI BUTION
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UNION DAY
STATI NTL
In a PRAVDA article of 30 December, excerpts of which were broadcast from Moscow
on the same day. Poskrebyshev refers to the USSR as a "voluntary" association of
states whose sovereignty and equal rights are guaranteed by the Stalin Constitution.
The USSR, he says, is a union of states but also of poppies, and in this respect
it is radically different from other associations which are merely agreements
entered into by government irrespective of the people's desires (pamimo zhelania
narodov). Among the examples cited are the British Commonwealth of Nations which
is merely a "cover name" for the British colonial empire, the federative system
of the American states which facilitates "the physical extermination" of the
Negro and Indian minorities and the French Union which has produced unheard-of
bestialities in Tunis and Moroeco and the present "dirty war" (gryaznaya voyna)
in Indo-China.
During the period between 1922 and 1936 which marked the first stage of develop-
ment of the multinational state, Poskrebyshev reveals, the Party was confronted
with the difficult task of "eliminating" the friction among the different
nationalities. The tendency the Bolshevik regime fell heir to was toward national
segregation on the part of the non-Russian peoples. The Great Russians, on The
other hand, maintained a supercilious attitude toward their "foreign" countrymen
and even held them in contempt: "... distrust of the Great Russian people had?
not yet disappeared, and centrifugal forces continued to operate" (... ostatki
nedoveria k velikorossam eshehe no ischezli, a tsentrobezhnie ally vse eshche
prodolzhali deistvovat). Declaring that all that is now a matter of history and
that all the Soviet peoples are equal, Poskrebyshev does not miss the opportunity
to drive home the point that the attainment of national equality, among many other
revolutionary achievements, was carried out by the Great Russian people through
the medium of the Communist Party. The first among equals (pervie sredi ravnykh),
the Great Russian people alone, it is implied, are responsible for the ultimate
success of Stalin's nationality policy, and the best the other nations can do is
bask in the Muscovites' glory. (That the Ukrainians are very conscious of this
line has been manifested on several previous occasions. The standard reference
to Russo-Ukrainian "friendship" frequently contained in RADYANSKA MAIM as
quoted elsewhere in this report and in official speeches is that the Ukrainiae
nation "prides itself" on the fact that it was the first to join the Great Russians
after the latter overthrew the czarist regime and made the advent of Bolshevism
possible. It is possible that such professions of comparative inferiority are
not prowled by honest conviction. The uniformity and the stereotyped phraseology
employed to express the fawning adulation of the Great Russians suggest that the
"Party line" has a great deal to do with it.) The Soviet Union as now constituted,
according to the author, is a family of nations held together by a single powerful
catalyst which is the Great Russian nation:
RUeSiall text:
The Great Russian People, the first among
equal Soviet peoples as the most outstanding
nation among all the nations comprising the
Soviet Union, is the cementing force which
binds the peoples in friendship.
Velikiy russkiy narod, perviy credi ravnykh
sovetskikh narodov, kek naino/eye vydayushchayasyl
natsia scredi vsekh nataiy, vkhodyashchikh v
Sovetskier Soyuz, yavlyaetsee toy tsementiruyushchei
alloy, kotoraya skreplyaet druzhbu narodov.
As a sovereign state, each Soviet republic is said to "enjoy extensive rights"
(obladayet shirokind prime) in the noheee of foreign affairs. Poskrebyshev
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STATI NTL
provides no inkling as to the nature of those "rights" since any mention of, say,
the Ukraine's and Belorussia's "rights" in the United Nations, would not make
good- propaganda in. the Baltic States, Kazakhstan or elsewhere.
Writing on the same subject in IZVESTIA (30 December), Gorkin is somewhat more
moderate in his reference to the Great Russian people. It was their unstinted
help, he says, that enabled the backward non-Russians to catch up with (dognat)
the advanced central Russian State.
RADYANSKA UKRAINA (31 December) reviews Ukrainian achievements under the multi-
national setup for the pest 30 years and stresses the fact that it owes its very
oxietence to that system?and the Great Russian people, the mainstay of the
fraterzal family or rAtiontin The Ukrainian republic, the paper declares, could not
have been saved from imperialist invasion had it not been a component and insepar-
able part of the Soviet Union and eo close to the Russians:
Ukrainian version:
It is the great fortune of the Ukrainian
people that they were the first to follow
their elder brothers, the Great Russian
people, and to take the Soviet path of
development. It is a point of national
pride of the Ukrainian people ....
Velyke achastya ukrainskogo narodu v tomu,
shoho vin pershiy slidom za evoim starshym
bratom, rossiyakim narodom, stay na radyanskiy
shlyakh rozvytku. Toy fakt ye predmetom
natsionalnoy gordosti ukrainskogo narodu
CPYRGHT
Inside Ukraine: Ideological & Political Soft Spots: Evidence of Ideological slack-
ness in the Ukraine has been noted in scattered regional refereneee to tla eubjeen
for some time. The first indication appeared in an unsigned PRAVDA article on
28 Dece ber stating that serious shortcomings had been unearthed in practically
everything from "undialectical" university instruction to illegal machinations in
the retail trade outlets. On 3 January Kiev broadcast a lengthy decision of the
Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Perty, based on a report by Nelnikov
which had not been broadcast, "on measures for improvement of ideological work in
the Ukrainian Party Organization." The greater part of the decision deals with the
unhealthy ideological climate produced by the Party's "continuous under-estimation
of the value of ideological work" and political lightheartedness in general. The
Central Committe points out that the 19th Party Congress materials as well as
Stalin's speech and his article on economic problems of Socialism in the USSR are
net sufficiently popularized among the masses, and the result is that "large
segments of the population" are not familiar with them. Nor is the "leading role"
of the Communist Party in the life of the country emphasized strongly enough,
It is disclosed;
Ukrainian version:
The same applies to the problem of ... invio-
lability of the Lenin-Stalin friendship of
nations in our country and to the leading role
of the Great Russian nation in the fraternal
family of nations in the USSR.
Lee nano vydnosytaya i do problem ... neruehimoy
neninskoynStalinskoy druzhby narodiv v mighty
providnoi rely velykogo rossiyskogo
larodu v braterskiy siIi narodiv Soyuza RSR.
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The Party's supervision of the daily and periodical press, according to the
decision, is on the whole "bad," and the general ideological level of these
publications is "low." Many of the newspapers, it is claimed, "do not contain
. anything new and enlightening" ani their language is "incomprehensible and
unpopular." Among the publications so criticized are PRAVDA UKRAINY, SOVETSKAYA
UKRAINA, RADYANSKA OSVITA (a teachers' Journal), DNIPRO, ZHOVTEN and others. There
has been little in these papers about "Marxist Aesthetics" and "socialist realism"
or indeed about anything affecting the problems of social and political life.
These shortcomings are said to be further aggravated by the failure of the press
to "expose" the hostile ideology of the Ukrainian bourgeois-nationalists, on the
one hand, and to harp on the superiority of the socialist system over that of
capItelism, on the other. There has been very little emphasis on "American
imperialism as a ... strangler cei the freedom of nations." Taken to task also for
"errors and perversions of an objectivist 'and bourgeois-nationalist nature" is the
Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, the institutes of economic, history, linguistics,
philosophy and literature as *ell as "many departments" of social sciences and
higher educational establishments.
Tighter control of the press and intensified vigilance against any manifestation
of a hostile ideology head the list of the 18 remedial measures offered by the
Centrel Committee to bridge the ideological gaps in the Republic's life. Point
four of the decision refers to the "completely intolerable" political situation
in the Western provinces of the Ukraine, and says that the Central. Committee hereby
"orders the Party organs to decisively end this abnormal gituation," Party
propagandists, its pointed out, have not been sufficiently aggressive in spreading
Marxist dogma among the people: ideological work must be "offensive and belli-
gerent" and 'concentrate on the main target of attack, the agents of the Ukrainian
bourgeois-nationalists. Party Committees, Communist and other officials are
frequently taken to task for the failure to "uncover and expose" the bourgeois-
nationalist Ukrainians who are invariably branded as the "bitterest enemies"
(nayluteishi vorogi) of the Ukraine.
The RussoeUkrainian thous is discussed, in context of linguistic similarity and
cleeseness, in an article by Lukyanonko carried by RADIANSIA UKRAINA on
27 December but not broadcast. Criticizing a recently published book on "Russian-
Ukrainian Parallels" (rosiysko-ukrainsky paraleli) by Cherednichenko, the author
warns againstunder-estimating the precious similarity between the two languages
and makes the remark that the tendency of the book is to emphasize the
dissimilarity wherever possible. Chersdnichenko, it is claimed, shows a preferenceCPYRGHT
for the type of Ukrainian expressions that cannot be easily understood by Russians:
Ukrainian text:
Wherever two Ukrainian variants are possible,
only one is indicated, and the other which is no
less legitimate but also coincides with the Russian
ie not given.
Tam, de v ukrainskiy movi mothlyvi va varianty,
vkazuyetsya tilky odyn, a dregiy, no mensh
zakonniy, ale vidonly i v rossiyakol movi, ne
podayetsya.
This tendency, says Lukyanenko, reveals a "fear of closeness" (strakh pored
blyzkistyu)e.a fear induced by bourgeois nationalism, which should be liquidated
without delay. A thorough rewriting of the book, which was published as a language
study aid, is suggested an a preliminary step to that end.
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Kazakh Party Affairs: Insincerity TatTLEEILI_LitIt: Disparaging comment on
political affairs in the Kezakh SSR is contained in a long PRAVDA article
(25 December) by the Republie's Party boss Shayakhmetov. One of the most common
forms of violation of Party and State discipline, he says, is concealing or
embellishing the true state of affairs in industry, agriculture or within the Party
itself. These are not isolated instances, it is admitted, since available
evidence points to dishonesty on every level of the Party hierarchy "beginning
with the Central Party Committee and ending with the primary organizations"
(nachinayt s TsKEP Kazakhstana konchaya pervichneed organizatsiami). Referring
to what might be construed as "empire buildingo within Party and economic organiza-
tion, Shayakhmetov inveighs against the "lords" (velmozhi) who will do anything
to keep their "preserves" (vetchiny) in tact. Some of the devious methods these
ofP?iiials are said to be emeliyine to keep the Party and the Government from knowing
what is going on aro fictitious production reports, inflated requisitions for
government supplies, and the formation of tight "family cliques" to facilitate
such illegal activities and leave the culprits unpunished: "Under such circumstances
even honest officials become corrupted" (v takikh aluchayakh dazhe khoroshie
rehotniki nachinayut portitsya). In agriculture, for example, the practice of
fulfilling the plan or paper "is tally popular" (rasprostraneno dovolne shiroko).
In industry, complicity between management and Party officials makes large-scale
squandering of raw materials possible, and the "honest chatterboxes" (chestnie
boltuny) within the Party-'who never mean what they say--are responsible for the
"morbid manifestations" (boleznennie yavlenia) in that organization.
L'Atat_FaelaMajp Criticism of the former chief editor of
BOLSHEVIK Fedoseyev is contained in a PRAVDA article of 24 December over the
signature of Presidium. member Sualov. Referring to the two articles Fedoseyev had
published in IZVESTIA on 12 and 21 December commenting on Stalin's latest work,
Suslov declares that it is not what the author said but what he failed to say that
maket his sincerity doubtful. He notes that although Fedopeyev had been removed
from his BOLSHEVIK post three years earlier for unorthodox views, there was no
"nee culpe in his otherwise satisfactory articles. It is all very well for
Fedoseyev to admit that until recently "an erroneous and un-Marxian conception
(neptaeilree, nemarksistskoye predstavlenie) was popular among certain ehiloeophers
and economiste--that is an honest appraisal of the situation. Suslov asks why he
omieted any mentinn of his own political sins which have been public knowledge
for several years. He had the opportunity to do so when writing for IZVESTIA, and
his failure to take advantage of it, according to Suslov, raises some doubts about
his present professions of Stalinist orthodoxy. Fedoseyev "had sinned not a little"
(no malo pogresbil) against the Party while editor-in-chief of its theoretical
Journal, and his affinity for Voznesensky and his heretic views as expressed in
his book "USSR's Wartime Economy During the Patriotic War" are known only too
well.
Revealed in this connection is an hitherto unpublished Central Committee decision
of 13 July 1949, dismissing Fedoseyev and the entire editorial college of
BOLSHEVIK for their"un-Marxist views" and replacing them by an entirely new set
of people. Tneeealed also is the hitherto unknown fact that the magazines
VOPROSY EKONOMIKI :Problems of Economy) and PLANOVOYE KHOZAISTVO (planned
edonomy), just like BOLSHEVIK, "played an unenviable part" (sygrali nezavidnuyu
rol) in the dissemination of alien subjectivist concepts on questions of political
economy Ander Socialism, but no reference is made to the treatment of their case.
The above-mentioned decision, incidentally, also mentions Shepilov, former head
Of the Agitation and Propaganda Department and now PRAVDA's editor-in-chief, .
as having "oommitted a crude error" (sovershil grubuyu oshibku) by recommending
Voznesensky'a book as a textbook for Party secretaries and propagandists. '
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STATI NTL
Fedoseyees-IZVESTIA articles, Suslov continues, would have been more valuable
had they Contained the required dose of the author's self-criticism. But that was
Conspicuously missing and the reader "has a right" therefore to wonder whether
what he said had been prompted by an inner conviction or was merely a formal
approach to the correct Marxist theses. One can't help wondering "whether the
author isn't being clever?" (ne khitrit ii avtor?).
The official attitude toward actual or potential repentant. may be inferred from
PRAVDA's editorial of 5 January dealing with Party and other sinners who are
called to account for their misdeeds. Citing a_few specific instances of Patty
and State discipline violation, the paper says that too many offenders show an
eag,6rnoss to confese, and promise to do better next time, and too many Party
organizatioas let them get away with it. The Party, it is suggested, must fight
them, not get into endless arguments with them or make ineffective decisions.
Punishment, according to the paper, is a preferable method of dealing with offend-
ing bureaucrats and discipline violators.
Among the other topics discussed during the period under review are the selection
of wrong people to leading positions and the general "low level" of lecture
propeganda4 Following ore extracts from Soft of them in obronoiogicsi order:
25 December?It appears that discipline is lacking even among the Komsomol "aktiv."
There is no deep sense of responsibility ... not infrequently unreliable
individuals are placed in leading Komeonol posts (LOT);
26 December?As e result of poor study of personnel ... hostile elements find
their way into the Party ranks (CHERVONY PRAPOR);
27 December?The oblast publishing house is not striving to maintain a high level
of publication, it sometimes publishes books without the knowledge of the authors
(STALINGRADSKAYA PRAVDA);
3 January?The ideological level of the locturee delivered by the Society (for the
propagation of political and scientific knowledge) is low, and their contant ds
frequently not connected with current affairs (CHEALOVSKAYA KUM);
4 January?But the ideological level of the work of many cultural and educational
institutions of our oblast is not equal to the new demands (from Rostov);
4 January?Training course for propagandiete are irregular in some rayons, and
their ideological level is not highvlowever, very little has been done in
this respect (VELIKOLUKSKAYA PRAVDA);
4 January--It cannot be accepted as normal that the RSFSR Ninietry of Education
and the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences have not yet published manuals on, the
methods of teaching history, the Constitution of the USSR and biology (PRAVDA)..
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