EASTERN EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79B00864A001400010117-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 12, 2006
• Sequence Number: 117
• Publication Date: January 10, 1974
• Content Type: NOTES

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#7 EASTERN EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCER OCI #0551/74
10 Jan.. 1974
State Dept. review completed
NOTE TO RECIPIENTS: The final issue of
this informal publication will appear on
Friday, January 11. Some of the intelli-
gence production which heretofore would
have been carried in the Eastern European
Intelligencer will now be published in the
National Intelligence Daily, the CIB (which
will soon become the National Intelligence
Bulletin), and the Division's new regional
publication titled, Staff Notes: USSR and
East Europe. The first issue of the
Staff Notes will appear on January 14.
Prague Conference of Propagandists Points to Ideological
Offensive
Soviet party secretary Ponomarev's speech to the confer-
ence of propagandists in Prague during January 7-9, and the
communique summarizing the gathering provide further evidence
that an ideological offensive is underway.
Parts of the communique are similar to documents issued
by the international Communist conference held in Moscow in
June 1969. For instance, it addresses itself to "imperialism--
the chief enemy of the peoples--of which US imperialism is the
bulwark."
Ponomarev was equally forthright. He told his audience
that the new atmosphere of detente has brought about a
"qualified breakthrough in the crisis of capitalism." He
further asserted that the "class struggle" has been made much
more acute by the economic and social dislocations arising
from the energy crisis.
These remarks echo Brezhnev's recent emphasis on
"propagandizing the achievements of real socialism" to counter
the influence of Western ideas and values on the Soviet and
East European peoples. Ponomarev, who is responsible for
relations with non-governing Communist and workers' parties
extended the effort to these parties. He also prepared the
groundwork for another world conference by lauding the last
meeting in 1969 and stressing the need for increased inter-
party coordination.
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CONFIDENTIAL
Moscow's success in persuading representatives from
sixty-seven parties to attend the Prague meeting and the
fact that it came on the heels of last month's gathering
of top ideologists in Moscow also signify Soviet interest in
seizing the propaganda initiative. The emphasis that the
communique places on strengthening "Problems of Peace and
Socialism as a collective theoretical and informational
publication" implies that the journal will be a basic vehicle
for any new propaganda line.
Although the communique avoids any mention of China, the
Sino-Soviet dispute nonetheless played a role in the dis-
cussions. Some speakers at Prague--including Vasil Bilak, the
notoriously hard-line secretary of the Czechoslovak party--
attacked the Peking leadership. Romanian representatives
undoubtedly argued against any anti-Chinese polemics, as they
did at the Moscow meeting last month. Indeed , the presence
of the Romanians in Prague may well explain the failure of
the communique even to hint at the question of China's role
Hungary to Dispatch New ICCS Head
Hungary's new head of its Vietnam contingent,Janos Lorincz,
will arrive in Saigon on January 21, after several days of
consultation in Hanoi.
In North Vietnam, Lorincz will solicit Communist Viet-
namese contributions totalling $21 million for the upkeep of
the peace-keeping effort. The Hungarians claim that an
earlier effort to sound out the South Vietnamese Communists
brought only a noncommittal response.
The head of the Hungarian military delegation in Vietnam,
who will accompany Lorincz to Hanoi, said that if the ICCS
begins to go broke, Budapest will recall its delegation.
The 42-year old Lorincz has headed the foreign ministry
press section for the last two years after serving as
ambassador to China. Hungarian sources claim that he is a
"very important official."
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CONFIDENTIAL
Serb Party Congress Postponed until Late April
The Serb party yesterday postponed its seventh congress
until the end of April. Party congresses in Yugoslavia's
five other republics may also have to be delayed as there
have been only scattered indications that normal pre-congress
activities have started. More delays could set back the
federal congress, now scheduled for May.
Conservative elements in the Serb party want more time
to undercut liberals, who are increasingly exposed to purges.
Calls for expulsion from the party of former Serb leaders
Nikezic and Perovic are now being heard more frequently in
conservative party strongholds.
The postponement may not, however, be an unqualified
victory for the conservatives. The announcement also said
that the current Serb party leader Vlaskalic, a moderate, will
present the main congress report, thereby implying that he
still expects to be in charge in April. Vlaskalic has come
under strong criticism from the conservatives because he
opposes a "witchhunt."
Romanian Jewish Emigration
The US Embassy in Bucharest has refuted the charge leveled
by a Washington Post article of January 6, that the Ceausescu
government has put a "virtual stop" to the emigration of
Romanian Jews to Israel because Bucharest allegedly feared
that the Arabs would stop the shipment of oil to Romania.
We concur with the embassy. The latest Mideast crisis
has not cut off the trickle of Romanian Jewish emigrants.
It has, however, ended the use of Romania as a transit route
for Soviet Jews enroute to Israel. In recent years, Bucharest
has controlled the ebb and flow of Romanian Jews. For instance,
the Romanians sometimes decrease or expand the number of
emigres to underscore their Middle East policy, while at other
times they apparently do it to needle the Soviets.
The Israeli Ambassador in Bucharest claims that the
emigration of Romanian Jews continues at the usual slow and
"unsatisfactory" level. We feel that the Israeli estimate
of the number who wish to emigreat is probably too high.
US Jewish agencies estimate that nearly 20,000 of the
approximately 80,000 remaining would emigrate if given the
opportunity.
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CONFIDENTIAL
Polish Image of Soviet Dissident is Cloudy_
Moscow's assaults against Solzhenitsyn's Gulag
Archipelago have been mirrored in the Warsaw press, but
the same sense of personal rancor has been missing. In due
course, Solzhenitsyn is accused of being a "tool" of Western
opponents of detente, a "slanderer" of the Soviet system and
a sensation-seeker. The unsigned Polish commentaries have,
however, gone beyond Soviet criticism of Solzhenitsyn by
outlining the main themes of the book. Polish journalists,
concluded Embassy Warsaw, do not choose to be identified with
the current defamation campaign. Furthermore, as a result of
the publicity given the author, the an appetite of the Polish
populace for his book may be whetted.
NOTE: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ABOVE REPRESENT
ONLY THE ANALYSIS OF THE EE BRANCH.
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