SOVIET UNION EASTERN EUROPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 24, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: January 3, 1975
• Content Type: NOTES

Approved For Release 2001/08/14: CIA-RDP79T00865A000100MOM
No Foreign Dissem
13
9UIT~ HOUE513
Soviet Union
Eastern Europe
Secret
January 3, 1975
No. 0053/75
Approved For Release 2001/08/14: CIA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
 Approved For Release 2001/08/14: CIA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
Background Use OnZy/Contr.oZZed Dissem
Warning Notice
Sensitive Intelligence Sources and Methods Involved
NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION
Unauthorized Disclosure Subject to Criminal Sanctions
Classified by 005827
Exempt from general declassification schedule
of E. 0. 11652, exemption category:
? 5B (1), (2), and (3)
Automatically declassified
on: Date Impossible to Determine
Approved For Release 2001/08/14: CIA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
 Approved For Release 2001/0WUjfIIR DP79T00865A000100050001-6
SOVIET UNION - EASTERN EUROPE
This publication is prepared for regional specialists in the Washington com-
munity by the USSR - Eastern Europe Division, Office of Current Intel-
ligence, with occasional contributions from other offices within the
Directorate of Intelligence. Comments and queries are welcome. They should
be directed to the authors of the individual articles.
January 3, 1975
Regime Continues To Chip Away
at Artists' Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Warsaw Pact--Defense Ministers
Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Soviets Again Seeking Greater
Access at Singapore Port . . . . . . . . . . 4
Tito Inspects New Medical Facilities . . . . . 6
Czechoslovakia: Commentary on
Claims Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
i
SECRET
Approved For Release 2001/08/14: CIA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
 Approved For Release 200tS1; ~FA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
Regime Continues To Chip
Away 'at Artists' Unity
Only one incident--the arrest of a prominent
Moscow-based artist--marred the recent exhibit of
unconventional art held with official approval at
a palace of culture in Leningrad. More than 8,000
visitors viewed some 200 canvasses by the time the
four-day exhibit closed on December 26. This was
the first indoor show of its kind anywhere in the
USSR since the 1920s. It was especially notable
because it was held in Leningrad, a city with a
reputation for taking a tough line on cultural un-
orthodoxy. Last month the Leningraders' Moscow
colleagues gave up plans to hold a similar show
because of police harassment.
Artists Aleksandr Glezer and Oskar Rabin,
both prominent in Moscow's unconventional art
circles, visited the Leningrad show. Glezer was
approached by police on the opening day while
tape-recording interviews with visitors waiting
in line to enter the exhibit and was arrested
when he refused to show his identity documents.
He was reportedly released on December 31 after
spending 10 days in jail for petty hooliganism.
Like Rabin, Glezer is a Jew and was one of the
organizers of Moscow's unconventional art shows
last fall. Lately, he has made no secret of his
intention to irritate the authorities to the point
that they will get rid of him by granting his
long-pending application to emigrate to the West.
In the words of one of Glezer's colleagues, he
has generally been "making a pest of himself."
January 3, 1975
SEA ET
Approved For Release 2001/08/1 CIA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
 Approved For Release 2001/0 11 II ' bP79T00865A000100050001-6
That characterization, however, was probably
made not entirely with sympathy for Glezer's motives.
According to the US embassy, Moscow's unconventional
artists are becoming disenchanted with him, feeling
that he is trying to use them for his own purposes.
Glezer apparently has been buying up large numbers
of unconventional works at low prices, an activity
that in the Western press has earned him the title
of "art collector." He has told his colleagues
that he has a "channel" for getting Soviet unoffi-
cial art out of the country, and that after he
emigrates he will open a "Soviet modern art museum"
in London.
Several artists from Glezer's circle now re-
portedly suspect that he is more interested in
profit than in their cause. In view of Glezer's
repeated but so far relatively harmless run-ins
with the police and KGB, his lucrative art col-
lecting, and his confidence that he will be allowed
to emigrate, it may be only a matter of time be-
fore his friends begin to suspect that the regime
is permitting him to continue his activities in
hopes of discrediting the group as a whole. That
suspicion may grow if Glezer's "channel" abroad
remains open.
Whatever Glezer's motives may be, the rela-
tively sophisticated tactics of the regime may be
succeeding in splitting the artists' ranks. The
exhibitors in Leningrad were willing to accept a
degree,of official control over their art--including
prior review of the works to be shown. Culture
minister Demichev's recent private hint that the
definition of socialist realism might be stretched
a little, also suggests that the regime might
agree to a trade-off--the artists accepting control
over their activity in return for wider limits of
acceptable artistic expression. (CONFIDENTIAL)
January 3, 1975
-2-
Approved For Release 2001/0DP79T00865A000100050001-6
 Approved For Release 200' A"k! A-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
Warsaw Pact--Defense Ministers Meeting
The annual meeting of Warsaw Pact defense min-
isters, which opens next Tuesday in Moscow, is
shaping up as a routine affair, according to a
source of the US defense attache in Moscow. The
ministers will reportedly discuss the Pact's train-
ing cycle for 1975 and may also review the state
of negotiations is the European security and force
reduction talks.
It is possible that the Soviets will again
raise the question of multinational exercises and
tighter command lines for Pact forces. Soviet
Chief of Staff Kulikov had referred to the need
for strong command channels in an article in Pravda
in November. The Soviets are not likely to press
these topics, however, given the opposition of
some Pact members--notably the Romanians. (CONFI-
DENTIAL)
January 3, 1975
Approved For Release 200't~hT'fi.'fA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
 Approved For Release 2001/0811 79T00865A000100050001-6
Soviets Again Seeking Greater
Access at Singapore Port
The US embassy in Singapore reports that the
Soviets want to have a naval auxiliary overhauled
in February at the government-owned Sembawang ship-
yard on the north end of Singapore Island. US and
UK combatants are serviced at Sembawang, and, in
the interest of providing a secure environment, the
Singapore government has turned aside repeated So-
viet attempts to gain access to this part of the
harbor. Because of the recent decline in Western
naval repair work at Sembawang, however, the em-
bassy foresees that the Singapore government will
be under strong pressure to change its policy.
The embassy became aware of the Soviet request
when a Singapore defense official asked the US naval
attache on December 30 about how the US government
was likely to react. The official said that the
British had been asked and were not expected to object.
The embassy notes that the UK's announced with-
drawal of forces reduces the leverage the British have
had to exclude the Soviets. Moreover, the rapid ex-
pansion of repair facilities among the many large ship-
yards in Singapore has sharpened competition for ship
repair business. The embassy speculates that the
only thing that will keep Soviet vessels out of Semba-
wang is a commitment for increased US and UK repair
work. This, the embassy notes, does not seem to be
in the cards.
For the USSR, the repair and replenishment of
navy ships in Singapore extends the time they can
stay away from the Black Sea and Vladivostok. Since
1972, Keppel Shipyard on the south side of the island
has: handled the repair work on a growing number of
January 3, 1975
Approved For Release 2001/08/V-CG" IP79T00865A000100050001-6
 Approved For Release 20616M At' IA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
Soviet naval auxiliaries as well as Soviet com-
mercial vessels. In the past year the work on
some Soviet ships has fallen behind schedule be-
cause of the heavy work-load at Keppel, and the
Soviets probably have cited this delay to support
their request for use of Sembawang. (CONFIDENTIAL)
January 3, 1975
-5-FFTT
Approved For Release 200 - -RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
 Approved For Release 2001/08/1$1l9T00865A000100050001-6
Tito Inspects New Medical Facilities
President Tito arrived in Oplenac, Serbia, on
Wednesday, probably for an inspection tour of new
medical and vacation facilities that have reportedly
been constructed for him.
in September that a
new facility was under construction at Oplenac, which
is located about 50 miles southeast of Belgrade.
Tito's military doctors have contended that his
normal haunt, the island of Brioni, is too far from
adequate medical facilities.
The decision to lure Tito away from Brioni,
however, may be motivated as much by security concerns
as by the proximity of medical aid. Brioni is off the
coast of Croatia, and Tito's frequent travels through
the republic invite an attempt on his life by anti-
Tito Croat emigres who have been able to get back
into the country with relative ease. Military
counter-intelligence, which now has full responsi-
bility for the President's personal security, may
well have influenced his doctors' recommendation.
Oplenac is in a region where few tourists are
seen. Moreover, the area is attractive in its own
right, and the royal apartments in the ancestral
home of the Obrenovic dynasty that ruled Yugoslavia
up until World War II should satisfy.Tito's tastes
for luxury. (SECRET NO FOREIGN DISSEM/CONTROLLED
DISSEM)
25X1A
January 3, 1975
Approved For Release 2001/08/1~F&F" 'F79T00865A000100050001-6
 Approved For Release 20g1~'C1A-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
Czechoslovakia: Commentary on
Claims Agreement
Prague has broken its long silence on con-
gressional action invalidating the agreement ini-
tialed in July 1974 which was to settle American
claims for property in Czechoslovakia nationalized
after the war.
On January 2, an article in the party daily
Rude Pravo reflected the regime's disappointment
and frustration.
Prague is especially disturbed because the ac-
tion freezes plans for the return of 18.4 tons of
Czechoslovak gold that the Nazis looted in World War
II unless the claims agreement is renegotiated to
provide more favorable terms to US claimants. Rude
Pravo pointed out that this is the second time that
a Czechoslovak-US claims agreement has fallen through
and declared that restoration of the gold is an is-
sue of "national honor."
Although the Rude Pravo commentary attempted to
put the ball in Washington's court, it acknowledged
that "realistic officials" in Washington, still want
to normalize relations with Czechoslovakia. The
article, moreover, ended on an optimistic note that
Prague will continue to strive to eliminate obstacles
to bilateral relations. (CONFIDENTIAL NO FOREIGN DIS-
SEM/BACKGROUND USE ONLY)
January 3, 1975
-7-
SECRET
Approved For Release 2001/08/14: CIA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
 Approved For Release 2001/08/14: CIA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6
Secret
Secret
Approved For Release 2001/08/14: CIA-RDP79T00865A000100050001-6