DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 8, 2003
• Sequence Number: 237
• Publication Date: November 11, 1998
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL CONEIlENT : j
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
COUNTRY U$~R
SUBJE07`" DGKESTIC DIFFICULTIES
HOW
PUBLISHED
WHERE
PUBLISHED
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
THIS DOCUN[IIT CONTAINS III ONNA1ION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OT THE UNITED STATES WITHIN TH[ NRANIRO or SSFIONAGO ACT NO
A. S C.. It AND 11. AS ANENDEO. ITS TSANSNISSION ON THE AEYSLATION
OT ITS CONTCNTS IN ANT NANNIS TO AN UNAUTIIOSIIEO FSASOA 13 FAO
VISITED ST LAW. RCFSODUCTION OF THIS FORK IS r11OHIEITEO
DATE DIST (September 1951
NO. OF PAGES 9
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
CPW Report No. 9 - USSR
7 September 1951
Miners' Day.... ... 2
Ideological Weaknesses..,,,.,...... 4
Education,., 4
Literature and Art.,.._...,. 4
Ideology in the Ukraine...........,..?- 5
Other Areas.... -.....-?, ,. _ 5
The Press and Publishing Industry,. 6
Agriculture., ..............
Kolkhoz Party Leadership.....-....... 8
Industry. . .. ..... ... 8
Kazakh SSR,., ............._.-.
Miscellaneous............... .. .
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL CONFI-DENTIAL
STATE
ARMY
NAVY
AIR
jNSRO T I DISTRIBUTION
FBI ~F
Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
 Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
GONFI0E~ TIM
CONFIDENTIAL
A considerable part of Radio Moscow's output is devoted to Miners' Day, which this
year is observed on 26 August. The ideological purity theme is still vigorously
pursued although the targets of attack are less numerous and the charges less specific
than they were in early July--the peak of the PRAVDA-initiated campaign. Occasional
references to Ukrainian nationalism are still made.
Crave shortcomings In agriculture, particularly in livestock breeding, are revealed
in the Kazakh Republic, the target of frequent PRAVDA criticism in the post. The
Ukrainian Building Materials Industry, short of the mark in the first quarter of the
year and exceeding its quota in the second, is again lagging behind plain. The
official plan-fulfillment figures for the second quarter of 1951 show a drop in the
retail sales of essential foodstuffs. The sales of clothing, leather and rubber foot-
wear, and soap, listed for the first quarter of the year, are omitted from the figures
for the second quarter.
MINERS 'DAY.
In a lengthy home service broadcast, Minister of the Coal Industry Zasyadko lists the
great achievements of the Soviet coal industry during the current Five-Year Plan. He
also demands a more widespread application of the cyclic graph system which, he says,
is designed to cut production costs and increase the output of coal. The Donets
Coal Basin, often referred to in the past as the stoke room of the Soviet Union
(kochegerka Sovetskogo Soyuza), is, according to the Minister, again among the most
mechanized coal-producing areas of the country. Over 4O, of all the pits are working
on the ^.yclic graph system. The adoption of this system, urged by the Minister
throughout the speech, is said to be imperative because labor organization has failed
to keep pace with rapidly advancing technology. It is also imperative because of the
necessity to advance from the mechanization of individual processes to the mechaniza-
tion of entire production cycles: "The new machines and modern technology cannot be
fully exploited if the organization of labor and production does not correspond to this
technology."
Zasyadko points to the weak phases of the coal industry--concentration of coal and
the briqu.etting of low-quality fuel--as an additional argument for the large-scale
introduction of the cyclic graph system which alone is capable of eliminating such
shortcomings:
The progress 'hieved in the concentration of coal is .
still far from satisfactory .... They (the coal industry
workers) must speed up the process of briquetting low-
quality fuel .. We must make the cyclic graph the law
of the mine; the whole coal industry must work on the
cyclic graph system.
The disparity between the rapidly increasing productivity of the machines and the not-
so-rapidly growing efficiency of the workers is emphasized by the fact that the
productivity of the coal combines has increased by almost 60% in the past two years,
and in the current Five-Year plan the coal industry has raised the average coal-
extraction figure by 73.4% while labor productivity has risen by only 26%. The slow
progress in increasing the labor productivity is attributable to the inadequate
utilization of machinery, and the solution implied in the Minister's speech is that
workers be made to keep up with the machines:
There must be a great improvement in the use of machinery,
and our first-rate technical equipment must be made to yield
all it can. We must struggle for still greater mechanization.
CONFIDE NT!il1
Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
 Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
C O FI {i"!! 9
CONFIDENTIAL
25X1
Pochenkov, Deputy Minister of the Coal Industry, speaking primarily of the Donets Coal
Basin and its achievements, also stresses the importance of the cyclic graph system
and its benefits to both industry and workers. The Stalin-Ugol Trust which had
adopted the new system is cited as a model of efficiency to be emulated by all mines.
The average output per 24 hour day since the introduction of the graphic system is
saidI to be about 42% higher than that of mines still using the old production methods;
the average output per coal combine in June was 5,56_.0 tons as against 4,890 tons
under the old system, and the wages of the miners have risen by a third. The improve-
mentin the workers' welfare in the Stalino oblasi which results from the new production
system and higher wages is, according to'Pochenkov, characterized by their Pnhanced
purchasing power which enabled them, in the first five months of this year alone, to
buy 1,088 private cars, 3,500 motorcycles, 15,000 bicycles and 8,500 radio receivers.
PRAVDA (26 August) speaks of the "substantial" shortcomings in the work of the coal
industry and the "large quantities" of coal lost because "many mines and sections do
not,,fulfill their plans .." The paper, even criticizes certain coal enterprises which
a~ fulfill their assigned quotas, intimating that the mere fulfillment of a target
is not always enough. Adoption of the cyclical production method is the suggested
remedy:
And among enterprises which fulfill their production
targets, not always are internal reserves and opportunities
sufficiently utilized ... workers of the coal industry
must ... see to it that the cyclical production method
becomes law, and that the entire coal industry is subject to
"Correct organization of work according to cycle methods of production" is also the
subject of (Nirazhensky's) speech to Karaganda coal miners (Alma Ata, 25 August).
Failure to make full use of existing machinery and of other potentialities is given
as the main reason for the introduction of the graph production method. Another
reason is the necessity of improving the qualitative indices which, (Nirazhensky)
implies, cannot be achieved under the present system of production:
... the organization of labor in the mines (must be
carried out) according to a fixed schedule of one cycle
every 24 hours, and (on the basis of) the most efficient
use of all machinery--primarily cutting and loading
combines and other transporting machinery.
Among the other broadcasts on the occasion of Miners' Day is an optimistic report by
Deputy Coal Minister Onika who speaks of the automatic and remote-control devices now
extensively used in the Soviet coal industry, and of the up-to-date techniques now
employed in mine building. About 900 coal combines and cutting machines, 1,000 conveyor
lines and 3,500 winches, pushers and other mechanisms are said to have been changed to
remote-control operations in the past few years. Over 1,000 draining pumps now work
automatically.
The drive for greater production effort in the mines and for the adoption of the
cyclic graph system is reflected in an otherwise routine letter to Stalin from USSR
mine, workers (TASS d/s. 25 August). The letter writers claim a modest 7.8,% increase
in efficiency in 1951 as compared with last year, admit a number of unspecified short-
comings, and express their determination to eliminate them "in the spirit of
intolerance for any lagging behind."
We still have building organizations which use backward
methods, do not use to the full the new building
machines, build mines and dwellings slowly and at high
costs, fail to fulfill the plans and are still greatly
indebted to the motherland.
CONFIDENTIAL
Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
 Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
25X1
idd U_.
CONFIDENTIAL
Stalin is accordingly as ;red that these failings will be rectified by the great appl'ea-
tion of the cyclic graph system, already in use in the Donets Coal Basin, at the mines
of the Kuznetsk and Moscow basins, the Urals, Karaganda and other coal-producing areas
of the country.
Ideologi"al deviations in art, literature, political education, and props,andn still
form a considerable part of Soviet internal broadcasts. M~ at of the central and
regional editorial criticism is directed aainst the Ukraine. The Uinist.r`y of HiiTher
Education, the literary f'-^At.ernity, publishing houses and a number of regional news-
papers are cz-_,'ioned as,:rst their present practice of' neglecting the ideolo^ical
aspect of their =ctivities and art for art's sake is branded as just another feature
of bourgeois ic'^olog,.
Education; PRIVDP. (1C AuE-ust) complains that the standards of teaching social sciences.
particularly Mnrx sm-Leninism, has dropped to a dangerously low point, and that high
school and university graduates ha"c but a hazy idea of the basic Marxist-Leninist
principles, -.:e most important part of social sciences. At the Leningrad Univers't'.
for exa-rple, not o. single recent candidate on the philosophical faculty has been able
to defend i:,-, thcsis successfully. Recent examinations at Vilnius University revealed
that st"d^nts ha"e "a rather poor knowledge" of the basic principles of Marxist-
Leninirt thscry.. Plame for this low teaching standard is assigned to the Ministry ors
Higher Fd+oca+j?n whose failure to "give effective assistance to the faculties :+' social
science^" arcr''r.t the "serious defects" in the teaching of dialectical and
historical rsto-iryli.sm and political economy.
KIROVOGR!,.nfuA t L41'T`A (24 August) juote7, a dispatch from Kemensky Rayon saying ihat the
local Sorts+,., r- the Dissemination of Scientific and Political Knowledge is doirg A
poor job, on,i '.h:.t political education in the schools and among the intelligentsia is
"ideolog. ^.n.1' y wo- ok ," On 24 August this same paper notes that "instances of ...
violations of the principles of the indoctrination of the intelligentsia in the spirit:
of Marx 1 sm-Loma- zr." are occurring in some rayons. The editorial observes that these
violation -ir' al. the more serious since a part of the intelligentsia, notably
-ngineer:o and --+ieal workers, ere not even included in the political education scheme.
There i^ no intr!,tior as to the nature of the "violation of principles" referred to
except 'hat the lei-tares are said to be "too few and of too law a standard."
.iteratvre and Art, An implicit admission of the motives that set off the recent
purges among litf7?rary and art critics is contained in the PRAVDA editorial of
14 August which nveighs against the bourgeois ideology and "hateful imperialist
propaganda" in Soviet art and literature. The group of "anti-patriotic" critics
recently exposed by the Party, according to the editorial, was guilty of propagating
art for art's sake. This "is alien to Soviet literature and is bad for the interests
of the Soviet people and State." (It may be recalled that at the time the purged
critics were -hargod primarily with undermining activities and with "truckling to
Western ir'eoio3Ty." No mention was made of "art for art's sake.") That this tendency
still exists rr.ay also be inferred from PRAVDA's strictures about bourgeois ideology:
"It is ebsolutcly imperative to develop the struggle against bourgeois ideology and
relentlessly expose the hateful imperialist propaganda." The paper also recalls that
the A1].-?Inion Communist Part-* has decreed that the strength of Soviet literature lies
in the fart thet it has. "no -ther interests" except the interests of the people.
Stepancv, writing in PRAVDA (16 August), says that manifestations of nationalism,
cosmopolitanisr and admiration of decayed bourgeois culture are incompatible w'th
Soviet patriotism, and that overcoming them is the most important feature of the
Party's educational work among the masses. Devotion to the Soviet regime must there-
fore be the chief aim in the "irreconcilable struggle against ideological mis-
representation ....
Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5 6mjjj,
 Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
25X11
'ONFIt NTIAL
5 -
S,deology in the Ukraine: ',I-,caking for the benefit of wmst-,rn Ukrainians, c. RADYANSKA
PRAVDA editorial (24 August) discusses the larger aspects of ideology and urges the
educators and propagandists to "instill into the consciousness" of the people the idea
that they are working for a Communist society, not for capitalists. Mindful of the
differences in dialect, the raper also cautions the spec ors m-ainst the use of
language which is not clear and understandable and sug11:~V i`g ^?-x-? :?f the .,;he: ar,~3_ reporting 5hortcom'2_ s in -their agricultural
Linos:
RAfl'i'!.NO1'3 .. id T'li1',TR' C:i A, NL" 1~i C
ar. rayons and 1 "?ikho e ; which r,re regularly
c'ai1.Tn; lo nr,t only their ob1-~ cations -:ut, also their
I iJ.i31r h :s nc-+ yet started in V,lodarskc-Volynsiry
C: rhrsl;:'r.~, M.-!lynscy,')levsky and oiher rayons.
ii?rri!;}ii U Eta e 15r?
T?". -,T-1; ?'dy.'r!9 the deiivt,~i'ir? : are as Llsull
' . -' ri; C ,l; li I -, the ma jor it;, of !-9yon5 i?i seems
a d r,i.o^_,b:~ dip xiets betw-en the tethering and
,
the. r.are.7i,ing grain.
T?:~~,iirl':.ft\v?1Ii P?. J^ii (F:her.:on.; , 2:: Auguct -
are :a r. 1 r of kolkhoze s whir t. `r.. ; l.ed to
.7nip1e-t the .=^:.ctirn of **-r cotton-dry;ni, kilns or the
a-,-a:f.rir.g of ca.,, ore', and even neglected prepare storing
yar.i-. Such a ::ituatior, ?::xists in tlovo-Tr,2 tsky ... Novu-
cr::~ts:~r y, F:r,lirir:1'.3?, Veliko-Alexandri '=ky and some
other rayon:..
u~ r. c (l(tnnit:-- '.: Aunus
r t? +, i ., pr; par at i ns for the sowing is s 1arrning in
TJl;ran',vs-,~?, Komsomolsky, Turbovshy,
Pc *r' bi::cnrn rfy an,? r ?r.},er :rayons of the northern group
whirl, or,ghL to be th. i'Irst in the ablest to complete
"? - owi.n ,: .
OVT'..TA A' ??"?.'':~^n.','.d (rreven, A.rm:ninn ;:SR), 28 August:
=h.' irk;rina 'c?eaini (in a number of kolkhoses) "sn br
ainF i by the fe,t that in such kolkho7cs the workers
often _rail to full ill their quotas, and make poor use of
he av-; i l:al ie nract:inery and animal-drawn equl i??ment .
UrTIA
CONFIDENTIAL
Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
 Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
V U!i I -i,.:. "v U artc.
cowT:,,FNTtAL 25X1
aplkho Po V - adCiS:_lp: NADNF ?,,,A" r~ ., DA (:$ n, uat) p: a : t+r ritspo.: tby o=
~rrt of ^' c?.al c ~n'-r-nr:
Y
a;ric'.Atural enart'_ominga excltisi re `,; 41 ", '. 1,1untly
n.~+., rvrn~Tivat r 3 ' ~^~d~ .pCa :'? Ve 'a-'pryVe-
is
ib
,l
c
a
? ------ - -P
ment." ?'ust haw such improvemen nsgj D- vro gi.t .
? ,.. Pn+f 1tP~~. f:'P:, w},,,~' '..h r.,
-'rgantzationai ana Fary
...r t.. -r -r.nt aQ'^i.,"Il'_- l t-j-'r::'.ad no-
--- . - ---- -- _
f t
- r..-: 1 ...
sue ?f ." n`c+ V1:.?C ~i ,n.q '^~t T`1.-)TA~L%S: C. !'CD'I L~(~', e:j'+`Or'. ?1
.f
.s
i
1eadr
s
h
p
"._Podclst
ran:- syc,ns where. ?
Comm p ,s ris -~wsu^enc r " and the fac`.s." T1:e
"cnusinp =r,: iety," and
by) ADYANti:.? ' L'I L? augua k1J as . -, _a- -
_ - - - "`-.. _?hartszatinr mood (rre a L:o;,i?.?, ?.y_~'-c'_51 'r frequently ?1rTloye'
are, ' klonno ;ehianizatsii" or ^rasp_loznea, ti .,r aao??.. -- - ------ - the
t.E .ion "1a \)h;~=. '~~C@ declar?o t.'rR
.. i---a
1
mec
v
-
building mater~1c4_ Productionp!an wa n... --r
- the ')'crainian
(i!'nt^a:: J^len C Av-tca-aa y.av..a......- ----
'ndustry Is ;31"o blamed I,%- having failed to .,ner ':re r?cessary assistance to the
Nikolayev, Stalin, Stanislav, Xnarsov and ' hernigov Oblasts.
xazatcr ?5~; The, sorry *state of sheep breeding and wool produ^.tten in Kszak`atcn_?tA
bsough`. ;:t-:! ' 'cue by a sweeping dec*_?ee- of the ^nuncil of Mini.eters and the Central
--.
^=Pitt e ' the Kazakh Communist Perty .(1; r?-agust) which edmi's that the 3-ye"
plan for- thm 1-."re7.opnent of sheep breeding naa so far been a failure. ,The Ministries
of Agriculture "ne) Sovkhozes are told to assume the blame for rthia situation which
. -",
resulted from Their "insufficient attention", to the development of. Sheep-breeding
Thedeer c a :o reveals that such insufficient atten.ion dates beck;"s,rerel" years,-
at least in a, number of kolk1iozes Eand eovkhozes
GIB
COWIDENTIAL
Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
 Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5
-., .-,r,I zoA-i
The assertion that "large numbers" of sheep are lost annually is not amplified but
some significance ma; be drawn from the repeated references to inadequate fodder
reserves, "scattered and unsystematic" utilization of pastures and the spreading of
scab among the sheep,.
The extent of the failure of the Kazakh sheep hreadir;' and wool production industry
may be surmised from the various inducements offered in the decree. Supplementary
payments and bonuses are to be given to workers, farm mar.agers, and veterinarians for
completing and exceeding the state plan; motor cars, rope, sacking and tarpaulin are
to be made available for sale to collective and state farms overfulfilling the plan,
certain categories of workers are to receive an additional 2-months' wages for
fulfilling their scheduled assignsnents?pl is the equivalent of 5"' of their monthly
salary fo-? each 1% of above-plan performance. Wool production, disappointing in
quantity and law it quality, is to be raised to the required state-prescribed
standard by a 5U'`; salary increase for sheep shearers and shearing) machine
operators--if the norm is exceeded. And, finally, deserving shepherds are to be
given a straight. 3O wage increase and invested with the title of "master of sheep
breeding" (master ovtsevodstva)
Consumer goods: In its report for the first quarter of 1951, the USSR Central.
Statistical Ad-ministration listed a total of 16 items of essential consumer goods,
the sales of wni,.h had been constantly increasing, The Administration's report for
the second quarter, however, makes no mention of the following woolen textiles,
ready-made _Iothes, leather footwear, rubber footwear and toilet soap.
Undergroz'.nd Instailatiors: Academician Artobolevsiry speaks of Soviet technological
achievements (Home Service, 22 August) and says that atomic energy (vnutriatomnaya
energiye) is 'next on the list" for industrial exploitan in e USSR. The
academician also says that the USER was "the first country in the world" to put
underground industrial coal-gas stations into operation. The work of these stations
is based on modern automatic methods and is regulated and controlled by automatic gear.
Native Language Study: CHERNCiUiOR?,k:A YCMUNA (Odessa, in Ukrnini.an, 23 August),
referring to the Odessa Oblast educational system, notes that the children are not
doing eo well in the Uia'ainian language in a number of rayons: "It will be necessary,
in particular, to examine the causes of the children's backwardness in the study of
the native language ..,," Noted also is the fact that "not all" school-age children
of the obiast are attending school, in violation of the law of universal compulsory
education.
Russian Nme; A familiar-style letter to Stalin from: the collective and state farms
of the Mordovian ASSR (Mordva) )Home Service; 24 August) is signed by the top four
officials of the Republic, all of whose names are Russian sounding.
Jewish "Autonomous" Oblast: A report from Khabarovsk (7 August) says that the
Khabarovsk Krai Council awarded the Red banner and cash prizes to the Executive
Committee of the Jewish "Autonomous" Oblast for collecting non-ferrous scrap. (The
Jewish Autonomous Oblast was officially reported demoted to an ordinary oblast some
time prior to August,)
Longevi t.v: TCADYANSKA ZHI'TaMT.RSCHINA (21 August) carries an article by an unnamed
author claiming that the Stalin constitution "has provisions" which are favorable to
the development and growth of longevity.
Slav State, Among the new books recently published in the USSR is one by historian
Boris Grekov on the social relations in Politsa, the ancient Slav state which existed
between the 15th and 18th centuries on the Adriatic coast, (TASS, in Russian,
24 August).
~.' C ILA V'V ,:tt.
CONFIDENTIAL
Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730237-5