INDICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500740044-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 30, 2001
• Sequence Number: 44
• Publication Date: April 26, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

25X1A
MjWBIMIBdr RMADW120M/1 0/030R 19 4=9
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT NO
HOW
PUBLISHED
UUC! ASSiFIED
CD NO.
DATE OF
INFORMATION Mar. 17-31, 1952
DATE DIST. a-" APR '-'
C') b
NO. OF PAGES 6
This D?CU?INT COMTAlas la-Dl~*T10a Alftttlas Till NATOML ofVaasa
or Till URJTlo, STATES a1TMla TA[ ^IAMlls 0, as/1ONAal ACT as
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
CPN Report No. 28 -- USSR
(Mar. 17 - 31, 1952)
The output on industrial activities is diffuse in character but most of the official
criticism! is directed against weak spots in civilian construction. The 1951 industrial
shortcomings in the Ukrainian SSR are revealed in a speech by Finance Minister
Shchedrin in the context of the Republic's budget performance. Contained in his message
? also is an intimation that the workers are "overpaid" in certain industries. Passing
reference is made to instances of false estimates, squandering and stealing at plants and
other industrial establishments. The drive against inordinate production costs and waste
in general is still vigorously pushed. The continuing inadequate performance of the
lumber industry and, to a lesser extent, the Donets coal industry, claims increasing
official attention. The acute shortage of industrial engineering skill in the USSR is
inferentially admitted through a ludicrous incident publicized by PRAVDA.
In the field of ideology, attention is focused on painting and motion picture production
both of which are said to be faltering in many ways. Remnants of capitalism in the
minds of 'Ithe.people as well as old habits and customs "are still making themselves felt,"
according to the All-Union Society for the Propagation of Political and Scientific
Knowledge;. The Moscow City Party Committee calls for a higher caliber of university
instructors particularly in social sciences.
The decree on retail price reductions is heavily publicized on domestic and
foreign beams.
CHANGE TI)
N ~ .
F R RcGH.,UIh'G
CONFIDENTIAL B U L E 7* 1 N
j CLASSIFICATION
ARMY
Approved For Release 2003/10/01 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500740044-9
 Approved For Release 2003/1'0/01 : CIA-RDP80-00809A&WdN_6b44-9
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
CPN Report No. 28-A
11
(Mar. 17 -~31, 1952)
DATE PUBLISHED :
SOURCE: MONITORED BROADCASTS
CONTENTS
INDUSTRY... .I ......... 1
IDEOI!?^1Y............. 4
Ukrainian FeX nrmanee iai2ed: A great deal of what should have been done but was
not is revealed in a lengthy budget message by Finance Minister Shchetinin before the
Ukrainian Supreme Soviet (Mar. 27). The Ministries of the Local, Building Materials,
Civilian Housing Construction, and Furniture Industries are said to have fallen short of
their 1951 targets. Looking into the rising costs of production at some of the indus-
trial enterprises, the Minister asserts that financial mismanagement, violations of
"expenditure discipline," and an attitude of indifference to lower production costs are
among the major contributing factors. Back of it'lall, it is inferred, is the lukewarm
attitude of the management toward profitable operations (rentabelnost) which cads for a
systematic reduction of production costs. An extreme case of cost variations is cited
in connection with the Ministry of the Local Industry where the production of a child's
bicycle in one plant is several times higher than the cost of producing an identical
bicycle in another plant. Another example is that of the Southern Power Construction
Trust (Treat Pivden-Energo-Bud), the largest of its kind in the Ukraine. Inste-4 ^F'
lowering production costs and saving 3 million ruble:, according to plan, the Trust
showed an overexpenditure of 14 million.
Overpayment to workers, according to Shchetinin, ontributes to "unprofitable operations"
and should be discontinued at once. In the Lvov Furniture Trust, for example, the total
payroll amounted to 103.8% of the plan whereas the average output per worker was only
95.5%. The Ministry of Civilian Housing Construction of the Ukrainian SSR has not only
"failed to fulfill its 1951 construction plan" but also "completed the year with great
losses." Serious dereliction of duty is also charged to the Ministry of Health Service
for its failure to provide proper medical service for the population. In such large
areas as Drogobych, Rovno, Kherson, and Dnepropetrovsk Oblasts the planned network of
medical establishments in the rural areas "was not completed" in 1951.
Reviewing the Ukraine's industrial activities primarily from a financial point of
view, Shchetinin judges the success or failure ofla particular industry or enterprise
by the way its appropriations are utilized. Most of his references to industrial
shortcomings are therefore made in such terms as ",improper utilization of allocations",
overexpenditure or use of appropriations for purposes "not originally planned." Phus
some unnamed Republican and local, organs of Soviet administration are said to be tolerat-
ing cases of financial abuse, and violations of "State and expenditure" discipline.
Approved For Release 2003/1!0101 : CIA-RDP$0-00809A000500740044-9
 Approved For Rel
ase 2003/10/01 : CIA-F~~P80-$5-9%-i dd5007400
There were cases of wrong utilization ofi allo-
cations in the local budgets and squandering of
allocations for capital repair of schools, hospi-?
tals and clubs and the construction of new adminis-
trative buildings.
Po mistsevykh budg~takh dopuskayut nepravilr'
vykorystane assygn?van, dopuskayut vytraeianye
koshtiv assygnovannykh na kapitalny remont shkil,
le-iren, klubiv, na nove budivnitstvo, v tomu
ch:sli administrativnykh budynkiv.
Abuses of a more serious nature, including theft, are said to be prevalent in the
distribution of consumer goods at the rayon level. Not only lis the quality; of goods
disregarded, as heretofore, but the quantity appears to be adversely affected' by
squandering and pilfering (rozstraty i kradizhki). Such practices have already cost
the State over 8.5 million rubles in ovelrexpenditures, in addition to the p~-million ru
loss incurred by the food distribution rganizations.
Finance Minister Fadeyev's report before the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR
,
somewhat milder in tone. The chief target of his attack, however, is alsoithe abuse oil
the average consumer. Referring to the assortment of consumer goods, the Minister
reveals that in 1951 the Ministry of the Local Industry was short 65 varieties of mass
)
2
4
,
consumption goods and the Industrial Cooperative System (pronyslovaya koopgratsia
4-9
le
including furniture, household dishes and utensils, and others. The supply of inferio'
quality goods (dostavka nedobrokachestvennykh isdeliy) is almost taken for granted in
a number of local trading organizations{ while their losses and unnecessar;' overexpend
tures are an additional burden on the budget (dopolr.itelno obremenyaut bud het). t'roa
';on of inferior consumer goods is alsol attributed to the Republican Minisitiry of Light
c_
Industry. The losses it sustained in 1951 alone through quality reductioi.(ot ponizhe oy
sortnosti) amounted to 21.8 million rubles.
"Estimate padding" (nezakonnoye zavyshelie smetnykh raskhodov), as revealed by both
Fadeyev and Deputy Afanassyev on the same day, is being practiced by thep,anning
organizations (proyektnie orgahizatsii) of the various industries on a 1arggeiscale.
Afanassyev in fact intimates that entire krais, oblasts, and autonomous republics are
involved in it. Cases of payroll account padding (nezakonno povyshenniel'Is1avki zarabotnoy
platy) are particularly frequent, and the result is a top-heai-y administrative machine.
Fadeyev points out that a checkup on the personnel of 38 auto-transport organizations in
Leningrad alone revealed that the "approved number of administrative staff members"
(utverzhdenniy administ- ativno-upravlenc~he3kiy apparat) was exceeded by 440 officials
drawing a total salary of 279,000 rubles.
In a summarized talk for economics stut'.~nts (Mar. 26), Arutelyan suggests two basic
methods which, if used simultaneously, will raise the output end loner production cos s.
They are the "extensive and intensive" (ekstensivniy i intensivniy) methodls of produc
tion. The extensive method, though elaporated under 10 different points, is';designedlto
eliminate bottlenecks and machine stopp ges by improving the ' maintenance of the equip
went and fixing responsibility on shops teams, and individual workers forIi~~its proper
operation. The intensive method, contipues Arutelyan, is nontechnical in nature but ust
as important and offers "almost unlimited possibilities" for the development of the
national economy. Its salient point is "fostering feelings of Soviet patriotism and e.
Communist attitude toward labor."
;
The Ministry of the Lumber Industry (Ministerstvo Lesnogo Khozaistva) has been the ob,'ect
of official attacks for some time. It ~s repeatedly referred to at the current Supre e
Soviet sessions of the RSFSR, the Ukraine and elsewhere as having laggedlbehind the plan
last year and showing little improvement in 1952. The Ministry's planning, according to
Deputy Afanassyev, "does not always cal for-the proper expenditure ofiState funds"
(ne vsegda predusmatrivayet...pravilnoyp raskhodovanie gosudarstvennykh sredstv).
III
Ill ~
I
ase 2003/10/01 : CIA-F DP80-00809A 005007400
~1,
p
(Mar. 27) is
 STATINTL
Approved For Releas 2003/10/01 : CIA-RD 0740044-9
- 3 -
The 1erformance of the Ukrainian '?-mber industry, particularly in the Tranecarpathian
region, is also discussed in dispraging terms in Shchetinin's budget message. The
outp??+ of semimanufactures in a n...,oer of lumber enterprises, he says, has actually
dec. eased by 15%. This, in turn, has adversely affected the production of the building
materials industry which incidentally is lso working behind plan.
SOVETSKAYA RODINA (Mar. 18) declares blunftly that the lumber production and floating
plan, having failed last year, is still "not progressing satisfactorily" this year. The
paper intimates that the reason for the b eakdown of the winter haulage plan -- performance
less than 50,t -- is the "inadequate care" taken of the lumber-floating workers. The
trade union and Party organizations are t erefore urgently requested to take a better
look into the lumberjacks' living conditions and supply them with sufficient food,
newspaiiers, book9 and "other means of political education and propaganda."
In an otherwise stereotyped collective leitter to Stalin, the Donets Basin coal miners
promise to make c. better showing in the future and produce more and better coal. As
discussed in previous CPW reports, collective letters to Stalin, despite their optimistic
accounts of current or past achievements) are often actually prompted by failings and are
designed to forestall official condemnation. The miners' reference to the many shortcomings
(mnogo nedochetov) in their work which will presumably be eliminated is further amplified
in the following assertion:
We are profoundly conscious of the fact t'at...the
Motherland has a right to demand of us mere coal...and
particularly a definite qualitative improvement in the fulfillment
of the State plan.
. VaSRh rO yar..
My glabokL soznaem, Ihto...Rodina vprave trebovat
of nas bolshego uvelichenia dobychi uglia... i osobenno
rezkogo uluchsheniakachestvennikh pokazateley vypolne-
nia gosudarstvennogo plans.
Commenting editorially on the miners' ' agerness" to increase production and their
challenge" to the KuznetsBasin miners -:o'emulate their example, PRAVDA (Mar. 18)
'ails upon all the Party organizations of the mining areas to encourage their
Socialist competition and "eliminate the elements of formalism in this undertaking"
(ustranyat elementy formalizma v etom dele). The triple purpose of Socialist competi-
tion, the paper reiterates, is greater production, higher quality ana lower costs.
Kazakh SSR, says KAZAKEiSTANSKAY_ PRAVDA Mara 29), is the largest norf'o-rous metallurgical
base in the Soviet Union but the performi ce of its mining industry leaves much to be
desired.
Many mining brigade are not fulfilling their ore
extraction plans owing to bad labor organization.
Machines' regularly remain i.dle...the excavator part
is not working at full capacity...
The editorial does not offer any additional details beyond the remark that "due
importance" is not attached to the utilization of machinery. East Kazakhstan, South
Kazakhstan, Karaganda, and Taldy Kurgan Oblasts are urged to "improve their manage-
ment" of the mining industry and see to it' that mining equipment is utilized to full
capacity. Passing reference to the shortcomings on the Emba oilfields is made by the
same paper on Mar. 20. Technical deficlencies are said to "impede the raising of the
fuel output." and well-Grilling is behind'the plan:
... it is~first of all necessary to eliminate the under-
estimation of the importance of drilling works, to get
rid of idleness and breakdowns.
Approved For Release 2003/10/01 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500740044-9
 STATINTL
Approved For Release 2003/10/01 CIA-RIDno-onng
-00740044-9
The lack of economy d thrift (ekonr'mii: i berezhlivost) in production is assailed by
Abrasimov in a PRAVDAar+,4-le on Mar. 25.. Falsification of reports to show the comple-
tion of production plan. has ?ecently oeei, uncovered in a number of places in
Byelorussia, he says. .Anti-utate activity of unscrupulous managers (anti-gosu-
darstvennaya deyateln ,t nedobrosovestnykh khozaistvennikov) is also seen in their
endeavor, to stockpile raw materials and equipment far above the "prescribed reserves"
(normati,,mie zapasy).
Republican Party confgTences now in session, says Abrasimov, have uncovered numerous
instances of squander ng State funds, idle machinery and poor production quality. Such
cases are not ac^identai and "those found guilty of mismanagement and squandering
are now being piosecuted" (konkretnie vincvniki bezkhozaistvennosti i rastochitelstva
privlekayutsia k otvetstvennosti). The Byelorussian Ministry of Light Industry is said
to have stockpiled 8 million rubles' worth of raw materials above the prescribed level,
while a large number Pf machine tools needed elsewhere was found in the warehouses of
the Ministry for the Construction. of Machine-Building Enterprises.
La JaL y;gi~ lad w- .rz; Assail d; Under the caption "Let's Be Acquainted" (Bu-
dem Znakomy) PRAVDA rIFiProduces a FROK.ODIL article by Vesenin with photographs of six
executives of widely Icattered industries who fell victim to their own un-Bolshevik
gullibility. (Mar. 2 , not broadcast). Always in search of qualified workers, none
of these officials it appears, seemed to bother much about references when a certain
TimofeYev (whose enlarged photograph appears in the center) introduced himself to them
at different times asa construction engineer (inzhener-stroitel). Appointed to various
executive positions, j el...iing gins- of chief engineer of a lumber trust, this "construc-
tion engineer" stayed o.. for a while ind then absconded with all the money he could put his
hands on. The six short-term jobs netted him a total of over 167,000 rubles. What the
paper is particularl,, scornful about is how a man who had. never taken up engineering could
hold on to a responsible post as long as a year and a half without being discovered
as was the case at the "Rosmontazhstroy" construction project in Ryazan Oblast! A
mere glance at his passport would have revealed that Timo#eyev had never even attended
any college, had nothing to do with engineering but was "serving deportation time away
from his native district" (otbyval nakazanie vdali of rodnykh mest) for crimes committed
in his hometown. Vigilance, it is pointed out, is not to be dismissed lightheartedly,
for the lack of it may lead to disastrous consequence:. Why don't you, gullible citizens,
get together, the article concludes, compare notes and tell each other "how you happened
to become ne'er-do-wells and blinking loafers" (kak vy stali 'shliapami' i rotozeyami).
,1'e "Theory Zr. .,tlesg ss" criticized: Discussing the recent Stalin awards for
outstanding works of Tart and literature, PRAVDA (Mar. 15) says that, great as they are,
these achievements should not blind anyone to the continuing serious shortcomings in
those fields, particularly in theatrical. art. Life, says the editorial, should not
be treated superficially, and "one must not overlook or fail to expose the existing
contradictions." These contradictions, oddly enough, are mentioned in the context of
people rather than life per se since "there are sti.l1 hypocritical people and negative types
in our midst." (U has vstrechayutsia eshche i ludi fal.shivie, otritsatelnie tipy). But
such people, it is claimed, are not always portrayed aQ thnv should be: "they must be
brought into the limelight" (ikh nado vyvodit na chistuyu todu). These shortcomings are
very much evident inlthe repertories which still lack "good contemporary plays."
Soviet playwrights, the paper continues, have not studied life well enough, and this
is responsible for the "theory of conflictlessness (teoria bezkonfliknosti) that has
spread among them. That theory, the paper contends, is misleading and "often led to
deviations from the truth and unrealistic interpretation of life's phenomena."
The "one-sidedness" 46dnostoronnost) of Soviet motion pictures which "diminishes the
ideological and artistic value" (snizhayet ideino-khudozhestvennuyu tsennost) of the
pictures is discussed in highly critical terms in a PRAVDA article by Bolshakov, USSR
Minister of Cinematography (Mar. 18, not broadcast). Many producers of movie comedies,
he says, have been veering away from the true interpretation of Soviet reality. They
have been trying to 'jget a laugh out of the audience" (vyzvat smekh u zritelei)
Approved For Release 2003/10/011: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500740044-9
 STATINTL
Approved For Release 2003/10/01 : CIA-RD
not by tackling the seamy slit: of life but by making the behavior of our "positive heroes"
(polozhitelnie gerci) appear in a ridiculous light. Such false and artificial comical
situations have nothing in cc.-+Tnc,n with the reality of life (s zhiznennoy pravdoy).
BolrhakoV also wants to Laic' why many producers persistently refrri.n from depicting the
personal life of workers and collective farmers, their multifarious spiritual desires and
interests:
R tssian version:
Reading certain scenarios, one would think that the
entire life of the worker is spent in the plant among
machines and mechanisms while the life of the peasants
is confined to the -machinery on the field.
rh.itava into ztsenarii, mozhno podumat, chto vsia
zhizn raboehego protekayet na zavode sredi stan-
kov i. mekhanizmov, a zhizn Icrestyan -- na pole sredi
mashin.
The fact that only two paiaitings were awarded Stalin Prizes is a sorry commentary on
the progress of that branch of art, according to Bespalov, chairman of the USSR Art
Committee (Mar. 18). Painting could have been more progressive and expressive if
the Soviet artists would only make an effort to overcome the "substantial shortcomings"
(sushchestvennie nedostatki) in their work. The recent All-Union Art Exhibition in
Moscow. says Bespalov, has revealed instances of "haste and incompleteness" (speshki,
nedorabotannost) in most of the exhibits. The most important drawback in the artists'
work is their superficial familiarity with Soviet reality: they are unable...to depict
the Soviet man as he really is. That is why most of the paintings are devoid of any
specific content (bezsyuzhetnie), are uniformly dull and "spiritually impoverished"
(dukhovno obedrennie). The Soviet artist, the article concludes, "cannot and must not ...
live on past successes" (n-- mozhet i ne dolzhen ... zhit proshlymi uspekhami); he must
not lag behind the ever-g?owing demands of the Soviet people.
A report from Moscow (Mar. 23) speak; of the recent conference of the Capital Party
Committee to look into the affairs of the city'-, 91 colleges. It is disclosed that a
number of professors resort to "oversimplification and vulgarization" (uprcshchenchestvo
a. vulgarizatsi.a) in the treatment of the theoretical questions. A number of colleges
are said to be using the wrong approach to the teaching of social and economic sciences.
This is because in numerous instances the scientific qualifications of the instructors
are patently inadequate for their jobs. The report does not offer any specific details
as to the ideological errors committed by the professors in question, but states that the
Ministry for Higher Education was subjected to serious criticism for its shortcomings in
the "guidance" of the social science departments of the Moscow un.versities'.
Ideological aberrations of a lifferent nature are dealt within two broadcasts from the
Ukraine. VILNA UF.RAINA (Mar. 18) reminds its readers that "rc..mants of capitalism
still linger in the memories of some people". These people, Stalin is quoted as
having said, are far more dangerous, in the sphere of national questions than in any
other sphere: "In our country ...there is no room for the emergence of bourgeois
ideology, including bourgeois nationalism." The paper calls for a "decisive struggle
against all manifestation of bourgeois ideology and above all Ukrainian bourgeois national-
ism. Discussing the political. Education in the enlarged collective farms, RADYANSKA
U:KRAINA (Mar. 21) says that the cultural achievements of the Great Russian people are
not sufficiently extolled and that not enough lectures are given on remnants of
Ukrainian nationalist ideology, "ttie worst enemy of the Ukrainian people."
Remnants of capitalism in the people's minds is also the subject of a talk by Prof.
Konstantinov of the All.-Union Society for the Propagation of Political and Scientific
Knowledge (Home Service, Ma",. 29). Discoursing at some length on the "hideous aspect"
of bourgeois democracy ant, right-win; Socialism, the professor admits that these twin I
evils have not been entirely eliminated in the Socialist Motherland:
Approved For Release 2003/10/01 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500740044-9
 Russian version:
STATINTL
Approved For Release 2003/10/01 : CIA-RDP - 740044-9
- 6 -
The Bolsbevik Party ...is pushing a determined
,)ffersive against idecl gical survivals hostile to
Socialisma...against Ell sorts of old habits, customs
and survivals of capitalism in the minds of the people
which still make themselves felt in various spheres of
our life.
Bolshevitskaya partia..!.vedet reshitelnoye nastuplenic
protiv ostatkov vrazhdebnoi sotsializnnz ideologii...
boryatsia so vsiakogo rods starymi privychkami,
navykami i perezhitkamilkapitalizma v soznanii
ludey, kotorie eshche dayut o sebe znat v razlichnykh
oblastiakh nashey zhiznri.
Approved For Release
003/10/01: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500740044-9
7