INDICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500740081-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 29, 2001
• Sequence Number: 81
• Publication Date: June 2, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

COUNTRY t SSR"
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FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT N
NO.
STATINTL
DATE OF May 20, June 2, 1952
INFORMATION
SUBJECT INDICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES
HOW
PUBLISHED
WHERE
PUBLISHED
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
This DOCONINT COIITAIII''IDrODMAT-OA AIUICT11141 Till NATIORAL Dlrlrla
0/ ln[ UNITID fUtta 'WITH IN TIC ruAtAA Or l2PIOIASI ACT l0
f. f. C.. 21 AND At Al. Ar[11DID. Its TRANSMISSION OR INC IIVILATION
01 112 COATCNTS 1N AWN .l1ANNIR TO AN ONAOTION!IID -{O$ON Ia POO-
il1a1TID fT LAW. fl-MODOCTION Or TI12 FORS IS IROrIMITRD.
STATINTL
PARTY ACTIVITIES
AGRICULTURE
FISH.-LNG INDUSTRY
MISCELLANEOUS
II CLASSIFICATION
DATE DIST.
NO. OF PAGES 6
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
CPW Report No~ 37 -- USSR
(May 20 - June 2, 1952)
or rteiease
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An Abalkir_ report from Novosibirsk (20 May) speaks of the "unhealthy attitude"
(nezdorovoye otnoshenie) towards criticism on the part of the oblast Party Committee
which considers any adverse criticism as "an unfair and tendentious assessment"
(nespravedlivaya, tendentsioznaya otsenka) of its activities. The fear of criticism
from any quarters has, in fact, reached a point at which officials avoid criticizing
each other on general principles. This state of affairs is said to reflect
particularly on the oblast Writers Union which is under the "direct guidance" of
the Party Committee. "Unprincipled cliquing and amicable relations" (bezprintsipnaya
gruppov-shchina i priatelskie otnoshenia) is an evil to be avoided at all costs.
Squabbling (skioka). on the other hand, is no less harmful to Party and State
activities-; it is unworthy of Bolshevik leadership. In either case, says the report,
it is impossible to obtain positive results.
The suppression of criticism, says STAVROPOLSKAYA PRAVDA editorially on 22 May, is
un-Bolshevik, and the practice itself must be suppressed without delay. Evidence of
a "morbid attitude" (boleznennoye otnoshenie) towards criticism is cited in the case
of the Piatigorsk Town Party Committee whose Secretary is in the habit of "swearing
rudely" (grubo rugatsya) at his Communist critics and even threatening them with
severe punishment.. For such behavior., the paper says, the secretary "deserves to be
removed from his post", but the Party Committee nevertheless left him alone after he
had "admitted his mistakes and promised to reform." Another case was the Vodorazdelny
Machine-tractor Station.. When an article appeared in the press criticizing the
shortcomings of the station's Party organization, the latter simply prevented the
workers from learning about it.
Leaders can still be found who impede the development
of criticism from below, from the masses, who do not
lister. to the voice of the Communists and non-Party
workers, who ever. persecute those who justly point to
shortcomings. People who hush up criticism... are back-
ward people. They cause incalculable harm to the task.
Evidence of suppression of criticism, the editorial asserts, has also been noted in
Kursavaky, Novoselitsky, and Apolonskiy rayons which are "seriously warned" against
that malpractice in the future.
Some Party leaders, according to MOAT (30 May), disdain contact with the masses,
ignore critical comment and sometimes even "muzzle" all criticism. Instances of
flagrant violation of freedom of criticism from below are said to be too many to
list. The Communist director of the consumer goods combine, for example, flew into
a rage when the quality of his combine?s products was "justly criticized". He even
"organized a trial" of the critic. Primary Party organizations are usually bypassed
by the rayon Party committees when they should not be, and rank-and-file members are
seldom consulted on anything. This is said to be reflected in the apathetic attitude
of the membership to some of their leaders. "Rank-and-file Communists hardly attend
Party meetings." No names of particular localities or Party Committees are given but
the tenor of the editorial suggests that Rostov Oblast as a whole is the object of
its criticism.
The supercilious attitude of the oblast Party Committees toward their rayon committees
and the latter's disregard. for the primary Committees are strongly criticized by PRAVDA
on 25 May. "Rubber stamping, goverTnnent red tape and a formal attitude" (shtamp,
kazenshchina i formalnoye otnoshenie) are distasteful to Party leadership, says the
paper, but these are the peculiarities characterizing the work of the Minsk Oblast
Party. Its contact with the lower Party echelons is usually confined to writing
memoranda, notes, and draft resolutions. This type of work, however, invariably
remains on paper as the oblast officials never bother to visit the committees under
their jurisdiction or offer them any tangible assistance. A similar situation is said
to obtain in Chita Oblast where the "declarative conference method" (deklarativno-
zasedatelskiy metod) of work is employed to cover a multitude of shortcomings. The
lower Party cadres (nizovie partiynie kadry) must get personal instruction on their
political activities, the paper argues, for otherwise no Party decision will ever be
materialized.
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A check up on performance can be effective only when
carried out on the actual spot, not from the office...
Proverka ispolnenia mozhet byt-effectivnoy lish v tom
slucheye, esil ona osuschestvlyayetsia ne v kan-
tseiiarii a reposredstvenno na meste...
In an article carried by PRAVDA on 26 May (rot broadcast), the head of the Vladimir
Oblast Party admits that the training and education of young Coamiunist cadres is
something to be concerned about.. These fledgling Communist are placed in various
Party jobs regardless of their abilities or theoretical training, and the result
is "a great fluidity cf cadres" (boishaya tekuchest kadrov), particularly among
primary Party secretaries. The young Communists, the author continues, must be
trained and educated before they are placed in suitable positions. The practice of
shifting them from one job to another because of inadequate performance is "harmful"
to the Party and conducive to conf uaion within its ranks. Ever. the best Party workers
it is claimed, "can fade away and become useless" (mogut zakhiret i okazat-sia
neprigodnymi) if their political growrth is stunted and they are not encouraged to
broaden their outlook (krugozor),. The author is also scornful of the practice "in
a number of places" of keeping women out of executive positin'r but he does not
pursue the subject beyond that statement. Reference is also made to the suppression
of criticism and the "family circle atmosphere and mutual patronage" (obstanovka
semeystvennosti i drugo?roy poruki) in certain unnamed Party cormnittee_ which should
be eradicated by the oblast committee once and for all.
In a dispatch from Kiev carried by t- VDA on 29 May "no-, br oadcas-) , Cherr.ichenko
tells of a new device ea,p'_oyed by individual Com u fists to keep out of Party work.
The primary Party orgar.iza:ion attached tc the city House Comerittees 'domo-
upravlenia) are in charge of the political enlightenment of the population within
their respective areas. A spot check in some of those organizations, the report
says, has revealed that --any of there "have become havens for loafers and false
people with Party cards" !sta_i. abezhishchem dlya bezdeinikcv, falshivykh lyudey
a partiyrtym biletom; . Indeed many C.oumun.ists appear to prefer anything to Party
activities. The reason fo:r that, however, is not discussed:.
Many House Coianittee Party organizations are doing
ar.ythin,g they piee e except in tra-Party and political
'or:.. They ,.eplace the house managers and do petty
e.d:ai , of ati.e jobs for teem.
Mr.ogie domoupra-riencheskie partiyie organizatsii
za: imayutsia vsem, chem ugodno, tolko ne voprosami
vrnutrtpartiy.noy i pol.iticheskoy raboty. Oni
pcdmeryayut upravlyayushchiEh domami, vypo_ryayut.
za nikh melkie khozaystvernie dela.
Chernicherko cites a few cases to show how the racket works, Some Communists, when
transferred to other icbs, register their Party cards with the House Committee
organization rather than at the peace of employment. Since Party membership involves
a great deal of extra-c='tcular won-, after office hours, these Communists find it
much easier to avoid it in the House Com!r:ittees where supervision is less rigid, and
where the "family atmosphere" discourages criticism and self-criticism among the
members. The same applies to candidates for Party membership: they find it easier
to enter the Party ranks through the House Committee organizations rather than at
the place of employment where the waiting period is too long and promotion is often
delayed. The young Party candidate Astashkevich is given as a typical example.
Having received her law degree and candidates ticket in Tashkent during the war,
she managed to wiggle out of her postwar Goverment assignn?ent and make her way to
Kiev instead. After a short period of "work" at a House Committee Party organization
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she found t'-- ee obliging Party members to testify that they hadlknown her for a long
time and to recommend her for admission to full Party membership. All this, the report
concludes, was arranged easily within the Committee's "family circle", and, what is
more, Party membership was granted without further investigation.
I
SOVETSKAYA BELORUSSIA (30 May) discusses the familiar wide gap between Party decisions
and their implementation which, it says, "has not been narrowed'( in many of the
oblast committees.. Party Committees, says the editorial, rftenlpass up the primary
organizations in 'their contact with the masses, and the result is that these
organizations "are drifting into administering their own Party life." Many a Party
committee is said to look upon a meeting or conference as an end in itself, and the
decisions adopted are therefore forgotten "as soon as they are put down in the
minutes" This attitude is said to prevail in many of the Republic's Party
Committees but Gorodokskiy Rayon, Vitebsk Oblast, is mentioned as the worst of them
all, including the Gomel Town: Party which is also "derelict in its duties."
Lack of "coordination" between the rayon and primary Party committees is also charged
by KAZAKHSTANSKAYA PRAVDA on 31. May.. The paper cautior_s certain rayon committees of
Kustanel Oblast against by-passing the primary Party organizations which are the
"mainstay" of the Party and its chief link with the masses, but does not, pursue the
point.
More Statute Viol ations Note; SOVETSK.OYE ZAKARPATYE (23 May) discusses agricultural
charter violations in general teems, and hints that the e^:il still persists,, "Not
every-thing has been done" to eliminate it. Unspecified violations are said to be
taking place in U'zhgorod and Bezegovskiy okrugs, and the koll:hcz workers are urged
to guard koiknnoz property "like the apple of their eye." A harder struggle against
agricultural statute vioiations is urged by AADYANSKA DONETSHC14NA (28 May). The
paper admits that "statute violations in our oblast are still being committed", and
calls upon the prosecuting organs to do their share in catching and punishing the
violators. The specific instances of violation are not listed.)
ZARYA VOSTOKA devotes three editorials to the subject of charteri violation (25 and 28
May and 1 June). The paper points out that despite the measures, taker by the
Georgian Party to stamp out such ctelatiors, the right against them is by no means
over. Plundering and squandering of koikhoz property and "other acute violations
of the charter", it is ciaiT.ed, is still going on in many rayons of the Republic.
Recently the Party organizations of Georgia destroyed
and liquidated many violations of the kolkhoz artel
statute. lands grabbed from the art,els have) been
returned to the kolkhozes together with the property?
Indebtedness has been lowered.
One of the serious shortccriirgs in the administration of the Republics agriculture is
said to be the "oblivion" (zabver.ie) into which many of the Party and Soviet organiza-
tions have sunk. Reiterating the Party's injunction to safeguard communal lands,
livestock, and other properties "from any manifestation of arbitrariness and iniquity,"
the editorial (25 May) demands ar. end to the "criminal attitude" towards collective
farm property and calls for the "severe punishment" of the guilty.
Rbturning to the subject on 28 May, the same paper reveals that pn 26 May the Central
Obmmittee of the Georigan Communist Party held a special sessionIto discuss
.measures against pilfering of communal wealth"., (It is worth recalling, in this
connection, that measures to fight against kolkhoz statute violation had also been
J tlined and urged by the Party conference at Tbilisi early lastlAprii, and again at
`19th Georgian Komsomol Congress on 17 May. The principal speaker at those gatherings
as well as at the recent special session was Mgeladze, first secretary of Republic's
Central Party Committee) Mentioned for the first time, in addition to the familiar
terms of embezzlement, pilfering, squandering and others, is the word "extortion"
(vymogatelstvo) which is implicitly referred to as one of the worst features of
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charter violation The Iasi of the three editorials (1 June) treats the topic dhow;
the same lines. It adds, however, that since the question of statute violations has
already been 'solved at the higher Party levels, it now devolves upon the respective
local Party organizations to put those decisions into effect: "Now everything depends
on the level of organizational and political work of the local Party organizations.,."
C tiv tio~} 9nd Crop Maintenance Mist Be Improved: The oblast agricultural workers
and rQchi.ne-tractor stations, says KIROVOGRADSKA PRAVDA (24 May), have all the
technical equipment and manpower necessary to insure a rich harvest, but lack of
proper organization and coordination accounts for their poor performance at present.
Crop maintenance is said to be "very bad" in Elizavetgrad, Dolinskiy, Petrovskiy,
Tishkovskiy, Novogrodkosvskiy and a number of other rayons. Inter-row cultivation
of corn and root fodder crops has just begun whereas i'- should have been started
long ago, and, the cultivation of sunflower, sugar beets, and forest belts is already
behind schedule. STAVROPOISKAYA PRAVDA (28 May) declares that the neglected weeds
in a number of rayons "are already stifling the crops and seriously threatening the
harvest", insufficient attention being paid to that phase of field work. The situation
is "particularly serious" in the farms of Voroshilovskiy, Voronts ovo -Alex androvsk iy,
and Soldato-Alexandrovskiy rayons, The horse-drawn cultivators are not used at all,
and the distribution of kolithoznika among the crop-tendin.: sectors is poorly organized
in the mentioned rayons., If the officials of the machine-tractor stations "had paid
closer attention to what is actually going on", the paper concludes, the situation
would have been much different now.
MOLOT (29 May) complains of the "harmful complacency" (vrednoye blagodushie) observable
among the oblast agricultural authorities. According to a previous decision, a
considerable area of the oblast crops was to be weeded with chemicals sprayed from
airplanes, but the time set for that job "has been allowed to lapse." In some rayons,
especially in',Voloshinsky, there is virtually no weeding of crops done despite the
fact that "the weeds are strangling the crops." Only one-tenth of the oblast's
cotton area has been cultivated so far, and the work is still proceeding "inadmissibly
slowly." The paper also complains of the indifference shown to the recently-planted
protective forest belts which require a certain "acclimatization". Sporadic care of
those trees, it is intimated, will result in the loss of many of them. Some of the
rayons have not even bothered to select the proper forest brigades for the purpose.
Among the areas where forest-cultivation work is said to be long; overdue are Romanovka,
Konstantinovskiy, Remontnoye, Sulina, Samarskiy, Stepnovskiy, Yegorlykskiy,
Novocherkassk and "several other" rayons.
An "irresponsible atTitude" toward the cultivation and maintenance of pr, tective forest
belts is charged in a summarized report from Vinr.itsa of 30 May. A spot check
initiated by VINNITSKA PRAVDA is reported to have revealed gross negligence in the
matter of fnr'_-, care on the part of many Party, soviet, and agricultural officials
and heads of machine-tractor stations. In Shargorodskiy Rayon, for example, the
1949 and 1910 plantations have never been touched, and "are now overgrown with
weeds." The forest belts in Dashevskiy Rayon have already been "seriously impaired",
and at least four machine-tractor stations have not started any cultivation although
the time limit for this expired on 5 May. The report says also that spot checks
have been ordered of all the ob].ast forest belts and that the press has been directed
to allot prominent space to the findin_c~s and to the general progress made in that
branch of agriculture.
A letter to Stalin from the collective farmers of Turkmenia pledging a bumper cotton
crop in 1952 admits "with Bolshevik straightforwardness" that the 1951 harvest was
below expectations:
Many farms, particularly in Tashlak Oblast, as a result
of gross violations of agrotechnology and serious short-
.;omings in labor organization, last year gathered a poor
cotton harvest and remained indebted to the State.
Cotton is also the object of KR1MS.KAYA PRAVDA's editorial discussion of 27 May. The
simple truth is that the collective farms and machine-tractor stations of the oblast
"are lagging behind", the editorial says. The cotton plantations are not properly
maintained and inter-row cultivation is "very poor." This is said to apply to the
entire oblast,' but in Dzhan'koy, Oktiabrskoye, Azov, and Leninskoye rayons the
situation is "'frankly alarming".
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Following are some of the other agricultural items, in chronological order revealing
varying degrees of agricultz:-?al shortcomings:
21 May -- Irresponsibility has led to the failure of agricultural organs of Nikolayev,
Zaporozh;ye, and Dnepropetrovsk Oblasts to insure supplies of poisonous chemicals.
Consequently, the sainfoin weevil (espartsetoviy dovgonosyk) considerably damaged the
beet-root fodder crops. Some areas must be immediately resown. The machine-tractor
stations of Poltava, Kirovograd, Odessa, Vinnitsa, and Sumy Oblasts have fulfilled the
harvester repair plan by only 15;6 to 20%. (RADYANSKA UKRA.INA)
21 May -- The mistakes and shortcomings allowed last year are in danger of being repeated
now. In Arzgirskiy, Ipatovskiy, Lenokumskiy, Molotov, and Petrovskiy Rayons, the late
start in sheep-shearing has led to a lowering of the quality of wool and even to losses-
(STAVROPOLSIL4,YA PRAVDA).
2' May -- On the whole, however, the progress of potato planting cannot be said to be
satisfactory.. bit is important to pay particular attention to the sowing quotas...not less
than 45,000 potato plants on every hectare.(ZARYA VOSTOKA).
23 May -- The flax flea (lnyanaya bloshka) is a great threat to flax at the present moment...
in spite of the presence of the flax pest, a careless attitude is .splayed, and no
measurestare taken to preserve the plants.(RABOCFIIY PUT editorial).
28 Mari--=,Owing to the idleness of machinery, the sheep-shearing and wool-delivery
schedules are being violated.. (STAVROPOLSKAYA PRAVDA).
29 May -- There are many kolkhozes in which the rate of livestock development lags behind
other branches of agricultural husbandry and is r+uch lower than the standard set by the
demands of the country.(DNEPROPL'TROVSKAYA PRAVDA)
30 May -- There are many agricultural administrations and directors of machine-tractor
stations in Alma-Ata and Taldy-Kurgan oblasts who have failed to utili"e their electrical
shearing equipment to the full. Many of them have underfulfilled their plans and have
miscalculated the volume of work... (KAZAX STANSKAYA PRAVDA).
Fishing Industry Still Lagging Behind: 4 letter to Stalin from all the workers of the
Khabarovsk a -fishing industry ) presents a long and detailed list of specific
pledges in connection with greater achievements in 1952. The present sorry plight of the
industry, which probably prompted the letter in the first place, is revealed in passing
and in context of recent creditable achievements:
...there is still a large number of enterprises and fishing
collectives which failed to complete the 1951 fishing plan,
condoned mismanagement, large overhead expenditures, and losses,
deteriorating quality and growing production costs and failed
to put their operations on a self-sustaining basis.
...yest eshche tseliy ryad predpriatiy i kolkhozov, kotoris ne
vypolnili plans dobychi ryby v 1951 godu, dopustili bezkhrAaistvennost,
bolshie neproizvoditelnie raskhody i poteri, snizhenie sori:nosti i
udorozhanie sebestoimosti ryboproduktsii, ne dobilis rentabelnoy raboty.
The Crimean fishing industr?, KRYMSKAYA PRAVDA states editorially on 30 May, is working "ex-
tremely unsatisfactorily," and the somewhat higher fishing tempo in May is "insufficient
to liquidate the gap" left after the first quarter of the year. The paper discloses that the
fishing plan for the first quarter was completed by only 11.7%, and the April output was 69.5%
of planned figures. This "seriouL backwardness", the editorial concludes, must be liquidated
without further delay as the whole oblast fishing plan is threatened with failure.
MISCELTAN SOUS
From a broadcast for children entitled "Malaya" (21 Ma,}):
"...British soldiers are being taken to Malaya...roo that everyone who has
risen. to fight for independence and happiness should be put to death."
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"Stezni punishment awaits everyone shoving sympathy for the
fighters or pronou.~icing the word 'freedom'."
"The Malays have risen for a decisive battle; they find
happiness in their proud fight..."
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