YUGOSLAV VIEW OF CURRENT ECONOMIC POLICIES IN THE USSR AND SATELLITE COUNTRIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700190232-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2011
• Sequence Number: 232
• Publication Date: July 15, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORi~
INFORMATION FROM
.'OREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NG.
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT N0.
YUGOSLAV VIEr! OF CURRENT ECONOMIC POLICIi~S
IN Tf1F: USSR AND SATEL.T.ZTE COUNTRIE^.,
[The following report gives information from the Yugoslav point
of view on current economic policies in the USSR and Satellite coun-
tries concerning consumer goods, agricultural production, econor,.ic
personnel, and trade.
Numbers in parentheses refer to appended sources.]
Consumer Goods
By the latter part of 1953, Soviet lir;ht industry was to supply better
quality consumer goods. However, in mid-tovember 1953, Milcoyan, Soviet Minister
of TraPe, found it necessary publicly to reprimand t?foscow's two largest textile
factories because their +PV+;~..~ .,...r: ~_ -~-.. ~ y.uliiLy cnut 'no one wanted
them." One of the factories had producedron1yj850,000 of the 3,700,000 meters,
and the other only 9,500,000 of ti:c 15,200,000 meters of textiles called for by
the plan.
By mid-November, only 47.7 percent of the ccnstructior. plan for apartments
for worxers employed by t}:e I?iinistry of 6fachine Building was fulfilled.
On 7 December 1953, Pravda stated that in Leningrad it was impossible to
purchase enametwarc, aluminum teapots, coffeepots, or irons. Corsitr,.er demand for
teapots is met by barely 20 percent. Two shops carrying optical supplies have ,:one
out of business. it is impossible to buy a fishhook. In late llecember 1953,
Pravda reported that in Simferopol' in the Crimea, 3u enterprises *ailed to fulfill
the plan [for consumer goods:] in the first quarter of 1953, ''~ is the second, and
25 in the third. Although Crimea is on the sea, it is ?lifficult to purchase fresh
fish in Simferopol'. There is not a sin};lc fi?~iit store in the city.
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
HOW
PUBLISHED
WHERE
USSR, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, DATE OF
Rumania INFORMATION 1953, 1951E
Ecr^nmic - Consumer goods, agricultural production,
trade
Dail news DATE DIST. /~ Jul 1954
Y papers
PUBLISHED Belgrade, Zagreb
DATE
Pl16LISHED 30 Dec 1953-11 Feb
LANGUAGE Serbian, Croatian
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Hungarian Workers Party clearly demonstrated thatntheretweeOstilltshortages of
good textiles, ready-made clothing, shoes, furniture, dishes, household articles,
and similar items. Consumers in the villages find it hard to obtain small ma-
chinery, artificial fertilizer, tools, nails, wire, buildinE material, lime, and
similar products.
The East Berlin Taepliche Rundschau describes the consumer goods situation
in East Germany as follows: Large numbers of people, particularly workers in
villages, have not found much improvement in the consw;,er roods situation. It
is difficult to find canned or fresh fish, but this is not t}te only problem,
since other food items are also scarce. Peasants still lack topl~. m~cy ^'^not
obtain chains, nails, sieves, screw drivers, or similar items. Peasant women lack
scarves; kitchen utensils, such as wash basins, pots, and other household articles;
and hairpins.
In Bulgaria, shoes are still unpaired. Ir. Rur^.ania, conditions are no better.
In Albania, the government complains of its inability to supply tinsmiths with tin
required for repair work.
Agricultural Production
Although the results oi' new agricultural policies will not be known before
1955, the Satellite press is already complaining bitterly that important prepara-
tory measures for increased agricultural production are not being implemented.
Progress is slow in assigning specialists, upon whom increased agricultural n~n_
duction and livestock development depend, to cooperative farms and h1TS. [See fol-
lowing section on economic personnel in the USSR and Satellite countries].
According to Selskoe Khoz a stvo, in Gor'Y.ovskaya Oblast in the USSR not more
than 1,000 of 3,6 2 agricultural specialists with upper or secondary specialized
school training are employed in Y.olkhczes. In this area, important agricultural
pro3ects are unusually r-tarded. According to Moscow's Izvestiya, in the Y,aluzh-
skaya Oblast scarcely half of the 2,333 agricultural specialists ere employed in
production. Pravda states that the state play, for the development. of livestock
in Tambovskaya Oblast is not being fulfilled. The kolldiozes in this oblast have
fulfilled only 53 F:rcent of the winter livestock fodder plan.
Agricultural. ^nnditiors are particularly poor in the non-Russian republics.
According to the Tbilisi Iar,~a Vostok, only ;27 a,^,roncmists wl.th hi;_,hor education
are employed in the 2,060 I:o1P.l:ozes of t'.:e Geor~,ian Republic, while in the republic
bfinistry of Agriculture and the establishments under itr '? risdict -~, ',414 a~rono-
mists are employed. The paper states that a;,ricultural specialists prefer to
remain in the city and are prone to take wor}: uuLSide their field in order to do
so. The same condit;nna nvo?,a;~ ;., v.. ^..,.,._~_.
russis. "-"'-"'?"'~~ "~ --61d, iite urraine, and Belo-
In the Satellites, agricultural difx"icultics find various modes of expression.
Collectivization has been slowed or even halted because credit has been e:ctended
to individual peasants. To increase agricultural p:?n;luction, it seems that Satel-
lite governm,nts arc ma}ang contacts with I:ulaks whn have not been won over to
socialism. In Czechoslovakia, deputy prime minister Sindrich Uher explained the
kulaks would be aided in meeting quotas since most of the agricultural area rras
in their hands.(1)
At the plenary sessions of `.he Central Committee of the Communist Pp-ty of
Czechoslovakia, held on 16 and 17 December 19;3, measures for the developt,:ent of
agricultural production and the successful implementation of government nttrchasinr_
of agricultural products were discussed. It was established that agricultural
production is at about p;?ewar level. 1?feastu?es proposed et the sessions provide
ample evidence of the resistance nT r,,echoslovr.>-;~'s peasants to socialization of
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villages according to state capitalism of the Stalin type. Discussions centered
on preserving the voluntary principle in establishing collectives, aiding individ-
ual peasants, decreasing compulsory delivery quotas, and nominally increasing crop
purchase prices.(2)
? In Rumania, Premier Gheorghiu-De,j stated that in the interests of the national
econoagy, kulak estates should produce considerable quantities of agricultural prod-
ucts, and that it was therefore necessary to enable them to take [a more active)
part in agricultural production and exchange of goods. State-owned land is even
being leased to kulaks, who now own more than 50 percent c,f the total arable land.
(1)
The government turned over to cooperative faros 448,000 hectares of land from
government property reserves. It is believed this was done wider popular pressure,
and because of difficulties encountered in agricultural production in the postwar
period. Compulsory crop deliveries and forced collectivization without proper
equipment and technical resources have caused a catastrophic decrease in agricul-
tural production and a sudden drop in the standard of living.
Among the more important decrees promulgated by the Rumanian government in
September 1953 were the Decree on the Repeal and Reduction of Taxes pffec*.ing
Independent Peasants and Peasants in Cooperatives; the Decree on the Repeal of
Overdue Crop Delivery Obligations for 1952; and the Decree on the Decrease in
Prices for Water Supplies, Sewage, and Sanitatioii.(3)
In Bulgaria, lend is being assigned to individual peasants for their personal
use.
The above is evidence of the fact that coercive organization of cooperatives
has not stimulated production; and that the state cannot depend upon the small and
middle peasants, whom it attempted to force into collectives and did nothing to
strengthen economically. It indicates the seriousness of the political and eco-
nomic crisis in the Satellite countries.(1)
Economic Personnel
In the USSR, economic experts are being placed in charge of nac?ty activities.
In rayon committees of agricultural areas these will include agronomists, veteri-
narians, engineers, and generally more specialized personnel. By Government decree,
these experts are invading the villages and establishin themselves largely in
MTS.
The Budapest Szabad Nep states that it is necessary to stress repeatedly the
need to elect the best Communist engineers, terhnici.ans, agronomists, teachers,
and independent peasants to positions nr aam+.,+..+_;~,.,_ ,
????~do ==u:~ oi.aies gnat it is necessary to enlist ..^.ew partyLLmemL?ers forhimportgant
sectors of economic and public life, always bearing in mind the heeds of the [party]
organization.
Statistics demonstrste that the Communist parties in the Satellites, and par-
ticularly in the USSR, have been chiefly made up of intellectuals, especially
white-collar workers. In line with improving the party str,+cture, there is much
talY. in the USSR of assigning educated people to positions of administrative leader-
ship. Leaders are being sent to take courses to improve their worY..
If the above is considered in the light of Malenkov's frequently publicized
claims on the need for direct party leadership in state and economic administration,
it is obvious that party committees are expected to transform themselves into the
most qualified administrative agencies in the rnyons and oblasts.
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CON~'IDEit'~A1,
trade ""?~'+ f+eara at electoral meetin~,s is that numerous a
union, and other personnel [engaged in party work] have become h
cratic and do not maintain contact with the P ~Y,
people. ureau-
The followins means of improving the situation have been s
Committee members should cover their areas, supervise the implementation of
Party and government resolutions u^,gested:
selves up in their offices and attend above all refrain from shutting them-
mpting to operate throu;;h "paper channels."
Conditions appear to be quite d'.fferent in basic party organizations. It
has Deep proposed that. party r?embers occupy positions ir. production. Rowever,
the Soviet press has described some very poor examples of this. In Gor::cl's~?sya
Oblast, only 5 percent of party members in Y.olkhozes are employed in hen
jobs. In Vladimirs};aye Oblast, more than 1,500 party members in kolkhozes have
office jobs. vY field
In Run~ary, ti:ere has been much criticism ~n Szabad ide of administrators
who are not interested in the people, and who are incapable of discharging
their administrative duties.(4)
Trade Between the USSR and the Satellites
In January 1951+, Siroki, prime minister of ti:e Czec!:oslovak
made a speech in t,?hich he .stressed that Soviet-Czechoslova}; economic ties
represented normal co 3overnment,
an expression of gratit~udeito theaUSSRs bRewaddedH hatibndly countries, and not
in a prompt and orderly fashion to the USSR y for'~+arding deliveries
sufficient food supplies to the ~ the government was
vy industries.
and hen PoPulatica, and for raw materialsrfordits light
Recently, various Satellite countries have gone to a ;,rest deal of trouble
of theirprelations withrthesUSSRiveltoap aarsnver,~ likelyuthatythed[JSSRr~tness
provided the initiative for sue!: propaganda,
y have
In Rumania, direct intervention of the Soviet government i:. the country's
econo;~y has reached g:?eater proportions than in any other Satellite country.
More than 15 mixed organizations under the jurisdiction of Soviet special'^+~
have hrr~ exhausting the vest riches of this n^'~? ~~lly endm.+ed }??~
sally independent country. However, in the latter part of 1?
Rumanian mixed cr ^.eve^ econo:~d-
Transportation Companies were lipuidnted? the S 53+ three :;oviet-
Y), in charge of naval, riverroanddhiP?~rt (~wiet-Rumanian
the Sovromkonstructia (Soviet-Rumanian Construction Compa
than one half of Rumania's cons ~ waY transportation;
(Soviet-Rumanian Insurance Comna~u}tio~'activities; and the)Sovromasiaura~? more
.. _....~, ~.~~.ul monopoly in its field.
Official reports indicate that Rw:ania has decreased the exhort oi' certain
foodstuffs to tl:e USS3. Other reports inciicatc that the prices of ;pods in
special stores supplying goods to Soviet specialists linvc been raised in an
attempt to make them conform with the prices of (;pods in the red
Recently the Ruma;aan government issued a decree raisirq; the ;;old standard of
the Rumanian leu, thus revisin ?ular stores.
former parity of 1:2.8 to the advantaaeiof theween the leu anti the ruble.
expected that the new 6 ruble is now 1:1. (The
foreign exchange with Phelit~ySRillq~ever,~ifltheehlistor d?v`nta,;es es regards
with the Satellites ten t,e used as a guide the '~ Soviet relations
reimburse itse'Lf for arty gifts or ' USSR has always known how to
the USSR returned certain ente privileges it accords. In enrh 1
multaneously
lowered the parity between the Runsarian forintyand?the~rublc. iiar thr.t then
Sovromasigurare is hrinr, dissolved, some repnrts ;ndicat.n that tY,e Rumnn;n?G
........o'.,,;r.
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are obliged to pay for the Soviet ahare of the firm in dollars, based on the
1938 rate of exchange, and to insure 80 percent of the property of the new
Rum~??ian ADASE (Administratia de Asigurare, Insurance Administration) with a
Soviet insurance company.
For a number of years, the trade of the Satellites has been largely di-
rected to the USSR. More than 60 percent of Hungary's foreign trade is with
the USSR, and 2C percent with the other Satellites. The same applies to the
foreign trade of Czechoslovakia, g,unanie, and Bulgaria In the letter part of
1953, the USSR ordered from Hungary numerous locomotives and railroad cars for
the Trans~iberian railroad. Price per kilogram of railroad cars was 6 forints;
while in Switzerland the price was three times as hi3h.
For some time, all the Satellites have been trying to reestablish or expand
trade relations with non-Commmunist countries. Such efforts have been directed
Particularly toward the Middle East and South America, but have also included
countries of Western Europe. Some Satellites have even resorted to dumping in
order to overcome the powerful competition of other exportin; and importing
countries. Such recent incidents point to the existence of an acute shortnge,
in the Satellites, of such items as foodstuffs, and raw materials needed in
metallurgy. They also indicate that in the interest of freein3 itself from its
present isolated position, the USSR is allowing greater freedom of action to
the Satellite countries. In 1953, Hungary endeavored to contract trade .igrce-
ments with 1ti non-Communist countries.(5~
1. Belgrade, Politika, 10 Jan 54 (article by Dranol,jub Katie)
2. Ibid., 28 Jan 54 (article by Bozidar Kicovic)
3? Ibid., 30 Dec 53 (article by S. L,jubisavl,jevic)
4. Zagreb, Aorba, 11 Feb 54 (article by Gavro Altr.,an)
5? Ibid., 4 Feb 5!F (article by Gavro Altmar~
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