COMMENTS ON KNOWLEDGE PREAMBLE (PSB D-24, 27 OCT. 1952)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01065A000300060012-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 20, 2000
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: December 16, 1952
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2000/08/30 : CIA-RDP80-01065A00Q D0060012-6
S
SECURITY INFORMATION
16 December 1952
MEMORANDUM FOR: PP/PP5X1A
SUBJECT: Comments on eamble (.PSB D-24, 27 Oct. 1952)
1. A popular biography of Stalin, the autocrat of the USSR
and the leader of the evil forces which threaten to engulf
humanity in another dark age, should be published in Russian and
most of the other languages of Europe and Asia. A simply but
forcibly written biography, factually illustrated, should be
universally obtainable, now and at the time of Stalin's death,
at a very low price. Incidents in it should be based upon the
tragic experiences suffered by every nationality in the Soviet
orbit, and they should convey an appeal to the reason of all
nations.
2. As a result of decades of campaigning in the USSR, there
apparently is a veneration for Stalin among wide segments of the
population. This veneration, however, is not completely genuine
in the Western sense. It springs from intensive propaganda
rather than from reasoning, from fear rather than from true
devotion. In experience in Bulgaria, with high and low
Soviet officer ilion personnel, the name of or talk about
Stalin was found to be taboo in 1946, at a time when Russian
patriotism ran highest. It has remained taboo today. The rule
"0 Staline nel'zya" (there must be no talk about Stalin), is stated
as a warning whenever it appears that someone intends to bring
the name of Stalin into a conversation, and has become sensible
conduct for self-preservation. While it resembles the Third
Commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in
vain," it goes further; it makes the people abide by a self-imposed
rule not to talk about Stalin in any way, good or bad. The saying,
"0 Staline nel'zya," incidentally, might be an. appropriate title
for a propaganda publication aimed at the Russians. The title,
developed in the text, would imply that it is time for the people
COI Y
Approved For Release 2000/08/30 : CIA-RDP80-01065A000300060012-6
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