SOVIET AND FOREIGN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN THE USSR (FACILITIES AND FREEDOM AVAILABLE, TREATMENT AND INFORMATION ON SPECIFIC NATIONAL GROUPS, EAST GERMANS, HUNGARIANS, POLES AND CHINESE)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80T00246A042500650001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 16, 1958
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
18, U.S.C. Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
S-E-C-R-E-T
COUNTRY USSR/East Germany/Poland/Communist China REPORT
SUBJECT Soviet and Foreign University Students in DATE DISTR. 16 June 1958
the USSR
INFO.
PLACE &
DATE AC
u cam.
A4-<
FESSING
C0
The report features the living conditions
and political attitudes of Soviet and Satellite university students in
the USSR in 1956-1957.
STATE ARMY ](NAVY X AIR
of*: Washington distribution indicated by "XII; Field distribur,
X el AEC
L-7
m-1
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1. Economic Conditions
Report on Foreigners-Studying in the Soviet Union,
All of the students, regardless of whether they are foreigners or
Soviet citizens, pay a monthly rent of 15 rubles at the student residence.
For aspirants [candidates for a degree], the monthly rent amounts to 25 rubles.
The rent includes room, electricity, heat, and bed linens at the home, but
does not include food and other expenses.
The above prices apply only to the student homes in Leningrad. Prices
at the new university in Moscow are much higher. An aspirant there has to
pay 60 rubles a month for rent; a student pays about 50 to 55 rubles.
Students who cannot be accommodated at the home -- this applies only
to Soviet students, since foreigners have to live at the home -- attempt to
rent furnished rooms or roans-to-share in Leningrad. Since housing facilities
are very scarce, landlords engage in shameless profiteering with rented
A sparsely furnished room costs 200 rubles rent a month, and a corner
in a room, i.e., part of a room which has to be shared zither with another
student or with the landlady, costs 100 to 150 rubles,
2. Auxiliary Labor Service Requirements for Soviet Students
The descriptions concerning compulsory loan'
are not the only hardships to which Soviet students are exposed.
Additional hardships are caused by the compulsory labor service which has
to be performed during vacations between semesters. All Soviet students
have to put in one month in the labor service during
their 2-month summer vacation. This labor service has the aspects of compulsory
service and is a prerequisite for the continuation of studies the following
semester. The type of]abor service varies each year, depending on the
respective key requirements as determined by the government, and to some
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extent, on the regio location o un vers ty. In 1956, Leningrad 25X1
students moved to the area around Leningrad in order to construct pigpens
on sovkhozes and kolkhoses. In the summer of 1957 the assignment consisted
of performing S1E HLIZE iZ farm chores in Kazakhstan; another component 25X1
of the Leningrad students was put to work draining swamps during both years.
In addition to the above-mentioned one-month labor service during the
summer vacation, students are summoned to the labor service a second time
each year the beginning of September, to perform farm work. This again
is a compulsory service, and the assignment in each case involves bringing
in the harvest. In 1956, Leningrad students had to work in the country
for about 4 weeks, until 15 October, to bring in the potato harvest. Students
from Tashkent were called up for 2 months in order to bring in the cotton
harvest.
All of these actions can be understood only in light of the fact that
there is a shortage of agricultural workers in the Soviet Union. The
so-called New Lands areas are short of workers, and m at Leningrad University
it was reported that in 19561one third of the wheat crop in the New Lands
areas could not be harvested. To date, all efforts to stop the migration
of agricultural workers to the cities and industrial centers have been
unsuccessful. This is primarily due to the indescribably low standard of
living in rural areas. On driving through the southern part of the Soviet
Union, one finds that there is actually nothing to buy in the markets and
in the villages, and that the peasants are destitute. BKOXEMUMPIM
Working conditions in the labor service during the cotton harvest were
they
particularly depressing for the Tashkent students, and are characteristic
of the system. A total of 12 to 14 working hours was spent in the cotton
oi+e-o'- '~l'SL,r
fields, the food was extremely poor and in effect consists!cac on y-ate eisvo
prepared with noodles. Accommodations were in large dormitories set up
t
in barns.
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In 1956, the cotton-picking quota for each student was established at
60 kilograms per day. Those who brought in their quota received 40 kopecks
per kilogram. If the quota was not fulfilled, an amount of 8 rubles per
day was deducted from the scholarship allowance, for roam and board.
These working conditions, and the abuses of the Soviet eystem,which
become clearly evident in the labor service, are also the reason why the
labor service applies only to Soviet students, and why foreigners are not
even wanted for this service. It requires great effort on the part of a
foreigner to be able to participate in this labor service; for obvious
reasons, this is less difficult for the Chinese than for the others.
The possibilities of such labor service are still not exhausted with
the compulsory service at harvest time in the fall. During the winter,
students are called up for the third time for labor service, but this time
it is really on a voluntary basis,and the continuation
of the student's study program is not contingent upon time servedrin the
labor service. In this case,service always entails moving to the neighboring
kolkhozesTto chop wood and work in the forests.
3. Development of Political Attitudes among individual Nationalities.
Strength of individual nationalities
The following statements should be regarded only as an approximation,
l-&JTikrr
and errors are not impossible. The Ch ese contingent studying
in the Soviet Union numbers 2,000.
As of 1957, the GDR [East Germany] contingent numbers 800, of whom
500 are studying in Moscow, and 300 in Leningrad.
As for the remaining nationalities, information is available only
regarding Leningrad University. There are about 200 Polish students, but
it is questionable whether any new contingents will be arriving from Poland.
Student groups from Rumania and Hungary number about 150 each, and the CSR
contingent is composed of about 200.
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Books and Press Publication
There are no special regulations which apply to students, and in practice
the only books and journalistic material available are those to which all
REM= Soviet citizens have access in general. Newspapers and
magazines of the East Bloc countries only can be purchased. Western publications,
even newspapers and magazines published by the Communist Parties of the West,
are not available. German press publications which can be purchased regularly
include the Neues Deutschland -- which is about 2-3 days old, the Berliner
Zeit, and the Junge Welt. Newsstands also sell the Yugoslav Borba, but
the few copies available are not enough to meet the demand, and the paper
is constantly sold out.
The struggle to obtain the U.S. publication, Amerika, is especially
great. This is a magazine which is published on the basis of a bilateral
contract between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Soviets are
disseminating a similar publication in the U.S. The magazine sells for
5 rubles, which is the official sales price. However, dealers are swamped
with demands for copies which have, for all practical purposes, become a
black-market commodity. They could sell ten times the number available.
As a rule, copies can be obtained only by regularly paying dealers the
requested price of 8 rubles.
The Polish Student Group
The Polish student group at Leningrad University occupies a unique
a.
position since Gomulka's rehl4ilitation and since the events of October 1956.
Although outwardly the pattern of political discussions has changed somewhat
and arguments have become more moderate, the abysmal differences are essentially
the same, and the Poles have not deviated one centimeter from their basic
stand on decisive questions. Alrewi 1955, when Gomulka's rehabilitation
was made known toward the end of the year, the representatives of the Polish
student group declared freely and in public that "Gomulka is our best mind;
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he has to become First Secretary of the Workers' Party, or chief of state." 25X1
Then, when the known changes occurred among the leadership of the Polish
Workers' Party and in the Polish state apparatus, a wave of joyous agreement
and l6T absolute solidarity 7 with Gomulka swept the Polish student
group. In this oonnection1the activities of the Poles were not merely
confined to approval of the events in their homeland, but they actually
sought to open discussions with Soviet students and those of other nationalities,
in which they severely criticized the Soviet Union. The discussions centered
on the Soviet terror system, the political suppression of other peoples,
and the shameless exploitation of the Polish people in particular (forced
exportation of Polish coal, Soviet levies on Poland for occupation costs,
etc., etc.) 10 j ifferences between the Polish students and the Soviets
at the university eventually increased to such a pitch that the Polish
students refused to eat at the same table with the Soviets. Eventually
the differences subsided andlon the surface, things appeared to quiet down
somewhat.
During the winter of 1956,copies of the Sozialdemokrat, published by
the East Bureau of the SPD, in which the Harich case, his platform, and his
convictions were presented, were circulated at Leningrad University.
Similar leaflets which had apparently been brought to the Soviet Union by
vacationers from Berlin, were circulating among the German student group,,
as well as among the Poles. For the Poles, Harich and Gomulka became symbols
of resistance against Bolshevism and IXINM of a free, democratic road to
socialism. The Poles paid little attention to distinctions in this case.
To them, both Harioh and Gomulka had the same aims, and Harich was their
man as much as Gomulka.
In September 1956, a Polish student returned from a brief vacation
in Georgia. He related that he had received stormy ovations during his
w2 5
stay there when the population learned that he a Polish national and
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that he sided with Gomulka and with the Hungarian resistance fighers, whose
case had already become a crucial issue at that time. He reported that
the excited Georgians had literally made the following statement: "If
Khrushchev comes here, we will beat him to death." (This same Polish student,
however, reported further that the underlying reasons for this enthusiasm
on the part of the Georgians for the Poles and Hungarians are quite different
from what they appear to be on the surface. For, a large number of these
Georgians are enthusiastic Stalinists and their opposition tQ Khrushchev,
therefore, is attributable to entiit/rely different reasons. The Georgians
lived relatively well under Stalin since Stalin, because of Hl national
sentiments strongly favored the Georgian Republic. He built roads there;
they enjoyed an especially favorable tax system and were given free reign
to develop their national culture. When Khrushchev put an end to these
things, unrest developed for the first time in 1956, and the central government
in Moscow gave orders to shoot at the crowd.)
The Hungarian Revolution
News of the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution spread like wildfire
among the students. The Polish students apparently were the first to hear
about it, and their call roused residents in all of the dormitories at the
various student homes. There is a revolution in Hungaryl This attitude
has persisted until the present and all attempts by functionaries loyal
to the Soviets, to depict the events in Hungary as a counterrevolution or
as an action by fascist gangs, or otherwise, have been in vain.
r'14 CAI' ?A- 14
The Hungarian events LL Man" evoked violent differences
among the German student group. The majority lined up solidly with the
Hungarians while the others, who were in the minority, attempted to champion
'the SED dine. The Embassy in 'Moscow dispatched a
functionary named KAEBEL, who was to attempt to straighten out the ideology
of the dissident student group. However, the meeting turned out differently.
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Students got up, spoke out in favor of Poland and Hungary, and the meeting
which had been called together by the Embassy functionary, ended with calls
such as, "Long live Poland and Gomulka," "Long live the Hungarian people,"
etc., etc. At the same time the Embassy representative and the Party leadership
of the student group had to listen to protests against the failure of the
press and radio to furnish information, or their dissemination of false
reports, about the events in Poland and Hungary.
Arrests of Leningrad students; Resistance Activities
Serious incidents occurred in the wake of the events in Poland and
Hungary and their repercussions among the students. In October 1956,
Leningrad University students participated in the parade during the October
Revolution celebration, in front of the Winter Palace. At that moment a
Soviet student who was a member of the Philology Faculty, yelled across
the square, "Long live the Hungarian Revolution."
The student was immediately taken away by the militia and sentenced
to 6 months in a labor camp. Allowance was made for extenuating circumstances,
due to drunkenness.
In January 1957, another student was arrested in Leningrad. A group
of students had invited the public for discussions and a meeting in front
of the Russian Museum in Leningrad, to discuss cultural problems. Actually,
45
however, there was no discussion of general cultural problems, but Dudin;ev's
had
work, "Not by Bread Alone," was discussed. The militi , of course, learned
about this and SWEENTA no doubt was also aware that this was the beginning
of a bona fide resistance organization. The leader of this affair, a student
of the Philology Faculty, was arrested shortly afterwards and sentenced to
1* years in a labor camp.
According to accounts by Soviet students, the reactions XNUUMM were
far more extensive in Moscow. There, 100 Komsomol members turned in their
membership cards because of the Soviet intervention in Hungary. Although
they were assured at first that their action would have no further consequences,
all of them have since disappeared from Moscow University.
NOEOR1 CONTm II! 4FIZ r nr.t , L,,
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The Polish students further related that demonstrations had been held
in Poland, especially at Ara University, on behalf of the Hungarian freedom
fighters. !4
The Chinese Student Group
The Chinese occupy quite a unique position among the foreign students.
Although they have been assigned to and share the same rooms with the other
students, they keep themselves in considerable isolation, and one has very
little personal contact with them. The reasons for this vary, no doubt.
One of them is the fact that their general level of education, that is, the
level of their schooling and general knowledge is lover than that of the
other students. Therefore, they have to study and work harder than the
others, and their perseverance in this respect is incredible, compared
with European standards. The Chinese study from early morning until late
at night, taking time out only for lectures, seminars, and necessary meals.
They are the most diligent of all the student groups. By and large they
may be described as diligent secondary school students with a great zeal
for learning. Their busy study schedule is one of the reasons why they
have absolutely no personal contact with the others. The Chinese simply
have no time for anything else.
The above-mentioned desire for learning on the part of the Chinese
students accounts for the fact that they never participate in the customary
student discussions dealing with the political questions of the day, which
have preoccupied the students especially ever since Khrushchev made his
Stalin speech, and which have evoked heated arguments. They waste no time
on these discussions which they consider irrelevant, so that absolutely
STAtvAF3a~t1~
nothing is known about their personal circumstances, their social NMI%
their background, and their primary education.
A third factor which should be mentioned is that the discipline among
the Chinese student group is far stricter than among any of the other groups.
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They are held accountable for the slightest misdemeanor.. and are subsequently
ordered to return to China. For instance, a fight ensued recently between
a Chinese and another student, with the result that the Chinese student was
immediately sent back to China. It is also striking that the Chinese students
apparently receive very little political indoctrination. While tao Tse
1) 46 a
Tung's 100 Flowers speech naturally aroused heated discussions among other
I
student groups, this topic likewise failed to elicit any response from
the Chinese students. The other student groups were thus led to conclude
NoT S4FFici4r+T6y imFoAMeb about
However, the final and most significant reason for the position
of the Chinese student group is their political faith in Mao The Tung's
system. Whenever the Chinese students make any political statements at all,
they evince absolute confidence in Mao The Tung's system and his political
leadership. In some respects this again ties in with the generally primitive
level of education and culture of the Chinese students, whose entire training
-o
mada,development of the ability to evaluate and,form independent opinions
' concerning active political problems of the West (in this case the Soviet
satellite countries are designated as the West)mpossible Discussions
by the other students of such problems as democracy, free elections, a special
and separate road to socialism, the theses of Harich and Gomulka, evoke no
response from them, and are not even comprehended. Moreover, one of the
basic problems in this case is entirely different from those experienced
in connection with any of the other student groups. Thee other student
D
groups have sufficient possibilities for comparison knowledge, so that
they regard the present standard of living in the Soviet Union as low, and
their criticism of the Bolshevi system is based on this criterion.
The Chinese are different. They admire what the Soviet Union has to offer,
marvel at the progress of its civilization, its cultural and technical
accomplishments, and this very admiration of the Soviet standard of living
strengthens their belief in the merits of the system, and perbspa-:also in
the Soviet thesis of learning.
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