THE EFFECT ON THE INDUSTRIAL REGISTER OF DUPLICATION IN THE TRANSLATION OF SOVIET PRESS PERIODICALS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-00706R000100230031-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 11, 2013
• Sequence Number: 31
• Content Type: MEMO

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**I. Office Memorandum ? UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
CIA-RDP81-00706R000100230031-2
TO : Executive, CD
FROM : Acting Chief, Industrial Register, CD
DATE: FT rc:?
NN 014tibieb
AI) I 0
SUBJECti The Effect on the Industrial Register of Duplication in the
Translation of Soviet Press and Periodicals
1. Background:
The Industrial Register, through continued processing and
examination of its files,is constantly concerned with the problem
of translation duplication of Soviet press and periodicals. It
is also concerned with the fact that some translations are made
in inadequate or misleading form. This is obviously expensive
in initial cost and follow-up correction. The situation also has
repercussions reaching beyond IR and CIA, since IR files are ex-
tensively used by the entire intelligence community.
This problem of translation duplication has existed for
some time, but repeated efforts to correct it have been lost in
committee rooms. However, recent reduction in TiO's has made
it increasingly clear that the time has come to reappraise this
situation and make every effort to correct it. Duplication and
inadequate translation results in an unwarranted expenditure of
time and effort by analytical, machine, and product classification
sections, and causes considerable frustration to editorial boards
and our customers in CIA and the IAC agencies.
2. Organizations Translating Soviet Press and Periodicals:
The following major organizations are engaged in the
translation of Soviet press and periodicals: Foreign Documents
Division, CIA; Air Information Division, USAF; Joint Intelligence
Board; Joint Press Reading Service; Current Digest of the Soviet
Press; Atomic Energy Commission; Soviet Press Translations;
Foreign Broadcast Intercept Service, CIA; service groups too
numerous to mention.
a. Foreign Documents Division (FDD) and Air Information
Division (AID)
These two organizations are treated together since
they are the principal translators of Soviet press and
periodicals, and since the area of duplication is greatest
between these two groups.
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An FDD official has informed us that there are
seventeen major newspapers covered by both FDD and AID with
little coordination of effort. Duplication of effort has
been estimated by this official to run, at times, as high
as forty percent.
A preliminary examination of our files indicates
that duplicate extracts have been processed from the fol-
lowing newspapers: Pravda Vostoka, Leningradskaya Pravda,
Izvestiya, Pravda Ukrainy, Trud, Moskovskiy Bolshevik,
Kazakhstanakaya Pravda, Vecte7Flaya Moskva, Moskovskiy
Komsomolets, Kommunist, Sovetskaya Latviya, Sgvetskaya
Estoniya, Krasny Flat, Kommunist Tadzhikistana, and others.
Duplication also exists in the translation of most trade
and ministerial journals.
Originally) there had been an understanding between
FDD and AID whereby the latter group would exploit only
pre-1947 information. This practice fell into disuse
several years ago when AID began to exploit current material,
thereby often duplicating FDD efforts. The AID viewpoint
is that FDD was not covering material necessary for the
construction of target mosaics; FDD's viewpoint is that
the Air Force requirements were not sufficiently specific.
Each of these organizations has a specific mission
and each has strong support from its parent organization.
FDD has a Security Council Directive and AID is the principal
contributor of information for the construction of the
target mosaics which are used by the Strategic Air Command
and other intelligence services. Neither of the organizations
seems willing to yield its position.
b. Joint Intelligence Board (JIB) (Summary of Soviet Press,
Summary of Soviet Periodicals)
These publications were discontinued on August 1, 1952.
In the opinion of many, they constituted the finest summaries
of current press and periodicals ever presented. They had
many advantages over present coverage, the most important
being that the Summary appeared approximately one month after
the publication date of the newspapers or periodicals. Many
of the extracts from these publications were duplicated by
both AID and FDD. Since these publications have been dis-
continued, there no longer is a problem except that the
duplications mentioned above will have to be removed from
our files.
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, . .
c. Joint Press Reading Service (JPRS)
This organization is in Moscow and is conducted in
joint operation with the British. The JPRS reviews and ab-
stracts major newspapers of the USSR and issues two trans-
lated series. Section "A" is devoted to foreign affairs
while Section "B" covers domestic news. Abstracts of
leading periodicals are also prepared. Since most of the
material in these publications deals in general economic
and political terns, very little duplication occurs here.
FDD receives a copy of the JPRS and uses it as a guide in
translating the same sources. There have been occasions
when FDD has worked the same article, but we have been in-
formed that this occurs only when the article has not been
translated in full and when FDD is in possession of require-
ments indicating that such a translation would be desirable.
Minor duplication also occurs in covering Soviet periodicals,
especially the Journal of the Academy of Science.
d. Current Digest of the Soviet Press
This Digest is published weekly by the Joint Committee
on Slavic Studies appointed by the American Council of Learned
Societies and the Social Science Research Council. Pennsyl-
vania State College and the Universities of Harvard, Princeton,
Yale, Columbia, Stanford and Notre Dame contribute to the pub-
lication. The Digest is published primarily as an aid to per-
sons engaged in research and interpretation of public affairs
and as such does not include much industrial or scientific
intelligence.
Since no requirements have been submitted against
this publication by the intelligence community, the industrial
and scientific material which does appear is often of a low
and superficial quality. IR has not exploited this publication
but will make a study of the coverage and thereby determine
whether processing is warranted. FDD receives this publication
and attempts not to duplicate items published in it. In many
cases, however, the Digest abstracts are so brief that they
do not fulfill the requirements leveled on FDD by other offices
and, consequently, FDD must rework the original article.
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e. Atomic Energy Commission
Articles appearing in Russian scientific journals are
contracted out to various organizations for translation and
are prepared for the National Science Foundation. In their
final form, these usually constitute complete translations
of the abstracts which appear in the FDD publication entitled
"Periodical Abstracts". These full translations constitute
no problem since we can exchange them for the abstracts that
are normally in the file.
f. Soviet Press Translations
This publication was discontinued on March 15, 1953.
It was published weekly at the University of Washington Press
by the Far Eastern and Russian Institute. This publication,
like the Current Digest of the Soviet Press, is primarily
concerned with general political and economic news and what
has been said about the Current Digest would also apply here.
IR has not exploited these translations but plans to study
its exploitation along with that of the Current Digest of the
Soviet Press.
g. Foreign Broadcast Intercept Service
Since the Soviet news services utilize the radio as
well as the press, a certain amount of information which
appears in the press will also appear in the FBIS reports.
Since this duplication is difficult to detect and does not
appear often, no important problem is involved.
3. Factors to Consider:
a. Cost Factor
A detailed study would be necessary to determine the
cost of each duplicate translation because this problem,
affecting the entire intelligence community, involves so
many operations in the complete processing of translated
documents. A preliminary survey indicates that duplicate
translations may cost as much as one dollar per line. This
would include the cost of translation, editing, typing, in-
tellofaxing, panel reading, analytical processing, microfilming,
product coding, file checking for duplicates, "killing" dupli-
cate information, paper, publishing, etc.
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b. Varied Security Classification Factor
There is wide variance in the classification of material
extracted from Soviet press and periodicals. Identical articles
range all the way from Unclassified to Secret. This often pre-
sents itself in amusing and embarrassing fashion in biblio-
graphical citations where articles from the same newspaper or
journal bear several conflicting classifications. Extracts
taken from the Soviet press are classified SECRET in JIB
publications, CONFIDENTIAL by FDD, and UNCLASSIFIED by AID
and the various university publications. Extracts taken
from Soviet journals are classified SECRET by FDD, while
the entire article when translated and published by the AEC
or the AID is UNCLASSIFIED.
c. Time Lag Factor
The volume of material which IR processes and the
irregular intervals at which duplicate translated material
arrives at IR for processing, precludes the possibility of
checking for duplicates of each card submitted to file. AID
"Treasure Island" reports reach IR about one or two months
after source publication date, while FDD documents usually
arrive after about four months.
d. Frustration Factor
Because duplicate articles exist in IR files, the
researcher must spend valuable time reading and weeding out
such translations. IR personnel must also periodically re-
examine its files to search out duplicate information.
e. Product Coding Factor
The product classification section of IR, through
its method of coding the products of every plant in the USSR,
provides the researcher with an invaluable aid. However, since
document sources are not coded, any duplications coded and pro-
cessed by this group will show up as false confirmations on a
machine listing. This, of course, adds up to wasted effort
by the classifying analyst, the machine sections, and the
researcher.
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f. Paper Size Factor
About five years ago, the LAC agencies agreed to use
a standard 5" x 8" ICF card. Cabinets for these cards are in
use in most IAC agencies which furnish their intelligence on
either a 5" x 8" form or a form which is 8" wide and of varying
lengths. The length is immaterial for filing purposes since
documents can be easily folded to size. If the paper's width,
however, is greater than 8", it must be cut down to 8" to fit
IR and other IAC files. CIA is the only IAC agency which
continues to issue most of its documents on paper which is
8i" wide. In 1951, through an IR employee suggestion, SO
and 00 agreed to reduce the size of their paper to 8". How-
ever, no action was taken and a recent similar suggestion also
has failed to produce any results on this problem. In one six-
month period, IR had to cut 17,509 CIA documents to size.
g. Time Lost Factor
reports are widely distributed throughout the
intelligence services where valuable analytical time must
be spent either in typing off individual extracts or in
cutting and pasting them on cards. It would effect a con-
siderable saving if extracts could be set on individual
cards as is now done in the "Treasure Island" project. Many
ORB analysts have advocated such a project.
4. Deficiencies of Present System:
a. Outright Duplication
There are many articles which are of interest to
several intelligence services. Such articles are often trans-
lated without coordination with other agencies. This is
especially true of military service translation groups.
Example: In the Moscow ZIS Automobile Plant file;
- dated 3 October 1952 is a four page trans-
lation, substantially complete, of an article which
appeared in Avtomobilnaya i Traktornaya Promyshelnnost,
No. 3, 1952; Treasure Island No. 135190, date of ex-
traction 5 Feb. 1953, is a six page translation of
the same article.
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b. Inadequate Abstracting or Translating
This deficiency often causes confusion to the user of
IR files and frequently necessitates a special request for
the complete translation.