REQUEST FOR APPROVAL TO GIVE AN ORAL PRESENTATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85-00024R000300430002-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2007
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 4, 1981
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2007/09/26: CIA-RDP85-00024R000300430002-3
W W F D/FBIS
4 May 1981 _DD/F3IS
C/LRB
MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Officer, Directorate of Science and Te uiol~o
Ft
C/P.:OD
VIA: Director,FBIS -C/0PS
Chief, AG/FBIS ,C/ADAMIN
Chief, ME/LAB/AG 201 F,LE
FROM: 3EXEC. ?,1E3.STAT-
SUBJECT: Request for Approval to Give an Oral Presentation
1. I request approval to present a talk based on the attached outline,
titled "Beyond the Organizational Weapon: Religion, Nationality, and the
Structure of Soviet Politics in the 1980s."
2. When approved, 'I intend to give the oral presentation at the
Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic
Studies Washington Chapter on 15 May 1981.
3. None of the material in this oral presentation is, to my knowledge,
classified.
4. I am not under cover. I will be identified as an FBIS employee
but will append the standard disclaimer indicating that the views expressed
are my own and not necessarily those of thency.
STAT-
Attachment: (Two copies of text)
I have reviewed the attached outline and to the best of my knowledge
have found it to be unclassified.
STAT
Director, FBIS
,'W 19087
I have reviewed the attached outline and to the best of my knowledge
have found it to be unclassified and approve it for presentation.
Executive Officer
Directorate of Science & Technology
al=`C A.la i 6 fit, '~. j~R,P ^? ~M 9 V
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Preliminary OutlinePor a presentation to the AAASS ashin9ton
Chapter Annual Meeting, May 1981
"Beyond the. Organizational Weapon:
Religion, Nationality,. and the Structure of Soviet Politics in the 1980s"
STAT
Religious and nationality groups--both separately and jointly--
are acquiring ever greater influence' in Soviet society; and this influence
has given them a certain political power. Existing Soviet institutions,
however, explicitly exclude participation by religious and nationality
groups and so have little place for these new actors. This conflict has
had different consequences in and for difference parts of the USSR but
has resulted in a change in the way political decisions are made on
at least certain issues. Here I want to examine three religious/.
national groups--Islam and the nationalities of Central Asia, Orthodoxy
and the Great Russians, and Roman Catholicism and the Lithuanians--in
order to trace how the current situation came about, what its future
course is likely to be, and how this will affect the structure of
Soviet politics in the 1980s. I will consider the three cases jointly
according to the following outline:
I. The Nature and Relationship of Religion and Nationality in the USSR
A. Available Structures
B. Interaction of Religion and Nationality
'C. Soviet Understanding of the Problem--the new definition
II. Religion and'Nationality as the Subjects and Objects of Politics
A. Party and State Structures--formal and informal
B. Religion and Nationality as Constraints and Opportunities
1. Domestic
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2. Foreign
0
C. New Participants in Soviet Politics--the changing limits of the
permissible
III. Possible Crisis Points
A. Economic development
B. Foreign relations--the reciprocal nature of the problem
C. Succession--the paradoxical standing of religious and
national groups
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