SURVEY OF COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00875R000300020005-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 22, 1999
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: February 27, 1970
• Content Type: REPORT

 STATSPEC
Confidential
IIIIIIIUUU~~~~iiiii~IIIIIII
FOREIGN
BROADCAST
INFORMATION
SERVICE
I~~~~IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~~~~
SURVEY
of Communist Propaganda
Confidential
27 FEBRUARY 1970
(VOL. XXIII, NO. 5)
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This propaganda analysis report is based ex-
clusively on material carried in communist
broadcast and press media. It is published
by FBIS without coordination with other U.S.
Government components.
WARNING
This document contains information affecting
the national defense of the United States,
within the meaning of Title 18, sections 793
and 794, of the US Code, as amended. Its
transmission or revelation of its contents to
or receipt by an unauthorized person is pro-
hibited by law.
GROUP I
Excluded from aulomotic
downgrading and
-dedoaiRcohion
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CONFIDENTIAL F13IS SURVEY
27 F'EI3IWARY 1970
SURVEY OF COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA
CONTENTS
Polemic Poem by Tvardovskiy Published in West Europe . - . . , . 1
COMMUNIST CHINA
New Party Units as Reported in PRC Media Since Ninth Congress , 1F
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CONFIDENTIAL FI3IS SURVEY
27 FEBRUARY 1970
THE USSR
POLEMIC POEM BY TVARDOVSI,(IY PUBLISHED IN WEST EUROPE
A remarkable poem by Alc;ksandr Tvardovskiy, editor--probably former
editor--of NOVY MIR, has been published in the Russian emigre
journal POSEV (October 1969), in FRANKFURTER ALLGEMLINE (5 December
1969) in German translation, and in other West European journals.'
On 31 February LITERARY GAZETTE published a letter from Tvardovskiy
protesting against publication of "iny still unpublished poem" in
the West. Tvardovskiy said that the poem had been falsely
portrayed as "banned in the USSR" and that it had been published
"against my will" and in "incomplete or distorted form." But the
only distortion he cites is the "impudent" substitution of the
title "Over Stalin's Ashes" for the author's title "By Memory" or
"The Right to Remember."
POSEV's editors say their underground copy is part of a longer
version which was originally intended for publication in NOVY MIR
and had actually been set up in type when the order banning its
publication arrived.
The rublication of his suppressed work abroad presumably provided
grounds for the recent moves against Tvardovskiy--,just as it did
in the cases of Solzhenitsyn, Ivan Dzyuba, and others. Tvardovskiy's
letter protesting foreign publication of his poem appeared at the
same time as the announcement of the shakeup of NOVY MIR's editorial
board, removing Tvardo?,rskiy's closest collaborators (LITERARY
GAZETTE, 11 February). Subsequent Western press reports that
Tvardovskiy resigned as NOVY MIR chief editor as of 13 February have
so far been neither confirmed nor denied by Moscow.
The poem plainly issues a direct challenge to the regime in regard
to its efforts to whitewash the crimes of the Stalin era. In the
poem, Tvardovskiy recalls with a sense of guilt the Stalin era and
his own youth. His father, c.-,spite steadfast loyalty to the party,
was falsely pronounced a kulak and shipped off to a labor camp.
* A full English translation will appear in a forthcoming issue
of "Translations on USSR Political and Sociological Affairs," JPRS.
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CONFLi)LN'.L'LAL FF'BIS SURVhY
2''( Fi:.BRUARY 1970
(Tvardovskiy was a correspondent for a local Smolensk paper when his
blacksmith father was arrested in thu early 1930's. He came into
promirienc(: after authoring an upic poem "The Land Muraviya" in
1936, in which he hailed the collectivization drive and vilified the
kulaks; in 19111 he won a Stalin Frize. )
Now, t;horugh the medium of his poem, T'vurdovskiy seeks to explain,
but not to Justify, his actions to himself rand to the youth of
today. Young people, he says, cannot underotand what life was
like when oric: bore the stigma "son of an enemy of the people":
You are always at, hand
In case there is a shortage of class enemies.
You are ready for public torment-.
And for what is sometimes worse
-- When 'your best friend.
Cannct, :Look you in the eye
How it is to live with such a label
-- How it. is to serve out this limitless sentence
Is written about by the author of these lines
--And not from hearsay or from a book
Then Tvardovskiy tells of the happy day when Stalin removed the
curse from him by announcing that henceforth "a son does not answer
for his father":
You, the young, cannot comprehend
What is contained in these words.
They were pronounced in the Kremlin hall
By him who for all of us
Was the cne ruler of earthly destinies
You didn't expect it, didn't even hope it
And suddenly--ycu're completely innocent.
Your torments are at an Fnd,
Be cheerful, don't, hide your face.
Thank the father of the peoples
For forgiving you your real father.
In a more important sense, however- Tvardovskiy says--the son must
still. answer for his father, must speak up even at this late hour
for the falsely accused father. And all must answer for the evils
rommit.t,ed by "the common father," by Stalin. The hard questions
must be asked: Why did it happen? Why did the poet's generation
show such blind obedience to Stalin?
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CONFIDENTIAL FBIS SURVEY
27 FEBRUARY 1970
Tvardovskiy does not pretend to have found the answer to these
questions, but he declares the answer must be sought: We must
remember, and must speak of that which we remember, because
only through recalling the pwit can we hope to understand it.
Those who zealously hide the past
Are also out of touch with the future.
Finally, the poet addresses himself to those who wish to censor
criticism of the past, and who perhaps long for a new Stalin:
And you who perhaps are striving
To regain the former paradise
You had better call Stalin --
He was a god, he can rise.
And that he can easily appear
In the world, this god-father
Is attested to
By his Chinese model.
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C0NIi'11)EN'1'1AL F131S SURVEY
2'( FEliFZUARY 1970
COMMUNIST CHINA
NEV PARTY UNITS AS REPORTED IN PRC MEDIA SINCE NINTH CONGRESS
Judging solely by the output of the propaganda media, the campaign
to rebuild the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), now almost one year
old, has produced only meager, uneven results. Of the PRC's
29 provinces and municipalities, county-level party committees have
been reported. only in Hunan and Heilungkiang, and only Krangtung
claims a rebuilt committee at the city level. While 1Ii other
areas report basic-level advances in party building, 12 provinces,
some with large minority populations, have made no apparent
progress, although a few have CCP core groups up to the provincial
level. The effort to rebuild the Communist Youth League (CYL),
ordered in the joint PEOPLE'S DAILY-RED FLAG-LIBERATION ARMY DAILY
editorial celebrating the 48th anniversary of the CCP last July,
has only produced one new party branch, in Nanking.
Peking media, continuing a cautious approach to publicizing new
party units, have mentioned only a few basic-level units from
selected provinces. The county committees in Hunan and Heilungkiang
and the city committee for Maoming, a lesser Kwangtung city, have
not been mentioned. On 17 February, Peking radio reported on a
general party branch in a Maoming factory, but failed tc iention
the city level committee there.
The table on the next page shows the extent of progress in party
reconstruction by province, region, and special municipality, as
claimed in public media. The broadest claims for each particular
area are itemized; some reports of new party branches at the lowest
levels may be omitted in regard to areas where claims have been
relatively numerous. References to provincial-level CCP core
groups have been noted, although these are only the precursors to
the promised new party organs. Notation has been made in all
instances where provincial-level radios have been solidly relaying
Radio Peking and thus broadcasting no local news.
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CONFIDENTIAL 11'131;1 SURV1sY
27 FEBRUARY 1970
NEW PARTY UNITS AS REPORTED IN PRC MEDIA SINCE NINTH CONGRESS
PROV1NCE, DA'Z'E/SOURCE
North China
Hopeh
Inner
Mongolia
(no local broadcasts since Oct 1968)
regional CCP core group mentioned
(no local broadcasts since 5 Jan)
party committee, Hsinhua plant
party branches, Tsinghua University
(no local broadcasts from Aug 69 to 3 Jan)
(no local broadcasts monitored)
Peking 15 Dec, NCNA
16 Dec, NCNA
Ningsia
5 Nov, Lanchow
30 Jan, Yinchuan
30 Dec, Sian
Tsinghai
5 Aug, Sining
Northeast
Heilungkiang
9
Sept,
Harbin
9
Feb,
Harbin
9
Feb,
Harbin
Liaoning
party committee for entire factory
after basic branches established
"most basic-level organizations after
consolidation have restored organiza-
tional life"
"80% of basic units have started party
consolidation"
party committee, Tsinghai provincial
administrative bureau of electric
power
party branch, plant
provincial CCP core group mentioned
first county committee in province
21 June. NCNA party branch, brigade in Shenyang
6 Feb, NCNA party committee, factory in Shenyang
5 Feb, Shenyang party branch functioning in factory
CONFIDENTIAL
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CONFIDENTIAL FBIS SURVEY
27 FEBRUARY 1970
-6-
PROVINCE DATE/SOURCE
Southwest
Kweichow
Szechwan
Tibet
Yunnan
(no local broadcasts since last Sept)
(no local broadcasts since last Nov)
East China
Anhwei 26 Nov, Hofei party branch, factory
30 Oct, Hofei party branch, local brigade
Chekiang 2 Feb, Hangchow "some basic-level units have set up
party branches"
Kiangsi 16 July, Nanchang party branch, factory
Kiangsu 28 July, Nanking party branch general committee, factory
11 Sept, Nanking party branch, brigade of CYL
9 Feb, Nanking party committee, commune
Shanghai 21 June , Shanghai party committee, factory
1 July, Shanghai party committee, factory
Shantung Tsinan, Tsingtao provincial CCP core group mentioned
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PROVINCE
Central-South
Ronan
Hunan
Hupeh
DATE/SOURCE
16 Dec, Chen,;clho'?i
23 Je:pt, Chan ~r:,1~:~
7 Nov, Changsha
2 Dec, Changsha
30 Dec, Changsha
9 Jan, Changsha
8 July, Wuhari
1 Dec. Wuhan
FBIS SURVEY
27 FEBRUARY 1970
committee, factory
.C'irsl: p,-LLrl;y committee in province,
coinmun.:
party committee, Hsiangtan iron works
first county conraittee in province
total 7 county committees claimed as
well as several at basic levels in
province
party committee, Shaoshan commune
party committee, brigade
party committee, factory
Kwangsi
1 Feb, NCNA
1 Feb, Canton
11 Feb, Canton
17 Feb, Peking
25 Feb, NCNA
provincial CCP core group mentioned
city party committee, Maoming
party branch, middle school
general party branch, Maoming factory
party committee, Canton factory
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