STAFF NOTES: SOVIET UNION EASTERN EUROPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86T00608R000400090009-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: June 6, 1975
• Content Type: REPORT

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2~1 F P K 01
Soviet Union
Eastern Europe
Tap Secret
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June 6, 1975
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SOVIET UNION - EASTERN EUROPE
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June 6, 1975
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US-USSR: Agreement on Fishing. . . . . . . . . . . 3
Shcherbitsky Assumes Control Over
Kiev City Party Organization. . . . . . . . . . . 4
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Agreement on Fishing
Negotiations between the USSR and the US on
a new agreement on fishing in the Nnrtheast
Pacific will begin July 9. Soviet fishing ships
take about 10 percent of their total fish catch
in this area, and Moscow is anxious to obtain a
satisfactory agreement.
Last February talks broke down because the
Soviets balked at attempts to impose limits on
their catch. The old agreement was then extended
until June 30.
Major issues to be negotiated will be Soviet
damage to US fishing equipment off Alaska, conser-
vation of fisheries in the Northeast Pacific, and
crab fishing in the Bering Sea. The reliability
of Soviet statistics--which reportedly often under-
state catches--is another item that is likely to
be raised.
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Shcherbit3kiy Assumes Control Over
I: av City Party Organ zation
In a move clearly aimed at strengthening his
local authority, Ukrainian First Secretary V. V.
Shcherbitskiy has split the Kiev city party organ-
ization from the Kiev oblast organization and taken
it under his own direct supervision. The move dras-
tically weakens Kiev Obkom First Secretary and Ukrai-
nian Politburo candidate member V. M. Tsybulko, a
close protege of Shcherbitskiy's chief rival, Ukrai-
nian Premier A. P. Lyashko. As such, the move appears
to open the maneuvering preparatory to the coming
Ukrainian party congress and the election of a new
Ukrainian leadership.
At a 12 May Kiev gorkom plenum Shcherbitskiy an-
nounced a campaign to make Kiev a model city and, de-
claring that this would require "constant, direct at-
tention to its work on the part of the Ukrainian Cen-
tral Committee and Government," revealed that the capi-
tal city's organization was being separated from the
oblast organization and placed directly under the
Ukrainian Central Committee. Shcherbitskiy thereby
takes direct control over what he termed the Ukraine's
biggest party organization (177,000 party members),
which has been run by city First Secretary A. P. Botvin,
an associate of ousted republic First Secretary Shelest,
and controlled by oblast First Secretary T ybulko,
former assistant to Lyashko. Although Shcherbitskiy
sought to reassure the Kiev oblast organization that
it would remain "one of the great party organizations
of the republic," with its 77,000 party members, it
clearly will no longer rank with Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk
and Donetsk. Previously the oblast first secretary has
always been a major figure and the city first secre-
tary a minor figure. Now Tsybulko may not even rate
June 6, 1975
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reelection as republic Politburo candidate member
at the coming Ukrainian party congress.
Shcherbitskiy also indicated that the functions
of the city party organization would be expanded,
presumably with a corresponding diminution of oblast
power. This would make the status of Kiev city simi-
lar to that of Moscow city, which under Khrushchev
became predominant over Moscow oblast. Until the
mid-1940's, the Ukrainian first secretary simultane-
ously held the posts of first secretary of Kiev city
and oblast.
City First Secretary Botvin praised the re-
organization in his speech at the 20 May Ukrainian
Central Committee plenum; oblast First Secretary Tsy-
bulko did not speak. However, Botvin's personal posi-
tion is none too secure, either.' Shcherbitskiy has
been highly critical of both Kiev oblast and city
since he became republic first secretary in 1972, and
during 1973 or early 1974 the Kiev city committee's
cadre work was brought up for critical examination in
the Ukrainian Politburo, according to a 30 July 1974
Pravda article by republic Second Secretary I. K.
Lutak.
Shcherbitskiy 'ias made extensive personnel shifts
in the Kiev city committee, and by early 1.975 all the
city committee's secretaries except First Secretary
Botvin had been replayed. At the recent May 1975 city
committee plenum Shcherbitskiy was critical of Botvin
and other city leaders for not doing a good enough job,
and Second Secretary 0. P. Naumenko was replaced and
transferred to work in the Ukrainian Central Committee
apparatus. Further, in his speech at the 20 May Ukrai-
nian Central Committee plenum, Shcherbitskiy was highly
critical of the conduct of the 12 May city committee
plenum and revealed that he had interrupted the pro-
ceedings to force city officials to be more self-criti-
cal. He criticized Botvin for not critically analyzing
the work of the city bureau and various local officials
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and complained that the first speakers, instead of
criticizing the "many" shortcomings in the city,
had made "laudatory, self-;satisfied speeches."
"Some comrades had to be corrected," he declared,
and then "the character of the speeches substantially
changed."
Botvin rose through the Kharkov party organiza-
tion, as had former republic First Secretary Shelest,
and in 1961 Botvin became Kiev oblast second secre-
tary, deputy to then oblast committee First Secretary
Shelest. He served as first secretary of the Ukrai-
nian capital during almost all of Shelest's tenure as
republic first secretary.
Another hint that Premier Lyashko's position may
have weakened appeared when he was scheduled first
among the republic Politburo members to speak in the
Y-krainian Supreme Soviet election campaign. Normally,
the most junior Politburo members are scheduled first,
then the senior:members, and finally the republic
first secretary, whose speech represents the climax
of the campaign. That Lyashko's early scheduling was
not due to some conflict of timing or other accidental
factor was suggested by the fact that he was similarly
scheduled first in the 1974 election campaign. By con-
trast, in 1971, the last previous election campaign, he
h
d
a
spoken third from last, as befitted his position.
June 6, 1975
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