LETTER TO S. FREDERICK STARR FROM GEORGE ROLT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87R00529R000200150003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: June 28, 1984
• Content Type: LETTER

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/04/28: CIA-RDP87R00529R000200150003-4
V .
28 June 1984
S. Frederick Starr
President
Oberlin College
Cox Administration building
Oberlin, Ohio 44074
My belated thanks for sending me your article. The essay indeed
does make some very important points. I only hope that it gets a
wide readership among so-called Soviet experts. I just don't know
how many of them read Technolo Review. In this regard, have you
seen Mike Joyce's article on "The Old Russian Legacy" in the Summer
of 1984 issue of Foreign Policy? I find it absolutely awful. Is
there any possibility that you could rework your article either for
Foreign Policy or Foreign Affairs, both as an antedote to Joyce's and
as a contribution to our knowledge in its own right.
The only point on which I would take issue with you is in your
description of the state of the economy. I quite agree that we
should not talk about it in apocalyptic terms. At the same time, I
think Soviet leaders are deeply worried about the economy and
particularly about the negative and potentially dangerous affects
that the stagnating standard of livin is or could have on the
working class. During our conference you brought out quite
well the Soviet unease that Solidarity cou have a spillover effect
into the Soviet Union. By now you have probably seen the prolonged
discussion in Soviet scholarly journals about "contradictions" under
socialism and more recently two amazing articles in Voprosy Istoryy
-- the first piece praising Krushchev's emphasis on consumer goods
and the second Lenin's NEP. I think all these. articles point to a
realization among at least some scholars and probably among some
political leaders that something must be done about economic
organization and priorities. Whether anything will actually be done
is open to question but I think the concern is greater than you
suggest in your article. That would be my one reservation, and.I do
hope you can get your analysis published in a more widely read
journal.
With warm regards,
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/04/28: CIA-RDP87ROO529R000200150003-4