LETTER FROM LEO CHERNE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88B00443R002004520039-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 28, 2011
• Sequence Number: 39
• Publication Date: August 18, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

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18 August 1986
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Intelligence
SUBJECT: Letter from Leo Cherne
1. The DCI received a letter last week from Leo Cherne, member
of PFIAB, covering a wide range of issues. A paragraph from that
letter is attached.
2. As you know the DCI has been asking about plans for a
conference on how the Soviet Union will deal with the impact of data
processing and telecommunications technology. He will be keeping
Cherne informed as this conference develops.
Attachment:
As stated
CL BY Signer
DECL OADR
CONFIDENTIAL
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-- I spoke to you of the urgency of the appropriate analysts maintaining
agnostic detachment about the two propositions which are part of our theology
about the Soviet Union. Recent Agency studies emphasize in great detail the
growing economic problems confronting the Soviet Union and in consequence the
fair likelihood that Gorbechev will not be able to accomplish his modernization
plans. The second conception is closely related to this one. It has long
been believed that the Soviet Union cannot open up access and communications
among its engineers, scientists, technologists, managements, made increasingly
necessary by the high technology aspects of the information age, the presence
of the computer, modems, data bases, etc. without sacrificing political
control. I think it is of critical importance even if that propostion be
essentially correct that it be under constant reexamination and challenge.
In fact, if I would be able to select one subject for competitive analysis,
it would have at its core this thesis, simply because it makes all the difference
in the world if it is in fact true, as well as what one does about it. I was
very much encouraged by your sharing my agnosticism. In this connection, I am
enclosing a clipping from the New York Times as well as one from the London
Guardian, items 9a and 10.
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b 8 ~OV1eL grQUjD cx?? t~.sc~s wv-. .;a+-?+~ - -----
;Movement: fot .Socialist? Renewal; fficia}~ h{liaclang' forthe farmers'.s:
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ed it.as."a vinvocation to dis` r. latitude fo rivata: and coopers,,; a.
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"rank anti canes for a range Uk
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690SCOPd OUTWNES
,..COLLEGE OVERHAUL
Kremlin Seeks to Make Higher
Education a Driving Force
in Modern Economy
By THEODORE SflAtsAD
'The Soviet leadership has indicted
the nation's system of higher education
and announced a sweeping program to
make it more responsive to the needs of
a modern industrial economy.
- The new higher education program,
presented in the form of a draft decree
of the ruling Communist Party, follows
V an overhaul last year of the system of
elementary and high schools. The new
plan is an attempt by the administra-
tion of Mikhail S. Gorbachev to bring
universities and?colleges into line with
his plans for modernization and to
make them a driving force for scien-
tific and technical advances.
The aim of the program appears to
i be to end the traditional use of Soviet'
i higher education as a'training ground
for narrow vocational and professional
specialization. Instead, colleges will be
expected to foster a broader-based
education that would enable graduates
to adapt themselves more readily to
condi-
new technology an ! d changing
tions.
Emphasis on Quality
The draft decree, which was pub-
lished last month and is to be discussed
in the press before being adopted by the
?i 'Central Committee, says the Soviet
Union has been concerned about the
number of college degrees without pay-
ing sufficient attention to the quality of
education.
A lack of centralized control over
higher education- the nation's 894 col-
leges, with 5.3 million students, come
under as many as 74 government agen-
cies - has resulted in excessive dupli-
cation in the same narrow
'
specializations preparing g people
specializations, the decree finds.
It proposes that the Ministry of
Higher Education, which controls uni-
versities and teacher colleges, be en-
dowed with authority to supervise all
college-level institutions, including
those run by industrial ministries.
The decree says too many colleges
have been operating in a vacuum, with-
d to links to academic re-
a
Out a equ
search Institutions or to the practical
needs of operating agencies. Further-
more, the decree finds that because of
uated methods and inadequate
ti
q
an
college equipment. graduates are often
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the decree lnds'thag'becaiise of
'more.
antiquated methods and inadequate
college equipment, graduates are often
unprepared for modern technology.
'Teaching In the.Work Place--'I
? ' ? This shortcoming is, to be remedied
i.' by integrating higher education more
j -closely with the rest of-the economy
and conducting part of the teaching
process in industrial and research es-'
? tablishments, hospitals, farms and
other prospective. work places.'-' ..."
r-. One aspect of this integration would
e instructors
of colle
h
g
ange
be an interc
and people in the nonacademic work
r -force. Working engineers, for example,
would teach occasional courses, and
professors would offer refresher work-
1 ,
shops. to practicing engineers. The
.closer collaboration between industry
d to
d
t
i
en
e
n
--and colleges would also be
. stimulate university research.
Another aim of closer university-
+t?' . -. -- ---
ld be to firin
g
wou
,professional training more into line
with needs. The Soviet decree con-
method of determining the required
"numbers of professionals" used by cen-
tral Government planners.
.=lege graduates and inadequate num-
bers with an intermediate. technical
coeducation. As a result, one of every two
people with a college degree holds a job
'with skills that do not require a higher
;,education, a job that could be filled by
'someone with an intermediate level of.'
' The Soviet Union has traditionally
:-taken pride in its large number of
courses are to be offered.
Soviet colleges have long been con-
sidered less prestigious and more
poorly paid places of employment for
science workers than industry or re-
i search institutions; the decree says,
i and fewer than one-third of all college
I departments are headed by faculty
I members with professorial rank.
I In the Soviet academic system, the
c I rank of professor usually goes with the
doctorate degree, which represents a
. ,! +. ? . f>., ?.. _... __, _ ... k ... r_ < .. higher level of scholarly achievement
Most Soviet professionals earn the so-
?d
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