ELECTIONS TO THE SOVIET ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-00733R000100170045-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 45
• Publication Date: February 10, 1985
• Content Type: CABLE

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erector, Foreign Broadcast
Information Service
2927
DATE
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TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
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to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
1-Deputy Director for
Science and Technology
Room 6E45 - Headquarters
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PAGE 001
TOP: 100229Z FEB 85
RR RUEAIIB
ZNY CCCCC ZOC STATE ZZH
UTS7303
RR RUEHC
DE RUEHMO #1770/01 0391620
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 081617Z FEB 85
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7104
INFO RUFHLG/AMCONSUL LENINGRAD 1037
RUEHIA/USIA WASHDC 9967
RUFHNA/USMISSION USNATO 7891
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 7225
BT
C O N F I D ENT I A L MOSCOW 01770
E.O. 12356: DECL: OADR
TAGS: ECON, KSCA. PGOV, PINR, UP
SUBJECT: ELECTIONS TO THE SOVIET ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
REFS: (A) 84 MOSCOW 15778. (B) MOSCOW 1197. (C) FBIS
TRENDS OF JANUARY 9, 1985
2. SUMMARY: FBIS' REPORT (REF C) IS AN IMPRESSIVE
ANALYSIS OF THE RECENT ELECTIONS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF THE SOVIET ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. WE PROVIDE
IN THIS CABLE SOME FURTHER BACKGROUND ON THOSE INDIVIDUALS
WHO WERE ELECTED, AS WELL AS THE LESS FORTUNATE. FROM
OUR PERSPECTIVE, THE ACADEMY REMAINS AN INSTITUTION
UNIQUE IN SOVIET SOCIETY IN THAT IT IS ABLE TO ASSERT A
NOTABLE DEGREE OF INDEPENDENCE FROM PARTY FIAT; ELECTIONS
TO THE ACADEMY ARE BASED PRIMARILY ON MERIT AND ONLY
SECONDARILY ON POLITICAL STANDING AND CONNECTIONS. WE
WOULD THUS BE CAUTIOUS A60UT ASSIGNING POLITICAL
SIGNIFICANCE TO THE ELECTION OF PARTICULAR INDIVIDUALS.
THIS SAID, WE WOULD AGREE THAT THE DEGREE OF VULNERABILITY
TO POLITICAL PRESSURE PROBABLY VARIES WIDELY AMONG
DIFFERENT ACADEMY DEPARTMENTS. END SUMMARY.
3. PARTY FIGURES UNQUESTIONABLY ENJOY AN EDGE IN
NOMINATION AND ELECTION TO THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
HOWEVER, THE EVIDENCE SUGGESTS TO US THAT PARTY LEADERS
CANNOT NECESSARILY SECURE THE ELECTION OF A PARTICULAR
CLIENT TC THE ACADEMY IF HE LACKS APPROPRIATE PROFESSIONAL
OR EDUCATIONAL CREDENTIALS. IN THIS SENSE, THE ACADEMY
IS A UNIQUE INSTITUTION IN SOVIET SOCIETY. A CASE IN
POINT IS THE LONG CAMPAIGN BY SERGE! TRAPEZNIKOV TO BE
ELECTED TO THE ACADEMY. TRAPEZNIKOV. A BREZHNEV CRONY,
WAS ONLY ELECTED A CORRESPONDING MEMBER A DECADE AFTER
HE FIRST SOUGHT ADMITTANCE. THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE
ELECTION PROCESS IS UNDERSCORED BY THE FACT THAT
TRAPEZNIKOV SERVED AS HEAD OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE'S
SCIENCE AND EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, AND HENCE WAS IN A
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DIRECT POSITION TO AFFECT THE CAREERS OF THE ACADEMY
MEMBERS WHO NEVERTHELESS VOTED HIM DOWN.
4. TRAPEZNIKOV'S SUCCESSOR IN THE SCIENCE AND
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, VADIM MEDVEDEV, WAS HIMSELF
ELECTED TO THE ACADEMY ONLY ON HIS SECOND ATTEMPT
(HE WAS ALSO NOMINATED IN 1981). WE WOULD CAUTION
AGAINST ATTRIBUTING MEDVEDEV'S ELECTION TO ROMANOV'S
CLOUT. MEDVEDEV, AFTER ALL PREVIOUSLY SERVED FOR
FIVE YEARS AS RECTOR OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE'S
ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ONE OF THE PARTY'S MAJOR
ACADEMIC INSTITUTES. WHILE WE CANNOT RULE OUT THE
POSSIBILITY THAT MEDVEDEV MAY HAVE PARTICULAR TIES
TO ROMANOV, ONE MUST BE CAREFUL IN ASSUMING THAT
ANY GRADUATE OF THE HUGE LENINGRAD NETWORK IS A
LIFETIME ROMANOV CLIENT. MEDVEDEV, AFTER ALL. MAY HAVE
GAINED HIS RECENT ADVANCEMENT IN THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
ON THE BASIS OF THE PERFORMANCE HE TURNED IN OVER THE
ELIOUS FIVE YEARS IN MOSCOW.
5. THE EXISTENCE OF TIES BETWEEN CERTAIN OTHER NEW
MEMBERS AND LEADERSHIP FIGURES IS MORE PLAUSIBLE,
PARTICULARLY IN THE CASE OF NKONO WHO HELD AGRI-
CULTURE ASSIGNMENTS IN THE RELATIVELY SMALL STAVROPOL
KRAI HEADED AT THAT TIME BY GORBACHEV. EVEN HERE,
HOWEVER, WE WOULD CAUTION AGAINST AN ASSUMPTION THAT
THE MEN WERE ELECTED AS A RESULT OF LEADERSHIP
PATRONAGE AND WILL BE EXPECTED TO FURTHER THE INFLUENCE
OF THESE PATRONS.
6. THAT SAID, WE FOUND THE FBIS ANALYSIS OF THE
ELECTIONS TO THE ECONOMICS DIVISION TO BE OF
PARTICULAR INTEREST. IT MAY BE THAT ANY INCREASE
IN THE NUMBER OF NEW MEMBERS IN THIS DIVISION
WAS INTENDED TO GIVE GREATER RANGE TO THE DEBATE
IN THIS CRUCIAL AREA. WE ARE LESS SURE THAN FBIS ABOUT
THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE INCREASE IN THE ECONOMICS
DEPARTMENT REPRESENTS AN ACTUAL INCREASE IN SLOTS
AS OPPOSED TO FILLING OF EXISTING VACANCIES. WE NOTE
IN THIS CONNECTION THAT IZVESTIYA OF SEPTEMBER 13
PUBLISHED A LIST OF ACADEMY VACANCIES WHICH CONTAINED
SLOTS FOR THE ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT OF 2 FULL AND 6
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS AND 1 CORRESPONDING MEMBER FOR
THE SIBERIAN BRANCH. WE ALSO NOTE THAT THE
ELEVATION OF A CORRESPONDING MEMBER TO FULL MEMBER
AND HIS REPLACEMENT RESULTS IN THE APPEARANCE OF 2 NEW
MEMBERS, ALTHOUGH IN FACT ONLY ONE NEW PERSON HAS
E.O. 12356: DECL: OAOR
TAGS: ECON, KSCA, PGOV, PINR, UR
SUBJECT: ELECTIONS TO THE SOVIET ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
ENTERED THE ACADEMY RANKS. EMBOFFS HAVE BEEN TOLD
THAT THE OVERALL SIZE OF THE ACADEMY HAS BEEN
INCREASED ONLY BY 10 FULL MEMBERS AND 20 CORRESPONDING
MEMBERS TO 260 AND 520 RESPECTIVELY. (OUR SOURCE,
CHIEF SCIENTIFIC SECRETARY OF THE ACADEMY SKRYABIN,
REMARKED THAT THE NUMBER OF CORRESPONDING MEMBERS IS
ALWAYS DOUBLE THAT OF THE FULL MEMBERS.) WE NOTE
THAT THE STATUTES OF THE ACADEMY SPECIFY THAT IT IS
THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS WHICH DETERMINES THE NUMBER
OF SLOTS WHICH CAN BE FILLED IN THE ACADEMY ELECTIONS.
SKRYABIN ATTRIBUTED THE INCREASE IN ACADEMY SLOTS TO
THE CREATION OF THE NEW INFORMATION SCIENCE, COMPUTER
TECHNOLOGY AND AUTOMATION DEPARTMENT.
7. TO PUT ANY INCREASE IN VACANCIES IN THE ECONOMICS
DIVISION IN PERSPECTIVE, MOREOVER, WE WOULD POINT OUT
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THAT IT WAS NOT THE ONLY EXISTING DIVISION'TO BE
RECRUITING SUCH LARGE NUMBERS. THE LANGUAGE AND
11 NEW WOM
LITERATURE PREVIOUSLY WERE DIVISION MEMBERS) AND (ALL
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS (AS OPPOSED TO ONLY FOUR NEW
MEMBERS OVERALL IN THE LAST ELECTIONS). (THE
IZVESTIYA ARTICLE CORRECTLY FORESHADOWED THE TOTAL OF
14 NEW MEMBERS. BUT PROJECTED 4 FULL AND 10
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.)
8. THE SOVIET ELITE'S EFFORTS TO PERPETUATE ITSELF
THROUGH ITS OFFSPRING ARE WELL KNOWN TO THE EXTENT
THAT THE FAMOUS DOCTRINE "SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY"
SOMETIMES SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN TRANSMOGRIFIED INTO
"SOCIALISM
IN F THE LACADEMYTELTHE STRENGT ECTIONS. INOTHISFAMILY
LIMITED ONE
PULL CONNECTION, WE NOTE THAT YU.M. cniOMENTSEV (SON OF
THE POLITBURO MEMBER) WAS NOT ELECTED (FOR THE SECOND
TIME) TO THE NEW INFORMATION SCIENCE. COMPUTER
TECHNOLOGY AND AUTOMATION DEPARTMENT. REF B
REPORTED THE FAILURE OF THE LATE MARSHAL UST OV'S S
TO BECOME A FULL MEMBER IN THE LATEST ROUND. WE ALSO
NOTE THE UNSUCCESSFUL NOMINATION TO THE SAME DEPARTMENT
OF OLEG LEONIDOVICH SMIRNOVWHO MAY BE A SON OF
L.V. SMIRNOV, DEPUTY"63A1KMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS.
Ct 1MA ROKO1L,
THAT SAME DEPARTMENT DID, HOWEVER. ELECT L.N_
THE SON-IN-LAW OF THE LATE CPSU SENIOR SECRETARY
MIKHAIL SUSLOV.
9. AS WE HAVE REPORTED EARLIER (REF A). WE UNDERSTAND
THAT THE ELECTION PROCESS SELECTIONSEAREEMADENINRTHE
NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES, ,
INDIVIDUAL ACADEMY DEPARTMENTS AND THESE SELECTIONS
ARE SUBSEQUENTLY RATIFIED AT THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE
ASUSSR. GIVEN THE MARKEDLY DISPARATE FIELDS COVERED
BY THE ACADEMY'S DEPARTMENTS (RANGING. FOR EXAMPLE.
FROM NUCLEAR PHYSICS TO LITERATURE AND LANGUAGES),
WE THINK IT LIKELY THAT THE DEGREE OF POLITICIZATION
ALSO VARIES MARKEDLY FROM DEPARTMENT TO DEPARTMENT.
ONE COULD SPECULATE THAT THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT WOULD BE ESPECIALLY SUBJECT TO POLITICAL
INFLUENCES.
10. WE HAVE DISCUSSED THE ABOVE WITH OUR WESTERN
COLLEAGUES HERE, WHO AGREE WITH THE ESSENTIALS OF THIS
ANALYSIS. HARTMAN
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FBIS TRENDS CONFIDENTIAL
9 January 1985
Academy of Sciences Election Has Political Overtones
Several of the new members of the USSR Academy of Sciences
elected in December have close political ties to members of the
Politburo. This influx primarily affects the Economics Division,
which added party and state officials, key foreign policy spokesmen,
and innovative economists. Other social science divisions in the
academy appeared to take a cautious approach, bypassing candi-
dates who have taken strong positions on sensitive issues.
The elections to the Academy of Sciences are the only significant elections in
the Soviet Union where a genuine choice among candidates is offered. This
year approximately 10 candidates were nominated (named in the November
issue of the academy's monthly journal) for each available position as full or
corresponding member of the prestigious academy. The results were an-
nounced in the 29 December Izvestiya, which listed 55 new full members and
112 new corresponding members. A TASS report of 26 December stated that
this is the largest group of members ever added to the academy by a single
election. The elections were held on 25 December after att unexplained one-
year delay. The academy rules require elections every two years, but the last
election was held in December 1981.
Economics Division Among social science divisions, the election had the
biggest effect on the Economics Division, which added
three full members and eight corresponding members,' expanding the division
by over one-third. Most of the expansion represented a party leadership
decision to create new slots, since only two vacancies were created by deaths
since the last election. The regime's decision to expand the division may have
been intended to create room for several politically well-connected figures
elected to the division.
The political connections of several of the new members of the Economics Di-
vision suggest that the party leadership will have greater influence over this
key area of the academy, which has been under heavy criticism.' Two new
The party leadership began publicly expressing its concern over the work of economists at the
June 1983 party plenum. The leadership's concerns and the response of the economists are dis-
cussed in FBIS Analysis Report FB 84-10043 of 5 July 1984, "Divisions Among Soviet
Economists Impede Reform."
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members (Nikonov and Lukinov) with unusually close personal ties to top
political leaders were shown particular favor, being elected directly as full
members of the academy and bypassing the stage of corresponding member.
The two new corresponding members (Medvedev and Sitaryan) are important
political figures in their own right:
? Aleksandr Nikonov was director of Stavropol's main agricultural institute
until the late 1970's while party Secretary Gorbachev was Stavropol first
secretary. He was elected president of the Lenin Agricultural Academy last
June, making him the leading figure among all agricultural scientists.
? Ivan Lukinov became czar over Ukrainian economists under Ukrainian First
Secretary Shcherbitskiy in the mid-1970's. Soon after Shcherbitskiy became
party first secretary he named Lukinov director of the Ukrainian Institute of
Economics. Later he also became vice president of the Ukrainian Academy
of Sciences and head of its social sciences section.
? Vadim Medvedev, who became head of the Central Committee's Science
and Educational Institutions Department in mid-1983, has been critical of
economists. As party supervisor for the whole Academy of Sciences, he
wields great power over scholars and scientists and will surely play an
influential role in the Economics Division. Medvedev may have ties to
Politburo member Romanov. He served as a secretary of the Leningrad city
party committee from 1966 to 1971 while Romanov was Leningrad oblast
second secretary. " ;
? Stepan Sitaryan, former deputy minister of finance, in April 1983 became a
deputy chairman of Gosplan, which has long feuded with the -head of the
Economics Division, Nikolay Fedorenko.
In addition to those with political ties, several well-known, innovative econo-
mists were also elected to the division, strengthening the group led by division
Academic Secretary Fedorenko and Abel Aganbegyan:
? Aleksandr Anchishkin, elected full member, is a prominent and longtime
department chief in Fedorenko's institute, as well as deputy academic
secretary of the Economics Division under Fedorenko.
? Nikolay Petrakov, elected corresponding member, is deputy director of
Fedorenko's institute and a close ally of Fedorenko in debates over revising
planning methods.
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? Aleksandr Granberg, elected corresponding member, is deputy director of
Aganbegyan's Institute for Economics and Organization of Industrial
Production in Novosibirsk.
Also added to the division as corresponding members were three foreign
affairs specialists:
? Aleksandr Yakovlev, 61, since 1983 has been director of the prestigious
Institute for World Economics and International Relations (IMEMO), the
main competitor to Georgiy Arbatov's USA and Canada Institute. He is a
former first deputy head of the Central Committee Propaganda Department
and from 1973 to 1983 was ambassador to Canada. Yakovlev's predecessor
at IMEMO, Nikolay Inozemtsev, who died in 1982, was a full member of
the academy and served on its presidium. Yakovlev has been more pessimis-
tic about the long-term prospects for detente with the United States than has
Arbatov, arguing that the Reagan Administration represents the main-
stream of American foreign policy, not a deviation from it.
? Vitaliy Zhurkin, 56, is the deputy director of the USA and Canada Institute
with the longest tenure of Arbatov's four top assistants and is a possible suc-
cessor to Arbatov. He has appeared to hew closely to positions taken by
Arbatov since becoming a deputy director in 1971. In November 1984,
Zhurkin, in an otherwise favorable review in Pravda of Yakovlev's recent
book on the postwar history of U.S. foreign policy, appeared to criticize
Yakovlev for exaggerating the danger posed by Washington's
"adventurism."
? Viktor Volskiy has served as director of the Latin America Institute since
1966. His writings have fit into the mainstream of Soviet scholarship on Lat-
in America, but under his administration his institute's journal, Latinskava
Amerika, has published a number of more innovative articles and has aired
debates over current issues. In an April 1983 interview with the British
newspaper The Guardian, Volskiy expressed doubt about the permanency of
the Nicaraguan revolution and indicated that Moscow would not make the
kind of commitment to its survival that it had made to that of the Cuban
revolution.
History Division The History Division took an unusually cautious ap-
proach to the elections, filling only three of its allotted
nine slots and bypassing controversial candidates. Those elected appeared to
be apolitical: The director of the Institute for Scientific Information on Social
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Sciences, Vladimir Vinogradov, was elected a full member and two historians
little known outside the profession were elected corresponding members. More
interesting were some of the 99 candidates not elected:
? Vladimir Trukhanovskiy (nominated for promotion to full member) is chief
editor of Voprosy Istorii (Questions of History), which recently came under
fire in the party journal Kommunist (No. 14) for publishing an article
stressing the need for economic reform.' Trukhanovskiy personally took
responsibility for this in a letter published in a November issue of
Kommunist (No. 17).
? Pavel Volobuyev (nominated for promotion to full member) was removed in
December 1973 as director of the Institute of History of the USSR after be-
ing criticized for historical revisionism. He has since then been a senior
scientific researcher at the Institute of History of Natural Science and
Technology.
? Vasiliy Kasyanenko (nominated as corresponding member) is chief editor of
the influential party journal Voprosy Istorii KPSS (Questions of the History
of the CPSU). He was appointed in mid-1982, apparently on the initiative of
Chernenko. Before he became general secretary, Chernenko's writings
appeared frequently in this journal.
? Yuriy Arutyunyan (nominated as corresponding member) is head of a sector
at the Institute of Ethnography. His publications have shown him to be an
innovative specialist in sociological studies of relations among national
groups in the USSR.
? Petr Rodionov (nominated as corresponding member) is the conservative
longtime first deputy director of the Central Committee's Institute of
Marxism-Leninism. A veteran party apparatchik, he has been involved in
several controversies over politically sensitive historical issues and took, for
instance, a leading part in the 1973 campaign against Volobuycv.
? Nodari Simoniya and Aleksey Levkovskiy of the Institute of Oriental
Studies (nominated as corresponding members) have been involved in open
polemics with more conservative colleagues over the applicability of the
Soviet model to the Third World.
'The Trends of 31 October 1984, pages 10-I3, discusses the Vopros_r t.ctorii article and
ltonrmuni.ct's critique.
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Philosophy and The Philosophy and Law Division also took a cautious
Law Division approach, bypassing controversial candidates. The di-
vision filled its allotted slots by electing three institute
officials. Vladimir Kudryavtsev, the director of the Institute of State and Law,
was elected a full member. A deputy director of the Institute of Philosophy,
Vladimir Mshveniyeradze, and a deputy director of the Institute of Africa,
Gleb Starushenko, were elected corresponding members. Those nominated as
corresponding members but not selected included a prominent conservative
spokesman and three of the best known and most controversial sociologists:
? Richard Kosolapov, chief editor of Kommunist, has recently led polemics
against advocates of political and economic reforms.
? Fedor Burlatskiy, long one of the most outspoken proponents of reform, lost
his post as deputy director of the sociology institute in the early 1970's. In
recent years he has regained prominence as head of the chair of philosophy
at the Central Committee's Institute for Social Sciences and as political
observer for Literaturnaya Gazeta and has resumed publicly promoting
political and economic reforms. As a political observer, Burlatskiy regularly
comments on international affairs and frequently takes indirect issue with
his more conservative colleagues.
? Gennadiy Osipov, one of the original leaders of the innovative sociologists,
was ousted as deputy director of the sociology institute when con'ervatives
took control of it in the early 1970's. In the late 1970's he returned to promi-
nence as head of a department at the institute and as vice president of the
Soviet Sociological Association.
? Igor Bestuzhev-Lada, longtime head of the forecasting sector at the
sociology institute, came under fire from conservatives in the early 1970's,
but he has regained status in the social science community and heads a de-
partment at the institute.
Computer Division Much of the unprecedented addition of academicians
this year was a result of creating a new Division of
Information Science, Computer Technology, and Automation. To staff the
new division 14 full and 26 corresponding members were elected. The creation
of the new division reflected the current desire of the party leadership to
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9 January 1985
improve Soviet capabilities in the most advanced technological fields. The
creation of the new division was spearheaded by academy Vice President
Yevgeniy Velikhov, who was personally commended for this effort by Premier
Tikhonov in his nationally televised USSR Supreme Soviet election speech on
1 March. The new division was officially created at the March 1983 annual
meeting of academy members. The Politburo's interest in improving computer
technology was most recently evident at its meeting reported in the 4 January
Pravda, when it approved a program to expand computer production.
(u/FOLIO)
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