SOVIET FOREIGN BROADCAST LISTENING (INFORMATION ON JAMMING AND POPULARITY OF THE BRITISH AND U.S. STATIONS)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80T00246A042800050001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 2011
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 26, 1958
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/08: CIA-RDP80T00246AO42800050001-1
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY A /
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
18, U.S.O. Secs. 793 and 794, the -transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law. 25X1
.d UL 71951Rsd
SUBJECT Soviet Foreign Broadcast Listening DATE DISTR. 26 June 1958
C5;p2> kln e~~ec
DATE OF
INFO.
PLACE &
REFERENCES
1/6
SOURCE EVALUATIONS ARE DEFINITIVE. APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
contains information on the quality of reception, the foreign stations heard,
the radio frequencies used, and the Soviet.attitudes toward certain broadcasts.
STATE 4J~ ARMY
A Lim
AIR IFBI I AEC
INFORMATION REPORT IN-FORWATION REPOR'T
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/08: CIA-RDP80T00246AO42800050001-1
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/08: CIA-RDP80T00246A042800050001-1 25X1
RADIO LISTENING? IN THE USSR
25X1
1. In .1954 a Soviet who formerly served in 25X1
the Soviet Navy, bought a four-tube long and medium-'wave band
Mo,skvich radio in Sevastopol (N 44-35, E 33-34), Ukrainian'SSR.
Only third and fourth-rate radios were on sale. He planned to 25X1
sful. gIn a or-Moscow when he went d on
buy leave a but he better was radio-unsin.~uc:.....ec,ies..:_. .... ther Riga
-, ::. .. 1955, he asked for 25X1
a Riga-10 in a store in Moscow and was told that there were none
available. A gentle an in the-'store~as.ked in a loud voice what
type of radio was interested in buying. The gentleman 125X1
explained. to him that the price of the Riga-10 was 1,180 rubles, 25X1,
but that he could have'one for 1,500. decided against ,,,j
buying, scared ofd'.by .another customer ,w o warned that some
people had been cheated-by having their'money stolen. A friend
however, bought a 1,500 ruble Belorus for 1,700 2
5X1
rm a speculator.. rubles o .
2.I used ~ radio largel for listening to music. pre- . 25X1
ferred classical music, but also enjoyed"traditiona olk.
music. preference was an exception to ;25X1
the 'average Soviet nava o cer. Of non-musical programs
oreferred'the 'Leningrad 'stations. Specifically,
25X1
the program featuring the satirist, Arkady Baikin',
from the Leningrad Theater which was broadcast twice a week.
25X1
fr also. 0. the program 'Discussion of the Forgotten", in
25X`1
which two people conversed about pre-Revolutionary poets'and
writers, such as.Esenin, Fed, and Tchuchev.
25X1
first heard foreign radio broadcasts in 1948 and 1949
25X1
on.a Riga-'6 at the home of a friend in Yaroslavl, Yaroslavskaya
Oblast.
The friend listened each day to.VOA and.BBC broadcasts,
25X1
because
he felt that he was not being given the whole truth and
wished
to get, objective news.
When ~ in Leningrad.from
1949 to 1953, sed to visit a-' former schoolmate from Yaroslavl'>;`
once. a week. They usually listened to BBC, which they both
preferred, on a Leningrad radio. The reception was quite clear,
but could not recall on which frequencies they listened,
was last in Leningrad-in March 1956 and again heard
the BBC
In Sevastopol, the period from 0800 to 2400 hours was the, period..
of poorest reception. Reception improved.after~midnight..
never tried to listen to foreign broadcasts while on any of his
cruises in the Baltic or Black Sea.
5. In Sevastopol, mall Moskvich radio was too weak to
pick-up very much through the heavy jamming from a jamming
transmitter, which was located
at Balakiava ( N 44-30, E 33-35), Ukrainian SSR. The jamming
consisted of a staccato drone or a low rumble. occasion-
ally heard VOA but never BBC. A friend in Sevastopol,
who had.a much stronger Ural,,set was also unable to pick up
BBC. it was possible to
pick up VOA, without particular difficulty on wave length 1731,
but beginning in 1955, Radio Moscow began broadcasting on
approximately the same frequency, Radio Moscow programs usually
consisted-of march music. As a result, Owas able'to hear
only the first ten or fifteen minutes of the program, which
consisted of a news summary. By twirling the dial to about
1040, Radio Moscow faded but interference from a. Turkish station
25X1
25X1
25X1
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/08: CIA-RDP80T00246A042800050001-1
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/08: CIA-RDP80T00246AO42800050001-1
6.
occurred. Reception was generally better in Leningrad-than in
Sevastopol.
charged.
From two incidents in Sevastopol, however, assumed that
listening was also fairly widespread-among . ov a naval officers.
Sometime in 1955, the.Deputy Pohitical Officer of a naval
detachment complained at a meeting that there were officers who.
listened to Western propaganda. In.January 1957 at a Party
meeting where a secret letter from the Central Committee was
read discussing manifestations of ideological weakness among
students and urging increased ideological vigilance, the Party
Secretary concluded the meeting by tellin how two naval
lieutenants were expelled. in December 1956 from their Komsomol
unit and lowered in rank for reading information picked up
from VOL sthese officers were later dis,
civilians were more politically conscious than naval personnel.
7. Jcould not say whether there was.a greater tendency to
8.
to foreign broadcasts when international conditions
became strained, sed.to listen at
o news a out the Korean War
The expulsion of .the naval officers.
may have occurred as a result of spreading information concerning
events in Hungary or Egypt, since the two events were closely
related in time.
preferred BBC over VOA
sometime in 1955, VOA programs
which.or cerned the Soviet Armed Forces and also the seizure
of Mo i golia Also. some rellainug n
rams carried by VOA
dIsp eased. they would appeal only
to elderly types. VOA programs con-
sisted too often of too much propaganda.
,from writers who,had once been in favor in the USSR,but who were
now-denounced as reactionary. Examples of such writers were
Sinclair, Hemingway, Priestly, Aldridge, Howard Fast, and Sartre,
Aiso,a greater effort should be made to persuade middle-class
Soviets of the superior standard of living enjoyed by the
average American. However, the West was vulnerable
on topics such as the comparison of me ical expenses with those
in the Soviet Union, unemployment, and racial discrimination,
popular science, historical programs. about the USSR, China,and
other countries, programs which discussed foreign authors, Ameri-
can music, and German poetry. using more citations
preferred to hear broadcasts discussing
television sets were aboard many Soviet
merchant vessels traveling in Soviet and foreign waters. He. had
never seen any Western propaganda leaflets.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/08: CIA-RDP80T00246AO42800050001-1