EFFORTS OF RADIO MOSCOW TO ADD VARIETY TO ITS BROADCASTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730231-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 4, 2003
• Sequence Number: 231
• Publication Date: November 11, 1998
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2008/03/03 :CIA-RrDP80-00809A000500730231-1
CLASSIFICATION RESTRICTED:~~1 i1~ge~ ~:~ c~nl
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY ',
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RAD10 BROADCASTS
SUBJECT EFFORTS OF RADIO MOSCOW TO ADD
'~TARIETY TO ITS BROADCASTS
HOW
PUBLISHED
WHERE
PUBLISHED
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
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DATE DIST. ~ August 1951
N0. OF PAGES 2
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT N0. '
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION '
In .recent months Radio Moscow has initiated several. changes in format and tone
that suggest a desire to heighten listener interest in its broadcasts. Those
innovations includes the use of literary personalities'havii~g symbolic
signi.f.ican4e and presumed appeal for particular audienceo, namely'Cood So].iiier
Schweili and Martin Chuzzlewit; the use of a group of short "notes" within s
given transmission instead of one long commentary; anfl the more frequent use of
recorded mi.orophone interviews, e. g., with trade union delegates and prisoners
of war. ,~;
ThisS Spring a series of broadcasts to Czechoslovskfa described the adventures
in America and Germany of a present-day ";good Soldier Schweik.? The broadcasts
denounced American aggression, but they Incorporated some of the satire and
ridicule that characterized the novel. A curront series of broadcasts to the
TTnitecl Kingdom describe Martin Chuzzlewt.t's adventures on a return trip to
.Americo. The tone of ~tr-e series is set by the incidentjwhich marks Chuzzlewit's
arrival in New York:
"The ship had Just docked. Suddenly a stentorian voice
sounded aLaost in oLtr ears. 'How d'ya like our free country,'
it said. 'Remember that if you don't like it, we'll have to put
you behind bars.? We turned involuntarily and saw e~tanding Just
behind us a stocky gentleman with a verg red face aid small eyes
that gleamed angrily from out of bushy eyebrows. Seeing our
surprise he introduced himselfo ?I'm Senator. McCar`tby,A he
explained. 'In view of the number ,of Red agents trying.to get
into our country the members of our great Senate have taken a
val3.ant decision. We've split up into groups and some to the main
ports of America so as to catch the Reds ourselves as they arrive
from your corrupt and depraved Europe."'
The commentary, broadcast only in Gex?man 9nr1 in English to the U. K., is replete with
references to police persecution in America and with allusions to American
criticirims of European culture. The militaristic nature of America'o much-
vaunted prosperity is pointed out. in documentation of implicit charges of lmerican
aggrerZSion . ',
Thp satirical tone vged in the Schweik?-Chuzzlewit series i.4 also a departure from
the Moscow stereotype. Such an approach has appeared only rarely in the past; but
it now appears with increasing frequency. Attacks on Tito now include satirical
references. And a commentary broadcast in late July to several audiences described
the concern of a "Mr. Atom Bomb" over the fact. that the public is not charged for
the air it breathes. "Mr. Atom.Bomb," an American Munitions manufacturer, is said
'to believe that the free usd of air is socialistic and will lead the masses to
expect frree land. He therefore develops a "nasometer" which will be worn by every-
o71e and ~rhich will measure air intake, thin enabling theoapitaliets to charge for
call air breathed.
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LARMY IKI AIR I~
NSRB~_
FBI
DISTRIBUTION
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The other changes in Soviet broadcasting patterns--the use of short notes instead
o? the exclusive use of long comneztaries and the use of microphone interviews--add
further variety to the transmissions. The short notes have been common since Jhne
in propaganda concerning the Korean war.1l They are now being used in propaganda
attacks on Tito. Racorded interviews are broadcast with increasing frequency and
have brought to Moscow's "microphone" trade union delegates to the USSR and American
prisoners of war ca tared in Korea. Thi's device not only adds non-Soviet
observers tc~btoscow~s .ommentator-authorities, it also gives listeners a greater
variety of voices.
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