INDICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04864A000200060003-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 13, 1998
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 14, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE A YUSE ONLY REPORT NO.
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT INDICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES
HOW
PUBLISHED
DEC
DATE OF 1-15 October
'INFORMATION 1951
DATE DIST. /Y November 1951
WHERE '} I Y A THORITY OF
PUBLISHED ~31I) NO. OF PAGES
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES WITHIN THE MEANING OF ESPIONAGE ACT 50
U. S. C.. SI AND 32, AS AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR THE REVELATION
OF ITS CONTENTS IN ANY MANNER TO AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS PRO-
HIBITED BY LAW. REPRODUCTION OF THIS FORM IS PROHIBITED.
SOURCE Monitored Broadcasts
aj
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
CPW Report No. 14 - USSR
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BULLETIN NO._
Agriculture, Party activities and ideological weaknesses continue to claim the attention
of Soviet regional transmitters, although a considerable portion of radio time is also
devoted to poor housing and libraries and other cultural deficiencies. Much stress is
laid on the current autumn plowing which is said to be insufficient and inadequate.
Sugar beet harvesting and cotton picking also come under close official scrutiny. There
is some evidence that the frequent breakdowns of agricultural machinery, particularly
tractors, though familiarly attributed to lax Party supervision and poor labor organiza-
tion, are closely linked with the living conditions of the tractor drivers. There is
little reference to industry and mining except in the context of trade union activities
and socialist competition among industrial workers.
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~yys CONTENTS
A
2
Industry.......... tl.~.rea C, ..* eof .Oe0000 oO COO ee Ofe O.fee 6 0 0 0 0 011 0 0 0 9 0 e O Q 0.0 0 {I O O f 5
Ideological Weaknesses...........
Party Activities.,eee.O0i0..a.OOee.00**0*.e 7
Soviet Patriotism........... efoe....e.ooe.e 7
Children's a
Miscellaneous.....eeeeee.e}Oe0e0.00000f8eff 8
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Sugar-Beet Harvest * The disclosure that sugar beets (and potatoes) had not been
dug on "thousands of hectares" is made by RADYANSKA ZHITCIIRSCHINA (10 October).
There is no mention of the reasons for this failure but the appropriate Party,
government and agricultural officials are told to change their attitude and to see
that this "intolerable situation" does not continue. Popelnyans
Lubyansky and other rayons are said to be the slowest in the oblastBerdychev,
RADYANSKA UKRAINIA (5 October) takes a dim view of the sugar-beet situation in the
Ukraine as a whole, summing it up in the statement that the delayed harvesting
operations in the republic lead to great losses of crops." Suety, Poltava and Kiev
oblasts are making "the worst progress," and the other areas, as listed below, are not
much better.
Plait
1n thous. hectares
Performance
(in th
s
h
ou
.,
ectares)
Suety oblast
35
21
3
Poltava oblast
42.2
.
31
7
Kiev oblast
68.6
.
63
2
Kirovograd oblast
20
.
I 13
Chernigov oblast
11
.7
5
8
Ternopol oblast
10
.
6.8
No figures are given for Vinnitsa oblast which, after showing "an example of
organization,"" has begun to lag behind and is good
g still in arrears. (Of some interest,
rest,
in this connection, is a report from Kiev in dictation speed (5 October), saying
that an analysis of the Ukrainian sugar industry shows that production is running
ahead of schedule, and the plan has so far been exceeded by 10%).
How much of the mentioned failure is due to red tape is indicated in the case of
.Ifhotinsky rayon (Sumy oblast). Sugar-beet harvesting was to be completed there by
30 September, but the work schedules drawn up for every collective farm "remained
hidden" in the desks of the Party Committee until 24 September, when it was too late,
In Kharkov oblast, which is on the whole well-organized, the damage to the best roots
caused great losses to the State, amounting in some rayons to 10% of the entire crop.
The same paper deplores the unnecessary time lag between the harvesting and the
delivery of sugar beets--particularly in Vinnitsa and Kharkov oblasts-rand points to
the mismanagement of transportation facilities as the only reason. According to the
plan approved by the Ukrainian Council of Ministers, the Kharkov oblast authorities
were to assign 692 trucks for sugar-beet transportation, but only 150 were made
available,
gntton.Diekirt The cotton situation in Uzbek SSR, the largest cotton-growing area
in the Soviet Union, is discussed by PRAVDA on 3 October. The USSR Ministry of the
Cotton Industry and its organs, says the paper, are not paying sufficient attention
to the "correct utilization" of machinery much of which is remaining idle. This is
further aggravated by the fact that the Uzbek cotton pickers, having "given their
word" (dav svoye slovo) to deliver 500,000 tons of cotton more than last year, are
not even up to schedule. PRANDA intimates that even the Central Committee of the
Uzbek Party is not entirely faultless as the workers' promise to exceed last yearts
quota "made it incumbent on-the Central Committee of the Uzbekistan Communist
Party" to pay great attention to the preparations for cotton harvesting. The
Party's final responsibility in the matter is stressed in the editorial assertion
that neither the harvesting nor the delivery plan for September has been fulfilled
by the Uzbek cotton industry.
Among the other central Asiatic areas where cotton harvesting calls for close official
scrutiny, according to PRAVDA, are Kirghiz SSR which "failed to cope" with the
implementation of the plan, and Stavropol and Krasnodar krais which "are progressing
very slowly."
That cotton harvesting in the Ukraine has deteriorated in the past two weeks may be
inferred from RADYANSKA UKAAINA (4 October). It lists five oblasts as running
behind schedule, and two of them--Nikolayev and Odessa--as being especially bad.
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As pointed out in a previous CPR report, this paper castigated the cotton authorities
of Kherson and Nikolayev oblasts for the poorest showing in the Republic. That
charge has now been extended to include Zaporozhye, Odessa and Stalino oblasts whose
dereliction is attributed partly to "poor mass political work" on the part of the
Party organizations. The chief cause, however, according to the paper, is to be
sought in the Ukrainian Ministry of the Cotton Industry and its branches who "are
not assisting" the collective farmers in their efforts. The editorial does not
define the type of assistance the Ministry failed to offer but merely points to the
deplorable results that this failure brought about. In Zaporozhye oblast alone, at
least three rayons have been unable to account for more than one fifth of their
quota. In another rayon, Veliko-Belozersky, the performance was 11.8%. As for the
oblast as a whole, the paper says that "there has not been a single day during which
(it) fulfilled the State cotton delivery quota.,"
Taking its cue from RADYANSKA UKRAINAa BOLSHEVITSKOYE ZNAMYA (5 October) looks into
the grim cotton situation of Odessa oblast and declares that it is "the most back-
ward" in the Republic. Among the shortcomings that contributed to the sorry state
of affairs are low labor discipline, "extremely poor" organization of work and 'an
"intolerable time lag" between the harvesting and the delivery of cotton. Listed as
the worst rayons are Razdelnyansky, Berezovsky, Kominternovsky and Ivanovsky, but
"a similar situation" is said to exist in many other rayons.
NADNEPRYANSKA PRAVDA (10 October) complains that cotton picking in Kherson oblast has
reached a new low, and demands a "decisive" (reshitelny) i:ncrease'in harvesting tempos.
Kalininsky rayon which "occupies next to the last place" in the oblast in point of
efficiency is pilloried for tolerating such a low daily output as 16 kilograms per
cotton picker. (There is no reference, however, to the "normal" or planned production
average per worker.) The highest rayon Party and government officials are said to
"have lost all sense of responsibility" and, being aware of it,, they are resorting
to all sorts of devious methods to maintain their position. They have even "begun
to cheat and put out eye wash" (stall na shlyakh oko-zamylivania to obmanu). The
secretary of the Party Committee was "justly" relieved of his duties, two other
'officials were told to mend their ways or be subjected to "strict action by the
Party" (todi voni prityagnutido surovoy partiynoi vid ovidalnosti), and several others
were "severely reprimanded" (ogolosheni suvoru naganu. Intimating that Kalininsky
rayon is neither an isolated case nor the worst in the oblast, the paper concludes
that this "serious warning" (serioznoyu perestroguyu) had better be heeded by all the
other rayons unable to improve labor organization on the cotton plantations.
Livestock,. Rostov reports (5 October) that communal stock breeding in the oblast
is carried out "most unsatisfactorily" (kraine neudovletvoritelno). No details are
given but the cattle, sheep and poultry are said to be suffering from inadequate
supply of fodder and lack'of winter shelters. A dispatch from Izmail (4 October)
states that the productivity of the oblaWs livestock "has not increased
sufficiently" since 1948. STALINGRADSKAYA PRAVDA (10 October) refers to certain
practices on the part of cattle breeders which "are opposed to the interests of the
goverment and the people." It appears that many cattle farms, after fulfilling or
even surpassing their annual livestock plan, proceed to sell the offspring right and
left, thereby offsetting any gain they may have made. Such cases are known to be
common in at least three rayons--Proleika, Palassovsky and Gorodische--and are
subject to the "strictest censure" (strozhaisheye.poritsanie). Nor is this the only
shortcoming, according to the editorial:
Loss of cattle frequently occurs as a result of poor fodder, poor
premises and lack of even the most elementary care. Unfortunately these
errors are frequently being repeated.
Potato crops., Potato gathering is "inadmissibly behind" (nedopustimo otstayet) on a
huge area including Belorussian SSR and Pskov, Kaluga, Smolensk, Novgorod,
Belikie Luki and "several other" oblasts, 'according to a PRAVDA editorial of 6
October (not broadcast). The Belorussian Ministry of Agriculture is censured for
making "one of the largest" potato-growing areas of the country the most backward.
The slow to o is familiarly attributed to the incorrect utilization (nepravilnoye
ispolzovanie) of technical facilities and the "extremely low productivity" (kraine
nizkaya proizvoditelnost) of the potato-digging machines. In Vladimir oblast, for
example, mechanized potato-digging accounted for only 150 hectares,while in
Gorki oblast all the work is being done by hand. Pskov oblast has completed-only
16% of its plan. Not mentioned but strongly implied is the old practice of squander-
ing potatoes away from the seed plots (semennie uchastki) and using it for other
purposes, and the paper urges "the most decisive measures to nip in the bud any
attempt" (samym reshitelnym obrazom presekat popytki) to squander potatoes.
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Agricultural Specialist Train:i a, The inference that collective farm chairmen and
other leading personnel should be selected primarily for their knowledge of
agriculture rather than for their Marxist-Leninist training alone may be drawn from
the PRAVDA editorial of g October. Marxism-Leninism is, of course, not to be
neglected,but. the paper implies it should not be considered a primary qualification
for appointmezt, In other words, collective farm chairmen must be selected first on
the basis of their ability and indoctrinated later. The paper says that a number of
Party organizations have done the right thing in proposing qualified specialists for
posts of agricultural management, and deplores the lack of such practice elsewhere:
In certain oblasts of the Ukraine, Belorussia and Kazakhstan and in
Smolensk, Kalinin and Yaroslavl oblasts only a very inconsiderable
proportion of the collective farms is managed by agronomists and
zoo-technicians.
Tja,ctor drivers' living condjtiora? Di cussing the frequent mechanical breakdawns
and the enforced idleness of a great number of tractors throughout the Oblast,
CHERVONE ZAPORIZHYE (9 October) hints that the living conditions of the tractor
drivers may be a factor. The local Soviets are called upon to pay proper attention
(udelyat dolzhneye vnimanie) to the creation of better living conditions for the
tractor drivers. Proper conditions, said to be lacking now, are described as in-
cluding warm living quarters, hot food, warm clothes and footwear.
Another report dealing with the human element involved in mechanical failures comes
from Kirovograd oblast. Reviewing instances of slow fallow-plowing which are "not
isolated cases," KIROV0GRADSKA PRAVDA (9 October) attributes the poor performance
to the "violation of work schedules, disorganization and deteriorating labor dis-
cipline among the tractor drivers and combine operators." Referring to the life of
these mechanizers, the paper says that their house-trailers are "neither heated nor
furnished," are "dirty and cold," and that the communal feeding of these workers is
"non-existent . "
TURK1vNSKAYA ISKRA (11 October) appeals to all the collective farms and machine-
tractor stations to "create normal working conditions" for, and "provide every
assistance" to, the agricultural machine operators so that all available machinery
may be used without interruption (bezn pereryva) and according to schedule.
Attention to industry and industrial shortcomings continues to be slight. A
VOROaS:LOVGRADSKAYA PRAVDA editorial, (4 October) admits that "not a few" enterprises
in the oblast are running behind schedule. At least one large plant, the 'A.rtem"
enameled-goods works, is producing large quantities of defective products and
"nothing is being done about it." The Voroshilovgrad locomotive builders are said
to be "in debt to the state" because technological discipline is frequently violated
and no attention is paid to the matter of improving labor efficiency. It is no
secret, continues the editorial, that many of the workers are not familiar with their
tools, and "damage to machinery becomes inevitable." The Plant's repair service is
badly organized, and the situation as a whole is intolerable.
The same paper (9 October) complains of the poor showing made by various oblast
housing and other construction organizations. Work is particularly slow on the
installation and repair of the water supply system, house construction and repairs
and the improvement of city transportation in a number of towns. Voroshilovgrad,
Voroshilovsk and Krasny are singled out as examples of "how not to work."
Contributing to the general confusion, says the paper, is the performance of
"Gorremontstroy" (Town Repair and Construction Trust)., "much of the work already
done by this trust requires prompt modification,"
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in the library network of Neklyunovsky, Tarasovsky and Voloshinsky rayons is said to
be "extremely slow," and the qualifications of the librarians not up to standard: ""It
is essential that all library workers be experienced political workers."
Despite the difficulties attendant upon joining the Communist Party, it is the
latte?s policy to increase its membership and organizational units, particularly
in the rural areas, with a view to a better distribution of Party members among the
farmers. This point is stressed by K'.IROVOGRADSKA PRAVDA (2 October) which appeals
for more Party groups (partiynie gruppy) in the collective farms. Such groups, says
the paper, are not but should be organized in shop, farm, agricultural, building,
fodder-growing and horticultural brigades. The chief purpose of these groups is "to
remedy shortcomings," which they are in a position to do because they are "nearest
to the worker." Making no reference to any difficulties in the way of strengthening
Party influence, the paper implicitly admits their existence: "It is sufficient to
state that not a single Party group was formed in the primary Party organizations in
16 rayyons
PRAVDA (13 October) refers to the Party groups as "links with the masses," and says
that their chief task is to be active organizationally and politically "where the
fate of production plane is being decided." This is particularly important in view
of the expansion of collective farms. What is more important, continues the paper,
.is that the Party groups, once organized, should be active. This, however, is not
the case in Chelyabinsk oblast where the 400 groups do not get much help or encourage-
ment from the local Party organization, and the end result is slower production.
Insufficient attention to "full-blooded leadership" is the subject of the PRAVDA
editorial discussion of 4 October. The Kursk oblast Party Committee is "not main-
taining any close ties" with the lower Party echelons and seems to take little
interest in the eventual implementation of its own decisions. The Kara-Kalpak oblast
Party leadership wastes most of its time "drafting resolutions," and the Murmansk
Party Committee "is not paying adequate attention" to Party organizational
political work.
Deficiencies in Party education are discussed in a number of regional transmissions
and in PRAVDA along familiar lines. RADYANSKA UKRAINA (11 October), speaking of the
unsatisfactory organization of seminers, cautions the lecturers to toe the Party
line, particularly in,the instruction of propagandists. The latter are to be
taught to fight wholeheartedly against all types of bourgeois poison, especially
"Ukrainian bourgeoias nationalism."
PRAVDA (15 October) notes the "purely formal attitude" (chisto formalnoye otnoshenie)
of certain Party Committees toward political studies. It focuses attention on the
quantitative rather than qualitative aspect of school enrollments, saying that a
number of Party Committees seek to enlist as many Communist students as possible
without regard to their educational qualifications. Such instances are
particularly frequent in many Daghestan rural rayons and in Estonian SSR where Party
officials "automatically enroll people with differing standards." One reason for
such indiscriminate enrollment of students may be inferred from a MOLOT editorial
(14 October). Discussing the low standard of political studies in Rostov oblast and
the lateness of Party school opening, the paper says that the new academic year got
a late start "owing to low school attendance."
In a broadcast for agitators (in. Ukrainian, 2 October), Niskoy says that Soviet
patriotism does not reject the national past. It has, in fact, combined all the
best national traditions and the patriotism of the Great Russian people... The
national past of a people, says he, is characterized by its contribution to the
history of mankind, and in this respect the Great Russian people have done more
than anyone else. Having defeated Kenghiz Khan, Napoleon and Hitler, they have
"for the third time saved Europe" from oppression and slavery. The patiotism theme
is developed further in the conclusion that there can be no world science,
literature and music without such great Russian luminaries in those respective
fields as Lomonosov, the "discoverer" of the law of atomic structure, the poet
Pushkin, the composer Tchaikovsky and others. Discussing the larger aspects of
patriotism, Niskoy points to Marxism-Leninism as final authority for the belief
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that the proletariat cannot regard a bourgeois state as its fatherland. 'Hence true
patriotism is possible only in a proletarian state. The proof of such patriotism is
in the crucial test of defending the Soviet Union which "is a duty not only of the
citizens of the Soviet Union but of every honest man in the world."
The Ukrainian people, Niskoy concedes, "also have their past" and should be proud of
it. That "past," it?appears is inextricably tied to their struggles against foreign
oppressoru a l they "united with the brotherly Russian people."
CHILDREN'S PROGRAMS
The radio journal PIONEERS' CAMPFIRE No. 31 tells its youthful audience that."the
threat of a new war has overshadowed the whole world," and that the conspiracies of
the Anglo-American imperialists make it clear who wants to start a new war. (Kursk,
4 October). A broadcast for junior school children in Ukrainian (Kiev, 10 October)
tells a story of a little boy in London whose father was killed by a policeman during
a march of unemployed on the street, and whose mother and sister subsequently died
of hunger. Recalling what he had heard about the Soviet Union, the little boy
suddenly realizes that all children there lead a happy life. The upshot of the story
is that the boy, anxious but unable to visit that "wonderful country," also realizes
that he is "not alone" since the workers of both the USSR and England are fighting
for his cause.
MISCELLANEOUS
ye ioi 7., verbs: A report from Tbilisi (in Russian, 11 October) speaks of the
sub-tropical, volatile oil-bearing plant "aloe" now cultivated on a large scale in
a special Sovkhoz (State farm), The juice extracted from that plant is said to be
very useful in biogenetical therapy. Another medicinal plant now under cultivation
is the (Madi). Developed by Soviet scientists from the "Itiiexican Tea" plant, it
yields a type of oil which is used effectively to combat intestinal worms. The bush-
type plant known as "cat's wW,skers" (koshachiy us) is said to have become known
recently in medicine as "an effective remedy" against kidney trouble and jaundice.
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