INDICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04864A000200090012-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 7, 1998
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: March 24, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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INFORMATION FROM !L4.
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
HOW
PUBLISHED
WHERE
PUBLISHED
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
USSR
DATE OF
INFORMATION
Feb. 16.24,
1952
INDICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES
DATE D I ST. 0t 4
/Y11 F
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES WITHIN THE MEANING OF ESPIONAGE ACT EO
U. S. C., 81 AND 32. AS AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR THE REVELATION
OF ITS CONTENTS IN ANY MANNER TO AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON 18 PRO-
HIS ITED BY LAW. REPRODUCTION OF THIS FORM 18 PROHIBITED.
SOURCE. Monitored Broadcasts
CPW Report No. 23 -- USSR
(Feb. 16-24, 1952)
'army Day (Feb. 23) is accorded the usual wide publicity on the central and regional transmitters.
,Triting on the occasion, Doaaaf chief Kuznetsov urges the further expansion of that paramilitary
Drganization, particularly in the rural areas. The major part-of the output on agriculture is
Levoted to instances of agricultural statute violations (narushenie selkhozusta,) and the
vexing personnel problem, although mechanical deficiencies still claim considerable attention.
_nadequate political propaganda, particularly for the intelligentsia, and Party red tape in
general still account for most of the output on Party activities. The failure of the Komsomol
Drganizations to increase their membership is the object of official criticism.
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CPW Report No. 23-A USSR
(Feb. 16-24, 1952)
DATE PUBLISHED-. THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
CONTENTS
AGRICULTURE.................. 1
PARTY ACTIVITIES ............. 3
MISCELLANEOUS...........,,,,, .r
Agriculture: Most of the broadcasts on agriculture intercepted during the week of Feb. 16-24
continue to stress the familiar failings which are becoming more threatening with the approach of
the spring sowing campaign. The major emphasis in the central and regional comment on the topic,
however, is on the adverse effects of kolkhoz charter violations, technical unpreparedness, and
the grave shortage of qualified personnel from collective farm chairmen to truck drivers.
In a criticism of the continuing widespread practice of squandering public lands,, pilfering
collective farm property and produce, and unscrupulous manipulation of payroll figures, PRAVDA
(Feb. 16) calls for the restoration of order (navesti poryadok) in agriculture and the elimina-
tion of grafters and spongers (rvachi i darmoyedy). No reference is made in the editorial to
specific places but the extent of the mentioned malpractice is indicated in the statement that
collective farm charter violations are still prevalent "in a number of oblasts, krais, and
republics" (v ryade oblastey, krayev, i respubllk). This situation is further aggravated by the
apparent reluctance of the unnamed culprits to return the stolen farm land and other property
since not all, of it has as yet been recovered. "A considerable part of the stolen land, cattle,
and property has not *4aeen returned to the kolkhozes" (kolkhozam vozvraehcheno znachitelnoye
kolichestvo rashishchennoy u nikh zemli, skota i imushchestva). Unfortunately, the paper
continues, land squandering is still going on as is "the buying up of collective farm products
for a song" (pokupka kolkhoznoy produktsii za bestsenok). These illegal manipulations are said
to be made possible by the "conciliatory attitude" (primirencheskoye otnoshenie)t.of certain Party
and Soviet officials toward both the violators of the kolkhoz charter and "their patrons" (ikh
pokroviteli). The papers urge the return of the collective farm properties still held illegally
by the "charter violators" (narushiteli ustava) in the shortest possible time, and their punish-
ment as enemies of the collective farm system (vragi kolkhoznogo stroya). Order must also be
restored in the matter of timekeeping, which does not always reflect the correct distribution of
workdays among the farmers, as well as in the utilization of public funds as specified in the
charter.
ZVEZDA (Feb. 17) admits that the collective farm statute "is still being violated" throughout the
Republic, despite the timely warning against the practice by the Central Committee of the
Byelorussian Communist Party. "Cases of squandering of collective farm property still occur both
-with regard to land and livestock as well as to produce and financial funds." This is particularly
frequent in the "young" collective farms of the western oblasts which are presumably lees efficient
;.nd experienced than their older counterparts elsewhere. The editorial is also stern about the
covert methods employed by some farms to by-pass the charter.
The statute is often infringed upon in a camouflaged way,
as for example by making the land available to various
enterprises and, institutions in exchange for services rendered.
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Of some interest in this connection is the editorial reference to the Republic's "organs of
justice and public prosecution" which, in the paper's view, "are also responsible" for the
infringements of the statute. Their insufficient attention to cases of property squandering
and the failure to prosecute the guilty serve as a tacit encouragement to further violations.
Collective farm property squandering and incorrect computation (nepravilnoye ischielenie) of
labor days on the farms also provide the substance for a SOVETSKAYA SIBIR editorial of Feb. 19.
Lack of proper control is held responsible for the squandering of collective farm property
including livestock, fodder, and milk. The paper enjoins the collective farm bookkeepers to
exercise stricter control over property disposition and payrolls, both of which are admittedly
out of control in the following,rayonse Cherepanovakiy, Laegostayevskiy, Irmenskiy, Ordynskiy
Kuibyshevskiy, and Kyshtovskiyo The hint that dishonest bookkeeping on the farms may be a
factor in contributing to losses is contained in the editorial appeal to the appropriate Party
and Soviet organizations to help the kolkhozes "select and train .. conscientious accountants."
"Anti-state and anti-Party" activities in the form of squandering, pilfering and payroll
manipulations are still in evidence in Smolensk Oblast, according to RABOCHIY PUT (Feb. 20)4
Much work has already been done toward the elimination of "serious" statute violations in the
Oblast but it appears that they "have not yet been fully liquidated."' The paper refers to the
""great harm's already inflicted on the oblast agriculture by infrequent and inadequate auditing,
and urges the immediate liquidation of "all sorts of statute violations" by the institution of
the spot'check method of control (proverka na mestakh)a
Criticism of the general ineptitude characterizing the maintenance, repair, and utilization of
farm machinery still claims a considerable part of the comment on agriculture. Most of the
transmitters stress that the number of tractor repairs never catches up with the number of
breakdowns. Frequent reference is made also to the poor quality of repair work which, as one
paper points out, is to a large extent responsible for the breakdowns. STALINaKOYE ZNAMYA
(Feb. 16) complains that the majority of the oblast machine-tractor stations are more than 30%
behind the repair plan, while some of them are "still worse off." This situation, the paper
admits, is not new since many of the machine-tractor stations have failed to honor their pledges
and collective agreements "from year to year." Only a "shocking lack of sense of responsibility".
the editorial asserts, can produce such a state of affairs, and only self-sacrificing work,
strengthened labor discipline, and the discarding of the "handicraft methods" (kustarnie sposoby)
of work will remedy the situation. Taking up the subject on Feb. 17, the paper declares that
further delays in the preparations for spring sowing will not be tolerated and that the Party
and agricultural officials had better take a closer look at the shortcomings since the slow
agricultural rayons are "not taking energetic measures" to eliminate theme Knrablinsk:iy,
Troekurovskiy, levtoistovskiy, and other rayons are listed as the most critical areas
While censuring the unsatisfactory performance of the oblast tractor-repair shops, aTALINGRADSKAYA
PRAVDA (Feb. 19) is not unmindful of other factors which, in its opinion, act as a brake on
technical progress. The "leveling of wages" (uravnilov ka), for one, is said to have a
deleterious effect on the better mechanics and tractor operators. This practice should be
"liquidated" at once and replaced by Socialist competition. The quality of repairs in the,
oblast as a whole is low enough to "cause serious alarm". and, no quantitative indices can
possibly cover that deficiency. A reconditioned tractor, the paper says, should be able to do
more than merely roll out of the repair shop on its own power. But this is just what the chief
engineers and station heads consider a job well done. Twelve rayons are listed as being far
behind their repair schedules and at least seven others, according to the editorial of Feb. 22,
are doing "particularly bad repair work." They are: Khopetskiy, Mikhailovskiy, Macheshanskiy,
Medveditskiy, Molotovskiy, Olkhovskiy, Staro-Poltavskiy, and other rayons Various technical
hitches slowing the preparations for the spring sowing are reported also from Sumy (Feb. 19),
Odessa (Feb. 21), Saratov (Feb. 23), and Pskov (Feb. 24+)
PRAVDA (Feb. 18) finds that, despite the officially encouraged trend toward filling responsible
agricultural posts with agronomists. end other specialists, the latter are still kept out of
executive positions in a number of .blasts, kraia, and republics. In Kirov Oblast, for example,
only some 100 out of the available 5,000 agricultural experts were able to obtain positions
as collective farm chairmen. Similar discrimination against specialists, according to the paper,
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is observable in Koatroma and Kaluga'Oblasts, as well a , Altai Kraio STALINGRADS YA PRAVDA
(Feb. 21) discusses the farm-chairman problem along similar lines. The paper also contends that
the need for highly qualified kolkhoz chairman is all the more imperative now that most of the
collective farms have been consolidated into larger agricultural units where technical knowledge
is a sine qua non. Some of the rayon Party Committees, it is claimed, look upon the periodical
report o the kolklioz chairmen which is followed by Party advice as an end in itself without
realizing that a well-qualified and well-educated chairman could cope with his own problems and
would need less advice.
Party Activities: The activities of the Karelo-Finnish Communist Party, according to a PRAVDA
article by Petrovsky (Feb. 16, not broadcast), are characterized by substantial shortcomings
(suschestveaie nedostatki)o The confusion in the Central Committee itself is said to be so
great that it is not unusual for it to take "several different decisions on the same question"
(neskolko resheniy po odnomu I tomu zhe voprosu)o This was particularly obvious in the case of
the Central Committee's four decisions "on the elimination of Komsomol shortcomings" taken at
four different sessions. The fifth session which was called for the same purpose finally
adopted a proposal to make no more decisions on Komsomol activities but to try to implement the
ones already made. And so, Petrovsky concludes, it took about 2 months to draw such a simple
conclusion (itak, potrebovalos okolo dvukh mesiatsev, chtoby pritti i takemu prostomu vyvodu)
Much disparaging comment is heard on the regional transmitters on the tendency among Party
propagandists to pay "too much attention to the quantity of lectures at the expense of their
quality." The Party Committees of Dukhovshchinsky and Yelniteky rayons and Smolensk and Roslavl
towns have been pretty consistent in that malpractice, according to RABOCHIY PUT (Feb. 17).
ORLOVSKAYA PRAVDA (Feb. 17) warns against a similar trend in Orel Oblast where lecture propaganda
is "still backward." An incidental admission that the quantity of lectures to be delivered- is
still a factor to be borne in mind is contained in an editorial reference to certain lecture
groups which are "still failing to fulfill their plans," that is, the quantitative end of the
propaganda plan.
As for the political and ideological level of most of the lectures, the paper points out that it
is indeed so low that in at least one rayon--Mtsensk--lectures for the intelligentsia had to be
"completely discontinued." The situation is said to be still worse in Zadonsky Rayon, where only
9 out of the available 25 lecturers are sufficiently qualified for their work. There is virtually
"no control" over lecture propaganda in Krasnozorenskiy, Volynskiy, and Uritskiy r o a, and the
dissemination of political and scientific knowledge "is badly organized" in Khabenetskiy,
Novosilskiy, and Pokrovekiy Rayons.
PSKOOV'SKAYA PRAVDA. and ORLOVSKAYA PRAVDA (Feb. 17) are critical of the Party propagandists who
prefer to "stray off into theoretical abstractions" instead of using the Marxist-Leninist theory
to "explain contemporary problems." The results of this year?s studies in the Party school
network, says PSKOVSKAYA PRAVDA, show that many of the students are going about their work "in a
superficial manner," and memorizing "unconnected facts and figures" and in some cases are still
employing the "long condemned" methods of questions and answers. Such scholastic methods,;, the
paper asserts, will never "find the link" between historical materialism and our times which is
the main object of political education-
...the mastery of Marxist-Leninist theory means under-
standing the essence of this theory -- the knowledge of how
to use it in solving practical questions under variou
conditions of the proletariat's class struggle.
The fits-and-starts methods employed in political propaganda are criticized in a summarized version
of a 1ELIKOLDKSKAYA PRAVDA editorial (Feb. 20) which remarks that major events are usually
preceded by animation (ozhivlenie) and followed by a lull (zatishye), The Party must always
remember, the paper declares, that political agitation, intraparty or among 'the masses, is not an
occasional affair but a serious aspect of their work which is not to be neglected.
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A summarized article by Tsyrilenko broadcast from Bobruisk on Feb. 16 reveals that some Komsomol
organizations, under Party pressure to expand their membership, resort to figure-juggling to show
favorable results. The Michurin rural Komsomol organization, for instance, listed its membership
in a report to the rayon Committee at "over 50", whereas a checkup established the actual number
of organization members to be 29. Tsyrilenko also discloses that 5$ of the industrial and 30%
of the rural Komsomol organizations in the oblas' "d-id not admit a single new member"' into their
ranks in the second half of 1951.
PRIZYV (Pebe 20) is sharply critical of the Vladimir Oblast Communists for keeping aloof from the
intelligentsia, such as teachers, doctors, agronomists and others, and refusing to make use of
them in mass agitation work. This attitude, the paper implies, is a hangover of the past and shows
"lack of appreciation" of the rural intelligentsia as a great force capable of helping the Party
"to mold the Communist awareness of the workers." There is no indication as to whether the
intelligentsia under discussion is understood to consist of Party members since this does not
always affect the decision of the Party Committees As indicated in previous broadcasts, and
implied in the PRIZYV editorial, the tendency of various Party Committees to reserve the job of
Party-political agitation to their own "professionals" (apparatchiki) explains their reluctance
to broaden the agitation activities by the inclusion of "outsiders,'$
As a republican publication orx theoretical and political questions, the monthly magazine BOLSHEVIK
BELORUSSII is not up to its noble calling and must "seriously improve" (seryozno azluchshit) its
work, according to Lukovets in PRAVDA (Feb o 21+, not broadcast). The author takes issue with som0'
of the articles recently published in the periodical which do not reflect the historical truth,
that is, "the leading and directing role of the Party" (rukovodyashchaya i,napravlyaushchaya arol
parti3) in all the people's activities from the wartime guerrilla warfare to the present con-
struction of Communism. Apyakin#s article on the gradual elimination of "all the vices peculiar
to a capitalist society" (vse poroki svoystvennie kapitalisticheekcm obshchestvy), for example,
does not place due emphasis on the gigantic job done in this connection by the Communist Party...
Other articles appearing in the journal,. do not assign the Party a leading part in the partisan
warfare in Byelorussia and behind the enemy's front line. The failure to comment on`Gutorov's
book, "The Esthetic Foundations of Soviet Literature," which is full of great errors and short-
comings, is held to "lower the level" (snizhayet uroven) of the magazine, "Planlessness and
fortuity" (besplanovost i sluchainost), Lukovets concludes, are the general. characteristics of
BOLSHEVIK BELORUSSII, which often resemb3es a departmental gazette (vedomstvenniy vestnik) rather
than a theoretical and political organ.
Miscellaneous: A report from Vilnius, Lithuania (Feb. 19), tells of a collection of,-articles and
other documentary evidence on American counterrevolutionary activities in that country recently
published in book form. Among the documents quoted in the book is one "proving" that, the United
States demanded 7- million dollars in return for its contribution to the suppression of the
Soviet regime in Lithuania in 1918-19190
Moscow in English to the United Kingdom (Feb. 15) says that credit for the exact determination of
the earth's shape and dimensions should go to Soviet scientist Izotov who proved the previous
findings on the subject -- by Bessel and Hayford -- inadequate. The earth's radius at the,,
equator, Izotov finds, is 850 meters greater than indicated by Bessel and 14?0 meters smaller
than Hayford$s figure. Soviet geodetical work is said to have confirmed this
An item from Tallin (in Esthonian, Feb, 20) lists the names of the officials and workers of the
"Rovu" State farm in connection with their general activities. All those mentioned appear to have
Russian-sounding names,
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