SOVIET UNION EASTERN EUROPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00865A002000070002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 18, 2001
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: October 20, 1975
• Content Type: NOTES

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Secret
NOFORIV
%`~ITT HOUE
Soviet Union
Eastern Europe
!.! S S R-1Z
Secret
October 20, 1975
SC No. 00528/75
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Warning Notice
Sensitive Intelligence Sources and Methods Involved
NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION
Unauthorized Disclosure Subject to Criminal Sanctions
Classified by 010725
Exempt from general declassification schedule
of E.O. 11652, exemption category:
?5B(1), (2), and (3)
Automatically declassified on:
Date Impossible to Determine
DISSEMINATION CONTROL ABBREVIATIONS
NOFORN- Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals
NOCONTRACT- Not Releasable to Contractors or
Contractor/Consultants
PROPIN- Caution-Proprietary Information Involved
USIBONLY- USIB Departments Only
ORCON- Dissemination and Extraction of Information
Controlled by Originator
REL. This Information has been Authorized for
Release to ...
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ORCON/NOCONTRACT
SOVIET UNION - EASTERN EUROPE
This publication is prepared for regional specialists in the Washington com-
munity by the USSR - Eastern Europe Division, Office of Current Intel-
ligence, with occasional contributions from other offices within the
Directorate of Intelligence. Comments and queries are welcome. They should
be directed to the authors of the individual articles.
October 20, 1975
Moscow Ignores Anniversary
of 1965 Economic Reform. . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Romania: Plans To Increase Supplies
of Food and Other Consumer Goods . . . . . . . 4
New RYAD Computer Model in Production. . . . . . 5
The Chnoupek-Bilak
Rivalry, the Latest Round. . . . . . . . . . . 6
SECRET SPOKE
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FBIS TRENDS of 16 October 1975
Moscow Ignores Annive_rsar~
of 1 6 Economic Reform
The anniversary of the 27-30 September 1965
CPSU plenum on Kosygin's economic reform has passed
without notice in the Soviet press--a silence in
striking contrast to the fanfare earlier this year
on the 10th anniversary of the March 1965 plenum
which launched Brezhnev's new agricultural program.
This blackout probably reflects not only the cooling
of official attitudes toward the 1965 economic re-
form, but also Brezhnev's increasing attempts to
reduce Kosygin's role as the chief administrator of
economic policy. These efforts, evident since 1974,
are also reflected in a series of new Central Com-
mittee decrees which suggest that party officials
are directly exercising functions normally handled
by the Council of Ministers.
The ignoring of the 10th anniversary of the
September 1965 plenum is the more striking since
Soviet calendars prepared earlier had noted the date.
The blackout even included specialized economic papers
such as ECONOMIC GAZETTE and SOCIALIST INDUSTRY and
economic journals such as PLANNED ECONOMY and QUES-
TIONS OF ECONOMICS, as well as all republic papers,
including areas like Belorussia, which in the past
had displayed notable enthusiasm for the reform.
KOMMUNIST, instead of the expected anniversary ar-
ticle, carried an editorial on Brezhnev's newly
published collection of speeches on the economy.
By contrast, the March 1965 agricultural plenum
anniversary was marked with numerous editorials and
articles, the publication of a special book and the
holding of a well-publicized ceremony attended by
October 20, 1975
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several Politburo members. Moreover, regime figures
(including Brezhnev) have participated in extensive
celebrations over the past month marking the 40th
anniversary of the Stakhanovite movement--an economic
approach fundamentally at odds with that of the eco-
nomic reform.
Some foreshadowing of this imbalance in treat-
ment of the two 1965 plenums was provided by the
October 1974 celebration of the 10th anniversary of
the October 1964 plenum which removed Khrushchev and
placed Brezhnev and Kosygin in power. In almost all
articles published to observe that occasion, the eco-
nomic reform and Kosygin were ignored, while Brezhnev
and his economic programs were eulogized at length.*
Brezhnev has been increasingly asserting his
role in economic policy over the past year. In Oc-
tober 1974 he clearly infringed on Kosygin's well-
established prerogatives by addressing the Council
of Ministers on economic policy; in mid-1975 he be-
came an economic authority in his own right with the
publication of a collection of his speeches on the
economy, matching Kosygin's published collection of
speeches, most of which concentrate on economic mat-
ters. The most recent indications of this trend
have been several Central Committee decrees seemingly
reflecting the assumption by the Central Committee
of a role normally exercised by the Council of Min-
isters.
The decrees in question were followups to a 2
March 1973 joint Central Committee-Council of Min-
isters decree which had ordered ministries to switch
to a production association structure and submit
3 See t e T 'END 017 October 1974, page 6, and
27 November 1974, pages 23-25.
October 20, 1975
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SECRET SPOKE
schemes for such reorganization to the Council of
Ministers for approval. According to Brezhnev's as-
sistant, K. U. Chernenko, head of the Central Com-
mittee's General Section, in the August QUESTIONS
OF CPSU HISTORY, the Central Committee in May 1975
had issued decrees approving schemes prepared by
three ministries. This is the first report of Cen-
tral Committee decrees on this subject; previously,
ministerial schemes were always reportedly approved
by the Council of Ministers. IZVESTIYA on 6 September
1975 reported that the Council of Ministers had re-
cently approved the schemes for the three ministries,
presumably following the Central Committee action.
This procedure appears to reflect an unusual inter-
vention by the party leadership into the normal gov-
ernment chain of command; it violated not only the
normal division of party and government functions
but also the procedure specifically called for in
the original, 2 March 1973 decree. (CONFIDENTIAL)
October 20, 1975
SECRET SPOKE
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SECRET SPOKE
Romania: Plans to Increase Supplies
aif Food and Other Consumer Goods
on 14 October, President Ceausescu announced
extensive increases in the amounts of foodstuffs
and consumer durables available through June 1976.
Supplies of sugar, milk, and cooking oil-which
have been pal-ticularly short---will expand by 6 to
11 percent for the remainder of this year compared
with the last quarter of 1974. Meat and fruit, ready-
made clothing, textiles, household items, and fuel
will also be more abundant.
To fulfill these goals, the Ministry of
Agriculture has been ordered to expedite harvesting,
particularly of corn, sugar beets, and potatoes.
Other ministries have been told to deliver all
consumer durables for the winter to trade units by
November 1.
Ceausescu's highly unusual bow to the public
almost certainly means that he believes growinq
consumer reaction to shortages had become critical
'),in a number of areas. A recent US visitor to
Bucharest who was prohibited from going to Brasov
had heard rumors of "disturbances" there as a
result of severe food shortages. (CONFIDENTIAL)
October 20, 1975
SECRET SPOKE
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New RYAD Computer model in Production
The Soviets recently said they have shipped the
first lot of ES-1022 computers from the Minsk Computer
Plant. The ES--1022 has replaced the ES-1020, a small
model in the RYAD family of third--generation computers.
The new RYAD model, which was developed at the
Minsk Computer Institute, has an improved design with
new arithmetic, logic, and memory components. The
operational capability of the ES-1022 is said to be
four times greater than that of its predecessor. This
suggests that the new computer may be capable of an
average speed of 80,000 operations per second.
Production of the new computer should mute at-
tacks on RYAD computers by Soviet critics who fre-
quently complain that the ES-1020 is too slow and is
only a slight improvement over available second-gen-
eration computers, such as the Minsk-32. Development
of the ES--1022 leaves in doubt the fate of the
ES-1030,
another RYAD model, also rated at about 80,000
opera-
tions per second. Possibly, the ES-1022 is intended
to displace the ES-1030, which has drawn criticism
because of poor components and workmanship, as well as
the 1020. (UNCLASSIFIED)
October 20, 1975
SECRET SPOKE
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The Chnoupek-Bilak Rivalry, the Latest Round
Czechoslvak Foreign Minister Chnoupek appears
to be gaining ground on his long-standing rival,
Vasil Bilak, a hard-line Presidium member and the
party's expert on foreign relations.
this sum-
mer there was talk within the Foreign Ministry that
Chnoupek would be promoted to the Presidium at the
party congress next April. Chnoupek is very likely
to continue also as foreign minister--a status anal-
ogous to that of Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko.
Chnoupek's elevation into the top leadership
would undoubtedly annoy Bilak.
Chnoupek recently complaine at B~ a, is mak-
ing is life `impossible.` While Chnoupek was at-
tending the United Nations General Assembly in New
York, for example, Bilak allegedly directed him to
return to Prague on October 7 to deliver a foreign
policy speech at the party plenum. The outraged
Chnoupek says Bilak knew that he was to host a dinner
the same day for UN Secretary General Ualdheim. (SE-
CRET NOFORN/ORCON/NOCONTRACT)
October 20, 1975
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