STAFF NOTES: SOVIET UNION EASTERN EUROPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86T00608R000400110002-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 20
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2004
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 4, 1975
• Content Type: REPORT

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1Q,-IB U I ILF ~ K a " T E
Soviet Union
Eastern Europe
DOS review(s)
completed.
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Top Secret
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ilovember 4, 1975
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SOVIET UNION - EASTERN EUROPE
November 4, 1975
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lmbasr'v Views on Current Domestic Situation
in Polanr1. . .
Soviet Media Focusing off Angola. . . . . . . . 5
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Poles Reassure Moscow on Western Ties.
Yugoslavs Press Independent Party Views on
European Communist Conference. . . . . . . . . 8
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Embassy Views on Current
Domestic Situation in Toland
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The US embassy in Warsaw reports that the Giornk
regime has taken effective stops to reduce both pub.,
lic tensions and short-term economic strains. Never-
theless, public anxiety over food shortages, pro-
spective price rises, and possible bolt-tirjhtoning
measures porsist-s.
The wave of arson rumors apparently peaked about
mid-October, but others continue to crop up. There
are, for. Gxamp2,e, unconfirmed reports of bomb hoaxes
in public buildings in Warsaw, including the dis-
covery of explosive devices at the site of one of
the suspicious fires in early October. Responsible
Polish officials have described stories of a self-
immolation arl.i of kidnapings by "Arabs" or "Germans"
as "sheer idiocy." Another wild rumor says that a
student: took a potshot at Gierek somewhere in Warsaw
in mid-October. The embassy has no evidence to con-
firm this, nor has it seen any signs of special se-
curity measures for Gierek.
Reports of worker dissatisfaction in the Warsaw
area and on the Baltic coast have also circulated,
but the situation generally appears calm.
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The approach of the party congress in December
has sparked reports of efforts to unseat Gicrek.
The embassy has heard 25X1
that an unspecified group within the top leadership
advocates a policy adjustment to slow the pace of
economic development. Gierek, however, appears
firmly in control and in recent weeks has projected
a renewed sense of direction and self-confidence.
Meanwhile, the Gierek team has moved to in-
crease market supplies to meet expanded consumer
November 4, 1975
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demand during the coming holiday period. The re-
gime in trying to shift some of the blame for short-
ages to inefficient economic enterprises. Nevortho-
less, the leadership does not seem to have decided
how and when to r.veal to the public its answer to
the fundamental question underlying much public con-
corn--the future wage-price structure. Until it
does, public uneasiness will continue.
November 4, 1975
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Soviet Media Focusing on Angola
The Soviet media are devoting increasing atten-
tion to Angola as the scheduled data for independence,
November 11, draws near..
Several recent major commentaries in Pravda,
Izvootia, and Rod Star portray the Soviet-backed
Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola as a
group of beleaguered patriots struggling against an
alignment of forces--Communist Chinese, American,
and South African, among others--bent on reversing
Angola's movement towa;,d independence and retarding
Africa's decolonization process.
Pravda comes down particularly hard on Peking,
charging that Chinese military instructors are work-
ing "side by side with CIA advisers" in an effort to
suppress the Angolan people. The Soviets clearly
are attempting to embarrass the Chinese in Africa
by such assertions. But Moscow is also using the
Angola case to support a long-standing propaganda
theme that the Chinese have aligned themselves with
reactionaries and in some cases are cooperating di-
rectly with the US.
Although the articles and on an upbeat note by
citing the optimistic view of Popular Movement leader
Agostinho Neto that his group will eventually pre-
vail, they clearly reveal Moscow's nervousness over
the serious military reverses sustained by the move-
ment in recent w; %eks. The Kremlin could be prepar-
ing its domestic audience for a setback to a client
that Moscow has touted as a successful pro-Soviet
liberation movement.
By emphasizing foreign intervention on behalf
of the Popular Movement's adversaries, Moscow may
be attempting to justify to a foreign audience its
own stepped-up assistance to the Popular Movement.
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Poles Reassure Moscow on Western Ties
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Soviet concern over: Poland's expanding economic
ties with the West has evidently led Warsaw to give
increasing publicity to its commercial links with
the bloc.
Party leader Gierek and Prime Minister Jarosze-
wicz have recently lavished attention on Poland's
trade relations with the Soviet Union and other CEMA
members. In some cases, they have even dropped their
standard references to ,e-;tente as the green light
for closer economic ties with Western countries.
Warsaw has also given wide coverage in Polish news
media to a session of the Main Board of the Polish-
Soviet Friendship Society and to the recent visit of
Soviet Deputy Premier Ivan Arkhipov.
The current Polish rhetoric is almost certainly
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I recently told a US diplomat
that the Soviets are unhappy with Poland's success in
the West offers progress.
pursuing a nneo-Romanian" course in economic policy,
and Soviet Premier Kosygin reportedly criticized Po-
land's "overly Western" economic policies during his
August visit.
There are no indications, however, that Poland
intends to abandon the difficult task of seeking an
acceptable balance between greater economic integra-
tion With CEMA and expanded economic ties with the
West. said that the
link with CEMA provides stability while the one with
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Yugoslavs Press Independent Party
Views on European Commun st Conference
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Belgrrde is again strongly emphasizing the unity
of views among the independent European Communist
parties who most actively oppose Soviet pretensions
to a leadership role in communist movement
Belgrade Tanjug on Tuesday broadcast a long re-
view of a recent plenum of the Italian party Central
Committee that had approved a report by the leader-
ship on preparations for the European Communist Party
Conference. According Lo Tanjug, Giancarlo Pajetta,
secretary for interparty relations, presented condi-
tions for Italian attendance that dovetail with the
Yugoslav stand. Pajetta's view is that the confer-
ence "could be held" late this year or early next,
but that many problems remain unsolved.
The Italians insisted that "it is necessary ex-
plicitly to confirm that a single center or a lead-
ing party cannot exist" and to reject "the importa-
tion of a foreign model of socialism." Moreover,
Pajetta asserted that "all forms of organizational
ties" with overtones of obligations must be rejected.
Tanjug said the report stressed that the final con-
ference document must be acceptable in toto to all
parties, but quoted Pajetta as warning that it should
not attempt to gloss over irreconcilable differences
and thereby lead to ideological confusion. Belgrade's
leading spokesman on inter-party matters last week
repeated almost all of the Italian demands,
The Italian party has also introduced a new is-
sue that the Soviets and their loyalist supporters
will hotly contest. It wants any statement on Euro-
pean economic trends to stress that Eastern and West-
ern economies are troubled by the same problems.
This position clashes with Soviet propaganda that
November 4, 1975
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asserts the CEMA countries, thanks to their superior
systems and beneficial economic links with Moscow,
are better able than the West to resist economic
shocks. Such a frank discussion of Eastern problems
at a relatively open Communist forum would be politi-
cal dynamite for many East European regimes, not
to mention the Kremlin, and there is virtually no
chance that Moscow will accede to this demand.
In addition to publicizing the Italian party's
stand, the Belgrade party weekly Kommunist this week
carried a fang interview with Santiago Carrillo, the
secretary general of the independent Spanish party.
Carrillo stressed his party's admiration of Yugo-
slavia's successful break with Moscow in 1948 and
stressed his party's independence from any foreign
pressures. Carrillo, fresh from talks with Romania's
Ceausescu, also restated his intention to pursue a
role for his Communist party in a multi-party system
in the post-Franco era.
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USSR: Kama Truck Plant
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The USSR's Kama Truck Plant will not operate
at full capacity before 1980, according to a recent
statement by a high Kama official. At capacity the
plant will build 150,000 heavy trucks and 250,000
diesel engines a year. This latest Soviet estimate
was given to two US embassy officials who spent
three days touring the plant in October.
The visitors also learned that the engine
plant, the most nearly complete of the five un-
finished production units, will turn out some en-
gines by the opening of the 25th Party Congress in
February. Three other units--forging, pressing,
and assembly--will probably be ready for operation
by mid-1976.
The foundry, troubled from the start, continues
to be the major bottleneck. Foundry equipment, man-
ufactured mainly in the US, is ready for installa-
tion, but Soviet engineers still are working to re-
pair foundations of the large iron foundry that sank
after building construction was finished last year.
Kama officials expect to have the foundry operating
in about 12 months, in time to meet the current goal
of token production of trucks by the end of 1976.
Construction at Kama is running two years be-
hind the original plan, which called for the plant
to start building trucks in late 1974.
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CHRONOLOGY
October 28 Romanian President Ceausescu begins
a four-day, state visit to Portugal
and confers with President Costa
Gomos.
Deputy Premier Baybakov confers with
visiting North Vietnamese De put
Premier Le Thanh Nghi.
October 29 Brezhnev confers at the Kremlin with
visiting North Vietnamese party chief
Soviet charge in Kinshasa delivers a
note regarding Angola to the Zairian
contains "intolerable threats."
Foreign Ministry, which reports it
A Soviet citizen, who is a UNESCO
official, arrives in South Korea,
only the second Soviet to visit there
Le Duan.
USSR and Japan initial a five-year
trade agreement in Moscow.
US and Romanian officials discuss in
Washington prospects for cooperation
in the nuclear energy field.
Deputy Premier Kirillin arrives in
Helsinki for talks on bilateral
cooperation in science and technology;
the occasion masks the 20th anniver-
sary of the fi::st Finno-Soviet agree-
ment in this area.
November 4, 1975
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October 29 US:JI; conductn an underground nuclear
tent at Semipalatinsk.
G[t: and the Went Berlin onat; exchange
letter.t of agreement to govern reocu n
on border rivers between the GD11 and
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Went Berlin.
In separate npeeches, President Tito
and Croatian security official Porvan
condemn the Cominforndut element in
Yugoslavia.
Soviet-tlalagany trade and economic
cooperation agreement in nigr,nd in
Tananarive; Deputy Foreign Trade
Minister tlanzhulo signs for the U5511.
October 30 Three Soviet naval vessels, including
the guided-missile helicopter carrier
ttoskova, begin an official port call
at t)ubrovnik, Yugoslavia. 25X1
Warsaw Pact's military council con-
cludes a four-do meeting in Bucharest.
Soviet dissident Amalrik is detained
for eight hours :.?y audio itieu
after publicly supporting award of the
Nobel Peace Prize to Andrey Sakharov;
others involved in thin public effort
include historian Roy fledvedev, sculptor
Ernst Neizvestny, and dissident former
Major General Pyotr Grigorenko.
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Three Soviet naval ships begin a six-
day, official port call at Lagos,
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October 30 President Podcjorny confers with
Irot;. npeeial envoy Azi , who c}nvoyn
n "personal men"age" to tireyhttov
from 1'renident tiahr.
Polish party chief tierek conforn
with vinitinq 113oviot ieputy Premier
Arkhipov on bilateral economic coopera-
tion.
tion.
"'to ambiciue and Bulgaria nign in
Sofia a protocol on economic coopera-
tion and an agreement concerning
scientific and technological coopera-
Octot,er 31 Yugoslav party necretary holanc con-
cluder a five-day, official visit to
North Korea and be(jin, a one-week
official visit to Japan.
North Vietnamese party chief Le t)uan
ends a five-day, official visit to
Moscow; the cc;=unique indicates a
more explicit endorsement of "oviet
detente policy by Hanoi. Le Duan
in to remain in the USSR for "a brief
are signed.
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US and the USSR, after four days of
talks in Washington, . groe on 39
joint environmental projects to be
pursued during the coming year;
Soviet negotiator. Yury Israel mooto
with President Ford.
Romanian President Ceaunencu con-
cluden a four-day, state vinit to
Portugal; several bilateral accords
November 4, 1975
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October 31 Romanian Premier Manencu ends a five-
clay, official visit to Polands several
tiiint;eral agreements are tiigned its
Warsaw before his departure.
Hungarian President t.,osonc-fi ends a
five-day, no-'ate visit to Somalia
and begins a five-day visit to Sowth
Yemen.
Novertbor 1 Swedish roreign ttinitter Anderson
concludes an official visit to
Hungary.
IJarthdad after a four-day, official
Iraqi special envoy Aziz returns to
visit to the
Dress rehearsal for the U=R'ts annual
November 7 military parade reveals
a sharp cutback in its sire, with
none of the usual hetivy weaponry
on display. F- I
Pravda announces that work has begun
on all sections of the 1,850-mile
Orenburg natural gas pipeline, a CC".A
cooperative project.
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mittee.
Politburo candidate-member Damichev
goes to Hungary for session of inter-
govermental cultural cooperation cer-
November 4, 1975
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November 3 Contreras of Romanian Union of Commu-
nist Youth convonan in Uucharontt Pron-
idont Ceauseneu delivers he koynol;,e
address.
Yugoslav Foreign ttinisrter tunic
begins a three-day, official vinit
to West Germany, after which he will
go to Norway.
Hungarian leader Hadar receives Soviet
tlarnhal Yakubovnky and General Dhtam-
onko, who arrived in Hungary after the
WArnaw Pact military council nennion
US-Romanian Economic Commisnion eon-
venen in Washington for a two-day
Ft1TUt7t 1 V1 14TS
November 5 GDR-FRG border commission to convene
at Wiesbaden.
November 6-7 Soviets to mart: the 58th annivorr;ar
of the Bolshevik (evolution.
::nver,Oar 10 Cant German Foreign Minister Fischer
to begin a three-day, official visit
accompanied by Foreign Minister
Gonscher, a fellow Free Democrat.
FRG President School to commence a
one-weak, state visit to the USSR
November 4, 1975
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November 11
November 12
November
mid-November
November 16
November 17
November 20
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November 23
November 24
Hungarian Premier Lazar to begin a
tour-day, official visit to Italy.
Czechoslovak Pr-enlier Stroucjal to begin
a three-day, official visit to France.
Czechoslovak, Foreign tlininter
Chnoupok to make an official visit
to the Netherlands.
Bulgarian Foreign Minister ttladonov
to make an official visit, to Yugo-
slavia.
Hungarian Defense Minister Czinege
to begin a three-day, official viui';
to Austria.
Last German Premier Sindormann to
of three or four days.
arrive in Iran for an official
visit
USS Bigelow to begin a six-day,
official port cull at Rijeka, Yugo-
slavia.
French Foreign Trade tinister Segard
to begin an official visit to the
USSR for talks on energy matters.
Secretary of A riculture Butz to visit
Hungary.
Germany.
Bulgarian party/state leader Zhivkov
to begin a five-day visit to West
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Soviet-Norwegian talkn on Barentn son
continental nhelf to ranume.
tUovcmhor 25 Secretary of Agriculture duty to
begin a four-day, official vinit to
Poland.
late Novem- Yugonlav t.'oroign minister tunic
1;1? r ,heel
bar 25X1 an official vinit to the tletherlnndn. F
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Italian Prenident Leone tr make
ntate vinit to the USS!.
early Decem- US-Soviet committee on nuclear energy
ber cooperation to convene in Washington.
Kuwaiti T'orelgn minister Sabah to
make an official visit to the USS!t.
December 2 USSR Supreme Soviet to convene in
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