USSR: DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04864A000200050010-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 7, 2000
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: September 30, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

INCM211311
Approved Fivi.mtrigq004142444k
0500014
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT NO.
INFORMATION FROM
, FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR'RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
DATE OF
INFORMATION 16-30 Sept.'51
SUBJECT DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES
COUNTRY USSR
HOW
PUBLISHED
WHERE
PUBLISHED
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., 91 AND 92, 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
DATE DIST. 2.1./- Oct.
NO. OF PAGES 7
SUPPLEMENT TO,
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
MONITORED BROADCASTS
CPW Report No. 13 - USSR
3 October 1951
CONTENTS
Summary . . . . .
. . .
?
. ?.
?
1
Shortcomings
2
Agriculture
2
Industry & Mining .
...
/4.
Fishing
?
?
. ?
4,
5
Party Activities
5
Miscellaneous
6
SUMMARY
The peace conferences in a number of union republics still get considerable publicity.
The familiar insistence on a five-power peace pact and opposition to NATO are keynoted
in all these conferences which invariably also tie their peace themes with local affairs,
such as production targets and above-plan performance. In agriculture, major offences
amounting to statute violations (narushenie ustava) are attributed to some Ukrainian
oblasts. Regional broadeasts also focus attention on inexplicably slow 'otton picking.
Information on industry, mining and transportation is fragmentary, the only references
being to instances of excessive production costs and slow preparations for work in
winter conditions. The unification of the three paramilitary societies for the cooper-
ation with the armed forces -- Dosarm, Dosav and Dosflot-- Whose duties also include
civilian defense, is announced on 25 September.
?
40441?41440-
STATE
CLASSIFICATION
NSRB DISTRIBUTION
ARMY
-RD 78414864A000200050010-3
?
' Approved For Release 2000/08/29: CIA-ReogrElltni.02000502051)011
CONFIDENTIAL
SHORTCOMINGS
Agriculture: "Serious shortcomings" are said to be continuing in livestock-raising and
cotton-picking. Slow plowing is also the common complaint of the regional papers which
trace the trouble to the "workers in agriculture" --the machine-tractor station personnel--
rather than the farmers.
RADYANSKE PODILYE (18 September) declares that the Kamenets-Podolsk Oblast stockbreeding
plan fell short of its mark in a number of rayons, and that "a large percentage" of the
available stock is barren and shows "a great drop" in productivity. Cases of "scattering
livestock and squandering it in an illegal manner" are said to be common in the Shepetovski,
Ostropolski and other rayons. The fodder plan has not been fulfilled in the Bazaliyski,
Slavutski and other rayons. The same paner (25 September) refers to the "great losses" of
livestock sustained in the Dunayevetski Rayon where most of the stock "had been maintained
on a starvation ration" resulting in a corresponding drop in its productivity. The heads
of the rayon agricultural administration, Mikhailyk and Kushnir, concludes the editorial,
"are cheating the oblast organizations, the Party and the State (oduruyut oblastni organi-
zatsyi, odur4ut partyu i derzhavu) while the rayon Party and Soviet organizations toler-
ate this evil practice. Livestock breeding, the paper warns, is also "being jeopardized"
in Staro-Ushitsky and MInkovetsky rayons.
VINNITSKA PRAVDA (in. Ukrainian, 19 September) cites instances of theft of public land,
cattle and money in terns that bode ill for the culprits, and reminds its readers that
a stringent law against such infractions was passed by the Central Committee of the Commu-
nist Party of the USSR in 1946. That law, the paper declares, was necessitated by numerous
cases of violation of the kolkhoz statute during the war and in the first postwar period --
and it appears to be necessary now, too. There is no reference to the provisions of the
mentioned law or to the penalties involved, but the editorial pointsout that in the five
years since it was enacted "thousands of hectares of communal land...livestock, money and
other forms of wealth" have been returned to their rightful owners, the collective farms.
Thefts of public land and infringements of kolkhoz democracy (narushenie kolkhoznoy demo-
kratii), says VINNITSKA PRAVDA, are prevalent "even today." A recent checkup has dis-
closed that more than 1,800 hectares erf? land had been appropriated by various individuals
and organizations who were also found to have illegal possession 'of three buildings, 49
assorted agricultural machines, 37 head of cattle, six horses and nearly 30,000 rubles in
cash.
Another near-criminal offence, as charged by the paper, is the payment of collective farm-
ers for work not performed. A case in point is the "Lenin" Collective Farm (Murovano-
Kurylovetski Rayon) where a total of 1, 200 labor hours have been "overpaid" in the culti-
vation of sugar beets alone. There is no intimation as to whether such "overpayments" are
the result of bookkeeping inefficiency or of collusion between farm labor and management,
but scattere(9. reports of similar "accommodations" --from Moldavia and Kazakhstan--are
suggestive of the latter possibility. This belief is heightened by VINNITSKA PRAVDA's
hint that enlarged collective farms (ukrupnennie kilkhozi) might provide the necessary
solution inasmuch as they provide "better opportunities" for the observance of the kolkhoz
statute.
Another editorial complaint is that "democracy" is virtually unknown in SQM2 collective
farms. The administration of the "Perombha" and "Chkalov" kolkhozes, for example, acts
on the most important questions of kolkhoz life 'without ever consulting" the collective
farmers.
Moldavian listeners are told in a brief announcement from Kishinev that the Central
Committee of the Moldavian Communist Party is now looking into the matter of kolkhoz statute
violatiOns, and that "measures for the liquidation of such violations" were discussed at a
special session. (in. Moldavian, 21 September). A broadcast from Alma Ata (in Russian,
22 September) emphasizes that the present grain allocation to individual farmers is being
made "under the system of payments in proportion to registered work days."
PRAVDA (19 September) cites a number of kolkhoz statute violations and says that "it would
be wrong to assume" that the struggle for observing the charter can now be relaxed.
Suggesting more determined measures by the Party,. the paper discloses that in Poltava
Oblast persons "having no connection with collective farm production" are allowed to draw
payments from collective farm labor funds. Implicitly referring to this as the effect,
CONFIDENTIAL
tOVIDUTIM.
Approved For Release 2000/08/29 : CIA-RDP78-04864A000200050010-3
Approved For Release 2000/08/29 : CIA-RDP78-04864A000200050010-3
25X1A
CONFIDENTIAL
- 3 -
COMFIDENTRI.
PRAVDA pursues the theme by pointing to the cause of such malpractice: in a number of
collective farms of Vladimir Oblast "fundamental questions" -are settled in administrative
session without reference to general meetings.
VOROSHILOVGRADSKAYA PRAVDA (26 September) deplores the "bad conditions" (plokhie uslovia)
in Verkhne--Teplovski, Belolutski, Popasnyanski and Stanichno-Luganski rayons where the
annual plan for the construction of livestock premises has been ful-Pilled b: only 9 to 20%.
The number of shelters in those rayons *by no means" corresponds to the available number
of head of cattle, and the breakdown in the construction program is laid to the "formalistic
attitude" adopted by the consumers union and other organizations which fail to provide the
necessary building materials.
tt.
Plowing operations in the Ukraine are invariably described as poor in quality, on an in-
adequate scale and slow in tempo. KIROVOGRADSKAYA PRAVDA (18 September) admits that the
"oblast as a whole" is behind in its plowing. Novo-Guryevski Rayon, the slowest of them
all, is said to have oompleted only 9.8% of the plan by 15 September. Among the other
rayons which need a little prodding, according to the paper, are Ustinovski, Zlatopolski,
Tyshkovski, Khmelevski? Dolynski, Adzhamski and an unspecified number of others.
Opportunism and loose organization, "not yet eliminated" by the Party and executive
committees, are held responsible for the sorry state of affairs.
BOLSHEVITSKOYE ZNAMYA (21 September) notes the serious shortcomings "on the part of the
leaders" of the Odessa Agricultural Rayon where neither the harvesting of late crops nor
the plowing is showing progress. The severe warning (strogoye preduprezhdenie) given to
the mentioned officials who "will be held personally responsible" for further violations
of agricultural rules is implicitly extended to the leaders of Kominternovski and Ovideo-
polski rayons where infringements are deplored but not specified. On 25 September the
same paper charges that the entire Odessa Oblast is more than 30% short of its agricultural
targets as of 20 September. Responsibility for the "backwardness" is now pinned on the
Oblast machine-tractor stations, many of whose machines are lying idle, while the rayon
Party and executive committees are said to be "also partly guilty" for failing to foster
"the spirit of Communist attitude" among the tractor brigades. The situation is said to
be particularly bad in Belyaevski, Razdelnyanski and Tsebrikovski rayons, in addition to
those already mentioned on 21 September, where "less than one quarter" of the area for
spring crops has been plowed. It is still worse in Shyryaevski and Gaivoronski rayons
where the spring plowing plan has been completea "by less than 10%."
NADNEPRIANSKA PRAVDA finds that the plowing done by the machine-tractor stations of
Kherson Oblast is extremely unsatisfactory: "hardly one fifth of the total area" had been
plowed by 10 September. The mobile workshops --equipped for minor repairs and stationed
in the fields?are not available when needed 'because very often (they are used) for trips
by managerial workers." In some places also, notably in Kherson. Rural Rayon, the tractor
drivers are not provided.with hot food. (19 September)
SOTSIALISTICHESKI DONBAS (25 September) reports "inadmissible delays" in plowing operations,
' particularly in Dobrovolski and Yenakievski rayons, but does not expand on the subject.
MOLOT (27 September) refers briefly to the "many machine-tractor stations" in the Rostov
Oblast which were found totally unprepared for winter grain sowing.
The recently-instituted three-year agricultural courses are not doing so well, and mass
instruction of collective and state-farm cadres "still leaves much to be desired in some
krais, ()blasts and republics," says PRAVDA (24 September). The trouble, the paper claims,
is to be found in the USSR Ministry of Agriculture whose agricultural propaganda is said
to reveal "serious deficiences." Kursk Oblast, where the enrollment of farmer-students
has not yet begun, is singled out as the worst of the lot. The oblast Party committee is
also reminded of its dereliction of duty: it had "acknowledged" its work as unsatisfactory
and mapped ways and means to improve it but "the good intentions remained on paper." (It
may be recalled that Melnikov, member of the Ukrainian Central Party Committee, dealt at
some length with the problem of agricultural cadre training, referring primarily to the
new collective farms of Western Ukraine. The above-mentioned PRAVDA editorial, on the
other hand, while not naming any specific areas outside of Kursk Oblast, obviously sees
the problem as country-wide.)
.Lack of agricultural propaganda, incidentally, is also held responsible for the apathetic
attitude toward the current rayon agricultural exhibitions where "no attention has been
CONFIDENTIAL
COMFIPENUAL
Approved For Release 2000/08/29 : CIA-RDP78-04864A000200050010-3
Approved For Release 2000/08/29 : CIA-RDP78-04864A000200Q51R-3
CONFIDENTIAL
- 4 -
CONFIDENTIAL
paid to the spreading of progressive ideas." (VOROSHILOVGRADSKAYA PRAVDA, 19 September)
Agricultural study groups in Nizhneduvanski, Troitski and Pokrovski rayons, says the paper,
"are slowly falling apart" because local Party and other officials show "no interest what-
soever" in their work.
Slow grain deliveries and poor fodder preparations are briefly discussed in two
KAZAKESTANSKAYA PRAVDA editorials (16 and 30 September). In Taldy-Kurgan, Akmolinsk?
Kokshetav and Eastern Kazakhstan oblasts delays in grain harvesting "have been observed."
Pavlods-r, West Kazakhstan and Alunolinsk oblasts are behind plan in their fodder preparations.
UNNITSKA PRAVDA publishes an open letter to the collective farmers of Vinnitsa Oblast from
the "Lenin" Kolkhoz members who tell of their achievements and rewards in the form of great-
er earnings, implicitly urging the others to emulate their example:
This year our kolkhozniks are receiving two kilogrTams of grain for
every work day. Thus a plowman receives 202 kilograms of grain if
he completes his seasonal plowing assignment of 18 hectares, and
40.247 kilograms of sugar. Every brigade leader will receive addition-
al 40 work days' payment on the successful completion of the season-
al assignment. (19 September)
The mentioned rates of pay are apparently far above the average for a decision of the oblast
Party Committee ordered all the oblast newspapers, including VIENITSKA PRAVDA, to "publicize
this letter" and "the achievements of the advanced plowmen."
Cotton: Cotton .pick in the Ukraine, particularly in Kherson and Nikolayev oblasts, is
slaw enough to elicit official concern, and RADYANSKA UKRAINA (20 September) reveals that
only half of the required number of cotton pickers are at work, and that the amount of
cotton picked per hectare is "four to five times smaller" than the average for Kherson
Oblast. The negligence and inefficiency of the appropriate agricultural officials, the
paper asserts, is further aggravated by the inexplicable failure to use available machinery:
The greater part of the cotton-picking machines are still inoperative.
Out of 100 cotton-harvesting machines received by the machine-tractor
stations of Nikolayev Oblast not one is being used...
BUGSKAYA ZARYA (25 September) refers to the cotton situation as "frankly alarming," and
calls for radical measures to improve it: cotton picking in the oblast has been fulfilled
by only 10.5%; and this is an alarming figure. A MOLOT editcrial (20 September), voicing
a mild complaint about cotton harvesting, is somewhat more articulate in its treatment of
mechanization. The director of the oblast Cotton Delivery Bureau is asked to account for
his "formalistic and bureaucratic" attitude toward "bringing further mechanization" into
the cotton-harvesting operations which can be further advanced with S. little more machinery.
(The terns 'formalistic' and 'bureaucratic' are frequently used as euphemims for 'opposing'
and 'unwilling.')
The high-speed method of cotton-picking ?"with both hands"--should be applied but isn't,
complains NADNEPRYANSKA PRAVDA (26 September). This criticism is directed primarily against
the workers sent in from other oblasts to help with the harvesting who, as the editorial
puts it, "have lowered the rate of picking instead of raising it." The paper is also
curious to know why the cotton graders at the oblast delivery pool (zagotovitelny punkt)
are rejecting so many truckloads of cotton "for the most trifling reasons." Left lying
in the open and exposed to the elements, the rejected cotton deteriorates and becomes
unusuable. This, incidentally, is also the common complaint of the other papers mentioned.
above --all of them stressing a faster harvesting tempo as an essential prerequisite for
reducing waste, spoilage, etc.
A report from Odessa (in Ukrainian, 25 September) speaks of the "extremely unsatisfactory"
harvesting of cotton, maize and other late crops and of the resulting "great losses" of
these crops. The report is diffuse in character and no specific areas are named, but
Kominternovsky Rayon (also mentioned earlier by BOLSREVITSKOYE ZNAMYA) is cited as a typi-
cal example of poor performance.
Industry and. Mining: A PRAVDA article by Fedoseyev (23 September) suggests the intro-
duction of the cost accounting system as a remedy for the inordinately high production
CONFIDENTIAL
POffIPEIP%
Approved For Release 2000/08/29 : CIA-RDP78-04864A000200050010-3
Approved For Release 2000/08/29 : CIA-RDP78-04864A00020421A9A10-3
CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTIAL
5 -
costs and wastage in industry. This, says Fedoseyev, should be accOmpanied by a more
efficient use of productive capacity, economic use of raw materials and an "improved"
organization Of labor. (lhe cost accounting system --khozresthet. was introduced in
:the middle thirties, long before Government subsidies to industry were discontinued,
and officiallyat least;.is still in force.)
Regional comment on this aspect of industrial production, however, Makes no mention of
the accounting system and confines itself to listing the chronic illnesses of Soviet
production. Thus KIROVOGRADSKA PRAVDA (24 Settember) declares that "soaring" production
costs are caused by
...overspending of raw materials and resources, electric pmfir,
losses through faultY, output, idleness of the equipment anii
machinery, and lay labor productivity.
A glaring example of such mismanagement, the paper-points out, are the enterprises of
the Alexandria Coal Trust and the Construction Administrations which sustained losses
amounting to "hundreds of thousands" of rubles through "lack of economic planning."
Party, soviet and trade union officials are urged to "root out all reasons" for the
increase of production costs.
NAPWRYAnP44 PRA (25 September) pbaervO'tbAt rising:groWing production costs are the
reaUlt:at.."manip ations" bY.:liarioUienterprieetanager#,whOUSUallymake a goOd thawing'
idAnantitYproduotion but ."farget',abott'sfality." And*sntity'prodnotion minus the re-
quired quality, the paper claims, is tantamount to "faulty output' and is a contributing
factor to high production coste. The paper lists a number of Kherson Oblast enterprises
which, while achieving their targets, incurred losses "in faulty output" amounting to
hundreds of thousands of rubles: "no attempt is being made to reduce faulty output whose
dimensions have assumed alarming proportions."
The gap between promise and fulfillment on the part of the miners is bemoaned by the .
Stalin? Oblast trade. union chief as reported in the, SOTSIALISTICHESKY DONBAS and RADYANSKA
DONETSWERA (23 September), A formalistic attitude is again blamed. for the fact that "not
one of the coal combines in the ablest has fulfilled its socialist Obligations." RADYANSKA
UKRAINA (25 September) details a few instances of poor mining-operations and says that a
number of mines, far from engaging in a socialist competition, are even behind in their
nartal quotas. The Voroshilovgrad Coal Combine, for example, "owes the country a reat
amount of fuel" as more than one half of its mines failed to complete their August assign-
ments. A previous report from Voroshilovgrad (18 September), referring to the same combine,
gives the reasons for its failings as "lay standard of technical management," "unsatisfactory
b.lizat'ion of machines," and :"grave shortcomings in the mass political education among miners:
Familiar complaints., of unenthusiastic socialist competition, inadequate preparations for
Operations in winter conditions and "careless attitude" toward technical equipment are
(IUMUNi also train Erevan (22 September) and Tbilisi (25 September).
Fishing: Deputy Minister of the Fishing Industry Babayan, reviewing the inddstry's:oper-
atiOns for the first eight months of this year, says" thatalthough the -USSR fishing industry
' was 22,3% ahead of last, year, the following enterprises "did not work to their full capacity":
GlaV4Cas-cRybaerom, GlavPrimar-Ryb-Prod and'Glav-Amuroayb-Prom of the RSFSR Ministry of
Fishing as well as the industries of the Kazakh and Lithuanian SSR... (home service, 21
September) ?
PARTY ACTIVITIES
self*education -- "the main and basic means" for the study of Marxism-Leninism
iho00aer:fous.igleects!( according to PRAVDA (27 September). Most communists registered as
lipme students says the editorial, do not succeed in raising their ideological and
theoretical kLwledge because "there is a tendency' to enroll as many students as possible
Without giving them any practical assistance. Reminding all the'. Party organizations of
their duty to take the matter under "rigid" control, PRAVDA calls on the press to assist
the home students by printing frequent articles an the theoretical side of Marxism.Leniniam
and sections containing replies to readers! questions.
CNERNOMORSKA,EDMUNA (19 September) accuses the Odessa Oblast Lecture Bureau of making
"quite a fey mistakes". The Party lecturers, whose duty #441. Mee the theoretical
tO"t4 1 rA,
ammonia
Approved For Release 2000/08/29 : CIA-RDP78-04864A000200050010-3
Approved ForRelease2000/08/29 : CIA-RDP78-04864A000200050010-3
CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTIAL
- 6 -
level of 1-cth Communists and non-Party citizens alike, appear to be "at a very low
theoreti level" themselves. Some rayon Party Committees, says the paper, "have not
bothereL to set up lecture groups at all, and where such groups were set up, as in
Peschansky Rayon, "they exist only on paper." A similar refrain is heard in KIROVOGRADSKA
PRAVDA (20 September) --"Party organizations are not doing their duty to improve the
standard of their political work" -- and from Zaporozhye where "several shortcomings in
the Party educational work have been noted." (22 September)
PRAVDA (29 September) makes disparaging comment on Communist Party organs usurping the
functions of government organizations. The paper reminds Party officials th--111 it is their
duty "to control" administration. not by by-passing the various Soviet and
other organs, but by working "through them." (It may be recalled, that Party Committees
have often resorted in the past to the direct methodiof "taking over" the functions of the
Soviet organs which are theoretically subordinated to them. Such "interference" by the
Party has occasionally been reported in connection with lagging compulsory grain deliveries
and similar bottlenecks in Soviet economy, but has invariably been frowned upon by PRAVDA.)
The editorial says that the Bryansk Oblast Party Committee has "assumed functions quite un-
suited to it." The Party Committee is said to have "taken over" the distribution of fuel
and spare parts for agricultural machines, normally the function of the agricultural
authorities, "thus depriving them of their status." The paper distinguishes between the
functions of the State and the Party, and enjoins local Party committees "to play their
part adequately" since their activities must be directed toward "carrying out the policy
of the Communist Party which forms the vital basis of the Soviet order."
MISCELLANEOUS
Labor reserves: "Total indifference" to the fate of the boys and girls recruited under
the labor reserves system is charged by a MOLOT editorial (16 September). The Rostov
alas+, administration of labor reserves, declares MOLOT, "stands in a very blameworthy
light --showing not the slightest interest in...the young workers."
Foreign Scientists Welcome: A PRAVDA article by Nesmeyanov, president of the USSR Academy
of Sciences, compares American hostility toward Soviet scientists with the USSR's desire to
cooperate on a scientific level, and reiterates the oft-repeated claim of Soviet hospitality:
The USSR Academy of Sciences and scientific institutions are always
ready to offer hospitality to foreign scholars desiring to establish
friendly relations in the interests of the development of learning.
(20 September)
Latest Soviet claims to Primacy: RED FTRET carries an article by Major Shapovalov (18
September) "establishing' Russian priority in the invention of the projector. The latter,
says Shapovalov, was construr*ted in 1779 by a Russian mechanic, Ivan Kulibin, "many years
earlier than in foreign countries." Captain Andreyev, writing in the same paper (29 September),
claims the minesweeper as a Russian invention. Among other Russian "priorities" (prioritbt)
heard on the Moscow radio in the period under review are:
The "unquestionable priority" of the Russians in the discovery of the
Antarctic. (Book by Professors Zobov and Chernenko, 19 September)
"Guiding Rockets in a Rarified Atmosphere," invented by Tsiolkovsky
(19 September)
, "The first electric motor was designed and used by Jacobi"
(21 September)
"A number of new discoveries in mathematical physics which have by
now become classic" were made by Mikhail Ostrogradsky. (in Russian
for abroad, 23 September)
"A balloon in which he made the world's first flight" was designed
and built by the Russian Kriakutnoy 220 years ago. (RED FLEET,
23 September)
COLVIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL
Approved For Release 2000/08/29 : CIA-RDP78-04864A000200050010-3
Approved For Release 2000/tthinl8-04864A000200050010-3
25X1A
CONFIDENTIAL
7
Civilian Defense: The unification of Dosarm, Dos.av and Dosf lot into a single organization
is reported from Kiev (in Ukrainian, 26 September) as a verbatim repeat of the original
TASS announcement (dictation speed, 25 September), but there is no further regional
reference to it at this writing. The officia7 reason given for the merger is flexibility
of training which it is claimed is attainable only through the pooling of available
technical facilities. Colonel-General Kuznetsov is named as the chairman of the organiz-
ing committee but the membership of the unified command is not revealed. The new organi-
zation is to be known as DOSAAF (Dobrovolnoye Obschestvo Sodeystvia Armii, Aviatsili
Flotu).
CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTIAL
Approved For Release 2000/08/29 : CIA-RDP78-04864A000200050010-3