COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OFFICIAL URGES IMPROVED ECONOMICS REPORTING

• Document Type: FOIA
• Keywords: UFO SPECIAL COLLECTION
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005516675
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: June 24, 2015
• Document Release Date: January 31, 2011
• Case Number: F-2010-00651
• Publication Date: May 1, 1990

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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Status: [STAT]
Document Date: 01 May 90 Category: [CAT]
Report Type: JPRS Report Report Date:
Report Number: JPRS-UPA-90-053 UDC Number:
Author(s): USSR SOVMIN Information Department Chief Specialist Lev
Tsvetkov: "On the Market--Not in the Bazaar Fashion" I
Headline: Council of Ministers Official Urges Improved Economics
Reporting
Source Line: 90US1115A Moscow ZHURNALIST in Russian No 5, May 90 pp
30-33
Subslug: [Article by USSR SOVMIN Information Department Chief
Specialist Lev Tsvetkov: "On the Market--Not in the Bazaar
Fashion-)
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1. (Article by USSR SOVMIN Information Department Chief Specialist
Lev Tsvetkov: "On the Market--Not in the Bazaar Fashion"]
2. [Text] How to enter market relations without breaking your neck?
This question is increasingly troubling the readers, but they do not
find clear-cut answers in the press. Why?
4. On 18 February newspapers published a TASS report-- the AUCCTU
had sent the government a protest in connection with plans to develop
auction and commercial trade in consumer goods in the country: "For
millions of people, and especially persons with fixed income
(pensioners, students, young families and families with many
children), many goods will become practically inaccessible in
connection with their sale through commercial stores, wherein the
prices will exceed retail prices two-to-fivefold. Extremely
hard-to-get goods will be accessible to mainly sharp dealers in the
`shadow' economy, but not to the ordinary laborer."
5. Thus, the fact. But we all have known since our university days,
that one must proceed from the fact to the phenomenon, and from the
particular to the general. Those who have already been working in
the press know, however, that it is not always that easy to see the
phenomenon through the fact--especially a newly-arrived phenomenon.
7. The phenomenon is already revealed in the headlines: "The Market
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and Prices," "The Market--the Great Uniter of Nations," "The
Difficult Path to the Market," and "The Market or the Barracks" ...
8. In reading and preparing such articles, we gradually master the
phenomenon. First we understood that the market--is not the bazaar.
What is even a broader conception--the "consumer market"--is merely
a part, a fragment, or sector... "Why?" asks the reader. Giving the
appearance that--you see, that the "why,, has been clear to us all
along, we began to write on other elements: the market of the means
of production, valuable papers, the work force, products of
intellectual labor, and so on.
9. Piecing together from this mosaic a likeness of the whole, the
reader began to pose other questions as well: How do the parts
interact with one another, and how does the market (in the very
broadest sense of the word) operate? Our brother, the all-knowing
newspaperman, did not falter, and bravely began to expound on the
"alternative economy." Once, he says, we have a market--the
alternative economy-- it will not operate like the
administrative-command economy. On the contrary: there will be
competition--as opposed to monopolism; free agreements--as opposed to
the Plan; and market prices--as opposed to centrally-established
prices.
10. The discerning reader, however, was not entirely satisfied with
an argument "from the opposite." The people did not want to hear
copy-book maxims--this is a question of a serious choice. But the
press, puzzled, not to say dismayed, by the complexity of the
problems heaped up upon it, and urged on by the increasing
politization of social processes, did not, with rare exceptions
provide clear-cut answers to the readers' increasingly troubling
question: How to enter market relations without breaking your neck?
11. The phenomenon, served up piecemeal in the publications, was
perhaps for the first time presented to us and the readers in all its
complexity only in the draft platform of the CPSU Central Committee
for the 28th Party Congress (PRAVDA, 13 February). A draft is a
draft, and the system of views and approaches expounded in it will no
doubt be subjected to some kind of amendments. It will be attacked
in terms of content as well. For example, can the proponents of the
rigid formula, "the plan or the market" really agree with those
posing the question of a "planned-market economy"? But with all
this, the draft provides an impression of "construction" and the
internal ties between the elements of the market. The phenomenon
will come through more precisely out of it.
UNCLASSIFIED
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13. The story of the AUCCTU protest lodged in January can serve as
an example of how newspaper people sometimes wander between the fact
and the phenomenon.
14. At that time an acute financial situation had taken shape in
metallurgical enterprises and enterprises of other branches. The
cause was--an increase in wholesale prices for diesel fuel, and
increased rates for freight shipments and electric power. The
mechanics of the loss are uncomplicated: as the expenses of the users
of these resources increase, their profits decline. Nor are the
customary solutions complicated: either compensate for the losses by
raising prices for your own product, or hold out your hand and demand
compensation from the budget. It would appear there is no other
recourse. But you see, neither are there any extra resources in the
budget.
15. The press sounded the alarm; at the metallurgical plants, they
began to talk about electing strike committees. One can judge the
attitude of the authors of these reports toward raising wholesale
prices by the headlines: "A Stumbling-Block to Reform" (TRUD, 31
January), and "Trade Unions Protest Ill-Considered Government
Decisions" (RABOCHAYA TRIBUNA, 1 February). And because of the
"stumbling block," without further commentary, it goes without
saying, they reported of the ultimatum which the trade unions
declared in their Protest No 1: If the government does not correct
its "ill-considered decision," before 5 February... What followed
was a transparent hint on the law on collective labor disputes.
16. If one takes a look at these and earlier articles--and no fever
than 10 had accumulated by 1 February--one sees that the
correspondents' attempts to delve into the essence of what was taking
place did not go beyond an elementary estimate of the enterprises'
possible losses; which by the way did not, for example, stop A.
Yevgenyev in RABOCHAYA TRIBUNA from immediately and unconditionally
condemning the actions of the government organs. In the same manner,
the correspondent accepted the arguments of the trade union
officials, and in any case arranged them in a certain logical
order--and then met the explanations of Hinfin representatives with
obvious sarcasm: "It turns out that the correction of the prices and
rates of which we are speaking, is in pursuit of the noblest of
goals."
17. But you see the goal is indeed a noble one--to normalize the
situation in the national economy and to force the pricing mechanism
to operate to economize on resources in short supply. It is hard to
imagine anything else which the national economy requires more
acutely. Everyone can remember the miners' demands to increase prices
for coal. Next there were the serious conflicts with the railroad
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workers, for whom the rates have not been changed since 1955,
although the costs of the means of transport and other resources
necessary to them have increased significantly. And now the very same
questions are arising among the manufacturers of cement, among
metallurgists, and in other branches. In each separate instance there
are grounds for such demands. But what will happen if this
exploitation is not cut short? From the raw-material and
transportation branches it will move quickly to the processing
industry, and then the wave of higher costs will inevitably dash into
the sphere of retail prices.
18. This is one.part of the problem, the most obvious one, which
everyone understands, because it directly concerns one's own pocket.
So much has been said about escalating prices, that in the minds of
many of us, "one', has unwittingly turned into "the only one."
However, the other part of the problem has certainly not ceased to
exist because of this. Alas, it too costs us a pretty penny; but it
is not as obvious as the former except through a chain of
cause-and-effects associations.
19. We never tire of branding our economy as "cannibalistic" in
the press. But you see, just as the word "candy" does not produce
sweetness in our mouths, nothing at all changes from our
incantations. Once one decides to move toward cost-accounting and
market relationships--one must take the practical steps. Careful
steps-- but take them, all the same! One of the first is to-force the
prices to operate for thrift. For example, on the world market diesel
fuel is on the average only one-fifth cheaper than gasoline; in our
country, however--it costs half as much. Is it surprising then, that
certain managers utilize motor fuel in their boilers! Why then did
raising the price of fuel for diesel engines--that is, changing it
from a kind of symbol into a price-stimulus, a price-lever--cause
such dissatisfaction on the part of the author of "A Protest
[Against Ill-Considered] Government [Decisions] " ?
20. I will remind you how the story of this protest turned out. The
government was unable to examine it prior to 5 February. It was
examined somewhat later. And then its representatives met with an
inter-union trade union commission, apologized for the delay in
answering the inquiry and set forth its own proposals, which after
discussion and, naturally, certain clarifications, were adopted.
21. On the essense of the proposals--a bit later. But now, on the
nature of the reactions to this event. A TASS report published in the
papers on 11 February started out triumphantly: "The sharp conflict
brought about by the government decision to raise wholesale prices
for diesel fuel and freight shipment and electric power rates, was
decided in favor of the workers and their trade unions. In fact, the
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government itself established a 'moratorium' on this decision until 1
April." And in order not to leave any doubts that the capitulation
was complete, it reports about the apologies of the Council of
Ministers, and about "those miscalculations which were committed in
drawing up and adopting the decision." In short, it was a fiasco.
Certain other newspapers gave their estimates in the very same key.
22. I truly do not know what there is to celebrate here. Just the
fact that they managed to avoid a strike? But if the press continues
to provide such one-sided analyses, there can be no doubt: somewhere
down the line a strike will occur.
23. There were, however, other articles as well, the authors of
which delved far more deeply into the essence of what took place. For
example, as I. Ognev wrote in "Opazdyvayut novyye tekhnologii " [The
New Technology is Late] (IZVESTIYA, 1 February), "Is it necessary to
raise prices on energy sources? Alas, we are forced to do so, even
immoderately. But at the same time I can recall that about seven
years ago scientists at the Power Engineering Scientific Research
Institute imeni G. Krzhizhanovskiy were telling me about
installations of the fountain type, in which a mixture of half coal
and rock burns marvelously. Others cited principally new technologies
as well... But then--where are they?" It is not hard for the reader
to come to the conclusion: If we continue to merely proclaim market
management methods, and not take advantage of them, we shall
continually be asking fruitless questions, and all the while
engendering no-less-futile "measures" on technical retooling and
economizing on resources.
24. V. Mamontov, writing in SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA (11 February, " Urok
Soglasiya " [The Lesson of Agreement]), clearly sees the danger of
tendentious approaches, where the only way out of financial
difficulties is compensation from the state budget:
25. 11 'Send compensation!'--cry the business executives today...and
immerse themselves in losses (from increasing prices--L.Ts.) from
paying fines for delivery shortfalls and losses from their own
mismanagement. Many 'burned out, people, as it turns out from
detailed examination... have rejected orders from the state and have
not concluded agreements. Alas, one must admit, that some people have
decided on the O.T. to negotiate a quiet life for themselves."
26. V. Golovachev, writing in TRUD (13 February, " Trudnyy put k
soglasiyu " [The Difficult Path to Agreement]), provided what is in
my view a particularly weighty article, which also put all the
accents in the right place. He, it goes without saying, noted that
the government organs--the union-level Minfin, Gosplan and Goskomtsen
[State Committee on Prices]--have been acting improperly, and did not
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coordinate in a timely manner with the trade unions regarding their
intentions to raise prices. Moreover, the mechanism for implementing
this decision was not completely thought through. But the incomplete
organizational work did not screen the essence of the matter from the
author: "...The goal of the governmental decision is understood: to
put into operation an important economic stimulus, aimed at
increasing resource conservation, a regimen of thrift, and a
reduction in production costs." The enterprises, of course, do need
compensation in order that they are not bled white. And the author
described in detail what kind of compensations these are, and why
certain working collectives were given a grace period for payments to
the budget until 1 April (the same "moratorium"). However, it is
clear to the reader: the enterprises themselves must tighten their
belts, in order that the economizing on resources provided for in the
plan do not turn out to be a "paper exercise." Whether they can
succeed in expending less while not reducing, but even increasing the
volume of manufactured products, as is done in many countries--there
is your second, and principal channel for compensation. the
"principal" one because the deeper we go into a market economy, the
more important its role will be.
28. The thread that stretches from the fact to the phenomenon is at
times not immediately visible to the naked eye in the reports of some
experienced journalists. But one certainly senses in their-dispatches
or conclusions the "connection" of the fact to a certain pivotal
thought. What can that pivot be right now? The economic recovery
program. No matter how each of us relates to it individually, I am
convinced that any practical step in the economy must be considered
in the context of this program.
29. In spite of the fact that rampant speculation has had an adverse
effect on public opinion, I dare say that having voted on 19 December
1989 in support of the government's economic recovery program (I
would remind you that three-fourths of those taking part in the
by-name voting spoke out for it), the Second Congress of USSR
People's Deputies reflected prevailing public opinion-- which is in
favor of a moderately-radical development variant, and for a
perspicacious and gradual entry into market relations. And it is
opposed to throwing both individual people and entire collectives and
social groups under the relentless millstone of a "free" market.
30. What were the newspapers saying about the transition to these
relationships before and after 19 December?
31. The "before" was extremely rich, especially for
EKONOMICHESKAYA GAZETA, which illuminated in detail the preparations
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for and the course of the All-Union Scientific-Practical Conference
on Problems of Radical Economic Reform.
32. The theoretical squabble had only just subsided, when various
deputy groups at the Congress plunged into the fray. One can judge
even now from the minutes how the situation had hardened by the day
of the vote. The blazing discussion also heated the pages of the
periodicals.
33. Youth publications were no exception. One after another,
deputies from the Komsomol rose to speak, sharply criticizing the
government's conception and insisting upon examination of their own.
On 12 December they spoke out through KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA,
MOSKOVSKIY KOMSOMOLETS, SOBESEDNIK (No 50), MOLODEZHNYY KANAL, and
national radio, with appeals to the Chairman of the USSR Council of
Ministers, demanding that their alternative program not be ignored.
34. All this was "before." But after 19 December, it was cut off.
For one thing because, of course, the Congress of People's Deputies
had taken up other questions--they were also important and critical,
and it was necessary to devote attention to them too. But all the
same it appeared somewhat strange that even after the conclusion of
the Congress, the program on which the country was to have begun work
on 1 January was moved from the front page--not even to second place,
but to tenth. The press, for example, enthusiastically discussed the
escapades of a UFO, which obstinately appeared in full view-but
impudently ignored the radars. Then, the mass information media all
marked the coming of Christmas... And only on New Year's Eve,
invoking the traditional forecasts that the coming day had in store
for us, did they once again turn their gaze on this sinful world, and
remembered the program.
35. How, and at what rate are we to undertake transition to market
relationships? Many editors once again asked the people's deputies to
speak out on this. And they once again spoke in complete agreement
with the by-name voting record.
36. Some kept on bashing the program, as before. For example, in
KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA, (31 December, " Dva voprosa v kontse goda"
[Two Questions at Year's End]), Deputy G. Filshin bluntly wrote:
"Here is the kind of situation I would f';nd most desirable: that the
government would, not later than the first quarter, sit down at a
'round table' with the deputies and spec.alists who had introduced
constructive suggestions on radical changes to the economic strategy
at the Supreme Soviet session and at th(. Second Congress..." And if
the Council of MInisters does not sit down at the table and does not
start to re-shape the strategy appro-red by the Congress, then "there
is no guarantee that the present government will last to the end of
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the year." This is the kind of "democracy" proposed through the
press by those who had voted against the program.
37. Those who wanted the program to be adopted by the Congress only
for information, also remained at their previous positions. This
position was formulated in all its nakedness in the magazine KROKODIL
(No 3, " Zanimatsya svoim delom" [Mind Your Own Business by Deputy
A. Sobchak, who himself, it is true, did not vote all that logically
in my opinion--both for adopting the program "for information," and
for declining it: "Today the Premier is trying to share his
responsibility with us, so that tomorrow we would not be able to say,
'the Government's program has failed; it has not fulfilled its
functions--it should be retired." Here the key word is
"responsibility." Many people do not want it thrust upon their
shoulders at all. And they did not shoulder it. In spite of the
resolution of the Congress.
38. In their public pronouncements, a third of the deputies--those
who voted to support the program--stressed over and over the
difficulty of implementing it. And one would have to look through a
very powerful magnifying glass in order to find how these
difficulties are overcome in real life. In my opinion, the fog is
spreading, and not without our journalistic "assistance."
39. Whether our concern with the economic crisis is genuine or for
show is relatively easy to determine today: by the orientation of the
printed word. Such as, that which is in most cases characteristic of
IZVESTIYA.. It was this very newspaper that declared at the beginning
of the year: Enough arguing; let us do our business, independent of
the "leftists" and "rightists.'' Such a note was fleetingly
glimpsed in the articles of certain other newspapers, but soon faded
away. But IZVESTIYA continued to follow that line, issue after issue.
40. Many readers probably noticed the page in the newspaper of 21
January, which was almost completely devoted to two letters: one from
the general director of the Korvet Association in Kurgan, and another
in response, from USSR Council of Ministers Deputy Chairman L.
Abalkin. The authors "ran their fingers over" all the most urgent
problems of the contemporary stage of economic changes--and one can
imagine how many works were referenced in order for the articles to
coincide; so that they would be free of "trivialities"; and so that
not a single truly major question would be left without a well-argued
response.
41. Were this a one-time publication, perhaps it would not have been
mentioned. But the fact of the matter is, that from the first days of
the new year, IZVESTIYA began to report on every step being taken at
the central organs for implementing the economic recovery program,
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and keenly followed how these steps were received at the enterprises.
More often than not, the subject concerned adopted resolutions. But
occasionally, as in the 17 January issue (" Tri dnya--na dorabotku
proekta " [Three Days--to Finish Working on the Draft]), about those
who were only preparing.
42. I consider IZVESTIYA's position with respect to the author of
the program--the USSR Council of Ministers--respectful in every way.
The government asked for enough time to reach a turning point in the
unfavorable trends--and the newspaper finds it impossible to place a
stick in the spokes; on the contrary, it has taken upon its shoulders
the burden of common concerns. (This is the impression one gets, at
least from the articles published in January and February.)
43. In the aforementioned IZVESTIYA issue of 21 January, L. Abalkin
wrote: "...Public opinion has not yet grasped the design of this
(governmental--L.Ts.) program, nor even the practical steps for
implementing it. Nor has it grasped the connection between the
planned measures and the evaluation of the current situation in the
economy." This observation, incidentally, amounts to criticism of
us, as journalists.
44. How are the newspapermen conducting themselves in this
situation?
45. It is time to return to the fact with which this review
began--to the new protest of the AUCCTU, and this time in protest of
the plans for auction and commercial trade. You read the news
dispatches--and you get the feeling that indignation is growing. But
just what is in fact happening? The best color TV's, convenient
dual-compartment refrigerators, " vidiki " [possibly--VCR's] and
Volgas--an ordinary mortal cannot buy any of these things at the
state prices, and at auctions there simply are no reasonable prices.
The gossnab organizations are sending surplus valuable material goods
there from the enterprises. It's not enough that trade is also
introducing commercial stores--and is sending to them a flow of
scarce imported goods. Well, how can one help grabbing someone by the
shirt here: "Just what did we fight for?" And how can one not stand
up together with the trade unions in defense of the interests of the
hapless pensioners, students, young people, and large families!
46. On that very day, 18 February, IZVESTIYA published a front page
dispatch by V. Romanyuk: "Incident at the Goods Market: Why the
Trade Unions Are Protesting Again."
47. In a restrained, even rather laconic manner, we are asked to
"Try to look at this situation without emotion. First of all..."
And, having cooled off, you begin to ponder. If we affirm that the
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enterprise is an independent goods-producer, then, apparently, one
should not become indignant that it has accumulated above-plan
reserves-- whether this be equipment, building glass or special
clothing--it has the right to sell them at the maximum price. In
"exquisite- foreign stores the price of the goods on sale threw us
into considerable confusion; but we understood and could relate to
the fact that along with goods "for everyone- there are also goods
there (and this is not at all confined to luxury goods or antiques)
for the few also. Then why can we not put up with commercial stores
at home? And how is this method of drawing off the money some people
have accumulated because there were no goods to buy worse than, for
example, monetary reform, with the help of which some people are
proposing to simply confiscate this money?
48. IZVESTIYA, in short, once again returns our thoughts to the
economic recovery program, and once again faces everyone with the
choice: Either we take practical steps toward the market, or... Or
should we just talk and talk? For how long?
49. COPYRIGHT: Izdatelstvo TsK KPSS "Pravda-, " Zhurnalist " , 1990